Ah – what better way to start a blog (and the day!) than with a fluffy, doughy taro bun? This delectable delight, snatched from the shelves of 85 Degrees Bakery Cafe  in Irvine, CA, looked so deliciously tempting this morning that I couldn’t help but choose it over my usual breakfast of oatmeal and mashed bananas. Now, I’m not sure how healthy it is, but hey…taro is a vegetable, right?

The bun was quite simple in nature: baked dough with slender swirls of taro paste on the inside. However, I found the bread to be an absolute pleasure to chew, with a soft doughy texture that gave my jaws enough of a workout to be satisfied, but not so much that I felt like I was biting into a rock. Meanwhile, the small sliver of taro paste on the inside infused the bun with just the slightest hint of a taro flavor – sweet, but not excessively so, like many other American and European pastries.

As an added bonus (as if I really needed another!), I found this mega-popular bakery to be super affordable – I can hardly recall anything being more than $2 or $3, with the typical price for a fairly large pastry/bun between $1-2. As a result, I made sure to stock up on a bunch of other goodies for the drive back up to SF – including fresh Blueberry cream cheese Buns, milk buns, and what may be perhaps the ultimate temptation: a blueberry half-moon cake “cream coated with blueberry filling and coconut shavings.” Can we say deeee-lish, or what?

(And yes, I did eat almost everything in the past week – don’t judge)

Next time, I will be sure to savor this lovely treat with a tall glass of warm almond milk and a medley of melodic French tunes. As for now, my stomach is thanking me – greatly.