Mini One by DONQ

Mini One by DONQ has opened its door at Takashimaya food hall at basement 2 last week. While the established Mini One in Japan, delighting both the elderly & children, has been in operation since June, 2006.
The first & new outlet in Singapore currently put together 4 types of bite-​sized bread; butter croissant, chocolate croissant, cheese cake, imo-​mochi (Japanese sweet potato in rice cake made of glutinous rice). The range is limited, I wish there are more. Anyhow, the miniature makes a great daily snack, I’d thought!
Earlier in April, DONQ started its operation, also within the same basement, caused a stir with people making beeline in the squeezing food hall. I was one of them. Yesterday was no exception too.
It took me a while before that red sign board became «recognizable». I saw it beaming at me but my respond was kind of retard. «Mini One», oh something new and cute! I am never good at elbowing but still I squeezed and peep through the shoulders of these curious onlookers. I vaguely remembered reading it somewhere the week before about the opening of this miniature version of DONQ but somehow I failed to retrieve more information on it. «Never mind, just see what’s up for grab», saying to myself playfully.
Staring at the minis stacking on top of one another, I felt sorry for them. I knew I have to rescue them and that was when I suddenly recalled that news last week, giving me a heads-​up. Yes yes, Mini One from DONQ, I told my partner chirpily. «I have to queue for this, wait for me.», I said and disappeared into the crowd. Little did I expect standing in line with these 20 odd hungry goers (the last was in Kaohsiung, at Wu Pao Chun bakery which I have featured in my previous blog), it shocked me. I was fighting with dilemma, to walk away or stay? My feet seems to have overcome all possible reasons to dissuade my buying impulse and were rooted firmly to the ground, preventing any chance of escape. Okay, I conceded defeat, I will buy.
The queuing session turned out to be a joyride, watching the Japanese bakers rolling up the croissants with bare hands, ready to be loaded into the big oven. As I moved along with the rest, I noticed this cute pimply-​looking (filled with black sesame) bun daring at me! «Bring me home!», it seemed to beseech. Heeding its plead, I bagged a 100g of them (imo-​mochi: sweet potato) together with the mini chocolate croissants, of similar quantity at the cashier.
Armed with the 2 bags of freshly baked minis, I was heading home, singing merrily.
I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth on them upon reaching home. Immediately, I reached for the chocolate croissant (had 5 pieces for 100g) and examined closely. It was ¹⁄₃ the size of my palm, so frail looking yet the taste was robustious. The chocolate crust appeared shiny but has lost some degree of crispness and hence less flaky. The melted chocolate paste in the center had been sweet but not exceeding. I gobbled up the bite-​sized and smacked my lips like a greedy girl.
The 7-​pieces of imo-​mochi didn’t win the match, the way I wished. I’d thought it was filled with sweet potato «paste» but I could only see 2 – 3 dices stuck superficially on the mini bun while the chewy mochi accompanied by a handful of black sesame seeds was encased by a thin layer of pale-​looking dough. No distinct flavour, just chewy. I ached my lips.

I have to admit that I was suckered into taking a closer look at this little bakery tucked away in the food Basement of Ngee Ann City mall by the extremely cute store name. Who names their bakery Mini One? A bakery selling breads of course, mini ones!
Okay bad joke aside, this bakery sells the most awesomely soft and epically tasty mini cheesecake EVER. They sell if by the 100grams worth of pastries, so 100grams of mini cheesecakes would cost about $ 3.50, for about 6 to 8 bite-​sized pieces. After that first 7 pieces, I went back to buy 15 more pieces simply because it was too good to pass up and I wanted my whole family to try it. It’s a mouthful of creamy cake taste with just the right hint of cheese, and popping it one after another was just an addiction.
But do look out for their Crème Brulee pieces — it may look and smell good, but they are insanely hard to chew on. It’s hard in the teeth-​cracking sense, so if you can’t handle it, just opt for their mini-​croissants, really good too!

I was walking around the basement of Takashimaya looking for quick bites before I started my errands running, and mini (read: easy to eat) pastries at Mini One (how aptly named) was the choice.
They had a few types of pastries, I saw chocolate croissants, cheese cake pieces, imo-​mochi (Japanese sweet potato in rice cake) and choco mochi… and they were all tiny! Very cutes can!
Needless to say, with my love of all things *boing boing* and chewy, I got the imo-​mochi mixed with chocolate mocha, $ 3 for 100g. It was 8 pieces in total.
I LOVED IT. It was chewy, springy and the taste emerged after the first bite. The mix of sesame seeds with the sweet potato created interesting texture. The chocolate version was also sufficiently chocolately, a mix of two flavours worked to their advantage.
If this were more conveniently opened near me, I would be buying it every other day to munch in the office for breakfast.