Cuckoo Callay, Newtown

Spring time means brunch time! But let's be honest, wouldn't you brave the cold winter weather for a nice cosy brunch anyway? That's exactly what my sister and I did to try out the super easy to find Cuckoo Callay right next to Newtown station for a sisterly date.

We were welcomed warmly inside despite the rainy dreary weather outside by Ella, who brightly said it's still better than having it rain all day like it does back in England! The interior deco is incredibly kooky and I was incredibly intrigued by this clock so we just had to sit right underneath it. The place is decked out with mirrors to make the space seem a lot more spacious. An ingenious idea really.

Skim mocha, $4.00

One of the best mochas I've had for a while. A nice kick of chocolate but could still taste the coffee. Digging that thick layer of frothy goodness on top.

Salted caramel thickshake, $7.00

Being a little bit of an addict to salted caramel, this one had to be ordered. And damn was it good. My sister took a sip, and with widened eyes, she proceeded to hug the mug and not let me anywhere near it. It was definitely wonderfully sweet, and that's what we're all looking for in a thickshake, no? :D

The brunch spread

I really wasn't sure how we were going to finish it all - look at all the food!

#Hashtag browns, $17.00

How pretty does this dish look! There was a choice of bacon steak, smoked salmon or grilled haloumi and I couldn't go past some cheesy goodness. This one was a lot more enjoyable than other haloumi cheeses I've had where it squeaks against your teeth. Anyone else have that pet peeve? Makes me feel the same way as writing on a blackboard with chalk - not pleasant. But this one still had its bounce, but no squeakiness. Yay! A noticeable crunch sound was made as I cut into the massive hashbrown - a telltale sign that it's all about the crispy casing :D The lemon pepper avocado, pea puree, potato, haloumi and egg when eaten together was one tasty dish.

Pulled duck, $22.00

I always love trying duck cooked in different ways and whilst pulled pork is a common one to see around restaurant, pulled duck isn't. And look at the shear size of the mountain of duck! Duck a plenty! I loved the spices that seasoned this dish and the chill jam really gave it that subtle spicy kick that definitely won't be too much for even the biggest chilli-phobics out! That capsicum relish is something to rave about in itself though. My sister, who normally hates capsicum, said that whilst the pulled duck by itself was amazing, the capsicum relish made it even better.

That's the way the cookie crumbles, $11.00

At this point, we were both incredibly stuffed but Ibriham was much too kind and said that one of the chefs were already making us dessert. I suppose there's nothing to say at this point but "Onwards, soldier!" But I sure am glad I made extra stomach space for this because the brownie was super fudgey just the way I like it. And perfect with the vanilla icecream and crispy cookie crumble! Ella mentioned to us that it was a tradition she learnt growing up with her family where if you poured warm cream over, it provided a nice surface to put any toppings you wish over it.

Sometimes I do wish I wasn't quite as small and had more stomach space because both my sister and I were rolling out the door, filled to the brim with delicious food. Cuckoo Callay is definitely a welcome addition to the Newtown cafe scene. Despite the fact that Newtown is filled with coffee fiends, there seems to be a lack of fantastic cafes - not like the Surry Hills region! But Cuckoo Callay has definitely made it's mark. I know I'll definitely be making stops by for some coffee!

Crystal Noir and friend dined as guests thanks to Ibriham and Ella, owners of Cuckoo Callay. Opinions however, are entirely her own.

Cuckoo Callay
Newtown Train Station
Newtown, NSW, 2042
www.cuckoo-callay.com.au

Opening Hours
Monday - Friday: 6:00am - 4:00pm
Saturday: 8:00am - 4:00pm
Sunday: 8:00am - 3:00pm

Eats Lately #4

This past month has been a busy one, filled with all things sweet! I think it's time to do a little round up of all that is bright and sugar related :)

Cadbury's Marvellous Creations range has always been something I thought of as extremely clever. They've marketed this range so it looks super fun. I can't help but be drawn into their little chocolate worlds whenever I see one of the ads. Their new range is even more fun if that's possible. Thanks to Holly Frendo of Red Agency for sending over a couple of samples for me to try before they hit up stores this month!

I love all things cola flavoured and I love all things chocolate but combined together? I think it was a bit too odd for me with the whole sugary candy and creamy chocolate combo.

What was more down my alley was the caramel shakes! It felt like I was eating solid caramel milkshake bits. If M&Ms had crunchy bits in it and were caramel flavoured, this would be it.

_____

Another company who just launched their Spring collection is Tupperware. I sure woke up bright and early to get a preview of their new range. But there's nothing better than starting an early morning with a breakfast of yogurt and fresh fruits.

The hot brekkie (though not sugar related in any way!) was simple yet went down a treat.

