Para Hills Hot Bread Bakery - Adelaide, South Australia

A diamond in the rough, a needle in the haystack, an awesome bakery in the Para Hills Bridge Road Shopping Centre. It's not the kind of place you're likely to stumble upon, but it's well worth seeking out. Thuy Vu is the owner of Para Hills Hot Bread Bakery and she is clearly passionate about baking. After migrating to Australia from Vietnam on a refugee boat at age 18, she worked in a Salisbury bakery before later starting her own business in 2002. She's won numerous awards, some of which are proudly listed on the sign above the shop.



Front and center as you walk into the shop is a glorious display of savoury pies, pasties and sausage rolls. The selection is quite impressive with all of the usual suspects and a few originals as well.



Look left or right and you'll see sweets galore. Cakes, tarts, lamingtons, slices and more. How's a girl to choose?



The plain meat pie is generally a good indicator of bakery standards. This one looked good on the outside. Nice flaky pastry and beautifully golden in colour.



Biting into the Meat Pie ($4) and it's clear this is no ordinary bakery. It's not just good, it's great! Nice, quality beef in a smooth and tasty brown sauce.



As an awesome twist on the great South Aussie pie floater, you'll find the Mushy Meat Pie ($4.50).



It's basically a Meat Pie but with mushy peas on top of the beef. Genius!



The meat pies are excellent, but my favourite pie from Para Hills Hot Bread Bakery would have to be the Tuna Mornay ($4.50). Bonus points for the fact that it comes with a little pastry fish on top.



This pie is so ridiculously creamy, cheesy and delicious. If you like tuna, you will LOVE this pie!



The Chicken Pie ($4.30) is my second favourite because it reminds me of chicken pot pies from my childhood. Hearty, warming and full of chicken and veggies.



The best of the sweets that I've tried so far is the French Vanilla Slice ($3.50). The custard has a beautiful creamy smooth texture and a good strong vanilla flavour. The pastry is crunchy and flaky. This is a must try.



If you're looking for a great bakery in Adelaide's northern suburbs, look no further than Para Hills Hot Bread Bakery. They're open 7 days from 6am. If you want a particular item, I recommend getting there as early as you can or pre-ordering because they do sell out.

P.S. The chocolate doughnuts aren't bad either.

Muratti Cakes & Gateaux - Adelaide, South Australia

Muratti Cakes has been an Adelaide favourite since it first opened back in 1990. If you're near Prospect Road at Prospect, it's definitely worth stopping in for European style cakes, coffees & biscuits.



The display case is full of biscuits, macarons, gateaux, cakes, tarts, crumbles and more. It's torture trying to decide between so many sweet temptations. If you want to share with friends and family, go for one of the full sized cakes on the bottom shelf. You're sure to find the perfect choice among the range of sizes, prices and flavours on offer. There's definitely something for everyone.



Or if you're like me and can't pick just one, go for a sampling of smaller individual cakes instead. The Blueberry Cheesecake ($4.90, top right in photo below) is my favourite for its dense, smooth, and creamy richness. Darren's favourite is the Mille Feuilles, which means "thousand sheets" ($5.20 - bottom left in photo below). It's an awesome French version of a vanilla slice made up of three layers of pastry with creme patissiere between. Also pictured is the Chocolate Blackberry ($6.80 - top left) and the Vanilla Bean ($6.80 - bottom right).



Another of our samplings of individual cakes consisted of (clockwise from center): Citron Flan ($4.80), French Cherry ($6.80), Blueberry Cheesecake ($4.90), Muratelli ($6.80), and Berry Apple ($6.80). Each cake is perfectly executed and definitely worth the calories.



We usually order our cakes to go, but I hear the coffee is worth staying for. If you don't have room for cake, you can always go with one of the various biscuits instead. Apparently the quality and selection of Muratti biscuits are admired almost as much as their cakes.