A progressive brunch for the Café of the Year Award

I once read that Rick Stein noted the strong brunch culture in Australia and I would have to agree – Australian’s LOVE their brunch, especially on weekends, and enjoyed at any time of the day. It has to be both the Husband’s and my favoured meal/style of food, and the most oft-seen meal on this blog. Brunch is a little bit special, a little bit indulgent and, most of all, about being relaxed and without time constraints.

So where to for brunch? It may be the newest, trendy “it” café with queues as far as the eye can see, or it may be a stone’s throw from your doorstep where you’re recognised by the staff. Everyone has a favourite café, but that may change depending on mood, weather, tiredness and proximity. Cafés are found in pretty much every suburb and competition is fierce, so the inaugural Australian Café of the Year Award is a great way for your café to make their mark especially if they are a low-key local haunt rather than the latest buzz.

Simmone Logue, Cammeray

I first became acquainted with Simmone Logue’s cakes years ago through working close to a David Jones Food Hall, which meant that office birthdays and departures were commemorated with an amazing selection of cakes. Someone I worked with raved endlessly about her banana cake, but what I didn’t know is that Simmone Logue also offers catering services as well as a sample of her wares through two café stores.

The Cammeray store is situated in an open air shopping mall and was first visited for a girls’ lunch. We’d missed out on trying the breakfast menu due to the time of day, but the “Grilled ham & cheese” served with side salad offers the same satisfaction as a croque monsieur. The chicken “Soup of the day” is on the oily side but full of flavour, while the “Spinach & fetta filo” is light and flaky.

Random Eats

So things have been a little quiet around here – and with good reason – as other parts of my life have been hurtling ahead at full speed. I am now an expert in getting quotes for minor home renovations and dealing with tradespeople, most of whom do turn up at agreed times. My mother has moved from our family home into a more manageable smaller place, and said family home is now listed for sale. *sniffle*

Port Macquarie Getaway: Rainforest Café & Ricardoes

Port Macquarie is dotted with nature reserves and walks. Sea Acres National Park contains an elevated rainforest boardwalk which provides a flat walking surface and makes it wheelchair and pram friendly. There is a small entry fee for the rainforest walk so the alternative for lazy, food-focussed folk like me, Sea Acres also houses the Rainforest Café which sits nestled amongst the trees. The café has a focus on using organic and local produce where possible, and even makes their own ice-cream – with flavours such as Carambar caramel (the chef-owner is French) and sweet basil spotted on our visit.

Birthdays Part 2: Olio

In recent years I’ve eschewed the big birthday gatherings of yore for more low-key affairs. Perhaps it’s part of getting a little older, or perhaps it’s age combined with laziness. Last year Monsieur Poisson planned ahead in advance and indulged me with a meal at Tetsuya’s, while I returned the favour through what was a bit more last minute planning.

This year we both decided to dine locally for our birthdays, and mine was spent at Olio where we’d previously only popped in to sample their kopi luwak or for a light meal. (No longer on the menu, I don’t think, but Olio had a really mushroomy risotto and a value-for-money antipasti plate.)

Drinks are in order for the occasion and I order the ‘Polish Spring Punch’ due to its inclusion of all things berry – raspberry vodka, berry compote and Chambord. The drink is both larger and stronger than it seems as well as being a beautiful shade of blushing pink.

‘Salt & pepper squid’ is ordered due to having tried it on an earlier visit. And although there is much less rocket this time around, the small tendrils of squid are light, low on oiliness and well-seasoned as we remember. There is a lot more aioli on the side than is needed, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to finish it.

To share, we have a ‘Prawn, prosciutto, tomato & rocket pizza’ plus a ‘Grilled black Angus scotch fillet’ between us. The pizza base is thin but a bit soft on the underside, unlike the crisp wood-fired ones to which we are accustomed. The steak is much more pleasing, however, being tender and juicy, served with meaty roasted portabella mushrooms, eshallots and a rich jus. The menu mentioned it being served with Café de Paris butter, but there was no sign of this when presented to us.

It would have been nice to have had some potato mash to have with the steak and jus but we were mindful of over-ordering. I was too full for dessert as it was, especially after birthday eats from earlier that day, but Monsieur Poisson just couldn’t go past the ‘Apple & raspberry crumble’. It was tart and sweet all at once, but what I loved was the nubbly topping as opposed to the floury, powdery topping of some.

