Australia day weekend gets Eggy

Australia day weekend arrived – so I set out to eat some eggs.

 

The Surf Life Saving carnival arrived in Manly on Saturday. Alongside all the events, including the all important March Past: they had a great breakfast/BBQ tent – full of sausages, bread, onions, bacon and the all important fried eggs. With a little dribble in the yolks, there were more than a few satisfied customers taking in the action along the beach.

 

Sunday was Australia Day 2014 and we headed over to Dee Why to check out the celebrations. Live music, thong throwing, as well as a carnival parade with drums and dancers greeted us. We found a cool place to eat on The Strand called DECK.

 

http://deckdeewhybeach.com.au/

 

I say cool because the interior is really cool. Check out their website to get a feel for it. They have live music four nights a week; serve street food and all the art on their walls is by local artists. I sat near the wood logs – lovely to look at but our table was way too low. The staff are a smiley bunch, who’ll give you extra ginger in your juice; and the juices, though simple, are very tasty.

 

For brunch at DECK Dee Why, I went for an Eggs Benedict:

 

• Toasted English muffin – soft, warm and toasted.
• Leg ham – tasty and warm, no fat to be seen.
• 2 poached eggs – soft runny yolks, pillow-like whites.
• Hollandaise sauce – Creamy texture, generous helping and made of eggs.
• Spinach – tired. It had had a long weekend.
• Half a fried/grilled tomato – I’m not sure which but it tasted great.

 

8/10 Wonderful eggs paired with sad spinach

Berlusconi makes his political comeback…meanwhile toasted quinoa makes an inspired comeback to Eggs in Oz.

So Berlusconi is back baby! Yep, that’s right the ever-so upright politician has returned to the political stage, only to have his car egged as he arrived at the Democratic Party head quarters. Eggs are literally everywhere, though I think it’s a terrible waste to throw them…however important your political statement may be.

Sunday was the morning after the night before and we needed sustenance. A trip to the mall brought home a whole lot of tasty ingredients. What followed was mega brunch.

My contribution was eggs, naturally; and some toasted quinoa. As an egg critic I would not have scored my own eggs that highly, the whites really could have been cooked for longer, but the each and every yolk was spot on – warm and runny. The quinoa was pretty good too, though it took a bit longer to cook than expected.

This is the list of available brunch items:

• Sausages
• Leg Ham
• Wilted spinach with garlic
• Tiger bread
• Branston pickle, mustard and butter available
• Heinz means beans Spanish beans
• Soft boiled eggs
• Toasted quinoa – nice to have a bit of crunch
• Goats cheese and caramelised onion quiche (hooray for another tasty egg based item)

5/10 on my eggs – the yolks are very important but if the whites are not right its hard to claw back any marks.

How to EGGOCADO

Eggs + Avocado = delicious

HOW TO EVERYTHING

I brunched-in with some really amazing friends this morning. I had recently been experimenting with eggocado recipes – this guy has a pretty great video tutorial.

We made eggocados (Elaine and Natalie), bacon asparagus (Ursula) on the side, and Sangria (Me). Elaine was the nominated chef, which is why it turned out so delicious, and hopefully she blogs about this as well at pistachiobyelaine.tumblr.com.

Here are the ingredients (serves 4 hangry people)

SANGRIA

1. boxed wine (we used Bandit merlot)

2. Frozen berry mix

3. Orange Juice

4. Secret ingredient (I guess not anymore) : Cinnamon (a few dashes, mix in)

5. Apples (slice into thin small pieces)

(mix it all, add ice cubes, done!)

EGGOCADOS

1. 4 eggs

2. 4 avocados

3. Cheese (to your liking)

4. Cayenne Pepper, salt

step-by-step instructions below…

1. Preheat the oven, set to 450 or 475.

2. Prep avocados by slicing in…

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Shark rocket, Hot tennis and a visit to an explorer

“wonder what day god created the egg’ ‘how should we know? we should not question. our stay on earth is not for long. let us rejoice and believe and give thanks’. ‘eat a egg” ― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

 

Led down the hill to hemingway’s in Manly on a warm Saturday morning, I knew eggs were in store. Although it wasn’t as hot as its set to be this weekend, you certainly got the best of the sun sat outside facing the beach. Unlike the tennis players in Melbourne, we required no ice vests.

hemingway’s (with a small ‘H’) is pretty cool: named after a famous author explorer, walls lined with books, honest staff. This is enhanced by the food and drink menu…although they have a tendency to run out of food. Best advice is get there reasonably early to avoid disappointment.

http://www.hemingwaysmanly.com.au

Cappuccino’s served in Hendrick’s teacups are a nice touch, as are the options for something greasy or healthy.

