A Few of My Favourite Things !

The City of Yarra has forced the closure of Wildflour, reports this week’s Espresso section in Epicure, as the premise had permission to operate as a cafe but not a bakery. Pardon my ignorance, but WHAT is the difference?!

One of a handful of artisanal bakers in Melbourne, Wildflour had set tongues wagging about how good their bread was. I found out about them during a visit to Simon Johnson’s Fitzroy store where they were serving it to taste olive oils with. The bread impressed us so much that we had to ask the source. Unfortunately, we may never actually get to try their other baked goods if they don’t find a place soon. Call Tony Rees on 0404 729 458 if you can help.

I’d better hotfoot it down to Noisette in case the local council decide to close that down too…

LIVESTRONG Day, an event initiated by the Lance Armstrong Foundation, provides an opportunity for us to raise awareness about cancer issues in our local communities and on a national level.

There are many LIVESTRONG Day events open to the general public, however Barbara organised a food blogging event called A Taste of Yellow that requires participants to make a dish containing something yellow.

I had plans to bake something, cook something for this event but getting home late last night after watching the amazing Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai show, we wanted something comforting and easy. What better way to end the night than with a toasted cheese sandwich.

Very simply, place some slices of lovely pale, creamy French Comté - a cheese made from the unpastuerised milk of Montbéliard cows - between 2 slices of dark rye bread and toast until melted.

Jian Bing - a thin, crispy crepe sparsely filled with an egg, some green herbs, brown sauce and chilli, fi you like it hot. Just fatastic and my favourite breakfast in Shanghai.

Having a breakfast of toufa with the locals

Finally, the bakery that we have been eagerly awaiting since reading about it some months ago opened last Friday. It’s hidden in a laneway (as with everything good in Melbourne) off the section of Little Collins St between Queen & Elizabeth St. They had a soft opening with the cafe and are planning to expand into the back section with a casual-style restaurant later on.

At the moment, there is a selection of baguette sandwiches, pies and salads to choose from for lunch, or you can take one of their sourdough loaves away. We went with a chicken cooked in white wine pie and it was to-die-for.

Sweet pastries are also available, and one of the best spots to have your coffee, in my opinion, is the standing bar.

I’m waiting for them to go full steam ahead and keeping my fingers crossed that there will be many more varieties of bread in the future. In the meantime though, I couldn’t resist purchasing one of their chocolate and fruit loaves (price varies depending on size). I nibbled on this all the way back to the office. I mean, it’s carbs and chocolate all-in-one!

Walking around Shanghai one evening we came across a place that was grilling lamb kebabs over a charcoal fire. We looked up at the shop frontage to see the shop name appearing in Arabic script next to the picture of a mosque. The music that wafted towards us along with the smoke was definitely Arabic although the workers looked just like extremely fair Chinese. Following some research, I realised that there is actually quite a rich Islamic heritage within Chinese history.

Towards the evening, long queues snaked across the street waiting for the lamb kebabs to come off the grill. Not wanting to wait, we just picked up some interesting-looking bread. The dough is mixed with pieces of lamb (chewy for the most part) and fat and baked into a fragrant flat loaf with a crusty exterior.

Next to the bread is an egg custard tart from Lilian Bakery, a franchise that has several branches scattered around the city. A connoiseur of egg custard tarts, A has decided that this is best one we have had so far and I am inclined to agree. The custard, which is wobbly and just eggy enough to lure me but not put A. off, is held together by a flaky pastry shell. Utterly divine!

Somewhere between a roti and a naan, this sesame seed-coated bread is fried in a large flat pan which gives it a crispy shell. We had a great version the first time then had a lot of trouble finding elsewhere. The second one turned out to be too soft and mushy to be enjoyable.

This is a Chinese delicatessen! Every second shop in Shanghai seemed to sell a variety of preserved and dried foods, biscuits and sweets, as well as herbal ingredients. Most of the preserved meat were vacuum packed in foil wrappers, making it difficult for non-Chinese reading people like us to determine what each contained - feet, chicken wings or tongue, just to name a few. This shop made it somewhat easier although I can’t imagine buying that porcine face mask. It reminds me rather creepily of Hannibal - eeeuughhh.

Adventures in Shanghai - Part 1
Adventures in Shanghai - Part 2
Images of Shanghai

On Saturday morning, we wandered across Carlton Gardens to Brunswick St in search of some coffee. that’s how we stumbled upon Mario’s, which we now know is a bit of an institution having been on Brunswick St for over 20 years.

