Eileen's Centerview Bakery

Bakery: Eileen's Centerview Bakery
Address: 465 Center Road, West Seneca, NY
Website: http://eileensbakery.com/
Style: North American, German
Price: $-$$

The male member's of my household go to Buffalo semi-regularly and since discovering Eileen's, one brother has been sure to include it on his trip. Actually, he promised to write the review himself, but I know that'll never happen and seeing as my photo folder for the Cake Tour is running on... empty, I thought I might as well do the honour myself. The first time the brother found it, he came running into the house raving about it, that it was one of the few bakeries where he didn't know what to take, simply because there was so much to choose from. Ironically, despite all the choice, he came back with everything looking pretty much the same. :/

Eileen's style seems to be a mix, like many businesses in the Buffalo area, of a bit of German recipes and North American stuff like cookies, doughnuts and whatnot. The small baked goods, at around $1 each are the best deal, though they weren't varied enough for me. The brother bought on this first trip: doughnut sticks (I have no idea what they're supposed to be called), sticky buns, elephant ears (the spiral bun) and fastnachts. The former two were the least interesting, though the brother loved the sticky buns, ooey gooey buns with nuts and sugar, so much he bought and ate another on his return trip. The fastnacht, a very thin piece of dough deep fried and then coated in sugar and cinnamon, were interesting, but ha ha mostly for the name. Reminiscent of Portuguese doughnuts or a brittle version of Mexican churros, I personally would have liked them more if they weren't so hard, but I guess that's the recipe, not the baker. :P By far, the best thing was the elephant ears, which were thin, though fluffier dough swirled with cinnamon and nuts and coated in sugar. It doesn't sound too complex, but the texture, the sweetness and flavour was just right and that was... pretty tasty. ^^

Being yelled at for not getting something different, the brother came back with a huge cherry crumble cake ($6.49) which was, to be quite honest, an amazing idea, but with the execution being off. I loove fruit crumble cakes, which are a staple in quite a few European countries and the more crumble you have the better you are. ((my mom just baked buttery lingonberry crumble cake... omg! amazing!! *-*)) The premise was the same here: yeast dough on the bottom, fruit and then crumble. What ruined this was the filling: pre-fab cherry pie filling, which was more red gloop than actual fruit. The dough and crumble were much too sweet as well, but maaaan, fresh fruit would have made all the difference here! There doesn't need to be so much in it, if costs are a problem ($6.49, btw, isn't sooo cheap for pie filling), but pie filling was a huge no-no in terms of presentation, texture, and taste. Huge disappointment.

The brother will probably be returning for more goodies, but I personally think that he can either count me out or try and convince me with some other goodies. The first batch was alright, though nothing spectacular. The second attempt had the potential, but, in the end, didn't make the grade.

Rating: **

EuroMax

Bakery: EuroMax Foods
Address: 2550 Hurontario St, Mississauga ON (two other locations)
Website: http://www.euromaxfoods.com/
Style: Polish, "European"
Price: $$-$$$

I was sharing my confusion in regards to Euromax in my Karpaty post several months ago and I still don't get it. Are they the same? Are they different? Disregarding the name change (partial name change -- the sign has both names on it still ????), I see nothing else to differentiate the two. The cashiers even wear, albeit faded (my mom was laughing at this while there), Karpaty T-shirts. More confusing is that everything there is the same as in my previous post, although perhaps fresher and of a wider selection. On top of this, Euromax decided to add onto their cake and baked good selections, items looking *very* Portuguese and *frowns* unneeded muffins and brownies. What's that doing there? Honestly, there are more than enough stores where you can buy muffins, I don't expect (nor do I want) to buy muffins from a Polish deli. Come on, guys! Fill it up with some gooood stuff! ;)

Of course, the first thing I ran to was the poppy seed bun ($1.79) which is the same as Karpaty up on Bristol (did a review and photo for that already), but since it also happens to be one of my Polish-style faves, I couldn't resist. I feared that these would only be available at Karpaty, seeing as this place is all new and all. -_- I guess not. Various other danishes and poppy seed buns are available, but I love this one! And, most likely to the high amount of traffic (the place was packed when we went, Thursday afternoon), it was fresher too. Yummm...

