Guyana's Choice Bakery

GUYANA 🇬🇾

The bakery that a community centers around can be an exciting, albeit intimidating, place to eat. This small location is the bakery that the Guyanese and surrounding Caribbean community seems to go to for all their bread and pastry needs. The shop also includes quite a range of non-perishable goods and interesting cold drinks.

Stepping through grocery products in front and following your nose to the smells in the back, you will find a large display with all types of bread loaves, as well as the case below with a good selection of sweet and savory pastries.

I tried to choose some products that I had not sampled before, to take home and enjoy at a later time. Despite meeting some others for lunch nearby, I could not help but immediately eat the warm chicken patty ($1, below), which has shredded chicken and a lot of herbal-ness within. It's a bit on the dry side, but completely enjoyable as a quick snack to surpress hunger.

More interesting were both the cheese roll (50 cents, below right) and the pine tart (50 cents, below left). The cheese roll is only slightly cheesy, but seems infused with a nice mustard or similar taste that makes it really good. There could have been a hint of cumin in their as well. A little more familiar to most might be the shuriken-like pine tart, which is much more successful as an edible than as a weapon. The "pine" refers to the pineapple filling inside, not overly sweet and tucked away inside of a flaky holder.

The pineapple and strawberry tarts (75 cents each, below) interested me for the gooey centers falling out, but were less appetizing than their predecessors above. That being said, they are sure to satisfy anyone with a sugar craving, and would make an excellent breakfast pastry in their own right.

Three or four people had come in since I had stepped up to the counter, and they seemed to be getting a little unhappy as I was asking questions and making slow decisions, so I decided to wrap up my inquiries and be on my way. Other women were buying dozens of bread rolls and loaves, most of which were still steaming hot from the oven, packing them away in bags to bring home and accompany their meals. Unfortunately I did not secure any invitations into their homes to eat.

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RICHMOND HILL Queens

119-14 101st Avenue