of walks, rain and bread

Today was a special day and for that my family went out for lunch at a chinese restaurant. We were celebrating my sister's 20th birthday even though it isn't until another few days and so the importance of the outing was lessened, however it turned out to be quite a productive day.

I haven't been sure exactly what I should be putting in this blog, and now I've decided that I'll at least share some food news from the bakeries and shops in my area. Mind you, I do not live in a very populated state and there are few stores that I know of, but I'm doing my best to find them all and report them here.

One of the things that I found strangely interesting was one of the restaurant's desserts: This was sago with coconut milk and watermelon on strawberry and lime flavoured jelly. I must admit, this kept me busy for a while just playing with the mixed colours.

And it was quite yummy at the same time.

After lunch we went strolling around the city and visited a small oriental bakery named Regent Cakes. I wanted to look inside the Corica shop (where the most heavenly apple strudels are made) but they had already closed by midday. Here are some pictures of the breads and cakes they sell there:

From left to right: a crumbly pineapple custard bun, a soft cream bun and a glazed custard butter bun. The pineapple flavour wasn't very strong however the cream was very nice, while the butter bread tasted true to its name. I would have to say that the cream bun won the competition this time, but overall they were quite good selections.

I believe this is a wild berry cake slice, which is my favourite from that bakery so far, and a sweet Holland tart, which was quite average.

I love opening their doors and walking close to their kitchen where the warmth and the aroma of fresh buns reaches your nose...

I asked specifically to go to the local spice shop in order to find some cocoa nibs for my sister's birthday cookies. She's hasn't much of a sweet tooth (sometimes I wonder why we're related) but figured that if anything a chocolate recipe with authentic cocoa beans would be best. Personally I didn't even know there was such a thing as a 'nib', but I went along with it anyway.

We searched, high and low and everywhere in between-- but they didn't have it, and we didn't know any other spice store in the city. Unfortunately I had to scratch that particular cocoa nib cookie recipe and opt for her second preference; a chocolate-y hedgehog slice. I purchased some dutch cocoa powder for this even though my mother is convinced that it will make no difference. I wouldn't know either but its got to be better than supermarket cocoa powder right?

More on the promised hedgehog slice, my sister's upcoming birthday and some pictures of my past baking experiences (gulp) in the next post~