Looks like Melbourne has succumbed to another worldwide franchise.
Opening late last week, Beard Papa is an Japanese company from Osaka renowned for it’s custard cream choux. Using a special patented two-layer choux/pastry recipe, it is crunchy on the outside and spongy on the inside. It is then pumped full of vanilla custard cream (or the flavour of the week custard cream, which includes such choices as raspberry, coffee, green tea, chocolate etc.). They also make chocolate fondant cakes and cheesecake sticks.
We couldn’t go past the eclair, which is the regular choux profiterole topped with delicious dark chocolate and sprinkled with flakes of chocolate. It was pumped full of the signature vanilla custard cream, which was flecked with vanilla seeds. It was pure evil. Be warned.
The best bit is watching the production line. Your profiterole starts its life as an empty shell which is filled with custard and weighed for correct weight, sprinkled with cocoa or icing sugar, and then bagged and boxed (they come individually or in a six/twelve pack). To prevent sogginess they don’t pre-fill, and they recommend consuming them straight away, especially as they don’t use preservatives.
***THIS ESTABLISHMENT HAS NOW CLOSED***
Whilst absolutely delicious, these things wallop about 13g of fat (without the chocolate), so it is certainly an occasional treat and not an everyday treat.
Mellie, it looks like Melbourne has fallen in love with Asian breads more, too! I guess we all have the liking for soft and light bread…
My fav Asian bread shop is a korean independent one in Clayton called Bread Kingdom. They have very good quality products. You should really try!
Mmmmmmm they look GOOD!!
Im sooo going to get one the moment I get half a chance…
Hi there anh – yes, Melbourne is certainly breadtop/puffy/beardpapa/asian-bread-product mad at the moment. I must admit I can’t go past a yam/taro bun. Is Bread Kingdom in a side street near Safeway?
Hey anthony – seriously, the eclair is the way to go. But then I can’t say no to chocolate
Mellie, yeah, the bread kingdom is in the streetside close to coles/safeway.
ah I’ve seen this thing in KL before =)
Thanks for the anh – yeah, I was there last year and bought some very nice green tea and coconut cakes
They were so cheap!
Hi crushedguava – hmm…they are taking over the world!
I can feel my sweet tooth screaming in delight and my hips screaming in agony. Either way, I will get those Beard Papa éclairs!
I’m definitely going to try these little beauties
Hey mouse – uh huh, I hear you. My hips and sweet tooth couldn’t resist the eclair siren song either
Hi cherrie pie – enjoy!
This has disappeared now
Though, I can’t say I was terribly surprised – it never looked terribly busy (and, the few times I did have one, after a particularly bad afternoon at the office on the way to the station, the staff, though friendly, were terribly slow about service, which made me wonder if they didn’t have much practice cranking the puffs out at speed), and the rent on Elizabeth Street can’t be cheap. A pity though. It really was perfect post-bad-afternoon-at-the-office fare.
Oh well, I’ll have to wait until the next time I head interstate to get my fix …
Hi Theodora – aww…another one closed! I’m amazed at how many places are closing of late.
I think it was poorly located. It would have done much better at QV.
It’s opening in Southland soon – not sure if that’s the right place for it either, but then again, I never though churros and chocolate would take off the way that they have!
(in retrospect, silly me, how could deep fried dough and chocolate not take off)
The Southland store is OPEN .. just in time for Christmas. It’s near K-mart and Coles. You can expect the service to be much better than the last store, there will also be seating available to sit and enjoy it, something that the Elizabeth Street store lacked.
omg the one on elizabeth street was closed all along? i have tried looking for the establishment 3 times and never found out. should have gave up on the first try! oh well waiting to go to KL to try them
Hey Grub – as you can see from the comments above yours, a new store has opened in Southland.
Although if you’re ever in Osaka (the home of beard papa), you can try them there.