Let us talk about sweets again, you know I love it. 

Every country and continent has their own cakes and bakes that both small and big kids run to the store for. Caribbean is known for coconut cake in hard or soft version, guava cheese and rum cakes. In Sweden the cinnamon rolls are a household necessity alongside chocolate balls as well as the brownie these days. France boasts with exquisite lemon tart, almond croissants, macarons and a wide array of other extraordinary desserts. And in Spain you'll be foolish not to try flan, turrón or crema de limon. 

What about Colombia? Well, the Dulce de Leche is widely used as I mentioned and can be found within and on top of approximately 70% of all dulces and postres, but there comes a time when the flavor of arequipe starts to bore you, at least if you haven't grown up with the taste. When that happens, it might be hard to find anything else of interest - but that's only until you get introduced to these bad boys. 

Let me introduce to you the Pionono de crema. 

What are these things? 

Technically they aren't more than a jelly roll, a sponge cake made of eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and perhaps vanilla - and then filled with whatever takes the bakers fancy. 

Naturally, you'll find these Piononos filled with dulce de leche/arequipe/manjar blanco - as that's what most desserts are filled with remember. But it can so happen that you run into a Pionono made con crema. Now, this specific cake on the picture doesn't in fact remind much of a typical sponge cake rolled around in a cylinder as you might know them, but it's because it's turned upside down and baked in a slightly different shape. But let's not loose focus on what really is important here: the filling and topping of this cake. 

We were walking on one of the narrow cobbled streets in Getsemani when I heard Alex mumbling "I need something sweet" - when that normally happens, we have like ten minutes to find something before he starts to get moody (diabetes warning anyone?) We walked across the street towards a tiny bodega we've never seen before. "Whatever they've got, no more dulce de leche for today" I responded hurrying after. Inside of the dark mini market with walls stacked with cans of food and bottles of rum we found it. With an angelic presence in white attire they lit up the dark room and we just knew what was on order. Two of those please!!

After that I don't remember much, just that we continued our walk, each mouth full of cake and all of a sudden we looked at each other. What was that? Do we remember the name of this street again? Will you find here if we need more?

After our day in the historic center, we did find another little bodega that served them, though for double the price and with less intense flavor so I guess we'll soon be back in Getsemani looking for the very same tienda.

I've googled the cake and found out that it's pretty hard to find Piononos that isn't filled with dulce de leche. But I think I've finally understood that this rare, but oh so divine filling is a simple mixture of milk, lemon zest, egg yolks, a bit of maizena, a dash of rum, and then topped with a bit of cinnamon.

They might not look much to an unskilled eye, but believe me when I say that the sweet softness of the cake mixed with the flavors of the filling combined with the cinnamon on top are out of this world. I'm also happy to announce that the boat is now in order so I can finally start baking myself again. It's been a while.

Remember my previous take on the sponge roll? 

The feeling when you discover you had forgotten
that you still had some Dutch licorice left in the back of the storage...

Went into the capital Willemstad today to fetch some fresh fruits and veggies and that's where the floating market comes into the picture. Venezuelan fishing boats have traveled the thirty-fourty miles there is between their coast and the one of Curacaos'. Side by side they've tied up to the dock by the boardwalk and sell fruits, vegetables, juices and what else typical Venezuelan there is, right off the boat towards the street, hence the name "floating market". We got a couple of those enormous avocados (have you ever seen them that large before?), a water melon, bananas, dulce de leche as well as some guava jelly. Speaking of Venezuela, we did spend a night there on our way to the ABC islands a couple weeks ago. I have yet to tell you the whole story. Some weeks I have all the time in the world to ramble here on the blog several times a day about all kinds of nonsense, and some weeks, like now most recently, I have barely time to reply to emails. We still have a lot of sailing to do, and some island exploration of course. As well as the necessary boat work and other important job that keeps us busy, but all should slow down a bit very shortly. We love this island by the way, Curacao reminds of Europe in many aspects, mixed with latin and carib flair, and it's all very busy and bustling. Totally not what we had expected. Will show you more of it shortly.

