Millie Creperie

Bakery: Millie Creperie
Address: 161 Baldwin St, Toronto ON 
Website: http://milliecreperie.com/
Style: Japanese, French
Price: $$$

In addition to Hungarian crepes, Kensington Market also offers up a Japanese version at Millie. And well, you know how I'm eager to try anything Japanese.... In fact, you can start with lunch on the east end of Baldwin (home to fantastic Japanese restaurants), cross Spadina and have dessert at Millie. Of course you might just end up blowing your weekly food budget, but at least your taste buds will be satisfied for the day. ;D

Anyways~ Millie, as the name suggests, specializes in Japanese-style crepes, which are thinner and crunchier than their French equivalent. They offer mostly sweet options, with some savoury, in the form of rolled crepes with a variety of fillings, mostly involving some form of gelato. Step inside and you'll find that they also offer cakes! ^^; As with other Japanese food-related businesses and, well, crepe joints for that matter, expect to pay more than your average bakery/cake place, with items all around $8. At the same time, expect to get high quality in return (see incredible layer of matcha below *-*).

The irresistible choice had to be the green tea mille crepe cake ($8): perhaps not a thousand, but several paper-thin crepes interspersed with cream and matcha (green tea powder). Doesn't just looking at this make your mouth water? Well, it does for me. :) Absolutely delectable and undeniably Japanese, this felt somewhat lighter than it actually was, especially given the amount of cream in it. This is most certainly a must-try. I'm not sure if I'd run to make that kind of investment again, since it was a wee bit expensive, but at the very least, you come away with the feeling that you've just had something very special. Fantastic stuff.

Rating: ****

St Phillips Bakery

Bakery: St Phillips Bakery
Address: 5100 Rutherford Rd, Woodbridge ON (one more location)
Website: http://www.stphillipsbakery.com/
Style: Italian
Price: $$

Another Cake Tour brought back for me. ^^; This was the result of a trip to Vaughan Mills and, of course, it seems to be a given that going through Woodbridge means bringing back Italian pastries. I guess it also means that bringing back Italian pastries better mean you went to Woodbridge, since this is generally *the* place in the GTA for the better ones. Not always true, but St Phillips did deliver.

The last time I was driving down Major McKenzie to the highway, I spotted their other location and promised myself I'd go the next time I was there; now that's unnecessary. ;) Like a great many Italian "bakeries", this is more of a rather grand deli, with pastries and baked goods occupying one part of the store. Judging by their website alone, they seem more custom cakes than anything else; however they do have a fairly large selection of Italian pastries as well as cake slices, tarts, and other less impressive North American treats (cupcakes....) The purchaser found it frustrating that nothing was labelled or priced, because he a) wasn't sure which were the 100% Italian treats, b) he forgot how sfogliatelle were spelled and therefore couldn't recall how to pronounce them. In all the mix up, he's since forgotten how much he ended up paying. -_-

Nonetheless, he did figure out what to get eventually: one cannolo. This was one of the more notable cannoli in the GTA: nice crispy tube with a great tasting cheese filling. Similarly, there was the other cream-filled pastry made with puff pastry. This wasn't as popular and it seemed too doughy and difficult to eat -- the traditional Sicilian cannolo was certainly better.

Then there was, ha ha ha, the famous sfogliatella: layers of thin dough in the shape of a shell/leaf and stuffed with a small scoop of creamy filling. Perhaps not that much filling and the outside was a tad over-baked, resulting in the edges being rather hard and chewy. Not the best.

Finally, there was this beauty. Ah, everyone seems to know how fond I am of zeppole! *-* And too bad we didn't do another zeppola challenge this time, since this would have probably received the highly coveted golden zeppola. This was one amazing zeppola. The dough was so good: crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, this was almost cruller and that is fantastic thing. Delicious filling and so loaded with Amarena cherries that the dough underneath had gone dark red. Unlike many bakeries, you could taste the cherries in every bits -- absolutely delicious!!! One of the best I've had (because yes, I am a zeppola connoisseur ^^). 

