Sakura season at Cheese Garden

It’s Sakura (aka cherry blossom) season at Cheese Garden! 

Sakura’s actually one of my favourite flowers. I love the subtle pink (my favourite colour) and the cute little petals. It’s a symbolic flower of Spring, which is also my birthday season. Needless to say, when I heard Cheese Garden came out with their Sakura Spring Collection, I just had to try it!

Featuring Japanese Sakura from Kanagawa, this beautiful Sakura dessert set comes with:

1 Sakura Fraise Cheesecake

2 pieces of Sakura Yakigashi

1 Sakura Raindrop Cake

1 exclusive Sakura spoon and Sakura bag as free gifts (SO cute!)

I love the different layers of the Sakura fraise cheesecake. The cake consists of the following layers: Sakura mizu yokan, custard pudding, Sakura jam, no bake strawberry cheesecake and matcha sponge cake. The matcha sponge cake and the strawberry cheesecake go so well together! I like that the Sakura wasn’t over powering so I got to really enjoy all the different flavours.

The Sakura Yakigashi is my favourite from the dessert set. This Sakura and cranberry cookie bar is as yummy as it is beautiful. The toasted pistachios adds a nice crunch and the marshmallows gives it a nice chewy texture and added sweetness.

If only raindrops can be as beautiful as Cheese Garden’s Sakura raindrop cake then maybe I’d enjoy rainy days more. The texture of this raindrop cake reminds me of jello and it has a very distinct Sakura flavour. I can’t get over the beautiful flower sitting perfectly in the “raindrop”. It’s almost too pretty to eat!

This new and limited Sakura Spring Collection is only available from now to May 12th!

Only 50 Sakura Spring Collections are available per day at each location and limited to 1 set per customer (no reservation, first come first serve).

Available at all Cheese Garden locations: 

 📍5291 Yonge St

📍Unit G120 - 3250 Midland Ave. 

📍B58 - 4300 Steeles Ave. E (Pacific Mall) 

📍Saks Fifth Ave. Pop-up store, 176 Yonge St.  

Website:  http://www.cheesegarden.ca/ 

Tsujiri Patisserie

Location:  596 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON, M4Y 1Z3

Website:  https://tsujiri-global.com/

Grand Opening Promo: This iconic Japanese Matcha brand will be celebrating their very first Tsujiri Patisserie store in downtown Toronto by offering FREE matcha ice cream lava cakes for the first 88 customers on March 30, 2109, starting at 12:00PM!

Tsujiri is just one of those dessert places that never goes out of style. There’s a reason why there’s still so much hype about this 155 years old Japanese matcha brand. I have been such a fan ever since I had my first bite of matcha soft serve. 

The store itself is bright and spacious with a very minimalist design. There are lots of seating available so it’s a perfect spot to catch up with friends over some matcha appreciated treats (I couldn’t resist... My blog post is not complete without at least one pun).

Tsujiri Patisserie offers unique items such as their beautiful dessert platters. Perfect for indecisive individuals (much like myself) because these platters offer a variety of treats selected by the pastry chef. 

The crunchy eclair is filled with a generous portion of Tsujiri’s delicious matcha cream. I absolutely love this combination of a crunchy eclair shell and a creamy matcha filling. These eclairs are made fresh to order, meaning the matcha cream is piped on the spot once an order’s been placed. This helps prevent the crunchy eclair from getting soggy.

The matcha ice cream lava cake will have you coming back for more! There’s a mountain of Tsujiri’s famous soft serve sitting on top of a fresh out the oven hot and ooey lava cake. I mean you really can’t go wrong with a dessert like this! So much care’s been put into this one dish. From the made to order lava cake, to the beautiful platting and the yummy mochi and chestnut, this dish is definitely a must try at Tsujiri Patisserie! 

I was lucky enough to check out a few of the Tsujiri locations when I was traveling in Japan. I can honestly say that the quality here really does match the quality of the matcha treats served in Japan. Food is always able to magically trigger specific memories for me and this lineup of matcha desserts brought me back to my adventures in Japan. Now if only it can literally bring me back!

