Craving

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Celia Sin-Tien Cheng
Celia Sin-Tien Cheng
January 27, 2014

Wu Pao Chun

Longan-Red Wine Bread

Celia Sin-Tien Cheng

In the last couple of years, there has been a craze for bread by Wu Pao-chun, a Taiwanese baker who won the title “Bakery Master” for bread making at the 2010 Bakery World Cup in Paris. There are lines out the doors at both of his bakeries in Kaohsiung and Taipei. We chanced upon the Taipei store one day and decided to see what the hype is all about. His signature award-winning breads are the rose-lychee boule and longan-red wine boule. We picked up the latter, headed home, and tried it with Échiré butter. To our surprise, it was really quite delicious. Longan is a tropical fruit similar to lychee that is commonly used in Chinese desserts. The dried longan had the same effect of raisins in the bread but imparted a more unique indigenous flavor, and the red-wine infusion, while subtle, was a complementary touch. Bread this good — with butter this good — is simply a match made in heaven.

Wu Pao Chun

No. 88, Yanchang Rd
台北市信義區菸廠路88號
Taipei
Website
Price
$$
Neighborhood
Xinyi