The Bell Jar of Sandwiches

I haven't used the jar of cafe's* in ages, but I did for brunch on Sunday. Jason and I have a slight bias towards Collingwood since we've got a few favourites in that area, so picking out yet another from the area made us pretty excited.

The Bell Jar

656 Smith St, Collingwood VIC

03 9482 7980

Mon - Sun, 7am - 4pm

[ tram 86, stop 23 (Queens Pde/Wellington St) ]

I didn't get many pictures of my surroundings cause I was preoccupied with the cute dogs sitting outside. It looked like they have an outdoor area at the back, but i didn't check it out. The place was small, but not the smallest and it was relatively quiet for a Sunday morning. The girl who served us acted a little too-cool-for-everything though, but she was nice when I complimented her leggings. Hmm..

Organic orange juice, $3.80.

Skipped the usual soy latté cause I just wasn't feeling it that morning. I didn't really like the orange juice there though, but then again, that's beyond the café's control. 

Strong latté, $3.50.

Jason did mention that the coffee was pretty good. We noticed that they do have Market Lane beans there, though I'm pretty sure he got the house blend. +1 for using Market Lane though. Again, we're a little biased.

Roasted pumpkin, pear & caramelized onion relish sandwich with gorgonzola and rocket, $12

I think i'm going through a massive pumpkin phase right now. I really liked the sandwich though I would've preferred a little bit more pumpkin in it. It's always the bread that gets to me though: the crusts were nice and crunchy and it gave the sandwich an extra texture to bite into.

Poached eggs with pan fried haloumi, avocado, kasundi, pistachio dukkah and lemon, $17.

I tried out the haloumi and it was really salty and the texture was a little weird. I really liked the kasundi, though I'm not sure if it's meant to taste exactly like sambal from back home. 

Jason, as usual, enjoyed the kick of poached eggs on toast. He seemed to enjoy the dish, but then again, he's never tried haloumi prior to this. 

I relatively liked the rustic look of the place. What i liked even better was that the place seemed to attract plenty of dog owners taking their pooches out on a Sunday morning. 

What we really noticed, upon paying our bill, was that the barista had pretty damn excellent latté art skills. His hands have so much control; it was such interesting thing to watch.

Food: 7

Coffee: N/A (for me)

Ambience: 8

Value: 7

Staff: 6.5

*jar of cafés : I've been picking out where I've wanted to go over the last few weeks; i use the jar when I really don't know where to go for the morning. If i pick out a place we've already tried, i'll just throw the rolled up paper away and pick another. Heh.

So i've watched enough Vampire Diaries. Anyone can recommend anything else? D:
may.

Dead Man Espresso, Campfires and unconventional BLTs

So.. hi :D

I know I've been gone for a while. I've had a few things to settle, and I also had a couple of guests visit me as well. But now that everything's back on track, and life's back to normal, I'm back to blogging.

Dead Man Espresso
35 Market Street, South Melbourne VIC
03 9686 2255
http://www.deadmanespresso.com.au/
Mon - Thurs, 7am - 4pm, Sat - Sun, 8am - 4pm.
[ tram 112, stop 127 (York St/Clarendon St) ]

 It's a short walk away from the tram stop, but it's also a very short walk away from the market. There weren't any cafés along the adjacent street if i can recall correctly; the only thing i remember was the garage-converted-into-a-crossfit-gym along Clarke St. 

You know you've reached when you see a building that looks like it's made out of crate planks and when you hear the typical buzz of a café. I was really surprised that the place wasn't as busy as a café would be on a Saturday morning, given that Dead Man has quite a good reputation. I'm not complaining though.

Ordered the usual strong latté and soy latté. I've forgotten how much the coffee is over there; usually i take a photo of their menu but even their menu didn't have the price. Oh well, it can't be far from the $3.50-$4.30 price range. Blend was by Seven Seeds, which is one of my favourites.

Dead Man BLT: pork belly and spinach puree on brioche with pickled fennel and apple slaw, $16.50.

Review after review, this was the dish that everyone seemed to order. Maybe because you can never really go too wrong with pork belly. It wasn't really a BLT at all, but it's by far one of my favourite pork belly dishes here in Melbourne.

The brioche was fluffy and the crusts were crunchy - the best kind of bread to have for anything. As usual, what i really liked about the pork belly was the lack of smelly porky taste and smell; the spinach puree cut the fattiness of the pork well too.

