Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

(Stir-fried vegetables of choice with chilli and basil sauce – pad gaprow – and fried egg – $11?)

Believe me when I say this: you don’t truly appreciate the cliche ‘time flies’ until you become a full time carer of a newborn baby almost-toddler. So when I had every intention to blog about a few places that I (used to) lunch at as a salarywoman in the City, I hadn’t realise how much time had passed since then. So here I am – 9 months into my 12-month maternity leave. I think I might just get to it before I go back to work in December and then find out that all of these places are either gone or no longer the same!

(The green circles spell out ‘Ratee Thai’ from the alphabet/vowels panel – very cute)

Ratee Thai is one of the many eating outlets that make up the Mecca of cheap eats that is known Port Phillip Arcade which is situated on Flinders Street just near the Swanston Street corner (you can also enter from Flinders Lane). Their clientele is a mix bag of office workers and Thai uni students – always a good sign for a Thai restaurant. Its fit-out consists of charming communal tables with its wall adorned with the Thai alphabets (in case you’ve wonder what it’s all about!)

Port Phillip Arcade also happened to be the mid point between my (former) work place and Josh’s. So we used to end up there a lot for lunch. Yes, folks, I was one of those people who have lunch with their partners almost everyday. You can decide whether it’s sweet or sad.

(Pad Si-ew  – stir fried rice noodles with chicken, egg and Chinese broccoli with sweet soy sauce – $10?)

Ratee Thai has a varied menu. You can go with the Wok Bar option – choosing your own meat, vegetables, sauce and noodle/rice; you can choose from the Classic option – a choice of the popular Thai dishes such as pad thai, pad gaprow, pad si-ew, tom yum, etc.; or you can simply grab a plate of bain marie choices. Read the rest of this entry »

Min Lokal is a popular cafe with the Fitzroy locals for its charming, quaint little space in the backstreet location, nestling itself on the mostly residential George street.

As all of the write-ups on Min Lokal will tell you, its name is Swedish for ‘my local’. A lovely, non-Swedish but very much Melburnian sentiment. I am one of those people who adore Ikea and its quirky Swedishness, so I get the gist of how something suddenly becomes cool when it is Swedised (see what I did there?)

(Dooba baked eggs – with minced beef, pumpkin and North African spices – $17.00)

The menu itself is hardly Swedish. Min Lokal serves a typical brunch menu – eggs, toasts, muesli, muffins, salads, sandwiches – with its own interesting twists. I visited there one Friday afternoon with a local, Joyce (of Melbourne Hot or Not) for our regular mum & bub catch up session. Joyce had been previously and didn’t think the world of it but she chose it for its proximity and its lovely spacious communal table to accommodate her gorgeous little bub.

As it was well past lunch time on a Friday, the cafe, rather uncharacteristically from what I heard, was not busy and we got ourselves a corner of the large communal table. The space was indeed lovely and uncluttered with large wooden communal table and comfortable wooden stools. Our waiter was nice and appropriately clucky (note to waitstaff: we mums love it when you pay attention to our bubs) and brought us water as neither of us had ordered drinks as I only had half hour to spend on lunch.

As I have heard good things about their baked eggs, I decided on the Dooba – baked eggs with minced beef and pumpkin sauce with North African spices served with rye toasts. Starving, I tucked straight into the baked eggs. The very first bite of the meat was very pleasant – rich and warm from its spices. The egg yolk was runny but the white was slightly rubbery as I progressed in the dish. Although it was the first time I ever had baked egg, I suspect that it wasn’t at all bad for a baked egg dish and Min Lokal deserved its reputation for its baked eggs.

As lovely as it was though, I was less thrilled with the portion size versus the price comparison.

(Haloumi salad with radicchio, chorizo and chickpeas – $16.00)

Joyce had opted for the haloumi salad with radicchio, chorizo and chickpeas. She let me have a bite and it was also a good solid dish. The composition of the warm salad ingredients was perfect for a brunch dish. Unfortunately, I think it portion, again, was disappointingly small for its price.

Overall, while I found the food, service and space at Min Lokal to be very pleasant for a leisurely lunching spot, I found it to be overpriced, poor value and possibly not worth all the raves about it.

But if it were min lokal, maybe I’d give it another go.

Min Lokal
Address: 422 George St., Fitzroy VIC 3065 [ Google Map ]
Phone number: (03) 9417 0333

Read what other bloggers thought of Min Lokal:

1. “… it pleases us”
2. Addictive & Consuming
3. Where’s the Beef
4. Fitzroyalty
5. Melbourne Coffee Review

This time last year I ate at: Syracuse Wine Bar and Restaurant, Melbourne CBD

(Yorkshire Pudding with Wagyu and Mashed Potato – $8.50)

I met up with Rilsta (who runs a fabulous food blog called My Food Trail) for lunch one day. I picked Cafe Vue (she’s picking next time) because I perceived it to be the exact mid way between our work places and Nicole had been raving about Cafe Vue forever. Nicole was supposed to come along of course, but as usual I got ditched last minute for ‘I need to buy fish at Vic Market! I need my fish!’

(lunchbox: potato and smoked trout salad)

We got there bright and early at 12 because I’m told that the place gets really popular and you’ll be waiting for a table. Luckily for us, we snagged almost the last table. After perusing through the menu (which was much more extensive than I thought since the web site had no indication) I was tossing up between the wagyu burger and the Yorkshire pudding with wagyu. I decided on the Yorkshire (you know I love my Yorkies). Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, I’m doing really well at this whole writing up blogs about recent event thing!