The Tupperware collection is super bright - much like spring! You can't help but be happy if you brought your food out in these cute containers, no? And are the bags adorable or what? I can just imagine the big smiles on the faces of the kids using these bags. Thanks Kaaran Gaffney and Vanessa Waingent from AMPR Public Relations for hosting such a lovely breakfast with fantastic views of Bondi Beach :)

_____

And no sweet month is complete without a visit to the Pie Tin. This adventure features THREE glorious dessert pies! Yes, I went on two different occasions. Don't judge. Can I just take a moment to relive how delicious these all were? They were so different, but respectively amazing.

Whipped lime pie, $8.50

The whipped lime pie was delightedly zesty yet creamy at the same time. Is this what the American's call key lime pie?

Oreo cookie pie, $8.50

And oh my god the oreo cookie pie... This is definitely for you diehard Oreo fans! Oreos and cream everywhere!

Tim Tam pie, $8.50

Did someone mention Tim Tam heaven? I'm not sure if any exists, but I feel like if any did, this would be it. This slice of pie was chock full of Tim Tam bits left, right and centre. So rich and chocolately. All three are not for the faint-hearted, as the cream content is very, very high. But if you are not afraid of the delicious dairy goodness that is cream, I highly recommend them all :P

And that's a wrap up of my super sweet month! Hmm, I feel the oncoming of diabetes... Better tone it down a notch with the sugar :P

Cafe Birkenhead, Birkehead Point

It has been a while, dear readers! I have found life is really catching up to me and things have been non-stop busy, busy, busy. In between the midst of working, uni and just trying to get things sorted in general, I managed to catch up with one of my good friends from my old work place I haven't seen for a while. Our weekly chats have been missed sorely! And what better way than to catch up over lunch with a great view and then some shopping?

L to R: energy booster, $6.50 / strawberry daze, $9.00

We started off with some beautifully girly drinks. Are you all digging the lovely hues of pink? We certainly were much too enamoured by the prettiness of it all. The energy booster sounded super fresh with watermelon and mint and tasted exactly so. A question I now pose to you is: when is it not time for a cocktail? When the mocktails sound enticingly zingy of course! Fresh strawberries muddled with lime juice and soda water? Yes, please.

Duck sausage risotto, $22.95

Yep, you guessed it. My eyes zoned in on the truffle oil (and mushrooms!) and I just absolutely had to get this. Whilst lacking in that punch of truffle I was looking for, the flavour of the duck sausage made up for it. Normally I do love my risottos a touch creamy, but this was definitely a bit on the heavy side for me.

Salmon fillet, $29.95

The salmon was the pick of the two, cooked to a beautiful medium rare as ordered. It really didn't need anything extra other than the salt and pepper it was seasoned with. Quinoa is a grain that does do much better with extra sauces and herbs, so it could've been doused lightly with some kind of dressing, but the asparagus, corn, tomato and feta were a welcome addition to the overall dish.

Perhaps I will forgo food next time and instead go for a cup of coffee (or mocktail!) to kick back with in the arvo after shopping gets tiring. And it normally does! Will have to give the coffee a go next time :)

Cafe Birkenhead
46 Roseby St  
Drummoyne, NSW, 2047
 
Crystal Noir and friend dined at Cafe Birkenhead courtesy of Carly Lund. Opinions however, are entirely her own.

Devon Cafe 2, Surry Hills

Having loved Devon Cafe so much the first time around, I went with a few of my uni girlfriends to do another brunch there because let's face it, nothing can beat breakfast foods, no? I've heard Devon Cafe to become very busy, but luckily for me, I've never had the issue of having to wait for a table. But that may have to do with the fact that we go during midweek.

Watermelon refresher, $8.00

Whilst I love watermelon juice, I was wary of the addition of mint as the addition of too much mint can often overpower other flavours, especially a delicate flavour like watermelon. But this was a good balance where I could taste just a subtle hit of mint and it went very well with the watermelon! I couldn't taste the apple, but I think it did make the juice sweeter. A refreshing start for what was to come.

Kaya toast, $12.50

My friends and I are all incredible suckers for anything related to coconut so all our eyes were immediately drawn to the coconut jam. The dish arrived with the coconut jam and butter oozing out, all sandwiched between two massively fat slabs of brioche. A dish like this could prove to be too rich with an excess amount of butter but it actually wasn't the case - simple and nothing short of delicious. The 63 degree eggs were poached to perfection and sat in a light soy sauce which we drizzled over our kaya toast to add a bit of saltiness to the sweetness.

