Ora Cafe

I suffer from 'Ooh Shiny Thing!' (OST) syndrome. Terribly. When Brad and I go out, I am very much like a small child and anything yellow, shiny, new, or cute will catch my attention. Oohs, Aahs, "I need that in my life", "can you please get it for me", will usually ensue from me afterwards. Cue Brad sighing and dragging me away.

I am much like this with restaurants and cafes as well and will eagerly ogle new menus and attempt to pounce on places once they open. I know generally it is better to let places mature and settle into a rhythm, but my curiosity, always, gets the best of me (I am a Gemini).

So naturally, when I heard that Ora was opening up right in my hood (which is starved of good cafes and interesting breakfast spots), I had to get there. As soon as possible.

Ora resides on Pakington Street in Kew, where Ocha used to be based before it moved to it's new location in Hawthorn. Pakington Street is awesome for me, I regularly walk my dog to the area...so as mentioned, was very excited when I heard it was opening.

The cafe was set up by barista John Vroom, from Proud Mary and so therefore, of course, you would expect amazing coffee. Coffees are made on one of Australia's first La Marzocco "Strada" espresso machines, costing a nice, hefty investment of $25,000. Yowch! Shame this is lost on me since I don't drink coffee. Believe me, I would be jumping all over walls and bringing buildings down, I have plenty of energy as is!

So, with curiosity scratching away at my brain, I sauntered in to have a lunch for one (which I haven't done in a while). Ora's decor is a breath of fresh air to Ocha that used to be here, which used to be quite heavy and dark. Instead, the large front store window is utilized to it's fullest, with white, sparsely decorated walls just filling the space with light. For a small space, it was quite bright, breezy and comfortable.

I perched myself on the communal table (there was also the option of a counter by the window, or some tables for two), seated between two groups of older lunching ladies. So cute, I hope I'm still doing that when I'm 50...!

My soy chai latte was just perfection. But what else would you expect really? The milk was velvety and quite bright and warming with spices. Cinnamon really came through, with just the right amount of honey for sweetness. I absolutely downed this within a minute or two being placed in front of me...

I was extremely impressed with the menu. Short and concise, but with quite a twist from the norm. As I read off the menu to a friend later in the day, she commented on how European it sounded. No corn fritters or big breakfasts here. Instead, pancakes with hazelnut, pear, blueberries and...milk ice? How about salt cod on toast? Or a pea and bacon hash?

When I saw the fried duck egg, with black pudding, breakfast radish and parsley salad, I was sold. Black pudding? Hell yeah?!

I thought it was so cute how the egg yolk had a few flakes of salt over it. The presentation, even with the heavy and rather foreboding looking black pudding, was so bright and airy with the delicate shades of pink on the radish.

This was such a hearty and comforting combination. I couldn't really pick a noticeable difference with the duck egg, from a usual chicken egg, but the yolk was substantially bigger....and so perfectly runny. Y'all gotta know how much I love runny yolk. The black pudding had a bit of heat, kind of like what you would get if you ate curry, but not so strong. Was warming and incredibly rich with little dollops of fat dotted throughout it. However, the radish gave a nice little break from the richness of the yolk and the black pudding. And all this served on, seriously, perfectly toasted bread. Crunchy and crisp on the outside but fluffy throughout, so for those of you who don't like your toast crispy through and through, this is your place.

To finish my lunch for one, I had to try one of the chocolate and caramel macarons, which were just a wee tiny bite size. So cute!

After trying to bite into it, I found the shell a little too hard for the soft and melty caramel filling, resulting in a little tutu effect around the macaron shells. Kinda cute in a funny way.

Although maybe with a macaron this size, it's much better to just put it all in your mouth and have it at one go, which instead results in a bit of chewy goodness in your mouth instead. Not quite what one expects a macaron to be, but still, it's chocolate and caramel. Win.

For being freshly opened, Ora already feels like it's running quite smoothly, with friendly and hospitable staff, fresh and interesting food and well, perfectly frothed milk. I apologise I can't comment on the coffee, will have to bring Brad or mum along next time to get some insight...but as long as people don't start flooding it and make it impossible to get a table...I'm pretty sure I'll be back. Say hi if you pop by and see me walking by with Blackie!