Olio isn’t open on weekends, but it makes for a great relaxing dinner on a Friday night... or on a lazy night during the week.

Olio

Shop 1, The Forum, St Leonards train station, 201-205 Pacific Hwy, St Leonards NSW

Tel: (02) 9439 8988

Opening Hours:  Mon  7am-4pm

                        Tues-Fri  7am-9pm

                        Sat & Sun  CLOSED

happy eating!

Birthdays Part 1: Baffi & Mo and Patisse

My birthday fell on a Friday this year which made for a rather convenient reason to take the day off and have a long weekend. Birthdays are also a good excuse to do nothing but eat, if that’s your sort of thing. Which for me of course, it is.

After a short sleep-in, Monsieur Poisson and I find ourselves sitting at one of the long bench tables at Baffi & Mo. Whilst I admire the Florence Broadhurst-esque wallpaper, a couple has their backs turned to us and are quietly studying the menu. They are alerted to our presence when we place our order with one of the staff and, somewhat conspicuously, they shuffle a little further away from us on the communal table. Hmmm, perhaps my new haircut is scaring people off? That may not altogether be a bad thing!

Our coffees arrive first up before being soon followed by our ‘Pea and corn fritters’ which are served with baby spinach leaves, squeaky salty haloumi and a tomato relish. Whilst at first the fritters appear to be underseasoned, if you take a bit of haloumi with each mouthful then you’ll be guaranteed bucket-loads of flavour! Plus, you will not miss the presence of meat at all.

Although similar in presentation, the ‘Potato hash stack’ served with avocado, lemon-dressed rocket, asparagus, cherry tomatoes and a poached egg is more about contrasting textures. We’ve opted to have ours with smoked salmon (the other option being ham) and our only complaint is that we would have liked the yolk to be runnier to better offer a creamy coating to both the rocket and the potato hash. Ahhh, and what a magnificent hash it is with its matchstick-thin slivers of golden potato and nary an uncooked one in the centre.

Fast-forward a few hours after some uneventful homewares shopping and we stop in at Patisse for a recharge. The afternoon sun is streaming in Patisse’s converted warehouse windows, giving the multicoloured macaron creations an ethereal quality. I choose a colour palette of mixed berry, salted caramel and pistachio, and find that the filling is creamier than others I’ve tried yet manages to be delicately light. Monsieur Poisson cannot go past the gâteau opera which, with its thicker-than-usual layers, makes for one of the tallest we’ve ever had. However the impressive part is that the layers are evenly proportioned so that there is a balance of flavours and textures, plus there are no pockets of dryness to be found about the jaconde.

We head home for a short break to digest, and then it’s off to more eating for dinner!

Baffi & Mo

94 Redfern St (near cnr Chalmers St), Redfern NSW

Tel: (02) 8065 3294

Patisse

Shop G01, PYD Building, 197 Young St (cnr Phillip St), Waterloo NSW

Tel: (02) 9690 0665

Opening Hours:  Mon-Sat  8:30am-4pm

                        Sun  CLOSED

happy eating!

Thelma & Louise Café (again!)

It had been too long since the husband and I had been back to Thelma & Louise, that little café with the seaside town atmosphere in the alcoves of Sydney Harbour, also known to me as the home of the epically buttery Hollandaise. Mmmm, Hollandaise...

But a good Sunday brunch should first start with something to awaken the senses, and for us it is coffee. While the coffee does its trick, we have just missed the end of breakfast service by only a matter of minutes. Which means – gasp – no Hollandaise... and no eggs either! Instead, this serves as a good chance for us to sample their lunch menu which leads me to the ‘Salmon Crostini’.

The sourdough bread is suitably chewy and spread with cream cheese before being blanketed in smoked salmon. A scattering of capers completes the dish, along with the interesting use of flying fish roe. The size is on the small side for its $18 price tag, but sufficient enough to be filling. However I can’t help but wonder how it differs from the ‘Salmon Panini’ which is only $12.50 in comparison.

‘Foxes Wagyu Burger’ is served open in two halves with salad alongside. The ubiquitous burger and chips combination is represented here by a burger and discs of potato cooked to fluffy centres and crisp edges. The potato “chips” are packed with the flavour of dried chilli, rosemary and thyme, whilst pickle slices provide relief from the meatiness of the juicy but not oily patty.