Sugar Rush in Ottawa

Ottawa, the city where I discovered the magic of toe warmers. Winter in Ottawa really is no joke!

Ottawa has a reputation for its brutal winters but one of my favourite moments from this trip was actually lining up with my friends in the freezing cold for beaver tails and hot chocolate at the Byward Maket. In that moment I realized the true meaning of friendship. I mean, not many people would freeze their faces off just to help me satisfy my beaver tail craving! Even Ottawa winters can’t keep me from food adventuring!

This was my 2nd time visiting Ottawa and food baby enjoyed both visits thoroughly. I was hesitant about the food scene in Ottawa at first but there are actually lots of yummy places and hidden gems!

I love discovering a city through its food scene so I ate and I ate, and then I ate some more. I wanted to share my top 3 favourite dessert places because if there’s anything I love more than actually eating, it’s to force feed people the food that I love. These places are definitely worth checking out!

3. Art-Is-In Bakery 

📍250 City Centre Ave #112, Ottawa, ON K1R 1C7

This spacious, almost warehouse like, bakery offers a wide variety of baked goods and beverages. The cronuts are a must try! I just about licked the plate when I was done. I paired it with the earl grey tea latte and it was the perfect breakfast combination in my opinion!

2. Suzy Q 

📍969 Wellington St W, Ottawa, ON K1Y 2X7

These doughnuts are as yummy as they are pretty! So light and fluffy. They look humongo but I can easily polish it off by myself because it’s so airy!

I love the large selection of flavours, including their “healthy” version of doughnuts like the carrot one in the picture. I love it when bakeries help me consume my daily recommended dose of vegetables. Suzy Q cares!

1. The Cupcake Lounge  

📍6 Byward Market Square, Ottawa, ON K1N 9B8

This is actually a place that I stumbled across from exploring the Byward Market. I’m so happy I did! The cupcake is moist and baked to perfection. The frosting itself is not overly sweet and the cupcake to frosting ratio is just right. I came in this cute little bakery with the intention of just having a cupcake for breakfast (yes, I eat cupcakes for breakfast). Let’s just say I ended up eating a lot more than just one!

The earl grey cupcake is my favourite! I actually got an extra one to eat on my way back to Toronto.

Over all I really enjoyed my time in Ottawa. How can I not when there are so many food places for me to eat at when I need to escape the freezing cold. The winter may be harsh but ice skating on the Rideau Canal is a pretty fun experience! But maybe next time I’ll visit in the summer time so I don’t freeze my face off.

Until next time Ottawa! I’ll be back for more food adventures!

Icha Tea

Name: Icha Tea

Location:  235 Spadina Ave Unit 4, Toronto, ON M5T 2E2

Website:  http://icha-tea.business.site/

A hidden tea shop located by what is quickly becoming one of my favourite places to explore, Kensington Market!

The store is divided to 2 parts. The front of the store doesn’t have much seating, it’s more of a takeout kind of situation and they offer bubble tea and other specialty drinks. Icha Tea uses fresh milk instead of powdered creamer in their milk teas. The quality ingredients really does make a difference in the taste! 

The back of the store is surprisingly spacious with lots of seating. This is where they serve the more traditional teas at the tea bar. The whole process is interesting and I always have fun here! There’s a pretty large selection of teas to choose from and the tea is brewed right in front of you at the tea bar. The teas are from China (except for the matcha which is from Japan) and they are aromatic and refreshing. The staff members are knowledgeable and helpful when it comes to selecting a tea. There’s a large selection of white teas, green teas, oolong teas, black teas and dark teas.

After the tea selection you get to pick your own tea cups! There are so many cute cups to choose from. I’m an extremely indecisive person and when given so many choices I tend to get very flustered. Needless to say, this was a very long process for me. It took me longer to pick my tea cup than it did for me to pick the actual tea. The cups are just so little and cute! 

