tummyrumbles.com » cafes

A quick bite at CERES

mellie — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:18:53 +0000

CERES Community Environment Park
8 Lee Street, Brunswick East
Phone (03) 9387 2609

I’ve waxed lyrical about CERES before, so I won’t go into too much detail again. I just love the place, and they always please with hearty, healthy fare.

Dan chose the pumpkin, tofu bean and miso roll with salad ($8.50), which was a tasty pastry wrapped around sweet mashed pumpkin made all umami-good with miso. Check out that perky, inviting salad.

I went with the special of the day (sorry, can’t remember how much it was) – a felafal salad with avocado and feta cheese. The dressing was part lemony vinegarette and part dense hummus, which was perfect with the herby greens, generous avocado (under the pile of hummus), creamy feta and green olives.

Farewell Greenhouse

mellie — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:40:10 +0000

The Amphitheatre at Federation Square
Corner Swanston & Flinders Streets, Melbourne

One of the downsides of being so busy in life (as mentioned in my last post), was not being able to post this while Greenhouse by Joost was still around! This fantastic temporary installation unfortunately closed at the end of last month, although I’ve heard whispers that due to it’s popularity, it may be popping up in another guise in another location soon (fingers crossed!).

Anyway, the reason I’m posting is that I was ever so impressed with their fare, which just screamed fabulous produce. Above, a little square quiche (with killer shortcrust pastry), filled with silky-soft egg curd, brussel sprouts (my favourite!), roasted pumpkin, black kalamata olives, goats chevre and pine nuts. I can’t begin to tell you how good this was, especially served with a perky well dressed balsamic side salad and a thirst quenching, tart homemade lemonade. By the way, I’m sooo in love with their innocent bystander glasses. Anyone know where I can pick some up?!?

Dan chose the very dense ciabatta stuffed full with sopressa salami, roasted red peppers, sliced jerusalem artichoke and peppery rocket.

For dessert, I just had to order the rugelach – thick pastry rolled around macerated raisins, nuts, apple and spices. A divine example of this Jewish treat.

Oooh….come back Greenhouse!

@ Sea Fish n Chips

ElegantGourmand — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:11:00 +0000

Urban Market, QV Melbourne

03 9650 0889

We all know that fish is good for us, low in fat and high in things like omega 3′s. In fact, it is recommended that we consume 2-3 serves per week of oily fish. However, it’s often hard to get a good quality, reasonably priced fish meal at lunchtime. Usually all that is available are deep fried fish and chips, or minute slivers of salmon in nori rolls. There’s only so much canned tuna that one can eat, and lunching out at expensive restaurants is just not feasible on a daily basis! Sometimes, we just yearn for a nice, simple and quality piece of grilled fish.

Enter @Sea, a simple takeaway located in QV Melbourne’s food court. Yep, that’s right, a food court. But please hear me out! Yes, @ Sea does fish and chips, but the beauty is that they offer healthy grilled or steamed fish too for $9.50. The concept is simple: 1) choose from salmon, tuna, barramundi, scallops or prawns, either grilled or steamed; 2) choose a salad, and 3) choose either rice or cous cous.

The fish meal comes in a nicely designed box A special grilling press, very similar to a sandwich press, ensures quick and consistent cooking of the fishy goodness.

This is grilled salmon with teriyaki vegetables on rice. As you can see, you get a decent sized fish! They also tend to use good quality veg; the string beans are usually very crunchy and fresh.

The fish with Green papaya, beans, tomato and peanuts salad zings with chilli spice and the tang of the shredded papaya.

This is grilled barramundi with Brocolli, zucchini, olives and feta salad. Quite tasty!

Roasted red peppers with tomato and basil “salad” is actually a ragout-like accompaniment. It’s OK, but we prefer the other salads. Another favourite salad (not pictured) is Fennel with ginger, orange and coriander.

@ Sea also has somewhat of a Japanese bent, selling sashimi and sushi packs (which I haven’t tried), miso soup, and (OK) nori rolls; they currently have a deal on where all rolls are 2 for $1 (normally they’re $1.50 each). They also have the usual fish and chip staples of fish burger, potato cakes, and dim sims.

