Perth Voice Interactive

IT’S been several hours since breakfast and I’m still salivating—craving more banana bread.

I’m going to say it: the little hole in the wall that is Flora & Fauna offers the best banana bread ($15)—ever. Full stop.

Pack it up, bakers; you can all go home now because this Northbridge cafe has it covered.

It bakes a cake-shaped loaf every morning, and it was hot when the Voice visited this week.

There are eight ingredients, including lots of bananas, and a mix of tapioca and quinoa flour, the Canadian co-owner tells me.

It excludes refined sugar, gluten, dairy and eggs (hello, vegans)—but not flavour.

There’s a pleasant almost-chalky texture (surely from the unique flours), sweetness, gooeyness in the middle and crispiness on the outside.

Not only does it go down a treat, but also it’s visually stunning, and quite true to the cafe’s name.

There were edible flowers such as chrysanthemums scattered about my seasonal fruit salad and side of coconut jam—a reduced coconut cream solution.

So there’s flora, but no fauna on the menu today. I suppose I look like enough of an animal eating my brekkie anyway.

The cafe has a special menu for each day, but the banana bread is permanent because it’s “become a favourite around here”, the menu reads.

On Tuesday, when the Voice visited, other offerings included a tropical coco chia bowl ($20) and the goji superfood muesli ($17).

Comrade Matthew Dwyer tried the herbed smashed avocado on Turkish bread with eggs scrambled in rosemary-infused oil and a bit of Cajun seasoning ($15 or $20 with eggs).

You’d think that would look pretty simple, but again, there are those pretty flower petals, this time resting on drizzle of balsamic vinegar reduction.

We leave our table under the WA sun with a closing statement from Dwyer: “Mmm, the coffee still tastes good cold. That’s a good sign.”

by EMMIE DOWLING

Flora & Fauna
4/70 Aberdeen Street, Northbridge
Instagram: @florafauna_perth
0468 948 281