Once you’ve selected your tea and tea cup, just sit back and enjoy the “show”. They make the tea in front of you at the tea bar. It’s almost like a little tea ceremony each time they brew a fresh pot. Instead of the tea being brewed directly in the teapot, the tea is actually brewed in a separate cup/bowl which is then transferred to your tea set. The first batch of tea is actually poured out and not served. This is because the first batch is meant to “wake” the tea leaves up.

As far as desserts go, they don’t have much in terms of selection. However, everything is made fresh and in house. I highly recommend the sesame tofu cheesecake. I was nervous about the tofu part but I couldn’t taste it at all! The cheesecake itself is not too dense (it’s light like a Japanese cheesecake) and has a really flavorful sesame taste.

The tea bar area is really peaceful and it doesn't get too noisy. It’s a perfect place to catch up on some reading and de-stress. 

Little pebbles

Name: Little Pebbles

Location: 160 Baldwin St. Store #4, Toronto, ON M5T 3K7

Website: http://little-pebbles.com/

This cute little cafe is located at the Kensington Market and it offers amazing Japanese desserts. There's not a lot of seating here but they do have super cute take out containers which, in my opinion, make up for the lack of seating.

I was first drawn to Little Pebbles by their matcha lattes and chiffon cakes. They continue to add new and delicious creations to their menu. I was so excited when I saw the black sesame latte on their menu! Definitely worth a try if you're a fan of black sesame (I recommend having it sweetened though).

The matcha chiffon cake is my go-to dessert here. It’s so light and fluffy it’s like biting into a fluffy cloud (at least that’s what I imagine a cloud would taste like). I’ve gotten the matcha chiffon cake for a birthday before and it was so spongy I thought the candle was going to bounce off when we put it in the cake! It’s definitely my favourite cake here and it never disappoints!

The strawberry rolled cake is refreshing and the cream itself is not too sweet. I really like the fresh strawberry chunks in the cake, it balances out the sweetness and adds a nice texture to the cake. The fresh strawberries also helps justify having that second slice of cake. Thought process: there are fruits in the cake —> I’m eating the fruits —> conclusion: I’m having a healthy snack!

Ever since I had my very first Mont Blanc dessert in Paris I’ve been on the lookout for a delicious Mont Blanc in Toronto. There's a little twist to the Mont Blanc at Little Pebbles. It’s a strawberry sakura Mont Blanc! The pretty pink purée is sakura (aka cherry blossom) flavoured and there’s a full strawberry on the inside covered with a custard cream. I love aesthetically pleasing desserts and this is just so beautifully done. It was almost too pretty to eat (not that that’s ever stopped me before).

Little pebbles also offer cakes for pick up (pre-order 48 hours prior to pickup). 

Sasaki Fine Pastry

I’ve always been a fan of Japanese desserts and Sasaki Fine Pastry just happens to make some my favourite Japanese snacks (daifuku and dorayaki!)

Before I start gushing about my love for the yummy daifuku at Sasaki Fine Pastry, I’ll just briefly explain the difference between Mochi and daifuku. For the longest time I didn’t know the difference between the two and thought that they were the same thing. Now that I’ve finally figured it out I shall pass on this very important knowledge. Sharing is caring and caring is fun!

Mochi vs Daifuku

Mochi is best described as Japanese rice cakes. It’s made by pounding steamed glutinous rice until it’s soft, smooth and chewy. I find that mochi, by itself, is actually quite bland as it is not naturally sweet. 

Daifuku is basically a large Mochi stuffed with a sweet filling. I find the most common filling to be red bean, but when I was in Japan I came across many fruit filled daifuku (some were even stuffed with a whole strawberry!)

Sasaki Fine Pastry offers a pretty large selection of daifuku flavours. They rotate some seasonal flavours as well. I’ve tried their matcha, chestnut, sesame, houjicha, mango, strawberry, and cream daifuku. My top 3 are the sesame, houjicha and strawberry.

