Bread's Fusion [RIP]

Bakery: Bread's Fusion 
Address: 363 Kerr St, Oakville ON
Website: http://breadsfusion.com/
Style: Venezuelan
Price: $$-$$$

[Note: this bakery no longer exists. Signage indicates a French and Middle Eastern patisserie is on its way, so look out for that one]

Here's another Oakville bakery. I actually don't get many chances to try the bakeries in Oakville, so I was pretty thrilled that my mom came back with two paper bags from this new bakery, cafe & deli that opened up on Kerr Street (in what is known, I think, Kerr Village) and which replaced the Polish deli where I had a poppy seed bun from and never got a chance to review because I didn't know what it was called. *sighs* There goes that idea...

Anyways, from my experience, South American bakeries are a little like Vietnamese restaurants: the food may be pretty simple, but you can eat your fill of (generally) tasty stuff for a great price. I don't think this place lives up to that generalization. Bread's Fusion, a Venezuelan bakery in Oakville, also carrying some (unnecessary) North American sweets, is not too well priced (and hey! taxes not included!?! :P) in terms of their simple, traditional pastries, especially considering that I was flipping through my old posts for the sake of the previous post and found I had bought the same thing at half the price ($1.50, taxes inc.) in Toronto. :/

Not to say that it wasn't good. On the contrary. These guys don't have that many options if you do want to go for their authentic baked goods; their menu lists four different fillings (though I believe each pastry only has that one filling? Possibly?), all of which are fruit (and one with cheese). As the lady told my mom, the guava and cheese is the most popular, but seeing as this is similar to the one at Colombian bakeries, I ended up with:

One prune pastry ($2.60) was a simple, thick sheet of puff pastry folded over a nice and gloopy (I'm not sure if 'nice and gloopy' go well together, but just play along XD) prune jam. A little dry in the middle with that triple layer of puff pastry, but still good.

The second item ($2.60) was a sort of apple pie stuffed with a spiced apple puree that just didn't want to stay in the thin, flaky dough. Again, quite good; I had a similar thing at Pancho's, but with egg brushed on top to hold the dough together more. This fell apart a little too easily in the middle, but I really liked the filling and the plain, unsweetened dough was also quite tasty. Both were, as I mentioned, very simple, rustic even with no garnish and little else except fruit on the inside, so $3.00/each was a little much when you think about it. I would personally expect to pay $2.25, $2.50 at most, with taxes for what it was. This was definitely the only minus, except, as my mom was complaining, not being able to find a parking place. XD

Rating: **1/2

Columbus Bakery

Bakery: Columbus Bakery
Address: 2111 Jane St, Toronto ON (another location at 2931 Dufferin) 
Website: n/a
Style: Colombian 
Price: $ 

On the same plaza as St. Pio, there's a teeny-tiny Colombian "bakery" which I had to try, simply because I'd like to have some sort of comparison to the only other Colombian place I've tried, that being Todo Rico. As with most/all South American 'bakeries' (well, this is my take on it), they're actually more of restaurant first, selling hot foods like empanadas, chicharron and various meat platters. Second place comes the baked goods, with breads stuffed with cheese and pastries and cookies with guava, cheese or caramel. I don't know about their original location on Dufferin, but it seems like there's a reason why all the Colombian (alright, perhaps it's more appropriate to say "Spanish-speaking" since I'm not that good to tell :P) people are coming for the sausages and empanadas. :/

Yup, this rounded up the CT3 and it wasn't such a great trip. Feeling a little cheated at Ma Maison, it still left the other bakeries somewhere in the dust, very far behind. Actually, I had to wait one week to write up this post, because I didn't want to look at the picture. x_x So, what happened? I ordered two of their "desserts" instead of the baked goods: mistake. For one, given you pay $1.00-$1.50 (which is CHEAP; yes, in capital letters!) for pretty much anything sweet at my local Colombian bakery, I was expecting the same knock-your-socks-off value here, especially given the neighbourhood. No prices are listed and you're a little startled to be paying $2.50 (!?!) for what costs $1.00 elsewhere. Even Kensington Market, which is not so dirt-cheap, sells it cheaper at Pancho's Mexican bakery. I mean, $2.50 isn't lots of money, but for a) what you get, and b) the quality/freshness of it, it was so not worth it!

