Art Is In Bakery, Ottawa

Happy Canada Day everyone! Hope all you Canadians are enjoying the Canada Day weekend.

I'm continuing the Ottawa post trend with a feature on Art Is In Bakery. I almost feel like this post doesn't need an introduction. People from Ottawa know and love the bread here. Even if you haven't visited their shop, you have probably seen their bread at restaurants, cafes, or local grocery stores like Farm Boy.

Art Is In started out as a stand at the Ottawa Farmer's Market and grew from baking their bread at the Ottawa Bagel Shop to now owning a permanent shop in an industrial warehouse area. It almost seems like an odd place to have a shop when you first pull up, but you quickly forget where you are as soon as you walk towards the bakery. They have created their own unique funky atmosphere, and all the wonderful scents from the bread, sandwiches, pastries and desserts are sure to distract you from everything else.

The mango and aloe drink is especially good. It was a combination of aloe juice, mangosteen juice, and mango juice with chunks of aloe floating in the bottle.

The special of the day was the ginger beef banh mi with fennel, cucumber and pickled carrots. It was a really cool idea but the beef unfortunately was way too salty and overpowered everything else in the sandwich, including the condiments.

Ginger Beef Banh Mi

I'm a prosciutto lover so you can't go wrong with the warm prosciutto, ricotta, white truffle and arugula sandwich served on their dynamite kalamata olive bread. Delicious!

Prosciutto, Ricotta, White Truffle and Arugula Sandwich

The eating area at Art Is In is alfresco style so they don't have a/c in the summer time.

They have a great selection of pastries and sweets including almond croissants and cookies. And of course, if you want to buy some of their bread before you go, there is a section where you can do that. Two favorites are the 12 grain fennel and the dynamite potato caramelized onion & dill bread.

Art Is In Bakery
250 City Center Avenue Bay 112
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Telephone: 613-695-1226

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Beigel Bake, London

Montreal has smoked meat, New York has pastrami, and London has salt beef. What I recently discovered was the salt beef part, and I'm so glad I did!

While all three are Jewish deli meats made of beef brisket that is cured in brine, each has its own distinct characteristics and flavors. If you are not familiar with the term salt beef, it is pretty much the same thing as corned beef.

After a long night of pub hopping, our friends from London took CK and I to Brick Lane for a hot salt beef beigel sandwich. A bagel you ask? No, I said beigel.

Brick Lane hot salt beef beigel sandwiches are especially popular with the late night crowd. After a long night out, and if you are in the area, the salt beef beigel is what locals turn to for that 2 am hunger fix.

There are 2 main places that serve salt beef beigel sandwiches on Brick Lane: Beigel Bake and Beigel Shop. The two establishments are literally right beside each other, and both are just as popular. Our friends are loyal to Beigel Bake, so that is where we ended up.

As you walk by, you'll see the sandwiches being constructed with the words hot salt beef etched on the window.

When we arrived, there was a huge line up going out the door. We waited patiently as we moved along the queue. Once you get inside, you can get a peak of the beigels being made.

The bakery is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While I focus on the salt beef sandwich, the bakery offers so much more than that. Aside from beigels, you can also get fresh rolls, breads, and pastries. If salt beef isn't your thing, you can have your beigel filled with smoked salmon and cream cheese, chicken, salami, or tuna.

Alas, the wonderful mouth watering hot salt beef beigel sandwich! Along with the salt beef, you can also get thick slices of dill pickle and loads of Colman's hot English mustard stuffed into the sandwich. Each bite cleared our sinuses and made our eyes water. The spiciness combined with the saltiness of the beef, sourness of the pickles, and sweetness of the beigel made each bite more addicting.

I debated on eating this for breakfast the next day, but CK talked me out of it.

Beigel Bake

159 Brick Lane

London, UK

Telephone: 020 7729 0616

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Flour Bakery + Cafe, Boston

Right before my trip to Boston, I was chatting with a friend from Sydney. I started telling her about my upcoming trip to Boston, and she instantly replied with "OMG, you HAVE to go to Flour Bakery. It is soooo good". She raved about it so much that I had to put it on my list of places to check out.

I took a mid morning stroll, and headed to the Flour Bakery at Fort Point Channel. It was just after 11:00am and the place was already packed with a long line up.

This place reminded me of a modern hippy, go green, cafeteria style establishment. The staff here are very friendly, and it was both fun and torture waiting in line.

It was fun because you kept busy reading all the fun stuff they had posted on the boards. I especially enjoyed their quote of the day "All sorrows are less with bread" - Don Quixote. However, it was torture because you had to walk by counters and counters of baked goods while waiting very patiently to place your order. There were so many goodies, it was hard to choose.

When it was finally my turn, I ordered a light lunch with a dessert.

To start, I had the raspberry spritzer: a light and fizzy drink.

My lunch was the roast chicken sandwich with avocado and jicama. This was DELICIOUS. The chicken was prepared tandoori style, and the avocado was infused with lime and cilantro. It was healthy, fresh, and flavorful...loved it!

If you want your sandwich toasted, it is $1 extra.

For dessert, I had the chocolate banana bread. This was also very good. I loved that it was not overly sweet, and the cake was packed with bananas. I think I tasted more banana than cake, which was a nice surprise.

I desperately wanted to go back here for a second meal, but my friends wouldn't allow it. Everyone had their list of places to try and there just wasn't enough time.

This is a great casual place with excellent food.

