Bailey's in the Village

Bakery: Bailey's in the Village

Address: 670 Primrose St, Qualicum Beach BC

Website: https://baileys-in-the-village.business.site/

Style: Canadian

Price: $$ 

 

One of the few places to stop for lunch in Qualicum Beach without going to a full-on restaurant turned into a small cafe that not only has a little bit of everything, but a decent selection of homemade baked goods as well. That decent selection includes what I call standard cafe fare: muffins, butter tarts, etc.

Of all they had, their cinnamon bun definitely looked the best. It was a classic "tray" bun with fresh, fluffy dough filled with an ooey gooey - but not too sticky - cinnamon filling. On top, there was the perfect amount of rich icing. Again, not overly decadent and very good. 

Rating: ***

百年檜木甜甜圈 [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: 百年檜木甜甜圈 (100 year-old cypress doughnuts) 

Address: No. 4 Fenqihu, Zhuqi Township, Chiayi County

Website: facebook 

Style: Doughnuts

Price: $ 

 

Ha ha am I going on a doughnut review spree? It started out unintentionally, but now I'm curious how far I can go by digging through my list of bakeries I still need to write posts for.  The small village of Fenqihu is currently the final stop of the Alishan forest railway, but it's known for something else besides trains, forests and tea. Baked doughnuts. Without a doubt, there's some sort of baked doughnut culture going on in town and I was there to check it out. 

With one stall located directly across the street from the small park dedicated to the 100 year old cypress and another around the corner on a side street (I actually thought they were two different stalls at first, but they not only have the same name, but the same family can be found running both), the specialty here is baked doughnuts. It may not sound exciting, but they're not what you think. 

 

Layered croissant-like dough is kneaded and arranged in doughnut-shaped moulds and baked in a machine that's similar to a waffle iron. The result is incredibly flaky, golden brown doughnuts that are lightly tossed in syrup right when taken out from the mould. Chances are you'll get a hot one, because they're constantly churning them out and because you're going to be waiting for it. A long time.

That's why I had to get two ($20 each; get one free if you buy a box worth) - waiting 20+ minutes for one is just not worth it. And once you start, you can't stop. They're hot, they're crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside with that almost invisible glaze... they're amazing! So why not a perfect 4-star rating? Because they were too variable. Some were sweeter than others, some were a little too toasted. I guess it's hard to control when this is a non-stop production. 

Rating: ***1/2

Donut King

Bakery: Pho Viet & Donut King

Address: 1200 Summit Dr #1, Kamloops, BC

Website:  https://donutkingphoviet.wixsite.com

Style: Doughnuts

Price: $-$$ 

 

Now, I'm encountered some pretty zany bakery combinations during my years of touring. I think the dollar store/bakery combination may have taken the prize for most unique combination of businesses. Classic doughnut diner teamed up with Vietnamese restaurant? It's definitely a contender. My hunch is that the Vietnamese restaurant kind of "took over" the existing coffee and doughnuts place. And my hunch is also that the Vietnamese food is so much better than the doughnuts.... 

At the very least, that could definitely be said of the apple fritter ($2). More often than not, you can tell a baked good by how it looks like and this apple fritter was, to be honest, a pretty sad excuse. No glaze or adornment, it was a big ball of dough with literally one piece of apple and an overwhelming taste of raw cinnamon, as though it had been coated in it after frying?? This was not a happy fritter. And I wasn't all that happy eating it. :(

Rating: *1/2

Blackbird Doughnuts [International Correspondent]

Bakery: Blackbird Doughnuts

Address: 11 Holyoke St, Cambridge, MA

Website: http://blackbirddoughnuts.com/

Style: Doughnuts

Price: $$-$$$ 

Like the other doughnut shop I went to, Union Square, this is a local franchise with a few locations around the Boston area. I went to the one at Harvard. The first thing I noticed about Blackbird is that they spell doughnuts right! You sometimes see it with Canadian doughnut shops, but never in the US. I was surprised.

They have the typical "hipster doughnut" concept of ten or so seasonal/rotating flavours at once and if they sell out that day, it's gone. Which is kind of annoying and I don't understand why you can't make doughnuts fresh throughout the day. Whatever. I don't really remember the exact flavour I took. I'm pretty sure it was passion fruit ($3). It was a weird fruit and it's so hard to find gourmet fruit flavours. There were fruit chunks on it, but they all started falling off and the wax paper thing stuck to the glaze. It was still good, but it turned into a bit of a disaster. I don't know which doughnut shop was better. The topping was superior here, though. It was fresh and the dough was good, but not exceptional. I'd return to this one.

Rating: ***

Full Moon Croissant [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Full Moon Croissant (滿月金牛角)

Address: No. 528, Zhongshan Road, West District, Chiayi

Website: n/a

Style: Chinese

Price: $$-$$$

 

What is with me not being able to find any of the bakeries I visited in Chiayi!? This is the second one on the list and, (as I discovered) like many train station bakeries, this one does not seem to exist anywhere. Is it still here? I hope so. x_x Conveniently located inside Chiayi train station, this small bakery stall *must* have a main location elsewhere. I just can't find it. Their specialty - judging purely from the name and not actually from their assortment in-store which was more hodgepodge - seems to be "golden horns", a sort of Taiwanese take on the croissant and usually available in at least a couple flavours. At least, they're crescent-shaped buns, doughy and rather uneventful (in my opinion). They also had several varieties of sweet and savoury buns, most of which with English labels. Expect to pay more than bakeries in town.

Considered by me to be the most "bang for your buck" option, I picked out the walnut sugar bread ($50). It was also fairly unique with the sweet glaze and chunks of walnut rolled into the dough. Biting into it, I was disappointed that there weren't that many more walnuts inside. Also the glaze didn't help add any flavour to the otherwise bland bun. Good to grab on the go, especially if you're only other option is the convenience store, but underwhelming. 

Rating: **

蓬萊漢堡 [Mimi's World Tour] [RIP]

Bakery: 蓬萊漢堡 (Penglai Hamburger)

Address: No. 365, Zhongshan Road, East District, Chiayi

Website: n/a

Style: Chinese

Price: $

 

It's always sad when a bakery closes before I get a chance to review it. This one shut its doors in July after countless years in the business and to public outcry. Nonetheless, I reviewed it when I was in Chiayi and I'm not letting my trip there go to waste! As the name indicates, the highlight at this bakery was actually the burgers. Sold from a table in the doorway, every time I walked past this place during my stay, there was a line of people waiting for those famous hamburgers. But they do have a full-scale bakery inside with a lovely window display of cream-filled cake slices, probably more than the usual bakery. These were definitely my top pick - but I didn't know whether you had to ask the worker for it and well, I didn't want to try asking the worker for one. After I'd already paid, a couple came in after me and just started snatching cake onto their tray themselves... too late. -_-

Maybe I needed to lay off the cream too. Instead, I grabbed a classic castella ($20). Super cheap, but also lacking in any distinct flavour. That fluffy eggy flavour and texture was nowhere to be seen and it resembled more an angel food cake (in that it was airy and didn't taste like anything) than a castella. Far from the best I had. 

Rating: **1/2