My favorite bakeries (Asian edition)

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I'm addicted to all sorts of baked goods. One category of baked goods I had missed since living in the US was Hong Kong-style pastries - until I moved to the Bay area.

By Hong Kong-style pastries I don't mean dim-sums like steamed buns, but oven-baked breads and cakes with a unique Asian flair. Hong Kong-style pastries tend to be softer, lighter, and the sweet treats are less sugary than their Western counterparts. They often have Asian fillings such as coconut, red bean, or taro paste. You'll know better what I'm talking about with the picture below.

So imagine how psyched I was when I discovered DOZENS of Hong Kong-style bakeries in San Francisco's and Oakland's Chinatowns. It's almost like finding a spring in the middle of a desert (okay I am exaggerating, but consider this: whenever I visited New York from Washington, DC, I always took a trip to Chinatown to satisfy my craving for these pastries).

After quite a bit of testing, I want to share two of my favorite Asian bakeries, both in Oakland - Wonder Food Bakery and Delicieuse Princesse Bakery. There are a couple ones I like in San Francisco too, but because the San Francisco Chinatown is more tourist-centric, they are often pricier.

A Hong Kong native would feel instantly comfortable as soon as he steps into Wonder Food Bakery. All the old favorites - cocktail buns (soft buns filled with coconut paste), pineapple buns (buns with a crusty sugary topping that resembles a pineapple's exterior), paper-lined sponge cakes, egg custard tarts, etc. are in ample supply. Also available are fancier buns with fillings, mooncakes, traditional Chinese pastries (such as flaky pastry filled with winter melon paste), cookies, and many more. Prices are at the lower end compared to other Asian bakeries, making its pastries a great bargain.

(Clockwise from top left) Wonder Food Bakery's pineapple bun with red bean paste filling, paper-lined sponge cake, cocktail bun, pineapple bun with custard filling, shredded coconut bun, and egg custard tart

I like its pineapple bun (with or without filling) the most. The bun is sturdy enough to keep the "pineapple" topping in place. The size of the bun and amount of topping are well-balanced. The bun is soft but still chewy. The topping is crusty but not too dry.

Just from its name, Delicieuse Princesse Bakery sounds more up-market, and it is. Located on the periphery of Oakland's Chinatown, it's a Chinese-Vietnamese bakery with some European influence thrown into the mix. It makes most standard Hong Kong-style pastries, though in a slightly more sophisticated way. Think twisted coconut or red bean paste buns rather than the usual round ones. It also sells French and Vietnamese pastries like croissants and bánh mì.

Cakes are probably its strongest suit. A while back I bought an angel food cake from it to make my British summer pudding, then I got a chestnut cake for a farewell party for a co-worker. Both cakes hit all the right notes of a great Asian cake - light, spongy, and slightly sweet. As is the case with most Asian layered cakes, the chestnut cake was coated with fresh whipped cream instead of buttercream. I'd love to try Princesse's other layered cakes with flavors ranging from durian to tres leches.

Delicieuse Princesse Bakery exterior

Note: A big thank you to my friends who forwarded different versions of "100 (Chinese) Vegetarian Dishes" to me recently. I am still going through the recipes and there are tons of great ideas! I promise I will feature some of them in a future post.

Simple faux oyster sauce from home

Oyster sauce - thick, black-brown, savory with a hint of sweetness - is a must-have in Chinese cooking. Made from oyster extract, it's off-limits for vegetarians. Although vegetarian oyster sauce is now widely available, I am reluctant to stock it because of the artificial ingredients and preservatives usually added to it. Fortunately, after some experimentation, I've discovered an easy substitute with an eerily similar flavor that I can make at home.

I am embarrassed to call it out here because it's so simple: just mix tamari/soy sauce and molasses together!

Molasses's flavor is intense so you want to use it judiciously; otherwise the sauce will end up too sweet. Not many recipes feature molasses, so it's a great way to use up any leftover molasses from the all the gingerbread baking in the winter months.

Hearty bok-choy, tofu, mushroom stir-fry

The dish that features my faux oyster sauce today is a straightforward stir-fry of bok-choy, sliced tofu, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, and dried kombu. After heating all ingredients in oil laced with ginger for a couple of minutes, I seasoned the dish with a sauce made from my oyster sauce, toasted sesame oil, water, and a little bit of cornstarch. Like other stir-fries it's a homey, hearty dish, best served with a bowl of steamed rice.

As a dessert fanatic, I cannot resist sneaking in a treat I made recently to round up this post. These date-nut squares are from (again and again) Isa's Vegan with a Vengeance, my stand-by vegan cookbook. Made by layering chopped boiled dates and walnuts on a shortbread crust, these squares are rich, sweet, crunchy, and salty at the same time. They also contain no added sugar since the dates provide the sweetness. If not because I last made a coconut dessert, adding shredded coconut to the topping would be an interesting variation to try.

