Lawley's Bakery Café (Highgate, Perth WA)

616 Beaufort St
Mt Lawley Western Australia 6050
(08) 9328 6866
http://www.lawleys.com.au/
Hours:
    Mon-Sun 6:30 - 18:00

Mount Lawley's bakery café sells a huge range of breads, cakes, pastries, and pies at good prices.

THE PLACE - The whole place looks large and rambling, and the seating area is unglamorous.  At the same time, it has an air of familiarity that can be really welcoming and it is very pleasant for normal days visits. That is why it attracts a mix of people of all ages, gender and professions.

THE FOOD 

* Their breakfast menu are acceptable and decently priced. The Big Lawley's breakfast is quite big and filling.  Not bad, but as good as the one you could easily prepare at home. 

* Their pies are completely forgettable, and are not baked on site, but by a supplier in Osborne Park. They had a few unusual things and flavours, and some of them look tempting, but they lack in flavour and are filling with lots of thick gravy and spare drops of the supposed filling. Go and grab yours elsewhere.

* Some of the sweets, on the contrary, are great. I am very picky with sweets, and I cannot stand too much sweetness or lack of flavour. In that regard, some of Lawley's sweets fit my palate perfectly. 

- The fruit tartlets and matching petit-fours are delicious, especially the berries and citrus ones. The chocolate petit-fours are average. Some of the other tartlets are too sweet, and not that exciting, an example being the forgettable lemon lime brulee tartlet. 

- The fruit cheese cakes are great: very light, mousse-like, fresh, right amount of sugar, very tasty and quite big.

* Lawley's has a great variety of breads: gluten free, sourdough, sweet, savoury, Italian, German, French, Turkish, and everything in between. They are not cheap, but not expensive either for that sort of gourmet bread. The most exotic breads are great for special occasions and whimsical moments. My favourite loaves are the sourdough fig & fennel, and the sultanas & walnuts (the latter especially), which are perfect for gourmet breakfasts at home.  Their rye and sunflower lunch rolls are my fav bread in here, followed by the simple rye long rolls - fluffy but dark in colour and rich in rye.

THE COFFEE

I have heard so many things about the coffee, that I was expecting one of those "weakies" that are spreading throughout Perth like the Plague. To my surprise the coffee was quite strong and dark, a bit bitter actually, so it definitely needed of sweetening. It was really well prepared and decent.  

THE SERVICE

 The service is uneven, varies from person to person, but most staff are friendly and nice; still, there is an I-don't-care-about-you air that really annoys me, which is especially evident when visiting in the quieter hours of the afternoon-evening. You could place yourself in front of any of the stands, nobody in the shop, and none of the staff would even care. It has happened to me. Still, I have found that when the place is really full, and flooded with customers, the guys put the batteries on and are very fast, efficient, friendly and serviceable. Should not be the other way around? Puzzling! Some of the guys do not give a damn about customers, unless they find them flirting material. But, hey, this is not high school, or is it?
* I  expect the staff to know the basic ingredients and taste of the products they sell as this is part of the job. I asked a staff member a few questions: Is this hot? Is this very sweet? Is this chocolate? Is this spicy? Dunno. I haven't tried it. That is unacceptable.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

1/ The owners should be training new staff to know the basic ingredients and taste of the products on sale, so they can inform customers when they ask. You do not have to try anything, just learn it by heart.
2/ The staff should make an effort to show a bit of more enthusiasm and friendliness towards customers, especially when the shop is empty.
3/ The seating area needs a revamp, and a bit of detachment from the selling area. The floor absolutely needs to be changed, as it makes the place looks uglier than it actually is. 
3/ Lawley's does not accept EPFTOS unless you expend +10$. They should charge a few cents for this sort of transaction, so it benefits both the business and the customer, not just the business.
6/ They should have different sizes of packing boxes. They pack the petit-fours and cakes without any care, unless you ask them to do so. They have big boxes for big cakes, and cartoon trays for others, but not small covered boxes. So, if you are walking with your sweets, you will get a deformed amorphous thing when you get home. 
7/ Remove the chocolate cheese cake from the menu. Good looks are not enough. It tastes odd!
8/ The bread slicer does slice the bread unevenly. So please fix that. It is annoying getting slices that are too thin and others too thick in the same loaf! 

RECOMMENDATIONS

- Go to Lawley's for the fruit cheesecakes, the fruit tartlets, fruit petit-fours, and sweet breads. I prefer New Norcia sourdoughs any time, to be honest, but the sweet breads here are fantastic as well as the rye lunch rolls.

- This is a perfect place to get home-made style breakfast, which is great for lazy cooks (me!) and tradies.
- If you fancy some of the petit-fours, but do not need them for any special event, buy the matching tartlets, which are bigger, comparatively cheaper, and taste the same. 
- If you need to use your card for little purchases go elsewhere, so you are not forced to buy anything you do not want. 
- If you find the service annoying write a review. Most of the times, being understanding does not help things to improve. Hopefully, many people complaining about the poor service will make it better. 

