Brasserie Bread, 29 Nov 2009

It’s not every year that someone gives you a loaf of bread for your birthday, but when that someone is Ms Sourdough and the bread in question is from Brasserie Bakery then the resultant effect is more than just acceptable. Along with this bread also came a trio of tarts: lemon, pear and almond, and an apple frangipane.

Fast forward a few months and we find ourselves gracing Brasserie Bakery one sunny Sunday for brunch. Ms Sourdough is up from Canberra and where else would we go other than somewhere that is famed, amongst other things, for their bread. The front windows are decorated with adorable hanging gingerbread stars and men, heralding Christmas.

The place is absolutely bustling by the time we arrive mid-morning and we are lucky Weirdo and Ms Sourdough have secured four seats for us at the end of one of the long communal tables. The colour scheme is very much to my liking as I love geometric pieces of red to really highlight things.

To our left we see the retail half of the store with a display of cakes, bread, bags of pasta, bread, cookbooks, bread, bread and more bread! There are many bread samples on display for trying, as well as olive oil to accompany them.

Monsieur Poisson and Weirdo disappear up to the counter to take care of our orders and I start with my usual skim flat white whilst Monsieur Poisson has a rather orange and sizeable orange juice.

We end up with two serves of the ‘Soft omelette with gruyère cheese and prosciutto” at our table, and for good reason. The slightly pungent and stretchy cheese is always a winner for me when combined with eggs. There is some prosciutto draped across the omelette and, of course, some bread on the side.

And quite predictably I go for the eggs Benedict which features just the one poached egg sitting atop charred slivers of bacon and between two halves of a foccacia-like bread. It is filling though and the Hollandaise is a beautiful consistency as well as being not too tart.

Ms Sourdough has the ‘Roast chicken on baguette à l'ancienne’ with lovely, juicy grilled chicken breast, rocket and mayonnaise on a chewy, chewy baguette. Weirdo, apart from his omelette, has a very attractive and sugary almond croissant sitting on the side for later.

And then we seem to spend way too much time chatting and catching up but Sunday brunches are perfect for these things! Of course we have to pick up some bread before leaving and Monsieur Poisson and I settle on a rustic ciabatta loaf. It’s holey, doughy, slightly tart and features a chewy crust and crumb. It is also sliced for us which is a bonus.

In the sweet department, we take home a raspberry and pistachio friand as well as a chocolate brownie. They both get consumed later that afternoon and the texture of both are brilliant. I like my brownies dense but not gooey, and this really hit the spot.

Now, we don’t know whether it was because it was close to closing time or whether we spent too long unashamedly lingering around the bread displays, but we scored a free schiacciata loaf after we’d paid for our bread and cakes. The lovely guy chopped it in half so that both couples could have a sample. Upon consumption it’s not as soft as we expected but was great toasted, split in half and filled with such things as my favourite smoked salmon, capers, cream cheese and baby spinach. Mmmm!

Brasserie Bread

1737 Botany Rd, Banksmeadow NSW

Tel: 1300 966 845

Opening Hours:  Mon-Fri  7am-3pm

                        Sat & Sun  8am-2pm

happy eating!