Address: 363 Kerr St, Oakville ON
Website: http://www.maisondelice.ca
Style: Middle Eastern, North African, French
Price: $$-$$$$
Maison Délice is, since the birth of this website, the third bakery to fill this spot in Kerr Village and has been open for just a few weeks. It was preceded by something European (was it Polish? Or am I now confused?) and then by a Venezuelan place. This time, we have a French and Middle Eastern (the website uses North African -- perhaps Moroccan or Algerian??) pastry shop and cafe with several elaborately decorated cake/slices as well as interesting varieties of baklava and nutty pastries I have yet to see another else. On a regular weekday morning, either the French-style baked goods, croissants and brioches according to the labels, were all gone or weren't baked in the first place, since the containers were empty. However, knowing that, whichever country it may be, North African is certainly something that's hard to get your hands on (the vast majority of Middle Eastern 'bakeries' are Lebanese), I was here for the more exotic things.
Only selected items are labelled and priced, while others are not. These ranged from $1-something for the baked goods, to around $3. Some items are quite expensive, if not overpriced for what you're getting. Around $3 for a cookie or one piece of baklava or $2 for that dough twist (first photo); in general, baklava is always a costly treat, but over $7 for three tiny items, only one of which was actually something elaborate? To be quite honest with you, it felt like a bit of a ripoff.
But back to the baked goods (which are always the most important part of every trip), I and fellow samplers were slightly disappointed with the purchase. For one, the dough twist ($2) was one of the cheapest pastries there; you'll see a similar style from various style: "bows" of deep-fried dough, crispy on the outside and airy on the inside. The variant here was coated with sticky honey glaze and topped with sesame seeds (ha ha I realized only after I had eaten that I'd taken the picture of it upside down XD). Despite the fact that there was very fragrant, in terms of the smell, I found these strangely lacking in any sort of taste, as fond I am of these in general (called chrusty in Polish, for example). You didn't even get that fried dough taste, which surprised me. Was it simply old? O.o
Similarly, there was the cookie, which was unanimously the least favourite, simply due to the fact that it had no taste. I really don't know what fragrance there was (rose water, perhaps), but there was some aroma... Well, after trying it and wondering if it was just me, I handed it over to the other samplers, and three additional people agreed: it had no taste! The cookie dough itself was very floury (kind of like eating uncooked flour and water) and dry. There was some sort of jam in the middle, but no one could discern what it was. One said that it smelled like Turkish Delight, but didn't taste like anything. I'm not quite sure if it's supposed to be like this or not? /confused/ This one turned out to be the one regret out of the three purchases.
Overall, this place was a bit of a hit-and-miss. I'm not sure how the French baked goods fare, but there were some interesting, one-of-a-kind selections that would have been more inviting if they were labelled, (more reasonably) priced, or fresher. :/
Rating: **
No comments:
Post a Comment