Max's Market

Bakery: Max's Market
Address: 2299 Bloor St W, Toronto ON 
Website: http://www.maxsmarket.ca/
Style: European, North American 
Price: $ 

Years ago, I could have sworn I went into Max's Market (this being pre-Cake Tour days) and that they had a whole array of in-house pies and pastries behind the glass, but the selection now doesn't match with how I remembered it. Which means that either they changed things around or I'm simply very, very confused. O.o Nonetheless, yes! I randomly decided to pop into Max's Market, hoping to get something for the Cake Tour and came out quite pleasantly surprised in terms of the interesting treats I picked up... and how little I paid for them!

Well, perhaps I should begin with a better introduction than that? :P Max's Market is more or less a higher-end deli and your source for gourmet prepared foods, from quiches to salads to meat pies. They also have something for dessert, both behind the counter in the form of cakes and individual tartlets (courtesy of the perennially popular Dufflet) and some made by them, such as lemon meringue pies or (I recall) some sort of mousse cake. In addition to this, they feature two self-serve cases filled with goods from Tartistry (on my to-visit list), but at more than $3 for a butter tart, I'm not sure if it's necessarily worth the price -- though the samples they were offering that day *were* good. ;) What's more, they have two racks of baked goods of their own sitting next to the entrance. With everything sweet priced at $1.49, they're really well priced. I paid $3 on the dot for two items -- that's great value, especially considering the quality of the ingredients, like buttery croissants, wild blueberry (yes, you read right) danishes or something in between a chocolate danish and a pain au chocolat. Everything has this mildly European feel to it, though you can't really attribute it to one country or style.

So I had the latter two. The first was the wild blueberry danish ($1.49), resembling more of a pasty than anything else with a slightly flaky, pie-like dough on the softer side with rock sugar on top. Some had kind of collapsed in the middle due to too much filling/too thin dough, so it took some searching for one that wasn't punctured through. Tasty dough and a wonderful filling -- and really, how often do you find anything made with wild blueberries? What a (tasty) steal! :)

And speaking of tasty steals: the chocolate danish ($1.49). Again, yummy dough on the outside, but the highlight is definitely the delicious filling of chocolate and hazelnut. Sometimes the filling in chocolate baked goods resembles more syrup than anything else and it's so sweet too. This was.. I don't know what they used, but was it ever good! I swear, they had to have melted Bacio chocolates or something. O_O Yummy, even for someone not that into chocolate like I am!

Max's is another great addition to the Runnymede bakery strip and I can't believe I didn't think of popping in again the last well, two times I've driven here. Good stuff yet again!

Rating: ***

Delicia Bakery and Pastry

Bakery: Delicia Bakery and Pastry
Address: 2864 Lake Shore Blvd, Etobicoke ON 
Website: n/a
Style: Portuguese
Price: $$

Same area, same day: while I was in the neighbourhood on the hunt for Polish baked goods, Delicia was stumbled upon purely by chance. The name alone seemed to give off those Portuguese-bakery vibes, so in this sense, I wasn't too surprised to see two tables of self-serve custard tarts and coconut buns. However, in addition to all the usual treats, these guys also had a pretty atypical selection of baked goods I haven't seen elsewhere, such as two varieties of apple cake, pastries stuffed with chocolate, and a nice selection of deep-fried doughnuts, breads, and churros. Sounds good? Well, it certainly looked good; I was a little unsure of what to get, since quite a lot had piqued my interest. As with the vast majority of Portuguese bakeries, however, there are neither prices nor labels on anything, so it's another one of those intuition-based places.

Anyways, so I was waiting for the man in front of me to pick his baked goods. Actually, I was still undecided and saw him just make a run for the custard-stuffed doughnuts ($1.75); not only that, when he picked it up with the tongs, the dough made this crunch and all of a sudden, all I could picture was fresh doughnuts, still with that deep-fried crunch intact. *-* ((not to sound too shameless, that is...)) Thus, the custard-filled doughnut it was. There are actually two varieties: with the custard and with a sort of lemon jam. I claimed the last custard one. :) For one, this was one mammoth of a doughnut! I may be a sucker for doughnuts, but I don't think eating one of these can be that healthy. :P At any rate, I donated the other half for sampling, even if I somewhat regretted it after taking a bite. Delicious doughnut dough: denser and wonderfully moist on the inside, crunchy on the outside with a tasty lemon custard on the inside. Sometimes, the custard doesn't turn out that great, but this one was fantastic. No wonder you run for these! ;D

The second item was a sort of pastry ($2.85) made of puff pastry and filled with chocolate cream and that tangy lemon custard. This was something I'd never seen before, and so I was curious. Just like the doughnut above, this was really great-tasting, not to mention unique. Not too doughy, as these sorts of things tend to me sometimes, but with the right proportion of dough and custard.

