Earth to Table: Bread Bar

Bakery: Earth to Table: Bread Bar

Address: 258 Locke St S, Hamilton, ON

Website: http://www.breadbar.ca/

Style: Canadian

Price: $$$

 

"Conveniently" located a few doors down from Donut Monster is this cafe-style pizzeria with a couple locations in and around (if you consider Guelph "around") Hamilton. Um, yes, I did say pizzeria. Actually, I was here to pick some pizza for someone and noticed that the "bread bar" component of this business includes a decent selection of classic home-baked goodies that include butter tarts, cookies, squares etc. 

The worker was recommending the salted caramel brownie ($4.95), so I thought I'd give it a try, even though it probably wouldn't be my top pick otherwise. Especially since I found it quite expensive for a brownie; dine-in pictures show it topped with caramel sauce and ice cream... not sure if that's included in the price and you just suffer the take-out blues, but on its own, it seemed a bit much. And a bit much in terms of decadence. Chunks of slightly chewy, slightly crunchy caramel on top of a rich caramel sauce-coated brownie. Good, great texture for a brownie - but honestly, the bread pudding looks so much better! 

Rating: **1/2

Nordic Foods

Bakery: Nordic Foods

Address: 1235 Bayly St #8, Pickering, ON

Website: http://www.nordicfoods.org/

Style: Finnish

Price: $$-$$$ 

I actually came to this Finnish/Scandinavian deli on the hunt for Finnish rye bread and never expected that they'd have anything sweet as well! I've always said that nothing interesting is ever on the bottom of a condo building, but this place seems to be an exception - albeit it *is* a weird place for any sort of deli, let alone a Finnish one. And to increase the weirdness of the whole experience, the owner was sitting outside in his car because he found his store too cold. Then any baked goods were just randomly taken out of plastic boxes scattered here and there. It felt a little like stepping into an off-kilter Scandinavian comedy. XD 

To my utter delight, Nordic Foods sells Finnish doughnuts! (And I learned only when leaving that they have bags of frozen cinnamon buns as well... if only I'd known earlier) Like everything else, they were dug out of a plastic Tupperware bin and didn't taste like they had been made that day (Saturday), which was unfortunate, because they were so fragrant and flavourful. Just the right amount of jelly, delicious dough. Once heated up in the microwave, so good. They would have been so much better had they been fresh; maybe weekdays are better? Still, how  missed Finnish baked goods~ 

Rating: ***

Blé [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Blé (布里王子の麵包廚房)

Address: No. 3, Beiping West Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei

Website: n/a

Style: Chinese

Price: $$

Unfortunately, with this review, my massive slew of bakeries from my Taiwan tour has come to an end. This 'unfortunately' has a dual meaning. Both in the sense that my Taiwanese reviews are finally over and that they had to end with Ble. In a sense, they should have ended with the previous post, but I was surprised by this bakery in the vast underground area in and around Taipei main station and I couldn't resist adding just one more bakery to the repertoire. The "bakeries" in the train station almost exclusively sell pre-packed gift boxes of pineapple cake or the latest dessert trend, so I was pleasantly impressed by the fact that this one was a standard bakery selling various sweet and savoury bread. That being said, this is a smaller chain with a few locations throughout Taipei. Despite that, the baked goods, including mostly single-serve, grab-and-go buns, had a decidedly generic, commercial look to them.

I took two items. One, not pictured, was the cheese and chive bun, which I had had elsewhere and gave me a craving for it here. The cheese was so wet and slimy, while the onion (and garlic) was so overpowering that I had this unpleasant taste in my mouth for the rest of the day. But this is a sweet tour: I had the taro? bun ($38). Rather, I didn't know it was taro until I bit into it and found it stuffed with a thick purple paste. x__x Anything would have worked better than taro... I ended up scraping a lot of it out, but even then I was left with a bun that was soft and foamy; even the topping, which should have added some texture, was soft and unnoticeable. Honestly, one of the biggest duds of the whole trip! This was followed up by me cracking my laptop screen... such was the conclusion of my time in Taiwan. I probably should have never returned to Canada - that was my sign. :( 

Rating: *1/2

Spicer's Bakery

Bakery: Spicer's Bakery & Deli

Address: 2386 Main St #1, London, ON

Website: http://spicersbakery.ca/

Style: Canadian, Doughnuts

Price: $$ 

 

