Anvil Coffee Co, Artarmon

Taking a brief break from recounting the rest of our food adventure in Melbourne, we recently visited Anvil Coffee Co's new Artarmon branch whilst K was waiting to start her new job.  Anvil Coffee Co is a popular cafe in Kirribilli which has started a branch in the industrial part of Artarmon - no doubt the first decent coffee spot in the area! 

We went twice as we missed out on breakfast the first time (oops...slept in...) - we promise we didn't eat brunch and lunch on the same day!!  Although being in the more industrial part of Artarmon means it is a little out of the way, it also means that it had a nice peacefulness to it during the two week days we visited.

We'll start with the breakfast:

K went for the buttered Arabian eggs and C chose the Smoked Scotch Eggs.  Portion wise, the Arabian eggs were a bit small for their price, but flavour wise, it hit the mark.  The description doesn't really give you an exact idea of how all the ingredients work together but some how it just does! And of course, the eggs were poached with just the right amount of gooeyness. 

Buttered Arabian Eggs

C chose the Smoked Scott Eggs.  Flavour wise, this was the favourite of the two breakfast options we picked.  The smoky beef and pork mince is packed with flavour and the carrot salad...well it was so refreshing and tasty that even C (who normally hates carrots) ate it! It balanced perfectly with the scotch egg so that overall the dish was not too heavy.  Our egg yolk inside was a little overcooked which was unfortunate but that aside, the taste of the dish was well balanced.

Smoked Scotch Egg

For lunch (on our first visit), we went for the buttermilk chicken breast and the caramelised cauliflower salad.

If you come here for lunch, you must order the buttermilk chicken!  The chicken is so moist and drizzled with tangy lemon juice and the batter is light and not too thick.  As with the Scotch Eggs, the cucumber salad brings a refreshing balance to the chicken.  K definitely secretly wished she ordered this instead of the salad.... A must try!

Buttermilk chicken breast

For the more health conscious, the salad is the way to go.  K has a bit of a personal aversion to parsley (and there was a lot of it) but this aside, the caramelised parts of the cauliflower adds a nice charred/smoky flavour to the salad.  And the chick peas were super crunchy!

Caramelised cauliflower salad

Awesome. Coffee. 

 Next time you're in the area, (e.g. servicing your car) be sure to pop by!

Melbourne: Om Nom Dessert Bar, CBD

After being featured a couple of times on Masterchef 2014, C+K made a mental note to visit Om Nom on their next visit to Melbourne. It was difficult to secure a booking but with a booking finishing earlier than expected, we managed to squeeze in despite our disorganisation.

Om Nom is a dessert bar in the Adelphi Hotel on Little Flinders Lane in Melbourne CBD headed by Christy Tania.  We were particularly drawn to this because of Christy's Asian heritage and use of Asian flavours in western desserts. We do not have a particularly strong sweet tooth and often prefer Asian desserts because they are less sweet so we thought we would give this a go.

Since we had an early dinner at Sugarbun (see previous post), we thought it justified to share 3 full sized desserts between the two of us (that logic works right?).

First up, we had the Raspberry Field which consists of raspberry sorbet, fresh lychees and raspberries, meringue and rosewater.

Raspberry Field

This was perfect and our tastebuds were excited. The flavours are subtle, nothing is overpowering but everything works together nicely. The rosewater isn't just some dribble of syrup on the plate...they are what looks like spherical jellies which bursts and floods your mouth with rosewater liquid when you bite into them. Follow the waitress' instructions and eat them in one bite otherwise you will lose some of the rosewater! A fun surprise to add to the theatre of the whole plate.

Next we had the Basil Garden being, a dark chocolate casing with dark chocolate dust, vanilla, olive oil, basil, honey, lime, white chocolate and meringue. This was probably the least impressive of the 3 desserts. The basil flavours were faint and at times missing and overall the flavours did not work together in the same way as the first. Admittedly, our expectations soared after the first dessert!

Basil Garden

Next up, we chose the Cendol - reminiscent of C's childhood and heritage. This dish is made up of a mango base, coconut, pandan balls, gula jawa (also known as gula melaka - i.e. palm sugar) and jackfruit. It is a refreshing dish with echos of familiar Asian dessert flavours. However, it lacked the surprise and punch of the Raspberry Field and in truth, we would probably have preferred just having a second serving of the Raspberry Field (yes, it was that good!).

