Once upon a time, there bestowed upon us a gift from afar. Some embraced and worshipped it with all their heart and soul. Houses of love celebrating this gift spawned across major shopping malls in town and were welcoming but patience was needed in waiting to experience the so-called divine as turnouts were perpetually overwhelming. The power of a magical fried scent, it must be. There was no escaping this love for everything fried that had been instilled in all of us. The only decision one had to make was to decide if he or she was an orthodox glazed or a modernistic nutty. Famous worshippers include Homer (Simpson).
Circa 2010…whatever happened to imported doughnuts ar?
Some time ago, I gave it a try, felt mostly uninspired and decided that I’m better off a renegade, so stone me. On a hungry day at the basement level of Mid Valley Megamall, I blasphemed a new, overcrowded house of love that was the doughnut and headed for the more zen school of Beard Papa. It was here that I found something enlightening – cream puff with black sesame. Not to be confused with the trivial sprinkling on the choux pastry (for easy identification, I think), ground black sesame seeds were actually mixed with whipped cream for the filling! A crispy choux is just as important as the filling and we’ve already recognized Beard Papa’s version of being consistently good – crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and refined. Most new flavours at Beard Papa’s are worth a try simply because the worldwide perennial favourite of the vanilla custard cream creation has given some sort of vision of what we can expect – a puff worth sinning for. As with most Japanese desserts, the taste was subtle - just enough black sesame seeds to tease the tastebuds. The combination of smooth, light cream and fragrant toasted seeds was just brilliant. However, this flavour is not always available. From my understanding, it rotates with the green tea version on a monthly basis. During the month of February, it was green tea. If I’m right, it’ll be black sesame this month.
In other countries, flavours such as Earl Grey tea and pumpkin are offered as well. Looks like doughnuts are not the only souvenir to bring back from abroad, eh?
