Brother Bakery [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Brother Bakery
Address: 660 Hashinishichō, Nakagyō-ku, Kyōto
Website: n/a
Style: Japanese 
Price: $$ 

Having stumbled upon this shopping street quite by chance, I was excited by how many bakeries I ended up grabbing (and foregoing) along the way. Brother Bakery is a smaller local bakery with, I believe, just two locations in Kyoto, and while it doesn't have the extensive selection other mass bakeries may have, they aim to be more rustic, perhaps slightly fancier with quite the selection of sweet flaky danish pastries in inventive flavour combinations. Unlike other bakeries, each baked good was unique; it wasn't just a bun served with different toppings or fillings. The dough, the appearance and garnishes were all one-of-a-kind, which was very nice to see after one too many trips to those cookie cutter bakeries. I just wish I had the patience and capabilities to decipher each one of the labels and know all of what they had!

One item I could figure out, however, was the matcha white chocolate bun (151 yen). This was a lovely dark green matcha topping - similar perhaps to a melon bun or Hokkaido bun - sprinkled with white chocolate chips atop a soft, mildly flaky bun that was similarly interwoven with swirls of matcha. I really liked the bun itself; the texture was a bit more complex than the typical "white bread" you find in Japanese bakeries. The matcha topping was also good, though not as flavourful as I expected it, given the deep colour. White chocolate and matcha is a great combination, but I wasn't a fan of the actual white chocolate chips used; they were too pasty or chalky in taste and texture. Maybe crushed chunks from an actual chocolate bar would have been better?

Rating: ***

Kootenay Coffee Works

Bakery: Kootenay Coffee Works 
Address: 4884 Athalmar Rd, Invermere BC
Website: n/a
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$ 

With Invermere's proper bakery already reviewed, I thought I would branch out a bit and give the other businesses in town a try. While not quite a bakery, Kootenay Coffee Works is a cafe (rather, cappuccino bar) that does advertise fresh baking right on their main sign, so how could I overlook that? 

Inside, they have a small selection essentially designed to go with that cup of coff... cappuccino. This includes items like squares, brownies, and simple pastries in and around the fridge area. Nothing fancy, but I do wish that, like a great many businesses I've encountered, they would lay off a bit on the saran wrap. 

I picked out the carrot cake. It was nice and moist with a more chunky texture with plenty of carrot and a wonderfully thick cream cheese icing on top sprinkled with nuts -- definitely the kind of style I like best. Of course, I don't know if the other items in-store warrant the same rating, but this was one good carrot cake.

Rating: ***

Camellia Sinensis Tea Room

Bakery: Camellia Sinensis Tea Room
Address: 351 Rue Émery, Montréal QC
Website: http://camellia-sinensis.com
Style: Canadian
Price: $$-$$$

Every time I used to come to Camellia Sinensis - the tea store directly next door - I told myself that one day I'd try out the tea room. Seeing as my dream is to open my own little Asian tea shop with tea-centred sweets, I was curious to see their slightly more upscale interpretation of tea and cake and see what I could learn from it. The quality of the tea needs no comment; that you're getting the good stuff is without question, but how do those accompaniments fare?

 Contrary to my idea of using tea directly in my treats (which I will still stick to!), Camellia Sinensis takes the approach of the sommelier: what flavours pair well with certain types of tea. So, while some sort of matcha cake seems to be a regular menu item, they also have a limited number of seasonal items, both sweet and not too sweet, that can be enjoyed with either Chinese tea brewed gong fu style, a frothy bowl of matcha or a more traditional English teatime. All are around $7.

I tried what was recommended for the tea I wanted to drink: the kazuko cake, a sort of banana bread/spiced coffee cake served with a side of... rose petals. It was pretty good with refined, not too obtrusive flavours. Nice texture, both on the outside and the moist, spongy inside. Perhaps I'm not sure if it heightened my taste experience more than if I'd taken the matcha cake I'd been pining after, but... oh well, it was a fun and tasty regardless.

