Mid-East Food Centre

Bakery: Mid-East Food Centre & Cafe
Address: 2595 Agricola St, Halifax NS 
Website: n/a
Style: Lebanese, Middle Eastern 
Price: $$ 

This was my first of two attempts at getting baked goods for reviewing from the local market directly across the street from Mid-East; their website says that they make their own baked good with organic ingredients and the photos look pretty good, but every time I'm there, there's never anything there! I was hoping to get something before my flight this time around and found, in the morning, fully-stacked shelves with bread but no individual goodies. :(

I may not be sweet, but don't forget about me~!

Not quite sure what to do and devastated I wouldn't have a Cake Tour that day, I crossed the street and popped into this deli and adjacent cafe, which is located next door is the somewhat deceiving Fancy Lebanese Bakery (deceiving in that they're more or less a commercial bakery and this is their pita bread production facility). Having spent several nights in the North End, I'd walked by the windows of the cafe a few times and noticed with too sharp an eye that they had a sweets section, a whole case of various types of baklava and cookies along with savoury baked goods as well. Unlike the vast majority of Lebanese bakeries, items were individually priced, not charged by weight, which was greatly appreciated by me. At least there are no surprises: various styles of mammoul were $2.00 while baklava was $1.75 (if I remember correctly) per item. It still will add up if you want to go all-out, but at least it's a conscious decision. :P

Nonetheless, I got three items. The first was my makeshift lunch at the airport: a feta fatayer ($2.25), a small patty stuffed with feta and white cheese (presumably akawi). No, it's not sweet, but it was good, so I thought it deserved some mention.

Bring on the mammoul!

Not an overwhelming baklava lover and wanting something more meaty to get me through the day, I settled for two mammoul ($2.00/each), one date and the other walnut. The date variety melted in your mouth: lots of tasty date filling with a semolina-based dough and just the right amount of fragrance -- this is usually way overdone and too aromatic but this was perfect. The walnut variety was filled with a delicious filling of chopped walnuts with an excellent dough. I do like mammoul and these were some great examples; most of all, they tasted fresh, which was appreciated. More often than not, cookies taste a bit like they've been sitting there for weeks on bakery shelves, but these were neither dried out or stale. I probably would have bought more had it not been for this darned budget. *sighs*

Rating: ***