'Tis THE season again. When the Christmas spirit is in the air and in everyone's heart including those of the people of the hotel management. I guess that is why they came up with this brilliant idea. According to the hotel newsletter, it's called the Gingerbread House. Personally, I think they should call it The Bread Barracks. It is made for a special event that is going to be held at the hotel at the end of this year in conjunction with Christmas. There will be Carol singers and obviously, Christmas goodies and treats (the gingerbread theme gave that away for me). The goodies will be prepared by the hotel's top chefs.
They finished it a little too early for the event and as you can see they enclosed the gingerbread house within red and white no-entry lines and pasted 'Do not touch!" signs all over it. Ask my why they did it early, I would say that they probably want to catch people's attention about what's going on in the hotel. I actually wanted to take a video of it but I was too busy. The gingerbread house has a window, like in the picture, a door on the opposite side of that view and 2 windows each on the other 2 sides. It reminded my mom of the candy house in the "Hansel and Gretel" story. (that got me thinking if the hotel management's gonna put a kid-eating witch in there. Haha...) But anyway, I must say it's indeed one of the unique one-of-a kind landmarks I've seen throughout my entire life. You'll know why when I tell you how its made.
Well, I didn't actually see it in the making but I did a really good close-up analysis on it (even with the no-entry lines and 'Do not touch' signs). Of course, at first sight, I wouldn't believe that it really is made of bread even though the walls really look like bread. The baker in charge even poked holes in it to not let the wall pieces rise when they are baked. The holes seem like enough proof but did they really bake all those to build their gingerbread house?
So I just have to have proof. But...
...says the sign! You know what?....
...Touched it anyway. The hell with the sign. I took a pinch at one of the walls of the gingerbread house. It really was bread-like. The texture was soft and rather moist and compact and it kinda crumbles when you try to tear it. The pinch I made there in the picture left a tiny piece halfway pried. And as a result, I could see what was behind the bread. Behind the bread was some hardened cream (the white ooze in the picture) and hard dark jelly. This really could be bread! The bread actually made up only a thin layer of the walls of that house. It layered the real foundation of the building which I think was made of wood.
As far as I know, bread can't last that long unless it is made for special purposes to last. Trust me, I know. Bread was practically my trademark food when I was at school. I ate bread everyday when I was at school and even had bread almost every recess. Normal edible bread is spongy when fresh, hard when left for 2-3 days and emits an alcoholic smell, and gets moldy after a week or so. So the bread of that house is different. It doesn't smell and it's not moldy. I bet it was already there before my family and I went there for our 5-day stay.
Okay. Now I'm convinced. It IS a bread house. But something is still missing. So when I got back home, I googled that hotel's name together with "gingerbread house" and hit something. It turned out that someone else had already posted about this gingerbread house in a blog in December 2007. That post was about the hotel's event of selling cookes for Christmas at a main attraction - The Gingerbread House. Oh... so that hotel holds that special event every year with the same gingerbread house! I wonder if they re-patch their gingerbread house walls with fresh bread every year...
Well, like what everyone says, festive seasons are special and full of surprises. That makes everyone have the magical feeling when that time comes. And I guess that's what makes people love festive season so much and can't wait for them all year!
There is still one more thing about that Gingerbread House. Now that I know it's really bread-walled but is it really ginger-flavored? Nobody knows except for the bakers who made it. I didn't want to find out because after finding out about it, no way I'm taking a bite off that thing!
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