Baker and Table

Bakery: Baker and Table

Address: 6414 Fraser St, Vancouver BC

Website: http://www.bakerandtablecafe.com/

Style: Japanese

Price: $$ 

 

 I can't believe that I was putting off this visit for so long, simply because this charming little Japanese spot wasn't really a bakery, but a cafe. Because let's be honest: cafes usually don't have the variety bakeries do and, a lot of the time, they're simply not up to par. Baker and Table, on the other hand, had a surprising selection - not huge, but definitely more than I expected - of dainty cake slices and absolutely adorable melon bread in a variety of characters. Unfortunately, the latter is a bit pricey for a bun (and almost all the flavours have mochi inside x_x), so I found it better value to just grab a slice of cake. And their cake really is good. 

 

I took two slices on my initial trip: the eggless kabocha cheesecake and yuzu cheesecake (both $6 each), which got me the comment from the lady behind the counter "you must really love cheesecake". If you could sum me up in one line, that one could work just fine. Because yes, I do. XD I was really curious to try the kabocha, especially since I do like pumpkin cakes and find they're not very common (when doing the mini cheesecake challenge in Japan, squash ended up winning as well). I was a little wary of the eggless part and, indeed, the texture of the cheese mass was a little too dense and lacking that Japanese fluffiness I love, though it eventually got to me and I was able to enjoy the rich, delicately spiced flavour of the squash. Unfortunately, it also tasted a little stale, especially along one side?

 

The yuzu cheesecake, on the other hand, was amazing! Fresh and creamy, it literally melted in your mouth and the yuzu flavour perfectly complemented the slight sourness of the cheese. Not too sweet, not too overpowering, this really impressed. Up to this point, I've tried yuzu cheesecake at three spots in Vancouver and Baker and Table takes first place, hands down. It's no wonder that that same lady's farewell remark was "everything is better with cheese" - if it's Japanese cheesecake, you bet! 

Rating: ***1/2

咖啡麵包 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 咖啡麵包 (Coffee Bread)

Address: No. 778, Anping Road, Anping District, Tainan

Website: n/a

Style: Chinese 

Price: $$

Who needs a store name when you have a winning product? And that being the only thing you sell. This tiny shop (usually these one-product vendors have a street stall, so it's surprising this place actually has a storefront) sells coffee bread and nothing but coffee bread. $30 each for 4/$100. Just go up to the counter, say how many you want and you get them nice and hot. Bonus points for the smiling mascot!

I got mine and was initially hit with a smell similar to that of burnt toast; it was a bit concerning, but there was nothing burnt about the bun itself. Maybe a piece of charred dough had made it into the bag? Moving past the smell, I was pleasantly surprised by just how fresh this was. So fresh that the slightest impact made it smush, resulting in not the prettiest bun out there. Unlike your typical bakery, however, you could really enjoy the texture of that super fresh, fluffy dough underneath the thin cookie-like crust. It was fragrant and delicious - and beats a majority of full-scale bakeries.

Rating: ***1/2

Union Square Donuts [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Union Square Donuts

Address: 409 Harvard St, Brookline, MA

Website: http://www.unionsquaredonuts.com

Style: Doughnuts

Price: $$ 

 

I did two doughnut shops when I was in Boston. The first, and the one I actually researched, was Union Square Donuts, which has a couple locations around Boston. This one is located by Kupel's Bakery. It's pretty much your typical gourmet doughnut shop. There are around 7-8 different flavours and they're either ring doughnuts with glaze or have some sort of filling. 

The thing I really liked with Union Square was the fact their doughnuts are fried to a crisp golden brown. Usually, these gourmet places have that Tim Hortons vibe, they're so soft and mushy - or they're cake doughnuts and I don't like cake doughnuts. These were more like fritters or Polish doughnuts and those are the best type. I took a cranberry ring doughnut and the Vietnamese coffee. Interesting flavours, but the glaze was a little thick and pasty on both. You could still taste the fried doughnut, though, so I liked it. This was my pick for best doughnut shop in the area, at least from the two I tried. 

