Eating pork buns (cha siu baau) is an excellent way to get a taste of New York's Chinatown. These warm buns -- either steamed or baked -- are full of savory barbecue meats, sometimes with scallions.

Last weekend, a friend and I decided we would eat our way through Chinatown by trying pork buns at various bakeries. And, what started out as a "pork bun journey" turned into an exploration of both savory and sweet buns, ranging from pork to red bean.

Fay Da Bakery, at 83 Mott St., has a variety of buns that you can select yourself with tongs when you enter the shop. While being underwhelmed by their pork buns, we were blown away with their sweet topping red-bean bun. The outside of the red-bean bun is coated in a flaky layer of sugar that balances marvelously with the doughy bun and the creamy red-bean paste.

Head directly to the Golden Fung Wong Bakery, at 41 Mott St., to try some of the best pork buns in Manhattan's Chinatown. Chunks of pork are flavored with a delicious mix of soy and oyster sauce. This bakery also sells an assortment of rice cakes and melon cakes that are worth trying.

Tate's Bake Shop is a Hamptons-based company who makes cookies, brownies, cakes, and squares.

That's right. Squares. That's how quaint they are.

Inside Kathleen King's adorable yellow and turquoise Victorian-style shop in Southampton, sweet smells, smiling faces, and flowers abound. King grew up on a farm near Southampton and sold cookies from the age of 11 at her family's farm stand.

Tate's Bake Shop has a loyal following across the country. Their secret is in their simplicity. Quality products, nicely packaged, and as my friend Lora says: "By rich people, for rich people."

You can order the delicious cookies and other baked goods online here, for a wonderfully classy host gift or party favor for the holiday season.

Here in Philadelphia, we are lucky to have a small, local chain of bakeries that is devoted to making true artisan bread. Metropolitan Bakery believes in letting bread have a long, slow rise and each one of their loaves, rolls and baguettes are shaped by hand. They've been around since 1993 and back in 2003, for their 10th anniversary, they published a cookbook that is filled with their signature recipes that have been scaled down to make them appropriate for the home cook.

The Metropolitan Bakery Cookbook isn't just a vanity publication, created for the glorification of a bakery. It is a book that was obviously carefully crafted and systematically thought out, as it is really interesting to read and designed to be used. They've included recipes for all their favorite products, including their French Berry rolls and (my favorite) Millet Muffins.

In addition to the recipes, they've included picture layouts that show off their pastries and breads in all their luscious glory, along with pictures that detail how to recreate their signature twists and designs (on page 77, there are step-by-step pictures to show you how to cut, twist and fold the dough for the Cinnamon Swirl Danish). Admittedly, for those of us lucky enough to be fairly nearby a Metropolitan location, we probably won't be turning to this cookbook for much other than incentive to make a visit to the bakery, but for those of you who once visited Philadelphia and got a taste of Metropolitan pastries, this might one you could add to your collection.

We've all had that dream. We're sitting on hour 14 of our work day, slumped down in our non-ergonomic chair, staring at the spreadsheets on our screen, ignoring the phone that's been ringing off the hook for the last 12 minutes, dreaming about leaving it all behind to...open a bakery.

The idea of waking up every morning and heading to the kitchen instead of a cubicle deep within the confines of a concrete and glass office building is warm and inviting, is it not? Sure, if you happen to not care about actually making money from your bakery. According to Forbes, the bakery business is in the Top 10 LEAST profitable businesses to start. In fact, the average pre-tax profit of a bakery is negative - you lose money.

So our advice to you when you stress out at work and want to march right out of your office to bake bread? Do it, but bake a loaf at home, then go back to work the next day.

The rush to go green is on for big industry (well, a lot of them). The food industry is no different. Brill is being awarded the 2007 Energy Saver Award by the U.S. Department of Energy's Industrial Technologies Program. The company has saved more than 2.2 million kilowatt hours by upgrading a couple systems at their Tucker, GA plant. The upgrades resulted in about a 50% reduction in energy consumption for that plant.

For those readers who don't follow industrial food manufacturers, Brill one of the largest bakery suppliers in the U.S. I personally am not a big fan, preferring instead to either make my own frosting or get a cake from a high-end bakery that wold not use Brill. There are, however, many people who do enjoy Brill products, or at least the bakeries which use those products. Now the bakeries that use Brill products can be proud to support such an eco-friendly manufacturer.

