Beard Papa's - San Gabriel

After the J. Paul Getty Center and Museum, we dropped my cousin off back at his aunt's house. We wanted to take him out for dinner, but he insisted he was still full from lunch at her house and Light Town House Korean BBQ. Actually, we weren't terribly hungry, but we were feeling peckish. So dumplings seemed just the thing for a light dinner.

I suggested Mei Long Village and we ordered a tray of crab and pork and just pork xiao long bao (Shanghai soup dumplings).

Yes, that's either brother or lil' sis sticking their chopsticks in the picture so they can see themselves on the blog. Thin skins and just the right amount of broth. Just as good as ever.

We also wanted to try a non-XLB dumpling, and chose pan-fried dumplings for $5.95. These dumplings are reminiscent of Vietnamese banh bao with thicker doughy skin. The pan-fried bottoms were crunchy, but the bread-like dough just made them too heavy for us to really enjoy them.

The inside was juicy, not soupy. Still, for the same price, I'd rather order another tray of XLB.

And because we were already in the same strip mall, we wandered over to Beard Papa's for dessert.

What kind of dessert? Japanese cream puffs. You'd think I'd try their new ice cream cream puffs, but actually I wanted to see if they had pumpkin. Cousin Q said he's tried pumpkin before. Oh, I was sooo hoping. But no. :(

There's the container of cream puffs waiting to be filled. The metal machine with the nozzle squirts in the filling. I took a video except that all you can see is the guy holding the cream puff up to the nozzle. Seriously, folks. I'll upload the video if you insist, but there was no squirting action for you to see. :P

We ended up with strawberry and green tea cream puffs for $1.75 each. I've only tried vanilla and coffee flavors.

The cream puff was roughly about 3-inches in diameter. Nicely crispy and light. The filling was full of matcha green tea flavor. The consistency is like very lightly whipped cream, slightly chilled. It's quite different from the vanilla custard cream puffs I'm used to at Vietnamese bakeries.

The strawberry flavor though was like artificial strawberry milk. Not quite what we were expecting.

So there you go, Beard Papa's cream puffs. They're popping up all over the place so it's worth a try if you happen to come upon one. I don't go out of my way for them though. The frugal eater in me keeps thinking that I can buy 5 small cream puffs from Vietnamese bakeries for $1.

Beard Papa's (various locations)
301 W. Valley Blvd., #105
San Gabriel, CA 91776
626-282-3089