Avoiding all bad puns that involve the word "Must"

A weekend or so ago, my birth family and some of my old buds decided to blow Perth and hit the Southwest to make the most of the 50 knot winds, 30 foot waves and general onshore craziness.  And what is a trip to Margaret River without indulging in some yumminess of the food-al or wine-al variety?  I think it's the bomb that you can get good food in Margs because MY version of the perfect down south trip involves food and more food - so we made a booking for Must. 

I live in Mount Lawley and have only graced Must winebar with my presence once.  It was a long time ago when I still might have carried a bit of the all-you-can-eat-buffet mentality and I ordered off the bar menu.  I remember gazing with disappointment at the 3 ravioli that came to me...but I was older this visit and less hungry, so I figured it would be a whole different experience.  As we drove into town I couldn't help reflecting on the brief hippy interlude  I had in my twenties where I lived and worked in Prevelley for 8 months and NOTHING was open on the main street in winter at 7pm.  Apart from the pub.  Oh and the video store (you know it was a long time ago when it was video).  The main street may be a bit too developed now ( a bit like Claremont someone I know said) but it sure as shit beats that!

First impressions of Must:  it looked really dark from the outside, and us ageing and all I was worried about my mum being able to make out the menu!  Luckily that was no problem, the bistro was well lit and not too dim.  Sadly there WAS a guy playing a keyboard in the winebar which was uncomfortably loud and I distinctly remember hearing a cover of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears.   I politely asked the server how long he was going to be playing and she grunted at me.  Honestly I don't have a problem with music at dinner but I do like to be able to hear and talk to the people I'm having dinner with.  The interior was spacious - winebar at the front, bistro in back.  Service was decent - the server wasn't the friendliest but she kept our glasses filled and made sure we ate. 

To the menu:   first thing I noticed was that they had a section headed "Our local regulars menu".  Nice touch!  Smart business too as a lot of SW visitation dies off in winter so treating the regulars nice is a smart move.  The local regulars menu was small and simple - a charcuterie plate consisting of  jambon persillé; a pickled pork and parsley terrine, paté en croute with pear chutney, rillettes with cornichons and black olive tapenade, and a couple of burgers:  a Butterfield beef burger with bacon, gruyere cheese, zucchini pickles, aioli and frites, or a vegie burger (carnivore approved apparently) w/ frites.  They also offered up sirloin or rump or beef rib eyes served with an assortment of gussied up sides but essentially they were potatoes.. butter...jus... mmmmm.hat was as far as we got!  I love a good burger and I love frites and I LOVE pickles so it was a no-brainer for me.  Plus it was all for the very sexy price of $21.  The burger was juicy and full of flavour.  I'm usually not a bacon-in-a-burger kind of gal but this was soooooo good. That bacon was just all smoky goodness.  The zucchini pickles were served in a little side dish  and were crunchy and acidic and delicious.  But the frites were a big disappointment for me - I'm absolutely positive they were the ordinary shoe string variety you buy in a big white plastic bag.  While they were yummy, it's not exactly what I'd expect from Must.  Not a hand cut frite in sight!

On to dessert (and coffee):  I had a creme brulee with a coconut sorbet that was delicious if a tiny bit eggy - but I ate the whole thing and then scraped away forlornly at the bottom of the dish.  The coffee was excellent too, although I can't tell you what blend they use because by then I was in a happy food haze and had forgotten that I would most likely be blogging about it.  I CAN tell you they do an excellent latte.  I also know that I walked out about a mere $40 lighter - but about a kilo heavier.

Must Margaret River

107 Bussell Highway

(08) 9758 8877

http://www.must.com.au/MMRfolder/menus/local.pdf

Darwin - 4 Birds

When I lived in Darwin I was constantly moaning about the lack of cool breakfast places to go to grab a good coffee and something yummy in the mornings.  Not that Darwin doesn't have some good breakfast spots, but they can be a bit hit and miss eg Roma Bar (good coffee, average, cheap breakfast unless you stick to the more eclectic end of the menu offering dhal and homemade roti, the sago with coconut cream and palm syrup or the toasted coconut bread with lemon curd - yum!), Ducks Nuts (good coffee but shit food). 

