A new puff in town

As I turned the corner, south onto Main Street from Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, I identified the buttery scent of fresh baked pastry floating anachronistically among the usual smells of Chinatown.

The source: a bright pink-bannered stand, advertising Japanese cream puffs for the introductory price of $1 apiece. Behind the counter, in a familiar tableau, cheery Chinese women sporting orange kerchiefs and matching aprons were lining up fist-sized balls of flaky choux pastry and piping into each a mixture of custardy vanilla cream.

In recent years, cream puffs have experienced a resurgence in popularity, thanks in no small part to Japanese chains like Beard Papa’s, which opened their first outlet on New York City’s Upper West Side in March 2004. Giant cream puffs were named hot dessert of the year by Bon Appétit in 2005.

Nice to see the trend finally trickle out to the end of the 7 line two years later.

Sakuraya, which lists an address of 113-19 14th Road in College Point — perhaps the location of the main bakery? — carries just the one vanilla variety of puff for now. I’ll need to come back another Saturday to investigate further.