B-B-B-Bakery

One of the major cravings I’ve had since being in China has been for bread. Be it plain, toasted, in a sandwich (supporting delicious, delicious bacon) – you name it. Unfortunately, what I always assumed was ‘normal bread’ (that is, savoury) is not quite so readily available or greatly desired here. For some reason, in China the vast majority of bread you see will be sweet. In a loaf? Sweet. A normal-looking burger bun? Sweet. See a toasted sandwich? Sweet. After initially learning this lesson the hard way through trial and error, I can now semi-enjoy this sweet bread knowing full well what to expect. Don’t get me wrong, when it’s with other sweet things (like jam-esque goo), it’s pretty much cake-like and yummy. But what I don’t get is when it’s with tuna, sweetcorn, a chicken fillet, beef or a hot dog (the list goes on!) why does it have to be sweet?! JUST STOP PUTTING SUGAR IN THE DOUGH! IS THAT REALLY TOO MUCH TO ASK? 

Anywho, this post is on the traditional Chinese bakery and it’s sometimes delicious, sometimes disgusting contents!  A picture is worth a thousand words so it’s probably easier to just show you the typical things you’d find in a ‘bakery’ here. 

Don't let the savoury looking things fool you, even the garlic bread is sweet

No idea what some of this stuff is...
The orangey, stringy stuff you see on a few is actually beef, don't cha know

OK, so the top left is one of the rare savoury things you will find! 
It is actually normal pastry! Hurrah!
The bottom one is quite strange. It's savoury (with chunks 
of 'bread' and maybe meat on a toasted slice, but it has some
kind of sweet sauce on it)

Sweet bun!

Looks like cheese. Nope.
And that's sweet bread with the hotdog, obvs.

The outside of this thing was like what sushi is wrapped in - seaweed?
Inside: cucumber, that strange beef, and I can't remember what else

Desserts are another matter entirely though! The cake here I’ve found is quite different to cake back home; it’s hard to describe, but I guess I would say it’s more dense? Heavier? But delicious for sure! (They ain't got nothing on http://www.thepatchworkbakery.com/ though). These cakes below are from fancy bakeries. There are other - I guess I’d still call them - bakeries around that sort of operate as stalls, and these sell cake too, just not as prettily decorated you see. My fave thing to buy from these though is what I call ‘flat bread’; it’s a savoury, doughy thing kind of like a naan or pitta bread (but much more oily) and tastes so delicious!

So I bought this cake for our lǎowài Thanksgiving
The icing was kind of creamy and light, the filling 
was layers of sponge with layers of fruit (not sure what - mango?)
Really good!

Something sweet! Apologies for the darkness of the photo
- the bakery was having a powercut at the time

Green Tea Cheesecake!
Well it said cheesecake, but it wasn't. Nice though!

White Chocolate Mousse thingy
SO good!

下次见 (Xià cì jiàn)!

xoxo