Pasteleria San Antonio
Empanada Especial de Carne with Beef, Onions, Boiled Egg, Powdered Sugar and Lime
Alfajor Tradicional
Crema Frito with Masa Brioche and Chantilly Cream
Manzana con Pasas with Apple, Fondant and Honey
Pionono with Dulce de Leche
Bread Pudding
Impressed by Pasteleria San Antonio San Isidro just a few days prior it was while in another part of Lima that a second location played host to Breakfast, the all-day Cafeteria in Magdalena del Mar a bit less boisterous than its larger sibling but still offering the same great lineup plus a few novelties likely related to dining in the morning instead of late at night.
Laid out in a fashion similar but not quite the same as other San Antonio Bakeries, the Deli cases and Bakers racks encircling a standing-room-only counter at room’s center with dine-in seating allocated to a patio and room to one side, it is immediately upon approaching the cases that patrons are greeted by temptations on all sides, the server in this case not fluent in English but more than capable of collecting a half-dozen items and producing the bill.
Settling the tab at a central cashier before returning to the counter to collect, everything boxed nicely with sweet and savory separate, it was while standing at a tall counter that a piping-hot Empanada was cut in half displaying Beef, Onions and Eggs, everything well seasoned and magnified by a twist of lime before switching gears to Bread Pudding so heavy with Citrus that tasted as though it had been made not with Custard but Orange Juice.
Turning next to an Alfajor labeled as “Tradicional,” the triple-stack Sandwich dissimilar to any other in town with a Shortbread sort of texture amidst Manjar Blanco, it was in follow-up that more Caramel filled the center of rolled Dough closer to San Antonio’s Cornmeal Alfajor, though left to decide between one or the other the Cookie seems to offer a better Filling to ‘Crust’ ratio.
Saving two larger items till the end, most of the Bread Pudding discarded, it was largely out of curiosity that Masa Brioche filled with Chantilly and topped with Crème Brulee was tasted and found to be exactly as its ingredients would lead one to suspect, the “Manzana con Pasas” somehow managing to be even more cloyingly sweet by way of the Honey Glaze and cooked Apples surrounded by Fondant.
