A tropical celebrity playground in the 1950’s and 60’s, Brazil has enchanted Brigitte Bardot and Rita Hayworth, and now more recently, served as a backdrop for Snoop Dogg’s “Beautiful” music video in 2002. Only a stone’s throw away from Argentina, a flight to Rio de Janeiro takes three hours from Buenos Aires. I, like many others before me, couldn’t resist the temptation to explore the flavors of South America’s most seductive country.

Thanks to Sashertootie for the chicken korma!

My best friend Jessica Bartolini and I used to enjoy the $4.95 lunch menus at the Indian restaurant row on 6th St. and 2nd Ave on Manhattan’s Lower East Side whenever we had a half day in high school. During my five-year vegetarian phase (quite the shocker), we both made a habit of ordering the vegetable korma for its creamy coconut and cardamom goodness. I later moved onto the chicken korma, half wishing that the Indian chefs would just go ahead and desecrate the cow and serve up some beef korma.

A culinary treasure trove overshadowed by the famed Argentine beef, international cuisine exists, if not thrives, in the cosmopolitan center of Buenos Aires.

As a transplanted New Yorker spoiled by the cornucopia of culinary cuisines that used to call out to me from every block of Queens and Manhattan, I felt like something was missing after months of devouring juicy steaks, homemade pastas and colorful pizzas in Buenos Aires.

We’re thrilled to introduce our new Buenos Aires food column, La Dulce Vida by Caroline Shin. La Dulce Vida is a translation of The Sweet Life which is exactly what travelers to Argentina get to sample. The Italian-influenced, beef-centric and wine-accompanied traditional cuisine will make you sit back and rub your belly in satisfaction. The fusion of Creole, Asian, and European flavors in this cosmopolitan city will leave you wanting more. And last but not least, the famous Argentine sweet teeth (they have more than one for sure) will put you on a wonderful (sugar) high.