Winter is like a bad date – you get the chills and you want the ordeal to end as quickly as possible so you can go home and rip into some pork ribs and those doughnuts that you’ve been finding any excuse to eat whilst you watch reruns of Jersey Shore. Or Gossip Girl *cough* this doesn’t apply to me. So whilst I had envisioned sipping on some fresh OJ in as many summer kissed courtyards as possible, Gaya, the spirit of the earth had other plans from a heatwave to golf ball sized hail stones and most shockingly, snowfall! Who the hell called winter for another performance? Nonetheless, these minor setbacks a few moons ago were no match for ‘the buds’ as they were prepped for yet another breakfast battle over a 3 day period.

On Holidays

On another note, by the time you’re reading this, I’ll be landing in the the US of A! First stop, LA where we scored ourselves some tickets to the Jay Leno Show (hoping for a good guest!). After some star stalking, we’ll be staying in Santa Monica then making our way down the coast to Santa Barbra, Malibu and San Fransisco where I’ll be no doubt, eating my own weight in food. I plan on stopping by all the Filipino eateries along the way including Little Manila. The final stop will be the sunny shores of Hawaii where I’ll be of course, shimmering with my lobster red sunburnt skin. I don’t tan….wah.

Let’s begin Breakfast Indigestion Time!

A pitsop at The League of Honest coffee before the expedition began.

Cafes Battled

Pitstop

The League of Honest coffee

Details: 8 Exploration Lane, Melbourne. Ph 9654 0169

1. Cafe Advieh

Details: 71b Gamon St  Seddon, VIC 3011 MAP Phone: n/a

2. Tom Phat

Details: 184 Sydney Rd Brunswick, VIC 3056 MAP Phone: 03 9381 2374

3. My Mexican Cousin

Details: 1e Winter St Malvern, VIC 3144 Phone: 03 9077 3847

Details: Corner Sturt St And Southbank Boulevard, Southbank, VIC 3006 Phone: 03 9686 3398

4. Brasserie Bread

Details: 150 Thistlethwaite Street  South Melbourne VIC 3205

5. *BONUS* material: Pour Kids

Details: 1e Winter St Malvern, VIC 3144
Phone: 03 9077 3847

Cafe Advieh in Seddon

I must’ve driven past this place at least 20 times before it caught my attention. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with how it looks, it’s just not part of the main shopping strip in Seddon that I usually go to. The best thing about finally stopping by? The little surprises Cafe Advieh brings. The brekkie menu is simple but heavily inspired by Middle Eastern cuisine so you can expect to find tabouli, lamb kofta (part of their Lebanese wrap range), homemade baba ganoush and omelettes filled with Turkish sausage.

I went for the Advieh Breakfast as I felt like taking a break from poached eggs. I love them but one could only have so much over a two day period so the fried eggs were a good change. The plate was filled with colour and mind you,  to the brim, with olives, slow roasted ripened tomatoes that were almost too good, grilled Turkish bread, a halloumi cigar that I ate straight away to mop up all the runny yolk and tomato juices and cucumber to clean the palate. Five Senses coffee completes the picture.

iNTERLUDE: cafes these days…

The place a has a calm vibe, the vibe that I actually miss from cafes these days. You know, where you can take your sweet time and read the paper in full and chat to your friends without any awkward “hurry the hell up’ stares from strangers waiting for a seat at your already cramped communal table. I don’t mean to moan, but my beloved relaxing weekend breakfast has turned into weekend breakfast rush hour where you’re stuck in human gridlock whilst you wait 40 minutes for a table and when you finally get one, you just wanna quickly order, eat and get F%^& out. This of course applies to the more hyped up places where everyone you know goes to which is why I tend to diversify my Breakfast Indigestion missions to not only showcase the new kids on the block but also the places hidden away from the spotlight but are still rehab-worthy.

Cafe Advieh is a surprising suburban gem and stands strong in amongst all the other cookie cutter look alikes around these days and guess what? No queues!

