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>

Grill'd

Just thought I'd quickly share the love about Grill'd - I popped in there for a burger as you do, or as I do, seeing as I work and live aroung the corner.  I had the Bombay Bliss which was a chickpea patty with tzatziki, roasted red peppers, cos lettuce, other salady bits and tomato relish in a traditional bun.  Pretty tasty and a bargain for $11.50!

http://www.grilld.com.au/

i've been called a slacker before y'know!!!

It's been brought to my attention that chickwithguts has been VERY slack lately. it's not like i didn't know that, its that ive been working really really hard at work (not slacking off) so have slacked off in the area that previously i wasn't so.. well... slack in! Plus my phone died which meant that my super dooper photos suffered cos i had to go back to my old phone.. anyway none of this means that i haven't been thinking of food, obsessing about food, EATING food (altho this has suffered too from recent tummy bug action, which has just meant a lot of miso) and taking photos of food, it just means that none of it has made it's way onto my blog...

Anyway.

A round up of the past month. I went to Perth. Had some GREAT food there. My standout would have to be Divido in Mount Hawthorne http://www.divido.com.au/index.htm Check out the dinner menu and you will find the thing, the dessert, the ONE if you will - my new grrlfriend, Croatian Doughnuts with almond and vanilla custard and summer berries - although on the nite I had it, it was served with roasted rhubarb!!!!! Words cannot express how i loved this dish - it had everything i love in a dessert - it was comfort food with great flavour and flair ... it was divine..it was divino! Sadly I was too taken with my new love to take any photos of her....Croatian Doughnuts - will you marry me?

Old Bud (OB) and i checked out Voyage Kitchen and Deli at 128 West Coast Drive cos a friend had said it had great coffee - the brekky menu looked good and it was PACKED - old bud and i got take away coffee and lunch and sat in the sand on the beach opposite - so it could have been the general ambience of gorgeous sunny perth day on white sandy beach with sea lapping at stuff, but the coffee WAS rich and yummy and my ham and cheese panini (which i swore off years ago cos perth got completely panini obsessed and i decided that panini was the foccacia of the 00's) did seem to be particularly tasty.

Went to Cimbalino in Dalkeith too - last time i couldnt taste anything, this time i could taste too much! the coffee always rocks here, but the bircher muesli was too sweet for me and the croissant i ordered came out cold, not warm and flaky - i was only consoled by OB, who told me in no uncertain terms that in Paris croissants did not arrive all flaky and warm...? Still not convinced by that, but it worked for me at the time.

I had two brekkys at Sayers at Shop 1, 224 Carr Place Leederville (swapping my old haunts for new this trip). OH. MY. GOD. So good!!!! I went to Sayers when it first opened, drawn by the tenuous link to Tarts in Northbridge. I was unimpressed by the froufrou cushions, the massive gilt mirror on the wall and the businessy clientele - but this time.. well maybe i've just chilled the fuck out. It's 2 years on and the mirror is still there, so are the cushions, but the music was good, the ppl a mix of business types...hipsters and well...us! The first brekky i opted for some savoury bizness - poached eggs, home made beans, rocket and parmesan, potato cake - again, my words fail me.. it was all just so and tasted amazing. The second brekky i opted for sweetness and being partial to a pancake, i ordered the ricotta pancakes with strawberry compote, double cream and maple syrup. well. pancakes - light, fluffy, just a HINT of ricotta oozing from the centre, fresh strawberries, dusted in icing sugar. And MAjor brownie points for all the rest of the things on the plate coming in little individual pots so that you can mix and match everything until its just how you like it. PLUS the woman who took our order recognised us from another cafe we used to hang out at all the time and was very enthusiastic about it, which stroked my pathetic ego. Only drawback - the coffee. Looks promising, not unpleasant, but fails to really drive it all home. Nevertheless, double thumbs up to Sayers.

