My friend and former colleague Cynthia took me to Kanata to surprise me with some delicious baked treats back when we were in the throes of the pandemic.

I had barely been in Ottawa for a year, and I was used to Cynthia taking me to interesting locations in the region such as the Diefenbunker, Mer Bleue and Petrie Island, to name a few. I assumed we were on one of our usual adventures as we set off west from downtown. I had no idea what tasty treats were in store on that day as we headed deeper and deeper into Kanata.

La Maison du Kouign-Amann (pronounced “queen a-mann”) was opened less than a decade ago by Fran Jung, a French woman who worked in finance before pivoting to a career in the food business. It was sold recently to a Canadian couple that has opted not to make too many changes to the successful business. The only thing that’s changed between when Cynthia took me almost four years ago and today is the introduction of a seating area for dozens of people.

My partner and co-writer of the blog Danielle and I visited on Sunday morning. There were several people enjoying their coffee and morning crepes. Refrigerators at the back contained several premade meals for takeout. The eatery is named after a doughy pastry originally from the Brittany region of northwest France. I remember the richness of the flaky pastry when Cynthia took me to La Maison du Kouign-Amann the first time. I wanted to see if they tasted just as good all these years later. We decided to order one to share and a Bretonne crepe.

The pastry was delicious. Its crunchy exterior was coated with sugar. The inside was soft and syrupy, resembling the texture of a Cinnabon. Don’t be fooled by the size of one. There’s enough butter in one to fill you right up. Our crepe arrived shortly after. It was thin and looked quite fragile. Almost each bite came with a mouth full of melted camembert cheese. We loved the caramelized onions and bits of bacon. A sprinkling of spinach made us feel a little bit better about our indulgence.

We paid a total of just over $30 for our meal, which also included a cup of coffee. With a plethora of other pastries, cakes and crepes on the menu, we were already plotting our return to Kanata as we made our way to the car.