Rather an unlikely bakery franchise, Spicers actually has three locations in and around the London area; this one is their original location. Specializing in classic, home-style baking and selling simple treats like squares, cookies and pies, the focus is nonetheless on their doughnuts. At least, I would give them the highly attractive title of "doughnut bakery". Attractive for me, that is. ;) 

Therefore, it shouldn't come as a surprise that I came away with a box of them. They have a decent selection of classics like sprinkled ring doughnuts along with a couple more unique types such as the Black Forest. My box contained a Boston cream, blueberry fritter, jam-filled and the croissant.The round ones were good, but didn't quite stand out. When ordering, the croissant wasn't labelled so I asked what it was and the worker replied "it was just a deep-fried croissant with glaze". It's almost laughable what an understatement that was... the croissant was the best one! Crunchy, flaky, a little rich - just a deep-fried croissant with glaze, indeed.

Rating: ***

Chez Charlotte [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Pastry Products Chez Charlotte (夏酪堤蛋糕工房)

Address: No. 86, Neijiang Street, Wanhua District, Taipei

Website: facebook 

Style: Cake, Asian

Price: $$$ 

Anticipating this to be my last bakery stop in Taiwan, I wanted something a little more special. This small cake shop kept popping up on Google maps as the nonsensical "Summer cheese cake embankment Kobo", so I figured it had to be something not worth checking out. However, I was once on the bus and spotted it through the window and realized that it was legitimate! Chez Charlotte is almost exclusively a cake shop; in its small space, there's a single display case with several varieties of cake slices (many of which are cheesecake) and a handful of bagged cookies on top. That's it. I'm not sure if they get a lot of business, since not only did the display case look a little barren compared to older photos online, it was hard to actually get someone's attention in the back. Also, I noticed that some cake slices looked really stale, the worst of which were rather hastily removed by the lady. It gave the impression that no one checked up on the products when the store opened that morning - and that impression wasn't the most appetizing one, to be sure. 

That being said, I decided on the cherry cheesecake ($70), one of the reasons being that it was more fully stocked than other varieties I was interested in, indicating that it was perhaps more recently baked. Despite the cherries on top starting to dye the cake underneath, I was relieved to find it was quite fresh. I like fluffier, more delicate Asian-style cheesecakes, so I was a little concerned with the first forkful about how thick and cheesy it was. It was really going for that NY cheesecake style - and everyone knows what I think of NY-style cheesecake. x_x But it wasn't as unyielding and decadently cheesy as I feared; actually, it was a nice compromise. I wasn't too big a fan of the cherry compote on top, but I enjoyed it. My final bakery was, suffice to say, a lot better than my final dinner. 

Rating: ***

Yamazaki [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Yamazaki (山崎麵包)

Address: No. 86, Section 1, Chongqing South Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei

Website: http://www.yamazaki-bc.com.tw/

Style: Chinese

Price: $$  

This is probably the last remaining bakery I had to do in Zhongzheng District and I saved it until the very end, simply because it just screams mega bakery franchise imported from Japan. And sure enough, Yamazaki has about 15 locations throughout Taiwan, but I can't find any definitive information about it actually being from Japan. In that case, it's aiming to look like a mega bakery franchise imported from Japan. Which isn't much better. The wide selection and high customer traffic is in keeping with a more commercial bakery, so I can't say I was expecting much beyond simply getting the bakery done. However, Yamazaki isn't as bad and generic as I anticipated, though at the same time it isn't really Japanese either! ;P

I wasn't planning on it, but the sugar doughnut ($30) did lure me in... as it usually always does. .__.; Hey, not that many bakeries have them, okay! I'll admit this one didn't look like much with its lack of sugar and puffy dough, but it was actually pretty good. Fried a nice golden brown, the dough was moist and soft and didn't have that factory taste you sometimes get with bigger chains. Perhaps it wouldn't be my top choice for baked goods in the area, but it does its job. 