Rating: ***

Pu Jei [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Pu Jei

Address: No. 200, Chenggong Rd, North District, Tainan

Website: http://www.pujeigift.com/ 

Style: Chinese

Price: $$ 

If there's one bakery in Tainan with hype, it's Pu Jei. I had a very hard time wrapping my head around the insanity that surrounded this bakery; I simply didn't see anything unique or remarkable about it. Alright, maybe I can say it's above average in terms of the variety and quality of the baked goods. They also have a wide range of gift sets, but many bakeries do. So what is with the crazed hordes of people, running around and loading their trays to the brim with baked goods? The atmosphere was downright apocalyptic. And right in the middle of the crowd, there was the worker arranging items along the middle aisle and getting angry whenever someone wanted to grab something near her. Check-out was equally erratic, with my purchase tossed to the other end of the counter and my money accepted without even acknowledging I existed. Maybe because I didn't load my tray to the brim with baked goods? Suffice to say, there is literally a handful of bakeries on the Cake Tour that even mention awful service, let alone get penalized for it. I want good food, I don't care about service, but Pu Jei honestly deserves a half-star off. It was *that* off-putting. 

Not really getting the chance to fully examine what they had to offer, I took the first thing that looked good and different from the usual bakery fare. That was the milk bread french toast or something like that ($30). I've had similar items before like this, a slice of bread fried and then rolled with sugar, so I was expecting a nice crunch on the outside, a little bit of that oil penetrating into the dough and a soft inside. A little sweet, a little greasy - it's like a doughnut, but in the form of a slice of bread. This did not really deliver those kinds of results. Despite its golden exterior, the toasting added nothing to it and the texture was too similar to that of a normal slice of bread. This should have been way more rich, though the taste wasn't bad. 

Rating: **

Rosie's Country Cafe and Bakery

Bakery: Rosie's Country Cafe and Bakery

Address: 73 Main St S, Minnedosa, MB 

Website: n/a

Style: Canadian

Price: $-$$

 

Also known as Minnedosa Bakery judging by the sign outside. These businesses really need to step up and decide what they'd like to be called; maybe the country cafe is newer than the bakery? Especially since it was more cafe than full-out bakery. The selection of mostly sweet baked goods was far from shabby, however. Think a couple varieties of doughnuts, squares, cookies - classic, unpretentious Canadian baked goods. 

I have a good eye for doughnuts and one of the sure-fire signs that a doughnut is going to be good is a fresh uniform glaze. I spotted it on these jam busters ($1.25/each) and knew I had to give them a try. And these certainly did not disappoint. I bit into this jelly doughnut and that fresh glaze crackled delicately upon impact. Beyond the glaze, the dough was thin and airy, most of it consisting of that golden brown, fried outer crust and the inside was generously filled with jam. This was almost like a fusion between a classic yeast doughnut and a cream puff - wow. My intuition was on the ball this time around.

Rating: ***1/2

安堤生烘焙 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 安堤生烘焙

Address: No. 46-15, Nanmen Road, West Central District, Tainan

Website: n/a

Style: Chinese

Price: $$ 

Located near the south gate and surrounding park, this small, cavernous bakery has a limited selection of sweet and savoury baked goods that range from the most basic classics found in any budget bakery to a more rustic selection of bread and French-inspired pastries located on the central table. Despite all the signs outside advertising castella in Japanese, that was one item I did not see. At the time, they seemed to have a strawberries and cream theme going on with breads and pastries of various sizes, most of which looked quite tasty and would have probably been my top pick. However, it being stifling, I'd already made the mistake of getting lured into buying a creamy pastry and seeing it totally melt, so I wasn't willing to see the same thing happen again. 

Instead, I went with the tried-and-true pineapple bun ($30). Always a safe bet on a hot, humid day. I really like the extra crusty pineapple buns with that great crunch on the outside and this one, with its chunky, almost cookie-like shell looked really promising. In that sense, I was a little disappointed; it simply did not have the texture I was anticipating. Not only was the shell not crunchy enough, the bun underneath was too doughy. Not bad, but judging by the more artisan look of a lot of their products, I was hoping for better. 

Rating: **1/2