I Can’t Stop Thinking About: King Clarence’s Japanese Milk Bread

If carbs are the devil, call me a devil worshipper.

No matter how often I try to avoid them, they keep calling me – until I cave and praise the almighty grain. I know I’m not alone, Sydney has carb zealots just as rapt as I am – our bakeries have queues for days, and new ones come quick and fast. My latest siren song sounded when King Clarence’s executive chef Khanh Nguyen shared that his Japanese milk bread with beef marrow gravy and Okinawa black sugar was ready to hit the menu – tomorrow.

I was enchanted. And when they opened at noon the next day, I was the very first person to order it.

“I’ve been thinking of putting a bread dish on the menu since we opened,” Nguyen tells me. “We actually had a similar milk bread recipe on the first menu but it never made it to the public because the opening was so hard.”

So what makes this version worthy?

Six glistening bronze-hued puffs surrounding an Angus bone like an altar, with a spoon to dollop the contents. It’s a bread course not lacking a lick of decadence.

The hollowed out bone is filled with diced smoked bone marrow and a gravy of caramelised onions, tomato, beef jus, red wine, soy sauce, Japanese Worcestershire and black pepper. 

Grab a portion of bread and you’ll feel a delicate, caramelised glaze – of Okinawa black sugar, rice malt syrup, shio koji, sweet soy and garlic oil – crack like thin ice. It’s arguably as fun as cracking a crème brûlée.

Scoop a juicy, flavour-packed serve of marrow on top, making sure to add chives and pickled shallots before shoving it into your mouth. It’s harmonious, I’m converted. Every ingredient is carefully considered – balancing a sweet, texturally snappy and meaty bite with a slight tang, lighting up the receptors on my tongue, sending me to nirvana.

The milk bread recipe is one Nguyen has used for years at home. A tangzhong is enriched with eggs and butter to keep it moist, with King Clarence’s pastry chefs helping to scale it down into single-serve portions. They tried four or five different variations before coming to consensus on the version bestowed upon me – a full team effort.

“Almost every table ordered it tonight,” Nguyen tells me after its dinner-service debut. “I think there might be a limit if it gets any more crazy.”

The dish is meant to be shared – but rules don’t apply for fanatics like me. After having a taste, there’s no way I’m sharing this.

My prediction? Give it time, and King Clarence will be just as known for its milk bread as its signature fish finger bao.

@kingclarence_sydney
@genghiskhanh