On top of that, we decided to risk getting a cake this time and settled on the delicious looking plum cake ($17.99/kg ; we paid around $6 for a smallish piece) which I'm still trying to figure out if it's from Sweet Temptations, as I just bought a slice at Starsky from there of plum cake... for $3/kg less, and the two look similar. I don't remember now if they tasted similar. Still, Sweet Temptations, a commercial Polish bakery (they should open a factory outlet, they really should *-*) baking for the GTA from their place a couple blocks from Euromax. Nonetheless, it's the season for local plums and plum cakes are a favourite sight at delis and bakeries. I love plum cakes. This one had a yeast-dough on the bottom, topped with slices of prune plums and then a tooon of delicious crumble. The taste was amazing, although I was a little disappointed that for how much we paid for it (btw, $3/kg more at Starsky will get you Granowska's delicacies ^^), they treated as though it were reduced: we got the end of the cake and the very lopsided, almost triangular chunk looked horrible. If, say, you were buying it to serve to guests, it was impossible to cut even two nice slices from it. They don't bake it and aren't responsible for the taste, but they should at least take some pride in what they're selling and make it look decent. Cutting a relatively equal slice isn't asking for too much, I think.

General verdict: besides the Portuguese baked goods and those muffins, brownies and carrot cake which I wouldn't think of buying (I can buy the former at an actual Portuguese bakery and the others at a bakery more specializing in this kind of baking), Euromax offers an assortment of tasty-looking baked goods and cakes, although their selection isn't that much bigger than Karpaty to account for the "upgrade" or any different, so I can't exactly say it felt like I was trying something new. Still, they've got those poppy seed buns, but I would stick to buying by weight items elsewhere, since they're quite expensive here. And... I still don't get it. ;DDDDD

Rating: ***

[photo courtesy of Euromax/Karpaty... I drove off without making my own :P]

Le Delice Pastry Shop [Updated!]

Bakery: Le Delice Pastry Shop
Address: #8 1150 Lorne Park Rd, Mississauga ON
Website: n/a
Style: North American, Canadian, European
Price: $$

My mom let me know she had found another bakery to check out in Lorne Park, a more expensive neighbourhood in south Mississauga, and seeing as we had been running pretty low on bakeries to review in the vicinity, we went there while the male members of the household were away on holiday. From the name (didn't notice that accent in there, and on second thought, it wouldn't be correct Italian at all ;D) and location, I was expecting some overpriced Italian bakery with not much in it, but in this sense -- and this sense only -- I was disappointed. ;)

Le Delice is a teeny tiny bakery in between the bank and some sort of copy centre. It's a hard place to find and an even harder place to photograph... the CIBC is really trying to steal the spotlight. XD Nonetheless, it's equally tiny on the inside, but unlike many bakeries, these guys have a majority of sweets (with some savouries on the side) in the way of some fairly typical, North American/British staples like muffins, pies, scones and pound cakes. Not normally a fan of this sort of baking, I think I was pretty amazed to find how yummy everything looks! (and bonus points for having absolutely everything priced... and affordably ;D). Impressed by the cheaper stuff, I think we need to make a return for the crumble pie (~$16) made with locally grown peaches. It looked amazing. *-*

Anyways, for this trip, I decided to uh, go low-risk and stick to the less expensive goodies. My partner is sampling (the mom, this time around ^^) took for herself a pumpkin spice muffin ($1.60), which, though it makes a pretty horrible photograph (how can you take a photo of a muffin... it's a muffin :/) was absolutely delicious. "You wouldn't believe that this and the stuff they sell in the supermarket are both considered muffins" was her comment -- more useful than the brothers, that's for sure. ;)

For the purposes of the cake tour, the mom treated me to the wild blueberry tart ($2.75, or thereabouts) (with, I believe, locally grown fruit as well) which was blueberry in a custard-like filling (sorry, I don't know what to call it :P) in a homemade, perfectly crispy shell. This was delicious, I must say that. ^^;;

