When I last blogged about the palmier I had from Galicier Confectionery (read the post here), I made a comment that the one from Marks and Spencer Bakery was much better so when I dropped by Wheelock Place earlier, I decided to grab some bakes to go.
In the beginning when M&S had revamped its flagship store and started their first bakery here at Wheelock, I was initially a little skeptical as I thought the bakery would probably serve up expensive yet mediocre pastries. But I was wrong. The prices of the breads and pastries were comparable with other bakeries or probably lower for certain items.
After trying most of the items in the bakery, these are my two short-listed must-tries:
Cheese Twist $2.50
It might not be the prettiest cheese twist and it looked as though there was barely any cheese but you just need to take one bite to enjoy that rich, cheesy flavour beneath those layers of pastry. As these twists had been left out for some time, the pastry was no longer warm or crispy but it didn’t affect the overall taste and texture because it had a lovely moist and chewy interior that I really liked.
Palmier $1.50
The palmier here was probably the best I ever had. The pastry was extremely crispy (yet not too brown or burnt) and flaky with the right amount of butter flavour and sweetness. Some of you might remember the big flat sugar pastry that was really popular in the 80s as almost all bakeries then would sell it. It tasted exactly like the palmier except that the shape and size were different. I grew up snacking on that flat pastry so that’s why I have a soft spot for palmiers now because they really bring back some fond childhood ‘snacking’ memories. And at $1.50 for a big hand size piece, it’s probably one of the cheapest pastries you can get in town these days.
Marks and Spencer
#01-01 Wheelock Place
501 Orchard Road
Website
Opens: 10.00am to 10.00pm (Sun-Thu),
10.00am to 10.30pm (Fri-Sat)