All Over Albany

Thinking outside the (heart-shaped) box: Candy from local ethnic markets

Just looking at this makes our teeth hurt.

Like love, sugar is a universal language.

Want to woo your intended with a sweet that's a bit more unconventional? The Capital Region's ethnic markets offer plenty of choices.

Always looking for ways to help you out, we took on the arduous burden of an ethnic market candy tour and taste-test. (See? The things we do for you people.)

For our wander down some of the area's candy aisles, we kept the focus, rather arbitrarily, on packaged candy, because if we ventured into the world of baked sweets and other yummy homemade treats behind Albany's food counters, well, we'd spend the week eating and never come back to write.

What follows is a brief but wholly flavorful international candy crawl.

Dnipro, 1533 Central Ave., Colonie

Any candy tour must include a stop at Dnipro. The Eastern European market is perfect for candy adventuring: They have dozens of loose-candy choices, and you can mix and match to buy in bulk. Most of them don't have English labels, but the folks there are happy to help if you have any questions. They have candy made with plums, raisins, hazelnuts, cherry and, yes, vodka. The vodka chocolates were a little too sharp and sweet for my taste. Better were Golden Avocat, a chocolate shell with what tasted like a butterscotch liqueur center. And who could resist the charming little chocolate matryoshkas?

Celtic Treasures, 456 Broadway, Saratoga Springs

Since I was up in Saratoga anyway, I figured this candy tour was an excuse to grab a few old favorites at Celtic Treasures, which has a little selection of British candies toward the back.

Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles are a childhood treat: I always used to get them from my British step-grandmother at Christmastime. No other fruit jellies can compare to blackcurrant pastilles. And that's a fact indisputable under the laws of science. Or something. I also picked up a Cadbury Crunchie -- chocolate over a crisp honey center -- and a packet of Maltesers: not malty enough for my taste.

Mexican Market, 654 Central Ave., Albany

Mexican Market, tucked behind the bus stop near the corner of Central Ave. and Allen Street, is a tiny, friendly little shop. I went in hoping to find Duvalin, a treat my kids seek out when they visit their grandparents in Texas. Duvalin is little packets of cream candy you eat with a stick -- in terms of getting sugar directly into kids' bloodstreams, it's about one step away from Pixie Stix.

But, sadly, the Duvalin will have to wait. The market has just a small shelf of candy, and Duvalin's not on it. But wait -- here are chili powder-dusted mango lollipops. That sounds promising. I'm not really a lollipop person -- too impatient -- but spicy on sweet works for me every time. And I grabbed a couple of Paleta Payaso marshmallow pops. Those were, you know, for the kids.

The chili-mango pop was coated in chili power -- stick and all. I've eaten prettier sweets. At first I found myself just licking all the powder off in my attempt to get in to the mango flavor. Once I got into the lollipop part of it (crunch crunch crunch) it was pretty tasty: salty, sour, spicy, and sweet, all at once.

No surprise: The girls devoured the marshmallow pops -- big marshmallows on a stick, dipped in chocolate and decorated with a gumdrop smiley face. What's not to love?

Asian Supermarket, 1245 Central Ave., Colonie.

I don't know what I was thinking: I brought the girls along with me to the Asian Supermarket. Shopping with my kids is distracting enough under normal circumstances, but once I told them I was shopping for candy they went into some kind of altered state. I'm not entirely clear on what happened: A lot of candy ended up in our cart. Some of it got put back. Not enough. Somehow, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

This market has dozens of packaged sweets, all in Technicolor. My girls' eyes were spinning.

I wasn't able to find candied haw, which I'd heard are very good. Nor could I find Botan Rice Candy -- I still get some in my Christmas stocking every year (Thanks, Santa!) and I love how the rice-paper wrapper dissolves in my mouth. Oh, I'm sure they're both there somewhere. You parents who can walk, shop, think, parent, and hold two running conversations at the same time: I salute you. That's not me.

Wait. Meltyblends?! I did come to my senses enough to recognize Meiji chocolates when I saw them. These Japanese chocolate cubes are addictive. The strawberry ones, pictured, are a perfect creamy blend of fruit and chocolate. Hiding these in the cupboard so I don't have to share with the kids.

Our tastiest surprise was something the girls picked out: Blueberry marshmallows. With jelly centers! Fresh, sweet, a little unfamiliar, and oh so cute. I'd eat these out of a heart-shaped box any day.

Parivar, 1275 Central Ave., Colonie.

I love Indian food. But Indian candy? New territory for me. Not too surprisingly, Parivar's packaged treats selection is heavy on the tea biscuits. Trying to stay loyal to my candy theme, though, I picked up some amaranth brittle, some Karachi halva, and, without knowing what it was, a box of soan papdi.

The amaranth brittle was nutty, toasty, not too sweet. A bit dry, but yeah, I would nibble these with coffee. The halva wasn't as flavorful as I would have liked. But that soan papdi: Wow. In texture it's somewhere between (among?) candy, cake, and cookies, almost falling apart as you bring it to your mouth. Flaky and buttery, it dissolves into flavors of pistachios and cardamom. That could just seal up Valentine's Day as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sharing this either.

...............

This candy tour, of course, barely scratches the (chocolate-coated) surface of what's available in local markets. Perhaps Easter season should bring Round II?

These selections were also narrowed by my own tastes. For example, I don't care for tamarind, and that rules out a lot of candy that I'm sure is delicious if you like that kind of thing.

If you've got a favorite imported candy that you've found available locally, please tell us below.