ji dan zai aka tumour

Whenever I watch TVB dramas I always think to myself how wonderful the food in HK looks. In particular, I wanted to try the curry fishballs and ji dan zai oh-so-badly. (not so much the smelly tofu. they stink way too bad for me to try them.)

When I first went to HK, I told Tina that I wanted to try the ji dan zai. She replied in surprise that Singapore sells these at Plaza Singapura and commented that they look horrible and resemble tumours. That's how we coined the term tumour and that's how this term became synonymous with ji dan zai. Sometimes I even feel like telling the Auntie 'tumour' when she asks me what I want.

I recommended this to Sharon and Sharon is even more in love with Tumour than I am. For the uninitiated, Tumour (or more accurately ji dan zai, which is loosely translated as 'egg boy'), is a sheet of many golf-ballish erm well, balls made from waffle-like batter.

It tastes like the waffles that you buy from Prima Deli (not the belgium waffles) with the kaya/peanut butter/blueberry/chocolate/red bean/whatever spread you can think of. But it's less coconut-milky and more eggy. It's still very fragrant and incredibly tasty. I don't think it's bland at all, even if you can't add a spread to it. It's perfect the way it is. (although I think that the stall sells it in an assortment of other flavours too)

It's very crispy, crunchy almost, especially at the fringe of the sheet, where the batter spreads out thinly. But even the tumours themselves are perfectly crispy on the outside. The inside is slightly hollow and therefore very light. It is also super spongy and dewy, although some tumours at the periphery are just crispy and hollow inside. It is very good.

I just don't understand why no other place sells this. I've never seen it anywhere except in PS. When I was in HK, they sell it everywhere! You'll find a vendor selling this around every nook and corner. It's easy to make too, it's simply a matter of putting the batter into the mould and voila! Tumour!

Ok, so it may not be easy to replicate the perfect HK version but I'm sure even the imitation will be good and can't go very far off. So why not? Singaporeans are so peckish and into snacks; there's no reason why this will not take off in Singapore. It tastes like waffles, is cheap, light and delicious. It tastes very traditional too and has a certain nostalgic ring to it (even though I first ate them last year). I can see many Singaporeans taking it as comfort food because it's a very familiar taste.

There are days when I crave Tumour but I can only find them in PS. I wish more vendors would sell this. It's really good and I believe Singaporeans will love them.

Ji Dan Zai store (beside D'Bun, stall no.2)
Plaza Singapura
Kopitiam Level 6

tapioca cake @ maxwell

Our next introduction is the humble tapioca cake and we will be introducing the best one that we know of at Maxwell Food Centre. I didn't what the shop name is till I took notice of it this time round, we just know it as the Maxwell Tapioca Cake. (I'm not even sure why we know it as Tapioca Cake. It's obviously a steamed kueh.)

The most striking thing about this tapioca cake is the texture. The tapioca cake here is the softest thing ever. It's a downy pillow showered in coconut shavings. It's so soft that when I press it, I feel like it's melting from the pressure. My fingers are moist from just handling it because its so full of water. It's really more like gel than kueh. These darlings melt in your mouth AND in your hand. This place is extremely generous with the amount of coconut they give so the kueh is very coconutty. A few hours later I could still taste the coconut in my mouth. The coconut shavings are very very good. The top-grade kind of coconut without the sour aftertaste of stale coconut. This kueh also had the very distinct tapioca flavour; very clean, subtle and light. I could eat 10 of these!

Xing Xing Tapioca Cake/Ondeh Ondeh

Maxwell Food Centre

Stall 31

p/s- Remember to go early because this place sells out quick!

sun moulin II - Sharon's virgin post

The following post is written by Sharon:

Disclaimer: Just in case any of you were wondering. Yes, Sharon exists. See I wished I had a good excuse for my silence thus far. Maybe some fantastic story about how my fingers had grown too fat from all the eating (in a bid to start out this blog) and so I had to wait till I had slimmed down some to regain my shapely, slender, and not to mention, keyboard-friendly fingers. But sadly, no. I think the word we're all looking for here is: LAZINESS. (Right Sheryl?) Nevertheless, Sharon is here to stay. Hopefully. Reminder, Sharon is Lazy.

