A mini ice cream cart on the right

“Hello, how are you!?” one of the staff said to me as I waited to order. Sounded like someone who knew me. And it was. Antoine, who I met in Melbourne a few years ago, used to have a coffee roasting shop in the suburbs of Melbourne. I remember he said that he wanted to open a cafe in one of the French colonies in the tropics. He would have his own roaster and espresso bar by the beach. I didn’t remember he was going to Paris. But here we are few years down the track under the same roof. I call it coffee foot prints. He introduced me to Tom from Canberra who, together, opened this cafe. They serve single origin, blends, siphon, cold drip and milk based espresso drinks in all its glory. A piccolo latte (my favorite) was easily done. Milk well textured and served without being burnt. For purchase are beans and brewing equipment (pour over, siphon, espresso machines.

Paris as a whole is just beginning to realize coffee is far more than the swill they are used to. A ironic fact is how a city ( or nation) so obsessed with food, drinks and leisure is so late in coffee development. Their deep worship of tradition and the respect of how things are done as they used to be (thinks of chopping vegetables in triangular ‘paysanne’ shape at school) is proving to be a major contributor to their slow embrace of the coffee movement. The competition will heat up though and I really wish Coutume the best in leading this revolution.

Piccolo

I haven't worked out the names on the chairs yet

The decor is cosy. Nearly all the seating is upstairs and partly loft style. The roof is low and supported by old and large wooden beams. There are 2 windows out the back which over looks some green climber plants. I don’t have a photo that does these windows justice.  The owner pointed out that they had a fake chicken farm upstairs too. Such intimate space also proved popular with a couple kissing away while waiting for their coffees. This rare place is a reminder of just how lucky we are in Australia to have so many places to chose from for a place with decent coffee and breakfast. It is obvious that our habits are different to most Parisians.

I didn’t catch their names. But I figure I will be back soon.

Looks familiar?

Tarragon omelette

"Because if we had a real one, we would be shut down"

Sitting in a small lane way. I came across the place after wondering around without a map in hand. In retrospect, I have read about this place somewhere but I wasn't looking for it today.

Piccolo latte - Mecca Espresso Bar

A sigh of relief after handing in my stack of paper work to the French Consulate for visa application. One of the best piccolo lattes I have had recently. Sit and ponder what the rest of the year will bring.

Melbourne’s coffee scene is bubbling mad. Many cafes are trying to ride ‘the third wave coffee’ and producing ‘specialty coffee’ these days that the terms are obsolete. Pointless because everyone who roast or buy roasted beans, as long as the beans come from one region, can sign up to the ‘single origin’ badge. A mention or a sign to indicate how much care and emphasis is made to the coffee, or the offering of a non-espresso based coffee allows one to claim the honour of  ’specialty’. Tear off paint to show distress bricks, have a big wooden bench or communal table and you have ticked off the circles like the Heart Foundation ticks. That’s fine, the just-being-educated-by-The-Epicure mass will bite.

What is really needed at the bottom of the cup is honest passion and the relentless pursuit of the best. The barista should be the ‘pass’ at the cafe where every drink is looked at and the deficient ones are discarded, just like a good restaurant. I have visited Padre Coffee, (Specifically, Brunswick East Project on Lygon St), a few times and their passion is certainly not running low. These guys probably drink a bottle of passion everyday they wake up.  This will be their new cafe – The League of Honest Coffee. Looking forward to it.

It’s in a suburb with quite a few doctors’s homes. You might be able to point around the street and say that’s a radiologist, that’s a ophthalmologist, that’s a anaesthetist and the dermatologist is next door (R-O-A-D to medicine). I was lucky enough that my friend who works in a couple of cafes in Brisbane told me about the opening of Peter Wolff’s new cafe. What a lovely place – bright, cosy and waitering staff in colourful and chirpy ties. I really like the “dandelion” lamp and incidentally on the same day I went to IKEA and saw the same (or very similar) design. The work bench is a bit small for the number of machines and equipment – the wall of grinders is like a fence between the bar and the customers.

On the espresso front, there are two blends: Dandelion (more females like it) and Driftwood (more males like it). As expected, just like in perfumes, the stereotypical scent/aroma profiles of feminine (more fruity, floral) versus masculine (earthy, bitter) are portrayed. There are other methods of brewing available, including cold drip, siphon and a fairly new machine called the Trifecta. It’s a more manual kind of the Clover in my opinion. The machine allows adjustment to parameters such as time, pre-infusion, pressures, agitation and aeration. The coffee looks and taste a bit like the Clover. Compared to a Siphon brew, it’s a little murky, more on the acidic/fruity side and less earth. I’ll pretty much leave you to decide on what you think about the results.

