As you’ve probably already guessed, at any given moment of the day, I’m thinking about food in some form or another. I get obsessed with ingredients quickly — panela cheese! mangoes! mamey! — and then the obsession peters out, replaced by the next thing.
Lately, hovering about it all, is my obsession with the concha roll.
Bondy started this whole business. A few weeks after we moved here, we went there for breakfast, and the waiters presented us with the lushest, softest concha I’d ever seen. This was not the bland concha of my American childhood. I took a bite and felt myself lifting up out of my seat, my spirit transported to the clouds, where piles of rainbow-colored conchas frolicked in rays of God-light.
Since then I’ve tried to find a concha that’s equal to or better than Bondy. I hadn’t had much luck so far, but then I heard about Maque, a Condesa café on Parque Mexico. My guidebooks raved about Maque’s conchas. So we went last Sunday for breakfast. A friend warned us to get there before noon, because the tables fill up quickly.
Just before noon, there was already a 30 minute wait, and the smell of baking bread enveloped the entrance and teased everyone. Waitresses in long, light-blue dresses and white scalloped aprons bustled around with trays of pan dulce, offering bisquets, cuernitos, cinnamon rolls and tiny baby conchas to the customers sitting outside. I tried to ignore the rumbling in my stomach.
Finally, we got a table, and our waitress took our coffee order and rushed away. I stared longingly at a tray of bread nearby.
A few minutes later, she appeared again. This time clutching the tray and a pair of tongs.
“A piece of sweet bread?” she asked.
I pointed at a caramel-colored baby concha.
“And for you sir?”
Crayton got a cuernito.
She placed the concha on my little white plate, and I prepared my fork and knife. Oh man. This was it! This was it. I took a bite of the concha and…
Disappointment. It was on the dry side. And bland. The crunchy, quilted crust was nice, but it was definitely not as good as a concha from Bondy. I decided not to even take a picture of it.
When she came around the next time, I ordered a bisquet with a dollop of queso.
It was dense and buttery, and much better.
I’m not going to rule out Maque yet. Maybe our rolls were old. Maybe new ones had just came out of the oven, but a mean waitress grabbed them and served them to another table. Maybe the larger conchas taste much better, and everyone knows that but me.
I’m going to give them one more chance. And the next time I’m there, I might have to sneak in a taste of their cinnamon rolls, too.
I recommend La Pasteleria La Gran Via on Amsterdam, about 15 minutes after they’ve opened. Usually around 9:30 a.m. or so, they bring out the piping fresh conchas.
Ummm I love pan dulce and conchas are my favorite.
The conchas for breakfast at La Casa del PAstor are really good, ask for them “con nata”. There’s one in Mazaryk.
Have breakfast at El Cardenal, the original, on Calle Las Palmas, Colonia Centro. Have pan dulce. Have natas on and with your pan dulce. Have chocolate caliente. Have coffee.
After those, the regular breakfast dishes are almost anticlimactic.
Bring a credit card.
How about an address for Maque?
Saludos,
Don Cuevas
(Private email works for me.)
Bondy is just classic, I love that place, it’s like being back in the days of the first peso crises of the 70s or 80s. I don’t know if there’s any better place for conchas. Again, I would try Saks maybe. For store-bought pan dulce in general I liked the PanMex-Nutrisa chains (they’re mostly clustered in El Sur, but there has to be one closer to Condesa-Juárez or Polanco). El Cardenal is also awesome for indulging in bkfst rolls. Still, it’s incredibly hard to find good, old-style pan dulce (pan de pueblo, the kind baked with lard and filled with nata and drizzled with piloncillo) that you can find in Provincia (particularly Michoacán, Puebla and Oaxaca, I would say).
I so miss Mexican breakfasts 🙁
Thanks for the suggestions! I may have to try all of these in one day, in the Ultimate Concha Taste Test. (Pasteleria Gran Via, La Casa del Pastor, Saks.) I think I need to do El Cardenal on its own… I’ve heard too many good things.
Mario: I adore the pan de pueblo in Michoacan. ADORE it. And I agree, Mexican breakfasts are my favorite. Next time you’re in DF we gotta hit Bondy!
Don Cuevas: Maque is at Ozulama 4. It’s at the corner of Avenida Mexico and Ozulama, right on Parque Mexico in la Condesa.
Thanks Lesley; on Sunday, we went with friends to Parrilla Quilmes, restaurante Argentino*, and after, stopped briefly at Maque, just long enough to pick up a few individual pastries for later on. So far, we had choux relleno de crema pastelera, a mantecada, and a couple of Garibaldis, of which I was not super fond. Got a tartaleta de manzana and a rollo de canela left. >Tomorrow morning.<
I liked the clean, bright store interior, and the staff was dressed in cute Holly Hobbie sort of aprons and caps.
(*On Alfonso Reyes. Blog post and photos to follow.)
Saludos,
Don Cuevas
My first experience with conchas was at Bondy and, like you, I’ve been trying to capture that flavor and texture ever since. I’ve traveled across America and tasted conchas along the way but nothing equals Bondy.
I’m looking forward to your Ultimate Concha Taste Test.
Hi, I would have to urge u to try Maque again. I’ve known them since they started in the north side of the city. I’m not sure if the quality might have changed as they grew. But I can tell you that I don’t live in Mexico City anymore, and the only thing I can’t seem to get off my mind is the conchas from Maque. And if you ever have a chance I strongly recommend La Rosca De Reyes, which is only made in January.
Good luck with your search… don’t give up, if so many people say something good about a place, chances are, that it is true.