Rating: ***

Ambrosia Corner Bakery

Bakery: Ambrosia Corner Bakery

Address: 324 Frederick St, Kitchener ON

Website: https://ambrosiacornerbakery.com/

Style: Canadian

Price: $$-$$$

 

Honestly, as much as I hate nitpicking about aspects that don't involve the baked goods themselves, some bakeries really do deserve minus points for their hours. This has been on my list for so long, but they're always closed. They're closed 4 days a week! They close at 1 on Saturdays and 3 the other two days. Which begs the question: do you want b

usiness or not? It's always frustrating and mind-boggling for me, because there are bakeries who are trying their best to keep their business afloat and then there the ones where you as a customer have to bend over backwards to buy something from. It definitely didn't put me in the best mindset. 

What else didn't? The fact that I was running like mad to make it before closing to try their kouign amann - yes, they make kouign amann and any bakery that does will have it tested by me - and they were gone. Actually, a lot was gone and I had to make do with whatever was left behind. 

For a place that does make kouign amann (whatever date and time that might be), I was surprised that the other baked goods were a little more hodgepodge and didn't include as many pastries as I would have expected; instead, it was very scone- and square-heavy. The sticky and monkey buns, for instance, were something that you could find at a classic Canadian/English bakery. I preferred the ooey and gooey one, which I presume was the sticky bun. 

However, the best of the three was the blueberry brioche. At first, I regretted taking it because as I was plating it looked very dry and I was worried it would just be a ball of plain, dry dough, but it was very tasty and not as dry as it looked. Great texture, a little fruit. Not bad, but it's not worth speeding down the highway just to make it here in time! 

Rating: **1/2

Hogan Bakery [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Hogan Bakery (哈肯舖烘焙)

Address: No. 11-B2F, Songgao Road, Xinyi District, Taipei

Website: http://www.hoganbakery.com.tw/

Style: Chinese, European

Price: $$$ 

This sleek and modern bakery is located in the basement and just outside the Eslite food department (i.e. you actually have to leave the Eslite store - it took me awhile to figure that out), very nearly lost among all the underground food businesses in the area. Of course, any time you get a bakery where some effort has been put into the decor, you're going to have to pay for it. Hogan is no exception. They do, however, have a fairly impressive selection of more rustic, Western-inspired bread and baked goods that range from several varieties of bagels and pound cake to cannelés and croissants. Given that they don't have the same old bun sweet and savoury bun types you'll find everywhere, Hogan is indeed something different - and a breath of fresh air. The vast majority of labels include English. 

I knew what I wanted the moment I saw it: the "caramel pastry" ($47). Also known as a kouign amann. No one can fool me and, as seen in previous posts, if I see a kouign amann I get one. To my surprise and delight, I encountered a few kouign amann in Taiwan. This one was my least favourite. The dough was flaky, but lacked any sort of distinct flavour. It wasn't buttery at all, which is a big no-no for this sort of pastry. Anyone who's had a kouign amann knows that the best part is that incredible, chewy caramelized sugar bottom; here, the sugar pooled and formed a thick layer of rock-solid candy. I had to end up just peeling the whole layer off. It was impossible to eat, certainly not together with the pastry. Honestly, I was expected more from Hogan.

Rating: **1/2

La Maison du Danemark [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: La Maison du Danemark (丹麥之屋 法式西點麵包)

Address: No. 1, Alley 29, Lane 372, Section 5, Zhongxiao East Road, Xinyi District, Taipei

Website: http://www.houseofdenmark.co/ 

Style: Chinese

Price: $$ 

Already having plenty of bakery experience from all my reviews throughout Taiwan, it's somewhat surprising that this slightly rundown neighbourhood bakery has a website - not to mention an online ordering system! With these kinds of credentials, you'd only expect a well-established chain, not a stand-alone bakery with one other location nearby. Nevertheless, while I found that French- and German-style bakeries tried to include at least one or two more "authentic" baked goods, the same could not be said here. While there were a few Danish flags, there wasn't anything super Danish about the indicated products, but I guess some effort was made to at least include some European-looking stuff.

One of the few baked goods with that Denmark flag was the cinnamon bun ($36). Yeah, I can definitely see the connection. Either way, I do like cinnamon buns and this looked like a more flaky, Danish-style dough, certainly compared to the more bread-like cinnamon buns you find in Chinese bakeries. Actually, appearances were a little deceiving since it wasn't nearly as flaky as it looked. Although good in taste with a nice, flavourful cinnamon mass, though a bit skimpy, it was more bready and less unique than I was hoping for. Oh well. 