UPDATE 15/8/2012

Not even two weeks from my review on this place, and Lawley's has moved from their unglamorous previous location to a very nice, smaller but cozier, location a few meters up the hill, now at 616 Beaufort St in a little building painted with their trademark  blue colour, in front of Zakka. It looks way better, cleaner, much more modern and much more inviting to have something in the premises. 

Some of the lazy people that used to be there are not longer there, at least at the times I usually visit, and most of them are quite nice and attentive.

Well done Lawleys!

Now that bread slicer is still slicing my bread badly. Is it so costly replacing or fixing the one they have? The one at Lawley's Subiaco works perfectly.

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T2 Tea (Perth WA)

Shop 4/ 726 Hay St
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9226 2429
http://t2tea.com/
Hours:
    Mon-Thu 9:00 - 18:00
    Fri 9:00 - 21:00
    Sat 9:00 - 17:00
    Sun 11:00 - 17:00
 In the Kingdom of Coffee, T2 is a serious contender to the throne. T2 Tea sells anything and everything related to tea in the East and the West. T2 is an Australian brand that succeeds at what it does because there is passion behind the project. Not only that, they have gorgeous shops with clever marketing policies implemented in how things are presented and offered to you. The most important thing is that they sell more than 100 varieties of tea, mostly loose, but also in convenient tea bags. They have certified organic tea, and a great variety of white, green, yellow, Oolong and black teas, plus tisanes, fruit, herbal and floral blend teas, rooibos and honeybush teas, and even vintage tea. Not enough, they have bottled  unsweetened iced tea. Wow! 

I have tried many T2 teas and tisanas, and some of them smell good but taste OK, or at least do not taste as the name of the tea or the smell of the team made you think. Those that deliver, to me, are among the tea bag teas: Gorgeous Geisha (green tea) and the Red Fancy Fruit (rooibos based). Among the flavoursome tisanes I would recommended the Spi Chai  (spicy but delicate), Apple Chunky (mostly dried apple), an the Toasty Nugat (chunky apple, syrup, vanilla and almonds), which are great both cold and hot; the same can be said of Vanilla Slice and Strawberry & Cream (red fruit based). Among the green teas, Sencha Peach and Sencha Sensations are both fabulous in taste and aroma. I find most of the black teas at T2 a bit disappointing or not worth the money, really. Still the Monk Pear has a distinctive aroma and flavour, and it is quite nice for a medium-strength breakfast tea; it might not be your cup of tea. The Oolong teas are quite nice, but nothing wow -at least to me- to pay their high price.  

They sell gorgeous tea sets, cups, saucers, mugs, and jugs from the very simple to the romantic and ethnic, to the vintage; the latter are expensive, but cheaper than in other places. All of this, plus a huge selection of tea storing, brewing, and serving tools.

THE STORE - The Hay St store is quite large but very sleek and cheerful, most of furniture and celled walls in black with a few coloured areas. A perfect place to showcase the beautiful colourful crockery they have. They are very clever at mixing the very well organised and illuminated cells in the wall, with the more street-market-like piles of stuff in the stand-alone tables and shelves, which appeals to different sort of customers. The piles always make you enter and wander around, as it gives the shop a casual shop air, while the rest is what the shop is meant to be - a posh tea shop. Every time I enter here, I tell myself that whomever is designing the shops, is doing an awesome job at marketing what is for sale. 

I love the fact that they have three or four pots of brewed tea prepared for customers to taste. A great gesture, and a very clever marketing policy.  

THE NITTY-GRITTY - * The place is pricey for everything, but especially for tea infusers, canisters and for simple organic tisanes (chamomile, peppermint and even simple rooibos), which can be found at your local IGA, Woolies Coles or Chinese store for a fraction of the price. You can find beautiful simple tea sets at bargain prices at Asian Shops, so come to T2 just for the posh ones.
* Many of their teas are weak, so if you are into strong tea, many of them will be too "girly" for you. 
* Many of their teas smell divine, like an otherworldly experience, but then they taste bland. Still, they are a good way of eating with your senses, just using your olfactory senses. Try the  strawberry cream tea, and then you will understand what I am talking about.  
* Service is uneven. Sometimes I am greeted with a big smile on arrival and offered a cup of their brewed teas, while others I am treated matter of fact with a nosey attitude, and others I am left to browse around without being disturbed. The staff can get uptight if you make certain sort of questions. Like, does T2 have sales? Like, Do you recycle the tasting paper cups? There is no need to look at me as I was landing from Pluto, I am just asking. 
 * Although this affects the whole brand, I find shocking that they do no use recyclable tasting cups, as the ones they have cannot be recycled after use. Are we in the 21st century yet?
* They rarely have sales. So uncool. If something is too expense and/or I can find it cheaper elsewhere I will go elsewhere, unless you are selling ambrosia. 

