Mission 4 - Nunam

Never really thought breakfast could be fusion style but then I don't have that wild an imagination :) However, I can break my own stereotypes, so decided to try a fusion of Thai and breakfast.

It's a lovely autumn late morning. Met up with my usual brunchies plus a new friend at Nunam. Parking was relatively easy. In fact, I parked right outside the other neat brekkie place that is Sayer's sisters. We booked ahead but there were plenty of tables. The menu was really interesting and for my poached egg fetish, there were at least 3 options: the traditional poached eggs on toast with chives, son in law eggs with grilled water melon and scallops, and rice congee with 63 degrees egg, crispy bacon and hollandaise sauce. We were wondering how they mix the sauce in...so I decided to venture SLIGHTLY outside of my poached egg mission and tried the 63 degrees eggs - eggs slowly cooked for some 10 minutes at 63 degrees water, so my friends helpfully informed me :)

The place was spacious and quiet. We were able to sit around and talked for a loooonnngggg time afterwards. That was really nice. We did, however, notice that judging by the decor alone, it would be hard to see that this is a Thai fusion restaurant. The only association we found was some faded Thai writing on the tables.

It took about 30minutes between our order and the food to arrive. But then, when another friend made another order, it came within 10 or 15 minutes. There was only us and 1 other table of 2 or 3 people at any one time so not sure what the difference was...

I also had the beetroot, apple and orange juice which was refreshing. I think I had my antioxidant quota for the day :)

The food arrived and my bowl of congee was rather monumental in size! 2 slow cooked eggs in the middle. Hollandaise and bacon bits left on the side as I requested. It looked very watery at first but in fact the rice was very well cooked and sank to the bottom. It had good flavours in it, not sure what it is though, a bit sweet.

Crunch time came for me to try the egg. I had to be super delicate as I could see the egg was uber runny. I managed to scoop it up with the spoon and swallowed one in its entirety. For a moment, I felt like I was Rocky in the movie when he drank raw eggs...it was essentially an entirely uncooked yolk. The egg white was a bit cooked as you can see it's turned white. It was the runniest yolk I've ever tasted and I don't think I liked it :P

As for the other egg, I decided to break it into the congee. But the soup was too cool for it to cook the egg any more. Plus my puny stomach couldn't fit any more soup in, so the other egg was pretty much abandoned...


Friend had the grilled water melon plus scallop and son in law eggs. She said it was good. Similarly, friend who had the scrambled eggs finished hers in spite of her usual small stomach (although she is pregant too :D )

I don't know if it's fair to compare it to my other poached eggs experiences cos these aren't really...but I think...I'm never going to make it as a raw food eater. And on the Olivia egg scale, I would score it as 2.5 out of 5. However, I would absolutely go back to try their actual poached eggs :)

Mission 3 Lucioli cafe in Claremont Quarters

Had to google the place for ages to find the name to write this :) Not a cafe I intended to go to. Originally was going to try Typika but that place was packed and dad can't sit on the high stools. Note to anyone who might need disability access, trendy as they may be, don't go to Typika. Anyway, so my brother diverted us to this place, and we settled down. But the breakfast menu only goes up to 11 and the lunch menu starts at 1130. We got there at 11, so there was a bit of drama on what to order ... the waiter kindly negotiated with the kitchen to accommodate for our mix of lunch and brunch orders.

We did notice that lots of tables around us, as well as the waiters were speaking Italian. There wasn't too much of a wait for our platter of antipasto, meat balls, polenta chips and my poached eggs.

There were 4 1/2 of us - well 4 adults and 1 x 5 year old chatterbox. The table was rather too small for our order. we had to put plates down the ground to fit things on. I suppose restaurants are always trying to fit in as many tables as possible. But some consideration should be made for the diners if they don't want plates and cups dropped all over the ground :P Having said all that, al fresco dining was nice for an Autumn Perth day. There was plenty of room for the hyperactive 5 year old to zoom around.

The buffalo cheese and polenta chips came first. Whilst I thought the polenta chips were rather dry, the home made tomato sauce made it ok. The meatballs were reasonably tender and well seasoned with no nasty tendon bits in it. So my impression of the eggs may be somewhat positively biased when they came.


