Multicultural Cuisine of... breakfast time!
Miss Marie Cafe
45 Beetham Pde,
Rosanna
Let's be honest - there's really not a lot better than a quiet work day, with time for a lunch break with a girlfriend at a cosy, beautiful little cafe. And last Friday, I got to do just that!
In my last week of work, my colleagues were off to a leadership training day. I should have been going along, but my resignation from work 2 weeks earlier meant that instead, I stayed behind to hold the fort with another few staff members. That was ok with me though - it was a beautiful, sunny day, and my friend Poo (who I've known for.... almost 21 years now!) had just arrived home from a big overseas holiday! I decided to start work bright and early at 7:30am so I could make time for a quick, hour-long lunch date with Poo at local all-day breakfast eatery, Miss Marie.
Miss Marie is a little cafe run by Vanessa and Paul, a husband and wife team who decided they had what it took to run a successful cafe in the otherwise quiet suburb of Rosanna. I thought I'd be good and organised, and emailed the cafe a few days before to see if they could cater for my gluten free-ness - to my enormous surprise, the email I received back from Vanessa the owner, turned out to be an old high school-mate of mine! Wow! Small world! After 10 or so back and forth emails, I discovered that Vanessa and her husband Paul, both big coffee lovers, were looking for a new venture after selling a previous restaurant business. They scoured Melbourne, hunting down the best coffee, before a little shop came up for lease in Vanessa's home town of Rosanna. They jumped at the opportunity and here we are, Miss Marie!
But, back to lunch. At 12:35pm, I left the beautiful sunlight and walked on into the cafe, finding Poo at a little table with some gorgeous retro fittings and flowers.
The tables are old school, school classroom type tables, with wooden school chairs. There's lots of random little knick knacks, collected by Vanessa and Paul over the last two years.
I think my absolute favourite part of the decor was the wooden-door-turned-chalk-board (home to the specials menu) on the wall... loved it!
After about 15 minutes, it starts to get quite busy, and we realise we were smart getting in when we did!
Poo orders a cafe latte (it looked much prettier, but her spoon beat my camera!), and regales me with tales of her time in New York, Greece, Russia, and everywhere in between.
I am paying attention to her for the most part, but unfortunately I'm also facing the kitchen, watching the most magnificent plates of breakfast coming out...
Finally, I can wait no more. I have to interrupt so we can order, and I wait slightly impatiently for my all day breakfast/lunch to arrive. Considering how busy they were, kudos to the chef's, because our lunch came out quite quickly!
First up was Poo's lunch - she decides to go with the sweet option in ricotta hotcakes with poached pears.
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| Ricotta Hotcakes, $15.00 |
They are thick, fluffy, soft, and swimming in a sweet, syrupy lake. I can't help myself (naturally), and grab a forkful. It tastes every bit as amazing it it looks! The hotcakes are perfectly cooked and melt in my mouth, and are perfectly complimented by the ricotta and maple syrup.
As for me, I decide that I too want breakfast as lunch. There is also a wide range of sandwiches, salads and pides, but I just want eggs! The friendly waitress is more than happy to replace the standard toast with the gluten free version, and with that, I'm ready for my veg brekkie! For lunch!
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| Veg Brekkie, $16.00 |
My goodness, it is certainly value for money! My poached eggs arrive on my gluten free toast, along with spinach, miniature mushrooms, oven roasted tomatoes, avocado, and chef Luke's homemade relish.
I can't tell you what the mushrooms were sauteed in (butter, would be my guess...), but they were hands down THE BEST mushrooms I have EVER had. No joke. The relish was the next most amazing thing on the plate - it was perfect and sweet and tomato-ey, but not overpowering. A mouthful of egg + avocado + mushroom + relish = absolute heaven. I was also veryyyy impressed with the generous serving of avocado - in my cafe breakfast experience, I find they're usually a little stingy with the avocado. Not so here. And my eggs were cooked perfectly!
Absolutely could not have been any happier with my brekkie-lunch. The service was friendly and prompt, the food beautiful and fresh, and the atmosphere kind, friendly and welcoming. Back off to work I went an hour later, tummy full, smile on my face, and already planning a return trip with Sous-Jeff. Upon seeing these photos later on that night, it was pretty easy to convince him that he needed to be taking me out for breakfast, and soon.
Full disclosure, and not because it's a friend's cafe, it was a truly amazing food experience, and I genuinely cannot remember the last time I had that good a cafe breakfast. For lunch.
