百佳烘焙坊 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 百佳烘焙坊 (Bai jia hongbei fang)

Address: 2-1 145 Hangzhou South Road, Section 1, Zhongzheng District, Taipei

Website: https://www.ztcake.com.tw/

Style: Chinese

Price: $$ 

This small, hole-in-the-wall bakery doesn't look like anything special or remotely unique compared to all the other bakeries you'll encounter throughout the city, but I found the quality slightly higher than average, although perhaps the selection wasn't the biggest. Their gift box claim to fame is small, individually-wrapped cheesecakes along with some sort of milky sponge cake with a layer of red bean in the middle; even a plate of free samples, I can't say either looked particularly enticing. 

 One item that definitely set itself apart was this weird bun ($35). From what I could pick out from the name, it was known as a Japanese style cream/butter bun. I never encountered one in Japan and don't know what makes it Japanese, but the intricately twisted, scalloped dough with these sorts of petals on top gave an otherwise simple, yet tasty sugar bun great texture. A little crusty, quite delicate - nice to try something different!

Rating: ***