Pancho’s churros
If you’re hunting for food trends, you already know that gourmet doughnuts are causing quite the fuss. Branch out a bit more and start ordering the Mexican version to impress your friends, assuming your friends are easily impressed by fried dough. Churros are delicious sticks of golden fried dough dusted with cinnamon and sugar and then filled with dulce de leche, strawberry or chocolate sauce at Pancho’s Mexican Bakery.
Having just opened their third location, Pancho’s has a small bakery at El Gordo Fine Foods in Kensington Market. Alfonso Segovia is the owner of El Gordo and has created a wonderful little food court with seven vendors selling a better variety of food than you’ll find in food courts ten times the size. A mix of gourmet and street food at reasonable prices is what Alfonso wanted to make available: lobster rolls, Korean snacks, empanadas, arepas, Portuguese salt cod fritters, tacos, and of course, the Mexican sweets of Pancho’s Bakery.
In three short years they’ve opened three bakeries. President Adal Aguilar’s great-grandfather started one in Mexico back in 1927; Adal was inspired to open the first bakery in Toronto because he missed the pastries from home. They make 45 different Mexican sweets along with traditional seasonal breads. The most popular are the concha ($2.00), a sweet bread with a crunchy, sugary vanilla topping, and the delicious hot churros ($1.50), which they fry to order and fill with the sweetness of your choice. These are so much better than those mini-doughnuts at the carnival.
When asked which Mexican sweet more people should try, Adal chooses the alfajor ($2.00). Their alfajor is a layer of sweet dulce de leche sandwiched between two soft cookies and lightly dusted with coconut.
Pancho’s proudly boasts of “the best churros in town” and at $1.50 apiece you may want to try a few just to make sure.
Pancho’s Bakery can be found on Twitter at @PanchosBakery.
____