First up was a creme caramel or some sort of custard ($2.50) which is sold in squares or as a whole tin. The caramel supposed to be on top was pretty runny and by the time it arrived home, most of it had made it down into the Styrofoam.. and the photo itself makes it look radioactive orange -- I have no idea why. It was white with a bit of brown on top. -.- Still, too eggy and not enough taste from the caramel, this was deemed "alright". 

The next item was supposed to be a favourite of mine: bread pudding. (torta de pan; $2.00) Looking at it, it didn't look too bad. It had more of this crumble on top instead of just the soft pudding, but oh man! I see this and it makes me shudder. This was *so* old. You know when you take a piece of bread, slice the crust and stick it in the fridge for a few days, it develops this stale crust around it and then the bread itself starts taking on the flavour of everything else in the fridge? Yup. The crust around this was thick and just not good. Cutting it off, it still had this stale taste to it and was strangely greasy, giving me this impression that they deep-fried it along with the empanadas or in some old oil. Maybe they did, but I don't think that's what bread pudding is supposed to be. Just no... my mom announced later in the weeks that she had bought me my bread pudding at Todo Rico and I was ready to puke at the words "bread pudding", but they restored my faith in the good stuff. :)

Like I said, I don't know about the original location, but there's no reason for me to return to this area (I actually only found the plaza itself while looking for the 401 exit) and I can't say I'll miss going to Columbus for a return trip. Maybe I'd like to revisit St Pio and give them a second chance (I really would, since their buns were good, but this place.. no thanks) :/

Rating: *1/2

St Pio Bakery

Bakery: St Pio Bakery
Address: 2133 Jane St, Toronto ON
Website: http://www.cakeandbake.ca/ 
Style: Italian
Price: $$

[Since my Toronto tour has begun to go beyond the subway line and into the upper regions, I thought I'd introduce a North York section to make it easier to navigate. Erm, not too sure on the official boundaries so let me know if I screwed something up XD I'm thinking of embedding an interactive map with all bakeries I've reviewed.. but I think it'll take some time ^^;;;]

Stop #2 on Saturday's tour. Actually, nothing really ended up being stellar (I'm in a bad luck rut) this time around and, without a doubt, Ma Maison reigned supreme by a long shot. St Pio is one of the few bakeries that I've stepped into and I had absolutely no idea what to take to try. No idea. As with many Italian bakeries, the reason is that they're a bread-first sort of place (as well as wedding cakes). This one, in particular, has many delicious-looking breads and buns at good prices and we walked away with two bags of the latter. Their sweets aren't so exciting. As for baked goods, they had croissants and the most alluring thing there was an apple strudel ($8.99) which I would have taken, but didn't necessarily want to feed the whole family. ;D They had cannoli, naturally, in a variety of fillings. Maybe I should have taken one, just for the sake of trying something, but I've never been fond of them (sorry .___.;;) and wasn't in the mood. I think the cannoli was as Italian as it got. Besides this, they had a few cake slices, but which didn't look so great. As the mom says, they looked like the "back of the cream cheese box recipe" kind. I passed. :/ They had a sign that they carried homemade Jamaican rum cake, which I would have *really* liked to try, though I have no idea where it might have been if they had it.

At the cash, she turned around and said, I'll just take you that (pointing to the iced taralli - $1.90) and she did. I'm not sure why, but there it was on the plate, not looking so great and no one quite knowing what to do with it (Wikipedia informs me they're dunked in wine -- we did it in coffee and hot chocolate, oops! :P) I wasn't too happy, at any rate, having ended up with just that, but really, nothing looked... good! :(


So, we cracked the thing into pieces and everyone got a-dunking. The taste is that of ladyfingers, namely Milano-brand with that hint of lemon. Unlike biscotti, which serve a similar purpose, these just didn't.. want to get soft or absorb any of the liquid. The only thing that was really affected was the icing, which just melted into your drink. Is that supposed to happen? O.o

Nevertheless, I can't say the trip to St Pio was a memorable one, at least not for the baked goods. Sorry, guys, maybe next time I'll be more in the mood to try something (or someone has something good to suggest?). :(

Rating: *1/2

Ma Maison

Bakery: Ma Maison
Address: 4243 Dundas St W, Toronto ON
Website: http://www.ur2busy2cook.com/
Style: French
Price: $$$$

On Saturday (i.e. yesterday), I unknowingly ended up on a CT3: three bakeries were chanced upon, purely by luck, while we were aimlessly navigating through the streets of Etobicoke and Toronto. The other two came about completely without having dug anything on them, but Ma Maison was one that I'd driven past a few times on the way to Solero, but never had the chance to step inside. Well, today was the day.

