Ask any migrant: recreating food from home is never as straightforward as just following a recipe.

So it was for the bakers at Bread K Coffee, a new Korean bakery in Moonee Ponds. Initially they struggled to recreate the breads they grew up with, due to the differences between Korean and Australian ingredients. Even flour, the core of any baking recipe, varies in yield and ash content (mineral make-up).

They’ve risen to the challenge with careful testing and tweaking – and a proofing machine imported from Korea. The bakery specialises in salt bread (sogeum-ppang), a buttery Korean and Japanese speciality not unlike a dinner roll. Here, it’s proofed with a 20-hour-aged starter to reduce the amount of yeast required. The result is an easy-to-digest bread that’s crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

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“We knew that everyone would love our salt bread and we wanted to find a place where all different generations can come into our shop and try it,” Doyeon Kim tells Broadsheet about the location, just a minute from Moonee Ponds train station. She runs the place with
John Lee (also her business partner at Monster BBQ and Chicken in Maribyrnong and St Albans), Dongeun Kang (ex-Burch & Purchese) and head barista Sungbum Lee (ex-Dukes Coffee Roasters and no relation to John).

There are 15 salt breads on the menu. Garlic cream, condensed cream and the plain ol’ salt bread are customer favourites. Other flavours include Biscoff, which is topped with cinnamon spread and cookies, and a jambon beurre salt bread stuffed with sliced meat, butter and cheese.

Other picks include the bestselling chestnut loaf; soboro buns coated with peanut crumble; and a chewy “dinosaur egg” bread, which is made with glutinous rice flour, matcha and black sesame.

In the same vein, special drinks like banana lattes and misugaru lattes are inspired by the team’s childhoods in Korea. The latter is a caffeine-free blend of barley, soybeans, black rice, corn and other roasted grains. And two crowd favourites are the Oasis, a take on the Mont Blanc using tea-infused cream, and a butterscotch latte.

“Misugaru is my favourite,” Sungbum says. “It’s a healthy breakfast that brings out nostalgia for Koreans. When you’re late for school or for work, your mum will be like, ‘Oh, have something to drink’, and you’ll have misugaru on your way.”

Like many Melburnians, Sungbum cares about coffee. The cafe stocks a house blend from Dukes Coffee and three filter blends from a close friend, the former head barista at now-closed Toby’s Estate on Flinders Lane.

Bread lovers know the drill – pick up a tray and load it up. If you’re lucky (or early), you might be able to snag a seat outdoors.

Bread K
44 Hall Street, Moonee Ponds
0400 627 282

Hours
Daily 7am–4pm

@breadkcoffee