Josie Bones

Generally I find, when I go out for meals, I don't usually go too heavy on meat. I tend to order more vegetarian dishes or fish meals, partially because I don't think it's too hard to have a good piece of meat at home and because I'm a girl and vegetarian or fish dishes always sound a tinier bit lighter and healthier.

However. I am a massive sucker for offal. I think I partially like being able to gross out some people I know with the stuff I eat, but I actually do enjoy all the funny bits and pieces. I find that they're often quite tender pieces of animal and sometimes richer in flavour.

So you know, Josie Bone's menu was just calling out to me.

My short little 50mm lens failed to capture the lovingly painted...naked...(?) rabbit on the wall behind the bar, which may be confronting to some, but is pretty neat to me. They're not going to dance around the bush here, they're not hoity-toity in the least, they'll serve you meat and you'll enjoy it or you won't.

Brad and I sat by the bar, which I always enjoy doing, but Josie Bones, decked out in Melbourne's favourite shade, black, is cosy and intimate. A long table for those bigger groups towards the back and tall tables to neatly fit groups of 4.

I have never seen a thicker beer menu. Ever. I was suitably impressed. Whilst the barmen came over to offer their advice and said we could ask them for suggestions and the such, I was determined to get through the menu. Which took a while. And then choosing....well that took even longer.

I ended up declaring to Brad, "I want a German beer", saw the Franzishaner on the list, remember having it back in Dusseldorf and went for it. Ah. Every drop of it was gorgeous. I'm sorry guys, but the Australian's just don't do it like the Germans do.

Brad got something on tap, I forget what. All that is important for you to know is that his glass was smaller than mine, making me the bigger beer man between the two of us.

After our serving of bread (which I did not eat, so cannot comment), we decided to start off with a spot of crackling. Now I'm used to having gorgeously crunchy pork skin from many a roast pork belly made at home or in a restaurant, but nothing like this. This was hard and conversation-halting-crunchy. I got the biggest kick out of just sitting there having a stare off with Brad as our chewing and crunching filled the talking space. A little bit salty, a little bit fatty, hardly oily, it was a just a hint of what we would be presented with later...

Oh it has been far too long...crispy school prawns with lemon aioli and lime. The last time I recall having prawns like this would have been back in Cumulus Inc which would have been well over a year ago. What am I depriving myself of?! I loved the novelty of the prawns being served in the paper cone, quite whimsy.

These were a little on the larger side than what I was expecting, not as crispy as I would like, but there was still enough to satisfy me. They were quite tasty and I'm pretty sure I must have been shovelling these down my throat. I was though, a tad disappointed with the aioli, whilst creamy, a bit lacking in flavour, it wasn't really lemony or garlicky enough for me.

The honey-roasted sweet corn salad with black olive and chorizo dressing was a blessing of a dish in between everything that was fried or deep-fried. It was light and refreshing, I found it extremely palate cleansing when I found the pork dishes (coming up in a moment) got too heavy and fatty for me. I'm used to having chorizo simply just sliced like a coin in salads, but it was quite fine here, which made it nice and subtle, adding a hint of spice and warmth, but not overwhelming the beautifully sweet corn.

Definitely one of my favourite dishes, quite a stand out.

Crumbed pig ear with wild pine mushrooms, pickled beetroot stems and rocket. And here comes the offal! Not exactly what I was expecting my pig ears to look like, but I find it intriguing and quite clever that they've managed to present it in a way that's almost totally not confrontational. I was explaining to my friends that they were kinda like...fish fingers.

The pig ears were crumbed nicely, not really a crunch, but they were tender. To be honest though, what really caught my attention, were the beautiful mushrooms and beetroot. So flavoursome!

Oh this just had to come out last didn't it? Rolled pigs head with sauce gribiche and crackling. It was this or the black pudding dish, but we opted to try something different. When it came out, we were told to make sure we ate it that we had a bit of the fat, a bit of the meat and a bit of sauce all in one mouthful.

Phowar. This thing was intense. It is everything you want and need in your life when you are quite drunk I think. This dish is not for the faint hearted. This dish is not for the people who are constantly on diets and cut off the large blobs of fat from their lamb chops or pork belly. This dish is not for people who like their meat lean. The fattiness of it...just amazing and mouth watering, so rich that it just almost melted into the meat as you put the two in your mouth. The sauce added fire to oil, again, just rich and dressed beautifully with herbs.

Why is everything bad for your body absolutely freaking delicious?