Here goes my first post. Damn my hands are clamy.

So Sheryl and I paid another visit to Sun Moulin. No, it's not because we were blown away from our first visit there but more because there's a shortage of good bakeries in town. Save for Breadtalk (which anyway can be found at any mall in the heartlands) and maybe Four Leaves at Takashimaya, (Sheryl: erm, Four Leaves good meh?) there just aren't any other good bakeries in the city area. Someone should really tell Provence to open an outlet in town.

Well, the truth of the matter is that I was feeling snackish and craved the Brazillian bun from Provence. Sun Moulin's cheese mochi was the closest substitute to be had, hence our decision to go there. (Again, someone please tell Provence to open an outlet in town. Someone. Anyone! Just SOMEONE please tell them!!) (Sheryl: ok people, forgive Sharon. She's a bit passionate about Provence.)

My craving for just the cheese mochi gave way to greed once I was presented with the delightful spread of breads that were for sale. Everytime I go to a bakery, I feel like a two year old girl in a sweet shop. I see everything and I want everything. I know they're bad for me, but I still want everything. I know I can't have them all, but I still try to get away with as much as I can. Today was no different. After a very full lunch, I still bought three breads to try, the snow custard, the an pan and the cheese mochi. (Yes Sheryl, you shared them with me so it cannot be counted as me having eaten all by myself. I know the drill.)

First up, the snow custard. It's a cake. No, it's a bun. No, it's a cake. No, it's a bun. Actually, its neither a cake nor a bun. It's BOTH a cake AND a bun. Think a rich custard bun enveloped in butter cake with the top encrusted like a hokkaido dome from BreadTalk and you would come close to the textural treat this provided in your mouth. Can't imagine it? Well, you know where you're headed for this weekend. Trust me, this is Gooooooooood.

Sheryl: The custard is the same as the cream coronet, which we reviewed in the last post. I still can't get over how fantastic this custard is. It's eggy and milky and eggy and milky.. it's the perfect cross between Provence's milk pan and custard pan. There's also a slight hint of lemon in it which made it all the more invigorating. The only thing I wish they could do is to make it cold, the way Provence does theirs. Oh if only it could be cold. Imagine cold delicious custard, smooth and satin-like, milky and sweet, oozing out of a warm freshly baked bun. Oh I know! Even better, put it in a mochi-donut!! A mochi-donut is a little donut ball (much like the size a Dunkin Donut ball) that's chewy. I've had it in HK and it was darn friggin' good. Combine that with the custard, lip-smacking I tell you. Lip-smacking. Just imagine it!

Sun Moulin has a few offerings of an pans and we decided to try another one of them, just for the heck of it. I had remembered this to be quite good from a previous visit but boy were we disappointed. Then again, that was before Sheryl introduced me to the an pan from Provence. Since then, I haven't found one that even comes close to matching it. Well well, another one bites the dust. (Seriously now, do we need more reasons for Provence to open an outlet in town?)

Sheryl: The an pan was, as you can see for yourself, clearly too dry. They might as well have given us a lump of an-pan flavoured clay. They're obviously not very consistent. Anyway, the main reason why we chose this was because Sharon said that this an pan uses hawaiian bread and which is incredibly soft and fluffy. I agreed that it was soft but it was a bit dry and (I can't believe I'm saying this) yeasty. I did not think that it was exceptional. I thought it was quite normal actually.

Disclaimer: Lest any of you are tempted to call me out for being lazy and not reviewing the cheese mochi, I didn't review it as Sheryl had already done so in our previous post on Sun Moulin. Ah-huh!
Sheryl: Yes, we tried the mochi. Just an update though, the mochi was considerably a lot more chewy than we remembered so that was good. But the cheese taste was very strong too and it was too overwhelming. Again another testimony to Sun Moulin's inconsistent standards. Nonetheless, its a great bakery.

