Doughnut Plant

Location: 23rd between 7th and 8th

Doughnut Plant makes these huge, very chewy, very bread-y doughnuts, $3 each. I got one of the fresh strawberry and one peanut butter and jelly.

The strawberry had a nice scent, but any flavor of fresh strawberries was overwhelmed by the amount of sugar in the glaze. I liked the balance of the PBJ doughnut (a jelly-filled doughnut with peanut butter glaze) better. But I personally thought they both had way too much glaze, which tended to crack and get all over everything.

An interesting novelty, but I don't think this is going to be the next dessert craze.

Billy's Bakery

Location: 9th Ave between 21st and 22nd (billysbakerynyc.com)

Musings: For the price of Jill's one marshmallow at Recette, I got a massive wedge of red velvet cake, two cupcakes for the road, and a café au lait. The fluffy, whipped frosting on Billy's red velvet isn't quite as good as Buttercup's dense and unctuous version (cream-cheesy goodness!), but the size of the slice is generous to say the least and cake is nice and moist.

Incidentally, you can get an un-frosted cupcake for about half the price of the frosted ones. For those of you who consider this blasphemy, A) I intended to eat them for breakfast the next day and it's easier on the conscience without frosting, and B) I ended up having a few leftover dabs from the red velvet cake that I was able to repurpose.

St. Germain Bakery

Location: Oakridge Shopping Centre in Vancouver, among others

Best loaf of bread in the city.

I remember when there was only one out-of-the-way location (on Cambie, I think) and we would go especially for the bread. The three of us kids would eat half the thing in the car, ripping chunks off the fragrant, freshly-baked, sometimes still hot loaf. My mom would grumble about crumbs, but then even she would succumb and ask for a corner.

You now have to special-order a full loaf of their unsliced white bread, a weighty, ponderous column almost the length of your arm. (You can get smaller portions of pre-sliced bread any time.) It has a silky-fine crumb and is chewy and substantial in the mouth, yet somehow avoids being dense. When sliced thickly, toasted and slathered with butter, it's a superb breakfast. Or afternoon snack. Or a bite for whenever you happen to wander through the kitchen.

(They also do good repertoire of Chinese cakes and pastries.)

Dintai(?) bakery

Location: I'm not 100% sure about the name, but it's on Main St about a block south of the LIRR station in Flushing

A great little Chinese bakery. You can walk out with a bulging bag of breads and pastries for $5. They're finally re-opened after weeks of renovations! Yay!

Really good man tou (a dense, fine-crumbed white roll of sorts). They last over a week if you toss them in the fridge immediately. I like to bring them back to life by slicing and pan-frying them with a little butter or oil. Though too bland to eat on their own, they're excellent for breakfast slathered with dulce de leche or your jam of choice, or on the side with a big bowl of soup.

I like their sesame sao bing but my mom (who has more a more authentic Taiwanese palate) found them too doughy.

They also make good individual sponge cakes (the tall, reverse-pyramid-shaped ones) and pineapple buns (pictured on the right).

Las Familias bakery

Location: the corner of Armenia and Honduras in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires

I had a ham and cheese knot and a meat empanada (I think it was beef, with chopped-up hard-boiled eggs, olives and mushrooms). Awesome and dirt cheap at just 5 pesos (a little over a dollar) total. With a cup of overpriced coffee from Starbucks - purchased only to be able to sit at their outdoor tables, mind you - it was the perfect breakfast and prelude to an extended ramble in La Recoleta Cemetary.

[Note: I had empanadas three more times during the trip, including once in a fancy restaurant, and the ones from Las Familias were the best. If your hotel is nearby, I recommend picking some up for the plane ride home.]