Harbord Bakery

Bakery: Harbord Bakery
Address: 115 Harbord St, Toronto, ON
Website: http://www.harbordbakery.ca/
Style: Jewish
Price: $$

I've been waiting to try these guys since trying a stale bun from good ol' Pusateri's and knowing it had plenty of promise (and highly suspecting that the bakery might have more poppy seed goodies ;D). It's not really on the way to anything, so I just decided to make the walk up from Kensington Market late Saturday afternoon and was a little disappointed to find that, with the cold and the time and effort, the bakery was totally cleaned out, although I was a little pleased with myself that I had correctly identified the Pusateri's bun as having a Jewish-style poppy seed filling (yup, poppy seed is indeed an obsession). Asking about the poppy seed ring on the back shelf ($7.99), I was SO going to take it until the worker inspected it closer and informed me it was in fact chocolate. Noooooooooo~! ;____; Sadly, there was nothing else with poppy seeds in it (the characteristic Challah bread, honey cake and whatever else people rave about weren't in sight...), so I had to *sobs pathetically* settle for something else...

Looking back, the poppy seed ring would have been a great choice at a reasonable price since the three small things ended up totalling more and I don't necessarily think there was more for sharing/sampling. Anyways~ poppy seed tragedies out of the way, I took two goodies for the guinea pig brothers: a sweet bun with plum jam ($2.50) in the same style as the poppy seed bun, but just with... plum jam. :P A dense dough baked a little too hard, filled with more than a dollop of plum jam and then topped with icing and some crumble, I believe. (I made 5 pics of this thing and 4 came out completely blurry -____-) Brother #1 liked it; well, he said it was "good", although it could also have been fresher.

Brother #2 ended up with the almond bun ($2.50) which was the same dough folded over a strange almond mass and then topped off with more slivered almonds. At first, we thought the filling was just marzipan, but he said it wasn't... but "whatever it was, it was good". Why can no one ever help me? :/ Both, I suppose, ended up being good, but the almond seemed to be the winner among my testers. ^^;

Then there's me... I took the peach and raspberry tart ($3.49), which was probably the least Jewish-looking of the three and looked more Amish (I was looking at the 'Amish Baker's Bible' the week before at the bookstore :D) with a pie-like shell and stuffed with homemade filling. However you can call it, I really liked this: perfect dough, tons of peaches -- this is what pies *should* taste like! My only comment was that they shouldn't call it raspberry... there was one. Still, loving baked goods with peaches (something pretty rare, I think), I enjoyed this.. though upon a return visit, I'll still have to nab something with... poppy seeds. O.O (very obsessed, I know...)

Rating: ***

Korcarz [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Korcarz
Address: 29 rue de Rosiers, Paris
Website: http://www.korcarz.com/
Style: Jewish, Eastern European
Price: $$$

I'm a little ashamed (okay, very ashamed) that I have yet to finish posting all my Parisian cake tour destinations, so I thought that before I continue with the Norway trip, I should go back and review the stuff from France first and get it out of the way. ^^

Nestled in the heart of the Jewish district of the Marais, Korcarz was a purely accidental visit. Having read great things about Sacha Finkelsztajn, a patisserie two or three doors down, I decided to make the trip on a religious holiday, thinking that some stores in the Jewish area would be open for business. It was a miserable day, with pouring rain having started at around 5am and which would continue for another 48 hours. Amidst unending rain and trying to get past the still massive line at L'as du Falafel, Finkelsztajn would turn out to be, like many patisseries on my list, closed for vacation for the month of August. Just as I had done in front of Pierre Hermé and Lenotre, I stood in shock for a few moments (maybe shed a few tears too ;D), vowed to remind everyone never to go bakery-hunting (and second-hand designer goods stores, for that matter) in Paris in August. The whole city will be shut down. Devastated (because I do love Jewish baking), I kept walking and found Korcarz open. Of course, it's usually a sign that it's not so good, but I ran in nonetheless at the mere sight of... poppy seed buns!!! *-* ... And came back considerably poorer (and a bit angrier considering the worker was faaaaaar from polite) and having used a huge chunk of my food budget for that day. Korcarz is expensive and even more so if you decide sit down and eat your goodies there; in fact, I think there might be more affordable options available at the really high end patisseries, which sounds a little strange, considering this is more of a deli with breads, pastries, Eastern European products and, for whatever reason, sushi. O.o

