Category: Bakery

Categories
Asian Fusion Bakery Café Korean

10000 LAB (TENTHOUSAND) – Silverwater NSW Restaurant Review

2022 EDIT: It is possible that at the time of publishing they are no longer open at this location, but still have a location in Eastwood NSW.

I was first introduced to the concept of the eggified Korean toastie through Toastiesmith’s launch on social media in mid 2020. Living on the wrong side of the bridge to their Chatswood store, I watched and I waited and I watched and I waited for their September opening in Darling Square, only to find that this particular outpost would only be open Monday-Friday, breakfast and lunch (read: inaccessible from a parking perspective alone, even though I was working a week-on, week-off roster at the time).

It’s been almost a full year and I still haven’t made it to Toastiesmith. My move to Western Sydney has meant that it’s not so simple to make a quick trip into the city for a feed, even if their Darling Square store is now open 7 days and into the evening. Where I have been able to eat is 10,000 LAB, a kind-of similar cake, coffee, and Korean toastie establishment based in Silverwater and Eastwood.

I had the Egg, Cheese, and Spicy Chicken Toastie ($10), as well as the Egg, Cheese, Avocado and Sausage Toastie ($10). The guy working there double checked to make sure that I wanted both, and in retrospect this should’ve been a sign that one toastie would be enough for one man.

Both toasties shared the same fluffy and sweet bread, lightly toasted on the outside. They had excellent filling to breading ratios, each absolutely stuffed with ingredients. The scrambled egg in each toastie was cooked well, and would be able to stand on its own as a non-toastie option if 10,000 were to ever want to branch out.

The egg, cheese, and spicy chicken toastie was the weaker of the two, with a strong spicy sauce taste that I felt overpowered the flavour of the delicate eggs. I had expected some kind of diced chicken breast or thigh filling, however reality did not match with my expectation as I found some kind of ham-like processed chicken protein inside instead. Unfortunate.

The egg, cheese, avocado and sausage toastie was quite a bit better. There was no overpowering sauce flavour, meaning that I could actually taste each of the toastie’s constituent ingredients. The mildness and slight sweetness of the cheese, egg, and avocado combined well and contrasted with the saltiness of the sausage to hit a good balance. This was definitely the better of the two.

This was actually a very good soy latte ($4.30).

VERDICT
Lured by the promises made by their (admittedly more expensive) competitor’s social media campaigns, I think I expected something a little bit more from 10 000 LAB. It’s not their fault.

10 000 LAB Silverwater
135/79-87 Beaconsfield St, Silverwater NSW 2128
0480287755

Categories
Bakery

Shortstop Coffee & Donuts – Haymarket NSW Cafe Review

My quick, three line opinion. of the Short Stop in Darling Square is that their donuts are quite good but the inside of their donuts can be a bit bready and boring. Not every donut is good, but also not every donut is bad. Their strength is in their variety and their location.

Short Stop Coffee & Donuts
15 Little Hay St, Haymarket NSW 2000
0499 366 883

Categories
Bakery Chinese

Best Tastes Dim Sim – Homebush West NSW Restaurant and Take Away Review

This is less of a restaurant review and more of a grocery store review. The only cooked, ready to eat item that they sell is an egg tart, which is itself only available on weekends.

The egg tarts ($1.50) are however very good, with great colouration, a nice sweet but not-too-sweet filling, and a delicate flaky puff pastry crust, which is in my opinion across the board superior to shortbread crusts. They are served room temperature, unfortunately, and having them warm would make them just a little bit more perfect.

The majority of Best Tastes Dim Sim’s business is in the frozen dim sum game. Best Tastes, along with Hurstville competitor Delight Dim Sim are my two go-to sources for frozen treats like siu mai (shao mai), har gao (xia jiao), and all kinds of other buns, dumplings, and things wrapped in bean curd.

The service at Best Tastes Dim Sim is also extremely straight forward and friendly, you essentially just pick out what you want from their freezers and take it to the front. I even dropped and destroyed an entire box of dumplings (my fault entirely, I was on the phone and holding way too much stuff), that I was not charged for, even though I offered to pay.