Sweet, crunchy, buttery date-nut squares

A sweet, decadent end to summer

This summer went by in a snap. It wasn't long ago when I welcomed summer with an end-of-winter cake. Before summer's official end, I had decided to indulge myself for the last time. So I made an over-the-top, decadent vegan coconut cake over Labor Day weekend.

Decadent, vegan coconut layered cake

As a coconut devotee, I love coconut cake. Unfortunately, most coconut cakes in the market are laden with thick, fatty buttercream frosting, of which I am hardly a fan. Vegan cakes provide a healthier alternative since the frosting is often made from silken tofu instead of dairy products. So I jumped at Canadian vegan cookbook author Dreena Burton's Coconut Cake recipe in her Eat, Drink & Be Vegan cookbook when I saw it.

Since I don't have a blender, it's difficult to make smooth, tofu-based frosting. That's why I was excited to pick up Nasoya's new Silken Creations, a pre-blended tofu dessert starter, from the grocery store. It's in pudding form originally, so I mixed some Earth Balance margarine into it to make it more spreadable as the frosting for the cake.

The cake turned out to be moist and flavorful although I cut down on the sugar and fat in the recipe significantly. The fragrant shredded coconut that I bought from Whole Foods really made a difference. I cut the cake into slices and stacked them one on another to form a three-layered cake. The tofu frosting, however, ended up being too runny. I spread some of it between the layers and poured the rest over the cake like a glaze. I didn't add any sugar to the frosting because the tofu already has it, but it was still way too sweet for me.

Next time when I make this cake, I'd either leave out the frosting or make it from scratch so I can control the sugar content. My attempt at layering the cake definitely made it look more sophisticated and less homespun though, so presentation does matter!

Bonus great find: I also bought Shady Maple Farms' Organic Stroopwafels (Dutch-style wafer cookies) with maple-flavored filling when I was at Whole Foods. They were exquisitely made and tasted amazing! Couldn't restrain myself from finishing them all at once...

Shady Maple Farms' Stroopwafels from Canada

Crunchy, chewy, and delicately sweet - all in one bite

Street food mania at Eat Real Festival

Street food is all the rage now with the economy still in recession and diners getting more value-minded than ever. Gourmet food trucks that tap into the increasingly sophisticated American palate are popping up across the country from New York to Portland, OR. The Bay area is busy catching up on the trend with two hugely popular events over the last two weekends - San Francisco's Street Food Festival and Oakland's Eat Real Festival.

Not a big fan of San Francisco's hippie crowd in the Mission district where the festival took place, I decided to check out Oakland's event instead (it's bigger anyway). The Eat Real Festival brought together 50+ local vendors to sell street foods from cuisines around the world, all for under $5. The focus was on using local, sustainable ingredients whenever possible, and proceeds benefited several food-related non-profits that promote healthy eating and economic development.

Food and music at Real Food Festival on Oakland's waterfront

As expected, thanks to free admission and perfect weather, there were LONG lines everywhere when I arrived at the festival. The people in line all seemed to be mellow and cheery, but I was super hungry and couldn't bother to wait. My immediate reaction was to go for the shortest lines, and fortunately my picks were decent if not excellent.

Always desserts first, I tried Nieves Cinco de Mayo's Mexican elote (corn) ice cream and Gelateria Cici's basil and salted almond gelato. They tasted and smelled like what they say they are (a sign of freshness), and were smooth and creamy as any good ice-cream. Both purveyors brand themselves as "all-natural," and I believe them as there's no aftertaste if artificial ingredients were present. I'd buy from them again definitely.

Nieves Cinco de Mayo's ice cream stand, with the purveyors explaining the many exotic Mexican flavors to customers

Gelateria Cici's ultra-creamy gelato

On the savory front, I had Soul Cocina's vegan bhel puri (Indian puffed rice snacks) with mint chutney and heirloom tomatoes. The tangy chutney and tomatoes complemented the heat and crispness of the bhel puri very well. Served in a cone, the bhel puri looked unconventional, which might explain why there's hardly a line for it. But it's a great idea to bring such lesser-known Indian street food to the public.

Soul Cocina's vegan bhel puri sampler in a cone

Although each item was affordably priced, the cost quickly added up when I sampled from more than a couple of vendors. I agree the festival was very "Oaklandish" in the sense that the pricey and the economical, the high-brow and the plebeian, fused together in a slightly incongruous way. But the huge amount of traffic should have at least helped the vendors and kept their business running, and I look forward to seeing how the street food scene will unfold in the months ahead.