It was another day in the sun, though not as hot like the past few days. There was a fairly cool light breeze blowing off and on during the endurance of my  1 hour and 53 minute walk. As I reached back home, after completing the 11.05km walk; the sky opened with an unexpected heavy downpour of rain. The rain was welcomed as it helped bring the weather temperature down a notch or two.

Just as I sat at my workstation to get some work done, I got a call from my cousin, Christopher. “Are you free for coffee at 2.00pm? I will come and pick you up. We will go to someplace different as Jings is closed for today”, he said. Jings is our favourite nearby go-to place for coffee these days.

I straight away said, “yes”; though I was about to get behind the screen or screens ( 2 computers, 2 smartphones and a 24 inch monitor). I am a strong advocate that the next moment that is I front of us, that has not passed us by yet; is the future. The future is adventure like in the TV series, “Star Trek”.

Chris said he will swing by to pick me up in front of New Apollos restaurant.

“Chris, where are you taking me to this time? Surprise me”, I  said. He smiled and drove towards SS15, Subang Jaya. As we made a right turn at the bend, going under the short tunnel, heading towards the SS15 town centre; he flicked the car turn indicator to the left, intending to make a left turn towards SS17. I heard that there were several cafes in that area, all of which I had not been to, yet.

He stopped and parked his car in front of “Good Ground Bakery”. I was not expecting anything much from here because this area is generally very quiet. As we got in, we were greeted with a very bright, well-lit place. There was a wide display counter which took up about 70% of the width of the shop. In this counter, many different cakes were displayed. In fact the counter is “L”-shaped, with more of their cakes and other pastries displayed there.

The seating area for about 40 people were a few tables at the entrance of the bakery, and the rest of the tables lined against the wall, right to the back of the shop. Now, this is a bakery, not a cafe. Their primary business is to cater to the needs of “order, collect and go” customers. However, almost all the tables, but for one; were taken. So, lucky us for that one table left.

We ordered our usual, where Chris had a green tea, and I, an Americano, hot. It had been raining the whole afternoon and the weather was kind of chilly. The air-conditioning in the bakery was quite strongly adding to the coldness, too.

Chris then ordered a scone. When it came, he said it was for me. I thought he ordered it for himself. By this time, we had moved to the table at the front of the bakery. It offered a bit more all round space.

The scone was served with strawberry jam and butter. First of all, this is one of the largest scones served when compared to any other bakery or café. It had a nice, evenly, light brown crust top. The sides were evenly baked. Some of the raisins could be seen at the top of the scone.

I cut through the scone for a bite-size piece. The piece stayed firm, crumbled only a little bit. When I put some of the strawberry jam and butter on the piece, it still held firm. The taste…

The taste… When I ate that piece… Now, this is truly a scone. It was simply delicious. The rich taste of the scone. I could sense all the ingredients coming together, blending; to create this wonderful taste of the scone. When I added a little butter and strawberry jam to it, it was ooo-la-la!

Each cut piece with the butter and strawberry jam, was as good as the last piece before it. The taste was evenly spread out. I had a couple of pieces without the butter and strawberry – it was simply great. Towards the end of the scone, it had already more or less cooled down to room temperature, the taste or perhaps the value if I could put a number to it; still was a delight to eat.

The price for this scone? RM9 or US$1.92.

The Americano, I guess was ok. It is another was of saying coffee, black; or the well-known term at local coffee shops and kopitiams: “kopi-o”. This place is not primarily a cafe. However, according to Chris, they sell some expensive blends of teas in what look like 6 inch x 6 inch boxes that you can buy for home consumption. Chris likes the tea here.

Chris is a regular at Good Ground Bakery. Being an avid reader, he comes here to read a book and at the same time, enjoy drinking tea. The ambience and quiet this bakery has to offer, makes it conducive for readers like Chris. I noticed a few people reading books here, while others managed to get some work (I presume it is work) done. I think I will visit here more often when I feel the need of different ambience and scenery to be inspired while working.

Against their main wall are shelves with items of decorations, items for sale, and, books and magazines. Real books and magazines, ones where you can flip through pages, with printed words and pictures. I think this is a great encouragement to take time off the screen, be it the computer or smartphone, and enjoy the turning of the next page, or the sound of pages flipping, reading some cute captions, or just enjoy looking at the colour photos in them.

If you are in the neighbourhood of SS17, and want a good coffee or tea and a scone to go with it; with a nice ambience and some quiet, drop by at Good Ground Bakery. Who knows? We may meet and you can have a chat with me, perhaps give me ideas for the book that I am writing.