I was rather disappointed with their fennel and apple slaw though: there was one full circular slice of green apple sitting in between pickled red cabbage and overly pickled fennel. I almost always finish whatever that's on my plate but i really didn't like the slaw.

Camp fire brekky: bacon, pork and fennel sausage, confit tomatos, Heinz spaghetti, two fried eggs and sourdough, $21.

Yep. This dish was pretty darn big hence the price. Usually I'd turn away from items above $18, but after seeing how much was on that pan, it got my stamp of approval. Jason took one look at it and he said it immediately reminded him of Scouts back in the day, sans the bacon.

I was a little confused about the Heinz spagetti, but maybe that's what campers eat here. Haha. Only thing missing would be baked beans and charcoal and/or ash in the dish. Jason seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed it; it took him ages to finish up cause there was just so much on a plate. 

I've been told that Dead Man Espresso was in the same category as all the other over-rated cafés, but quite honestly, I liked the place. The staff who served us was a little on the blur side, and another staff just kept taking away the plates and cups without asking, but other than that, I enjoyed it.

Food: 8

Coffee: 7

Ambience: 8

Value: 6.5

Staff: 6.5

I will be blogging about my cousin and my sister's trip over the next few days. Don't worry, i've already started. I'm just working out how to piece two similar trips together into a couple of posts.

On a side note: Things didn't really go the way I planned for uni, and I was a bit of a wreck inside for the last two weeks. But after finally facing it and working things out, I've decided to drop Accounting and take on just Marketing. I was supposed to do an Accounting subject over the summer, but upon dropping the major entirely, I'm doing a breadth (elective) subject on Sports Coaching. How awesome is that?

Can't wait to watch Life of Pi later! Thanks NuffnangAU!

may.

Aye, aye, Captains of Industry!

In my opinion, good cafés around the city are the ones hidden in little laneways. I've passed by this café before when heading to Little Mule the other time, and I've read about it too.

Captains of Industry
Level 1, 2 Somerset Pl, Melbourne VIC
03 9670 4405
http://captainsofindustry.com.au/
Mon - Sun, 9am - 5pm, Tues - Sun, 24 hours advance booking required for bistro dining.

This café is more than just a café: it's a barbershop, a tailor, a shoemaker, and it's a bistro as well. I like how some of the cafés in Melbourne have other elements to their store.

The deco around the area was really old school. A few of the tables had these little old school, grandma's era sewing machines, and there was a really antique looking piano in the far corner too. 

Quite honestly, it felt as if I stepped into the 1940s/50s when i stepped into the café. The vibe, the deco, and even the staff donned haircuts worthy of the era. I kid you not. There was one customer who had his hair cut there, and it looked pretty good. 

(I think his name is) Matt, with the menu board he brought over to our table. The staff there were really friendly, and I think Matt over here was a really good marketer. He made us feel like ordering everything on the menu!

Soy latté and strong latté, $3.50.

The coffee was pretty average. The crema on the coffee was completely wiped clean off the glasses, and according to Jason, that means the beans weren't as fresh. I honestly thought it tasted pretty okay, and that the milk was frothed pretty well. Guess that's the difference between one who knows about coffee and another who doesn't.

Pork belly with red cabbage and apple, $19.

When Matt described the dish, Jason was pretty sold. But when the dish was placed on the table, we were both so shocked at how small the portion of pork was. It was about 2.5x2.5 inches. The crackling on top was slightly chewy, and the slaw was rather average. We were pretty disappointed, to be honest.

Steak sandwich with aged cheddar, onion jam, tomato and lettuce, $14.

In contrast, I really, really liked the sandwich. The bread was excellently toasted and it was amazingly crunchy. There was a good portion of steak that was cooked well too. The onion jam, tomato and the cheddar really complimented the sandwich.

Look at all that cologne and shoe polish by the counter! Gosh. It's such a man's shop. 

Overall, we both had pretty mixed feelings about the place. On one hand, the sandwich was a real bang for your buck but on the other, the pork was a real disappointment. I guess this shows that cafés with really good food can have their little hiccups too.

Food: 7

Coffee: 6

Ambience: 7.5

Value: 7

Staff: 8

I'm starting work at Virgin Active's V-Café on Tuesday. Yay to familiarity!
may.