Nonetheless, those monstrous poppy seed buns (3 euro at the time of purchase, definitely more expensive now) drew me in. I couldn't help it, they looked amazing! And they ended up being huge; you can't eat these beauties in one sitting, that's for sure. With its fairly dense dough and bursting with poppy seed mass, I really did love these things, although I found the sesame seeds baked on top detracted from the flavour, but that just might be because I don't like sesame seeds. Still, I definitely wasn't planning on eating poppy seed buns in Paris, so this was an amazing, amazing find. ;)

In addition to this, I also purchased a small piece (individual portion) of cheesecake, because this was the thing to try chez Finkelsztajn. At 25 euro/kg or something ridiculous like that, I ended up paying 8 euro for a single piece. It was crazy and I felt thoroughly ripped off, even if it was really good and perfectly cheesy. However, I can name a few places here in Toronto where I can also buy equally delicious Jewish-style cheesecake (What a Bagel Richmond Hill is my first thought ;D) at much, much cheaper and cheese in general can be bought cheaper in France, so I don't know where the price came from and personally find it too expensive, considering you can buy nearly three poppy seed buns for that and man, you won't go hungry for a whole week. LOL!!!

So, yeah, totally yummy, but I'd say stick to anything and everything not being sold by weight and you'll have a better and tastier time at it. :P

Rating: ***

Swedish Christmas Festival

Event: Swedish Christmas Festival
Address: Harbourfront Centre, Toronto ON
Website: Try www.harbourfrontcentre.com/whatson a few weeks before
Style: Swedish, Scandinavian
Price: $$-$$$

This really isn't a bakery, per se, but I just couldn't resist, as it really is one of the few opportunities (the others, minus the still-to-be-visited Beaches Bakeshop, have all been reviewed on this humble site) you have to snag yourself some Scandinavian baking in the city... and is the only event I was successful at getting *something* (the long drive, but failed trip to last week's Finnish Christmas Bazaar got me nothing; after less than two hours, all baking was sold out ;___;).

This is what, the fourth year I've been to the Swedish Christmas Festival, which runs every year on the second last weekend of November and features a whole bunch of Swedish fun, for the casual visitor, Swede and Scandiphile alike (you can guess where I belong XDDD): oodles of Swedish products, adorable crafts (my 'gift' this year is featured in the photo ^^), smörgåsbord with a variety of sandwiches, delicious cups of too hot glögg (probably the most important and necessary part of the trip ;P), and... baked goods!! Normally, I get myself an almond tart ($2.50/each), but they seemed to be gone/not baked when I was there on Saturday afternoon. I was a tad bit heartbroken and so I decided to go up to the food counter and at least get either a cinnamon bun or saffron (Lucia Day) bun ($3.00/each). Totally intent on this, though not quite remembering it cost this much in previous years, I went up and was about to get one when I realized these things were minuscule and at a pretty steep price. Either I'm too cheap or too poor, but it didn't seem to faze anyone all that much. Still, turning around devastated, we returned to the bakery table hoping we may have overlooked the almond tarts on our first go or settling for the large packs of baked goods. When I noticed that the cinnamon buns on sale at the counter and a whole bag of 12 ($12) were exactly the same, I caved and went for the giant bag and saved a whopping $24 in the process. ;DDD

Went back home and froze the majority to keep up freshness and then just defrosted and heated them up in the oven. Mmmmm... I'd really like to know who baked these (there was a group of people actually discussing the Beaches Bakeshop next to me, so I'm hoping...) because these were absolutely delicious. *-* Omg, clearly made with real butter (not so common nowadays, alas), the soft dough interwoven with that heavenly mass of cinnamon and butter and then topped off with rock sugar.... *swoons* This is without a doubt the yummiest thing here and honestly, I'm looking forward to next year's festival (though I've gotta wait.. 49 weeks for it *sighs*) so I can not only get myself some almond tarts (hopefully), but maybe two bags of these lovely things. It might set me back a little bit, but it'll be worth the investment... though I might not agree in regards to the "cafe". ^-^;;;;

Rating: ***1/2