June 18, 2010
For some, its the glazed and the golden. Henceforth there is the croissant. The most glorious ones I had ever bought was at Shangri-La Hotel, Suzhou, (the type with roaring fireplaces replacing televisions as main entertainment in the room), hence one can imagine the nature of those pastry shells with their inner filling chocolate.
Mirabelle Patisserie did not fare behind; faceted white pillars and green lorries comparable to the vaulted halls of Shangri-La, whilst bringing out a batch of croissants. Its ham and cheese, chocolate, plain; everything is to die-for, especially towards the non-glazed, non-golden takers. A re-heat in the oven and they will get all melty again.
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Black bread. No longer the heterogenous gray, sad, dark tales of dark chocolate foods, blackberry imposters blueberry-cured carbohydrates- but massively black! I did not run out of words to describe it, its just black! The first thing on my mind was squid ink, squid ink sauce, squid's ink, whatever. The last thing on my mind was this bread's burnt: I had seen more blacks to make this statement.
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Bamboo Charcoal (Custard) (SGD 1.80)
But it is! Charcoal-C: slow combustion of Carbon; activated charcoal it absorbs toxins and neutralizes gases, health-alleviating when added into foods or placed around the house, near electrical appliances. Finally, a vegan and vegetarian version of black foods!
Comparing squid ink and charcoal, why do we add them into foods? Squid ink, just like omelette with chicken, is another edible element of the versatile animal; dyeing the foods like cakes with egg yolk, or itself when chicken is wrapped in egg omelette. Just that it becomes bigger hoo-ha because it is black. 
Charcoal, however, like this unassuming sweet bun, is added for novelty, for an additional colour, a temporal boost on health value. Not nutrition value; novelty, because you can't possibly buy charcoal breads everyday. Hence it forms the base of snack breads, squid ink sauce on carbohydrate mains.
I ♥ my heart charcoal is good for me.
And their outcomes? Like makeup powder charcoal cakes the skin an-incredible black, but within the sponge the grains catch less. Like makeup liquid squid ink seeps into the flour mix, noodles and dumpling skins thoroughly dark. (This is why liquid makeup is a breakthrough in cosmetics, retaining on the skin longer and better).
Bamboo Charcoal (An Pan) (SGD 1.80)
Like squid ink is with calamari, charcoal nestles with its adzuki: japan-found filling for japan-found foods. Sinking onto the fragrant core, yes, it is fragrant; void for the black if without the sweetness of carbohydrates! And those innards were lusciously sweet, stung with white sugar, full-bodied on the adzuki. There couldn't have been a more skewered graph with these two taste-variables as extremes!
For the complete filling, there were also aduzki husks inside(something like the wholegrain rice). The custard filling from the charcoal custard is for those who like their charcoal milky, their rice white.
White sesame seeds on a black charcoal bun, the entire sea of emotions is inverted. Black; on foods has liberated the white, re-liberating black and white typography/imagery-cliches.
P.S. Animal, vegetable, mineral? I wonder if vegetarians are banned on eating mineral. Though; though very trying hard to maintain composed in front of the black foods, I do hope that the streak of astringency detected from the black crumb I am admitting here is but a trace of the morning's toothpaste.
