Regional cuisine is a great way to get a feel for the culture of the location to which you are traveling. And what’s the best part of the meal? Dessert. Check out this list of foreign desserts you shouldn’t skip while traveling:
Baklava (Turkey and nearby) – Made from phyllo dough that has been brushed with butter, this flaky dessert is also soaked with honey.
Alfajores (Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, other Latin American countries, via Spain) – Cookies reminiscent of shortbread or cake sandwiched with dulce de leche (milk caramel). Sometimes coated with meringue, white or dark chocolate, or covered with shredded coconut.
Semla (Sweden and similar in Norway, Denmark, Finland and Estonia) – A seasonal dessert available between Christmas and Easter, these bun-like pastries have their insides hollowed and filled with milk and almond paste and topped with whipped cream.
Sfogliatelle/Cannoli (Italy) – Sfogliatelle is a pastry shaped like a clam, stuffed with cream or ricotta filling that can be infused with orange or lemon flavor.
Taiyaki (Japan) – Kind of like a fish-shaped waffle, and filled with a sweet red bean paste.
Churros (Latin America, Spain) – Loops with a crunchy texture, topped with confectioners’ sugar and served with thick hot chocolate, in which you are to dunk the churros.
Sopaipillas/Picarones (Chile, Peru) – Fried dough that you dip in a solid brown sugar derived from sugar cane.
Galub Jamun (South East Asia) – Little balls of dough made of a flour and condensed milk mixture, that has been fried and dipped in a sugar syrup flavored with cardamom, rosewater or saffron.
Koeksisters (South Africa via Cape Malay) – Fried and dunked in a cold simple syrup to avoid them getting mushy.
Tres Leches Cake (Mexico, other countries in Central and South America) – Condensed milk, evaporated milk and cream are the “tres leches” in this cake.
Suspiro Limeño (Peru) - Evaporated milk, condensed milk, egg yolks and sugar make a pudding, which is then topped with meringue.
Sernik (Poland) – The Polish version of a cheesecake.
Tangyuan/ Yuanxiao (China, Taiwan) – Balls of dough made from rice flour and hot water, and filled with sesame paste, adzuki bean paste or other sweet fillings.
Brigadeiro (Brazil) – Balls of fudgey caramel, rolled in chocolate sprinkles.
Khao Niaw Ma Muang [mango and sticky rice] (Thailand) – Rice is cooked in coconut milk and served with fresh mango.
We went to a wedding in St. Pete Beach, Fla. over the weekend and made a few interesting discoveries. The first, is that St. Pete Beach is not really a wine-drinking city. At least not from the wine lists I saw at a couple of restaurants in town. I asked one server for their wine list and the response was, “We have white, red, and white zinfandel.”
The second is that every wine story can have a happy ending. Jill went to the liquor store across the street from our hotel. It was your run-of-the-mill liquor store, but Jill came back excited because it not only had the wonderful Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc for a very reasonable $12, but also one of our favorite Malbecs from our recent trip to Argentina. Before I get into the Malbec, it’s worth noting that Sauvignon Blancs from the Marlborough region in New Zealand are often crisp and delicious in addition to often being great buys for under $15.
The Bodega Colomé Estate Malbec is a truly wonderful wine. The dense purple color you see on the pour carries over to the taste, a rich, deep fruity flavor with a fantastic finish that stays with you until your next taste. Even the crappy plastic hotel cups we were drinking from couldn’t mask the wonderful taste.
Looking to get some more information on the wine, I Googled it and was surprised to see the Bodega Colomé Estate winery actually is owned by The Hess Collection, a beautiful Napa Valley winery on Mount Veeder that is a wonderful place to visit and taste. I phoned the winery and they said they only get the wines from Argentina sporadically and they typically sell out fast. I was able to track it down on Wine.com, though at $27.99 it’s about $5 more than we paid in Florida.
Still, Malbecs are some of the best bargains out there and the Bodega Colomé Estate Malbec could stand up to some of the more mid-priced California reds out there. It’s well-worth searching out. You might even find it at your local liquor store.
David and Jill Shabelman
Before people begin sending nasty comments (ok, we’re not even sure anyone is reading), let us state that we’re well aware that Mendoza is the premier wine growing region in Argentina and we do have hopes of one day making the trek there to taste their lovely wines. Nevertheless, a recent trip to Argentina included an interesting few days in the country’s fledgling Patagonia wine region, where we found wines that were good, though not quite up to the quality of some of the more established Mendoza wineries. We did, however, meet some of the nicest people in a very friendly country, which in the grand scheme of things may be more important than the quality of the wine.
First off, a brief explanation of how we found ourselves in what some call “the end of the world” wine region (the region is the closest wine growing region to the South Pole in the entire world). Our trip to Argentina began in Buenos Aires before we flew to Patagonia to enjoy the country’s beautiful lakes region. Rather than hopping a plane back to Buenos Aires, then flying to Mendoza (Argentina is a huge country), we decided to drive to Neuquén and check out what was going on. Wine Spectator did a fine review of the region that you can find here.
We stayed at a beautiful new wine resort, Valle Perdido, where the staff couldn’t have been any friendlier, the food was first rate and wine certainly pleasant enough to drink in the mass quantities in which we were served.
We recently drank a bottle of Valle Perdido’s 2006 Malbec Reserva that we brought back and the first taste sent us right immediately to our memories of Argentina. The Malbec was rich and dark, with a smoky smell that made you want to indulge in something off the grill. Nice plummy Malbec taste, though perhaps not with the sophistication of its Mendoza brethren. But we’re here to praise, not criticize, and considering that wineries in the region began making wine in the early 2000s and basically sit in the middle of a desert, it’s certainly as good as many other reasonably-priced Malbecs out there. We discovered that one of our local wine shops, K&L in San Francisco, is selling the Valle Perdido Pinot Noir so we’re excited to continue drinking Patagonian wines and monitor their progress as they evolve.
If you ever find yourself in the Neuquén area of Patagonia, the few wineries there are worth the trip. You won’t believe that really affordable tasty wine is grown in this desert region and you also will be blown away by the winds that engulf the area some days. In addition to tasting at Valle Perdido, we visited Bodega NQN and Familia Schroeder. Our lunch at NQN was out of this world delicious and the wine selection at Familia Schroeder rivals any Sonoma winery. Don’t forget to brush up on your Spanish though, the locals speak little English.
In preparation for our trip to Argentina we drank some Malbecs and are hard-pressed to find wines that offer better value for the money. We would not hesitate to buy a $10 Malbec, and most wine stores and grocery stores (at least where we live) are littered with them. With barbecue season upon us, they are the perfect accompaniment for grilled meats. Enjoy!
Jill and David Shabelman
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