beard papa's

On an idle Sunday afternoon, after I dropped my mom off at work, I decided to go to the nearby Aberdeen Starbucks to get my weekly markout. The lineup of cars to go into the parkade was ridiculous; however, I persevered, and found myself a spot. I consider myself extremely lucky, because it's the Sunday before Halloween, and all Chinese parents with little kiddies were going to be there for the various Halloween-related events that the mall has put out for them. I don't blame them, it's easy to get excited about a holiday, and that's when you get them, in their wallets.
But I digress.

I mean to write a post about beard papa's, which is a cream puff place that I assume came from Japan (or Hong Kong, I'm not too certain) that is supposed to be good. Like so good that there's a constant line-up, and each customer can only buy a maximum of 1 dozen cream puffs. It's on the third floor of Aberdeen, and you can't miss it. It is right there, with its "Grand Opening" sign and the line-up of people. They pulled out the line separators so there are 3 rows of people serpentined in front of the store. When I saw that I consulted Tiff. There's a Chinese proverb, "Now that you are here, make the best of it," or something to that extent. Therefore, I made the best of it, I joined the line-up.

Now, I don't mean to brag, patience is one of my best virtues. Remember when Jurassic Park first came out and it was such a big deal? There was a Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studio when I went with my family 10 years ago. We lined up for it, twice. There were at least 3 huts with the line of people just standing there, and there were these misters that spray us with cool water just 'cause it was so damn hot. My point is, I can outwait anyone, for anything.

So I lined up. And I stood there, just observing. It was getting warm, so I took my tuque off. Thank goodness I got a berryblossom white tea along with my markout, otherwise the waiting would be less bearable. Everyone else in the lineup, either in front of me or behind me, were really patient as well. I guess it's the anticipation that keeps them at bay, I know that's what it is for me. About 20 minutes into my waiting, I finally got to the final row, the row that's closest to the counter, the row that is only five steps away from the register. That's when I see that they have run out of puffs. And all the rest were in the 2 ovens. The Japanese ladies who were serving customers apologized to the people closest to the register, and announced to everyone that it was going to take 25 minutes for the next batch to be ready.

Not being able to make any kind of food-related decision myself, I consulted Tiff again. She was disappointed, and I was sure I could not just stand there for 25 minutes by myself. In the end, she said it was up to me. I hung up, not sure what to do. So I decided to hang around and just watch the timers on the ovens count down to zero. Also, no one else was budging; I'm pretty sure their sentiments were all, "I waited this long, I'm not about to give up now!" Well, comrades, likewise.

This must be what trench warfare feels like, was one of my thoughts. Another thought was, these puffs better be damn good for me to line up for an hour to pay $19/dozen. The waiting was made bearable by more white tea, and little spurts of activities behind the counter, like one of the girls counting money, or two of the girls preparing the to go boxes. Finally, a man took trays and trays of puffs that's been cooling and put them on the counter for the infusion of cream custard. And he took out the puffs that's been in the oven on the cooling racks. I counted, each tray contained a dozen, each oven held 6 trays, and there were 2 ovens. It takes 36 minutes to bake and to cool. That's 144 cream puffs every 40 minutes, and if everyone just buy a dozen, then no wonder they would run out.

The anticipation just builds and builds, I was almost weeping by the time that I was next in line at the register. I asked for a dozen, handed over the $20 bill that's been sitting in my pocket, and watched the 2 ladies expertly powder sugared the puffs, put them in little paper pockets, and shoved them all into a large box. When I finally got my dozen of cream puffs, you have no idea how happy and ecstatic I was. It was like an emotional roller coaster, the anticipation just takes you higher and higher, until you are at the peak of the ride, then they give you that yellow paper box, then the relief and the completion of task and sense of accomplishment just all rushes at you like wind in your face. It was great.

I called my sister as soon as I got them. It was awesome, I said, you should totally line up with me next time.

Oh yeah, I ate one when I got home, it was delicious.