Delifrance [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Delifrance
Address: 7 Chome-2-5 Miyashitadori, Asahikawa, Hokkaido 
Website: https://www.viedefrance.co.jp/delifrance/#shop
Style: Japanese
Price: $$ 

In Japan, there are what I term "train station bakeries". They may not necessarily be the same company; they may not even be located in train stations themselves, but they're almost all identical. Their purpose is to stock a large, fully stocked and mass-produced selection of decent baked goods, both sweet and savoury, that caters to the high-traffic masses. It's not exactly quality, but it gets the job done. In truth, I was hoping I'd gotten all these train station bakeries out of the way on my first trip to Japan, but when I was stuck in Asahikawa train station after a 2 hour (!?) train delay with nothing to eat before my connecting train came in, I spotted Delifrance on the other side of the gates and made a run for it. Thanks, Hokkaido pass. ;)

To my disappointment, I discovered now that Delifrance is an offshoot of Vie de France, one of the more lacklustre of train station bakery franchises. However, looking at the baked goods, I can't say I would have been able to make that connection on my own. Delifrance is aiming to be slightly more... rustic. More French perhaps than its more generic counterpart. More expensive as well. At least that was the impression from the baskets of overly browned croissants, chaussons aux pommes, croquettes.... it was only one of the very few bakeries during my Hokkaido trip with English labels. It almost felt weird at this point!

I tried the cinnamon apple bun (200 yen). Japanese bakeries don't seem to use much fruit in their baked goods, so it was a welcome change. There weren't that many apples, though, and the ones that were there were soft and gloopy like pie filling. This, combined with the icing and sweet and sticky cinnamon mass, made the bun very wet. Had the dough not been on the dry side, it would have turned into a soggy mess. Taste wasn't bad, but the texture really needed work, so I'm not even sure if it "got the job done" in this case.

Rating: **