The bakery that never stops

Whenever we hit the mall, there's one place that we must absolutely, definitely, totally stop at and that's the bakery. Of the 6-8 bakeries that typically dot a single mall, LB is the chosen one, the one I've been frequenting for years. It's operated as part of a popular Japanese grocery chain but over the years, it's matured into an identity of its own.

What I really like about this bakery is that first off, they have an insane variety of pastries, and second, they're constantly coming up with exciting new, mouth-watering stuff. So it's not like when you walk in, you find the same old stuff that was popular when your grandma was a kid although sure, you may have some well-loved items you hope they'll never stop selling. Here you walk in and you have the perennial favorites, and then you have the trendy fare that they introduce every so often and it's that element of surprise that elicits the oohs and aahs.

The pastry selection we saw recently had us piling our takeout tray faster than you can say wow! On the topmost shelf are the walnut raisin loaves, a well-loved favorite that we've seen going through a 'size down, price up' over the years but that still tastes so good. That said, their prices are reasonable and quality comparable with the other bakeries in the mall, so which would you choose?

And look, we found some new additions in the covered bins along the perpendicular side. This is the fruit cream danish with a cream filling topped with kiwi and strawberry slices and finished off with a drizzle of chocolate and powdered sugar. Looks yummy, will have to try it some time!

This is the open-faced danish topped with almond cream and orange slices.

The blueberry almond cream danish looks good too. Omgosh, what are we going to do? Everything looks so good lol.

In the front of the store are more rolls, muffins and baguettes. Daughter2 has tried their macha cream pastry and likes them. The macha (Japanese green tea) trend has been around for quite a while and is still very popular. Here you see someone with tongs in hand (circled) heading straight for those two-tiered baskets... only to find them EMPTY! OH NOoooo they're all gone!!!

Disappointed, she turns away with a sad face, only to return to the same spot a while later to find the baskets had been refilled with a brand new batch of macha pastries fresh from the oven (OH JOY!)...

 ... at which point, she quickly snags a couple before they're all gone again!! One thing to remember with this bakery is that their pastries go really, really fa-a-ast so if you don't grab' em quick, you'll have to wait for them to bake a new batch.