Boulangerie Cheskie

Bakery: Boulangerie Cheskie 
Address: 359 Rue Bernard O, Montreal QC
Website: n/a
Style: Jewish, Eastern European
Price: $$$ 

As mentioned earlier, I raided "must-have" dessert lists online for the first time, curious to see if I'd perhaps missed something on my regular Cake Tours of Montreal. The majority were well known to me; others didn't really appeal to me, some I went through on my latest trip. I saw pictures of Cheskie's baked goods -- namely, their Russian chocolate babka -- and immediately went for it. How could I not? The photos look amazing.

Cheskie's is a kosher bakery that seems to also be frequented by locals of all kinds and, judging by the amount of online photos, foodies and specializes in Eastern European-style baked goods and a few North American treats mainly for the kids (a wide variety of colourful sugar cookies with icing comes to mind), but what mainly seems to bring everyone in the neighbourhood in is either their famous chocolate babka or their rugullah, available in several varieties.

Unfortunately, most items are sold by weight with no indication of what that price is per kilo/pound; I'm not exactly sure the precise amount I paid for each item either. This can lead to some surprises and I was genuinely surprised how much the man in front of me paid for a dozen rugullah. Next was my moment of truth and, delicious as it is, baked goods are expensive and I probably paid double what I was expecting. Ouch.

However, the pain is soon forgotten, or at least numbed, once you start digging in to your goodies. Of course, I had to try the Russian chocolate babka (I paid $3.78 for two pieces). This is served in almost bite-size pieces, all baked together to create a multi-layered ooey gooey chocolatey mass. As if that weren't enough, it's then drizzled with thick chocolate on top. Quality chocolate and plenty of it, this is a chocolate-lover's dream come true.. and what a beauty it is, isn't it?

Naturally, whenever there's a chocolate babka, there's a high probability that you'll find something with poppy seed. To my disappointment, there actually isn't that much with poppy seed. There was, however, the poppy seed loaf. I had to have it. Costing $15.75 for the whole piece, it can be cut up and is then sold by weight. The latter option turned out not worth it; I paid around $6 for a fourth. And as an essentially individual piece, it was very pricey. This is THE best poppy seed baked good in Montreal, hands down. Crepe-thin layers of dough folded with black poppy seed mass. Whoa. *-*

All in all, pricey and almost wouldn't be worth it... if it weren't so insanely good! A(nother) Montreal bakery highlight.

Rating: ****