My last few visits to Darwin I've taken to stopping in at 4 Birds in the morning to grab a coffee and some breakfast, usually a bagel, always with ricotta and honey!  4 Birds has been open for about a year and a half now, located in Star Arcade next to Simply Vegetarian, it's probably the first of Darwin's truly funky cafes.  Run by sisters it serves good coffee, a pretty simple breakfast menu consisting of bagels, toast, muesli and fruit salad.  They even cater for the kids with nutella toast!   At one point I think they were offering savouriness for breakfast, but now you can just choose to have a savoury bagel if you are that way inclined.  Lunch works around fresh panini, bagels and salads.  Ingredients are fresh, delicious and seasonal.  They serve a cracking range of home made cakes and slices.  Seating is either in the cafe at seats or benches or outside at little tables with cushion-covered milk crates - I thoroughly recommend the latter if you have kids, there's even a little black cat that hangs round outside the chocalatier to keep them entertained and they can have the run of the arcade once you've exhausted them at the playground in the mall.

4 Birds
Star Village Arcade
Just off Smith St Mall

Is Perth growing up?

I went to a mate's 30th birthday dinner the other night.  She and her girlfriend had chosen a hotel where we were going to have dinner - the Rose and Crown in Guildford - and I must admit my heart sank when they told me where we were going.   My imagination went straight to the bad, overpriced food place - as it turned out, there was no need.  The Rose and Crown turned out to have a perfectly fine menu with a bunch of well-priced options, good variety, good service, decent dessert and good coffee (and a couple of really inviting fires - always a way to get me in).  But it made me wonder why I reacted the way I did.  I know I wasn't the only one who felt this way, in the car in the way home we all agreed that it had surpassed our expectations.  Now if this was Melbourne I don't think I would have had that reaction - hotels are not necessarily synonymous with bad food in Melbourne, in fact, it's probably the complete opposite.  But Perth often has a bit of the hit and miss about it.  I've been to a lot of hotels where the food is over thought, overambitious and often turns out to be just plain bad.  When combined with shit service and +++ prices this can add up to a frustratingly bad night.  Especially when you venture away from the city.  It's like teenagers pretending to be grownups:  trying too hard; and a bit pretentious.  But something occurred to me as I started writing this - am I like an adult looking at a teenager - guilty of seeing them as they've always been..refusing to see that they're growing into something else.. growing up?  Perhaps Perth is growing into itself and I don't want to see it. 

What do you think?

Elmars I love you

Elmars is one of the nicest secrets on Beaufort Street.  A German butchers, they sell the most amazingly scrummy selection of cured meats and smallgoods.  They pride themselves on their lack of preservatives, make deliciously mumsy homemade food like rissoles, schnitzel, smoked sausage goulash and pea and ham soup (I went in today to get some and there was a big pot on the stove - not today, tomorrow they said, it has to get creamy :-))).  They also make the most gorgeous rolls - I like to get a sliced rissole or some of their house made ham with all their salads in a wholegrain roll with mustard.  MMM MMM!  For an unhealthier (but probably yummier) option, get them to slap on some of their home made mayonnaise.  People who like to hang out or visit Mount Lawley on Saturdays will know that they set up a sausage stall out the front - but not just any old sausage - venison, bratwurst, knacker, fleishwurst..... oh yeah!  They also do a smashingly awesome continental smoked bacon that is out of this world.  Last but not least, if you have any German buds that suffer from occasional Germsickness LOL, they sell little German things like German lemonade and Ritter Chocolade.  Surprise someone!

Elmars
493 Beaufort St
Highgate

Pea and ham soup and a ham and salad roll w mustard

Are you?

Is it 130?

