Panaderia (bakery), the start, middle, and end of everyday in Puerto Rico.

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Panaderia (bakery), the start, middle, and end of everyday in Puerto Rico.

I used to spend my summers in Puerto Rico when I was a little kid. School was out and my parents gave me the choice of staying home in Washington to wait for the two nice weeks of weather or I could go stay with my grandparents in Puerto Rico and enjoy an actual summer…….wow, ummmmm…..I’ll uh….when does school end and when does the flight leave?!?!!??

My grandparents would pick up my sister and I from the airport and on the hour long drive from the San Juan airport to Ponce we would stop halfway to eat at any Panaderia. If we came in the morning then we would eat pastries, a cup of coffee and some orange juice (Yes, I’ve been drinking coffee since I was about 5 years old. None of that mocha latte choco crazy stuff, just a simple espresso or plain drip coffee……black, no sugar….just like my soul).  Come in around lunch time then it’s a steak sandwich with cheese and french bread with a little mayo and lettuce and some coffee. Later in the night? Go stop at anyone’s house and they will have fresh bread that was made at 3:00PM, ready for you to eat with a little butter along with dinner.  When my parents moved back to Puerto Rico a year or so ago they came in around 3AM, my mom’s old neighbor when she was growing up had dinner, bread, and some coffee ready for them. This wasn’t a nuisance at all, I was just over there two days ago and she had a four course meal ready for us at 1PM served with bread we purchased, it’s the way things go in Puerto Rico……….it’s all about food and it starts and ends in the Panaderia.

What to buy?

Try it all, I’m serious, don’t be the fool that thinks the Hotel has the best restaurants or the heavily marketed restaurants have the taste of Puerto Rico nailed. There is so much stuff there that it will boggle your mind. Pastries, orange juice, coffee, bread, rice and beans, breakfast, lunch, and even a light dinner.  Everything you see there is made fresh, daily!! The bread is made once in the morning at 6AM and again at 3PM. Can’t make it to the Panaderia? A few grocery stores have convenient bread warmers next to the check-out stand with local bread from the neighborhood Panaderia.

If you are visiting someone in Puerto Rico then make sure you stop by the Panaderia and pick up three things, bread, a few pastries, and some Medalla.

Which pastries do I like the most?

Mallorca, Merengue, and Pastelle de Guayaba. These are three pastries that you can find in any Panaderia that is worth a damn. The mallorca is my favorite by far. It’s sugar sweet bread with lightly caramelized top finished with powdered sugar, diabetics need not apply. The merengue is another sugary treat that is  whipped up egg whites and a ton of sugar, get these fresh in the morning and you will have a nice crusty outside with a gooey egg white and sugar inside similar to a Cadbury egg. The pastelle de Guayaba is my dad’s favorite. I get a kick out of watching him eat one of those things because my mom gets so pissed that he leaves powdered sugar everywhere and his face looks like someone threw a snowball at him once he’s done. The guava filling is amazing and should be bottled so I can drink it straight.

These are my three go to pastries but like I said, there are others and you should find your own. When you go to the store to order them they are not marked, so just point at a few that look good and go from there. Don’t like one? Oh well, you’re out a dollar and there are many others to choose from. Buy 4-6 different kinds at a time when you go. Buy 1 and you’re wasting your time and the person behind the counter’s time if they’re busy.

Click here for my Merengue recipe
Click here for my Pastele de guayaba recipe

(Click here for more of my Puerto Rico Travel Guide)

Eric