Dragon Pastry is a new pastry store and dessert place on busy Dixon Street in Sydney's Chinatown Haymarket. They sell traditional Chinese pastries and cookies as well as dessert bowls and bingsus. And the prices? Well they're a very nice surprise with most pastries around $2.50-$3 and dessert bowls for less than $10. Come and see what it's like and find out all about traditional Chinese pastries!
It's 1pm on an overcast Saturday when Sophia and I visit Dragon Pastry. It has been a while since I walked down busy Dixon Street and Dragon Pastry is located on the corners of Dixon and Factory streets. Dragon Pastry is owned by the same team as Sweet Lu, married couple Lucy Lu who is the creative designer and namesake and Steve Hou, an aerospace engineer. While Sweet Lu has pretty Asian style cakes, mochi and ice cream and is unashamedly pink, Dragon Pastry's colours are bright blue and red and focus on traditional Chinese pastries.
The colourful display and the buttery aroma of baking lures in many from the street. Some come in to just peer at the pastry cabinet while others order pastries. These are well priced, around $2.50-$3 each and they're a range of traditional Chinese pastries but with a modern accent. Chinese pastries are different from French pastries, they're smaller and filled with ingredients like hawthorn, lychee, grape, hawthorn, black bean and taro in a paste or a jammy filling.
There are two main types of Chinese pastries. The first is Flaky Oil Pastry like mooncakes or wife cakes. They layers are made by repeatedly folding dough with lard or oil, creating hundreds of paper-thin, airy layers that shatter when you bite into it. Traditionally they would be made with lard but modern day versions use neutral oils. Their flavour is more subtle using savoury-sweet flavours fillings like red bean or lotus seed with the savoury lard.
The second style are the butter shortbreads like pineapple cakes. These use butter for a crumbly, dense texture and aroma. The fillings tend to be a fusion like pineapple or hawthorn fruit jam or salted egg yolk. " Chinese pastry celebrates contrast ie. crisp wrapper vs. chewy/creamy fillings, savoury-fat vs. sweet," says Lucy.
To the left of the display are the flaky oil pastries stamped with red Chinese writing on them. These are filled with chestnut, durian paste, black sesame and ube or purple sweet potato.
The most popular is the Beef Tongue with an intriguing mixture of black sesame with pepper and salt and shaped like a beef tongue. It's a little salty and sweet at the same time and the pepper flavour is pronounced. These pastries can be on the dryer side so they are good to have with tea. The rose flower pastry is also nice for its light rose aroma in the filling.
I also try one of the crisp butter shortbread as I can smell the cookies baking and the smell of butter wafting out on the street. I particularly like the jammy hawthorn fruit filling in the shortbread.
The right hand side of the display has most of the colourful butter shortbread pastries in shapes like flowers, grapes, lychees, pineapple, pumpkin and persimmon. The classic pineapple cake is a favourite with pineapple jam filling encased with buttery shortbread.
The prettiest has to be the peach blossom pastry that looks like a peach blossom flower that uses natural ingredients like beetroot to give it a pretty pink hue. This is filled with a red bean paste or lotus seed paste. The peach refers to the shape rather than the filling.
The open mouth pink and green flaky oil pastry is filled with a sweet, rich, desiccated coconut filling.
And if you love whole salted egg yolks, the cute little pumpkin shaped pastry is adorable and features salted egg yolk inside with pumpkin paste.
The cream grape crisp is a fusion of Chinese and Western flavours with a grape puree and raisins inside a crisp shortbread outer. Although the name does say cream this one doesn't have cream in it.
The most popular pastry is the Egg Yolk Pastry which is a round pastry with a flaky crust filled with a whole salted egg yolk surrounded by red bean paste. Lucy explains, "The modern egg yolk pastry became popular in the 20th century, blending Cantonese and Taiwanese baking styles. Its round shape and salted duck egg yolk centre symbolise family reunion and the full moon, making it a staple during Mid-Autumn Festival."
This one is shaped like a brown walnut crossed with a golf ball and is filled wit a red date or jujube paste with chopped, roasted walnuts for texture and the filling is very sweet and reminds me of brown sugar. Walnuts are symbolic in Chinese culture and symbolise longevity and wisdom in Chinese culture and are often gifted during festivals. Dates represent fertility and warmth and are gifted during weddings or New Year.
The adorable little persimmon pastry is filled with sweetened persimmon paste mixed with honey or sugar with red bean paste for balance. These too are symbolic signifying joy and propserity and are popular at Autumn harvest celebrations.
If you're not a super sweet tooth, the Taro pastry is not very sweet but soft and comforting with a soft slightly sweetened taro paste filling and soft mochi. The taro square pastry also isn't too sweet and has a centre of squishy mochi.
While Sophia and I really like these pastries, Mr NQN isn't such a fan of the Chinese dry pastries as he didn't grow up eating them; he is more of a fan of the sweet soups and qingtuan (like mochi) on offer here.
During the month of March they have two specials: Qingtuan or green dumplings make with green wugwort with glutinous flour. This stretchy mochi style dumpling is filled with sweetened red bean. There's also a second flavour with salted egg yolk and pork floss that has that very moreish salty sweet combo on full display.
For something more Western style try the cream cheese buns. These soft and light milk bun style buns are filled with a light cream cheese filling and rolled in milk powder. I tried the original one that was soft, creamy and milky.
With our pastries in a box to go we return with Mr NQN after lunch for dessert. There are a lot of choices for dessert bowls and it's hard to pick one. We are torn between mango bingsu for $8.80 or other dessert bowls. The seasonal special is perfect for a slightly muggy day. It's grapes with sweet fermented rice, osmanthus tea, mochi balls and tofu pudding atop a layer of shaved ice. The sweet fermented rice isn't quite at the level of alcohol but it gives the flavour more character. Mr NQN joins us and wolfs this down as he loves sweet tofu pudding.
They explain that the coconut fruit dessert is slightly different from the picture that is piled high with fruit. It's a sweetened coconut milk with red bean, taro balls, taro, taro paste, sago, toasted coconut, mini dumplings, pearls, raisins, nuts and strawberries. Every spoonful tastes a bit different depending on what you spoon up and I slightly prefer this bowl as it is sweeter and I like coconut milk.
And if you're looking for a gift for the person that has everything, you can pre-order these lion head pastries. They're lettuce flavoured as symbolically during a lion dance, lions devours lettuce and scatter it towards business owners and the audience, it represents a gesture of granting them wealth and prosperity for the year ahead. These are more for decorative value and will set you back $399 per lion!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried traditional Chinese pastries and if so, what did you think of them? Which one do you think you'd like most?
NQN was given some complimentary pastries but paid the remaining balance herself.
Dragon Pastry
31 Dixon St, Haymarket NSW 2000
Sunday to Thursday 11am–10:30 pm
Friday and Saturday 11am–11pm
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