Victoria Bakery [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Victoria Bakery (維多利亞烘培工) 
Address: No. 73, Hengyang Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei 
Website: n/a
Style: Chinese
Price: $$ 

((No clue what happened to this location shot; even a total Photoshop overhaul couldn't save it...)) Hengyang Road may not be very long, but it's home to more bakeries than you'd expect - including this Old World-inspired bakery with upstairs cafe. Judging simply from walking past it all the time, at different hours of the day, I'd almost want to say that Victoria has to be the busiest of the bunch. This is usually because the bakery is either good or cheap... or both. In this case, I'm leaning towards the latter, though I've found they do sell out early and the late-night reduced baked good rush you find at other bakeries are limited here to a few loaves of bread, so the selection is best the earlier you go. Even at around noon, many shelves were already cleaned out. Labels not only include English, but have key ingredients listed in both Chinese and English - a rare find anywhere, though the lists aren't exhaustive.

Though larger in size than the average sweet bun, the coconut cranberry twist ($45) was a good find. It's hard to find baked goods with fruit in any Chinese bakery. Even when they do have something, it's usually with jam or some sort of questionable fruity gloop, so I really liked the addition of the dried cranberries (though a little more wouldn't have hurt). The slight tartness complimented the more subdued flavour of the coconut, which was generously interwoven throughout the dough. The bread itself was fluffy, moist and tasty. The only minus was that whether it was the bread or coconut filling, it was strangely oily, preventing you from having a lot at a time.

Rating: ***

小紅莓烘焙屋 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 小紅莓烘焙屋 ("Cranberry Bakehouse")
Address: No. 145, Section 3, Heping West Road, Wanhua District, Taipei
Website: n/a 
Style: Chinese
Price: $ 

Located across the street from Longshan Temple MRT station, this humble bakery gives you the impression that it never closes and while it's technically not open 24h, its long hours and overall atmosphere seem synonymous with good prices, fully stocked and constantly pumping out more baked goods throughout the day. In that, I was not mistaken. They have a wide array of sweet and savoury baked goods that include all the classics like pineapple and custard buns and then some.

Something new and exciting - at least compared to the usual budget bakery selection - was the blueberry almond bun ($25). It looked very good from the outside: a more crusty outer layer with swirls of blueberry and topped with slivered almonds. Without a doubt, a more Western take on the Chinese sweet bun. While I knew from the get-go that it was blueberry jam, not real fruit, I didn't expect that what you see in the picture was literally what you got: this thin outer layer was in truth pretty much plopped on top of a plain bun, flavourless and even a little dry. No more jam inside and not quite crusty outside either. In the end, it was a bit of a letdown, but not bad.

Rating: **1/2

一脆 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 一脆鮮奶脆皮甜甜圈 ("1 Crispy" Crispy Milk Doughnuts)
Address: 61 Xining Rd, Wanhua District, Taipei
Website: n/a 
Style: Doughnuts, Chinese
Price: $ 

One of the popular doughnut trends encountered on my Taiwan trip was the crispy milk doughnut. This classic ring doughnut with a twist consists of an extra crispy outside, slightly denser dough and a generous powdery coating. Not my favourite style of doughnut, to tell you the truth, but definitely one worth trying.

"1 Crispy" is a small stand in the trendy Ximen district that sells nothing but crispy milk doughnuts. Most doughnut stands have these either freshly fried or sitting under heat lamps so they're warm when you get them; these are room temperature, so you don't get that hot doughnut experience. However, this kept the powder coating intact while the outside was still nice and crispy. The dough was moist without being too dense (which is the reason why I'm not the biggest fan of these milk doughnuts) and there was just enough of the powder on top without it being overwhelming or chalky. Both taste and texture were excellent. The best crispy milk doughnut I had - and wouldn't mind another! ;)

Rating: ***1/2

Soul Bagel

Bakery: Soul Bagel
Address: 3515 Bathurst St, North York, ON
Website: https://www.soulbagel.ca/
Style: Jewish
Price: $$-$$$ 

Soul Bagel... I have a bunch of mixed emotions with this predominantly bagel bakery. It's certainly one of the most conflicted ratings I had to make. Nonetheless, in addition to those eponymous bagels, this bagel also carries a smaller selection of bread and baked goods that consist of bagel bakery classics like chocolate danishes, cookies and strudels alongside more standard bakery fare like turnovers and Portuguese custard tarts (which truly are everywhere now).

