Milk Crate Cafe

I rarely come to this end of Civic, but was happy to make the trek to try out Milk Crate Cafe, a slightly hidden but exciting new cafe bringing a bit of New York to Canberra. All of the seating is outdoors, spilling out onto the pavement in the little urban courtyard. The staff are really friendly and when I arrived there was a steady flow of people coming in for coffee. I ordered the Istanbul Roll, which came with poached eggs, sucuk (a spicy Turkish sausage), grilled haloumi and homemade tomato relish. The roll was presented unlike any I’ve seen before, with a crisp, flaky Turkish bread lining a tin, and the filling topped inside. Unfortunately the poached eggs were cooked through, but that was the only downside. The sausage was delightfully spicy and the tomato relish had a rich, deep flavour and stopped the dish from being dry. The grilled haloumi was thin as crispbread and had a fabulous salty kick, and I loved mopping up the relish with the unusual bread. Get the eggs right guys and this is a real winner – and at only $9.50, great value too.

Milk Crate Cafe, Shop 6, 12 Moore Street, Canberra ACT, http://milkcratecafe.com.au/

N2 Extreme Gelato

I’m generally not someone who leads others astray… unless it comes to food. On the way back to my aunt’s house, I convinced all my cousins to stop in at N2 in Chinatown (not that it took much persuasion, you guys are awesome). There were heaps of flavours to choose from – having tried the Brokeback Moment earlier this year, I went for the dark chocolate and raspberry sorbet. The servings here are great value – $7 for a giant tub! They joke on the menu that it’s $7 for one scoop and the price for 2 scoops is “you don’t need it”. They’re right. We watched as the staff in lab coats created our icecreams and swapped tastes. The dark chocolate and raspberry was really luscious and definitely something I would order again. There was just enough tartness from the raspberry and plenty of not-too-bitter dark chocolate luxury to almost make me doubt the lack of dairy (it tasted so creamy!). One of my cousins got the Ribena and Longan sorbet, which was a vibrant purple colour and very refreshing – definitely a winning combination. Smiles all around, even (or perhaps especially?) from the youngest who managed to get it all over his clothes – definitely a sign of appreciation.

N2 Extreme Gelato, 43/1 Dixon Street, Sydney NSW http://n2extremegelato.com.au

The Grounds of Alexandria

My last visit to the Grounds was about a year ago, so we booked in for a Friday lunch at the Cafe (having tried The Potting Shed last time). We were seated on the porch outside, where we could soak up the sun and watch the world go by. I started out with a berry smoothie (dairy-free), with berries, coconut flesh and coconut water. I found all that coconut a little overpowering for a smoothie called ‘berry’, but it had a good texture and was a reasonable size. For lunch, I fulfilled my usual stereotype  – my collegue always teases me for ordering the burger but I just couldn’t go past it! The ‘Ground’ Burger has a beef brisket patty, cheese, lettuce, pickles and mayo and came with a serve of chips. Oh man, those chips. They were perfect – crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and served with an amazing aioli. The burger itself was everything a good burger should be – it reminded me a bit of my beloved royale with cheese at Lonsdale Street Eatery – and had plenty of pickles. The beef was very high quality and the cheese and mayo were lovely and oozy. Let’s do that again sometime soon.

The Grounds of Alexandria, Shop 7A, 2 Huntley Street, Alexandria, NSW    http://groundsroasters.com/

Penny University

I’ve been to Penny University several times, but somehow haven’t gotten around to blogging about it until now. On this visit, I started with the tropical juice of pineapple, lychee and mint, which came out with a little cherry blossom flower on top (adorable!). The juice was the perfect size for breakfast and had plenty of flavour balance between the three ingredients. I opted for the breakfast special – za’atar spiced eggs with capsicum spread on Turkish bread and minted yoghurt. My friend ordered the black forest ricotta hotcakes, and was told they would take 10 mins to cook. With great service, both our meals were brought out, hot, at the same time = awesome. These guys are pros. I was a bit disappointed to only have one egg, but excited to see that there was a whole land of salady things that I hadn’t expected – kale, fried chickpeas and baked eggplant. Oh yum. The egg was perfectly runny and whilst I couldn’t really taste the za’atar (it’s amazing at Local Press), the capsicum spread was divine, and was perfectly complemented by the salad flavours and textures – tender eggplant, slightly crisped chickpeas. Oh, and the Turkish bread was easy to cut. Fabulous experience all round!