Well, so I certainly wasn't expecting anything before finding this place, so this was a tasty surprise! What (another) find in Etobicoke! :)

Rating: ***1/2

Fine Bakery and Deli

Bakery: Fine Bakery and Deli 
Address: 3011 Lake Shore Blvd W, Etobicoke ON 
Website: http://finebakerydeli.com/
Style: Polish
Price: $$ 

On a quite cold Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, I decided to return to Lake Shore in Etobicoke to check out one other deli that people online had mentioned had great baked goods. A trip to the deli proved that the review must have been outdated; at any rate, there were, besides three loaves of bread, no baking to be seen. Fortunately, the trip was not in vain, since I came away with two other bakeries for the reviewing. Nice. :)

The first of these two is yet another Polish bakery! Not to mention a Polish bakery where the bakery actually means there's some baking going on, this including their homemade cakes and baked goods. I was amazed the first time around with Peter's, but it's starting to look like common practice. Maybe it's just a GTA thing that delis just ship everything in and then call themselves a bakery... whoa, I really need to get out of the suburbs. O_O Anyways, Fine Bakery is, as I just said, a bakery with not too big a selection, but selection nonetheless with a few yeast baked goods, a sheet of sugar-coated Polish doughnuts, and a handful of distinct cake slabs, including several varieties of cheesecake, apple cake, and a few creamy tort-like slabs in the fridge. Nothing is priced and contents are pretty much based on intuition, which can be a little frustrating; they're not as cheap as other Polish bakeries either -- I paid $7.80 in total for two items: one poppy seed bun (probably around $1.50) and one of the smaller slabs of cheesecake (sold by weight; around $6.50)

And yes, you heard me right: they had poppy seed buns. ;) At first glance, it actually didn't look like it, since this style is usually reserved for plum or cheese buns, but the expert can always spot them. This turned out to be quite unique and so good, too! Fresh, fluffy dough wrapped around a delicious poppy seed mass, quite un-Polish if I say so myself, of pretty much pure poppy seeds, a couple of raisins and some sort of jam?? -- at any rate, something to make it stick and it seemed to have a bit of a tang to it. Top that off with icing and crumble; mmm, what a find!

The same can be said of the cheesecake. I was actually debating between the plain cheesecake and this one (I was also contemplating the fruit and meringue cake, but I was worried it would fall apart before I photographed it), but settled on this one because the almond crumble topping looked tasty. And I'm very happy I did, because not only did it have that tasty crumble with slivered almonds, there was a thin layer between that and the nice, fluffy cheesecake of apple jam. Not so overbearing as some Polish cheesecakes, this was lighter and had some complexity to it. Yummy!

In the end, I came across quite a few not only promising, but fantastic bakeries in the Etobicoke Lake Shore strip -- return trip, definitely.

Rating: ***1/2 

Stickling's Organics

Bakery: Stickling's Bakery and Bistro
Address: 191 Charlotte St, Peterborough ON
Website: http://www.sticklingsbakery.com/
Style: Organic, North American, German
Price: $$

This has been sitting here for awhile, so I thought I might as well cross this off the impending list and then continue with my newer additions. One reason for the slight delay was that the photo was found on the cellphone camera while I was looking for location shots. Imagine, I'd almost forgotten about this place!

Nevertheless, Stickling's came up as a bakery while I was compiling my list for places to try in Peterborough; however, taking a look at their website, I thought there was no point adding it as a location the brother needed to bring something back from. I say that, since it looked like these guys only made bread (this sold at various locations across Canada -- check their website) and that the 'bistro' in the name was just that: a place to sit down and have some lunch, for instance. Taking all of this into account, I was quite amazed that not only did the brother end up here voluntarily, but that there were some sweets after all! Nice! :) I'm always happy to expand my less numerous tags and to add some more organic baked goods onto the tour, especially as they're slightly more elusive. That being said, don't expect that much variety. This is, indeed, a bread-bakery that specializes in European-style sourdoughs, ryes, bagels, and other types of healthy bread. Sweets include simple classics that seem to be sold according to season: a couple of cookies, muffins (which are vegan), a few cakes/pies and that's about it (the website is currently advertising organic homemade Stollen and Lebkuchen -- man does that sound yummy!). This is, of course, available at their 'bistro' and not at those aforementioned country-wide locations.

