Sleepy Owl Bread

Bakery: Sleepy Owl Bread

Address: 751 Wall St, Winnipeg MB 

Website: http://www.sleepyowlbread.ca/

Style: Canadian, European

Price: $$ 

 

Despite its location in a more industrial area,  Sleepy Owl is anything but sleepy. This small, yet busy bakery may be predominantly bread-oriented, but they still have an adequate selection of European-inspired pastries such as croissants, pains au chocolat and danishes with a varieties of appetizing fruit fillings. In recent times, I've noticed a total nosedive in terms of customer service, so Sleepy Owl also gets bonus points for their friendly and welcoming staff - thanks for making me feel like you actually want me there! 

Nevertheless, I picked out their prairie berry danish ($4.00). The filling definitely sounded the most interesting, though I'm not exactly sure what constitutes prairie berry. I think those were saskatoon berries in there, but other than that, it was hard to pinpoint - nonetheless, it was tasty! Pure cooked fruit with a good amount of sweetness. Honestly, all danish fillings should be this good. My big issue was the dough and, in a danish, dough is key. It was layered and flaky, but super, almost surprisingly so chewy. Sometimes you encounter these extra chewy, nearly impossible to bite off breads such as ciabatta, but the texture wasn't as welcome in a danish. 

Rating: **1/2

Current River Bakery

Bakery: Current River Bakery

Address: 301 Grenville Av, Thunder Bay ON

Website: http://www.currentriverbakery.com/ 

Style: Finnish, Canadian

Price: $$-$$$ 

As a lover of Finnish baked goods, this bakery has been on my must-visit list since my last cross-country drive a few years ago. At that time, I had two Finnish bakeries I had missed; now, only one remains. Current River was strangely barren, almost dismal in its emptiness, despite the fact I actually came in the morning. There was no one around, the shelves had a few packaged items and the selection of fresh baked goods such as classic Finnish baked goods and doughnuts was just as sparse. It was, to be quite honest, depressing and everything pointed to a steady lack of customers - WHY do people not support bakeries?! It makes me so mad! 

I had to give the korvapuusti (labelled here as cardamom buns) a try. Usually these are considered cinnamon buns, so I was a little surprised that there was no cinnamon in them at all. The aroma of that cardamom was incredible though. I love cardamom. The dough, however, was a bit on the dry/dense side. I would have preferred it a little more moist and easier to just rip apart and eat it up. Not too sweet, freshly baked and fragrant - had I ever missed my Finnish buns! Not pictured were their jam pigs - Finnish jelly doughnuts - which likewise had this dense, drier style dough and didn't have that greasy, jam-filled goodness encountered in other Finnish bakeries, so it personally wasn't my favourite. Nonetheless: keep bakeries in business! 

Rating: ***

Ouest Artisan Patisserie

Bakery: Ouest Artisan Patisserie

Address: 220 Campbell St #1454, Tofino BC

Website: facebook

Style:  French

Price: $$$-$$$$  

I was actually quite satisfied, if not downright impressed with the number of bakeries a small town like Tofino had to offer - and that was before discovering there were some new arrivals on the scene. The first new arrival is Ouest, a tiny patisserie operating out of a shipping container in an area of town you might not initially think of checking. In keeping with the tiny space, the selection is far from big and mostly consists of croissants, colourful macarons and a handful of chic pastries. 

Definitely the most unique and appetizing items up for sale, I decided to go with two of the pastries: the chocolate black currant mousse and the uh, deconstructed millefeuille/Paris brest?? ($7.50) With labels few and far between, I'm not quite sure what either of them were officially called.  I liked the combination of rich chocolate and flavourful fruit-packed mousse, though I think it would have been good enough with just that nutty dough base and mousse; the chocolate decorations on top were a bit overpowering. The creamy one, on the other hand, was certainly easier to look at than eat. ;) The bridge of caramel immediately fell apart, as did the little crunchy balls on top. The bottom, having nothing to keep it together, crumbled a little too easily, resulting in a bit of a mess. All good once it's in your mouth, but what a struggle it was to get it there! Overall: tasted good, not amazing - not worth the price.

 

Rating: ***

G-farm In-store Bakery [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: G-farm In-store Bakery (吉田村麵包)

Address: No. 257, Section 3, Jinhua Road, West Central District, Tainan

Website: n/a

Style: Chinese

Price: $-$$  

I only really went to this bakery in the first place, because it was conveniently located right across the street from my apartment and its large windows displaying cakes and a large array of baked goods both sweet and savoury couldn't help but lure me in. I wasn't even planning on visiting another bakery that day and I definitely wasn't planning for that bakery to involve some sort of doughnut. Oh well. .___.; But come on, I went inside and was just stunned at how many doughnut varieties they had. Did you want strawberry glazed, ring or twist - they had it all, even at night. How could I have resisted? 

At just under $20, the simple sugar ring doughnut may have been the cheapest doughnut there, but it really had been a while since I'd encountered one of these. Classic, perhaps even underestimated doughnut with a moist, fluffy inside, a nice sprinkling of sugar and a lovely - though not very crunchy (I always like the outside on sugar doughnuts to not be so soft) - golden brown exterior. A promising start to my Tainan Cake Tour! 

Rating: ***

Uncle Charlie's [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Uncle Charlie's (生力美食)

Address: No. 132, Wufu 4th Road, Yancheng District, Kaohsiung

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

Style: Chinese

Price: $-$$

 

Don't let the chicken logo fool you - this is a bakery, not a Taiwanese fried chicken restaurant. ;) Actually, Uncle Charlie's was my final stop in Kaohsiung, a cluttered, somewhat grimy (I had an unpleasant customer service experience right upon entering that made me contemplate just walking out altogether, hence the bias) bakery that sells different varieties of bread and buns, silly cakes and pineapple cake gift boxes, cookies and - of all things - popsicles. Judging by the slightly faded yet permanent poster outside, their specialty seems to be full taro and red bean pies; however, I can't recall seeing them inside or if smaller pieces are available. 

Another more unusual find, though certainly not on the same Asian baked good level as taro and red bean, was the apple flaky pastry ($30). In truth, I usually avoid the more Western items in Chinese bakeries, because they're not very good, but I wanted something different. It did definitely look more flaky on the outside, which was a bit surprising since Chinese bakeries do know flaky, and it could have benefited from more apples, but the taste, overall texture of the dough, apples and flaky outer layer as well was the level of sweetness was quite good. Yes, despite the shopping experience. 

Rating: ***

Ciderworks

Bakery: Ciderworks @ Salt Spring Apple Co.

Address:  529 Fulford-Ganges Rd, Salt Spring Island BC 

Website: http://www.ciderworks.ca/

Style: Apples 

Price: $$-$$$

 

I guess it's hard to believe that the tasting room/retail store for a craft cider company would be featured on the Cake Tour, but I was just as surprised as anyone to step inside and realize that the "snacks" mentioned on the chalkboard outside referred to baked goods. And those baked goods being apple fritters! It is rather fitting, isn't it? Orchards making their own cider is becoming more and more common, especially in BC, so why not baked goods? Alcohol and doughnuts. Thumbs up for the great combination!   

That being said, the apple fritters (available in both smaller, sugar-coated balls and the classic glazed variety) were quite dense and doughy and lacked that not-so secret ingredient: apples. Yes, you do often encounter apple fritters with just a few chunks of apple, but given the fact that this was an apple orchard first, apple cider maker next and fritter manufacturer last, the focus should have been on those apples, not on the somewhat sub par dough. Exciting find, but execution could be better. 

Rating: **1/2