8am lunch at the South of Johnston.

I've been dreading the month of October all semester, mainly because it's the month when I've got 5 assignments to hand up and 1 test to complete. I suppose a completely assignment-and-test-free September needed to come with a price. Guess that might explain my lack of blogging for the week.. and from now on.

South of Johnston

46, Oxford Street, Collingwood VIC

03 94172741

http://www.southofjohnston.com.au/

Mon - Sun, 7.30am - 5pm

[ tram 86, stop 15 (Gertrude St/Smith St) ]

 

We were up and out of the house and got there by 9am. I love starting the day early.. It gives me so much time to chill for the rest of the day.

It's not too hard to find the place, but we walked right by the front door at first. There was another couple outside, probably looking for the place as well.

Seeing that should've given me warning bells that it was a kid-friendly place. And.. it was. Out of 9 tables including Jason and mine, 6 had toddlers (i think that's what you call 3-5year olds). No matter, the kids were very well behaved and VERY cute. (I'm not THAT much of a kid hater..)

I like how their menu features the toy tractor that by the front door. This café has an extensive selection of food, probably the most extensive as far as I can remember. And the best part about this place.. is that lunch can be served at 9am. 

"We've got people coming in from the airport after a long flight, asking fot pasta at 7.30am so... yeah"

The usual soy latté, $4.50 and Jason's strong latté, $4.

Felt great to have some good coffee after a week with more late nights than i usually do. I'm so bad with caffeine, it's not even funny.

Risotto with pumpkin, green peas, toasted pine nuts and parmesean, $18.90. 

It looked like a plain and tasteless dish.. but I was completely blown away by the taste. I can't even describe it. It may be slightly on the pricier side, but I'd gladly pay for that. That's saying something cause I'm a real cheapo.

Seared sashimi grade tuna with organic soba noodles, cucumber, coriander, cashews, capsicum, and a lime/chilli dressing, $18.90.

Knowing that a kilo of can cost up to $40, this dish was definitely worth the price. It came with a pretty darn big piece of seared tuna. The soba noodles with the dressing was the part that won me over. I LOVE chilli and lime together, which might explain my love for Thai food.

The tuna was bit more cooked than I would've liked, but it went really well with the crazy-on-my-palette soba noodles. I felt great choosing the relatively healthy dish today. Really really great. (It was between this and a french toast with blueberry compote and mascarpone. Thank god, right?)

You'd think that $18.90 is pretty pricey and it is, but those were about the priciest items on the menu. I'd gladly pay that price for those dishes again. The other items were about $15-$17 for, from what I've observed, pretty reasonable portions.

Cherry tart, $5.

There was nothing particularly amazing about the cherry tart. The filling wasn't sweet, more like a sour cherry (in a good way) type of filling. The actual tart itself was more of a softer crust rather than the shortbread texture that I'm used to.

The place used to be a sort of warehouse that was converted into a café, which explains the high ceiling and the large space all round.

They even had a real fireplace, with a real flame, and real wood and a real chimney! I've never come across a real fireplace before, so pardon me. There were comfy couches around it too, which makes me think of old Enid Blyton books.

Big, open space, comfy chairs, quiet environment. I'm too used to crammed, packed and noisy cafés with wooden upright booths or stools. Never felt so comfortable in a café in a long time.

Since Spring has really sprung, it might mean we've got plenty of rain coming our way. I'll bring my rainbow umbrella out pretty often from now on, just in case.

I love my rainbow umbrella. And a lot of strangers do too. You've no idea how many people gave it a second look with a smile. Feels great to be able to put a smile on someone's face on a gloomy day. The happiest $13 ever spent on non-food items this semester.












I can't wait for tomorrow! We picked up another deal from http://www.agendacity.com/, not for a café but for dinner this time! Celebrating our 14th month anniversary. Usually one of us would cook up a storm at home, but we decided to eat out this time. I really hope their lighting doesn't suck, I'm a little too shy to use the blinding flash on my camera while other people're enjoying their dinner. Fingers crossed!

/ edit /

Food: 8

Coffee: 7

Ambience: 9

Value: 7

Staff: 8

2 assignments done, 2 almost due, and 2 more to go.
may.

Start your day happy.

I'm constantly told that I should always start the day happy. And nothing makes me happier in the morning than a good breakfast that is homemade..

Eggs are beneficial

Strawberries are seasonal

Bananas are sweet and essential

Quick oats can be made sensational.

Spinach is a rarity

Blueberries are a luxury

Greek yogurt for your dose of dairy

Nuts and chia seeds make it crunchy.

So wake up early

Get to the kitchen; make it snappy
Whip up breakfast and make it pretty

I'm sure you'll start your day happy.

