Patisserie Salon d'Or [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Patisserie Salon d'Or (パティスリーサロンドール)
Address: 7 Chome 1 Jodori, Asahikawa, Hokkaido
Website: http://salondor.jp/
Style: Japanese, French
Price: $$$

Located in the basement of an otherwise insignificant retail space connected to a pachinko parlour, Salon d'Or has the sleepy vibe of an office building cafe or hotel breakfast room. The whir of the refrigerated case, the lack of a manned counter - it's a little dull and desolate, but the fairly decent selection of pricier cake slices, savoury quiche, and individually packed cookies and slivers of coffee cake is there. And a definite attempt has been made to keep it authentically French, which was nice. Everything is labelled, but you have to know how to read Japanese but know French (at least pastry terms) to know what everything is. Fortunately, that applied to me, so I was in luck. ;)

It's not the most common sight in patisseries, so I took the "gateau basque" (410 + tax). A gateau basque is a simple, yet delicious rich, flaky yet dense almond flour-based cake with cherries and/or cream in the middle - and unfortunately, none of the slices from this gateau basque had been taken, so I didn't get a chance to see the middle. Well, it looked promising on the outside, but the inside wasn't exactly a gateau basque. Instead, I was greeted with an extra thick filling of chopped walnuts and decadent sticky caramel. The dough was good, as were the nuts, but the caramel filling was overpowering and way too sweet. About halfway in, I had to use a knife and scrape it off, because it was too much. And "too much" is a description rarely used in Japanese bakery reviews.

Rating: **1/2

Sweets Shop Chiaki [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Sweets Shop Chiaki
Address: Asahikawa Food Terrace, 7 Chome-1070 5 Jodori, Asahikawa, Hokkaido
Website: n/a
Style: Japanese
Price: $$$

Located inside the Food Terrace, a sort of food court inside a retail building that has clearly not seen the interest that it anticipated, Sweets Shop Chiaki is a little stall (was it one of two businesses?) specializing in pretty little cake slices ranging from simple cheesecakes and puddings to cream puffs and more elaborate creamy tortes. All at a corresponding price, of course. :P

 Not the biggest fan of rich buttercream cakes, I went with a classic cheesecake (380 yen). Fresh and moist and topped with a dollop of whipped cream and a strawberry, it was a classic Japanese cheesecake done right. Perhaps it didn't have that exceptional cloud-like fluffiness and texture that had blown me away at other bakeries, but this was nonetheless a very tasty treat. This was my top pick for otherwise lacklustre Asahikawa.

Rating: ***

Valerio's Tropical Bakeshop

Bakery: Valerio's Tropical Bakeshop
Address: 800 Boyer Blvd, Mississauga ON 
Website: https://valeriostropicalbakeshop.com/
Style: Filipino 
Price: $$ 

Attached to Filipino supermarket Seafood City, Valerio's Tropical Bakeshop is actually a small American chain of Filipino bakeries located mostly in the southern US and Hawaii. Why, out of all the places, they chose to open a lone Canadian offshoot in Heartland Town Centre is a little weird, especially since an independent bakery could have done the trick. Nevertheless, I was once in the parking lot and poked my head inside and noticed that Valerio's just has pre-packed bulk baked goods in plastic bags. My first impression was that they didn't even make half the stuff. Whether they changed and increased production or I got the wrong idea from all those plastic bags filled with buns, Valerio's does indeed make their own baked goods and sell plenty of individual treats, both baked and fried, by the cash. These include all your Filipino staples like pandesal, taro (ube) bread, ensaymada, cheese bread along with bread, pastries and other uh, colourful stuff you may not find elsewhere. Individual treats are well priced, but some of the packaged stuff gets up there in terms of cost.

I tried a couple things: this what I presume to be a bibingka from website photos and the deep-fried banana (neither was labelled or priced at the time). The "cake" had a nice crust to it and I liked that, though I didn't know it was glutinous rice flour based, it wasn't as sticky or gummy as I was dreading. A hint of coconut. The sticky and sweet banana roll was good in taste, but soggy. The syrup I think would have been better thicker and less watery; that would have helped the dough retain that crispy outer layer it lacked.

 The highlight without a doubt were these fried balls (carioca; $3-something). I suppose they were similar in terms of ingredients to the bibingka with that squishy, chewy rice flour base with coconut, but the execution was so much more to my liking. Coated in sugar syrup, they had that slight crust on the outside and you couldn't quite place what they were. Maybe it's not worth the insanity that's usually surrounding this place, but if you're in the mood for something "tropical"....

