You wouldn’t necessary think that a French-style bakery would be worth your time in Taiwan, but pretty much everyone agrees that Wu Pao Chun Bakery is a must-visit in Kaohsiung.
Their claim to fame is having won a prestigious bread-making competition in France back in 2008. I kinda wanted to try that bread — alas, it’s absurdly expensive. There’s no small version, so you have to buy a whole loaf. It costs 360 NT$, or about $15.50 (!) Canadian. That’s more than my typical budget for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Taiwan, so it’s safe to say that I wasn’t going to spend that much on a loaf of bread, no matter how delicious.
Thankfully, the other items in the bakery are more reasonably priced.
I tried a couple of things. The first was the Little Mushroom Bread, which is a bun stuffed with a delicious mushroom filling.
This was absolutely outstanding. The bread was soft, fresh, and just a little bit chewy, and the mushroom filling was surprisingly tasty. It had a really rich mushroomy flavour, and a light, almost quiche-like egginess that was absolutely perfect. I really should have bought more than one of these.
The other thing I tried was the almond croissant. This was a bit of a dud. The croissant was nice and buttery, but it had an oddly tough exterior — it was weirdly difficult to even bite through.
Plus, if you’re making an almond croissant, just make an almond croissant. This place subs out the typical almond filling for custard, which doesn’t particularly work. The lighter, more cookie-like topping is also a bit of a head-scratcher.
I mean, come on, man. You can’t just make whatever you want an call it an almond croissant. Get out of here with that.
Location: No. 19號, Siwei 3rd Road, Lingya District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 802
How to find it: There’s plenty of English on the sign, so it’s very easy to find.