Flour Bakery + Cafe (Fort Point Channel)
12 Farnsworth Street
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Telephone: 617-338-4333

Flour Bakery + Cafe (South End)
1595 Washington Street
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Telephone: 617-267-4300

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The French Baker, Ottawa

As a continuation from my last post, here is what I picked up at The French Baker after my brunch at Benny's Bistro last weekend.

Before I dive into my post, let me preface it by saying that I have always been a fan of The French Baker, and my past experiences have been positive ones (proof in this past post). But for some reason, everything I bought was just off that day.

My favorite cookie at the French Baker is their sablés à la confiture. Their jam filling always has an amazing fresh fruit flavor! They didn't have that nice crunch that I normally like in their shortbread, but they still had that great buttery flavor.

I haven't tried a macaron from any Ottawa bakery until now, so I don't have any local place I can compare it to. However, I have tried them in many other cities and countries, and this one just didn't have that nice delicate balance between crunchy and soft. Although there was a coffee bean sitting nicely on top, I couldn't tell what flavor the macaron actually was...I'm guessing it was supposed to be coffee flavor though.

I've attempted to purchase their croissants on a few occasions, and every time they were sold out. I finally got to try "Ottawa's best croissants" last weekend, and I was somewhat disappointed. I look for 3 things in a croissant: buttery, light, and flaky. The croissant I tried was buttery and had a nice flavor, but it was too doughy and not flaky enough.

After leaving a comment about my experience on the Ottawa Foodies site, one of the pastry chefs from the bakery contacted me to get more feedback. She was very professional and gracious, and took the feedback well. However, French Baker has a reputation for making one of the best pastries in town, and with that label, consistency is key. Had it been my first time visiting the bakery, I likely would not return for a repeat visit.

The French Baker
119 Murray Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Telephone: 613-789-7941

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The Tart Off - Pastel de Nata Challenge

After enjoying my very first pastel de nata (portugese custard tart) last week, I decided to search for the best pastel de nata in Toronto. This all started with Mark's comment on my Golden Wheat Bakery post.

Two places that came up most frequently were Nova Era bakery and Caldense bakery. About half of the people were die hard Nova Era fans, and the other half were Caldense fans. I decided to try them both out for myself, and find out which was better with a tart off!

I went to Dundas Street West, and bought a pastel de nata from each store. CK set up the blind taste test, and I judged the tarts on 3 criteria:

1. Taste of pastry alone

2. Taste of custard alone

3. Taste of pastry and custard together

Here were my results:

As you can see, tart #1 won hands down. And the winner was, drum roll please...

This was a fun little test, and CK and I had a great time doing it! This post is by no means saying that Nova Era bakery is better than Caldense bakery. We had read very good things about both places.

This made me think...there must be a mom-and-pop shop in Little Portugal that can make a mean pastel de nata.

If you know of any places that make them well, not necessarily in Toronto, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks to Mark who made this challenge happen!

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Pain Perdu, Toronto

If you want to taste real french pastries, visit Pain Perdu. When we walked into this bakery, we forgot where we were for a second. There was charming French music playing in the background, we were greeted by soft spoken Parisian staff, and the majority of their menu was written in French such as tarte a l'oignon and croque monsieur.

I came here for one thing, and that was for their croissants. Their croissants were named Best Croissant 3 times by the Toronto Star, so I had to check it out for myself.

Croissants made purely from butter are much harder to work with than croissants made from a combination of butter and shortening. Croissants made from pure butter are not only tastier, but they are much flakier and crispier. As a result, it is very hard to curl them like what you see at the grocery store. As a rule of thumb, good croissants should never be curled.

There's so much more to a good croissant, and if I had the time, I could write a dissertation on the topic. The difficulty of making a good one should not be ignored. A good croissant should be delicate, but not too delicate. Although made from butter, it should never feel too greasy. Lastly, it should never be chewy, but flakey on the inside.

I was explaining this to my mom and she said that it is ironic because in Chinese, croissants are literally translated as 'cow horns'. And because a cow horn is curved, Chinese always look for croissants that are curled.

Enough talking, here is my croissant paired with a cappuccino.

I'm probably the most ungraceful eater there is. CK was shaking his head at me the whole time because every time I took a bite, the croissant would shatter all over my plate and lap, and bits of the flakey pastry would stick to and cover my lips. Needless to say, I really enjoyed it, and gobbled it down within seconds. Unlike CK, I had no self control. When I was done eating my croissant, he had taken only two bites. Oh! Mon dieu!

CK ordered the almond croissant and a café au lait.

Pain perdu is more than just a boulangerie. They offer other sweet pastries, and lunch plates such as duck confit, and quiches. They, of course, also offer pain perdu or "lost bread", which is similar to but not to be mistaken as North American french toast.

Pain Perdu

736 St. Clair Avenue West

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Telephone: 416-656-7246

Menu

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Golden Wheat Bakery & Pastry, Toronto

After a day of shopping, CK and I decided to treat ourselves at the Golden Wheat Bakery & Pastry before we headed home.

There were so many goodies, I had no clue what to get.

These log cakes were beautiful...

I debated on these super giant palmiers (bigger than my hand), but I decided against them in the end.

It took me a while but I finally decided.

I ordered a custard tart and an almond croissant, and CK got an apple turnover. Surprisingly, the three cost us less than $5. I'm not sure whether their prices are always this low, or if it was because we dropped in late, but we happily paid, and quickly drove home to escape the cold.

CK and I enjoyed our pastries while we watched a movie under warm covers. Out of the three, I liked the custard tart the best.

Golden Wheat Bakery & Pastry

652 College Street

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Telephone: 416-534-1107

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