My take on the hype over Hattendo's cream buns

With the partial opening of Tanjong Pagar Centre, there are some new dining options available for the office crowd. One of the most popular ones would have to be Hattendo Cafe which is on Level 1 and boasts of cream buns which sell-out in a matter of hours. From what I gather, there are two timeslots when you can get your fix i.e. during lunch hour and after 6pm. As for the hours in between, it depends. There was one day when I visited at 2 plus but there was nothing left. On another day, when I visited near 3pm, there was still plenty to buy so this really depends on your luck.

For those who aren't aware of Hattendo, here's a brief introduction about them. Hattendo was actually a wagashi maker initially when it was established at Mihara Minato-machi, Hiroshima Prefecture in 1933 (Showa 8th Year). By the time the second generation owner took over, it was already in the 1940s after WWII when Japan entered a period of rapid growth. With hope for the bright future, the owner then started to introduce Western desserts. When the third generation owner took over, he integrated both Japanese and Western elements in Hattendo's products which are what we see today.

 Actually, on Hattendo's Japanese website, there are six types of buns in its product range i.e. cream buns, premium frozen series, melonpan, warm series, Danish series and others. However, in the local version cafe, the signature product would have to be the cream buns. There are a total of 5 flavours available i.e custard cream, whipped cream, chocolate, matcha and azuki. Coupled with the salad jars, oven-baked chicken and salmon, the cafe also offers a variety of drinks to go with the food. I am not sure if Hattendo intends to bring in the rest of its other cream bun categories and if the versions sold here are identical to the originals back in Japan though. Personally, as I've not tried the original in Hiroshima, my opinion here will be solely based on the local version.

Among the five flavours, I've tried the azuki and matcha versions. If you have seen the photo of the cream buns' interior filling from Hattendo's website, the biggest difference I noticed was how watery the cream in the local version seemed. It was noticeably more fluid compared to what was shown in the original version's picture and there were more red beans in the cream than what I had. Frankly speaking, I do not know if this had to do with Singapore's weather because the higher temperature and humidity here could have caused some water condensation to take place in the cream thus making it wetter and more fluid. As such, I thought that sort of diluted the taste of the cream and made it more bland than I would have liked. The same issue was also noticed in the matcha cream which honestly had a barely noticeable matcha aroma and flavour. It would have been nice if the flavours were intensified and the amount of water content in the cream reduced to make it more suitable for the local climate.

As for the bun itself, I felt that it was too soft to my liking and didn't accentuate the flavour of the cream. The moisture buildup seemed to be an issue here as well with the texture of the bun being rather damp and sticky to the palette. If there is a difference in the texture between the bun and the cream, it would probably have tasted better overall. However, with both the cream and bun being soft and somewhat damp, I wondered if the original recipe could have been modified slightly to make it more suitable for the local conditions.

Since the first time when I had the buns was about one hour after I bought them from the shop and brought them back to the office, I thought that the taste could have been different if I had it on the spot at the cafe. However, I was disappointed to note that there was no significant difference in taste or texture so I guess whether I have the buns straight from the chiller or eat it after carrying it for some time in this weather would be the same after all.

The biggest issue about food items being brought from overseas is usually whether to stick to the original formula or to adapt it to local tastes or conditions. Much as I prefer the original versions most of the time, there are times when a total copy-and-paste wouldn't work so well. For example, when Tim Ho Wan first came to Singapore, I was quite peeved to find the local baked char siew buns soft and rather damp compared to what I had in Hong Kong. In Hattendo's case, I haven't had a chance to compare the local version with its original but from what I heard from friends who tasted the original before, they had similar observations as I did about the texture and water content and claimed that the original version tasted much better. Perhaps if the local version can be slightly modified to make the bun less soggy and fluffier while the cream's texture can be made less watery, I may be enticed to brave the snaking queue for this again.