Saturday, February 12, 2011

Day 181

Dulce de Camote (Sweet Potato Candy): As my readers know by now, I love it when I find an item that completely mystifies me. It doesn't happen that often, but when I saw this Mexican candy last week at the BHFM, I was stumped. I actually spotted it first at the Plaza Fiesta on Buford Highway - one of the candy vendors there was selling these huge chunks of what appeared to be candied fruit in various shapes and colors. I didn't buy any there, but when I was paying for some other purchases at the BHFM, I noticed that they had some smaller pieces stocked in the rack near the cash register. Seeing something twice in one day was enough to raise my curiosity, so I grabbed a piece of this dulce de camote (sweet potato candy) to take home.

I decided to finally give it a shot this morning, and even though this had the words "sweet potato" in the description, I really wasn't sure what I'd be eating. Was it actually a piece of sweet potato, or was it just pure sugar flavored with sweet potato? Time to find out.
I unwrapped the plastic from around the candy, and I noticed that the only ingredients listed on the label were sweet potato, sugar, and a couple types of sodium. Interesting. I took a bite, and one thing immediately came to mind: candied yams. It tasted just like that, and after a few seconds, I knew that this was obviously a piece of candied sweet potato, just like i guessed. Pretty tasty, but I could only handle a couple bites due to its syrupy sweetness.

If you like candied yams and have a craving for a portable version, check these out. I'm sure most Hispanic markets around town have them, but I can verify that Plaza Fiesta and the BHFM both have them. Now I'm curious to find out what all those other colors and shapes of this candy are all about.

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