Well, I absolutely love strawberries and I must have them after dinner every night without fail. I like how they leave a tinge of freshness and sweetness in my mouth. Therefore, there's always this constant supply of USA strawberries in the fridge.

I was hence so pleased to wake up this morning to see this huge carton of strawberries that flew in from Kansai, Japan sitting on the dining table:

I didn't think there are that many strawberries in each packet so I guess it is quite expensive. And look at how red they are:

I washed up in the shortest time (ever) so that I could quickly finish my breakfast and start feasting on the strawberries. And true enough, these lengendary strawberries (they're famed throughout the whole of Japan) live up to it's name. They are really sweet and the kind of sweetness I tasted was different from the sweetness of those USA strawberries that I normally consume. These are more sugary kind of sweet and they are also slightly mushy, unlike those from USA that taste firmer. I had three at one go and I was totally blown away.

甘くておいしい！！ (Sweet and delicious!!)

I saw these Japanese words from the website and I found that they are the perfect description for these strawberries.

I was supposed to roll the dough into a swiss-roll style but I'm still not so experienced in handling bread dough so this was the best I could come up with:

Nevertheless, the bread turned out really wonderful:

Look at the soft and fluffy texture:

It has been three days since I baked this loaf of bread and the texture still remains as soft. I spread it with strawberry jam and have it as breakfast. A real simple but yummy treat to perk me up in the morning. I can't wait to bake another loaf for the week!

I was really dying to taste it so I ordered 3 pieces ($1.70) and was told by the Malay lady that I might have to wait a little while because there were two aunties ahead of me. I was fine with it and took out my camera and started snapping away as I was very fascinated by how the kuehs actually get cooked in those bamboo casings.

The lady reaches out for a bamboo casing and starts to fill it up with rice flour and gula melaka:

After filling up the bamboo casing, she then looks for an empty "slot" on the steamer to place the casing to start steaming it. If you guys are wondering, there are holes right under the bamboo casings whereby heat comes through and steams the kuehs, hence getting them cooked.

After about 15 minutes, my Putu Bambus were finally ready. It was quite a long wait but time passed quickly as I was busy playing with my camera. And here they are, with grated coconut strewn all over them:

Look at the interior with the slightly oozy gula melaka:

I fell in love with this Indonesian kueh after the first bite. The lady was really generous with the gula melaka and I could taste it oozing out as I bite into it. The exterior was very moist and soft and it just melts in my mouth almost instantly.

I realised that it is somehow quite similar to the common Putu Piring we see in Singapore. Putu Piring is also made of rice flour with gula melaka as its filling. The only difference might be their shapes: Putu Bambu is cylindrical while Putu Piring is flatter. Anyway, after that day I've been wanting to consume more Putu Bambus but the Pasar Malam isn't there anymore. If anyone knows where I can get more of these yummy Putu Bambus, do let me know. :)