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Thursday being the first day of blue skies and sunshine Melbourne had had in a while, my mother was about to hop off for coffee with the neighbour and since I had spent the whole past two days curled up at home in front of my computer working. Not the worst of working conditions I suppose, but a bit of fresh air and some different surroundings is always appreciated right?
The main reason we ended up at Abbotsford Convent for coffee was so that my neighbour and my mum could make use of the entertainment vouchers to get two bags of coffee for the price of one! I think a 1kg bag of coffee is usually $19....so 1kg for $10? Who's to complain?
Whilst I can't comment on the coffee itself, I did order a chai latte, which did underwhelm me quite a bit. The milk wasn't frothed well, being quite bubbly, giving it a not so pleasant texture and the chai itself was interesting, not quite sweet but not quite spicy either.
May just end up going back for beer next time...
The biccies are always quite good here and we were also given a sample of the kamut bread, which was a beautiful heavy bread, with a great nutty flavour.
I noticed on a board that they now have spelt pizza bases, so I'm expecting to drag Brad along to try it out with me sometime....watch this space!
As I have said before, Hardware Societe is possibly my favourite cafe in Melbourne, Will and Di are two of the loveliest people you'll ever meet and the food is always impeccable. I love that the menu is changed quite frequently to update what produce is in season, which means the food is always fresh, colourful and exciting, which also keeps me coming back to try out new things!
So I popped by twice last week and took some pretty photos so I thought I'd share what some of the delicious offerings from Hardware Societe are at the moment.
I decided to take my grandmother and her sister out for lunch to the city on Monday, so to Hardware Societe we went. They had no idea what to order, as they tend to get a bit daunted in anything that isn't a Chinese or Malaysian restaurant and gave me the reins to order.
I got my aunt the special of the day which was a beautiful looking Spanish fish stew, overloaded with scallops, fish, mussels and potatoes. My grand aunt generously squeezed the lemon and proceeded to finish every single bite, which surprised me as she's usually a fairly small eater! She commented on how tasty and well cooked the fish was.
My grandmother got the pork shoulder with couscous, again, she also cleared her plate quite happily, and although didn't know at all what the couscous was initially, commented on how yummy it was. The pork shoulder itself was quite delicious and not too tough.
I got the chicken stew, which was so beautifully seasoned (again, both my relatives who are passionate cooks themselves commented on this), it was tender, fell off the bone and was delightfully nutty in flavour and texture from the sauce that covered it. I can completely understand why Di said it was popular!
My second visit was on Friday, as on Thursday night it was tweeted that new macaron flavours were in and I for one, cannot resist macarons. Especially when they are from Hardware Societe!
I wandered on in early at about 11:50am (the place was packed by 12:20!), as I had just gone to the gym and was starving.
This time I decided to get the poached salmon with saffron cream and roasted fennel. I have always loved the poached salmon dishes from here, this was no exception, a beautiful pink on the inside and a sinfully crispy skin. The saffron cream was also absolutely delicious, I soaked up every bit of it with the salmon and fennel!
Then of course, to end my meal, the macarons. I was shocked when the white chocolate and pistachio and the strawberry, lychee and vanilla macarons were placed in front of me. They were HUGE!
And very very sinful! They were both light, beautiful in texture and had such interesting flavours, familiar with the strawberry and pistachio, but with that little something extra. The strawberry in particular, really had a beautiful sweet lychee bite, which balanced out the tartness of the strawberry perfectly!
They are now baking macarons just about every night to keep up with the demand, so get in early to make sure you get your fix before they sell out!
Hardware Societe120 Hardware St Melbourne, 3000
I honestly think I possibly have the most difficult time deciding where I want to eat, if I want to try something new and I'm alone. There's always the temptation to sneak back off to a regular haunt that I'm comfortable with and there are certainly always places, but sometimes I want to save them to go with other people. The more the merrier right?
This was another one of those days in the city, where I'm idling about, indecisive, unsure. When while strolling down Hardware St I spy out of the corner of my eye a tiny little doorway....
And find a contemporary and surprisingly spacious Japanese restaurant. At 12:30 or so, the place was exceedingly quiet, with just one other table when I went in and with the place being so big, it was quite noticeable.
Regardless, the waitresses were warm, accommodating and allowed me to sit wherever I wanted, so off to the window I went and popped myself down so I could quietly observe the people wandering by.
