Comfort Food At 6000 Feet

The Bakery is my favourite place in Genting Highlands. Located at the foyer of Genting Grand Hotel, its glass front gives a view of the comings and goings of travellers, and allows me to pretend to be suspended in time as I watch people go about their arrivals and departures. When it is shrouded by the thick mountain mists outside, I turn my attention inside to the warm, cheery atmosphere, and celebrate being surrounded by the scent of fresh breads, and the sweet fragrance of sugar, cream and coffee. I feel most like a writer here, when the cool air whirls through the outlet and cuts through the rising warmth of the smell of people and their rapacious appetites; when, alone, I scrutinize the people, wondering about their lives, and spinning made-up histories for them.

When my reptilian core kicks in, reminding me of the onslaught of hunger because of the energy it's been burning to keep me warm, I wander to the display counters where a landscape of calorific delights await. Forget Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. My food fantasies will always feature baked goods and pretty little sweet morsels bedecked with silver balls and latticework of cream and fondant.

The hunger to know the stories of the people around me manifest in a desire for sweet things. To satisfy the sugar urge, I pick out two macaroons. Each are RM6. One is a green coconut lime, the other a purple lavender. Both flavours speak at once to the palette of memory. The sharp bite of lime and the cream of the coconut brings me back to all-day diners where key lime pie always finished the meal, no matter at what time of day. The lavender transports me to the child me who would ferret through my grandmother's Yardley lavender-scented cupboards, looking for pieces of lace and stiff, embroidered Peranakan fabric.

The macaroons are technically superb. Unlike the usual crumbly, light-as-air, flaky kind, the pastry department has devised a bon bon which looks airy fairy, and yet has substance. It's like biting into a dream cake and finding substance. The shell of these macaroon have the brittle give associated with the sweetmeat, but their interior is firmer, with a nuttier, more nougat-like filling before the ganache is bitten into. The flavours are naturally, not overpowering, and they release slowly into the mouth as opposed to the one-two sucker punch of more commercial macaroons.

Pretty to look at, and as good to eat.

Although I'm an emotional eater, I could not bring myself to pass off the lemon brioche as anything nearling good. In looks it was a pretty little scalloped thing of joy, with its light yellow shade and drizzle of icing sugar down its side. However, despite the commendable lemon cheese topping, the main reason people order brioche was quite lost. The RM14 bread was stiff and dry, with not even the presence of lemon peel to give the dryness respite. I struggled to find the magic, but gave up when even the lemon cream spread over the interior failed to hydrate the crumby offering.

Lemon brioche proved that sometimes you can't make lemonade out of lemons.

The drinks were better. The altitude make creamy, steaming hot drinks a must. I thought the strawberry tea would be a black tea infusion, but the RM10 cuppa turned out to be latte-ish drink served in a mug. It looked usual, but the taste was divine. It felt like having a cream tea in a drink.

The top selling beverage at The Bakery has to be the hot chocolate. My dining partner ordered a double. It's RM16.50, but it was worth it to see a glass of hot steamed milk slowly dissolving sticks and cubes of good quality chocolate to turn the milk brown. I liked the presentation too. It looked posh, and worthy of the price tag.

Before the chocolate sticks go in.

The transformation.

A perfect beverage.

Even the RM10 three-layer ice tea was pretty to look at. While a cold beverage may be a little out of place on a windy mountain, it kept its robustness thought the ice, and the milk made it more bracing.

Three layer tea done to a T.

The Bakery

Genting Grand Hotel

Genting Highlands Resort

69000 Genting Highlands

Pahang Darul Makmur