I don't know what else to say but that... and that you can count on me returning and providing an update for everyone while I'm at it. ;)

[NEW!] I was ranting, and in earnest, that it's impossible to find a real, good bakery in Mississauga. Even the ethnic choices are good, but not outstanding and nothing has really stood out in the way other bakeries elsewhere have. I'm saying this now, because here's one exception that snuck up on me. I'm a little late with it, since it took me a return visit here to truly grasp it and some excellent choices from my mom, who did the selecting in my place. First thing was a pecan tart for the youngest brother ($2.50) who had been craving one and whining about wanting one for months. He was really impressed. Next up, I got a cinnamon bun ($1.75) which was excellent and there was something oddly... similar to the ones I'd been sampling on my latest trip: delicious dough folded in with butter-cinnamon and topped with a little glaze and icing on top (the lightning was horrible that day...) . Very, very tasty. But! the showstopper is definitely this lovely almond-raspberry tart ($3.25): homemade shell with almond filling (think Hansens) a thick layer of icing and dark chocolate drizzle and on the bottom of it all was a generous amount of thick, homemade raspberry jam. Pair that with the almond and icing... this was AMAZING! Yes, this thing knocked my disbelieving socks off and got me thinking for the very first time: who are these people? Danish style tarts and cinnamon buns and an ample, daily changing selection of danishes. Whoa. O___O

Regardless of the answer, now that my second trip has made me truly appreciate this little place a little more, I *know* they can't disappoint me. Sadly, another bakery came to claim title, but, as consolation, I can say Mississauga's [second] best bakery!! ;)

Rating: ****

Sandholt

Bakery: Sandholt Reykjavik
Address: Laugavegi 36, Reykjavik
Website: They've got a Facebook page, if that counts...
Style: Icelandic, Scandinavian
Price: $$-$$$

Continuing with this year's World Tour despite promises to catch up on my Parisian excursions. (I believe not much is left and the most exciting have been upped already) ^^;; This was my second stop bakery-wise in Reykjavik and one which really thrilled me, because one of my tour books had recommended it, since the owner/baker/pastry chef/whatever the proper title may be was crowned Nordic cake champion once. I read the words "Nordic cake champion" and it was a must-visit, and one which I had been planning since well, reading that a month or two before my trip, despite pfff, the Lonely Planet visitors rank it #274 out of 274 for things to do in Reykjavik. *glares*

Sandholt is a smallish, though pretty... swank bakery in the heart of Reykjavik (okay, everything is in the heart of Reykjavik, but you get what I mean XDDD) with a small cafe in the back and the front part displaying their goodies: breads in the back and goodies, both sweet and savoury, in the glass case and behind the partition there's a second case of chocolates and the famous cakes. I went in to take my pick since everything looks delicious and found not a single thing was priced, but that the list was posted on the wall next to the cash register, in such a location as it's *very* obvious that you're checking out the prices. I started looking at everything and could only think back to the coffee shop (ha ha I should actually review it, I've got the pics for it!) in the airport and the tiny cake slice that cost $9. It wasn't a bakery or anything fancy, so in my mind, I started seeing the kronur add up and I... was a cheap coward and backed down! ;______; Instead of those delectable-looking cakes, I went for the safe option: the baked goods. Because I figured it couldn't be that much more than Kornið, and, fortunately, I was right. ^^ Now, looking back on it, I really can't believe why I didn't cave and go for the cake after all. I'm an idiot sometimes... All I know is that I will definitely return to Sandholt when I come to Iceland again (hah, look at me, acting like it's already planned already -__-) and sit down with some tea and a... slice of cake, even if it might set me back $20 or more. But I had to test the waters, so to speak. ;DDD

Nonetheless, for the brother I first asked after an interesting looking pastry, but upon asking what it was and getting the answer of cheese and ham, I picked out this sticky, nutty one (240ISK/$2) (and why is the pic so damn blurry -- arrgh!!!) which smelled a little like baklava and which I had a feeling the brother would love. And he did. Flaky pastry folded with crushed and whole nuts and then coated/partially soaked in honey.