Bonus: both the strawberry and the houjicha daifuku have red bean filling inside as well!

The Mochi itself is so soft, chewy and not too sticky. There’s a very generous amount of filling too. It’s the perfect daifuku!

The dorayaki here is on point. Doraemon (a robotic cat from the future) was one of my favourite anime characters when I was a kid. So naturally I also love his favourite food, dorayaki! 

Dorayaki is like a red bean pancake sandwich. Sasaki Fine Pastry added their own twist by adding cream with the red bean filling. They also have a red bean with matcha cream dorayaki that is amazing.

Daifuku $2.60/each

Dorayaki (classic) $2.50/each

Dorayaki  (red bean + cream) $3.00/each

Dear & Fro

A cute and comfy place to enjoy some bingsu!

Bingsu is a Korean dessert made with shaved ice and a variety of different toppings. Dear Fro uses milk in their bingsu which gives it that velvety texture and a creamy taste.

Dear Fro offers all the classic bingsu flavours such as injeolmi, strawberry, mango and matcha. The ice is so finely shaved it just melts in your mouth. It's creamy, fluffy and refreshing!

The classic injeolmi bingsu is my favourite. Injeolmi is a type of tteok (Korean rice cake). It was described to me as mochi and it makes sense cause I love it very mochi!

I love how the flavours are mixed in the shaved ice so each bite is so flavourful. 

Dear Fro also serves honey toast! It is perfectly toasted and sweetened with honey. It comes with a scoop of matcha ice cream and a scoop of black sesame ice cream too! I personally think that it's never too cold for bingsu, but sometimes you just need to warm up with one of these toasty treats!

Guschlbauer

Austrian cheese buns. Where have you been all my life? 

Words cannot express how much I love these perfectly light and cheesy buns. They're basically a sweet bun stuffed with layers of melted cream cheese. There's no seating area in this tiny bakery but these buns are perfect for snacking on the go. Or maybe they knew that these buns would be devoured so fast there's no need for seating!

I have not stopped gushing about this place! But to be fair, these oozy cheese buns deserve to be gushed about. I've been stuffing my face with these yummy buns almost every day since I discovered this place. 

I tried 5 flavours: original, chocolate, sweet potato, strawberry and mango. The mango is refreshing and there are actual mango chunks in the cream cheese filling. It's hard to pick a favourite but if I have to choose, my favourite is the chocolate cheese bun. The chocolate is so rich and I love the chocolate chunks. It's perfect for any chocolate lover!

Guschlbauer also have cream puffs stuffed with the same cream cheese filling.

Who would've thought that cream cheese filled buns can bring so much joy?!

Dazzling Cafe

Beautiful & delicious food = happy food baby!

I first fell in love with Dazzling Cafe during one of my trips to Taiwan. The elegant decor and giant desserts made this a high priority food adventure spot on my food map (yes, I have a food adventure map for different cities).

Some people say a specific scent can bring back certain memories, but for me it's food. Certain foods/flavours can bring back a lot of memories for me. In this case, the honey toast really made me reminisce about my visits to Taiwan, however short my visits are each year. The honey toast is just as delicious and beautiful as I remembered.

The lava chocolate crispy toast was unique and oozed chocolate! I don't know how they do it but the center was still crispy even with the chocolate "lava".

I enjoyed the honey toast very MATCHA! This stack of toast is actually hollowed out and filled with mini pieces of crispy and buttery toast, ice cream, whipped cream, matcha sauce and red bean. I've tried multiple items on their menu now and the honey toast is still my favourite. It never disappoints. 

Normally I'm hesitant about floral flavoured beverages because it always tastes like perfume to me. But I liked the subtle hint of rose flavour in the rose latte. So yummy and perfectly sweetened. 

So happy that Dazzling Cafe is in Toronto now and with multiple locations. I've only been to the Markham location but I always leave there with a happy food baby!

Can't get over how cute the bunny ears are on the chairs!