When I was J's age, I would regularly visit my Nana at her apartment. It was an exciting adventure, and holding her hand, I loved exploring her N.D.G. neighbourhood. We grocery shopped at Steinberg's on Sherbrooke St., wandered the aisles of the Cumberland Drug on Somerled, and most vividly, ate chocolate donuts from Cantor's Bakery on Walkley.
Cantor's was a Montreal tradition. Walking inside, I took flight on a cornacopia of smells from the fresh baked challah bread and bagels, rugelach cookies, strudel, and gingerbread. But, it was never a competition; my 6-year old tongue always watered for Cantor's chocolate donuts. I can still taste the first bite of that donut handed to me in wax paper; the hardened dark chocolate topping had a slight snap before my teeth sank into the dense, thick sponge-like dough. I chewed it slowly, savouring every memorable morsel. Yesterday, J had the same look of epicurean ecstasy on his little face.
Not unexpectedly, Steinberg's, Cumberland's and Cantor's have long closed their doors, absorbed by big box one-stop shopping goliaths, and corner depanneurs. I still think of my Nana often but until yesterday, I hadn't thought of those chocolate donuts in years.
5 comments:
I can close my eyes Kik and be at my neighborhood bakery-Richstones.....thanks for bringing that memeory to the surface.....NOW I WANT A CHOCOLATE DONUT!!!!!!!
That's lovely...and now I really want a chocolate donut.
Perhaps it wasn't the same Cantor's, but there was a bakery in Pointe Claire with the same name. When I was thirteen we moved to within walking distance of it, as long as you didn't mind crossing the train tracks and Highway 20. (Luckily the highway still had a traffic signal.) A trip to Cantor's meant we were having guests for dinner and I had been sent to buy a pie. Year after year I made the trip, dodging commuter trains and the odd hatchback, and never comin home empty handed. But even better than the pie, which was oftentimes still warm, was that our guests were family, an experience I rarely had for the six years living in Michigan. Still to this day I can close my eyes and be at the table with my grandparents and aunts, all of us eating a Cantor's multi-berry pie and not saying a word.
Really sweet blog - literally and figuratively! Now the low-fat muffins that I just baked are sooo not going to cut it!
There is still a Cantor's bakery in Montreal, the original and last one on 8th avenue. I work there! :)
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