Be Meal [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Be Meal 
Address: 48 Ewhayeodae 7-gil, Daehyeon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul
Website: instagram 
Style: Korean 
Price: $$$

Be Meal... yes, a rather unusual pairing of English words written in Korean on their sign makes for a bizarre bakery name; until, that is, I discovered their so-called "let bread be a meal" campaign. Perhaps it's also a play on words (bimil [비밀] meaning secret)? I don't know.

Be Meal, a small bakery located off the main road in Sinchon and across from the metro station of the same name, is as chic and minimalist as it gets when it comes to bakeries. The tiny space with a distinctive linear block motif throughout doesn't have a lot, especially in terms of sweets. Rustic breads, both loaf and individually-sized, in a variety of toppings and flavours seem to be their specialty. Those with a sweet tooth are left with a little less, most of which looks so decidedly.... English: muffins, pound cakes and tarts. They have a few types of the latter and, for me, it looked like this was the primary focus. When it comes to dessert, that is.

I had the Earl Grey tart (5,000 won). First of all, I had to say they made an excellent shortbread tart shell: flavourful with the perfect texture. I don't often stumble across places that get that shell just how I like it. Second of all: the filling. Incredibly creamy and decadent, this had a smooth, rich texture that perfectly complemented the hardness of the tart shell. The only problem was that I saw there was a black tea theme going on, but if I hadn't known it was supposed to be Earl Grey, I would have never guessed. Stronger citrusy tea flavours were needed.

Rating: ***

Brioche à Tête

Bakery: Brioche à Tête
Address: 107 Avenue Fairmount O, Montréal QC
Website: https://www.briocheatete.ca/
Style: French 
Price: $$ 

This tiny patisserie may be one of these "blink and you'll miss it" businesses, with their door and single window revealing very little of what's inside. As a matter of fact, there also doesn't happen to be that much on the inside either. Everything is contained in and around one glass case: a few pastries, both sweet and savoury, and rows of baked goods.

The main thing setting Brioche à Tête apart from the rest is the fact that the signature item here isn't their croissants (though they have those too); it's their brioches. Yes, sweet egg bread. They come in several varieties: plain, sprinkled with rock sugar, or with a variety of toppings.

I decided to go with the raspberry brioche ($2.70). I love raspberries and was lured in by the amount of fresh fruit on top. There was a lot! It gave the otherwise subtly flavoured bun a hint of sourness, which was nice. Maybe that raspberry filling got a little juicy, thus making the dough a little soggy in some places. The one thing, however, that I wasn't the biggest fan of was the dough. Brioche dough should be airy and soft, but this one was a little too dense. Actually, it almost tasted old? You don't need any toppings with a fresh, fluffy brioche for it to taste amazing, but here, the edge where there was no fruit felt more like a crust: something that you have to eat through just to get into the middle.

Rating: **1/2

Dipped

Bakery: Dipped
Address: 161 Baldwin St #1, Toronto ON
Website: https://www.dippeddonuts.ca/
Style: Doughnuts
Price: $$$-$$$$ 

Dipped is a newer addition to downtown Toronto's gourmet doughnut scene. Located in a hole-in-the-wall space at the edge of Kensington Market, they - like most gourmet doughnut shops - specialize in various flavours of well, dip, most of which are topped with some sort of decoration and feature the same plain doughnut base. In addition, they also have one or two filled doughnuts. At the time of purchase, Dipped had a few unique glaze flavours (most was already sold out, so I'm not sure how much they really have at peak capacity), but testing the deliciousness of a doughnut in all its parts is best with a more neutral doughnut - so why are they the same price as everything else? It's not fair!

 Like I said, the more neutral the doughnut the better for seeing how it fares; I had the vanilla cardamom ($3.25). The key to any doughnut is the dough and the dough here was big and fluffy with no distinct flavour and no sign of the chewiness I love in great doughnuts. From all my gourmet doughnut trips, this one most resembled a Tim Hortons doughnut... and that's not the most flattering of comparisons. The glaze, though good in taste, was way too thin and barely covered the top, definitely not substantial enough for the amount of dough; as such, you could barely taste it. It would have been so much better if the dough, for example, had cardamom mixed right into it.

I really couldn't resist the berry bomb (an outrageous $4.00). It looked so pretty, but was a bit of a disaster to actually eat. Good thing that cardboard box was there! This was cut open and stuffed to the point of bursting with a flavourful berry filling. This was then topped with a bit of granola clusters. Unlike the dipped doughnuts, the dough was dense and resembled Italian bombolini. I wasn't the biggest fan.

I'd been looking forward to visiting this doughnut shop for a few months, but in the end it just didn't live up to my expectations. Good, but should/could have been much better.