You can read more about it here. The best part is that the actual award, presented at a 2008 industry even, is made from 100% recycled glass!

[via Modern Baking]

It's no surprise that the Cupcakes take the cake girls want you to say it with cupcakes this Valentine's Day. They have put together a list of some of the cupcakeries around the country that are offering V-day specials, whether they're flavors, prices or events that have been arranged in honor of the holiday. Their list reads like a who's who of bakeries: Cupcake Royale in Seattle, WA, Sprinkles in Beverly Hills, CA, Best Buns in Arlington, Virginia, Frosted Cupcakery in Long Beach, CA, Cake and Art in Los Angeles, CA, Leda's Bake Shop in Sherman Oaks, CA and The Cookie Jar Bakery in Houston, TX. Sprinkle's "I love you" cupcake assortment, which includes chocolate marshmallow, red hot velvet, and vanilla cupcakes packed in an XOX box, is pictured above.

Remember that some bakeries will not advertise their specials anywhere other than in-store, but just about every single one is going to have some kind of Valentine's cupcake in stock, so it's worth dropping by your favorite bakery to check out their offerings if you're not planning on baking yourself.

Every year, Eleni's NYC cookie bakery puts out a series of Hollywood-themed cookies in honor of the Academy Awards. This year, for the 79th annual Oscars, Eleni's is offering four different sets of their signature cookies:

• Famous Hollywood Quotes - ($45)includes 9 sugar cookies with one director's slate, three Hollywood stars and five famous quotes: "Show me the money", "I see dead people", "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn", "Life is like a box of chocolates" and "Supercalifrajalisticexpialidocious"
• Best Actor– ($58.50) 16 cookies include 3 each of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling, Peter O'Toole, Will Smith and Forest Whitaker and one sealed envelope cookie
• Best Actress – ($58.50) 16 cookies include 3 each of Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet, and another
• Best Picture – ($65) includes 18 cookies decorated with signature items from Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen.

The cookies are hand-iced and have a remarkable amount of detail on each - to the point where it is almost difficult to eat them. Almost, of course, because once you bite into one and realize how tasty they are, you won't feel quite as bad about indulging in a few bites of the best picture nominee or your favorite "best actor" candidate.

It's that time of year again: Girl Scout cookie season. This year all Girl Scout cookies are trans-fat free so you can eat them with slightly less guilt than before.

There are two bakeries that produce Girl Scout Cookies, Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Bakers . Both produce some of the classic cookies, including Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils and Tagalongs (a.k.a. Peanut Butter Patties), but each of the bakeries make several cookies that the other does not. Little Brownie Bakers has three original creations this year. Sugar Free Little Brownies are little chewy chocolate squares "packed with chocolate chips" that are diabetic friendly and All-Abouts are all about "Enjoying life as a true Girl Scout" and appear to have a chocolate-flavored coating on one side.

ABC Bakers has Reduced Fat Cartwheels, which are "oatmeal rounds with a cinnamon burst in every bite" and lemon-iced shortbread Lemonades in their lineup this spring, as well as cookies with the odd name Thanks-a-Lot appear to be the same as the All-Abouts from LBB, although they have the words for "thanks" in five different languages written on them.

I'm planning on passing on both the All-Abouts and Thanks-a-Lots, but I'll consider getting a box of Lemonades with my Samoas, Tagalongs and Trefoils this year.

Donuts are not health food. Fried pieces of dough covered in sugar or chocolate and, sometimes, filled with jam, donuts are written off by millions everyday as an indulgence. But because they rely so heavily on frying, and as a direct result, on partially hydrogenated oils, donut makers have grown increasingly worried about their futures over the past few years, as trans fats have fallen far from the eye of public favor.

A large number of donut makers have turned to "all natural" recipes and are already using trans-fat free oils for frying. After first seeing the anti trans-fat movement spring up, many shop owners and chefs started to eliminate any and all trans fats from their recipes. Some of the donut makers that use no trans fats include the Doughnut Plant in New York, Mighty-O Donuts and Top Pot Doughnuts in Seattle. Dunkin Donuts is close and has been testing new recipes for two years. More are in the process of converting, helped along by their desire to keep consumers coming in every morning and trying to make their particular brad of deep fried indulgence seem a little less bad for you.

Either I don't eat out enough or must not pay much attention to the dessert menu, because even though I live in LA, I had no idea that banana cream pie was a city-wide obsession.