I, on the other hand, settled for prettily braided cinnamon bun (250ISK/$2.10) which was amazing, and I think the tastiest out of the ones on my trip to Norway afterwards. The only shame is that I couldn't enjoy it properly as we were running through Reykjavik at 4am with luggage to the bus station and I was eating breakfast along the way. Not a great idea, but in between bites, it does allow for intervals of cool, crisp Icelandic air. XD Very flavourful filling with perfect, denser dough and then with a dark chocolate drizzle over top (I believe they had caramel too). Heavenly. ^^;; I love Scandinavian cinnamon buns and this was definitely worth it.

Next time, though: get the cake, Mimi!!! ;)

Rating: ***1/2

La Pâtisserie Belge [RIP]

Bakery: La Pâtisserie Belge
Address: 3485 Avenue du Parc, Montreal QC
Website: http://www.lapatisseriebelge.com/
Style: French, Belgian (?)
Price: $-$$

[Gone?! When did that happen? I walked on Parc once or twice without really noticing that this place wasn't there. It was only when I really thought about that I realized that I hadn't walked past La Patisserie Belge and that this long-standing bakery was indeed gone without a trace. Especially given the fact they weren't replaced by a bakery, it's a sad piece of news. :(]

I could have sworn that I reviewed La Belge ages ago. It was only when I was looking for some photos when I unearthed a whole, hidden folder of photos from one year ago. I went more recently and so I only thought I had to update it, but I guess there is indeed something for me to do today. ^^


Nonetheless, La Pâtisserie Belge is a fairly old institution (the logo is enough for you to see that :DD) in the area and for years and years, I knew this place existed since it's in the area of our usual "hotel", but it was only last year that I actually tried them and after that, well, I was a little angry that I hadn't bothered beforehand. La Belge is a fine patisserie and deli selling pastries, baked goods, breads and also cold cuts/cheeses and, in comparison to other patisseries with "fine" tagged onto them (de Gascogne -- which is only one of my most popular posts ^^), this one has some pretty impressive prices. All cakes are at a set price ($3.25) whereas tarts are slightly cheaper.. I'd like to say $2.50, but this sounds too good to be true. I think I might be mistaken... but as always, if the prices are wrong and you know what they are, don't hesitate to let me know and let this be updated! :) Still, I do remember thinking it unfathomable to get such goodies at under $4 with tax at such a place! This is one great thing about this place.


The second is that they're good. I personally don't find them as good as de Gascogne, which uses a lot more fresh fruit and, according to the brothers, also uses higher grade chocolate, but seeing as you pay double, this is understandable and almost expected. ;) At the same time, there's always something tasty to be found at La Belge, even if you go, like I did, one hour before closing. So, here come the purchases:

On my first trip there, and fresh from my vacation in Paris (which I still need to finish posting reviews for), I couldn't resist the strawberry tart, which not only looking yummy, but ended up tasting the same. Actually, this was really good! I was pretty impressed, thinking I wouldn't be able to find such delicious fruit tarts on this side of the Atlantic.

The brother got a Cointreau, which is, as one may guess, rather plentiful is the liquor of the same name: a sheet of dark chocolate with candied orange peel tops layers of chocolate cake and orange mousse.

In fact, they seem to offer a lot of mousse-y cakes, since on my return here, the three pieces I picked out of what was left was all mousse-based. The pink one was mine: a dual-mousse concoction of raspberry and chocolate. Personally, I found this far too much. I think that if I had noticed in the store that the bottom of chocolate mousse, I wouldn't have picked it at all. The first few bites were good, but then the moussiness really kicked in and I had had enough. For myself and maybe for future customers, I'd definitely recommend either the tarts (which are amazing ^^) or something with substantially more... dough. ;)

The same thing can be said of the creme brûlée, which is several layers of mousse and sugar flambéed on top. Unlike me, the brother that I picked it out for really enjoyed it and said that it ended up being better than that delectable raspberry tart I picked out from de Gascogne. Whatever flouts your boat, I suppose. O.O? The final piece was an Opéra Torte, which was for the other brother: this time around, the layer of mousse was curiously small (unlike the one I had in Paris DX) and it was sandwiched between some more liquor-saturated cake. His verdict? "Pretty good... but next time I'm taking the Cointreau!!" ;P

I suppose the opinion is pretty unanimous: La Belge is indeed a must-visit... just come early before the tarts sell out. ^.^;; That's advice I'll keep for myself, heh heh heh...

