Midnight in the Bakery of Good and Delicious

OK, OK, the bakery in question is part of a chain, and combines bubble tea with baked goods and karaoke. It is not fancy, but who has eyes for decor when you're surrounded by buns and cream cakes?

Look where I've been tonight!

It's called Utopia. I believe it is part of a chain, although I'm not sure if the others in the chain stay open this late. They stop serving bubble tea around 10pm, but you can still get hot red tea with milk. The bakery and karaoke area stay open till midnight.

The one I went to is in Myaree, and I was very impressed with Google when I typed in "Utopia Myaree" and the first result was a little map showing where it was.

Let us pause to applaud for Google.

Goods are not baked on site, so unless something is meant to be served cold (like their light-as-air baked cheesecake or green tea Swiss roll), get take-out and heat it up in the oven at home for best results. The refrigerated cake display area is quite impressive, with very fancy birthday and special occasion cakes, (one cake had cream spikes going out horizontally, like a delicious cactus) and yes, I forgot to take my camera AGAIN.

I got a Buttermilk Football, I know it looks a little plain in the photo (fluorescent lighting is no one's friend), but it's pretty hefty.

Soon you will be in my belly, with some hot milky tea.

"Buttermilk", when you go to Asian bakeries, isn't the same as the buttermilk you see in a carton in the dairy aisle.

It is a crunchy, sweet, slightly salty mixture of butter, sugar, and milk powder that is stuffed into a sweet bread roll before baking. And jinkies, as Velma would say, I do love it.

I had my first buttermilk bun in Asia at a place called Angel Bakery. It had a brown brick front with fake wedding cakes in the windows, fancy five-tiered ones with white icing and ribbons and pink roses that I never got tired of looking at. (I remember craning my neck to look up at the windows because we started going there when I was a little girl.) They made the best buttermilk buns in the country.

Angel Bakery was next to Lucky Chinese Restaurant, and Lucky Restaurant made the best sweet and sour fish IN THE WORLD.

Seriously, in all my years I have never had better sweet and sour fish. It is the benchmark against which I have measured all other sweet and sour fish dishes, and they have all FAILED.

After a meal at Lucky, we would stop by Angel Bakery (if it was still open), and I would always have a buttermilk bun for dessert. Remember that trip I took to South East Asia this year? We drove past Angel Bakery and Lucky Restaurant and they were still there. Awesome.

Hmm, I don't hold much hope for this buttermilk bun/football after all that nostalgia. Anyway, I am going to take it into the kitchen now, where I will cut it into slices and put it in the toaster oven.

If it's still not great, then I am going to bring in my secret weapon and very good friend, sweetened condensed milk.

Have you tried condensed milk on hot buttered toast? My salivary glands started working overtime just reading that last sentence.

Bye!

Update (20 minutes later): Well, it wasn't bad. A little hard, but I put it in the microwave for 20 seconds, which did the trick. It wasn't so bad I had to stop eating it, but it didn't make me eat so fast I ended up with crumbs in my hair either. And what's with the raisins? Who the heck puts raisins in buttermilk buns? Next time I'm going for the chocolate pie. It looks like a cinnamon scroll, but with chocolate.

Update (30 minutes after that): I have found a recipe for buttermilk buns on the Internet. I will not rest until I can make my own. This means I'll give the recipe a bash in two months time and fudge it.

Reading matter

Morning all,

I've put up two new CNG posts since I saw you last.

1) The Truth is Coming, which is pretty much a giant fangirl spew about my excitement regarding the X-Files movie, and its arrival in Australia on the 24TH OF JULY. Ooh, that's tomorrow. Please let it do well at the box office so that Chris Carter will make another one!

2) I Cannot Resist, about, well, you'll see. One of my favourite places in the world.

I would have posted these earlier, but my sister dropped by unexpectedly this evening (and scared the living daylights out of me and my mother. I mean, who knocks on the door at 10.30 at night? Instead of using the doorbell? Prowlers or the living dead, that's who!) and we went out to a bakery that is open till midnight.

A bakery that serves Hong Kong style buns and gateaux and bubble tea.

Until midnight!

Midnight!

If you lived in Perth, you would understand my excitement.

Also, Hong Kong style baked goods!

It also has karaoke seven nights a week.

This combination is so awesome that I just got goosebumps. Bless you, multiculturalism.

All I need now is someone to make my favourite ba gua and I will never have to visit Asia again. Which is just as well, because I probably wouldn't fit through the front door.

Anyway, we didn't get out of there till midnight, and I had a CNG blog to finish, as per my promise to myself (and you). I also revamped my website, making it illustration only and relearning CSS and all that fun stuff. So here I am, all blogged out.

Oh boy, I'll be feeling this in the morning.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog

I suppose this is what you call one of those viral thingies on the Internet. You know, someone posts something on the Internet and then becomes popular through word of mouth (or word of blog/website etc.)

Luckily I am only two steps behind everyone else this time.

