Mimi's Cake Tour: July 2018

Mrs. B & B's Bakery

Bakery: Mrs. B & B's Bakery
Address: 587 Como Rd, Grand Forks BC
Website: https://mrsbbbakery.ca/
Style: Canadian
Price: $$

This was a bit of an awkward adventure. Spotting this on Google, and happening to drive through Grand Forks, I thought I would add onto the baked goods I'd already reviewed without really realizing it was so out of the way. Mrs B & B's Bakery is actually a small garage-sized shop located down the driveway on the owner's property, so it's probably a place for those that are in the know more than anything else, but, well, I'll go to anything to get every bakery out there on my little site. ^^

Feeling a little weird at first, I entered the shop to find that it has been set up like a bakery, with breads, pies in the fridge, and shelves of home-style goodies packed on styrofoam trays, usually in counts of 6. Having planned a whole route of bakeries, I didn't want to invest in a whole pack for myself, so fortunately, I was able to grab just two slices of the carrot cake.

The carrot cake ($2.00 per slice, cheaper as a pack of 6) was a generously-sized chunk with a good, thick layer of whipped icing. Delving into it, it was pretty good in taste; I found the dough very fluffy and moist, more of a spice cake than what you'd normally think of in terms of carrot cake. Personally, though, I would have liked more texture and more chunks of carrot than a single, homogeneous mass.

Rating: **1/2

Panneterie [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Panneterie
Address:
Website: http://panneterie.com/
Style: Japanese
Price: $

Sometimes, a bad thing can turn into a good thing. In this case, that good thing is an expected Cake Tour and the bad thing was... climbing up to the wrong platform with my suitcase and thus just missing my connecting train (I would have made it if it weren't for that suitcase). I wasn't in a hurry, could use a little break and hey, I would have been devastated if I spotted this bakery and would not have had the time to visit it. Yup, everything worked out in the end.

Panneterie is a local bakery with one main shop and an offshoot stall in Yamato-Yagi station. According to their signs on most of their products, they're "certified organic", but I couldn't find any more information about this selective organic designation in-store or online. They also happened to be really well-priced, which makes me a little doubtful of that organic claim.

Regardless, as with a great many bakeries at that time of year, it was strawberry season, and there was no exception at Panneterie, with strawberry glazed doughnuts being one feature item. Besides that, the bakery was fully stocked with baked goods and sandwiches; however, upon more careful examination, there were countless repeats of the same baked good scattered throughout the stall, perhaps for easier ordering when it gets busy? That meant that there wasn't exactly as much selection as you first think.

I went for the cinnamon bun (120 yen). Sometimes, I found Japanese bakeries tried to reinvent the classics, but in this case, they stuck to the basics: a simple glazed cinnamon bun with an airier yeast dough that was rolled with cinnamon, maybe a bit lacking at times in the latter. Great texture and flavourful, this was a good cinnamon bun and well worth the delay.

Rating: ***

Deadwood Junction

Bakery: Deadwood Junction
Address: 502 Silver St, Greenwood BC
Website: http://deadwoodjunction.com/
Style: Canadian
Price: $$$

Now, I'm sure most people have heard of microbreweries, but this just may be the only "micro-bakery" in the country. Definite points for originality. They so knew how to get my attention. :)

It may appear like you're more likely to run into a showdown at Deadwood Junction than baked goods, but inside, this pretty hodgepodge space (including coffee shop, local art and gift items) does have a small (micro-) selection of baked goods including some cookies, muffins, tarts and a minuscule display case filled with squares. Not bad, though it is a bit on the expensive side.

Still, I knew what I wanted as soon as I spotted it: "Eva's famous" cinnamon buns ($4). Anything making claims has to be tested, after all. This massive bun made the whole car smell with cinnamon, to such a degree that as soon as I reached my destination, I couldn't resist ripping off a bite. Just to try it. Sure, I was going for dinner soon, but I just had to take a bite while fresh. I mean, just look at that mass of glaze and gooey bits of thick, cinnamon filling; add to that delicious dense dough, not fluffy or bready like BC cinnamon buns usually are... and before I knew it, I'd eaten half the bun. "Famous" isn't an overstatement here! ;)

Rating: ***1/2

Little Mermaid [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Little Mermaid
Address: 13-4 Nishimikadochō, Nara
Website: https://www.littlemermaid.jp/
Style: Japanese, European
Price: $$

My final bakery stop in Nara before continuing on my way, Little Mermaid has proven to be yet another one of these bakeries that looks like a smaller-scale operation, but actually has like, hundreds of locations across the country. *sighs* It's so hard telling the difference when you don't know anything...

