Nova Pastry & Bakery

Bakery: Nova Pastry & Bakery
Address: 3635 Cawthra Rd, Mississauga, ON
Website: http://www.novabakery.ca/
Style: Portuguese
Price: $

I'm not exactly sure why it look me so long to make my way to Nova (corner of Burnhamthorpe and Cawthra, in the plaza next to the Ukrainian church). I've known of it for awhile now and didn't feel all that pressed in reviewing it. And, as is almost always the case, I was wrong. :P First of all, Portuguese bakeries usually fall under the "bang for your buck" category, but Nova is Cheap. Yes, with a capital -C. AND I really, really appreciated that *everything* is priced. Even the stuff behind the glass has easy to read sheets printed on top detailing the price of everything.

On top of that, their selection is Huge. Again, with a capital -H. Rows of breads and baked goods with buns starting at 28 cents. Sweets (doughnuts, danishes along with the typical Portuguese goodies) are at an amazing $1.30 Individual pastries were already mentioned. They've got cakes and pies as well.

But let's just get right into this. :P First of all, this giant yeast "pretzel" ($1.30) coated with sugar and cinnamon with a super light, airy and fluffy dough. I remembered having had something similar at another bakery (possibly Trigo??) and the next time I went back they didn't have it, and I've been looking for it since, as no one else seems to have it. So yummy!

I picked out this massive (as in the size of dinner plate and too big to fit in a paper bag -_-) "cinnamon snail" ($1.30 -- I hope you get the photo now ^^) which was a huge hit: thin, flaky dough rolled in a spiral and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. What makes this especially tasty is the cinnamon and butter mass stuffed in the middle of the flaky, puff pastry dough. Another wow. ;)

I also got another large flaky pastry with custard spread all over the top layer (didn't make a great picture, so I decided to flip it over ;)) and, in the day-old section, they had a perfectly good and fresh apple pie ($2.50) which ended up being so delicious. I'm not sure if anyone knows what I'm talking about, but Portuguese bakeries usually have these hard, puff pastry squares filled in the centre with apples and then topped with rock sugar on top, so this was that same thing, just in a softer, pie dough. Mmmm... *-* The crunch of the sugar and the softness, semi-tartness of the apples...

Erm, *calms down* all gushing aside, Nova has probably become one of my fave Portuguese bakeries just like that. ;P Everything tasted so good and then with the selection (and price) on top of that, I was really, really impressed!

Rating: ***1/2

Total Randomness...

["Happy Pig" custard steamed buns ($5.99/box of 6) at the T&T dim sum counter (possibly exclusively for the New Year season?). Most adorable pieces of dough. Ever. ^_______^]

Burnhamthorpe Fruit Market

Bakery: Burnhamthorpe Fruit Market
Address: 3647 Dixie Rd, Mississauga ON
Website: n/a
Style: Italian, European
Price: $-$$

The Burnhamthorpe Fruit Market, off of the (Polish) Wisła Plaza at Burnhamthorpe & Dixie Rds. is really more of a giant deli than a fruit market with its, mostly, Italian goods along with some Polish and Balkan products as well. Fruit market or deli, they've still got a pretty impressive bakery section with breads and buns coming from a couple of bakeries and baked goods from some Polish bakery, imported Italian cookies (sold by weight, which can get expensive (two costed around $1.70), but the peach ones are really good ^^;;) and some home-baked goodies like pies, pound cakes, etc.

One of their signature baked goods is their banana bread ($3.99) which, as the sign says, "you'll go bananas for" and which my mom buys every time she has the (not so often -- we don't close all that close to it) opportunity of going to the plaza, because it's the best in the area, that's for sure: super moist, spiced cake topped with large chunks of walnuts. I guess it's a big hit with everyone, since there never seems to be any left (along with the free samples ;D).

