Saturday 8 October 2011


Hurray for good weekend weather. Since commencing full time work I have noticed just how often sunny days occur on week days as opposed to weekends, I guess that's Melbourne for ya 
 My best foodie buddy Miss S had recently celebrated her 22nd, I declared it is only fitting that we concluded her birthday week with a Sunday brunch. 


Destination: Three Bags Full. Our previous attempt in having brunch here ended in failure as limited offstreet parking and a bustling cafe clearly don't mix well. Also given the previous occasion was a rather miserable winter morning, neither of us were willing to put our name down on the waiting list. This time we arrived earlier a bit before 11am, which by my standards is far too early for any type of meal on a Sunday morning, but early enough to ensure avoidance of the usual brunch rush hour.

Even though we were lucky enough to score a parking spot (courtesy of miss s's awesome parallel parking skills) there was still a waiting list for a table and it took 10-15 minutes before my name was called out an we were led to a table close to the door. Miss S was rather impressed with the internal decor and I also secretly gave the cafe extra brownie points for the beautiful vase of dogwood propped against the wooden back wall.



I have heard many good things about the coffee at Three Bags Full, but their juices sounded so nice I had to order the pear, apple, lime and mint combination

What can I say, this concoction beats all juices hands down, (okay maybe all juices minus that crazily good place on Elizabeth Street, hint:bags of oranges everywhere). It was sweet and fruity yet the tangy sour aftertaste left the juice well-balanced, the hint of mint complements the pear and apple very well, If only i lived closer, this would for sure be my hangover cure, any day.

On to the menu, we were both keen to steer away from the 2eggs/salmon/other fancy shmancy cured protein/greens of some sort on toast section. Instead we settled for one savoury and one sweet plate to share. 
                                                Beetroot cured salmon, corn, pea + fetta fritter, avocado, rocket + dill sour cream



First up, the beetroot cured salmon, corn, pea + fetta fritter, avocado, rocket + dill sour cream came looking absolutely stunning. I am not a BIG fan of beetroot, but the salmon, despite being dyed deep blood red by the vegetable had little resemblance in taste and still very much tasted like, well salty salmon. My previous experience with cafe-served fritters were back at Amici Bakery Cafe some months back, and this version is definitely better than theirs. the fritters were fluffy and not over cooked, the avocado and dill sour cream tied all components together.




Now isn't that a good-looking piece of salmon ;) 

                                               Sticky black ginger bread, Vanilla bean mascarpone, candied cumquats + pistachio

I had been looking forward to the sticky black ginger bread for some time now and I could feel the excitement in my fingers as I cut through the dense cake that was heavily doused in syrup and candied cumquats. The ginger flavour was intense and fragrant and the cumquat and marscapone did a good job of complementing the richness of the bread itself, it was absolutely devine. When they mention it is black and sticky, it sure was black and sticky, VERY VERY STICKY. We both had a good workout afterwards of trying to discreetly but effectively remove the residual ginger bread that clung stubbornly to the back of our molars. 

Three bags full will be on my revisit list for sure, given that I still tend to dream about their delicious fresh juice here and there and there is still the coffee waiting for me to try. The forthcoming warm weather will definitely make waiting outside for a table more bearable.

On a side note, look what we found afterwards while on a weekly grocery trip to Box Hill. 

Epic conjoined strawberries! 


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