Joss Whedon and his production company, responsible for my beloved Buffy (the Vampire Slayer, of course) and who casts all my crushes (Nathan Fillion! Adam Baldwin! Sean Maher! Alan Tudyk!), has made a musical with Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie!) as a conflicted supervillain and Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer.

It is very well made, and should give hope to small budget film makers. Heck, I'm watching it and feeling inspired to make MY OWN musical. I think I'll call it Water Retention, or Why My Pants Always Feel Too Tight and It's Not Because of Middle-Age Spread, Shut Up.

The final part of the series airs on July 19th. It will removed on July 20th and afterwards you will be able to download it for a small fee. A DVD is in the works too.

The curtains are rising. So sit back and enjoy: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.


And once you're done, there's also an amusing comic to go with it. 

Bargain Hunter

The prey: A Filofax organiser
RRP: $44.95
Paid: $15.00

I've always wanted a Filofax but could never justify paying the full price. I like how you can buy refills for them as well (fairly reasonably priced refills at that), instead of buying a new diary every year.

Yep, I'm old school. I've been using pen and paper ever since my electronic personal organiser showed a very useful message that said, "Memory corrupted. Delete all or turn off?". REALLY HELPFUL. Not. 

I am feeling pretty damn pleased with myself right now, I can tell you that.

It's a real one! Pretty, shiny leather.

I like the simplicity of this model. It's like something Hemingway might have had, don't you think? Except his would have looked like it had been through the wars, seen the running of the bulls, basked in the sunset at Montmartre: a well-stuffed and slightly battered keeper of secrets.

Mmm, leather. Sniff it. SNIFF IT.

I love a bargain.

TV I'm loving

Nothing to watch while all your favourite shows go on (Northern hemisphere) summer break? Here are some shows I've recently discovered and loved. Look for them on DVD and hopefully they'll tide you over this dry spell.

Kitchen Confidential (read about it on IMDB and Wikipedia): Based on the book by rebel chef Anthony Bourdain, this comedy was axed before it had even run for a full season. I cannot believe Fox didn't keep this around. Their loss.

Bradley Cooper, who played Will Tippin in the early seasons of Alias, has a fast mouth and excellent comedy writing to flaunt it. He also has the prettiest eyes I've ever seen on a man. Lots of famous TV names in this one: Bonnie Sommerville (from Cashmere Mafia), John Cho (one of the funniest Asian-Americans I've seen - this is high praise from me) and Nicholas Brendon (Xander's back! And he's a pastry chef! Woo!)

Hotel Babylon (read about it on IMDB and Wikipedia): A comedy/drama series about the hidden life of a London five-star hotel, and the people who keep its secrets. Dexter Fletcher (you may remember him as Spike from Press Gang) is the concierge who can get you anything at any time of day, and one of the main reasons I watch the show. It's funny, slick and honest.

Nip/Tuck (read about it on IMDB and Wikipedia): I happened to catch an episode of this on Foxtel at a friend's house and I am hooked. Yes, I know it's won an Emmy and a Golden Globe and I am probably the last person in the Western world to start watching this, but I was put off by Julian McMahon and his previous ties to the execrable Charmed. All is forgiven, Julian. Come into my arms!

Um, put down the scalpel first.

Some an9ie news

Now, although my posts here in Blogger are somewhat sporadic, those of you who need a regular an9ie fix will be pleased to know that I am going to work very hard at posting regularly to my Community Newspaper Group (CNG) blog, imaginatively titled, "Angie's Blog".

I shall hereby state, IN WRITING (so that I can't back out), that I will be posting to the CNG blog weekly, and new posts will appear on Wednesday (the writing will take place late on Tuesdays) um, weekly. And by the way, I consider 2am on Wednesday morning to still be Tuesday.

I recently posted R-E-S-P-E-C-T to my CNG blog, and Our Little Secret is fresh-hot from the oven, so please have a read (if you haven't already).

Life has been hectic, and hilly (i.e., full of ups and downs, yes, yes, of course you knew what that meant).

I have had a setback to something that showed a lot of promise (sorry to be so vague and hush-hush), which was very aggravating, but after a satisfying tantrum and drawing rude pictures of chimpanzees scratching themselves and dogs sniffing their behinds, I have recovered with even more vigour and direction than before.

My rejection even inspired a t-shirt that I hope to sell on RedBubble soon. (Not now, it's not finished, but soon.)

I am finalising one of my correspondence courses, and will set a date for the exam in late July. I have also revived my newspaper journalism course, and got a mention in their monthly newsletter as one of their success stories. I might also start taking violin lessons if the teacher can get enough people together for a group.

And I'm working full-time.

Sigh, must start buying Lotto. MFC is not going to come into a large inheritance any time soon, damn him.

Oh, and I have been playing unhealthy amounts of this little game, where little eyeballs on legs worship me, fight large monsters in my name, and let me have the power of life and death over them.

It is incredibly addictive and doesn't do me any favours in real life, but someone has to be their god.