Crown Bakery [RIP]

Bakery: Crown Bakery
Address: 333 Dundas St E, Mississauga ON (inside PAT supermarket) 
Website: http://www.patmart.net/pat/mississauga
Style: Korean
Price: $$

[Goodbye, Crown! :( First the little cubicle that housed the bakery got taken over by Kevin's Taiyaki, but baked goods were sold on the racks next to the rice cakes/ready foods near the cash. Now, I've tried a few times and have found that all products sold from them are gone and have been replaced by a limited selection of Korean baked goods courtesy of Oven Fresh on Kipling (Oven Fresh is Korean!?! I'll have to look into that), so there goes my green tea castellas, cream buns, and doughnut twists, among other things... Maybe there will be a new bakery after PAT's fairly ambitious expansion??]

Crown Bakery, inside the PAT supermarket (they got a brand new little nook at the front of the newly renovated store) is a teeny tiny bakery selling quite a bit, given their size. Basically, they cover all the Korean classics like red bean and... cream-stuffed buns (*-*) as well as breads and more savoury baked goods like croquettes and sausage/pizza buns. They have a few cakes in the case with the green tea one looking particularly delicious... I really wouldn't mind coming back and trying one for myself! Labels and prices and probably the only outright minus: baskets containing the baked goods are just stuffed with everything and the labels (complete with prices, though they all seem to be around $2) as to what it is hardly ever corresponds with what is actually stuffed behind it. Strawberry cream buns (I only remember because I was so so tempted to try this one, a sweet bun sliced open, bursting with pastry cream and topped with thick slices of fresh strawberries... whoa! O_O) were located in the "tapioca buns" slot and the bag contained my purchase called it a sausage bun... it's pretty much a hodge-podge of everything and on a busy day, it can get pretty insane with people charging in front of you, so some manoeuvring and patience may be required.

Then again, when you know what you're after, then it makes things a little easier.. because I knew what I was getting: a pack of two delicious sweet breads ($2.25) that I have long called, for lack of a better description, Korean doughnuts! :P These braided sticks are, I believe, lightly fried and dusted in this amazing crumble. Not too sweet, these are perfect with a cup of tea. The key is to eat them right away, since they get old fast, and unfortunately, they didn't seem too fresh upon purchase, so this was a little difficult to do. The dough is still super soft and moist, but you can tell they're not that fresh and, for a supermarket bakery, they are a little pricey, so in that sense, you're much better off going a few blocks to.. Fauchon, my Korean bakery of choice. *-*  Still, these guys are pretty good in their own right, and hey! while shopping for your fave Korean goodies (you can so tell I am the biggest fan of Korean food) and standing in line to pay, that urge to just walk a few steps and into the bakery is too big to pass up. :DD

Rating: **1/2