Thursday, July 5, 2007

Sweet Traditional Bread

I can't remember the last time I had Bonjour Bread, or Gardenia, or any other commercial, buy-me-off-the-supermarket-shelf loaf of bread for that matter.The bread is, well, relatively fresh, with new batches being made in the wee hours of the morning when the world is still asleep. However, I've yet to get off-the-shelf bread that's still warm from the oven.

These brands do have to be credited with providing a wide variety of flavours though: banana walnut, milk, pandan, sweet potato, raisin and whatnot.
Personally though, I find the good old, traditional ones the best still. You know, those that are used to make into kaya toast. Mmmm. Kaya toast, with a slab of butter. But I digress.

The point is, I found a place to get freshly baked, traditional sweet bread.


the bread in all its glory

This bread is so soft! It is freshly made in a very old bread factory, which specializes in making two types of bread - this sweet loaf and another, more rectangular shaped traditional loaf (non-sweet). There is a slight sugary sweetness to it, I'm guessing it's just due to a higher sugar content in the dough, but I can't be sure as to whether they have other secrets to it. So good, you can even eat it on it's own, really.

There's really no glamour of any sort to the shop. It looks like it has been there for the past 40 years and is pretty run down. The attraction would be the aroma of fresh bread wafting through the air, and the racks of freshly baked loaves of bread left to cool right outside the shop. This little factory that is located next to Whampoa market and food centre (I unfortunately did not take down its name - shall make a note the next time), occupies a little shophouse space and is actually the bread supplier to various coffeeshops. They do sell loaves of their bread at this little factory of theirs too, for us lucky customers to be able to buy bread just about as fresh as it gets.





No efforts put into fancy packaging whatsoever, the loaf simply comes like this - a plastic bag sealed with a knot. The sides have been trimmed off, so you'll just see the white inside instead of the original brown exterior. The top though, is left on. You can peel it off easily if you rather not have any crust. The Father loves the crust and The Mother doesn't.

The loaf comes at S$1.10 each, very reasonably priced in my opinion.

I just bought a loaf home, (handling it with such care on the way back to make sure I don't accidentally squish it) and it is still nice and warm! It's great with sweet spreads like kaya or jams, or peanut butter, or butter and sugar (I know, putting more sugar on a sweet bread... yummy to me!). What it goes really, really well with though, is otah. It may be a sweet bread, but trust me, it's good for savoury sandwiches too.

The slight spiciness of otah + the pillowy bread = mmmmm.

It's great toasted too, but I suggest eating it without toasting, especially on the day of purchase, so you can enjoy the softness of it. By the second day it gets a little harder, and then you can try toasting. The bread doesn't last very long, due to the fact that the shop doesn't use preservatives found in commercial bread, thus consuming it all within 2-3 days would be good.

In fact, I'm off to eat a slice with otah now. MMMM :D



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