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! 

The below post was drafted a few days ago when I was caught up in the terrible rain and thunderstorm on my commute home: 

Don't you hate those rainy/windy/thunderstormy days when your already much-limited luck with the Melbourne public transport runs out and you find yourself running at full speed towards the station after work ignoring the fact that your shoes have been soaked right through, only to find your service has been delayed by 30minutes.. It's beyond disbelief and a few loud rounds of F-words may not resolve your issues, so I sit here drafting the latest blog entry, trying to distract myself from the unpleasant sensation between my toes and flats.

So recently I had a blissful RDO on a Friday and decided to make the most of it by heading to a cafe for brunch and hopefully knock off the first few chapters of my newly arrived CFA curiculum. 

Usually by default I would head to my beloved Snowpony for a latte and lemonade scones but maybe because the weather was rather delightful and i was feeling cheery in my newly acquired rather "hip" floor-lenght floral skirt I decided to venture out to Moka Pot Cafe on Doncaster road. I have been in search for a new local brunch spot that i could frequent, Snowpony was still good but I thought surely it would not hurt if I could expand my repertoire a little. 

So with this in mind, i arrived at Moka Pot Cafe, conveniently located in a strip of shops complete with parking an all. Stepping into the large spacious venue i immediately realised that i have come to the wrong place to study. Dispite selecting a rather secluded corner table, the seats to my right were soon occupied by 3 oldies and then followed by 3mums to my left each with an infant in tow. Needless to say i instantly abandoned my plans to study and decided to instead focus my attention on the menu.

Most of the items were standard cafe food and nothing really jumped out at me. I know I have a tendency to be indecisive and end up making a choice just as the waiteress arrives to take my order. 

The juice menu was enticing enough for me to opt for it in lieu of my usual soy latte. It arrived promptly looking quite promising, however one sip of it made me question whether my taste buds were functioning. Picture a fruit juice with all fructose removed from it and all that was left was water with a tinge of fruit feel to it. Or picture poor quality, flavourless coconut water. Whichever is easier.

The muffin was well flavoured given the ample amount of bacon it was sandwiching, however over all the muffin was dry and the spinach failed to enhance the flavour of the otherwise very much your average breakfast muffin.

I dont know why i ended up ordering this as it is clearly not an item to base judgements of a cafe on but maybe i was not satisftied by my cravings for chips at tank the previous day I decided to pig out on a whole bowl of wedges. Why oh why...they were okay nothing wrong with dencent wedges but the quantity was too gianormous that resulted in having to awkwardly request takeaway for the wedges I could not finish.

By this stage the mothers (young and old) on each side of me were having conversations at a volume that made focusing on reading facebook status updates on my phone difficult so I decided to declare this foodie adventure over and prematurely retired to my house. 

On my way to the counter to pay for the bill i did catch a glimpse of the array of sweets and cakes they had on offer and i must say they looked quite delightful. Going forward i will be sticking to my Mcpony's and grapefruit juice that comes in a medicine bottle but I won't fully rule out moka pot and their yummy-looking desserts. Just going to steer clear of the muffin and fruit juice, oh yes I will.

I am a real sucker for hype. Especially when it comes to foodie hypes, I tend to hype about hypes. Sometimes it can get out of control, making the actual foodie experience disappointingly underwhelming. When you allow your imagination to run amok, feeding off from various reviews and Urbanspoon ravings, it can sometimes get a bit out of hand. 

I had ample advice about Chin Chin before finally experiencing the hype last Saturday night. Most food blogs I follow generally gave thumbs up to this new Flinders Lane haunt, but speaking to friends and colleagues about my excitement in trying Chin Chin, I was advised not to expect too much of a WOW factor from the establishment.

Thus rocking up a little before 7pm on a Saturday night, I was somewhat glad that the infamous queue was more or less non-existent and I had no difficulty in locating 2 seats at the bar for myself and my friend.

The atmosphere was relaxed and bubbly filled to the brim with conversation, I felt somewhat out of place while I sat silently waiting for B….and took a few hipstamatics with my phone to kill time.

From the extensive drink list I decided to order the coconut ice which has a different flavour added to the concoction every night. Mine arrived scented heavily with apple and mint.

Coconut Ice of the Day - with Apple syrup and Mint 

 B rocked up 30minutes later, by when I had already settled comfortably at the bar, gazing lazily at the bartenders prepare cocktails and occasionally show off their throwing skills by sending empty coconut ice containers through the air from one end of the bar to the other. B decides to

be a copycat and order the same drink as we poured over the menu

spicy eggnet omlette rolls with spanner crab & chilli jam  ($12.00)

 The egg nets arrived shortly after B’s coconut ice. It was a fascinating thing to look at, and an even more fascinating thing to taste. The dry crispy egg casing contrasted brilliantly against the fresh and flavoursome spanner crab salad.

Chicken wings ($12.00)

The chicken wings were probably the WOW dish of the evening. I honestly believed that

B did a shitty job with his order and had no expectations what so ever for them, but they were
absolutely delish when they arrived. Crispy on the outside and uttermost tender and juicy on the
inside. The flavours made me reminiscence the fried chicken sold on the side of the road in
chinese cities, the type that is highly likely to cause one form of food poisoning or another.

Salt & pepper crusted soft shell crab with green papaya salad & Nahm jim ($23.00)

 The service was fast and efficient at Chin Chin and even though it was full house the entire time we were there, the remaining two dishes arrived shortly after we got our hands dirty with the

yummy wings. 

 B’s baby crab, so cute but B ain’t showing any mercy...nomnomnnomm...

Caramelised sticky pork with siamese water cress ($24.00)

The sticky pork was tender and the flavours were well balanced between sweet and

sour. The salad component (I assume it was the siamese water cress) that gave such an

intense hit of sudden spiciness that made both B and I simultaneously grabbed our glasses of 
water. 

Happy Happy Joy Joy indeed :)

There were plenty of items on the menu that would lure me back for a second visit in the near

future. As for the hype surrounding this new foodie destination in Flinders Lane, I think it should

shift some of the limelight towards the awesome dining atmosphere that Chris Lucas has managed to create in this establishment. The food is more than decent, the atmosphere is fun, an after work drinks/dinner visit is going to be on my agenda. 

125 Flinders Lane 

Melbourne, 3000(03) 8663 2000
www.chinchinrestaurant.com.au