Rating: ***

Nancy's Bakery

Bakery: Nancy's Bakery 
Address: 1451 Hwy 101, Lund BC
Website: facebook
Style: Canadian
Price: $$$ 

They say that at the end of every rainbow, there's a pot of gold; well, at the end of every road, there's a bakery. At the very least, this can be said of the Sunshine Coast Hwy, which ends in the tiny, yet insanely busy in the summer months town of Lund. And really, what better way to mark that occasion than to try in vain to find a parking spot and visit Nancy's Bakery for their "famous" cinnamon buns or other baked goodies?  I know I did.

Nancy's is small-town bakery (with somewhat big-town prices that are not featured on any of the labels, which is frustrating) that, owing to the traffic going to Lund, serves a large selection of classic Canadian treats along with about a half dozen flavours of those aforementioned "famous cinnamon buns", mostly laden with nuts or local fruit. Now, you can't always take these claims to heart, especially without trying it yourself; I mean, using a word like "famous" is just an outright challenge for the Cake Tour. I knew I had to see how they fared.

More often than not, a simple, classic flavour is the best way to put a signature item to the test, and yet the second I saw blackberry cinnamon buns ($4.00), I knew I had to have it. In a typical, "BC-style" square-shaped coil, these buns are plumper and softer than usual buns of this type. Perfectly glazed with juicy, flavourful blackberries nicely complimenting the not too gooey cinnamon filling. Great texture, fabulous taste -- makes the trip down to the end of the road worthwhile!

Rating: ***1/2

Doughnut Cafe Nicotto & Mam [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Doughnut Cafe Nicotto & Mam 
Address: 車屋町通押小路上る, Nishioshikōjichō, Nakagyō ward, Kyoto 
Website: http://doughnut.jp/
Style: Doughnuts 
Price: $$

Having created the concept of my own adorable, smile-laden Japanese doughnut shop (in concept only, unfortunately), my focus was to try to find as many examples of the real deal as I could and while Nicotto & Mam -- along with all others, in fact -- did not have any doughnuts with silly faces on it, this cozy, hole-in-the-wall doughnut shop is still charming with its wooden decor, open kitchen, and rows of pretty and petite glazed doughnuts.

From their somewhat rotating selection of flavours, I took the strawberry (200 yen). Repeated throughout the store and on their packaging, Nicotto & Mam stresses that their doughnuts are natural yeast doughnuts (and handmade, at that), which means the dough is soft and airy with just that right amount of chewiness that I love in a doughnut. On top, a delicate fruity glaze that was a pale shade of pink with visible fruit pieces: a far cry from some of the bright pink items found elsewhere during strawberry season. Subtle, refined flavours, fantastic texture... too bad it was small enough to fit in a rice bowl for its picture!

Rating: ***1/2

Maruki Bakery [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Maruki Bakery 
Address: 松原通堀川西入北門前町740, Kitamonzenchō, Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto 
Website: n/a 
Style: Japanese 
Price: $$ 

After all these franchise or conglomerate-owned bakeries I regularly stumbled across on my trip to Osaka, Maruki Bakery came as a welcome breath of fresh air. This is what I meant to find on my Cake Tour: a small neighbourhood bakery located, incidentally, on an otherwise insignificant residential street. In fact, the only reason I came this way was to go to the post office. Regardless of the reason, Maruki Bakery is a small bakery with a table of trays facing directly onto the street; there's barely any storefront or anywhere to stand if there are any customers in front of you, just a little overhang and a wooden sign. There's something cute about it, even if without a doubt their main attraction is their long, somewhat overflowing sub-sandwiches filled with shredded cabbage along with crunchy katsu or croquettes. Unlike many Japanese bakeries, there are no trays or tongs, you're served directly by the single lady behind the counter.

On a weekday afternoon, not too long before closing, there was only one sweet item left, so I don't quite know what else they have. To be quite honest, I wasn't initially too happy with the danish (170 yen) I picked out, mostly owing to the icing on top that resembled an over-easy egg. The "egg white" turned out to be normal white icing and the "yolk" a sort of sweet, somewhat chewy candy. Beyond that, however, I was amazed at how tasty this decadent, flaky danish with its coffee cream filling was. This was good, really good! I hadn't expected the cream at all, so it was pleasant surprise.

