Kurimu, SYD Airport

Update Review, March 2024 Visit

In November 2023, I discovered the Kurimo popup at the PappaRich stand inside the Sydney International Airport, and frankly, I couldn't wait to go back (see below for my original review).  Yes, it meant *leaving* Sydney again, which I never want to do, but, I was eager to enjoy another one of their croissants.  I hoped the popup was still running.

I power walked to PappaRich the moment I got through border control and security.  I saw the signs showing the partnership with both Kurimo and Hokkaido Cheese Tarts and power sprinted forward.  

I was met with some disappointment however.  I was planning to try one of the charcoal flavors this time, or maybe the salted caramel or salted egg yolk filled ones, but ... none of those were anywhere to be seen.  The display case and signs no longer even showed them.  I saw plain croissants, savory sandwich versions, and a single mango and almond croissant (the same I had last time, that I enjoyed, but I was all prepared to try a new one!).  There *was* a sign for the salted egg yolk, but none were on the display.

I took a step towards the counter and asked, "is this all you have for sweet croissants today?", gesturing at the case.  The worker said yes.  I pushed more, asking about the salted egg one, given that it still had a sign there.  The worker told me they had a very busy day the previous day, and weren't able to prep any, a response that somewhat confused me, as I thought they were made off site by Kurimo?  I then asked specifically about the charcoal ones, which there was no evidence of ever having existed, and he seemed surprised, and said those just didn't sell well, so they stopped carrying them.  For reference, this stand opened in November, just days before my first visit, and it was only mid-February, and it is located inside the international terminal, so I don't think they necessarily expected to have repeat guests at that point.  So, my choices were a plain croissant, the sole mango one I had already tried, or a savory sandwich.  Sadness.

Mango & Almond.

So, I had the mango & almond again.  It was a big let down at first.  I think it may have actually been a day old?  It was nowhere near as good, when I ate it "fresh".

The croissant was not crispy.  It didn't seem to have as much buttery goodness as I remembered.  The mango cream filling was still great, thick, rich, good mango flavor, but I again wished it had more actual pieces of fresh mango.  At first, I thought this was a low ***, carried by the strength of the pudding, and the great crunch from the slivered almonds.

But I brought the rest home, scooped out the pudding, and heated it a bit in the toaster oven.  And suddenly ... it was entirely revived!  Crispy!  Buttery!  Exactly what I remembered.  I stuffed it with ice cream and fresh raspberries, and absolutely adored it.  So, perhaps that is my note to self: if not super fresh, these aren't stellar, but it doesn't take much to transform back into magic.  **** or even ****+ once I got it home.

Original Review, November 2023 Visit

When I was recently walking through the Sydney airport, one of the food stands caught my eye.  I'm not not normally drawn to the high priced and generally lackluster food options in airports, but, alongside the PappaRich was a popup, featuring Kurimu pastries.  It is the later that I was drawn towards.

 "KURIMU is a Melbourne-born, Japanese inspired pastry brand.  Our signature product is a choux pastry filled with creamy custard and topped with crunchy almonds. We’ve created a pastry to change the game."

I love baked goods and pastries in general, and some of these were quite eye catching.  In case you are wondering, Kurimu is Japanese for cream, and most (all?) of their pastries contain cream in some form.  They have a single store in Australia, but have several popups in different cities around the country.

Menu.

This popup was a triple collaboration between PappaRich, which was hosting them, plus both Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts (available in many flavors, which wasn't all that novel to me as they seem to have popups all over Sydney regularly) and Kurimu.  I'm not exactly sure who was responsible for the savory croissants, but they looked pretty lackluster, and were just basics like tuna, chicken, and egg salad or ham and cheese.

I went straight for the sweet croissants.

Golden Hour.

Kurimu provides very clear instructions that you should try to eat your treat within the 3 hour "golden hour", but if you must miss that time frame, they have an explicit technique to eat up at home, by simply turning on your toaster oven, heating the oven up, lining it with foil, and then adding your pastry *after* you turn it off, for just 45 seconds.  The idea is to crisp up the pastry, but not warm the cream filling, which, makes sense.

Signature Original Choux.

"Our sweet creation consists of a crunchy, almond flavoured choux pastry filled with a creamy custard, made from Australia’s finest ingredients. The result is an extremely delicious and addictive treat."

I'm not usually one for choux pastry, so I skipped their signature item, although when I saw it, it reminded me of the famous Croquantchou Zakuzaku I had in Tokyo.

Charcoal Salted Caramel.

My eyes were immediately drawn to the charcoal croissants, available in several varieties.  I was most tempted by the salted caramel, but when the server told me they didn't actually taste any different from the regular croissants, I moved on, because the regular croissants had more appealing fillings, and salted caramel isn't that unique.

Charcoal Strawberry.

Same with the strawberry, eye catching charcoal, but, if it wasn't going to taste any different, why bother?

Salted Egg.

I was very, very tempted by the salted egg regular croissant, as I adore salted egg things, but, it didn't actually look all that great.  I later saw online though that it should have had a salted egg lava filling, and definitely felt remorse at not purchasing this one.

Mango & Almond. $7.

I went with the cashier's recommendation of her favorite, the mango and almond.

It was a reasonable pastry, clearly considerably better than most airport choices, but, likely not nearly as good as when you get it fresh from one of the real popup shops.

The pastry was fairly flaky and messy, with shattered bits going everywhere.  Great rich buttery flavor.  It was slightly soft in a way that gave away the fact that it wasn't super fresh, but, certainly above average pastry.  I really liked the almond flakes coating it for crunch and flavor.

Inside was mango cream and a small amount of fresh mango bits.  The cream/pudding was quite fruity, strong mango flavor, and was thick and creamy.  I liked it, and think it would make for a decent standalone pudding dessert too.

Overall, I liked the pastry, appreciated the nuts, and enjoyed the filling.  More fresh mango, and a fresher, crispier pastry would certainly take it up a notch, but for an airport item, I was more than happy.  ****.