Rating: ***

Polcan

Bakery(?): Polcan Meat and Deli
Address: 3115 Winston Churchill Blvd, Mississauga ON (second location on Dundas St W)
Website: N/A
Style: Polish
Price: $$

Polcan isn't a bakery, but rather mostly a meat shop with homemade sausages and cold cuts as well as a butcher shop with mostly beef and pork. The deli receives their small selection of baked goods from a more commercial Polish bakery (such as Sweet Temptations, Karlik or Double W, for example); I'm extremely curious which one it is, since I'd aim this review at them. Previously, (that is, before Starsky supermarket existed) they had a small, though fresh (with nearly daily shipments) selection of baked products such as cheese, fruit or poppy seed buns or pączki and a few, rather expensive slabs of cheesecakes or more tort-like goodies. Now, with Starsky there, Polcan focuses mainly on the meat part of their deli with the rest, in particular the bakery section, having gone downhill (and yes, the worst part is that it isn't their fault). I think that Polcan did get shipments from Sweet Temptations beforehand, and I went for their poppy seed buns, as it was the only place in this half of the city (the only other place that I knew of was Highland Farms and, occasionally, Karpaty) that had them. I don't know who supplies Polcan with their goods and if it's the same place, but they should uh, reconsider their supplier. Or maybe not have a bakery section at all?

While going for some meat, my mom picked me up a poppy seed bun (something around $1.80; she can't remember for sure) for the sake of the Cake Tour and: worst poppy seed bun ever. :( It was something new, so I was pretty excited to give it a try, but the experience actually managed to beat that of Pusateri's poppy seed bun, which, although old, had an incredibly promising taste. There were two things that didn't work out for this thing: the taste and the freshness. For one, it was purchased from the store almost completely solidified. The dough was very stale and that good old microwave refresher trick failed to work. Secondly, it just wasn't good. The bun, unlike other Polish ones, quite literally was 'what you see is what you get': the poppy seed on top was all the poppy seed you got. Polish poppy seed buns mostly use the same mass, which you can buy (from Starsky) imported from Poland in cans, but this was curiously a bit of mashed poppy seeds, with not too much taste, expertly folded so that it all showed up on top. This was really as skimpy as you can get. Perhaps with more of a mass or more poppy seeds in general, the whole thing could have lasted longer or remained sliiiightly more moist. However, seeing as a huge chunk (see above, with the crack in it) of the bun had no poppy seeds, it was just... like a dried bread end. :/ It's not like it was $0.75 or something that you're cutting corners to make it cheap: it wasn't cheap and yet was very cheap, even with the icing. Huge disappointment!

Rating: *

Cob's Bread [Updated!]

Bakery: Cob's Bread
Address: 370 Bloor St West, Toronto, ON (multiple locations)
Website: http://www.cobsbread.com
Style: North American, British
Price: $$

[I haven't been updating recently; mainly because I don't have that much "footage" left. Ha ha I was saving up photos for months before I got this started, and now that my cache is being used up, I've realized that I really don't go to very many bakeries at all. This has to change. ;P Nevertheless, went to a few places over the past few weekends, so hopefully, this will get me through for awhile...]

Cob's Bread is a chain of bakeries (the world's biggest bakery chain????) with a majority of its Canadian locations in and around Toronto, and some in BC and Alberta. As the name indicates, they specialize in a whole bunch of bread, from rye to white to special grains and a bunch of interesting varieties in between. In addition to this, they do carry a few sweet options, although it's not a lot and all except the scones are based on the same yeast dough. In the latter category, there's their delicious cinnamon buns ($2.50 + tax), larger sized tea cakes with fruit and custard or just apples ($5.95 + tax). I believe it was during Valentine's Day, they also had these amazing berry rolls which are like cinnamon buns, but with a berry filling and then on top there's icing and coconut. It was good. ^^;

