Foods I Miss

I have written quite a bit about the ample opportunities to eat delicious food here in Argentina, about the wonderful meats, the obsession with sweets,the ice cream that cannot be beat, and all the other treats. There are, however, some foods that I love that cannot be found here, foods that, day to day, I find my self dreaming about. The big one is pie. Tis the season for autumn pies in the States and the autumn pies, apple pie, pumpkin pie, etc, are, in my opinion, the best pies out there. I read a few food blogs regularly and all of them are posting articles, pictures, and videos about making the perfect pie or pie crust, and every time I read/watch one I find my myself salivating. For some reason no one makes pies here, not even the bakeries. For a country obsessed with, and really good at sweets, it is a bit surprising. On a bit of an aside, I was discussing pumpkin pie with a British friend and we were a few minutes into the conversation when I remembered that when our cousins across the pond talk about pumpkin pie they mean a savory main course dish instead of the delightfully creamy-spicy-sweet-but-not-too-sweet miracle that graces every Thanksgiving table.
Chummus can be found here, and so far I have sampled a number of varieties, but none of them even come close to Sabra, let alone the chummus in places like Grill Point or Hapisga. I am going cold turkey and if I do not L'nagev soon I may start having convulsions.
Bagels! Where are the bagels?! They do not exist here, which is not such a surprise, as it is tough to find to find decent bagels outside of New York (or Teaneck, home of the best bagels ever, Teaneck Road Hot Bagels. Anyone who disputes this and thinks that Sammy's is better is just plain wrong). You know what, I meant to leave that statement in the parentheses as an aside, but I must clear up, once and for all, why TRHB easily outstrips Sammy's as best bagel. A bagel is all about contrast. The crust must be hard but thin, hard enough that when lightly toasted allows for a delightful crunch but thin enough that right after the crunch your teeth sink in to the softness of the crumb. The crumb (the term for the inside of bread) however, should not be too soft. A bagel requires some chewiness to it. Your teeth should meet just a little resistance when chewing the bagel; a bagel requires texture. The flavor of the bagel itself needs to be just very slightly sour, nowhere near the intensity of a sour dough, but just enough that you can tell that this is not your usual bread. A bagel should NEVER be undercooked, uniformly soft, doughy, bland, and, besides for the shape, indistinguishable from other breads. You don't even need to take a bite to know whether a bagel has the potential to be good; if in the clear plastic bins the bagels on the bottom of the pile are compressed and contorted by the mound of bagels on top, the bagel will probably be bad. If the bottom bagels do a good job of holding their tubular shape despite the force of gravity, they have the potential to be great bagels. Teaneck Road Hot Bagels hold their shape, they provide contrast, texture, and a distinctive flavor, while Sammy's bagels are soft, doughy, bland, gummy in the mouth, and, to top it all off, the bottom bagels get all squished. I know that only the uncut bagels at TRHB are kosher, whereas in Sammy's you can get and egg sandwich, but really, between the cost (and taste) of the egg sandwich, and the massively inferior bagels, it is far more worth it to buy your bagels at TRHB and make your eggs at home. Now, I am not saying you are not allowed to enjoy Sammy's. Everyone can enjoy what they want; there are people out there who think pancake mix or store bought pie crust is better than the real thing. There are, however, definitions for what makes a certain food; for example, everyone would say that an English muffin is not a bagel and according to those definitions, Sammy's is not a good bagel, though it may be an enjoyable doughy bagel-shaped thing for some.
Well, now I lost track of the foods I miss, though I am sure they will resurface soon enough. Kosher Indian food is conspicuously absent from Argentina, and another sweet that, shockingly, does not exist here is cupcakes. I have no idea why, but no one does cupcakes here. Thankfully before I left CB, Tova, and I splurged on Crumbs and had two each in one day.
I am looking forward to getting my fix on my various food-cravings when I get back.