Bread Story, Broadway, Ultimo

EDIT 05/07/07: Bread Story on Broadway has now closed

First there was Beb Patisserie.

Then there was Bourke St Bakery.

And now the Broadway strip between City Road and Wattle Street has another baked goods supplier in its midst.

It's a Bread Story all right.



This is the first foray into the Australian market for Bread Story, a popular franchise bakery with origins in Malaysia. Conceived by Jun Low, a former stockbroker from Singapore, Bread Story likes to name its products "according to novels, heroes, movies and special characters", according to its website.

The set-up inside is reminiscent of a bakery in Japan: bright white lighting, plenty of perspex, and a glass-walled kitchen area for customers quality assurance and (more importantly) ogle-factor.

There are plenty of wacky product names: Tina Tuna, Choco Teddy, Flossy Hottie, Magic Cheese Wand and even Sirens of the Lambs (a mutton curry bun).

Most items are simply rebadged products commonly found at any Chinese bakery. The Mexican bun, with its distinct crusty outside and soft innards is renamed Hero, because aren't all heroes just vulnerable tough guys? The Durian Special though, with "fresh durian!" according to its perspex drawer label, immediately caught my eye.


Durian Special $2.40



It was pleasant enough. A soft pliable bun, as most Asian palates seem to prefer, and a pungent inner core of sweetened durian mulch.

Prices are significantly higher here: a hotdog-in-a-bun sells for $2.00 when it can be had for about $1.00 at any number of bakeries in Chinatown six blocks away. But Bread Story boasts that their products are baked every three hours without the use of any preservatives.

I've always thought that one can never have too many bakery options, but perhaps Bread Story staff should keep an eye on the Tina Tuna... lest she break out into a spirited version of "We Don't Need Another Hero..."

Bread Story (CLOSED)
165 Broadway, Ultimo, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9280 4989

Chinese New Year Eve: The Feast

If there are three particular idiosyncrasies about Asian palates it's our love of bones, skin and fat.

The roast suckling pig embodies all three in glorious gormandizing hedonistic glory.



I had the good fortune to be invited to dine with Veruca Salt and her family on Chinese New Year's Eve, a night which traditionally involves a reunion dinner for celebratory feasting.

The Chinese New Year mandate for excessive eating provided the perfect excuse for Veruca to order a whole suckling pig.

And who was I to argue?

Veruca had been planning this feast for weeks. There was a tentative menu brainstormed over a month before, discussions, deliberations and days of dedicated research before preparations began in earnest.

The result? See for yourself:


Yee sang (raw fish) salad
This salad is traditionally eaten on New Year's Eve, or on the seventh day of the Chinese New Year. All guests toss the salad at the same time, using chopsticks to toss it higher and higher as they call out good luck wishes to bring prosperity.

Ours had salmon strips, pickled ginger, daikon, carrot, garlic chives and coriander (cilantro). We improvised a dressing of light soy, mirin, lime juice and honey.


Canh ga don (stuffed chicken wings) and
cha gio (spring rolls made with banh trang rice paper)

The midwing is deboned and stuffed with a mixture of pork mince, carrot, vermicelli and mushroom. They are placed in a steamer to cook, and then deep-fried to a golden brown.

Cha gio (also known as nem ran in Vietnam's south) are made with banh trang rice paper; the semi-translucent sheets of starch give a chewy almost tacky texture when deep-fried.


Crispy skin chicken
A mammoth task involving marinating, simmering, drying, glazing, more drying and finally deep-frying.


Sashimi salmon


Goi cuon (summer rolls)


Steamed whole perch with soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and shallots
Whole fish is another must-have dish at Chinese New Year. Only half should be eaten and the remaining eaten the next day, as the word for fish sounds like surplus.

It's all about homophonic coincendences!


Whole roast suckling pig

But it's always the pig that gets the most attention.

With good reason...


Suckling pig

The crackling was lightly salted, crisp and yes, indeed, delicious. It was the only dish that was purchased, and although it wasn't quite as earth-shattering as some we've had, we forgave it on the grounds of Chinese New Year-driven customer chaos.

There was a gluttony of desserts: homemade pandan coconut jelly (by A), homemade mango pudding (Veruca again) and an entire crate filled with juicy sweet delicately perfumed longans.

Bliss.

Related GrabYourFork posts:
Chinese New Year Eve: the build-up

Get Fed

As if I don't already have compulsive bloggeritis, I've just become the latest Sugar Savvy recruit for the Well Fed Network. Launched on 3 January 2006, Well Fed is an online collaboration of food-and-drink content by bloggers from all around the world.

Sugar Savvy's mandate is to focus on all things chocolate and candy.

It's a match made in heaven.

My weekly publishing day is Wednesday (US-time, about Thursday lunchtime in Oz).

You can check out my first published article here.

Grate stuff

A recent post on my homemade green mango salad generated a couple of queries about zigzag graters: what were they and where could you get them from.

The one I use was brought back from Vietnam by ever-thoughtful friends of mine. I couldn't find a picture of it on Google so in the post comments I suggested a julienne peeler which is often available from kitchenwares in department stores. A julienne peeler will work but a) you get matchsticks which are a little crunchy when you're dealing with green mango, and b) you can't peel as fast as a zigzag grater.

And then, today, I found one!



This baby is brilliant for rapid peel action. The black plastic bit clicks around in a circle and rotates the blade, meaning it can be used by both left and right handers (woohoo!).

I haven't tried the other features yet (zigzag cuts and orange segmenting aren't usually things I indulge in) but if you're after a green mango salad fast, then this is what you're after.

Product: Kom-Kom Miracle Zig Zag peeler

Use it: to shred green mangoes, green papaya, daikon, carrots etc; make pretty zig zag cuts into spherical fruits and veggies; and segment oranges.

Bonus points: can be used by left and right handers

Cost: $9.50

Get it from:

Pontip Exotic Fruit
16 Campbell St Haymarket, Sydney
(in-between the two BBQ shops near Mission Australia;
there's a Lucky Thai video shop out the front)

Tel: +61 (02) 9211 2208