After reading about the generous lunches of pizza and pasta and hearty dinners of steak, I thought breakfasts in Argentina would follow suit. Before we got here, I pictured heaping portions of sausage, eggs, and bread — maybe even some potatoes or ham.
Alas, to my disappointment, a typical breakfast in Argentina is a cup of coffee with milk (café con leche), a few croissants (medialunas), and a shot glass of carbonated water. Not exactly gut-busting, or even filling.
After two months in Argentina, I’ve gotten used to supplementing my hostel breakfast with fruit or yogurt to satiate my American desire for something more substantial.
It’s not just in cafes where I’ve found the breakfast a bit lacking. We’ve eaten at enough breakfast-included Argentine accommodations to know it’s universal. In hostels you’re lucky if the pastries or rolls are somewhat fresh, and you’ve really struck the jackpot if there’s cereal and milk, too. Even in a nice bed and breakfast we only got fresh rolls, jam, and coffee. It’s completely different from breakfast in Europe or the States; breakfast just isn’t a big deal here.
But with only 4 days left in Argentina, we decided to hit a cafe for one more typical breakfast. We went La Puerto Rico, a famous Buenos Aires cafe that’s been around since 1887 and is just a block away from the president’s offices (Casa Rosada). The medialunas were amazing — soft and fresh with just a hint of sweetness. The coffee was quite good, too, and the shot glass of water was slightly larger usually. The breakfast ended up costing about $10 US, which is twice as much as it would have been around the corner. But for the quality of the food, it was worth it.
Although it was far from well-rounded, my last Argentine breakfast was satisfyingly delicious.
Want to try your hand at Argentine cooking? Check out Argentina Cooks! Treasured Recipes from the Nine Regions of Argentina. Or if you’re craving Argentine coffee, you can buy genuine coffee from Argentina for less than $12.
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My favorite, yet “strangest” breakfast at a hotel was in Germany. Breakfast included cold meat and cheese, although they did have cereal, yogurt, and other more “normal” things.
Have you had the chance to ask a normal Argentinian what they eat for breakfast?
Your post hit home in a way, because I have the reverse perspective. Having grown up in an Argentinean household, I still have no apetite for a substantial breakfast, even after living in the US for the past 30 years. A normal breakfast for us as kids was a glass of milk and toast; coffee and toast as grown ups. And by toast, I mean thin slices of toasted French baguette, with butter and jam, honey or dulce de leche. This was the case even on weekends, when we could take our time at the breakfast table. I love food, love to eat, but I’m not hungry enough in the morning to sit down to a big meal. Tell an Argentinean that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and they’ll just smile, shake their head and maybe tease you for being a “yanqui loca”.
hi everyone
I just wanted to tell you what we as Argentinian people consider a usual breakfast here. Actually most of us get up at 7 or 8 in the morning. We couldn´t even think of eating such substantial meals as European or American people are used to. We just don´t feel like it. Sometimes when I get up I almost eat nothing but a cookie and drink a cup of coffee with milk. the thing is that when it´s about 9.30 or 10 in the morning we start feeling a sensation of “starving to death” lol so we “devore” whatever is around us !! croissants, a packet of buiscuits, cereal bars, sandwiches are the most common things we consume at work or university..
I have to do a project for spanish class and we have to make a menú from the country we did for our country projects. Could you please tell me typical meals for desayuno, almuerzo, y cena por favor. If possible, I also need verduras, postre, y bebidas.
Oh! and I’m doing Argentina foods
7 of 10 argentinians drink “mate” for breakfast (me included) and some of them eats something but not usualy. As Florencia says, theres no time for that at 6am when you start work or class at 7:30am.
C.S., in Argentina we USUALLY have 4 meals a day:
1)Breakfast (desayuno)
2)Lunch (almuerzo)
3)Tea (merienda, also known as “tomar la leche” or “tomar el te”)
4)Dinner (cena or comida)
Obviously there are people who skip some of these or that have more than 4 but this is the usual trend.
We have the merienda during the afternoon. Please remember that we have dinner much later than what people are used to in the US. An early dinner would be at 8pm. Still, most people have dinner at 9pm.
As regards breakfast, my personal experience is the same one as most Argentinians. Right now I’m living in the US and I still have light breakfasts. It would be disgusting for me to have scrambled eggs, potatoes or sausage in the morning. We very rarely eat salty food when we wake up.
During the merienda we basically eat the same variety of food we have during breakfast. A slight difference could be that some people also have a soda during the merienda.
A typical breakfast goes from milk, chocolate milk, coffee and milk, tea, tea and milk, orange juice, mate, yogurt, cookies, spounge cakes (“bizcochos”), “alfajores”, “tortas fritas”, fresh fruit, cereals, toasts (usually with jam, butter or dulce de leche on top), ham and cheese sandwiches, croissants and other pastries.
Hey!
I’m doing a Spanish project on Argentina too! This information was quite helpful. Don’t forget that Argentinians like to discuss philosophy in Cafes al aire libre!
Jajaja
Sage
jajaja
hey!!!!!!!!!!
In my opinion, this is wrong.
I understand what people think but to me you’re building a stereotype here. Not every single person has that menu for breakfast.
Almost everyone in the country gets up at around 6am to go to work/study and you’re not very hungry at that time of morning, I assume. Besides we barely have time to sit down and enjoy a large meal, considering most of us have long distances to go to get to the place where our morning activities take place.
It’s like saying that everyone on Western Asia likes rice or assuming that every person living in the United States has a lot to eat for breakfast.
I think we argentinians tend to care a little more about our heatlh and stay fit. We could never even imagine eating something salty and greasy as eggs and sausages.. Even the smell would hurt us!
I hate that guy called Austin cause all he talks about is Germany
Croissants RULE!
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James
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