The french toast was made with a multigrain bread, which gave it an unusual crunch, and served with real maple syrup. We also had bacon on the side to off-set the sweetness of the maple syrup.

The prices are really reasonable here and they do a fantastic cofffee.

Mario’s Cafe: 303 Brunswick St, Fitzroy 3065

In the name of research, I have also sampled cocktail buns from the Box Hill bakeries. The round one on the left is from Cakeworld and the skinny one on the right from the Carrington Cake shop.

As you can see, the Cakeworld one resembles the Montague Bleue in shape and size but with a little more glaze and sesame seeds. The taste however is almost exactly like the Maxim offering - not too rich but lots of dessicated coconut. I felt that the Maxim version was probably a little softer and fluffier though.

The Carrington cocktail bun is preferred by Thanh however they must have been having an off day. The bread is quite dark and the taste leans towards being slightly burnt. The bun itself is quite dry and almost stale tasting however the filling itself is pretty decent. It reminds me of the Montague Bleue filling as it was quite buttery, however it did not taste salty at all.

What’s the verdict?

Personally, I would still go with Maxims in Melbourne or Montague Bleue in Sydney. Of course, someone else may like to weigh in on this as well…

Along with everyelse in blogging land, I tried my hand at the no knead bread that is light on labour but requires forward planning. Crusty exterior with a nice crumb, this one also contains mixed grains.

Look at those fat Queensland prawns! They were very simply immersed in a brothy congee made with mixed grains and chicken stock until just cooked.

We also picked up some ‘Tabletop Grapes’ dried sultanas, crockery and teatowels from Portugal and a ‘Cowpat‘ fruit loaf that smells of chocolate and is stuffed full of figs, juicy sultanas and almonds. Gotta love a name like that!

My firm belief is that the best way to compare products is to perform a head-to-head comparison. You can therefore imagine my excitement when I came across Helen’s post about the Cocktail Bun Challenge.

I never understood how this coconut-filled bun came to be christened with such a name, nor has it often made it onto my tray as the room was usually taken up by pork-floss and pineapple buns. As it was however, I happened to Sydney taking in some pearls of wisdom from some of today’s great social and business thinkers. What better time to continue Helen’s good work by extending the challenge to Melbourne’s bakeries?

As the Montague Bleue cocktail bun won this challenge, it was only appropriate to put it up against what Melbourne has to offer. I purchased the bun from Montague Bleue on Thursday evening, taking it with me on the flight home. The next morning, I went in search through Chinatown and managed to snag one cocktail bun from Maxim and one from the Dragon Boat Restaurant’s takeaway window. Surprisingly, Bread Top didn’t offer these but that’s okay.

So here we have it, from the left to right, cocktail buns from Dragon Boat Restaurant (Melb), Montague Bleue (Syd) and Maxim (Melb):

Immediately apparent is the more oval shape of the Montague Bleue offering, looking like a podgy kid next to the other two slimmer buns. All three are glazed and sprinkled with sesame seeds but the Maxim bun also has a swirly pattern instead of the usual two parallel lines.

Dissecting the buns horizontally reveals that Dragon Boat has the most generous filling which is tinged with the faintest hue of orange. The Maxim filling is a shade darker than Montague Bleue’s but, more importantly, closer inspection of the filling as shown in the photos below reveals that the textures are quite different. Whilst the fililng in the Dragon Boat and Montague Bleue buns are smooth, the higher level of dessicated coconut in Maxim’s gives it a coarser texture.

Now, what about the taste? The Dragon Boat bun was only worth one bite due to the stodgy filling and density of both bun and filling. I had a feeling that this would come off the worst when I initially bought it because the baked goods here don’t seem to be as popular. In fact, I wonder how fresh their breads and pastries would be given the low turnover. However, fairness demanded that it be tried.

Despite having been baked the day before, the Montague Bleue bun was as Helen reported - soft and spongy with a saltiness to the filling that reminded me of century egg puffs. Buttery and delicious.

Unlike its Dragon Boat neighbour, the Maxim bun was also soft but the filling was what differentiated it from the others. Less sugar and more coconut, it also had a more definite flavour of sesame seeds even though distribution was even across all three buns.

So, who takes it? Whose cuisine reigns supreme?

Although I wish it had the salt-edge of the Montague Bleue version, overall i enjoyed the Maxim bun the most because of the higher coconut content. The next step is to take the challenge to Boxhill’s best!

PS: Having just taken another bite out of the MB & Maxim buns, I have to say that it’s a tough pick. I like the saltiness of the MB version but I think I could eat more of the Maxim as it’s less rich and, as i’ve already said above, more coconutty.