I am lousy at writing restaurant reviews. I had some good breakfasts last weekend. Both delicious, both completely different scenes. Poached is around the corner from my humble abode and I have found myself eating a greasy, eggy hangover curing breakfast there on semi frequent occasion. Batch is quite the nice little cafe however the music was a bit loud, and the other Saturday morning patrons talking loudly as a result made it difficult to hold a conversation. According to my breakfast date, this isn’t usually the norm. Being a uni student, she has the luxury of the occasional weekday breakfast there and apparently it is much quieter ambience wise.
Batch:
Shop 1 320 Carlisle Road
Balaclava VIC 3183
Blueberry Pancakes with Maple Syrup
(not quite pictured: Avocado & Fetta mash. This looked so amazing, I had food regret).
Perfectly fluffy pancakes with hidden blueberries lightly dusted with icing sugar. Not hard to screw up. I loved the little vial of maple syrup, and the peppermint leaf tea was a nice little touch, too.
Poached:
169 Lygon St
Brunswick East VIC 3057
T: 03 9387 2396
Omelette with Gypsy ham, tomato, fetta and mushrooms
My breakfast: I thought I’d give the egg battle another go, but I failed miserably. In saying that, the omelette was sufficiently delicious, but my stomach just doesn’t like to co-operate with my egglust.
Eggs Florentine
I would have to be feeling pretty self destructive to attempt any type of poached or soft boiled egg. I have it on good authority from my breakfast date that the Eggs Florentine is AAAAAAAA+++++++ would eat again.
I use a Sunbeam Eggo when I’m in an eggs benedict sort of mood, and it does a great job (other than the final product looking a little… scientific?).
I think I am fundamentally opposed to anything that takes the skill out of cooking. Like the Eggo, I mean, poaching eggs is a skill. Soft boiling eggs is a skill. In saying that, I do own a popcorn maker and I bought a mandolin type thing while I was in Japan… My problem with eggs is that I just can’t digest them semi-cooked without a fight from my stomach.
Stephanie Alexander has an awesome quote about “Eggo” type products in the Cook’s Companion.
Something about exasperation leading people towards all manner of contraptions that produce stodgy egg puddings rather than the real thing.
Sometimes I just want an egg that’s just barely dead and shaped vaguely like a trapezoid, you know?
To hell with you snobs, the Eggo looks awesome!
L2Poach N00b!
You learn to poach, doublenoob.