Apologies for the lack of posts but I've been in India for the most of the last month. I relaxed for a week at an Ayurveda healing village in quiet Coimbatore and then had a complete environment and mind switch when I flew to busy Bangalore for work. I had the pleasure of eating a large range of Indian food - India is so amazingly diverse and each region has its own food and tastes. I gorged on curries, roti, rice, dosa dal, coconut and many other random things. One of my favourite foods, and what I ate for breakfast every day in Bangalore, was idli, a South Indian steamed fermented rice cake. It's generally eaten with sambar, a vegetable stew, and a range of chutneys. My favourite was the coconut chutney which is a mix of ground fresh coconut with a range of spices and curry leaves. Delicious!
Anyway, unfortunately there was no biking to breakfasts while in India. There are bikes and cycling is encouraged but there was no way I felt confident enough to cycle through the insane traffic and crazy drivers who take absolutely no notice of road lines! So I was keen to get back on my bike as soon as I got home. And set up some breakfast plans!
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| Smoked bonito with potato, harissa, cabbage and eggs |
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| Avocado on sourdough with bacon |
H's avocado on toast was also a large serve with two large pieces of sourdough and a generous amount of avocado was smeared over them. The serve of bacon was large and there were quite a few fresh cherry tomatoes artfully strewn around it all. H ate all of it, so I assume she was happy with it!
By the time we left, the cafe was filling up with people, presumably workers from nearby offices, so it looks like it does well during the week. The lunch menu, written on a chalkboard above the counter, sounded simple but appealing with a range of sandwiches and salads on offer.
By the time we left, the cafe was filling up with people, presumably workers from nearby offices, so it looks like it does well during the week. The lunch menu, written on a chalkboard above the counter, sounded simple but appealing with a range of sandwiches and salads on offer.
Despite the small issues I had with my dish, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. So much in fact that I suggested it to C for our post-market breakfast on the following Saturday. We arrived around 9:30 and it was already mostly full. We opted for an outside seat at a low table for four. Water and menus were brought quickly and we were also handed a handwritten specials menu on a mini clipboard. C was instantly drawn to the 'gnocchi with pork sausage, silverbeet, goats cheese and poached eggs'. The other special of 'Sourdough, tomato, avocado, lime, dukkah, poached egg and fresh turmeric' appealed to me but not as much as the opportunity to try duck ham with mushrooms, poached eggs and kale ($18). Our coffee orders appeared quickly and sometime afterwards our meals arrived, artfully arranged on the prettiest blue plates.
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| Mushrooms, poached eggs, kale, duck ham |
The mushrooms on my plate were huge and juicy and the poached eggs were on the side of well cooked with the yolk in one being gooey and the other slightly more solid. Personally I like them best when gooey so I was happy enough with one of them being perfect. The duck ham resembled a dark prosciutto but was very soft and almost reminded me of sashimi in texture. It was tasty but not overly salty and I just wished for more of it. The components of the dish worked well together although I would have liked a small amount of sauce to bring it together a bit more. Had the egg yolks been a slightly less cooked, that may have helped although I ended up just stealing some of the sauce on C's dish. C's gnocchi was light and fluffy and the eggs worked surprisingly well with it and the juicy sausage. Apart from some sauteed silverbeet, there was also a blended green sauce which resembled pesto but may have been silverbeet. It all worked really well together and the goats cheese added the perfect amount of creaminess to the dish.
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| Gnocchi, pork sausage, silverbeet, goats cheese, poached eggs |
Overall I really enjoyed both visits to Merriweather and will definitely return. It's one of the more expensive breakfast options in the area with the majority of the menu items being above $16 but the quality of food is excellent, the portions are large and their menu has interesting options. I also really like that they focus on using seasonal produce and local growers. More and more places appear to be embracing the concept and reducing food miles and as a firm believer in that, I'm willing to spend a bit more to go to them. Mondo Organics and Plenty are other nearby places which have a similar ethos. Hopefully Merriweather continues to do well and I also want to return to try some of their cakes which are baked in-house and several appeared to be gluten-free. Merriweather also sell a range of relishes and jams that they also make in-house and if I didn't already have a shelf full of condiments in my fridge, I would have been tempted by the beetroot relish in particular. They also have a great looking range of cookbooks on their shelves so I can easily imagine myself happily browsing through them while enjoying a cup of coffee and cake...perhaps sooner than later!
BIKEABILITY
Ease of access: 9/10 (Bicentennial Bikeway->Go Between Bridge->Merivale St->Russell St)
Parking: 10/10 (Bike rack just outside)
- Monday, May 26, 2014
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