The Meatball & Wine Bar

As a birthday gift to my best friend, I thought it would be nice to treat her to a special birthday lunch. We are both obsessed with anything food related (cooking/reading/eating/watching) and you can often find us on a friday night watching marathons of Food Safari (and I'm not even kidding...sad?).

She is a lasagna loving italian bella who is a wizz in the kitchen. One of her specialties is traditional Italian meatballs- so I thought we should go and compare her meatballs to those found at the newly opened Meatball & Wine Bar.

Man posing

Two doors down from Chin Chin is where you will find this little beauty. The shopfront is small and high seats are found on entry, with a long bar running down the side of the restaurant.

We were seated at the end of the bar. There was a huge list of wines, and being the non-appreciative wine drinker I am, I left it up to the waiter to decide. I have to admit I am starting to enjoy wine more and more...sometimes I even order it instead of my beloved vodka...

A system exists at The Meatball and Wine Bar. Pretty much, they sell meatballs and, yep, wine. But the deal is, you choose which type of meatball you like (chicken, pork, beef, fish or vegetarian), what sauce you would like with it (tomato, white sauce or salsa verde) and whether or not you want your balls (hehe) with something to sit on (polenta, italian style beans, green vegies, potato smash or homemade pasta). There are also some other goodies like mini meatball burgers, cured meat platters and sides to choose from.

We decided to get a couple of different balls and sides, and share everything. We went with the pork ball (with fennel, sage + orange) with Italian tomato sauce, on creamy polenta ($18).

The chicken (with pistachios, muscatels + parmesan) ball was next. We ordered it with the Italian beans and creamy white sauce ($18).

The caprese salad ($8) was fresh and went perfectly with the balls.

The meals weren't huge, but it was a great for a simple lunch. The concept of the whole place is clever, and after only being open for a month or two, The Meatball and Wine Bar seems to be gaining a strong following and lots of love from city dwellers, bloggers, and food lovers around Melbourne.

In the end, everyone loves good balls.

The Meatball & Wine Bar
135 Flinders Lane, Melbourne CBD

Pope Joan

Up until early this year, I was completely oblivious to any cafes/restaurants/life around the Brunswick and Fitzroy area. It wasn't til I started working in Carlton that I began venturing into the unknown and discovering what I had been missing out on.

A good friend of mine lives on Rathdowne Street and ALWAYS knows of a cool new cafe or restaurant to visit around her neck of the woods. I had read a lot about Pope Joan, and today that's where we headed.

Apparently, Pope Joan was an intelligent medieval woman who disguised herself as man and became Pope. Bit of quirk for a cafe name but meh...what ever floats your boat.

Located in the not-so-busy part of Nicholson Street is where you'll find this place. It's quite isolated from everything else- you won't find any other cafes, shops etc- it's more of an industrial area and then BOOM...theres the cafe. The owners obviously knew what they were doing...but it certainly seems like an odd place to pop in a trendy eatery. The cafe is massive, with a huge outdoor garden area. They have even built a bar on the side (named the Bishop of Ostia) which serves drinks and nibbles later at night.

The bar (and sneaky me in the mirror oops)

The options on the menu had a ye old english trend going on, yet I was surprised not to see black pudding featured anywhere (which I wouldn't have eaten anyway if you paid me). I felt like a omelette so I ordered....the omelette.

Fetta omelette, herbs, green olive gremolata + corn bread ($17)

A bit steep for $17, and not an omelette I would travel across the city for, but still a good feed.

Mmm...donuts

So go visit Joan (or the Bishop of Ostia for a cheeky drink), have a seat out the back and breathe in all the indi-ness and chilled atmosphere Pope Joan has to offer (complete with vegie garden and deck chairs).

Pope Joan

77-79 Nicholson Street

East Brunswick

Milkwood

A friend and I found this cute little cafe by accident one morning whilst strolling around East Brunswick. Milkwood is a teeny weeny eatery on Nicholson street that offers an assortment of simple and delicious breakfast & lunch treats.

