SEREMBAN, May 3 -- The aroma of freshly-baked biscotti is quite unmistakable and frankly inimitable.

The warm, toasted notes of almonds; a gentle hit of nutmeg or cinnamon or both; the sweet scent of baking in an Italian kitchen.

It's a fragrance I haven't had the chance to enjoy in far too long. So it is all the more surprising that I am experiencing this twice-baked bouquet in the more-than-half-century old Templer Flats in Seremban.

Specifically, the biscotti comes with the coffee we ordered at 10 Grams Coffee Lab, located in a corner shoplot facing the inner courtyard of the low-cost housing project, which was constructed in 1966.

Residents, most of them senior citizens, stroll around or enjoy their kopitiam breakfast. Indeed we h...