In an ideal world, there would be a bakery that sold the fiery floss and steamed green tea cake (yes, we do like those too), the snow custard from Sun Moulin along with the Brazillian bun from Provence, amongst other things of course. Remember, little girl in the sweet shop?

loong fatt v 603. may the best tau sar piah win.

Today, we bring you the battle of the tau sar piahs. Actually, we wanted to review Loong Fatt only but Sharon decided that we should do a comparison with the only other stall that was open, 603.

Everyone knows the best tau sar piahs are found along the Balestier Road stretch. (You there shaking your head.. Don't tell me you don't know. You're lying.) And the most famous of all is of course Loong Fatt.

You cannot claim to have eaten tau sar piah till you have tried these. No, don't show me those pandan flavoured tau sar piahs from JB. Don't show me those dry and coarse ones in the pink paper wrapping. Those put tau sar piahs to shame.

And what is the deal with these tau sar piahs? They are very very smooth and buttery. Did you not know? Haven't you heard? It's the love story of when Chinese-Flaky-Pastry (Huaiyang) met Butter, fell in love, got married and had kids.

(you know that was a joke right? Sharon thought it was a Chinese fable)

trivia: Did you know that the Huaiyang pastry is basically made up of two separate dough, the water dough and the lard or shortened dough? After the water dough and lard dough are mixed separately, the lard dough is wrapped inside the water dough, then the combined dough is layered by rolling and folding. Did you also know that the 'water dough' also has lard? No wonder its so bLARDy oily. (did not mean to swear)

Loong Fatt is more famous for its sweet than salty tau sar piah. Their tau sar piah is really one of a kind. The crust has the melts-in-your-mouth thing down pat. Normal tau sar piahs are flaky. This is crumbly. Normal tau sar piahs are dry and tasteless. This is buttery. See the difference? Yet the crust is not so buttery that it sticks to your teeth when you eat it.

The lotus paste is very smooth and sweet and oily. It's pure oily decadence. Have it when it's still warm, it makes a world of a difference. It's well, comforting. Yummy-yummy-yummy-I've-got-love-in-my-tummy childlike comfort.

This is the 603 tau sar piah. It's also nice just not as good. The pastry was not as fragrant and crumbly as Loong Fatt's. Sharon suspects that they gave us overnight tau sar piahs instead of fresh ones because it was too early in the morning. The paste fared poorly compared to Loong Fatt's delightful smooth one. According to Sharon, "overall its a 'rougher' tau sah piah than loong fatt".

The first thing you notice about Loong Fatt's salty tau sar piah is that it is very thin. It's almost flat! The next thing you will notice is that the filling is not the usual salty filling. Instead, it's almost difficult to tell the filling apart from the sweet ones. I think they mixed the sweet filling and the salty filling. You can tell because the filling is more pasty than powdery. (Look at the photo below)

Not only does it look like the sweet one, it even tastes like the sweet one. You can't really tell the sweet apart from the salty. The difference is minuscule. The only way I could be sure it was salty was because the sweet one had sesame seeds on it and this one didn't. For Sharon, this had a placebo effect. After noticing the absence of sesame seeds, she started to appreciate the savouriness.

This is the 603 salty tau sar piah. I preferred this because I like salty tau sar piah and this tastes properly salty the way it should be. I quite like the way the filling disintegrates into minced portions as you crush them between your teeth and you have to scramble to catch the random bits that fall out of your mouth. Messy, old-fashioned goodness, I say.

Sharon thinks that 603 sweet tau sar piah is better than their salty ones but I'm biased towards the salty one (no one fed me the sweet one when I was growing up so the salty tau sar piah is like childhood food to me) so I liked the salty one more the sweet one. But for Loong Fatt, it's clear that the salty is inferior to the sweet.

We also tried the egg tarts from Loong Fatt. One look at it you know it's not what they're famous for.

Sharon: dun need to review la... nothing good to say about them also.

Well, what else can I say? The boss has spoken. zip.

