La Sem Patisserie & Ristorante

Bakery: La Sem Patisserie & Ristorante
Address: 1275 Eglinton Ave. E, Mississauga, ON
Website: n/a
Style: Italian, European
Price: $-$$

Hmph, I haven't been here for awhile. So sorry... not that any missed me, but I still regret not posting some new places to visit. I'm falling weeks and weeks behind. -_-;;

Anyways, this is from a while back. I found out about this place through an advertisement in the free Polish newspaper. For the longest time, I thought this place was Italian (it's not really as if I'd seen it before, since it's really far from where I live, but I somehow knew about it... I guess my memory for bakeries is amazing XD), but because of the advertisement, I thought it actually be Polish, just with a deceiving name. Upon driving up to it (and going slightly out of the way to get to this place), it did indeed end up being Italian after all. Somewhat unnerved by this (I've been to a few Italian places in the area and the bakeries have failed to deliver), I still took a risk and went in.. and ended up being pleasantly surprised. It's certainly not the best I've had, but probably the best strictly Italian pasticceria I've been to here. (and I just squealed and couldn't resist when I read inside that La Sem was founded by a fellow Mimi ^_________^;;;)

Their variety isn't overwhelming: one glass... thingie is devoted to large cakes (Black Forest, chocolate cakes) that didn't look exciting and the other to the individual desserts: close to a dozen varieties of cream-filled pastries like canoli, rum cakes and choux puffs, slices of cake (cheesecake, apple strudel), rather pricey (in comparison to everything else) Tiramisu. We took three small pastries (or, mignons -- ~$1.20/each) to get a sample of everything and ended up with a chocolate canoli, a cream-filled rum cake and some sort of choux creation. I had one and the brothers had the other two. None of them were really 'wow'; as a whole, they were pretty good, but the decision was unanimous: it was the Zeppola that beat out the rest. ;)

What am I talking about? Well, I seemed to have come at a good time, since they were also advertising "Zeppole" ($2.65), something which is apparently seasonal... although it only took me a few days to discover this in the Longo's flyer. XDD After four years of being in Italian studies, I really had no idea about these things. O_o So, I'm a little happy that I actually decided to follow the sign and get myself (well, I split in three) one. Zeppole are also known as St. Joseph's cakes, because they're consumed on March 19, the feast day of St. Joseph. They're rings of choux pastry which are filled with pastry cream and a jam made from amarena cherries. The top is also topped with more of the cream and a cherry on each peak. The mild cream with the light, fluffy dough teamed up with the tartness of the cherries -- mmmm... it was delicious! All of us actually regretted that we didn't just get one whole Zeppola to ourselves. ;D And, it also happened to be the cheapest I've seen. I think I've already missed the season this year (unless some stores will be nice enough to keep them around for a little bit longer, please?), but next March 19, I think I won't be able to resist returning to La Sem for more of these delectable rings. In the meantime, maybe, when I'm in the district, I'll try their Tiramisu. I think that's the only thing I'd like to try from them; the rest wasn't so exciting, but still, an interesting trip that made me somewhat rethink my previous disappointment in Italian bakeries and pastry shops (at least here in the W. GTA.. maybe someone can offer me some places elsewhere? ;D)

Rating: **1/2

Brazil Bakery [Updated] [RIP]

Bakery: Brazil Bakery 

Address: 2905 Eglinton Ave., Mississauga ON (2 additional locations) 

Website: http://www.brazilbakery.ca 

Style: Portuguese 

Price: $ 

 

Brazil Bakery is one of the cheapest (Portuguese) bakeries I've encountered, so this is more of a down-to-home option. Sadly, it's not necessarily the best either. The stuff behind the glass (various cake squares and apple cakes) is pretty varied in freshness, but the one or two times I attempted it, it had seen better days. The thing to stick to is definitely their various sweet buns, usually topped with coconut, powdered sugar and filled with custard. No one's ever tried their tarts, so I don't know how those are, but seriously, this here *points* is what you go for ($1.60). I have no idea what these things are called, but it's hands-down the best thing here. Every time I go, I get this.

 

Went the other day and picked something new: an apple square ($1.60) made of flaky, filo dough with apples in the middle and coated with coconut on the edge. It looked promising, but it didn't seem to live up to my expectations. The inside with the apples was really good, but seeing as this only accounted for half of the thing, you were pretty much stuck eating very dry and not very fresh dough for the remainder of the time, so my effort to update Brazil Bakery with some new material sort of flopped. :( So I'll just leave it at: good prices, but not necessarily the best goods. ;) 

 

Rating: **1/2

Patisserie D'Or

Bakery: Patisserie d'Or
Address: 301 Robinson St, Oakville, ON
Website: http://www.patisseriedor.com/
Style: French, European
Price: $$$

This is the second bakery on my brother's trip to Oakville. This time, I actually did get the chance to eat this one. It was, in fact, my treat from the day's hunt, and I was pretty impressed with what I got. It's a little bakery/cafe likewise in downtown Oakville, but tucked away more on the side streets, but this place was way more "wow" than the previous visit at Black Forest Pastry Shop. And when I say way more, I mean waaaaay more. This place is a French patisserie and chocolaterie, and no doubt has the usual lunchtime fare that most places have.

