PaiGu

Yogoberri is one of those places you pass by and you think, “Hey, that looks cute. I want to try that one day.” Well, that one day came on Saturday night, when my friends and I were driving up and down Yonge St, looking for a place to hang out after dinner. Suddenly, I pulled the car into a small parking lot.
“Where have you taken us?” They asked, as they looked up through the glass window of Yogoberri to see a few Asians chatting over dessert.
Without a word, I walked up to the door and held it open for them. In they filed, and up the stairs we went, arriving at a small but busy room, decorated with black and white leather seats, green highlights, and fake potted plants along the wall.

I immediately plastered myself against their cake display. There were only three cakes on display, sweet potato, butternut squash, and fruit cake, but I also saw signs for mocha and green tea. I was smitten.

My friends and I ended up ordering a slice of each cake, as well as half a waffle (I’ve never seen half-waffles being sold but here they were). Each slice was amazing, although I ended up buying the sweet potato cake to bring home for my dad’s birthday, because it had the kind of taste you can never get sick of – subtle, sweet, and smooth.


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After an exhausting shopping marathon, my friend and I decided to visit the Milestones in Masonville Mall. The decor was very elegant and modern, just what you’d expect from Milestones. The lighting was dim but not dark, the atmosphere was intimate but not quite romantic (probably due to the straight edges and black furniture of the modern decor), and the service was impeccable.

As soon as we sat down, we were introduced to the “wish list,” which was filled with imaginative cocktails and mouth-watering desserts. My friend and I immediately knew what we wanted for dessert, and decided to order our entree with that in mind. I had the recommended Milestones Original Bellini, which was a colourful mix of premium white rum, peach liqueur and sparkling white wine, topped with Boone’s sangria. The peach liqueur with sparkling white wine was what drew me to this drink, but the sangria was the real topping on the cake.

I ordered Thai chicken tacos, which were a huge platter of three Indian flatbreads with slaw, three skewers of chicken, and two dipping sauces. One dipping sauce was a mango vinaigrette, which was refreshing and only slightly sour. The other was a peanut satay sauce, which was not very peanut-y at all and not viscous enough. The satays were grilled to perfection, but were not marinaded in the traditional Asian style. The slaw was filled with coriander, which I detest, so I could not have very much, but what I did have was crunchy and fresh. The Indian flatbreads were warm and fluffy, but quite tasteless. I had very little of my entree because everything was covered in coriander, so the platter was still as full when it left as when it arrived.

My friend and I each ordered a dessert and split it (though I’ve now forgotten the names and it’s not on their website). One was a chocolate cake with vanilla gelato and whipped cream on top (I think it was called Ibana), covered in caramel. The caramel tasted in-house, in a good sort of way, and the vanilla gelato tasted amazing with the rich chocolate cake. The other was a dark chocolate pie with a pecan crust. The dark chocolate was an interesting experience, since it was still rather creamy and milky, but it was less sweet with subtle bitter undertones. The pecan crust was the real masterpiece. I’m not a huge fan of pecan but this was quite a treat. Unfortunately, the dessert is not made in-house, so I can’t give Milestones credit for that.

Overall, the experience was relaxing and enjoyable. The entree was memorable only because I could not eat most of it due to the coriander, but the dessert and the bellini more than made up for it.

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I’ve never liked cake very much. When I was a kid, my parents carved me a cake out of watermelon for my birthday, and I thought it was the best thing ever. As for the actually fluffy dough and icing, I didn’t need it, nor did I want it.

Until I had a mango mousse cake in a French cafe in Montreal last year.

The second slice of cake I had was a year later, in a Coffee Culture in London, Ontario.

I was there with a friend, who ordered the New York Cheesecake. Being lactose intolerant, I’ve never taken to cheesecakes, despite protests from many of my friends that they were heavenly. This time was no different, my friend in question made me try some of her cheesecake. It had the slight sourness of a cheesecake, which toned down the sweetness of the chocolate-y-ness of my cake, but it wasn’t a little piece of heaven by any stretch of the imagination

And then yesterday, I had my first, certifiable, heaven-on-earth cheesecake experience. It was like finding true love. The moment I put it in my mouth, there was a clap of thunder, a gong hit somewhere, and the world froze around me, but all I could feel was the mishmash of heaven on my palate. It was a standard chocolate cheesecake with glazed strawberries on top, but it was the perfect blend of sweet chocolate and cheese, with a smooth consistency and a slight woody finish. Sounds like it could be a wine, doesn’t it? If only.

The photo does not do justice to its heavenly-ness. But actually, this was my friend’s order, which I ended up devouring piece by piece. My original order was something called “Milky Way,” a giant of a chocolate cake, with four layers of mousse, a dark chocolate crust and a thick caramel glaze. It was so rich and sweet that I had to drink a full cup of water with every bite.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my coming of age cake story.