Fifteen Pounds

Anyone else been looking at property recently? Although Brad and I haven’t been completely immersed in it, we’ve been relatively active since the start of the year on the real estate websites checking out what’s around and educating ourselves on pricing.

Regardless if you or you haven’t, I’m sure we can all agree…property prices are kind of ridiculous. And Brad and I aren’t even looking at houses! We can only really afford an apartment at the moment…maybe….

In looking at property, we wound up in Fairfield one weekend, bringing mum out to look at an apartment we were relatively interested in, before trialling out the neighbourhood and grabbing brunch at a nearby cafe. 

Fifteen Pounds is somewhere I would be more than happy to end up most weekends. They were fully pumping inside, but the sun was out and we were comfortable out front. Good looking coffee, and deeply coloured and rich chai latte which I loved. 

But man, the food. The food I was surprisingly impressed by, more than I thought. It’s all the things I’m familiar with, but just bursting with flavour but also so comforting. 

Brad got the baked beans with poached eggs, which had the sweetness of the tomato but was also beautifully seasoned to have a lot of depth in flavour. Hearty, and not just one note flavour (as tomato based things can do). 

Mum and I got the mushrooms to share, with grilled, roasted, dehydrated and fresh mushrooms with pickled zucchini, poached eggs, dill, celeriac and truffle puree. 

Seriously. What magic was this? I loved the variety of mushrooms, and again, the unexpected complexity of flavour. The dehydrated mushroom was potent with umami, really raising the flavour of all the other mushrooms. It was just all so delightfully moreish. 

So we didn’t get the apartment this time around, but would it be wrong to start looking specifically for apartments around certain cafes…? 

Fifteen Pounds
21-23 Railway Place
Fairfield 

 

Harvest Food Store

As a blogger, it’s definitely easy to get caught up in the hospitality hype of Melbourne. But the longer you do it, the more you want to find the unexplored little treasures, that aren’t given as much love as they should and, more importantly, where you don’t have to wait for half an hour in line to get a seat for breakfast. 

As we had plans to check out the Truffle Festival that passed last month, I searched for breakfast options in Fairfield and stumbled upon the Harvest Food Store which looked cute and had a menu that read deliciously. 

Easy done.

Parking was pretty easy, and best of all? No wait for seat and a quiet environment to chit chat. 

I’ve actually been to the store before, it used to be called Organic Gertrude, but in 2014 they gave the place a facelift and rebranded as Harvest Organic Food Store…and I like what they’ve done to the place! The cafe seating had been moved from the back of the store to the front, and the space generally brightened and lightened with a minimal and simple use of timber…and the cutest and biggest pumpkin as a centre piece that I ever did see!

Chai was warming and delicious, especially with generous amounts of honey swirled in. 

The breakfast menu is small, but has plenty of enticing options. Brad opted for the okonomiyaki Japanese pancaked topped with a pickled vegetable salad, crispy nori, aioli and umami sauce. He also added an egg for a bit of protein. 

I simply adored how bright and colourful the dish was, stacked high with pickled vegetables and just oh so delicious. I love okonomiyaki, and really why shouldn’t we have it for breakfast? It’s just a lettuce pancake! It also smelt amazing, the umami sauce wafting over the table to me…yum!

I’ve been trying to wean myself off sweeter breakfasts, pancakes, waffles, muesli and granola and getting back on the protein train. 

However when I saw the gluten free symbol next to the pumpkin waffles with maple syrup, coconut yoghurt, toasted pepitas and ginger spiced pear…well how could I resist? 

This was delicious. The waffles were incredibly fluffy, with a touch of savouriness from the pumpkin. The coconut yoghurt was so light as well, delicately bringing the sweet coconut flavour to the plate. It’s a bit of a light breakfast, but if you’re just looking for something sweet to nibble on, this is just the thing you’d need. Definitely happy to return for this! 

A great little chilled out spot for breakfast, with a small but pretty banging little menu and a one stop shop to buy all your organic needs as well. It’s definitely tempting to drop some dollars on tea, peanut butter and snacks…Brad had to keep giving me the eye to keep me under control!  

Harvest Food Store 

108 Station Street

Fairfield