In the end, it turned out to be one of my top picks in the city! The neighbourhood bakery delivered.

Rating: ***1/2

Kimberley City Bakery

Bakery: Kimberley City Bakery 
Address: 287 Spokane St, Kimberley BC 
Website: https://www.kimberleycitybakery.ca/
Style: Canadian
Price: $$ 

Visiting Kimberely (and its bakery) has been on my list for a while, so I'm really happy to have had this chance to add it onto my Cake Tour roster; after all, Kimberley City Bakery didn't win the best bakery (some sort of certificate spotted in store) for nothing.

Despite the town's undeniably German vibes, there isn't really that much German in the bakery itself; on the contrary, besides its selection of breads, it has a hodgepodge of Canadian and pan-European classics that range from Napoleons, carrot cake and Nanaimo bars, cream puffs, cannoli, and a wide assortment of doughnuts that include glazed, cream-filled and huge apple fritters that looked amazing.

This time, I went instead for the cinnamon fried doughnut. Yes, the picture didn't turn out the greatest and it may look like a cinnamon bun, but it was a doughnut. Deep-fried cinnamon buns - oh yeah! Incredibly soft with impeccable icing and fried to perfection. It really came as no surprise that doughnuts seem to be the focus with their baked goods here.

I also couldn't resist their rum balls. Even with one smudged eye, they're absolutely adorable! ^^ Disregarding the little face (as hard as that might be), this was pretty good. Perhaps not as good as the cinnamon doughnut, but still good chocolatey taste and a nice hint of something extra.

Rating: ***1/2

Oriental Bakery

Bakery: Oriental Bakery 
Address: 900 Rathburn Rd W, Mississauga ON 
Website: n/a 
Style: Chinese 
Price: $ 

It's been awhile since I've returned to Oriental Bakery. The first time was a couple years ago now and I went in with the idea of adding it to my list of the city's Chinese bakeries. Unfortunately, there were no sweet items, not even standard items like pineapple buns, and the place was filled with empty trays, so there was no review. Fast forward to now. Hearing something about Oriental Bakery having very good sweet buns, I decided to give it another try. I found they'd revamped their logo and sign outside and seemed a lot more popping than when I went. New management, perhaps? Or just an increased demand for Chinese bakeries? Regardless of the reason, inside it was the same few shelves of plastic trays along the wall.

 However, I don't remember their sweet buns from before. Their signature style seems to be super soft round buns that are unevenly covered with a slightly crunchy, frothy top.

At the very least, this was true of the two buns I took: the pineapple custard bun and the Mexican chocolate ($1.20 each). Biting into the Mexican chocolate, I found there was nothing really to it besides that coating. I would have liked more flavour in the bun itself. The pineapple bun had good texture, with almost a chewy top with not too much custard on the inside. One thing people do seem to get right is that, yes, they are super soft, like big balls of fluff. Eaten fresh, they have great texture; definitely better than your average Chinese bakery.

Rating: ***

Duft & Co Bakehouse

Bakery: Duft & Co Bakehouse
Address: 103, 2636 Montrose Ave, Abbotsford BC 
Website: http://www.duftandco.com/bakehouse.html
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$$ 

Hello, Abbotsford, nice to meet you! This was far from the best moment to visit Duft & Co, a small, stylish bakery-cafe in downtown Abbosford. For one, a movie was being shot on the street, which meant that there was an unusual amount of activity in and around the bakery; and where there's activity in a bakery, there's the very likely chance that people are there for the baked goods. The situation at the counter was pretty unfortunate: empty baskets and barren cake stands with just a few labels still in place. Beyond that, two slices of their coffee cake, some cookies, savoury scones and one last cinnamon bun. The crew must have grabbed everything (even one worker said so).. it was a sad day indeed for the Cake Tour! In this sense, I feel like I can't provide a fair portrait of what is supposed to be available. One thing I could say was that, while the baked goods, though fairly simple, definitely looked tasty, they were a bit pricey.

