Ciabattas from Beatrix.

THANK GOD THE LAST MAJOR ASSIGNMENT HAS BEEN HANDED UP. Seriously, 3 all-nighters in 10 days is just not fun at ALL. No more late night binging, no more excuses when it comes to cooking/food choices, NO.

I forced myself out of bed after 3 hours of sleep to grab breakfast and head to the market. Ended up going to the market first cause the trams were nearly 30 minutes apart.

Beatrix

688, Queensberry Street, North Melbourne VIC

03 9090 7301
https://www.facebook.com/BeatrixBakes
[ tram 57, stop 14 (Abbotsford St/ Queensberry St)]

Mon: 9am - 4pm, Wed-Sun: 9am - 4pm.

Normally we'd walk, but after taking ages to get to the area the last two times (Auction Rooms, Twenty & Six), we decided to take the tram up. 

Camera talk, skip if uninterested - I was equipped with Denise, but this time with Iryan's 50mm f/1.8 instead of the usual 18-135mm f3.5-5.6. I've been thinking of getting a few lens (and a flashgun lol i have no idea) since i started blogging again. Been asking for quite a number of friends' opinions about food photography and the perfect lens.. if you have any suggestions/opinions, I'd love it if you could leave a comment! 

The point is, I was using a lens i was completely not used to at all, so do forgive the different style of photos today. I was trying to be artsy..

I've seen their logo before, but it's never hit me that it was just a crossed pair of old-school beaters, which was the motif of the café. (It's not supposed to be backwards; I was on the other side of the glass.)



Beatrix is right at the corner of Queensberry St and Lothian St. You might miss it, there isn't an obvious sign from the outside except the logo by the window still.



I really don't know much about coffee, but what I know is a La Marzocco is a very good, very expensive machine. And by expensive, I mean $20k for a commercial one. And while it isn't definite that a good machine produces good coffee, there is a correlation somewhere.

Soy latté, $4.30. 

I really don't remember how much a soy latté costs everywhere else but I reckon $4.30 is a bit of an odd, in-between price. The coffee was good: it was leaning more towards a savoury taste rather than the usual bittersweet. 

Mushroom toastie: slow roasted mushrooms with smoked provolone and balsamic rocket, $12.

For one thing, the ciabatta bread itself was really good. The mushrooms tasted pretty alright, though i bit into a few that were sour (not the gone bad kind, just, sour). Found out later that the mushrooms are marinated in white wine vinegar so no harm done, though i preferred the non-marinated ones.

Beggbie Roll: bacon, fried egg, roasted beetroot, apple aioli and frisee, $12.50.

Jason thought this was really good. The bacon and the egg tasted great, and the taste of the olive oil and the sweetness of the beetroot went well with the oily goodness.

Since they didn't have a menu on paper, I took pictures of their boards instead. 

Someone sitting nearby ordered the Sweetrix: If i ever go back, I'm definitely trying that. It looked so, so good!

The menu isn't as limited as other small cafés. I'm assuming they change what's in their ciabattas every week. We saw a couple of tables order the lamb shoulder ciabatta and it looked SO good! Damn, I think I chose the wrong dish..

Their little sweets counter. I was so tempted to get the lamingtons: I've yet to try the Aussie classic. Maybe another day, when i feel like I've worked out enough to deserve one. Their caramel slice seems to be pretty popular, based on how many pieces were already gone at 10am.

Their strawberry pavlova, in a separate casing, really really tested my willpower to not grab one and go. It was so hard to say no to that. Really. I love strawberries and i love pavlova. Frigging food devils following me everywhere. STAAAHHHHPPP

And as for those old-school beaters....

If you ever do need one, maybe they might lend you one of theirs. I'm sure they've got plenty to spare.

I'm really tired, so it's gonna be short and sweet today. I'll blog about the Malaysian Food Festival another day. I need to crash big time.



I'll probably be adding up more stuff per café post, like price range and etc from the next post onwards. I'll edit the older ones to follow suit, but for tonight, all i wanna do is to curl up in bed a die there.

What do you want to know about a café? 
ambience? price? staff? value for money? Let me know :)

/ edited /

Food: 7

Coffee: 7

Ambience: 7

Value: 7

Staff: 8

time to get back to the old eat & gym routine
may.