Schizophrenia in the baked goods section

I recently came back from my first trip to Taiwan, and while there are a lot of profound things which I will someday have to say about the country, the first thing I want to share with MFT is an image of a bakery which can’t decide whether it’s German or French.

Taipei 042
The German French bakery by joejones on Zooomr

(It’s located in Danshui [淡水], just north of Taipei.)

6 thoughts on “Schizophrenia in the baked goods section”

  1. Well, in Chinese it says German and in Japanese it says French…

    Lots of great food in Taiwan, but the bakeries are almost all pretty weak compared to Japan.

  2. Yamazaki is all right but not nearly as good as a lot of Japanese bakeries I’ve been to. It’s just one category that Japan does really well, but Taiwan doesn’t. I’m sure there are SOME truly good bakeries in Taiwan, it’s just that the standard is a lot lower. If I recall, the menu in Yamazaki Taiwan is also somewhat modified to have more items that I guess are supposed to appeal more to local tastes.

    I suppose it’s because the Taiwanese just haven’t been as interested in European style pastries and breads? And, and I may get flamed for this, it might also have to do with Chinese cuisine just being pretty bad at desert. I absolutely love Chinese food in general, but considering the variety of meals and snacks, the desert selection is pretty miserable.

    I will say that NY Bagels in Taipei is better than anything equivalent I have been to in Japan though.

    So why is the bakery in this photo called “Red flag” in Chinese? BTW, Danshui is north of Taipei City, but in Taipei County.

  3. I saw no fewer than two dessert offerings in Taiwan which involved frog organs. One was a tapioca-like concoction where the tapioca was frog fat; the other was a dish involving frog ovaries.

  4. That’s not quite what it says. It says in katakana, “French BREAD.” Just to the left of that it says “Berliner-Landbrot” which is a German type of rye bread.

    You don’t have to be a French bakery to make French Bread. It’s just a sign indicating a couple of their featured products. The orthography is baffling though, it makes sense to highlight a German product in roman script, but the French Bread in katakana? I suppose their French Bread is intended to appeal to Japanese buyers.

    I do have to say, I like Japanese French Pastries much better than authentic French ones. The Japanese attention to detail in presentation is as high or higher than the best French chefs, and the levels of fat and sugar (always high in French cooking) are much lower, to adapt to Japanese tastes.

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