Regardless, Little Mermaid, as the name tries to suggest, is aiming to evoke one of the greatest baking countries: Denmark. The overall vibe does seem reminiscent of Danish-import Andersen, right down to the font used. Even so, stepping in, I didn't see counters laden with flaky Danish pastries as the website would like to suggest. Actually, I was hoping there would more "European" influence, especially since I've come across greater selection in bakeries that weren't quite pretending to be anything.

Really intent on trying something both flaky and different than some of my more usual picks, I went with a seasonal matcha pastry (216 yen), presumably available for a limited time. I'm always happy to try anything matcha flavoured and this lovely braid looked pretty promising. I did like the outside with the flaky dough and simple egg wash on top, but inside, I wasn't a fan of the thick matcha paste that you would find in manju. The dense, heavy filling -- and there was so much of it -- just didn't match the airy weightlessness of the dough surrounding it. In the end, the fact that it reminded me of Andersen didn't just stop with the font: it ended up with the same lacklustre rating.

Rating: **1/2

Okanagan Grocery

Bakery: Okanagan Grocery
Address: 2355 Gordon Dr, Kelowna BC
Website: http://okanagangrocery.com/
Style: European, Canadian
Price: $$

Checking to see whether I've done all the bakeries in Kelowna (I haven't!), my first instinct was to overlook this one based on its name. After all, you would assume that this was some sort of market or specialty food shop. That is what grocery means, so it may come as a surprise for those not acquainted with Okanagan Grocery that they're a bakery. Not a deli with a bakery counter, not a display case of sweets sandwiched amid shelves of gourmet products. Nope. It's a real deal of a bakery with shelves of artisan breads and baked goods, along with a small selection of sweet treats right up at the cash. At least, the signs that were there proved that baked goods had been there; they were all gone and sold out baked goods is a promising sign.

With such limited selection, given how many items were already gone, I went with a slice of cherry pie ($2.95). Unlike most pie slices, the top on this featured a granola-like crumble. Pair that with the slightly tart cherry filling with nice big chunks of cherries, though there probably could have been more of it. Delicious, slightly atypical dough, this proved to be a great slice of pie and a good pick.

Don't let the name fool you, Okanagan Grocery is all bakery!

Rating: ***

Floresta [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Floresta
Address: 8-1 Konishi-cho (1F Raffine Oriental Building), Nara

I couldn't resist one of their more interesting combinations: the white chocolate cranberry doughnut (170 yen). Peeling away the little piece of plastic wrap and taking my inaugural bite was an unforgettable experience. Really, it doesn't look exceptionally good, and yet, the slight crackle of the perfectly applied white chocolate glaze, the soft and dense doughnut dough with punches of sourness from the streaks of cranberry here and there was... wow. Perfection. I didn't want that small doughnut to disappear; I was even thinking of going back later that afternoon or the following day for a second doughnut. Yes, it was that good. One of the most memorable Cake Tours from Japan!

Emmy's Bake Shop

Bakery: Emmy's Bake Shop
Address: 610 7th Ave, Keremeos BC
Website: facebook
Style: Canadian
Price: $$

From Osoyoos, I headed to the small town of Keremeos, which happens to be home to Emmy's Bake Shop. I think the term "bake shop" kind of got my hopes up and made me envision a full-blown bakery, especially since bakeshops tend to focus on the sweet stuff, not bread. In that sense, Emmy's is indeed a bakeshop: it focuses on sweet treats, but beyond that, I would really call it a cafe more than anything else, as they make breakfast and light meals and that seems to be the highlight. A cafe with their own baked goods. Of course, another of their specialties is their shelves of differently flavoured shortbread -- and who doesn't like shortbread? However, buying them individually does add up and at some point it isn't really worth it, compared to what you could have for the same price.

