Chatswood Food Tour

Yup, another one of our quests to capture our lost holidays, so off we went to Chatswood to find Japanese shops. I heard on the grapevine that Beard Papa - a Japanese cream puff chain that has outlets around the world - has opened their first shop in Sydney at Westfields Chatswood. We ordered half a dozen ($12) of chocolate cream and vanilla cream. Sadly the green tea flavour wasn't available yet, but with the opening of the Haymarket outlet, it will be available. What makes them so good is because the pastry is freshly baked, and filled on order. You can order 1 for $2.50 or 12 for $20. I don't think it's really worth the money, but more of a novelty, once a year item.

We hit Victoria Ave, the "Chinatown" St in Chatswood, every shop is either a Chinese BBQ, Asian groceries, or the new "it" item, the Chinese bakery. The delightful find there was Bread Top, a Taiwanese chain that has also recently landed in Oz. We first encountered them in Canada, and Slokky's grandma absolutely loves the taro swirl roll. She kept buying it for us when we were in Vancouver, saying we couldn't get it in Australia. Well, I am sorry grandma, but looks like we can get it here afterall. There are lots and lots of different varieties of bread here, all slightly different from those you get at the traditional Chinese bakeries. The selling point is that they all look and sound so appealing, you want to try them all! In the end, I opted for the Green tea red bean bun ($1.60) - not enough green tea taste and the bread was quite dry, I'm disappointed! Slokky settled for the Pork floss roll ($4.80) - this one was much better, soft and sweet bread contrasting with the slightly salty pork floss filling.

We hit a few more Asian groceries trying to find Jap sweets. They all had a few varieties but not everything from Jap, and pretty expensive. I was hoping the one at the Mandarin Centre would be good, but I was sad to see in the 2 years since I've last been to Mandarin, the centre has deteriorated to the stage that there are hardly any shops in there anymore. I guess the giant of Westfields Chatswood and Chatswood Chase. The best shop for Asian sweets is now in Westfields Chatswood. We got some taro mochi (from Taiwan and not as good as Japanese ones, but certainly cheaper) and a seafood flavoured pretz.

Info

Beard Papa
Level 2, Westfields Chatswood
1 Anderson Street
Chatswood 2067
Website

Bread Top
300A Victoria Avenue
Chatswood 2067
Phone 9419 2699
Website