Breakfast Thieves Stole my Soft Boiled Egg Virginity.

Joshep joined Jason and I for brunch on probably one of the hottest days so far this year. I've heard a lot of good things about this place: It's all over instagram, and all the food blogs that I follow, and I had pretty high expectations.

Breakfast Thieves

Shop 1, 420 Gore Street, Fitzroy VIC
03 9416 4884http://www.breakfastthieves.com.au/
[ tram 86, stop 20 (Rose St (Keele St)/Smith St) ]
Tues - Fri, 7am - 4pm, Sat - Sun, 8am - 4pm

The place was a really short walk away from the tram stop. I think Google maps gave us the wrong directions: according to the map, we were meant to turn left at Rose St/Gore St, but the café was immediately to the right of the intersection. *shrugs.

Of course, brunch on Saturday mid-mornings usually go hand in hand with filled up cafés and waiting lists. We were on the waiting list and it took about 10 minutes before we were seated. 

I was in a bit of a hurry for an appointment (we were already late with the tram delay and the seating delay) so i didn't get any pictures or the treats available, or even a name card. Boo :( The staff members were friendly and cheery as your usual brunch spot café staff would be.

The café was cosy and the area was spacious. What I really didn't fancy was the way the tables were arranged: big tables where more than one group of customers would dine with another. It's not bad; in fact, it's good for big groups but perhaps I wasn't in the mood to listen to other people's conversations that morning. 

Strong latté, $3.80. 

Beans were from STREAT. It was really good, though Jason has had so much of STREAT's coffee over the exam period (from the STREAT stall in Melbourne Central) that he was really used to the taste.

Charlie's Honest Squeezed Orange Juice, $3.90, Double espresso, $3.50

I didn't feel like having a coffee that morning, so I had orange juice. Joshep had a double espresso and a couple of orange juices to aid his hangover. Tsk tsk. In my opinion, I think Charlie's juices are always pretty good, but just a tad overpriced. 

The Legend, $18 - Spicy baked eggs with Spanish chorizo, roasted mushroom, green peas, spiced tomato ragout and goat's feta with herbed garlic toast.

Both Joshep and Jason ordered the very popular baked eggs dish. I tried a bit of the chorizo and the roasted mushrooms, and it tasted pretty good. They were both really impressed with it, so I'm guessing that's more than enough proof that it's good. Joshep really liked the herb garlic toast, 'It's real garlic!'. It was quite a big dishful of baked eggs too. Jason's only qualm was that it was a little oily.

The Breakfast Chain, $17.50 - Honey baked apple sultana with hazelnut crumble, granola and fruit yoghurt, soft boiled eggs and cheesie toastie soldiers.

The hazelnut crumble was AMAZING. I'm a sucker for any kind of crumble, and this just hit the spot. the apples were soft and juicy and the sultanas were plump. Both Jason and Joshep tried it and they liked it too. The granola and fruit yoghurt was nothing much to shout about, but I did like the fruity bits on top.

/ mini story /

Now, anyone who knows me well enough would know that it's nearly impossible to get me to eat any kind of eggs with runny yolk. It's been a psychological problem that I've had since I was really young, and I've never tried it and I've never intended to. I couldn't even eat a minorly undercooked omelette, or look at runny yolk.

I really have no idea why I decided to go ahead with the soft boiled eggs when they said they couldn't scramble em. Perhaps it's seeing all the people around me enjoying their poached eggs brunch after brunch after brunch, and the feeling of missing out when i come across breakfast items I couldn't order because of the poached eggs.

/ end story /

It really wasn't as bad as I expected. I had no problems putting it into my mouth or stomaching it as I normally would have. It's highly unlikely that I'll have runny yolk eggs it on it's own, but if it's served with excellent cheesie toastie soldiers like that, I think I'll be pretty okay.

We don't look THAT alike.. do we? 

Amen!

Food: 9

Coffee: 7

Ambience: 8

Value: 7

Staff: 7

might've snatched up a second part-time job for the day time! fingers crossed.

may.

I'm going nuts for Purple Peanuts.

Jason works all the way on the other side of the city, so I decided to try out lunch at a place I've been meaning to go to for ages, which was just a street away from where he works.

