Category: Bakery

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Bakery Portuguese

The Portuguese Corner – Nowra NSW Restaurant Review

The Portuguese Corner doesn’t actually exist anymore as a restaurant, but they do still exist as a supplier of delicious savoury and sweet tarts to Nowra local coffee roaster and cafe Hyper Hyper, also known as the mother-joint of Punch the Ploughman, which has been extensively reviewed on this site already.

While Punch the Ploughman serves a variety of in-house and externally sourced (mostly from Sonoma Bakery) treats, their cohabitant venue Hyper Hyper has only a small pie warmer of delicious warm treats, with no cross-pollination between the two.

First, the Portuguese Tart ($5). A bit sweet, but served deliciously warm and gooey from the pie warmer, with an excellently buttery puff pastry that carries through to all of their savoury tarts. Pretty good, and preferred over Milkwood in Berry’s.

The Village Chorizo Tart ($6) was my favourite savoury tart. Again with lovely puff pastry, and a great umami filling. Good balance of flavours.

The Kale and Goat Cheese Tart ($6) is a relative masterclass on how to make a vegetarian quiche, and with its interesting mix of sourness from the goat cheese and vegetable flavours it is far superior to the quiche from Punch the Ploughman next door.

I did not feel that the Bacon and Spring Onion Tart ($6) was quite as good as the Village Chorizo Tart, though they clearly both come from the same school of meat-supplemented quiche. The bacon strips on top were a bit hard and difficult to eat in my opinion, though overall it was still better than the aforementioned vegetarian quiche next door. The egg was also better.

In summary these expensive little tarts (really mini quiches) are all quite good (though I don’t know how Portuguese the savoury ones are), and I can only hope that one day they may rise again and spread their joy from a place that isn’t the pie warmer of someone else’s cafe.

For now, they’re available at Hyper Hyper.

The Portuguese Corner at Hyper Hyper
85 North St, Nowra NSW 2541
0424 551 509

Categories
Bakery

Milkwood Bakery – Berry NSW Restaurant Review

I went many times to Milkwood Bakery but with varied levels of enjoyment.

The Portuguese Tart ($4.20) had a nice and crispy and crunchy pastry, but I didn’t enjoy the (lack of) warmth to the filling and found it overall to be a bit oily for my taste.

The Vegan Carrot Sesame Cake ($5.50) was chosen as they had run out of their far superior regular carrot cake (reviewed down below). I liked that as compared to their regular carrot cake a small portion was available, and though it did not taste as rich or as good as the standard option it was ultimately not bad, especially as they had hamstrung themselves with the strict avoidance of any dairy.

I enjoyed the pastry component of the Beef and Pork Sausage Roll ($7.20), which was oily and flaky. The meat was thick and well textured, but in my opinion too salty to tick every quality box.

The Wagyu toastie ($13.50) had a pastrami like wagyu meet with cheesse and beetroot. It was alright, but not the best toasted sandwich of the Shoalhaven area.

I enjoyed the chocolate exterior of the Lamington ($3.50) but really quite hated the texture and taste of the sponge.

This carrot cake is actually very good. The cake itself was nice and moist with an unusually large helping of walnuts, with good flavour, and I also quite enjoyed the frosting. It is certainly much more pleasant than the vegan version also sold at Milkwood. I only wish that this could be sold in a smaller portion, though we had no difficulty inhaling this delicious cake in its entirety.

The Beef Bourguignon Pie ($8) was pretty good, though I’m not sure it was exactly $8 good. It was quite mushroomy, and perhaps I would give it a higher rating if I were a paid shill for Big Mushroom, who look like they’re splashing out on the social media influencers these days.

And finally, the Blueberry Custard Tart ($6.50), with its shortbread crust. I’m sure it is clear by now that I have a lot of opinions for someone who can’t bake himself, but this crust felt just a bit floury for my liking. Was a big fan of these huge juicy blueberries though.