And, as much as we’d like to end with one of the tempting sweets on display under the counter, we are once again too full to do so. Another time, Thelma and Louise, we shall be back.

Thelma & Louise Café

Shop 1, 1 Hayes St (right down the end of the cul-de-sac), Neutral Bay NSW

Tel: (02) 9953 7794

Opening Hours:  7 days  7am-5pm

happy eating!

Lucy’s Espresso Bar

We park the car and are just about to set foot into Lucy’s Espresso Bar when we hear, “So, are you happy with it?”

We look up to see a shaven-headed man who proceeds to strike up a conversation, asking us about our car as he is thinking of buying the same make and model for his wife. Ahhh, such is the casual friendliness of Shire locals!

We are down in this neck of the woods to catch up with my beloved Wifey and Mistress who are already seated inside when we arrive. Lucy’s Espresso Bar is tucked in a small shopping alcove surrounded by houses – you know, the sort that has a fruit and veg store, a newsagency, an all-purpose grocery store in place of a supermarket, perhaps a dry-cleaner, a post office and an Anglicised Chinese takeaway. The cafe is full-house on this particular Sunday and we discover the food is better than its removed location would otherwise suggest. Shade umbrellas offer coverage for families sitting in the winter sun, and orders are placed at the front counter from the blackboard menu.

Wifey and I have a long history of brunching together. And coffee dates. I often feel a little seedy on Sunday mornings so it’s eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and a BLT panini for sharing between Monsieur Poisson and myself. Eggs have magical soul-restoring powers in my world and Hollandaise sauce just helps it go down that much easier. Bacon never requires much justification for its smoky, salty presence but the creamy mayonnaise and pillowy bread do make it that much more comforting.

I have eschewed my usual cup of tea in favour of a flat white and am rewarded with a robust cup of Toby’s Estate. Wifey digs into her generous serve of ‘Smoked Salmon Salad’ – look at all that avocado and ricotta as well as the salmon! – while Mistress goes for the ‘Fetta & spinach omelette’. The fetta is mild and creamy, but still delivers that requisite salty punch.

We linger for quite a while, cradling our coffees and then glasses of water, whilst the conversation flows and never are we hurried to leave.

Lucy’s Espresso Bar

4/284 Belgrave Esplanade, Sylvania Waters 2224
Tel: (02) 9522 4433

happy eating!

Hunter Escape: Firestick Café

When Monsieur Poisson and I have holidayed at the Hunter Valley, we don’t go out at night. Partly because we tend to visit early- to mid-week when there’s nothing open at night time, and partly because it’s incredibly dark at night and driving on both sealed and unsealed roads can be rather hazardous. Hence us never having visited Rock Restaurant, the region’s only hatted restaurant and a 2-hat status for three years running at that.

So discovering that Rock Restaurant morphed into the more relaxed Firestick Café during the day meant that we were still able to sample the kitchen’s food. Unfortunately both Rock and Firestick have since closed at the end of May 2011, although the Pooles Rock winery continues to operate, so we will not be able to drop in again on subsequent visits. The quality of the food was great and, seriously, how many cafés serve you an amuse bouche?

The little appetite-teaser of ‘Beetroot Lyonnaise with labne on sourdough’ was definitely an unexpected touch. As we were saving room for scones later in the afternoon, Monsieur Poisson and I ordered a small (most dishes were offered in two sizes) portion of ‘Grilled sirloin with wilted spinach, red wine jus, café de Paris butter and hand cut chips’ to share along with a ‘Pizza of confit pork belly, braised red cabbage and pear relish’.

The steak was cooked well and the red wine jus glossy and rich which we mopped up with the chips. The pizza had a light, crisp base with thin pork belly slices whose fat was perfectly cut by the red cabbage. Monsieur Poisson couldn’t resist ordering the ‘Apple and blueberry crumble’ when he spotted it on the menu (big apple crumble fan here), whilst I defaulted to my usual coffee/dessert combination of an affogato.

Firestick Café had decent prices although I’ve heard Rock was much more upmarket. Regardless of the reasons for which they closed, it will be interesting to see if there is a new venture down the line.

Firestick Café – CLOSED

Pooles Rock Winery, 576 Debeyers Rd (near corner McDonalds Rd), Pokolbin NSW

happy eating!

