The Voyageur's Lodge and Cookhouse

 

 

 

 

Bakery: The Voyageur's Lodge and Cookhouse

Address: ON-17, Batchawana Bay ON 

Website: http://www.voyageurslodge.com/

Style: Apple fritters, Canadian 

Price: $$$$ 

I genuinely hope that this will be the last bakery/Cake Tour stop on my little site to get docked points for horrendous service and a thoroughly unpleasant experience. I went for so many years without resorting to that (and I have always said I don't care about service - I'm there for the baked goods, not the smiles), but at the very least, it's the last one on my rather lengthy list of bakery reviews that still need to be finished off and posted. That's a relief.

Driving along Hwy 17 on the brutal stretch between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay, there was a giant sign advertising apple fritters. Hot and fresh apple fritters... okay, I don't remember exactly what the sign said, but it did its trick. Amid the souvenir store junk, there is indeed an apple fritter stand that pumps out hot apple fritters. Seeing as they've got a retail monopoly, I guess they can charge as much as they want for them, though. $3.50 for one is still too much and it feels like a tourist trap. The hot part did get to me and they were nicely glazed too with a great slightly crunchy outside. Quite a dark brown though, almost like they were fried too long, but they don't taste like it. Actually, they had almost the taste and texture of a dark bread, like a pumpernickel; they were quite doughy. This might also be owing to the fact that there were hardly any apples in it. In the end, I'd describe it a big bread ball, but still it was pretty good (the Soo has better ones though...). Fritters recommended (***), the rest not so much. 

Rating: **

Pulio Classic [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Pulio Classic Bakery Coffee (布莉歐經典烘培咖啡) 

Address: No. 103, Taizhong Road, East District, Taichung

Website: facebook

Style: Chinese

Price: $$ 

The next stop on my trip was the city of Taichung. I stayed on the southern side of the train station and Pulio was pretty much my closest bakery. And that's a good thing. This rather chic bakery seemed to be a popular one - and a fully stocked one. The amount of baked goods, both sweet and savoury, along with cakes and more elaborate pastries was downright astounding; whether it was the selection or simply the amount of seasonal strawberry-themed items, it reminded me a lot of the bakeries I visited on my Japanese Cake Tour. 

I just couldn't resist all those strawberries and went with what I call the strawberry and custard shortcake cream puff ($45). I'm sure the original label was more concise than that, but you get the idea. ;) This actually turned into a bit of a mess, but given it was something totally unique it was worth it. The filling consisted of fresh sliced strawberries with plenty of custard that just oozed out in every direction. The dough was what I called a shortcake; at first glance, it looked more like a choux pastry, but it was more dense and sponge cake-like than it first appeared. Good, but a bit over-the-top. Still, it was a little different than your average Taiwanese bakery and that was much appreciated at this point. 

Rating: ***

Grounds for Coffee

Bakery: Grounds for Coffee

Address: 2565 Alma St, Vancouver BC

Website: http://www.groundsforcoffee.ca/

Style: Cinnamon buns, Canadian

Price: $$$ 

Seeing as no one reads this stuff anyways, I have the need to go on a rant, brought to you by Grounds for Coffee. Grounds for Coffee, Grounds for Complaint. I just don't understand these businesses that have created a 10-page manifesto outlining all the absurd hoops you as a customer have to jump through to buy something from them. Stand there, pay how we want you to pay - in the words of the song "do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign". Last time I checked that's not customer service. Honestly, what makes you think you're so special that you can make so many demands of your customers and still be confident you'll stay in business? If it were up to me, places like this simply wouldn't exist, but the Mimis of the world are an insignificant, voiceless minority and thus it doesn't matter. All I can do is continue to support all the excellent hard-working businesses out there who are happy to have me and you as a customer. So there! 

There seems to be some sort of rivalry going on between two Vancouver coffee chains: Trees has its famous cheesecake and Grounds for Coffee has its cinnamon buns. Ooey gooey cinnamon buns, or whatever their signs say - those same signs that have been enticing me for many a year. Inside, the accolades continue with a heck of a lot of nos, but it's great to see these are made with wholesome ingredients (and it was rather funny to see "no raisins" - is that really an allergen or are there more raisin haters than just me?). And they are good. Fresh and decadent, they're as ooey and gooey as they claim with plenty of cinnamon filling and a nice rich icing on top. Pitting cheesecake vs. cinnamon bun, it's tough, but I might go with the cheesecake. Good cinnamon bun, annoying experience.

