Serangoon Garden Bakery & Confectionery: Deliciously Warm Buns Just Out of the Oven

This very old and famous bakery located at the Serangoon Garden Market for years is a favourite among the locals. I think this old fashioned place beats the chain bread shops set up by Bread Talk hands down. I’d rather have my buns humble, warm and fresh with a wonderful aroma of baked bread wafting about, then dry and with loads of fancy concoctions like they have at the chain stores. These far superior tasting buns are cheaper than those sold at the chain stores, about 80 cents each, so it’s really value for your buck.

The Serangoon Garden bakery has quite an interesting character – an elderly man with a booming voice, who sells the bread like an auctioneer. I guess he’s probably the owner and patriarch, that’s how he keeps the long queues moving fast. You end up buying more than you intend to because he keeps saying “Some more, some more?”. He’s a bit like a nice version of Seinfeld’s soup nazi. Its pretty hilarious actually. There’s also a sweet lady and another courteous man who serve up the buns most of the time and are loads more patient and you can take your time to make your selection. I have a feeling they are all part of the same family.

The luncheon meat (tinned ham or spam) was so yummy with the buttery bread. It is my favourite of the savoury buns but I was a little confused at first because they call this the ham burger (I guess they got it right because the ham burgers at fast food joints don’t even have ham in them!).

photo by bookjunkie

This one is called the ham and cheese bun. It uses fresh sliced ham, but somehow I prefer the salty canned ham.

photo by bookjunkie

The curry bun is a little limp and soggy but the curry filling is really good. It’s a pity they stopped selling their flaky curry puffs which used to have this same potato curry filling.

photo by bookjunkie

Among the sweet buns I love the an pan (the tau sar or red bean paste) is so yummy. The coconut bun also has a divine filling of freshly grated coconut with gula melaka (caramelized palm sugar). They are super generous with the filling and I love that. This old bakery with 70’s charm, sells lovely moist cakes as well and my mum adores their soft and fluffy butter cakes. You could just buy a slice as well.