Orange County day yesterday. No Oliboli Donuts unfortunately because as you’ll see, I got a ton of sweets. Hope my next dentist visit isn’t too traumatic 
Stopped at Honey and Butter macarons in Irvine to stock up (they freeze well). They had a cute Oreo macaron rolled in Oreo crumbs that they called Santa’s “mac-coal-ron” 
Went to Cream Pan in Tustin. Looooong line but it moved FAST. Took about 15 minutes from getting in line to paying for my treats. Some white bread (so fluffy! I like to freeze this to save), egg salad sandwich, fruit roll cake slice, pudding, cream pan bun and a strawberry croissant.
Tried Cococane for the first time. Loved it. Agree with everyone else who recommended it, it’s not as sweet as other sugarcane juice places. Husband got large passioncane (passionfruit, coconut and sugarcane) and I got the large cococane. Got there around 12:30 and there were a few people ahead of me but not a long wait.
I saw that Van’s Bakery was a few doors down from Cococane. Got a slice of pandan coconut cake, chè trôi nước (glutinous rice balls filled with mung beans in ginger syrup) and bánh khoai mì nướng (cassava mung bean cake).
Mini rant about some of these Vietnamese bakeries that I’ve been to (not just in OC, but on the East Coast too). Sometimes there’s no quality control or they try to sell product without checking if it’s gone bad (or worse, they don’t care). I got home, opened the cassava cake and on the bottom was a sticker saying “DEC 15.” I don’t know if that meant “best by December 15” or that it was baked on December 15. Then I took out the cake to slice a piece and there were black and white mold spots on the bottom. I threw it out. It cost about $2; I’m not driving 45 minutes back to Garden Grove to ask for my $2 back.
Yeah, I probably should have checked it in the store, but is it so unreasonable to expect that a bakery should be selling fresh baked goods? If something is about to expire or go bad, why not pull it, or put it in a separate section with a discount as I’ve seen in other places? I’ve bought banh beo chi (Vietnamese-style mochi) from Viet bakeries before that got moldy the NEXT day, meaning they’ve probably been sitting out in the bakery for several days. Sometimes I get so annoyed with my people, lol. I’m not going to go argue with them about their business practices (have you seen Vietnamese customers argue with Vietnamese business owners? I have. It gets intense.) and I know the margins for running a food business are tiny. But come on. I just gotta remember to be more careful next time.
Anyone have recs for high quality Vietnamese bakeries in Little Saigon? I’d love to hear it (@attran99 or @Ns1 ?) I only go down there every few months so I want to make it worth my time.
La Española Meats, Harbor City.