Maybe just this bit, the crust at 603 was better. But don't waste your calories.

Loong Fatt Eating House and Confectionary
639 Balestier Road

and

603 Tau Sar Piah
603 Balestier Road

granny's pancake, coconut explosion

When I think of Min Jiang Kueh, I think of Granny's Pancake. Not that my grandmother can make Min Jiang Kueh. But because this is the BEST the BEST coconut Min Jiang Kueh. I have yet to come across another stall that even comes close. Balestier/Whampoa dwellers will almost always know this stall, it's like a household name.

The queue is very long, especially on Sunday mornings around 9am. I was there at 8am, 8!! And there was a relatively long queue already. Not to worry, the queue moves fast. They do not sell out till around noon, so you still can get your fix if you go later.

The coconut is goodness-gracious-me-super-shiokkk (with three Ks). It's so juicy and unbelievably fragrant. Bess (the store owner) says that the secret is in frying the coconut first. I can't overemphasize how juicy it is. When I first bit into it and the coconut fillings fell apart in my mouth, I could literally suckle on them and it was good. It was so good. It is so good we crave these almost every weekend. I could taste the coconut, the sugars.. It's so juicy the coconut filling lumps together, so you get morsels of extreme coconut goodness.

Another reason why this pancake is so good is because they are very generous with the amount of coconut filling they give. Just look at how the pancake is bursting and the filling overflows! Most other places don't even give half the amount of filling.

We should also highlight that the kueh is very good. It's very very fluffy (as you can see), like they beat pockets of air into the batter. Sharon likens it to a honeycomb, which I find very apt, because it is so light and not overly dense like many other commercialised places (go figure). It is superbly moist with a hint of sweetness so it's good by itself.

They don't put it on the pan for very long, so that only the tip of the top is browned, and it is perfectly and evenly browned throughout. It looks like it's a separate layer all by itself, as if it is wearing a golden crown. The rest of the kueh is deliciously white and cushy, a little undercooked and moist. The batter is mixed very evenly so don't worry about lumps of flour.

The red bean pancake. It's more like an pan than tausar, because it's not very sweet. Elderly folk particularly like this because it's not very sweet at all. Shally loves these and will have them every week if she could. Sharon, on the other hand, did not take to them. She felt that there was not enough filling and that the tausar was not aromatic. I thought that the tausar was good, the kueh was good, but the combination of the two wasn't not good, because the tausar was a bit too genteel for a traditional kueh like this. It was neither oily nor robust enough. It was too mild-tasting.

The peanut pancake was average. The peanut was not pang enough, like it was not sufficiently roasted. The peanut taste was shrouded and did not shine though. The texture was good though, because the ground peanut was neither too coarse nor too fine. The filling was very crunchy because they used coarse sugar instead of fine sugar. Combine that with the plush, moist kueh, and you're set for a sensory rollercoaster. (You can actually see the sugar granules mingled with the ground peanut.)

With the like of Granny's Pancake, I don't understand why people are still eating those mass-produced min jiang kuehs. They taste half as good at twice the price. Someone should do a Breadtalk, and bring a proper good traditional min jiang kueh into Orchard Road, package and market it well, twiddle thumbs and watch his bank account grow.

Granny's Pancake
Whampoa Market
# 01-28

childhood carrot cake fries. :D

I grew up adoring these fries. Deep fried carrot cake fries. I used to hate carrot cake as a kid but I adored these with a vengeance. How ingenious of them to think of cutting up carrot cake as fries.

This stall used to be perenially crowded and I used to queue for at least half an hour everytime I had a carrot cake fries craving. It is no longer as popular but still good.

These do not taste like normal carrot cake. As I said, I used to hate carrot cake as a child but I loved these. It does not have the "oomph-sei" of carrot cake and actually tastes more like kueh. Sharon prefers the normal carrot cake because this is not strong-tasting enough for her.