The interior is plan and simple, with old-fashioned hanging plants dangling from the high ceilings. Seating is limited and spaces are small- not ideal for big groups- but noice to meet for coffee or a feed with a buddy.

Interesting options on the specials menu

 At this stage in the morning, we popped into Milkwood just for a coffee, but couldn't resist sharing the toasted pear, fig and walnut loaf with cinnamon ricotta & honey ($9). The cinnamon ricotta was so delish spread on the toast and drizzled with honey....

I'm a big fan of chai's. Powder, syrup, spice, whatever. I would like to someday bathe in a giant pool of chai milk. Milkwood delivered a top notch chai. I was that little bit more excited when the waitress delivered my chai to see it was made with the REAL chai spices...which is my favourite. It was even enough chai to have 3-4 cups!

Sorry for the chai repetition. Chai chai chai chai chai.

Chai milk with winnie the pooh style honey twirler 

Latte

I think one of the best things about this cafe are the options available in the sweets cabinet. There was more yum scrum sweet options then you could poke a stick at. Everything was homemade too :)

Homemade monte carlos getinmybelly

They had samples of their homemade caramel slice on the counter and holy shit, it was incredible. I may have stolen a couple more pieces when the chick at the counter wasn't looking. A great little place to stop by for a coffee or snack- I highly recommend you try the sweets cabinet (or just steal lots of samples).

Milkwood

120 Nicholson Street, Brunswick East

The Peddler

Guess who's back. 

I have been a busy little bee and haven't had much time to blog lately... but despite little time spent bloggin', there has been much time spent eating...so I have a couple  shitloads of places to write about. 

My latest visit was to a cafe in the some say leafy, some say scummy (correct), suburb of Nunawading. There is a general lack of decent cafes around the eastern suburbs, so to find one that is only a 5 minute drive from my hood in Forest Hill makes me happy in pants. 

The Peddler, from the owners of Red Cup in Box Hill, is a city-esque cafe unusually situated within a group of unpopular shops. 

The interior is rustic and old-fashioned- hanging lights, school style chairs, one big communal table, that old chestnut. 

One thing to say about this place is that everything- from coffees to muffins- are BEHEMOTH in size. A friend and I had visited The Peddler previously and ordered chai lattes, only to realise it was more like a chai milkshake (but for $6.5 what else would you expect?). Charging $4.50 for a small coffee around this area is risky business. It's obvious the owners are trying to bring the trendy inner city style out here- and it would be interesting to see how the locals have taken to it...it seemed to be busy for a Thursday morning.

The menu is great. Breakfast is served all day (yippee) and the meals range from good ol' traditional  eggs on toast- to more interesting dishes like Prawn and Israeli cous cous salad.

I had a sticky beak at the lady next to me and noticed that she ordered the french toast. It looked like a work of art! It was served on a wooden chopping board and the fruits were julienned all nicely on top. I  tried to zoom in on her meal to take a photo but I looked like a complete sicko. I should probably just stick to taking photos of my own meal...

I ordered the eggs benedict. Noooooot a huge fan hollandaise so ordered it on the side.

Eggs Benedict ($16.50)

Mother bear ordered the corn and ricotta fritters with crispy bacon and sour cream ($18.50). I wasn't lying when I said they do things BIG here. There were three huge fritters sitting under what looked like a kg of bacon. Unlike some fritters i've tried, these were so tasty and moist- some of the best I've tried.

The other dish ordered was the scrambled eggs with sides (mushroom, avocado, bacon + tomato) on sourdough toast. #thiswasthebiggestdishiveeverseen

At the counter they serve all types of giant goodies. One of the coolest things was salted honeycomb! If I didn't have a food baby I would have bought a mammoth slab.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for opening such a cool cafe right around the corner. Although the prices seem steep for around this area, you can be sure you will be getting what you pay for (and more).    Maybe this is the start of some new trend for the eastern suburbs.....if only...

The Peddler

295 Springfield Road, Nunawading