VinTam's Bakery

Poor old Docklands.  Remember the burning luxury yacht last month?  This tweet pretty much sums up the mood about our waterfront precinct.

The problem with these manufactured areas (think Southbank and Fed Square) is they don't really develop naturally.  In food terms, they open ready-populated with cafes and restaurants that have been installed to hit certain price points and not much else.  I was at Fed Square recently and asked the usher at ACMI, "Where's the best coffee place here?"  She looked at me helplessly and we both smiled.  "Degraves Street?" she finally offered.

That's why VinTam's Bakery, tucked away in Docklands, is really exciting.  Walk past endless cookie-cutter panini bars and you'll come across this bakery and Vietnamese cafe, so popular it has reversed the trend and actually taken over an empty shop next door.

They do good banh mi, from mixed ham to nem nuong (a springy, hot pink pork kebab) plus a menu of home-style Vietnamese dishes like ca ri ga (chicken curry), Vietnamese coleslaw and pho.

Beef pho, $10

This sliced beef pho was delish and could hold its head up anywhere along Hopkins Street.  The beef, tender brisket and rare wafer-thin slices, was tasty and the broth well seasoned and rich with hints of star anise.  There was only one measly sprig of Thai basil, but perhaps the punters around here don't add it and so they're understandably cutting their losses.  

BBQ chicken banh mi, $6.50

This banh mi was literally heavy in its paper bag.  It was light on salad but so generous with yummy chopped chicken thighs luxuriating in a hoi sin glaze.  The bread was proper and the chilli was plentiful.  It's not Nhu Lan but a good effort all the same.  Other banh mi varieties are slightly cheaper at $5.50.

Com tam, $10

This classic com tam had a sweet and tender pork chop, generous broken rice and lovely sunny egg.  It didn't quite match up to Footscray but in the local stakes it's good.  "Broken rice" is literally broken rice.  It's long grain rice like jasmine, broken into pieces.  It used to be a cheap by-product of the milling process but now it's produced on its own merits.  It's stickier than normal rice and soaks up the dressing better.

The staff are lovely and it gets really busy around office worker feeding time.  There are multiple friendly people serving so it doesn't take long.  If you score a sunny day, it's gorgeous to sit outside and there's a big area where the kids can run around.

Aww, Docklands isn't that bad after all.  As for coffee in Fed Square...well...  Make a run for it down Flinders Street to the Banana Alley Vaults, where you'll find the delightful T-Roy Browns.  This little coffee cave is well worth the walk.  (Check 'em out at Milk Bar Mag too.)



VinTam's Bakery
Shop 109, 111 Merchant Street, Docklands
Hours:  Mon-Fri day time, closed weekends


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Hot dogs at Costco

People are very sensitive about grocery shopping.  Allegiances can be as fiercely defended as those to football teams.  Costco seems to inspire everything from ardour to disgust to benign curiosity.  I have been a member since it first opened and truthfully was not sure if I would keep my membership at first.  As time has gone on, the management has evidently responded to Australian buying habits and the product range keeps getting better and better.  So, trolley loaded with free range chicken, organic milk and antioxidant-rich blueberries, what better for lunch than a Costco hot dog?

Yes, I know what you are thinking - how could you??  I blame nostalgia.  Hot dogs are a huge part of the American summer experience.  Just as you wander the backstreets of suburban Melbourne in summer and the unmistakable, sinfully-delicious waft of barbecuing el-cheapo breakfast sausages fills the air, the lure of an American hot dog is just as wrong and just as strong.  The meat is highly processed and the bun that cakey, aerated McDonalds bread, but they put me straight back in Wrigley Field in Chicago, organ pipes playing between the commentator's snappy calls, the ivy rustling gently in the lakeshore breeze as a baseball game plays on.

Mmmm, $2.49 worth of memories.  They are not quite the hot dogs I recall (Chicago is famous for its 100% beef hot dogs) but they are damn close.

I am ashamed to say I have partaken of other Costco food court delights.  The pizza slices are gargantuan and I found them far too oily and (in the case of the cheese pizza) somewhat bland.  The "Korean" "beef bulgogi bake" (yes, HOW CAN I CALL MYSELF A FOODIE) is far, far too rich - a kind of greasy calzone stuffed with beef, cheese and onion.

