MELBOURNE | Docklands isn’t a part of Melbourne that I find myself in too often. When I do go for a bit of a wander down the lesser explored parts of the neighbourhood, I’m always impressed by the number of little businesses in the area doing their thing without much fanfare. One of these, which I visited last week for What’s On Melbourne, is small patisserie TangMama Bakery.
TangMama was founded by accountant turned baker, Zie “Liz” Li The seed of what’s now TangMama began while Liz was at university. She ran a small soup and dessert business, and the desserts in particular were a big hit. After graduating, Liz got a full time job and that was that for the baking side of things. The passion and desire to bake full time, however, never left.
During Melbourne’s COVID lockdowns, Liz decided to take the plunge and see if she could make her passions her career. She started TangMama (Tāng means soup in Mandarin, and it’s a homage to her university side-hustle) and it wasn’t long before she was delivering not just to individual customers, but to cafes and other businesses around town.
Liz focuses on two things at TangMama – Teochew-style spiral, or “thousand layer” mooncakes, and Macao-style egg tarts. Teochew-style mooncakes are a different proposition to the dense, Cantonese-style mooncakes that most westerners are familiar with. They are made by layering alternating water and oil based doughs, and are quite flaky and delicate.
There’s around 15 different fillings inside both the tarts and the mooncakes on offer at any given time, plus a rotating selection of sweet, and sometimes savoury options. There’s classic fillings like taro, and salted egg yolk, along with flavours like chocolate, matcha, coconut, and rice pudding.
You can enjoy the fillings on their own, or go for one of the many that have the addition of mochi for something different. Both the tarts and the mooncakes have great textural contrasts, and aren’t overly sweet. I recommend getting a mixed box of six so that you can try a few different flavours.
TangMama Bakery
842 Bourke Street
Docklands
Victoria 3008
Australia
Telephone: 0402 549 739
E-mail: n/a
Website
Open
Mon – Fri: 9:30am to 6:00pm
Sat: 10:00am to 5:30pm