Brasserie Bread - Banksmeadow, Sydney

There is a whiff of nippiness in the air, especially in the early mornings and late evenings. You long for some homely comfort, a bit of warmth and the aroma of freshly baked stuff. It can be a lazy, easy time. The arrival of autumn is on the back of our minds, but we do long for the texture of good baked rolls, to take with fresh and colourful fruit, welcome grains and the memory of other hazy but good mornings. Oh yes, both the rhubarb and strawberry tart, plus the orange and hazelnut friand are waiting for you (above image), fresh - someone has returned from the Brasserie Bread Cafe near Botany Bay.

Clockwise above, from noon: brioche burger bun, flavourful light and just of the right bite size; the ever reliable plain croissants, ready as they are, but also inviting with butter, jams and crunchy sides; the sweet danish "pain raisin", tempting but not overwhelming.

The sit down menu at the cafe is extensive, whether for breakky, brunch or lunch. I was captivated by the six seed roll with marinaded turkey breast, hummus and crunchy salad. Or a dark rye bread accompanied by smoked trout and cool cucumber salad. Teacakes or baguettes? Or may be some chocolate brownies and banana bread slices. And panini, pancakes and poached eggs. All eggs utilised are organic. You can have toasts from a mixture of sour cherry, walnut and fig. There's the ciabatta or schiaciatta for Italian preferences.

Hand crafted cultured butter is provided with your bread offerings, and I chose the slow cooked pork shoulder roast with sweet potato mash, topped by a simply fried egg. (picture above) The coffee blend served is Allpress. Muesli, olive oils, relishes and preserves are also bottled and on display. I could not figure out the background of the clientele - perhaps a confluence for Sydney's eastern suburb matrons, Brighton le Sand families and Sutherland Shire twenty somethings.

The paper wrapping and bags used are pleasant to hold. Brasserie Bread proclaims that it combines the best of artisan baking traditions with latest IT infused and automated technology to offer the best in its products and produce. The wooden shelves at the cafe in Botany remind us of a past period, of utilising what is natural and setting the tone of a relaxing venue with high ceilings, big windows and the buzz of starting a day.

The tender and juicy pork infused well in flavour with the sweet potatoes and texture of bread (above). My overall impressions of the Brassiere Bread Cafe at 1737 Botany Road (nearer to Foreshore Road junction in Botany NSW) are:

Atmosphere: You could be in the country side but it can get crowded.

Location: In a light industrial area, but hidden away from the hype of residences and city rush

Taste: Definite benchmarks

People Engagement: Staff had natural conversation abilities to make customers at ease, even though they had much to do themselves

Service: Above average.

Best Time to Visit: 830am on weekends and 11am on weekdays

Fav Dish Experienced: Slow cooked roast pork shoulder and anything sourdough

Would I Return?: Yes

There is a calendar of baking sessions for interested adult students. Complimentary kids' baking classes are offered once a week - on the Saturday of visit to the Botany outlet, the eight to twelve years were seen smiling standing around a dough and mould class through a door with a glass see through top. Customers help themselves to plain water glasses ala pub style. Open every morning from 7am on weekdays and 8am on weekends, the cafe quickly fills up with an urgency especially after 9am on Saturdays and Sundays. It is not a place for sleepy heads, although the aroma and whiff of their products do wake any one up gently, as there is not much left before 2pm.

Brasserie Bread has won top awards in croissants, Danish pastries, sourdough creations, pane croccante, rye bread and French Mountain Bread. Don't miss their garlic bread, sourdough pancakes and Croque Monsuier should you find your way to Botany or its latest opened outlet in South Melbourne at 150 Thistlethwaite St. For air travellers, do not despair, a Brasserie Bread cafe is already open at Terminal 2 Domestic in Sydney Airport.

Spring Boarding

To do something unconventional takes guts. Beyond circumstances, above reproach and surpassing all previous certainties. Perhaps the only underlying motive is "Why not?"

Think of the last time each of us as individuals did something remarkable. Truly ground breaking, when compared with society's expectations, our own expectations and that of our loved ones. When we do break barriers, whether of spirit, our own constrictions or way of thought imposed on us, this act involves risks but also beckons with opportunities. Maybe it is also the person moving on to such dimensions has long ago prepared himself or herself to be able to do it, when the time arrives, when the bridge has to be crossed and before it is too late. I envisage such a scenario when the action is taken and has to be taken is like a diver spring boarding away, and giving us the surprise twist, but that moment of projection and twirl projects all sorts of emotions and thought on the part of observers. However please notice how calm and focused this diver is, as if he had been waiting for this precise move all his life, accompanied with all the vibes of liberation, purpose and strident focus.

