European Breads

Bakery: European Breads
Address: 4320 Fraser St, Vancouver BC
Website: http://www.europeanbreads.com/
Style: Eastern European, Russian 
Price: $$ 

Several years ago, I got super excited at finding "Georgian Bakery," at first thinking that it referred to the country. Given how I love encountering less common ethnic baking, I was pretty disappointed when the 'Georgian' referred to the landmark, Georgian Bay. Of course. -_- Fast forward to now and there's European Breads, a bakery on Fraser I accidentally stumbled upon while looking for a street and one that I recall researching in the past, simply because I was very convinced that it was one of these places where they just sell bread. I'm not quite sure where that idea came from, but I'm very happy I stepped in nonetheless.

Putting all that to the side, European Breads is a small bakery and deli (in that they serve hot and some prepared food). Upon entering you're greeted by the smell of cooked cabbage, so it's definitely an Eastern European business. ;) However, they have a pretty small display case of sweet and savoury baked goods, including two with poppy seed! Judging by the hot food menu, the sweets available, and the two groups of Russian speakers eating there, I naturally assumed it to be Russian; some online research revealed that the owner is, more specifically, from Georgia, though there is almost nothing uniquely Georgian being sold. It would be a bit of a shame if it weren't for those poppy seed treats, the most surprising of which was the poppy seed roll cake. I've never seen one like this before; and it looks good... I'll have to get the next time I'm there!

Wanting more of a baked good than a cake this time around, I went with the poppy seed bun ($2.95). Outwardly, it was a fairly simple, unadorned bun with rolled with a black, grainier poppy seed mass. Peeling it apart layer by layer, I was pleasantly surprised at how much poppy seed filling there really was and both the dough and filling were delicious. What a find!

Rating: ***1/2