Brad and I very much enjoyed our laid back night. Casual, unpretentious, friendly. It took a little bit of time to get someone's attention to get our bill, but otherwise, everything came out fairly quickly and all our requests were entertained promptly.

I do very much enjoy the atmosphere and ambience, although I don't think I would want to be here on a very busy night. There's something about being lazy with beer that just works.

Josie Bones

98 Smith Street

Collingwood, 3066

Barcelona - Sagrada Familia...and more food.

So in this post, I'm so Hungree will transform briefly into a travel blog, as I marvel over one of the most amazing monuments in Barcelona, in so many ways, before returning to food halfway through.

Please don't leave me!

On our second night in Barcelona, after devouring our juicy juicy lobsters (which you can find in this post) at the apartment we stayed in, since it was still relatively early, we decided to take the metro down to the amazing Sagrada Familia. I had been reading somewhere that at night the church looked like it was made of bones, so we were curious to investigate.

Breath taking isn't it? We decided we had to visit the next day and as visiting hours started at 9am, we made our way over and got there at about 8:30am.

This was the queue already at 8:30am. It wrapped a lot further down the block by the time 9am struck. It's a little bit ridiculous and we felt lucky we managed to get in by 9:15am. I know, a 45 minute wait, reasonable? What is going on? I only loathe to think what it's like waiting outside Sagrada in peak travelling periods, the long line, the heat, the humidity....sounds kinda gross.

Before I continue, Sagrada Familia, what is it? Who made it? Why should I care?

I find when it comes to travelling, I always find, even if you see something in a photo and think 'oh yeah, that's pretty cool', it is always about 20 times more mind blowing to see it in person. I remember distinctly having this feeling seeing the Trevi fountain in Rome for the first time and when I saw the Dom in Cologne, in Germany. And I had it again here, in Barcelona.

I am also one of those people who don't usually care too much for tours, I mean, you're usually running around like a sheep herd, and when you're in a popular tourist place with twenty million other people running around, you usually can't hear your heavily accented tour guide anyway.

However, at the Sagrada, the audio guide is totally worth it. Commentary right into your ears, in perfectly spoken English. There is just SO much to learn at this amazing place.

The "Bascilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia" is a large Roman Catholic (why do they get all the pretty things?) designed by the incredibly famous (and amazing) Catalan architect, Gaudi. The church is actually also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Construction on the church started in 1852 and until today, is still uncompleted and although the current estimated completion year is 2030, it is actually projected it will take longer still! The church's location is the same distance to the ocean, and to the mountains. A cute small detail, in the 'Nativity Facade' there are two columns, both with turtles/tortoises at the bottom, which represent permanence. The column closer to the ocean has a turtle at the bottom, the one closer to the mountains has a tortoise. The things the audio guide will teach you....

Gaudi's inspiration was always taken from nature, in the church, there is a little exhibition on Gaudi's connection with nature and I remember one of his quips being along the lines of "...a standing man who is relaxed is never straight, so none of the columns are straight or it would be too tired..." (I know I'm terribly off, but it was something like that!) He also noted this observation in trees. So simple, yet so profound!

The first thing we did when we went into the church, was to line up to go up the elevators to the spires, before the queues built up.

It was glorious, being able to stand behind one of my favourite features of the Sagrada 'The Tree of Life' which was somehow this amazingly vibrant green! Mum and I kept scratching our heads over how they could have painted or what they would have painted it with.

Normally I don't have too much of an issue with heights, but let me tell you guys, we were high ups. My knees were doing the ol' jelly jelly on me.

There was a beautiful view of Barcelona though and it was an interesting walk back down the spire stairs which were quite narrow and steep. You have to wonder how people could really just hike up and down them back in the day!

Some photos of the interior of the church, it is so big. You feel so small and insignificant in it, even when there are thousands of tourists all around you. The feel as if you're in some magical forest, the ceiling mimicking the branches of trees and creating a canopy, the reflections from the many, massive, stained glass windows, gently filtering coloured light and creating ambience.

The audio guide had so much stuff to say about how the inside was designed, everything has been considered, it's quite amazing. And it's still quite not yet finished.

The main entrance, the exterior is to become the "Glory Facade", is actually totally incomplete! Inside it still looks very white, as they have yet to put in the stained glass windows on this side of the church, but there's still something very calming about the white minimalist look to it all. You would almost think it was intentional!

This is the side that you enter the church in first, it is called the 'Passion Facade' and the statues outside dictate the story of Jesus's resurrection. It is interesting how 'cold' the statues feel, hard and angular. But then you go to the other side of the church...