Rating: ***

The Fritter Shop

Bakery: The Fritter Shop

Address: 900 King St, London, ON 

Website: https://thefrittershop.com/

Style: Fritters

Price: $$ 

 

As unlikely as the idea of a fritter franchise may sound, this bakery actually has 4 (or more?) locations in a few surprising places, London and Hamilton being the most prominent. Now, you can imagine my excitement of visiting what should be a fritter specialist - the decor consisting of Dutch newspaper articles seemingly plastered on one wall only increased that excitement. Are these then appelbeignets!? At this point I was already licking my lips... 

There were two possible ways this could go: The Fritter Shop exceeded or met my expectations or it was a letdown. Unfortunately, it was the latter. These guys are unique in that they sell several flavours of "fritters" ($2.50 each; discounts on multi-packs) - except that given the fact that the raspberry and blueberry ones are filled with jam, when does a fritter turn into a plain old jelly doughnut? I liked how the apple fritters had the classic apple ring inside, but the downfall in all cases was the dough. It wasn't sweet at all and has the taste and texture of a savoury patty. A fellow taster said it reminded him of the handheld apple pies fast food places sell. It was a little too soft, didn't have much taste and there was something... commercial about it. This place had the potential to be a lot better than it was.

Rating: **1/2

奇美烘培坊 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 奇美烘培坊 (Qimei Bakery)

Address: No. 84, Jianzhong Street, Xinzhuang District, New Taipei 

Website: n/a

Style: Chinese

Price: $-$$ 

 

My final bakery stop for New Taipei, Qimei was certainly the most old-school of the bunch: a little on the dingy side, it looks like nothing here has changed much since it opened its doors many a year ago. The selection of classic sweet and savoury bread, buns and cakes is fairly impressive and well-priced, though there's no real specialty or focus. 

It being strawberry season, I'd been going from one bakery to another, wondering if I should splurge on some of their strawberry baked goods. They'd been tempting me all day long and I finally went with this cheap compromise ($30). From above, it looked like a tart. When I took it out of the bag, I realized it wasn't a tart at all; it was pretty much a pineapple bun cut in half with some of bread scooped out of the middle and filled with custard. Soft white bread with a little crunch on the bottom and a lot of thick, not very good pudding was what I was left with. Given the delicacy of the bun, there was way too much of the custard and it simply didn't match. The strawberries had a thick layer of clear glaze on then that seeped down and over the top of the bun, creating a firm, jello-like film. What a dud!

Rating: **

Chuang Sheng [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Chuang Sheng Bakeshop (創盛號烘焙本舖) 

Address: No. 136, Xintai Road, Xinzhuang District, New Taipei

Website: https://bakery-5632.business.site

Style: Chinese

Price: $$  

This bakery recently opened when I visited it, so I don't know if the hype has died down or it's still as insane as it was when I showed up, but the hype is without a doubt for one item and one item only. As a matter of fact, if you wanted it, you had to line up outside and wait for it to come straight from the oven. What could possibly cause so much hysteria? Russian bread. Big, eye-shaped and brushed with butter. In some ways, it's just a loaf of (strangely semi-sweet) bread and there are many bakeries in Taipei and beyond that sell them, but even I was contemplating it when the worker carried out a steaming tray from the back and started basting the loaves right in the middle of the store. That is, until I saw the line. 

Instead, the butter crust bun (my name; $28) looked simple, yet appetizing. It somewhat resembled a pineapple bun, but this proved to be in concept alone, since the taste and texture were entirely different. The outer crust was almost a shortbread in that it was so decadent and buttery; it had great crunch. The bun underneath was less spectacular, but was definitely better than average: a light, fluffy sweet bread dough. Turns this bakery doesn't just make good Russian bread, after all.

 

Rating: ***

Bakery on Mavis

 Bakery: Bakery on Mavis

Address: 5700 Mavis Rd, Mississauga, ON 

Website: n/a

Style: Portuguese 

Price: $-$$

 

At some point that seemed to elude notice, Brazil Bakery shut its doors on this and their other locations. Having been here for quite a time, it came to me as a surprise and a disappointment, but when a bakery closes down the best thing that can happen is for another bakery to take it over; Bakery on Mavis did just that and, thankfully, there is still a bakery in the neighbourhood. The new bakery has lost its coziness and feels rather... cold and empty. Maybe this is owing to the fact that they definitely lack selection in freshly baked sweet treats - which I've always seen as not only a staple of any Portuguese bakery, but in my opinion the best thing they sell. They have quite a number of tart varieties - more than usual - and a few cake slices, but for whatever reason it didn't come across as a destination for sweets. 