Ora Cafe

156 Pakington Street

Kew 3101

A day trip to Florence

The wonderful thing about being in Tuscany is that the cities are all so relatively close to each other. Sienna is in one direction and Florence another. And Bologna too (but that's for a different blog post!).

Our original plan was to train from Figline Valdarno to Florence, and on the website, it looked like there was a train every 20 minutes or so....

...but then we got to the station and found out that we would have to wait an hour for the next train which would take double the amount of time for some reason. WHAT?!

So into the car it was!

It actually ended up working out extremely well, as Florence was only a 30 minute or so drive away, although it took a little time to actually get into the city since there was a myriad of one way streets and weird turns and streets that didn't go where you wanted them to. Driving around the towns in European country is lovely, but driving in the cities? Urgh.

We eventually found a carpark, which I think may have actually been the carpark for the train station and had surprisingly reasonable rates. 15 euro for a day? When you're travelling with 4 people, it calculates up pretty reasonably. So there you go, driving into Florence for the day is worth doing!

They have macarons in the McDonalds by the train station!

Being parked right by the train station is fantastic logistically. You're literally a 5 - 10 minute walk away from one of the main attractions, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore....or the Duomo.

With massive queues that snaked across the square the Duomo stood on, we didn't bother going in and just admired the white marbled mammoth of beauty from the outside instead. Much like the Duomo di Siena, there were trims of pink and green...although it was much, much bigger and slightly more worn down, but I suppose it's hard to keep something that big clean all the time.

Just beautiful though, I could spend all day just marvelling over the details and the structure and just the fact it was completed so many hundred of years ago, without any modern day technology. It is a wonder isn't it?

My dad joined the throngs of touristy looking Asians by taking pictures with his Samsung Galaxy Tab....I couldn't stop cracking up. Although to be fair, it did take some gorgeous pictures.

I can't remember where we stopped in for lunch randomly (because we were starving), but I think the name was something along the lines of David and Goliath or the little David cafe....but anyway. A perfectly portioned porcini risotto for my brother, who inhaled the dish down. Even in a little cafe tucked away on a street in Florence, where I thought the food might be a little more touristy, the risotto was still cooked perfectly with nice simple flavours.

Dad ordered some lasagne. Can't remember what it was like...

We had to have it somewhere! Prosciutto and melon, nice and refreshing on a fairy balmy day.

And for me? I can hardly go by an insalata caprese. Although this rendition was a bit lacking on the basil for me. And lacking on presentation, but the mozzarella was lovely!

I thought the little display in the window was so cute!

After lunch we wandered further into Florence to look at...ahem. Statues. Above is Neptune's lovely buttocks for your enjoyment.

I loved wandering around the statues here near the Galleria dell'Accademia, where the famous statue of David is housed, they were mostly of Gods or as the descriptions said, scenes of rape. The Europeans are a charming sort aren't they? So detailed and in still such amazing condition, I always especially like looking at the cloth folds that look so natural and even soft, although they are made of a much harder material.

Again, queues dominated the entryway into the Galleria dell'Accadmia, so we did not actually get a chance to see 'the' statue of David.

We walked all the way to Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge"...how original), which used to be full of butcher shops, but under the order of the Lord Mayor (I'm not sure when), he changed it into a street of gold and jewellery merchants, which certainly tempt as you stroll past them, with windows full of glittery shiny things...ooooooohh.

Near the Ponte Vecchio you can find a few chain railings which are filled to the brim with padlocks, which often have a couples name written on them. The tradition is by locking the padlock and throwing the key into the river, lovers can be eternally bonded.

Nawwwww.

We finished our afternoon by walking in and out of one of the cutest little leather shops on the other side of the Ponte Vecchio and every time we went in we bought more stuff. The leather work in Florence is just so gorgeous, everything in that little shop was made in Florence with leather from Florence. I fell in love with a bright, fluro green and pink wallet which I so nearly bought if I hadn't already bought a new wallet from the Prada outlet...but the workman ship...just beautiful!

And to finish up, expensive coffees (because we sat down and didn't stand), and a very refreshing iced tea.

Wait until my next Europe post, where I tell you about our homemade dinner by the Italian farmer who owns and runs the accommodation we stayed at...

Replete Providore

Food bloggers can be such a bad influence sometimes.

Or well, not sometimes, more like, all the time!

