Pink Candles at Ridgemont High: Mr. Bread

Monday, September 26, 2016

Mr. Bread

The striped awnings with a cute stylized happy baker on it lured me in like the Millenium Falcon to the Death Star's massive tractor beam...

Bert already knew from the look on my face that we would have to go in...

I didn't take too many photos inside. It's very very small in here and the owners were right there. I would have felt awkward (as if that ever stopped me before, ha ha). It smelled so good in here and I liked seeing the flaky pastry layers...

These are the mere three items we purchased: curry beef puff, coconut pineapple strudel and banana bread (which looks like a mochi roll).

The three rolls did NOT taste like banana at all. It wasn't even bread. It was soft and chewy like mochi and didn't have any particular flavor. It was like eating rice dough. A few small bites were all I had and that was it. I was beginning to think that maybe this was mislabeled. If anyone out there is familiar with this type of dessert, was this really what it was supposed to be? I'm baffled.

Update - 10/8 - So I looked online and found that this dessert is indeed supposed to be banana flavored. Most bogs and recipes I saw online called it 'banana cake' rather than 'bread'. The rolls I saw online were cylindrical, like the ones I bought (but were more flattened). Some rolls had a red or dark pink dot in the middle. Ironically the "cake" itself does not have real bananas in it but is flavored with banana powder. Well, I guess the package I bought didn't really have too much of that banana flavor in it.

For photos of this type of dessert, check out this post from FoodJunkieChronicles, "Macau goodies & other delicacies" (Jan 2012) - Scroll to the end and you can see the desserts; plus the link to Koi Kei, a popular dessert shop from Macau. It's supposed to be an order link but it is not working.

The curry puff and strudel ended up being breakfast the next day. Both were much more pleasant to eat than those doughy non-banana flavored things.

While searching for links to this post, I saw an article that mentioned that Mr. Bread specialized in Macau style pastries (linked at the end). Of course, I didn't know that when walking in. Had I known this beforehand, I would have bought one or two of their Portuguese style tarts (a signature item), which the owners say have a crisp crust and a creamier custard filling than other versions. I myself prefer the crisper crust instead of the bready ones that I normally associate with Chinese bakeries.

Unlike last time we used the streetcar, there was no cranky driver upset that the fare machine wasn't working. Bert said we could have walked back to our motel but I didn't want to walk all those blocks. Plus, tired.