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Thursday, March 7, 2019

Danish pastries with cream cheese? Buy them In London or Singapore.

In London you can buy Danish pastries with cream cheese. Often you buy assorted Danish pastries. Some have just sultanas and an apricot jam top. Others contain nuts or almond paste (soft marzipan). My favourite are the ones with cream cheese. To buy pastries with only cream cheese usually costs extra.

The strange thing is that the so-called Danish pastries do not appear to be made in Denmark or to come from Denmark and when I went to Denmark I could not find them. At least not by that name. The Danes call them Viennese pastries.

The origin of the story of the name becomes clear on consulting Wikipedia. The Danes had a bakers' strike, years ago in the 1800s, when to supply the unfilled demand, food was baked by Austrian pastry chefs. The Danish public liked the Austrian or Viennese pastries, and adapted them, keeping the name, Viennese pastries.

London's Delicatessens
Danish pastries are to be found in London, England, sometimes in large supermarkets or party food catalogues, more often in bakeries. A good place to look is in North West London, especially continental patisseries, and the kosher delicatessens. All the way from the city centre out to the suburbs: Hampstead, Golders Green, Edgware, and so on.  If you can't spot what you want in the window, uue up and ask. You might find they are made for the weekend, .

Delicatessen is a German word, for delicate eating or delicious, delicate foods. You can see the roots of the double word, delicat, plus essen meaning to eat.

Singapore's Cream Cheese Buns
When I went to Singapore, I did not find any such item, although many British foods although fish and chips are well known. At tea time or on bakery counters, scones with jam and cream are very popular.

The packaging tells you nothing about the contents. It simply says: Assorted cakes and buns.

Imagine my surprise when I bit into a sweet bun and found it contained sweetened cream cheese! So more-ish. They were bought in a set of four, for only 2SG (two singapore dollars) and forty cents. The supplier is on the 3rd floor of the Nex shopping centre. Nex is beside Serangoon MRT which is at the junction of two MRT lines, the yellow circle line and the purple North East line.

If you are looking for a baked New York cheesecake, or a cheese Danish, you might want to phone in advance and ask if the shop has any in stock, and what time you should arrive, or if you can place an order.

I asked another friend in Singapore: 'Where can I buy buns filled with sweet cream cheese?'
He replied, 'Any bakery'.

Vegan and Kosher Cheese Worldwide
Many Asians who cannot take milk are able to eat cream cheese. However, if you have vegan friends you might be interested in vegan cream cheese from a company called Bute Island in Scotland. they have kosher cheese, too, and export around the world, Europe, and Asia.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_pastry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patisserie_Valerie
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017898-cheese-danish
https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-cheese-danish-for-a-crowd-238398
https://www.starbucks.com/menu/food/bakery/cheese-danish
https://www.buteisland.com/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

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