Fauchon [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Fauchon
Address: 26 Place de la Madeleine, Paris
Website: http://www.fauchon.com
Style: French
Price: $$$

Anyways, here's another review from my trip to Paris, this time being my trip on my last day to the ultra classy, "epicerie fine" that is Fauchon. As a matter of fact, it's not really a bakery or patisserie at all, but a fancy food emporium selling everything from bread, jams, chocolate, spices and everything in between. The only big issue is that everything is quite expensive here. I mean, if you just look at it from the outside, it looks rather imposing. I was very scared to walk in, but it looked like it might be more than I could afford. And yet, I'll always get lured in by the pastries (it was the end of the day, so the window display in the patisserie section was fairly empty). ^__^; Their stuff really is pretty fancy in terms of appearance, and they've got a more modern, minimalistic approach that I would have never thought beforehand could be applied to the art of baked goods. Most was quite (pretty much, "too") expensive, especially their luxury macarons with some strange flavours.

I picked out their "fruits noirs" (aka, black fruits) tart (6 euro) because of it's uniqueness and because I wanted to splurge a little on my last day. This had figs, blackberries and blueberries on it with a few gold flakes on top (omg, I feel like such a queen! ;D) and was a really original idea, seeing as you can get "fruits rouges" (field berry-like) almost everywhere. The three went very well together, although the seeds in the figs ruined the texture of the tart. It almost felt like you got something in your teeth, with all these unnecessary crunchiness. Nevertheless, the dough and custard filling were excellent and the more hearty blend of fruits was worth a try... and well, you have no idea how proud I was to walk around afterwards with a Fauchon bag like it was something special. :P Though, he he he, Stohrer is still #1 for the tarts!! v^___^v

Rating: **1/2

La maison du Macaron [RIP]

Bakery: La maison du Macaron
Address: 1126 ave. Mont-Royal E, Montreal QC
Website: http://www.lamaisondumacaron.com/
Style: French
Price: $$

[EDIT: Sadly, not only does Maison du  Macaron no longer exist, but their updated patisserie, A la Folie, quietly and rather quickly shut its doors before I made it there for a review. :(  Please note that La maison du Macaron has, as of May 8, 2014, not only moved to a new address -- according to their website, there will also be another location at Eaton Centre -- but has likewise changed its name to "À la Folie (Pâtisseries audacieuses)" At the very least, there's something added to my 'must try' list for Montreal. :P]

This is really one of these places that, if you don't know exactly what you're looking for, you will not find. The nail salon next door looks more prominent. Yet, once you've made into this teeny tiny patisserie, you know you've got the right place. ;) More specifically, La Maison du Macaron has... macarons, and nothing else. You have big macarons, regular-sized ones, elaborate cakes and mountain-like pastries made of macarons (I *really* need to try one of these next time) and macarons glacés, an invention that pairs together macaron biscuits with ice cream or sherbet in the middle instead of that ooey, gooey ganache filling.

Nevertheless, just after having the regular-sized ones, I must say this is easily the best I've had in Canada. Actually, this place might even be better than the inventor of macarons: Ladurée . A bit strong an opinion, but they are certainly much more affordable and they *are* unbelievably soft and tasty, as well as having rotating flavours according to the season, their own premium selections (usually two flavours -- chocolate orange, for one -- in one cookie), and distinctly "Canadian" flavours like blueberry and maple syrup.

On my trip there, I ordered a carnet "passion" ($16... I think), which includes your choice of twelve macarons (in the boxes, you get the premium ones at no extra cost). I selected: 2x raspberry, blueberry, blackcurrant, orange, apple and cinnamon and two more that were eaten before this picture was made. :P The highlights definitely had to be the apple and the raspberry and blackcurrant, the latter two being nice and sour in the middle. These things are always best eaten within a few hours, or a maximum of one day after purchase, because you'll ruin it if you wait too long -- when just bought, these are sooo soft and fresh and delicious! I couldn't believe it; I could never get Parisian ones this fresh. It was amazing! Just be prepared to hunt for this place a little (unless you live near Mont Royal) and be ready to buy yourself some macarons... mainly because they don't have anything else (and rightfully so!). ;D

Rating: ***1/2

Kraków Deli [Updated!]

