Black Rook Bakehouse

Bakery: Black Rook Bakehouse

Address: 2474 E Hastings St, Vancouver BC 

Website: https://www.blackrookbakehouse.com

Style: Canadian

Price: $$$

 

This bakery has more of a cafe vibe than a full-scale bakery. Do they even sell stuff like bread? I was too busy checking out the sweets to notice. Nonetheless, their specialty seems to be their slices of elaborate tiered cakes (the various flavours appear to rotate throughout the week), specifically the sponge cake and frosted type (which isn't really my thing). Besides this, they sell a few pie slices and a couple squares and baked goods/pastries. Not much, so selection is limited. 

I have to admit the cinnamon bun ($4.95) looked really good with its thinner glaze and an almost caramelized cinnamon mass oozing out of it. Just look at that thing.... Maybe because the expectations were so high, but I thought it would be better. Inside, I found it a little on the dry side, especially where the dough was big and fat, thus lacking that much-needed cinnamon flavour. It could have been the airy brioche dough I wasn't a big fan of? I felt like appearances deceived me a little this time around - and that rarely happens. 

Rating: **1/2

HCafe

Bakery: HCafe

Address: 158 Main St Unionville, Unionville ON

Website: https://www.hcafecanada.com/

Style: Japanese

Price: $$$ 

 

I've wanted to check out this Japanese cafe for quite some time now; rather, I was always thinking I'd try the original Yonge St location, but there's no sign of it or any other location online and yet this one seems to stress the "Unionville" part. Their website doesn't even work, so I don't know... is it the same people running it as before? Nevertheless, it was off to Unionville... 

In keeping with the fact that I believe they took over Uncle Tetsu's Unionville location, HCafe's focus is baked cheesecake as well as a few other varieties of Japanese sweets, mostly larger items for taking home, but they do have a few individual items such as muffin-shaped madeleines and daifuku. The real variety comes in their various flavours, however, as they have a few unique versions that you won't find elsewhere. Prices are a bit steep for the size, in my opinion, but I was expecting that going into it.

The highlight, in my opinion, was the sakura no-bake cheesecake ($9 for small). I'm not usually a big fan of floral notes in my baking, but this was so delicate and perfectly complemented the slightly tart, creamy cheese base. Excellent. 

The matcha muffin ($3.50), sometimes labelled as a madeleine depending on where you look, tasted like neither. It didn't have the super rich buttery taste of a madeleine that I love or the texture of a muffin, but despite all its titles, it was very good, with a moist, spongy dough and a delicious matcha taste. Great place to stop and go over-budget. -_- 

Rating: ***1/2

My Cafe & Bakery [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: My Cafe & Bakery (麥仕佳專業烘焙)

Address: No. 226, Wanshou Road, Lukang Township, Changhua County

Website: https://www.mysc.com.tw/

Style: Chinese

Price: $$ 

 

Seeing as this bakery is right around the corner from the one I just did, it popped up on the map without my having to look for it, so I thought I'd simply do them together to save me the trouble of searching for it again. Anyways, I learned only now that this bakery is part of a Changhua-based chain with quite a number of locations in the city itself as well as in Taichung and one off here in Lukang. At least it's a local bakery. The one I visited was a pretty cluttered bakery with all the usual bread and bun varieties, most of which were already plastic-wrapped (which I never really like, because they tend to get soggy and lose that freshly baked crunch). 

A slightly more unique find was the coconut almond cranberry twist ($35). I had this in one other bakery in Taipei and really liked it, so I couldn't resist trying this winning combination again. I liked the nice big chunks of slivered almonds on top and there was a good amount of coconut, but where were the dried cranberries? There were a few in there somewhere.... I also didn't like it how the big knot at the bottom had none of the above and was simply a big ball of plain sweet dough. 

Rating: ***

Xmas Bakeshop [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Xmas Bakeshop (聖誕屋)

Address: No. 3, Minzu Road, Lukang Township, Changhua County

Website: facebook

Style: Chinese

Price: $$ 

 

I've noticed that there are quite a number of Asians who love putting up Christmas decorations  and never taking them down (I still remember my place in Busan with its Christmas tree in late March :D), but going to such lengths as to name your bakery that is a bit excessive. Cute, but excessive. Just like the Christmas tree logo and Christmas lights outside.... it's so cheesy and over the top. But somehow I like it! 

Should I confess that with all this Christmas hype I was actually a little disappointed that they didn't have any Christmas-themed baked goods in April? Instead it's the fairly standard selection of sweet and savoury buns with a special focus on outlandish cakes - perhaps the most in keeping with this over-the-top bakery. 

Instead, I felt suckered into getting the twist doughnut ($30). It's not my fault it looked good with its chewy, almost danish-like dough. Even looking at it, you could see the slight layers in the dough, though at the same time I felt like it was a bit underdone, since it was too soft and didn't have that great deep-fried crust on the outside that makes doughnuts well, doughnuts. Still, it was pretty good.... 

Rating: ***

Black Sheep Pastries

Bakery: Black Sheep Pastries

Address: 140-815 17 Ave SW, Calgary AB 

Website: http://www.black-sheep.ca/

Style: French, Canadian

Price: $$$  

Speaking of kouign amann... they're not the most common pastries, even in French patisseries, so I'm quite impressed that I'm able to do two back-to-back reviews containing these delectable buttery pastries. After all, the instant I tried my first kouign amann, many years ago, I just knew it was one of my favourite French pastries. Black Sheep gets points for not only selling a classic kouign amann, but flavoured versions. I could hardly believe it!

Having made such an ingenious move, please tell me why it had to include banana!? x_x I mean, I still had to give both the original ($3.50) and the banana pecan ($4.00) a try, but I'm not a big fan of bananas, especially in baking, and really didn't find the combination of bananas and buttery pastry pleasant. Bananas and nuts, perhaps. Nuts and butter, oh yeah, but all three together was pushing it. That being said, there wasn't really that much butter; rather, the kouign amann was pretty dry, especially the classic version. Where were the moist buttery layers, the caramelization? We're not even talking about croissants here - this is supposed to be decadence in pastry form... and in this sense it fell a little flat.

Rating: **1/2

Roi Pain [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Roi Pain Maison Artisan (羅娃麵包坊)

Address: No. 21, Siwei Street, West District, Taichung

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

Style: Chinese, European 

Price: $$ 

 

Ah, love that total mishmash of French words there! However, despite the cheesy nature of its name, Roi Pain is indeed the "king", at least among the bakeries I visited here in Taichung. This little bakery conveniently located a few steps away from the original Chun Shui Tang was definitely my favourite and a surprise in terms of amount - and authenticity - of their rustic French and European pastries and bread. Of course, they still had a few of the bakery standards, but I certainly didn't expect to encounter so many flaky pastries! 

It was quite late when I arrived, so much of the shelf space was cleaned out, but one item really stuck out for me: the "butter pastry" (法式奶油酥; $40). Oh yes, I know what this is! That's right, it's kouign amann time! With its layers of flaky, buttery dough and caramelized bottom, there was no mistaking it. Unfortunately, it was the last one and one corner was burnt - and you could taste it too, but after scraping it off, I got exactly what I wanted: a rich, quality pastry made with surprising skill. Absolutely delicious!

Rating: ***1/2