Silo Bakery @ Kingston, Canberra

I've been living in Sydney for the past 20 years, and can you believe that I haven't been to the Canberra Floriade?!?! Well... somehow it never really interest me until last year when I saw the photos of some of my friends took at the Floriade that made me think maybe I should pay a visit!

One year later, Canberra Floriade is back!!! And initially I wasn't gonna go because hubby and I couldn't find a time that we're free for this day trip, but because of a little incident that all of a sudden we have a few free days on hand! So I said to my hubby.... lets go down to Canberra to see the Floriade!

The day before the trip, I was going through people's food blog - this has become my daily habit now! And I saw on Not Quite Nigella's website that she blogged about the Silo Bakery in Canberra, and I thought.... just the right time, we'll go there for a visit, since it's only 10 min drive from the Canberra city!

After the 3 hour drive, we reached the Canberra Info Center to grab a map and some info. I flipped through the brochure quickly to the food section to see what's there... and Silo Bakery was also mentioned as a must visit destination, so off we went, drove straight over there to have our lunch! On Not Quite Nigella's website, she mentioned about the breakfast menu, but when we got there at 12pm, the lunch menu was on show! This small bakery was constantly full of customers, tables were full at all times, and people come in and out to get coffee, bread and pastries. Pastries were all lined up at the front counter on a marble benchtop, loafs of sourdough bread were sitting against the white tiled wall behind the counter. What's so special about this bakery is, it also has a cheese room!!!!

When we got there, we were lucky that they had one table left, at the very back of the bakery right next to the entrance to the baking area! Nice.... I had a quick glance at the menu, and found that each item on the menu is matched with a glass of wine! Very tempting, but at the end I said no to the wine and ordered coffee instead! The menu consisted of only light lunch ideas such as clear soup, pizzas and nibbling plates. I had my eye on the Potato, Anchovy, and Chili Jam Pizza and for the second plate.... I was tossing between the Antipasto Plate and the Lunch Cheese Plate.... At the end the antipasto plate won.... no particular reason though... but when I think about it now, we should have ordered the lunch cheese plate, since it has a cheese room, their cheese must be good! Maybe next time!

Freshly baked bread ready to be put on shelves

The Cheese Room

Cappuccino & Flat White

Our coffee came without waiting for long, and while waiting for our lunches to come, I took a peep at the front counter and tried to decide what to have as our dessert... haha... Tarts are probably one of their specialities because they have more than 10 different flavours in the glass cabinet! Half of them have some form of berries in them, which I needed to rule out because hubby doesn't eat berries.... =( THE tart that made my eyes glittered was Vanilla Brulee! The cream brulee tart at Bourke St Bakery has been my favourite of all tarts so far, and I want to see how this vanilla brulee compare with the bourke st bakery one!

Antipasto Plate $24

Potato, Anchovies & Chili Jam Pizza $18

The antipasto plate came with 7 different bits drizzled with olive oil... let's see whether I can remember them all. Proscuitto with seedless grape (which looked live olives!), tomato with cheese, chorizo on toasted bread, fresh oyster, field mushroom with cheese, roasted vege stack, and...... can't remember the last one. =P This dish was simple yet nice, all 7 pieces were beautifully presented on the round plate. Very appetising indeed!

After finishing the antipasto plate, we dug straight into the potato, anchovy and chili jam pizza! The crust of the pizza was thin and delicious, it was very different to the usual pizza base you have at any of the gourmet pizza places! I might be a bit vague here, but I can just tell that it was different... in a nice way... but can't put in words how is it different..... maybe just the lack of my vocabulary! Better go and try it yourself! =P Thinly sliced potatoes were arranged neatly on the crust with anchovies scattered randomly on top, and a dollop of chili jam on each square of pizza to finish off! Yummmm.... The random anchovies helped to give the pizza some saltiness to the sweet tasting potato, and the mild spiciness and sweet sensation from the chili jam added an extra dimension of flavour to the pizza! Heaven!!!!

Ok... lunch finished... time for dessert... I walked out to the front counter again to reassure myself that vanilla brulee is THE pick! As soon as I reached the counter... I've found that half of the cabinet was empty already, and there was only ONE left of the vanilla brulee... okok... need to order quickly before it goes!!!!

Vanilla Brulee Tart

I used my fork to tap the top of the tart... ummm... no sound, it's soft! Shouldn't the top crust of a brulee be hard?!??! Unlike the Bourke St Bakery tart which has a flaky tart base, this one is the traditional buttery tart base - very tarty base!!!! If you like a tarty tart... then this one you'll love! The filling was smooth and full of vanilla flavour, the only thing that let the tart down was the cameral top, which I reckon should be sweet, thin and crusty!

While hubby was at one side of the front counter paying the lunch bill. I was at the other end of the counter choosing some more pastries to take back to Sydney... it was around 1:15pm and ALOT of the pastries were gone already, I hope that they were in the process of baking more! But since we were in a rush to get to the Floriade, we couldn't really just stand there and wait for the next bake off, so I just had to grab what was left there! Two of these and two of that please... I said to the girl behind the counter.... hehehe... and then I asked her... 'by the way... what are they!!?!?' 'Apple, sultana and almond in croissant pastry, and blueberry brioche'.

Blueberry Brioche & Apple, Sultana and Almond in Croissant Pastry

One of each was given to my parents, and we had the leftover for breakfast the next day. I heated up slightly at the microwave so that they are warm, and here comes the exciting moment... I had a bite into the brioche, and the texture was soft yet dense, while the croissant pastry was buttery and flakey!!! Delicious.... best to wash down with a cup of coffee!!! Usually pastries wouldn't be on my breakfast list because of their high fat content and calorie count.... but every now and then, I guess it wouldn't hurt! =P

Silo Bakery

36 Giles Street,

Kingston, Canberra