***

If you are not a tea drinker, I invite you to visit T2 shop in Hay St, taste some of their varieties of tea, and then tell me that you cannot find anything that suits your taste. If you already like tea, this is heaven!  

TIP
 The golden leafed decorated cups and saucers are not microwaveable.

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To Pepper or not to Pepper

Another sin of Perth Restaurants.

It is becoming increasingly popular asking customers if they want pepper in their dish, the waiter flashing a huge pepper grinder that they move as if they were playing a musical tropical instrument. 

Just in the last week, I have found the same foolish nonsense anti-gourmet practice in three different restaurants in the city. None of them are high class or the top of the range. I guess they think this is something that will impress the customer, or that it is the right thing to do. The thing is that, if you ask the waiters, if the dish has already any, they usually do not know. You do this sort of thing when somebody is cooking for you and this somebody, in his/her house, knows for a fact that the food has no pepper and the dish needs it.

It is a ridiculous practice. Who has decided that it is good peppering or salting your food before it has been tasted? Who has decided that this practice is appropriate in a good restaurant?

Do I need to develop my sixth foodie-sense to learn by osmosis that my dish indeed needs pepper before trying it?

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Coffee Shot Missing. Help!

Most Perth cafés offering take-away options have tree sizes: Small, Regular and XL.

Here it is the sin spreading throughout our city. The small cup has one shot of coffee, the medium has two. And the large has... two and an a half shots instead of three. What?! What?! What?

They, of course, do not tell you, no written signs, they let you delude yourself. Delusion makes people happy. Placebo effect delivered to you with your cuppa and a big smile every day. Baristas are all so good-looking that you can't help it and smile back at them. Still, if you ask, they will tell you. 

These sort of policies are a bit of a cheat to consumers and coffee lovers who, like us, spend a little fortune on coffee, and expect their coffee to be perfect and wonderful every time every size. Moreover, the missing shot (or half a shot) makes a huge difference in the flavour of the coffee you drink, wherefore most XL takeaways taste bland and latte-ish.

If this was not enough sin, some cafés put one and a half shots in the regular, and two in the large, the small still having one. What the flack?!

I always ask them to add the missing shot or half shot; they smile and say "of course", but the coffee still tastes bland. I guess it is another dollop of delusional smile sweetened with an elusive shot.  

Many cafés have a great coffee indoors, but then it tastes watery and bland when prepared for takeaway. We pay a lot of money for our coffee, so please, deliver. Should we order two small coffee cups to get what we want?

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Pepper Lunch (Perth WA)

Shop 5g/ 95 Barrack St,
Perth, Western Australia 6000
(08) 9325 3532
Facebook
Hours   
   Mon - Thu: 11:00 - 21:00
   Fri - Sat: 11:00 - 22:00
   Sun: 11:00 - 21:00

Centrally located in Barrack Street, in an area that has become popular with little funky Japanese and Korean  eateries, Pepper Lunch is a nice fast food restaurant that serves Japanese fast food - simple, tasty, healthy, fun to cook, and good-priced.  

The place is very clean and functional, still very pleasant, and attracts an eclectic group of people. The system works like this:
- You get an iron dish, that is really hot, with the food you order.
- You mix everything and allow the food to cook on the dish stirring it.
- You wait a few minutes for the food to cool down.
- You eat it. 
There are steak dishes, in which you get the meat/fish of your selection (beef, chicken, burger, salmon, or a combo) mixed with veggies and bean sprouts. Otherwise, you have kimchi or curry dishes arranged in a similar fashion but rice-based.

The selection of drinks is very limited, just a few drinks from the fridge, plus miso soup.

The staff are lovely, very friendly, and serve your fast. They have a menu with photographs, which also specifies which dishes are hot, so you know what you are ordering and what you are going to get.

Pepper lunch is a bit pricey for fast food, with prices going from 9-17 bucks, still very cheap, and you know what you are putting in your mouth.

Pepper Lunch is nothing to rave about, but it is a nice place with healthier food than traditional fast food (unless you choose the burgers), and attractive enough to return or drop by any time, as it is open ever day of the week from brunch to late dinner.

Location - 7/10
Layout - 6/10
Ambience - 5.5/10
Food - 6/10
Drinks - 4/10
Service 7/10

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"Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud (2007)

Persepolis is a French animated movie that narrates the autobiographical story of Iranian artist Marjane Satrap; it is  based on her own graphic novel. It is an honest movie, heart-warming, extremely funny and very engaging.

Persepolis tells Marjane's story from childhood to mid youth. We witness her family upbringing, her relationship (or lack of) with God, the political and social events that happened in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, her university years in Austria, her love stories, her emigration to France and her approach to life as a female artist.