But the real winner is the grilled fish meal. Whenever Mellie and I feel like a healthy fish fix, we head down to QV for a nice piece of salmon!

Misty’s Diner

mellie — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:57:00 +0000

103-105 High Street Prahran 3181
Phone 03 9510 0033

Comparisons with Happy Days are unavoidable as you walk into Misty’s Diner, a 1950s style eatery and car wash (uh huh). That’s right, bring your car in for some sprucin’, and chow down on diner-style fare in retro surroundings; leather/laminex booth seating, coin slot tabletop juke boxes and the smell of grease and fries. There is a hefty amount of patriotism here, not only in the proliferation of American candies and soft drinks on offer. All dishes come with at least one American flag, and some of them, even two!

I kept it simple (or so I thought) and ordered a cheeseburger with gourmet fat fries (yes, that IS what they are called) cooked in cottonseed oil. Actually, the fat fries were darn tootin’ tasty! The burger came skewered with a pickle, which I absolutely adore (my time spent in Canada provided me with appreciation for such things). The burger…well, it was…okay. I expected a juicy flame-grilled meat pattie, but instead got something I think had been grilled earlier and just pre-heated. It was a little on the dry side.

Dan went the Misty’s American Style Burger, which came with cheese, egg, bacon, sauteed onions and Misty’s special sauce. On the side, a mountain (and I mean MOUNTAIN) of chilli cheese fries; chips topped with a mince and red bean chilli con carne. Oh my…I can feel the arteries hardening now.

If you’re not completely full after all that, you may want to sample their Oreo thickshake, or their behemonth of a brownie. My second stomach, which is usually good for such things, couldn’t even attempt it after that burger and fries! A hearty feed indeed.

Bodhi Cafe

mellie — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:53:00 +0000

241 Victoria Street, Richmond
Phone 03 9416 1889

Prompted by a review over at where’s the beef, I decided to drag this post from the depths of my drafts and put some words to the photos (only 70 odd drafts to go!).

Anyway, just like Claire and Michael, EG and I were similarly confused at the emptiness of Bodhi cafe, despite the fact the interior is inviting, the vegetarian fare tasty, and the service gentle and friendly.

On the particularly cold and rainy day we visited, a steaming pot of red date and longan tea was wonderfully warming, and I adored the cute glass teapot and shinto-red cups in which it was served. We visited Bodhi twice, so the following is what we sampled on those two occassions.

We shared the vegetarian duck roti roll ($5), and I must admit it was surprisingly good. The faux duck tasted meaty, although I am not sure whether it was the “duck” or the flavoured floss sprinkled on top that gave it flavour. A thick mayonnaise and crisp greens filled up the rest of the space, and the roti was tied quirkily into a roll with twine.

The pan fried tofu slices with lemongrass sauce ($5) again was a great starter (if you like tofu), sitting on top shreds of iceberg lettuce. The sauce was slightly sourish, a little more lemony/tamardindy than lemongrass.

The vegetarian spring roll ($4) came with lettuce to wrap (Vietnamese style), and sweet chilli sauce to add a little bite. Pretty standard fare.

For mains, EG chose the herbal soup noodle with chinese cabbage ($8.50) and was impressed with the herbally fantasticness of the dish. He said it reminded him of something his Mum makes – the wolfberries especially giving piquancy and sweetness. He said it felt very restorative.

I chose the Thai green vege “chicken” curry ($9.50) and very much enjoyed the flavour, although found it be to a little soupy for my liking. It had a nice mild kick, and the “chicken” was tender while the sliced vegetables tender crisp.

On another visit I chose the tofu don ($8) which was a soupy braise of silken tofu, sliced shitake, egg and onion. It was served with fluffy white rice sprinkled with bonito shavings and a flavoured floss. It felt warmly homestyle.

EG went the mixed mushroom don ($8) which was a hearty serve of shitake, oyster and enoki mushrooms braised in a sweet dark soy. It was served with a fresh salad and rice with floss.