Cafes

Random Cafe Happenings

1/22/2010 11:17:00 PM

Pretty much every time I go out to eat, the little Canon IXUS is whipped out and photos are duly taken. Whether or not these pictures actually make it to the blog is another matter entirely... (I know, bad blogger!!) With that in mind, I would like to share with you some different foodie-ventures from the end of last year.


Duke's Coffee Roasters
169 Chapel St
Windsor VIC 3181
(03) 9521-4884


We visited here a few months back, when I was on the prowl for an excellent coffee. As the name suggests, they do roast their own coffee. My cappuccino (below), didn't quite live up to expectations. It was a bit weak, and on the cold side. And yes, I realise coffees aren't supposed to be blindingly hot, but I found it still too cold - as if it had been sitting on the bench just a touch too long before being brought over.


A few weeks later at the Beast on a Block event, I happened to mention this to Ed, who suggested that they may have still been getting their coffee balance right, as they were still new when I visited.

They had a great range of panini and baguettes though, with delicious fillings, and Andrew's bacon and ham.
Mmm.. a whole fridge full of Andrew's ham, bacon and sausages. I so want that fridge!

Panini with buffalo mozzarella, pesto and pepperonata - $14

I don't think you can go wrong with a combo like that. I loved the little bowl of olives too!

Crispy pancetta and scrambled egg with hollandaise - $12

This baguette, however, was the star of the show. The baguette didn't look too impressive at first - the bread was what I would describe as "Asian bakery style", i.e. super soft and white - but the whole thing worked so well! The pancetta was incredibly crispy, with creamy scrambled eggs and a generous portion of lemony hollandaise. Wow!


Suckling pig and Rice, Johnston Street Fiesta

I am embarrassed to say I don't remember what this dish is called, or what country it comes from. As I was walking down Johnston street I saw massive trays of suckling pig and could not think any further. If anyone can help me out with a name, (and a recipe!) I would be most appreciative!


As you can kinda see in the photo, the dish consists of a massive tray, with burnished crackling wrapped around a filling of rice and tender pork pieces. It was a bit expensive at $14 a portion (what is with festival prices?!), but I couldn't resist.

With each portion came a nice big piece of crackling - which, unfortunately, was too hard to bite - and a funky white round doughy thing (again, apologies for my food amnesia!). The star of the show was the salty rice and pork mixture. The rice was a bit soft and sticky (yum yum), with big chunks of meltingly soft pork all the way through.


Buick's Cafe
732 Burke Rd
Camberwell VIC 3124
(03) 9882-8877

Buick's cafe is a new cafe on the station end of Burke road, Camberwell. We popped in one weekend when I was craving pasta but too lazy to cook. (It happens sometimes!)

From memory the lasagne was about $14? It came with a generous heaping of tomato sauce on the side, which was nice, but made the overall lasagne a bit too sour for me. I am *all* about the creamy bechamel.

Generous side salad

The lasagne wasn't hot all the way through, so I asked them to heat it up a bit more. It wasn't thoroughly cold on the inside, just warmish. It wasn't a huge deal for me - I also make lasagne myself, and I know it's hard reheat slices properly without the edges curling and going feral. Anyway, the dude who worked there was very nice and apologetic, reheated it straight away and put some extra sauce on it to make it look pretty again. This time it was piping hot. In fact, it was thermonuclear.

He also offered me a free pastry to make up for it! I chose a fresh cream eclair. Emphasis on the word "fresh" - both cream and choux were very fresh and delicious. Hmm... maybe I should have just ordered 3 of them for lunch, hehehe.

Cafe Vue
401 St Kilda Rd
Melbourne VIC 3004
(03) 9866-8055

I popped in a few weeks before Christmas for a quick pre-work brunch. One of the benefits of doing a late shift! I was surprised *not* to run into Adrian here, haha. (I previously visited 401, and blogged about it here).

My brunch started off with a nice, soothing cup of Mariage Frères Marco Polo tea...

This is where I fell in love with these cups! Dad bought them for me for Christmas, yay! (They can be ordered from this website).

I had a rather lovely croque-monsieur with Kurobuta ham - very well priced at $6.50.

It looked as though it might be dry, but in fact it had a great balance of white bread, ham, cheese and just-the-right amount of sauce in between.

Here's to a year full of exciting foodie-ventures!

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5 comments

  1. 3 eclairs sound good to me lol x

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  2. The cappuccino and eclair are calling to me this morning!

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  3. The cappuccino looks so beautiful and the other foods offered by the cafe look so delicious.

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  4. Oh they are cute cups =)
    I'm the same, lots of photos have never made it onto my blog... and if they do from dining out, I can never remember the price or anything :P That's why I now try to snap a photo of the menu :P

    Sour lasagna? never heard of that before!

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  5. I was at Duke's awhile ago as while and the coffee is OK. NOt brilliant but Ok. But then again, I am no expert.
    And I am the same, so many photos and not on the blog. Terrible blogger! It is hard when one has to work and blog.

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