Comments on: Who’s your Daddy? – a love call from Shikoku

By: Japan’s Best Hamburger | Burgerschreck

Japan’s Best Hamburger | Burgerschreck — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 15:16:02 +0000

[...] chance discovery was on the way home from Shikoku the other day. As we were driving over the whirlpools of Naruto (鳴門の渦潮) the road sign to [...]

By: Ged Carroll

Ged Carroll — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:43:21 +0000

They have also opened a Beard Papa on Oxford Street in London, but the queues are so long that I haven’t been in yet.

By: Marvin

Marvin — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 23:21:15 +0000

Can’t say I have ever heard of Beard Papa but there is no doubt that the Japanese do patissirie (spell?) incredibly well. If not better than the French themselves. Great stuff until they slap the “macha” flavour in there. Though incredibly twice in the past month one of the guys in the office has been eating some combini pastry and we all (well, 5-6 of us) reckoned it smelled like fish. Seriously, do the Japanese put fish paste in the pastry?

By: Kuri

Kuri — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 20:01:52 +0000

Richmond, I hadn’t tried Beard Papa’s when I was living in Japan, so I can’t compare, but I can say that they are pretty good here as long as they’re eaten fresh… they do the cream injection (did I just write that?) into the puffs as you order. In addition to the vanilla and matcha flavors, they also have eclair (vanilla cream with chocolate on top) and double chocolate (eclair with the chocolate injected as filling).

They just opened a new branch in Arcadia (a largely Chinese community east of LA with some Japanese residents) and displayed on their front window were lots of blown up news articles (they’ve been in Newsweek apparently) talking about how Beard Papa is going to be the next Krispy Kreme. Let’s hope so.

My friend from Beijing says Beard Papa is big in China, and considering the popularity of Starbucks and Mister Donuts, I imagine it will do quite well despite the cost. Although lunch can be had for 3-5 RMB in China, fast food is somewhat of a status thing (you’ve got to see their Pizza Huts!).

By: Gman

Gman — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 04:58:43 +0000

Its hard to gauge if 6rmb is really a steep price as the middle class is rising quickly in cities on Mainland China. A cup of coffee in a western style cafe costs at least 25rmb a cup! however, most chinese outside big cities dont quite see whats so great about a coffee anyway.
Though Kentucky Fried Chicken Coffee is only 4.5rmb/cup…and 4 chicken wings at 25rmb
Although average salaries tend to be around the 2-3000rmb/month the folks always seem to spend up large at karaoke and gambling at MaJong….Im sure Beard Papa will do well – for the first year anyway until the novelty wears off

By: Felix

Felix — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:10:17 +0000

Beard Papa also has two chains open in NYC now, one around 79th/bway, and another down from union square.

By: Red

Red — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 00:56:27 +0000

It’s nice to hear that there are plenty of other Papa fans outside of Tokyo like Kuri and Richmond. I was amazed last night when chatting to a friend that lives in Chángchūn (长春) in China (the capital of Jílín Prefecture (吉林省)). He said that “Beard Papa” just opened a shop there! Sure, I know there are a lot of Japanese factories there, but isn’t that taking global expansion a little too far? (population of 8 million, annual GDP per head of 300,000 JPY).

Apparently one puff costs 6 RMB. (about 90 yen). To put that in context, it also costs him 6 RMB to buy a 20 litre tank of drinking water. Lunch is often somewhere between 3-5 RMB. That’s one expensive puff!

Thanks for the correction on Colonel Sanders, Bshock. I thought he’d died after he was thrown into the river at Dotonbori a few years back. _(_v_)_

By: bshock

bshock — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:45:07 +0000

Please forgive the correction, however, Col. Harland Sanders of “Kentucky Fried Chicken” fame was indeed a real person and did indeed start this chain of restaurants. A brief search of Google will find endless background information about this person. He was quite the entrepreneur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Sanders
http://www.answers.com/topic/harland-sanders
http://www.seeya-downtheroad.com/ShortStories/ColSanders.html

By: Gman

Gman — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 12:39:52 +0000

Well Ranger its tuff when you think youre the only one with a wee willy, its comforting for Red to be among alike company

By: ranger

ranger — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 07:58:06 +0000

Red, you’ve gotta get your head checked if you’re willing to go inside a shop called wee willie winki. come on…