By some miracle, I did get that last cinnamon bun ($4.25). This bun was massive! Maybe even too big... it could have been smaller and cheaper and still retain the same level of quality and taste. At least, I think so. Still, about halfway in, I forgot all about its hugeness and just managed to enjoy this bun with its thin, tightly packed coils with a delicious glaze on top. Not too gooey, not too dry. This was the kind of cinnamon bun I like and I'm glad I had no choice but to go with that one. It really is shame there was nothing else to grab, though!

Rating: ***

Donq [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Donq
Address: JR Kyoto Station 2F, Higashishiokoji Takakuracho 8-3, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto
Website: https://www.donq.co.jp
Style: Japanese
Price: $-$$

Having unsuccessfully found any more bakeries upon my rather hectic and disastrous departure from Osaka (90 minute train delays?!), I remembered that there had been a bakery in the Kintetsu area of Kyoto Station upon my leaving the city more than a week earlier. So from one end of the station to the other I went with suitcase in tow, only to come to the end of my journey and discover that bakery with Donq! I say it in such a way, because whether or not it's actually true, Donq was the quintessential commercial/franchise bakery. On my trip, it was the one I had encountered most often and one that I, in truth, shied away from. It's like the bakery equivalent of McDonald's. At least, to my purist ideals. :D

Nonetheless, I had needlessly gone through the crowds and up and down a maddening series of escalators, so I thought I might as well get something from it. Donq is aiming to be French patisserie and bakery, though very little of what they do sell resembles the crusty bread, flaky pastries and rustic touches that you might encounter even at other "French" bakeries in town (there are good ones). This particular station outlet is also quite small compared to other locations, with the space being shared with the croissant stall. As with many train station shops, it's crowded and busy and items cater more to passengers wanting a quick bite to eat (a large array of sandwiches and savoury breads) than a quality sweet treat. Oh well.

I picked out the cinnamon twist (151 yen). Despite all my cynicism going in, this was actually not bad at all. Perhaps it's a far cry from artisan, but an effort has still been made to make it look nice and taste pretty good. The knotted dough was a bit flaky and had good texture; there was a nice amount of cinnamon inside and the cinnamon sugar also added some flavour and interest, though I'm still not that big a fan of the texture of that powdered sugar on top (which I had encountered elsewhere as well). So... okay, okay, it's not exactly the McDonald's of bakeries after all and there's nothing wrong with having a good, inexpensive bakery to pop into when you're on the go.

Rating: ***

Die Güte [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Die Güte 
Address: Namba walk 1 avenue, 2 Chome-2, Nanba, Chuo ward, Osaka
Website: http://a-1bakery.co.jp/
Style: Japanese
Price: $$

Unfortunately, like a great many Japanese bakeries, especially those in larger cities and in downtown areas, Die Güte is part of another one of those bakery empires; this case, A1 Bakery that encompasses A1 bakery, Güte (and all subsidiaries) and Miyabi bakeries. It is a little frustrating, truth be told, but a bakery is a bakery. Wandering through the underground maze of shopping malls including Namba Walk, it's nonetheless one of the more enticing spots with a large selection of sweet and savoury goods spread out almost haphazardly on tables here and there, leading to a bit of confusion with tray wielding customers navigating from one area of the bakery to the other, with a faux brick oven backdrop. Whether it helps with the logistics or not, many - though not all - items are repeated.

One definite exception is the table of seasonal favourites that was, at the time, located in the corner past the cash. It being strawberry season (and the onset of sakura season), many were either coated or stuffed with pink.

 One of the more appealing treats was the strawberry pretzel. (183 yen) Beneath the thin, all-over pink glaze and dash of some sort of dark pink garnish (it was slightly sour and actually had more flavour than the coating itself), the dough was soft, a bit chewy with a little flakiness on the outside; add that nice crunch thanks to just the right amount of glaze. Personally, I would have liked the dough itself to have more flavour, but it was a unique treat and a tasty one at that. A pretty good stop while navigating the Namba area.

Rating: ***