My brother picked out for me an apple tart ($5.25). When he said it (and continuously complained at the price, which is a little high, but standard for French pastries... it's inevitable), I wasn't too excited in it. It certainly didn't sound very French, but ha ha that all changed when I took a look at its... prettiness. Now, isn't it fancy with it's so thinly carved layers of glazed apples and the fan of chocolate and little piece right in the middle. To be fair, I gave away the chocolate to the buyer of this little piece of art and he was really impressed, especially with the chocolate in the middle, which was coating a chocolate wafer. Me, I really enjoyed the tart on its own; it certainly wasn't the best I've tasted, but it was really tasty, although the apple sauce filling was a little... not the greatest texture to have in a tart. I think more of a pie filling with big chunks of apple would have worked better here. The sauce was a tad too mushy, especially in contrast with the slices on top. ((wow, you really didn't think you could get something so technical from me, did you? ;DDDD)

I'll definitely try to return in the future, although I think I'd really like to try their apricot and almond tart next time. Sounds yummy and we can see how it compares to the same thing at Paris' Dalloyau (a future post, I promise you!! ^^). Still, I was pretty impressed to find such a place relatively close to where I live... Mississauga definitely won't have anything of this level here. -________-;;

Rating: ***

Black Forest Pastry Shop

Bakery: Black Forest Pastry Shop
Address: 184 Lakeshore East, Oakville, ON
Website: www.blackforestpastryshop.ca
Style: North American, "European"??
Price: $$

My brother went bakery hunting in Oakville a couple of weeks ago on my behalf while going to look at some stuff of his own. I gave him the address of two promising places in "downtown" Oakville, and he happened to go to both. The second and better of the two will be coming up later. Nevertheless, wow, both of us still keep laughing at this place -- the complete untruthfulness of the name is just hilarious. #1: When I heard the word "Black Forest", I got pretty excited, since I thought that it probably wouldn't be German-owned, but would have... German/Germanic baked goods, which are always delicious... and pfff, far from it! #2: People seem a little liberal with the term "pastry shop", which means, in essence, a place selling pastries. A pastry, for the record, does NOT include brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and cupcakes. Just saying...

Ahem~ as I was saying, this was a somewhat deceiving/disappointing bakery in downtown Oakville, which sells your North American 'dessert' cookbook standards such as brownies, cookies and those ubiquitous red velvet cupcakes which were nowhere in sight when he went there. Actually, as my brother so nicely put it: this was the first bakery that he'd gone where he literally had no idea what to pick, not from too much selection, but lack of it. He "couldn't stand" the idea of buying something that he himself was capable of baking himself and so he settled on the "best thing there", the purely Canadian butter tarts ($2.25/each), one with pecan (or was it almond) and the other with raisins. It was the first time trying something like this (I didn't taste either of these, so I'm basing it entirely on his opinion), so he was intrigued and, in the end, admitted they were pretty good, but he'd rather eat three doughnuts for the same price. His words, not mine. -___-

Personally, I have to say I was a tad disappointed in this place as well, seeing as I wouldn't exactly say anything on their online menu or from my brother's descriptions appealed to me. This is even more true when you consider your expectations with a name like "Black Forest Pastry Shop" and come back home with brownies. Not my thing.

Rating: **

Hillside Cafe [RIP]

Bakery: Hillside Cafe
Address: 594 Mount Pleasant Rd, Toronto, ON
Website: N/A
Style: Estonian, Finnish
Price: $$-$$$

[ Closed? CLOSED! The only Estonian  bakery, probably in Canada, and the only source for Finnish-style baked goods in Toronto, is no more. It's a sad, sad day...]

Anyways~~ in the spur of the moment, I decided to go to the Yonge/Eglinton area this past Saturday for some bakery hunting. Mostly, this was because the subway was closed southwards, so well, I had to restrict myself. The real point was to return to Hillside Cafe, because right now (with Viking Deli burning down and recently relocating to... Newmarket... Newmarket! How am I going to get there? ;__;) it's the only place you can get Finnish/Estonian baked goods in the GTA. Unless someone knows a secret location unknown to me... then, speak up NOW! XDDD

Ahem, back to the post. ^^ Hillside Cafe (Bakeshop and Delicatessen) is touted as a Finnish/Estonian bakery, although this is mainly by a few people online and nowhere else. Actually, I'm a little surprised that they don't advertise it a little more, since if I didn't know what I was looking for, I would easily pass by this small place advertising sandwiches (the open-faced, Scandinavian variety), bread and muffins.

Upon entering, you're greeted with the (heartbreaking ;D) sight of several shelves of Finnish goods at moderate prices: Fazer chocolates, Finnish randomness like rock sugar, gum, and crisp toast. Then, there's the racks of bread and baked goods all behind the counter with no names or prices, so it's a little hard to see what they have to offer. Some more standard offerings include muffins and danishes, but you definitely come here (in my opinion) for the hard-to-find Finnish and Estonian goodies: rye breads, cinnamon buns, other hard to distinguish (the rack isn't in the best position in figuring out what's on it) baked goods, and of course... pulla! The goodies are reasonable priced at around $1.90/each, but quite frankly, the breads are a little pricey...