As the name suggests, Eat Drink Bento, does bento boxes with one page on the menu dedicated to lunch bento's, which I decided to stick to. Seeing as it was, y'know, lunch and all.
I decided to get a chai latte as I had been terribly, terribly, terribly craving one, but what was I thinking really. Chai at a Japanese restaurant? Basically, stick with the Japanese are good at and maybe get a tea, the chai had no flavour to it and was all milk. Although to it's credit it was frothed very well.
All the bento's came with a salad, choice of steamed rice or cold soba noodles, miso soup and dessert, a fair smorgasbord!
Nothing like a hot, steaming miso soup on a miserable day...
I decided to get the sashimi bento, with a nice little handful of tuna, salmon and another type of fish...Overall the sashimi was good, fresh and tender, although a few of the tuna slices had a little more...I'm not sure what the word is, in beef I would say tendon, but I'm not quite sure what it's called in fish! It did make it a little chewy at bits, but otherwise, enjoyable.
The soba was springy and refreshing, the salad too. Refreshing that is, not springy! I also couldn't help but try on of the gyoza that was served on top. The skin was light and thin, and hardly oily making it quite a treat.
The dessert was a slice of dense chocolate cake, which I only got two bites out of as I was filling up quite a bit and it didn't help the cake was so rich!
For $19.50 (some of the other bentos were a bit cheaper, depending on what you got), I suppose you can get slightly cheaper bentos in the city, but overall (other than a few bits of tuna) the food was good and fresh, felt healthy and was really quite filling, so the value was there. And the service was just impeccable, even as quiet as this lunch service looked to be, waitresses were beaming, polite and even helped pour out the soy sauce over my wasabi.
Just don't get the chai.
I do hate on a Sunday that when I go down to the city, all the cute cafes and restaurants that I would like to go to are well, closed. It's totally understandable, but...it doesn't really help me!
So this was one of those Sundays I found myself down in the city, stuck between some sunny weather and some downpours, wondering where to have a quiet lunch by myself before meeting up with a friend.
After much uhm-ing, aah-ing and wandering around Collins St and Flinders Lane, I ended up consulting my 'Cheap Eats' application which took me down to Centre Place and in front of Jungle Juice.
I didn't go in straightaway as I tend to be much shyer about approaching new, unfamiliar places alone. Curiosity is both a curse and a gift though as it got the best of me and I squeezed into the tiny little space.
Unsure of who to approach first, as there was no real distinction between who worked there and who didn't, I stood in the lil doorway like the un-hipster person I was until someone smiled at me and helped me get into my cosy little table in the corner.
Jungle Juice is, as described above, a tiny little place, with a about 6 to 8 tables squeezed in and everyone shuffling and squeezing their way around. A lively combination of music, chosen from an iPod hanging by the cashier, is played quite loudly, making me think I was in a bit of a jungle.
The menu is a rehashed children's storybook, always nice to see these being reused, one way or another!
Whilst not on the menu, I did spy a few tables with these hearty looking bowls, so inquired after what soup they might have and this lovely, piping hot lentil soup was put in front of me. It was the perfect thing as the rain poured outside, being exceptionally peppery, giving it a nice spicy warmth as it went down the throat. There was a bagel also served on the side, which was toasted perfectly and I certainly couldn't resist having a bite.
I also decided to be odd and mix up my beautiful hot soup with a banana lassi. Which actually wasn't as cold as I expected to be, since they apparently didn't have any ice that day, but it was very yoghurty and quite thick. I was trying not to finish because I getting quite full, but it was so satisfying that I kept going at it!
I was exceptionally full by the time I finished, but feeling quite warm and glowing, full of good, healthy food.
Jungle Juice was fun and lively and even though it was, I was still able to curl up in the corner with the music pumping and devour my fantasy novel. Not a place I would frequent a lot, it's not so much 'my type' of cafe, but still very enjoyable and I'm quite intrigued at what other sorts of food that tiny little place can put out!
Jungle Juice20 Centre Place Melbourne, 3000
Do you reckon Grumpy is green? Or the green belongs to Grumpy?
Either way, Grumpy is a environmentally friendly bloke, and likes to keep his carbon footprint as small as possible. His menu is entirely vegetarian, with all ingredients originating from Victoria and whilst he doesn't promise it, he tries to be organic. When it comes beer and wine, he's got a generous collection, again all from Victoria (without a VB in sight!). I was quite amazed scanning through the list, I didn't realise how spoilt we were for microbreweries!
