Bread Street Bakery-Home away from home!

So people back home are having trouble understanding what the bakery is like here since it is very unique and not like anything else back home... I took some photos today. Partially because I wanted everyone to see it and also because I wanted to show off my talents at 'scrolling.' Scrolling is where you roll up a big long log and then cut it so the product looks like a cinnamon roll. Aparently--some people who have worked at the bakery before have struggled to get the hang of this art. But thanks to Grandma... I have been pretty good at it. :) She taught me well!

So the bakery consist of three parts in my opinion. #1 is bread. We sell bread. LOTS of bread. There are block loaves, high tin, flour, cobs, viennas, ciabattas, bagels, turkish breads, sour doughs, sticks, rolls, wholemeal (wheat for you Americans) white, country grain (my favorite!) high fibre (nope--I spelled it correctly), ultra grain and SoLo (wholemeal base with lots of yummy soft whole grains plus poppy and oats and... well LOTS of fun things!) It is what Australians call Low GI which means it is slow to breakdown into glucose and takes longer to digest into your system. Better for your blood sugar and energy levels.














It is beautiful! I pretty much have a roll and yogurt every day when I am working for my mid-morning snack. :) That is... if I don't have a bagel dog.

Now, I've described them before, but in case you missed it... A bagel dog looks and sounds like the weirdest thing... but if you just give it a chance, you'll be hooked forever. :) It is an "American" hot dog wrapped in an onion bagel blanket. Think pigs in a blanket... but it isn't piglets it is full grown, hog to market, pigs. :) I have to admit... they are quite addictive and since they typically come out of the oven about 10 to 10... I have been known to have a bagel dog as my mid-morning snack a few times a week... Since I take my break at ten, it can be really hard to resist.

Anyway, I got off subject there. The other two parts of the bakery are Sweet and Savory. There are four glass cabinets in the front of the shop and in two are the Savory things and in the other two are the Sweet stuff. :)

The savory has a bit of everything from ham and cheese danishes, to turkish pizzas and plain cheese rolls. it is hard to describe, but there is a wide range. One of the strangest things to me are the Cheese and Bacon rolls. These are just plain rolls that are covered in diced bacon bits and sprinkled with 'tasty' cheese--Australians call their cheddar 'tasty.' I tend to disagree with the tasty bit... but that is purely because I miss Tillamook cheese like you wouldn't believe! These things sell hot out of the oven to all the school kids in their uniforms. There is about 20 or so that come in at least three times a week and I see them coming in and I just bag up a cheese and bacon roll and off to school they go. I've tried them... I just don't get it. :) It is a bit like Vegemite... which we have Cheesy Mite Scrolls that are... drum roll please, cheese and vegemite rolled up like a cinnamon roll. WEIRD! Then the sweet cabinets have apricot or blueberry danishes, scones, muffins, apple scrolls (look like a cinnamon roll but with diced bits of apple in them) coffee scrolls (as close to an American cinnamon roll as you get) with icing on top, twists, fruit buns (little squarish buns that have currents and sultanas (raisins) in them with a sweet sticky wash soaked into the top), finger buns--which look like a hot dog bun, but with a sweeter dough and then have boston icing on top with hundreds and thousands (sprinkles) and a handful of other treats. There is a couple of pregnant ladies that come in almost every day to get a fruit bun or three because they say it is the only thing they can keep down when they are morning sick... Whatever makes them happy is fine by me. :)

My roll when I work during the week is to open up the shop at 6am and then help in production by making the pizzas (supreme and tropical), mediterranean scrolls (spinach, feta, semi-dried tomatoes, and kalamata olives) and the artichoke and ricotta scrolls.


Then I work on merchandising the shop while helping customers. I make room in the cabinets as hot stuff comes out of the oven and get all the signs up. All our bread is made fresh daily, so as it comes out, I have sign it and face it as I go through it during the day. I get to chat with all the regulars and catch up on community gossip. Make faces at their kids in strollers and tease the younger kids as they get their cheese and bacon rolls and head off to school. Most of the morning customers come in everyday and get pretty much the same thing. They even typically come in in the same order and I've gotten to a point that I know if they have slept in or out and about early... It is that regular. :) Most have asked me over time where I am from and what I am doing here, so they always ask me if I've heard the latest news story coming from America, if I am home sick or if I am going back to visit soon. The customers are truely beautiful. They care about the success of this shop as well as all the shops along Hamilton street because it is very much a part of their daily lives. They notice if I 'bugger' off for a few days on a trip with Matt and always ask where I've been. I am even learning most of their names which says a lot since we are cash only shop and it's not like I am learning them from the credit cards.

