Soba at Shimbashi

Shimbashi really felt like a blast from the past, for me - I don't go to that part of the city often these days, and when we walked down Liverpool lane, I was reminded me of my 80's childhood, with Little Malaysia close by.

Shimbashi interior

The low-key Japanesey interior of Shimbashi reminded me of my high school and uni days, when I was truly obsessed with Japanese culture and used to visit places like this all the time. And yes, back in those days I dutifully learned hundreds of kanji (anyone who did the notoriously difficult IB Japanese instead of VCE will know what I'm talking about!), voraciously read Japanese magazines, and listened to my favourite J-Pop bands, The Brilliant Green and Glay, on constant repeat. I'm not quite as enamoured of Japanese culture now as I was in my teens, but I still love The Brilliant Green. And I eat soba like there's no tomorrow!

Shimbashi interior including buckwheat mill

Apparently if you come during the day you might be able to see the soba being made, which I think would be really interesting. But on the night we were there, I was content to admire the big buckwheat mill and enjoy slurping up the soba!

The offer a good range of different sakes and shochu, as well as Japanese soft drinks... including Ramune! I love this stuff - especially the funky bottle!

Ramune

We wanted to try some sake, but weren't in the mood for a big night, so ordered a bottle of sweet sparkling hoshi no nagare sake to share. (I have no idea where this rates in terms of quality, but it tasted good to me! And I was rather taken with the name: "stream of stars").

Hoshi no nagare sake

Kaaaaaaanpa~i!

Kanpai!

We started with a complimentary appetizer of horenso no ohitashi - boiled spinach, served cold with soy sauce and bonito flakes. Perfect for this warm weather!

Horenso no ohitashi

Apart from the soba, they have a range of typical Japanese starters. And when I say "typical Japanese", I mean what we in Australia would typically think of when we think of Japanese restaurant food: things like sushi, sashimi, edamame, tofu agedashi, tamago-yaki, gyoza and so on.

I think we must have gotten a little over excited, ordering three starters as well as our (generously-portioned) mains. Although the soba is clearly the star of the show, the starters we ordered were all very good too.

Sushi rolls

The sushi rolls were very fresh and had nice soft rice.

Nasu no dengaku

Normally I think of nasu no dengaku as an oily eggplant half, slathered in thick, pungent miso paste, and was surprised by how subtle the flavours were here. In fact, when they brought it out, I thought to myself: "Did they forget the miso topping?" Of course they hadn't - the miso was there, just in a very thin layer. I loved how the delicate topping of miso complimented the eggplant, rather than overpowering it. Really excellent!

Kara-age

Fried chicken, how could we not? Kara-age is one of my favourites, and these were impressively juicy and tasty.

Salted peanut and milk chocolate blondies - straight from the fridge

So, I made blondies. I filled them with big chunks of my favourite milk chocolate, oats, and salted peanuts. They were amazing. The day I baked them they were like warm, gooey, underbaked choc chip cookies. After a night in the fridge they were even better, just like a caramelly Snickers bar. They were intense and rich, with an almost obscene amount of butter, but hot damn they were good!

Gooey blondie square on the day of baking

I've made blondies a couple of times in the past - Nigella's white chocolate and macadamia 'brownies' from How to be a Domestic Goddess, and her blondies from Kitchen (not blogged) - but neither particularly impressed me. The former were more like a dense eggy cake, and the latter were overly sweet, with a bizarre texture.

Candied Bakery
81A Hudsons Road
Spotswood, VIC 3015
Ph: (03) 9391-1335
Website
Twitter

Do you follow Dan Lepard on Twitter? He's the Aussie-born bread baker now based in Britain, and author of the fantastic book: The Handmade Loaf. He also writes an excellent column, How to Bake, for the Guardian newspaper. He was in Melbourne recently to film the Great Australian Bake-Off, and it's been so cool following his tweets as he discovers Melbourne's current food scene from an "outsider" perspective. (As someone who is really interested in Melbourne's dining scene and trends, I had to giggle when he tweeted his surprise that modern Mexican food is really popular in Melbourne right now!)

