While my father is always happy to have Cyn and me at home in Taipei for Christmas and New Year’s, our visit also makes him a little nervous, because he gains weight every time we have a family reunion. Our family doesn’t regularly indulge in dessert, but when we get together in Taipei for these holiday celebrations, we have dessert every night. That’s a credit to the bakeries making these dainty and delicious French and Japanese-influenced pastries, and I’m not just talking about Eric Kayser, Pierre Marcolini and Sadaharu Aoki’s foreign imports; we have many excellent local bakeries in Taipei.
A. Le Ruban
Le Ruban specializes in roll cakes. While the bakery’s other pastries, like the lemon tarts and pear mousse below, are also good, the roll cakes draw queues before they go on sale each day at 2 p.m. They sell out quickly, so if you don’t come early, you won’t get a cake. Each customer is limited to buying one, but on my first visit, the man... full article
B. Boite de Bijou
Our current favorite Taiwanese bakery is Boite de Bijou. The authentic patisserie now has two locations making intricate cakes, breads and chocolates. After Christmas Eve dinner, we tried the fruitcake. With a perfect proportion of cake to cream and fruits, it was as delicious as it was beautiful. (Cyn added the vintage palm tree ornament for a tropical feel.)
C. Wu Pao Chun
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... full article