Cendol

It was hard not to compare all the desserts to the first one we had but that Raspberry Field really blew us away and we would definitely recommend that to anyone who finds themselves at Om Nom.  The other were a little disappointing for us personally. After being featured on Masterchef, we are glad we tried it but overall, not in a rush to revisit.

Epilogue: Craving something a little more substantial and feeling the effects of an early dinner, we got a bit indulgent and decided to order room service and pig out on a wagyu burger and chips. In bed. Yummm.

Melbourne: Sugarbun, CBD

After a long day of walking (we didn't realise you need a Myki to take the trams in Melbourne!), K stumbled upon this little gem in Melbourne CBD whilst C was trying to decide whether to take a 10pm booking at Ezard for dinner.  We ultimately decided on a lunch time booking for Ezard instead so K proceeded to try out Sugarbun.  A quick google search revealed that Sugarbun was brought to Melbourne by twin sisters who's father runs the flagship Sugarbun in Malaysia and that part of the inspiration for opening the cafe was the lack of bak kut teh in Melbourne.  This got K excited, hopeful for a decent quality bak kut teh - which is so hard to find outside of Asia.

Sugarbun specialises in Borneo cuisine.  Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is divided amongst 3 countries - Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.  The Sugarbun menu consists of a wide variety of foods, from fish burgers and broasted chicken to beef stew and of course their bak kut teh. This made us a little sceptical at first but our hunger pains took priority over our slight hesitation.

The interior is simple, fresh and minimalist.  It resembles cafes we would have eaten at during our university days - except cleaner!

The broasted chicken is apparently a speciality of Sugarbun.  According to google, broasting is a way of frying the chicken in a pressure cooker. The result? The chicken is a beautiful golden colour, crispy but incredibly moist on the inside. You can tell they've mastered the art of cooking this piece of protein - not overcooked or undercooked and with enough seasoning that it doesn't overpower the natural flavours of the chicken.  The coconut rice is fragrant as it should be and delicious as you combine it with their sambal ikan bilis.  For those unfamiliar with Malaysia food, sambal is a Malaysian chilli sauce and ikan bilis are crispy fried anchovies and are a necessary feature of any Malaysian nasi lemak

Nasi lemak with broasted chicken

K of course seized the opportunity to order the bak kuh teh.  The broth is not too oily and has a depth of flavours  and the taste of Asian herbal goodies which you know could only be achieved through proper slow cooking.  The dish comes with a serving of you tiao (Chinese fried breadsticks) and fresh cut chilli with soy sauce which remarkably adds to the flavours of the pork. Not sure if enoki mushrooms are meant to feature in tradition bak kuh teh but this did not really bother K.  In the soup is also a few pork balls which have an incredible burst of flavours. We suspect they are home made but can't verify this. Overall, definitely beats any bak kuh teh that K has tried outside of Asia (that is not homemade!) although admittedly still not as good as what you can get in Malaysia!

Overall we were pretty happy with this little surprise find. It's a nice break from all the cafe eating/western food if you are like us and need a dose of Asian goodness every now and then!

Melbourne: St Ali, South Melbourne

Over the October long weekend, C+K went to Melbourne for an eating marathon so the next few blog posts will be dedicated to some of those places we visited.  It was an awesome getaway and we've now come back with mini food babies - thankfully we were only there for the long weekend.  Let us know your favourites in Melbourne and we will try it out next time we're there! 

Everyone knows how good the Melbourne cafe/coffee culture is and things were no different this time round.  We visited St Ali on our first morning in Melbourne after a recommendation by a friend and fellow foodie.  K thought this was the best cafe out of the ones we visited during our long weekend but C reckons it was Hammer and Tong 412 (we'll post a review on that soon) - you can decide for yourself when you visit!

The cafe is located in Southbank.  Knowing we were going to stuff our faces and wanting to at least fit in some physical activity to rid our (read: K's) guilt, we walked from our Melbourne CBD hotel to the cafe. It took us about 20-30 minutes so by the time we got there, our tummies were rumbling and ready to go!

As with many trendy cafes these days, St Ali is located in an old warehouse in an industrial/commercial part of the suburb.

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For drinks, K ordered her usual latte and C ordered a St Ali Hot & Cold Choc which was a hot chocolate with a chocolate ice cream from Jock's.  The latte was a little weak for K's liking but overall smooth and well made.  The Hot & Cold Choc was tasty, the ice cream perfectly smooth and creamy without being too sweet but felt a little too decadent for breakfast (even for C's standards).  It would definitely be perfect as an afternoon pick-me-up!

