Skinny Latte

Bella Sistas, Camberwell South

~ culinaldi ~ 3 Comments

I’ve temporarily relocated to the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne for the next couple of months and one of the first orders of business was to compile a shortlist of cafes and restaurants to visit whilst I’m living in the area. I was absolutely delighted to find that I was staying only several hundred metres away from Bella Sistas. This cafe regularly appears on one of my friend’s Facebook page, and it was time to put the intrigue to rest.

As I walked into the cafe, I decided to sit by the open front windows to take advantage of the unusually warm breeze and look out onto the street. I was enthusiastically greeted by owner Pino, who promptly took my coffee order and made sure that I had a menu and the Saturday Herald Sun to read. Two ticks and I hadn’t even ordered breakfast.

As I was pondering over the menu, Pino came over and suggested that the roast beetroot and avocado with salmon and poached egg on the daily specials menu was worth considering. I had already settled upon the Egg Roti for breakfast but the power of persuasion was too much. I reasoned that as I was now living just around the corner, it was very likely that I would return to sample most of items on the breakfast menu, but the beetroot and avocado dish was a limited opportunity.

Roast beetroot & avocado on grilled sourdough topped with smoked salmon, dill dressing and poached egg - Bella Sistas, Camberwell South
Roast beetroot & avocado on grilled sourdough topped with smoked salmon, dill dressing and poached egg – Bella Sistas, Camberwell South

As I ordered breakfast, Pino cracked a joke that he had finally got rid of the last of this dish and I couldn’t help but wonder what I had let myself in for. When my breakfast arrived, I need not have worried about freshness or taste. The beetroot was cooked beautifully and delicately dressed with olive oil and fresh dill, baby spinach, cubed avocado and a hint of lemon. There were generous servings of smoked salmon on the toast and on top of the salad, and I was extremely grateful that the egg was poached to my specifications.

I had just finished my skinny latte, when Pino magically appeared again and asked if I needed another coffee. This place was too good to be true! My first foray into a new neighbourhood and I already found a place I wanted to come back to, again and again.

And two weeks later, I did return. After a trip to Singapore for work, I arrived home early on a sunny Saturday morning and after a quick nap, I headed back to Bella Sistas for a late breakfast. As I walked into the cafe, I couldn’t see Pino, but I went through the cafe and all the way outside to discover a courtyard area with an eclectic array of chairs, tables and vinyl lounges.

Looking through the specials, I chuckled when I saw that the beetroot and avocado dish had since been removed. With lots of interesting dishes such as Japanese okonomiyaki pancakes to try, I settled on the Middle Eastern eggs.

Middle Eastern eggs - poached eggs sprinkled with dukkah on toasted Turkish bread with roast tomato, spinach and labna - Bella Sistas, Camberwell South
Middle Eastern eggs – poached eggs sprinkled with dukkah on toasted Turkish bread with roast tomato, spinach and labna – Bella Sistas, Camberwell South

I couldn’t believe the spectacular colours on this dish when it arrived. Roasted cherry tomatoes with fresh, generous servings flat leaf parsley, interspersed with labna cooked to almost a creamy ricotta cheese consistency. Poached eggs with brilliant yellow yolk, topped with a homemade dukkah spice mix and soft, turkish bread. It was definitely the dish du jour. The only thing I was in want of, was a cup of coffee and that proving to be a challenge for the staff on duty.

But what about the Egg Roti? My parents came to stay with me a week later and so I took them to Bella Sistas for breakfast. The cafe was so busy that we wondered whether we would get a table, however Pino was back in charge and we were soon seated. When I came time to order, I ignored the specials and selected the Egg Roti, saving the best of the best until last.

Egg Roti - Roti bread filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, caramelised onions & cheese - Bella Sistas, Camberwell South
Egg Roti – Roti bread filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, caramelised onions & cheese – Bella Sistas, Camberwell South

Warm, soft roti bread was easy to tear and eat all on its own. With a generous serving of creamy scrambled eggs, the standout aspect of the dish was the melted cheese over the bacon, eggs and roti. The sweet, savoury and spiced caramelised onion mixture reminded me of barbeque sauce but infinitely better and absolutely delicious. A breakfast worth the wait.

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

Bendigo Street Milk Bar, Burnley

~ culinaldi ~ 2 Comments

A brand new year has begun and one of my goals is to start visiting the list of cafes that I’ve been building up in the back of my mind on the “must do” list. I can’t remember where I had read about the small cafe/milk bar in Bendigo Street in Richmond/Burnley that was open for weekend breakfast, but it was always somewhere where I wanted to visit and I figured that if I was to do anything of purpose on the weekend, then that was my intended destination.

Resolutely, I set off on Saturday morning and negotiated the two trams I needed to take to get to Bendigo Street. I can’t describe the exhilaration I always feel when the sun is shining, I’m exploring new neighbourhoods with tree-lined streets, anticipating my first hot skinny latte and finally visiting a place I’ve always wanted to visit. Intrigued by the renovated workers cottages and the new urban development under construction in Bendigo Street, I finally spied the quaint milk bar on the corner, market umbrellas and tables outside ready for patrons.

Walking into Bendigo Street Milk Bar is like stepping into another world – tranquil with soft jazz playing on the iPod, a myriad of tables, soft furnishings and old-world charm, newspapers for sale, a counter and display fridge laden with homemade food, another room on the mezzanine level with more tables and chairs – it was almost a feast for the eyes. I think it was just fortuitous that being January, I could still walk in and take my pick of tables.

Because it is January and some of the staff were taking leave, the breakfast menu had been reduced to a single page, but despite only several dishes to choose from, the corn fritters with avocado salsa, rocket and poached eggs seemed to be the most obvious choice.

 

Corn fritters with avocado salsa, rocket and poached eggs (Bendigo Street Milk Bar, Burnley)
Corn fritters with avocado salsa, rocket and poached eggs (Bendigo Street Milk Bar, Burnley)

I gather from all the social media involving this cafe that the homemade corn fritters are the dish du jour and it’s obvious why. Beautifully presented, stunning colours and a generous dish, I was deliriously happy to be its next victim! After taking several photos, my first mouthful of corn fritter was heavenly – an unusual red colour (I almost wondered if Thai red curry paste was the secret ingredient!), with red capsicum and bright yellow corn kernels – well cooked and not mushy which seems to be the offering of some of the most recent places that I have been to lately. My eggs were poached exactly as I like them and requested, sitting of a bed of chunky homemade avocado salsa, and rocket glistening in olive oil. Almost a complete surprise was the goats cheese dispersed within the dish, which was soft and creamy and extremely delicious, but a definite must although it is not included in the meal description.

Although I waited a good ten minutes for my first coffee to appear and there were only 4 other customers in view, you know when you are in a special-kind-of-place when you are compelled to whip out the iPhone at lightning speed and try to Shazam the jazzed up version of Crowded House playing seductively in the background (Curtis Stigers’ rendition of “Into Temptation” if you are intrigued) and all is forgiven.

My only concern that now distresses me is that if it has taken me so long to get here, how soon can I come back?