Why do I like these then? Because these are exceptionally and utterly pang. Just a sniff of its redolent aroma is enough to make me salivate. They are fragrant to a fault. The aroma is ridiculously powerful. I remember dashing downstairs from the upper level in church because just a whiff of it was enough to bring about effusive waves of hunger pangs.

The carrot cake is very firm, not hard but firm. It is very smooth and you will not spot the occasional carrot cake shreds so highly treasured in other carrot cakes. (As I said, it does not taste like the normal carrot cake!) Children will love these, I did!

These are utterly scrumptious, utterly deep-fried and so sinful. They are fried at extreme temperatures till they are splendidly bronzed, crispy on the outside yet still so wondrously moist and soft inside. Eat it freshly-fried when the outside is slightly scabrous and firm.

If you leave it for too long, it becomes limp and does not do its initial state justice at all.

Deep Fried Carrot Cake

Whampoa Market

#01-36

sun moulin v. provence - the faceoff!

This is the official sun moulin v. provence faceoff. They have so many similar breads that we have taken it upon ourselves to find out which bakery is better.

Round 1: Cheese bun.

First up, the cheese mochi. The cheese mochi from Sun Moulin is very nice. It's not chewy, its very soft and its very palatable. There is considerably a lot more of that cheese taste in this one than Provence's brazilian cheese bun.

Nonetheless, the texture of Provence's brazilian cheese bun is clearly absent here. The beauty of Provence's bun is not only in its fantastic taste but it is so addictive because the texture is just that good. It is extremely crusty, extremely moist, extremely chewy. The Sun Moulin's version is nice but boring. It's enjoyable but not addictive. Provence, my friend is the real deal.

Round 1 goes to Provence.

Round 2: An Pan

The an pan at Sun Moulin is commendable. It's slightly coarse, not too sweet but still not as good as the an pan at Provence. The an pan at Provence is stronger-tasting and a lot more fragrant. Without even biting into it, one can already smell the an pan. That's how good the an pan there is. Perhaps it is also better at Provence because the an pan there is with skin. This obviously contributes to the granular texture and makes the taste better.

But the main reason why Provence wins this round is because the bread of the an pan at Provence is just simply too darn good. The bread there has a certain crusty, elastic bite around the edges and yet remains so awfully cushy and moist when you tear it apart. The bread at Sun Moulin is regrettably dry and bland. There was no 'pangness' to it, it tasted more like a sloppy combination of flour and water compared to Provence's conscientious baking efforts.

There is no doubt at all, that Provence wins hands down.

Round 2 goes to Provence.

Round 3: Wassant

Ok, this was not reviewed in our post about Provence, but we've tried it enough times to know what it tastes like. The wassant at Sun Moulin was definitely stronger tasting. The chocolate definitely shone through a lot more than the wassant at Provence. Truth be told, I think the taste of the chocolate wassant at Provence is a little too faint.

But the chocolate taste at Sun Moulin was not a nice rich chocolate taste. It tasted a lot like coco-crunch, the cheap-skate type of chocolate.

The main difference between Provence and Sun Moulin lies in the texture. While the cheese bun was soft at Sun Moulin and chewy at Provence, it was the complete opposite when it came to the wassant. The wassant was very crispy here. Yes, crispy. It was literally hard. You could break off the layers in crisp bits. I think they don't call it wassant at Sun Moulin. They call it a zebra croissant? This is crispy even by a croissant's standard. It was literally crunchy. But beneath that exterior lies a soft inside, that's very very moist. (I feel like I'm describing a person's character. But its true, the zebra croissant is a sensitive bun. Treat it with lots of TLC.) The wassant at Provence is unbelievably soft, like cloud. It's so light, so airy!

Sharon preferred the soft-like-cotton wassant at Provence. I was undecided. The Sun Moulin one is, to me, a lot more addictive. It tastes cheap, I'll admit that, but it's damn shiok to eat something so crispy and chocolatey (even if it tastes like deep-fried cheap chocolate).

Round 3 goes to.. no one, although if I were going for value for money, definitely Provence. Sun Moulin's is not exactly delicate but costs like 65c for a tiny tiny tiny piece.

