Mission12 - Chinta

Tis a long weekend and the operation has been given another target - Chinta in Scarborough. The skies were blue and the day was heating up. We booked for a table at 11am. Us girls must be all wanting to savour the lie-in, we got there right on 1110. THe place had queues of people inside and outside. We were then greeted by the waitress who informed us we were 10 min late so our table had been given away! None of us said much but I wasn't all THAT happy about it. If they were THAT strict, I thought they should have said something when we booked...

Anyway, we waited for about 20 minutes before a table that fitted us came up. In the mean time, there were a steady stream of people adding to the every growing wait list.

It's really a shop plus a cafe with a back yard. I loved the furniture - really quirky and interesting. There were lots of buddhas and dream catchers of all colours. Fortunately it wasn't filled by incense smell.

I loved the wooden bench we sat on. Even in the blazing midday sun, we were well covered by the numerous paper umbrellas over head while still letting lots of natural sunlight through. The seats were all different styles. I particularly liked the big wooden benches with cushions where you could put your feet up or have a lie down - like the Romans did. However, I did find the place a bit cramped, a fault many of these little cafes suffer from. I suppose economics forces do intrude on this little spiritual haven.



The waitress forgot to give us menus but that was understandable as the place was buzzing. The menu printed on A4 refill which reminded us middle aged women of our high school days. And we reminisced over those good old days while we poured over the choices.




We wondered what the "beetroot toast" was in the vegan option but at the end of the day, we ordered choices that were more trusted old favourites. Two chorizo eggs, one atlantic eggs and two modest brekkies. THere was no "eggs on toast" as such.

Everyone were served by paper plates and plastic cups. Friends who have been here before thought it must be a change they made because it was so busy. So it had some negative impact on the aesthetics as everything was kinda squashed and mixed together.



I was kinda disappointed with my modest brekkie although I was surprised by the bacon added. The grilled cherry tomatoes and mushrooms were nice. I found the bacon too salty but then I have never liked bacon. Friends' chorizos were tender and flavourful. Oh and the modest brekkie only gets one egg. The bread was toasted sourdough. The egg was quite disappointed. It was nearly cooked, only the very middle was still a little bit runny. Friends who got two eggs said at least one of them were runny.

So overall, 3 out of 5 eggs from me. I love the surroundings. It would have been even better if it was less busy. To me the food was average, nothing memorable but may be I would go back to try the beetroot toast (hopefully it's not just beetroot on toast :D)

Mission 11 - the old laundry

I work around the North Perth area and had known for some time that Angove Street has sprouted a trendy row of cafes and shops. It was only last week that I had the chance to finally try one of these places for my operation.

It was a lovely sunny day. I was running late as usual. As I became aware that it was ...11 20 am, I started to drive like the Chinese woman that I am... Breakfast stops at 1130. My very considerate friends however, whatsapp'ed me the menu. But having been brunch buddies for so long, she knew my taste already. So her suggestion was exactly what I wanted.

I loved the ample parking on the street which was free although there were a few motorcycles, making sitting outside not quite so pleasant.

The place was busy but not too crowded. The table was a bit small for three plates of food. We however all loved the ledge on the side for us to put our hand bags and phones on. It's a girl thing.

I had the smashed pumpkin bruschetta with hazelnut dukkah, poached egg, feta, honey and dill dressing. My friend had sweet potato and chorizo hash. My other friend had the Old Laundry green eggs and ham. That consists of pork hock, green pea, polenta fried cakes, poached eggs, pesto and rocket. Then we all shared the Old Laundry peanut butter and jelly pop tart.






There was an ancient washing machine in the backyard but the staff didn't think it was a laundromat in the past. Nonetheless, the decor was trendy and unique.


My friends' meals came first so I tried a bit of chorizo and a bit of the polenta. When I saw my bruschetta, I was quite excited. It looked a good size and rather delicious.



THe smashed pumpkin was nice but better when mixed with feta. Otherwise it tended to be too sweet. Mind you, I've never really felt comfortable having pumpkin as a vegetable. There was only ONE egg! I had to deliberate for some time, how to eat it. From the absence of a photo with the egg cut open, you would be correct to assume I ate the whole egg in one mouthful. The yolk was fairly runny. It was a bit on the small side though. THe bread was ok but I always find the toast in cafes too...toasted...dry. One could argue that's why you put the pumpkin smash on it.

Friends had a few misgivings about the pop tart, namely because they made it too early when we told them we wanted it as a dessert. They apologised and later returned with the plate at the right time. However, the pop tart was cold. So we surmised they just left the plate and did not make a fresh dish even though it clearly would have affected the taste. Apart from that, there was a fair peanut butter taste and it was very pretty, with edible flowers sprinkled over.








