Uncle Pan [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Uncle Pan (胖叔叔烘焙屋)
Address: No. 46, Sanmin Street, Hualien 
Website: https://www.unclepan.tw/
Style: Chinese
Price: $$ 

With such a marketable name, I'm genuinely surprised that Uncle Pan has only one location - and that being an easily missed shop next to a hotel (at least I couldn't initially find it...). Having only returned to town in the evening, I found Uncle Pan rather empty, both in terms of baked goods and people. Usually, however, there is one benefit to coming late in the day: you can get discounted baked goods. This was not the case here, though. I had the double disadvantage of having to choose from that day's leftovers and paying full price for them.

Whether or not this was due to these circumstances, I found the bakery lacking in single-serve sweet buns. The majority were savoury, while the specialty here seems to be loaves of bread in a variety of flavours and fillings. Oh, they have gift boxes too. And while the loaves of bread did look the most exciting, I didn't want to commit to it when I'd be the only one eating it. So the classic pineapple bun ($28) it was.

My favourite kind of pineapple bun is the old-school variety: a hefty slightly greasy, slightly flaky crust atop a soft simple yet flavourful bun. This one looked like it had promise. The "shell" was thick and textured, almost cookie-like. Perhaps not as crusty as I would have liked it, but not bad. Where it fell flat was the dough underneath: it had that stiff foamy texture that I wasn't too fond of. It could have been better.

Rating: **1/2