Yeah, a lame little poem i came up with in 10 seconds that made me chuckle. 

You might notice that i love parfaits, strawberries and pancakes after this post.

I'll start with what i had this morning, since it's the easiest to remember.

Chocolate quinoa (say what?!), smashed banana, passionfruit, strawberries and topped with wonderfully sweet blueberries. The chocolate quinoa was from @joneacie's instagram but it didnt exactly absorb up all the soy milk so i got crunchy chocolate quinoa instead. 

I toasted 1/2tsp nutmeg and 1/2tsp cinnamon with 1/4cup quinoa (red, preferably) until fragrant and added about 1 and 1/4cup soy milk and let it simmer till the soy milk (almond milk, preferably) was gone. (Need to work that part out though.. maybe soy milk is too thick for quinoa to absorb). Took it off the heat and added 1tsp unsweetened baking cacao and 2tbs honey. Refrigerated it overnight cause i wanted to have it cold. 

Layering was just as it was in the photo. I nom-ed it down in minutes.. party cause i loved how it looked and cause i was famished.

Green pancakes! Again, from @joneacie on instagram. She has such amazing recipes..

1/2cup spinach, blitzed, 1scoop of vanilla protein powder, 1 egg and 2 egg whites, 1/2cup rolled oats, 1tsp vanilla essence, 3-4tbs almond/soy milk, 1tbs flax seed. Mix it all together and cook em like normal pancakes!

Strawberry, cranberry and greek yogurt parfait. Mhmm.. i told you i loved parfaits and strawberries. No prep whatsoever here.. just layering, layering, layering. Topped it with shredded coconut and chia seeds cause i've got a shitload in my pantry.

@joneacie's recipes again! overnight oats, banana, cranberry, almond and coconutty cream parfait.

Soak 1/2tbs chia seeds, 1/2cup rolled oats in 1/2cup almond/soy milk overnight for the overnight oats! Sprinkle and mix in some nutmeg or cinnamon if you want. 

Coconutty cream is just 1/2scoop vanilla protein powder, 3-4tbs of greek yogurt, 1 and 1/2tbs shredded coconut, 1tsp honey and 1tsp vanilla essence. 

blogilates' banana pancakes, which is about the simplest recipe I've ever seen in my life. It's literally 2 eggs and 1 ripe banana (smashed). Mix the two up till it's really well combined and cook it like normal pancakes. You'd be surprised.. It's the best tasting (healthy) pancakes i've ever eaten in my life.

Topped mine with honey, cause i top everything with honey, blueberries, pecans and shredded coconut.

TRY IT NOW. IT'S SO EASY. YOU HAVE NO EXCUSES. 

I also did a chocolate variation of it by adding about 1/2tbs unsweetened baking cacao in it.


Need to work on that recipe.. Something was odd with the mix. Maybe the bananas weren't sweet enough. Oh well.

Egg crêpe with strawberries, honey, banana and natural peanut butter! It was probably the most ingenious recipe i created myself one morning..

2 eggs and 1 egg white plus 3-4tbs soy/almond milk, whisk really well. Pour in in a non-stick pan, VERY LOW HEAT. SUPER LOW. LOWEST IT CAN GO. When most of if it set, carefully use your hands to flip it.

I tried this again using three eggs but it was too heavy for me to flip it. So be careful with your egg mixture, mine tore when i tried to flip it.

I spread one half with natural peanut butter and topped it with sliced banana, and the other half with honey and sliced strawberries and rolled it up. Topped it off with unsweetened baking cacao and shredded coconut and a strawberry.

I must say it was pretty darn good.. It probably kept me happy for a week. But with toppings and spreads like that, how can it not be?

My breakfasts look like desserts. Maybe that's why i rarely crave for desserts anymore.. Just the savory stuff. Hope the few readers of this blog enjoyed the short dose of healthy food porn.. I'm starting to feel really happy blogging again. Though it also means that i'm neglecting other important things..

On the side note, have you ever experienced emotional snowballing? (It's not a real term, but those're the only words i can use to describe it. Have you ever wanted to change something so much that you forget the right ways to do it? Have you ever intended for an end product to be a good thing, but in the process of doing that, everything was just bad, bad, bad? Have you ever wanted to change yourself so bad, because you know that if you don't, you're gonna be in trouble, but somehow, some unknown thing stops you? Have you ever wanted to battle your own ego so much, it's pushed you over the edge and you're all cracked at the seams? Have you ever felt like you've got an inner demon in you, that you're living proof that Dr Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde's story ain't just a storybook classic? Have you ever hated yourself for the way you are so much, but hate yourself even more for not being able to change as fast as you want to, and when you hurt the people around you? Have you? Maybe if you have, then i'm more human that i actually think i am.

it's always darkest before the dawn,
may.