KIN by us. (Macquarie Park, Sydney)

With social media so prevalent in society, a brand new cafe with delicious food can be so easily promoted via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. It is the case for KIN by us., a very new cafe which opened in Macquarie Park, North Ryde a couple of months ago.

To add to the popularity of this cafe are ex MKR contestants Uel and Shannelle who seem like a lovely couple. Their TV presence has certainly helped with the publicity of their new food venture. And it has turned out to be a hit.

I visited over three occasions to try out the different dishes.

Waffle Belly - caramel soy pork belly, potato waffle, onsen egg, mushrooms and cabbage. This was my dish and I loved it! The pork belly was so tender and packed full of flavour. I don't believe I have had a potato waffle before and was surprised when I cut through it was soft, rather than the crunchy waffle I am normally used to. But I did like the texture and it went so well with the pork belly. And the egg, beautifully cooked by the way. Note that in almost every dish on the menu, there is an onsen egg on offer.

Snap, Crackle, Pop - chicken rice with crackle and onsen egg. The aroma of the rice when the dish was served had me slightly salivating. It was my friend's dish but I managed to get a bite. :) Nice flavours and I enjoyed the crunchy chicken skin crackle. Note to chef: More crackle please! :)

On another visit, I had the Kaya Toast which was homemade coconut jam on toast. I opted not to have the onsen egg. The Kaya had a lovely fragrance, however for $7 I would have liked a couple more half slices? Am I being greedy? Hehe!

Longshot Cafe (Beecroft, Sydney)

Beecroft seems to have quite a few cafes for a suburb with a shopping hub consisting of a couple strips of shops. It is a charming little village. Longshot Cafe has been around for a while and is one of the more popular hang outs.

Unfortunately I don't have many opportunities to hang out in this charming suburb during weekdays and rarely on weekends either. But one thing led to another and I found myself having lunch here one Saturday catching up with some friends.

It is located on a corner lot and is pretty much surrounded by ceiling high glass, hence a brightly lit interior. There are also exterior tables and chairs shaded by large upstanding umbrellas.

For lunch we had:

Open sandwich of grilled chicken on soy and quinoa bread, with grilled kale, green hommus, avocado and lemon.

Pulled pork roll with a fried egg, and harissa dressing.

Corn and zucchini fritters with crispy bacon, smashed avocado, wilted spinach and jalapeño mayo.

J enjoyed his chicken sandwich; T would have liked more harissa dressing with her pulled pork. I did enjoy the fritters but would have liked more jalapeño mayo. I sure liked my crispy bacon! :)

Big Tree House Cafe (Rydalmere, Sydney)

It's nice to find out through social media of new cafes and restaurants. Especially when this cafe is so close to home, I would even say it is within walking distance!

Big Tree House is a cute cafe located in the suburb of Rydalmere. It is one of 2 stores located amongst a row of houses. Quite unusual to see a cafe situated in this way. But it works; people come and have a coffee, breakfast or lunch. Ultimately that's all that matters!

Once I found out about it through Instagram, I decided to visit over a few weekends. So please don't think I had all these in one go! :)

Gang nam style burger - I kicked off my first meal by having one of the specials. It was soy marinated beef, with onions, lettuce, mushroom, served with crispy kipfler. The beef was juicy, tender and bang full of flavour. The brioche bun was nicely soft. Yum!

Note: This dish has since been incorporated to their menu.

Corn fritters with poached eggs, bacon, avocado, and tomato relish. The eggs were perfectly poached and I loved the combination of bacon with the corn fritters. Nice!

Ricotta pancakes with honey cinnamon butter, and caramelised bananas. Lovely caramelised flavours without being overtly sweet. The pancakes were soft and fluffy but had an interesting texture because of the ricotta.

St Ali (South Melbourne, Melbourne)

Recently I took a last minute business trip to Melbourne but was not expecting much, if any, opportunity to check foodie places out. Well, little did I know it would turn out to be meals in 3 places I would be blogging about.

The first one is St Ali. I have heard about their coffee (of course!) but didn't realise they had a cafe in South Melbourne. This is where my rather new Melbourne office is located. When we arrived at the office, it was lunch time and DD had a flash of inspiration to check out St Ali. Out came google maps and before you know it a group of us were ensconced in this very hip warehouse like cafe.

After poring over the menu and realising the prices were not your average cafe prices, we decided on the following.

Porky Pig's Christmas Lunch - Prosciutto and Brie toastie with cranberry sauce.

The Daddy - Breakfast bun with Cumberland sausage, bacon, scrambled egg and tomato chutney.

The Paramount Coffee Project (Surry Hills)

I have been holding off posting my experience at Paramount Coffee Project (PCP) as I really wanted to return to try their Crab Po Boy before I was happy enough to talk about my experience there. But sigh! I just haven't been able to return since my first two visits from weeks ago. So here it is, my post on PCP without trying the Crab Po Boy!

A week after Paramount Coffee Project opened in Surry Hills, I had an opportunity to check it out with my mate DD. My first visit was at lunch time. As it was only a week old then, it was not flooded with people yet. I loved the wide open space of the interior when I stepped in. It was larger than I anticipated but quite cool actually! There were a few bicycles stacked at the rear wall and it reminded of the bikes I saw when I was at Seven Seeds in Melbourne last year. Not surprising since this project is a joint one between Mark Dundon of Seven Seeds and Russell Beard of Reuben Hills.

And I liked the separate coffee station where serious coffee aficionados can hang out.

I had the Double Fried Chicken which was a spicy coated fillet with house slaw and creole relish. The chicken was tasty and I liked the slight kick in the relish. The only thing I found wanting was I would have liked the chicken to be crunchier. But the flavours were certainly there.

