Breakfast

Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick

~ culinaldi ~ Leave a comment

It’s the start of a three-day long weekend, the warmer weather continues and with the promise of clear blue skies, it’s a perfect day to explore new food destinations. I’ve decided to take the number 8 tram which runs past my street, and journeys through the city CBD and northwards towards Brunswick and explore an area that’s relatively new to me. Brunswick is a vibrant and eclectic mix of diverse ethnicities, cultures and foods to match.

I jumped off the tram at the corner of Lygon and Albert Streets and headed west towards Sydney Road. On the corner of Albert Street and Sydney Road, situated in an old bank building, is “Albert Street Food & Wine”. The latest venture by Philippa Sibley, primarily known for her reputation as a the Queen of Desserts, is also open for breakfast!

Walking into a well designed and aesthetically stunning room, the maitre d chose the best table in the restaurant for me (in the sunny corner by the door) and took my coffee and water order. The interior of the restaurant was stunning and my heart skipped a beat at the sight of the wine cellar and charcuterie cabinet in the middle of the restaurant.

Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick
Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick

The breakfast menu was simple and refined with only several options to from, which from my point of view, made my choice of breakfast somewhat easier. Easier to take a risk and try something new.  I chose the “63 degree eggs, baby leeks, brioche crumbs and smoked salmon”.

Big risk! You might be aware that I don’t like runny egg yolk but I didn’t want to change the main attraction of the dish. There was a definitive “wow” factor when breakfast arrived at my table.

63 degree eggs, baby leeks, brioche crumbs, smoked salmon - Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick
63 degree eggs, baby leeks, brioche crumbs, smoked salmon – Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick

When the photography duties were dispensed with, I started with the leek and brioche mixture. The brioche crumbs were relatively large and melted in your mouth with the sweetness of the leek and melted cheese mixture. The salmon was simple and delicious and a perfect foil for the leeks. To my mind, the leek and brioche were the heroes of the dish, but I was a little scared of eating the wobbly eggs. But eat I did … they tasted organic (trust me, I grew up on a healthy diet of free range eggs) but I couldn’t say definitively that I would be championing the 63 degree movement from this moment forward.

Now an observation about the service. When I first arrived, there were four different people attending to me within the space of ten minutes: the maitre d to escort me to the table and hand me the menu; one person to soundlessly deposit a glass of water; one person to take my breakfast order and the barista to personally deliver my coffee order, all with differing degrees of happiness and joy.

Breakfast service is from 8.00 am to 11.15 am. At 11.00 am, one member of the morning service staff was advising various tables, although surprisingly not mine, and reminding the clientele that the table was required for lunch service at midday. Sitting at my table in the corner and eager to order another coffee, I was thoroughly ignored while there was a flurry of activity to set the tables for lunch. The table next to me was set for the next service at 11.05am and at no time did that particular person look my way to clear my table or ask if I needed anything further. Leaving the premises, I was very surprised to not see a single soul on the street queueing up to get into restaurant at 11.15am.

Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick
Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick

La Maison Cafe, Wodonga

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Wodonga again? Yes, surprisingly I’m back in the Border after only two weeks away so that I could see the legendary Neil Finn and Paul Kelly perform at “A Day on the Green” at All Saints Estate. I have this rule that if an artist has taken the trouble to visit regional areas, then I’ll try my hardest to support their efforts and pave the way for other artists and theatre companies to come to the Albury-Wodonga region. So my self-imposed quest to find the Border’s best breakfast continues.

I wanted to catch up with a friend who was going to the Farmer’s Market so I thought about which cafes were in the vicinity and chose La Maison Cafe. If I think about the locality of this cafe, almost 250 metres away from the New South Wales boundary, it literally is “breakfast on the Border”.

Potato rosti, poached eggs, smoked salmon,wilted spinach & hollandaise (House Specialty) - La Maison Cafe, Wodonga
Potato rosti, poached eggs, smoked salmon,wilted spinach & hollandaise (House Specialty) – La Maison Cafe, Wodonga

La Maison Cafe has had numerous guises and owners over the past decade. It is located in an old pioneer style building in the Gateway Island precinct, with a rustic, wooden cottage feel. The breakfast menu is varied with plenty of options, including a delicious sounding French toast offering, but I needed to suffer for my art and try something new, so I chose the House Specialty.

Looking around the cafe and seeing very young male staff with casual attire and a laid back attitude, I started to have reservations about what would be served. I need not have worried or mentally entertained any similarities to metropolitan cafes; my breakfast was superbly presented and was almost perfection on a plate.

Two well-stacked mounds on the plate with each layer visible to the eye. I like to have my eggs poached hard, and they were cooked to my liking with just enough hollandaise sauce added to the dish. Although my expectations weren’t all that high to begin with, I was anticipating sliced smoked salmon from a packet and was extremely surprised that it was a smoked salmon fillet that flaked away nicely. Although cooked well, the wilted spinach had a bright green vitality and all these elements were perfectly complimented with two homemade potato rosti. The potato was coarsely grated and just cooked with a small element of crunch, seasoned with pepper and a hint of lemon. I couldn’t help thinking of my Baba (Grandmother) and the similarity between her own potato cakes that she made when I was growing up.

After finishing an excellent breakfast, it felt good to be reminded that great food isn’t dependent on decor. Bon appetite!

http://www.lamaisoncafe.com.au/index.html

Birdman Eating, Fitzroy

~ culinaldi ~ 2 Comments

The pressure is on. Where do I head to on Saturday morning for breakfast? I’ve been a bit complacent over the last few weeks as there have been so many new and wonderful cafes to visit in my local neighbourhood but now I need to get serious about getting out and about and visiting those cafes on my “must do” list. Flicking through the Melbourne Magazine, I see an article on the Birdman Rally held in 1989 and then I mentally recall to mind a cafe in Fitzroy called “Birdman Eating” that had been mentioned to me several months ago.

With a destination in mind, I negotiated a train and a tram to get to Gertrude Street and looked for the cafe. I’m always fearful that there won’t be a table or space for me when I arrive, but I was in luck and found a table inside. A beautiful, old building with stained glass windows, art deco lighting and dark wood panelling and mirrors along the walls, it was exactly where I wanted to be on a warm summer morning.

Eagerly anticipating the breakfast menu, my finely honed radar sense zeroed in on French toast offering on the menu, but then my eyes skipped to the ricotta hotcakes, which is a dish close to my heart and is not always readily available on most cafe menus. The description of the dish was so unique – I’ve seen meat cooked using the confit method but the idea of possibly applying the same process to fruit was mind boggling.

Ricotta hotcakes with confit caramelised banana, peanut butter & maple syrup - Birdman Eating, Fitzroy
Ricotta hotcakes with confit caramelised banana, peanut butter & maple syrup – Birdman Eating, Fitzroy

The first mouthful was of the peanut butter ice-cream mixture on top of the hotcakes and it blew my mind away. Soft and creamy with a distinct but not over-powering peanut butter flavour. The hard part was trying to eat it before it rapidly melted away.

The confit banana still maintained its form, slightly mushy on the outside but firm enough to cut with a knife. The ricotta hotcakes were nice and hot, but not exactly memorable. I couldn’t detect any ricotta in the mixture and felt like I was eating a very crispy pancake but it adequately soaked up the maple syrup, melted ice-cream and banana.

I always save the hard bit to last! The pecan praline was a complete surprise and was a fairly thick shard of toffee but not too hard to break apart into edible bite-size pieces.

The best thing about this dish, and which isn’t really identifiable in the photo because I’ve zoomed in, is that it is not a substantially large dish that prevents you from eating again at lunch time. Bon appetite!