Quick and easy

After a few drinks at the Labour in vain after work never really helps to enthuse me to go home and cook a gourmet meal…

I had convinced Chris to join me for a few drinks and it had the same affect on him, he had planned on cooking crepes for dinner, but now like me he couldn’t be bothered!

We went through Safeway on the way home to try and find something easy to cook for dinner. The plan was to find a meat then to find some vegetable matter to have with it… After perusing the meat sections we chose Safeway branded Butter chicken. The chicken was split in half and pre marinaded… perfect.

We got a salad in a bag, added a chopped up avocado and a jar or feta…

Quick, easy, tasty and fairly healthy… Add to that the bottle of sparkling red and you have a very satisfying meal!

Gypsies....

Today the lunch mission was to get Brett de Niese a bag for his new laptop. We went down to Crumpler on the corner of Smith and Gertrude. Having a Crumpler back pack for my laptop, I was a proponent of the idea.

We went to Crumpler and tried on every colour bag which fitted Brett's laptop then went off for lunch and time for Brett to think about what he was going to do. Crumpler bags are such good quality and are built to last, so there really aren't that many alternatives.

Steve was accompanying us on the mission... we decided to eat somewhere close by so if Brett had decided after the meal that he wanted the bag, then we wouldn't have far to walk.

We ate at Gypsies, I hadn't eaten there before, but they had seating outside to suit 3, served beer and the sun was shining on their outside seating so the deal was sealed.

I was wanting something lite and tasty so I went for the tuna and corn fish cakes with salad. Very tasty, and I did like how there was an extra serve of mayo in a side bowl. I was happy to share the mayo with Bett, but was shocked when he dipped his chips into the mayo on my fish cake as he hadn't seen the side bowl...

Porterhouse

I resisted the temptation to join Oscar and Chris in fish and chips, never really a favourite of mine anyway.

I opped for Steak and Salad. I went to Safeway and got a nice piece of Porterhouse steak, a bag of Spinach and Rocket, an Avocado and some fresh Asparagus.

No dressing and no marinade. It felt like a healthy meal, but I love lots of flavours in my meal, so this is deffinitely going to be classified as a work in progress.

Shish

Okay, it's mid afternoon and it appears that half of an Avocado will not satisfy me for breakfast and lunch after I do session at the gym.

So I went next door to the Turkish take away joint and got a Shish Kebab. It was really tastey, I don' think it was too bad, shish kababed (on a skewer) meat, in a turkish roll, with some tzatziki like sauce and basic salad.

Went down just a treat.

Avocado

I've just started back at the gym today... First time there in months...

So on that note, for lunch, I had half of an Avocado, filled with the juice of half a lemon and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Yummy.

Brunswick Street Alimentari

Lunch today came to me from Brunswick Street Alimentari, or as we like to call it The Deli.

Not the cheapest place on Brunny, but definitely one of the tastiest. When I first started working of Brunswick Street it was one of my favourites. After over doing a couple of their signature dishes, I started to go off them and now my visit's there are a lot more sporadic.

Today I had the Italian meat ball wrap, this would be the first dish I ever had from The Deli. It’s this pita wrap filled with meat balls, cheese, some spinach and the sauce from the meat balls… Totally greasy and dripping with flavour.

As with most of the dishes from The Deli, the first one you ever have is always the best, from then on you strive to experience that taste sensation again. But alas, it’s never as good.

I can feel I just ate it, which isn’t the best thing. But as with most things in my life, it was good at the time!

Robbie Burns

A Spanish pub, or maybe more a pub that does Spanish. Oscar, the Spaniard, doesn’t particularly rate it, likening it to Spanish McDonalds.

Tonight was dinner with J’nel, Abby and Janine. I used to live with J’nel, J’nel used to live with Abby and Abby lives with Janine. J’nel had been there before so she had made the suggestion.

Robbie Burns is found near the corner of Johnston Street and Smith, so very convenient. I’d been there many years ago and my memories of it work just ‘Ok’. Not bad memories just a nice night out, quite pubby, so I was interested in going there again to see what it was like now.

Yes the place is pubby, but then again it was comfortable and full of people. Great atmosphere, rustic charm and self service alcohol (ie. you have to go to the bar to get it).
We got the Seafood Paella for three, we weren’t overly hungry, but knew from past experience it would be big.

The Paella came out with a generous helping of squid, mussels and prawns. The tomato base was delicious and although we weren’t that hungry, we couldn’t stop eating.

The meal and accompanying drinks were very well priced and we were all happy with the meal, and the company.

I need to dine at more Spanish restaurants to get a base for comparison. Oscar says that Spanish food cooks for days before it is eaten, so I’m looking forward to some of that! I wonder if he cooks Spanish food?

Bebida - Breakfast

I was going to spend the day at work catching up on stuff, so I thought I needed a good breakfast, and I wanted someone else to make it for me. I first thought of going to Beelzebub as I wanted to try their coffee, but I more wanted some really nice food and I have never been let down by Bebida on Smith Street, so I headed there.

