Breakfast starts with a badass bakery, a walk-up window with a three-hour window every Sunday.
Start with a sip of Vietnamese Coffee, very black and cut with coconut condensed milk.
Then snag a box of the pastries. They change every week so one of each is where it’s at.
The most obvious is the Pandan Waffle. The texture is chewy, delightfully not doughy - I suspect it’s made with mochi. The pandan makes a glorious green, and the fragrant leaves add a subtle vanilla-grass aroma.
The Banh Bo Nuang is a firm latticework version of butter mochi with a honeycombs of air.
To finish with the pandan flavors, the Banh Da Lan is a gelatinous slice with clean layers and clean flavor.
Mango Roll Cake is a chiffon sponge with a whipped-like cream and sweet chunks of mango.
Pineapple Cardamom Cake is so silky, with stripes of complementary cream.
My least favorite is the Banh Gan. It’s clove flavor interacts with very eggy flan in a way that evokes the essence of a wet gym sock.
Right above that is the Strawberry/5-Spice Cake. I wanted a but more sugar, 5-spice just doesn’t taste good on cake.
But the Banh Khoai Mi Nuang is brilliant. Cassava creates a denser, smoother cake with a tangy topping of caramelized kiwi.
Coconut/Egg Custard Tart is probably my fave. A crust with a crunch houses subtle sweet cream topped with salted egg shavings. It’s the most creative uses of salted egg I’ve seen.
Wow, what a box. After these pastries, I’ll never not have Berlu on the brain.
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