So what's in the trolley?  Costco is really about discounting premium brands rather than beating generic prices, although in some cases it does manage to do that.  This does mean that you have to buy a lot, ie, 24 muesli bars at a time, three-packs of shampoo or 1 kg frozen berries.  It works for us but if you were a smaller household, you would need to weigh up the initial outlay, the expiry date and the boredom factor to consider if it would work for you.

Costco have always sold packs of Steggles or Baiada chicken pieces, plus whole Lilydale free range chooks.  I have regularly left feedback asking them to stock free range fillets and one day received a phone call telling me that they would indeed do that.  Unreal!  Indeed, they are stocking more and more free range and organic lines which I think is reflective of the variety of people who shop at Costco - some come for the buckets of Maltesers, others for the wild Alaskan salmon.  But everyone stays for the hot dogs.

Gold Leaf Docklands

Matt Preston once wrote a wonderful article in Epicure, in which he spoke of the search for the best yum cha as some kind of existential crisis.

As each soul rolls down the great conveyor belt in the sky it's stamped with Dragon Boat, Lucky Chan's, Silky Apple or any number of different Shark Fin variations. Sadly, this divine brand is not visible in the mirror, which means you can spend a month of Sundays driving from Box Hill to Brighton and from Little Bourke to beyond searching for your own perfect treasure. I am still looking.

I love it!  Wandering through the wilderness, parched with MSG thirst, scratched on dented, maniacal trolleys...  A dark night of the soul of Dragon Boat proportions, in which claggy har cheong and overcooked gai larn threaten to derail my spiritual quest for my own "perfect treasure".  A week or so ago, Mum and I took the kids to see if any of us were destined to attain dumpling nirvana in the shade of a Gold Leaf.

This is the fifth in Gold Leaf's chain of eateries.  The restaurant looks over the stumps of that white elephant, the Southern Star wheel.

Shanghai dumplings

Correct me if I am wrong, but are these supposed to be xiao long bao, the dumplings that have the famous soupy interior?  These were good - peppery and porky - but NO SOUP FOR YOU!  I am still yet to try proper xiao long bao.  These did come with yummy red vinegar dipping sauce, however.

Sesame prawn toasts

Something to distract the kids (or that's my excuse).  These are wrong, but oh, so right.  Prawns squished onto white bread, covered in sesame seeds, and deep fried.

Har cheong

Big points here for delicate, non-mushy har cheong - wide rice noodles enclosing juicy prawns, with a sweet soy sauce.  Yum!

BBQ pork pastries

Hmm...  These were nowhere near as good as Master Restaurant's.  The pastry was flaky, but I suspect vegetable-shortening based rather than that lovely lardy goodness it should be.  The filling was somewhat dry.

Har gow

Gold Leaf aced the har gow test.  These pretty, pleated, prawn dumplings are notorious for sticking to one another or to the steamer, so that the delicate wrapper is torn off and the har gow is unceremoniously denuded.  These kept their petticoats on and were very good.

Siu mai

It's not yum cha without siu mai.  These are sweet, springy morsels of pork and prawn.  Delicious!

Bean curd roll (I think)

Boy, we really are typical gweilo yum cha eaters.  Nothing interesting here - no chicken's feet, tripe, or even sticky rice.  I was kind of embarrassed so I ordered these, which, to be honest, I can't remember much about except they were not that amazing.

Cha siu bao

I've said it before, but these pillowy, ethereally white buns are the food of my childhood.  I know these had split in the steamer, but the filling was seriously good.  The pork was soft, juicy, fragrant with five spice, and a much more natural shade of red than the normal violent crimson.

Prawns in (I think) fried bean curd

I know people bag fried yum cha items, but I love these, particularly for the outrageous pink sauce that comes with them.  These were so good.

Taro cake

Finally, Mum wanted to try the taro cake for old times' sake, but this one had a strange, grainy texture.  Bummer.

So does my divine brand read Gold Leaf Docklands?  I'm not sure.  Their dishes are more refined than, say, Master Restaurant (and a little more expensive), and it was a very pleasant, easy dining experience.  What if my dumpling true love is nestled in the outer eastern suburbs, and not in the west at all?  I suppose I have much yum cha purgatory to endure then.  Best get on the hunt next weekend - hey, it beats going to church.

Gold Leaf Docklands
Level 1, Harbour Town shopping centre, overlooking the Southern Star Wheel (map)
Phone: 9670 1128
Yum cha hours: Mon - Fri 12.00pm - 3.00pm, Sat - Sun 11.30am - 4.30pm (also open for dinner)
Per plate: $4.80, $5.90, $7.00 and up
Fully licensed