Where to find Hong Kong’s best croissants? We asked for some French help
Judges Ines Gafsi and David Sung eat their way through croissants from mass market and high-end bakeries to separate the best from the rest, with some surprising results
Freshness, crunchiness, flakiness, butteriness, sweetness, saltiness – there are many facets to consider when it comes to the perfect croissant.
“A good croissant should be well layered, flaky, buttery without being greasy, and light, but not insubstantial. If it’s not made with butter, it’s not worth the calories,” says trained pastry chef and SCMP.com food editor Susan Jung.
With an ever growing number of French people now calling Hong Kong home (the country’s consulate estimates 18,000 to 20,000 of its citizens live in Hong Kong), it’s no wonder French restaurants, wine shops and patisseries have sprung up on the city’s food and beverage landscape. And that means more croissants.
While seen as quintessentially French, the pastry’s history can be traced to the Austrian capital Vienna, where the biscuity ancestor of the croissant, the kipferl, is said to date back to the 13th century. Some historians say it was introduced to France by the country’s last queen, Marie Antoinette, as a 14-year-old bride craving a taste of her native Vienna. The pastry became French when people started making it with puff pastry – a French innovation – the story goes.
Hong Kong’s humidity is a croissant’s worst enemy. So with this in mind we tasted the pastries between 8.30am and 9am in the hope they had not been sitting on the shelf for too long. We ordered a plain butter croissant for consistency.