Tofitian Coffee House

Bakery: Tofitian Coffee House

Address: 1180 Pacific Rim Hwy, Tofino BC 

Website: http://tofitian.com/

Style: Canadian

Price: $$ 

 

This is the one place that is easy to forget about and I know I did the last time I was in Tofino. I saw it on the way in and on the way out it just seemed to slipped my mind. Oh well, I got it this time, for better or for worse. Tofitian Cafe isn't entirely a bakery, but they do come up when you search for bakeries and they have a small selection of home-baked goodies that is limited to three types of croissants, some cookies and other uh, stuff that didn't quite whet my appetite. Without a doubt, the three flaky pastries - croissants, almond croissants and chocolate croissants - are *the* thing to get, in my opinion. 

More specifically, I took the chocolate croissant ($4.25). This one hefty pastry with a nice crusty exterior and layers of flaky dough; to their credit, they also added more chocolate than I was expecting with a chocolate croissant. The one half dusted in powdered sugar wasn't necessary, but it was a nice touch. Worthy of a French bakery, in fact, but the experience during getting that pastry... man, how ridiculously annoying and unpleasant!

Rating: **1/2

小森美丸 [Mimi's World Tour]

 Bakery: 小森美丸 現烤甜甜圈 (Komori Mimaru Freshly Baked Doughnuts)

Address: No. 259, Section 3, Guohua St, West Central District, Tainan 

Website: facebook 

Style: Doughnuts

Price: $$ 

Let's follow up one 4-star review with another~! This Japanese-inspired doughnut stand and cafe was the only 4-star Cake Tour during my trip to Taiwan. That's right, out of nearly 100 stops, it was this doughnut stand that captured my heart and taste buds. Sold out of a little display case right outside the cafe, these baked doughnuts are supposed to come in seven fixed varieties and you do get a discount when you buy more (which I was thinking of doing the following day). When I came, however, there was literally one doughnut left and I had little choice in the matter. 

Luckily, I did decide to take that final milk doughnut ($30/each, 4/$100). Baked doughnuts are certainly not my favourite type and, outwardly, there was nothing remarkable about this particular doughnut. It was a little blackened in areas, it wasn't necessarily even pretty, so I wasn't expecting much. However, the taste and incredible texture, that crunch on the outside and dense and chewy inside took me completely by surprise. It was a little greasy, a little sweet. It was AMAZING! 

Rating: ****

Golestan Bakery

Bakery: Golestan Bakery

Address: 1755 Robson St, Vancouver BC 

Website: n/a

Style: Persian

Price: $$$ 

 

There are some bakeries where the name alone just brings that sparkle to your eyes and everything else in life simply vanishes upon the memory of whatever delectable treat you had. Yes, it doesn't happen often. Actually, it hardly ever happens, which can be evidenced by how few 4-star bakeries there are on my little blog. In this case, however, one word is needed to transport me back to bliss: zolbia. Zolbia from Golestan, to be exact. Whoa, and here we go... *-*

When it comes to Middle Eastern and Indian pastries, I'm such a sucker for what I universally call jalebi, though of course they have different names depending on the country and language. I just love these golden yellow/orange spirals of syrup-soaked fried dough and in my opinion Persian zolbia are the best in terms of style. So when I spotted the zolbia at Golestan - a bakery originally from North Vancouver with a newer location on Robson - among their wide array of traditional pastries and cookies (all sold by weight) in addition to a few more universal treats like chocolate cake, I knew I had to try them. These zolbia ($5.15 for three) didn't look like anything particularly remarkable, but that first bite was incredible and it only got better from there. They had the perfect texture: super chewy with a mild crisp on the outside, just the right amount of sugar syrup inside and out. They were so good, to the point where I couldn't stop until I'd eaten everything. Wow, these changed my mind about how I see these simple pastries. The best ones I've ever had!

Rating: ****

Kupel's Bakery [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Kupel's Bakery

Address: 421 Harvard St, Brookline, MA

Website: http://www.orderkupels.com/

Style: Jewish, American

Price: $$ 

[These reviews have been sitting complete on my blog for many a month and I've been waiting and nagging to get all the photos from these posts up. At last, it was a struggle, but I got them! Both the reviews and photos from last year's New England trip - wow, I thought I'd never see these posted in their entirety....] 