Lately, there seems to also be "homemade apple cake" ($1.69, per slice) available, which totally excited me, because I LOVE apple cake and when you want to buy it at a Polish deli, it usually -- because of its weight -- ends up costing more than the cheesecake. The past two times I've been there, the cake's been different, but I suspect it's baked by the same person. It tastes very Polish and just... tastes something your grandma would make, it tastes that *homemade*. Yummy!!!!! *__* I loved it (just so you know, I love what I call "grandma baking"; it doesn't even matter whose grandma it is, it's usually good. Lol)!! Perfectly chopped and spiced apple filling topped with crumble the first time around and sandwiched between two soft layers of sponge-like dough. I really can't say which I preferred, because they were both so good, but I think that if I had to choose, I'd say the one with the crumble (despite my horribly lit photos XDDDDD).

So, yeah, what can you take from today's post: though an... unexpected pick for baked goods, especially in the plaza, you always have to (okay, let's say "I always have to" to be a little more fair there ^^) step into the Fruit Market... and leave with a baked good~~ ;)

Rating: ***

Fauchon Bakery [RIP]

Bakery: Fauchon (aka Royal Fauchon)
Address: 169 Dundas St. E, Mississauga ON (or 5460 Yonge St, North York ON)
Website: n/a
Style: Korean
Price: $

Fauchon, the Korean bakery with the super cheesy name (especially when you must remember not to get it confused with the famous French épicerie of the same name.. which has been reviewed here ^^), very recently opened in Mississauga, so after eating at Man Doo Hyang a few doors down in the same plaza, I thought I'd step in here and check it out, especially seeing as I can be a sucker for Korean baked goods. .___.;; The selection isn't huge and ranges from a few baskets of sweet or savoury buns, a few French staples like Madeleines (I really should try them next time..), some bread and typically Korean cakes (green tea, fruit, sweet potato) behind the counter. Buns are under $2 and I stuck to that this time around.

Korean buns are usually super-soft and, judging from the ingredients list on the back of the bags, baked with simple, natural ingredients like butter, cream and sugar (and believe me, you can taste it, though it makes you feel a little guilty after a few bites XDDD) and, for the sweet ones, either containing red bean or some sort of pastry cream.

A Korean lady came before us and loaded up on my purchase, buying four bags (of two; $1.75 -- pic at top) of them, so I thought I'd try it too, and omg, she had a reason. ;) In PAT supermarket, they used to have a bakery there that sold "Korean doughnuts" which was basically sweet bread with crumble on top which I loved, so this was the exact same concept: super fluffy bread with this amazing, soft crumble on top which was then cut open and filled with an equally light and fluffy (though I wouldn't be too deceived there with the "light" part ;D) pastry cream that tasted like freshly whipped cream made at home. Wow. WOW. Divide the two batons into two separate servings and you've got two super tasty snacks. I don't know if I can return and try something new the next time around; this is just SO good. *-*

Erm, *calms down a little bit*, I also got two more things for household trying: a red bean cookie-like bun ($1.50, I think) with flatter, though still soft dough with crumble on top and stuffed with red bean paste, which was enjoyed, although it wasn't anything too overwhelmingly wow, but that's how I can trust the brothers. They never help. :/

We also picked up something with no label because it looked 'different' (ie. no pastry cream) and thought the flakes on top were coconut, but yeah, this actually ended up being a chicken bun ($1.75) with chicken mixed with onions and the hole on top stuffed with cheese. I was a little disappointed to find it wasn't sweet, but the youngest brother ate it and really liked it (he claimed he'd rather have the chicken bun than the red bean cookie *shakes head in wonder*), although he'd call it more of a chicken salad on the inside, but yeah...

On top of that, the worker also gave us one bun for free! ^-^ We got a sweet bun (free!! $1.50, to buy) slightly similar to the crumble one above with the same super soft dough, but this one was stuffed with choux cream (mine had a different cream, though I can't quite remember which it was ^^;) instead. Good, good stuff. ;)

So, yup, it may not be Fauchon-Fauchon, but this one is still tasty with some pretty amazing Korean goodies for the sampling. And those crumble buns... *swoons*

Rating: ***1/2