Cocktail Buns from Eastern Bakery

Eastern Bakery Visit.

Eastern Bakery is a Chinese bakery in Chinatown, that has been on my radar for a while.  I haven't actually explored much in Chinatown in San Francisco, but, whenever I visit Sydney, it is one of my favorite pastimes, specifically, for the baked goods.  I'm not sure why I never choose to do so in my own city.

Curb Appeal.

Eastern Bakery is located at the corner with an alleyway, marked by a big red sign advertising "Chinese & American Food".

The "American Food" part is particularly amusing to me, given that the american food selection seems to be limited to ice cream bars.

Store Front.

The front windows show an array of treats, and are covered in signs of all shapes, sizes, and colors.  You can tell that they were just added on one by one.  There are also some decorations, and, super randomly, a few water bottles?

Its kinda charming, actually.

Front Window Moon Cake Display.

One entire section in front is mostly moon cakes, split open to show you the different fillings they offer.

"The Only Bakery in USA Visited By President Clinton For its Mooncake!""The Best Quality Moon Cakes For The Least Of Your Money!"

They are clearly proud of these moon cakes, and they seem to be their signature item. Eastern Bakery offers 30 (!) different styles of moon cake, and ships them all across the US anytime.

However, I didn't try those.

Inside Display Cases.

"The best quality cake in town! Fresh whipped cream cakes and fresh fruit cakes."

Eastern Bakery also make a variety of cakes, about 20 kinds, all different flavors and fillings, round or sheet cakes, in multiple sizes.  But I haven't had those either.  Yelpers seem to love the coffee crunch cake.

There is also, kinda randomly, a freezer filled with ice cream novelties, like Nestlé Drumsticks, It's-Its, and Häagen-Daz, not Asian at all.

Their "other items" include cookies, sesame balls, egg custard tarts, puff pastry "cakes" filled with many different pastes (e.g. sweet lotus, sweet adzuki bean, winter melon, mung bean, etc), pies, dim sum items like steamed buns with filling (sweet and savory), and even Chinese tamales (sweet and savory).  And cocktail buns.

Classic Pink Box.

One day, I walked by the microkitchen at my office, to see a classic bakery pink box sitting out.  My pace increased.  Usually these boxes yield one thing: donuts.  When I reached the box though, I saw that it was not from a donut shop.  Instead, it was from Eastern Bakery.

Inside? Cocktail buns.

Cocktail Buns!

Cocktail buns were new to me.  I actually didn't know what they were, but, they are a Hong Kong creation, with a fun backstory.

Bear with me, this is interesting!  The story goes, that they were invented by a bakery as a way to use day old buns.  They would grind up day old buns, mix them with coconut and sugar, and then use those for a filling for fresh buns.  The "cocktail" name comes from it being like a bartender's mix of things.  Or, so they say.

Anyway.  This was my first cocktail bun.  And my second.  And my third,  They were fantastic.

Cocktail Bun: Side View.  $0.95 each or $10.10/12.

"Sweet coconut and cream filled bun. A customer favorite!"
"Delicious, sweet, rich-to-taste coconut cream filled bun."

I think whoever ordered these got a dozen, and they weren't fully separated. Here you can see the edge where it was baked on to its neighbor.  I separated one, and dug in, not really sure what I was eating, since I didn't have the description available.  They just kinda looked like strange shaped soft rolls.

The dough was soft and sweet, a pleasant surprise.  I love Chinese sweet bread, and was thrilled that this was indeed a dessert.

Cocktail Bun: Top View.

The top was lovely golden brown, shiny.  Not crispy, but slightly crusted.

Inside was the coconut filling.  I didn't know that this was even going to have a filling, much less what it would be made of, but I was happy it had something (although, I like Chinese sweet bread enough on its own that I probably would have been happy with it plain).

The filling I liked at first, but, actually decided was too much.  Maybe it was just the ratio of filling to bread?  Maybe it was because I had already had dessert and a lot of sugar that day?  The filling was sweetened shredded coconut, quite moist, basically like a really soft macaroon.  Or what almond croissant filling would be like if it were made from coconut instead of almonds.  This totally makes sense, right?