The third possibility here is that the reason I don't know about the trend is that it isn't a trend at all, just the New York Times' assumption that banana cream pie is a fad based on the presence of banana desserts at some So Cal bakeries and diner-type restaurants.

So, I'm not going to vouch for its trendiness in restaurants, but the rich, whipped cream-topped pies can be quite satisfying if you like cream/pudding-based pies, so the NYT's piece could come in handy if you are in LA and decide to go out looking for some. Clementine Bakery, Jin Patisserie, House of Pies and Apple Pan are all mentioned, but the Times' top pie pick is from Pie 'n Burger, in Pasadena. A similar recipe is included if you're of a mind to try baking your own version of the pie at home, although you would need a shortening-based crust (not a graham cracker one) to get even closer to the Pie 'n Burger recipe.

If you know how to bake really good chocolate chip cookies or everyone loves your lemon bundt cake when you bring it to parties, odds are that you've had at least one or two people tell you that you should go into the business of baking and open a bakery. Perhaps you've even thought about it on your own a few times. It'll be easy, right?

"Easy" is subjective, so you can judge for yourself. Egullet has two threads that chronicle members starting their own bakeries. One of the threads followed every detail that went into building (physically) a Portland bakery, attracting a clientele and working through the first year of he business. Unfortunately, Criollo Bakery has now closed, but the level of detail and dedication that went into it was phenomenal and truly awe-inspiring for a would-be baker.

The second thread, a newer thread, follows a couple that moved from San Francisco to New Jersey with dreams of opening their own bakery. With pastry backgrounds, a generous relative who is happy to help them with accommodation, and a lot of hard work, they are just starting out on their journey to open The Sweet Life Bakery. So far, after only a couple of months, it sounds like they are really building up momentum. It's another interesting read, especially since it will be on-going as their journey progresses.

[via browniepoints]

When I heard that Noah's Bagels and Einstein Bros. Bagels, which are owned by the same parent company, are introducing Candy Cane Bagels for the holidays, it didn't sound like an appealing concept. Cream cheese and peppermints? Not the best combination, especially not where breakfast food is concerned. Fortunately, the bagels are not mint-flavored at all, but merely shaped like candy canes. They are made of red and white potato doughs that are twisted together and bent into a hooked candy cane. They have a very light coating of powdered sugar, added partially for looks and partially to give it a little something to stand out from the ordinary bagels where flavor is concerned.

The company says that the bagels "taste as good as they look," but I'm not entirely sure that most bagel fans will like their look -- or the sugary coating -- when given the choice between one of these and a regular bagel. They are very cute, however, and would probably be well received at an office holiday party.

We've mentioned Jin Patisserie here on Slashfood before, but we didn't get to see food pornographic pictures like this one teeny tiny cakes made by the Patisserie's owner, Kristy Choo.

The cakes are beautiful, and would be perfect for a shower, a tea, heck, if cupcakes are all the rage at weddings these days instead of one big tiered cake, then these are the perfect hybrid. They're not cheap, but just look at the detail on them!

Jin Patisserie
1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 399-8801
www.jinpatisserie.com

[via: Oh, Joy!]

Someone please tell me why I have never seen a Hello Kitty Patisserie in the United States. Why? Why?!?

I know. It sounds ridiculous. And I can't believe that when I read about it over on A Hungry Girl's Guide to Taipei, I actually felt the my inner little girlie girl shriek with delight. She many have even clapped her tiny hands together. All of the pastries are adorned in some way with the little mouthless kitty that we all love, whether the image is stamped into the dough, or accessorized with some candy, kitty-shaped confection. The bakery wraps your purchases up and send you off with a giant Hello Kitty bag.

Does it taste good? Who cares? It's Hello Kitty! (But according the Hungry Girl, some were forgetable, while others were "actually pretty tasty").

If you're getting married this summer, then you should already have a bakery lined up to do your wedding cake. Do you have any idea how long those things take to make?!

However, if you're planning your wedding for a little bit later, Flour Girl bakery in New York City has cakes that go beyond the white fondant, lace and pearls with fresh flower decorations. The cake decorations are cute and kitchsy, like theblack and white cake pictured at right.

Heck, even if you're not getting married, you can order a cake for any occassion, and who wouldn't want a birthday cake called "Think Pink," made of red velvet cake and pink-tinted raspberry buttercream?