Astra Deli and Catering [RIP]

Bakery (?): Astra Deli and Catering
Address: 2238 Bloor St. W, Toronto ON
Website: http://www.astradeli.com/
Style: Eastern European, Hungarian (?)
Price: $

Ahhh, I do believe commercial bakeries will make this site totally obsolete one of these days. Okay, fortunately, I don't think it will come to that, but really, it's still pretty irritating to want to try something new, to get excited that you're in a place you haven't really staked out yet and then you get something which is available elsewhere. This is what happened at Astra, which excited me solely because it was a deli with a few signs in Hungarian. I'd never reviewed anything Hungarian on my site before and the one place that I did know of beforehand (across from Honest Ed's) closed down awhile ago, so I was waiting to get my hands on something Hungarian again, especially seeing as what I did have (ahem, poppy seed buns ^^) were so good. Maybe someone has a suggestion??

Anyways, I suppose I had some pretty high expectations when going in. The deli itself has many Hungarian products as well as from other European countries; there was some German stuff, some Polish stuff. The workers were... Slovenian? Maybe? Wasn't paying too much attention at the time. Their baked selection is very low, though, with a few sweet buns all at $1.59 and then some other buns, a few varieties of rye bread. That's pretty much it. I was going to leave, but noticed that of those sweet buns, there were -- you guessed it -- poppy seed buns! How could I not resist? ;) Taking it home, however, I realized that I'd had this before and was identical to the Sweet Temptations buns (reviewed at Highland Farms... at least the photo turned out better this time!!)... Still, same thing. Not that I'm complaining: soft, fluffy eggy dough alternated with layers of Polish-style poppy seed mass and a small drizzle of icing on top. It was good... just nothing new. And yes, I realize you could say I had it coming going to a place that's not a bakery, but pffff, don't remind me. :/

Rating: **1/2

Nova Era

Bakery: Nova Era Bakery & Pastry
Address: 460 Egerton St, London ON (9 other locations across Ontario and GTA)
Website: http://www.novaera.ca/
Style: Portuguese
Price: $

I've walked by Nova Era one or two times on Bloor St, but oddly enough it took the brothers' trip to London (Ontario) for me to actually try it and, as with most Portuguese bakeries, it certainly didn't disappoint me (on the contrary... *-*) and it was a great value on top of that. ^^

Fortunately, they brought back quite a bit this time, although I only ate one of the items. Still, let's jump right into this thing: they got four tarts, two standard custard/egg (you know what I mean... don't exactly know what they are though .__.) and two orange tarts ($1.00/each), not pictured. Because there's only one brother at home, I asked him his opinion and "it's really good". Coming from those who can't string together an opinion of more than one word, this is pretty impressive. XD I myself, oddly enough, have never tried them... I really should though. If only for the Cake Tour. ^^;;

The brother's other delicacy was this monster napoleon-style cake ($1.50) with two thin layers of puff pastry and a skyscraper's worth of cream. This thing was MASSIVE and even that doesn't quite nail it. Everyone laughed at him for taking it and, in the end, he did seem to regret it, as it was so huge, he had to chop it in half and just pretty much eat nothing but the cream, which had the taste and texture of marshmallows. Better luck next time, I suppose. :P

The other brother got this, for lack of a better word choice, a danish with a smattering of almonds on top ($1.50) and with, maybe, possibly some custard on the inside. Can't say that for sure, but at the same time, I *do* know that he enjoyed this one and the tart mentioned above. *nods*

And of course, they were kind enough to get me my favourite (I suppose no one knows what this is called, do they? I'm curious), a relatively flat sweet yeast dough topped with a coconut mass and then folded in half and dusted with vanilla sugar. Maaan, I love this thing! And I really loved this one too! At the moment, I can't decide which one was better: Nova Era or Caldense. Both were amazing; I was actually thinking that I wouldn't find anyone that could really come close to outdoing the latter, but hey! it looks like I've been, most pleasantly, surprised. :)

With that in mind, definitely wouldn't mind returning... probably not to London, but any other GTA location will do just fine for me. ^^

Rating: ***

Anna's Bakery and Deli [RIP]

