British puddings
Monday, 26. May 2008, 14:26:39
One of the things that has surprised me most about England is that there is no cake shops, patisserie, as such. You can find patisserie or pasticceria in London, but these are foreign imports, it is a new culture.
There are sweet shops, but they sell only candies. If you want cakes, you have to go to bakery, yup, bread shop.
At the beginning, I thought it was because the British people do not really have sweets culture, but then, I found out the British sweets, which they call "puddings", are very good! It is no doubt partly down to the excellent quality of dairy here (i.e. milk, butter and cream, but cheese is probably not as good as in France or Italy), but not only that. The English people do make very nice cakes!
Some examples, although probably not the best ones. I bought these from a chain bakery shop called Bakers Oven near our house.
This oblong cake is called "Custard Slice".
The icing is super-sweet, but the custard isn't and make a good combination. I love custard, and although it wasn't the best example (I don't expect so much for the price I paid), it goes very well with white tea (meaning "tea with milk" here).
And these are custard tarts.
The eggy thing inside the casing is not custard cream, but custard pudding. The moisture of the pudding infiltrates into the case and it is pretty soft. Probably I have never told you but I LOVE
custard pudding, so I loved these too. They were not very sweet. It costs 50p (US$1) for one.
They were so nice and made me happy
There are sweet shops, but they sell only candies. If you want cakes, you have to go to bakery, yup, bread shop.
At the beginning, I thought it was because the British people do not really have sweets culture, but then, I found out the British sweets, which they call "puddings", are very good! It is no doubt partly down to the excellent quality of dairy here (i.e. milk, butter and cream, but cheese is probably not as good as in France or Italy), but not only that. The English people do make very nice cakes!
Some examples, although probably not the best ones. I bought these from a chain bakery shop called Bakers Oven near our house.
This oblong cake is called "Custard Slice".
The icing is super-sweet, but the custard isn't and make a good combination. I love custard, and although it wasn't the best example (I don't expect so much for the price I paid), it goes very well with white tea (meaning "tea with milk" here).
And these are custard tarts.
The eggy thing inside the casing is not custard cream, but custard pudding. The moisture of the pudding infiltrates into the case and it is pretty soft. Probably I have never told you but I LOVE
custard pudding, so I loved these too. They were not very sweet. It costs 50p (US$1) for one.They were so nice and made me happy
WIDGETIZE
CaptainPenguin # 26. May 2008, 18:54
fbaggins # 27. May 2008, 04:45
Here bakeries sell almost everything. Pastries, cakes, breads, doughnuts.. even ice blended drinks!
tabatakayoko # 27. May 2008, 06:36
My point is that these places selling cakes do not call themselves "cake shop" but "bakery". In other European countries like France and Italy, there are bread bakeries (boulanger/ panetteria) and cake shops (patisserie/ pasticceria). In Japan also bread bakery and sweets shop are different entities, although bakers often sell cakes too (usually of inferior quality and cheaper price comparing to the produce of cake shops). For the people from the countries that have specialised cake shops, the bakery is not the obvious place to look for best cakes.
tabatakayoko # 27. May 2008, 06:46
In Japan, there are also such kind of bakeries, selling bread, cakes, savoury pasties, sweet danishes, cookies, with eat-in section with drinks. But the best cakes can be found in specialised cake shops that do not sell bread. The Japanese traditional sweets are sold obviously in yet another specialised shop.
By the way, if I want lovely Malay sweets, where should I go? Do the bakeries sell them, too? I love Malay sweets.
galadriel # 28. May 2008, 14:32
They look really nice, especially the topping on the custard slice. The pattern is really pretty.
It can be hard finding nice bakeries here. There are lots which make boring stuff and a few which make really delicious breads and cakes Mmmmm. At the moment, there is a marble cake (it is chocolate and vanilla inside) behind me and I can smell it yummy!
tabatakayoko # 28. May 2008, 17:38
Yup. I ate them all. But not in one go or in a day.
I live between two shopping quaters, and none of these have artisanal bakery. The Baker's Oven where I bought these sweets is part of a large chain. This kind of franchise/chain shops and supermarket instore bakeries do make acceptably nice bread but not of exceptional quality. I get tired after a while.
Currently I buy Polish bread from Polish grocery. It is pretty good, even though it is not artisanal.
Can I have a slice of your marble cake? I am getting hungry now.
fbaggins # 29. May 2008, 00:34
Ahh.. got specialised shops for those.
Malay sweets are easy to find. You can go to Malay cafes/restaurants ( that offer breakfast, lunch & tea ) and even hypermarkets. Those in hypermarkets are not that good though, as you can imagine coz those are extremely not authentic. Best place you can go is the stalls. You can find these stalls by the road side in the mornings. The Malay sweets sold here are the best!
galadriel # 29. May 2008, 11:11
What is 'artisanal' bread? Have you tried Polish sausage? It's very yummy
tabatakayoko # 29. May 2008, 17:00
mmmmmh. It is very tempting. Only problem is that I cannot find these stalls here in Birmingham.
Also in Japan, the Japanese traditional sweets are sold at specialised shops (and at supermarkets, just because they sell everything anything). They are mostly made of beans and sugar, and no oil. Very healthy.
tabatakayoko # 29. May 2008, 17:08
No marble cakes!? Well, keep one slice for me next time.
The 'artisanal' is a concept opposit to 'mass-produced'. When the bread is made by professional bread artisans, they it is artisanal bread.
I did try Polish sausage, but I actually prefer Italian or Greek sausage. And, to tell you the truth, I am not a big sausage lover. Have you ever tried British sausage? I find them disturbing, probably because of the non-meat ingredients they mix in.
fbaggins # 30. May 2008, 00:30
Yea I doubt there would be any stalls selling Malay sweets in Birmingham
I love the Malay sweets ( but not too sweet ) and that's quite something as people here now are more towards modern ones. In my family I'm the only one who keep asking my mother to buy this and that ( Malay sweets ) till my mother got irritated saying "Nobody eat those anymore except you!"
So Japanese traditional sweets are healthy then
tabatakayoko # 31. May 2008, 15:43
How are you passing your weekend?
There are no stalls, but there are a few shops selling Malaysian-style sweets, although they don't inspire me so much. The ingredients are not that difficult to find here, so I might try when I find a trustworthy recipe.
I am sorry to hear that the Malay people are giving up traditional sweets, as they are so nice. Japanese keep on eating both Western and Japanese sweets, combining with different type of drinks (Japanese sweets with Japanese green tea, and tea/coffee with Western cakes).
fbaggins # 2. June 2008, 00:28
My weekend passed extremely fast! Feels like just a few hours ago it was Friday and I was sitting here
How was yours?
There are shops selling Malay sweets? Wow! I didn't think that could happen
So it's like matching up the drinks with the sweets, eh? Well, like old folks here like to say, "Eat while you can.. when you get old, you wouldn't have the eppetite anymore". Well it's almost an excuse but hey, let's look it on the bright side, eh?
I love green tea. Believe it or not, my first green tea was when I bought it with a meal at McDonalds!
tabatakayoko # 4. June 2008, 16:31
My weekend ... I don't remember. It is a long time ago!
Birmingham is the second largest town in UK and the population is very international. Although there is not specifically Malay shops, the Oriental grocers sell Malay, Indonesian, Japanese, Thai etc stuff as well as more ubiquitous Chinese. Very convenient.
I cannot believe that MacDonald's serves green tea