The history behind Sydney’s Vietnamese bakeries, hot bread shops

From pork rolls to doughnuts, many of Sydney’s finest bakeries are run by the Vietnamese community who call southwest Sydney home. Tighter Covid rules show just how missed they are in main streets across the city.

From crunchy banh mi to sweet vanilla slices, many of Sydney’s finest bakeries are run by members of the Vietnamese community who call southwest Sydney home.

So on Sunday morning, when tougher rules stopped southwest Sydney residents leaving their homes (apart from emergency service and aged care workers), their fine bread-making skills were sorely missed beyond the Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury-Bankstown bubble.

Much of the Vietnamese community call the region home — especially in Fairfield where 39,581 people or 19.9 per cent of the 198,817 residents that make up the local government area have Vietnamese ancestry.

After NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian relaxed the rules, food workers were allowed to return to their jobs on Monday.

Staff at the Henry Bakery at Pendle Hill were not allowed to work because they live in the Liverpool council area.

Brenda's Bakery at Toongabbie was open for business as usual.

Fortunately for bread lovers, many reopened their shops but other bakers who live in the southwest won’t be returning so swiftly as Covid escalates.

The bakers’ absence will make sure the waft of fresh bread or flaky pie is never taken for granted again.

Buying fresh crunchy and fluffy baguettes, cobs, mantovas, vienna and white sliced loaves has been an Aussie ritual for at least 40 years when the first wave of Vietnamese migrated a few years after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

Many of the diaspora came equipped with baking skills which were first learned from their ancestors from the late 1800s when the French colonised Vietnam.

Sydney’s first Vietnamese bakery, Viet Hoa Hot Bread at Cabramatta, opened at John St in 1980. It still stands and is an Aussie success story.

Canley Vale food blogger Thang Ngo, who estimates he has knocked back more than 10,000 banh mi (pork rolls), has seen such bakeries flourish since he migrated from Vietnam to Australia as a nine-year-old in 1977.

Cabramatta with food blogger and banh mi devotee Thang Ngo. Picture: Bob Barker

“The Vietnamese bakery is the only thing that’s survived the big chains like Big Top and the others coming into supermarkets and making bread accessible through supermarkets,’' he said.

“Also that bread is so unique that you don’t even see Coles and Woolies try to copy it. That long, crusty roll is still something which needs to be baked fresh for it to kind of taste nice

“What’s changed is that it’s actually becoming about the only place you can get freshly-baked, independent bread in just about any town in Sydney, or Australia or metro areas.’’

Ngo says that when Victorian bread company Brumby’s wanted to recruit skilled bakers, it brought over workers from Vietnam.

“That shows you the pedigree of baking from Vietnam,’’ Ngo said.

Viet Hoa Hot Bread at Cabramatta is Sydney’s oldest Vietnamese bakery. Picture: Bill Hearne

The 55-year-old credits the banh mi for diversifying the offerings at these hot bread shops which dot most of Sydey’s main drags, and for helping the bakeries to survive for four decades.

The street food is the Vietnamese version of the baguette and is a crunchy roll laden with pork or chicken, green onions, shredded carrots, cucumber, coriander, hoisin sauce and rounded out with French flavours in the chicken liver pate and mayonnaise.

“You can still get a bread roll for $4.50 in Cabramatta, which is unheard of when there’s more than 10 ingredients going in there,’’ Ngo said.

“You couldn’t get a chicken avocado sandwich for less than double that.’’

It’s part of the unpretentious profile of Vietnamese cuisine, he said.

“What I like about it is that it’s really no nonsense and honest to goodness,’’ Ngo said.

“It’s never trying to be trendy, it’s just trying to be there with good bread and really good value.

Hang Phan at Pendle Way Bakery which reopened shortly after the government’s rules for southwest Sydney residents were relaxed.

“It’s kind of a typical example of how hardworking the Vietnamese community are and how honest it is from a price perspective.’’

Chains such as Destination Roll and Roll’d are also winning new fans of Vietnamese cuisine but bakeries may not be handed down to the next generation.

“To be honest, it’s hard work to get up at one, two o’clock in the morning to start baking,’’ Ngo said.

“Even some parents don’t want their kids to do it. They prefer their children’s to be doctors and lawyers.
“The heyday is right now. Hot bread shops are everywhere, that is true, but similarly you look at Petersham with some of their bakeries with Portuguese bakeries. They have the same issue there with the second generation.’’

A delicious banh mi (pork roll). Picture: Bob Barker.

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