Sin Chua Huat bakery is about as old skool as they come…this
establishment has been around for over three decades! It’s a permanent
fixture in the old Jalan Padungan section…this Chinese bakery dates
way back. The bakery has bags of flour lining the entrance and all the
preparation is all done in full view of the public…and this was way
before it was chic to have the visible chef concept. 😉 Old school, all
the way.
The bread that this place offers are all oven baked…as in hot coal
brick oven. It’s the traditional method of baking and this place has
retained the method over the years. The picture below shows the first
section selling full loaves and half loaves of bread.
The half-loaf is meant for families who do not have the gastronomic
fortitude to eat through a full loaf and this practice of selling half
loaves has been marginalized to the point of extinction…except in old
Chinese bakeries.
Sin Chua Huat bakery has been passed down from generation to
generation and you can see the wide age gap here – everyone chips in to
help in the bakery. It’s family owned and it’s said that the original
proprietor still comes out to help from time to time. Notice the butter
filling to the left and the coconut filling to the right?
Sin Chua Huat sells four things and four things only – loaves of
freshly baked bread, empty buns and two types of filled buns. The
picture above shows the empty buns…it’s just bread made into buns.
The place sells home made kaya too, for complimenting their products.
This is what this place is famous for – filled buns. They only have
two varieties – butter and coconut. The long ones are the butter buns
and the round ones are the coconut buns. We bought five of each for the
office. It costs 40 cents each.
The buns are baked twice a day…it’s best to go either very early
in the morning or mid afternoon. That’s when the buns come out warm and
fluffy.
This is the coconut bun. It round and the filling is made of shredded coconut and brown sugar.
Here’s the butter bun. It’s the longer one and the filling is made of butter.
Sin Chua Huat is a must try if you’ve got a hankering for old skool Chinese pastries, done the traditional way.
