manila: bread talk.

bread talk, a popular bakery from singapore. someone tell me, why is it called bread talk? is there something in the translation i'm missing? anyway, it's less like a bakery than a boutique for bread and other pastries--very white, clean, lots of uplighting and halogen, with quirkily named and funkily shaped pastry and breads showcased on large glass platters. gorgeous, it'tis. sadly, the main bread base is that springy, spongey, tasteless superwhite bread that is popular throughout asia, but luckily most of the items using this particular base also incorporate a redemptive core or topping--beef rendang, chicken curry, chinese ham, a decent custard, blah eh blah eh blahblahblah.

okay, here's the deal. the whole concept of asian idea of western baked goods mixed with actual asian ingenuity makes for cool looking bread and pastries that are hit-and-miss on the taste-o-meter, but combined with the whole boutique concept, the weirdly clinical open kitchen, and the fact that filipinos have a thing about food (j from delicious biting said that, and she's *so* right), means that this place is packed all the time, and oh, here, just look. pretty.



mount fuji swirl: sweet bun filled with whipped cream and a pandan coconut-like jam that is called kaya but i don't really think it is. still, very successful, imo, as the soft, white bread matched the cream and delicate filling well.



nonya chunk: inspired by nonya dumplings, a steamed spicy glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in leaves. the nonya chunk is a pandan-wrapped bun with a spicy meat filling, and topped with a little cheddar cheese. the filling was completely unidentifiable, but spicy with a curry overtone.



grassland: a green tea chiffon cake with cream and sugared red beans layers. hm. pretty but pretty bland, too. disappointed by this. it ain't pretty when the pretty leaves you with no place to go.



nutzi. hey, i didn't name it, they did. i picked this one over the beckham and cheese, and the crouching tiger, hidden bacon. sweet bun with condensed milk, and a creamy peanut filling that really wasn't like peanut butter. really. this reminded me of these pancakes i used to get from hong kong street vendors that were filled with condensed milk and peanut butter. just a fine, fine thing. the pancakes that is. this was good, but fluffy. very nursery-like, and comforting.



the sisig bun. a concession to the filipino public. i'll let you guess from the shape what sisig is made from. this was actually darned tasty.

there's enough substance in this talk that will keep me interested for awhile, but i'm reminded of elvis:

a little less conversation, a little more action please
all this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me
a little more bite and a little less bark
a little less fight and a little more spark
close your mouth and open up your heart and baby satisfy me
satisfy me baby

satisfy me, baby.


bread talk
L1, glorietta 4, makati
818.2232

(and other locations)