Panchita's Bakery, Golden Hill

Earlier that morning I read a Kirbie's post that San Diego's Finest Donuts really had cronuts, and if you can believe their misleading facebook page, macarons as well.

This was NOT the case when TC and I stopped by. The same lady was there as before and she was a little more forthcoming about when they had cronuts, which is Friday and Saturdays. She said they sell out pretty quickly. Maybe they only make ten  of them, jeez, who really knows. If you only saw their fb page, you would think they were some high end bakery with the beautiful photos of their nonexistent items, when they are just really an average donut place. Well, if I'm ever going to try a fake cronut, I would rather try Paris Baguette's version since I'm not about to jet off to NYC for the real thing, eh.

So enough about that crap. I had Plan B in mind...

in which we would make the short trek over to Golden Hill and satisfy my current obsession for Mexican bakeries...

There are two locations of Panchita's, one in Barrio Logan and this one off the corner of 25th and C, right next to Jaycee's Market. As you can see, Panchita's is celebrating it's 30th Anniversary, which is very cool because that is a pretty long time! Good on them!

What surprises lay in store for us behind the door?

We could see that they had an extensive selection...

with a variety of pan dulce and fresh baked bread as well...

On the wall, you can see the golden framed Virgen de Guadalupe (Virgin of Guadalupe), considered the "Patroness of Mexico".

This iconic image of the Virgin Mary can be found in many Mexican establishments. You know for sure that they are Catholic. La Moreliana bakery has it on their calendar. I noticed when we were in San Francisco's Mission District, many of the mom and pop markets had the image painted on the outside of the building. The Virgin can also be seen on various murals, most recently the infamous Surfing Madonna which was originally put up illegaly under the freeway in Encinitas and now is on a wall near a Leucadia pizzeria near its original location.

What I noticed about Panchita's that made it stand out among the other panaderias I've been to were the helpful inclusion of their labels. Yes, everything is labeled (sometimes not correctly though) in Spanish with the price shown.

I wish I took closeups of those labels and breads and pastries but it was hard to do so with several customers near me and also under the watchful eye of the worker.

Business was steady during our visit. There were about five or six folks who came in after us deftly getting what they wanted quite quickly. They've certainly been there before. Me, on the other hand, I was ogling all of the different items and trying to mentally remember the pastry names in Spanish.

I really liked knowing the names of these pastries because they are so imaginative. There are pan dulces called "nino envuelto" (wrapped child), "cuernitos" (little horns),  and "ojos de buey" (bulls' eyes).

Below are some "horns" (they look like croissants but use a different dough), "leno" cookies, and "elote" (corn shaped but not flavored).

One of the bakers saw me taking the photo and quickly moved out of the way, although I actually wanted him in the shot!

Their bread rolls were 3 for $1.00...

There were racks and racks of fully stocked baked goods here, which as a far cry from some other places I've been to. They had cream filled horns, pineapple and cream filled pastries, buttered and sugared bread and little mini deep pies ("canastas" or baskets)

Here was the bakery's name sake, a sweet bread filled with cream.  The label next to it was wrong since the didn't have what was pictured on the label above it (for the record, "trensa blanca" means "white braid").

I was happy to see that they had their mango empanadas here. No, not fresh mangos, but mango jelly. Same thing with the guayabas (guavas)....They also had pina (pineapple)...

and "chabacano" which I didn't know meant apricot. In the Philippines, the term "chabacano" refers to a  Spanish based creole dialect in Zamboanga. The language originated from Spanish colonization of the islands and is the only Spanish based creole language in Asia. I've never heard it spoken myself, but had heard about it from some educator friends.

They also had "budin" (bread pudding) and cinnamon rolls.

This is what we walked out with...

and it was only $6. Try buying $6 worth of stuff at those fancier places. You would probably only have one or two items.

The receipt says "fresa" and "pina" even though I didn't get those flavors (it was guayaba and mango)

Our pastries in their paper bag home...

which was later brought out for their much needed close up...


The "oreja" ("ear" or palmier)...good but not as good as Mexico Lindo's version.

This was one of those flaky rings with a chocolate bread inside, which wasn't too sweet. I liked this one. The receipt called this "nido choco" (nido means 'nest').

TC picked out this one, the chocolate chip cookie. I'm not a fan of cookies from Mexican bakeries. They may be big but they all seem to taste the same no matter flavor you get. She didn't know this of course. The chips were the mini kind by the way.

This was the empanada filled with cajeta (goat milk caramel). I love how they shaped this and I picked this one because it had the filling oozing out, so no need for a cross section, ha.

TC also picked out this colorful cookie, called the "sandia" (watermelon). It does not taste like watermelon, but more like a bland sugar cookie. I like that the seeds were mini chocolate chips. Other than how cool it looked, it didn't taste all that spectacular.

TC also picked out this chocolate dipped heart. The chocolate was thin. The cookie was kind of dry and powdery. Again, it tasted like the other cookies. That'll learn us NOT to get cookies.

Here is the guayaba (guava) empanada. Maybe they use the Goya guava jelly, which I like.

Here is the third empanada, the mango one (also using jelly inside).

TC liked the oreja the best while Bert and I have a thumbs up for the mango empanada!

Panchita's Bakery
2519 C Street
San Diego, CA 92102
(619) 232-6662

There is no actual website but here is their fb page

Service is also very friendly here. I got to practice my kindergarten level Spanish too by congratulating them on their anniversary. The woman spoke to me only in Spanish and even asked me if I wanted to submit my name for their anniversary raffle. I had to write my name and number on my receipt (she was kind enough to give me an extra receipt) and stick it in a box. I think they draw one receipt every week for some sort of prize. I haven't been called yet though, haha. I told her in Spanish, "Voy a ganar!" ("I'm going to win!") which made her smile and laugh.

Next stop...gelato in South Park...or so we thought!