Bao is the word

IN a world where every Asian-themed restaurant or café is serving a bao of some description, it seems fitting the venue that makes these fluffy treats their focus is the best in town.

Appropriately named, Bao Place (Geelong West) there’s a choice here of roughly a dozen different fillings, and depending on your hunger levels, can be ordered singularly or in various pack sizes. As novel as they are, the Bao Gers (bur-ger shaped bao – get it?) don’t particularly do it for me, but the original guo bao are really delicious. Highlight from their selection are hot honey chicken (crispy) panko zucchini and braised pork belly. A kingfish sashimi dish with pomelo (and just the right amount of wasabi) also hit the spot, as did some crispy miso lamb ribs. I feel this could easily be a once-a-week lunchtime stop for anyone who works/lives around the north Pakington Street precinct.

 

The calendar may say we’re in spring, but the weather is certainly telling us a different story. That means there’s still time to enjoy some of winter favourites before the sunnier times start to roll in. For me, one of these essential cold brunch delights is the simple bowl of soup. Although I shouldn’t really use the word simple should I: it takes a proper effort to make a soup that keeps favour, balance and consistency all in check. A top location of mine over this winter has been Newfolk Café, who seem to nail whichever warming soup option they have on the rotating menu. Tucked away in suburban Newtown, I find this place can sometimes get forgotten about when people chat about where to go for good café food. Coffee is always on point (they use Small Batch Roasting Co) which includes a selection of filter brews, too.

I have two wines I’d really like to tell you about this week – one white, one red – both from our local Geelong region. The white is from a reasonably new producer (>10 years) called Mulline Vintners, who are making interesting wines from vineyards spread throughout our region. This is more important than some might first think, as it’s highlighting the subtle subregional differences that vineyards have from the Bellarine, Moorabool and Surf Coast. For examples, in 2024 they produced five pinot noirs, all from various pockets of the Geelong region, from Portarlington to Modewarre, Barrabool to Drysdale. The finished wines couldn’t be more unlike, but by no less captivating. A producer doing great things to promote our wine region’s varied climate and soils! If there’s one wine from them you should try, see if you can hunt down one of their chardonnays, perhaps the Sutherlands Creek version they make (call past Geelong Cellar Door or jump on the winery’s website if you’re battling to find a bottle).

 

Onto the red, and considering its quality, I was pleasantly surprised to taste the value of Provenance’s 2023 shiraz. The fruit comes from a plot near the township of Bannockburn, where the vines are nearly at an impressive thirty years of age. Medium weight with spice, red fruits and rather fine tannins, it’s not your typical ripe SA style (thankfully). If you like a more elegant, pure expression of shiraz, this is probably for you. Provenance has been making good wine for many years now and cellared bottles with some age on them are always pleasurable: I had a ’99 pinot noir from them about a month back, and although starting to fade, the wine actually still had some fruit presence and life to it.

Finally, giving credit where credit is due, Chef Andrew Howarth from La Provence de Mer has quickly shown his skills in the kitchen are some of the best in Geelong. In his formative years, he established his own restaurant in Paris, where he stayed for nearly a decade, and achieved a coveted Michelin Star (which is roughly the equivalent of a one/two hatted rated restaurant here in Australia). Don’t let the somewhat dated décor of the Geelong Club fool you (which is where Chef Andrew’s pop-up is currently enjoying a residency) the food being served is very French, very classic and very good. I’ve been twice now and have been impressed immensely on both occasions. Try the French onion soup as an entrée and beef tartare for main (served with your own condiment tray, naturally). In two words: just go.