This week’s Eats idea—an exploration of Mexican pastries—came at the suggestion of my editor. But you, my dear reader, deserve full disclosure: I know close to nothing about Mexican baked goods, and though I did my best, I’m not sure I can provide you with the most cultured analysis of them (hence this article’s title).
But that’s OK!
I started my pan dulce (sweet breads) journey on Yelp, looking for the best panadería (bakery) Santa Maria has to offer. One place garnered the most reviews, and the best of them: La Tapatia Bakery on West Main Street.
So I drove over to La Tapatia and attempted conversation with a couple of bakers (using my own unique butchering of the Spanish language), grabbed some tongs and a big plate, and (here’s where I probably could have improved my process) picked out the five yummiest-looking pastries I could find.
It wasn’t easy—there are approximately three billion variations of pan dulce, and La Tapatia seemed to have all of them. I picked out a pink spherical thing covered in coconut flakes, a giant hot-pink cookie, a brown sugary dome-shaped thing, and two types of concha (conch-shell shaped pastries—I actually knew what those were!). The five pastries totaled about $6.
I got back to my office, sampled each item, took a few notes, and then froze in alarm—I had no idea what any of those pastries were called. Thus followed a flurry of Googling and Pinterest surfing and I think I was able to match each pastry with a fancy-sounding Spanish name. Success!
Beso: The name is Spanish for “kiss,” and it describes the aforementioned pink spherical thing. And beso makes sense—the pastry was two domes of dough stuck together with marmalade and rolled in coconut. It was sweet, soft, and delicious.
Polvorón rosa: I couldn’t resist this giant hot-pink cookie (and according to the interweb, the treat’s alternative name is in fact “Big Pink Mexican Cookie”). Looking at it, I thought the cookie would taste sweeter—maybe even fruity—but in fact it tasted more like a buttery sugar cookie. I’m sure textures vary, but this particular cookie was somewhere between crispy and doughy. It was beautiful and tasty.
Conchas: Feel free to laugh at me about this one: That brown sugary dome-shaped thing? I’m pretty sure that was a concha—meaning I actually bought and tried three conchas. I probably didn’t need to do that, but that’s just fine, because each had its own unique personality.
The brown sugary one was crispy and topped with sugar, not icing, and it was sweeter than the others, featuring a more cinnamony, gingery flavor. The other two looked different from each other—one was iced with an orange topping in the shape of a turtle shell, and the other was iced with a white topping in a pretty stripey pattern—but both were soft and buttery.
So, that was my experience. Upon further research, there were other pastries I probably should have tried: empanadas, or Mexican turnovers; marranitos, or molasses and gingerbread cookies shaped like tiny piggies; and ojos de buey (ox eyes), or dough balls filled with marmalade in the center.
Still, I’m glad to have further developed my affinity for the Mexican pastry. I’ll definitely be back for more.
Brenna Swanston is headed home to dig into Duolingo and brush up on her Spanish. Email your favorite Spanish curse words to bswanston@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 7-14, 2016.