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

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

Izakaya Chuji

This week marked the closure of a cafe that I had worked at for the past couple of months. Hey unemployment.  So last night, the now-jobless work gang decided to get together and spend what little tips money we had accumulated.

In just under 6 months, our cafe had made a grand total of $350 in tips....wow  - _-  I'd like to take a moment to thank anyone who decided to tip us more than the usual generous 5c...

We decided we would all have a night on the town and spend our earnings. There were 5 of us so decided to go somewhere were were could share dishes. We went with Izakaya Chuji.

Now I apologise in advance for how poor the photo quality is. The ol' trusty iPhone isn't so good at taking pictures in the dark...

Inside, this place was buzzing. The restaurant is quite narrow and long, however it didn't feel like we were squished or crowded. We had luckily booked a table and were seated right away. 

At the end of the corridor sat a nice little sushi and sashimi station, where a happy little sushi man was working.

The menu was about 7 pages long, and there being 5 of us meant we chose a couple of different dishes each to share.

The first dish we chose was the takoyaki (pancake balls with octopus meat). These are very popular in Japanese cuisine and are seen at most japanese cafes/restaurants.

Takoyaki (pancake balls with octopus)- 10 pieces for $10.80

Next we ordered a serve of the vegetable yaki soba noodles ($12.8)

Next came a serve of corn butter- which was practically corn and bacon cooked in a buttered sauce.

Corn butter ($8)

Then came my favourite dish, the Age Gyoza. It was found on the specials board and it was deep fried prawn and vegetable dumplings (5 pieces for $7.50). It came with big dollop of that amazing Japanese mayonnaise.

Nothing beats a good chicken teriyaki. Every Japanese restaurant will have it on their menu, and you can be guaranteed every restaurant will do it differently. This chicken teriyaki was a winner.

Teriyaki chicken ($15)

Ok I lied. Maybe this dish was my favourite (also deep fried). It was the tempura combination which featured prawn and vegetables deep fried in batter ($18.80). We felt piggy so ordered two serves :)

Tempura prawn has to be up there with the best tasting thing in the world

Nasu dengaku (eggplant with miso topping)- ($9.80)

Gyu kushi (grilled beef skewer with teriyaki sauce) $4 per piece.

Edamame (boiled soy bean pods) $7

Ok I promise we are almost finished with dishes... Another we ordered was the small sushi selection ($20). I'm not a big fan of raw fish- and am a bit of a stubborn whimp and won't try them- so I just had some of the prawn sushi.

LAST but not least we ordered the shitake ebi hasamiage (mushrooms stuffed with prawns). Once again these goodies were deep fried....so you can't really go wrong.

Prawn stuffed mushrooms ($10.80)

So that's it on the food side of things! We also ordered two bottles of wine and the bill came to a total of $260. Wow, almost $350 dollars goes fast. So with our leftover $100, we all thought we'd stop by a cool cocktail bar called Seamstress. If you haven't been, I suggest you GO. It's dimly lit (good for a sexy date) with a cool vietnamese-sweatshop and garments hanging from the ceiling kinda thing going on.

Props inside stairwell of Seamstress

Ni hao ma

So pretty, pity about my photo

The cocktail menu was very extensive and we all chose something different.

I chose the "Grapefruit Julep". It had vodka, lime, honey, mint & pomegranate topped with fresh pink grapefruit juice and was served in a ballon of crushed ice ($14).

This one was called the "Champagne Daisy", raspberry syrup, cointreau, brandy, lemon juice & whites shaken and topped with champagne ($13).

This one was my favourite- "Sherry Cobbler". It was a beautiful blend of dry sherries, orange curacao, pineapple, lemon and orange wedges with a splash of sugar ($11).

I can't remember what this was...sorry

So that was our Japanese and cocktail night out! I would love to head back to seamstress sometime to check out their dinner menu...