Bakery: Anna's Bakery and Deli
Address: 2394 Bloor St W, Toronto ON
Website: n/a
Style: Polish, Eastern European
Price: $-$$

[Anna's has closed after a great many years in business and has been replaced by Janchenko Bakery; be on the look out for that review ^-^] Anna's is a pretty tiny place and the deli part is even tinier, which means that the majority is devoted to some great Polish baked goods. In fact, disregarding the heavenly display at Hansen's Danish Pastry Shop, Anna's has a pretty amazing front window stocked with buns and pączki and slab cakes. Almost everything with the exception of per weight items are priced, well-priced, with the vast majority at around $1 and other goodies also at pretty good prices ($3 for half a makowiec is impressive; the per kilo stuff is, of course, more). All goodies include tax. I stepped in and realized that was indeed Anna's Bakery, which is also sold in Starsky and which bakes probably the best poppy seed goods available at the supermarket. ((I'll review it eventually in my ever-growing, yet never written Starsky post)) Wow, it never dawned on me until then. Anyways, the place smells good and I could eat nearly anything there. Polish baking is great, though I myself underrate it a lot of the time. :P

Seeing as I started from Jane and Anna's was my first stop, I didn't want too much since I'd then ruin the rest of the trip, so I settled on two items. It was a hard, hard choice. For the guinea pigs I picked out an apple bake/baked apple (my mom kept saying it wrong and now I don't remember what's right -__-) ($2.00) which was an apple sliced into thinner pieces and stuffed with raisins, cinnamon and sugar. Both highly approved.

For myself, he he he, I really could not resist the apple strudel (priced per kilo; my slab -- it was then divided for three people -- was $3.90) which looked so delicious... maybe because it didn't look typically Polish? Ha ha sorry! ;DDD Strudels are a hit and miss sort of thing, I find. I think the reason I was so... allured by it was because it somewhat managed to remind me of Hansen's strudels. Hansen's... *___* This was really good, though my camera isn't a fan of egg-brushed dough. *sighs* The apples with soft and yet slightly crisp, perfect level of sweetness and then with the dough covered with glaze and sugar. Mmmm... I always like to try something new, but I might have to take this again, because I *will* be returning. I loved it! :) Impressed!

Rating: ***

Opera Cafe and Fine Pastry Boutique [RIP]

Bakery: Opera Cafe and Fine Pastry Boutique
Address: 2312 Bloor St. W, Toronto ON
Website: n/a
Style: European, Austrian (?)
Price: $$$

[I haven't been here in awhile, so it was only when the subway was down and we had to be bussed to Keele that I realize Opera is no longer. I wasn't really emotionally attached to the place and not too impressed with the purchase I did make here, but it's always sad to see bakeries come and go. Here's hoping that the empty location will bring in another bakery/cafe.. that makes their own baked goods! because, well, it's sad to see a place like Granowska's turned into a fruit market turned shoddy pots and pans distributor. :/] 

Toronto has these parts where there's a massive concentration of bakeries, so much so that you realize you can't go once and try everything, especially on a budget. ;D One of these sorts of areas is without a doubt Bloor-Runnymede (also known as Bloor West Village) where, between Jane and Runnymede, you literally have an endless assortment of bakeries of any kind, from European goodies, more high end stuff, and ones with your North American staples (cookies, brownies and the like). One such example is Opera, the bakery with the name that's quite a mouthful. Seeing as it's been a while (one year, maybe two?) since I was last here, this place was new for me and the second I saw, I *had* to step in. *-* It only took me upon entering that this used to be the Sweet Gallery which is now nonexistent. :(

Still, I have to admit that this place looks amazing and you get the old-world patisserie feeling from both the outside and the interior, although they did little else except spiffy up the old Sweet Gallery decor. However, with a name as totally appealing as "Opera fine pastry boutique", I already got these lovely ideas of Austrian coffee shops with yummy cakes and viennoiseries and, upon looking at the glass cases, went away a tad disappointed in that instead of being greeted with Austrian delicacies, I found stuff that are a staple in far less chic places: red velvet cake (two varieties), Bailey's cheesecake, or tiny slivers of pound cake, in particular, failed to wow me or live up to the "boutique". They had a few pastries besides some mousses (which I'll never really consider pastries... feel free to disagree), although not that many and at a pretty steep price. I found it especially curious how they happened to have napoleons and mille-feuilles, which confused me somewhat (Napoleon = English and some other languages; Mille-feuille = French). Nonetheless, still being relatively at the beginning of the journey (and having already bought a bit from Anna's a few doors down ^^;;;), I passed on the pastries and settled on the baked goods, which for me at least, looked much more exciting and appetizing. And all are at around $2. :)