Bakery: Kraków Deli
Address: #4 2560 Shepard Ave, Mississauga, ON
Website: N/A
Style: Polish
Price: $

Possibly with the exception of Benna's Bakery and Deli, this is definitely the cheapest Polish bakery I've encountered (3 for $1 pączki, $10/kg cream cakes, $12/kg cheesecakes and szarlotki (apple cakes) -- insane!!!). We go here regularly for this reason and for the fact that their treats are always so fresh; other places (*coughs* Karpaty/Euromax down the block *coughs*) not only charge more, but you always get the impression that it's been sitting in their fridges for months. Not so here, where the cakes go so fast, you can actually totally not get anything, because they've sold out. And as with most Polish delis, they don't actually bake anything, but get it from a commercial bakery (if I knew who, I'd so go and see what they've got to offer if they've got a "open to the public" store).

The only real problem is that, seeing how small the 'bakery' section is, there isn't very much variety and the cakes don't exactly change. They've introduced one or two new cakes, but the majority is still various types (different toppings, mainly) of their delicious cheesecake. And, while I'm on it, another problem is the fact that someone decided it would be a *great* idea to put róża (rose jam) in everything: pączki (doughnuts), strawberry cheesecake and their otherwise amazing piernik (gingerbread). Seriously, whhyyyyy? You just don't put rose in gingerbread; it's wrong! (and yes, I absolutely, definitely, most certainly hate rose) This was a huge mistake on the bakery's part, because well, they aren't getting my business anymore, despite the excellent ($5 per piece) price. [EDIT: after taking the risk and buying it again -- you can't take my threats seriously -- I discovered there is no more rose in the gingerbread. Oh, yes!!!!!! ;D]

Since we go regularly and did shop here for all our Christmas cake needs (hence, I did not eat all of this, and certainly not in one go XD), I managed to get a few pics and reviews ready:

Plum cake (~$3/half a pre-cut chunk; first photo): I was super excited to see this here two days before Christmas, as I'd never before seen any sort of plum cake here and well, I'm a huge fan of plum cake, so I couldn't resist reviewing it. ^^;; Sadly, it wasn't the greatest. The crumble on top was a little too doughy and there was too little plums in it, so it really felt like you were eating nothing but (not too fresh or, more likely, too overbaked) dough.

Sernik (cheesecake -- ~$4.50/half a pre-cut chunk; above photo): I absolutely love this cheesecake! This is really the best I've tasted; it's always fresh and cheesy and yet so light and delicious with just the soft ciasto biszkoptowe (what on earth is this as a translation? soft... ladyfinger-like dough -__-;;;) on the bottom. This is so yummy!! ^_^

Mars (~$4/half a pre-cut chunk) : this is one of the new offerings that was introduced a few months ago. It consists of layers of honey cake and cheese with chocolate and peanuts on top. This is one of the most interesting and unique cakes at this deli and I really like it, although the dough always seems to be a little crumbly and falls apart when you try and scoop it onto your fork. But the taste of the spiced cake and cheese is so delicious. I was pretty satisfied with them introducing this. :)

Makowiórek (~$5/pre-cut chunk): this is a cream cake, so not for everyone. In fact, I'm not too big a fan of this, but we bought it for everyone else, so I thought I'd take a pic despite not eating it this time around. As for cream cakes, though, it's pretty good, as you get some more variety than just dough and cream. Here, this is vanilla dough on the bottom, cream then a mass of poppyseed and coconut in the middle. On top, it's dotted with round ladyfingers (Nilla-shaped, but not texture-wise) which are then drizzled in chocolate and coated in more coconut. This is really for people who *love* coconut. Not being one such person, I find it a tad bit... overbearing with there being too much cream for me.

