ken's artisan bakery

portland, or

website

met up with monica at a cute bakery in portland, near the 23rd street shopping district. we ordered an array of baked goods - a quiche, a croissant (with apricot preserves) and a fruity tart thing. perfect for breakfast with a mug of coffee. it's pretty popular so seating can be difficult, but monica and i managed to get there early enough to snag a table.

dominique ansel bakery

new york, ny

website

jenny introduced me to this bakery when i visited new york city eons ago, long before dominique ansel invented its infamous cronut. i know. that's how far behind i am on my blogging. which is why i've adopted this new lazy format. type up some random thoughts. throw a big picture up. voila. blogpost done.

bread winners

dallas, tx

website

derek and i were in dallas for two days to celebrate c+j's wedding. took the opportunity to see some friends who were nearby - eric, tony, and kate. tony and kate recommended bread winners for sunday brunch and eric graciously headed there early to wait for a table. clearly a very popular spot - there was a crowd waiting outside and an intercom system announcing seatings.

man, i love eating in texas. i didn't take a picture of everything we ordered but trust me, everything was texas-sized. to start, the table shared a giant cinnamon roll and a sticky caramel pecan roll. for my entree, i ordered biscuits and gravy with a side of sausages. heavy, but good. pictured is derek's chicken fried steak topped with sausage gravy. the brunch cocktails were a little too sweet for my tastes (i ordered the frozen cherry limeade), but the food was excellent.

half moon bay bakery

half moon bay, ca

link to yelp

hello again. so work has been busy. it's still busy, but i'm going to take my lunch hour today to try to catch up on some posts. the fabulous jinny was visiting the bay area about a month or two or three ago. when jinny and i hang out, we generally go wherever the wind blows us. on a whim, we decided to head up to half moon bay, famous day-trip destination for bay area residents.

we had no itinerary but followed the signs from 101-north toward half moon bay, then decided followed the signs to "downtown" and "main street." ended up parking on main street and finding a cute bakery, aptly named "half moon bay bakery." i can't remember what my baked good was called, but it was basically a holeless donut, filled with custard and topped with chocolate. amazing. jinny and i sat on the bench outside while we devoured our treats - pretty sure about 3 people walking by saw us eating and decided to check out the bakery.

pamplemousse

redwood city, ca

website

never had a canele before, not entirely sure how to pronounce it, but it looked delicious. waiting for derek to get his hair cut, i decided to hang out at a cute little french bakery on broadway. the display case beckoned with beautiful little macarons and lots of pretty cakes. the canele was delicious - caramelized sugar at the bottom, moist cake in the middle. eggy and rich. yum.

alison bakery

palo alto, ca

website

the volvo needed a check-up, so i left the car at the volvo dealership and walked across the street to find a place to study for my exam. the giant starbucks looked like an obvious spot, but i noticed alison bakery right next to it. the glass display full of giant croissants, cakes, and cupcakes drew me in (we all know how mediocre starbucks' baked goods are). the bakery also had ample seating with a sunny interior, so it looked like an excellent place to study.

the proprietor was quite happy to see me walk in. this bakery recently opened and it must be difficult to get people out of their 'bucks habit. no espresso drinks but they have an excellent and cheap drip coffee. the proprietor mentioned that the banana muffins had just come out of the oven, so of course i ordered one of those. the muffin would have been good, but ordinary if it was cold. however, fresh out of the oven it was extraordinary -- crunchy on the outside, warm and moist on the inside. yum.