There were the standard two poached eggs on two pieces of toasts. There was a side of cherry tomatoes. All drizzled with pepper, herbs and olive oils. There wasn't much egg white to dissect. Both eggs looked fairly fragile and cutting through the egg white confirmed that caution and a steady hand was required to preserve that yolk. The entire yolk was runny. Just as well because the toasts were a bit on the over crunchy side. My sister in law then insisted on videoing my piggy face engulfing the yolk, a feat I always reserve one egg for. So you can see the moment I feel the smooth thick yolk bursts, spurts and fill my greedy gob.

Overall, 4 1/2 out of 5 on the olivia egg scale as I consider it a bit of a feat to have both egg yolks entirely runny :D

Operation poached egg task number 2 - Miss S on 178 Whatley Crescent, Mt Lawley.

It is a buzzing place. We got there around noon on a Sunday and there were people queuing outside. Lucky we got a table quickly. If you are not that lucky, they do come out to take your order first so you get to eat by the time you sit down.

Eventhough I do want to just focus on the eggs but I gotta say, the lively quirky atmosphere did make quite an impression on me. Right from-the-word-go, with the menus being pegged onto old children's books made me smile. The tables were rather squashed together and we were chair against chair between tables. It added to the friendly atmosphere though.

But to the eggs! The plate was pretty. One of the eggs was medium size and the other looked pretty small. The two pieces of gluten free toast were pre buttered and had specks of spring onion on them. There was a small dish of relish.

I also had a glass of water melon juice which appeared literally as soon as I ordered it! It was fresh too!

There wasn't much egg white to speak of as the eggs were kinda small. I also had to be very gentle in dissecting it off the yolk because I could see the yolks were runny. The egg white had a nice gentle taste of vinegar in it. I didn't need to add any salt or pepper. The yolk was easily broken and oozed out soaking the toast. It was lovely. I normally like to eat one with the yolk spread on toast saving the other for gulping the entire intact yolk in my mouth, cos I love the way the yolk bursts in my mouth...mmm...but the first egg was so small that it wasn't really enough for the entire piece of toast to be covered. So I decided to sacrifice the other egg as well. It was equally oozy and runny. The relish nicely combined with the eggs and toast although I suspect if you actually wanted to spread the relish onto both pieces of toast, you would find the amount a bit stingy.

So overall, on the Olivia egg scale ... 4 eggs out of 5 :) Mainly because the portion size wasn't quite right...but it was pretty good :)

Milk and Honey, Northbridge

I love eggs but also being health conscious, I want to avoid fried eggs. So I have always ordered poached eggs on toast whenever I have brunch. Since it's such a simple dish, there is no hiding behind a sauce, or fancy flavouring. I thought it would more accurately reflect the quality of cooking and freshness of produce with this dish.

The mission, and I chose to accept it, is to find the best poached eggs in Perth. So this is the very first cafe in this operation.

Milk and honey at 82 James St.

Went to this place after seeing an exhibition at the Perth Museum. It's only 5 min walk away. The place looks nice - spacious and not crowded. But it was 38 degrees out there and the air con is NOT on?! So we were sitting there sweating away. Already I was not in the most forgiving mood.

The plate came as standard 2 poached eggs, a small rocket salad with dressing and 2 pieces of toast with a packet of butter. I have to say I prefer butter that is either in a glass container or whipped. A packet is just not that great a look.

But to the eggs...The egg white was pretty well cooked. Whilst other cafes there is often a vinegar taste to it, the egg white here was rather taste free. The eggs were on the small side. I like to dissect the egg white from the yolk as far as possible to get the purest taste of the yolk. May be it's the surgeon-wannabe in me. The yolk separated from the white fairly easily. But there was a reason for that. The yolk was rather over cooked. Although there was some yolk running into the toast, it was hardly bursting. In my opinion, the eggs were over poached.

So considering the bakery condition of the cafe, the rather average quality of the eggs, on the Olivia egg scale, it rates as "ordinary".