The description mentions cream, but I didn't notice any cream.

Overall, the filling was good, it complimented the sweet bread well, but I found myself actually wanting to just eat the sweet bread, and come back for the sweetened coconut filling later.  Which was perfectly fine with me.

Cocktail Bun: End Piece.

Since we had a big box full, we also had an end piece.  This one had the shinny crust all the way around the side, since it did not have one baked adjacent to it.

I really like the soft part of the dough, so I preferred the interior pieces.  This one however had less filling, so I liked that.

Thanon Khaosan Dessert Cart, Sydney

Update Review, Dec 2016

During my previous visit to Sydney, I found myself swinging by the thai dessert hawker out in front of Thanon Khaosan nearly every night.  It was the natural evolution of the previous year, where I stopped by Chat Thai nearly every night.  But on this more recent visit, I wasn't quite as ... crazy?  I visited Chat Thai for dessert only twice, Samosorn once, and Aqua S twice, all repeats from previous trips, along with a few new choices too.  So don't worry, I was going out to dessert, I just choose to have some variety this time around.

On my second to last night in Sydney, I realized I had failed to visit my hawker.  Partially because, well, it just wasn't ever that good, I just *wanted* to always love it.  I couldn't leave Sydney without trying it at least once though.  I just couldn't.

As on all my previous visits, I was overwhelmed by choice.  So many things.  Did I want a pudding?  I love puddings.  What about the crazy looking thing with corn?  Or the simple mango sticky rice, it was mango season after all ...

In the end, I impulsed shopped, and got another lackluster item.  Doh.

Taro ... Coconut ... Something.  $5.

I don't know what this was exactly.  I pointed at it, and asked if it was taro, guessing from the purple color.  The merchant said yes.  So I went for it.

I'm sure it was supposed to be "taro".  But the base, which I expected to be a real taro pudding, was just bright purple thick jello.  It didn't taste like taro.  It didn't taste like anything.  It wasn't sweet, it was just ... mush.  I do not think real taro was used here, which sorta makes sense, given the bright purple color.

On top was a thick layer of I think coconut custard/pudding/jello.  It was barely sweet, but was very salty.  Salty!  I know thai desserts often have salty components, but this was a surprise.

Overall, this was just not good.  I was in the mood for something sweet, which is why I wanted a thai dessert.  Many thai desserts are actually too sweet.  This, not sweet.  The salty component was nice, and I did scrape it off and eat it, but it was not what I was going for.  The flavorless purple jello mush however just wasn't good, and I couldn't finish it.

The $5 price seemed high, although it was a large slice.

Original Review, April 2016

As I've mentioned a few times now, Sydney has wonderful thai food.  We always make an effort to eat as much thai cuisine as possible when we are in town (like Sailor's Thai, Longrain, Muum Maam, Chat Thai, Home Thai, etc).  You may also recall that I'm a bit of a dessert fiend, and, in particular, I love trying new things.  Thai desserts, beyond the basic mango and sticky rice, are still totally fascinating to me.  A few Sydney trips back, I went to pick up a dessert from Chat Thai nearly every night.  That extreme novelty may have worn off, but, my desire to keep eating random thai desserts has not.

The Cart

Which led me to the dessert cart outside Thanon Khaosan.  Thanon Khaosan is a thai restaurant in Thai Town.  I haven't been to the restaurant, but, when wondering through Thai Town, it is pretty much impossible to not notice the dessert cart out front, piled high with just about every thai dessert imaginable.  As far as I understand, it isn't actually linked to the restaurant.

Hawker Cart.

I called it a cart, but, really, the display is built on a tuk tuk.  How cute!  The desserts are all laid out to grab, and are replenished quickly by the worker as soon as one is removed.

There is no seating, so this is a grab and go operation only.  My understanding is that even if you eat in the restaurant, you cannot grab a dessert to eat at your table.  Takeaway only.