I don't really know what we were doing in Brookline, a suburb of Boston (I guess you could call it that), except for driving past and spotting what looked like a bagel bakery. There are two types of bagel bakeries: the ones that sell just bagels and the ones that actually sell classic baked goods. I'm not really a bagel connoisseur, so luckily Kupel's was my kind of bakery. 

My favourite pick at any Jewish bakery are the chocolate buffalo pastries, but I don't really remember whether they didn't have them at all or they just didn't look as authentic and meaty as the poppy seed stuff. I got those triangle cookies that start with an H... I always see these and it just hit me when I tried the ones from Kupel's that they are just cookies stuffed with poppy seed. A little dry, in my opinion. 

What was good was the poppy seed danish. This was literally exploding with poppy seed! They really didn't have to put that much in - I wonder if you'd fail a drug test after eating this thing.... probably.

Rating: ***

甘本堂 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 甘本堂蛋糕烘焙坊 (Ganbentang Cake Bakery)

Address: No. 35 Minsheng Road, Section 1, West Central District, Tainan

Website: facebook

Style: Chinese

Price: $$  

This was actually my first bakery stop in Tainan. I came here straight from the train station, suitcase and all. Well, the bakery is quite tony, so the suitcase had to wait outside, but it was definitely an unplanned stop; however, it was hard to walk past a window laden with sweet baked goods and cookies. After all, unlike the vast majority of bakeries I encountered in Taiwan (and simply Chinese bakeries in general), the focus here wasn't on the meat and cheese buns - it was on the sweet stuff. I guess that's what "cake bakery" means?? Nonetheless, most of the items at this bakery were of the sweet kind: buns, packs of biscuits, silly cakes, all heavy on cream, custard and pastel colours. Perhaps a little too heavy, at times.... 

Trying to keep it a little more on the light side, especially given it was a breakfast item, I grabbed the cocoa bun ($30). At least, I think it was a cocoa bun. That's what I could pick up from the description; however, I had a hard time making that connection in terms of taste. With so many thin, cocoa-coloured layers throughout, it should have been more obvious. Still, the dough was good in both texture and flavour. Never really think peanuts are good as a garnish, but overall, I was satisfied with this treat and bakery as a whole.

Rating: ***

Wadena Bakery & Coffee Nook

 

Bakery: Wadena Bakery & Coffee Nook

Address: 70 Main St N, Wadena, SK

Website: http://www.wadenabakery.com/

Style: Canadian 

Price: $ 

From the outside, Wadena Bakery looks like your typical prairie town bakery; actually, it doesn't look any different from the inside as well, but what totally astounded me was the amount of people flocking here. What exactly is the population of Wadena? Does every single person in town and in a 100 km radius make it a mission of popping into this bakery on Saturday morning? Not that I'm complaining, mind you! It warms my heart to have a bakery receive such ardent support. One more thing: there was a sign posted in the window to vote for them in some sort of Canadian Bakery Awards - um, hello? how am I not part of the panel of guest judges? It's so disconcerting to know nothing I do or say matters. *sighs* 

Anyways, Wadena Bakery is without a doubt a doughnut bakery. In my opinion, those are some of the best kind, but seeing as I'd already bought doughnuts the day before, I thought it better to take a break. In this sense, it was difficult to pick out something else, especially when everyone in front of me just kept loading up on those doughnuts. Was it ever tempting to go back on my resolve!

 

One non-doughnut item that seemed to enjoy some popularity was the cinnamon knot ($1.10). Ridiculously well-priced, these flower-shaped, muffin-sized baked goods take the top of a cinnamon bun (which is easily the best part) and offers you almost 360 degree coverage. They're sweet, they're gooey - but they tasted more like sticky buns than cinnamon buns. Whether the glaze was overpowering or there wasn't enough cinnamon, I'm not sure; all I knew was that I would have liked more cinnamon flavour. I probably should have stuck to those doughnuts after all... 

Rating: **1/2