Why the conflicted rating? Because their chocolate buffalo ($3.99) was excellent. Everything was spot on, from the decadent chocolate mass that wasn't too gooey (like it sometimes is) and the both crunchy and soft dough to that fantastic crumble on top, which was a perfect compliment to the harder, more cookie-like top. Two other chocolate buns from two different bakeries were also bought on the same day and Soul Bagel's was without a doubt the unanimous winner.

After that, it started going downhill... First of all, this was one of the very, very few bakeries that merited a comment regarding in-store experience/customer service. The worker was in a pretty bad mood and didn't even bother to answer my question when I inquired whether they had anything with poppy seed besides the large tray strudels (I mean, it would be easier if items were actually labelled/priced in the first place). He just tossed the aforementioned strudel onto the counter and asked "are you taking it or not?". Ouch. Even with the knowledge this was a new bakery for the Tour, I was considering just walking out.

Well, I guess I did end up with that poppy seed strudel ($10). I was in such a mood for poppy seed baked goods, after all. Removing two of those little buns, I was immediately disappointed at how little poppy seed filling there was inside. More than that, the dough had no taste whatsoever. Neither the bread nor the filling was sweet, resulting in something that resembled a dinner roll in both taste and texture. You almost want to cut them in half and serve with butter. Honestly - and I don't like being a meanie, but I'm a poppy seed aficionado - this had to be one of the worst poppy seed baked goods I've had... in a really long time, at any rate. As such: chocolate buffalo 3.5 + service 1 + poppy seed strudel 2 =

Rating: **

Double Harmony [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Double Harmony (二和珍)
Address: No. 308, Kangding Road, Wanhua District, Taipei
Website: facebook
Style: Chinese
Price: $-$$

Having spent almost two months in Taiwan, I had the chance to try a lot of bakeries - and when I say a lot, I mean it - and yet no bakery transported me back to Chinatown the way Double Harmony did. It's hard to explain what made it different from all the other no frills, old school bakeries I encountered. Was it the dated decor? The uncomfortably friendly, super pushy service? All that red? Nevertheless, despite being somewhat removed from the more traveller-friendly areas of the city (unless you count it's on a pretty seedy street near Longshan Temple), it does have that touristy vibe. That can be explained by workers running after each customer and trying to sell them big gift boxes of pineapple cake, even when the bakery does have one wall of the tight shop dedicated to well-priced sweet and savoury buns.

This was actually one of the few bakeries on the Cake Tour where I gave minus points for in-store experience. Put as kindly as possible, I was cheated out of $20 and only realized once I was walking down the street, wondering why I'd paid so much for two items. The worker was trying her utmost to feed me samples and I refused each time until I thought I'd better take one purely out of politeness - were they not free samples? And the frustrating thing about it was that I felt so pressured to get a pineapple cake that I got only one out of politeness as well; it was weeks until my departure date (which was later moved back even further) so I didn't need any souvenirs or gifts. I was so mad!

Anyways, what is more frustrating is that their pineapple buns ($20) are some of the best. They're as classic as it gets with that somewhat greasy (in a good way), flaky exterior that has just the right crunch to it. Inside, it's soft without being too cottony. It's so hard to find anyone making them like this anymore.

Despite kind of being forced into the purchase, the pineapple cake with preserved yolk ($35) was good. The dough had just the right cookie-like texture with a good amount of filling in the middle so that you could appreciate the taste of both. How that turned into $75 was beyond me, but I paid while eating that one sample and wasn't paying attention.... Would have recommended it under normal circumstances: -1 star for the experience.

Rating: **