I tried two flavours of shortbread ($0.95/each): the orange cardamom and the cranberry. When it comes to shortbread, I like them either melt-in-your-mouth or Scottish style: not as soft and sandy, but hard and buttery, so much so that you just like to let them sit on your tongue and suck that butter right out of them. Emmy's really doesn't fall into neither category; they don't exactly dissolve immediately and they didn't have that buttery flavour that I was hoping for. Cardamom is my favourite spice, ever, so I was really looking forward to the orange shortbread, but found it lacking in flavour and complexity. Even the texture was better on the cranberry.

In addition, I grabbed one of the very few other items available: a date square ($2.25). It looked like a nice and chunky one with a granola topping, but I found the bottom dough layer didn't have enough texture and the top could have been thicker; both were almost mushy and the date filling, as sometimes happens, was too sweet. Personally, I'd stick to the shortbread.

Rating: **

Capital Bread Factory [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Capital Bread Factory
Address: 28 Nishimikadocho, Nara
Website: http://www.bakery-capital.co.jp/
Style: Japanese
Price: $$

Capital Bread Factory is a bakery in the vicinity of Kintetsu Nara station and, as such, is a bustling spot with various counters filled with buns and pastries. They claim to be a very long-standing institution, dating back to 1950, but somehow I look at it and find that very hard to believe. A bit chaotic, especially in terms of the seamless mix of sweet and savoury items, making it difficult (for me) to discern which is which.

Nevertheless, while I was there, I felt like there was much more savoury than sweet and of the items that were sweet, many of my classic, go-to options weren't there and I had to kind of figure out what each item was on my own. Hate when that happens. -__- And when that does happen, I'm at a bit of a loss. It happened before and it happened here: I decided to let myself be lured in by the ranking stickers located on some items. #1 happened to be some sort of pizza bun, and #2 was the following:

The cinnamon French toast?? (194 yen) was a generous slice of their barrel-shaped cinnamon bread that was then slightly toasted and slathered in something more oily than buttery. Tearing into this towering cylinder, I found the inside not as flavourful or interesting as the outside. The texture was a bit too cottony for my liking and it really did lack the cinnamon it was supposed to be laced with. Alright, nothing terrible about it, but probably a bad pick on my part.

Rating: **1/2

Lake Village Bakery

Bakery: Lake Village Bakery
Address: 6511 Main St, Osoyoos BC
Website: http://thelakevillagebakery.ca/
Style: Canadian
Price: $$

Among the tumbleweed and cacti, appearing as a mirage-like oasis along the blurry horizon is... Lake Village Bakery. ;) Lake Village Bakery, the only bakery in town, is located a bit off downtown, right in the middle of a smaller, run-of-the-mill plaza. At first glance, I was worried whether it would be worth the effort of coming out here before the earlier closing time, since it was advertised as a sourdough bakery not to mention the website makes little mention of baked goods besides sourdough-based croissants and cinnamon buns. After all, a bread bakery could very well just have bread!

Although Lake Village is in itself a fairly small operation with a small shelf of rustic sourdough breads available in a variety of shapes and styles, they do also have a limited selection of sweets. Yes, going with the theme, many are indeed sourdough-based like their cinnamon buns. At the time of visiting, there was no sign of the aforementioned croissants and chocolatines, but there were a few squares, butter tarts, and two types of bread pudding.

I really did want to try the cinnamon bun, but I found it a little too expensive for what it was. Instead, I couldn't resist the bread pudding ($1.99). I love bread pudding and the loaf cake slices in either cherry and chocolate or apple and pumpkin streusel both looked good. I went with the latter. So, maybe I didn't taste much of the pumpkin, but it was stuffed with big, moist pieces of dough, nicely spiced, with a delicious crumble topping. The bread pudding could have just been bigger!

I also grabbed a slice of carrot cake ($3.75), because it looked unique and interesting with its chunkier dough, filled with nuts, carrots and raisins. It was almost like a granola bar, something healthy, but in a good way; of course, to get that "cake" back in there, there was the layer of tasty cream cheese icing in between and another layer on top. Slightly different than your usual carrot cake, but very good.

