Chocolate Bagel with Cocoa Cheese Cream

If you feel like something sweet, this chocolaty snack could be an option.

Toasted chocolate bagel with cocoa cream cheese topping….  The combination of a bagel and cream cheese is still the best for me.

Adding whipped cream to the cream cheese adds milder texture and taste.  If you are not a big fun of cream cheese, more cream can be added -

I don’t add sugar to the mixture because I wanted to enjoy the taste of cream cheese and bitterness of cocoa.  You can add sugar if you are after sweet stuff.  Few drops of choc bits give a crunchy sweet contrast.

<Chocolate bagel with cocoa cheese cream>

• 1 chocolate bagel
• 2 tbs cream cheese (room temperature)
• 1 tbs whipped cream
• 1/4 tsp cocoa
• few drops of choc bits

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1. Halve the bagel and toast.
2. Place the soft cream cheese and cocoa in a mixing bowl.  Add whipped cream, and mix together.
3. Spread the cream mixture on top of each slice of bagel, and sprinkle choco bits.

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Soy Bagels

I guess it’s not only me who gets craving for a hot bagel on a cold day.

The crusty, hard bagel is something I need to have once in awhile.  This morning I baked few bagels – made with soy milk.

The bagel contains kina-ko (Japanese soy powder) paste inside.  It turned out to be not too sweet, just right for me.

The hard crust was something I was just looking for. All my in-laws don’t like hard bread (they love soft & fluffy bread), so I guess I’m the only one who needs to finish them up.  … Well, I don’t think it’ll be a hard job!

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New McDonald’s Brekkie

Since watching tv ad of McDonald’s 2 new breakfast bagel, I’d been wanting to try them out.  They are only available until 10:30AM, and usually we are busy looking after Hiro around the time, so I didn’t really have chance to go out and grab one.

NYC Benedict Bagel is with bacon, egg, cheese and Hollandaise sauce, and Boston Deli Bagel is with bacon, egg, tomato, cheese and seasoned avocado.  I tried Boston Deli, and D tried NYC Benedict.

The bagel is pretty soft and fluffy.  It was $5.15 each and I thought it was bit expensive…  Even a Mega Muffin in Japan costs only 290 yen.  But, I did enjoy it.:)  Very full.

Stone Hunting and Acacia Bowl

The other day, D suddenly told me that he wanted to buy some stones for his bonsai – he had searched and found some shops selling rocks for aquariums and interior decoration.  To me, stones aren’t something to buy, they are something to find near the creek/river side, mountains, parks, house yard… anywhere.  So, I suggested to go somewhere to find the stones/rocks he wanted.

But, I realized that I’ve never actually seen stones and rocks near the water around Perth.  Not around the beaches, not around the parks and not in the house yards.  Ummm…  I know what kind of stones he is looking for, and I know we can get these from the river and lake bank near my house in Japan.  Ummm where can we find some rocks in Perth?

We googled parks with pond/creek around our house, and headed there with a plastic bag.

According to the satellite photo there’s a pond in centre of the park, but it was very dry – actually no water at all!  We could still see some rocks around the pond(used-to-be) so we picked up few and headed home.  It was another hot day and couldn’t walk around much.

While D was busy treating the rocks in the yard, I started to make some snacks.  I really love the acacia bowl that I bought from Freedom outlet shop. (it was $3.00!)  I thought it would be a good bowl to fill edamame or some nuts, but bagel would probably go well on it too.

I like eating the fresh one just like that – without any spread.  A glass of milk or cafe au lait with it would be nice!

Oh, I spent a relaxing birthday yesterday, by the way.  Nothing special, but nothing to complain about!  Mother-in-law made mee goreng for me in the morning.  ”Noodle = long life” they eat noodle on the birthday to wish for long life.  Is this a Chinese thing?  The idea sounds similar to toshikoshi-soba (Japanese people eat soba noodle at 0:00AM on the New Year’s day to wish for long life).

D and I had something to buy at IKEA, and had a pit-stop at the cafe eating a princess cake

Yesterday wasn’t a great day for people in New Zealand.  I wish all those affected a quick recovery back to normal life…

Bagel from Fremantle Bakehouse

When I was wondering around Cappuccino strip in Fremantle, I saw two huge bagels in a basket through the window at Fremantle Bakehouse.  They were really big, and I just had to try it out and see if they bake a good bagel.

Fremantle Bakehouse is a pretty popular bakery with dine-in section where you can enjoy the baked goods with freshly brewed coffees and teas.  I also like their bread – especially the ones with hard crust.  My husband liked ciabatta bread with olives the other day.

It was a plain bagel with poppy seeds on top.  When a staff passed me the bagel in a paper bag I realised the bagel was actually very light.  I squeezed it with my fingers, and the soft crust just broke and became flaky without any resistance, just like other normal white bread.  I was little disappointed, but took it home and toasted it to see if the texture was chewy.  It wasn’t!  It was just normal white bread in the shape of a bagel.

The bagel was just about the size of my hand, and weighed about 100g.  My bagels at Bagelier are around 10cm in diametre and weigh about 100g.  I know my bagels are quite heavy and dense, but I wondered if this bagel from Fremantle Bakehouse is what people in Perth think of a bagel.  I also tried a blueberry bagel from Lawleys Bakery before, and it wasn’t heavy and chewy either.  Maybe the bagels I make are too heavy and dense – should I rename it from “bagel” to something else?

In Japan, some bagels weigh around 100g ~ 160g!!  Some of them are very heavy and chewy, and some are soft and fluffy.  Which texture is good depends on people’s liking, really.  BAGEL&BAGEL is very popular in Japan, but some people say their bagels are too soft.  I personally like the one with tough crust and chewy interior.  Bagelier bagels are best to be eaten toasted.  I normally slice bagels in half before freezing, and toast them in a small oven toaster before eating.  When I’m making a sandwich, I toast it using a panini press.  Toasting it well-done and eating it while hot is my way of eating a bagel.  Some people like heating up my bagel in microwave.  The bagel becomes soft, but after awhile it tastes little dry, I think.