Round 4: Custard roll

Now, the Sun Moulin one is EXCELLENT. EXCELLENT. EXCELLENT. The custard is one of the best I have ever had. It's so smooth, so milky.. I am not exaggerating when I say it is like silk. It really is like silk blanketing your tastebuds. Plush, delicious silk to boot. The custard's lushness tickles your tastebuds, its smooth (have I said smooth yet? oh but it's so smooth) milky sweetness enveloping and pampering the many sensory receptors till you're lulled into a place of just absolute bliss. It is so...luxurious.

When I first tasted it, I got super-excited, like a child drinking coke for the first time. It is that good.

Even Sharon agrees that their custard is out-of-this-world. I think I prefer the custard here because as much as I like the custard at Provence, it's a little too eggy for me; the same reason why I can't really appreciate custard baos. But this custard at Sun Moulin is like a cross between the milk pan and the custard roll. Shiokkk. Even that's not enough to describe it. Let me add a couple of Ks. SHIOkkkkkkkkk. That's more like it, with emphasis on the SHIO part too.

If there's any quarrel, its that the bread isn't very aromatic and its not very soft. But the custard is good.

Round 4: Sun Moulin

After 4 rounds, I conclude that the winner is Provence. Sun Moulin is a great bakery but Provence is just magnificent, too zai already. If there's one area where Sun Moulin can aim to improve, its the quality of their bread. Their fillings are not bad, but their bread isn't anything to shout about. It was a good match, nonetheless.

Sun Moulin
Isetan Scotts Basement 1
350 Orchard Road

best kueh baulu/bahulu/balu

Anyone knows what it is actually called? I've heard so many names for it, I can't be sure anymore. I know it as Kueh Bahulu, Sharon knows it as Kueh Balu, we've seen some spell it as Kueh Baulu (combination).

The only confirmed syllables are 'kueh', 'ba' and 'lu'. (Sharon, this does not mean Kueh Balu is correct.) Anyone knows what the correct term is? Please tell us! For now, it's known as kueh B. to us.

So I was walking around People's Park Complex and decided to buy a bag home. I had no idea they would turn out to be the best I have eaten. Those I have had are usually very dehydrated inside and normally quite hard. I only eat these at Chinese New Year, maybe my family buys inferior goods?

These were wonderfully moist and soft. When I first held them in my hand, I gently squeezed them to make sure I wasn't dreaming. It was not hard! It was not crusty! I have never had kueh B. like these before. Excellent, excellent.

Teck Kee Pau

We've heard so much about this Famous Teck Kee Pau and how its charsiew paus are the best in Singapore blahblah we had to try this for ourselves.
This is the celebrated charsiew pau. It lives up to its name as a superb charsiew pau. It is very savoury, very fragrant and very very juicy. But I still like my Tanjong Rhu Pau.

Because the Tanjong Rhu charsiew pau is very unique. It is dazzlingly outstanding. The sweetness and the gelatinous sauce is mammamia-oh-so-good. It is spec-ta-cu-lar.

This one is also very good. It is a very traditional charsiew and it has a bit of that smoked, barbeque taste, a sign of an elite charsiew pau. But it's not something I will daydream and gush all day long about. It is definitely delicious, I'm just not so sure that it charms my socks off.

The lianrong (lotus paste) pau was hard and dry. The skin was powdery like it was understeamed. But the lotus paste was fair, smooth and sweet, rather palatable.

The red bean pau fared more poorly than its lianrong counterpart. The paste was a bit dry and hence not smooth enough. It's no big deal at all.

This is the vegetable pau. Sharon thinks it is interesting, I think she probably never had vegetable pau before. It's average at best. The only redeeming factor was that the turnip was nice and firm which provided a crisp bite.

The chicken pau was not very good at all. I thought it was not fragrant at all. It was not oily enough, it was not seasoned well, it severely lacked the oomph, the punch of a savoury pau. Not good. Honestly, I prefer the chicken pau I used to buy from my school canteen. It was so juicy and fragrant, the taste would permeate even the skin. The skin would be steeped in the fabulous flavour. This was completely absent in the Teck Kee Pau.

