30 August 2013

Breakfast:

Overnight chilled oats w/cinnamon, strawberries & green kiwifruit pieces
(Nothing like oatmeal after a run!)

Brunch from Beatrix, North Melbourne, Australia:

Chocolate brownie w/walnuts sample
(This place is lovely! Tiny but lovely. And a bit overpriced, but super filling. So I guess it's worth it. The staff told me to take as much as I wanted, but I always feel like they're judging me when they say that. Anyway, maybe my piece was too little, but I wasn't a big fan of this brownie. I liked the bitterness of the chocolate and  crunchy nuts, but that was about it. It reminded me of Central American chocolate bars, how the granulated sugar isn't always completely mixed in so you get this gritty texture. The brownie was moist, but on the gritty side. Perhaps it wasn't even a brownie but some kind of cake. I don't know. I think there was also some coffee in here because the flavour tasted slightly off-chocolate. All the other customers I observed while waiting for my sandwich seemed to love it though. So it's probably just me.)

"The Plugger": brioche bun w/pulled BBQ saucy free range pork leg, chow chow pickle slaw & pork scratchings
(I wasn't actually going to go here today, but when I checked their Facebook page -I know, right?- and saw that one of their special ciabattas featured pulled pork, I added Beatrix in. Apparently no one goes out of here unhappy and it seems like this place has a mini-cult following from their Facebook page. I'm quite happy to attest to their claims. This sandwich was wonderful, albeit pricey. But it was ridiculously huge so I guess paying $14.50 is alright by Melbourne standards. Like I can open my mouth pretty big but I couldn't take a complete bite of this sandwich. I had to wipe my nose after every bite because I kept getting mayo on it. And yes, I did eat the mayo- although a significant portion of it was squeezed out as I ate my sandwich. This pulled pork is nowhere near the classic American pulled pork standards, but that's okay. The brioche bun was soft, moist and slightly sweet on the inside and lightly toasted on the outside. I don't know what "chow chow pickle slaw" is, but it was less pickle-y than the name suggested. Nevermind, chow-chow pickle is some kind of relish according to Wikipedia. It really didn't taste like a relish though. Reminiscent of American coleslaw, but also totally different. I can't put my taste buds on it but this was kind of creamier and more savoury. Not sure. The pulled pork was lightly doused in BBQ sauce, which is good because sometimes the BBQ sauce gets too overwhelming for me. The biggest surprise was the pork scratchings, or pork rinds. I didn't expect them and initially thought they had over-toasted their bread and wondered if my tooth was chipped. Who knew that pork scratchings were the same thing as pork rinds? Regardless, it was a nice texture contrast but made eating this sandwich so much harder! My white t-shirt has a huge mayo-BBQ stain on it now. Despite its enourmous size, I managed to finish everything and am quite glad about making the detour here. Very delicious. Mmm. I'm so tempted to go back again tomorrow to try their Mexican inspired brisket, beans and jalapeno slaw sandwich.)

It was massive. I could barely hold onto it with one hand and it took me almost a mile of walking to reduce the sandwich down to this size.

Snack at Dolcetti, North Melbourne, Australia:

Dolce latte cheesecake (ate half)
(Passed by this Silician bakery and went in because it was closed the last time I stopped by. Also quite pricey, but the place was highly recommended so I figured, why not? I asked one of the employees what she liked and she literally said, "The cheesecakes!" and then immediately began listing every single other thing on display. Didn't help at all. But I did hear the cheesecakes were pretty good so I just told her to grab her favourite flavour. The sugar on top was a little unnecessary, considering the cheesecake was sweet already, but actually tasted quite good covered with the powdered sugar and crumbled pistachios from the other pastry. This cheesecake was dense, but still on the light side. Not very rich and the crust was more of the pastry tart type of crusts than the typical cheesecake crust I'm used to. Actually, now that I think about it, the crust was basically a shortbread cookie. The little glob of latte flavoured cheesecake in the centre was a nice surprise and complemented the "dolce" part well. I enjoyed it, but I don't know if I'd actually go back and order another one.)

The inside.

Pear & pistachio pastry tart (ate half)
(This one caught my eye immediately. I've been dying to try pear and pistachio in some sweet combination ever since I was in NYC. The pastry was light and fluffy, reminiscent of a cross between a puff pastry and a doughnut.  I think I should have gone with my gut instinct because this was amazing. The flavour of the pear was so prominent, further enhanced by the crunchiness and unique flavouring of the pistachio. I loved that the pastry itself wasn't sweet because the pears were very sweet. Light, crisp and fluffy dough, crunchy little pistachio bits and sweet, baked pears. Winning combination! So good. Mmm.)

Snack from the Spanish Donuts - Churros Truck, Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, Australia:

Churro w/icing sugar (dusted most of it off)
(Apparently the best churro place in the city, but it's not even comparable to the ones I can get slightly off-the-streets in California. But I guess it's pretty decent. I'm used to them dusted with cinnamon and not saturated with icing sugar. I spent more time dusting off the sugar than eating. But the dough was warm and pillowy. It was gooey on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Good texture, but I was essentially just eating good fried dough, aka a regular doughnut in churro shape. If I have fried dough cravings, I'll go here but there's something off-putting about this place.)

Snack at The Waffle Club, Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, Australia:

Pandan waffle (w/o the extra coconut shavings) w/banana slices, strawberry slices, vanilla ice cream & maple syrup
(I am so, so disappointed. This pandan waffle looked nothing like the pictures or the traditional ones, and I'm pretty sure I was missing about an eighth to a quarter of my waffle. The heat was way too high for this, because it was like eating a doughnut in waffle form. There was no soft filling part; everything was crisp and almost fried. I couldn't taste the pandan at all, but I do know there was a significant amount of coconut in it because my throat had a very minor allergic reaction to it.  The guy did tell me there was coconut powder in it, but he said there was trace amounts and I can eat a bit of coconut usually. I don't really care about the reaction since it happens all the time whenever I decide to go for coconut, but what I do care about is the fact that I wouldn't have known had I not had the reaction. The flavours of the coconut and pandan were that subtle, most likely buried underneath the fried flavour. For a waffle that was made right before my eyes, it wasn't even warm! The ice cream didn't even melt! I'm glad I asked for less maple syrup though, because the fruit and ice cream were already sweet, but the toppings were the saving grace of this. Very disappointed in this $9 waffle. Perhaps I should have just stuck to their Belgian liege waffles...but I missed pandan waffles! Damn it, I probably should just go make a batch of pandan pancakes myself -since I don't have a waffle maker. The employee was nice though.)