Penny University, 15 Kennedy Street, Kingston ACT, no website

Fox and Bow

Oh my. I fell completely in love with this little cafe and can’t wait to go back. The menu is exciting and I couldn’t go past one of their amazing-sounding smoothies to start off. The ‘Ohhh Darla’ (love that movie!) was perfection – watermelon, pear and berries with gelato (maybe blackcurrant flavoured?) – it had great depth and balance, and lasted me nicely over the course of my lunch. The staff kindly reduced the dairy content for me too on request – great service! I went for one of the more lunch-like options and ordered the ‘Road Runner Beep Beep’. Oh my. It was amazing. The Portuguese grilled chicken was wedged between a lightly toasted bun (no crumbles, not too thick to cut! Yay!) and topped with just the right amount of jalapenos to give it a good amount of kick. The chicken itself was perfectly cooked and tender, and the guacamole was really generous, along with plenty of rocket for some crunch. There was also a serve of pickled something (cabbage? onion?) that tasted a bit like coleslaw – yum! Oh, did I mention that the sandwich came with a box of perfectly crisp, thick-cut chips? The seasoning was perfect, with a touch of rosemary. And the atmosphere was fantastic. Love, love, love.

Fox and Box, 4 Farrer Place, Farrer ACT                               http://www.foxandbow.com.au/

Bourke Street Bakery

After eating lunch at Bourke Street Bakery, we decided to treat ourselves to a couple of takeaway sweets and some bread. I picked the fresh-baked seeded sourdough loaf and two tarts – a classic lemon and the more exotic ginger creme brulee. Both tarts had a lovely pastry shell, which wasn’t too crumbly but had just the right amount of crisp. The lemon tart was utterly luxurious – I’ve never had one with such a creamy, lush-textured filling. The lemon flavour was nice and strong, but not too sharp as the creamy filling’s richness softened it out. Be warned, it’s a messy one to eat – the filling oozed everywhere! The ginger creme brulee tart was my favourite though. I loved the caramelised, almost burnt flavour of the top-layer, and there was an added bit of crunch and salt from the pistachios crumbled on top. The filling had a bit of body to it and the ginger flavour was well-balanced with the overall sweetness of the tart. Oh, and the seeded sourdough was delicious! There’s nothing like fresh bread on the day it’s baked! Yum, yum, yum.

Bourke Street Bakery: Shop 7/19-25 Grosvenor Street, Neutral Bay, NSW http://bourkestreetbakery.com.au/project/neutral-bay/

Mr Shabu Shabu

My love of shabu shabu is no secret, but on this particular visit, a friend and I indulged in dessert there after our reliably delicious beef shabu shabu. There are three icecream flavours on the dessert menu – green tea, black sesame and red bean – all traditional Japanese dessert flavours. I picked the black sesame and my friend tried the red bean flavour. The scoops were $3.80 each and came out in a side dish-sized bowl, with one reasonably sized scoop inside. The black sesame scoop was a not-completely-appealing grey colour, but had a really fascinating savoury taste. The icecream was very creamy and at first that hid the sesame flavour, which made an appearance on the back palate at the end of the mouthful. The more I ate, the clearer the flavour became, and whilst it wasn’t as sweet as I expected, my friend preferred that to the sweeter red bean flavour. I tried a bite of the red bean, and actually thought it worked better, the sweet flavour pairing well with the creaminess. The verdict? Japanese icecream flavours are an adventure, definitely worth a try with varying sweet-savoury options!

Mr Shabu Shabu, 6/35 Childers St, Canberra ACT, no website