Elbow Room Espresso

Oh my god, hang on to your lens-less glasses frames people – Chatswood’s gone hipster!

Serving 5 Senses coffee as well as pastries and organic sourdough from Luxe Bakery, alongside housemade muffins and other treats, Elbow Room is a recent addition to Chatswood’s (to-date, very ordinary) café scene located close to one of Westfield’s entrances. Run by friendly Korean staff, iced water automatically appears on your table and the coffee menu refreshingly offers choices of different blends versus the usual different styles of macchiato, flat white, caffe latte, etc.

Farewell to Munich

A happy new year to you all!

While I may have just returned from enjoying the company of family in Hong Kong, that doesn’t stop me from wondering whether the year ahead will hold any promises of travel and also has me reminiscing about the final week of our European holiday mid-last year. Of course as with any holiday, local or overseas, there are always must-see sights as well as must-try eats. So how could we make it all the way to Germany without sampling at least some of the following delights?

Black Coffee pop-up shop at Outré Gallery

I’ll let you in on a food secret: I’ve never had instant coffee.

Now before you go turning up your noses at me and branding me a coffee snob, this is actually not through any conscious doing on my part. It’s just that I don’t crave coffee and I’m not one of those people who absolutely need coffee to function. If anything, I’m a tea drinker but even then it’s purely for comfort rather than caffeine or antioxidant properties.

My first cup of coffee ever, as a teenager, was a cappuccino from a common food court chain which doesn’t specialise in coffee. It was bitter and I proclaimed that it needed more milk and more sugar. In hindsight it may have been burnt, but who was I to know any better? My next cup of coffee wasn’t until many years later in my early twenties, and my coffee progression since then has been: caffe mocha, caffe latte, flat white.

Whilst I haven’t progressed to a piccolo latte or a macchiato as my coffee of choice, I do enjoy an occasional espresso... although more often than not it is doused over a scoop of vanilla ice-cream!

St Malo Bakery & Bean Drinking

You know you’re in love with a place when you keep going back again and again. You tell your friends about it. You even make a time to take them there so you’re certain they get to try all that you’ve been raving about. And where's the joy in good food if it isn’t shared around?

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*

Danks Street Depot, Sydney Airport

There are many things I associate with airports – tearful farewells, joyous reunions, the romance of leaving your cares behind and travelling to faraway places and, unfortunately, bad airport food with jacked up prices. But all this has changed with Danks Street Depot’s outpost at Sydney Airport, with many more non-fast food dining options to come.

I first ate here when seeing Mum off on a trip in November, and again a month later when Monsieur Poisson and I left for holidays ourselves. There were small changes to the menu in that short period between visits, which is testament to Danks Street Depot’s mission to use seasonal, sustainable produce.

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.

Oliver Brown, Chatswood

Chatswood has long lacked late night dining and dessert options. When Mamak opened a year ago there were high hopes that it would keep similar hours to its Chinatown original, but sadly that has still yet to become reality.

Firefly Lodge Lane Cove (again!)

The lure of good pizza, share plates of snack foods and ever-changing seasonal menus (not to mention easy parking) keep Monsieur Poisson and I coming back to Firefly for easy, casual meals. Combined with reasonable prices and the provision of Campos coffee has meant that we’ve also managed to convert a few friends to being frequenters as well.

Birthdays Part 3: Luxe Bakery & Wild Sage

With Monsieur Poisson’s birthday and mine being just over a week apart, it makes for an extended period of excuses/reasons for eating. When the dates fall on or in the lead-up to a weekend like this year, it leads to a whole day of eating, rather than a single celebratory meal to in the name of the event.

It is a sunny Saturday and although we are a little slow to get going, we still manage to enjoy some brunch at Luxe Bakery. Located just across the laneway from Campos Coffee, we score the last available table as we step into Luxe. I can’t go past the ‘Schultz Wagyu melt’ which is served like an open Reuben and blanketed with a generous helping of melted Swiss cheese. A bedding of pickled cabbage proves to not be too tart, unlike some sauerkraut, whilst a small amount of horseradish along with a finely sliced gherkin help to alleviate any the heaviness from the cheese.

Monsieur Poisson decides on something a little more breakfast-y with the ‘Organic free range eggs on sourdough toast” which he chooses to have poached. The eggs burst open with bright orange yolks and sides of meaty and firm Lebanese sausages plus baked mushrooms complete the meal for him. Coffees are a little delayed partly due to my starting a conversation with the waitress about her nail polish, but when they arrive the coffees are strong and piping hot without being burnt.

At some point in time, I detect the unmistakeable waft of truffle oil in the air and it is a neighbouring table receiving the ‘House-cured ocean trout with hash, poached egg and truffle oil.” Now, how did we miss that even though we were sitting right under the blackboard menu?