Details: 71b Gamon St Seddon, VIC 3011 MAP

Tom Phat

There’s something about ‘throw it on the wall and it will stay’ sticky sweet pork that I can’t resist and the Uncle Ho’s Breakfast at Tom Phat is a solid representation of that. Though, after gobbling down this many times before, I still can’t decide what the best thing is about the dish – the pork chop or the crispy edged and puffy fried up egg done Vietnamese style dotted with chilli, spring onion and a side of dipping sauce. I wrote about my love for their lunch menu a while back, but their East v.s. West breakfast menu is also something worth mentioning seamlessly infusing Asian hawker style dishes.

I’m regularly seen at Tom Phat for many reasons and one of them being that I want to gulp down some good coffee whilst I hunker down on Roti Omelette, softshell crab or Pad Thai.

Details

Tom Phat 184 Sydney Rd Brunswick, VIC 3056 MAP

My Mexican Cousin

Named after one of my favourite breakfasts at St Ali and located at my favourite building in Melbourne (MTC), I’d waited long enough to try out My Mexican Cousin, so when a quiet weekday brunch came up, I jumped and hoped there would be no queues. There wasn’t – WOOT! Created by a genius collective that includes some of Melbourne’s  St Ali’s Salvatore Malatesta who seems to be in many places at once, Maurice Esposito and Jerome of St Jeromes/1000 pound bend.

Yes, I only intended to come here for brekkie, but when friends called to say they wanted to meet, I stayed put for another few hours and it quickly turned into a brunch. Yep. To get me through the hour, I had a whole lotta coffee! We had alot of share plates so I’ll quickly get into the highlights.

Let me start with the bacon. Not just any bacon…Candied Kaiserfleisch Bacon with pecan nuts. In terms of the portion, it was a wee bit small.  Between the three of us, we were literally fighting for bacon real estate but I tell you what, it was crispy as hell and was mighty delicious. I still talk about it to this day, especially with my workmates who appreciate my daily food type rants.

Guadeloupe style entrecote steak came nicely charred and although it wasn’t that great on its own, dipping each piece into the tangy side of onion, rosemary and chilli lifted breathed new life into the dish as well as helping to cut through the fat.

The winning dish would have to go to the Twice cooked beef short rib with its oh so crispy edges. According to the menu, it is flash fried after being sous vide in red wine for 48 hours. I watched a show on the sous vide method and found this technique of cooking food in air tight plastic bags to be bloody fascinating.

We can’t forget about dessert! We initially ordered the Beignets to find out they had run out! Not too panic we ordered the next best thing, some good ol’ bourbon pecan pie. OMFG! We were so glad we ended up with one of the best pecan pies I’ve ever had – a slice of pure freakin bliss.  Seriously. Served warm with ice cream, it just melts away in your mouth and with my dining companions, off the plate in 60 seconds!

Details: Corner Sturt St And Southbank Boulevard, Southbank, VIC 3006 Phone: 03 9686 3398

Brasserie Bread

I had one thing on my mind when I arrived at Brasserie Bread – get that sour cherry bread that was featured the launch party! I took to twitter asking the the twitterverse what the name of the bread was. @BrasserieMelb responded to my coos but only to find that it has not been released to their product range as yet. Wah! Not too fret, my attention soon came to the menu that includes toasted soldiers to sourdough pancakes with sour cherries and honeycomb cream (YUM).

Looking around the place, I can’t believe how the place has really come together since I last saw it. Where I was eating, there was a forklift and empty space. As Brasserie Bread stands for true artisan bread, this takes center stage in dining area where you can ‘try before you buy’ sampling some of their breads. I can still recall the 16 year old starter they debut at the launch, literally taking bread as we knew it to another level.

My eye came across two things on the menu that I couldn’t resist. The Smoked Trout for example,  that came with a golden crumbed sourdough potato cake, poached egg and fetta screamed understated simplicity. A fine dish but I was hungry for more so a I came hunting for meat.