This time, I bought a *gasps, shrieks, squeals* poppy seed bun ($1.90 + tax), which I've never seen before at any Scandinavian places. I got way too excited upon having the opportunity to put another one, and from a different area, onto my uh, repertoire. XDDD It was definitely different, with it not having any poppy seed mass at all, but just sprinkled on top and inside the dough in more of a poppy seed bagel way. The whole thing was then brushed with glaze. The dough itself was quite similar to the cinnamon buns/pulla, except there's no typically Finnish cardamom in it; I still liked it. It reminded me a little of this sweet, yeast bread my grandma used to make. ;P It wasn't sugary sweet, and it was great to just tear apart and stuff the fluffy, poppy seed-infused dough into your mouth. Definitely taking it again... when I'm there again (ha ha the last time was last? summer, maybe even before that O.o).

Of course, the main attraction was the pulla ($7.75), which was very expensive for what it is (ie. a loaf of bread). By the way, 'pulla' is a Finnish sweet bread baked with cardamom and raisins, braided, and then coated in egg glaze, almonds and rock sugar; there's another shot of a slice... which I put a little butter on and uh, eat it right up ^^. The one from Hillside, besides being expensive, was my least favourite from the two I've tried in Toronto. The one we bought from Viking was much fluffier, but now that that's not an option, I eagerly gobbled up this one, although I must admit that, despite my complete eagerness, I was a tad bit disappointed that on top of the high price, the bread was pretty stale and obviously not baked that day. :( For the price, I would at least expect fresh bread. I don't know; maybe they don't sell a lot on the weekends, so they should bake less -or- I should get the word out about this place, so they sell their pulla faster and can then bake it more often. This place is too good and too unique for me to pass it up. ^^;;

Rating: ***

Nadège

Bakery: Nadège
Address: 780 Queen St. W, Toronto ON
Website: http://www.nadege-patisserie.com/
Style: French
Price: $$$

We went yesterday along West Queen West (which we decided to go to on one of the coldest Saturdays and consequently ended up totally *freezing* x___x) to go bakery hunting! We'd gone here two or three times before in the past, I was 100% positive there was a place selling macarons here. And indeed there was, among a whole bunch of delicious looking treats. I was a happy, happy fangirl, although a little in a panic because I had no idea what to pick.

I mean, really, when you want everything, how can you only pick (and be able to afford ^^) just one thing? The first thing that caught my attention was the rows of macarons ($2.10/each or $23 for a dozen), which look so yummy, don't they?? Then, I thought it would be better to go all out and try something new, like several varieties of cakes and tarts. Some that I still remember were a caramel tart, chocolate tart, lemon meringue tart (I think all three were $4.75) For the same price, they also had the alluring fruit crumble tart which I *almost* took. Yes, it was such a hard decision!!!!! In addition to the pastries, they also have a variety of French-style baked goods like Pain au Chocolat and various danishes. And this looked so good too... *sighs* I guess I can say that I would be ecstatic if I won a gift certificate to this place -- that's the only way I could go crazy here. I'm too poor to pay for it myself. :(

I was really leaning towards the "Miss Chilli" ($8.50 // $30.00 for a large-size) cake, because honestly, that might as well be my nickname ('there's no such thing as too spicy' is my motto, after all ;D)... it was a big pink round thing that I assume is... spicy?!? Then I noticed the mini macaron-laden "Marie Antoinette" ($8.50)...

But seeing as this is very expensive for me (I'd like to say for everyone, but the place was overflowing with people...), especially for an individual cake and not knowing whether it would be good and worth the price, I settled on the interesting "Pink Grapefuit and Earl Grey Tart". ($5.50). Being a fan of grapefruits and Earl Grey Tea, I couldn't go wrong. And it was so pretty too... like a little pink rose. ^.^ The taste was really... strange. That was the word that first came to mind when I took my first bite. You really wouldn't think it would match, but the tartness of the grapefruit matches  the tea-flavoured, dough-like filling which was a little more subtle-tasting. The tart shell was delicious as well with the perfect texture and taste. Top that off with a piece of candied orange peel. The only thing was that this was a little hard to eat with the overlapping slices of grapefruit, I went down with my fork and instead of taking off a piece, I got two full slices at one time and then, in the end, I had just the tea-filling and shell left.I also thought the grapefruit would have been better sweetened/more sweetened with some sugar as it was a tad too sour. Still, it was original, pretty and tasty.

More importantly, it's upped my conviction in getting my butt back to Nadège, investing a little bit of money and buying myself either the Miss Chilli or the Marie Antoinette... or both. ;D All I know is that I'm definitely returning; it's a little expensive, but the quality and craftsmanship of what you get makes it a worthwhile purchase.

Rating: ***