Food find: Gansito snack cakes

I really love shopping at ethic supermarkets because it brings me back to my childhood when my family lived in the Dominican Republic for two years. It was certainly shocking to see a whole skinned goat or flies crawling all over everything we were about to go home and cook. My dear mother washed everything we ate in a bleach and water combination, but one Easter my mother reached her breaking point. We were going to have ham in order to have some semblance of normalcy, despite having no family near by.

My mom never saw the ham, our housekeeper picked it up. It came in a burlap sack that she empty over the kitchen sink. She had her back to me and I hear the ham "thud" into the sink. My mother didn't move, then reached for the phone to call her mother. Turns out the ham still had skin, hair and hooves. We had pizza that night -- It was a tough two years for my mom.

Anyhow, I wandered into a Mexican grocery store tonight and the selection of produce and goods was fabulous. Even though it was an indoor establishment, they still had a fly problem in produce. A little icky, but oh well.

I got some general groceries on the cheap, but I saw these little guys and I had to give it a try. Another odd memory of my childhood is of this candy seller who hung out just outside the gate of our Carol Morgan School in the DR. Today in America, he'd be shooed away or labeled as a creep. He always had foreign-sounding candy that was much sweeter than anything you could get in the United States.
These were snack cakes called Gansito and it advertised itself as "caked filled with strawberry jelly and cream." I checked the expiration date and jumped in.

And it was delicious. The cake was moist and the cream kept everything together. The chocolate on top was super rich and tasted a bit like coconut. I didn't see or taste any strawberry jelly, but that's OK, it was still yummy and filling. It really took me back to the candy stores of the Dominican Republic and the treats my mother allowed us to indulge in, even if we couldn't find the tastes of home.