Street Eats: Motivate Yourself in the Morning with Sugary Cream Puffs at Chex Choux
When the wind outside is howling and your little room is freezing, getting out of your warm bed is the first and perhaps most formidable challenge of the day. After enduring five alarms set five minutes apart and browsing through the 200 messages in your work WeChat group, you finally get up, boil some water for your morning coffee and start the grueling commute to work. Sometimes, we need a little extra motivation to schlep ourselves to the station – a nice latte, or perhaps a sweet treat in the morning.
Sometimes all you need is a jianbing from your favorite vendor on the corner. But those lucky few whose nearest subway station is in a mall basement get the pick of the litter. For instance: a sugary cream puff stand with over a dozen locations around Beijing, usually in a mall, often near a subway station. The best part? They're so cheap (RMB 14-18) that you don’t even have to forego your routine morning coffee from Starbucks or Costa Coffee.
We visited Chex Choux’s Ginza Mall branch on B2, which is just in the hallway of the subway exit. It is a two-man operation: one takes the orders, and the other serves the goods. All flavors of cream puffs are displayed on a platter, so you can just point and pay. As a curious editor on a mission of self-destruction, how could I pass up the durian-flavored cream puff (RMB 18)? It definitely had a strong durian flavor and a smooth, maybe even runny filing.
The puff with vanilla cream (RMB 14) was more like a croissant filled with cold custard, but the filling is a bit plain other than the dominant sugary flavor. Our favorite was the cream puff with chocolate and matcha filling (RMB 15), the matcha filling being jelly-like with a bitter finish and wrapped with a layer of chocolate sponge cake, all encased in crispy, sugary bun. Aside from cream puffs, they also offer probably the cheapest lava cake (RMB 15) in Beijing. “Keep the puffs in the fridge,” the waiting staff suggested. Oh, don’t worry, it won’t even make it half way to our fridge before we're licking the last crumbs off our fingers.
To be honest, these puffs aren't anything life-changing. But they're so accessible and humble, and just enough for you to look forward to get you out the door in the morning. This is a cheap cure-all, an easy comfort food. Just grab those sugary little cream puffs and have a bite on the subway or share a hit of sugar with your colleagues. They'll start looking forward to it, too.
Chex Choux
Daily 10am-9pm. B2, Ginza Mall, 48 Dongzhimen Waidajie, Dongcheng District (5622 3003)
西树泡芙: 东城区东直门外大街48号东直门银座mall B2层
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Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
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Photos: Tracy Wang