Last time around, we took the scones ($1.50 + tax) which is pretty much the only other option you have; they have a few flavours, both sweet and savoury. We were going to take three, but the worker said we'd save money if we bought four, so we got another one... and ended up paying $6.25. O_o? Anyways, we took (clock-wise starting from top) cheese and chive, berry white-chocolate, chocolate chip and banana, and cinnamon. I've taken the berry one before, and it's pretty delicious, in terms of scones. The chunks of raspberries and heaping with white chocolate chips. According to the ribbon on the wall at the Bloor St. location, they won first place for this scone and rightfully. ;) No one seemed so thrilled with the other flavours, however. My younger brother said the banana chocolate chip didn't have enough banana in it and... "tasted like a sofa cushion". Yeah, thanks yet again. -_-

Overall, their sweets are pretty good. Their style is more British than anything else (think of every single English-language book entitled "Baking" and that's what I'm talking about), which isn't a style I'm fond of. Their scones are delicious, especially as scones go, and the same goes for their yeast-based concoctions, but at the same time I'd a) prefer something else at another place, b) find their bread a lot tastier. Indeed, there are always places where their good bread doesn't necessarily equal good sweets. Cob's Bread doesn't go to that extreme, since their sweet stuff is pretty tasty, but at the same time, their bread is so good! You may pay a little bit compared to supermarket (in-store) baked breads, but it's worth it. Fresh every day with some amazing flavours (my fave has to be the cheese and jalapeno flat-ish bread, with special mention going out to the Turkish bread). I'd recommend this over anything else, sweet or otherwise, but the baked goods aren't bad either... just a little bland. After all, I think their cinnamon/berry buns are the best choice from the sweet selection. :)

[NEW!] Yay! I never thought it would be possible, as Mississauga never seems to me like the place to have a Cob's Bread, but they did indeed open one not too far from me this summer. And I had to run and check it out. Serving the standards, and not knowing what to take, I must say I was a little reluctant in my mom's suggestion of the Cranberry and Custard Danish (around $2.25, I think... please correct me if I'm wrong) which I didn't think I'd like because of that mentioned custard, which is pretty much vanilla pudding with cranberries and then with some dark chocolate drizzled on top. Perhaps it doesn't look like much, but after the first bite, I was thinking, "wait a minute, this isn't supposed to be so good!". Yup, this might be my favourite sweet from them. The dough is soft and fluffy, but, like their cinnamon buns, not sugary. The little bit of custard and dark chocolate teamed up with the tartness of the cranberries. Who thought this up? Wow, you've impressed me, Cob's! ;)

Rating: **1/2

Pâtisserie La Légende [RIP]

Bakery: La Légende
Address: 68 rue de la Gauchetière O, Montreal QC
Website: n/a
Style: Chinese, HK
Price: $

La Légende is maybe more famous for the restaurant in the back than their Chinese buns, both sweet and savoury in the front. I had never been before, so this was my first time. I actually wasn't planning on coming here at all if not for the tempting window display of a woman laying out fresh sugar buns. ^^;; So, I went in. The Cake Tour demanded it.

 

Nonetheless, from what I did have and team that up with my somewhat disappointing last trip to Callia, I'm very willing to go back to try much more than just the sugar bun next time. I might actually drag some meat-eaters as well and get the verdict on the savoury buns, which, as is usually the case, make up for a majority of the goods offered. Still, in comparison to Callia, I find that La Légende has a wider variety of sweet baked goods, including the usual red/green bean, sugar, or custard kinds. The one I had ($0.90) was definitely one of the better sugar buns I've had; it's a little strange to be saying it, since it's a fairly simple concept. Contrary to my horrible, hotel room photo, it was the perfect blend of uh, sweetened dough and sugar. Still, from what I've seen, I'm liking this one. ^^

Rating: ***

Pancho's Bakery [Updated!]

