Sugar Plums & Why You Should Shop at Pata Negra in Pacific Beach
The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar–plums danced in their heads….
In my 1000 Foods to Eat Before You Die, one of the foods from the Spanish/Portuguese section is Bombos de Figo which are described as a sugar plum. I drug myself to Pata Negra Market in Pacific 3Beach. First of all, this is a very special market full of multiple types of olives, olive oil, meats, cheeses and wine. Oh, and Bombos de Figo. These individually-wrapped chocolate-covered figs stuffed with brandy-laced chocolate truffles are a thing of beauty. Did I mention brandy-laced chocolate truffles? Chocolate covered? I could try to convince you but they didn’t have all that many on the shelves so don’t buy them. Leave them all for me.
This did, of course, led me to try to understand was that REALLY a sugar plum. That is the version Ms. Sheraton recommends. The original 17th century version, it appears from our friends at google, were a sweet that had a hard coating such as a M & M. They then morphed into a small, rolled cookie/cake made of fruit, nuts and seeds. So to answer my own question, all sugar plums are not created equal. That being said, I did break down and try a seed/nut/fruit version-settling on Alton Brown’s version. I missed 
the brandy-laced, chocolate covered version, but still, I shall be making the fruit/nut version again (which is a confirmation to my actually liking it).
