Olive bread at La Argentina Panadería
The streets of Buenos Aires are overflowing with panaderías, stocking their shelves with medialunas, imposter french baguettes, pepitas and much much more. La Argentina is a family based panadería y confitería offering exceptional breads along with a variety of tasty sandwiches and pastries.
My first experience at La Argentina was much anticipated after my bread obsessed neighbor came by for maté hour. She arrived with a bag of fresh breads that she had recently purchased from La Argentina after reading an article on the top panaderías in Buenos Aires. She takes out an olive baguette and I get a big smile, I ♥ olives. SUPER moist, salty chunks of black olives, light yet rich and highly addictive. No jam, butter, spread necessary. And then came the onion baguette- sweet and salty with a flaky texture that’s great on it’s own or dipped in a bowl of creamy red beans & rice. (Both baguettes pictured above along with cantipalo aka salami.)
I soon realize there’s multiple locations throughout the city and the original (Amenábar 1501, Esquina Virrey Olaguer y Feliú) was opened over a 100 years ago in the oh so lovely Belgrano, the same neighborhood I study in. Lucky for me, there’s a location two blocks from my bus stop so I head over after clase de español and purchase one olive and one onion baguette para llevar, 12 pesos each. I meet my novio for lunch a short walk away and inhale the entire olive baguette before we walk in the restaurant. I order a soup, it was terrible, so I grab the onion baguette and went to town. Needless to say, I have no self control and will only allow myself to buy one baguette per visit from here on out.
After searching the city for the closest thing to po’boy bread, I’m happy to say that the french baguettes from La Argentina are more than capable of doing the job. The first Tuesday of every month is New Orleans aka NOLA Night at The Office in Las Cañitas where you can find roast beef & fried fish po’boys served on La Argentina’s french baguettes, muffaletta’s, red beans & rice and more. Come on by!