Bakery: Pancho's Bakery
Address: 214 Augusta Ave. (main location @ 1345 Davenport Rd, Toronto, ON)
Website: http://www.panchosbakery.ca
Style: Mexican
Price: $

After returning to Kensington Market after a few years' absence, I couldn't believe my luck when right in front of me was a Mexican bakery. Purely for Cake Tour purposes, I got super excited, mainly because I don't think I'd ever stumbled upon a Mexican bakery and probably won't again unless it's Pancho's second location. (unless, that is *winks, hints, nudges* someone knows of anymore out there..) So, yay! Something new!

Anyways, the Kensington Market location is fairly small and features a few unlabelled baskets filled with sugar-coated 'breads' (the place, after all, announces "Mexican bread" on their sign), of which many look very similar. And that's the reason why I had a hard time choosing what to get, especially when I had my companion of the day, my mom, constantly whispering in my ear that everything looked "so boring". In this sense, we actually didn't end up trying one of the tasty looking breads, despite all of my protests. :/ Still, everything seemed pretty impressed with what we did bring back, so here goes~

First up was the mandatory churro ($1.50/each or 4/$5), which I didn't eat, but which seems to be the most (only) popular purchase. You can have it filled with chocolate or dulce de leche syrup, but we took ours plain, as we needed to get it back to the house without oozing, although frankly the idea of churros filled with chocolate syrup is, to me, not a pleasant one. I'll admit that. ;) Still, a churro is a churro... can't really say anything significant about it. Lol

For the second purchase for the brothers, my mom selected this flaky doughed twisty-thing ($1.50 -- yup, my names and descriptions won't be of much use to you, will they? :P) coated on one end with chocolate and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. This is quite similar to flaky, buttery Belgian-style "butterflies" sold as cookies for a lack of a better explanation. I didn't taste it myself, but apparently it was "really good". The guinea pigs were impressed by Pancho's and this is all they had (and the churro). *shrugs*

My pick was a square piece of bread pudding  ($1.75). It was quite dense and mushy with cinnamon baked on top and laced through the dough and during the first bite, I have to admit that it was a little weird and kind of gross a feeling, but the more you eat it, the tastier it gets. I think I'd get this again. It's really tasty and more along the lines of a coffee cake: not sweet, spiced dough, although I'll have to try some of the bread next time as well. ^-^ Yup, a return trip to Pancho's is needed.

[NEW!] While again in Kensington Market, I returned to Pancho's earlier this summer and settled on some bread this time. The spiral buns ($1.50) interested me last time and this time, I had to give them a try, despite the exclamations that they were "just dough". If you don't expect this, then I guess I should warn you. ;P Anyways, sweet, lemony "bread" curled in this cute spiral shape (unless your dirty mind associates it with something else ;DDDDDDD). It can be seen as pretty plain, but knowing what I'd be getting, I liked it. (for a comparison, think 'sugar buns' at Chinese bakeries) For the second item, I picked this triangle ($1.50) made of flaky dough filled with strawberry jam. This was... weird, mainly because the dough was of the kind that you could call it savoury. At least, you'd expect it to be savoury. The yellowness and texture was a little too reminiscent of Jamaican patties, so no one really enjoyed it so much. Still, if you don't like sugar... XD

Rating: ***

Lazar Bakery

Bakery: Lazar Bakery
Address: 325 Central Parkway W, Mississauga ON
Website: http://www.lazarbakery.com
Style: Portuguese
Price: $$-$$$$

The "famous" Lazar (so says their sign) is a Portuguese bakery, deli and cafe that has a quite a bit of variety of cookies, doughnuts, baked goods, tarts and cakes. Overall, I'll start this by saying that Lazar, as a whole, is pretty good. It's not my fave Portuguese place, but at the same time, they do have a lot of original items which can't be purchased elsewhere. I've got a few examples below, in fact. :)