The afternoon is spent moseying about Newtown before heading to dinner at Wild Sage, a place we’d happened upon quite by accident one afternoon. It is a full house on this Saturday evening and it’s encouraging to see that there are plenty of families along with kid-friendly coloured pencil packs to keep them entertained.

‘Chargrilled king prawns with sand crab tabouleh & preserved lemon’ form a component of our starters and are able to be ordered as a serve or 2 or 4. They are smoky and contrasted by the refreshing tabouleh although there is little detectable sand crab. ‘Tuscan spiced meatballs with tomato relish’ and ‘Feta & olive arancini’ are available as little share plates with both being tasty, incredibly more-ish and comforting.

Monsieur Poisson has his eyes on the ‘Twice cooked crispy pork belly, seared scallops, asparagus, watercress, with sticky soya dressing’ with the only disappointment being the sticky soya dressing being, well, too sticky and sweet. Perhaps being Asian, we were expecting a certain salty and umami component to the sauce. I opt for an entrée-sized ‘Chilli spaghettini with fresh local seafood, cherry tomato, sea salt, flat leaf parsley, virgin olive oil’ and am most impressed by the seafood-to-pasta ratio. The chilli is subtle and provides more a note of heat after each mouthful rather than being in-your-face spicy. The dish does get a little oily towards the end, however, with a small pool of olive oil collecting at the bottom of the plate.

The ‘Soft-centred Belgian chocolate pudding‘ is a chocolate fondant by another name and requires a short wait as expected, but is perfectly oozing when it arrives. Flanked by a strawberry, double-cream and our request for ice-cream, it is surprisingly light and not as sugary as I expect.

An encouraging local-ish delight, we definitely need to discover our own surrounds more!

Luxe Bakery

195 Missenden Rd (cnr Longdown St), Newtown NSW

Tel: (02) 9439 8988

Opening Hours:  Mon  7am-4pm

                        Tues-Fri  7am-9pm

                        Sat & Sun  CLOSED

Wild Sage

Shops 17 & 18, Stockland Mall, cnr Miller & Amherst Sts, Cammeray NSW

Tel: (02) 9929 8455

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: scones at Enzo

Located in a quaint little village of sandstone buildings, Enzo boasts sundrenched outdoor seating replete with shade umbrellas and a cute water fountain. Their breakfast and lunch menus both sound enticing but we are here with only one thing in mind – scones!

After hearing both Betty and Karen sing the praises of Enzo’s scones, it quickly got added to our Hunter Valley “itinerary” (food stops form part of the travel plans, okay?). I had strategically left room for scones after lunch at Firestick Café, whilst Monsieur Poisson just can’t resist another cup of coffee when we spot that familiar Campos logo emblazoned on some of Enzo’s shade umbrellas.

His cafe latte comes with a few cute teddy bear biscuits on the side but it’s Devonshire tea for me as I enjoy my scones with a cuppa. And the scones! They’re served warm dusted with icing sugar and have a thin, soft crust. They feather-light without being cakey, yet have a nice, soft crumb. Plenty of whipped cream and berry jam are served alongside and we agree that these are the best scones we’ve ever had.

We didn’t get a chance to sample any of their breakfast or lunch fare during this trip unfortunately but, um, anyone fancy a drive up to the Hunter? Perhaps for some scones as well?

Enzo

Peppers Creek Winery, corner Broke Rd & Ekerts Rd, Pokolbin NSW

Tel: (02) 4998 7233

Opening Hours:  7 days  open from 9am for breakfast and lunch

(Not sure what time they close, but we sat down for scones at around 3pm and at no stage were we rushed to leave.)

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!

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!

Playing tourist in your own city & Bakers Delight winners

When I was a child, the only times I was taken to visit Sydney tourist icons such as Centrepoint Tower (now called something or other else) and the Opera House was when we had relatives visiting from overseas. I have relatives who have seen more of Australia through organised tours than I have having grown up here, but that’s because we always feel there’s more excitement, intrigue and curiosity surrounding places which are not within our immediate surrounds. And possibly because Australia is isolated by water from other cultures, why would you tour your own country when you travel overseas?

But there are hidden gems in your own city which you don’t get to see, do or taste due to restrictions by such a devil known as work. You know, that thing which demands attention for the most of us during business hours from Mondays to Fridays. That thing which may or may not reward you handsomely in a financial sense, but which takes up the bulk of your time to be able to enjoy it. How inconvenience!

So on a coordinated day off work for both Monsieur and myself back when there was a chill in the air, we played tourists in our own city by taking the train for a long-delayed chance to enjoy Plan B’s famed $10 Wagyu burger.

Only open on weekdays, we’d just not had the opportunity to venture to Plan B any sooner. So we sit at a table under the dappled winter sunshine, outside this little coffee bar with a reputation much larger than its shop space, and enjoy a single burger and drink between the two of us. The stature of the burger is rather grand, being taller than it is wide, and the Wagyu patty accounting for at least a third of its height. Held by a glossy brioche bun, a charred patty exterior holds juicy thoroughly cooked innards flanked on either side by cheese, mayonnaise, beetroot and salad leaves.