There is a lot of humour in this movie. Some of Satrapi's love stories are hilariously narrated despite the impact they had on her. The black market of Western Music will put a big smile in your face (it is directly connected with the situation told in the Iranian movie Nobody Knows about Persian Cats). Also delightful it is the presence of little funny street cats, dogs, and worms in general scenes, which create an atmosphere of proximity and tenderness even during the saddest moments.

The story is mostly presented in a black-and-white flashback, with a superb use of chiaroscuro and cut-out bold colours for the narration in the present tense. The absence of colour gives the story historical perspective and seriousness, and it is perfect to portray Satrapis' past treasured moments: day-dreams, hopes, ideals, music, culture, smells and happy family times. On the other hand, the black and white gives the story a necessary  emotional detachment to show many of the hard themes presented in the film: oppression, depression, war, censorship, torture, immigration and loneliness, among others.

The animation is minimalist and schematic, flat, but attentive to the detail, very  traditional comic-book, still very classy and contemporary. Persepolis reminded me sometimes of the freshness and creativity of "Sita Sings the Blues" in the way different animation sub-styles are used within the movie. For example, the story of how the Shas of Persia got into power is very "puppetish", while the recreation of the different movies watched on TV (Terminator and Godzilla) have a chunky sort of drawing and are definitely modern pop comic book.


I would have liked that the movie went a little bit further on in time, as Satrapi is a fascinating character, and her story is wonderful. Still, this is one of my favourite animation movies ever,  because it touches me in ways that most animation movies cannot. Satrapi's story succeeds because it goes beyond herself, and we understand -even if it is superficially- what does mean and feel like being an Iranian and Middle Eastern person in Europe, being a woman -and a special type of woman- in Iran, being and artist out of place, and being a foreigner both in your native land and abroad. Satrapi's story serves to highlight the process of alienation that most immigrants suffer, but also a reflection on what is what makes us who we are, which is something intangible and indescribable, but powerful and unique that escapes categorisation, national borders or gender, no matter these are part of your cultural background.


This is the sort of movie that will captivate animation and art lovers, and people who are into Arts, comics, graphic novels and illustration. It is intellectually elating and emotionally absorbing, and will feed those viewers who are hungry for an animation that is different, daring, and meaningful. 

Go and grab it right now (in French with English subtitles, please!). 

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"Intimacy" by Patrice Chéreau (2001)

Intimacy is a European co-production directed by French director Patrice Chereau in his first English speaking feature, also set in the UK. The script is based on two pieces by writer Hanif Kureishi: the book "Intimacy", and the short story "Nightime".

Intimacy tells the story of Andy, a divorcee bartender who meets Claire in his apartment on Wednesdays to have sex, no words involved... until they start to click emotionally and Andy starts following her.

Intimacy is a soaring and raw movie about midlife disenchantment, and the need of physical contact to build emotional one.

The film has been controversial due to the presence of explicit sexual scenes. However, reducing such a good film to just these scenes is intentionally misleading, moralistic, and completely unfair to a story that presents many problems of middle-age in a raw way: divorce, loneliness, emotional emptiness, fracas and rejection, life disillusion, life stagnation and lack of perspective, the conflict between being and adult having to carry your responsibilities and the inability to carry yourself, unhappiness and hope. All of this is beautifully blended and portrayed in the film.

The sex scenes are very strong, simulated most of them, but very convincing as they feel very real. The viewer gets the impression that is watching a real couple in their most intimate moments. The sex is always raw, and goes from almost brutal to sweet, from hungry to delightful, from anxious to comforting, with all the body language and emotions associated to different emotional states. Being so, the viewer does not feel aroused by the images, but sad and anxious about the couple being so in need of human contact and emotional intimacy, and so unable to connect.  In that regard, the film creates a clear line between what sex is not, and sets a clear boundary with porn, despite the fellatio in the film being non simulated.

The mood of the movie is a mix of night and interior greenish/yellowish depressing scenes and warm and luminous ones. The art direction is great, as well as the music.

The performances by all actors are terrific, convincing and powerful, especially by the leading couple Mark Rylance (as Jay) and Kerry Fox (as Claire), in two roles that are extremely demanding both at a physical and emotional level. The supporting actors are also convincing: Alastair Galbraith as Claire's husband Victor, Philippe Calvario as gay bartender Ian, Timothy Spall as Jay's drug addict brother Andy, and Marianne Faithfull as Claire's friend Betty, among others. Although Galbraith is always terrific, I do not think he was the right person for his character, as it is difficult to believe that Claire would be with this sort of guy, honesltly.

A very sad movie, not easy to watch, with confronting images and themes, moving at times, with a very powerful story, wonderfully performed and directed. 

Not for prudes!

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