Decadent Breakfasts Are the Best

Life is definitely too short to be worrying about rolled oats and bran for breakfast and whilst I appreciate the Heart Foundation  might have something to say about the effects of overindulgence, I think you should spoil yourself a little but often ;-)

Junior often goes for an early morning surf on a Saturday and heads home via Strawberry Cream Continental Patisserie in Darlinghurst to bring me one of my fave breakfast treats- a freshly baked croissant with ham, cheese and bechamel sauce.

As much as I delight in being treated to breakfast in bed, I don't recommend you attempt it with all the flaky pastry flying about. Not on the Egyptian cotton for crying out loud!

The fresh croissant is buttery and moist on the inside with layers of deliciously flaky pastry on the outside. The classic combination of the ham and cheese is perfectly matched with the thick, cheesy and velvety bechamel. Toasted under the grill it gives a fantastic texture contrast of the smooth and creamy bechamel with the crusty cheese and pastry. Heaven...

If you choose to dine in, be warned that the coffee is not that great and neither is the service. Whilst the authentic Gallic touch of only hiring native French girls may delight some of the males amongst us with Amélie fantasies, for the rest of us back here on Earth, it can be a little frustrating when their broken English gets in the way of a croissant reaching my mouth in a timely fashion. And my automatic reaction is almost always "No monsieur, I did not know that Petit Miam is 'IGH in calcium" and I almost always keep it to myself.

As a Savour Tooth it's not really my thing but if you are into Continental pastries and sweets, their selection will more than make up for the lack of coffee making skills. There is a solid selection in this tiny shop ranging from Tart Au Citron to Crème Brûlée and macarons.

Verdict: Oui to lovely take away delights. Non to a dine in experience to remember.

Strawberry Cream Continental Patisserie
336 Victoria Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2011
(02) 9356 3122

Breakfast of Champions

After a little hibernation over the past month, I owe this blog some much needed attention. Lucky I have some post ideas and photos banked up so time permitting I hope to get my blog on more regularly from now on.

As my weekend breakfasts with Junior are amongst my most favourite things, it seemed fitting to return to the world of blogging with what could potentially be our new favourite local breakfast joint. I had been meaning to give Forbes & Burton a whirl for quite some time now and I am glad I did.

 For us double macchiato drinkers, the quality of the coffee is a crucial element to our brekkie reviews and the fine barista at Forbes & Burton did a fantastic job with the first coffee, however the second had a bit too much milk going on but at least made for a great pic!

Our food arrived very promptly even though the place was full which was a welcomed surprise as one becomes accustomed to having at least 2 coffees and read a whole section of the SMH for weekend brekkie at popular places. Another big tick.

As you can see the servings are generous and I can attest not at the expense of the quality. My scrambled eggs were perfectly cooked as was the wilte spinach and the Sonoma sourdough was divine (mmmmm... sourdough). The bacon was ever so slightly undercooked for my liking as I like it cooked just short of crunchy. Having said that, I managed to get MAJOR food envy when Junior's arrived.

How good can poached eggs with roasted mushrooms, bacon and sourdough toast be, I hear you ask. Damn good when the egg is cooked like this...

Verdict: I am on a mission to get all Eastside City dwellers to try this place at least once. It is definitely my new favourite. May well see you there this weekend. Lunch menu also looks divine so look forward to checking it out!

Forbes & Burton

252 Forbes Street (corner Burton Street)

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Phone: (02) 9356 8788

www.forbesandburton.com.au

6 eggs a week might seem like a lot- PART TWO

Well as if Toby's on Saturday enough, I decided it was high time I took Simon Thomsen's word for it and check out Cafe Giulia. Junior and I zipped across to Chippendale in the beep beep Barina to see what all the fuss was about on Sunday. We arrived around 11am and the place was heaving with diners and people waiting for take-away. Ever the hawk-eye opportunist, I spotted a seat in the courtyard and left a trail of dust for Junior to find behind me as he looked away from the huge chalkboard menu behind the counter.

It was a glorious day so the outside table was a must! Junior once again had more scrambled eggs, this time with Turkish toast, tomatoes and a side of sausages. Typically you get charged about $5 in any other cafe for a side of snags and in return you get a couple of crusty chipolatas in a side plate but the folks at Cafe Giulia do not believe in small portions... or even regular portions for that matter. Their portions have been automatically upsized whether you like it or not. Anyway Junior got two huge sausages (all sniggering can stop now) which tasted like proper butchers sausages- meaty, full of flavour and not too greasy. Hurrah!

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to take photos (sorry!) as I was too busy tucking into my Chorizo and Parmesan Omelette. And speaking of eggs...

The eggs were delightfully fluffy but also had a nice caramelised crust with big chunks of chorizo through it. There was lashings of shaved parmagiana and just in case I was still hungry 2 slices of sourdough toast (mmmm sourdough) and a lovely leaf salad to finish off the representation of all five food groups.

I LOVE FOOD and whilst I have a very healthy appetite, I struggled to get through it. Junior finished off his glut of eggs with his usual aplomb and I managed half my omelette, one slice of sourdough (all together now- mmmm sourdough) and made a point of finishing the salad to counter balance the protein and carb injection.

I am all for man-sized portions if they can be finished but does anyone else hate wasting food? Someone should consider half portions as an option or I would recommend sharing with a friend. Unless your friend was Junior cos ain't no fool gonna git their dirty mitts on his eggs y'all.

Will definitely be back to sample more of the HUGE menu. There were great looking lunch dishes too and I was freely coveting other people's food as it arrived on the tables around us, much to Junior's dismay.

Verdict: I think Simon Thomsen loves man-sized portions.

Check it out:
Cafe Giulia
92 Abercrombie Street
Chippendale New South Wales 2008
(02) 9698 4424
www.cafegiulia.com

6 eggs a week might seem like a lot- PART ONE

But the National Heart Foundation has raised the recommended the maximum number of eggs consumed per person is 6 per week. FYI- I think Junior's weekend breakfasts combined went over that by a lot. Anyway, apparently the cholesterol count in eggs is not to blame for contributing to coronary heart disease, it's those wretched trans and saturated fats.

Now that the educational part is out of the way, we can focus on our mutual lustful, wanton yearning for food in its purest forms.

Breakfast- the most important meal of the weekend (let's face it- no one really has the time or the energy mid week to indulge)

Saturday we had brekkie at Toby's Estate in Woolloomooloo- a favourite of ours. Coffee always great and good simple food to get you going for the day. I must say though that their scrambled eggs is GIGANTIC. I always forget to ask exactly how many eggs they use but if I was a betting lass, I'd say 5 regular chook eggs or 1 emu egg.



 
With roast tomato, 2 rashers of bacon and delicious sourdough toast (mmmm... sourdough) and all for $11 it is a bargain! I went with the bacon and egg roll with hollandaise which I am usually very pleased with (what can hollandaise NOT make better?!) but on Saturday my sauce was somewhat lacking so it wasn't worth photographing. I shall give it one more chance though as they are usually delectable.
 
Junior and I did have a bet to see if he could finish it and well you can see my wallet started the weekend on a minus.

Verdict: Always a pleasure, never a chore. See you guys again next week. Do yourself a favour and go and visit the super chirpy waiters ASAP!

Toby's Estate Espresso Bar & Espresso School
129 Cathedral Street
Woolloomooloo NSW 2011
(02) 9358 1196
http://www.tobysestate.com.au/