The smell of sunscreen, sunset mosquitoes and the milk bar standard salad roll – it’s a winning summer trifecta.
Times change, of course. Blond pine-wood cafes have more often than not replaced milk bars, these days, and salad rolls have undergone their own metamorphosis. No matter: traditional or new school, here’s 13 good reasons why the summer salad roll continues to deliver.
1. Nothing beats tradition
The chewy bun, Gladwrap tang and margarine undertones of the milk bar or bakery-bought classic will always taste like summer holidays to me. Key ingredients include shredded cheese, grated carrot and soggy tomato slices. Mayonnaise is a must. Thinly sliced packet ham, optional. Check out Louttit Bay Bakery in Lorne, Victoria.
2. Two words: Tinned beetroot
Oh, sweet vinegar. The team at Dunsborough Bakery in southwest Western Australia understands the marriage of tinned beetroot and a sesame-seed-topped white roll creates what I like to refer to as the Sixth Taste. Move over umami.
3. (Most) breads were created equal
Australia’s egalitarian nature leaves the idea of the salad roll open to interpretation. Which is where we welcome the roll’s humble cousin – the sandwich – into the fold. Some rules do apply. The loaf must be bakery (not factory) baked. And if it’s boutique, then all the better.
4. It’s not mayonnaise if it’s not Kewpie
Multicultural Australia has meant our definition of delicious has expanded, along with our idea of salad roll ingredients. Of particular note? Kewpie mayonnaise, the killer ingredient in the $7 banh mi wrapped in greaseproof paper at the South Melbourne Market’s Ba Ba Rolls.
5. Speaking of banh mi…
There are so many amazing examples of what has now become a familiar salad-roll replacement for people all over Australia. Brisbane loves Café o Mai, Darwin lauds the Darwin Bake House, and in Canberra, it’s all about Little Saigon. Key ingredients count (great pâté, aromatic greens and some pork crackling goes a long way) but the best know to leave room for personalised touches, too: think DIY chilli sauces.
6. Because pork is the other white meat
The campaign worked and we Aussies now can’t get enough of that rich piggy taste, particularly when it’s given the kind of treatment that occurs at Hong Ha Bakery in Mascot, New South Wales: a crusty roll wraps around barbecued pork, topped with carrots, spring onion, coriander, cucumber and your choice of chilli. Hard to beat.
7. Sun-dried tomato was an aberration; salami is not
If you’re old enough to remember the nineties then you’ve possibly not touched a sun-dried tomato since (toasted salami and sundried tomato focaccia anyone)? The common bastardisation of the classic Italian conti is, thankfully, no more. For those keen to get a taste of the real thing, Lucia’s in the Adelaide Central Market stuffs crusty Italian bread with the best of the homeland. Try the Number 1, thick with fresh buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil and prosciutto.
8. Evolution not revolution
Tradition is wonderful, but so is mindful change: turning rolls into renaissance eats has become something of an art form for bakeries keen to modernise the classics. At Gontran Cherrier’s Collingwood outpost in Melbourne, this means the ham and cheese roll becomes a baguette of leg ham with Comté, apple chutney and classy wholegrain mustard. It’s the kind of change I’m happy to swallow.
9. Downsizing
The slider has well and truly entered Australia’s collective culinary consciousness, and Hobart chef Jay Patey’s version at his newest outpost, Pigeon Whole Bakers, is one reason the humble salad roll continues to hold its relevance. For $4, Patey’s version is a bite of bliss made with a soft milk bun, fine quality ham, super crispy lettuce and just the right amount of pickle.
10. Hole lotta love
Some of Perth’s best bagels (courtesy of the Holy Bagel Co.) get a whole lot of summer lovin’ at Satchmo, where Jewish meets Cajun in a delicious clash of flavour. Rock the fusion with their pickled beef: slow-cooked beef tossed in maple syrup paired with jalapeño cream, cheese whip, fried eggs and tomato relish. It’s the post-beach bagel to beg for.
11. Turkish toastie
For many, summer on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula means a morning on the beach at Portsea followed by a stand out Turkish toastie at Red Hill’s Cellar and Pantry. Choose the Overnight Lamb Roast with cardamom yoghurt and beetroot relish – just the ballast required before an afternoon of winery tastings.
12. Summer rolls
They’re filled with salad. They’re wrapped and rolled. They’re also pretty damn tasty. Enter the Vietnamese rice paper roll. Admittedly an outside inclusion, but it’s hard to refute the appeal of fresh, raw herbs and veg wrapped in a light sheet of rice paper and dipped in the acid-sweet delight that is nuoc cham. Love Rolld and its many flavoured "soldiers". Options at the higher end (read: a little more flavour complexity) are the go at Chin Chin in Sydney and Melbourne.
13. DIY
Variations aside, the ultimate proof of the humble salad roll’s summertime deliverance is our ability to claim culinary rights for this Aussie staple at home. Get slow with sourdough rolls stuffed with pulled pork and pickled veg, choose cute and petite with homemade baby brioche (a winner stuffed with Moreton Bay bug), or take a flight of fancy through Mexico, India or Japan with myriad variations well-suited to our cross-cultural culinary climate. It’s Australia, after all, and this is how we roll.
