Sun Mary Bakery : Flushing, New York

Oy, it was bound to happen.  Sun Mary Bakery in Flushing puts the Philadelphia Chinese bakeries to shame.  While the things we got weren't all eyeball popping, there was a level of quality in the ingredients and the combination of flavors that was a step above any bakeries I've had in recent memory.

Fried glutinous ball with ground meat - A very nice rendition.  I only wish we had had this when it was fresh and even better if it had been piping hot fresh.  There was a good balance of savory and sweet flavors, the ground meat being flavored with salt and perhaps some light curry flavoring

Chinese Bridal Cake (台式喜饼)- Bah, this is going to drive me nuts - I forget what this is called, but.  (10/21 Went here again and took a picture of what this is called) this is a version of one of the cookie/biscuits? that I loved as a kid, but which my Mom wouldn't let me eat a lot of, since they're not so healthy for you.   This one was just done well.  A mix of different ingredients, flavors and textures that were hard for me to identify - currants or perhaps dates?, chestnuts?, nut bits?  It left our fingers greasy and I suspect you can't have too many of these without feeling ill, but yum.

Dried pork / white cake - A fluffy white cake with light fruit-flavored cream and a thin layer of rousong (肉松, wikipedia).  The cream tasted like the cream in Chinese sponge cakes with fruit (See LucyZhang, although interestingly I gather the cakes are usually steamed instead of baked.) and I suspect the entire cake might have also, except for the rousong, which was pretty much out of the flavor picture, but which savoriness was enough to slightly confuse your palate.

Pineapple cake -  You can buy pineapple cakes in Chinese grocery stores (See Google for pictures), but it's kind of rare for a bakery to do their own version.  Strangely, of the pastries we bought, this was the thing I liked the least, mainly because the buttery smell and taste overwhelmed the entire cake, instead of it being more pineapple focused.  That being said, it was rather enjoyable to try out a home-baked pineapple cake after years of varying quality pre-packaged ones.

Date cake? - I thought this was going to be a walnut cake, but I'm not really sure what this was.  It had strands of dates? Currents? Some black not so sweet, not flavorful, dried fruity in texture thing.  This was a very light light cake and well somewhat bland.   It was somewhat dry, but this was the last of the pastries we ate and it was then a few days after we had bought it.  Shrug, I'm not sure I really "get" this one.

Yes, not all of the pastries we got here were winners, but the ones that were, oh man, makes me wish we had one of these bakeries in Philly.

Sun Mary Bakery
13357 41st Rd Flushing, NY 11355-3631 (Map)
(718) 460-8800
($Bakery, $Chinese, $Flushing, $NYC)