I already, on my own, have a big enough list of restaurants I want to visit, but of course constantly being in the twittersphere and blogsphere means I'm always exposed to even more places that I may not have thought of visiting or new places that might have just opened that I may not have heard of!

Terrible!

I went to high school right across from Replete Providore (yes I was a private school kid...), but in all my years of living 5-10 minutes away from the cafe, I had never visited. For some reason it never came about to my attention. Again, that argument that the grass always looks greener on the other side seems to crop up for me...

Until of course, twitter randomly got all excited about it, organizing bloggers to visit one Saturday morning.

I was unfortunately busy that Saturday and unable to go with them, but because all I could think about were trying their corn fritters that entire week as everyone raved on about how famously good they supposedly were, I decided to drag Brad with me that weekend and get in before everyone else. Haha!

Replete Providore is cute little corner building, playing the roles of cafe, caterer and food store, with a selection of cute jams, teas, take home salads and sweets available to buy and enjoy at home.

Which is just as well as it's a tiny little cafe, with a number of small tables, often filled with mother's and kids.

Brad and I managed to nab a nice little table by the window, which also happened to be right next to the shelf of products as well...hence no interior shots. Sorry!

Brad's latte and my chai latte. I really enjoyed the chai latte here, took a little bit of time to come out, but had a really nice tea base, with spices, rather than being a sweet powder. Not as spicy as some chai latte's I've had, but warming and comfortable.

Brad ordered the Replete vegetarian breakfast (he loves his big breakkie's...) with poached eggs, roasted tomato, field mushrooms a hash brown, spinach, baked beans and of course, some sourdough bread. I loved how bright and cheery the dish looked, the spinach was a lovely fresh looking colour.

The thing that really surprised me on his dish was the hash brown. I personally expect my hashbrowns to be grated potato, moulded together and fried, you know what I'm all talking about. But Replete's hash browns....are totally different. A perfectly thin and crisp exterior gives way to a soft, fluffy and absolutely delicious texture inside. So moreish. So, so so, moreish. Specks of pepper, or something similar provided a slight contrast in texture to the soft, almost mash-like potatoes. It's just as well they only give you a small portion or you would very likely just fill up on potatoes and not eat anything else...although that's not a bad idea either...

I'd definitely recommend ordering this on the side of whatever else you order...if it doesn't already come with it that is!

I on the other hand, went straight for the big guns and ordered the famous corn fritters. With the option of having them with smoked salmon, a poached egg and a tomato-chilli relish or instead with crispy Istra bacon, tomato and avocado salsa, chutney, sweet chilli and sour cream, I went for the latter.

Which so far has been one of the better decisions I have ever made in my life.

Maybe exaggerating a tiny bit, but with good reason. These corn fritters have every reason to be famous and well known. Two corn fritters, both almost the size of the plate, had an absolutely deliciously corny (hurr hurr) flavour to them. Although not completely packed out with corn, I think the fritters must have been bound with corn flour or maybe they blended corn into the mix...(look, I don't cook, I'm trying my best here to suss it out) as they were a beautiful yellow colour through and through, with a touch of herbs. Seasoned so well. The texture was almost more akin to a cake!

The bacon was also just beautiful, they had a mix of lovely meaty strips and some thinner, crunchier ones, perfect for that touch of saltiness. The sweet chilli lovingly and generously drizzled was such a beautiful touch, giving that perfect mix of sweet but still savoury. It somehow makes me think of mexico. Or something. Must be the avocado (guacamole etc. etc.).

Gosh, I just fell in love with the whole combination. It was just magic. MAGIC. I want to explain more, but you'll really just have to taste it to believe it. I mean, doesn't it just look beautiful?

So filling it was though, I actually couldn't stomach all of it! Brad berated me for being a bad food blogger. Boo.

I have actually returned since and, against generic blogger rules, re-ordered the fritters, this time without camera in tow and on a weekday. I found that my fritters were a little smaller than I expected and the bacon not as well cooked as last time, but the flavour profile was still there. Although I sadly completely demolished my fritters a lot faster than I did previously.

So maybe a slight consistency issue there, but I would come back any day for this mix. I might consider getting the combination with salmon next time....but the bacon and sour cream is too much to go past I think and has already completely and totally won my heart over.

Replete Providore

302 Barkers Rd

Hawthorn, 3122