Friday, April 27, 2012

Hobba


I'm browsing the breakfast goodies menu. 

"I think I'm kinda in the mood for museli."

Brad looks at me incredulously.

"Museli?!" 

You'll have to understand. This is the Sunday morning after the Thursday where we had huge bowls of pasta at mine, a giant dinner at Chez Olivier for our anniversary on the Friday, and more breakfast and goodies on the Saturday. 

I was on the verge of being 'food-ed' out! 

I know. The thought is just atrocious! 


I was honestly kinda surprised we still made our way out to Hobba Coffee and Kitchen, where I've had a chai or an ice chocolate now and again, but not had the opportunity to try the food. But then again, it was Sunday, and a Sunday morning is not complete without that little ritual. 

I do love it.


I've heard reports from a friend that lives nearby that Hobba is often ridiculously busy on the weekends, but again, Brad and I showed up with our magic timing and we barely had to wait 5 minutes until we were seated in a little booth. 



Hobba kind of feels like a pop up shop, in the sense that the walls, tables and booths look like they could be folded away neatly into flat packs. It's pretty cute if you ask me. I love how big and bright the space is too, with little touches of freshness. 


I also love that 'Prahran Platers' neon sign. It's so cute!



Drinks were pleasant, I was quite amused by the shiny shiny teapot my chai latte came in. Just like the ones at Auction Rooms. Shiny. I'm so easily entertained. 


It took a while to decide what to order. As preluded to earlier in this post, I was stuck between being good to my body with museli, or caving into my lust for poached egg, polenta, black pudding, smoked kaiser, tomato kasundi and breakfast radish.



I guess you can figure out what won. Was kind of hard not to go past black pudding.  The poached egg was cooked at 60-degrees, which ensured a translucence in the egg white, and a bit of wobble, which was quite cute. And quite entertaining. I love doing stupid things that make Brad look at me and sigh in disbelief. 

I do think it's good that they do inform you how their eggs are cooked, as I can see why the 60-degree thing might not be for everyone. And although I do like having a little bit of white to actually bite through, I'm certainly not against this though. You get such beautiful yolks!


Polenta's such a wonderfully versatile ingredient, from the polenta frites I had at Morris Jones the morning before, at Hobba it was soft and creamy. This was perfect for mixing in with the runny yolk, the black pudding which fell to pieces and didn't have too much bite. Very happy Ashley. Very happy.



Brad went with the Hobba breakfast, with 60-degree poached eggs, tomato, bacon, mushroom, cumberland sausage, sourdough and chutney. While slightly devoid of colour, especially when sitting across from my plate, it did it's job of filling him up. And the eggs were quite lovely. 


Whilst we were eating we did notice the crowd continue to build. Hobba was definitely a bustling place the whole time we were there. Staff were quite keen to take our coffee cups from us when they thought they were almost empty, but politely had to leave them when we pointed out the wee bit that was still left. Understandably though, they're probably just cutting down on cleaning up time later, so that they can sit people faster!

I like Hobba, the food is easy, comforting and approachable, drinks are likeable and the space is friendly. 

Maybe I'll get to try that museli one day….


428 Malvern Road




PrahranVIC 3181

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