The day was the international day of love, Valentine's Day. I always thought it was just a crappy day to sell more flowers, and make all the single people feel like crap. But this year, I decided to embrace it. I bought gifts, cooked dinner, and spent the whole day with Hamsley. We were awake fairly early, even after a late night with Chinese New Year's Eve the night before. Having no bread in the house, we headed out for breakfast; even though we had no idea where we were going. We eventually ended up in Balwyn, at a cute cafe called Moka Pot.
I never saw the appeal of eating breakfast out. Now I can though, but for the people who order toast when they go out for breakfast; I say, "buy a loaf of bread, some of your favorite spread and stay at home!" It's far cheaper for you that way, and you can be all cafe chic at your own place.. buy a coffee machine if you have to!
We were given menus and a nice amount of time to deliberate over what to get. So many delicious choices, I know I'll be back again.
The moka was fantastic. It wasn't bitter at all like you get with some mokas, and it wasn't sweet, it was just creamy and so pleasant to drink.
Ham Benedict - $12.90
Poached eggs with grilled virgina ham on toasted sour dough bread topped with hollandaise sauce.
Hamsley was very impressed with his ham benedict, with it's thick crusty bread; a far more filling serve than at our other favorite breakfast haunt, Brown Sugar Cafe. The bread was nice, the ham was slightly seared, and the poached eggs were perfect and runny.
It is called 'ham benedict' rather than eggs benedict, as they also have salmon benedict on the menu; which is served with, you guessed it; smoked salmon.
Because Hamsley is a good boyfriend, he said my eggs benedict were still better.
Served with strawberries, maple syrup and cream.
For me it was a toss up between the salmon benedict, bircher muesli or the pancakes. I wanted my eggs scrambled, but the menu said no changes to dishes on weekends; so I left that out as an option. Then I decided, I don't have enough pancakes in my diet; so pancakes won this time. We were both wide-eyed and impressed with the size of this serve.
The pancakes were just fantastic. I didn't think I would be able to finish them, and I probably would have even if Hamsley didn't have a few bites so he could taste how fantastic they were.
Flavours from top purple going clock wise:
Blueberry Cheesecake, Mint Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Turkish Delight, Pistachio, Lemon Tart, Salted Caramel, Licorice Chocolate (center)
- Blueberry Cheesecake: I'm pretty sure it was cheesecake. It was amazing however. Creamy with a jam center, no other words to describe it than 'just awesome'.
- Mint Chocolate: My favorite of all the macaron flavours. Had a subtle mint flavour, not over powering and perfect with the chocolate filling.
- Dark Chocolate: Creamy with a distinct bitter dark chocolate flavour.
- Turkish Delight: A light, yet somewhat powerful rose water flavour, but not potpurri-ish like the Lindt Cafe rose flavour. A lovely jelly/jam centre to emulate the Turkish delight.
- Pistachio: Far better than the Lindt pistachio flavour. You can actually taste the pistachio, but also the almond used in the macarons.
- Lemon Tart: Tangy, but not too tart. Perfect and soft.
- Salted Caramel: Sticky and sweet, with a nice deep caramel flavour. The caramel taken to the point just before burning.
- Licorice Chocolate: The aniseed flavour is not over powering. It goes perfectly with the chocolate creamy centre. I was told there was a little bit of Sambucca in this one.
Speaking of macarons, Billy from A Table For Two has a monthly t-shirt in his new shiny online store. There are only 50 units of each t-shirt, hand made and designed by Billy himself. 10% of the profits go to KILT landmine victims in Cambodia. So I couldn't resist buying a funky macaron t-shirt which helps those less fortunate than me. For more information, check out Billy's store here: http://www.atablefortwo.com.au/shop
The licorice macarons look so perfect. In fact they look pretty good to me. Love your mac shirt. Billy is very talented.