This is one of those places where I drive by it all the time and always wonder what it's like inside and so forth...
It was nice to have KD along for the adventure as well. Her district's schedule doesn't have a Fall Break and this week I had her daughter over to hang out with TC while we did different things all week. Anyways, the more the merrier I say.
As you can see, La Concha is a 'panaderia' or Mexican style bakery. They are open at 6:30 am everyday. As we approached the doors, one of the workers rushed over and literally jumped over the counter to open the doors for us. How's that for service?
It's quite large inside with many of their breads along the perimets. On the left as you enter are the muffins and croissants. On the right as you enter are the cookies and various pan dulces.
There was a poster on the wall that had a key to all of the different sweetbreads they carried (You can view the online version here - I found this quite helpful). Pan dulce is an egg based bread and can be found in different shapes. Some are covered with a sugar/butter paste which looks very attractive. Not everything you see on the website is offered, but most of it was.
I haven't had good experiences with pan dulce in the past. Although they look quite pretty (like the shell shaped ones, hence it's name, "La Concha"), I've found them to be dry and tasteless. I was hoping this would change with this visit.
Here's what we got - starting at 9 o'clock and going clockwise: "tecolote" (owl) - filled with cream cheese, a "concha" (seashell), a "canasta" (basket) - filled with pineapple, underneath the canasta was the "cacahuate" (peanut cookie with concha design). In the middle was a "cema" (mushroom) - just a wheat bread bun, then you have a twisted sugared donut, and lastly, at 5 o'clock, a "nuez con crema" - soft dough filled with Bavarian cream.
The guy who rang us up was really cool. He said everyone who works there has their own specific job to do and it was his job to make the dough.
A view of their bread as we headed back to downtown CV...
The verdict for this place? TC liked her twisted donut. Out of all the different breads we tried (later on back at our house), I liked the "owl" (the one filled with cream cheese and topped with a glaze) the best and even then, I didn't really think it was all that. The "cema" was really plain. It looked like it could have been "filled" but it wasn't. Maybe these might have tasted better warm or slathered with butter or jam or something.
KD and I did not like anything, unfortunately. I really wanted to have a different opinion of pan dulce but these breads were so bland and tasteless to me. The dough for the bavarian creme filled pastry and the canasta was thick and heavy. The cookie was dry and crumbly. We tried little bites of each and found them to all have the same consistency. Bert, on the other hand, was a more generous with his opinion. He said the breads (and cookie) tasted better with coffee and that is how he enjoyed the breads over the next two days.
Maybe these breads are an acquired taste since the Filipino style breads I grew up eating were sweeter and had a more moist consistency. Maybe we just didn't try the right breads, who knows, but I was disappointed in these. I may give it another shot in the future.
La Concha
334 E St.
Chula Vista, CA
(619) 427-7147
www.laconchabakery.org
It was still nice visiting a place that is considered a community institution, since this bakery has been here for over 30 years. I'm all for mom and pop shops and keeping the money in the community. The folks working there were really nice and patient as we asked our questions about the pastries. The shop was busy with walk-in traffic during our ten minutes there. Our next stop was lunch down past the Chula Vista sign...
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