DD had the Joey chestnut which was a wiener with mustard, ketchup, cheddar, onion jam on milk bun hot dog. In other words, an upmarket version of the very American hot dog. DD also ordered some pickles with it. I had a bite of the hot dog just so I could taste the flavours and textures. The wiener was really good, there was a nice bite to it. The only thing we found wanting was the texture of the bun. It wasn't as soft as we had expected. It was actually quite dry. Maybe the bun was toasted too long. But that diminished the other good things about the hot dog. But I have been reading other blogs since then, some of whom had the hot dog and there were comments on how soft the bun was. So I take it as an anomaly that DD was not lucky enough with his hot dog bun.

Cool Cafes in Parramatta

What is the definition of cool? Cool to a Gen Y may be different to a Gen X. But there are some things that are considered cool to all generations. I think these 2 cafes I am about to talk about are cool. I wonder if anyone out there will disagree with me?

Circa
Having recently won the Best Cafe award from the Good Cafe guide, Circa is even more prominently known now than before. I first heard about Circa when it opened and even noted its name in my list of Notes on my phone. But I had not been able to fit it in to my action list so far. After hearing more about it from fellow foodies earlier this year, I made a mental note to visit Parramatta on a Saturday. But by the time I was ready to do so, Circa lost it's weekend chef and since then had decided since then to only open on weekdays. Well, that shot my plans down, didn't it?!?!?

Recently I was called to appear in Parramatta court for jury duty. What a better opportunity to check out Circa. On the first day, they sent us home around 1.00 pm, so I wandered through the streets and found Circa. It is conveniently located minutes from the train station and Westfield Parramatta. There was not even a sign to indicate it was Circa but based on the pictures of its website, I construed it was so.

I was so excited to finally be here. It looked cool, it felt cool and it certainly was small. It was very Surry Hills but in Parramatta! On my first day, I decided to have the Cold Drip coffee. I don't think I have had one of these before and it was warm enough to have a cold coffee. It was smooth, chilled and quite fruity.

My lunch consisted of Baked Eggs. Initially I thought it was going to turn out like a shakshuka but I was so wrong. A nice wrong though! It was baked free range eggs with sujuk, Danish feta, diced tomatoes with a hint of chilli and served with sourdough toast. In case you didn't know, sujuk is a dry, spicy sausage traditionally used in the Turkish, Bulgarian and Albanian cuisine. It reminded me of the Spanish chorizo but a slightly spicier version of it.

I loved my dish. The toast was chewy and not as soft as you would think but I thought the texture was perfect to soak up the flavours of the baked eggs. The sujuk was absolutely delicious. I was glad there was generous servings of the sujuk in the dish.

The next morning, I decided to return for breakfast before I headed to the courts. This time, I decided on a more mellow Oolong tea to start the day.

Auction Rooms (Melbourne)

When I was in Melbourne recently, while at dinner with my nephew and his girlfriend, I was talking about my plans to check out places for good coffee and good breakfast/brunch. They both suggested I try out Auction Rooms. I had not heard of it before and was only too happy to take down suggestions from locals.

So that Sunday morning, I woke up feeling a little ill and I could feel I was coming down with a cold and sore throat. But the thought of having a decent cup of coffee and a good brunch kept me going until I found a pharmacy to get some Codral (after returning from Auction Rooms).

Auction Rooms is located in North Melbourne. It is housed in an old WB Ellis auction house, hence the very apt name. Never having ventured to this suburb before, I was interested to have look around the place. I took the Tram #57 from Elizabeth Street and stopped off at Tram stop 12. Then it is literally a short walk to Auction Rooms.

As I approached the cafe, I could see many people milling outside and there were also outdoor tables filled with diners. It was a bright and sunny morning in Melbourne, a perfect way to enjoy a meal by sitting outside.

I stepped in and was immediately greeted with a large loft filled to the brim with diners, there were lots of noise with all the conversations going on and a queue of people waiting for a table. Oh dear! I wondered how long it would take for me to grab one.

I had deliberately set Sunday as my day and I had not made any prior social engagements, which was a blessing in disguise what with being sick and all. So it was a table for 1. Hurray! I was lucky, I got a table straight away.

I loved the vibe. The place was buzzing and being there perked up my spirits! I couldn't wait to have my meal. I started with a skim cappuccino which by default is their in house blend called Candyman. They also have a coffee bar where I could see syphons, coffees from Kenya, Costa Rica, and Ethiopia displayed on the shelves. Serious stuff!

My coffee was very good. Smooth and creamy. I so wanted another cup and would have ordered more but refrained until I finished my meal.

The juice of the day was Watermelon, strawberry, with honey and mint. Delicious!

Manchester Press (Melbourne)

I was in Melbourne and in dire need of a good cuppa coffee first thing on a Saturday morning. All the good coffee places that I was aware of were closed for the weekend. Panic sets in! So I desperately turned to Google for some help.

Lo and behold, I decided to check out Manchester Press. Initially I couldn't even find Rankins Lane. I walked past it without even knowing I had overshot. Fortunately my phone's GPS steered me back to the right course.

PF was in Melbourne too and she found out I was in town through twitter so we decided to meet for coffee that morning. I really liked the look and feel of Manchester Press. It had a warehouse/loft like feel. There was a grunginess to this place. Quite cool actually.

When we arrived, it was just after 9.00 am and there were only a few patrons. But the place filled up half hour later.

Looking at the menu, I could clearly see that their breakfast specialty is bagels. There was bagel with raspberry jam, bagel with smoked salmon, BLT bagel, Chorizo open bagel; and the list goes on.

But what did I order? No bagels for me. I had a lunch to go to in a few hours so I had to pace myself and ordered a coffee and a Passionfruit and Poppyseed cake. The coffee was quite smooth and the cake was delicious. It had a nice passionfruit punch and had a good density.