Rating: **1/2

Dapas [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Dapas (ダパス)
Address: 6 Chome-1-12 Kagura 4 Jo, Asahikawa, Hokkaido
Website: https://ocean-bakery.com/
Style: Japanese
Price: $$ 

Also located inside the Asahikawa Road Station food court area, there's Dapas, a cafe/bakery specializing in rustic breads and buns. Seeing as it's not the most common site in a Japanese bakery to see so many crusty artisan breads with a variety of grains and fillings, perhaps this is what you go to Dapas for. Everyone, however, knows what I'm there for. I'm there for the sweet baked goods and, in that, I was pretty disappointed, because either Dapas doesn't make sweets or they were sold out (granted, a lot of the shelves were empty). Desperately scouring the (Japanese-only) labels for any sort of sweet filling, I was met with curry, egg, cream cheese.... You can almost say the sweetest thing they have is the soft ice cream.

Well, not quite falling in the savoury category and yet not quite sweet, there's the strawberry bun (180 yen). It's pretty much your take it or leave it option. And I took it. One single strawberry with a little drizzle of icing on top of it, nestled inside what probably closest resembles a ciabatta bun. The dough and filling were at complete odds with each other: the strawberry was soft and sweet, very nice in fact except it made the area around it pretty soggy, but the dough was hard and unyielding, something that didn't match at all with the delicate fruit in the middle, and it wasn't sweet at all. Maybe making it softer, adding some sugar or honey to the dough, making an egg bread would have created a more fitting - and tasty - sweet option?

Rating: **

Teddy Roll [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Teddy Roll (テディ・ロール)
Address: 6 Chome-1-12 Kagura 4 Jo, Asahikawa, Hokkaido (inside Road Station)
Website: n/a
Style: Japanese
Price: $$-$$$

Teddy Roll's main retail location is a full-on dessert shop; however, I just went to the small stall located inside the Asahikawa Road Station so the selection is without a doubt smaller than their store, but nonetheless, I was actually surprised that searching the name I spotted on my photo led to anything, since this was as amateur an operation as there could be. The Teddy Roll stand was located underneath the staircase and consisted of two tables stuck together with a plastic tablecloth on top and filled with a hodgepodge of cases, trays and signs; this was run by a man sandwiched between stacks of boxes and papers, so immersed in his newspaper that I think you could make off with half the goods without him even noticing. XD

The feature products were the cream puffs (there was only one left after all) and these deep-fried dough rolls - perhaps the eponymous Teddy Roll? Actually, they're called "チェルキー" (chelky? cherky? O.o) and come in three varieties: plain (200 yen), kinako (soy bean powder) and maple (220 yen). Assuming I got the plain, I'm not sure why I paid more than 200 yen... there shouldn't be additional taxes from a guy at a table. Unless I got the maple? Anyways, I don't know what a chelky is supposed to be, but mine was incredibly chewy and moist. I'm sure another starch was added, but I'm not sure what. It didn't have that mochi consistency of rice flour. Potato perhaps? And because it was so thin you got plenty of that delicious sugar glazed, then sprinkled fried outer crust. A bit of crunch, a bit of softness - it almost reminded me of a churro. I just thought it was a little too expensive for what you got.

Rating: ***

Lilas [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Lilas Brasserie (ブラッスリー リラ) 
Address: Art Hotel Asahikawa 1F, 6 Chome,7 Jodori, Asahikawa, Hokkaido
Website: https://asahikawa-lilas.com/
Style: Japanese
Price: $$ 

Don't let the name fool you - Lilas is probably more boulangerie than brasserie, though they do operate their restaurant serving attempts at fancy food in the same space. Actually, it's a bit of an awkward setup with the shelves of baked goods facing the hotel lobby and the cashier inside the restaurant area, where there are apparently plenty of wait staff for the one table of diners but no one on hand to ring your order through... at least, me and another man were waiting a long time with trays in hand before someone came. Obviously the bakery portion of the business is not a priority?

The selection isn't very big and their focus seems to be on loaves of bread instead of sweet baked goods, but there are still a few varieties of pan and some more expensive slices of cake inside. I grabbed what looked like the most appetizing of the bunch: the cinnamon ring (162 yen). It looked really good - initially; however, all I needed to do was remove it from the bag for the icing to just start flaking off in entire sheets. That's never a good sign; it's either too thick or old - or both. This looked like the dough would be flaky, a little crusty and soft on the inside, but I was disappointed that it had neither the texture of a doughnut nor of a flaky pastry. It was more like glazed white bread. There wasn't really any sort of crunch on the outside; the dough was more dense than anticipated and it lacked cinnamon. Not sure what happened to that glaze either.... Usually appearances don't lie, but this looked better than it tasted.

Rating: **

Fuwa Fuwa Japanese Pancakes

Bakery: Fuwa Fuwa Japanese Pancakes 
Address: 408 Bloor St W, Toronto ON 
Website: https://www.fuwafuwapancakes.com/
Style: Pancakes, Japanese 
Price: $$$$

Upon returning from my first Japan trip in March, 2018, I was asked, as a baked goods expert of sorts, if I could predict the next Asian dessert trend that would trickle over to these shores. Everyone knows Japan is the trendsetter, after all. I immediately said pancakes. Extra thick souffle pancakes. Several months later, Fuwa Fuwa opened and seems to be doing particularly well for itself, now with their four locations across the GTA. (Vancouver is also seeing the Japanese pancake chain Gram come to town) And yes, I do have a bit of a vendetta against them for "stealing" my idea. At least beating me to it. Which is why I held off so long in giving them a try, even though I'm in the neighbourhood on a regular basis.

