This doesn't always happen to me, but there aren't many pictures of this singular (and rare) visit to Tiong Bahru Bakery over at the SIT flats of Tiong Bahru.
It's not that I have no inkling for the place nor the food.
It's just that I haven't had the inkling, nor the need to come all the way here to Eng Hoon Street for a pastry and coffee when this particular brand bakery has so many outlets closer to my side of town here and there.
I mean, it's not that I don't have interest in having a coffee whilst sitting amongst charming pre-war apartments, but it makes no difference to me whether I'm having it here, having it at the outlet downtown in Orchard, or at the shop house on Crane Road not too far from my home.
But here we were today for a meeting.
And so since we were here, decided we'd hang around a bit to grab a pastry and a bun whilst getting some work done.
Sitting here at the cafe, it was easy to see why this place is so loved by fans.
I'm not sure if it were the ambience, the crowd, or the food.
To some diners, ambience is a critical factor. They who like warm, sunny vibes with soft, muted tones on walls and furniture will love it here. The whole place is bright and cheerful but cozy and inviting at the same time.
It encourages conversation and friendly chatter.
It also encourages self-expression in the form of art, whether through music, watercolor, sketches, or journaling. One cannot help but let one's own thoughts run whilst sitting here with a coffee, a tea and a bun or pastry in hand.
I didn't see it before but the ambience here does make one slow down.
Better yet that you are in the vicinity of a neighborhood whose presence has continued all through the decades, beginning from the 30s all the way till today. No one knows how much of each home has been renovated, or not at all.
But here's where at this cafe, and everywhere else close by, life will carry on.
This morning my colleague ordered a Spring Onion Cream Cheese Shio Pan (minus the spring onions) for us to share. He had seen it at the display trays and thought a savory bun would make for a good mid-morning fuel. He wasn't wrong. The shio pan was good.
The salted shio pan itself was both buttery and salty blended so well that you couldn't distinguish where in the bread you tasted the butter or the salt. It made for a very wholesome feel, a kind of moreish savor that had you wanting more.
I found it great fun pulling the bread apart with my hands and sliding the filling off the bun. More like a snack than a meal, it let me savor the cream cheese way more than had I bit straight into the shio pan itself.
We both liked the cheese, my colleague and I.
But he was a bit surprised by the texture of it.
He had not expected the filling to be this thick, this creamy.
Not that he minded, he said, he just thought it would be less of a cream cheese texture.
So good was this that we decided to order a croissant after.
It felt like the natural thing to do when everyone around us was having croissants of all varieties on their plates.
To be honest, I hadn't known that there were so many croissants to choose from. Some of the more popular ones included the Almond Croissant and the Green Tea Croissant. The Almond Chocolate Croissant and the Maple Pecan Pear Croissant seemed pretty welcome to. Most of their croissants belonged to the sweet side, like this one that caught my eye- the Lychee, Strawberry and Rose Croissant.
At another time, I would have ordered it.
I like the combination of lychee and rose together.
At another time too, I would have considered the Four Cheese Corn Bacon Croissant.
Today, however I decided to just stick to the plain croissant.
I wanted to know how it would taste like.
If a place can't do the kosong one well, anything else will just be a mask, not a complement.
Thankfully theirs was good.
So delicious was it that I didn't even need to eat it with butter like how I normally do. I just pulled it apart with my hands same way I had done with the shio pan. And I didn't leave any flaky crumbs behind. I got them up with the fork and knife.
Too good to waste.
Perhaps next time I'll go for their Brie & Mushroom Croissant Sandwich. It sounds like a good combination. Definitely I'd love to try the Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese Croissant Sandwich- one of the best combinations ever.
And perhaps the Wasabi Egg Mayo.
I've never actually had the flavor of horseradish with egg mayonnaise but I think it will taste good.
I'll try some of their other offerings too.
The Apple Kouign Amann looked good.
So did their Apple Crumble, their Lemon Tart, and their Lemon Drizzle Cake.