Miss Marie

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Multicultural Cuisine of... breakfast time!

Miss Marie Cafe

45 Beetham Pde, 

Rosanna

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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.

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!

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.

Would rate it 9 out of 10.

Lillie's on Brougham

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Multicultural Cuisine of... France

Lillie's on Brougham

62 Brougham St,

Eltham

(03) 9431 6622

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There's not much more precious to me than an afternoon off work to spend at my leisure. Working in the health and wellness industry like I do basically means working early mornings, late nights and weekends - the times when everyone else has off work to go to the gym! So on this particular Tuesday morning, after starting work at 6:30am, I received a perfectly timed email not long before my 12pm finishing time from Agata of Amore Cucina, suggesting a catch up to discuss some of the cooking classes I'll soon be teaching. And I was thrilled when she suggested Lillie's.

Mum took me there for a ladies afternoon tea the day before my wedding last year, and we had the most amazingly fresh, delicious little cakes there. It's a relaxed atmosphere, and although it's tiny and the tables are close together, you almost feel like you're in a little French cafe where no one can hear your conversation.

Lillie's is a gorgeous little cafe, part of a homewares, clothing and lifestyle business, run by two sisters with a passion for France. Their beautiful wares include handmade pottery, simple clothing made from materials such as cheesecloth, linen and cotton, cook books, French provence inspired stationary. They even organise group tours and trips to France! Unfortunately they do not allow photographs of the inside of the cafe so I can't show you what it looks like, but I was permitted to photograph the food, so you can see how yummy it is!

It is generally recommended that you make a booking here, as it is a very small space (especially in winter when the outside eating area is closed), and Lillie's is almost always busy. They make beautiful fresh small meals, as well as gorgeous cakes and desserts, and that's what Agata and I go for. We're seated next to baskets full of gorgeous, freshly picked lemons, limes and grapefruits - which are all available for sale if you want to take some home with you.

Agata ordered the carrot cake:

It was beautifully presented with a dollop of cream, topped with very soft cream cheese, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, dried apricots and orange zest. The cake itself was magnificent, soft and fluffy, with just enough cream cheese in between the layers of cake.

Being the chocoholic I am, I can't go past the chocolate pear tart. It's calling my name and it would just be plain rude to ignore it.

What can I say? Wow. Just wow. It was filled with big, juicy, poached pears, nestled in amongst the gooey, fudgy chocolate, blanketed with a firm but delicate chocolate crust.

I finished every last chocolatey crumb on my plate as we discussed cooking, weight loss, fresh food, our Italian background. After lots of work shopping and chatting and getting very off topic more than once (hey, this is what happens when two Italian women get together!), here's the list of classes I'll be teaching soon...

• Saturday 30th July: Italian Christmas Cooking
• Sunday 31st July: Italian Christmas Cooking
• Saturday 6th August: Tapas Workshop
• Saturday 20th August: Gnocchi Workshop
• Saturday 15th October: Gnocchi Workshop
• Thursday 20th October: Paella Class
• Saturday 22nd October: Gluten Free and Healthy Whole Foods Workshop
• Sunday 23rd October: Gnocchi Workshop
• Thursday 27th October: Gnocchi Workshop
• Choose your own date: Chocolate Decandence
• Choose your own date: High Tea
• Choose your own date: Cupcakes Made With Love
• Choose your own date: Kids Cook Brownies

All in all, a very productive afternoon tea date! I'm soooo excited to be getting my classes underway soon, and have been doing lots of cooking and baking at home, testing out some of the recipes that I haven't made in a while (much to Sous-Jeff's great excitement) to make sure I'm all ready to go in a few weeks! And I can't wait to get back to Lillie's again for another gorgeous cake soon :) By the way, after Agata and I had finished catching up and planning, and every last morsel of chocolate from my plate was devoured, I promptly took myself to the gym to attempt to atone for my chocolate sins. But when it's that good, it's worth it!

Would rate it 9 out of 10.