Bebida is the old Zeitgeist, I used to work just down from Zeitgeist so there is some nostalgic attachment to the place. Bebida is now a Spanish based café, the front windows open right up and give the café an inside outside feel, great when the weather is good. It just so happened that the day was fantastic, so I sat there and enjoyed the newspaper over a coffee while I waited for my breakfast.

Being in a particularly extravagant mood and wanting to treat myself I opted for the breakfast special, eggs with feta and asparagus on pide. I enjoyed every last bit of the meal.

Luckily I’m one of those people who can enjoy eating out by themselves.

Is avocado a fruit?

Feeling a little hung over from the night before, I didn’t really feel like eating till noonish… I was heading out to the northern burbs to catch up with my friend Stormboy, or Warren Bloomer. I met him and his son Callum at some train station, near the park they had been riding in with friends Stuart and Tami.

By now hunger had started to kick in, I was waiting for them at a train station and noticed a fruit shop across the road, lunch today consisted of a bunch of grapes and an avocado, both of which I devoured with vigour.

Viet Rose

I ate at Viet Rose, with Abby Kelly, Janine White and Mark Dekker, I can’t really remember it, due to the drinks at the previous two establishments and the drinks we had there.

I do remember ordering way too much, another case of the eyes being larger than the stomach!

This is also one of my regular dinning establishments so the next review will be a bit more about the food.

Look after the kidneys!

I was told by my Chiro to look after the kidney’s and no coffee today. So breakfast and morning tea was Apples and Greenwood’s Bio-dynamic Pear juice, from the fruit shop on Brunswick Street.

After walking past it yesterday for lunch, the spot light was on Cavallero.

Cavallero had become an office legend, being a favourite of both mine and Melinda's, we had often talked about the food and drinks there. So it wasn’t hard to gather up a crew for lunch.

Melinda, Diana, Brett, Alex, Hamish and I made our way to Cavallero on Smith Street, it was a beautiful day, almost summer.

Arriving like usual suspects, we had to rearrange the furniture to suit our group as the booths were full, not long after ordering one had cleared out so we shuffled in.

I had the minute steak, the easiest way to describe it is as the rich cousin of the burger I had yesterday at Beelzebub. Where yesterday’s burger had iceberg lettuce, today’s had rocket and spinach. The sauce was nicer and the steak was quality and melt in the mouth.

Absolutely no order envy today, although the other dishes looked sublime.

Devil's food

I went out for lunch with Namita, Alex and Glen, we headed down to Smith Street and aimlessly wandered away from the City. They hadn't really been down that way to eat before, and due to my days working at Myretsu I had.

We wandered down, past the vegetarian places due to Alex's carnivore tendencies, down over Johnston and we were about to cross smith when I saw this sign with a devil cartoon on it. I'm not sure what it was but I suddenly had this urge to eat there. So with no objections, Cafe Beelzebub it was.

The menu on the window seem reasonable and the specials board with the $10 hamburger and drink sealed the deal. Interestingly enough we noticed a sign on the window stating that they made the best coffee on Smith Street! I felt challenge, I had always bought my coffees at Bebida Cafe, obviously what I considered to be the best coffee on Smith! We'll see.

The ambience was okay, the service was okay, the meal was good. We all ordered each of the 4 burgers types: beef, vegie, chicken and lamb. The burgers came out open and on a plate with nicely done chunky fries. The lettuce on the burgers was ice berg and when closed there appeared to be a lot of real estate on the plate.

The burgers were really good, very tasty and it was a good meal. Any concerns over size were allayed as the after meal feeling was of satisfaction, not of being over done.

Skipping Meals...

I know it’s bad, but sometimes it just happens. I got to work and due to a crisis with the mail server I didn’t have a chance to grab something to eat until lunch time. Thankfully a coffee can sometimes fill in for the odd meal. Children, don’t try this at home.

Lunch was a chicken and mushroom vol au vent from OqpO which was great, I had a pasta salad with it, which was fresh and good, but there was something that didn’t agree with my taste buds.

Dinner, well that didn’t really happen either, the crisis had decided to drag itself out all day and now it seems all night! Cripes, give me a break! Well a couple of Hoegaarden’s and I’m happy, can’t complain.

Pizza

Dinner was plain, simple and easy, I was in no state to cook or go out, so it was pizza on the couch at a friends place. From what I can remember it was a gourmet vegie pizza with anchovies and a garlic/herb pizza. I had an interesting aroma lingering around me for the rest of the evening.

Bubbles...

Well, I didn’t really have much for lunch, oh there was the hibiscus flower that had been soaked in syrup and then added to my glass of bubbles as decoration and flavouring. The flour looked a lot more appetising than the raspberries that I had bought along, oh well.

And yes, if you were wondering the bubbles went straight to my head!

I should hang my head in shame!

