Rising to the occasion
the bakeries of Brunswick

Sydney Road Brunswick - the place to be!

One of the things I like about Brunswick, the inner Melbourne suburb where I live, is the diversity of the population. Here in Sydney Road, the main shopping street, Shing Lee's Asian Restaurant sits between The Arab Bank and the Commonwealth Bank (originally the Australian people's bank but now privatised).
There are people from Greece, China, Vietnam, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon - the list could go on and on.
And we all live in relative harmony. My own neighbors on one side are Italian and on the other, Lebanese.

We all have a lot in common of course, but we do like our breads to be a little different. And within a stone's throw of each other are the bakeries that cater for our needs. Mostly family run businesses, where Dad is up before the morning light to get the ovens going and the kids take over during the day.

There's the flat breads of the Spot-On Bakery, the fantastic low-rise Turkish bread from the Pamukkale Bakery and the European (with French influence) breads from the Vietnamese oven.

And maybe the different breads help us rise to the occasion as far as relationships are concerned!

Or maybe it's the influence the families that run the bakeries have on their neighbors that maintains a balance of the cultures. Most of these families have made a new life for themselves through their talent with bread. Their life experience has risen and fallen, but risen again in this place - just like their bread.

   Two cousins at the A1 Bakery. One day, they will
   have to get up early to start the ovens.

Maybe we should get our world leaders to take their turn at the ovens with these people! Maybe I'm just dreaming that it would make any difference.

More photos and a recipe