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$5 Lunch in Dallas: Garden Food Bakery

Posted on May 19th, 2009 4:24pm by Sarah Eveans
Filed under Uncategorized, cheap eats

I woke up today with a char siu bao craving. For those who aren’t familiar, char siu bao are Chinese BBQ pork buns, which can either be steamed or baked. While I like the dinner-roll feeling of the baked variety, the steamed kind was what my stomach wanted. So I set off to Richardson to find Garden Food Bakery, which is located close to First Chinese BBQ off Greenville. The steamed buns were wrapped up two for $2 and were located inside a glass case, along with a few other items (mostly cookies and pastries). I asked for one package and the woman working heated them up in the micro for me. It was 11:55 and the baked BBQ buns were already sold out, which was fine with me, but the other customer was not happy. He grabbed some steamed buns too and I’m hoping he liked them more, anyway.

I also grabbed a baked bun from the wooden shelves because they were marked as pork sausage. Once I got to the counter the woman told me they were actually taro, which I like, so I bought that too. Total cost: $3.50. Jump for the rest and more pictures.

I downed the first one in the parking lot (there wasn’t anywhere to sit inside the bakery, as far as I could tell). The pork was slightly sweet, but not too much so, and there was a very good ratio of filling-to-bun (more than I remember from experiences at other restaurants). The pork was slightly chewy (not tough) and fatty (a good thing). The sauce was thick. The bun itself was fluffy and not sticky. Pretty good eat-on-your-lap-in-the-front-seat food.

The taro (a potatolike tuber) filling was the consistency of mashed potatoes, and was a very light purple color. I’ve never had poi, but from images I’ve seen, this filling was a similar color. It actually tasted a bit like a banana to me. Just a bit sweet. The huge baked bun was golden brown with a few sesame seeds sprinkled on top. I liked it, but I don’t know if I would order it again. I would probably get the red bean instead.

In the end, I am full (much more than last week), and I’m satisfied, but I’d like to try a different place next time. I saw another Chinese bakery, Maria’s, off the 75 access road when I was heading to Garden Food. It was closed on Tuesdays so I’ll have to hit it next time.

9 Comments to “$5 Lunch in Dallas: Garden Food Bakery”

Kirk @ May 19th, 2009 at 5:44 pm

Maybe next time you should figure the cost of gasoline into your $5.00 lunch calculations. Driving 28 miles roundtrip to get pork buns would seem to the financial model off a little.
Sarah Eveans @ May 19th, 2009 at 11:21 pm

kirk: kindly tell me where to get pork buns closer. I’ll be there.
Sarah Eveans @ May 20th, 2009 at 3:07 am

kirk: kindly tell me where to get pork buns closer. I’ll be there.
OH! You’re my new favorite blogger fyi
luniz @ May 20th, 2009 at 12:05 pm

I don’t think she should Kirk, since the cost varies based on where you’re starting. I love char siu bao, for me the holy grail is a great bun with a slightly sweet, somewhat smokey pork filling. It’s probably best if it’s not microwaved too. I’ll have to check these two places out…thanks Sarah.
Kirk @ May 20th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

Sarah: I wasn’t suggesting that you not drive to Richardson for good food. (Hell, I have taken trips to other countries in pursuit of a particular meal.)

Luniz: If I reported on a fantastic char siu bao I ate that cost me $5, would it be fair to call it a $5 meal if I had to fly to Vancouver, BC, or Hong Kong to get it?

I was simply suggesting that it might be a bit misleading to say that you ate a $5 lunch, when it cost you $5 in gas (or $700 in airfare) to get there and back.
KT @ May 20th, 2009 at 1:44 pm

SideDish readers live all over the DFW area, including Richardson, so I don’t think Sarah should limit it to a certain radius of where she works or lives. I personally don’t think it’s misleading and you can’t compare it to Vancouver or Hong Kong.
luniz @ May 20th, 2009 at 2:24 pm

Yea I mean this isn’t a socioeconomic experiment. It’s just lunch, ideally for under $5. As long as she can drive there in less than an hour it’s fair game. I don’t think you should take this so literally. Like KT says, since readers are over the metroplex, everyone can benefit. It doesn’t really help the rest of us out, if all she does is within walking distance of where she works.
Kirk @ May 20th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

Beam me up, Scotty. There’s no evidence of intelligent life on this planet.
Amy B @ May 20th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

I live in Plano, work in Dallas near SMU/Mockingbird. At lunch, we walk & sometimes do venture all the way down to Beltline for Chinese BBQ. If all Sarah reviewed were the things in “her bubble,” this would be kind of worthless…You act like Richardson IS as far as Hong Kong…lol.

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