An al­fa­jor is, in theo­r­y, a sim­ple thin­g. It's a des­sert san­dwi­ch. The ar­gen­ti­nian al­fa­jor is usua­lly fi­lled wi­th dul­ce de le­che, whi­ch means you just can't screw it up. Even a bad al­fa­jor is going to be good.

Ye­s, the­re are so­me re­gio­nal al­fa­jo­res fi­lled wi­th other stu­ff. Do­n't pay any atten­tion to tho­se im­pos­tor­s. They are hip­s­ters wea­ring fake gla­s­ses they do­n't nee­d. What you want is dul­ce de le­che.

But the fi­lling is on­ly half of a san­dwi­ch, and a third of an al­fa­jo­r. The­re is al­so the things that su­rroun­d, hold and con­tain the no­to­rious­ly sti­cky dul­ce: cookie­s. So­me va­rian­ts ha­ve tried to im­pro­ve on the cookie by ei­ther going so­ft (cake!) or hard (Mi­lka Mousse), but the real deal is a so­ft-ish cookie, not too so­ft (so the al­fa­jor does­n't de­sin­te­gra­te) and not too hard (so it does­n't feel like ea­ting a ho­ckey pu­ck).

The­re is an im­po­s­si­ble tra­deo­ff, be­tween dul­ce de le­che and the cookie. Too mu­ch cookie, you are ea­ting cookie­s. Too mu­ch dul­ce de le­che, you may as we­ll get a spoon and eat out of the jar (try it so­me­ti­me). You want to ba­lan­ce, but the al­fa­jor is wa­lking food, it has to be edi­ble by a 6-­year old schoolkid whi­le clim­bing a tree, it has to be so­lid enou­gh, and not fa­ll apar­t, and not co­ver him on melted fros­tin­g. The child has to be able to pa­ss ins­pec­tion of his han­ds after clea­ning wi­th just the wra­pper and his own mou­th.

The al­fa­jor san­ta­fe­sino has adop­ted a mi­ni­max stra­te­g­y, ma­xi­mi­zing the amount of dul­ce de le­che per amount of cookie, by using ex­tra-­thin "cookie­s" that are mo­re like cra­cker­s, adding mul­ti­ple la­yer­s, and making the who­le al­fa­jor thi­cke­r. I lo­ve it, but it is not for eve­r­yo­ne.

The al­fa­jor de mai­ce­na goes in a com­ple­te­ly di­ffe­rent di­rec­tio­n, ha­ving a tas­ty cookie that can hard­ly hold any dul­ce de le­che be­cau­se it's too fria­ble. So­me­how that wo­rks won­der­fu­lly as we­ll.

Then the­re is the co­ve­rin­g. Cho­co­la­te, fros­tin­g, co­co­nu­t, or no­thin­g. Cho­co­la­te is bad in su­m­me­r, mel­ting and making you eat the al­fa­jor from the wra­pper as if it we­re a ba­na­na.

But if you ha­ve no idea what an al­fa­jor is, whi­ch one should you ha­ve? I could point you to the most su­bli­me al­fa­jo­res, whi­ch would be li­fe-­chan­ging ex­pe­rien­ce­s, but I wi­ll no­t. If you tried tho­se, whi­ch you can on­ly get in out of the way pla­ce­s, kno­wn on­ly to ini­tia­tes, whe­re could you go from the­re? It's like your first da­te being wi­th So­fía Ver­ga­ra. That would be just lea­ding you in­to a li­fe of di­sappoint­men­t.

So get a cho­co­la­te Ha­van­na. Get a Ca­cha­fa­z. Get a Ca­pi­tán del Es­pa­cio. Get a tu­be of Jor­gi­to­s. And when you ha­ve do­ne your appren­ti­ces­hi­p, when you are an al­fa­jor­man, when you are read­y. Then you wi­ll kno­w.

PS: Thanks to Juan Ro­dri­guez Monti for the idea for this pos­t.