Saturday, August 16, 2008

Who's your Papa?

Today, Sean & I went to Japan, and it only cost us $10 in gas.

Sometime this week, Sean heard about the newest Asian sensation to hit North America; Beard Papa's Creme Puffs. After reading all about them and watching the story of their creation online, we decided to venture into Richmond to snag a couple to try.

The city of Richmond is directly south of Vancouver (and North-West of Surrey, where we live). The demographic is about 85% Asian, mostly from China and Japan, as is demonstrated by everything from an eastern style of architecture, to Chinese signage. The Beard Papa store is located in Aberdeen Centre, a mall neither of us had been to.

As soon as we entered the mall, we felt like we'd been transported thousands of miles away. Everyone there was Asian, and most were speaking languages other than English. The stores were all very unique, selling everything from clothing (where a size 8 is an XL), to pottery & art, to digital 'Lotus' toilet seats (If you need a laugh, you should really watch this educational video promoting Lotus Toilet seats. A picture really is worth a thousand words). On the bottom level (no pun intended) of the mall, there was a large organic foods display with real veggies growing in a portable garden and plastic animals and farm paraphernalia. It was a wonderful exhibit and a great opportunity for little city kids to see how vegetables grow. I was also very glad the animals were of the plastic variety...

Oh, I should also mention there was a store showing/selling Ferraris, Maseratis and accessories. That was pretty sweet.

We bought a box of Beard Papas, (which come in three varieties; original, eclair and the daily special (which was matcha/green tea today) and took them over to my parent's place to share them. They definitely lived up to all the hype! Light and crispy outside, smooth and creamy inside, and not too sweet or heavy. My sister has demanded them for her birthday in September. Yummo.