Speaking generally, there are more and more different methods of brewing coffee and cafes are trying to be a step ahead all the time with new machines and gadgets. Consistency will be a big issue when there are so many different brewing methods which potentially require different roasts.

Cold drip and siphon

It's bright and cosy

The bench table facing outside

tea set

The dandelion

Trifecta brewed coffee

Finally, a good place for coffee near St Vicent’s Hospital! Unfortunately I will be in Kew and Peter MacCallum till the end of the year. Gertrude St has been getting a food-lift in the past few years with a pizzeria , bakery, tapas bar and a fine dining restaurant added to the bookshop with only food related books. It’s about time coffee was added.

Created by the owners of 7 Seeds, good coffee will be expected from De Clieu. Day 2 of opening and people are already populating this place like it’s been there for a while. The food menu is short (good), interesting, and acknowledges individual suppliers for quality products. They are going to very busy on the weekends. I hope they allow people in scrubs to walk in too.

Interestingly, while I was browsing the web, I found out that 7 Seeds is also the title of a manga series about life long after a meteorite destroyed most of life in Earth. A side track anyway. The 7 seeds of cafe name refers to the story that a a pilgrim named Baba Budan smuggled 7 coffee beans from the Middle East to India and subsequently spread it from Africa/Middle East to the rest of the world. Gabriel de Clieu was known to transport 2 coffee plants from Europe to the South American Island of Martinique, from where coffee spread to the Americas (according to Wiki).

With coffee demand growing so rapidly sometimes I do think about the sustainability of coffee as a crop.

Rear 202 Carlisle St, Balaclava VIC 3183 Australia. Enter from the lane on the left of Safeway.

I think this design has been done to death in Melbourne. Distressed brick walls, ex-warehouse, clipboard menus, Synesso and did I mention Synesso? Uniquely they use old sewing machines as coffee tables! I think these guys have done pretty well with their own roasted beans and carefully textured milk. The food is vegetarian only (no eggs) and they serve ‘specialty’ teas – hence the Buddist-ish references in the name. I had a French toast which was made with baguette slices with saffron caramel with a poached pear. Surprisingly very nice (surprisingly, as there are no eggs involved). The caramel was too hard when it cooled though.

But hang on, and 1 or 2 monthly vegan breakfast degustation? Sounds pretty original. One thing I don’t get is why chose such a small location only to want to solve the problem so soon after opening?

Obscure signs

Clipboard, check. ACF-like cups, check. Rosetta, check

This is pretty much the entire cafe, plus 3 tables to the right

Saffron French toast with poached pear

The cutest stack of cupcakes in Melbourne!

Sowing machine tables

Entrance and a make-shift table outside

Morning coffee

I love the way the morning sun hits my coffee cups in the morning. The near horizontal rays hit my sleepy eyes and gives me cataracts. My last week’s coffee is from the Nicaragua Pacamara peaberry. It is a cross between the Maragoype varietal or the “elephant bean” due to the size and the Pacas type. The beans are huge, almost double the size of normal coffee bean. Normally a coffee cherry contains two coffee ‘beans’ in close opposition to form a ovoid shape. A peaberry occurs when one of the halves is not fertilized so only the fertilized half grows and takes up the entire whole ovoid shape.

Sweet, caramel and simply pleasant with a half-volume latte / flat white. Then I hopped on the plane to Sydney for a lovely weekend.

You think the slayer was the new black?

A bit more on the cafe trends of Melbourne with the help of my friends.

The blindingly obvious – free pour latte art is the expected topping now days. I still remember in the good old Maltitude days where latte art was only found in very few cafes. And the dozen or so others trying to learn were serving wilted rosettas on their lattes.

Being a barista no longer means that you are either: still at uni and just wanting to make minimum wage OR you are old, probably from southern Europe and still believe (truthfully) 6 month old beans roated from Italy produce dark, full bodied and bitter stuff. There is more recognition (shit… I can see the word “celebrity baristas”) of the hard work some baristas put in.

It came as single origin coffee with the Synesso, different brewing methods like the Clover, siphon (which by the way, the Japanese and Taiwanese have using already). Roasting lighter and lighter to suite the non-espresso methods. Murmurs about paring food with coffee have remained just that for a long time. I think an all dessert menu would suit better. And moving on from coffee are single origin teas (The Age). And notably, Intelligensia are offering exotic mineral water.

We’ve talked about the $37 Aesop soap, th single origin raw sugar, the communal table with a large flower center piece and the industrial, bare brick look. A couple of cafes have coffee plants in pots too. The Age seems to have caught on the coffee craze a couple of years after it started and apart from being rather under-informed, it has mobilized masses of people on weekends to choke up the ‘best’ cafe’s in Melbourne. how many years ago was it easy to walk into your favorite cafe and not thinking about reserving a table or waiting half an hour while 4 groups get seated?

