Street Snack · Candied Peanuts

Garrapiñada

Photo via Pexels/Unsplash — free for commercial use

The sugar shell forms in stages, and a good vendor can tell the peanuts are ready just from the sound of the spoon scraping the pot.

Garrapiñada is made by tossing raw peanuts with sugar, water, and a splash of vanilla in a wide copper pot set over an open flame, stirring constantly until the sugar crystallizes into a crackly, caramel-brown shell around each nut. Street vendors sell them still warm, scooped straight into small paper cones or twisted paper bags.

Why it's made this way: The candied-nut technique came from Spain, where garrapiñadas, usually made with almonds, are a traditional fair sweet; Argentine vendors adapted it to cheaper peanuts, and the rhythmic scraping of the pot became practically part of the recipe.