Mango Restaurant (不見不散)

Just like how a song can remind you of a person, an event or a scene from a movie, impressions of food are steeped in the recollections of past experiences and the stories behind them. Understanding why ingredients tend to be used in a particular fashion, where and who you are with when you first try a type of food, cuisine or eatery all combine to influence the future likelihood of you eating similar food or at a similar place again.

For me, Mango Restaurant will forever remind me of the passing of a family member as it was here that I had lunch that day. Scatterbrained due to it being an immediate family member and someone who had lived with us in the past, I decided to eat here as it is a type of food I find familiar. It’s not the type of food we tended to share together but it brought comfort to me in any case. I took my camera along to do something “normal” – well, taking photos of food is normal for food-bloggers in any case – on an otherwise unusual day.

Mango Restaurant is situated in the shop space above Café New York via a dark-coloured staircase entrance on Archer Street. Past the pay counter featuring a pyramid of Carnation milk cans, the interior is light-filled and decked out in contemporary, brown, faux leather furniture no doubt to in attempt to appeal to a young clientele. Its Chinese name has nothing to do with mangoes, nor does the menu. The food is a touch pricier than similar offerings in the area but, for better value, Mango does offer a couple of set meal deals.

I have one of these set deals for lunch where there is a choice of main dish preceded by a soup-of-the-day (cream of chicken on this occasion) with sweet, Asian-style baked bun and rounded off with a Hong Kong-style milk tea to finish. I opt for the comforting ‘Baked spaghetti Bolognese’ which is served in a typical Asian-fusion way with a random mix of vegetables in a sweetened tomato sauce. The tea is smooth and a highlight however, and manages to avoid leaving a chalky feeling around the teeth like so many others.

Monsieur Poisson decides to order the seafood soup mainly for its puff pastry lid, which arrives gloriously domed and holding the contents of a tomato-based broth. This is followed by the ‘Baked Portuguese chicken rice’ which has doubtful Portuguese origins, but does have a most fragrant sauce of coconut milk and curry powder.

Despite many years of living together this family member and I were not close emotionally and only ever close in proximity. I acknowledged their quirks, frustrating as they were, but was essentially too different in personality, upbringing and outlook to find anything common over which to bond. There is a strange sense of being unsure of what it is exactly that you’ve lost in such a case, apart from the mourning of a relationship and possibilities which could have been. And I’m very sad to say there are no standout shared food memories to look back fondly on either.

Mango Restaurant (不見不散)

Level 1, 77 Archer St, Chatswood NSW

Tel: (02) 9419 6591

Opening Hours:  7 days..11am-9:30pm?

*EDIT*: As at October 2012, Mango Restaurant is closed for business.

happy eating!

Deus Café

I know nothing about motorbikes, yet I find myself surrounded by them one sunny Saturday morning. There are only a few people in leather biker-type jackets and, for the most part, everyone is contentedly sipping their coffees or looking up at the blackboard menu deciding what to order. I am at Deus Café, an extension of Deus Ex Machina’s motorbike showroom, and I, along with Dr King, Kiki, Weirdo, Ms Sourdough and Monsieur Poisson, am here purely for the food.

Deus Café is hard to miss with its motorcycle mural painting on the exterior of its side wall. Despite the metallic bodies of motorbikes dotting the place, the café is warmly decked out with multiple teak communal tables and help-yourself-cutlery trays in the middle. Weirdo and Ms Sourdough arrive ahead of us and have kindly nabbed a table. Menus can be found at the tables, but the blackboard menu at the cashier where you order, pay and take an order number back to your table is more comprehensive with its inclusion of sweet offerings. Ms Sourdough and I have our eyes on the mini almond croissants before we’ve even considered our brunch options, and purchase one each along with our coffees to indulge in afterwards.

For brunch, I find it hard to go past the combination of ‘Smoked salmon with creamy eggs’ which arrives with a neat rosette of smoked salmon encrusted with dill fronds, watercress and toasted brioche. The humble mound of scrambled eggs doesn’t look like much but is creamy and very substantial.

Monsieur Poisson has the ‘Proscuitto and poached egg with truffle oil, grilled tomato, asparagus and brioche’. Yay for more brioche and a rosette of prosciutto this time. The asparagus is vividly green and slightly nutty from grilling. The flavour of truffle oil is subtle, and we opt to have a side of (de-stalked, interestingly) mushrooms on the side.