Not every one can do this. It takes boldness, imagination and a certain character. When we break out of the mould, when as if the butterfly flies out of the cocoon and when spring boarding changes all rules, the very act also helps observers and initial sceptics to move out of their assumptions, stance and perhaps comfort zones. It can be transforming a critical way of changing thinking, roles or way of doing things. Observers may try to rationalise that , oh, that person has always wanted to do that. Maybe not. The significant change acted upon may occur precisely due to the alignment of the proverbial moon and stars - the readiness, the affordability, the want, the boldness and the support all blending into a heady "Yes!".

This can describe procrastinations suddenly reversed, a natural flowing in of just doing it or the crossing over of the river tempting us for so many years. Often what can be lost is less than what can be gained. The most satisfying sensation is having the full knowledge of self-navigation and not being forced by others into all this change. Precisely because it is such a personally driven determination and passion to make such a mind-bending decision, the resulting decision is easy to make, and the consequent doing is even easier and more enjoyable to execute. Once the diver accelerates his whole body and runs into the space beyond the plank, he does not look back but simply propels himself fully forward.

This past week I have had to come hard to understand why three persons I know rather well have chosen to springboard in their very unique, personal and special ways. In the beginning, as an observer, I was confused. When I realised that I was not just an unaffected pavement stander, I wanted to understand why, but had all my prejudices, fears and unresolved issues project on to the decisions of my brave friends. When I tried to remove my own feelings on what they were doing - and allowed their perspectives full flow and reasoning - I was also freed up, mentally following their projections above the springboard. And I learnt and maybe, hopefully and instinctively understood better - the joy and freedom of personal spring boarding. Many thanks to Christopher, Richard and Tim for opening my eyes.

Melba Brasserie at the Langham, Melbourne CBD

On arrival, I saw the variety of seafood, salads, desserts and the theme of readiness. Stone slabs and wooden panels set the tone of Melba's Brasserie. I settled on my chair at the top end of a long dining table, could not pace myself initially, but felt relaxed by my company (the Yeaps) at table and the friendly staff attending to us. Buffets can be tricky, often under appreciated for what they entail and the palate's overall satisfaction depends on the sequence of menu selections thoughtfully chosen.

At the Melba Brasserie, four things stood out, the oysters, Moreton Bay bugs, green lipped mussels and the carvery meats. The evening began on a easy note, not too noisy, as we were early, but as the place filled up on a Sunday evening and the autumn air played its colours outside, more diners messed up their tables even if they still looked elegant. Still, there was no sense of rush as they sensed out intentions to make the most of the lingering hours of the weekend!

Lobster, crab and Beijing duck were available - how yummy. How does one keep Beijing duck tender and moist for a buffet audience who can walk in at any time? I have a crave for Beijing duck in Melbourne's outer suburbs, like near Wartirna, and did not know what to expect of them from this end of town beside the Yarra River. Melba's has been brave in this respect and that evening came out rather okay with the duck. There were no complaints from me with their Japanese bar, not just tuna stuffed sashimi but also, unagi (eel), yellowtail, octopus, king fish and salmon choices, and those California maki rolls. And not to ignore the chocolate fountain and tandoori oven baked bread.

A ritual of any buffet is the unshelling of bright red prawns and the yummy devouring of the delicate flesh. Melba's provides the background, the diversity and the comfort. Consuming such prawns make all of us want to be weekend fishermen, decked out in our boats and hats, learning more of the tides, seasons and currents that deliver such heavenly delights. The freshness and aroma of the rivers and sea came to us as we dabbled our fingers with such prawns, cooked simply without fuss and close to the source they came from.

I finished up the evening , food wise, with small portions of cream brulee, rum baba and a choice of ice cream flavours. Coffee was pretty much taken without too much expectation or comparison from what the Melbourne city lanes could offer. After this dinner, we went for a stroll, with the air slight nippy as for March but also offering us an opportunity for some post digestion of our experience at Melba's.

Atmosphere: Families and good friends gathering all over.

Location: Good side of town.

Taste: Overall satisfaction, but do avoid some specific dishes.

People Engagement: A mature staff member assigned to our table took the effort to commence a dialogue with us, and this is much appreciated, considering the busy night for the restaurant.

Service: Friendly, efficient and without fuss.

Best Time to visit: Saturday evenings.

My Fav Dish Experienced: The Chocolate Melba layer cake. (with both custard and chocolate)

Would I Return?: Oh ya, baby.

