Baro Gun Pang Bakery

My new thing at this place is the black sesame seed butter cookies … not to mention the cream puffs … and the red bean paste buns (ppat bung) — translation: red bean paste «bread». Red bean paste is silky smooooooth. They also have green bean paste buns which are good too. I never leave with just one item … too many good things here to purchase.

While I dig Chinese pastry, I’ve never been impressed by Korean pastry, save for goldfish bread (
) and little slabs of cinnamon heaven called hotduk. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a place in Toronto serving up hotduk. I guess most people in Toronto think little walnut cakes are representative of Korean baked goods. I think they’re fine, of course. For what they are.
Now, traditionally Koreans aren’t sugar fiends so you’ll find a lot of Korean pastry muted in the sugar department, but the blueberry cake lacked moisture, fluffiness, and anything that might appear to be an actual blueberry. The nut cookies were similar to Christmas snowballs and okay. But I kind of get my fill of those at Christmas and rarely wake up with a hankering for them mid year. The cinnamon/​sesame mini rolls were also dry but probably had the most pep.
Anyway, I think Korean baked goods appeal to a narrow taste and one should not expect a Chinese bakery experience, with delights as marvelous as egg tarts or pineapple buns. You know?

Fiancée’ wanted to bring me here due to their mini cream puffs they bake. The entire store was loaded with people and the baked goods were flying off the shelves, literally. They almost couldn’t keep up. We picked up a few puffs, some sweet breads, a few rolls with a glaze on them and everything was soft, tasteful and warm right out of the oven. Great stuff.