And those croissants? Buttery, flaky and very, very messy, dusted with a snowstorm of icing sugar over the tops.

Deus Café

98-104 Parramatta Rd (cnr Lyons Rd), Camperdown NSW

Tel: (02) 9519 3669

Opening Hours:  Mon-Tues  7:30am-3:30pm (breakfast/lunch, coffee until 5pm)

Wed-Sat  7:30am-3:30pm (breakfast/lunch)

              dinner from 6pm onwards

Sun  9am-3pm (breakfast/lunch/coffee)

happy eating!

Food memories: the first time

The first time trying any food is usually the most memorable and especially so if it is something polarising like blue cheese or durian, or confronting like balut or snake.

Personally, growing up Chinese (or any ethnicity for that matter) there are and aren’t a lot of foods that will shock me. Various parts including the innards of an animal are commonplace – less so in modern times – due to agriculture being laborious, traditionally the lifeline of so many, and a bid to minimise wastage. So for me, perhaps strangely to everyone else, my “first time” food memories relate to things which are inherently non-Chinese and quite possibly unexotic to everyone else.

Banana chips did not and do not exist in our household. They only made an appearance at my grandparents’ place when my grandfather lived for a few brief years in Sydney before deciding to return to China. He munched on them regularly. I remember sitting on the knee of one of his lanky legs and holding a golden disc between my stubby four-year-old fingers. Popping it in my mouth, I remember crunchy banana-ness – no surprises there – and being somewhat disappointed as I wasn’t, and still am not, a big fan of bananas.

Cheesecake memories are much more exciting, however. I distinctly remember trying cheesecake for the first time whilst I was a young teen living in Hong Kong. A city not associated with cheesecake – yes, I know – but a city with expats from many countries, particularly English-speaking ones, which makes for a market for Western products and foods. During her younger years, one of my aunts was a live-in cook and maid for an American family posted to Hong Kong for business. It was during that time that she discovered the delights of cheesecake which she, in turn, introduced to my cousins and I from that frozen supermarket foods institute known as Sara-Lee. I can only imagine how funny a sight it would have been for passers-by to witness one grown woman accompanied by five pre-pubescent kids digging into a frozen cheesecake with plastic spoons just outside a supermarket!

Avocado I didn’t try until I was around 16 at a friend’s family barbeque. It was in a salad and, although underwhelmed at first, I later came to appreciate its pairing with and enhancement of other things such as chicken, salmon, toast, nachos… My mother has since explained the absence of avocado from our household, apart from it being not a part of her Cantonese cooking – she had never had it herself and had no idea how it tasted!

“Gourmet pizza” is a term which became popular when I was… (Actually, I won’t tell you when because that would be disclosing my age. Which is never polite for a lady to do, ahem.) It’s always been a term which I’ve found confusing as I can’t determine to whom it is considered gourmet. I grew up with Cantonese cooking almost seven nights a week and pizza usually meant my mother coming home from the supermarket with those frozen subs topped with ham and pineapple. So it was a definite revelation when Gourmet Pizza Kitchen opened and was one of only a few who offered wood-fired pizzas. It soon became a regular choice for gatherings with friends and years later they still have several outlets with pretty much an unchanged menu.

These days, first-time food experiences are usually experienced camera in-hand and are documented with a blog post. More nerve-wracking than trying an unusual food is meeting a food-blogger for the first time, although I am always comforted by the ease at which conversation flows when it comes to the topic of food.

Bar Biaggio proved to be a lovely setting to brunch with Starloz for the first time, overlooking the water at Pyrmont with boats moored alongside. Food servings were generous and they use sourdough bread (yay!). I especially like how neither the mushrooms nor spinach were overly oily; always an ironic issue when they’re oiler than the bacon or sausages on the same plate! Their coffee is well made but lacking in latte art when we were there (I know, I know, it doesn’t affect the taste!), although I definitely was none the wiser when trying espresso coffee for the first time at the age of 21 – it was a takeaway caffe mocha from a university coffee cart.

So, what is your earliest or most memorable food experience?

happy eating!

The difficulties of running a local café

Monsieur Poisson and I have been frequenting a local café by the name of Houlihans for about 9 months now and have observed its changing tides. It’s in a high traffic area near two entranceways to a major shopping centre, close to buses and a train station, and so is in an easily accessible location. But for whatever reason, it has had to shrink its menu and make major changes to its opening times in the short-ish time following its revamp from its previous owners under the same name.

