Daegu Eats | Bake Cheese Tart 

Bake Cheese Tart, a bakery that originated in Hokkaido, Japan, recently opened with much anticipation (by me, anyway) at the new Shinsegae Mall in Daegu. Bake, like many Japanese specialty food shops, is the type of place that focuses on perfecting and making only one thing: cheese tarts. That’s it. One type of baked good. One flavor. With a line that snaked all around the basement food court to get a taste of this delicious treat.

I don’t normally do lines, but given that I wanted to bring home some special treats for Lunar New Year, and given that there was only one thing on the menu, the line moved quickly. When it was my turn I gave myself a pep talk and attempted to order six tarts in Korean. My order was met with scrunched faces and furrowed eyebrows. I repeated myself, even less sure than I was before, and then once more, before I reverted to my standard charades and hand signals. I held up six fingers and pointed to the tarts. After what felt like an eternity, the sales lady finally registered what I wanted, “OH. BOX-UH!” I nodded furiously. Yes, whatever, sure, a “box-uh” of tarts was fine. Any amount of tarts would have been fine at that point. It turned out that six tarts made up one box, and instead of asking for six individual tarts, I should have asked for one “box-uh” of tarts. Lesson learned. Oh well, at least I tried.

After all the trouble of waiting in line, dealing with the never-ending line cutters (drives me absolutely insane here in Korea), and not being able to order from a menu that only had one item, the tarts needed to be not just good, but amazing. Thankfully they were, the obsessive Japanese nature of focusing on and mastering one thing until it is perfect evident even in a simple frickin’ cheese tart.

Cheese things can be a bit hit or miss in Asia. In Korea, it’s almost as if you cannot find anything cheesy without it also being paired with honey. For example, Cheetos in Korea taste like Cap’n Crunch cereal, and is probably one of my least favorite things I have eaten while living here. Don’t even get me started on the sugar pizza, or worse, the sweet (and cold) nacho cheese sauce we stupidly dared to try.

But when it comes to cheesecake, it’s a totally different story. Whereas savory cheese things are sweet, sweet cheese things aren’t actually very sweet at all. Such was the case with Bake cheese tarts. The texture of the filling was soft and creamy, almost mousse-like, and tasted like a not-overly-sweet cheesecake. In contrast, the tart shells were crispy, crunchy, buttery, and flaky, like a French butter cookie. Together, the combined flavors were absolute perfection. After biting into our first cheese tart, Sly and I looked at each other, nodded in agreement, closed our eyes, and savored each and every last bite. It took all of our willpower to resist finishing off the entire “box-uh.”

DETAILS

Bake Cheese Tart | CUISINE: Franco-Japanese Bakery, specifically, cheese tarts | LOCATION: B1F of Shinsegae Mall. The red subway line, exit two, takes you directly to the basement level of the mall where, like in most Asian countries, you can find an amazing assortment of restaurants and gourmet eats. | DESCRIPTION: Popular Hokkaido-based bakery with international locations in Asia. Creamy soft cheese tarts in a buttery, crispy shell. The flavor is reminiscent of a NY style baked cheesecake, but nowhere near as sweet. Bake Cheese Tart has only one item on the menu: plain cheese tarts, and there is usually a line to get them.  | VERDICT: Highly recommended. Worth waiting in line, as the line moves quickly. I could easily eat six tarts all by myself.