Nice buns

>> Chinese bakery Pâtisserie Harmonie
offers sweet and savoury treats

by GENEVIEVE PAIEMENT

Remember Pêche Délice, the Chinese bakery that stood for many years at 71 de la Gauchetière? Though the name “Peach Delight” may not conjure up visions of glossy pork buns all lined up in a row, this was, for many years, the place to go for fresh-baked goodies. The restaurant bit at the back was always a little dodgy, with its dirty carpet and TV blaring Chinese game shows, so most people grabbed their buns to go.

For a long stretch in my early twenties, I think I ate there at least twice a week. It had everything I wanted in food at that time: it was cheap, flavourful and filling. All that sweet, fluffy dough could fill you up for what seemed like the rest of the day, and the process of just grabbing what you wanted with tongs and plonking it on your cafeteria tray was fun and convenient.

Pêche Délice disappeared a few years ago and then the only other Chinese bakery I knew of was Dobe & Andy, which is also a firm fave. Then, a few weeks ago, I walked past Pâtisserie Harmonie on my way to dinner at ye olde Keung Kee.

The lights were on bright and as I peered in at the few remaining gleaming buns in their clear Perspex cases (how do they achieve that uniform sheen?), warm and fuzzy memories of Pêche Délice (which used to be just a few doors down) bubbled up and I knew I had to taste-test their wares, and soon.

And so, on a handful of visits over the past month, I’ve grabbed a pair of tongs and a tray and selected a dozen or more of Harmonie’s creations for the nibbling. The prices range from 80 cents for the smaller, plainer items, to about $3 for fancier stuff like mango mousse or Japanese cheesecake.

First things first: the BBQ pork buns. The filling was just right, the meat in nice and tender chunks with that sweet, deep-redish BBQ sauciness, and the bun had the right fluffiness, the right chewiness. My one complaint: they’re baked in a round, fluted tin that makes them bigger than the buns of old, making the filling seem somewhat scant in relation to the bread.

Continuing in the savoury department, the chicken buns had a nice pronounced garlicky tang, but the filling felt even more dwarfed by the bun and the meat seemed of the mechanically separated variety. I sidestepped the “luncheon meat” and hot dog varieties and headed for a curried beef bun, which had a wonderful spicy bite and flavourful bits of orange-tinted onion. The shredded pork bun, with its dusting of salted, dried shredded pork, proved far too bready for my liking.

Then the transitional flavours, verging on sweet, but not yet cloying: a scrumptious lotus seed bun with the dollop of gooey paste in the centre, a soft red bean cake, a semi-translucent, smallish, rice flour pancake-like thing with a red bean centre, a delicious custard coconut bun with the slivered almonds on top, and a lovely plain Japanese cheesecake that’s at once light as air and melt-in-your-mouth moist.

Things got sweeter with the taro bun, where a thin layer of taro paste is spread along sheets of dough, which are then rolled, creating a vaguely strudel-like effect. Then we fall into the sugar bowl: egg tarts (too eggy tasting, the pastry too crumbly), a chocolate Swiss roll (reminiscent of a bland, factory-made sponge cake) and my all-time personal fave: the venerable sesame ball, that dim sum standard, all sticky, glutinous fried deliciousness with a red bean centre (this one, a sweet, chewy-seedy success). Still to try: that mango mousse.

As for the drinks, I’m no bubble tea connoisseur, but I quite enjoyed the bubble bevs here (closing my eyes, I tried to compare it to the one I had last summer at Vancouver’s Dragon Ball, which many swear is one of the best purveyors in the land, and thought it fared well). The ice-cold mango smoothie was excellent, though better suited to a hot July day than a snowy February one—here’s looking forward to knocking one back one sweltering afternoon this summer.