Birdman Eating… Slowly…

Birdman Eating
238 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

Birdman Eating has been on my list of places to eat for a long long time. I’d read reviews bemoaning their small portion size and poor value for money, but I was undeterred and excited when I was able to venture down for a coffee one sunny saturday morning.

Now, I am usually a very positive person and blogger and like to think the best of people/food. To the point where I can’t stem my praise for a meal and have to resort to nondescriptive words like zomgyummmm to describe what I am feeling. BUT…

While Birdman Eating had decent food and a creative menu, it was overshadowed by poor service. We had to wait 1.5 hours to be served, finding it difficult to attract the attention of the waitstaff. When we finally got their attention, we were told that our orders were being plated and would be ‘right out’. Ummm so probably a ploy to buy time, but not so clever if your customers are sitting right by the kitchen and can see for themselves the definite lack of plating activity and definitely not clever to promise that and then have them wait another 45 minutes.

/Rant. Phew, got that out of the way. Shame the service was so slow and uninterested, because the food was good.

We had the chilli cheese kransky with bubble & squeak, paoched eggs, toast and some sort of relish.

And a steak sandwich of some sort.

The usual cap.

Overall the food was yummy and there were a few interesting things on the menu that I would love to go back and try – the black rice + coconut yoghurt + mango and the smoked pulled pork + mint + roast pineapple sorbet sandwich. I hope that when I go back, their service will be a bit more awake and a bit more honest.

Three Bags Full

After a superlongextended hiatus sustained by job applications and some serious planning for imminent europe travels (yay! so excited!) I’m back with more pretty food pictures!

So without delay and in no particular order:

Three Bags Full
60 Nicholson Street, Abbotsford

One of my favourite brunch spots in the collingwood/brunswick/abbotsford area. I used to get it confused with Proud Mary, both are found on a corner in a red bricked ex-industrial building block. But I Proud Mary to on the more experimental side with their dishes, particularly in the domain of breakfast sauces and condiments, and more on the small side in terms of serving size.. while Three Bags Full has a hearty menu that never fails to disappoint. Also bonus: they’ve opened a space to the side of the original cafe which eases the load on the saturday morning queues – even if just a little.

This time around I had the beetroot cured salmon with corn, pea and feta fritter, avocado, rocket with dill sour cream. A whole lot of yum. I’ve been hooked on all varieties of cured fish since my revelation at De Clieu.

Such lively and vibrant presentation, so much love for this dish.

I can also highly recommend the black angus steak sandwich. If you’re up for meat on your saturday morning, this is a very very very satisfying investment.

Dreaming of Europe @ Snow Pony

Snow Pony
95 Whitehorse Rd
Balwyn

Caught up with a friend over brunch at Snow Pony to swap pretty pictures of Prague and Barcelona to get ourselves in the mood for planning our big trip at the end of the year. …The grass is definitely greener 😛

Some pretty serious discussion also took place, including such #firstworldproblems as our itinerary through the south of france, exactly how many times we would need to cross the charles bridge for full effect and wether or not a weekend in greece would be too extravagant (the answer, sadly – yes).

Anyway! To the food:

My cute grapefruit juice in a jar + straw. Tasted… healthy. And by that I mean kind of sour and bitter haha, precisely what a fresh grapefruit juice should taste like, my brain must have temporarily been distracted while I was ordering.

My friend’s toasted piadini. Can’t remember the filling exactly, but was pretty yummy.

My happy chicken pilaf. I think while heavily intoxicated by thoughts of the amalfi coast, my mind replaced the word pilaf with salad and so when my order came, I was surprised that I was in for a rather more substantial meal than I had thought. Oh well.

What seemed like a little portion in the shallow dish was in fact a very filling serve of spiced rice studded with pieces of chicken with a hint of chilli and topped with the cooling tang of yoghurt. Pretty damn good, but it was quite rich and I struggled to finish a little bit.

A most excellent and satisfying brunch. Will be back for a more detailed perusal of the menu when my mind is a little less distracted!

A Sunny Saturday

Degani
350 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill

Sunshine, coffee, brunch and laze:

Our sweet chilli corn fritters and chorizo scrambled eggs. Not particularly inventive but just the thing for a laid back start to the weekend and for when you don’t feel like driving across melbourne and waiting in a massive line for the hipster brunch fix.

Ps. extra points for the amount of coriander and corn they managed to fit into that monster stack of fritters.

Hardware Societe

So much food eaten, so little blogged!!