Anyways, Fuwa Fuwa is a teeny tiny space whose locale is best fit for ordering on the go, only because you're hard pressed to find a seat. However, at the same time, the price, wait time and overall composition of the pancakes makes it difficult to grab it with you and reconstruct. Case in point below.

The day I decided to give Fuwa Fuwa a try, it was especially crowded so I went with takeaway. The matcha red bean pancake ($13.90) came deconstructed in a series of small containers along with an elaborately illustrated instruction card. So this is what I'm paying for! I followed the directions; I warmed up the pancake on its own and added the toppings... and was left with a total disaster. Okay, wow, it definitely didn't look like that on site. XD So there was matcha cream, whipped cream, red bean and some sort of garnish mixed in with the cream. Hey, I tried! For one, everything just started melting on the hot pancake. Secondly, the delicate taste and texture of that light, fluffy pancake and the amount of cream meant that all I could taste was cream. There wasn't even that much matcha, so it was the plain cream that was overpowering. In all honesty, I was not impressed.

Rating: **1/2

L'hotel de Kitakurabu [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: L'hotel de Kitakurabu (ロテル・ド・北倶楽部)
Address: Hokuyo Building 1F, 9 Chome, 4 Jodori, Asahikawa, Hokkaido
Website: http://www.robakashitsukasa.co.jp/kitakurabu/
Style: Japanese
Price: $-$$

 The name itself may not exactly evoke a bakery, but L'hotel de Kitakurabu does indeed sell baked goods. Actually, it appeared a lot more daunting and expensive than it really was; well, perhaps daunting is the wrong word. It looked like the sort of confectionery that just sells pre-packed gift boxes. The kind that fill the food floor of any Japanese department store. And while they do sell fancy sweets and elegant baumkuchen boxes, I was surprised that they also have a small selection of very well priced baked goods. I don't know if it was because I came so late (around 5), but there wasn't much selection at all and the staff were especially attentive - free tea while the other worker was ever so carefully packing my goodies! I felt like a VIP. *-*

 As a matter of fact, the aforementioned staff sent me on a bit of a guilt trip, because they were so obliging that I felt bad getting just the one melon pan for a measly 125 yen. So I got a red bean doughnut (125 yen) as well. Looking back, I don't quite remember if I knew it was a red bean doughnut or it wasn't labelled... because I didn't want a red bean doughnut. Oh well. It didn't have much stuffing inside. The outside was nicely fried, but there was a bit too much sugar in place, resulting in this hard crystallized sugar layer. Not the best.

Similarly, the melon pan was simply too soft and homogeneous. The thing that makes a melon pan so good is that baked crust that you crack open to reveal a soft yet dense dough. When the crust is too thin and lacks the texture of that signature crust, the effect is lost. For all the fanciness, it could be better.

Rating: **1/2

Suite de Barques/Mori no Hall [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Suite de Barques/Mori no Hall (森のホール)
Address: 2 Chome-1-2 Kawayu Ekimae, Teshikaga, Kawakami District, Hokkaido
Website: facebook
Style: Japanese
Price: $$ 

Judging by the signage, I'd say that "Suite de Barques" is actually the bakery and "Mori no Hall" is the cafe next door, but there is no proof at all of this being true, especially since the former doesn't seem to exist anywhere online. Needless to say, they are somehow connected since you can order to eat in and that cake will come from the bakery.

Well, if there happens to be any cake, that is. My trip included an absolutely brutal three-week-in-a-row holiday weekend spree - this was holiday #2 and fortunately the place was actually open! This was a welcome surprise. Unfortunately, holidays also mean... they don't make/sell cake. I was greeted with an empty display case. Yes, I even swallowed my pride and asked. Nope, no cake that day; however, they did have a few "shelf-stable" baked goods, namely tiny baggies of cookies and vacu-packed cake doughnuts - somewhat a trend of the moment.

Having made the trek here during a typhoon, I went with both. And quite happy I did. The first item was the lemon doughnut (180 yen). I'd already tried one of these packaged baked cake doughnuts and I wasn't a fan of the texture and that "sitting in a bag" taste. These were moist and soft with a nice crust on the outside and a delicious crisp lemony taste. Maybe they were doughnuts in shape only, but these were a huge improvement from my previous experience.

The highlight, though, had to be these bite-sized matcha shortbread cookies (280 yen/bag). Given the fact I think you got four or something, they weren't cheap, but these were so rich and flavourful. The green tea powder in the cookie and dusting the top was amazing and texture - hard when you bite it into it but melt in your mouth as you let it linger - was just right. In the end, all was not lost!

Rating: ***1/2