Apologies yet again for the radio silence on the blog – been on holiday checking out the artisan baking scene in Singapore and beyond!

Bangkok yielded not much of an artisan baking scene, but the food was to die for! Singapore’s been interesting – bakeries churn out breads that are a lively mix of sweet and light interiors and savoury heartiness, i.e. pork floss buns. I’ve chanced across some ‘artisan breads’ here that sound and look a lot like what we have back in the Bakery, except all with the buzz tag ‘organic’ stuck firmly to the front of each description. It seems like organic has become inseparable from any kind of artisan yumminess over here. Or maybe in the eyes of the general (retail) public. I don’t know about you, but the subjects of ‘gluten’ and ‘organic’ make me a little nervous inside – I know Michael is extremely particular on using those terms. Once, having overheard something I was telling a customer on our spelt breads being low-gluten, he issued a mini Michael press release around the office (for the 7 of us up there to tack up next to our phones) on the seemingly minute, but HUGE differences between ‘low-gluten’ and ‘lower in gluten’. If you’re ever at the Markets one day, check out the ‘A Glance at Gluten’ sign at our stall for some quick facts about Brasserie Bread and gluten.

PS: Our Spelt is NOT low-gluten. Low-gluten refers to products with a gluten content of lower than 0.02%, whereas our spelt has a lower amount of gluten in it than regular wheat flour, but is not low-gluten, or gluten-free. Ok, covered.

Tomorrow’s program will include checking out an interesting Singapore artisan bakery I found, and hopefully, having some wonderful bread. Oh, I am so craving the buffet of samples from the Cafe..

Speak soon!

Mei