The Auspicious Treats of Pilar Cuban Bakery and Win Son Bakery | The New Yorker

"Across the street, I went to Win Son Bakery, born of the Taiwanese‑American restaurant Win Son, where you can get a Taiwanese morning combo—a fried cruller dunked in freshly made soy milk—or a mean fan tuan of sticky rice rolled around a fragment of cruller, a bit of hard‑fried egg, and pork floss. A coffee called the xiao huai huai—a shot of espresso poured over five‑spice crème anglaise and dusted with powdered ginger—I’d like to nominate for the canon, as are the scallion‑pancake breakfast sandwiches and a millet mochi doughnut that’s bewitchingly elastic and subtly nutty. In the evening the bakery moonlights as a restaurant with counter service and cocktails: its white cardboard boxes hold excellent fried chicken and five‑spice fries that beg to be dipped in “ginger deluxe,” a spectacular Thousand‑Island–style mix of ketchup, mayo, mustard, ginger, garlic, and fermented tofu. I could take or leave most of the rest of the dinner menu—overwrought salads and sandwiches like a dry‑aged burger on milk buns—but the ya fan, with a glistening confited duck leg slow‑cooked in soy, red‑rice wine, and rock sugar, a salty jammy soy egg, fresh basil, and daikon pickles over fluffy white rice, sets a new standard for fast casual; they even serve barley soft‑serve in a white‑chocolate magic shell in a waffle cone baked on the premises. (Baked goods $3–$4.)" - Hannah Goldfield