rate Baklava among pastries

[club fighter]

Real Baklava you taste the nuts, the flakey dough and honey has flavors, every bite has texture, taste, and sweetness.

Club fighter you make an interesting point I assume must be so: I never realized that the nuts used was a major factor! With that said...where does one get the good stuff these days?

Fact is Greek or Turkish shops are the best at it, so finding a shop or import store is step one. Another great source is festivals at Greek or Turkish churches/mosques. It's Yiayia (grandma) baked items straight from the clergy, sometimes better than bakery items.

You can always search out the CostPlus type places for imported Baklava but as far as freshness, you're on your own.

Good luck in your search, it's not always easy to find these sources, the Greek import shop near me just got bought out by some middle eastern people that are changing it into a Greek/Halal market and things are probably going to be different.

[club fighter]

I also like my pastry savory...And its a damn shame but in America it is seldom one can get a decent savory pastry. The Chinese have chain stores in Frisco where you can... and French places have croissants with ham and cheese, etc. But so many places you cannot find them.

Just get a pack O' dis stuff & do Ur own thang baby!!



Easy to use, brush it with a little butter, experiment with some filling ideas, fold or roll them, throw it in the oven, bam!!

Spinach/Feta
Meat/onion
chicken/mushroom
cheese
the options are limitless!!!




.... and it's SF or The City, only the HA & tourists get a pass.

[Mooshashi]

Cannoli are number one. Baklava is number two, but a distant number two. Tres leches cake is number three.

[hayZ]

You know... Pistachio and Walnut have very different flavors. I can see why that would make a difference. Pistachio is subtle but very very nice...Walnuts are great but not subtle by any means. In Louisiana they go to the Pecan. Pecans also have great flavor, but again, not really subtle.

I also like my pastry savory...And its a damn shame but in America it is seldom one can get a decent savory pastry. The Chinese have chain stores in Frisco where you can... and French places have croissants with ham and cheese, etc. But so many places you cannot find them.

Pistachio is phenomenal when they put the normal amount of it in but when in Turkey they also sell the green baklava which is basically 90% pistachio. It doesn't have as much sugar and just enough pastry to keep it together. I was not a huge fan of that. They also do chocolate baklava with a bit of glazing, absolutely amazing.

We do pastries really well here in the UK. Savoury especially. Typical English food isn't great but our pies and savoury pastries are up there with the best.

Do they make a paste of the walnuts like you see here in America? I find this paste is overwhelming, as it is done here. My short term memory is shot to crap lol, but I still remember that when we got Baklava as kids in NYC, from the market on 10th ave, the taste and feel was really light. Full of flavor, but so very light...

Nope. They don't make a paste of it. It's glazed so it doesn't mess up with the texture of the baklava because it is quite syrupy which makes it slightly soggy. The ones most places make here in the UK are not sweet enough and the pastry is far too hard. I found one place that does it very nice but they are very pricey. One box of 10 pieces is ?GBP. I could get the best baklava in the world for cheaper when I was in Turkey lol.

[billeau2]

Fact is Greek or Turkish shops are the best at it, so finding a shop or import store is step one. Another great source is festivals at Greek or Turkish churches/mosques. It's Yiayia (grandma) baked items straight from the clergy, sometimes better than bakery items.

You can always search out the CostPlus type places for imported Baklava but as far as freshness, you're on your own.

Good luck in your search, it's not always easy to find these sources, the Greek import shop near me just got bought out by some middle eastern people that are changing it into a Greek/Halal market and things are probably going to be different.

I hear you. I gave up finding real Baklava years ago. I was pleasantly suprised to find it, in all places, in Cajun country! where my wife is from, Lafayette Louisiana. There is an expat Greek community and they have some nice eating places.

[KING MEAT]

my favorite christmas treat. only in december.

[Sparked_26]

It is so good.

There used to be this coffee shop near me that had such great baklava. It was so unpopular in there. Me and my wife had the run of the place.

Baklava is one of those things that it is so sweet that it is proper jolt.

Diabetics should carry some around

[billeau2]

Just get a pack O' dis stuff & do Ur own thang baby!!



Easy to use, brush it with a little butter, experiment with some filling ideas, fold or roll them, throw it in the oven, bam!!

Spinach/Feta
Meat/onion
chicken/mushroom
cheese
the options are limitless!!!




.... and it's SF or The City, only the HA & tourists get a pass.

Frisco is what natives hate lol...Good catch. I use it affectionately. Have raised two kids in New YorK City and San Francisco... New york is like that perfect girl, elegant, beautiful, but you better have your sh ... together! San Francisco is like that girl who is a pain in the @33 but in bed!!

yeah I use Phylo dough a lot. It is indeed something that you can put almost anything in. But my savory is usually enjoyed on the run... Because the bread in san francisco is awful...

[club fighter]

Because the bread in san francisco is awful...

You lived here and never figured out where to buy bread? or is it the sourdough thing? I'm curious.

I know the east has a long heritage on this stuff but I've lived on both coasts and the east coast water/bread/pizza crust fable is just that, a fable. There's a guy just a few blocks from my house that's been whooping NY at world pizza competitions for the past decade or more.

[billeau2]

You lived here and never figured out where to buy bread? or is it the sourdough thing? I'm curious.

I know the east has a long heritage on this stuff but I've lived on both coasts and the east coast water/bread/pizza crust fable is just that, a fable. There's a guy just a few blocks from my house that's been whooping NY at world pizza competitions for the past decade or more.

I have never has a proper pizza crust in the Bay Area, one that cracks when you fold it, and is crispy on the bottom. Sourdough is ok...not a fan... But real light frenchbread for a sandwich, and not that heavy tasteless stuff... Actually the Vietnamese sandwich shops, some of them in the TL bake their own bread...and it is proper French Bread. Light and tasty.

I hear so many places being talked up... there is a place here in Baltimore, called one of the best in the country by one mag.


Yet its always the same garbage. The crust does not break in the middle. I will take any random place in New York City over them all lol. Im talking New York and not Artisianal Pizza here.

I respect artisianal pizza as a separate enterprise. Also, Paxis has decent deep dish in San Francisco, the Hayes Valley place does, not the place in the Sunset.

I looked at the link for your place and I never tried it so I cannot say. Looks like a combo Ny and artesianal pizza place. To me its simple: Whole milk Mozzarella, I can groove on fresh, or processed whole milk, both make great pizza...Not a fan of cheese blends on NY style thin crust (ok for artesianal), a nice mellow sauce that does not compete, some type of oil, and a crust that breaks when folded....EVen on what we called "Sicilian style, or what they call deep dish in Chicago, the bottom of the crust should be crispy and even with the extra mass in these pies, the dough should be light and airy.

That to me is what I look for in a pizza and I guarantee that at least as of a few years ago... Any pizza place in the city? chances are they do it right.