KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 — We cheered when Malaysia clinched the coveted crown for this year's Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie (World Pastry Cup) in Lyon, France earlier this year. A first for us!
But we'll bet everybody also wondered what those winning creations that captured the judges' hearts taste like?
Well, here's your chance. You can finally taste them at Tanuki by Crustz (Tanuki) from today onwards.
Making this happen is Tanuki's owner Xiao-Ly Koh who is friends with the World Pastry Cup winners: Tan Wei Loon, Otto Tay and Loi Ming Ai.
Connecting them together is The Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia where they once studied together and where Tan and Loi are now instructors.
It's a rare opportunity to taste these creations as they are not available commercially.
"We want to showcase their creations as we don't want people to be disappointed they can't taste it," explained Koh.
Kicking off the collaboration, Loi is showcasing his Le Papillon (butterfly in French). The ice cream dessert follows the competition's theme, "Nature, Flora and Fauna."
At the competition, he was tasked to handle the ice cream dessert and ice sculpting.
However, some changes have been made to the version served at Tanuki. The elements remain the same and you still get to taste the multitude of flavours but it had to be changed for practical purposes.
The original featured a sugar spun butterfly wing and flower pattern inside which this scaled down version does not have.
There's still the creamy yoghurt ice cream outside with one half of a butterfly wing drawn on it that is flecked with gold flakes.
Cut it open to discover layers of raspberry sorbet and lychee sorbet paired with a pistachio sponge. You also have a layer of raspberry rose coulis followed by a lime streusel base.
So, you are not really missing out on anything. Every mouthful is satisfaction guaranteed.
In addition, Tanuki will be serving two more desserts from Loi. The first is simply called Lollipop. The whimsical dessert is entirely edible from the white chocolate label to the stick.
Koh explained that they spun sugar to fashion the stick. Fashioned from ginger cream cheese ice cream on the outside, there's a calamansi sorbet centre followed by a lime sponge and lime biscuit base.
Every bite is tangy because of the calamansi sorbet. Together with the ginger cheese ice cream, the flavours balance out beautifully. Think of it as a very strong (kaw) teh o limau ais!
The second item is the eye-catching Ramen. Mimicking a bowl of ramen with swirls of noodles complete with chopsticks and egg, it's a marriage of creative ideas from Loi and Koh.
The bowl is black sesame dacquoise enrobed in chocolate. Hidden within, there's raspberry coulis, orange cognac parfait and sesame feuilletine that gives it a nice crunch.
Crowning it is a swirl of sesame ice cream with sesame cream to resemble the "noodles." You will find flecks of green tea crumbles on top. There is even a tiny chocolate chopsticks and fried egg on top. Delicious!
Koh's original idea was to use chestnut flavours, similar to the Japanese Mont-Blanc. However, after testing it out they realised it's too sweet for the Malaysian palate.
Instead, they opted for a black sesame flavour. This version uses a Taiwanese sourced paste, making it taste like the toasted black sesame tong sui!
The desserts will be available for around two to three months together with Tanuki's existing ice cream offerings.
Koh will also be introducing the other team members' creations at Tanuki and Xiao by Crustz later this year.
Tanuki by Crustz is located at 26, Jalan Selera 1, Taman Bukit Indah, KL. It is open from 1pm to 10pm (Tuesday to Friday), 12pm to 10pm (Saturday) and 12pm to 6pm (Sunday). They are closed on Mondays. Enquiries can be made at 016-2110932 or their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tanukibycrustz/