Their food is cheap and delicious, and got me through the recent COVID-19 Delta variant lockdown in Sydney without suffering yum cha withdrawal related delirium tremens. A little bottle of Koon Yick chili sauce also goes a long way.

Enjoy

Best Tastes Dim Sim
11 Henley Rd, Homebush West NSW 2140
(02) 8746 0498

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

PiPi’s Pork Rolls – Unanderra NSW Restaurant Review

I walked nine kilometers today on a quest for what’s been lauded by some as Wollongong’s best banh mi, at QP Bakery in Berkeley. It was only when I arrived at QP that I found that they, like any other self-respecting eighteenth century bakery, are a cash only establishment. Much to my dismay with only six dollars in coins in my pockets, their most basic pork roll started at $7. I re-embarked on my sad journey to my partner’s apartment to the dulcet tones of Josh Farkas and Adam Thomas and instead ate at one of the many hot bread shops I had passed along the way.

This crispy crackling component of this Crispy Pork Belly Roll ($9.50) wasn’t quite what I expected. While the majority of crackling pork belly rolls that I’ve experienced have had a semi-dry, semi-oily-wet crackling that is both crispy and chewy – similar to what you would get from a Hong Kong BBQ restaurant, the crackling at PiPi’s was more reminiscent of what you would get from a snack food packet. Though I have seen actual evidence on their Facebook page of them cooking their crackling themselves, the crunchy crispiness but also the dryness of their pork crackling actually led me to initially believe that it was store bought rather than made in-house. While I don’t profess to be expert enough to truly judge banh mi by their traditional standards, I suppose that it’s probably acceptable to have either kind of crackling in your pork roll.

Crackling aside, I think PiPi’s crispy pork belly roll is actually quite good. The pork belly itself was nice, soft, and moist. The salads provided were balanced, and sauce was applied in an appropriate and conservative manner. I’d probably have this roll again.

I have no serious hitting commentary about PiPi’s classic Vietnamese Pork Roll ($7.50), though I will note that their pate is a bit different to the usual pate that I seem to get at Sydney banh mi-eries. It had a stronger flavour than I’m used to, more akin to the pates you would get at your local supermarket than the lighter flavoured pates normally used. Aside from this, this banh mi was slightly over-soyed (or Maggied, as it were), though still perfectly edible and ultimately not too salty.

CONCLUSION
I just don’t know why there are places in the 21st century not offering card payments, but I’m glad that PiPi’s Pork Rolls isn’t one of them. Not a bad lunchtime option if you’re a local, but I wouldn’t drive to the Illawara for a banh mi.

A friendly driveway dog I met on my walk.

PiPi’s Pork Rolls
135 Princes Hwy, Unanderra NSW 2526
0450 909 109

Categories
Bakery

Black Star Pastry – Rosebery NSW Bakery Review

The birthday cake of my childhood was always Savoy’s taro cake. The birthday cake of the last couple years, however, has been from Black Star.

I will try to avoid burdening you with yet another review of Black Star’s famous watermelon strawberry cake. Instead, I will describe to you two less popular cakes.

The dragon cake was low in taste. Didn’t hit the spot.

The pistachio lemon zen cake was quite sweet. Didn’t hit the spot.

The black sesame yuzu cake was good. Not pictured, but we had a whole one last year.

The Japanese chicken curry pie was surprisingly good for a non-Japanese store, but quite expensive at around $9. I enjoyed the cripsy pastry and weird star-like shape.

The custard flan is delicious, lake a large Portuguese tart. I’ve had one every time I’ve been to Black Star over the past few months.

The rose-scented vanilla and strawberry and watermelon soft serve takes a cue from Black Star’s famous strawberry and watermelon cake. It is delicious, albeit a bit too sweet. A must try, especially with its dark chocolate waffle cone.

This Summer S’more, exclusive to the 2020-21 summer season was good! I loved the flaky croissant pastry and the filling of almond and vanilla custard creams. The marshmallow itself was not essential to the piece.

This slice of blueberry pie was also beautiful. The blueberries were huge and so juicy. So good.

4/5 – Custard flan good. Watermelon strawberry stuff good. Most things good. Not cheap.

Black Star Pastry Rosebery
C1/85-113 Dunning Ave, Rosebery NSW 2018
(02) 9557 8656