My hemingway’s breakfast consisted of:

• 2 soft boiled eggs – 1 perfect, the other overdone though both organic
• Crunchy Quinoa – an absolutely toasted crunch of a winner
• Confit Salmon – just right both in texture and portion size.
• Goat’s curd
• Rocket

7/10 They ran out of toast so we could’nt mop up the yolk

Another acquisition by Google and the first guest post on Eggs in Oz

Google are set to take on Nest Labs for a substantial sum, and, Eggs in Oz have a new perspective and post. It’s a day for growth.

Today’s post is from Tim Gray, Assistant Sommelier at Limewood Hotel, UK (check them out http://www.limewoodhotel.co.uk/home/ : it’s gorgeous).

Tim’s review is a retrospective from his trip to Australia for the Lion’s Tour last year.

“my aussie eggs…the most memorable experience was one Sunday morning when we walked along the beaches and headland from Manly to Dee Why. We went for breakfast in a place called Sea Bar Cafe – I had poached eggs on bagels and the eggs were awesome – fluffy and flavoursome and of course runny. I would go as far as saying it is one of the best breakfasts I have ever had, and that is partly down to the eggs”

No rating from Tim but certainly sounds idyllic. Thanks Tim!

Before I ate five eggs

Surry Hills reminds me of Hackney. A self-consciously cool vibe with excellent places to eat and drink; of course it’s where everyone wants to be seen. Whether you walk the walk, talk the talk or just fancy a look to see what all the fuss is about – go to Surry Hills.

 

Four ate Five – cool number, cool name and cool staff. Their taste in music is impeccable though our table was slightly too close to the coffee station. I didn’t get the brunt of it, but I’m told a coffee grinder can be grating rather than soothing background noise. At midday there was a mixture of people inside: some having meetings, a lady with her sons, friends catching up, and a few people escaping the office. All the food looks great and people make no shame of staring at each dish as it comes out.

http://fouratefive.com/

 

To accompany my eggs I enjoyed a fresh juice and tried their Chai Latte. Tasty stuff, though previously any Chai tea or latte I’ve tried has been sweetened with honey but not here.

My Four ate Five meal consisted of:

• 2 poached eggs – attractive shape and texture, excellent runny eggs
• Sourdough toast – cool and overdone. This was so hard I could barely cut into it and it cut my mouth.
• Avocado – good presentation and texture
• Salad garnish

 

7/10 This really should have been a higher mark but the toast let it down.

p.s Just to give you an idea of the eggscellent music played in Four ate Five

The sour side of eggs

First trip into Sydney central was a very sunny Sunday – hopped on the ferry from Manly and made our way up to Surry Hills. Tried to get into Four ate five on Crown street but they were packed, so we took a few steps up to Mad Spuds Café (who must do a roaring trade off the back of impatient Four ate five hopefuls). http://www.madspuds.com.au/

Mad Spuds Café is set out like many other places on the street, intimate inners with a few tables out the front. The staff are really friendly and helpful. One of our group had to print out some tickets and the guy kindly or wisely took his order and said he’d make sure it was ready for when he got back. Not being a fan of potatoes, I opted out of a spud based breakfast and went for poached eggs on toast with halloumi.

My Mad Spuds breakfast consisted of:

• 2 poached eggs – the shape was average, the yolks had a good runny consistency but sadly the whites were really vinegary.
• Grilled Halloumi – tasty squeaky cheese
• Sour dough toast – warm and crunchy.

4/10 Eggs should not taste of vinegar

Meeting yolks in Oz

The best eggy art this year!

Starting on the second

The second day in Sydney, which was the second of January, started with Venetian Eggs. One of my hosts cooked up a storm in the kitchen with poached eggs on toast. Not only was it an excellent start after the weird hangover-like jetlag from the day before, it was also eaten in the sunshine with friends in Fairlight.

Venetia’s breakfast consisted of

• 2 poached eggs – nicely shaped (not clinical like when you have eggs done in a microwave dish), fully cooked white and great yolk texture. They were runny but not entirely so. Some areas were more akin to butter, which I find most helpful for even distribution on the toast.
• Avocado smash – no offensive lumps with raw garlic in the mix made for a very tasty middle layer.
• Sourdough toast – just right. Warm and firm.

All of this was lightly seasoned just before consumption began and accompanied with a glass of cold orange juice.

8/10