Taste Baguette & Grill, Darling Quarter, Sydney CBD

Another business day, another of those precincts designed by the same people paid by the same developers off to milk the same formula? It looked like one of those joints in Melbourne's South Bank. It had the same lay out, perhaps the same frontage. The premises has the same opportunities and challenges. High tourist traffic, with the presence of a bunch (actually a few thousand in number) of resident twenty somethings with high discretionary cash flows, need to unwind after 7pm and with a refusal to go home to another cubicle (after spending ten hours in an office cubicle). The nearby ground space was turned into a kind of recreational adjunct to a gym, even if there was no proper gym outfit nearby so to speak. People were actually playing table tennis on stone tables, others were hanging on the grass and benches as if to escape the confines of their nearby high rise units. Hmnn, I recall Brisbane's South Bank. Rentals of outlets look suspiciously high, so there is obvious pressure to have high margins and high turnover in any business one operates around here.

My overall impressions of Taste, one of several outlets in the food street alley of Darling Quarter, are as follows.

Atmosphere: Commercial

Location: Touristy, Transient and Office

Taste: Below Expectations.

People Engagement: Okay if You Start the Conversation First, maybe the Staff are Too Tired.

Service: Minimal

Best Time To Visit: If You Happen to Pass by

My fav Dish Experienced: None

Would I Return?: Maybe not.

At Taste, I had smoked salmon below some rocket leaves and an omelette all sitting on surprisingly ordinary toasted bread. The place is not just for breakfast, it operates a licensed bar, has sit down arrangements inside and outdoors plus runs a take away counters for those coffees and take away baguettes/ rolls. Taste is open till late and opens early, looks like the literal burning of the candle at both ends. Below image, a profile of the day time crowd. Taste originated in the Surry Hills precinct of inner Sydney and there it offered a fusion of French-Vietnamese fare. The Darling Quarter branch also provides Vietnam-inspired interiors for its sit down restaurant. Oh yes, they served Campos blended coffee with my breakfast choice above.

Sambal Kampung, Little Bourke Street - Melbourne CBD

Sambal Kampung, or chili and shrimp condiment from the village, is run by a Chinese family previously from Sarawak, the portion of northern Borneo once ruled by White Rajahs (the Brookes), home land to various tribes and home of peppercorn plantations. I had arrived there, a small unassuming cafe like shop, on a suggestion from a Sydney family and with a hunger to try Melbourne's Malaysian food reputation. The thousands of students from Malaysia who had trudged through the grid-like streets of Melbourne since the fifties have indelibly left behind a culinary trail of street food, delicacies from the four main racial groups that reside in Malaysia and various styles of unique cooking traditions that may no longer exist in today's Malaysia.

The first thing I realised was that the roti prata they dished up was bigger in size and asked for a bargain price when compared with Sydney. The accompanying curry was even more wholesome than at Mamaks Chinatown Sydney CBD. Wow. The ambiance was informal, the customers were mostly ex-Malaysians and the food tasted a bit different to this ex-Penangite. The tables and chairs were brown, why all this jungle brown in most Malaysian outlets in Australia? However, the teh tarik (milky latte with a cinnamon bark twist) was authentic. On the other hand, the choices of desserts and drinks variety ala Malaysia was limited. Prices at the Sambal Kampung asked are reasonable, good for an office gathering or just to have a practical dinner after a long day at work in the CBD.

I gradually realised I was not the only one indulging in the comfort foods of my childhood. There were several students who felt at home, taking their bowl of curry laksa or plate of char koay teow, and tourists, who were not fully recovered from their amazement at the availability of such Malaysian food. There were also rarities like fried Hakka pork (Kiu Nyuk), Hakka being the "guest' wandering tribe in China driven to settle mostly in southern Chinese mainland provinces by historical events before many Hakkas formed part of the Chinese emigration to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia from the 18th century onwards. These Hakkas then created the now well known Hakka Chicken rice while settled in south-east Asia (just like "chop suey" was dished up in California and does not exist in China).

There is another Sambal Kampung outlet in nearby Edgewater Boulevarde in Melbourne's Maribyrnong and Wellington Parade in East Melbourne.

Taste: Worthwhile for selected dishes

Location: Chinatown vibes

People Engagement: Helpful and with no fuss

Service: Quick and friendly

Best Time to Visit: 2pm to 5pm

My Fav Dish Experienced: Roti prata with wholesome chicken curry

Would I Return? : Maybe, to try the sambal prawns, satay, rendang and the lobak rolls!