Daan Go Cake Lab

Jan 28, 2021 

The Masterchef owner won an international award for his milk tea (so I was pretty excited to try it)

Milk Tea ($4.50) and Pandan Coconut Macaron 

The milk tea came in one size and cold. First thoughts were that it tasted like black tea with sweet evaporated milk and not really like Hong Kong style milk tea. When I took it home and heated it, it was MUCH better and actually tasted like HK milk tea, but on the sweeter side with the evaporated milk. It was a lot more flavourful with a smooth mouth feel and a good combination of the black tea leaves that stood out. I'm not sure it's worth the $4.50 price tag though. 

My first bite of the pandan coconut macaron could taste the pandan flavour, but then the later bites were more of the coconut flavour that slightly overpowered it. It was pretty good overall and the pandan coconut combination was great. 

Peach Garden and Cheesecake Fromage

The peach garden cake came with both yellow and white peach flavour and a crunchy almond base and osmanthus jelly layer on top. It was super pretty and had a ton of peach flavour from the peach jelly under the top osmanthus layer as well as peach cream and cake. I thought it was okay, but not necessarily something I'd get again (I'd go for the pandaan or milk tea cake). The bottom crust was rather soggy rather than crunchy. 

Cheesecake Fromage was made with white chocolate and lime passionfruit cheesecake and lime truffle mousse. The white chocolate outside layer was actually a thin layer of hardened white chocolate (didn't quite expect that) and the cheesecake turned out to be super tart lime with a bit of a soggy crumbly crust. (also not really a favourite).  

July 21, 2020

PanDaan cake $6.50 - pandan, coconut and chiffon cake
The chiffon cake was light fluffy and airy with a crunchy middle layer and a nice bottom crust. The cake also had a grainy coconut texture from the coconut shreds, but it didn't have a lot of pandan flavour. I found that even the cream cheese flavour was more than the pandan. 

May 31, 2020

Durian desserts are super popular in Asia, but not as much in North America. Durians are divisive fruits since they're so pungent - you either love it or hate it. Personally, I really like eating it and the flavour of it, but preferably in small doses since it does smell so bad. Daan Go has a popular durian cake that I've been wanting to try out for a while, so I stopped by to pick up a slice of the cake. 

Pretty packaging!

Gold Thorn Cake $7

There's so much durian goodness in this tiny slice of cake with durian mousse, durian puree, cheese cream and fluffy cake. The second I opened the box I could smell the durian and the flavour can really pack a punch. The cake was a little mushy at the top from the durian puree similar to the texture of durian and I loved the base at the bottom which was crispy and crunchy to add different textures.  

3:15 Cake with Hong Kong milk tea, Vietnamese Coffee and Ovaltine $6.50

The Vietnamese coffee flavour was strongest in this cake and it worked well paired with the milk tea mousse. I also liked Ovaltine pineapple bun crumb crunch. 

Lucky Duck with pistachio and lemon mousse $7

The pistachio cream was really good, but I found the lemon pistachio pairing kind of odd. The white chocolate duck had lemon inside which was a nice surprise! (The bathtub isn't edible, but the whole dessert was really cute). 

May 13, 2018

Super cute macarons - Pistachio, Hong Kong Milk Tea and Mango flavours

The macaron feet (cookies) were super crumbly and the filling inside the macarons wasn't really outstanding. I think my favourite of these was the Hong Kong Milk tea, but I probably wouldn't be back for their macarons. 

Website: https://www.daango.com/

Snacks & Food @ C&C Supermarket

Aug 25, 2020

The Cherry Blossom flavour Lan Fong Yuen milk tea was on sale a few weeks ago at C&C, but I didn't find it until much later at another Chinese grocery store. 

 

Sakura Flavour

The drink was kind of flowery, but it wasn't immediate when you smelled it. The milk tea was smooth and super sweet - it was really sugary (I probably wouldn't get it again unless they make a no-sugar version). 

August 18, 2020

Near the end of the day, the sushi at C&C Supermarket goes on sale. I managed to pick up a black dragon roll for $3.99:

Pretty good for the price since it had lots of eel with a yummy sauce and the roll had fake crab, fried shrimp and a lot of avocado. 

Also picked up some fried sesame balls with red bean (which were okay, but they lost their shape and were a little dry), youtiao (which were pretty good despite it being part of their end of day sale), spring rolls (skip that - they weren't very good) and Shanghai noodles with vegetable and meat (not that great since the flavour wasn't very strong). 