Despite the steeper prices on French pastries in general, I can't say I've ever had the impression I've been cheated. Quality (and training) comes at a price and I'm more than happy to pay for it. ;) However, this has been the first time where I came away not entirely satisfied with how much money I spent and what I received in return. Ma Maison (despite the somewhat cheesy name -- then again, I'm really not the one to be commenting on cheesiness ^-^;;) is an authentic French shop with the workers addressing you in French once you walk in the door. The only difference from Paris is that you're greeted with a smile -- har, har har! (don't mind my humour, it's the (only?) result of six years and two French degrees -.-) On the store front, it's called a boulangerie, patisserie and traitteur, although I would perhaps reverse the order a bit. In fact, judging also by the website name, this seems to be the place where you go for a light lunch or take home entire quiches or savoury tarts and pates (made by the super-chef behind the whole operation) more than cakes and breads. The half dozen (filled) tables of customers seem to prove this theory.

In terms of the pastries and baked goods (my reason for being there), they have all your staples: fruit tarts (large and small tiny), elaborate cake slices, mostly chocolate, and a few not so exciting viennoiseries such as croissants and pains au chocolat as well as large pans of bread pudding and fruit cobbler, which probably would have been, in hindsight, the wisest choice. One thing that sets this place apart from French patisseries in France as well in Toronto is that there's not a price to be seen anywhere, although the price is... indeed there. It was only as they ring in the items that you realize how much they cost which is, as I always say, not very customer-friendly. One other thing that also strikes you -- this is as I was carrying the paper bags to the car -- is that the sweets are minuscule and weigh absolutely nothing. Whether it's because they're designed as an eat-in dessert to your quiche or they've been shrinking, the portions are without a doubt quite measly, a comment I don't think I've ever made before.

For the first purchase, I got a cinnamon stick ($2.49) which was in the yeast goods and which was particularly unimpressive. For one, it was small and I think it must have been made with two tablespoons of flour. There was none of that perfect, buttery flaky-fluffiness you come to expect from French baked goods. On the contrary, it was strangely dry and lacked flavour (cinnamon itself is not expensive, so I would have liked to at least have more of that) -- not what I was hoping for.

For the uh, "big" purchase, I picked out a tiny tart with cherries ($4.99). Unlike the cinnamon stick, this was actually delicious, although it didn't last very many bites. French tarts aren't huge things in general, but I've never come away with a feeling of "where did it go?" like I did here. Strangely weightless, it nonetheless had an amazingly flaky and buttery shell with a spoonful of what I think is almond mass. On top were dried cherries revived in (I hope!) what I identified as some sort of alcohol. The idea was a weird one and, although the taste was really nice and sweet once you started chewing, the initial texture was that of topping a cake with handfuls of dried cranberries.

At any rate, although the taste was pretty good and the tart especially yummy, what you got was simply not worth the price. :/

Rating: ***

Mr India Grocers

Bakery: Mr India Grocers
Address: 3950 Grand Park Dr., Mississauga ON (one other location)
Website: http://www.mrindiagrocers.com/
Style: Indian 
Price: $$ 

This was my semi-first sweets experience; I say semi- since I had tried one of the signature and more well-known (at least for a non-Indian ;P) desserts, gulab (deep-fried dough balls soaked in syrup), beforehand. Nevertheless, I've visited the Mr India Grocers "superstore" several times, not for the sweets, but for their well-priced hot food counter (known as the 'haveli' at the back of the store) and I was always thinking that I should try a few of their many sweets. Then my brother went for lunch and came back with a box, so: yay!

