If you're looking for a taste of traditional Chinese pastries in Hong Kong, there's no better place to visit than Wonder Bakery. Front-shop and back-of-the-factory are the business model of many old shops, but with the soaring rents, many of them have been turned into pharmacies or jewellery shops, and many traditional Hong Kong snacks have been lost. Opened in 1984, Wonder Bakery is one of the few long-established bakeries still open, selling cakes in the front and making them fresh daily in the back workshop, and has been recommended by three Michelin stars in 2017.
Located on Fa Yuen Street, Wonder Bakery is one of the few shops in Hong Kong that specialises in making all kinds of handmade pastries. The store is not large, but it is full of nostalgic 80s decoration style, and you can feel the charm of old Hong Kong more directly. Every morning at 6 o'clock, the pastry chef is already busy, kneading the dough by hand, putting the filling, and then sending it to the oven. The Wonder Bakery uses an old-fashioned oven with only three simple scales and no buttons to adjust the time and temperature, so the chef is even more particular about the skill of controlling the temperature and time. Tang cakes seem simple, just mix flour and sugar and oil, but these simple ingredients can make dozens of tricks, and you have to rely on the master's vision and experience.
The handmade cakes come in a variety of shapes, and while they are not as uniform as those made by machines, each one is genuine. There are not many types of pastries sold at Wonder Bakery, but the most popular ones are red bean pancakes, light shortbread and chicken cakes. The red bean pancake looks only half the size of a palm, but the skin made of glutinous rice flour is golden and soft, and the filling is full, and you can eat the sweet red bean paste in every bite. The light shortbread tastes soft but not dry, and after the boss improves the formula, no lard is added and the sweetness is reduced, so the elderly can also eat it with confidence; The signature chicken cake is made of pork, milk and other fillings, and the boss will chop fresh pork every day as the filling. Dozens of handmade cakes with different characteristics are often sold out every day, and sometimes they are sold out at five or six o'clock in the evening.
Curiosity and Gongli are in a similar situation, handmade food is rare, and there are fewer and fewer shops willing to spend time and energy to make Chinese pastries. There are dozens of strange pastries at the Wonder Bakery, and Chinese pastries and breads that you can't usually eat are waiting for you to discover slowly.
