What looks like a croissant, tastes almost like a croissant but isn’t strictly a croissant?
Breakfast time in Buenos Aires, where locals enjoy nothing more than a cup of coffee and a pastry. The pastry, in our case, is a bowl of what appears to be small croissants albeit with a shiny glaze. These, we are told, are medialunas or “half moons.”
A cross between a croissant and a brioche, medialunas are certainly rich. Every Porteño (literally “port people”, referring to folks from Buenos Aires) seems to be having one or two for their breakfast. Some enjoy a more European style medialuna de manteca (butter medialuna) while others prefer a less sweet medialuna de grasa (“greasy” medialuna).
There is a light vanilla fragrance, maybe citrus note of lemon. I bite into one, the pastry more fluffy than flaky, the sticks-to-your-fingers layer of syrup ensuring you’d never mistake it for a French croissant. This is as Argentinian as it gets.
We want to dine like a Porteño, not a Parisian. The prescription is easy: simply start with half a moon for breakfast. We can do this, we nod to each other as we take another sticky bite, and do this gladly.