Ever since Cafe 130 closed it's doors I've been eagerly awaiting it's return.  But has it been too long?  I arranged to meet my old bud down there to check it out this morning, eagerly anticipating my soy latte and some eggs on hot buttered toast.  But something had changed... something ... or is it just me? 

Cafe 130 was one of the only quirky cool cafes in Perth, Leederville to be exact, before Perth had quirky cool cafes.  A limited menu of eggs on New Norcia bread plus various sides (avocado, tomato, feta, jalapenos etc etc), massive sandwiches, house-made muffins, cakes and good coffee to be had any time of the day or late into the night.  Entire menu cooked from electric frypans and toasters. GI Joes abseiling from the rooftop.  Crazy wall covered in posters of Perth happenings. A massive rack of papers and magazines hanging from the wall.  Milk crates out the front.  A few booths to sit in.  It was all good until it got taken over.  Then the New Norcia bread disappeared, the staff became surly, it got old and grimy and it all REALLY needed some love.  The guy who ruined 130 (as he came to be known) shut it down and concentrated on building up the clientele at Greens and Cock over the road - also his cafe - while he quietly beavered away turning 130 into ...what?  Today was the big reveal for me, even though it's been open for a couple of months and all the good things about it are still there - it just looks better.  The booths are the same but it doesn't feel as if the couches are going to collapse underneath you. Tables are still all tatty and scarred.  The poster wall has been painted in orange wash, the rack is still on the wall, tables are in the same places, that beautiful pressed tin roof has been fixed up so that there's no longer more rust than roof...the only really different thing is that it's now not open until late - it's open until 630. 

After longing for it to open again after so long, I was kind of surprised by my reaction to being there.  In the time that it's been shut, Perth seems to have sped up and run right past 130.  There are small funky wine bars, there are lots of good cafes now with exciting menus, there are burger bars, there is change afoot my friends.  Leederville has a bunch of new places going on.  And seeing as the inside had been tweaked (same same but different), SO TOO I hoped the menu might be same same but different.  But no.  It's just the same.  It's bloody cheap - you'll only pay $13 for two poached eggs on (Lawley's) toast and a coffee, which is the kind of price that is becoming increasingly hard to find in Perth.  They also offer a half serve of eggs - we like that :-)  The toast is thick and waaaay too much to eat with just your eggs - my advice is to save one bit of toast and go up and get some jam from the pots lining the service bar.   The coffee, which was always yummy but a bit on the weak side, is still on the weak side.  Consistency!!  We like that too.

So I wondered - is it still that time?  That 130 time?  Only time will tell. 

Cafe 130

130 Oxford St

Leederville

The Blue Fuck

Oh now that's just childish!!!!! 

I went to the Blue Duck Sunday morning  for my dad's birthday. And I have to ask, what IS it about these places with the magnificent views?  Do they deliberately set out to wreck my ogling of beautiful Perth waves with their craptus food??  I paid 13 bucks for a "seasonal" fruit salad with yoghurt that was just so shit it defies belief.  Small, tasteless, with hard fruit and a tiny blob of greek yoghurt it was uninspiring at best and just plain shitful at worst.  If I dig deep within, I will admit that their coffee (Fiori) was nice.

The end.

The Blue Duck
151 Marine Parade
Cottesloe

The Mount Lawley morning coffee run - Cantina or Fez?

