When we were in younger, my siblings and I would call this place the Chinese Mexican bakery because a Chinese man used to be the owner (not sure if he is still there) but he spoke Spanish to all of his workers...
This used to be our go to place for fruit topped cakes until Lamber's Chinese Bakery opened up close to home (back when I used to live down South) on Third and Orange.
I wondered if it had changed all that much....
It's in an old strip mall on the northwest corner of Broadway near H Street. The Chula Vista Mall, specifically Red Lobster is on the other side. Atlantis Laser Tag is a building over and next to that is Coop's West Texas BBQ, just to give you an idea of what's out here. This place has been here for over 25 years.
They seemed to have the exact same stuff I remembered, but of course, with inflation, prices have definitely gone up. Cakes are $18 and up nowadays. The smallest size used to be $10 back in the day. We used to get the strawberry banana cake here for many a birthday celebration. In fact, La Ley recently went here for a strawberry banana birthday cake, her favorite.
It was difficult trying to be sly and taking photos by myself. My normal method is to have Bert pick out what we want to "distract" the workers (haha). Luckily, another customer walked in and I was able to snap a few shots while she placed her orders.
As you walk in, there are cookies to your left. Many of them range in price from .35 up to .70. The cookie varieties include tropical (with coconut), jelly and fruit filled, wedding cookies, meringues, and various versions of butter cookies with nuts.
Although the bakery is Mexican owned, this is not a panaderia, as there are no typical pan dulces sold here, just cookies, cakes, and a few Chinese style breads (pineapple or coconut filled),
The Tres Leches cake is one of the most popular flavors at Mexico Lindo Bakery...
As you can see, there are more cakes, either whole or by the slice. Flavors include strawberry, strawberry banana, German chocolate, carrot, chocolate mousse and tiramisu.
Another display held turnovers (cherry, cream cheese and apple), along with banana nut bread, palmiers and that Chinese bread I mentioned earlier. They also sell it ($1.50 for four pieces) at Lamber's Chinese Bakery.
I bought four types of cookies...
one palmier (for TC)...
and one slice of the Tres Leches cake, since I'd never tried it before. I figured Bert would really like it becuase of the flavors and the cinnamon.
All this cost $5.25 with the cake slice being the most expensive item.
The palmier was so fresh, light, crisp and flaky!
Out of all the different palmiers we've tried at the various bakeries, this by far, was the BEST one.
The Tres Leches cake slice:
You can see the different layers of caramel in the cake. It was a bit goopy and too wet for my liking. The cake was indeed moist, but the condensed milk and whatever else they used in here made it too soft. Maybe it's supposed to be this way, I don't know. I just know that I like my cake slices to have texture and to be able to stand alone without falling over. The cake was sweet but the cinnamon, to me, overpowered it. Bert really liked this as I thought he would.
Here are those cookies again:
The meringue, which we liked. TC liked the swirly piece on top.
This was just like eating a fluffy cloud. Loved it.
A walnut cookie, which looked pretty and tasted just as good.
An apricot pocket - I thought this didn't have enough filling. The apricot within was a sticky jam.
A chocolate dipped walnut cookie...loved this one. I wished the whole cookie was dipped in chocolate!
The palmier here is larger than the ones we've had recently. The edges were beautifully carmelized...
and you could see each flaky golden layer...
I figured out the BIG difference between this palmier and the others we've tried from the other bakeries. Mexico Lindo uses REAL BUTTER in theirs! You can taste it. At most panaderias, they use margarine, lard, or shortening. This palmier totally kicks ass on the ones I recently bought at Chico's. Those were dry and flavorless! From now on, we'll get our palmier fix here!
We may just have to go here AGAIN really soon!
Mexico Lindo Bakery
520 Broadway
Chula Vista, CA 91910
(619)425-0886
There is no website but here are the overwhelmingly positive reviews on that four lettered site.
More Mexican bakeries in Chula Vista (not counting the in-store panaderias in Otay Farms Market, Northgate, La Bodega and Mercado International) include:
La Concha - My first visit during October 2012 and my subsequent visit in November, plus
December 2012 - sampling more types of pan dulce, May 2013 - where I bought bolillos for a shrimp torta for Memorial Day lunch.
Moreliana Panaderia - This is my favorite bakery which started off with my first two visits in September and my revisit with Cathy and Dennis and later that same month for pan de muerto
Chico's Bakery - This is right around the corner from La Concha. My first visit was September 2013 during the South Bay food crawl with Dennis and Cathy and more recently at the end of last month, also for pan de muerto.
And now we return to our regularly scheduled programming of the OC Food Road Trip. I swear I will finish my Canada posts!
2 comments:
I have never cared for Tres Leches Cake. It sounds good to me... but I dislike the consistency. I agree with you, they are usually way too soft, like borderline mushy, which I don't like. The other stuff looks good though! Chocolate dipped cookies are such a treat. I keep telling myself I'm going to dip my homemade cookies in chocolate for Christmas and yet I never do it since I get too tired, haha.
hi mary, that was my first (and probably last) time to have tres leches cake, unless there's a better and more firmer version out there. i'm big on texture and soft and goopy isn't one of them.
anything tastes better dipped in chocolate! :)
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