Gas station pastries: we know ‘em, we love ‘em, and, although we know they’re not exactly good for us, when pressed for time, we often find ourselves indulging. Like cigarettes, these assorted danishes and cakes pack enough unpronounceable chemicals and preservatives to ensure us a place in the “Body Worlds” exhibit following our untimely deaths. Despite their insanely cheap prices, many of these delights manage to look beautiful. One ubiquitous brand even has a suitably upscale name to accompany its appearance: Bon Appetit.

Here in Southern California, a mere two hours from Mexico’s Baja peninsula, our convenience stores carry an ethnic variant: Buen Appetito. The pastries are FrankenFood versions of what you might expect to find at a Mexican panederia… there are conchas, tropical-fruit turnovers and corn muffins. The packages share the clear plastic and chic red-and-beige label of their French parent companies, but in place of the little parasol over “Bon Appetit,” a sultry Latina with come-hither eyes greets you from above the slightly-altered brand name. A subtle, yet clever marketing decision.
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Our friends over at Candy Addict have mentioned Collon, but apparently were afraid to actually try it. But hey, I’ve eaten coconut-flavored maggots for this site. It takes a lot more than a funny name to frighten me off.

Collon is not a candy, it’s more of a filled cookie. My theory is that the name relates to some more innocent English word like ‘cone’ or ‘crown’ which has been transliterated into Japanese and then back, not entirely successfully. They seem like a sort of mini-interpretation of a common Japanese baked good which is a cone-shaped bread/pastry roll with cream in it.

I admit, I tried the vanilla flavor rather than that chocolate. Without a brown filling, the association to the more unfortunate English word is a lot weaker.
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Bagel-fuls are toasty warm bagels with a cream cheese filling inside. I tried the brown sugar and cinnamon bagel with cinnamon cream cheese inside. Sounds yummy, right?

After zapping it in the microwave for 15 seconds, I immediately wanted to bite into it and when I did, the outside tasted just like a soft chewy bagel. As for the cream cheese inside, the texture was creamy, but I couldn’t really taste it, so my thoughts are that it should be a little stronger tasting, or possibly have more cream cheese in it.
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