Latin American Sweets Crawl

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

StreetGourmetLA led a group of ladies on a genteel desserts crawl around L.A. We tried Colombian, Guatamalan, Chilean and Cuban desserts. We nicknamed it the Girls Just Wanna Have Sweets crawl.

Beginning at El Carriel Bakery in Huntington Park, we tried pan de bono, a cheesy donut shaped bread that reminded me of Brazilian pao di quijo. In fact they are related as they’re both made with cassava flour and cheese.

We also had a pastry called a chicharron because its crispy layers resembled deep fried pork skin but this treat is not actually meat-based and contains caramel (dulce de leche also known as cajeta would become a running theme of the day).

Colombians are known for their arepas so it was no surprise they have a sweet version for breakfast called arepa de choclo. I fell in love though with the bunuelos, the round balls. They were lightly crispy on the outside that broke into a creamy eggy inside that just had a hint of sweetness.

El Carriel Bakery

2405 Randolph Street
Huntington Park, CA 90255

(323) 581-7026

Next we headed over to Amalia’s Guatemalan Restaurant where we were treated to a trio of plantain sweets including a plantain drink called atol, reinitos; a plantain stuffed with sweet beans and fried to a crisp and mole de plantano; a plantain mole.

I really enjoyed the reintos, especially with a dab of the crema. The mole wasn’t as chocolate-y sweet as more savory moles I’ve had. It was rich and actually, I swiped some of the crema from the reintos to eat with this dish.

Amalia’s

751 N Virgil Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323) 644-1515

For years, I’ve seen Rincon Chileno and wondered about the food. I was happy to stop in for some sweets. By this point, I needed something refreshing to drink. It’s interesting to me how cultures create something sweet from beans or grains like this  mote de huesillo instead of the usual cakes or cookies. That blob floating in the drink is half a peach. We joked this was Chilean boba.

Caramel made its way to this “pancake” heavily dusted with powdered sugar. It was good as it was very fresh, not over-fried and surprisingly not too sweet.

Rincon Chileno

4354 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323) 666-6075

At our last stop, El Colmao, the Cuban restaurant served up something I recognized. Flan! But not just any flan, this was served with guava shells. The delicate flan went well with the fruit.

I’m not much of a fan of coconut so this dish of shredded coconut, sugar and water mixed with Philadelphia cream cheese wasn’t a hit with me. But I can see how people would like the contrast of textures.

El Colmao

2328 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90006

(213) 386-6131

More posts from our sweets crawl!

Uncouth Gourmand’s blog

Let Me Eat Cake blog about the Sweets Crawl

Eating LA’s blog about the Sweets Crawl