I've never in my life felt more at home at work before... it partly is because I am so far away from my home, friends and family and the people at the shop and the customers have welcomed me into their family but also because it is just that kind of place. Fresh baked bread, the smell, the warmth and the color are a very addictive thing. I can't say I have ever paid much attention to bakery's back home and now I will always want to be near a shop like this no matter where my life takes me. The production staff--or bakers, they like to call themselves-- are pretty much all guys anywhere from late teens to twenty's thirty's and even David, who is in his fifties. They get to work anytime between 2 and 3 in the morning to start the doughs and warm up the ovens. Then a few more come on around 4 or 5 to start shaping and tinning the dough up. The 'oven man' controls when everything goes in and when everything comes out and can either make or break the day. Some days are rough around the shop... A burnt batch of bread or savory/sweet trays can mean a few hours delay in getting that product on the shelf for the customer... No pressure there. :) and every once in awhile, someone over sleeps or has a late night and can't concentrate on their tasks. It happens. People make adjustments and everyone makes fun of them. If the oven man curses because he burnt himself... no one really feels bad and anyone who spills or drops something and makes a mess gets their photo taken and they get nominated for a Razz... The rest of the staff knows about the mistakes by the end of the week and you never quite live it down. Sharon, who helps David run the shop, always says... 'There is nothing we haven't seen.' Whether it is burning something, adding too much water and making soup out of the dough to adding the wrong flour or too much yeast or not enough or spilling an entire jug of olive oil on yourself... it has been done, it has been laughed at and it will be remembered. :)

There's Gold in them there hills...

Hallo All!

On Wednesday, I took a train up to the ‘little’ town of Bendigo. This is the third largest city in Victoria, so I put little in quotes… because it was much bigger than I anticipated. Anyway, it was a quick trip with Matt and I driving back on Saturday morning. Bendigo gets its roots from a reawakening of the gold rush in the late 1930’s when two women found some gold while they were washing their laundry in the creek just west of town. They digging begun and the second largest output of gold in Australia history proceeded over the next 20 years or so. Lots and Lots of gold. I took Thursday as an ‘instant gratification day’ as my friend Abby coined after she moved to Seattle. I slept in until 8. I know… sleeping in until 8… BIG DEAL! Well, when you work at 6 in the morning and get up at 5, 8 IS a big deal. Then I went to a day spa and got a lovely 60 minute massage… it was WONDERFUL! The therapist is an American who moved here 31 years ago as a teacher. She and her husband got permanent residence visas as long as they taught for at least one year to help Australia bring their education standards up to international levels. We had lots to talk about and chatted away the whole time. I still felt incredibly relaxed and plan on going back to the Spa in the future for more. J Then off to the city for some shopping and wandering.

