Bubó Degustation & Pastisseria
Bubó is a modern, chic patisserie (pastry shop) found close to Basilica Santa Maria del Mar in the El Born district of Barcelona. Owned by the award winning pastry chef, Carles Mampel, this shop feels a tiny bit out of place because it’s smack dab in the middle of the “Old City” of Barcelona. The good thing is (for the most part), it’s close to our apartment that we indulged quite a bit of their stunning pastries during our stay in Barcelona.
One of our breakfasts was here when we had a cup of cappuccino dusted in cocoa powder (as seen above; 2) or Americano with their buttery, flaky viennoiserie like their raviolo giandujia, a stratified puck-shaped puff pastry filled with gianduja (milk chocolate and hazelnut; 1,30€) cream. Their plain croissant (1,15€) almost brought back memories of Paris when the croissant just shatters with ease when bitten and it’s buttery without being dense.
Their most unusual viennoiserie called the Sneken (1,30€). It looked like a sticky bun but made with puff pastry, schmeared with dark chocolate and rum soaked raisins, and dusted with green tea crumble. If you need an intensely flavored pastry to fuel your day, this pastry is it.
Green Berry; Xabina cake; Mandarin orange, milk chocolate mousse, lemon, and hazelnut praline cake
One of those evenings, we helped ourselves to Green Berry (4€) cake that despite of it’s very saturated green color, the fresh strawberries and the almond based cake was very good.
The metallic orange cake was filled with layers of Mandarin orange, milk chocolate mousse, lemon curd, and hazelnut praline cake (4,20€).
The award winning (in 2005) Xabina (4€) cake for the “world’s best chocolate cake” in Lyon 2005 for the Press Award deserved of its accolade back then. It’s made of four layers – a sponge of olive oil with spices, a crisp layer of praline with cocoa beans, a cappuccino sponge soaked in Madagascar vanilla and a light, creamy chocolate mousse and covered in layer of smooth chocolate glaze.
Namelaka & White truffle macarons
The most interesting individual sized cake was the Namelaka (5,50€), a Japanese word for creamy texture and the technique for making this creamy texture comes from the Valrhona School of Pastry. The gianduja cream, sits on a green tea sponge and a crunchy chocolate biscuit base. The subtle flavors combine and melt in the mouth. The cake is gently decorated with a fine layer of milk chocolate to add to this creamy, chocolaty combination.
The white truffle macarons (a bargain compared to most Manhattan bakeries of 1 Euro (back then the exchange rate to US is 1€ = $1.27) was delicious. Not too chewy but moist and the truffle flavor wasn’t overwhelming. There was a little surprise in the center of a toasted hazelnut to emphasize the nutty flavor of the truffle.
We did take several pastries back to our apartment, since a few of us would have one of those cravings for late night snacking, for breakfast, and during the time we had dinner in. We split the loaves of pretty cakes from their “plum cake” line (we had the green tea plum cake and vanilla rhubarb, (7€ each)), delicious apple walnut filled pastry, and sweet marzipan croissant (3,50€ each).
The most prettiest cake we saw at the shop was this large pear Charlotte cake (31€), namely because of the whimsical, firm, pasta-like strands of chocolate ganache topping it off. This beauty was made of William pear mousse and a creamy Madagascar vanilla mousse, almond sponge and caramelized pears, and based on an almond crust.
To view more photos of these visits, please view the slideshow below (or CLICK HERE for my photo set of the first visit and HERE for the second visit):
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Bubó Degustation
Website
Carrer de Caputxes, 10
08003 Barcelona, Spain
Map
Tel. 932 687 224