This time he got us some yellow lime fruit, one large avocado, lemon grass (making my own amazing lemon grass tea) and fresh basil with flower. Boat smells wonderful with all this beauty around.

In other countries one might go to Mc Donald's, Subway, the local kebab or schwarma house or perhaps a pizzeria when the laziness wins over the desire to cook - here in the Caribbean you make sure to get yourself a spicy roti. Roti* was introduced to the Caribbean as early as in 1840 by Indian indentured laborers. A little side-note to the story for the ones of you who don't know this yet; after the slavery was abolished in the Brittish empire in 1833, plantation owners had to turn to indentured servitude to get inexpensive labor. These servants arrived from all over the world, the majority came from India. In fact that much, that from 1846 to 1932, an estimated 28 million Indians arrived to work in colonies requiring manual labor. Of course these people have influenced the West Indies in many ways with their culture and also their food and this specific dish that I'm talking about, was first introduced in Trinidad and Tobago, and has with time spread to other Caribbean islands.

The roti is a form of flour pancake/crepe/wrap and it is filled with either stewed chicken, lamb, channa (chick peas), beef, conch and/or vegetables. Curry is often included in the mix or choose to have it jerk style or with a spicy creole sauce. However you want it, it is always very very spicy. Make sure you try one out next time you're around, it is all very simple yet incredibly tasteful. Curry chicken is my personal favorite.

*In other parts of the world, Asia for instance, the name roti is used for only the flat bread, without the fillings.

There are so many delightful recipes to get inspired from here in the Caribbean and they all have a bit of sting which is always very welcome. Best way to collect and keep these wonderful flavors for the days when we're no longer here, are to stock up on your favorite sauces on bottle. I'm sure most of these can be found in other variations around the world, but these are my five favorite Caribbean bottles of joy that I have came to love during our stay here in the West Indies:

Garlic Sauce - Simply a bottle full of garlic. I'm addicted to this shit. Just opened our second bottle in less than five months so you can only imagine how good we smell around here. Can be used for everything and anything.

Passionfruit sauce - A delightful, creamy sauce based on passionfruit but which also contains onion and salt to balance out the sweetness. This one is perfect for BBQ marinades and salad vinaigrette's. 

Coconut oil - Can come handy instead of olive, sunflower or whatever oil you're used to cook with but I use this mainly for baking due to its wonderful light sweetness. It doesn't have any coconut flavor as one might assume, only a very tiny hint of something reminiscent of vanilla, or nuts perhaps.

West Indian Hot Sauce - Just as the name suggests. This is a very very hot yet marvelous sauce that I add into most of my concoctions. Chicken stew, meat casseroles, thai mahi mahi and so on. This sauce is filled with the explosive bonnet peppers so be careful with how much you add to your food..

Green Seasoning - Another true Caribbean classic. A great supplement to any dish. This sauce is based on papaya, onion and peppers making it quite round in flavor. It is much lighter and a bit sweeter in taste than the previous, perfect when you're having visitors who are not too fond of entirely burning hot food.

... when your counter is filled with ugly looking grapefruits and speckled bananas. But do not let the appearance fool you, these grapefruits are the sweetest on earth and the bananas are sweet and firm with just the right amount of spiciness in them.

Price: 20 XCD for 6 huge pamplemousse and 8 large bananas (that's equivalent to around €5, $7,50 or 45 SEK)

These miniature bottles of rum that people left here or I don't know from where we got them, comes very handy in the kitchen. Instead of opening the big bottles, I use these little bastards to add a few drops in the cakes that I bake, in my West-Indian chicken stew, in fruit-salads, over grilled vegetables and every thinkable concoction that could be in need of some sweet improvement. Very practical as there are only very few things in life that wouldn't taste better with some rum mixed with it.

There are many ways to save money and great possibilities to stay self sufficient when sailing the seas. You could make your own chocolate for example. That's just what Alex is up to at the moment, drying the cocoa beans (from the cocoa fruits we got in Dominica the other day) in the sun while we're sailing towards St Martin. Perfect day here by the way. 14-16 knots of wind from E-NE, flat sea and blue skies. Arriving to our new boat tomorrow afternoon.