Anyways, I got super excited at the poppy seed bun (!!) and for the sake of the poppy seed tag I've set up, it was tempting me and tempting me... until I took a look at the glazed plaited dough and noticed that I couldn't see any poppy seeds in/on it. O.o Where were they? Were they there at all? Sensing disappointment (it was too small to have some sort of mass rolled into it, I presume) I settled on the very tasty looking plum danish ($2.25). If you might have read my previous posts, you might already know that I'm not on the hunt for poppy seed, it's plum cake. I looooove plums. A plum danish... thrilled me (in a way only I can understand, no doubt XDD) and so, I found myself a bit... disappointed with it in the end. Plums are in season and pretty cheap now, so I failed to understand why they were so skimpy on the fruit. Not only was there not enough plums in the first place, but they were literally plum shavings, not slices. The only thing that was generous was the glaze and as the plums didn't cover the entire gap in the middle, there were plenty of mouthfuls of just glaze and dough, which gave the thing a bit of a gloopy texture... I can't describe it very well, like always. Kind of like you're eating orange marmalade and bread... except it shouldn't be tasting like that. In this sense, I wasn't wowed by Opera. As a cafe, it's pretty good (and the people pouring into it left right and centre seem to agree), but the whole "fine pastry boutique" was a taaaaaad over-the-top, funny even.

Verdict: Opera is alright, but I get the feeling it's trying a little too hard to be fine and fancy (the waitresses serving the tea room crowd wearing oversized chef garb is the first thing I think of as an example XD). Baked good-wise, there isn't anything overly remarkable here and, if in the neighbourhood, there are other places I'd rather go and stock up on equally delicious goodies for a fraction of the cost. ^^;;

Rating: **1/2

Eileen's Centerview Bakery

Bakery: Eileen's Centerview Bakery
Address: 465 Center Road, West Seneca, NY
Website: http://eileensbakery.com/
Style: North American, German
Price: $-$$

The male member's of my household go to Buffalo semi-regularly and since discovering Eileen's, one brother has been sure to include it on his trip. Actually, he promised to write the review himself, but I know that'll never happen and seeing as my photo folder for the Cake Tour is running on... empty, I thought I might as well do the honour myself. The first time the brother found it, he came running into the house raving about it, that it was one of the few bakeries where he didn't know what to take, simply because there was so much to choose from. Ironically, despite all the choice, he came back with everything looking pretty much the same. :/

Eileen's style seems to be a mix, like many businesses in the Buffalo area, of a bit of German recipes and North American stuff like cookies, doughnuts and whatnot. The small baked goods, at around $1 each are the best deal, though they weren't varied enough for me. The brother bought on this first trip: doughnut sticks (I have no idea what they're supposed to be called), sticky buns, elephant ears (the spiral bun) and fastnachts. The former two were the least interesting, though the brother loved the sticky buns, ooey gooey buns with nuts and sugar, so much he bought and ate another on his return trip. The fastnacht, a very thin piece of dough deep fried and then coated in sugar and cinnamon, were interesting, but ha ha mostly for the name. Reminiscent of Portuguese doughnuts or a brittle version of Mexican churros, I personally would have liked them more if they weren't so hard, but I guess that's the recipe, not the baker. :P By far, the best thing was the elephant ears, which were thin, though fluffier dough swirled with cinnamon and nuts and coated in sugar. It doesn't sound too complex, but the texture, the sweetness and flavour was just right and that was... pretty tasty. ^^

