Bugger the opinionated Stephen Downes, letting the cat out of the bag about my local boasting 5 open fires, The Carringbush, and nominating it the best cheapish restaurant in the Hun’s latest survey. Interestingly, he’s managed to negotiate a deal whereby his reviews are reproduced on his own rudimentary WordPress blog. Two places nearby which got into his book 100 Gastronomic Experiences to Have Before You Die are Babka in Brunchswick St (“perhaps the world’s best cafe” from a man who eschews hyperbole) and some noodle dish at Fenix, down on the Yarra near Victoria Gardens shopping centre (best restaurant in the financial year ending 2005 (why oh why in the financial year?)). Since his blog has categories for each score, one can see that The Carringbush is in fact the equal eighth best place in Victoria (well, it’s one of 7 on his blog scoring 17 and only one scores 19 and 6 score 18). You’re right. The photo has nothing to do with any of the threementioned establishments. It belongs to Rolf Strohmann whose Night in Bangkok Flickr set is seriously good.
Breakfast at the Collingwood Children’s Farm
Long have I waited before posting about the Collingwood Children’s Farm. Meanwhile, a Farm Flickr group has been created. The first post about Abbotsford’s most precious and wonderful asset was supposed to be fittingly splendid. Well, it’s going to be mundane, just eggs and coffee. For the missing Abbotsford breakfastry is upon us, and in a glorious way that the sniffy author of The Breakfast Blog would probably loathe. His readers seem to think that Collingwood is a “Northern suburb” and Abbotsford rates not a review, while Collingwood rates only two, for Gluttony and Cafe Rosamond which latter I must confess I am now curious about.
The missing breakfastry is the Collingwood Children’s Farm Cafe, open Tuesday to Saturday 9.30 to 4.30 during school holidays and “Wednesday to Sunday otherwise”. Continue reading “Breakfast at the Collingwood Children’s Farm”
A day of unhealthy eating on Johnston St: Bomb, Ilk Bar, Kooshi
Yesterday my curiosity about this place prompted me to detour from my otherwise rigidly fixed route to work on my bike, in my suit. It doesn’t exactly leap out at you when driving past as the missing breakfastry of Abbotsford, and even after peering through this window last Sunday when it was closed, its true nature did not reveal itself, but Bomb Cafe & Bar, as I have discovered it is known (229 Johnston St, not far from the corner of Hoddle St, 9486 0699) is a great spot. Like so many long thin places on Johnston St, a small front section gives onto a middle room and then a magnificent back yard graced by a large peppercorn tree. The hot breakfast menu looked promising, the people behind the coffee machines engaging, but I had a pastry with custard and raspberries with my coffee. Steak, red wine, and salad followed by cheese and walnuts at Vue de Monde didn’t really help at lunch. Continue reading “A day of unhealthy eating on Johnston St: Bomb, Ilk Bar, Kooshi”