Rating: **1/2

Le Pain [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Le Pain (르빵)
Address: 74 Myeongdong-gil, Myeongdong 2(i)-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul
Website: n/a 
Style: Korean 
Price: $$-$$$ 

Located in the basement/shopping mall area of the Myeongdong Catholic Cathedral, Le Pain could have so opted for a more fun and appropriate name, but nonetheless, it's a fairly small bakery with an open-concept kitchen area and an island right in the middle of the light, airy space with a limited selection of more gourmet, pricier baked goods among the many types of artisan bread. Unlike many Seoul bakeries, a weekday afternoon saw this space pretty much empty with the exception of a few last loaves of bread and two or three sweet buns. I actually assumed it was ready to close since there really was so little there, but closing time was - according to online information - more than five hours away. Do they keep baking? Do they simply close once they run out? Surely you can't keep a bakery open for five hours with what they had.... O_O

Items had labels (Korean only) and prices, but given how little there was left, items were pushed off to one side and not in their original place, making it even harder to figure out what was what.

 Not quite sure what to pick, I went with what I recognized as the "new item" featured on a poster outside the bakery - given I've seen pictures online from 8 months prior of the same poster, I can conclude it's not really that new. Oh well. This happened to be the chocolate pastry ("빠티시에 쇼콜라"; 3500 won) The dissected image showed a crusty chocolate bun cut open to reveal a chocolate cream filling surrounded by a custard cream filling dotted with chocolate chunks. In truth, it looked more complex than it tasted; perhaps because there wasn't enough of either filling to really distinguish that there was so much going on. Good crusty top, but the texture of the bun could have been better. Same goes for the pastry as a whole.

Rating: **1/2

Epicerie Boulangerie Patisserie Russe Vova

Bakery: Epicerie Boulangerie Patisserie Russe Vova
Address: 3055 Boulevard LaSalle, Verdun QC 
Website: facebook
Style: Russian, Eastern European 
Price: $$ 

This Russian deli has a little bit of everything, including breads, baked goods and cakes. Essentially, Vova does sound much better than it really is, especially in terms of what is of most concern to the Cake Tour. In one corner of this jam-packed store, there is a shelf of baked goods, most of which are not as Russian as you'd expect. These include squares, muffins and croissants along with a few fruit and poppy seed buns. Judging from online pictures, they seem to make their own custom cakes; however, I was disappointed to find that the cake section in-store consisted of treats baked by commercial bakeries in Toronto.

Finding what little slab cakes they had to be a bit on the pricey side, I of course went first and foremost with the poppy seed bun ($2.50). Russian-style poppy seed buns (especially the poppy seed mass) are among my favourites. This one, on the other hand, was very doughy and... where was the poppy seed mass? That strip on top was pretty much all of it. Good in taste as a sweet egg bun, but it just didn't live up to my expectations.

I also grabbed a piece of "mazurka" ($1.90). This was a small square with a shortbread bottom with a layer of jam and big chunks of nuts. A nice variation on the icing-laden, doughy Polish version - definitely the highlight of the two.

Rating: **1/2

Kyo Bakery [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Kyo Bakery 
Address: 65-1 Dongmak-ro, Sangsu-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul
Website: n/a 
Style: Japanese, Korean 
Price: $$ 

Kyo is a cute, graphic rich bakery in south Hongdae that seems to focus on more rustic breads and sandwiches, a small selection of French pastries and Japanese-style baked goods. I have to admit that their savoury baked goods and breads looked more one-of-a-kind and appealing than their sweets. To spot a flaky danish and discover it's gouda cheese... it's pretty frustrating.

If you know Japanese baking, you will, however, recognize quite a few products: several flavours of melon pan, red bean buns, chiffon cake, etc.

 As mentioned before, I do love my melon pan and inspired by one I had earlier, I took a classic one (2,300 won). Unlike my previous attempt at melon pan in Korea, Kyo got it right: a nice crusty "melon skin" with a pretty crisscross design and a soft, fluffy sweet bun underneath. It was still a bit... surprising to bite into the middle and have it start oozing with some sort of custard filling. Not quite the fan of these creamy fillings, but I liked the taste of this one. It wasn't too overwhelming and didn't spoil the texture of the bun. Very good.

Rating: ***

The Bake [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: The Bake 
Address: 46-27 Namchang-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul
Website: http://thebake.co.kr
Style: Korean 
Price: $-$$ 

When stumbling upon this bakery on the outskirts of Namdaemun Market, I assumed it was more or less an independent bakery. While they do only have what seems to be three other store locations, which isn't too bad, they also have about 10 Seoul metro offshoots. Suffice to say, I never spotted another The Bake besides this one.

That being said, The Bake was unique in that the layout of the store centred around the cash, with a couple of shelves of baked goods in the shape of an L along the front and side of the store. Given that the workers have direct, even shorter access between the cash register and the shelves of baked goods than you do, the whole need for trays and tongs seemed a bit unnecessary. The selection isn't very big - less when you realize that the area next to the cash has some repeats from the front section - and includes a few Western-style baked goods that I didn't spot elsewhere; they also seem to have a thing for chocolate chips, which were in quite a few items.

Another characteristic item for them was the extra long twist doughnut (1,500 won). I mean, sure, you spot these golden fried twist doughnuts in most bakeries and market stalls specializing in deep-fried foods, but... they're not extra long! Of course I couldn't resist. Removing it from the paper bag after purchase, I'll admit it looked more impressive in store. While possessing that lovely golden brown exterior with just a simple coating of granulated sugar, it lacked that slightly crispy outside and moist, slightly chewy dough that I really like. Good, nice and fresh, but not the best out there.

Rating: ***