So, the brother got the lemon coconut square-thing. :P Well, I wouldn't necessarily call it a square, but somewhere in between a square, a sort of cobbler, and maybe a pie. Nonetheless, quite interesting in taste: a nice sourness from the lemon custard and with the added coconut flakes, it tasted very... Portuguese. Not sure if that was the intent, but nonetheless, a tasty treat -- and it was nice to have organic baked goods that well, tried to branch out a little beyond the standard muffins and cookies. It was greatly appreciated... by my tummy as well. ;)

Rating: ***

Old Bread Mill [RIP]

Bakery: Old Bread Mill
Address: 14 Oxford St, Richmond Hill ON 
Website: n/a
Style: Italian 
Price: $$-$$$

Another trip to Richmond Hill (for cake), another Cake Tour. :) This seems to have become the general rule and I'm not complaining. Not in the mood for navigating parking-less plaza to get another Persian bakery on the list (though in retrospect I probably should have), I turned into this more easily navigable bakery off of Yonge (south of Elgin Mills).

As with countless Italian "bakeries", this is most certainly a deli first and the smell that greets you is not of freshly baked bread or baked goods (though that in itself is quite the rarity), but of pizza. Notwithstanding that ubiquitous hot table and cold-cut counter, they have one corner devoted to breads and two cases to pastries up at the front. Italian bakeries seem to fall into a general price range and Old Bread Mill falls into this category, with pastries on the board advertised as being $1.75 (this clearly does not apply to all pastries, however, but no indication of that is made). Then enter the other offerings. Their cream-filled doughnuts look great, but $2 for a simple, sugar-dusted doughnut seems a little steep. As does $9 or something for the strudel.

The bakery, however, does make up for it with some pretty darn good pastries. The first was, of course, the good old-fashioned cannolo ($1.75), available in either original and chocolate flavours. It's really getting hard to differentiate from one to the other, especially after so many, but this certainly figured in the "better" group. Nice shell, good filling. Perhaps it's not award-winning (Woodbridge, it seems, reigns supreme), but very good nonetheless.

The second item was the slice of baklava ($2.49). Alright, so I wasn't the only one to exclaim a little dubiously that baklava is certainly not Italian; it was the first thing that came out of sampler #3's mouth, but all in all, it was a pleasant surprise (going with the assumption that Italian baklava can't be the best) to find that this was, like the cannolo, pretty good! A larger slice with your typical soaked filo and a generous nut filling -- the Old Bread Mill does not disappoint!

Rating: ***

Heather's Bakery & Cafe

Bakery: Heather's Bakery & Cafe 
Address: 103 Main St S, Georgetown ON 
Website: http://www.heathersbakery.ca/
Style: Scottish, English
Price: $ 

Well, if you recall, I did mention another bakery in Georgetown and here it is. Heather's is a bakery in downtown Georgetown with a nice selection of Scottish/English baked goods in the form of various types of muffins, scones, squares, as well as tarts and some cakes. Not to mention fantastic prices! At $1.10 for each item in the scone-like category (with a grand whopping total of $2.20, taxes included) or $1.50 for the squares, this is amazingly affordable! Not to mention tasty!

Actually, to be quite honest with you, I told myself beforehand that I'm not a big fan of soda-based baked goods such as scones. I find them too dense and the taste/texture too uh, particular. So, I didn't expect too great things from either item. The first was a cinnamon twist (they might have called it a swirl, but either way, you get the idea :P), with scone-like dough wrapped and filled with delicious cinnamon filling. I warmed mine up a little in the microwave to soften the dough a little and get that cinnamon a little more oozy and mmm... it was so good! *-* Surprisingly delicious dough and great sugar and cinnamon mass, just the way I like it!

