Boston Cream Pie (Cafe ASTORIA Bakery)
References:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/BostonCreamPie.htm
http://www.joyofbaking.com/BostonCreamPie.html
http://www.taiwanfun.com/north/taipei/dining/0803/0803CafeAstoriaBakery.htm
http://www.douglasmcgray.com/taipei.html
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/BostonCreamPie.htm
http://www.joyofbaking.com/BostonCreamPie.html
http://www.taiwanfun.com/north/taipei/dining/0803/0803CafeAstoriaBakery.htm
http://www.douglasmcgray.com/taipei.html
About Boston Cream Pie
It is really a cake, not a pie. Two layers of sponge cakes are filled with thick vanilla custard and topped with a chocolate glaze or a sprinking of confectioner's sugar. It is cut in wedges like a pie. This cake was probably called a pie because in the mid-nineteenth century, pie tins were more common than cake pans. The first versions might have been baked in pie tins.
It is said that the recipe of making Boston cream pie has two versons. One is from the Parker House Hotel (now the Omni Parker House Hotel),which claimed to have served Boston cream pies since their opening in 1856. French chef Sanzian, who was hired for the opening of the hotel, is credited with creating Boston cream pie. This cake was originally served at the hotel with the names Chocolate Cream Pie or Parker House Chocolate Cream Pie. This was the first hotel in Boston to have hot-and-cold running water, and the first to have an elevator.
The other story began when a New York newspaper in 1855 published a recipe for a "Pudding Pie Cake". And a man named Harvey D. Parker in Boston opened a restaurant called the Parker House Restaurant. On the menu was a "Parker House Chocolate Pie", the recipe to which was similar to the New York newspaper recipe except a chocolate glaze had replaced with the powdered sugar topping. We are not sure how it was renamed to "Boston cream pie", but Bo Friberg in his book "The Professional Pastry Chef" thinks "the name stems from the original title(in the New York paper) combined with the reference to Boston."
The Boston cream pie was preclaimed the official Massachusetts State Dessert on December 12, 1996. A civic class from Norton High School sponsored the bill. The pie beat out other candidates, including the toll house cookie and Indian Pudding.
Cafe ASTORIA Bakery
The bakery's story starts in 1949, when Archiybold Chien met George Elsner in Taipei. The two of them, along with three other Russian migrants, began the bakery business together, on the west side of Taipei, the old downtown. The bakery sold fresh bread and homemade cakes downstair. Above the bakery there is ASTORIA Restaurant, a place where you can order a cup of dark, bitter Russian coffee to go with your newly-purchased pastries. As it was one of the first establishments in Taiwan to provide western-style baked good. ASTORIA become an instant hit with everyone from university professors, writers and governments officials, to students and housewives.
Business boomed for a while. Taiwan bet early on high-tech manufacturing, and by the 1970s the island was gadget maker to the world. Businessmen would come to the cafe with their portable radios and listen to the stock market report while sipping coffee. Gradually, though, the neighborhood outside, with its narrow avenues, tiled facades and crowds of street vendors, lost its importance as office towers, shopping malls, restaurants and foreign boutiques sprouted from the city's new glass-and-steel east side. Then came the international hotels with their elegant cafes. Pretty soon, you could get a good cup of coffee and Western-style pastry anywhere in the city.
It is said that the recipe of making Boston cream pie has two versons. One is from the Parker House Hotel (now the Omni Parker House Hotel),which claimed to have served Boston cream pies since their opening in 1856. French chef Sanzian, who was hired for the opening of the hotel, is credited with creating Boston cream pie. This cake was originally served at the hotel with the names Chocolate Cream Pie or Parker House Chocolate Cream Pie. This was the first hotel in Boston to have hot-and-cold running water, and the first to have an elevator.
The other story began when a New York newspaper in 1855 published a recipe for a "Pudding Pie Cake". And a man named Harvey D. Parker in Boston opened a restaurant called the Parker House Restaurant. On the menu was a "Parker House Chocolate Pie", the recipe to which was similar to the New York newspaper recipe except a chocolate glaze had replaced with the powdered sugar topping. We are not sure how it was renamed to "Boston cream pie", but Bo Friberg in his book "The Professional Pastry Chef" thinks "the name stems from the original title(in the New York paper) combined with the reference to Boston."
The Boston cream pie was preclaimed the official Massachusetts State Dessert on December 12, 1996. A civic class from Norton High School sponsored the bill. The pie beat out other candidates, including the toll house cookie and Indian Pudding.
Cafe ASTORIA Bakery
The bakery's story starts in 1949, when Archiybold Chien met George Elsner in Taipei. The two of them, along with three other Russian migrants, began the bakery business together, on the west side of Taipei, the old downtown. The bakery sold fresh bread and homemade cakes downstair. Above the bakery there is ASTORIA Restaurant, a place where you can order a cup of dark, bitter Russian coffee to go with your newly-purchased pastries. As it was one of the first establishments in Taiwan to provide western-style baked good. ASTORIA become an instant hit with everyone from university professors, writers and governments officials, to students and housewives.
Business boomed for a while. Taiwan bet early on high-tech manufacturing, and by the 1970s the island was gadget maker to the world. Businessmen would come to the cafe with their portable radios and listen to the stock market report while sipping coffee. Gradually, though, the neighborhood outside, with its narrow avenues, tiled facades and crowds of street vendors, lost its importance as office towers, shopping malls, restaurants and foreign boutiques sprouted from the city's new glass-and-steel east side. Then came the international hotels with their elegant cafes. Pretty soon, you could get a good cup of coffee and Western-style pastry anywhere in the city.
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