Rating: NNNNN
Jong Sik Lee of Hodo Kwaja (656 Bloor
West, at Manning, 416-538-1208) has
been churning out upwards of 100
dozen Korean walnut cakes every hour
at his west-side bakery for the past 14
years. To produce such numbers of
these toasty six-for-a-buck minidoughnuts
filled with sweet red bean,
almond or walnut paste, he uses a
hydraulically powered assembly-linelike
machine that steams rather than
bakes his golden nuggets to a Timbit
crisp. In a more conventional manner,
Lee also turns out super Proustian
madeleines and winter-warming
griddle cakes stuffed with stir-fried
veggies that reference pupusas.
Up in Pacific Mall’s food court,
Tung Tung Dan Quen King (4300
Steeles East, at Kennedy, 905-948-
1288) makes crisply crusted crepes
dusted with confectioner’s sugar
that look like waffles but taste like
ginger snaps. They’re perfect for
snacking on from a paper bag while
navigating the mega mall’s maze of
discount electronics shops. Back
downtown, one of the better
Chinatown tray ‘n’ tong joints where
customers using plastic tongs to
help themselves cafeteria-style to
Chinese-style buns from plastic-covered
bins is Furama Cake and
Dessert Garden (248 Spadina, at
Cameron, 416-504-5709). The real
attraction isn’t the preponderance of
savoury cakes stuffed with hot dog
wieners, but Furama’s stellar
Westernized desserts, especially the
house’s moderately priced green tea
cheesecake and chocolate-crusted
tart piped with convincingly creamy
mousse made from taro.
The grandmother of all local Asian
bakeries is Yung Sing (22 Baldwin, at
McCaul, 416-979-2832), a friendly
family-run spot that’s been in business
since 1968, back when Baldwin
Village was a hippie enclave instead
of a hip resto strip. Why, its ham-andegg
breakfast bun pre-dates the Egg
McMuffin by several years!
Overflowing with rubber plants – a
nice change from the usual plastic –
Yung Sing also features dim sumstyle
savouries like wonton-wrapped
shrimp rolls, sticky rice pyramids
wrapped in banana leaf and first-rate
weekends-only har gow and shiu
mai.
