NLPita

Bakery: NLPita
Address: 82 O'Leary Ave., St. John's NL (@ St John's Farmers Market)
Website: n/a
Style: Middle Eastern
Price: $$

While in St. John's, I decided to make a visit to the Farmers Market, having heard there was some good food worth picking up. Naturally, I was hoping that "good food" involved baked goods. And it did. :P In fact, I told myself I would buy one item and that would be that. I grabbed two and was forced to give up on a third. One of the items I did try were the sweets from the NL Pita table outside. In addition to your usual pita bread, they had a few sweeter selections, such as date croissants (which I would have so taken had I had a bigger budget; the attestation from the seller that they were very good didn't help -_-) and slices of basbousa ($3), the Egyptian variation of semolina cake. The woman in front of me was asking what they were and the seller was explaining what went into them -- though I have to say likening it to baklava may be somewhat misleading for someone who has no idea what semolina cake is.

I'll have another piece, please! ^^;;

Made chunks of almonds, and drenched in a sugar syrup, these guys also added Greek yogourt instead of the usual milk or condensed milk. The result was a denser, creamier dough that stayed together as one mass and almost had the feeling of a cheesecake, often difficult with semolina cakes, which crumble and are more sandy. This was then soaked in sugar syrup, but not too much for it to be soggy and then generously topped with chunks of nuts. Having had no breakfast, I ate it on the spot and enjoyed it so much I would have probably run to buy more if my budget allowed it (it didn't -- I had already spent too much at the market .__.) and if I hadn't bought the last piece. ;)

I'm generally not the biggest fan of Middle Eastern sweets, so even I was amazed at how delicious this was! Another high ranker from St. John's.

Rating: ***1/2