I have this persistent food fantasy about lasagna. You know how when you bake a good lasagna at home the entire top layer, supported by the last floor of noodles, contains a little bit of sauce and pretty much the entirety of the cheese, all caramelized and chewy?
Yeah, well I would like to bake five or six lasagnas, remove that heavy top layer from each, and pile them on top of each other to make a lasagna-tops only lasagna. I figure that sucker would probably weigh about three kilos, contain more than 10,000 calories, and would pair nicely with a juicy, concentrated Nero d’Avola from somewhere in the commune of Caltanisetta in Sicily.
I have other ideas in a similar vain: a platter of only the “oysters” of roast chicken with gravy for dipping, for example, or a grilled cheese sandwich made with the melted Gruyere from atop French onion soup.
This sort of decadent ideation has been brought to fruition a few times already, like with the cronut, the wildly popular filled doughnut made from croissant dough that popped up everywhere a few years ago.
I was reminded of cronuts on a trip to the recently opened Stuffies Pastry Café, a bright and fun little venue kitty-corner to Phibbs Exchange that specializes in a pretty unique offering: stuffed animal (“stuffy”) shaped pastry pockets filled with either savoury or sweet fillings.
Stuffies staffers told me the concept hails from South Korea, and that this North Vancouver location is the only of its kind so far in Western Canada. The shop’s tagline is “Amost Too Cute to Eat” and I tend to agree with that assessment; the small golden pastries, shaped like teddy bears or goldfish, some of which are partially dipped in frosting, are not unlike some of the wide-eyed, grinning stuffed toys that dominate my youngest daughter’s bed surface most days.
Production takes place on premise, where decidedly industrial looking hoses and nozzles feed into animal-shaped moulds, which are then baked, filled and either wrapped for sale or put aside for on-demand heating.
A series of diminutive stuffies sits in racks for customers to pick and choose, some filled with vanilla crème patissiere, some with strawberry, still others with a creamy filling that tastes faintly of almond paste and vanilla. These little treats are a paltry $0.50 each and can be mixed and matched in a conversation-worthy assortment to bring to a kid’s birthday party or to the office for a Friday treat. The pastry on these small offerings is like a pancake/Madeleine hybrid, moderately sweet and drier in style. I felt that the cutesy sweet stuffies might have benefited from a bigger squeeze of filling, though I will concede the morbid nature of the suggestion that if the little creatures contained more viscera I’d find them more enjoyable. It is worth mentioning that the small stuffies are gluten-free and are cooked without oil.
Slightly larger stuffies come in a variety of savoury iterations as well, and for my taste, these are the better way to go. I tried the two breakfast recipes, a hefty goldfish shaped pocket stuffed with egg and cheese, and another with bacon and eggs. The latter was a great morning snack, its pastry light, springy and more croissant-like (Stuffies calls these meal sized offering Cro-Tai), and they are only lightly sweetened, their contents hot and generously portioned. Imagine a more thoughtfully realized pizza pocket (Jim Gaffigan jokes notwithstanding) and you may approximate the experience.
I tried a Thai Chicken version of the Cro-Tai and found it to be an enjoyable riff on a chicken salad sandwich, the shreds of chicken coated in a lightly seasoned mayo, though I was hard-pressed to identify what element constituted the Thai part. Cro-Tai are made from organic pastry dough and also come filled with Nutella, blueberry, and binnamon creams.
Stuffies offers a selection of coffees, juices and soft drinks to accompany their baked goods and I opted for a straightforward Americano to wash down my whimsical meal.
Situated directly across the street from Phibbs Exchange, I am certain that Stuffies will find favour with commuters awaiting their transit connections, and there is no question that the novel offerings will be a hit with kids; my three worked their way through an entire bag of teddy bears watching Saturday morning cartoons.
The “hidden” washroom in the small public space within the café is similarly sure to please the little ones.
Stuffies Pastry Café, 1571 Oxford Street, North Vancouver. 604-971-1000 Stuffiespastries.com.