Recently went to Hardware Societe with some friends for a much needed catch up. We had a great time over coffee, food and managed to fit in much discussion about our trip away to Europe at the end of the year. Can’t wait to blog about the tapas and paella from the land of sangria… and to have the macaroons from laduree. Wonder if we can save enough for a meal at the fat duck? 😀

Planning for this holiday is serving up some serious inspiration to get through this year, have put in some insane hours at uni the last couple of weeks (can you say… 11 days straight? :S) and very much looking forward to the end of August when it will all be over 🙂

But I digress!

Hardware Societe
120 Hardware St, CBD

By the time the 4 of us had found and paid for parking using sufficient coinage for several coffees *sadface* and had been shuffled around the tiny space of Hardware Societe by the friendly waitresses – btw what is the protocol when the four of you are seated at a narrow bar while the nice and roomy common table is occupied by a single brunchee?

Anyway, by the time we got ourselves organised, we had missed the passing of the breakfast menu to the chagrin of many. Nevertheless, the lunch menu had some yummy options so we made do 🙂

The usual latte. No yummy side donut! (Maybe this is only a breakfast thing?)
Okay, on the luke warm and weak-ish side.

My seared scallops, with cod cakes, saffron rouille, fried capers and cress. Mmmm yummy fresh scallops with that hint of sweetness. Cod cakes were a bit salty and a bit saddening when you cut into one thinking it’s a scallop.

The pork belly. Cooked with a nice crispy skin and a nice modernisation of asian flavours 🙂

Scotch fillet. Again, wonderfully cooked. But a little dry and lacking on flavours, needed some sort of sauce or condiment to hold it together with the watercress and potatoes.

Lamb rump with fig. Really liked the sweet contrast with the savoury of the lamb. I’m not usually a lamb person though so beyond a taste, probably not for me 🙂 Sorry about the fuzziness of the photo, I believe I was too hypoglycaemic to hold the camera steady before we tucked in.

This was my second visit to hardware societe and can say that I really enjoyed my scallops but my dining companions weren’t wowed by their orders and I think that’s indicative of the hype that surrounds this place. I think the food is certainly lovely, very different from the usual brunch fare, but when expectations are high, there’s bound to be the inevitable disappointment.

The menu at hardware societe has frequent additions to their menu, so I for one will be back. Perhaps for their breakfast menu and those yummy looking cocette eggs 🙂

Manchester Press

Continuing my reporting on a recent glut of delicious brunching, I bring you:

Manchester Press
8 Rankins Lane
Melbourne

Tucked in a rather abandonned looking laneway adorned with graffiti and its fair share of iron-barred windows and roller doors, is the spacious converted gallery that is Manchester Press. The interior is industrial, cool and just enough worn around the edges for comfy. It specialises in bagels of all sorts and while I was a little skeptical at first (how much tasty can one fit in a bagel exactly?) I was glad to be proven wrong.

Coffees! A strong cap and a latte. Lovely, strong with none of that yucky aftertaste bitterness. And would you look at the coffee art, so nice to get something other than a leaf 😛

The BF had the soft boiled egg, smoked salmon and avocado bagel. Such a cute egg cup 🙂

I had the BLT bagel with a side salad.

I’m probably contradicting myself here, having just written a post about the wonderful experimenting happening at Proud Mary, but Manchester Press was a definite winner for me because it stuck to good, simple flavours. Now I’m no bagel expert (totally did not know they were boiled, then baked until I did some food nerd wiki-ing), but their slight chewiness and heavy-ish texture was wonderfully wholesome. These were complimented by the generous amounts of filling which were fresh and tasty. Speaking of generous, most menu items were around the $11 mark, such a rarity these days!

Loved Manchester Press, need to go back for their baked eggs 🙂

Proud Mary

Proud Mary
172 Oxford St
Collingwood

I took my grandparents to Proud Mary recently for an authentic melburnian brunch experience: good coffee and an inventive menu (with a sizeable side serving of hipster).

This was my second visit and I found it a lot less crowded than before, probably because we were there during the lunch hour of a weekday.

I decided to be adventurous with my coffee and went for a french press of *insert name of exotic bean*. I thought the flavour of the bean came through a lot more strongly and there was a slightly tannic aftertaste that wasn’t at all unpleasant. I’ve signed up for a barista course in the interests of self-education, so hopefully I’ll soon be able to give more insightful coffee reviews!

Grandpa had the crispy hash, proud mary’s classic of potato hash, crispy bacon, poached egg, asparagus and bagna cauda. The anchovy-ish sauce put a different spin on an otherwise tried and tested brunch combination and everything was cooked well with great flavours. My one complaint would have to be that having both bagna cauda and the crispy bacon made the dish rather salty so maybe the ratio to hash could be improved.

