Pastry quest

Sweets from south of the border

by Johnette Rodriguez

PANDORA EL QUETZAL, 445 Hartford Ave., Providence, 421-9119
Open Mon-Sat, 8 a.m.-9 p.m.
PANADERIA LA MOCANA, 304 Broad St., Providence, 331-3195
Open Mon-Sat, 6 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun, 7 a.m.-10 p.m.
PANADERIA MAYA, 141-143 Valley St., Providence, 831-3326
Open Mon-Sat, 8 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
PANADERIA XELAPAN, 863 Broad St., Central Falls, 724-0890
Open Mon-Sat, 8 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

Since there are few enough opportunities in life to experience other cultures, eating the foods of different countries is a good starting place. Sampling international pastries is even better. Thus, on a recent Saturday afternoon, my dining partner and I hit the road to high cholesterol.

Our first stop was at Panaderia La Mocana, already a favorite of ours for its dreamy flan. Dominican flan is often made with sweetened condensed milk, and the one at La Mocana is soothingly eggy and not overly sweet, served in tall wedges with sugar syrup spilling down its sides ($1). In the flan case are also bread puddings, cheesecakes (with pineapple or cherry topping) and rounds of colorful jelly roll.

La Mocana seems to be the neighborhood spot for special occasion cakes. The afternoon we were there, an array of cakes with bright blue or bright pink decorations lined the countertop, and customers streamed in to buy one or the other in congratulations for the birth of a boy or girl or to have birthday greetings inscribed on top.

Individual pieces of similar layer cakes ($1.25) dominated one section of the extensive baked goods displayed. These offerings varied in fillings (guava paste, pineapple sauce or white frosting), texture (either a pound cake soaked in sugar syrup, a lighter yellow cake or a dense chocolate cake) and decoration (pink frosting atop white, adorned with cherries, multi-colored sprinkles or coconut). The operative word here is pink. Even the chocolate cake and the chocolate chip muffins had swirls of pink frosting on top. And, there were paper muffin cups filled solely with pink frosting.

Not that the frosting wasn't delicious. It tasted like a very fluffy version of that old Southern stand-by, seven-minute frosting, in which egg whites are slowly heated and beaten while a sugar syrup is drizzled in. The difference was that this can't-stop-eating-it frosting was atop a hearty, yummy pound cake.

I haven't yet mentioned my absolute favorite pastries at La Mocana: the guava-paste-filled mega-squares, turnovers, roll-ups and powdered-sugar-dusted mini-squares. These vary from a soft-textured Danish dough to a crispy, croissant-like covering, and one contains cream cheese along with the citrusy-tart taste of the guava.

High school students crowd La Mocana on weekdays for their sandwiches, so we tried a small Cubano and a small turkey (each $3.50). One-half of each of these was almost more than we could finish for lunch. The Cubano, true to tradition, had sliced pork, ham, melted cheese and pickles, with a tasty sauce. The turkey was deli turkey, but it also included cheese melted onto the bottom half of the torpedo roll. Other lunch possibilities were two kinds of small meat pies and three kinds of soft-dough rolls stuffed with ham and cheese and other meats.

From La Mocana, we headed to Olneyville for Panaderia Maya and Panaderia El Quetzal. Maya is a tiny storefront, touting "the best from Guatemala" and, again, one small bakery case was filled with birthday cakes awaiting pick-up, these decorated with a butter cream. Another case had an array of small sweet breads and cookies, shaped and decorated in traditional patterns.

The large, flat cookies are wonderfully crisp, not too sweet, some sprinkled with sesame seeds. I'm fond of the fish-shaped ones, with raisin eyes, and the leaves, marked with veins. The breads are harder to describe but intriguing to look at, round with a smaller knob on top; crescent-shaped with scorings where sugar is sprinkled in; round with two slits that burst open into a star shape. They are all the same dough with a crunchy crust and a slightly sweet, soft interior. Maya also has fresh-made empanadas ($1 and $1.25) and tamales ($1.50), the latter which were almost too spicy for my jalapeno-addict companion. The empanadas had poblano peppers inside, with shredded chicken or pork, and an onion-tomato sauce on top.

El Quetzal has a much larger grocery (and Guatemalan souvenir) section attached to its bakery, with many of the same breads and cookies as Maya, plus a Saturday set-up of neighborhood entrepreneurs serving fresh chili rellenos with black beans and several condiments. El Quetzal has an intriguing array of Latin juices, unusual canned fruits and vegetables and Latin spices, including several kinds of dried chilis. You can also find the crumbly white cheese called queso fresco at El Quetzal.

I indulged in a pastry at El Quetzal that I had seen at Maya, a thick confection of very crispy strudel-like dough filled with a sweet cream. Difficult to eat but melt-in-your-mouth good.

Next we were off to the wilds of Central Falls, where one panaderia turned out to be an interesting Colombian restaurant with fresh-baked bread (El Antojo), which we decided to save for another day, and the other, Panaderia Xelapan, a combined tiny grocery and bakery. Xelapan has the shaped Guatemalan breads, the empanadas, and a terrific sponge cake layered with whipped cream and strawberries ($1 a portion). Speaking of sponges, Xelapan also has baseball-bat-sized loofas for $1.99, a real bargain.