It was actually on his Twitter that I heard about Candied Bakery. Later that week, a friend of mine happened to suggest that we meet there for brunch, and I was more than keen! (She'd heard about Candied Bakery on Broadsheet).  Coincidentally, in the days leading up to our brunch, the lovely Adrian from Food Rehab published a post about Candied Bakery, including droolworthy pictures and a great interview with the owners. Anticipation levels were through the roof!!!

And speaking of Adrian, you may be interested to know that his book: What The Heck is Filipino Food?, has just won The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for Best Asian Cuisine (Australia)!! Well done Adrian! Let's all send some much-deserved congratulations his way!

So... back to the bakery. Candied Bakery is on that stretch of Hudson Road in Spotswood that also houses Duchess of Spotswood and A Bunch of Cakes.  The cafes, shops and houses there are kind of a mix between actually old, faux-retro throwback and the rapidly gentrifying.

The menu

They describe themselves as an Aussie bakery with an American twist and a dash of European influence - a description which perfectly fits their on-trend, cross-cultural menu, don't you think?

Condiments and cutlery

The venue very much feels like a bakery, as opposed to a cafe - the space is dominated by the baked goods on display, and all the ordering is done up at the counter. Seating is limited to one large communal table, and some benches along one wall. Luckily it wasn't too packed the day we visited and it was easy to nab a spot on the communal table! (I'm a grumpy old lady who needs table space and does not like perching my plates precariously on my lap, hehehe!)

Peppermint Tea - $3.80

Cappuccino - $3.80

My coffee was good - quite strong and at a pleasant drinking temperature. It wasn't in the stratospheric coffee league of, say, St. Ali or Proud Mary, but it was a satisfying coffee nonetheless.

Bread baked in-house

I asked one of the staff behind the counter, and the breads are all baked in-house. I bought a country white loaf to take home - very, very good, with its crusty exterior and fluffy innards. I'll have to buy a ciabatta loaf next time and see how it compares to my beloved Let's A Loaf ciabatta! (BTW Let's A Loaf is the ciabatta they use at the fabulous Beatrix Bakes, hence why I'm in love with it).

So anyway, let's have a look at what we ate! Between the four of us, I think we did a great job covering the Australi-Ameri-Euro parts of the menu!

Beef & Onion roll - $5.00

Despite being in Australia for a good six years now, German Sandra has only just discovered the joys of sausage rolls. (So much time to make up for...) She wasn't a huge fan of this one, saying that there was too much messy flaky pastry and that the sausage part wasn't soft enough for her liking. However, I tried a little and really liked it! So I think it comes down to your personal preference. Besides, y'all know I can never have too much pastry!

And speaking of which...

Hot Beef Pie - $5.60

I ordered a good old meat pie - excellent flaky pastry, saucy meaty gravy, lots of tomato sauce. Heaven.

Our two friends ordered a roast beef ciabatta each. They were delightfully served with a side of potato chips. Cute!

Roast beef ciabatta roll - $9.50

I didn't try this one, but judging by the appreciative nods and smiles from my friends, they were greatly enjoyed. Randomly, they both commented on how good the mustard in the ciabatta was. What a strange thing to notice - must have been awesome mustard!

And moving to a more European item... a zuppa inglese donut.

Zuppa Inglese Donut - $4.00

This was a very good donut, all light and fluffy without a hint of greasiness, and a generous proportion of custard. I'm more of a jam donut girl myself, but if you like custard, then this is the donut for you!

Ok, so we've talked bread, we've talked pastry, we've talked sandwiches, we've talked donuts. However, despite it being a bakery, my absolute favouritest thing at Candied Bakery is not a baked item at all, but their house-made soft serve.

Vanilla soft-serve - $4.50

The creamy vanilla soft serve was decorated with crushed pretzels, hundreds and thousand and (I think) little cookie pieces. Such fun! (It reminded me of the Mister Whippy / Maccas soft serves I used to eat as a child, but vastly better quality).

Less colourful, but even more delicious, was the peanut butter and jelly soft serve.

Peanut Butter & Jelly soft serve - $4.50

I know, right? Peanut butter and jelly soft serve! Peanut butter jelly! Peanut butter jelly! Amaze! It was creamy and soft and had a lovely pure peanut flavour - I totally loved it. A word of warning though, these are quite rich and can definitely be shared - we shared this between three and struggled to finish.