Last but not least -- Sernik na zimno (cold cheesecake -- ~$4.50/half a pre-cut slab): another newer addition to the display case. :3 Cold cheesecake is a hit-and-miss sort of dessert in Canada, with the majority falling very clearly into the "miss" category. This is mostly due to the fact that original recipe calls for serki, small packs of homogenized sweet cheese which can be eaten like yogourt (a little like Minigo or Petit Danone, I suppose), and we simply don't have something like this here. Many bakeries substitute this cheeses with Philadelphia Cream Cheese. This is a complete *disaster*; I absolutely hate the distinct taste of a Philadelphia cream cheesecake with that unbearable heaviness, that taste -- UGH! I don't know how they do it, but these guys have finally nailed it. Delicious bit of the same, perfect vanilla dough with a nice, generous helping of light, fluffy cheese and then jello on top with some random berries in it. Sooo good. :)

NEW!! I finally got a chance to snag a piece of my favourite cake from these guys. I really have no idea what this is called, but it's just so unique, taste-wise, that I really always go for it: dough on the bottom, then little pockets of round, almost dough-like custard with berry jam and lime (the green stuff) pudding. On top of this, there's more berry jam with whole pieces of fruit: strawberries, peaches and blueberries, and then dusted off with some coconut. This is really a weird one (and probably my description isn't so great, but it's super tasty!

MORE NEW STUFF!!  I could hardly believe my eyes when my mom brought back for me a... poppy seed bun!! Gaah, what on earth happened! I've never seen anything like this before, especially as they don't seem to have any baked goods. And it looked so promising too: look at those poppy seeds, crumble and icing, on the outside and yet, there seemed to be more of an art to it than I thought, since they somehow managed to expertly weave the bun so that literally *all* the poppy seeds were on the outside whereas the inside was just plain sweet dough. It's not the first time that's happened in terms of GTA Polish deli/bakeries, and yet I was still  disappointed. :(

The verdict: delicious baked goods and cakes (with a varying degrees of yumminess), although if you want to sample something from these guys, go for their cheescakes and the yummiest of them all, the custard cake and coconut flakes. And what's more: it all comes at a great price! ^^;;;

Rating: ***

Bova's Bakery [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Bova’s Bakery
Address: 134 Salem Street Boston, MA
Website: bovabakeryboston.com
Style: Italian
Price: $$

[here's yet another new feature on my site: international correspondent posts, which are pretty much bakery reviews not written (and not eaten ;D) by me. So you can be a correspondent too! :) And regular ones have the honour/humiliation of having a custom header made by... me! By the way, Polish Gooner happens to be my youngest brother who was forced to eat pastries on their vacation in the US for the sake of this little site. ^^;;;]

If you’re ever in Boston’s North End (Little Italy) and are looking for good Italian bread than Bova’s is the place for you. I first discovered this small bakery while looking for the original location of Pizzeria Regina, probably the best pizza in North America. Bova’s website mentions their bread more than their pastries and even calls itself “North End’s” Famous Italian Bread which is a telling sign of what their specialty is. I really wasn’t sure what to get, there was nothing really exciting but after watching an episode of Cake Boss I decided to order a large lobster tail ($6-7) and a Napoleon ($3-4). The lobster tail dough was tough and chewy, not sure if its supposed be like that, never had one before. There was a lot of mascarpone cheese inside which was nice and rich but don’t eat a large one in one serving – it’ll make you sick. The Napoleon was standard, nothing special, can’t say I didn’t like it. I will definitely be back the next time I’m in Boston but for their bread, I’ll stick to Mike Pastries for the sweets.

Rating: **

Fazer [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Fazer
Address: Kluuvikatu 3, Helsinki
Website: http://www.fazer.fi
Style: Finnish, European
Price: $$$

I really am a little ashamed to say so, but as soon as I'd heard that Finnish chocolate brand Fazer (they also make candies and crisp bread which are exported around the world; it may take a bit of effort to find it) had a cafe that I could visit, I was swayed even more so to visit Helsinki. Okay, okay, it wasn't like that, but let's just say that once I had my trip to Finland planned out, I could NOT wait to visit this huge place in downtown Helsinki dedicated to chocolate and everything else delicious. ;D

Nevertheless, I ended up at the Fazer cafe for lunch and it was just... wow, a real experience. *___* I mean, it was really only half a cafe, as the other half was a store, but omg, it was well worth the visit. They had a whole variety of yummy baked goods, cakes, sweet rolls. Farther down there were sandwiches as well, but come on, this is me we're talking about. I am *not* coming here for a sandwich.