St Ali Hot & Cold Choc - Hot Chocolate with Jock's chocolate ice cream

Onto the food!  C ordered the pork shoulder that was on the specials board - unfortunately we forgot to take a photo of that menu so we can't give you the exact description (oops)!! The dish came with a fried egg and thick potato wedges. The pork shoulder very much resembled Chinese cha siew but was a little dry.  Overall whilst the flavours were nice, we did not find this a particularly special or creative dish.  

Pork shoulder - St Ali daily specials board

K had better luck.  She ordered the Koo Coo Ca Choo (no idea why the name) which is a potato hash with mushroom duxelle, 2 poached eggs (perfect for sharing!), gruyere baked field mushrooms, chlorophyll and truffle vinaigrette.  With truffles and mushrooms combined, you know you can't go wrong.  But this takes those flavours and intensifies it and puts it on a whole new level.  The duxelle (fancy word for finely chopped mushrooms sauteed in (lots of) butter, onions herbs and reduced to a paste) intensified the mushroom flavours and was a nice textural contrast to the potato hash.  This dish is moreish and just keeps begging you to go back for another bite.  It was definitely hard to share! 

Koo Coo Ca Choo

Because everything looks better from a bird's eye view

Sharing 3 dishes amongst the 2 of us seemed more justifiable since we're on holidays.  We opted for the Put the Lime in the Coconut which is a coconut sago with mango puree with mango and pineapple pieces, coconut and lime muesli and CoYo yoghurt.  So glad we did.  When you can have sago and a somewhat dessert-like dish for breakfast and feel healthy...you know it's something special!  The citrus flavours are a perfect match with the coconut and chewy muesli.  If we lived in Melbourne, this would definitely become a regular for K. A faultless dish.

Put the Lime in the Coconut - Coconut sago with mango puree, mango and pineapple pieces, The Wild coconut and lime muesli and CoYo yoghurt

Lid and Jar, Chatswood

The Chatswood Concourse has progressively transformed into a nice open space where locals gather and enjoy the sunshine.  We were initially sceptical of this idea but the local Council has really done a good job of enlivening this area and the recent addition of Lid and Jar certainly helps to create an even better vibe as people come out to enjoy the nice spring weather.   

Lid and Jar has another branch in Rhodes but we had never been there so were pretty excited when we saw this new cafe pop up in our local hood.  It has a nice relaxed feel, with a hipster twist, as seems to be the case with almost all new cafes these days.

You have to order at the counter - which is a bit inconvenient given the set up of the cafe but because of its open setting you can appreciate this is probably an effective way to stop people from disappearing after their meals without paying! 

Cronuts.  Lots of them.

More cronuts

Lid and Jar is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We went for breakfast on a Saturday morning but are definitely keen to go for lunch or dinner some time to try it out. 

To offset all the food she was about to eat, K ordered a "cold pressed juice" of pineapple juice, passionfruit and coconut water.  It's refreshing, not overly sweet and has a very generous serving of crunchy passionfruit.  It's a little on the expensive side, being $8.60 for a juice, but it seems like a larger serving than most places and they don't just pack the drink with ice.  It comes in a bottle so you can takeaway for later. 

Cold Pressed Juice - pineapple juice, passionfruit and coconut water

C ordered the smoked speck, sultanas, rocket, tomato oil and poached eggs.  The sweetness of the sultanas and tomato oil and the bitterness of the rocket contrast nicely with the saltiness of the speck.  It was probably a little too oily but overall, quite a nicely put together dish and the use of sultanas to add sweetness is quite clever. 

Poached eggs with smoked speck, sultanas, rocket and tomato oil on sourdough

 K opted for the Chinese sausage, baby onions, mozzarella melt with country style fried eggs.  I don't remember the last time (if ever) we've had lap cheong (Chinese sausage) for breakfast but gosh it was tasty!  Chinese sausages with mozzarella sounded like an odd combination initially but again, combined with the sweetness of the onions and the bitterness of the rocket, the flavours on the dish actually worked quite well.  The only qualm is probably that overall, the dish is a little bit hard texture wise - the super crunchy sourdough along with the hard/chewy Chinese sausage.  

Country style fried eggs with Chinese sausage, baby onions and mozzarella melt

The fillings underneath the fried eggs

All in all, a decent cafe serving good quality coffee (which Chatswood had been lacking for so long!) and food.  It's the perfect cafe for sitting in the sun with a book to enjoy the spring breeze - there aren't many cafes like this in Chatswood so hopefully these guys do well and stick around for the long run!