My last night in town i went to Jessies Curry Kitchen, which has had a number of really flattering writeups including respected Perth blogger Abstract Gourmet and the Beaufort St Bloggers:

http://abstractgourmet.com/2009/04/jessies-curry-kitchen/

http://www.eatingwa.com.au/articles/186/

In fact these were what led me there - that and the fact that when OB and i went on a reconnaissance mission to check it out, Jessie told us that she cooks fresh every day. Twice. Frankly, this shows the kind of foolhardy dedication to quality food that will suck me in every time, so we invited everyone down for a goodbye Jay, hello Jessie dinner. All that needs to be said is in the two links above really. Cheap as chips (cost $130 for 9 of us), yummy, good sized portions, personable service (Jessie's partner Jeya runs the floor), the best Teh Tarik i've had since Singapore (hurrah! Jeya told me you have to use Boh tea ONLY and he lugs it in from Malaysia packed into a suitcase LOL). Check it out.

http://www.ozeating.com.au/restaurants/dim-sim-cafe/

Last but not least, I had yum cha twice. Now you'd be hard pressed to find better dim sum than at Darwin's Tasty House, but in Perth the benchmark used to be Hoi's Kitchen (RIP). When i was informed that the chef from Hoi's was now at a new place, Dim Sim House on William St in Northbridge I had to check it out. The cafe is a new style cafe rather than an old school dim sum house, but the food rocked. And the SQUID! It brought a tear to my eye. Service was great. And they serve shanghai dumplings which made OB and Tables very happy. Ate a variety of dim summy type stuff and it was all delicious. So if you like it - get on and eat it.

ok nuf from me now.

:-)))

holiday part 5 - dinner

3 memorable dinners i had in Perth - the first was with a bunch of mates and family at Lido on William St in Northbridge. Now Lido is a Vietnamese restaurant that has been around for a while (at least 5 years) and I remember getting very excited when it opened and then abandoning it after a few disappointing experiences. But a mate assured me that rather than going downhill it had gone UPhill and i should give it another try. She especially raved about the vegetarian food, and being pseudo-vegetarian myself (AKA happy to eat meat anywhere but at home), i thought i'd give it a go.

Lido is a big spacious place, and there were people sprinkled at the tables (it was a Tuesday nite) - we took over a big round table in the back corner - gotta love a big round table! You can see everyone and talk to everyone!! Although in this case the accoustics were a little tricky and i found that i couldnt hear anyone more than one person away from me, which weirdly got better as the nite wore on - whats up with that!! No i wasn't drinking LOL We ordered some of the fresh beef rice paper rolls - these were awesome. I wanted more! Had to make do with 2 :-( For mains - suffering from chronic indecisiveness and wanting some of everything i usually have a bad habit of ordering something that sucks and wanting what everyone else has! But not this time baby, no, this time i ordered some grilled pork satays that i really couldnt distinguish from beef (still unsure if they got it wrong or they just taste the same) and some fried tofu with spinach, mushrooms, garlic and ginger - it was really really REALLY good. The tofu was fried and melt in your mouth soft.. the spinach, mushrooms and garlic was braised slightly and very very yummy - the ginger was in barely cooked little strips in the middle of my plate which other people may not like, but i LOVE - so all in all it was a great dinner. Then i got a vietnamese coffee - for those who don't know, it's placed into a drip filter that sits on top of your cup and when it has dripped thru, you can either have it hot with condensed milk, or cold with condensed milk over ice which was what i had. MMMMMMMMM. Everyone else seemed pretty happy with their food too - so yeah two thumbs up for Lido!

The second dinner i loved was my 4oth bday dinner in Yallingup. I made the courageous (some would say crazy - indeed Director Chick made noises in this very direction) decision to invite a whole bunch of mates to celebrate at Yallingup Beach Holiday Park - an idyllic location!!!

http://www.yallingupbeach.com.au/

The dinner took some organisation - it involved a lot of emailing, at least one caterer pulling out and was the subject of significant hair pullage and greying on my part... but it all worked out in the end. Meal Up in Dunsborough came through http://mealup.com.au/ and were absolutely delightful to deal with - prompt on email response, phone calls, amenable to menu changes, cool with vegos, forthcoming with suggestions and delivered right on time. We ended up with:

1 x Nicoise salad

1 x Roasted root vegetable salad with pinenuts and roast beetroot,
mild horseradish dressing

1 x Baby cos and spinach salad with roast pumpkin and pepita seed,
creamy parmesan and herb dressing

1 x Asian noodle salad, nam jim dressing

1 x Mediterranean pasta salad with semi-dried tomato pesto

5 x Yallingup woodfired bread

Spicy red dhal, natural yoghurt and toasted roti bread (everyone went mad for this - we did it all on the BBQ)

Risotto balls with tomato kasundi

Despite some inconvenient rain and raging hormones, the dinner was a big success and i LOVED being there, with my buds and my family who made it all so fab :-))))))))))) WOOHOO!