It quickly became my place to swing by to grab a dessert on my way back to my hotel in the evening, like you do.

So. Many. Choices.

I'm not entirely sure how many different items are offered, but it must have been at least 20.  Treats abound, you just may have no idea what you are getting nor how much it will cost.  No items have prices, nothing is labeled.

Expect taro, pandan, sticky rice, tapioca, and lots of sweet coconut milk.  Maybe some mango, jackfruit, or durian too.  So many goodies.  All for <$5.

The Food

Taro, Glutinous Rice Balls, Coconut Milk Pudding. $5.

The first one I went for was a soupy pudding, with colorful balls inside.  I asked the shop keeper what it was, and she said "taro".  Clearly, there was more than taro here, but I love taro and I love puddings, so, this sounded great to me.

Ojan took the first bite and said, "Why is there a potato in here?"  Um, clearly he didn't know what to expect from taro?  There was no potato.

Anyway, inside our container was purple, yellow, and green glutinous rice balls.  They were soft and mushy, and, although pretty, I didn't really like them.  They had no flavor, and the texture just wasn't very great.  Why would I want those?

But there were also cubes of taro, also purple, but since I love taro, I really liked those. Nicely cooked, good starchy flavor, yum.

There were also a few shreds of fresh young coconut, which I really liked.

The broth was a sweet coconut milk, and it went really well with the taro.  But wow, it was sweet.  Sweetened condensed milk perhaps?

This was served at room temperature, or, I guess, street temperature, which was a bit unfortunate.  It would have been much better cold.

Overall, not a huge success, but, I still ate all the taro, slurped up all the coconut milk, and walked away with quite a sugar high, so, that was a success to me.  This dessert was similar to the desserts from Chat Thai.

Green Tapioca with Corn and Cream. $5.

Next came another pudding-ish concoction, again in a clear plastic container.  When asked what this was, the shop keeper said "tapioca".  Not so great with the descriptions.  Again, I like tapioca, so, sure.

The tapioca was green (pandan perhaps?), tiny little balls, all mushed together thick.  Not a pudding really, just, a fairly solid mass of green tapioca balls.  Hmmm.

Oh, and there were corn kernels in there too.  The first time I had corn in a dessert I thought it was strange, but, it wasn't too strange to me at this point.  The sweet corn was a nice texture contrast with the tapioca.

On top was a thick cream, I assume coconut although it didn't taste particularly coconuty.

Overall, this wasn't very sweet, and it wasn't creamy, so, not a winner for me.

Black Rice with Longan and Coconut Milk. $5.

Next I went for another one with lots of sweet milk on top.  This was ... pretty good.

The rice was nicely cooked, some a bit all dente, but none soggy.  There seemed to be a mix of two types of black rice (or maybe only some of it was hulled?)

Along with the rice were some pieces of longan, cut in half, and there were probably about 5 of them total.

On top was a sweet coconut milk, similar to the sweet milk from the first one, although it didn't seem quite as sweet to me this time.  Perhaps the rice helped balance it more though, since it had a heartiness to it that the glutinous balls did not?

Overall, I liked it.  The rice was good, the textures were good, I liked the creamy sweet milk on top.  It was quite comforting and tasty.  But, I did want something more mixed in to the rice.  Amusingly, I found myself wanting ... corn in it.  Or just something to add some variety.  That said, I had absolutely no problem finishing it, which was a bit ridiculous, as it was a full pint of sweetness.

A few days later though, I had the version from Chat Thai again, and realized just how much better it was.  I did like the rice in this one more, but, the Chat Thai version has taro cubes, corn, and other goodies in it to break up the consistency, and the sweetened condensed milk on top is also salty, which greatly adds to the depth of flavor.

Coconut Cake?

And finally,  one that was not a pudding.  This was picked by a co-worker of mine.

When asked what it was, she told us, "Custard Cake".  I think it was coconut?

This item was not sweet at all, and the texture somewhat reminded me of the persian chick pea cakes that Ojan's family sometimes has.

This was far too savory for me to even consider a dessert and I did not like it.