I'm told they rotate their soft serve flavours - apparently they do a Milo-flavour as well. Cannot wait to try that one! (They have a Milo milkshake too... if I wasn't already so full I'd have totally ordered that too. Milo is The Best!)

One of our friends bought one of their famous nutella croissants to take home. I think she was planning on saving it for breakfast... but an hour after we left the cafe, I got a text from her: "I ate my croissant already". Whoops!

Happy new year everybody! Time for my round up of 2012! It was a really prolific year for me, with a hundred and thirty one blog posts! Woah! I wasn't working for the first half of the year (or "blogging full time" as I jokingly called it!), which meant I was publishing between eleven and fourteen posts a month. I reckon I didn't slack off too much once I started full time work again in August, with an average of nine posts a month. Wooh! Let's share a glass of champagne to celebrate!

Champagne, oysters, Tomato mozzarella salad

It seems fitting that I start 2013 with a roundup post, seeing as I became obsessed with them in 2012! I started doing a monthly "Unblogged Files" post, rounding up all the fun foodie things that I was excited to share but that didn't warrant an entire blogpost. Keeping the motivation up for new segments can be hard but I got into the routine of doing this one really easily, and I'm pleased to say I kept it up for the whole year! This segment combines my love of food with my obsessive need to record and catalog things. Win!

Still enjoyable, but not quite as prolific, was my new "Featured Dish" series - short, sharp posts where I highlight a truly excellent dish that I've enjoyed recently. I've only done these sporadically, but plan to continue as and when I find great dishes! In the meantime, do check out my featured dishes so far: Panko-crumbed Eggs at Goldilocks, the Bo Peep at St. Ali, Snag Stand's Currywurst, and the Beef on Fried Noodles at Hills BBQ.

Featured Dishes

I joined Instagram in April. I'm addicted. Follow me, I'm sarahcooksblog!

Instagram shots from 2012

This year I made a quiet resolution to myself to publish more recipes on the blog. Those of you who've been with me for longer will know that I used to use my primarily blog to review and compare recipes, and I'm certainly not in the habit of reprinting recipes verbatim from recipe books. However, this year I've been pushing myself to create more recipes from scratch or adapt existing recipes and actually note down what I've done. I wasn't really monitoring this consciously, but when I sat down to write this post, I realised I actually did 29 recipes this year. Yay!

Savoury dishes tended to be either comfort food or quick-and-healthy. In the comforting category we have: Herbaceous Burnt Butter Ricotta Gnocchi, Baked Pasta with Eggplant, Beef and Cheese, The Best Roast Pork Shoulder (better than pork belly!) and Oma Frieda's Griesskloeschen mit Kirschen.

CRACKLING! The best roast pork shoulder

On the healthy and quick(ish) side there were: Greens and Grains, Mussels, Silken Tofu with Century Egg, Power Salad, Sarah's Sabih and Simple Salmon with Soba and Chargrilled Broccolini.

Silken tofu with century egg

Sweet recipes were, unsurprisingly, very well represented - there were a couple of German recipes (Juicy Nut Cake, Amerikaner); some biscuits (Mexican Wedding Cakes, Pistachio Shortbreads with White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Icing, Matcha Sablés); cakes (Gold Bar Banana Bread, Black Forest Cupcakes, Crowd-Pleasing Chocolate Cake, Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze)...

Pumpkin bread with cream cheese glaze

...desserts (Pandan and Toasted Coconut Sherbert, Rapadura Sugar Sticky Date Pudding, Perfect Chocolate Mousse, Burnt Butter Honey Madeleines, Mince Pies) and a few breakfasty treats (Blueberry Crumb Coffee Cake, Apple Donut French Toast, Apple Cinnamon Nut Muffins, Scones, Banana Choc Chip Pancakes). Phew!

Blueberry crumb coffee cake

Not working for the first half of the year meant I had heaps of time to do fun little daytrips and weekends away. I was lucky enough to have a few of these trips sponsored by the respective tourism boards - discovering the Cider & Ale Trail in the Yarra Valley, visiting different towns that make up the Goulburn River Valley region, enjoying excellent restaurants in the Mornington Peninsula, soaking up history in Ballarat, and even going up to Canberra as a winner of the Human Brochure competition.