What was commendable though, was the use of actual chicken cubes instead of a huge meatball of dubious origin. Other than that, save your money, go for the charsiew paus.

Teck Kee Pau

320 Orchard Road

C.K. Tang Market Place Basement

Singapore 238864

A Japanese Provence

When we speak of bakeries in Singapore, it would be a cardinal sin to leave out Provence. Provence is a (check this out) Japanese bakery, despite its French name, located in Holland Village. It is hugely popular and offers a wide range of breads. It is so popular they have since set up Petit Provence, a small store selling their most famous items, in the basement of The Central.

Presenting, my favourite bakery in Singapore. It's not just a bakery, it's also a cafe, with indoor and alfresco seating, so you can sip on coffee while having a tea-time snack, all while watching the world go by, very French indeed.

This is Provence's new layout. They have such an extensive selection that they have to pigeonhole all their breads and make use of all the vertical space they have. Very Japanese indeed. ;)
And if you think that's all the bread they have, you are sadly mistaken. They have even more! The choice is simply staggering.


First, we had the this custard roll. Sharon is absolutely in love with this. The custard is so smooth so eggy so milky.. It's very, very good. The custard melts in your mouth and then the taste lingers and erupts into pure warm comfort. I found it peculiar that the custard was cold while the bread was not. The bread was soft and fluffy and warm. The warm-cold combination of the two added to the sensory pleasure. It is a must-have for those with a sweet-tooth. I don't really like sweet stuff and I quite like it, so this must really be good.

Actually, it is a bit too sweet for me, but as I said, I'm really weird, I don't like sweet stuff. But Sharon just adores this one. I expect that most people will too. :)

The milk pan is also very good. The custard is a milky white and, like the custard above, so very smooth. It's like silk draped across your tongue, but richer and thicker. It's like a more solidified version of milk foam.

It tastes somewhat like the custard pan but different. The milky taste is a lot more prominent in this one and there is a slight tinge of sourness in the milk custard. This balances out the sweetness so that it is not treacly. The bread is also a little salty compared to the other breads. Again, this emphasises the taste of the custard. This is one of their hot favourites and for a reason too.

This is their brown rice anpan. One of my favourites.

The anpan is not too sweet and the texture is very coarse because the anpan is not grinded very finely. This is good. This is very good. You can taste and see the anpan skin. The skin is excellent. The top-most part is a bit 'crisp' but the inside is moist and soft.

The anpan is possibly the best I have ever had. It's sweet, but the sweetness is muted and does not overpower the bread. Many red bean buns out there are so sweet you only taste sugar and nothing else. Those are nauseatingly saccharine. Disgusting. You don't get to savour the bread properly. This anpan tastes healthy not decadent and is nothing short of first-rate. No other an pan has even come close.

This is my favourite of favourites. The brazilian cheese bun. It looks so normal and boring. And it costs a whopping 80c for that tiny bun. I would never have thought of trying that. But Sharon wanted to try it because she thought it sounded interesting. When I first tried it, I was in awe. These babies are Exceptional, with a capital E.

It's crusty on the outside, but the inside is exceedingly moist and chewy. It's like a crusty mochi except much better. The bun is also salty and very addictive.

I don't know how to describe it. You have to try this for yourself. It's one of a kind.

This is also available in The Central but those are sweet because there's a sprinkling of icing over them. The ones sold at Holland Village are so much more palatable. I love them.

The only thing is that you have to eat them while they're fresh if not they get too chewy and hard. Unless you are looking for a jaw-workout, eat it freshly-baked!

Look at the chewy chewy chewy bun! You can tell its really just air inside. It looks plain but its so scrumptious!! There is no filling just straight-up brazillian cheese bun goodness. The crust on the outside combined with the moist chewy inside is the most curious combination ever. Who needs filling with buns so good.

Provence

17A Lorong Liput

Holland Village

Singapore 277731