St Phillips is thus a pretty good place; some items, obviously, seem better than others, but for those fond of their pasticcerie, it's certainly worth checking out. And get a zeppola while you're at it. ;)

Rating: ***1/2

Bakery Gateau

Bakery: Bakery Gateau
Address: 7040 Yonge St, Toronto ON (inside Galleria Supermarket) 
Website: http://www.bakerygateau.com/
Style: Korean
Price: $$

Popping into Galleria for a late lunch (which turned out to be far from the most appetizing Korean meal I've had :/), I thought it a perfect opportunity to try the bakery at the same time. With the memory of Baro Gun Pang still fresh in my mind, I couldn't wait to try yet another Korean bakery. Unfortunately, Gateau is like the other food stalls in the Galleria "mall": not very good and somewhat disappointing.

Baked goods are slightly more expensive; there wasn't very much selection on Saturday afternoon and, what was more, nothing except the "doughnut" had the impeccable freshness I've come to expect from Korean bakeries. (And be aware that there were no macarons as on the website or anything, for that matter, resembling French baked goods -- perhaps their other York Mills location has more??) Everything is clearly labelled and priced, though. Expect your usual Korean baked goods: individual buns stuffed with various bean or cream fillings, cream roll cakes, and a couple savoury items (hot dog buns and croquettes).

So, for the testing I took three items and why not save best for last? ;) First item was the red bean peanut crunch bun ($1.85); it was $0.25 cents to upgrade from the red bean to the peanut and I'm not quite sure it was worth it. The combination wasn't the greatest. Personally, I don't think it matched, especially when it was more peanut butter than actual nuts, which I think would have matched more. Perhaps those who are a fan of peanut butter and jam would like this; I, for one, am not, so I'll definitely pass on this one next time.

A fan of Korean cream buns, I was a little disappointed that these guys didn't really have any except this choux cream bun ($1.30), which was more of a thick pancake folded over a generous dollop of a thicker custard-like cream. The cream was pretty good; it wasn't the usual butter cream I was hoping for *pouts*, but it was alright. The dough tasted stale though. Personally I thought the dough too dry for a thick cream; the two didn't go together that well, in my opinion.

There was, however, one redeeming factor: the sesame rice doughnut (I forgot the exact wording, sorry .___.;; $1.60), a lightweight, cruller-like doughnut with an airy inside and a crunchy exterior, rolled in sugar. This was fantastic! and the highlight of the trip. It doesn't look like much, but one bite will get you hooked. No wonder they also sell these in three-packs. ^^;

So, with lunch being a total flop, I guess the bakery trip couldn't be too spectacular. :( But at least one good thing came out of it...

Rating: **1/2

Astoria Pastry Shop

Bakery: Astoria Pastry Shop
Address: 541 Monroe Ave, Detroit MI
Website: http://www.astoriapastryshop.com/
Style: Greek, North American
Price: $$ 

Last week, one brother decided to go to Detroit for the car show and came back with Greek baked goods! A lot of ethnic bakeries have flopped on these trips across the border, so the keywords on Google including key lime pie and cupcakes made the place, I must admit, not very enticing, but in the end, Astoria impressed with their small selection of traditional Greek pastries that was not just limited to baklava. Of course, the selection isn't very large, but thankfully there was no attempt at making the pastries bigger or sweeter (the memory of that latest Niagara Falls Italian bakery still remains firm x_x) than they should be. Honey-soaked, nut-stuffed filo goodness. ;)

More specifically, the brother brought back one walnut roll (more or less a rolled baklava instead of the usual triangle shape), which was very tasty. Generous on both the nuts and honey, this was excellent.

The second item was a finikia (chosen purely for the Greek name ^^): a sort of spice cookie with hints of cinnamon and orange and -- of course -- soaked in honey. Ha ha, what would Greek baking be without honey? Another great-tasting treat nonetheless and a wonderful find of a bakery... especially if you're going in for the good stuff. ;)

Rating: ***1/2