BRIEF: “Crisp, flaky pastry filled with pistachio frangipane and praline, paired with roasted pistachios and white chocolate.” SOOT’S TAKE: Excellent even a day later, following a brief re-crisp in the oven.

Part of a pastry series inspired by Malaysian culture to commemorate Merdeka Day. It consisted of a mochi round atop a sourdough laminated pastry filled with coconut sponge, gula melaka (caramel + crumbles), dessicated coconut and pandan diplomat. Preferred to the apam balik danish.

BRIEF: “Traditional croissant pastry shaped like a snail and stuffed with juicy escargots from France, and a mushroom ricotta custard. It’s then coated with a garlic crumb and doused with garlic butter, then finished with a swirl of parsley chimichurri.” SOOT’S TAKE: It’s tasty but not amazing enough to be prized at an amazing $13. Unless…maybe…unless there was enough magic in the mushroom custard to let me experience a parade of French-accented “au revoir” greeting gastropods as they disappeared down my chute?

BRIEF: “Croissant pastry baked in the shape of a snail, swirled with nutty pistachio custard  & rose-scented cranberries, finished with chopped pistachios and dried rose petals.” SOOT’S TAKE: “Delightful. Very generous with the pistachi but I suppose you get what you pay for. Worth trying at least once.”

Tangerine Curd, Vanilla Bean Cream Bun. Yum!

From THE DOUGH FACTORY booth at Salon du Pain.

Excellent pastry and wonderfully inspired. I greatly appreciated the lack of sogginess in spite of the corn cream, but unfortunately, it was let down by a lack of salt. Would’ve been great (even amazing) with more salt (if any was added at all).

I reheated this to crisp it up and while the pastry itself was good, the filling was unexpectedly that of dark chocolate and a greenish frangipane of sorts that tasted more like matcha than pistachio. They may have slapped on a generous layer of ground pistachios atop the pastry but pistachio wasn’t necessarily the dominant flavor I would have ascribed to it. Ok, I see why it’s a diva now.

Soft and overpriced.