Gulbay Turkish Bakery

Bakery: Gulbay Turkish Bakery

Address: 90 Winges Rd #21, Woodbridge ON

Website: n/a 

Style: Turkish

Price: $$ 

I'm always a sucker for less common ethnic baking and Turkish bakeries definitely fall into this category (though I do have another one coming up shortly); this small bakery, though focusing predominantly on savoury baked goods and breads, does have limited selection of sweet items you probably won't find anywhere else. 

Beyond the Turkish-style pita bread and bagels, there were a few treats that I totally jumped at the chance to try. Namely, the korek ($10), which they called a poppy seed cake. Poppy seed? *__* You know you can count me in! Prompted by my initial surprise at not finding anything black inside, I did some online research and found that korek is actually stuffed with white poppy seed and walnut. That white poppy seed had a definite sesame seed taste and... I was pretty darn devastated. Fluffy, semi-sweet bread with a delicate undertone of halvah and nuts that - like everything both sweet and savoury from this bakery - could have most certainly benefited from more filling, notwithstanding my disappointment at not being the poppy seed cake I was envisioning... 

The other item was the intriguing "mom's cookie" ($2). Except I'm not quite sure I could call it a cookie, certainly not the cookie you and I are thinking of. For lack of a better description, it was like a ever so slightly spiced raisin bun with a rock-hard crust. Eating it, it seemed rather dull on its own, like it needed to be sliced and served with butter. I'm not sure if that was the intended purpose, but I'll admit I was expecting something a little more exciting?

Rating: **1/2