If you live and/or work and/or hang out in Mount Lawley you will know that over the past few years, a number of coffee shops have appeared along the strip. The first of these boutiquey type cafes was Soto which opened it's doors 8-9 years ago.  At the time, Soto reached lofty heights not previously scaled in the Mount Lawley area (which up until that point only boasted Globe and Dome)  - it had comfy couches, al fresco smoking table coolness, an interesting breakfast menu, it was open late and it had gooooood coffee.  But 8 years is a long time and Soto is now looking a bit old, a bit lonely, a bit worn and there are now a LOT more cafes to choose from - the Merchant, Cafissimo, Exomod, Cantina, Fez to name but a few.  For the most part I don't rate them for coffee, Mount Lawley cafes often seem to trade on the coolness of the area rather than the quality of their coffee.  The exception is Cantina which does just about everything well - coffee, breakfast, lunch, cakes, snacks, dinner, impromptu coffee and dessert post movies, Cantina doesn't falter.  Even though I've had a go of every cafe on the Beaufort St strip, for the past couple of years I've gone to Cantina for my coffee and it's always good, attested to by the massive queue and 15 minute wait.  Fez, a more recent addition to Mount Lawley, is closer to my work so my workmates go there on the coffee run.  Fez uses 5 Senses coffee and Cantina uses Fiori.  Fez and I got off to a bad start when my first coffee on their first day was talked up bigtime but not that great.  Being mindful that it was day 1, I've been back a few times and sadly the coffee is never quite right, but Cantina always is.  Awesome flavour and texture, never panic-attack-inducing.  So for now it's Cantina for me.  Until the Planet Cafe opens - Planet have never done anything half-assed, so I reckon they could be a contender.  Keep checking!

Cantina:  663 Beaufort St Mount Lawley

Fez:  83 Walcott Street Mount Lawley

<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/338/1550188/restaurant/Perth/Mount-Lawley/Fez-Mt-Lawley%22%3E%3Cimg alt="Fez on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/logo/1550188/minilogo.gif" style="border:none;width:104px;height:15px" /></a>

Fur (Pho) - Belicious!

 From this....

















To this!







Sunshine Lunch Bar:  683A Beaufort St, Mount Lawley 6050.  Ph:  9370 1165








<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/338/1563235/restaurant/Perth/Sunshine-Lunch-Bar-Cafe-Mount-Lawley%22%3E%3Cimg alt="Sunshine Lunch Bar Cafe on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/logo/1563235/minilogo.gif" style="border:none;width:104px;height:15px" /></a>

Tom's Kitchen

Last Friday night as I was awandering through Perth, I mentioned to my mates that there was a place off Hay Street that I'd dogeared in my mind but couldn't remember what it was.  Food, shopping - I honestly had no idea.  Anyway we got a bit peckish and took a turn down Shafto Lane - which brought us to Tom's Kitchen.  I remembered that my housemate and her gurl had dinner there a few months ago and gave it a rave and I'm pretty sure it was the reason for my dogear, so we figured we'd have a go.  At first glance it looked the goods:  Warm lighting, tick.  Friendly and attentive waitperson, tick.  A little bit bistro, a little bit New York and some intriguing menu choices (salt and vinegar crips crisps dammit for $6?).  Feeling confident we sat down and made some choices - lamb, barley and lentil soup, meatballs and orriechete with red wine and beef cheek - tick!!!  (Triple tick for housemade pasta). 

First worrying thing - the guy next to us pushing his dinner around and whispering to his date that his duck was raw.  Oops.  Never mind we said - could happen to anyone.  Our dinners came out about 25 minutes later - 25 minutes just teetering on the border of the point where you summons the waitperson and delicately ask exactly how long it's going to be EXACTLY.  Out came the soup - at first glance (and second too it turned out) it looked to be very thin with a lone lentil swimming in the bowl.  Complimentary bread with a herb "butter" was placed on the table - but it wasn't butter.  Bread was a little on the stale side. Then came my orriechete - such a disappointment - the little ears were tough and the beef cheek and red wine sauce underseasoned and bitter.  Uh oh.  Such promise!  The soup got sent back.  The meatballs eaten.  Lest we look like wowsers I didn't complain about the orriechete but at 24 bucks I expect a bit of taste and glamour.  I hasten to add that I'm not super fussy about food, but I know what I like and what I don't.  From the on-line reviews I've read there are a lot of supporters of Tom's so lets just hope that it was an off night!

Tom's Kitchen - Shafto Lane, Perth.

<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/338/1459970/restaurant/Perth-City/Toms-Kitchen-Perth%22%3E%3Cimg alt="Tom's Kitchen on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/logo/1459970/minilogo.gif" style="border:none;width:104px;height:15px" /></a>