Anyway, neither of these things are near me so I'm spared. 🫡

It's been exactly a year since I visited Melbourne and my iPhone keeps doing that "On This Day, One Year Ago" thing for my photo album except it's just a photo of when I visited the Breadtop in QV and ate the weirdest durian bread LMAO.

I will say that in Taiwan, I grew up eating Marble bread as a dessert and it was one of my favourite things as a child, so I was very excited seeing them sell it at Breadtop.

That and Melon bread (also called Pineapple bread in Hong Kong, but Taiwanese pastries are closer to their Japanese counterpart).

So after googling for the name of the Marble bread, I realized that I actually couldn't find anyone call it Marble bread except for Breadtop. Like, if you mention 'Marble bread', everyone else would think it's this one right?

So then I googled the name in Taiwan and found it was called 大理石麵包. Which, translated, is Marble Bread!

Anyway, here's a recipe I found online. There's no English equivalent and I'm too lazy to translate it but maybe I'll do it one day when I attempt it.

At my local Asian bakery, they don't call them Marble bread.

They call them "CUBIES". Which, okay, it's kinda cute. I like it.

It's been exactly a year since I visited Melbourne and my iPhone keeps doing that "On This Day, One Year Ago" thing for my photo album except it's just a photo of when I visited the Breadtop in QV and ate the weirdest durian bread LMAO.

I will say that in Taiwan, I grew up eating Marble bread as a dessert and it was one of my favourite things as a child, so I was very excited seeing them sell it at Breadtop.

That and Melon bread (also called Pineapple bread in Hong Kong, but Taiwanese pastries are closer to their Japanese counterpart).

So I got referred to the newly opened Autumn by another coffee shop owner. It's small, it's quaint, it's smack in the middle of the super busy Pah Road where there's a lot of competition, so I'm wishing them all the best.

All the pastries in Autumn are housemade, and you can see the baker working right next to the counter. Both workers were extremely kind and genial. For the regular croissant and the Pina Colada croissant, it's a very flaky and crispy exterior matched with a nice chewy inside. You can actually feel the perfect layering as you bite into it, and it's just beautiful to behold. One of the better made ones for sure. (This place is currently my partner's third favourite pastry place in New Zealand)

The pineapple on the Pina Colada croissant was charred with a torch. A very nice, sweet slice, well chosen. I was worried the croissant itself might be overly moist either from the addition of pineapple and coconut cream, but that wasn't the case. A well and proven pairing, but because the pastry had to be folded into this shape to hold the toppings, the croissant was much denser compared to the regular, and came with a different chew and bite.

The espresso gelato was pretty good! I was surprised how smooth it was since it was housemade and not through a commercial machine. Ignore the 'martini' sticker on the gelato, it's actually espresso flavoured. It's not too sweet, which means the coffee notes actually have a chance in the limelight. If you let it sit, the flavour changes, and I think it's one to be savoured slowly.

Okay. The coffee. Supreme beans, Brazil, the beans itself is ehhhh okay, the pulled shot was not. I found it burnt, astringent, harsh, and had a lot of bad notes. I let my partner drink it and her comment was that because it was pulled so harshly, she preferred it since it completely smothered the taste of milk (she prefers oat or almond). That probably tells you everything you need to know about the quality of the shot.

But hey, it was a really pretty cup. The saucer plate and the cup itself was really fun to touch.