Cafe Vue at Heide

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Multicultural Cuisine of... France

Cafe Vue at Heide

7 Templestowe Rd,

Bulleen

(03) 9852 2346

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I'm very lucky to have a best friend who enjoys her food as much as I do. Ms Em has spent a lot of time working around food and wine and the hospitality industry in general, so I always love dining with her - she always knows the good places to go and the best food to order!

So when I got a phone call earlier in the week from her to tell me "I'm taking you out for a lunch date!" I spent the rest of the week in eager anticipation for my surprise location lunch.

Ms Em turned up at 11:45am today to collect me for our lunch date, and as per the theme of my blog entries so far, it's really, really cold. Like icey, biting cold. I jump in her car and off we go. She's not telling me where we're going, but I trust her food judgement. Half an hour later, we arrive at Cafe Vue at Heide, in Bulleen.

 We walk into the (thankfully) warm restaurant, to be greeted by one of Ms Em's friends, who happens to be working there today. She ushers us over to our table, right in the middle of the restaurant; we can see the cake window, kitchen, other diners and their food, and the lovely gardens outside through the large windows. With a gorgeous little herb pot on our table, we're served a glass of champagne each, and handed our menu, and the ever knowledgeable Ms Em proceeds to explain..

I knew Cafe Vue was part of the Vue de Monde family of establishments (The restaurant is located in the Melbourne CBD, Bistro Vue is located on Collins St in the City, and their cafes are located at Heide, St Kilda Rd, and the Melbourne International Airport), but Ms Em further enlightened me as to their ever changing and evolving menu, due in part to not only the seasonally available ingredients, but also to the chefs, who rotate around the different locations. 


From our menu, we are presented with a few options: We can order any of the three dishes on the specialty menu, or any of the three sides, or we can elect a 2 course lunch for $35, or a 3 course lunch for $45. Ms Em decides to go with the 3 course lunch (entree, main and dessert), while I got with a 2 course lunch (main and dessert), and a side, as neither of the entrees appeal to me today.

The entree choices are a chicken liver parfait with brioche, or a soft shell crab with a tomato and cumin sauce. Ms Em opts for the latter, which has been recommended by her friend in the know, and although I'm really not much of a seafood fan, the bite I try is actually surprisingly nice. The sauce had a beautiful flavour, not over-powering, but definately a stand out.

Soft Shell Crab with Tomato and Cumin Sauce

 Next up is our main course - option one was braised lamb neck with vegetables, but Ms Em and I both decide to try the second option, the Spanish mackerel and pepperonata (a traditional Italian dish of gently cooked peppers and onions, which is slightly sweet from the bit of sugar used in it). In a word: devine. The fish was cooked perfectly, a bright white inside, and melt-in-your-mouth soft. The pepperonata was just as perfect as I'd expected, and being Italian, my expectations are always high for Italian dishes. The baby potatoes were a lovely touch, and soaked up everything in the bowl so well.

Spanish Mackerel and Pepperonata

 My side of pommes frites were delicious, just what I was hoping for; yummy, floury potatoes, roughly chopped, skin on, some super crispy, others soft and golden. 

Pommes Frites

Last up was dessert. Ms Em went with the creme caramel, and being the chocolate addict I am, I couldn't go past the chocolate fondante. The creme caramel looked delicious - a toffee, goey bottom with apples, topped with creamy goodness.

Creme Caramel

The fondant was just beyond words. It came with candied kumquats, and a tangy kumquat sauce. 

Chocolate Fondant with Candied Kumquats

The bite of the kumquats and the sweetness of the chocolate were a perfect match, and I almost squealed when I opened it up to see the gooey chocolate lava flowing out... my only fault was that it was too small!
 

I went in with high expectations, and was not disappointed. The food was beautifully made and presented, the flavours flawless, and I'm already looking forward to another visit to Cafe Vue - perhaps this time for a lunch box with one of their burgers or pies!


Would rate it an 8 out of 10.