Breakfast at ‘Mammoth’

  
Over the weekend we went to Mammoth for brunch. We have been there a few times in the last couple of months. The majority of those visits were great. But the last time we were there the food was on the oily side for us so we decided to stay away from them for a little while. 

  So this time we decided to go back to what we ordered the first time we were here. For savoury we had the egg benedict. It is not a traditional benedict. It does have hollandaise sauce. But instead of poached egg, it came with fried egg. Rather than ham, it came with duck sausage and pickled onion. It looked amazing and tasted delicious too. The flavours just go so well together. The cornbread had a very strong hint orange which was lovely.
  
For the second dish we had the pancake. Once again, it looked superb. The mix of coconut, cherry and chocolate is perfect. The pancake is more sticky and tasted like it had rice flour mixed through. The consistency was dissimilar to normal pancake but it was really nice. 

 
Overall we had an enjoyable experience. The food was well put together. It was on the pricier side of things but I think the food warrants it.

Archie’s all day

  
 Over the weekend, we were looking for a new breakfast place to try out. After search through the web, I found Archie’s all day cafe on Broadsheet. We decided to try it out.

 

 
The place was relatively busy but we were also seated in a timely manner. The staff were friendly. The seating was comfortable. While it wasn’t a deal breaker, the air was a little damp making you feel like you are sitting in a wet room.   (Opening the window or aircond would do the job). The coffee was great. We ordered two flat whites and they came in these cute Nordic looking cups.

  

We ordered two dishes; one savoury and one sweet. For savoury we had Huevos Sucios (aka hu-vos san-che-ros for me). We also added chorizo to it. In hindsight the dish didn’t need anymore flavour or fat. Even without the chorizo, I thought the dish had so much flavour and  texture. Warning for the health conscious people though – this is not a healthy dish. The spicy sour cream and tomatillos salsa (green tomatoes) were just delicious. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
  
 For something sweet, we had baked French toast. The toast itself was just delicious. It was gooey and custardy. I counldn’t fault it at all. But I didn’t care for the sweet potato topping. It was sour-tasting and leave you with a weird taste in your mouth. It was so bad that I probably wouldn’t order it again. 

Overall, we had a decent experience and would return. The coffee was excellent. The food was good and the atmosphere was comfortable. 

 

Tina’s noodle kitchen

  Last Friday, I had a hanking for spicy food for dinner. The weather was miserable. We were hoping to go to dainty express noodle at Emporium. But we couldn’t find a park. As we were driving through the city however, I saw Tina’s noodle on Swanston street was super busy. And then I recalled that there is another Tina’s at highpoint. So we thought lets give the one at highpoint a go.  First impression?  Great! The restaurant area was spacious. There were plenty of couch seatings – just what I needed especially after the gym. The menu was even better.   Like the name suggests they sell noodle dishes mostly. There were snacks like chicken balls, giblets etc but mostly noodle. Unlike dainty noodle express, there are more variety here.  We decided to try spicy fish and spicy beef noodles. Although their names don’t have the word soup in item, they were wet noodle dishes. They both had 3 chillies next to them so we fully expected super spicy dishes.  And boy, they were nice and spicy. The soup was delicious. It had a lot of depth. I must admit the beef were slightly tough. Yet it was enjoyable. The fish noodle was a bit spicier then do beef noodle. They were both very tasty. I love that it came with vegetables and mushrooms – missing from the dishes at dainty noodle express.  To accompany our spicy dishes, we also ordered a plum drink. It came in a very fashionable vase.

Overall, the food was great. I highly recommend Tina’s to anyone who loves spicy food.