This may look weird as a pic, but the first time I ordered myself an apple cake (omenapiirakka), mainly because (at around 2,50 euro [I think]) it was the cheapest treat you could get except for the doughnuts, and it was served on the edge of a soup bowl filled with vanilla sauce. You pushed the cake with apples and cinnammon baked on top in slowly, so it soaked up a little bit of the sauce and just OMG! *swoons* It was amazingly good. In keeping with the Finnish "coffee party" idea, I ordered with that a cappucino (around 3,50 euro), because it was the cheapest coffee that wasn't black. :D It was served with a Fazer chocolate. This was quite honestly the most blissful moment I had in Finland... .___.;;

 Anyways, I could not keep away from this place for long and returned a second time; it also was my last evening here in Finland, so this was my going-away party. Seeing as I had a little more money to spend, I splurged a little this time around, though I found, oddly enough, the coffee to be more expensive than the cakes. Seeing as you could get cakes at around 3 euro, but coffee was easily 4+ seemed a little strange for me...

This time around, I got a cafe latte (over 4 euro, definitely) and a strawberry/pistachio cake (I pointed when ordering it, so I have no idea what it is XD) that was absolutely delicious!!! I don't remember the price, but I believe that it was somewhere between 3-4 euros. Nevertheless, the cake pretty much consisted of three layers: a strawberry mousse on top followed by a thin layer of jam and then a dense, almost soft biscotti-like cake with chunks of pistachio. Wow. I really don't know which I liked more: the apple cake or the strawberry one. This is a question I haven't been able to answer for over a year now. ;)

Fazer... is absolutely amazing! Yup, that's the verdict. I adore this place and when (no if's here!!!) I return during my tour of Scandinavia and Finland, you can guarantee I'll be getting back in line for something else flawlessly yummy! ^__^;;;

Rating: ****

Eitelbach [RIP]

Bakery: Eitelbach
Address: 55 Bloor St. West (in the Manulife Centre) [no longer at this location]
Website: http://www.eitelbach.com
Style: German
Price: $$$$

[I'm not sure if this place is gone completely, as they still have a factory somewhere in North York, I believe... their website has the address, but the one in the Manulife Centre is gone. So please be aware of that! ^^]

The story of how we got this is an interesting one. We were in Yorkville before Christmas and walking in the underground mall between The Bay and Holt Renfrew when a woman passed me and was carrying an Eitelbach bag in her hand. The logo, oddly enough, looked like macarons to me and so I began to wonder if there was some fancy patisserie here that I'd never seen before and that is was *necessary* for us to go and find it. After some time wandering the little mall, we gave up and once we came back, I checked online and found that these guys made Baumkuchen, a delectable cake that I'd had twice before and I really loved. So, vowing the next time we went to Yorkville I'd buy it, I left it at that. And yet I ended up getting it as a Christmas present. ^^

I was personally hoping for the traditional, lumpy tree form, but I got one in a tin with a thick, thick layer of dark chocolate all over the cake. Considering that this is not cheap ($32 + tax/cake), I have to say that it definitely sounded better than it actually tasted. I mean, the experience itself: the fancy bag, the cellophane-wrapped cake in a tin which is in a box wrapped in red ribbon is pretty exciting, but the cake itself was disappointing.

 The signature of this cake is its many rings (Baumkuchen = tree cake; it's like tree rings ;P), but they didn't seem to bake it long enough between the layers and there was no real colour that you could see. Next, traditionally, the cake is just dough. It's really made and eaten in order to appreciate the special baking technique; alone, the dough, really dense, is delicious. Here, the focus was the chocolate and the thick layer of dark chocolate coating everything. If you love chocolate, you might appreciate this, but it was simply too overpowering. All you could taste was the chocolate and none of the dough; you're actually under the impression that you're paying more for the coating than the cake and for the packaging along with it. Sadly, without the chocolate, the cake itself was insignificant: quite plain and possessing the same amount of flavour as a, albeit dense, vanilla cake. All in all, as unique as it may be or as high-quality the chocolate coating is, this here is going to get a big NWI: Not Worth It! For $35, there's so much more you can get than this is rather unimpressive, under-performing cake.

Rating: **