Discovering Calgary: Authentic Persian Pastries at Orchid

Sometimes it’s interesting where a chance comment takes you.

About a month ago my husband and I were out looking for Persian rugs in Calgary. We stopped in a shop owned and run by Abbas, a delightful Iranian man. Hospitable too. Within minutes of entering his store we were offered tea and cookies and I innocently enough asked Abbas if he baked them.

No, but my wife does and she has a shop.

Immediately my blog antennae went up and I asked if I could visit the shop and interview his wife.

And that’s just what I did a few days ago.

Orchid Pastry is actually a business run by the brother-sister combo of – Alireza, the brother and Maryam, the sister and wife of Abbas.

They’ve been at it for roughly two years now and as Alireza says, it’s the passion for the business that makes it all worthwhile. It would have to be because they put in very long hours, six days a week.

What sets Persian pastries apart from western style pastries is the ubiquitous use of pistachios, rosewater and cardamom. The rosewater and pistachios come directly from Iran.

There are some pastries I recognized – baklava and almond cookies but the koloucheh and kadafi cookies were certainly new to me. Koloucheh cookies are stamped and each type of koloucheh has a different stamp design. They offer five varieties – date, almond, pistachio, walnut and coconut.

Cream filled pastries, especially Napoleons are very popular, as are their logs. At Christmas time they offer seven or eight flavours – for example cappuccino, vanilla and strawberry, and you’d better order ahead if you want one.

Baklava is my favourite of what they offer though I’ve only tried what I would call a traditional baklava and not the Persian variety. It’s dry, without the syrup, and full of almonds.

Orchid Pastry offers a couple of unique products – at least to me – that I haven’t seen elsewhere. One is saffron ice cream, available in tubs or as an ice cream sandwich. It’s extremely popular – like the way vanilla ice cream is for westerners. The other is a frozen, sweetened rice noodle. Alireza tells me that you take it out of the freezer five minutes before you want to eat it and says with obvious delight that it’s absolutely delicious.

Customers have repeatedly told Alireza and Maryam that the desserts aren’t too sweet. They tell me they use 50% less sugar than traditional recipes. As a note they never use lard – only butter and canola oil.

Orchid Pastry has two locations now. One is in north Calgary at #9-6219 Centre Street NW and just a few weeks ago they opened a booth at the Calgary Farmer’s Market. You can buy everything there but the frozen products on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

If those two locations are problematic then try one of their pastries at Kawa Espresso on 8th Street SW or at one of the Waves coffeehouse locations, especially the one on 17th Avenue SW. And if you happen to catch a Calgary Flames hockey game then you’ll find their pastries there too.

Alireza tells me that they are the only Persian bakery in all of Alberta. Maryam hastens to add that most of their business is wholesale though the opening of the Farmer’s Market location should change that. And they cater.

My visit to the bakery was an education and I thank both Alireza and Maryam for putting up with my questions and offering some samples. Next time I’ll have to try the saffron ice cream.

Leigh McAdam

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