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Having been in the United States for the last month, during summertime here, I have eaten quite a few summer fruits with whipped cream for desserts. I hadn’t actually whipped the cream (and man did I whip it!) till today.

With a hand mixer, in Argentina, normally cream takes about 3-4 min to become whipped. Here in the States, it took about 30 seconds. This is an amazing and massive difference. Several things could account for this:

1. The speed of the mixer. I use max speed on both, always, and highly doubt that hand mixers in Argentina go slower than hand mixers in the U.S. Let’s assume we can rule this out.

2. There is something inherently different about the cream.

I have always noticed a distinctly different flavor in all dairy products in the rest of the world as compared to the U.S. I am assuming that due to our freakishly rigorous laws that require you to tell people that coffee is hot and so forth, that there is some vital component that is removed from dairy products in the U.S., making them taste more bland.

But could this account for how cream whips faster in the U.S.? Now I am thinking of additives. I know that most milk cows in the U.S. are given immense amounts of rBST (a hormone that makes cows product ungodly amounts of milk), and I am guessing it could be attributed to this.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Please share.

Taste Wine in Buenos Aires

Upon returning to Buenos Aires, I am always shocked as to the difference in the quality of the dairy products here vs. the United States. For lack of a better term, I shall call this the “creaminess factor”. The problem, though, is that this does not accurately sum up the difference in flavor and quality between milk, yogurt, cheese (not variety… quality), and ice cream in Argentina vs. the U.S. I had my first cup of coffee with a splash of milk yesterday and there is richness and fullness to the flavor that is unmistakable. It’s the same type of quality that you get in Europe.

 

And this of course translates to ice cream.

 

I would argue that Argentina has the best ice cream in the world. First, because of the quality of the cream. Mostly free range cows who make better milk followed by the fact that that milk goes through less processing. The only other country that comes close is Italy, but they use egg yolk in their gelatto so it is not a fair comparison.

 

The best places to go get ice cream in Buenos Aires are:

 

1. Persicco. What a wondrous and jovial place! What great uniforms! Oh my God, dulce de leche con brownie, mascarpone con frutos del bosque, bacciola, chocolate amargo!! That first flavor is dulce de leche ice cream with real artesenal dulce de leche mixed in with big chunks of chewy brownie. Give me my insulin shot now!

 

The second flavor is akin to strawberry cheesecake but 10x better. It has the hints of the flavor of mascarpone cheese with a rich raspberry/blackberry swirl mixed in.

 

Bacciola is basically Nutella flavored ice cream with chunks of hazelnut. Chocolate amargo is dark chocolate, but the richest most chocolately dark chocolate you’ve ever had.

 

2. Freddo. All over the place and with as much selection as Persicco, just a little more expensive.

 

3. Cremolatti. What you can be happy about here is the Mantecol flavored ice cream. Mantecol is a sort of brittle, peanut buttery candy bar here in Argentina that they have turned into an ice cream. Jump on the treadmill first.

 

4. Heladería Venezia. Located in Palermo just off of Av. Santa Fe on the 4500 block of calle Berutti, this is one of the only places where you can actually see the process of making ice cream. They have 3 small vats in the back where they put their creams, flavors and sugars to make you some of the most joyous chilly mouthfuls you have ever experienced.

 

5. Cabaña Tuyu. These guys have a flavor called Banadita Dolca. This is also a candy that is native to Argentina (discovered by the Mapuche?? :)) that is basically a banana nougat  covered in chocolate. Tuyu has converted this into a concentrated banana/chocolate ice cream that I used to order weekly (read: daily).

 

Que disfruten!

 

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