Milkwood Bakery
109 Queen St, Berry NSW 2535
(02) 4464 3033

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Hong Phat – Campsie NSW Restaurant Review

This above pictured pork roll ($7) was not bad, with all the requisite components of Vietnamese mayonnaise and pate, with an extra sour liquidy sauce that I had never had before. The bread was good, crusty but not cutting of the mouth. It’s a solid option if you’re on the same street, but there is a certain lack of advanced alternatives like crackling pork that might mean a trip up the road to Dulwich Hill Pork Roll might be on the cards if you’re already in the car anyway.

Hong Phat Bakery
174 Beamish St, Campsie NSW 2194
(02) 9787 3609

Categories
Bakery Chinese

Diamond Bakery – Hurstville NSW Restaurant Review

A quit review of some Chinese breads from Diamond Bakery, a Taiwanese bread shop next to its sister Taiwanese cafe.

I normally love a puff pastry egg tart ($2.50), but you just can’t beat a fresh one from yum cha (or the freezer aisle of an Asian grocery store with a quick trip in the toaster oven) with a cold store-bought alternative. It looked highly promising with a layer of wetness on top, and a 50c premium over the shortcrust variety ($2), but ultimately didn’t do it for me. I don’t know if you can time it so that you get them fresh out of the oven. Not too sweet.

This taro (yam) pineapple bun ($3.50) was actually huge and quite good. Not too sweet, with the yam filling adding an additional dimension to the standard bun. Very filling at only $3.50. Can recommend.

This lychee rose pastry ($5.80) was a bit expensive for its diminutive size, but at the end of the day is the product of multiple layers of skillful eggy baking, the likes of which would also attract a price premium at a Western bakery. The filling of rosewater with some lychee flesh embedded within was on the sweeter side of the Asian dessert spectrum, but still quite pleasant. I don’t know that I’d have it again, but overall it wasn’t a bad dense ball.

Diamond Bakery
95 Forest Rd, Hurstville NSW 2220

Categories
Bakery Café

Lucien Baked Goods – Parramatta NSW Restaurant Review

I’d wanted to go to Lucien, Circa’s new baked goods project [their second such embassy in Parramatta after Good George (née Georgie Boy)] for some time, but a combination of factors – primarily my period of Southward exile and the lack of easily-accessible free parking around the cafe’s vicinity – meant that I never had the opportunity to take my colleagues there for our fortnightly college-mandated post-nights breakfast. My temporary specialty change from intensive to aged care and the 8:30AM, Monday to Friday starts that came along with it has however provided me with new opportunities for a quick pre-work breakfast that I never had the energy to try when I was starting at 8.

This sujuk danish ($10) was first on the list of breakfasty snacks picked by my partner, a hater of manoosh but surprisingly a lover of this. This tasted exactly like an identical manoosh of sujuk and cheese, with a bit of mild green chilli inside and a laminated pastry rather than your typical manoosh base. It was pretty tasty and good, but I don’t know that it was better than a full $9 sujuk and cheese pizza pretty much anywhere (though I am more a fan of the half meat half cheese, as far as manooh goes). The serving of caramelised onion I did not feel added any goodness to the dish. I’m glad my girlfriend liked it though, because it means I got to have more of the next thing.

The next thing was this excellent fig tart ($7) that I don’t quite have the tart-focused vocabulary to describe. I’m quite bad at identifying individual components of baked goods without an itemised list from a menu, so I’m essentially going to lie to you and say that the positive attributes of this tart was the freshness of the fig, which as an Asian child growing up I only ever had dried, the lightness of the marscapone, and the buttery yet nutty texture of the possibly almond base. Again, I have no way to confirm that these were the actual components of the tart. I guess I could ask them on social media and see what they say. But nonetheless it was really good. I want another. (UPDATE: I am reliably informed that it was vanilla ricotta just under the figs, and a bottom of hazelnut paste with chopped hazelnut on top.

This pistachio and rosewater swirl ($8 – there are literally no official names for most of these items) was not bad. but not my favourite.. Made with croissant dough, but still a bit on the breadier side. Not too sweet. The almond cream filling within the swirl didn’t really do anything for me taste wise, but again, my partner liked it.

OTHER THOUGHTS
At the very least I’m glad that my partner and I liked different parts of our meal, which meant that I got to have more of what I liked, without the obligation of finishing what I didn’t. Worth a return visit.

Lucien Baked Goods
111 Phillip St, Parramatta NSW 2150