Izakaya Chuji

165 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD

Seamstress

113 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD

Chin Chin

I can't even tell you how many times I've said "We HAVE to go to Chin Chin". One day however, myself and a friend thought we would go in early and see what it was like. We thought a quarter to six was pretty early- and agreed that surely it wouldn't be busy. WRONG. We arrived to a huge line of city slickers who looked like they had been waiting hours. We were told there would be a three hour wait- so pretty much said you've got to be kidding me and left.

So that was Chin Chin. The end.

Nahhht. 

This time I went super early and snagged a table. There was only three other tables full so I was feeling pretty smug slash weird that we were about to eat dinner at 4:30pm.

Rookie photographer 

Empty tables at 4:30pm

Loner

Whilst I waited for my hot date to arrive, the waitress proceeded to fill my water glass and ask if I needed anything 3 or 4 times. She was so friendly and chatty, no doubt she thought I had been stood up. If she was any nicer she would have sat down and eaten 4:30 dinner with me...

When my date arrived, I had practically memorised the menu and knew exactly which cocktail I was starting with.

Drinks menu, naughty

Now, I didn't document the exact flavour of my cocktail nor take a picture of the cocktail menu- so my cocktail went a little along the lines of...

Jasmine green tea infused vodka with elderflower and passionfruit juice...? ($15)

It was so sweet, fruity, and tasted just like a fruit punch. Very very easy to drink. Somehow whenever I see elderflower syrup on the menu, I order it, regardless of the fact I have no idea what it is. It tastes like heavvvvven.

Now it was time for some food! By now it was about 5pm, and funnily enough was already starting to get busy. I was pretty much in charge of the menu due to the fact I could practically recite it.

Y u put so many good fings on menu

I had recommendations from a friend of some of the dishes she loved, as she had been a couple of times (one of those weirdoes that waits 2 hours for a table).

The waitress came over and gave us the low down of the whole "sharing plates" deal. So, we ordered two entrees and two mains to share. I love sharing. The first that came out was the chin chin pork roll ups- which came with red braised suckling pig, pancakes, slaw + asian herbs. We knew we had made the right choice because it seemed everyone around us was ordering it too.

Chin chin pork roll ups- red braised suckling pig, pancakes, slaw + asian herbs ($18)

Look how good mine was

From the entrees we also ordered the wok fried salt and pepper squid with nuoc cham + vietnamese mint (small $14).

Crishpy squid

For mains, I knew we had to go for the massaman curry with braised beef because I had heard it was amazing. We were leaning towards the grilled chicken green curry with salted egg (-_-) and something else but we decided to go with just the one curry and something else. 

Massaman curry of coconut, braised hopkins river beef brisket with kipfler potatoes, peanuts & crispy shallots ($25)

The bowl did look nicer, but to be honest, I forgot to take a picture before I ate it. Cardinal rule of food bloggers whoops.

We also ordered the pad thai noodles with king prawn, peanuts, dried shrimp & cucumber ($27).

Sorry chinny chin, but my local thai restaurant does a preeeeety good pad thai- and this being three times the price didn't make it any nicer. The prawns were very fresh though, and tasted like they had literally been caught and cooked. I didn't like the mini dried shrimps either....a bit of a crunchy-salty fishy-surprise in every bite that I didn't particularly need.

We couldn't even finish the curry we were so full. The dishes are quite substantial and the price is pretty decent considering how immaculate the food is. 

Booked out by 5:30pm...on a tuesday.

If you are waiting for a table, theres also the option of heading downstairs to the "go go bar", where you can have a drink and get silly before a table becomes available.

Downstairs in the go go bar

Tres romantique (don't think thats a  real word)

Theres no doubt in my little food obsessed mind that I will be coming back. It would be a great idea to come with a group (EARLY) as there are so many dishes you could share and try. I would have dinner at anytime of the day if it was THIS good...

Chin Chin

125 Flinders Lane, Melbourne CBD

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