Shilla Bakery (Annandale, VA)

Shilla Bakery is one of those places known almost exclusively to the Asian-food cognoscenti.  So it’s our privilege to let you in on this fabulous, gourmet quality bakery, with several locations in VA and MD.  Its café-style ambiance lures young and the old alike to try the daily samples.  Choose from the Chestnut Castella (Korean for soft baked cake), pumpkin and chestnut pastry, Cream Baguettes, Pizza Baguettes, mocha pie Castella, Banana pound cake and tons more.  You can also order from the list of Asian teas or Starbucks-quality Coffee, and then sit at a comfortable lounge chair indulging in your guilty pleasure.  Until word gets out about Shilla, you might not get caught. Next time you are buying the birthday cake, skip the Giant bakery and show up with a heavenly Vanilla Fruit Cake or a Mocha Cream Cake with Chocolate Sprinkles on top.

Bale French Bakery (Springfield, VA)

The Chopstix guide is about Asian cuisine, this is a French bakery, the French colonized Vietnam, its all beginning to make sense.  Well, no matter how good your powers of deduction, you would still need a good imagination to conjure this bakery, specializing in Vietnamese sandwiches made on French rolls.  There are over ten different types that you can choose from, and among those choices are Chicken, Julian Pork, Pâté, Barbeque Chicken, Vegetarian or a combination of these ingredients.    Here’s the best part.  The average price for these sandwiches is $2.50.  Buying for the office, buy five sandwiches for $12.50 and get one free.  If you live nearby or it’s on the way to the fishing hole, forget packing sandwiches.  If White Castle didn’t say it first, Bale would say buy ‘em by the bag.