Just as good was the cranberry-raspberry scone with lots of fruit tucked into the dough. A softer dough -- and definitely tastier -- than some of the dry, brick-hard scones I've encountered at some places, this was also a surprise hit. It was even more so of a surprise, because the other baked goods, although more elaborate and which seemed more "interesting" at first glance, couldn't come close to simply some great baked goods. Keep it up, Heather's! ;)

Rating: ***

Mercato Fine Foods

Bakery: Mercato Fine Foods
Address: 1 Queensgate Blvd, Bolton ON
Website: http://www.mercatofinefoods.ca/ 
Style: Italian 
Price: $$-$$$

Hi, Bolton! The Cake Tour has come to town! :) One more random hiking trip to who-knows-where courtesy of the brother has resulted in my first bakery in Bolton.. and that's always exciting.

Mercato Fine Foods is, in a sense, your typical Italian deli: hot table, some grocery items, as well as the usual breads and pastries behind the counter. Those pastries likewise include a fairly large selection of all the classics such as cannoli and other Italian pastries, fruit tarts, various creamy cake slices. In typical Italian fashion, neither prices nor descriptions are readily available; at least I believe this to be so because my brother doesn't know how many anything was. Then again, he doesn't remember how much paid either, pegging it from anywhere between $5-7... for two pastries, and one of them the usually lesser priced cannolo, this isn't that cheap, regardless of where it was in that range. 

The first item up for trying was the ubiquitous cannolo. Liking to have a frame of reference, this was just one more addition to the great big -- unofficial -- cannoli challenge and how did this one fare? Okay. It was somewhere in the average range, with pretty good cheese filling (one or two chocolate bits). The shell was quite brittle and crumbled, flaked off, and came apart very easily; even while positioning it on the plate, the two halves cracked open, making it more difficult to eat (and get both shell and filling in one bite).

The second item was the "rum" baba, sponge cake soaked in most likely sugar syrup and stuffed with cream which was a little too pudding-y in consistency. It was... alright, but not great, which could pretty much sum up everything. Certainly not the worst Italian place, but not on the upper echelon of pasticcerie either.

Rating: **1/2

Heritage Bakery [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Heritage Bakery 
Address: 1912 37 St SW, Calgary AB
Website: http://www.heritagebakeryanddeli.ca
Style: Polish
Price: $$

[Well, I suppose that in every trip, there must be a little cloud in the Cake Tour, blocking out the glorious rays of delicious baked goods... okay, okay, let's not get too poetic there. :P Nevertheless, Heritage Bakery was the one bakery the brother was absolutely ordered to go to. Whether he wanted to or not. Ha ha ha! Growing up, this was one of my fave bakeries (and not only for the freebies I got :D). We were actually one of the very few Polish families who supported this bakery right from the beginning, at their first location in Ranchlands. Two moves later, they're still at the same place many years later, but apparently it's not the same place on the inside (I'm guessing/assuming the "kids" must be running it now). Rather, it's not really a bakery anymore. The photos, sign, and products available prove this all too clearly. This was pretty heartbreaking to hear. And so ends my Albertan Cake Tour (so far). :(

... What else was heartbreaking to hear? That this idiot forgot to take any pictures at all. No location photo (and Google was really being awful when I, for once, needed a great street view shot), no idea of the price, and *NO* product picture as well. What was this guy thinking!?! He was complaining that he ate the pie they bought for three days afterwards and in those three days he never thought of taking a photo! Grrrr... my head is going to explode. I had a huge stroke of luck, though: the website has both an outside photo and a pie photo, so there we go. Both photos are property of the deli website and all credit goes to them... please let me keep them up here?? :)]

Heritage Bakery is more a deli than anything else. I had the impression that it was the sort of place you go for lunch for hot Polish food. This food mostly consists of gołąbki (cabbage rolls), pierogi, etc. with very few baked goods. They had only one type of ciasto (cake), cookies, and pie. They don't even bake their own bread, which was pretty disappointing for a "bakery"  in my opinion. I took the pie, which was okay. There was too much filling (blueberry jam). The bottom (the actual pie shell) wasn't great and I thought the topping wasn't crispy enough. By the third day -- it took me three days to finish the pie, not to mention the baked goods bought at other bakeries -- I'd had enough. I was really hoping for a Polish jam-filled doughnut (pączki), which are probably my favourite Polish baked goods, on my trip, either in Edmonton or here at Heritage Bakery, but I came away disappointed.