It really affirms the idea that there are many hurdles to running a small eatery, despite it being the dream of many food-lovers, and that a lot of dedication is required. Despite there being good food on a reasonably-priced menu, current owner and barista Anthony has had to give up notions of introducing a tapas and cocktail menu for evenings and, in more recent times, opening during the evenings altogether. It turns out that the time, effort and outlay of costs for staff and operating are simply disproportionate to the returns.

And this is despite serving juices and soft-drinks which are 30-50% larger than most cafés yet charging similar prices, as well as tasty fare such as the Wagyu burger below. It’s around $16 from memory and the sizeable damper roll is packed with a thick, juicy patty along with plenty of other fresh fillings and comes with a choice of shoestring fries or salad.

For the same price there’s also a grilled chicken or Moroccan lamb burger (pictured below) on offer. Served on the same damper roll, the lamb burger is less meaty than the Wagyu but is more saucy with the inclusions of babaganouj and yoghurt with again a choice of salad or fries on the side.

The food servings are generous and the place is often full of people at weekends enjoying brunch or lunch, but I’m not around to see what business is like on weekdays. Anthony’s talking of adding scones and cakes to the menu which, of course, I’m most looking forward to but whether it catches on with the local crowds is another matter.

So if there’s a small local eatery that you like, make sure you support it by eating there and telling people that you know about it! And, if you happen to be in Chatswood, drop in to say hi to Anthony – he makes a mean coffee and is the only café that serves Campos in the immediate area.

Houlihans

Shop 5, 376 Victoria Ave (entrance on Anderson St), Chatswood NSW

Tel: (02) 9415 3300

Opening Hours:  Mon-Fri  7:30am-4pm

                        Sat  8am-4am

Sun  8am-3:30pm

happy eating!

In search of a café: Café Marcello, 24 April 2010 & Houlihans, June-Aug 2010

Have you heard me whinge about the lack of a good café in my area? In particular, one which stays open past standard business hours?

There are quite a few cafés in the shopping area of Chatswood but they’re mostly located within one of the shopping complexes and, therefore, are restricted in their opening hours. It’s fine if you work in the area and need something for lunch, but an entirely different story if you have a craving for café food come dinnertime as I often do.

We pop into Café Marcello one weekend for brunch and sit at one of the tables running along a bench seat replete with cushions. This is most welcome as I was nursing a sore back at the time. In need of comfort, I order a pot of Earl Grey tea while Monsieur Poisson goes for his usual caffe latte.

The coffee presents with a swirled pattern decorating the milk foam, of which there is way too much rendering it almost a cappuccino. Flavour-wise Monsieur Poisson is happy with it and coffee is always great for washing down a big breakfast as he has ordered.

The big breakfast comes with bacon, sausages, eggs, grilled tomato, a commercially-made hash brown, Turkish toast and mushrooms which are surprisingly the least oily thing on the plate. I’m craving something meaty so I order the beef burger which arrives with a thick and juicy patty sandwiched between two thin triangles of pide – the burger fillings completely out-proportion the bun, not that I’m complaining.

So, more about coffee. Monsieur Poisson and I also often lament the fact that we cannot get a cup of coffee that wows us in Chatswood. It’s either too weak, too milky, or both. Perhaps it’s the brand of bean being used, or the blend or the roast. So we were understandably excited when we noticed Houlihans – once a sandwich bar of a place – being renovated with the addition of substantial seating as well as barriers sporting the logo for Campos coffee!

We pop in for coffees one evening after dinner elsewhere and I am amused that my husband’s caffe latte is adorned with a love heart whilst my flat white receives but a fern pattern (although a very pretty one at that). I order biscotti with my coffee and can’t help but dunk it into my drink every now and again; the hot milk of the coffee rendering the biscuit soft but not quite mushy.

After being impressed with the size and quality of brunch with a fellow food blogger one day, I return with Monsieur Poisson in tow one Sunday morning. The place is brimming with people and something appears amiss. We are seated outside and are warned that there will be a 20-30 minute wait on meals. We later find out that there had been a disruption to their kitchen gas supply a little earlier on which has resulted in a backlog of orders. Some people get up to leave after having waited too long for their food but Monsieur Poisson and I are happy to sit, chat and relax.