And you come across the the "Nativity Facade", when Gaudi died, he only really saw completion of about a quarter, or maybe even less, of the church completed, but he did manage to finish just about all of this facade. Personally, I am smitten with it.

The 'Nativity Facade' has statues dictating the story of Jesus's birth and childhood, you can almost feel the joy from the stone as it somehow comes to life. It's amazing, but the stone and rock almost look like it's organic, as if the forms, the leaves, the people, the animals are all actually growing out of it. Mum always marvelled at how lifelike and animated the animal statues were, they really looked like they were running. A little eerie in a way, but just so beautiful.

After many hours at the Sagrada, it was back to the La Boqueria for lunch (yes we were in love...)

We stopped by at a cute little seafood place Dad had seen previously, so blue and nautical!

I can't remember what these were.

Calamari rings, although the colour is beautiful, they were hardly as crunchy or crispy as they should have been really. And dad had been so enamoured by them....

Potato 'bravas', a tapas style dish that you could find all over the place. And my gosh, with good reason, simple but just so moorish. I remember ordering it at Entre Tapas Y Vino in Melbourne and being disappointed, but I could now see at least what they were trying to get at after having it in Barcelona. It wasn't super crunchy, but there was just the slightest crisp, and with some texture on the inside. Hard to explain. But delicious when you get it.

I'm not sure what you guys would all call this, but I usually call them 'bamboo clams' or mum sometimes say 'the royal scroll'. They were pretty tasty, but unfortunately quite sandy!

More amazing hot chocolate....the guy who runs the store is usually a bit stoic in the face, but smiled a little when he saw us again.

When we had been at the market the previous day, we had passed this stall, but the owner was still setting up, so we didn't pay him too much mind. Today, his store was surrounded with tourists as he happily sung to himself and made funny little whistling noises as he made his crepes. It was like watching a cartoon! He made sweet crepes and lots of savoury ones, which seemed to be selling especially well, mushroom, caprese...all sorts of interesting combinations I hadn't seen!

I couldn't help but watch as he made one after another with my camera, he noticed me as well, commented on my hair and asked where we were from. Totally charming!

So I naturally had to order something......covered in nutella with bananas.

So hot and fresh it was steaming up mum's glasses! It was absolutely chock-a-block full of nutella goodness. Hello waistline!

And we finished our last day in Barcelona with a paella. What could be better?

Green Refectory

I popped into Green Refectory after sending a quick twitter 'SOS GIVE ME A RECOMMENDATION FOR BRUNSWICK', which received a swift response from Linda.

I did have other places in Brunswick I was interested in visiting, but couldn't make up my mind on where I wanted to go (the agony of choice)!

When I went looking for the place, I think I must have driven by it accidentally 3 or 4 times, it's so small and unsuspecting from the outside!

Upon stepping inside, it was quite crowded, with many people waiting around for coffee or a takeaway lunch. The front area of the cafe was very cosy, the counter and it's array of wraps, salads and cakes on display, taking up a bulk of the space, leaving room for a scattering of small mis-matched tables and chairs. Out back, albeit a bit darker, there was much more room and some bigger, heavier wooden tables.

I perched myself on a table right by the window and ordered myself a chai latte, which was quite pleasant. Nothing mind blowing, but nothing to complain about either.

And then I got my gluten free (hoorah!) french toast, with poached pear and yoghurt. Normally I would go for an egg dish, but I wasn't feeling incredibly hungry, but since I was in Brunswick, I wanted to try out somewhere (since it's not usually my part of town).

I personally found the dish a little bit lacking. I didn't really like that the french toast was sitting in a bath of pear juices from the poached pair, as it kind of just made the toast a bit waterlogged and killed off the eggy goodness it should have. I did like the tartness of the yoghurt with the perfectly poached pear though, it sliced through so easily and was so supple and sweet.

So, the french toast here, not quite my cup of tea, although I am comparing it to my last french toast encounter which was at Huxtable when they still did breakfast....and was to die for. I'm not writing the place off at all though as I spied delicious looking wraps, eggs and salads going out left, right and centre. I also really liked the carefree vibe as well, which I suppose would be expected of many a place along Sydney Road, all the same it was quite relaxing.

I definitely plan to come back and give the place another go, try something a little more savory and sink my teeth into one of the gluten free cakes I was eagerly eating wit my eyes while paying for my toast.

Green Refectory

115 Sydney Rd

Brunswick, 3056