Beard Papa's cream puff

When people say “You’ve got to try this” I seldom argue, especially if it’s in a city they know better than I do. And since I’m very much still getting my bearings around San Francisco, exploring neighborhoods, reading up on local foodie hotspots and eating my way around town, I’m very much open to any suggestions people have. When a friend said I had to have one of the cream puffs he bought from Beard Papa’s there wasn’t a whole lot of arguing on my end.

Now THAT'S what I call a cream filling!

Just a bit smaller than my fist and dusted with white confectioner’s sugar, the cream puffs came with vanilla, strawberry and chocolate cream inside. On the outside they were crispy and light, and on the inside… oh dear the inside… well, that was just fantastic. One of my food pet peeves is when cream-filled pastries, whether they be donuts, canoli or eclairs, are skimpy on the actual cream filling. There’s nothing worse than taking a bite of a Bavarian cream donut for example, and realizing that the rest of the donut is just dough, or God forbid even worse, just air. It’s just disappointing and awful and I hate it. But this round ball of pastry perfection? It was oozing with cream, in this case a yellowish fluffy vanilla made from whipped cream and custard. Every single bite, from the very first one to the last one, included a deliciously creamy mouthful of the the smooth vanilla filling.

After going on the company’s website and learning that they have other fillings, including pumpkin (which I’m completely powerless in the face of) I can’t wait to go back again and again. And to make things better, the site says there’s one in New York’s Upper West Side. Oh happy day!