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

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

Spring

Although I have already written a post based on my trip to Brissy, I thought it was imperative I dedicated a whole one to a special restaurant I visited. Spring is a cafe/restaurant located in the heart of Brisbane CBD, and fortunately for me, right underneath my Dad's apartment. 

Not only is Spring a restaurant, it's also a cooking school. A little room on the side of the restaurant is kept for lesson bookings, and just a general area for the chefs to make their sweet little pastries and goodies.

Pink macarons being made

Even though we walked past Spring at least 5 times a day, we had never actually eaten there. It is only opened Monday-Friday, so it was decided that we had to go on Dad's lunch break :)

The menu is french-inspired and limited, with breakfast only being served untill 10:30am. This time we were too late for breakfast, although the menu looked inviting.

Some of the items on the lunch menu were exxy, but sounded delicious (braised beef cheek , Paris mash, cauliflower gratin $28). It's not often I would pay that much for a weekday lunch, and it seems like their clientele consisted of mainly businessmen on corporate lunches or unemployed rich trophy wives. But hey, I won't complain, seeings that I didn't have to pay...cheers Dad.

I decided to go with the soup of the day, which was pea soup with seared scallop & crispy leak ($12). Lucky I ordered a side of sourdough bread ($8) because the soup came bread-less (gimme sum carbs).

Pea soup with seared scallop and crispy leek ($12)

I know what you're thinking. Soup's not even a meal. Who orders soup right? Well before you judge, let me say that this soup was rich, thick and amazing. I love peas, and the combination of peas and scallop is a winner. I would go as far to say I would order it again. Yep. You heard me.

Freshly baked sourdough bread with "cultured" butter ($8). #howcanbutterbecultured

Dad ordered the Rueben sandwich, with pastrami, gruyere, sauerkraut and pickles ($12.50)

Mum ordered the steak sandwich, with came with a side of shoestring fries ($18)

Steak sandwich with shoestring fries ($18)

Wine time for mum

Parisian style decor. And a hanging head.

Naice coffee

Having walked around the city many times, I still believe this is the best looking cafe in the CBD. And now that I've tried the food, I seriously think it was top notch, fine dining kinda shit. Very nice staff, very very nice food. A must try if you're ever up here. Wheeere else, wheeeere else, where else but Queenslaaand.

Spring 
26 Felix Street, Brisbane