The last memorable dinner was at a place called Green Planet in Margaret River http://www.vegism.org/ I found an ad for it in the local Rotary guide and was really glad that I checked it out. Run by a guy called ... umm..i forget - i think it was Anatol, clearly from Europe and established his greenie veg credentials for me by having a photo of him stuck on the wall with Woody Harrelson the actor, famous for his raw food diet. Being a sucker for any kind of celebrity action i decided that this place was the place for our take-away dinner. Director Chick and i had been subsisting on pieces of toast for days and i wanted something more challenging and yet not tooooo vego, cos Director Chick, unlike me, was brought up on a diet of chickpeas, granola, avacado smoothies and carob, so is less keen to revisit those days!!!! Anyway, i ordered the pasta of the day which was a vego bolognaise with plenty of grana padano, a lentil and chickpea burger which was FIIIIINE and a yummo, divine, delicious flourless chocolate cake (the likes of which only my friend the Dessert Doctor of Darwin (DDD) has been known to make) which we had with some vanilla bean icecream. YUM.

holiday part 1 - breakfast

Sorry about the double breakfast photo, still figuring out the intricacies of blogging!! (if anyone has any tips.. ?)

Well i flew out from the big D and managed to successfully manage to eat my way round Perth and not take any photos of anything cos i was so excited about all the food options.... after a few days and some clarity (Perth has more food definitely but lots of stuff about the eating experience in Perth still shits me to tears) i took myself off to the Merchant on Beaufort St in Mount Lawley for breakfast - avec camera phone! Going to the Merchant was in the interests of my neural pathways, never been there, the sissy said it was good ... rocked up - its all very funky with some couches, a bit of al fresco table action, perused the menu which has some funky little spanish options and some yummy looking frittery things on it, so i asked for the first option and was told it hadn't been made yet. hmm. asked for my second option and was told that it hadn't been made yet. mmmmmm. asked for my third option which was poached eggs a slow roasted tomato, house made baked beans, mushrooms, that gorgeous Fresh Provisions bacon (i think it comes from Elmars, the german butcher over the road - it is smoked and Freshies is the only place I have found to buy it - it is the BEST EVER!!!!! EVER!!!!!) and spinach (they said they hadn't PLUCKED IT FROM THE GARDEN YET - not - no, they didn't have it yet (!), so i got given rocket instead). It was all VERY delicious, although my eggs came out all boogery and i had to ask them to give them a bit more heat and the coffee was weak as piss, which was funny as they had quotes from the "barista" on the menu about the latest coolest coffee blend. The juice i had which had beetroot and all kinds of yumminess was really good. So i took myself away having had a bloody good breakfast that i had to work to get - which is not the best way to start the morning but far from being the worst. The Merchant needs to pull it's socks up a bit - don't put stuff on the menu you dont have yet!!! Or better yet, GET IT DONE IN TIME!!! Perth still has a way to go before it becomes Melbourne, but the old Perth brekky which used to be Fast Eddy's or nought, has improved outta site.

The only other brekky I had which was in any way memorable was at Cantina 663 on Beaufort St, near the Astor Cinema. Service is ace, really quick, the coffee is great, the tables and booths are comfy with lots of configurations and options for having something to eat and there's the whole undercover outside arcade thing going on so you can sit at a table and set your kid free and watch them crawling out the arcade door and onto busy Beaufort St at peak hour....oops

Food is tasty, presentation good, nothing humungously special about it, just good decent food. I had banana bread, toasted (yum) and some of their house-made granola which comes with some fresh fruit... also had scrambled eggs another time and they were pretty good - not amazing like the ones they used to have at Tarts before it went up its own ass, but good.

still waiting on photos but will post when they come through.... :-)))