Argentine Sweet Shop

I mentioned before that my motivation for making my wooden sweet shop was my oldest daughter who was constantly pretending that her chocolate chip cookies (and other misc. kitchen food) were alfajores (the Argentine cookies that she helps Abu, her grandmother, make.) 

I've finally finished Lu's Argentine sweet shop.  I'm going to give it to Lu and Ellie alongside some of the other wooden treats I made, so the shop that I'm making won't purely be an Argentine one.  It will be a mix--part American and part Argentine--just like Lu and Ellie are.

I think it's neat that the girls can now pretend to have tea, or maté, just like their relatives do in Argentina while snacking on special Argentine desserts. 

But most importantly, I hope that the girls learn the stories behind the food.  That they will remember the stories their dad told them of when he drank maté by the pool with his cousins, how much they loved it when a relative brought them Havana alfajores (a brand of alfajores from Argentina which are hard to find here) or how much they liked Abu's arrollado de dulce de leche. Or even how Daddy proposed to Mommy after we ate at a delicious helado (ice cream) shop called Freddo.

Maybe they will even remember lots of fun memories of playing with it in their store together.  Don't you love how food, even the wood kind, can be so much more than just something to eat?

Without further ado,  here are the Argentine components:

maté tea cups, with an azucar (sugar) container:

Yummy delicious alfajores in lots of mix and match flavors:

arrollado de dulce de leche and pasta frola.

ice cream from Freddo:

And I used Mod Podge to decorate a box with the Havanna logo to keep all the sweets in, as well as a 'jar' of dulce de leche.