Rating: **

Traditional Taste

Bakery: Traditional Taste Bakery & Cafe
Address: 211 Guelph St, Georgetown ON 
Website: http://www.traditionaltastebakery.ca/ 
Style: European, North American 
Price: $ 

A recent drive to Georgetown resulted in some more baked goods for trying -- and an official Georgetown tag as well (I now have the minimum three ^^)! Traditional Taste was supposed to have been sampled the previous time, but the bakery was closed on the Saturday afternoon when I'd been there, so it took some time, but it's been done. Nonetheless, Traditional Taste is, despite the label of "European treats", more what I'd call contemporary Canadian baking: a blend of the most well-known pan-European pastries (cannoli, macarons, throw in a strudel or danish -- and it's most certainly the Portuguese custard tarts that give away the bakery's origins ;)) and your usual bakery classics such as cream cakes, tarts, and various squares.

Well, I got two items to try this time around (actually it was another of the brother's hiking trips and he picked this out himself): the first was a slice of apple strudel (he wasn't sure what the price was, but he paid $3.50 altogether), which looked quite promising. While not necessarily in the style I like best, this was a thin layer of soft dough, glazed on the top, and stuffed with large chunks of cinnamon-spiced apples. A common problem, the apples were as I'm not particularly fond of them: hard and cooked for too little time or simply the wrong type of apple (not all types of apples work in baked goods), giving the impression that the filling was made up of fresh apples and that just didn't match with the dough. This is one of my big no-nos, so I was pretty disappointed.

The second item was the classic butter tart, which was pretty good. Flaky tart shell with a firm pecan middle -- not bad. The only thing that was really going against it was that I'd just had Ruth's the previous week and, as I've come to notice, it's going to be very hard to beat that. :P

Overall, Traditional Taste is alright, with a good assortment of treats, but not my personal pick for the best bakery in Georgetown.

Rating: **1/2

Planète-Pain

Bakery: Planète-Pain 
Address: 2020 rue Gauthier, Montréal QC
Website: n/a
Style: North American 
Price: $$ 

I love when you just turn the corner and bam! you're met with a bakery that didn't appear on any of your online searches and, somehow, that makes it special. It also helps to stay in different areas and go down streets you'd never have gone down before. And so it happened this time. I got a great deal on an apartment (Airbnb) for my trip to Montreal and ended up in the neighbourhood. Knowing that I'd never explored the area, certainly not on foot, I searched for bakeries in the area and didn't exactly find any, but all it took was a trip to the Metro and there was a new, perfectly uncharted bakery for me. :)

Planète Pain seems to be a newer bakery; at the very least, searching the address gives me the name of another bakery; it's a very small place with barely enough room for two customers to stand. There might have been one table for two, but I'm not so sure about that. In accordance with the tight space, there isn't that much selection and what there is seems to come in little more than ones and twos. Most of this is, as the name suggests, bread. They have a few fairly unique pasties, but these are all savoury, with fillings such as mushroom, cabbage, etc. Sweets-wise, there really isn't that much. There were a couple cakes, sold by slices, as well as a handful of baked goods; that's about it. All seem to be what I would consider European-inspired, but simpler (and more unpretentious) than the French-style patisseries scattered throughout the city.

On my visit, I took the cinnamon bun (around $2.75). Despite the danish in the actual name (danoise à la cannelle), this was probably least "danish" cinnamon bun I've had. In fact, this was more in the classic North American, ooey gooey cinnamon bun (Cinnabon) style than anything else and while it was better than the buns sold at malls by a long shot, I have to say it's certainly not my favourite type of cinnamon bun. Fluffy dough with plenty of cinnamon mass, a mix between the cinnamon and the cream cheese icing that oozed from above. Good in taste, but quite messy and simply too gooey for my taste.

Rating: **1/2

Rustic Sourdough Bakery [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Rustic Sourdough Bakery
Address: 1305 17 Ave SW, Calgary AB
Website: http://www.rusticsourdoughbakery.com/
Style: Swiss, German 
Price: $$

Rustic Sourdough, in the middle of the 17 Ave commercial strip, looks like a typically German bakery; however, I went here because on the list of bakeries I was given, this one was listed as having a Swiss pastry chef and that seemed a little more new and exciting. The store is split in half, with a deli (cold cuts, cheese, etc.) on one side and the bakery on the other side. I was impressed by their large selection of all the German bakery classics: strudels, black forest, poppy seed cake [editor's note: poppy seed cake!? Why was I not informed of this? More than that, why didn't I get any brought back for me!], breads, tortes, cookies, etc. Prices were normal, reasonable.

