Latin Taste

Bakery: Latin Taste
Address: 200 Baldwin St, Toronto ON
Website: n/a
Style: Mexican, South American
Price: $

On a somewhat recent trip to Kensington Market, one brother returned with a box of Mexican pastries, to my complete surprise, since I thought I was aware of all the bakeries (and businesses, in fact) in the market. Not remembering what it was called, he told me where it was located, and even this didn't do much. In fact, it took a trip back myself to get the name and address of this nonexistent business.

However, the goods themselves existed, ha ha ha, so here's the review. Like many, if not all, South American or Mexican "bakeries", this is a mix of traditional pastries and usually the more popular hot, savoury food, namely empanadas (which the brother likewise tried as his lunch and really enjoyed, so there's another recommendation for you). Like almost all Latino 'bakeries', this place is cheap, with everything costing at around $1.25, and you're sure to get your fill, especially of dulce de leche, with which all pastries are stuffed rather too generously; that is, unless you absolutely love the stuff. In that case, this might be the best place to fulfill that crazing. ;)

So he ended up getting quite a few things, many of which were pretty much variations on the puff pastry dough and creamy, caramel-like filling, one resembling more of a fan (more dough, less filling) and the other looking like a... pig in a blanket ^^; with the dough being slightly denser and covered in choco-vanilla glaze on the latter. A more decadent version was the sandwich cookie, with dulce de leche in the middle (and meringue? what is that??), two puff pastry cookies, and chocolate shavings and icing sugar on top.

Slightly different was the other cookie (an alfajor) which the brother thought to be filled with guava (a little like the Colombian version), so I claimed this exclusively for myself. Well, underneath that coconut was... you guessed it, more dulce de leche, this time sandwiched between two downright delicious shortbread cookies, not too hard.

Ha ha I have to say I wasn't too thrilled before trying it, since I got this impression it would just be this butterscotch-y concoction (something I don't like), but after the first bite, it starts getting to you and I thought that well, this wasn't bad at all. The brother responsible for the purchases was likewise pleased with his discovery; he thought it one of the best Latin/South American baked goods he's tried. And oh, don't forget your churro either... which doesn't come filled with that omnipresent dulce de leche cream (and is quite possibly the least photogenic baked good in existence)! :P

Rating: ***