Allie Lazar | Foodie Travel Guide – Pick Up The Fork | Plan South America

You moved to Buenos Aires 10 years ago to study for a semester and never left – what hooked you, aside from the bifes?

I remember the moment I decided to stay – I was planning a trip and had incredible anxiety thinking of all the different places I still hadn’t visited in Argentina. Did I want to go see glaciers in Patagonia? Salt flats in Salta? Wine country in Mendoza? The waterfalls in Iguazu? Farm life in the countryside outside Buenos Aires? Then it just hit me: What if I don’t go back to the US…?

We have a guide in Colombia who teaches our clients how to eat well in the jungle, including some rather delectable tutti frutti ants. What’s the weirdest food you’ve tried?

Weird food is always relative, but to me, the strangest Argentine combination is pizza and fainá. It’s basically a thick piece of pizza, loaded with cheese, very little sauce, and then on top of that is the slice of fainá, like Italian farinata, a chickpea cake. They are two textures and flavours that don’t make sense to me, but locals go crazy for it. Argentina converted me from a vegetarian to a meat eater, so at first, it was a challenge for me to get used to eating every part of the cow, like sweetbreads and blood sausage.

You have a whole section on Pick Up The Fork dedicated to Buenos Aires’ best ice cream shops – ‘The real star of the Argentine food scene’. If you had to choose just one flavour, which would it be?

Choosing one flavour is impossible! And luckily, at most BA ice cream shops, you can choose at least two flavours. If you are visiting Argentina for the first time, you need to try dulce de leche and sambayón.