At any time, there are about a dozen or so which are organized by number and priced per weight: $5.49/lb for the right-hand case and $7.49/lb for a few slices on the left-hand side. As with middle-eastern treats, these are sold as small squares, balls or rolls, whatever the shape may be, but despite being considerably cheaper per weight than baklava, the price can go up quite quickly as many are quite heavy.

For those who may not know, sweets are pretty much Indian desserts with a very apt name: many items are soaking in sugary syrup. Whereas Greek or Middle-Eastern baking uses a lot of honey, Indian sweets use sugar. These make them sticky and very sweet -- the small sizes must be for a reason, since you can't eat too much of this without getting sugar-high. ;) Besides the items drenched in sugar, there is a vast assortment of little cakes usually made of rice paste and often topped with a heavy, cooked mass of milk, cream and... yup, sugar.

So, to the sweets: the brother came with 2x three different items (this box cost around $6, so roughly $1 per item): The first (in the lower right-hand corner) was the aforementioned gulab jamun, which are actually not really dough balls but are made of powdered milk, butter and sometimes eggs (with very little or no flour), traditionally deep-fried in ghee, dropped in sugar syrup, and then (in this case) rolled further in coconut. Ay, I'm glad I only had one to eat. XDDD These actually don't taste very heavy, so these little guys are quite deceiving. Still: slightly hard on the outside (one was a little too burnt), soft and mushy on the inside with a dense, crumbling 'dough'. Despite the overly browned dough taste to it, it was probably the best of the bunch for me. The second item was pretty much the gulab jamun cut open and stuffed with that cooked sugary cream above. This mushy filling, for me, was just a little too much in terms of, well, sweetness. (ha ha get it?)

The third on the plate is... well, upon eating no one could quite figure it out, except for the top which is that cream and sugar mix. Only one brother called it a 'carrot cake'. It took reading the Mr India take-out menu we have to discover it was gajar halwa, cakes made of, he guessed it, shredded carrots, milk, cream and sugar. This was... an acquired taste. ;P I myself did not really like this, but mostly for the sugary milky thing on top than the actual carrots. One is mushy and melted in your mouth and the other is shredded.. and it just was my least favourite.

Lastly, were these orange dough swirls ($2.49/lb; four big chunks cost $0.69), pretty much the same as the ones bought from Mona the week before, but orange. The brother says that for a dollar more per pound, they had white ones. Although they were quite good (my fave along with the gulab jamun), the ones in Mona were better. These ones were soaked in sugar syrup and there was something slightly bitter about the taste, which I attributed to the orange, though I'm not sure what it is or is it just food colouring?? O.o

Nonetheless, Mr. India wasn't the greatest, but it's made me curious to try other sweets, especially as I assume bakeries/restaurants (such as Shirin Mahal which someone recommended me and someone on Google claimed has the best gulab in North America) will be better than a supermarket. In any case, I would definitely say stick to sticky, deep-fried stuff and certainly to those who want to try something new. (and of course, if you're worried about caloric intake or your blood sugar level, proceed with caution ;DDDD)!

P.S. And erm, thanks to Wikipedia for their articles on Indian sweets. ^^;; Couldn't have done it without you~

Rating: **1/2

Dessert Deli [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Dessert Deli
Address: 716 Maple Rd, Buffalo NY 
Website: http://www.dessertdelibakery.com/ 
Style: North American
Price: $$-$$$ 

Dessert Deli is the second bakery I went to in Buffalo. This one is probably the "fanciest" bakery I've seen in Buffalo, or if there's another one similar I'm not sure where it is. They don't have any bread or baked goods and are, like the name says, just desserts. You can order and eat it there or they also do catering and big orders for parties (like cakes and pies).

Besides the usual cupcakes and cookies, they also have more fancier cakes, but these are pretty expensive. I remember paying more than $6 for an individual cake, but I have to give them credit for experimenting with new flavours and combinations and they put effort into the decorations too. I had an egg nog cake; it sounds a lot weirder than it tasted. It was pretty good. I liked the cookie on the bottom.

I don't really remember what the other thing was. I know it was something with chocolate, probably the chocolate raspberry cake like what I saw on their website? I only know that I liked it too.


Dessert Deli was pretty good. It didn't beat going to Swedish Bakery which is the other review I just did, but I could go again for the cakes.

Rating: ***