I think this is something that is very typical of Singapore heartlanders. Mummies would make their children eat bread for breakfast/lunch/dinner/on-the-go meals/in-between meals, and occassionally the diet includes cakes as well. I’m not talking about the cafe cakes that invaded Singapore towards the end of 90s. I’m talking about the old school sponge cake with colourful toppings, which used to set our mummies back by 50 cents per piece.
And the it became 60 cents, then 80 cents and now it’s 1 bloody dollar. The work of inflation. And of course, if i’m free i would go into Singstat worksite and pull out some data. But i’m reminded that i have to work on my paper soon, and that i have to meet Wayne to get climbing gear at 1.30pm.
Due to this heartlanders’ obsession over bread and butter issue, every heartlander child grows up with one bakery as an important part of his / her childhood. No one grows up with bread and no one grows up without a bakery.
For myself, i grow up while eating bread and cakes from Pine Garden. It’s amazing that i actually witnessed how this family business grew, from one shop to two shops (within less than 5 minutes walk of each other), from looking like any bakery to looking like posh bakery, from charging 3 mini tarts for $1 (when i was in sec 4) to charge 50 cents for the same mini tart.
Even the most familiar choc rice cream bun is more expensive now.
Now i have the freedom to decide what i want to eat, without asking Mummy for approval. I can eat choc rice cream bun every single day, if not for the price and the lack of time to cycle 20 minutes to buy the bun.
Nothing much changed at Pine Garden. Everything from last time remained. Even the fact that tv production still uses their outlets for filming purposes (and i used to exclaim that the bakery on tv is the 那一间面包店 when i recognise it on channel 8 drama serial). Except now they have premium cake that costs $2.
Like Lychee Martini cake.
Check out the range of wedding cake on their website. I don’t remember fanciful designs when i used to stay in amk.