This is followed by us crossing the road to Le Grand Café for a little something else. And although there are sweets on display, I am needing further savoury food whilst Monsieur Poisson is craving a coffee. A café au lait and ‘Terrine de campagne’ platter soon arrive.

The texture of the meat terrine is firm without being dry and crumbly and not overly salty like some. The studs of pistachio add textural interest although I wish there was more of the lovely toasted brioche to go with it. Cornichons are always welcome for cutting through any fat, but I’m biased as I pretty much enjoy anything with a tart flavour.

We take a leisurely stroll to Circular Quay to enjoy a free tilt-shift photography exhibition before hopping on a train again to make our way to a special coffee date. A truly relaxing day in our own city enjoying some of the more relaxing things for which we normally don’t have the time.

Plan B

Ground floor, 204 Clarence St, Sydney NSW

Tel: (02) 9283 3450

Opening Hours:  Mon-Fri  8am-4pm

                        Sat & Sun  CLOSED

Le Grand Café

Ground floor, 257 Clarence St, Sydney NSW

Tel: (02) 9264 7164

Opening Hours:  Mon-Fri  8am-6pm)

                        Sat  8am-3pm

                        Sun  CLOSED

Bakers Delight competition winners

So in keeping with enjoying the simple pleasures in life, thank you to those who took the time to read my post, leave a comment and enter the Bakers Delight competition. Monsieur Poisson read all of your responses and has chosen the following five lucky people to receive a $5 voucher each:

1. Sara
2. FFK
3. Susan
4. Tina
5. Shez

Congratulations to you all! Please send your postal details to the email address over on the left so that I can forward your voucher to you. And let me know how you go about enjoying your bread.

Thank you once again to Rebecca Stalker from Keep Left Public Relations and Bakers Delight for the gift vouchers.

happy eating!

Let’s do brunch: Thelma & Louise Café, 16 Oct 2010

It’s a wonder how there are some places so close to home yet you know nothing about them.

In Neutral Bay, down the end of a cul-de-sac, overlooking the water is such a place in Thelma & Louise Café. Nestled in a stretch of a few eateries and a hairdresser’s in an otherwise residential area, this cosy café is just past a narrow stairway which leads down to a small beach. The ocean blue interior is entirely apt for its location and there is a vintage play car hanging from the ceiling befitting the getaway of the café’s namesake characters. A display of garden gnomes, including a particular ‘cheeky’ female one, lines the shelves behind the counter of sweets where we spot some from a certain Mr Zumbo… Score a table out on the wood plank balcony under the yellow canopy – or book ahead like we did to secure one – and you’ll be treated to relaxing views of Neutral Bay dotted with yachts and the aforementioned beach.

With my professed love of brunch and with Sydney International Food Festival introducing Let’s do brunch deals this year, you know that Monsieur Poisson and I aren’t going to stop with just Café Ish. We find ourselves at Thelma & Louise Café this blustery Saturday morning not only for brunch, but also to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. And although the SIFF program has the brunch deal listed as ‘Rustic breakfast… with freshly squeezed juice and organic tea or coffee’, we are kindly informed that there is also the choice of their ‘Salmon Benedict’ as well as something else that I simply cannot remember – sorry!

We start with coffees – Monsieur Poisson with his usual caffe latte and me with my flat white. We’ve ordered one ‘Rustic Breakfast’ which comes with bacon, eggs cooked to your liking, a sausage split down the middle, grilled tomato segments and two slices of thick-cut toast – one white and the other wholemeal. This is one seriously hunger-stemming breakfast with the first thing we notice being the generous amount of bacon! The eggs are perfectly poached and there is ample toast to soak up all their flowing golden yolkiness.

Our other choice is the ‘Salmon Benedict’. The magical combination of smoked salmon, poached eggs and Hollandaise is a big weakness of mine and the version here is served with one slice each of white and wholemeal toast as with the ‘Rustic Breakfast’. It comparatively appears only half as filling as the ‘Rustic Breakfast’ but looks can be oh-so deceiving! There is a thick blanket of Hollandaise which is rich, creamy and very, very buttery. Definitely not for the faint-hearted (or those with heart problems), the sauce is without even a tinge of tartness and possibly the best I have ever tried.

When we’ve finally worked our way through our mega-brunches, we round things off with a freshly squeezed orange juice for myself and, upon recommendation, an orange, apple and ginger blend for Monsieur Poisson. The ginger is not at all overpowering, being more like a warming note at the end of each sip. The juices are sizeable but most welcome in cleansing the palate after our belly-popping brunch.

The Let’s do brunch offer is available at Thelma & Louise Café for $25 per person on weekends only during the month of October, from 7am-12pm. There are two weekends still to take advantage of this deal! Bookings are recommended, especially for coveted seating overlooking the water.

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!