New Sandy Bay cafe excites tastebuds with coffee and classic brekkie dishes with an Asian twist
A Japanese dashi omelette and a rendang beef toastie are among the offerings at a new cafe in suburban Hobart, where the owners are mixing Asian flavours with Australian breakfast classics.
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Today we’re starting with a quick chemistry lesson, so please pay attention.
The topic at hand is the Maillard reaction.
“What’s that?” you ask. Well, “the Maillard reaction is many small, simultaneous chemical reactions that occur when proteins and sugars in and on your food are transformed by heat, producing new flavours, aromas and colours,” explains J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of Serious Eats.
“Practically speaking, the Maillard reaction makes food more enticing to us humans, encouraging us to dig into a steak, drink a coffee, or chug a beer.”
So, it’s an entirely appropriate name for a new cafe in Sandy Bay that’s serving up brunch and lunch dishes, as well as their own coffee blend, that are full of flavour, aroma and colour.
There are plenty of brunch classics on offer here – smashed avo with Persian fetta and a poached egg ($19.50), or eggs benedict with your choice of ham, bacon or smoked salmon ($22) or housemade granola with yoghurt ($16), but we head straight for the chef’s specials and dishes that offer something a little different.
Our first dish is a Japanese dashi omelette ($22), where traditional Japanese flavours (dashi is the stock base for miso soup) are incorporated into an Australian breakfast classic.
Ribbons of dark dashi are threaded through this beautifully delicate omelette, which is topped with grilled shimeji mushrooms and bonito flakes that dance in the slightest breeze.
“I love dashi,” says Christina Zhang, who owns Maillard with her husband, Josh Wang. “We use it at home and Josh invented this dish because he wanted to have an omelette dish that mixed Asian flavours with Australian breakfast culture.”
This blending of cultures is what leads to the rendang beef toastie ($16), a fat sandwich of sourdough stuffed with flavoursome rendang (a Malaysian curry with a coconut base), thin slices of fried potato and spinach leaves. A portion of excellent chips on the side make this a sizeable meal.
“We cooked rendang at home after seeing it in a movie,” explains Christina.
“Josh wanted to serve it, but thought we can’t just do it with rice because that’s too Asian, so he turned it into a toastie. Everyone loves toasties!”
And everyone is welcome at Maillard, which is child and dog friendly with baby-cinos and puppy-cinos on the menu.
Josh’s background is as a chef at Hobart Coffee Roasters for five years and, as luck would have it, there is a coffee roaster on site at Maillard.
Josh roasts his own beans to formulate their house blend, which is available to take away and grind at home.
In addition to regular drinks on the menu (regular coffees, $5), there are also changing specials including an iced matcha and an iced pistachio and black sesame latte.
Another dish that’s proving popular with customers is the zucchini fritters ($22), which we ordered with a side of maple bacon, cooked crispy.
When the dish arrived, there was some discussion around the crispiness of the bacon and Christina immediately ordered us another portion – which was definitely crispy, with the sweetness of the maple syrup offsetting the saltiness of the bacon.
The service here is friendly and efficient and Christina says that Josh is happy to make adjustments to dishes as required.
The fritters were fat and light, not stodgy as some can be, and came with a generous portion of guacamole (a little too smooth for my taste, I like a chunky guac) and a perfectly poached egg.
Maillard sits between Gregory St and the Woolworths carpark, so it’s easy to sneak in a trip after grocery shopping.
All their sweets are made in house and, while the Basque cheesecake is popular, I can’t wait to try the lemon tart that’s been given a twist with the dark sweetness of brown sugar.
But, of course, you don’t need a grocery run as an excuse to visit Maillard. It’s perfect for brunch or lunch any day.
MAILLARD
14 Gregory St, Sandy Bay
Opening hours: Mon – Fri, 7am – 3.30pm, Sat, 8am – 2pm
On the menu
Japanese dashi omelette, $22; rendang beef toastie, $16; zucchini fritter, $22; cappuccino, $5
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