I had read about Grumpy's years ago, but for some reason I suppose since it tends to stay a little low on the radar, I hadn't thought of the place until I randomly saw it on urbanspoon and thought it looked awfully familiar...
I essentially decided the next day Brad and I were going to have lunch there.
Grumpy's is definitely a pub, humble and unpretentious from the outside, it's dark, but cosy, with space for a spot of live music and a nice little mezzanine area littered with well loved couches.
Which is where we decided to settle down and stay warm after we ordered our food and drink from the bar. I got the coldstream cider, which is beautiful, rich and sweet. Not to mention fairly alcoholic at 7%.
The food took a little bit to get to us, but was brought up apologetically, being informed that their kitchen got flooded! Poor things.
The food still came out lovingly warm though! I decided to go with the GLUTEN FREE (yey!) roasted vegetable focaccia with feta and pesto. My first thought upon seeing it, was, well, that's a lot of bread. I think I could live with a little less bread, but the vegetables were warm and quite teasty. The fetta was quite strong for those who may not like it, but I'm all about the cheese. Still, I couldn't help but feel that in the bread vs. vegetable ratio, the vegetables might've been a tiny bit stingy...or it might just be case of visual trickery since the bread was quite substantial...
Brad couldn't help be intrigued by, and went with the crumbed eggplant parmigiana served with handcut chips. That's right, no meat here remember? I only had a small bite of the eggplant parma but it was soft and very lightly crumbed giving it a nice texture. The chips were thick, chunky and good.
Although we really didn't need to get them (I was SO full!), we also got a side of stuffed button mushrooms with a Parmesan crust. They were served in the most charming ceramic bowl with a lid to keep them nice and toasty. When that lid was opened though, oh the cheese, it smelled like a fondue fest. Delicious. If there was stuffing I didn't really taste it, but the combination of mushroom and warm cheese was just so immensely satisfying as the rain continued to fall outside that I was still perfectly content.
I reckon Grumpy does green quite well, I'm quite curious to come back and try some of the other share dishes, maybe swing by one of these evenings and see how Grumpy might think to entertain me, they apparently have trivia on Wednesday night's which sound like awful fun and well, I'm kinda hooked on that Coldstream apple cider....
125 Smith St Collingwood, 3066
I will admit Richmond is not my favourite haunt (although I was just there last week at The Aviary...), because I'm a bit of a fail Asian. I don't usually like going out to eat noodles and rice dishes, unless it's an una-don...
However, I will go down with my family for good authentic Vietnamese or Chinese food. Especially when my dad's home, since his tastes are directly opposite mine and that's all he'll ever go out for when he's back in Melbourne.
It was one of the coldest days in Melbourne, since I had gotten back from America, so the thought of a piping hot quick meal was certainly enticing.
Now I really don't know what all these dishes are properly called as my mother did all the ordering, as I normally let my parents do when we eat out at family style Asian restaurants. (I always tend to 'man' the menu when it comes to other places).
One thing I did request for though, were some fresh rice paper rolls, we opted for the prawn ones. They were indeed, crisp and very refreshing, the bite of the spring rolls popping through. The rolls were served with a plum sauce, I was hoping for a peanut one, but the freshness of the roll stopped the plum sauce from being too cumbersome.
Naturally, on a cold day, one has a good hot soupy noodle. My mum spied this on the table next to us and decided to order two for the table, soy braised duck with egg noodles. Whilst I did not try the noodles myself, the duck and the broth were delicious. The noodles according to my mum were slightly al dente and not too soggy at all, giving it a nice texture.
While we're at it why not two soupy things? Again, no dumplings for me, but it did look very tempting, steam arising from the brother...
Some saute vegetables with fishcake. The fishcake was really tasty, with a light, fluffy texture. My mother tells me this is achieved by putting the fishcakes through really, really, really hot oil, which you can't really do at home! So whilst not the healthiest of things, once in a while it is quite a treat.
And as if we didn't have enough food already, a plate of salt and pepper white bait appeared on our table. The white bait was fried in a batter, which I personally found a bit thick, but at the least it was crunchy and certainly salty.
All in all, Vinh Ky is budget friendly, with incredibly quick (our food came out within minutes), hearty Chinese/Vietnamese food.
Vinh Ky114 Victoria St Richmond, 3121
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