The only thing *not* going for this place is its prices. In general, one can easily say that Portuguese bakeries, especially in comparison to their Italian or French (I'm not aware of any Spanish bakeries in the GTA, so can't use that -- any suggestions???) counterparts, offer great value for your money. Their breads, buns and sweets are always at affordable if not downright great prices. Not so with Lazar. I don't know if it's because of the "famous" in the name or the fact that they advertise as being Portuguese and Italian (curiously enough, I've been to Italian bakeries and there's not that much in Lazar that would justify the combination... except for the Forza Italia scarves on the walls and an espresso machine ;DD), but don't expect to come to Lazar and pay little. The only thing that you can say is at competitive prices is their breads and buns which you can't charge too much for. Sweets, however, is a risk perhaps not worth taking; the choice is made even more difficult due to the fact that nothing is priced. There are small price lists on top of the racks, listing perhaps 40% of what is actually offered. Nonetheless, you'll definitely pay between $0.50-1.00 (sometimes more) per item in comparison to other Portuguese bakeries, so count on that. Same goes for the stuff behind the glass (whole cakes and slices). On top of this, Lazar has quite a bit of goods sold by weight which, as we've come to learn, is a warning that you will pay more than expected. Accordingly, it's not really a surprise that I've seen many people on my several visits there look pretty shocked at the cash and ask "How much was that again?"

But onto the purchases: first off, we picked a coconut bread ($0.99/per 100g) as it looked quite interesting and we hadn't had something like this before. Erm, I don't think we'll be doing this again. As you may have noticed, this is -- very strangely enough -- one of those by weight items. Bread, by weight? It sounds ridiculous and seeing as we picked the smallest piece, so does $4.80, because that's how much we paid for it. :/ Cutting it open, it was also pretty disappointing to find that it was pretty much what you see, what you get in terms of the coconut: besides what was on top, the rest was just plain sweet bread. Considering the ends were blackened (this is the best angle) to the point of it being inedible, this was definitely not at all worth what you pay for it, especially since it's a surprise. How about weighing the dough beforehand and making one fixed price? Or pricing them individually upon packing them into bags? Bread by weight isn't a great idea, I promise you that. ((PS. If this is something that you might like, I recommend going towards the end of the week to Kraków deli and getting yourself a coconut ring ($3.25, I believe) which is bigger, cheaper, and has layers of coconut folded into the dough -- yummy! ^^))

Going towards the front of the store, they've got a few racks of sweet baked goods ranging from tarts, pies to doughnuts and eclairs. The bigger items, though quite expensive, are priced clearly. Everything else is a guessing game and especially the rack with the eclairs and danishes, you've got to watch out since you'll pay anywhere from $1.25-2.99 for one item. A glazed doughnut is the cheapest, for example, and then it goes up from there: a croissant is $2 and an apple turnover will set you back $3 (in comparison to Caldense or Brazil, where you'll pay around $1.75 for the same thing). Deep-fried goods (like those I bought: a Portuguese doughnut or a cinnamon-sugar butter bread (don't know what it should be called) are at a standard $1.25 each, which is the most reasonable out of everything, although you have to watch out as the small-ish churros also fall into this range and also, that the small doughnuts are just not worth it. I thought they'd be cheaper, so I stocked up once, a long while ago, and they ended up being $1.00/each -- stick to the big sized ones. They're more worth it. Not many bakeries have the doughnuts, so they're a must-try here: thin, bubbly dough coated with cinnamon and sugar, although the thinner ones can get pretty brittle. And eat them only on the day you bought them; after that, they're dead. *nods*

Maybe it's for that reason that my favourite thing here just happens to be the toast. It doesn't look like much and I'm sure anyone can make it if they really wanted to, but this is so good. ;) It's true that upon your first bite of the texas-style toast of the moist, buttery dough, you might feel like fasting for the rest of the day, but it's so tasty. I once got one for the guinea pig (one brother) and he laughed at me for picking it and then he ate it... and he wasn't dissing me anymore! ;D This is like a Portuguese doughnut in taste, but amazingness in texture. Hee hee hee. Tasty isn't too hard to find at Lazar, but tasty and afffordable, *gasps* it might be a miracle! ;)

Overall verdict: Lazar has some tasty stuff if you don't mind paying more for it than other bakeries. There's plenty of stuff to choose from, but much of it simply isn't worth it. The ingredients used in Lazar's baked goods are neither more expensive nor more generous than other places, so you have the impression you're paying for their "famous" reputation more than anything else and that alone mars the image of an otherwise yummy place for baked goods.

Rating: ***