I tried three different varieties of tarts: coconut, beer and almond ($1.40 each). The coconut featured a sort of jelly and barely qualified as a tart at all. I wasn't a fan of the jiggly texture. The beer (bottom left) was unusual and hard to place in terms of taste while the almond would have been the clear winner with its chewy filling and slivered almonds on top; however, both had that undeniable stale taste. The tart shells were so brittle and unyielding that even a knife couldn't get through them. I get that tarts don't have to be baked every day like yeast baked goods, but I think there's an expiration date for verything. 

One of the very few other pastries they had was this one, known in store as "the famous pastry" ($2.60). I'll admit I've seen it before, but it never piqued my interest. Honestly, I think it looks more complex than it actually is: two pieces of thick, coconut-encrusted sponge cake with a very thin, almost imperceptible layer of jam in between. I couldn't get rid of the idea that it tasted so commercial. Maybe it was the texture of the cake or the cake and jam combination? Not sure. Sometimes the strangest pastries become famous.... 

Rating: **1/2

揚名手工烘培 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 揚名手工烘培 (Yang Ming Bakery) 

Address: No. 24, Jianzhong Street, Xinzhuang District, New Taipei

Website: facebook

Style: Chinese 

Price:  $$ 

My adventures in New Taipei continued with this bright, airy bakery located slightly away from the main retail areas on a side street and one which I happened to come across purely by chance. Of course, if you come across a bakery by accident, you have to go to it! Judging by the masses of online photos of their shortcake-like layered cream cakes (and anything cream-stuffed for that matter), I'm presuming that this is their specialty, but I can't say I got that impression when there. Essentially, they came across as an average, albeit independent bakery with all the bread varieties and a some cake that you'd expect. The one thing that set this bakery apart from the others for me was going up to the cash and having the worker announce loudly and happily, almost proudly "one doughnut" in English. Jeez, that was unnecessary... the whole world didn't need to know what I was buying! I guess it isn't exactly the kind of place that sees foreigners, but still... 

And yes, I did get the doughnut. The crispy milk doughnut, to exact ($35). This would prove to be my final crispy milk doughnut - and not only because my trip was shortly coming to an end. It was here that I truly came to the realization that crispy milk doughnuts are actually not very good. When served hot and fresh, you get that extra crunchy and dense, yet soft inside. I've never been a fan of that powdery topping, but when they sit on the shelf (as they do in a bakery), that powdery topping clings to the outside and creates this sticky, pasty layer - especially when there was way too much powder on this one. Once I scraped a lot of it off, it was much better, but I really should have gone with something else. Maybe their cream puffs would have been a bigger hit?

Rating: **1/2

布列德麵包 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 布列德麵包 (Bu lie de "Bread" Bread) 

Address: No. 5, Section 2, Zhonghua Road, Xinzhuang District, New Taipei

Website: n/a 

Style: Chinese

Price: $$ 

I'm a little annoyed that their location in Wanhua District - which is the one I went to - closed and all that's left is this location next to Xinzhuang Stadium in New Taipei. Not only because I never like having a bakery close down in between me going to it and me reviewing it (I guess it does show that I should review these places in a more timely manner .__.), but because it was better than the other bakery I did on the same street. And come on, how could you not give it bonus points for that logo! 

Disregarding the logo, this bakery is in itself fairly standard and nothing really sets it apart in terms of its selection and quality. One thing I noticed was that they had a wider than normal assortment of cream rolls and, being an absolute sucker for anything cute or silly, I could not resist the cow cream roll! ($40) I was in for a treat because what I presumed would be vanilla/chocolate like the outside dough was actually hazelnut cream on the inside. It gave the cake a rich and complex flavour and I liked how there wasn't too much of it. Cream rolls are never my top choice, but I'm glad I got suckered into this cow cake. 

Rating: ***