Bakery Round-Up: La Maritxu and Arôme

This previous Sunday saw me traipse around Central London on a bit of a food tour, starting with La Maritxu. The much-hyped new addition to Paddington's (fairly scarce) food scene is known for its one menu item: the basque cheesecake. The store has been going for less than a year and has already garnered a 3 star Great Taste award, so there might be more to this than just 'the lastest food fashion'.

Approaching it with a degree of cynicism, I pre-ordered my £6 slice online so that I could skip the queues. When I opened the box, I noticed that the slice was quite small for that price, so it had better make up for it in taste.

Fortunately, it really does. The cheesecake is deliciously creamy, and quite probably the best you can currently get in London. I will be ordering a full cheesecake for my birthday. This is an easy recommend.

I then went to Arôme, a Japanese-French fusion bakery in Covent Garden. They are known for their honey french toast, but I went with the deliciously artistic-looking aubergine pastry tart (pictured top).Though slightly messy to eat given that aubergine can be quite stringy, it was a very enjoyable pastry, complemented nicely by a matcha latte. Arôme doesn't quite capture me in the same way that Popham's does, but I would still happily return if I was in the area (as I so often am of late).

As a special treat later in the day, I also visited Jinli in Chinatown, to have my first sampling of Sichuan food. My mouth was simply not prepared.