The center of town has some beautiful parkland and old, classic stone architecture dominating the sky line. The shopkeepers all proved to be Aussie-style friendly and very informative about the area. One of the gourmet shops told me that more than one of the local, old school farmers are convinced that the drought is over. Several of the folks here in Melbourne have talked about this being the wettest winter they remember for at least the last ten years and one of the coldest in years. So that was good news. I heard about a paper craft store so I wandered that direction to find some paper. J After chatting with the clerk there, I realize that I should have kept my card stock instead of giving it all away… Oh well. Found lots of inspiring items at the shop and then headed back to meet Matt for dinner. The food in Bendigo was really fantastic. J We had Italian, Chinese and good ‘ole Mexican. That’s right, we found some decent Mexican in town for dinner on Wednesday. One yummy Tequila Sunrise and a Margarita later… I was quite happy to sleep in again the next day. When the maid knocked on the door I was surprised to see I slept in until 10! So I hurriedly got up, dressed and headed out toward the mine. I took at 2 ½ hour tour of the Central Deborah Gold Mine. The best part of the tour was the fact that it was me, the tour guide and a volunteer who had to tag along because they only let groups of three or more down into the mine at a time. Some kind of safety thing. I didn’t care, I was digging for gold! The tour included level 2 and 3 of the 17 level mine and the tour guide was incredibly educated about the geology and history of the mine. I learned a lot… more than I can really articulate in an email because hands on is so much better! Again, another profession that is NOT my cup of tea because after about 5 minutes of sifting through a pile of rubble, I was ready for lunch. I did get a demonstration of the conditions the early miners had which was two candles that lasted 4 hours each. In an 8 hour shift, they could only have one lit at a time to last the whole day. I don’t know how anyone finds gold specks with a single candle shedding the light. I about went blind. Much less, how they managed to not go insane working day in and day out for 10 schillings a day in the dark, cold, musty confines of the mine. Lunch was my first taste of a pastie. We get asked for pasties all the time at the bakery and I had no idea what they were until now. It is a meat and three veg (peas, corn and carrots) wrapped up in a filo pastry shell with the seam on the top scrunched together like the edge of a pie crust. It was quite nice actually and the tour guide claimed that the crusty bit along the top was a ‘ handle’ so the miners, whose hands were covered in arsenic and other toxic compounds, could hold the pastie by the handle, eat all around it and chuck out the handle when they were done without consuming the small amounts of arsenic that build up in the body to kill you. Not that there weren’t a dozen other things that could kill you in the mining business… rocks falling on your head, loss of oxygen, pneumonia, getting lost… you get the idea right? In the years this particular mine was in full operation they only had one death and that guy went down the shaft before his work buddy was ready and ended up getting crushed by falling rock. Oops… The early bird doesn’t get the worm that time! Well, I had a great time, would do it again in a heart beat and if you ever visit this neck of the woods, I recommend you get off the beaten-in every tour guide book- path and make the short journey up to Bendigo for a few days. Between folklore, shopping, spas and the wines I didn’t get to explore… there is a little of something for everyone I think. J

I went to a little bakery called The Beechworth Bakery and had a ‘lemon slice’ for a snack on the way back from the mine. It was very tasty and I picked up a recipe or two in their cookbook. Hallie… I know you wanted me to learn one thing while I am here… and I have done it! I have a recipe for sausage rolls. And YUCK! I don’t know why your are interested/obsessed by them, but it is now in my capable hands. I’ll give it a try and then I’ll send you my notes on the recipe… it is all in metric by the way. J

I have to share the commercial I just saw on TV while I was working on this email… It starts showing all of the bronze, beautiful people on some of the famous beaches here in Australia, then poses the question of “What happened to us, Australia?” then shows some shots of fat people lounging on the beach and on the couch and goes on to say. “We have become one of the fat-est developed nations in the world.” They show lots of stats about how many Australians are obese and that 1 in 4 kids are obese, the amount of money obesity is causing (remember they are on public healthcare here…) etc. Wow. What a statement!

Sorry… had to tell you about that one. J Saturday, we drove back to Melbourne and it dawned on me just how flat the Melbourne area is compared to the rest of Victoria. We headed to the Collingwood footy game that evening and watched Collingwood make fools of themselves against Brisbane. They lost miserably by 93 points. Then on Sunday it was Matt’s sisters’ birthday and we met up with all of Matt’s family at his Mum’s house for afternoon tea… Remember, that afternoon tea means eating and drinking to some degree...You just never know if it will be a whole meal or just a snacky type thing. I have learned to love Champaign because we have some just about every time we meet up with Matt’s Mum for anything… which is just about weekly. Kate had a lot left over from her wedding, so we are making the sacrifice of chipping away at the stockpile one bottle at a time. Matt and I gave Kate a necklace that Julia made. Matt picked it out from her website and I picked it up while in Hawaii on my way here. It was a huge success and Julia now has lots of Australian admirers of her work. J It was a fun gathering with his family but it made me awfully homesick. I miss my friends and family back home lots and lots now. Not that I wasn’t before, but just watching his family all interact together, made me miss home. So I ate graham crackers and American marshmallows when I got home and will probably have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner. J

Sorry I don’t really have any pictures from this trip… hopefully next time.

Take care all of you, and enjoy some summer sunshine for me. I am tired of the chill of winter! L

Cheers,