Purple Peanuts Japanese Café
620 Collins St Melbourne VIC 
03 9620 9548 
[ tram 48/109/112, stop 1 (Collins St/Spencer St) ] 

Funnily enough, the name didn't even click when I mentioned it to him. He actually comes here nearly every lunch hour. Tsk, how he failed to mention a good place to eat to me, I have no idea!

First thing I noticed was the deco all around. The place had so many posters of The Beatles (+100 points right there!), and you might notice that the Maneki-Neko (the cats with the waving paw) are have their make-up done like KISS. 

I'm guessing the owner of the place is a fan of UK's psychedelic music groups and rock..

I like that they had that huge as monster sitting on top of their refrigerator, watching over the unknowing customers as they dine.

The actually make their own chocolates here. How cool is that? They've got stuff like green tea brownies (sold out both times when I was there), panna cotta, and other little sweet treats. 

More sweet treats over their sushi display (which I failed to take a good picture of). I had a sample of their yuzu cake, and I really liked it! What I'm really keen on trying is their ume and raspberry marshmallows though. Maybe another day.

Another item that's pretty popular there is the vegie onigiri. If it's anything like the tuna one I had, it's basically vegie, rice, and it's deep fried. O.o

Their menu was, obviously, Japanese, of which some items had small twists to it, like the Prawn Burger. Loved that they used brown paper and marker pens. Gave the place a slightly rustic touch.

Okay so I've described a little too much about the place, but I really like this café!

Daigo's homemade miso soup, $2.90 (Regular)/ $4.50 (Large),

or add a Regular to (some of) the mains for $2.

I don't know who Daigo is, but I want to give him a big, big hug. This is, hands down, the best miso soup I've ever had in my life, and maybe because I've been having instant miso all this while. It wasn't overpoweringly salty, and it didn't make me feel like I was on the verge of dying from dehydration after.

Chicken curry, $9.20.

I tried some of what Jason ordered and I liked it. The curry wasn't very intense, and that means that it didn't taste artificial at all. The chicken is flame grilled, juicy, and just yummy. 

Gammodoki Prawn Burger, $9.50.

It wasn't a typical burger; it wasn't even circular shaped! But this is easily my favourite burger in Melbourne. Sure, the patty is made of tofu and some people may not dig that (Minn, I'm looking at you), but I definitely did. The teriyaki sauce in the burger was what made it amazing. 

I went back the next day for dinner. I really do like this place.. I rarely go back to the same place twice if i can help it.

Tuna onigiri, $4. 

Jason sneakily ordered this cause he knew I really wanted to try it. I liked it: really crispy on the outside and not too gooey or chewy on it inside. It tasted really good too, but because it was basically rice, and deep fried, it's highly unlikely that I'll order it again unless I'm really craving for it. 

Kakuni pork with rice, $9.50.

The pork was slow cooked and braised. How awesome does that sound? The pork was really tender and it tore up really easily in my mouth. And, of course, it didn't have that smelly porky taste at all! The korean chilli that came with it was something really different.

Beef curry soba, $9.00.

I honestly did not see that this was supposed to be a soupy dish on the menu. How blind am I?

Definitely no regrets though. It was really good. The soba was really yummy and the soup was so different: Japanese curry, but not as thick yet it wasn't diluted. And the best part was, it isn't your typical spicy curry (the type that'll make you sweat and have a tummy ache after). I drank the soup till the bowl was dry.

Mango panna cotta, $5.

Their homemade panna cottas weren't really panna cottas in my opinion, more like pudding. It was well made: soft, silky and not too sweet, but among all the things I've tried there, this is probably the only thing I had there that didn't blow my mind. 

I should also add that as far as Asian take-out-like places go, the staff there were really friendly. I think I spoke to the owner, who tried to convince me to convert to Nikon. NEVERRRRRRRR!

This really is a pretty place with good food. I'd definitely come back, especially since Jason is working a stone's throw away from the place. 

Food: 9

Coffee: N/A

Ambience: 7.5

Value: 9

Staff: 7.5

I tried playing around with Wordpress earlier, and I've concluded that I'll probably never switch over. It's just too complicated! Too many settings to meddle with, and I can't even customize my layout without needing to pay for it. *crinkles nose and eyebrows. I'll stick to Blogger, but it's highly likely that I'll change the URL soon. 'may-niac' is just too annoying to explain to people :(

really, call me out if you need someone to accompany you. i'm really bored at home all the time now.

may.