A friend suggested that maybe the Hot Bread Shop in Hataitai would have custard squares. This sounded promising: I thought the only place hot bread shops had survived was Westport, along with service stations that put the petrol in your car for you (!) and give you useful advice on how to get to out-of-the-way places.

The shop looked promising: a low-end bakery with filled rolls, slices, pies ... and custard squares. I selected two items: a custard square, and a custard twist.

This is where things get disappointing. The custard in the square was insufficiently firm, although better than that from Mr Bun. And the pastry was overcooked, so it was too flakey and too hard. With better pastry, it would have been a halfway-decent custard square ... but it was not to be.

The custard twist, however, provided a welcome change: dough, raisins, custard and icing combined in a delicious if rather sugary treat. It didn't survive the clean-hands test due to the icing, but with plump raisins and the always-welcome taste of custard, it was a baked good worth eating.

Next time: a chance for supermarket baking to redeem itself?