Medialunas

Medialunas are small, sweet, glazed crescent pastries eaten for breakfast with coffee. European immigrants carried the croissant to Argentina in the early 20th century, and what took hold there grew smaller, sweeter and glazed — different enough from the French original that it now reads as a distinctly Argentine pastry rather than a local copy of one.

What it really is

A laminated butter dough, folded and rolled in layers much like a French croissant's, shapes into smaller crescents before baking — noticeably smaller than a French croissant, and built to be eaten two or three at a sitting rather than one. Two versions exist: "de manteca," sweeter and glazed with a sugar syrup or honey wash right after baking, and "de grasa," made with lard instead of butter and left unglazed, savoury enough to eat with cold cuts instead of coffee.

The glaze is what most sets it apart from its French relative. A medialuna de manteca comes out of the oven brushed with syrup while still warm, giving it a shiny, faintly sticky surface a plain croissant doesn't have — a small difference that changes the whole character of the pastry.

How it's served

• Warm or at room temperature, usually two or three together.
• With coffee or mate, as a standard breakfast or afternoon snack.
• Sometimes split and filled with dulce de leche or ham and cheese.

How to write it on the menu

• Say if it's the sweet "de manteca" or savoury "de grasa" version, since they suit different meals.
• Flag the wheat, egg and dairy in the classic butter version.
• Note if a filled version — dulce de leche, ham and cheese — is available alongside the plain pastry.