Las Chicas

The only time I ever venture over to Balaclava is for food. There is really no other reason for me to travel this far across town....unless I am rewarded for my efforts with a trip to somewhere like Las Chicas.

I have been to Las Chicas at least four times now, and every visit it manages to take me an unreasonable amount of time to choose my meal. There is just SO much on the menu. There's about three different flavoured porridges and french toast's, tons of bagel flavours, a whole section dedicated to vegetarian options and a big load of stuff for the meat lovers....(and thats ONLY the breakfast menu).
The lunch menu offers plenty of sandwich and salad options too.

Now, prior to this visit I had ordered the baked bean breaky- house baked pumpkin and polenta loaf topped with baked beans, spinach & a poached egg ($16.50). I was so tempted to order this again...it was pretty much my ideal breakfast. Las Chicas also offers half servings- so you can imagine how big the meals actually are. Heres a little sneak peak of what the baked bean breaky looks like...

Anyway, today I decided I felt like something eggy and went for the breakfast bruschetta- sourdough, folded eggs, spinach, basil pesto & pine nuts ($14). I couldn't believe the size of this whopper. The eggs were dreamy creamy and perfectly cooked- and also went so well with the rich pesto.

Breakfast bruschetta ($14)

My lovely gal pal ordered the breakfast burrito ($17). I suffered a little bit of food envy and died a little inside when her dish arrived. Creamy scrambled eggs, extra crispy bacon, aioli and rocket, wrapped in a soft tortilla bread & topped with avocado, tomato & coriander salsa. I would do bad, bad things to have this dish sitting in front of me right now. Luckily for me she isn't a fan of bacon, so piggy little me got to eat it all :)

Breakfast Burrito ($17)

Just a cheeky champagne for brunch. It would be rude not to.

I always make the mistake of eating too much and being too full to order from the sweet cabinet afterwards... 

This place is a steal. You absolutely get your pennies worth, and I can guarantee the breakfast feeds will keep you satisfied until the late arvo. If you cbf driving all the way here- the cafe is conveniently located underneath the Balaclava train station. You can be sure I'll be coming back and trying more of the 1000 options on the menu...

Las Chicas,
203 Carlisle Street, Balaclava

Cumulus Inc.

Cumulus Inc. has been one destination on my list of places to visit for some time now. I wasn't sure on whether to blog about a wining/dining dinner experience here, or avoiding the sleep in and snagging an early morning table for a breakfast bloggin'. A friend and I decided on the latter.

Inside you'll find a big industrial style room, complete with open kitchen so you can watch the chefs at work.

Breakfast fare ranged from your standard muesli to the full english breakfast. The menu was limited but we eventually decided what we wanted to munch on.

I opted for the baked eggs with roasted peppers and shanklish ($16). I had no idea what shanklish was whilst I was eating it, but did the old google search and apparently its a type of Lebanese cows or sheeps milk cheese. So there you go.

The dish came with two mini pieces of turkish bread- and this was the only criticism I could make. I don't know about anyone else but  I really need more than two little pieces of bread in order to mop up that eggy and tomatoey goodness. I felt like I had to ration the bread due to the stingy bread to egg ratio.

.......I have thought way to much into that.

Shakshouka- baked eggs with roasted peppers and shanklish ($16)

My friend isn't a fan of eggs, so decided to go with the toasted honey granola. There was SO much granola packed into that little bowl. It came with a pot a vanilla yoghurt with poached fruit too. Definitely one of those dishes that makes you feel healthier just by looking at it.

Toasted honey granola & poached fruit with vanilla yoghurt ($10)

At the counter were some delectable goodies, including a chocolate & sea salt brownie. ANY dish featuring salt (within reason) has my vote. I even put salt all over pizza... (theres absolutely no hope for my arteries). I believe the lemon curd madeleines are made to order (give 15 minutes), and are apparently a hit.

English breaky tea

A very popular fancy smansy place at any time of day. Next time I return it will be for a dinner feast. Complete with lots of salt.

Cumulus Inc.

45 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

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

Coffeehead

From the makers of Fire chief Pizzeria, Goldilocks Cafe, The Sharing House, Taxi, SOS & 100 mile cafe comes Coffeehead, the newest addition to the growing cafe scene in Camberwell.

At 11am, Coffeehead, like every other decent Melbourne cafe, was packed. The waitress told us there would be a 10 min wait, and shortly after, we were seated at the bar.

The menu was big, as were the coffee choices. The lunch menu look delish, with options like fish tacos and pulled pork tacos (I like tacos...).

I wasn't very hungry, so opted for the porridge with poached pear, blueberries and honey. I realise that porridge itself isn't very exciting, but this one tasted like something I could have quite easily whipped up at home. There was a total of about 6 blueberries scattered on top, and at the most, 3 thin slices of a poached pear. Surely they could have been a bit more generous...

Porridge with poached pear, blueberries and honey ($12.50)

My fried egg loving friend ordered the...fried eggs. No sides, just eggs :)

Fried googies

Silky hot chocolate

They also have a variety of pastries and sweets at the front.

Variety of coffees to choose from

What is impressive is that Coffeehead serves 5 different coffee varieties for you to try. So the choice of bean is up to you. A busy, colourful, old school cafe (complete with a foosball table) in a good location (right near Camberwell station). With a bit of a spanish and mexican twist going on, next time I will definitely be ordering something different and getting around the tacos.

Coffeehead
8 Railway Parade, Camberwell