Breakfast with the Sakuma's, $24.50

Give me salmon all day, every day! They managed to get so much miso flavour into this grilled king salmon and it just flaked away as I dug my fork into it. I really have to give credit to Devon Cafe for their poached eggs - each and every one of them is cooked so impeccably that the yolk always bursts as soon as you prod it. And the smoked eel croquette? So wonderfully crunchy! The radish salad was an excellent addition (to break up the rich salmon and croquette) as was the kewpi mayonnaise because let's be honest, when is kewpi mayonnaise not welcome?

My second Asian cousin gone summery, $13.00

Are you all sensing a pattern here whenever my uni friends and I eat together? Yep, this was yet another coconut dish we ordered! We knew it was a winner as soon as it was spotted on the menu - tapioca, young coconut, fresh mango, chia seeds and freeze dried lychee. There was very little room for any possible error. What I absolutely loved about this dish was how light it was to eat. I felt like I was eating something incredibly healthy but that is probably not the case :P The freeze dried lychees were like nothing I've ever had before - the texture is almost reminiscent of a flaky cereal. Fresh mango and coconut really made us all feel like we were eating summer out of a bowl.

Once again, I had an exceptional meal here at Devon. I don't have any qualms with coming back again to try some of their freshly baked goods out front! They do change their menu often, so when I go back, it will probably once again be something new so that is something I'm looking forward to :D

Devon Cafe
76 Devonshire St
Surry Hills, NSW, 2010

Opening Hours
Monday - Friday: 6:30am - 4:30pm
Saturday - Sunday: 8:00am - 3:30pm

Melbourne Alleyways

Wow I have just realised I am not yet done with blogging about Melbourne! I am so sorry, dear readers, for the snail pace in which I am distributing my Melbourne adventures :( It's good to look back on this trip and realise that it was actually Melbourne that converted me into a little bit of a coffee fanatic. All those wanderings through the alleyways to discover a lot of cute cafes with quirky names really couldn't scream hipster at me any louder.

Skim latte, $4.00?

Gingerbreadmanne and I wanted to go to eat buns at Wonderbao but they weren't open yet so we sat down inside a cafe just around the corner called A Little Bird Told Me. How adorable are the ceramics here? That pretty shade of aqua that is reminiscent of Tiffany's and the little blue flowers that held the brown sugar were too pretty for words. The latte was definitely a good one. Sigh, I miss you Melbourne coffee.

A Little Bird Told Me
29 Little La Trobe St
Melbourne, VIC, 3000

Opening Hours
Monday - Friday: 7:00am - 4:30pm
Saturday: 9:30am - 4:00pm

Wonderbao's menu is short, concise and straight to the point of what they sell best. Buns. You can get open buns, closed buns, meat buns, vegetable buns, even sweet custard buns for those feeling like a little bit of dessert afterwards.

L to R: roast pork belly gua bao / braised pork belly gua bao, $4.20 each

Check out the glorious pieces of fatty pork belly and that generous lashing of sauce on top. Whilst the braised pork belly was already really yum with its pickled mustard, coriander and crushed peanut topping, it was the roast pork belly that really made my tastebuds sing with happiness. It was as though the Vietnamese pork roll secretly had a love child with the Chinese man tou. Definitely Vietnamese inspired with its pickled carrots, daikon and cucumber but also Chinese with the hoisin sauce.

Why oh why do you not exist in Sydney, Wonderbao?

Wonderbao
Shop 4/19-37 A'Beckett St
Melbourne, VIC, 3000

Opening Hours
Monday - Friday: 8:00am - 6:00pm
Saturday: 11:000am - 4:00pm

Circa, Parramatta

Circa Espresso is a little hole in the wall cafe located in the western suburbs of Parramatta. It's extremely easy to just walk by and completely miss this cafe! Located in what probably used to be a garage, the interior size of the room itself is very long and narrow so it can't quite fit that many people. We arrived just past noon on a hot Wednesday afternoon and there was a ten minute wait for a table.

At least they had menus for us to look through and couches outside for us to sit on while we waited!

Blood orange juice, $5.00 each

We were really tempted by the chai on their menu but to cool ourselves down from the heat, Ms Dentist-In-Training and I ordered a blood orange juice which was nice and fruity with a slight tang of bitterness that is distinctive of blood orange. We were hankering for those cool pastel striped straws we saw other tables have with their juices but unfortunately they didn't give us any :( The ice was served on the side and the juice itself was served at room temperature. We threw in every last ice-cube into our juice.