So overall, it's a 3 out of 5 from me. THere was only one egg. I just though perhaps avocado smash or somehting would be better than pumpkin. I would go back but only because their dinner menu looked interesting and I like tapas - dates, villa queso blude cheese, ricotta, pancetta, lemon!

Brilliant day for brunch by the sea

About 25 min from Perth CBD is Fremantle Loop, a set of apartments by the sea. Underneath is this bustling cafe The Shipping Lane. The theme of shipping is around. The mirror at one end of the room is framed by a container. The feature wall is a nautical map. But the most captivating feature is the view of the sea and the brilliant clear blue skies. Although if the cafe was 1 floor higher, it would have had a much better view of the sea and the coast line.

There is a brunch menu, sushi menu and dinner menu. My friend ordered a serve of poached salmon sushi with popping candy and fish roe, a rainbow juice and the slow poached salmon salad. I ordered the avocado guacamole on toast plus 2 eggs, poached of course.

The staff came around offering water giving us time to order drinks. They were very attentive throughout actually.

Sushi came first. Perhaps they could have offered us an extra plate, seeing that we were going to share. But they automatically gave us 2 sets of chopsticks

My friend's slow poached salmon came slightly different from what I envisaged. I thought it would be a portion of whole salmon. But it came in pieces. But the most important thing was that it was nicely poached. I thought it was a bit fishy but very tender and juicy.

As for me, my guacamole smothered toast was topped with cherry tomatoes and feta. The two poached eggs came wobbling, ready to burst! There was some pepper and salt seasoning on the egg. I didn't do much egg white resection because both looked like they were on the verge of bursting already. The toast was a little bit thick for the about of egg available. Plus as my friend noted, rye bread (or some form of brown bread) was not buttered making it a touch on the dry and bland side. The guacamole could have done with a squeeze of lemon or a touch more salt. But overall, it was nice.

My friend's verdict of the coffee was a bit average. My Marrekech tea was reasonable - a bit spicy and aromatic.

Overall, the eggs were better than average but the rest of the food was probably average. 3.5/5 on the Olivia egg scale. Would be back for the view but then there is another cafe even closer to the sea 100m from here!

Sprolo- poached eggs with kayan jam

Haven't blogged for some time. However, it does not mean that I ceased my search for the perfect poached eggs on toast. Quite the contrary.

Firstly there was Sprolo. Sous vide eggs on toast plus Kayan jam. THis was a much better experience of sous vide eggs than Nul Nam. The eggs were just that tad more cooked and I didn't feel like a neanderthal eating something completely raw.

One criticism I do have is the use of packets of butter. It just doesn't look quite right. I do however always had this preference for whipped butter. It would be even nicer if it was whipped and flavoured. The kayan was good but nothing special.

THe cafe itself was nice and casual. I loved the guitars on the wall. Apparently the owners are also musicians. Although I did think my guitar loving friend might have a heart attack, seeing the dismantled instruments on the wall.

Overall, on the Olivia egg scale, 3 1/2 out of five.Losing points on just being average, nothing very special.

Typika - Claremont

Finally made it to Typika in Claremont! The place was buzzing - long queue for take away coffees and queues for tables as well. The staff took my name down and said it would be about 20mins. I wasn't in a rush. But a word of caution is that they won't give you a table unless all of you have arrived. Fair enough, I guess. I just stayed there, taking photos of the place and chatting on my phone. I'm not sure how it would work if you went away to the mall and a table turned up earlier. In spite of that, we got a table within about half an hour.

My friend who have been here numerous times before said that there were new foods added to the menu. One ordered the dang dang beef with hand made thai sausage. The other ordered the charsiu pork bun, white man style of course!

Service was relatively quick. Suffice to say, both my friends were satisfied with their choices. I tried the sausage, and it was rather delicious. Tender and fragrant with no nasty bits in it. There were nice touches to detail. If you order tea, the milk comes in a tiny wee milk bottle. The butter comes in a little glass container ready softened for spreading. As for me, poached eggs on gluten free bread with mushrooms was my choice.

The eggs were the runniest I've had so far. I couldn't really dissect away the white as it was all too fragile. In the end, I broke both of the eggs :( However, there was a bit of seasoning and pepper already on top of the eggs so I didn't have to add anything. The bread was crunchy and fresh although not as nice as the brioche at Harvest.

So overall, 3.75 eggs out of 5 from me. Better than Sprolo, just that bit more attention to detail.

