Anatta Bakery & Specialty Grocer

Caught wind of the new Anatta Bakery & Specialty Grocer after chancing upon on social media post mentioning of its existence not too long ago. The term “hidden spot” may be pretty much used loosely by influencers on social media these days, but describing Anatta Bakery & Specialty Grocery as a “hidden spot” may quite well be accurate anyway. Its social media pages describes it to be located behind “The Little Blue Doors along Bukit Pasoh Road” — that itself is pretty true, though it is likely only easy to find if one is purposefully looking for it (hint: enter Bukit Pasoh Road via Neil Road across from Glasshouse, and go around the perimeters of the shophouse at 2/2A Bukit Pasoh Road to find Anatta Bakery & Specialty Grocer — they are located at the second storey of the shophouse at 130 Neil Road). Anatta Bakery & Specialty Grocer is an extension of Anatta Culinary Academy which organises cooking classes; itself being housed at the first level of the shophouse — Anatta Bakery & Specialty Grocer on the other hand is primarily a gourmet grocer that stocks condiments, tea, snacks, juices, baking products, dry products and canned products that patrons can purchase off their shelves. That being said, Anatta Bakery & Specialty Grocer does retail a line-up of freshly-baked bread said to have been baked every morning at their central kitchen — all of which prominently displayed in the centre of the space.

Skimming through the various bread items that they have to offer, we found the Kare Pan (i.e. Curry Bun) being an item that had caught our attention quite a fair bit. Interestingly, the description card does tell us about the ingredients that goes into the making of both the bread as well as its curry fillings — they have mentioned that the making of the bread included the use of Japanese Flour, Salt, Sugar, Butter, Egg, Milk, Yeast and Water, while the curry filling included elements such as Onion, Carrot, Potato, Ginger, Garlic, Apple, Butter, Bread Crumbs and a 100% Pure Curry Paste which is made from their very own recipe (described as Anatta 100% Pure Curry Paste in the description card). Sinking our teeth into the bread, we did find that the bun itself is soft and fluffy — all that without being particularly dense or limp, being easy to chew and does not clog up the throat even if one takes a big bite into the bread. The bread crumbs on top of the bread provided a slightly crisp texture that provided a bit of a contrast. Meanwhile, the filling carried that earthy and slight sweet-ish note that Japanese-style curry buns are most notable for — nothing too spicy here and should do well even for those with a low tolerance to spiciness. There was sufficient curry going around the various elements such as the Onion, Carrot, Potato, Ginger, Garlic, and Apple, with Kare Pan coming with a good proportion of all of them to provide a soft bite as one chews through the Kare Pan which we found to be pretty satisfying despite being stocked in-store for almost the entire day when we dropped by during mid-day on a weekend. It is interesting to note that while Anatta Bakery & Specialty Grocery is primarily a spot meant for grocery shopping and its bread and coffee items are seen more as a grab-and-go offering, we were told that they are in the midst of getting more seats to allow patrons to enjoy their bread and coffee within their premises in the time to come; a pretty interesting spot to hit up that we are also likely to hear more about in the coming days soon as more discovers the spot!