Ice-cream parlours
“Would you buy me an ice-cream?” The transition from childhood to adult life of a Buenos Aires’ inhabitant is related to the ice-creams. In summer or winter, every child asks the same question to his parents. The teenager, otherwise, understands that the ice-cream parlour is also a meeting point, and in his first attempts of seduction, he asks “Would you like an ice cream?”
As well as pizza, porteños’ passion for ice cream is inherited from Italian immigrants who are considered internationally as the creators of the modern artisanal ice-cream. In Buenos Aires, the distinction between the industrial and artisanal one is very important. Apart from the preparation method, ingredients make the difference: industrial ice-creams are prepared with essences and flavourings while the artisanal one with high quality fresh fruit and raw materials.
The traditional neighbourhood parlour always sells artisanal ice-cream, and in spite of sharing the same important catalogue of flavours (dulce de leche, several kinds of chocolate, watering lemon and strawberry, among others), each shop includes its own flavours, as a touch of the gelato master.
Argentina is one of the main manufacturers of artisanal ice-cream. In 2006, the Argentine team got the third place, behind the Italian and French ones, in the Coppa del Mondo della Gelateria, which took place in Rimini, Italy.
As everything, the ice-cream art progresses constantly. Recently, in big chains as well as the neighbourhood parlours, there have appeared new flavours, such as basil, ginger and even red wine.
You, who visit our city in this hot summer, do you like the Buenos Aires’ ice-cream? According to you, who was born eating the city’s ice-cream, which is the parlour with best ice-cream in the city? Which ice-cream flavours do you prefer?
