Argentina Street Food

Argentine street food runs on the same coals as the national asado — grilled meat and hand-folded pastry sold fast and eaten standing up.

27 street food dishes from Argentina, across 6 regions — what each one is, why it's made that way, and what to expect when you order it.

Signature street foods of Argentina

🧉 Shared Ritual · Yerba Mate from a Gourd Mate Strangers in a mate circle don't get their own cup — the same gourd and metal straw are refilled and passed hand to hand, everyone drinking from the… Mate is a bitter, grassy infusion made from dried yerba mate leaves steeped in hot water inside a hollow gourd and sipped through a metal straw called a bombilla. Argentines carry a… Parrilla Cart · Match-Day Classic Choripán The chorizo is split down the middle before grilling — a butterfly cut called the 'mariposa' — so it cooks faster and crisps on both sides at once. A grilled chorizo sausage is butterflied, cooked over hot coals, and stuffed into crusty bread with chimichurri and/or salsa criolla (chopped tomato, onion, and pepper). It's sold from… Street Stall · Regional Staple Empanadas Different Argentine provinces bake the same dish with distinct fillings and even distinct crimped-edge folds, so a cook can often tell an empanada's… These hand-sized turnovers of wheat dough are filled with seasoned beef, chicken, ham and cheese, or corn, then baked or fried, and sold hot from street stalls, bakeries, and market… Sweet · Cookie Sandwich Alfajor Its name comes from Arabic, not Spanish — 'al-hasw,' meaning 'the filling,' a word the Moors carried into Spain centuries before it ever reached… Two soft, crumbly shortbread-style cookies sandwiched around a thick layer of dulce de leche, often finished with a chocolate glaze or rolled in shredded coconut. Sold everywhere from… Street Snack · Candied Peanuts Garrapiñada 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…

Street food by region

6 regions of Argentina with their own dishes.

• Ciudad de Buenos Aires4
• Salta4
• Misiones4
• Chubut4
• Mendoza3
• Tucumán3

Ciudad de Buenos Aires street food

Sandwich Counter · Breaded Cutlet Milanesa al Pan The breaded cutlet at its core traces directly to Milan's 'cotoletta,' brought over by Italian immigrants and then Argentinized into a sandwich… A thin, breaded beef or chicken cutlet fried crisp and stuffed into a crusty roll with lettuce and tomato, sold at sandwich counters and kiosks across Buenos Aires at all hours. Many spots… 🌭 Street Cart · Hot Dog Pancho Porteños call it 'pancho' after a cartoon hound once used to advertise hot dogs in Argentina — the nickname outlasted the ad campaign itself. A long, thin sausage in a soft bun, topped with mustard, mayonnaise, or crushed potato chips, sold from mobile carts ('carritos') parked on Buenos Aires street corners late into the night… Parrilla Stand · Grilled Cheese Provoleta The cheese itself, provolone, arrived with Italian immigrants as a table cheese — grilling it directly on the parrilla until it forms a caramelized… A thick round of provolone cheese seared on the grill until the outside blisters and browns while the inside turns molten, sprinkled with oregano and chili flakes. It's sold as a starter… 🫓 Pizzeria Counter · Chickpea Flatbread Fainá Buenos Aires pizzerias sell it stacked directly on top of a slice of pizza, a combo locals call 'pizza a caballo' ('pizza on horseback') that exists… A thin, dense baked flatbread made from chickpea flour, olive oil, and water, cut into squares and sold by weight at pizzerias across Buenos Aires. It's eaten on its own or layered under a…

Salta street food

Misiones street food

Roadside Stall · Cassava Cheese Bread Chipá Vendors sell it hot from baskets at bus terminals and roadside stops all along Misiones' highways — it's often the only food available at rural… A small, chewy roll made from cassava starch and cheese, baked until the crust cracks and the inside stays gummy and rich. Sold warm from baskets by roadside and terminal vendors across… 🧉 Street Ritual · Cold Mate Infusion Tereré Tereré exists specifically because hot mate becomes unbearable in Misiones' subtropical heat — locals swapped the hot water for ice-cold water or… Yerba mate leaves steeped with ice-cold water or fruit juice instead of hot water, sipped through the same metal straw and gourd used for hot mate. It's carried in a thermos of cold water… Market Stall · Cornbread Cake Sopa Paraguaya Despite the name, it's not a soup at all — it's a dense, baked cornbread with cheese and onion, a mix-up local legend traces to a cook whose soup… A thick, moist cake of cornmeal, cheese, onion, and eggs, baked in large trays and sold by the slice at market stalls and roadside food stands across Misiones. It's eaten as a snack or… Rural Fair · Fried Flour Dough Reviro It's built from almost nothing — just flour, water, and fat — a bare-bones recipe that field and yerba mate plantation workers relied on when little… A simple flatbread of flour, water, and fat, pan-fried into a dense, slightly crisp round, sold at rural fairs and roadside stands across Misiones. It's often torn by hand and eaten with…

Chubut street food

🍰 Tea House · Welsh Fruit Cake Torta Galesa (Welsh Black Cake) The recipe survived a 150-year journey almost untouched: Welsh settlers who founded the 'Y Wladfa' colony in Chubut in 1865 brought it, and Gaiman's… A dense, dark fruitcake packed with raisins and spices, baked in loaf pans and served in thick slices at Welsh tea houses across Chubut's Chubut Valley towns. It's always part of a full… ☕ Tea House · Full Welsh Tea Service Té Galés Some of Gaiman's Welsh tea houses have been run by the same founding families for generations, still serving tea in china passed down from their… A full afternoon tea spread of black tea, scones, jams, and multiple cakes, served at long communal tables in Welsh tea houses across Gaiman and Trevelin. Visitors typically book ahead, as… Roadside Grill · Whole Roast Lamb Cordero Patagónico al Asador The lamb is splayed flat on a metal cross and staked into the ground at an angle beside the fire, cooking for hours from radiant heat alone rather… A whole lamb, butterflied and staked on a metal cross, slow-roasted beside an open wood fire for several hours until the skin crisps and the meat falls off the bone. It's served at… 🐟 Roadside Stall · Smoked Trout Trucha Ahumada Trout aren't native to Patagonia at all — sport-fishing stocking programs introduced them to local rivers and lakes in the early 1900s, and their… Trout caught from Patagonian rivers and lakes, brined and smoked over wood, sold vacuum-packed or fresh at roadside stalls and small-town markets across Chubut. It's often eaten cold…

Mendoza street food

Roadside Grill · Roast Kid Goat Chivito Asado In Mendoza's arid southern deserts around San Rafael and Malargüe, goats outnumber cattle by far simply because they survive on scrub vegetation… Young goat, slow-roasted whole over open coals until the skin crisps, sold by the plate at roadside grills and rural fairs across Mendoza's dry southern departments. It's typically… Bakery Counter · Baked Empanada Empanada Mendocina Unlike the fried, spice-forward empanadas of Argentina's northwest, Mendoza's version is always oven-baked, and stuffing an olive and a wedge of… A baked, half-moon pastry filled with hand-chopped beef, onion, olive, and hard-boiled egg, sold hot from bakery counters across Mendoza city as an everyday snack or 'picada' bar bite. The… 🍷 Harvest Stall · Wine Fruit Punch Clericó Clericó floods Mendoza's streets specifically during the Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia, the grape-harvest festival where the province literally… A chilled punch of white wine mixed with chopped fresh fruit and a splash of soda, ladled from large pitchers at outdoor stands during Mendoza's harvest festival season. It's Mendoza's…

Tucumán street food

More street food in Americas

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