Breakfast at the local bakery

Perhaps it's my own bias but I usually think of pastries and similar baked goods as European in origin. The stereotype I've subscribed to says that Asians get their starch from rice, Europeans (and by extension most Americans) get theirs from wheat and similar grains. Maybe not. In Asia I was surprised to find bakeries with elaborate cakes, breads and pastries everywhere. The format is usually the same, the customer grabs a tray and a set of tongs and selects their choice from small transparent bins. The selections are totaled and paid for at the cash register. So they have bread and pastry in Asia. Naturally there are some local variations on the usual bakery fare, how else to explain the "weiner doughnut" or the "bacon pizza bun" that I found at the Yamazaki bakery outlet in Kowloon:

Then there's Breadtalk. They're based in Singapore but have franchised stores in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. They're upscale, efficient and just a bit exotic. Behold the Firefloss:

This isn't the floss that you use to clean teeth: it's shredded processed muscle fiber.