I had a very hard time choosing one thing when I could have had just about anything. I was getting pretty sick of poppy seeds [oh, the pain in my heart! ;-;] or fancier cakes, so I picked out the apple strudel ($2.95) because I always like strudels, especially the traditional German style, with thin dough wrapped around a lot of apple filling. There was just the right proportion of cooked apple "sauce", whole apple chunks, and raisins and perfect amount of spice. Dough was good and not soggy -- a very good bakery overall.

Rating: ***

Ruth's Home Baking

Bakery: Ruth's Home Baking
Address: 3487 Concession 2 RR1, Kincardine ON 
Website: n/a 
Style: Canadian 
Price: $-$$

One brother went hiking in the area one weekend and, on his way back from the lighthouse, he spotted signs for this "bakery" and returned with two packs of baked goods for the reviewing. The "Home Baking" in this case is quite literal: the bakery is indeed attached to the owner's house in what was probably the garage and the goodies are what you would come to expect from good old-fashioned baking: pies, squares, butter tarts -- all of those Canadian classics, as I like to call them. Given this is a fairly low-key operation, it does need to be said up front that this place is *good* and puts a lot of more professional businesses to shame!

I believe that items are sold in packages of six or by slabs, these costing $6.50. The brother returned with two treats for the trying: the first were the date squares, which were excellent and some of the best I've had. They weren't too sweet, which always seems to be a problem with dates, as they're already sweet enough, and the oat crumble was just enough, not too much for to overpower the dates and not too little either, so you have a little bit of both in your mouth. Very good.

The second item was the butter tart. Looking at them, they resemble all the rest, but taking one bite... whoa. The household agrees: these are the best butter tarts we've ever tried. The tourist board for the Kawarthas has created a butter tart tour (38 stops!!) which WILL be done by me one of these days and those guys better be ready to treat and beat the high standard set by Ruth. ;) Fantastic, homemade tart shell with just the right level of flaky thickness and a delectable, buttery filling, set on the top and oozing inside. This little treat *melts* in your mouth. Holy-moly was this ever good. It's not fancy, but Ruth's baking is Canadian baking as it should be!

Rating: ****

Le Moulin de Provence [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Le Moulin de Provence 
Address: 55 Byward Market Square, Ottawa ON
Website: http://moulindeprovence.com/
Style: European, French 
Price: $$-$$$ 

[I don't know how it happened, but the story goes that the two idiots [i.e. my brothers] bought something from this bakery and brought it back to the hotel. One brother went to the bathroom with the impression that the other brother was supposed to take the pictures. Not sure what that other brother was doing in the meantime, but the first returned and ate what he got, thinking the photos were already done and it turns out they weren't. Upon getting scolded by me, they said that it'd be easy to find a picture online and use that. Yeah, thanks genius, because bakeries regularly make an item-by-item catalogue of their goods. :/ And so, for the first time EVER, my post lacks a product picture. Anyone would like to supply me with a photo of the millefeuille until someone returns here and gets it done for me? It'd be greatly appreciated. ^.^ You can become an international correspondent as a reward -- highly coveted honour, you know! Anyways~]

Moulin de Provence looks like Ottawa's most famous (and largest) bakery, right in the Byward Market. Although their selection is huge, with hot lunches, quiches, breads, and several cases of pastry classics (opera, religieuse, etc.) and other baked goods, the one memory I have of this particular bakery is the Obama cookies, which are in honour of the US president's visit there and you're reminded of that everywhere.

I was, however, not at all interested in the above mentioned cookies. I had the blueberry millefeuille (also known as a Napoleon in English) [editor's note: which is NEITHER photographed NOR priced -___-]. The icing wasn't too hard, there was lots of cream and the dough in between was crunchy and of perfect texture. This was very good.

Although Moulin de Provence felt almost like a touristy gimmick and I thought it was a shame that more emphasis is placed on this than on the actual food; the variety and amount of the pastries alone is worthy of notice. The great tasting pastries also reveals that it shouldn't be only thought of as the "Obama bakery".