I was having a depressing day at work on Monday and desperately needed a pick-me-up lunch. I decided that I needed something extremely spicy – this usually makes me sweat a bit and feel better. Kind of like the feeling you get after a good workout, without having to workout. Now that’s what I call a win-win. Read the rest of this entry »

I took my friend Rowena who was in town for the week from good old Queenstown in New Zealand. So I figured I should take her to the Queen Vic market for some boreks and German hotdogs – my favourites! I can’t say which one is my favourite borek because I love them all and just rotate what I get.

But nope. She had one borek (didn’t even like it because it had too much parsley in it) and decided that that was enough bread she could handle for one meal and that she missed good old Cantonese style food. So, wouldn’t you know it, we ended up at the food court. You know, Row, if I had know you wanted Chinese, I would have taken you to China Town! Much closer!

The food court (I’m assuming it’s new because I haven’t been there before) was nice and spacious. Best of all lots of good natural light for photos. Which is why I want to write this up as the photos are much better than the food! I’m really generally not a fan of food court food (but that’s me being fussy, innit).

Row decided on braised beef with noodles, which was noodles topped Cantonese style beef stew and stock. She put liberal amount of chillis on it and loved it. I just like this photo!

Row enjoyed it immensely because apparently you don’t get this sort of food in Queenstown. But she lives in the most gorgeous house by the most gorgeous surrounding – I think that might be compensation enough!

I settled on Laksa. I’m not too sure why. It was very average. I have had much better laksa in my time. It didn’t come with coriander though. Row didn’t like it on hers so she piled it on mine. The eggplant that was on the laksa was quite good but that’s pretty much it.

Personally, I would have gone for the hot dog!

A quick one before I run off yet again. Nicole and I were trying to find Journal Canteen – of course we  failed abysmally the first time and ended up at Journal. I mean, how were we supposed to know? They have practically the same name and they are in the same CAE building!

We have been there a couple of times since the space is rather awesome to just discuss work – usually a bit of a brain storming session. Coffee is usually good (and they have freshly squeezed orange juice) but the last time they unforgivably burned my espresso so I’m still considering the next return.

(roasted pumpkin and rocket salad – $15.00)

Anyway, the food was rather nice despite limited menu. We both settled for salad on the day. Nicole went for roasted pumpkin and rocket salad. She said it was good despite not being able to finish it (“I can’t eat too much pumpkin!”)

(prociutto and witlof salad – $15.00)

I went for the prociutto and witlof salad, which seemed the most interesting thing on the menu. It was beautiful. The salad was made of witlof (of course) but with a bit more concentration of raddichio, pear slices, blue cheese and walnut. It was perfectly dressed and topped with slices of prociutto. Definitely ++ for this little gem.

We were given two slices of toasted crusty bread drizzled with olive oil. Carb-free meals are overrated.

A great space for casual coffee and lunch. The salads weren’t bad either! Still undecided about the coffee.

Journal, Lower Ground Floor, 1/253 Flinders La., Melbourne VIC

I would like to be known one of those ladies who lunch – I really do. It’s one of my greatest fantasies. Replete Providore, it seems, is totally the place for the ladies from leafy Eastern suburbs who lunch. And I discovered that by accident.

(inside Replete after the late lunch crowd left)

Josh and I rocked up there due to the Age Cheap Eats recommendation. Cheap Eats. Ladies who lunch? Who would have thought? But that’s where we were there one Thursday around 1.30pm.

The place was absolutely packed! We were very surprised because it wasn’t anywhere near a popular strip. It literally stood on its own near mostly residential areas and schools. But we did score the last little table. An oh-so-cute waiter (‘he-was-oh-so-cute-I-stayed-for-dessert’ cute) gave us menu to ponder (for quite a while). They served breakfast dishes well into the afternoon (this is what I love about Melbourne café) but I decided I wanted a lunch dish.

(Genovese Chickpea Faritana – $15.00)

I ordered (and I wrote this down because the name totally didn’t make sense to me) Genovese Chickpea Faritana ($15.00). It was basically savoury pancake made with chickpea flour (and other things) topped with sautéed zucchini (with rosemary and garlic, I liked it so much I came home and tried to replicate it), prociutto, parmasan and rocket leaves.

(a bite of my lovely pancake)

It was very yummy. I was very hungry! Our food did take a while, but then again, the place was packed.

(Deep Dish Pie – Chicken, Spinach and Pesto – $15.00)

Josh decided on the Deep Dish Pie – Chicken, Spinach and Pesto ($15.00) which came with side salad (which was a bit overdressed and oily) and some sort of tomato chutney (‘yeah it’s nice’).

(inside the pie)

Because my lunch wasn’t so big and I hadn’t had breakfast, I decided that I could do with a bit of cake and coffee (that, and the waiter was oh-so-cute. I really should stop talking about the cute waiter. Josh did spend two hours listening to me gushing over the cute waiter. I think that may be the end of his tolerance). The dessert choices were mostly slices and only two types cakes – orange flourless and chocolate and coffee torte. Josh detests anything coffee so we went for flourless orange.

(caffè latte and orange flourless cake – $8.00)

I have to admit I was quite confused about the pricing. The menu said the cake was $4.00 and 50 cents for cream or yoghurt. We weren’t asked if we wanted any cream or yoghurt on the side but it was served with cream anyway. I didn’t know how much the coffee was. But it was either $4.00 for the coffee (steep by Melbourne standard? or maybe I have been away too long and things have gone up since) or we were charged 50 cents for the cream we didn’t ask for.

(flourless orange cake with cream)

Either way, the cake was delicious and the coffee was fantastic! It was my first cup of coffee since I came back to Melbourne and boy do I miss good Melbourne coffee! Most of all, have I missed the whole relaxing Melbourne cafe vibe.

I did feel like a lady who lunches, even though I went with my husband. Close enough. Mission accomplished.

Replete Providore, 302 Barkers Rd., Hawthorn