Property Agent Makes Mochi-Filled Japanese Milk Buns That Sell Out In 15 Mins

Fluffy Japanese milk buns are a perennial crowd-pleaser, and so is bouncy mochi. But what if you combine the two? That was what self-taught baker Joan Navenza Wiguna did. The 31-year-old Indonesia-born Singapore PR recently set up online-based bakery Rakki (Japanese slang for ‘lucky’), which has an omakase concept: rather than a fixed selection, Joan sells bakes in “seasonal flavours” similar to the omakase menus in Japanese restaurants.

Right now, the only item she offers is matcha and black sesame Milk Buns with Mochi ($27), which comes in a box of nine buns. Each bun is stuffed with a mochi filled with red bean or black sesame paste. Order slots are released every Thursday at 1pm, fastest finger first. According to Joan, the slots are usually snapped up in “15 minutes”.

Despite starting Rakki only in end-July this year, she has amassed a cult online following for her Japanese milk buns. “I almost didn’t want to continue doing this ’cos it was tiring and I wasn’t sure if people are willing to buy omakase boxes for Japanese bread, but when they tell me how much they love it, it makes me very happy,” she tells 8days.sg.

Before starting Rakki, Joan was tending full-time to her other popular online food biz called Chatsworth Cookies, which specialises in New York’s Levain Bakery-style giant cookies. “I started Chatsworth Cookies from home last August, and this year I got a central kitchen,” she says. “I wanted to explore more and started baking bread, ’cos I wanted to make Japanese bread that’s very soft and fluffy. After countless trials, I came up with the mochi bun.”

She created a separate brand for her Japanese bakes to sell “whatever thing I come up with that has a Japanese hint to it”. For Christmas, she had wanted to create a bread wreath but scrapped the idea due to time constraints. “I didn’t have time to do R&D as I was very busy with Chatsworth Cookies, and I just started working as a property agent ’cos I was always very interested in properties,” she shares. Next, the ambitious young boss is also looking at opening a Chatsworth “specialty store”, which she hopes to set up in “Joo Chiat or Dempsey”.

At first glance, the green-and-black milk buns look very appealing. They’re simply dusted with confectioners’ sugar and packed in a plain white box, and you’ll have to pull the buns apart to consume 'em.

We bite into the fluffy bun, which yields a mochi filling with an even more fabulous texture — soft and chewy with a generous dollop of earthy black sesame paste and sweet red bean paste. It gets filling after two buns due to the glutinous mochi, fortunately for our waistline. Worth the hype and effort to order this.

Order slots are released every Thursday at 1pm on www.rakki.cococart.co.