Last week I spent a few quick days in Puebla, the city of angels. Before I arrived, I had done little to no research on the candy of the area and wasn’t sure what the popular local flavors were. I’d talked to many people, and everyone had complemented the dulces of Puebla, but I had no specific expections. All I knew was that there was a street filled with candy stores… not what was actually in the candy stores!

I decided to start things off with a visit to the Calle de Dulcerias. This street is populated with candy stores on every storefront, and the displays are fill of mouth-watering candies that I recognized from earlier in the trip… and my old nemesis, camote. That’s right, one of Puebla’s candy specialties is the paste made from sugared, ground up sweet potatoes. In theory, the sticks of paste are flavored to taste like vanilla, lime, or strawberry - in practice the yam flavor is overpowering. I regretfully did my duty and purchased a cacao flavored camote, to give myself another taste - and more happily loaded up on other flavorful treats of the region: gallitos (little cocks, pictured above), tortidas de Santa Clara (flaky cookies with a sweet potato seed paste), and nut flavored besitos. I continued wandering and even found a store offering free samples of various sweets (!!) and a tourist information booth that gave me an extra free camote (!!!) - I have a policy of never turning down free candy.

As it turned out, much like in the previous cities I’d visited, many of Puebla’s regional specialties were first created in Spanish convents. Legend has it that camote was invented when a schoolgirl tried to play a trick on a nun by concocting what seemed to be an infallibly disgusting mess of sweet potato and sugar. Imagine her surprise when the nun actually liked it! Imagine my surprise when I tried the camote again, expecting to dislike it as before… and found it comparatively pleasant! To be honest, as long as you are expecting a yam-like flavor, the sweet, soft, and slightly stringy camote is actually pretty good. The flavoring is very subtle (to the point where I couldn’t taste it) and the sweet potato slightly overpowering, but once I knew what to expect, I could enjoy it. I guess this is a lesson to me: I won’t give up on something after only one try. Well, some of the time.

Although I enjoyed the camote, the favorite sweet I tried in Puebla was a tortida. Made of crisp pastry and covered with a sweet, cinnamon-y paste of gourd seeds, tortidas offered a nice cookie-like respite to the pounds of candy I’ve been consuming in Mexico. These cookies are literally regional to Puebla: I haven’t seen them anywhere else on the trip (and I’ve definitely looked in Oaxaca!)

I had another first in a small town near Puebla, Cholula, where I was visiting some ruins. A small child, helping his mother sell nuts and sweets near the pyramid exit, offered me a spoonful of what appeared to be something flaky and chili-flavored. Keeping in mind my policy about not turning down free candy, I reached for the spoon to try it… and quickly changed my mind when I realized the flakes were actually small crickets. I guess I’ll need to modify my free candy policy to take into account those regional specialties made of bugs.

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Camote Recipe (pineapple)

Note: Unfortunately this recipe doesn’t include quantities, so I guess you’ll have to experiment!

-Wash and peel sweet potatoes, then boil for 20 minutes in water in which the juice of lemons has been squeezed.

-Once they are cooked, press through a strainer with the back of a wooden spoon.

-Meanwhile, mix sugar with a quart and a half of water and boil until it reaches the soft ball stage.

-Combine the sweet potato paste with the sugar and stir continuously.

-Once the mixture has thickened add ground pineapple over a slow burner and continue stirring until the bottom of the pot can be seen, and the mixture sticks to the spoon.

-Remove from heat and stir vigorously.

-Once the mixture has cooled, place a spoonful of the paste on a damp cloth and mold it into a cigar shape. Place each candy in the sun until dry, rotating as necessary to ensure all sides of the camote dry evenly.

-Enjoy! Or don’t, as it may be.

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I’ve gone through the first few weeks of my big trip already! I wanted to take this space and pay tribute to my ever-patient grandmother who spent a few weeks of her time traveling with me finding the best deals on candy and sweet-talking store owners into letting us how they make candy. Oh, and she paid for all my hotels, introduced me to family members I didn’t know I had, let me in some of the stories of our family, and introduced me to my Mexican heritage (although today I rediscovered that my 1/4 Mexican blood does nothing against the sun… Ouch.) We parted ways this morning, so I’m on my own - I’m very grateful that she helped me ease my way into Mexico and I hope to do her proud in the weeks to come with my slowly-learned Spanish. Thank you Abuelita!