The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
Ignore the location heading – Kurimu is a chain bakery, so it doesn’t really matter where I got this particular original choux ($4.20) from (Westfield Hurstville NSW, by the way) – it would be like going to a Breadtop and writing about a particular outlet, as if there were significant store-to-store variation in the high uniformity products that they produce.
This original choux was a really great snack, with a crunchy buttery almond-coated exterior and a super smooth creamy filling. The most important factor for any dessert, its sweetness level, notched a perfect “not too sweet” from both me and my partner.
Really worth a try the next time you walk past a stall
I hadn’t realised, when I went, that Baked by Keiran was a bit of a successful enterprise with five bakeries spread throughout East and South Sydney. I had imagined at the time that the guy who had corrected my pronunciation and sold me these two baked goods was the Keiran written on the label, but it turns out after visiting their website and reading about the company that he was clearly just a guy who worked there.
I chose this orange almond & blackberry cake ($6.90) as the first of two items to supplement my haul from Dulwich Hill Pork Roll around the corner. This cake was on the denser side, in line with my partner’s preference, and happily not too sweet. I think the dominant flavour of the cake was cake itself, with some almond in it as well. The orange was subtle, and the blackberry was similarly present but reasonably scarce. I would’ve much preferred the fruits, in particular the blackberry, to have made a greater showing. It was overall good, however.
The first time I had a canelé ($3.50) I didn’t know what it was called. I admitted to as much in my review of Babyface Kitchen, where I really did what I could to avoid having to name it. Fast forward a year and while I know what it’s called, I still didn’t know how it’s called. I was a little embarrassed when the guy (not Keiran) corrected my pronunciation, but this is how we learn. I enjoyed the caramelise crust and the gooey, glutinous centre, though as a guy who doesn’t even know how to say the name I also don’t know what it’s meant to taste like. I’ve never had the benchmark or textbook canelé, though this tasting will of course inform subsequent ones.
I’ve not actually eaten at Brookyln Boy Bagels in Marrickville, though I hope to by the time this review has been published. I have, instead, had their Blueberry Bagel ($4.20) with an unusually expensive little tub of cream cheese (I think $3.50? – we spent a total of $7.85 for the pictured bagel and cheese) at one of their many market stalls around greater Sydney.
This bagel was pretty good, man. I don’t know if it was $7.85 good, but as someone who’s never been to New York and doesn’t actually know what a New York bagel should taste like, I was satisfied. I enjoyed the chewy texture, the not-too-sweet, almost savoury quality, and of course the thick layer of expensive ass cream cheese.
My partner went to their bakery in Marrickville the next day and had some kind of everything bagel with lox, inspired by the latest hotness out of A24. I’m told it was pretty good, though she relished the opportunity to eat without having to take a photo.
This is Small Talk’s Lox Bagel ($17.50). I don’t know the physical or legal difference between a bagel with filling and a sandwich, apart from the type of bread, but nonetheless enjoyed this bagel with filling. The bagel has a sweet and savoury flavour, with a mildly dense texture providing a perfect balance of bite and chew. The filling of smoked salmon, caper paste, pickled onion and cream cheese was deeply umami, with a good mix of different textures and flavours. My partner and I shared the one bagel, and I do not think it was inadequate. They come pre-sliced in half, so if eating with a friend or colleague they are optimal for sharing two different halves of two different bagels.
Another item pre-destined for sharing is their Raspberry Fritter ($7.50), essentially a square glazed donut with a light hint of raspberry filling. If you were to close your eyes it would be almost indistinguishable from a Krispy Kreme original glazed donut, though the grooves did make it extremely convenient to tear and share. Not the strongest dessert though, and I feel too expensive for what it was.
Please note that this venue is more takeaway oriented, with only very limited outdoor benching available.
Though I’ve lived in Wentworthville in the heart of Sydney’s South Asian community for a total of eleven years now in two separate runs, I still don’t really have a good gauge on South Asian food. It’s hard for me, as someone who didn’t grow up in the culture, to know what’s actually good and what’s actually bad, so I must apologise in advance if my thoughts about Dulwich Hill’s The Fold are coloured by my complete lack of cultural competency.
We started our meal with this quite-good Sri Lankan Iced Coffee ($7.50), which was essentially a mixture of chai spices, coffee, and vanilla ice cream (AKA a cold dirty chai). It was quite enjoyable, though a bit expensive, and I had no qualms about recommending it to a random vegetarian who walked into the restaurant just as we were leaving.
The Appa-Appa with free range chicken curry ($24) was a plate consisting of two plain hoppers and one hopper with an egg in it, along with side pots of a mild chicken curry, lunu miris (sambal paste), and seeni sambol (a less spicy onion sambal). We enjoyed the chicken curry, though found it to be extremely mild – likely a product of the restaurant being in Dulwich Hill rather than Pendle Hill. I have literally no standard to compare these hoppers with, but can remark that I enjoyed the crispy thin edges much more than the bases, which I felt were a bit too thick and bready. Again, I have no idea if that’s how it’s meant to be. This is just how I feel.
To illustrate how out of my depth I am here, after eating it as a taco I found out via the internet that you are not meant to eat hoppers as a taco.
The Butterfruit Pann with two poached eggs ($21) was really just another name for avocado toast, but with one delicious twist. This otherwise standard avo toast came with a tiny but delicious pot of pineapple chili relish, with a fascinating sweetness that went incredibly well with the bread and avocado, and elevated each and every bite. I only wish that the pot were a bit larger as we ran out two thirds throughout our meal.
Look at this SICK cutlery.
INTERIM THOUGHTS The food at The Fold was really not bad, and even the otherwise standard avo toast had a nice little twist that elevated it to a new level. Their pastries on display also looked quite good, and though I don’t know if they’re made on site I think I will end up coming back at some point to eat them all.
RETURN On a subsequent visit to grab some pastries I learned that they are in fact all made on site. There’s an assortment of relatively standard French as well as South-Asian inspired pastries, though for this visit I erred on the side of caution.
The Plain Croissant ($5.50) was certainly, as described, a plain croissant. I took a leaf from my friend the Sydney Croissant Hunter’s book and brought a serated knife to capture a cross-section from my visit, though in doing so left quite a mess on their table. I wasn’t blown away by this croissant – it was adequately crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, but keep in mind that I’m not a croissant expert, and I got this about half an hour before closing, so it wasn’t quite fresh out of the oven.
Next up is this Salted Caramel & Macadamia Scroll ($8.50), a hefty and dense bread-like creation that was a meal in and of itself. Entire bites of this were devoid of any caramel, but this was not so much a problem as this scroll truly reminded me of my love for bread. The salted caramel swirl tasted a little bit dark-cooked (I don’t want to say burnt, I doubt it was ever on fire), and ultimately I think my craving would have been equally served by some stock standard brioche or something.
The Portuguese Tart was a bit sweeter than I usually like, but I enjoyed the flavour as well as the pastry. Even my partner, who doesn’t usually like Portuguese tarts, enjoyed this. It is a shame that she dropped it on the floor before she was finished.
I actually really enjoyed this Black Forest Cake ($8.50). I often get black forest cake thinking that I’ll like it, but it’s never really lived up to my expectation until now. The Fold’s black forest cake was absolutely lovely, with plenty of moistness, dark chocolate, and a discrete and highly tasty cherry layer sandwiched between two layers of dark sponge. Every part of this cake, including the well proportioned mousse-like icing was well executed, and this is now the best black forest cake I’ve ever had.