Rating: **1/2

Old Papa Black Tea [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Old Papa Black Tea (明潭茶老爸)

Address: No. 50, Zhongxing Road, Yuchi Township, Nantou County

Website: facebook

Style: Cream puffs

Price: $$

 

If there's anything I've learned with all my Taiwan bakery stops is that if it's not popping up online, it probably doesn't exist anymore. This tea stand located right in front of OTOP souvenir store selling various flavours of cream puffs along with their black tea baumkuchen had the above name printed on their menus and signage, but an online search simply redirects me to the restaurant inside the said store - and how could there be no sign of something as photogenic as cream puffs? Their facebook advertises the baumkuchen, which means there is a connection between the sweets outside and noodles/rice inside. Nevertheless, I am presuming the cream puffs are gone?? 

At first I was only lured in by this cream puff stand because I wanted more than one stop in the Sun Moon Lake area, but I have to say I really was intrigued by the various flavours, many tea-based - and I hadn't had any cream puffs yet. ^^ I took the signature black tea ($25) and was kind of pressured into trying the brown sugar milk tea with tapioca pearls/boba ($35). These really were more cream wafers than puffs. The puffs themselves were so thin and brittle that the worker completely crushed one simply by picking it up (why I should get and pay for that is a bit unfair x_x), but I still liked that super crunchy texture teamed up with the custard-like cream. The black tea was very good, but I didn't like the boba brown sugar milk tea one. Too many things going on, too sweet and I actually don't like tapioca balls and certainly didn't like them here; they were too overbearing on so delicate a pastry (which is probably why it cracked...).

Rating: ***

Hearthstone Artisan Bakery

Bakery: Hearthstone Artisan Bakery 

Address: 50 Tenth St #115a, Nanaimo BC 

Website: http://hearthstonebakery.ca/

Style: Canadian
Price: $$ 

Located south of Nanaimo proper, this bakery was on my list the last time I visited these parts, so it's always nice to go back and cross the bakeries off I missed the first time around. If I recall correctly, they were also featured on Nanaimo Tourism's Nanaimo Bar Trail, which was how they got onto my list in the first place. I mean, with five or so different Nanaimo bar flavours, they better be! 

And what better way to do any Nanaimo bakery review? ;) The classic Nanaimo bar ($3.95) was in my opinion a bit expensive, but I especially liked the proportion of bottom to cream layer. Usually Nanaimo bars just don't have enough substance on the bottom and this one was nice and chunky at that. The cream filling had a thick, almost cheesecake-like consistency, but - as I often find - the chocolate on top was a little too overwhelming for me. Still, a great contender for a Nanaimo bar challenge. 

Rating: ***

Ru Yi Syuan Baker's House [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Ru Yi Syuan Baker's House (如意軒麵包店)

Address: No. 131, Zhongshan Road, Yuchi Township, Nantou County

Website: https://bakery-4996.business.site

Style: Chinese

Price: $$ 

 

This bakery (the only one for that matter) in the heart of Shuishe's business sector definitely gets bonus points for its absolutely adorable look. Bakeries rarely go to the effort of standing out from the rest in terms of appearance, but come on, the little mushroom house connected to the rest of the bakery along with the gnome decorations? Ingenious! Nevertheless, this small bakery has a fairly standard selection of sweet and savoury bread with some gift boxes; their specialty appears to be (at least it's what they sell out of the mushroom house) sweet potato pancakes and red bean pastries. 

As I was examining what they had, the worker walked up and said that if I wanted anything on the tray by the cash she would bag it herself as they were still hot and could break apart. Still hot? You know what I'm taking! So I took the sweet bun ($25) with no label (coffee bread? in my notes I called it a Hokkaido bun - was there a special reason for that?), hot off the tray. Sure enough, it was still very warm and... it also fell apart a little during transport. Excellent hard crust with a soft and flavourful bun underneath; for such a simple bun it was so good. It rarely happens, but I was even thinking of popping in the next day and seeing if they had more freshly baked goodies for me to try! 

Rating: ***1/2