Have you tried Chew Chew Bun? The State College Asian bakery has plans to expand

In 2018, when Skye Chang moved back to State College from California, where he was working with a tech startup, he noticed a void in the State College dining scene.

“There’s a lot of Asian cuisine in California,” he said. “I was spoiled. ... There are still a lot of different Asian cuisines that are missing in State College. I’ve always wanted to do something with food, and ... State College didn’t have an Asian bakery yet, so that’s what we went for, back in 2019.”

Chang opened Chew Chew Bun in 2019 alongside his mother, Jenny Tsai. Both boast backgrounds in the food industry, but Chang said he didn’t necessarily have much personal experience cooking and baking. With his mother acting as head baker, he managed the business side of things when they launched from a small “home base” kitchen, serving customers via delivery only. Customers place orders a day ahead of delivery and ordered items are baked fresh the next morning.

“Initially, when we started in 2019, we didn’t really look for a store(front). We weren’t sure what the market in State College (would be),” Chang said. “I know there are a lot of Asian communities, but my goal is to not just introduce the Asian bakery to Asian communities. I also want to let the local communities learn different kinds of cuisines and what the history of it is.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted Chew Chew Bun’s first year of business in early 2020, Chang took a pause, shuttering Chew Chew Bun until August and the start of the Penn State fall semester. From that point, he said, the business “kind of grew more. We received more customers and more orders. I think it was due to the pandemic and people ordering delivery at home.”

Now, Chew Chew Bun, in addition to offering next-day delivery, is also a Centre Markets vendor. However, Chang has further expansion plans for the future. He said he’s in negotiations to sign a lease on a commercial kitchen space in State College, with the hopes of having it fully operational by August, citing struggles with efficiency in his current, small kitchen.

“It’s not really cost-effective,” he says of the process. “We spend a long time making smaller quantities. I want to increase our efficiency. By getting a small (commercial) space, we can have commercial equipment and produce more in a shorter time. There are also some limitations of what type of food we can currently make. Once we get a commercial space, it opens the door to many more pastries.”

Depending on how the business progresses from there, Chang says he could envision a larger, second location with a dine-in area for customers.

But growth isn’t Chang’s only goal. He’s also placing a high priority on environmental friendliness.

“Back on the West Coast, in traditional Asian bakeries, they tend to use a lot of plastics,” he said, “especially when they package buns. Each bun gets a small plastic bag. Outside the small plastic bags, they use another larger plastic bag or two. ... We’re trying to look for environmentally-friendly products to package our baked goods. That’s one of the missions and goals.”

For those who’ve yet to place an order with Chew Chew Bun, the menu primarily consists of Taiwanese buns and pastries, both savory and sweet. Sweet buns are filled with traditional ingredients such as red beans, milk butter or taro, while savory buns often include pork sung, which Chang describes as a “pork flake” that’s very popular in Asia and used a variety of ways. Some of the business’s best sellers thus far include the pork sung buns, the melon buns and Portuguese egg tarts. Chang’s favorite, though, is the garlic cheese pull buns.

To place an order or view Chew Chew Bun’s current menu, visit chewchewbun.com.