Being yelled at for not getting something different, the brother came back with a huge cherry crumble cake ($6.49) which was, to be quite honest, an amazing idea, but with the execution being off. I loove fruit crumble cakes, which are a staple in quite a few European countries and the more crumble you have the better you are. ((my mom just baked buttery lingonberry crumble cake... omg! amazing!! *-*)) The premise was the same here: yeast dough on the bottom, fruit and then crumble. What ruined this was the filling: pre-fab cherry pie filling, which was more red gloop than actual fruit. The dough and crumble were much too sweet as well, but maaaan, fresh fruit would have made all the difference here! There doesn't need to be so much in it, if costs are a problem ($6.49, btw, isn't sooo cheap for pie filling), but pie filling was a huge no-no in terms of presentation, texture, and taste. Huge disappointment.

The brother will probably be returning for more goodies, but I personally think that he can either count me out or try and convince me with some other goodies. The first batch was alright, though nothing spectacular. The second attempt had the potential, but, in the end, didn't make the grade.

Rating: **

EuroMax

Bakery: EuroMax Foods
Address: 2550 Hurontario St, Mississauga ON (two other locations)
Website: http://www.euromaxfoods.com/
Style: Polish, "European"
Price: $$-$$$

I was sharing my confusion in regards to Euromax in my Karpaty post several months ago and I still don't get it. Are they the same? Are they different? Disregarding the name change (partial name change -- the sign has both names on it still ????), I see nothing else to differentiate the two. The cashiers even wear, albeit faded (my mom was laughing at this while there), Karpaty T-shirts. More confusing is that everything there is the same as in my previous post, although perhaps fresher and of a wider selection. On top of this, Euromax decided to add onto their cake and baked good selections, items looking *very* Portuguese and *frowns* unneeded muffins and brownies. What's that doing there? Honestly, there are more than enough stores where you can buy muffins, I don't expect (nor do I want) to buy muffins from a Polish deli. Come on, guys! Fill it up with some gooood stuff! ;)

Of course, the first thing I ran to was the poppy seed bun ($1.79) which is the same as Karpaty up on Bristol (did a review and photo for that already), but since it also happens to be one of my Polish-style faves, I couldn't resist. I feared that these would only be available at Karpaty, seeing as this place is all new and all. -_- I guess not. Various other danishes and poppy seed buns are available, but I love this one! And, most likely to the high amount of traffic (the place was packed when we went, Thursday afternoon), it was fresher too. Yummm...

On top of that, we decided to risk getting a cake this time and settled on the delicious looking plum cake ($17.99/kg ; we paid around $6 for a smallish piece) which I'm still trying to figure out if it's from Sweet Temptations, as I just bought a slice at Starsky from there of plum cake... for $3/kg less, and the two look similar. I don't remember now if they tasted similar. Still, Sweet Temptations, a commercial Polish bakery (they should open a factory outlet, they really should *-*) baking for the GTA from their place a couple blocks from Euromax. Nonetheless, it's the season for local plums and plum cakes are a favourite sight at delis and bakeries. I love plum cakes. This one had a yeast-dough on the bottom, topped with slices of prune plums and then a tooon of delicious crumble. The taste was amazing, although I was a little disappointed that for how much we paid for it (btw, $3/kg more at Starsky will get you Granowska's delicacies ^^), they treated as though it were reduced: we got the end of the cake and the very lopsided, almost triangular chunk looked horrible. If, say, you were buying it to serve to guests, it was impossible to cut even two nice slices from it. They don't bake it and aren't responsible for the taste, but they should at least take some pride in what they're selling and make it look decent. Cutting a relatively equal slice isn't asking for too much, I think.

General verdict: besides the Portuguese baked goods and those muffins, brownies and carrot cake which I wouldn't think of buying (I can buy the former at an actual Portuguese bakery and the others at a bakery more specializing in this kind of baking), Euromax offers an assortment of tasty-looking baked goods and cakes, although their selection isn't that much bigger than Karpaty to account for the "upgrade" or any different, so I can't exactly say it felt like I was trying something new. Still, they've got those poppy seed buns, but I would stick to buying by weight items elsewhere, since they're quite expensive here. And... I still don't get it. ;DDDDD

Rating: ***

[photo courtesy of Euromax/Karpaty... I drove off without making my own :P]