Next up was the Beef Burger. The juicy pattie sandwiched in a toasted sweet brioche buns was already incredible, but add the mighty beetroot chutney and that my friend, is a press conference making Grill’d burgers seem like a conversation. You can also see from the photo the quality in the ingredients here, even in the lettuce and tomatoes. Can you tell I really enjoyed this? It wasn’t too big either so I wasn’t all bloated after eating two meals.

The best thing about Brasserie Bread is that you get to hit two birds with one stone – a great brekkie and you get to stock up on some amazing bread! I can attest to the quality and effort that goes into each loaf of bread produced having bought a couple myself. They are beautifully dense, quite heavy in weight and smell like heaven. In fact, it takes several days to make just one, so if you’re after a few, I suggest making an order.

Details: 150 Thistlethwaite Street  South Melbourne VIC 3205

BONUS UPDATE!

Pour Kids

But wait, there’s more! So at the time of writing this post, I just got back from an awesome day out picking strawberries at Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm and on the way, we stopped over at Pour Kids for brekkie. Though it didn’t form part of my breakfast adventure the week prior, I thought it was worthy of mention and knowing the fact that I’m currently in LA, San Fransisco and Hawaii on holidays, it would have been a long time coming before I would write about how great the food was and was super excited to learn they were serving up my second favourite blend from Axil Coffee. Yea Yea Yea wha wha!

First impression was dayem, this place is colourful noted by the amount of primary coloured chairs and artworks. It really lifted the place up – giving it that ABC 123 feel. I was surprised to find that there weren’t any toys lying around though there was a ‘Daddy Day Care’ moment when a funny kid was lying on the ground next to us protesting. Another thing I noticed were the array of baked goodies sitting clad on the counter top and the cute little pods of butter (one of which I whisked away). Sarah and I were eying out quite a number of items including the friands.

ABC…give me that 123

Stares with intent…

Loved the diversity and the quirky names given to many of the meals within the menu. Take Google This made up of Deep-fried, crumbed poached eggs, with chorizo, feta, frizee lettuce + extra virgin olive oil or the Back off, Flipper with pan fried sardines on toast.  A menu that is focused on local and fresh produce. So much to choose from! My boogie boarding buddy and I went for the A toasty with the most-y (basically French toast) with a salt flaked hashbrown on the side. Let’s start with the positives: the vanilla dotted cream was gobbled up in no time and helped to offset the tart berries. I had a feeling that I should have told the waiter to put the berries on the side/in a compote but I didn’t want to make a fuss. The results? A delicious brioche unfortunately drowning in berry juices.

I needed something savoury so luckily for me, I also had dining companions so with a fork in one hand, I went for my friend’s Istra bacon and creamy scrambled eggs. In preparation for the day’s over eating, Sarah went with the Three bears out hunting porridge that actually looked pretty tasty with stewed rhubarb. All in all, I liked our experience at Pour Kids and would certainly come back to grab me some of those FRIANDS…AND CUPCAKES AND THE WHOLE DISPLAY!

Details:

1e Winter St Malvern, VIC 3144

Phone: 03 9077 3847

Cap Off

Like all good stories, sadly, it had to end. After 4 and a half cafes, my tummy could take no more. It was actually quite beneficial as I got to expand the stomach for the Christmas feasting so this Breakfast Indigestion just had to be done. I would have been a huge disappointment to the family otherwise. My mum expects my brother and I to finish a whole ham amongst other delectables between the two of us so like how Rocky was training to be a mighty boxer, I was training to be the best feaster.

The best brekkie would have to to Tom Phat’s Uncle Ho’s Breakfast. Nothing beats their puffed up crispy egg and that sticky-licious pork chop I ate to the bone. If I was a dog, I’d bury it and save it for another day.

The winner of the best coffee was so clear it was bathing in Windex – My Mexican Cousin. No more to be said.

Still undecided?

I’ll make it easy for you, just click on the “Happy Toastie” below and you’ll be taken to all my breakfast adventures. BOOM!

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Keep eating,

Adrian