I was invited to a champagne cocktail party which started early. My friend Geoffrey that I was going with wasn’t finishing work until around 10:30 so we were going to be fashionably late. I was hoping everyone was going to be trashed before we got there, as bubbles can go straight to my head.

I managed to get up and out of the house by 9:30 again, this time, I headed for Smith Street to find some coffee and a bite to eat. I had a takeaway long black from Bebida, I had partaken of their coffee’s before so I knew I was safe. Finding something quick and easy to eat was going to be harder.

I popped into Safeway to grab a can of Raspberries to be added to sparkling to make it drinkable. There was nothing in there that tickled my fancy, so I kept going.

Now this is the part where I risk my credibility, I did something shameful, I ended up at McDonalds. Now if you are still here, let me explain myself. If I can… I ordered the Deli Delights (I’m sure a shite load of marketing research went into that name) bacon and eggs in a brown roll. I made sure I ordered brown as I knew I would have to explain it here and I was trying to lessen the shame. I must say that, I don’t think it was that unhealthy, well compared with what else was on the menu. Possibly if could have been better than the breakfast from yesterday, mainly due to the brown roll.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating the consumption of McD’s, but sometimes you need something convenient and I still have childhood memories of getting McDonalds on a Friday night as a treat. Aren’t we all trying to relive our childhoods?

The West

Well I used to be a resident of the West, I lived in Sunshine and in Melbourne that’s not really something that you want to bring up in conversation at a party.

For some reason, the west has a bad rap, it has a predominantly migrant population, compared to the whiter east. You can buy such a great variety of foods from markets and shops for such a reasonable price. As you would expect the shops cater to the local clientele and they might have smaller budgets, but they are also used to using such a variety of foods and often not what you would expect to be served in an ‘Australian’ meal.

Then there is Sunshine, I’m not sure why, but Sunshine has an even worse stigma, despite having such a lovely name. I moved into Sunshine temporarily as Jess had kindly offered a place to stay while I sorted my life out (see my other blog) and I ended up being there for 3 years. In that time, I feel that the stigma and reputation is unfairly earned.

It just so happens that I was in Sunshine for dinner. After spending the day moving the rest of my stuff out of Sunshine I ended up there for dinner and drinks. One of my favourite places to eat in Sunshine is New Delhi. As you might of guessed New Delhi is an Indian restaurant.

When I was living in Sunshine and riding a motorbike, I would often phone my order in as I was leaving work and pickup it up on the way through. My favourite dishes are the Dahl Maharani and the Eggplant dish that I can’t remember the name of… I just heard that the chef who opened the restaurant is from the Bombay Hilton (I’m guessing that it’s not at all like the Bangkok Hilton).

Tonight we had those dishes, but we also had the Chicken Korma. I’m not sure if it is because that was the last meal I will have in Sunshine in my old home, but it tasted fantastic, possibly the best Indian take away. The naan was even moorish, normally I get bored of it, but I couldn’t get enough.

If you find yourself in Sunshine, I wouldn’t eat anywhere else. Well actually there is Gold Leaf on Ballarat Road, I’ve heard that is quite nice. When I’m stuck for material, you’ll probably see a review of them.

Pineapples

I found myself wandering around Melbourne CBD early in the morning... See my other blog to see why... (Link to come when I've written the post).

I hadn't had a coffee yet and I was hungry...

After I'd dropped off my iPod to be repaired I was heading down Elizabeth Street toward Flinders Street Station, looking for somewhere palatable to eat.

Well I did find something and it definitely appeared more ‘loud’ than ‘palatable’. The Tropicana Juice/Food bar had thrown itself up all over the foot path as if Carmen Miranda’s hat had exploded … I must have walked past this shop a hundred times, the front is adorned with bags of Oranges and all the tables have whole Pineapples as centre pieces. The fruit all looks fresh so I’m guessing it doesn’t hang there too long.

I often wonder if this display fruit is consumed…? Do they use the shop front as a form of storage? I can imagine someone sitting at the table playing with the Pineapples or even worse poking something into them. And what’s with the oranges hanging up outside in the middle of the city, the fumes from all the cars, mixing and mingling with the fruit. Am I over analysing this? Well I hope the fruit is for display purposes only. Actually I’ll go in and ask them when I pick up my iPod. If it is display only then I’ll buy a juice, if they do use them, then I’m outta there!

What actually grabbed my attention was the sign advertising bacon and eggs on Turkish bread with a juice or coffee for $8. A reasonable priced brekky I thought and I am partial to eggs and I was dying for coffee.

The coffee was reasonable, I’ve gotten into the bad habit of sweetening my coffee so it makes bad coffee taste somewhat reasonable. But I did enjoy it.

There was a decent helping of bacon, which I know makes some people happy, I’m more interested in the eggs, they were okay, stuck together, but runny enough, thank god they weren’t hard, that wouldn’t have made me happy. The Turkish bread was toasted, I don’t think there was any butter on it, which made it a little dry but healthier and I was in that kind of mood so I think it was a successful breakfast choice.