Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Beard Papa's

Do you want to try the best cream puff of your life? Then prepare yourself for an orgasm in your mouth and head over to Beard Papa’s on the Upper West Side.

I watched the video on the Web site labeled “Beard Papa’s Story” and discovered that the franchise began in Osaka, Japan. Beard Papa was a man who was loved by the locals for the delicious treats he made in his little shop. Inspired by his fluffy, white beard, he decided one day to make the perfect cream puff. And he succeeded. Now there are Beard Papa’s all over the world. We checked out the one located at 2167 Broadway in New York City. The cream puffs were absolutely superb.

We decided to get an array of pastries: original cream puffs, chocolate éclair cream puffs, a dulce de leche cream puff, and paris brests.

The best were the original cream puffs. The shells are light and fluffy with a nice crispiness on the outside. These are a two-layer pastry with a pie-crust-inspired outer shell, which surrounds an airy French choux inner shell. We watched as the pastry chefs took the shells and inserted a tube inside, quickly filling them with luscious vanilla whipped cream custard filling. The culmination of these tasty ingredients is seriously the best cream puff you will ever eat. It’s light, fluffy, crispy, decadent without being overly sweet, and just plain awesome.


The other pastries were delicious as well, but did not compare to the classic, original cream puff. The chocolate éclair was nice because it added a nice layer of chocolate to the mix, but the chocolate actually tended to weigh down the natural lightness of the pastry. The paris brests, which are ring-shaped choux pastries, were also delectable little treats. They were filled with the same whipped cream custard filling, but the pastry itself was much crispier and heavier than the cream puff. I also enjoyed the dulce de leche cream puff, which had a bit of heavenly dulce de leche inside the pastry puff shell before the cream was added. Dulce de leche is a milk caramel, and I’d recommend trying this one if you have more of sweet tooth.

Beard Papa’s is definitely the standard to which I’ll hold all other cream puff experiences. I have a feeling it’s going to be tough, if not impossible, to beat.










Beard Papa Sweets Cafe on Urbanspoon

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