Podium Moment at Cream Pan

It began to seem as if my chances of medaling in skeleton and possibly curling at Whistler were better than securing just one of the perpetually sold out strawberry croissants at Cream Pan.  It got so that after defeat, I made a little ritual of retreating to Samsoonyi Bakery inside Freshia Market down the street for consolation.  

And while they stock enough chopsticks to build an HOA compliant condo and slippers to supply you through years of geriatric dotage, they don’t have the strawberry croissant.They do have a yummy three layer bean paste coffee cake and little banana shaped cakes that list absolutely no banana in the ingredients.    

Attention: No bananas were harmed in the making of this product.

When I had almost given up on the idea, it just happened. Not the Olympic summons, the Cream Pan croissant. Not just one, but an entire batch fresh out of the oven filling the cases regally, and dozens more, on party platters waiting to make someone a superhero at the office.    

Victory!

After so many failed attempts at owning one, I was so stunned and thrilled, I sat at a bistro table among all the less popular breadstuffs and devoured it.   

 This combination is as perishable as the goldfish your punk won at the fair, so running out insures one aspect of quality control. Still, I’d hate to be behind the counter fresh out on a day when the 137  Cream Pan strawberry croissant-devoted Yelpers  show up.  

The buttery, crisp pastry layers are as thin as the pages of a King James Version pocket Bible so that you half expect to see the words of Jesus written in red across them.   

Tiny drifts of  sifted confectioner’s sugar that rest in every crevice melt along with the crackling layers in your mouth. Vanilla-tinged custard cream piped in after baking adds voluptuous body and heart-shaped slices of fresh strawberry, just three are tucked in like a valentine.    

There are some tasty lunch items to go, in particular, a potato croquette sandwich and a three layer  tea sandwich of egg salad, tuna and smoked ham on the soft weightless white Cream Pan signature bread with the crust cut off. I like the cucumber seaweed salad with red onions, sesame seeds and red chili flecks to go with it.      

I’m partial to an elegant pastry twist generously flecked with nutty black sesame seeds and enveloped in brown sugar lacquer, but the strawberry croissant is Cream Pan’s podium moment.    

602 El Camino Real Tustin 92780 714.665.8239. Strawberry croissant, $2.30. Lunch for two, $12.00, food only.

Tags: Cream Pan Bakery, Freshia Market, Japanese French bakery, Korean Bakery, Samsoonyi Bakery, strawberry croissant