August 5, 2020

After watching a ton of historical Chinese dramas, I've really wanted to try their pretty flower cake snacks. Luckily C&C Supermarket was having a sale on their Osmanthus and Taro rice cake snacks for $1.68 per box - so I thought this would be a good opportunity. 

Osmanthus flavour and Taro Flavour (and what it actually looks like)

This is definitely a case of buyer beware - the pictures were definitely different from the actual rice powder cakes inside. It was super powdery, not pleasant tasting and had a weird grainy texture. The osmanthus had a flowery perfume flavour and the taro had a weird lingering after taste - definitely skip this (it was terrible). 

We also saw this on sale from the famous Lan Fong Yuen Milk tea place in Hong Kong

$1.99 for a cup of their Hong Kong style milk tea

The milk tea was really sweet but very smooth and it worked out to about 2 cups worth when reheated with more water to dilute the sweetness. It has the classic Lan Fong Yuen super silky texture and excellent flavour. There was also the silk milk tea flavour (which was also really smooth and very sweet). 

July 15, 2020

I was wandering around C&C Supermarket when I saw this on sale for $3.99: 

Snack size baumkuchen! 

The Marukin baumkuchen cakes were pretty good! They were sweet, buttery and still a bit moist with the baumkuchen layers like circular tree rings.The layers kept their shape as opposed to other pre-packaged baumkuchen which is usually just pound cake. I was pretty happy with this snack from Japan at the supermarket!

Bean House

July 25, 2020

Sakura Rose Red Bean Cake and Osmanthus Mung Bean Cake ($11.99 each)

I loved the fresh adzuki (red bean) cakes last time with the sakura and rose floral scents - it's delicious and such a nice healthy treat to eat (especially while watching historical Chinese dramas since I can now eat the same cakes as the actors!). 

The osmanthus mung brean cake had red bean paste in the middle and a very light osmanthus scent, but it was mostly red bean flavour with a mung bean outside. While nice, it wasn't as outstanding as the red bean cake. 

June 15, 2020

When I was picking up Korean food at Yummy BBQ a while ago, I noticed that there was a new restaurant/food store in the plaza. I googled it and found out they serve bean cakes (perfect timing since I've been wanting to try Chinese style bean cakes after watching so many Chinese historical dramas with characters eating these). 

Original Assorted, Adzuki bean with sakura rose flavour and yellow pea cakes ($30 total)

The bean cakes are made fresh with no added preservatives

Adzuki bean with sakura rose cakes

These beancakes were really good with a sweet fragrant flavour from the sakura and rose. They were also beautiful shaped like roses and they tasted really nice and sweet with a smooth texture. 

Yellow Pea cakes

The yellow pea cakes had a chunkier texture than the other bean cakes and it had a decent yellow pea flavour. Not my favourite though since I don't really like peas.

Original Assorted: brown lentil, dark kidney bean, yellow pea, green pea, light kidney bean and red lentil cake

My favourites were the dark kidney bean, which had a strong kidney bean flavour and was quite tasty, and the red lentil, which was sweet, smooth and flavourful and had a grainy texture.

The light kidney bean was okay, but the flavour of the bean was more subtle and light. The brown lentil was okay too with a strong lentil flavour and a smooth texture. The green pea was probably my least favourite since I wasn't a big fan of the pea flavour and the grainier texture. 

Website: https://beanhouse.ca/contactus

Nam Dae Moon

After watching a ton of Chinese dramas, I've really wanted to eat their flower cakes and bean cakes. When I saw that Nam Dae Moon had osmanthus rice cakes, I really wanted to try it and I ordered it from Doordash. 

Osmanthus Rice cake $9.90, purple sweet potato and red bean daifuku $4.99 and mango daifuku $5.49

The osmanthus rice cake had really good osmanthus jelly, but unfortunately, it was just the drop that you see on top of the rice cake in the picture. Otherwise, the rice cake was bland and tasted like a huge block of cooked, mashed up and packed rice. 

Mango and purple sweet potato and red bean daifuku

The mango daifuku was really big, but it was frozen solid, so I had to let it sit out to defrost for a while before I could eat it. The mango filling was good and there was some ice cream in there too. The mochi was sticky and glutinous. The purple sweet potato and red bean daifuku was much smaller than the mango, but it had a lot more filling inside and it was quite tasty.