Stuffed quail leg with, cinnamon gnocchi, dried grape juice and a deep-fried quail egg - Terminus Restaurant at the Flinders Hotel in the Mornington Peninsula

I also made quite a few trips on my own coin - visiting Canberra, Sydney, the Yarra Valley and Mount Martha at separate times in the year.

Spanner crab roll, celery salt chip - $22 at the Bar at Momofuku Seiobo in Sydney

I only (only!) went overseas once this year, on a fantastic trip to Malaysia in February, where we visited Kuala Lumpur and Penang. I loved showing off my homeland to Sandra - "Wow, so all you guys do here is eat and shop?" Yup! Highlights were the fantastic Indian food in Kuala Lumpur, Penang's awesome kopitiams and hawker food, and of course, my favourite hotel ever: the Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa in Penang!

Satay, Goodall Cafe, Penang

Roti, Devi's Corner, Bangsar (Kuala Lumpur)

Swimming pool, Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa, Penang

My favourite cookbook this year was definitely Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice - previously I'd never been much into Chinese cooking at all, but thanks to her book I'm absolutely loving it! Check out "My Love Affair with Sichuan Cooking" and my Chinese Lunch Feast for more.

Pork dumplings

A close second was Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's Jerusalem - such a gorgeous book! Recipes from both books were often my inspiration for weeknight dinners. (For more, see Sarah's Sabih, or "The Best Pita Ever!", my "Unblogged Files" and my Instagram feed.)

Sarah's Sabih, recipe adapted from Jerusalem

We still entertained a lot this year, albeit in more intimate groups, with less of the massive parties and BBQs of years gone by. There were mini burgers, pork crackling and pavlova at our Australia Day Party, a decadent Lobster Dinner, the epic Ice-Cream Party, handmade tortillas at Mexican Feast II, even tastier handmade sopes at Mexican Feast III, crackling galore at PORKDATE and PORKTOBERFEST III, a Yogurt Party where I used up all that Chobani Yogurt that I'd been given, the Lamb Dinner and that Chinese Lunch Feast.

Mexican Feast II

I blogged quite a few events this year: Phillippa's Evening of Easter Treats, pig on a spit with Napoleone & Co cider at "The Garden of Eden", a cooking class with Chef Matthew MacCartney, the launches of Belvedere Bloody Mary and Unfiltered vodkas, a Vintage High Tea at the Werribee Mansion, a Jazz Apple Masterclass with Fast Ed, romping through the incredibly buttery Charlie's Cookies Factory, a fun lunch at The Merrywell, a Spring dinner at Spoonbill, and even had George Calombaris' mum cook Cypriot specialties for me (and 80 other guests!) at the Hellenic Republic.

High tea at The Werribee Mansion

My favourite cafe of 2012 is definitely the adorable Beatrix Bakes in North Melbourne. We've been a whole bunch of times and can't get enough of their fab ciabattas and sweet treats!

Handmade sweet treats at Beatrix Bakes

Other cafes I visited were The Pour Kids, Elceed, Coffeehead, Lil Boy Blue, and Essenza. In Sydney, I totally loved Flour and Stone.

Restaurants - Top meal of the year was the stunning degustation at Tetsuya's in Sydney! Everything was perfect, and I cannot recommend this place highly enough!

Confit Ocean Trout at Tetsuya's

I also enjoyed perfect steaks for my birthday dinner at Bistro Thierry, a great-value lunch special at St. Katherine's, fab handmade pasta at St. Peters, a great Sunday lunch at the now-defunct Embrasse, excellent seafood dishes at Fitzrovia (N.B. this was complimentary), Merchant, The Bottom End, Madam Kwong's Kitchen and Wonderbao. A little further from home, I loved Aubergine in Canberra, Montalto and the Flinders Hotel on the Mornington Peninsula (N.B. both of these were complimentary), and the bar at Momofuku Seiobo in Sydney.

And then there was Christmas...

Flaming pudding

And that was 2012 in the world of Sarah Cooks! Big thanks to all of those who've been following my blog this year, leaving comments, tweeting me and liking my Facebook and Instagram posts. Looking forward to another year of fun and deliciousness for 2013!