Rating: ***

Boulangerie le Fournand

Bakery: Boulangerie le Fournand 
Address: 194 Rte 132 O, Percé QC
Website: http://www.boulangerielefournand.com/
Style: French
Price: $$

Well, just when I thought I wouldn't have any more additions to the Great Canadian Cake Tour, at least not this year, I chanced upon this bakery in the small, touristy town of Percé on my brief visit to Gaspé in September. Spending two nights here was purely accident (or chance) and just when I was heartbroken at the idea of having nothing to show for this trip of mine, along came Le Fournand. :)

This is the town's bakery (another was either closed down completely or already done for the season) and features most French bakery staples, like flaky tarts, buttery baked goods, and some cakes as well. Actually, given the fact that it didn't advertise itself as a patisserie, I was expecting a lunchtime spot and some bread more than anything else, so it was very nice to see a modest selection of, especially given the fact it's a monopoly, well-priced treats. Service was also very friendly.

Intrigued by the selection of "tarts" (they are essentially tarts, just cut into slices versus formed into shells... and I've forgotten the actual name -_-), topped with combinations such as pear and chocolate or apricot and almond, I decided to try one of these for my late lunch. :P And at $2.99, they were affordable too. I chose the apricot and almond which, yes, does resemble a slice of pizza -- pizza aside, I am insanely proud of this picture and think it has to be one of my best. Modestly speaking, of course. ;) The boardwalk and famous Rocher Percé in the background. Wow, that looks almost deliberate. LOL

Anyways: wonderfully flaky dough with a great texture with tasty slices of apricot, slivers of almond, and some almond mass underneath the fruit. I thought it got a little too mushy with all the paste and glaze, especially towards the middle where there wasn't enough dough to balance it out, but it was really good. Yes, it helps they're the only ones; however, no matter how many bakeries there are and aren't, Le Fournand is still a great place to eat in town and a highlight during my quick trip through Quebec. :)

Rating: ***

Peter's European Bakery and Deli

Bakery: Peter's European Bakery and Deli
Address: 3517 Lake Shore Blvd W, Toronto ON
Website: n/a
Style: Polish
Price: $-$$

It's not very often that I can report such good pieces of news (it's actually usually the opposite and I'm reporting the closure of a bakery previously reviewed here), but here it is: there's a brand new bakery in town and it's a Polish one! This bakery/deli opened towards the beginning of September (yes, I'm still a little behind with my posts) and unlike the vast majority of Polish "bakery and delis" in the GTA, these guys not only advertise that they have home-baked goodies, but I found they also tried to make the bright store with racks of baked goods in the window and signage in English a lot more open to those who don't happen to know Polish. This makes it one of the least intimidating Polish delis I've visited (my family is Polish, but, believe me, I still understand it can be a very daunting experience), so don't be scared to give it a try -- and the baked goods are yummy too. :P

Actually, spotting the two shelving units of treats in the window, they instantly felt familiar: so this was where Wisła deli got their yummy poppy seed baked goods from -- and, in fact, what makes Wisła deli so darn yummy! *-* I had a feeling that the latter didn't bake it themselves and I had always wondered who their suppliers were, since the baking was so unlike the usual, commercial bakery culprits. Expect fresh buns with generous fillings, Polish classics like cheesecakes and yeast-doughies (why not just copyright that here and now? :P), as well as a few more pan-European offerings like cookies and danishes, although at the same time, the selection wasn't as large as you might expect from an actual bakery versus the usual Polish deli. However, they had poppy seed and plenty of it when it did appear, so I mustn't complain. :P

So, I took away two items for my preliminary trip: the first was the poppy seed bun ($1.19). This and the larger poppy seed strudel ($4.99) aren't in any way strangers to me. I love both and will say that these are the best Polish poppy seed buns in the GTA. Yummy dough with tons of poppy seed mass inside (which is neither a sprinkling of whole poppy seeds nor the usual Polish poppy seed mass that I'm not too fond of) -- actually I'd even go so far and say that there's almost too much poppy seed mass at times; I could definitely do without the downright copious amounts of raisins, though .*doesn't like raisins*

The second item was a slab of cheesecake (pre-sliced in pound-cake sized rectangles and sold by weight; I paid $8.45 for my piece). There was just one variety that day so not sure if they change it up or it's always the same, but mine was the standard plain cheesecake (but with chocolate dough) with chocolate and walnut on tops. It was nice and fresh, not crumbling like some I've tried, as well as being rich and fluffy. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was the best cheesecake I've had, but it was a good one. :)

In the handful of actual Polish "bakeries" in the GTA, it's great to welcome Peter's to that list. They don't have that much and the store has more of that deli vibe than a bakery, but tasty, well-priced baked goods (especially of the poppy seed variety *-*) are what makes it worth a visit.

Rating: ***1/2