The coffee is better than on my previous visit and when the food arrives it tastes as I remember. Unconventionally however, I have ordered the same thing as previous – ‘Grilled haloumi with avocado, tomato and rocket on sourdough’. It’s like a breakfast bruschetta and the ample toppings shroud two slices of sourdough forming the foundations underneath. My only complaint is that it is smaller in size by about 25% from my last visit and a little less careful in presentation. I assume this has something to do with kitchen and floor staff being completely run off their feet understandably.

The kitchen is also out of mushrooms so Monsieur Poisson is offered an alternative in his big breakfast. He decides on a sausage but when his meal appears, there is strangely only one of them. We can’t remember whether the menu has both sausage and bacon as part of the big breakfast but what really impresses me are the potato röstis which are crisp, non-greasy and ever so mildly spiced.

When Houlihans first reopened its doors they were open for dinner every evening. This soon ceased and had us wondering why. A brief chat with the owner explained that dinner business wasn’t really happening due to the cold weather, so evening service was being limited to Thursdays through to Saturdays only. The café is licensed and they are developing a tapas/nibblies menu which will be launched once the warmer weather sets in and dinner service will resume to being every evening. In the meantime, I’m eyeing off the Wagyu burger which I’ve spotted on their menu with interest…

Café Marcello

Shop 330, 1 Anderson St, Chatswood NSW

Tel: (02) 9884 8183

*EDIT*: As of early 2011, Café Marcello is closed.

Houlihans

Shop 5, 376 Victoria Ave (entrance on Anderson St), Chatswood NSW

Tel: (02) 9415 3300

Opening Hours:  Sun-Wed  8am til 6pm?

                        Thurs-Sat  9am til 10:30pm?

                        (when summer swings around they plan on staying open for dinner 7 days a week)

happy eating!

Big Brekky (the third), 12 April 2010

My recollections of eating at Big Brekky, apart from the food of course, will be forever tied to my wedding. Big Brekky is located in an area which is close to a stretch of bridal dress and wedding accessories stores along Parramatta Road, which happens to be where I had my dress made, where we hired the guys’ suits and where we found a dress for my bridesmaid. I ate here on at least two of my dress fittings and then again a couple of days after our wedding.

The cake pictured above is the cake that we never intended to have. Following the no-cake-does-not-good-wedding-make uproar, we discovered that our florist actually had a wedding cake service on the side that could take orders up to three days in advance, although they prefer a minimum notice of two weeks. This is in contrast with the usual 6-10 week periods for other suppliers because this place does sponge cakes with buttercream icing rather than the denser mud or fruit cakes with royal icing. This was serendipitous for us because neither Monsieur Poisson nor I like fruit cakes and I, in particular, absolutely loathe royal icing.

After our wedding reception, one of our guests handed in a pair of rogue glasses they’d found and I identified them to belong to one Ms Japan. As we had to return the guys’ suits and were going to be in Petersham, I asked Ms Japan to meet us there for brunch and so that I could return her glasses. I am in need of comfort after the energy-zapping activity that is a wedding, and order myself a pot of Earl Grey tea which is served in a white, Chinese-style teapot with a small milk bottle of milk alongside.

Monsieur Poisson and Ms Japan both have coffees (unpictured) while I consider the menu options. Although it’s my third visit, I’m still determined to try something different. (Variety is the spice of life and food-blogging, yes?) So I settle on the ‘Chorizo and basil omelette’ which arrives looking more like a frittata than an omelette and with two generous slices of sourdough.

It is a hunger-stemming serve of brunch with many hidden rounds of chorizo within the egg and a thick blanket of parmesan grated over the top. The cheese is still stretchy when cutting into it, whilst the shreds around the edges have taken on a beautiful golden crisp. Some of the larger leaves of basil are a bit much for me but I’m always a bit like that with herbs so it’s completely a personal thing. And I’m very sorry to say that I fail to finish what is on my plate.

We sit back and enjoy some proper, extended conversation (chats with guests at weddings are very rushed and broken, I discovered) before heading out into the sunshine to finish running a couple more post-wedding errands.

Big Brekky

316 Stanmore Rd (cnr Albert St), Petersham NSW

Tel: (02) 9569 8588

Opening Hours:  Mon-Sat  7am-3pm

                        Sun & Pub Hols  8am-3pm

happy eating!