Emperor’s Garden Cake and Bakery sits behind the tiger-
I had this bakery in my sights as I was on a quest for jian dui without having to go to yum cha. Specifically, I was after the deliciously crunchy and chewy sesame encrusted sphere. Find it I did, only there were two similar looking items under the ever helpful signage of ‘Dim Sum’. The staff member putting the items out didn’t speak English and merely grunted at the questions posed by an Anglo-Saxon family, so I got both. After all, what’s the worse that could happen? More delicious crunchy and chewy sesame dough? I’ll take those chances!
This is the 4cm sphere is the salty egg yolk custard jian dui ($1.40).
The dough here takes on a yellow colour, though there’s not much of a difference in taste from the white dough you’d expect. More importantly, this easily satisfied my requirements for a chewy and crispy shell. While the jian dui was fried long enough for the sesame seeds to take on a moreish toastiness, it did leave greasiness. The salty egg yolk custard was also thick, making the eating of the jian dui a clean experience, yet I prefer the messiness of a more runny custard.
This is the 6cm sphere, a red bean filled jian dui ($1.70).
This one uses the typical white dough in jian dui. It’s quite a big sphere, with the rice flour wrapping the red bean paste having detached from half of the interior of the same chewy and crispy shell. The red bean paste is a generous dollop and perfectly smooth in texture, although it’s so thick that you can chew it like candy.
This is the sweet melon cake ($1.60) or more traditionally known as Wife Cake.
The pastry was hard without the fluffy flakiness that I’ve come to love. Particularly, on the base, the pastry was like a cookie. The sweet melon filling lacked winter melon flavour, and so became just a sweet nondescript filling, although I did enjoy the addition of sesame seeds.
And finally, this is the custard egg tart ($1.40), which is decent, although the custard was very thick and stiff. I prefer a more buttery and flaky pastry with a more wobbly egg custard. Perhaps they should fill their egg tarts with the custard they use to fill their custard puffs?
Emperor’s Garden & Bakery is a decent Chinese bakery, although none of the items are particularly amazing.
2017
Past noon, there’s bound to be a long queue for Emperor’s Cream Puffs outside the hole-in-the-wall next to the main entrance to Emperor’s Garden Cake & Bakery.
Said hole-in-the-wall opens directly onto the machine that churns out the delicious, piping hot, fresh puffs (1 for $0.00.35, 3 for $1.00, 18 for $5.00)
The machine spits fills each puff with custard and they’re bought faster than the machine can spit them out.
Each puff is shaped like a chestnut with a beautiful golden brown and speckled over with pale dots with an addictive baked eggy smell.
The runny custard is lip searingly hot yet delicious, bringing just the right amount of sweetness and moisture.
At their affordable price (it’s increased in the past year), it’s no wonder that there’s always a queue outside.
2019
There’s something to be said for Emperor’s Garden Cake & Bakery continuing to run a bustling trade day in day out after forty years . The dingy interior is a far cry from the shiny interiors of the new bakeries and dessert options opening up around Chinatown but there’s no denying that the Cantonese style baked goods are some of the most authentic in Sydney.
This is their egg tart ($2.00). Back when I first tried it in 2016 (and it was only $1.40!), I wasn’t too impressed but I returned recently to pick up a few after D’s recent obsession with them. This time, the pastry is buttery and flaky, while the custard is just the right sweetness and balance between melt-in-the-mouth and firm. Perhaps my previous one suffered by being purchased during winter?
This is the black sesame jian dui ($1.70). There’s no signage for these dim sum so it’s a bit of a hit and miss sometimes. I was hoping this one was red bean, or failing that mung bean, and dreading if it was savoury meat. But to my surprise, it’s more than what I wanted – black sesame!
I enjoy this immensely. The pastry is chewy like a good mochi and not at all oily, while the black sesame paste is smooth and flavourful with a gentle sweetness and the white and black sesame seeds on the surface provide crunch and pronounced nuttiness.
Emperor’s Garden Cake & Bakery is located at 96-100 Hay St, Haymarket NSW 2000.