French toast, $14.00

I've had many bad French toasts in my day so I was hoping for something exceptional like the one I had at Kazbah. And thank goodness I was not let down. Lashings of cinnamon, fresh mixed berries and pistachio nuts on top of a thick fluffy brioche loaf made it super delicious. I loved eating it with the dollop of yogurt which made it feel a lot less heavier than if it were cream. Hopefully this special will still be there if I return :D

Baked eggs, $17.00

I've heard great things about the baked eggs here and with all three of us being avid baked egg lovers, we had to order this one. This version is a lot less saucier than ones I've had at other cafes and to be honest, I prefer it with more sauce to pack a bigger flavour punch. The overall dish was a lot fresher and more mild, but still went down a treat because woo for eggs! They were still perfectly cooked and the yolk oozed as we cut into it.

Ottoman eggs, $16.00

Look at those beautifully shaped poached eggs! I loved this twist on traditional poached eggs as it was served on top of crumbed eggplant, garlic labne, burnt chili and sage. The eggplant was still beautifully soft and the subtle aroma of sage wafted through all the elements of this dish.

Service was wonderful and they filled up our water bottle continuously all afternoon as we chatted without us having to ask! We must've drank at least a litre of water each :P If they mention the french toast as a special, don't hesitate to order it!

Circa Espresso
21 Wentworth Street
Parramatta, NSW

Opening Hours
Monday - Friday: 7:00am - 4:00pm

Four Friends Cafe, Crows Nest

Hand-made Beligian chocolates

Other goodies

What makes meeting new people very special is hearing their personal stories and Katze, owner of the Four Friend's Cafe in Crows Nest, did just that. Having battled and overcome the life-threatening disease Scleroderma, Katze is now a strong woman who believes lifestyle affects how you live and that if you have love, respect, and are grateful for the everyday small things, your life will be much sweeter. And for those reasons, Katze closed her old cafe and decided to pursue her true passion in creating chocolates!

Organic loose-leaf teas

Cute tea set!

What makes Four Friends different from other chocolaterias is Katze's dedication to using fairtrade organic ingredients and her willingness to support small businesses. What's a few extra dollars when you will be helping those small businesses to continue trading? Her chocolate is imported straight from Belgium and everything she knows about making chocolate is self-taught. The internet's great for everything now isn't it? :P She believes in freshness of the final product, so everything is made on premises and things will be thrown out after just a few days.

Macaron tower

Of course, eating dessert isn't an everyday kind of activity, but Katze instead believes that everything in moderation will keep you happy and sugar should definitely be had once in a while to keep your life sweet! For this reason, Katze had decided to personally make and donate chocolates for every single child in four different shelter homes. That is a lot of chocolate she's handing out! And a very generous gift indeed.

The upstairs seating is quite spacious and my friend and I settled down comfortably into one of the cushiony sofas. Ahhh, squishy.

Chocolate frappe, $7.50 & rose milkshake

To begin, we had some nice refreshing drinks to start off with. I was a huge fan of the dark chocolate frappe! Chocolate, creamy, and just all-round decadent, I couldn't stop drinking this.

Planet tasting plate, $28.00

I loved her concept behind the Planet Tasting Plate - that despite everyone's differences, we should all end up getting along together just like one happy family because in the end, we are all live upon the same planet, do we not? :)

We started off with the licorice macaron because to be honest, I'm not normally a fan of anything licorice flavour. But this one was quite mild and actually enjoyable! Katze loves experimenting with flavours and I could tell as I tried the apricot fig macaron - it had a crunchy sugary coating on the outside and a fruity fig filling. Yum. And the last macaron was banana and that has not been a flavour I've seen anywhere else!

Next we tried the chocolates and I was surprised by the first one I tried. Hello, gingerbread! Huge fan of this one because I am an avid lover of spices :D Katze has been making her chocolates to suit the festivities season, also proof in the second chocolate we tried that had a smooth mint filling. And I couldn't go past the roasted almonds dusted in cocoa. Almonds are too addictive. Though the biggest surprise had to be inside the kitty. Popping candy! It brings out the child in all of us hehe.

The tarts were easy bite sized morsels that were gone much too quick - much like the cheesecake! Katze mentions she has tried minimalising how much cheesecake she makes because her husband can demolish half of it in one sitting! :P

The last part of the tasting platter was the chocolate lava cake. My oh my was it decadent and so delicious. Katze is keeping her little secret of how they manage to get the ganache in the middle of the lava cake all to herself, so if you want to experience how delicious it is, better order it when you're at Four Friends!

If you're in the area and are craving some good quality chocolate, why not settle down with a cup of coffee and sample the desserts at Four Friends? And have a chat with Katze - she's absolutely lovely!

Crystal Noir and friend dined as a guest of Four Friends Cafe courtesy of polkadotPR. All opinions however, are Crystal Noir's own.

Four Friends Cafe
5/29 Holtermann St
Crows Nest, NSW, 2065

Opening Hours
Monday - Friday: 7:00am - 5:00pm
Saturday: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday: Closed