Grandma had the spanner crab fritters with corn and tomato salsa. Almost bland in contrast to the strong flavours of the crispy hash, this dish was more subtle with hints of crab in a soft and doughy fritter. The salsa was refreshing.

I had the cured kingfish with migas and herbed salad. I tasted some sort of zesty with cucumber and mint for freshness. Again a more subtle dish, but so tasty! Draws comparisons with the kingfish from Chin Chin, although that had more kick and was a heavier dish with coconut and fiery chillis. The serving size was quite small though – maybe more of a shared snack rather than a brunch meal on its own?

I think the thing that sets Proud Mary apart from the rest of the brunch pack, besides the coffee, is the creativity of their menu choices. They have a lot of original takes on the usual brunch fare, and they seem to do a lot of sauces and condiments which is always interesting. Looking forward to going back and trying some of their brunchdesserts 🙂

De Clieu

In the final days of my holidays (alas I am back at uni for one last year), I launched into a frantic spate of brunching knowing full well that my days of enjoying a lazy mid day meal without the dreaded lines of weekend brunchers were numbered. Thus, armed with my trusty dslr, i shall bring you a tasty selection of delightful brunches over the next few days/weeks.

First up, is De Clieu: 187 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

Situated on one of the lovely corners of Gertrude St, this eatery is housed in a dark green building and is home to a gaggle of hipsters and hipsterettes. We were seated after just a short wait at a lovely window seat outlooking a very quiet fitzroy morning.

This cafe is of the family of seven seeds and brother baba budan and so needless to say the coffee was strong, aromatic and delicious. What sets apart de clieu however is it’s stronger focus on the food side of things, which was exciting for me because, let’s face it, i’m not really a coffee connoisseur and am liable to ordering only a latte when much more exotic options are available (french press anyone?).

Having read about the pork neck roti, I was extremely keen to try it. But as it always is in the land of brunchisms, it is always the one dish that you want that runs out by the time you get there. After the swift (but kind) denial of my request, I was left to re-contemplate the menu. Now, I’m a predominantly fritter/bacon/poached egg kind of person when it comes to brunch, but in my state of disillusionment following the swift (but kind) denial of my request, I ordered something completely out of character:
Fresh Ricotta with Toasted Baguette with Beetroot Cured Ocean Trout: an amazing combination of cold/preserved tasty things which you self assembled on toasted baguette! So glad I had this, the combination of pickled red onion, beetroot cured trout, capers and the ricotta – I don’t even like cheese, but this was so smooth and creamy, I loved it from the first bite!

Another photo of the amazing beetroot cured trout 😀

We also had the Breakfast De Clieu: free range bacon, fried egg, cauliflower puree, wild mushrooms, veal jus and sourdough with truffle oil. So beautifully put together and the aroma of the truffle oil was amazing. The classiest bacon and eggs I’ve ever had. Egg yolk ready to pop with gooeyness:

And some of the fruit toast/bread with spiced butter (?). Clearly surpassed by the other two dishes and I don’t really remember much of this one except that it was okay. May have been biased due to my lack of affection for all things cinnamon.

Another brunch winner with excellent coffee, I will be back to try the pork neck roti!

The First Meal of the Year

St Ali: 12-18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne

Melbourne town can be a very sleepy place over the holidays and so it was of great comfort to my brunch craving that st ali was open on new years day 🙂 in fact, as the pleasant answering machine informed me, they’re open 365 days of the year including christmas and new years :O what crazy people.

We found St Ali inside a warehouse (complete with roller shutters to keep out the heat) tucked into a small lane with a uber laid back crowd that was somewhat less hipster than expected.

The ruby fruit jungle (pomegranate, mint, apple and strawberry) probably could have done with more mint and was a tad on the sour side, but grew on you as you sipped 🙂

THE ICED COFFEE: aaaah so good! could have happily had more if my new years resolution was not to be less greedy.

My Mexican Cousin: corn fritters, baby spinach, haloumi, kasundi and poached eggs. So many tasty stars: the fritters were crunchy, totally non-gluggy and tasted almost felafel-y (in a good way).

Chickadee: marinated chicken thigh, bacon, avocado and chipotle mayo. Yummy, and an excellent way to mop up after a night of new years celebrations.

Due to the aforementioned new years resolution, i was restrained in my menu choices, but i totally want to go back for the french kiss: brioche french toast with raspberry curd, berries and passionfruit. RASPBERRY CURD. sigh, until next time.