Absolutely would come back. Next time I would try their huevos rancheros - 62 degree eggs with chorizo sausage, tomatoes and feta on toast! YUM!

Harvest (brioche heaven but a low carb hell)

Then there was Harvest in Vic Park. A tiny little box full of life. There were people queuing well after brunch time. There were these cute little banana breads, 1 serve, that were for sale too.

The poached eggs were good but not super. The yolk was runny and the egg white not too raw. But the absolute DELIGHT was the Brioche toast. It was light, fluffy, not dry but crispily toasted. It had a sweet aroma that was JUST RIGHT. I could have eaten A LOAF of it! Even if it was with just the packet butter which I despise. However, they don't actually bake the bread on site. But I was just glad I wasn't on a low carb diet

Service was a touch on the slow side. When my friend ordered an extra coffee and the banana bread, it took nearly as long as the cooked breakfast for her to get it. They were, however, pretty busy. THe place was full the entire time we were there. We felt bad talking too long because of people waiting for a table.

Overall on the olivia egg scale, 4 out of five, for SUPER brioche bread to go with nicely done eggs.Losing points on being just a touch too cramped and the packet butter.

Middle fish

Lastly, Melbourne's Middle Fish. A trendy fusion of Thai and Australian. The decor is kitsch mix of colours and chinese iconic utensils, like the tin cup holding the cutlery. It is child friendly in that there are lots of intriguing nic nacks to occupy kids' curiosity.

I don't really like the cable car seat arrangement. It's so hard to get in and out of, espeically if you sat in the middle like I did.

The service was ok once we got the attention of the waiting staff. The chef/ owner came out around noon promoting the lunch menu but also just checking on each table. He seemed genuine and sincere. My friend's husband ordered the fish curry which was super spicy. The chef heard of this and offered him a free bowl of soup to help.

The poached eggs on rice soup was yummy. My friend were very carb conscious so we ended up all asking for brown rice rather than white. The rice was done slightly on the under cooked side - rather chewy for my taste. But the soup was light and flavourful. I had prawn rice soup. The prawns were fresh of medium size. It was adequate as "tiger" prawns. The eggs themselves were on the cooked side. There was not much runny yolk to speak of. Nonetheless, they were good sized eggs. The proportion of rice to prawns and soup was a touch on the over-emphasis on the rice.

We also ordered the savoury buns that they were also famous for. The pastry was fluffy with a hint of sweetness. The filling were pork and spices which were well balanced, not too spicy not too blend.

Overall, I like the decor and the stereotype asian touch, which asians will relate to :)



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Mission 5 Gordon St Garage

This is the funkiest place this mission has taken me to so far. Being on an unsuspecting side street of West Perth, I thought there would be plenty of parking. Not so. But I was lucky enough to find a free space after going around the block for the third time.

There were plenty of seats. I gathered it used to be a warehouse or garage. All around the cafe are photos of cars and people from the 50's. But because the ceiling was so high, the music a bit on the loud side, it was sometimes a bit hard to hear the conversation...of course, I'm a bit deaf at the best of times anyhow...

There were three dishes suited to this mission - poached eggs with trout and asparagus, poached or scrambled eggs on loaf and bacon, or leek and corned beef rosti with sunny side up eggs. Friends had the last one. I chose the trout cos it sounded like an unusual combination, only to be told that they have no trout! But the chef did make some adjustment and gave me salmon, asparagus and poached eggs instead.

The waitresses were attentive and constantly topped up our water. When my dish arrived initially with just the greens and salmon, there was mild panic. But soon the waitress arrived with the goods.

The greens were ok. The asparagus was grilled nicely - crispy and crunchy still. It was a little on the tasteless side if not for the salmon. As for the eggs, they were cooked to perfection! Never had I had poached eggs that I can remove the white COMPLETELY. The yolk did not break. But when bitten into, the yolk was still thick, runny and eggy :) And since there was no bread to spread the yolk on, I got to enjoy two bursts of yolk instead.

Friends shared their pancakes and rosti dishes. I stole a bit of the pancak. It was fluffy and lived up to its banana flavour name. The corn beef and leek rosti equally received good review from a person who disliked corned beef, too.

When we were asked if we wanted more drinks, we asked for the menu. But the waitress gave us the bill instead. Must have misheard us. So may be it's not just me that's deaf :P

At 22 dollars, it was a little on the pricier side considering there wasn't much salmon to the salad. Friends' dishes were only 16 dollars ...

So overall, the eggs were 5 out of 5 on the Olivia egg scale. The dish itself however ... may be 3 1/2, 4? No bread, a bit tasteless with the salad and false advertising with no trout! But I love the setting and would go back any time still :)