Mont Thabor Ohina-sama Pastry: This week, I moved to a new part of Tokyo and left Azabu-Juban, the neighborhood I was living in for 3 months. One of my favorite parts of Azabu-Juban was its variety of small historic businesses: there was the original taiyaki shop, a nuts and beans shop that's over 100 years old, and this bakery, Mont Thabor, that opened in the neighborhood 40 years ago and has since expanded to several locations. The bakery overall was a solid neighborhood bakery - the prices are reasonable, and the pro... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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Mont Thabor Turtle melon pan: I stopped by a bakery on my way to the train station and stumbled upon turtle melon-pan, which some may remember was the original avatar of Tasty Snacking until I designed my own. Having never seen one in person, I had to try it. The bread has a fairly standard dinner roll flavor, which is to say pretty neutral, while the "shell" of the turtle is sweet and reminiscent of Chinese pineapple bun, though less rich. It doesn't taste like melon (I believe it's called that for its appearance rather... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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Meyers Bageri Cinnamon Roll: On my recent trip to Scandinavia, the one item I was on the look out for was cardamom buns. Unfortunately, a handful of the bakeries I tried to go to didn't work out. Most of them were closed for the month of July as part of their summer holiday (could you imagine if people did this in the US?!), which I only sadly discovered after going to them in person. It was a reminder not to trust Google Map opening hours as bakeries often share that they're closed through their Instagram feeds. Ba... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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Vive la Tarte Almond croissant : I had high expectations after having the excellent orange blossom croissant from Vive la Tarte in SF, but this almond croissant was less successful for a few reasons. The almond paste filling, while substantial, was wet enough to render the pastry a bit soggy, and the filling combined with the powdered sugar was very sweet overall. Quite large for a croissant, but also more expensive than your typical local bakery at a little over $4. You could taste the quality of the individual ingredients... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Mah Ze Dahr Banana Bread: Mah Ze Dahr is a small bakery in Greenwich Village with pastries carefully organized on wooden boards and raised platters, somehow conveying both abundance (through its variety of baked goods) and scarcity (there are <10 of each). This banana bread was served in a sizable disc, like an enlarged, leveled-off muffin top, or an especially thick cookie. Unfortunately, while banana bread is one of my favorites, I found it to be a bit on the dry side, and the sugar coating on top made it far too... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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Dominique Ansel Bakery Peach Creme Fraiche Mousse Cake: This teardrop-shaped dessert consists of a lemon cake with peach compote, all covered in a thin shard of pink-striped chocolate. It had a sharp, acidic flavor, and technically, the cake was soft and moist. But I couldn't help but wonder what exactly this dessert was trying to accomplish. While I hadn't had anything like it before, I wouldn't say it was particularly satisfying; it exists in its own world that's not quite delicious, yet not really challenging enough to stay in my memory. 3.0/5.0
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