Rating: ***

Boulangerie Riche [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Boulangerie Riche
Address: 5 Tsunofuricho, Nara
Website: facebook
Style: Japanese
Price: $$

My next bakery in Nara, Boulangerie Riche, like the nice amount of bakeries in the city, is a fully-stocked bakery offering fairly affordable prices and a nice selection of both Japanese-style buns and pastries along with a few more pricey more "European" pastries and tarts. These consist of both sweet and savoury, and in some way, I was disappointed at how many were actually savoury. Still, the sweet picks are plenty and look so appetizing that I was so torn between what to take that I just grabbed two. Of course, in that decision, I opted for two cheaper items instead of one more expensive one.

The first thing I grabbed was the twist doughnut (80 yen). Dusted in very fine, almost powdered sugar, I'd say that it was nonetheless more a sweet bun than what I'd normally call a doughnut. That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially when biting into or tearing apart the soft, slightly spongy dough. Not too sweet, far from oily or dry, and a pretty generous size for the price... a nice, bang-for-your-buck treat. ^^

And just as nice was the cream bun (140 yen). The same soft and spongy dough in a sort of pocket shape with simple cream filling. On top, it was just a bit of sugary crumble... nothing too fancy, but good texture and delicious cream. One of my best finds in Nara.

Rating: ***1/2

BeNanna Bakery

Bakery: BeNanna Bakery
Address: 45733 Alexander Ave, Chilliwack BC
Website: https://benannabakery.com/
Style: Canadian
Price: $$

Trying to bridge the current bakery gap I have between Vancouver and Hope, there's this compact bakery with a head-scratcher of a name: the reference to the banana is clear, especially when teamed up with their logo, but after that the pun is lost on me. Is it alluding to someone called Nanna? Is it a pair consisting of Ben and Anna, but in that case would it not be BENanna? I am so very confused....

Anyways, inside, the space may barely be able to fit two customers at a time, but on the other hand, they have quite a bit of sweets, both ready-to-grab and smaller items as well as cakes (both individual slices and large cakes) behind the counter. That being said, they don't have all that much in terms of baked goods that aren't loaded or topped with some sort of cream or mousse; many, upon further examination, are very similar and differ only in flavour (chocolate, strawberry, etc.).

Feeling a bit more limited than I first thought, I went with the almond danish ($3.50). This was a thinner danish, mildly flaky with a soft, airy dough. On top, there were a few sliced almonds underneath a generous dusting of powdered sugar with a giant pool of custard/almond mass in the middle. The taste itself wasn't bad; perhaps a little bland, in my opinion, but the filling was a bit overwhelming, especially paired with that solid layer of powdered sugar. Alright, but not quite what I was expecting.

Rating: **1/2

Melon de Melon [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Melon de Melon
Address: 30-1 Shimosanjocho, Nara
Website: http://www.melon-de-melon.com
Style: Japanese
Price: $$

Perhaps I may not have known it at the time of purchase, but Melon de Melon is a fairly large bakery chain with dozens of locations throughout Japan. It never really dawned on me until doing research for this review, since I never saw it anywhere else; in this, I was a little disappointed. I never really like when that happens...

Still, Melon de Melon is a bakery specializing in, as the name indicates, melon buns: those airy buns with a crusty, sugary top. This particular location, at any rate, is more like a take-out counter and when I say they specialize in melon pan I mean it; it really is the only thing available for sale. The selection, then, is in the 6-7 varieties including plain, strawberry, matcha, and a bunch of one-of-a-kind flavours.

One such flavour was the earl grey melon pan (210 yen). I'm a regular, pretty much die-hard drinker of earl grey tea, so I was intrigued by this one, and while it didn't have the colour or pop other flavours may have had, it did have the delicate and subtle flavours you'd expect with hints of citrus and a nice amount of bits of tea leaves mixed right into the dough. I particularly liked how the crust -- by far the best part of any melon bun -- had great coverage, going right down the sides of the bun. Delicious crust, soft and moist underneath, and a nice, larger size. ;) Add to that the fragrant and flavourful taste of early grey. Yummy! Maybe not the "melon de melon" of melon buns, but one of my favourites from my trip!

Rating: ***1/2