Sweets

As many of you know, I have a big sweet tooth. Here in French Guiana, there is a lot to satisfy it. One thing that I'm quite grateful for is the presence of the French pastry industry. I can always get a good pain au chocolat at one of many local bakeries. I've had amazing cream puffs, and occasionally a piece of cake. On Saturday, I bought a Gateau basque. For those of you from the northeastern U.S., this tastes exactly like the cake version of a Stella D'Oro Breakfast Treat. If you've never had one of these cookies, I pity you, as they are AMAZING. But there's also a lot of local goodies. The last time I was here, I posted about having accras. Accras are the French word for what's known in Guianese Creole as marinad, or in English 'fritters'. At a local Haitian place, you can get 8 banana fritters (about the size of a doughnut hole) for only 2 euros. Today, I was at the market and I bought some sispa (literally 'six pieces'). This is a local specialty, about the size, shape and color of a rice-cake, but much denser. It's made principally of taro flour, flavored with sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and cocunut. Pretty good, but not great. There are also local jellies that are great. Chadeck (like a grapefruit but way bigger), mango, banana with honey or rum, pineapple, lime, and even tomato-vanilla (not a fan). Then there's the ice cream. I LOVE the flavors here. Peanut, soursop, guava, coconut, pineapple, and more. I have to be VERY careful to limit my intake of these to one liter every three weeks or else I'll need to buy a second ticket to get back. There's also a not-so-secret code about how to buy three particular fruits that aren't sold at the market. If you see a yellow flag, it means patawa is for sale. If you see a red flag, it means açai is for sale. If you see a white flag, it means komou is for sale. I haven't yet gone into any of these establishments to but the fruits but I plan to soon.