Tag: bakery

Paris Banh Mi

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Recently, we went to Paris Banh Mi, so here’s another review for you guys!

The place was pretty and clean. We really liked that they had self-serve pastries. The only things we had to ask for were the drinks and the banh mi, for obvious reasons.

So, let’s get to it.

Pork and beef banh mi: It was good. The meat had a nice flavor, and the vegetables were fresh. It had less cilantro than we would’ve liked, though.

Butter leek: Pretty good, but it would have been even better with just a little more filling.

Bacon croissant: Very good, but there was a small surprise — it had a “quiche”-type filling. The eggs inside were unexpected, so there’s that. If you don’t like the eggy taste of quiche, skip this one.

Ham and cheese: Again, unexpected egg addition, but pretty good nonetheless — unless you don’t like the eggy taste.

Zeppole with Nutella: The donut was poorly filled, with all the filling on one side. We think we got a bad one, so we’re not going to judge them for this.

Ube mochi donut: This was the best mochi donut we’ve had so far, and the ube icing was really good.

Crème brûlée milk tea: Very bland and no brûlée found.

Vietnamese coffee: We don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like, but it was good, with a very strong coffee flavor.

Final thoughts: Overall, it was a very good experience. 8/10.

Address: 155 Cranes Roost Blvd STE 1210, Altamonte Springs, FL

Chiffon Culture (Winter Springs)

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It seems like there are more and more Asian-French fusion bakeries popping up lately. This is definitely not a complaint—just an observation.

Since there’s not much to say about the bakery itself, other than that it’s clean and somewhat cute, let’s go straight to the pastries we bought, shall we?

Ham and cheese croissant:
Even though it was tasty, there was not enough filling. There was a sweet glaze on top of it that was a bit strange.

Pizza pastry:
Reminds us of a margherita pizza. It’s okay. It looks more substantial than it actually is.

French Egg Tart:
This one is quite interesting. It’s almost like there’s an eggy flan inside a pie crust. It’s good, but definitely not suited for people who do not like the taste of eggs.

Basque cheesecake:
Dense and delicious.

Nutella Canelé:
Delicious, with a soft, custard-like inside, filled with Nutella.

Croissant roll:
Pretty good, filled in the middle with a chocolate pastry cream.

Pistachio Cream Puff:
The cream puff is huge, the filling is light, and there is a very mild, delicate taste of pistachio (not saying this in a bad way). However, it is not a cream puff—it’s made of puff pastry, not choux.

Strawberry cube:
Delicious vol-au-vent type of pastry. It’s filled with some airy cream cheese filling and topped with strawberry syrup.

Custard Cream Donut:
Very well filled with a delicious pastry cream.

Nutella Croissant:
Not enough filling, and we highly suspect it was a (very faint) chocolate filling with hazelnuts instead of Nutella. They should not mess with Nutella fans—we take our spread seriously.

So, what we can say from an overall perspective is:
The savory pastries—at least those made with puff pastry—can be a bit of a letdown. The sweet pastries, on the other hand, are pretty good on average. Some of their pastries are heavy on eggs (again, not a complaint), so be mindful of that.

Delícias de Portugal – Portuguese Bakery Review

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We went on a little trip this week. On our way to St. Augustine we stopped at a store called Delícias de Portugal, located in Palm Coast. Actually, it’s two stores, and they are like a block away from each other. The second one has the exact same name, but followed by a “II”, so we assume it’s from the same owners. On the first one we got the Portuguese rice cake, an almond tart, and “pata de veado” – a dessert that is basically a roll cake with bavarian cream. Oh, we also got some coffee, which was really good.

Here’s proof of our visit:

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And our thoughts:
Rice cake:
Blondie: I’ve never had a rice cake before and I’m happy that I’ve had it.  It’s simpler and closer to home than what I expected. To me, it tasted kinda like a plain muffin. 7/10
Danish: I found this pleasant as well. Not too sweet, not too bland. 7/10

Almond tart:
Blondie: Tiny tart with almond filling. Yummy. 8/10
Danish: I have a special place for almond pastries, in my mouth. 9/10

Pata de veado:
Blondie: I’ve had one before at a grocery store, but boy, this one is a lot better. It’s super moist, and the filling is delicious. 9/10
Danish: This one was my favorite of the day, the texture and flavor was great. 10/10

Then, we went to the second store, which had some different snacks available. From this one, we picked the orange tart, custard tart, and the milk tart.

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Orange tart:
Blondie: Okay, I did not like this one. Honestly, it tasted like there was something wrong with it. 2/10
Danish: I seem to be overly sensitive to things that have a sulphury eggy taste, which is all I could taste in this. 0/10

Custard tart:
Blondie: It was a good tart, but not the best one I’ve ever had. 7/10
Danish: The flavor of the custard was not eggy like the orange one (hooray!). It was good, but as Blondie said not as good as ones we’ve had elsewhere. 7/10

Milk tart:
Blondie: This dessert is new to me, but I really like it. It’s like a little muffin, but only made of baked cream. 9/10
Danish: This one was enjoyable as well, though texture was a bit odd to me. 8/10

Overall, the stores are nice, the service is nice, and most of the desserts are good (with the exception of the orange tart). We haven’t had any savory treats this time, but we definitely will in the future.

That’s it for today! See you guys soon!

Gideon’s Bakehouse – an honest review

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The agents finally got to visit Gideon’s Bakehouse in Orlando. Blondie has been wanting to go there for what it seems to be an eternity. She was finally going to get their famous cookies.

Pulling up on the parking lot, the first red flag: hipster place. Let’s proceed with caution. Got into the building, and there it was. A small square, with a wooden counter. The decoration was, in fact, pretty. Old style “shoppe”. Okay. Let’s get to business. Let’s try these cookies, the agents thought.

6 dollars for each cookie. Okay, pricey, but let’s try this. They bought the original chocolate chip and the banana bread. Here they are:

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Our thoughts about each of them:

Chocolate chip cookies:
Blondie: It’s a good chocolate chip cookie if you like cakey/doughy cookies. However, I do not like the coarse salt that they sprinkled on top of it. It does not completely ruin the cookie, but I’ll give it less points for that 6/10
Danish: Very doughy/cakey cookie. The taste and texture reminded me of the cookies they served in the cafeteria in middle school which were very popular with many kids, just not with me. I’m also not a fan of coarse salt on cookies, the saltiness lingers in your mouth much longer than the rest of the flavor of the cookie. 5/10

Banana bread:
Blondie: Again, a tall, cakey cookie. All of them are. I like the taste of it, and this one doesn’t have salt on top to ruin (almost) everything. 8/10 — by the way, I am not considering the outrageous price here.
Danish: I enjoyed the taste of this, but honestly I would rather have a piece of actual banana bread. 7/10

So, the verdict is: are they good? Yes. Are they super good, crazy different for it to be worth 6 bucks each? No. They are tall and loaded with chocolate, but 6 dollars is still way too much for these cookies.
Either way, trying a new cookie is always fun. Looking forward to new adventures!