Where can I add a few cents? I think milk. Already there are a few brands of milk catered for the cafe industry. I can see good potential here as the majority of the coffees ordered are still milk based. When 80% or more of the drink is milk, the quality and taste would have a huge impact on the final drink. On my trip to Japan this year, they have a graph of the seasonal variation in the fat content of the milk. Milk could taste better, sweeter and creamier. Get the cows to eat acorns. Where is single estate milk?

Coffee: nice but luke warm (second time now). (Edit – third time – good!)

Service: great

On a separate note. I walked into the Aesop shop at QV and asked for the hand soap, the one with the Atlas Cedarwood. She told be it was $37. I said i’ll think about that really hard. Hmmm which cafe uses it? 7 seeds, Cumulus, I think Bistro Vue and maybe Cafe Vue. Three bags full had it too.

What’s the next Melbourne cafe trend? It was the Synesso and the industrial look. The single origin beans became the standard and at once there was even single origin hot chocolate. Then different brewing methods came about with the clover, then the siphon followed quickly by the filter drip. Inevitably some cafes have to give a 2 min (pre-recorded) speech about different methods of brewing and how to drink each coffee before letting me order. Beakers became the new vase. A communal table with a large flower center piece was stuck in somewhere too. Fresh blended juices became the new juice. Recently single estate sugar is appearing (which I must admit taste really good so I spoon a heap into my finished coffee cup to eat on its own). To top things off, today someone ordered “chai latte” and was asked by the waiter “if it was with normal milk?”!

I am not keen on the idea that soap was $37 a bottle. Just give me more French butter on my toast.

A photo tour:

A long communal table

Sweets and stuff

I want the cup and saucer lights!

People, chairs, tables and lights

Steak sandwich

Made in Warrnambool

I am on my feet from for 10 hours straight, holding fat people’s thighs and knees in mid-air steadiness. There is barely any time to eat or drink. The generic-bulk-commercial branded tea bags and biscuits are the most welcoming comfort I can practically imagine. Today we fixed a total failure of the femur with more metal than the Terminator. I breathed in so much bone dust/flour from the saw that I might have pancakes forming in my lungs.

It’s good to be back in Melbourne. The food, coffee, bars and late opening shops and restaurants. I had my first good fix at the Dessert House with the deep fried spicy pork ribs on rice. The same dirty dish I would crave after too long a day in the gen med ward. It was here that I decided the sushi platter and the okonomiyaki should be avoided in the future

For some reason, my latter art is not as good this week. I blame the roast. Here is one from last week.

There is a bit of catching up and food to be had this weekend. And cooking too. I missed the kitchen in Melbourne.

The front of house

It’s a joy to drive along the winding road from Deans Marsh to Lorne - a good detour from my drive back to Melbourne.  My friend told me to try the coffee (and burgers) at The Bottle of Milk in Lorne. Mellie went there last year and enjoyed the burgers and chips. The coffee is roasted by 7 Seeds (my favorite roaster/cafe in Melbourne). That’s all the incentive I need. The flat white I had was one of the best coffees I’ve had outside of  Melbourne. Still a little too hot and the milk not as silky as it could be on the Synesso. But better than the coffee I had at Simon’s in Warrnambool. 7 Seeds doesn’t have many accounts and good for them for keeping it ‘specialty’. It’s difficult to judge a cafe’s standards with just one visit so I will reserve comments to just the cup I had on that day. What I will say is well done for getting decent coffee on a touristy town.

Burger talk. I had the Fire Engine beef, cheese, coriander, chili sauce. The bun was delicious, dense and toasted well. The beef was juicy and cooked to medium well.

7 Seeds beans but is it up to 7 Seeds standards?

Windows make interesting pictures

The Fire Engine burger

Market Lane Coffee

I crossed the latte line again. After a long trip from Hamilton to Port Fairy and back to Melbourne, I was very happy to arrive  before they closed. I ran like a kid seeing and really believing Santa is real. Fleur Studd’s (her dad is an authorative on cheese, appearing on the Epicure regularly, books and TV) opening is amongst the many specialty cafe’s that has appeared in Melbourne this year. I think she might have worked in Mammouth Coffee in London’s Bourough Market (? corrections).

The focus of the cafe is to highlight a few single origins at a time and market green beans at the same time. Many customers ordered the pour-over coffees (filter paper in a cup with a hole at the bottom).  On the day we went they had ran out of some beans for the espresso blend. The flat white was ok only. At least, it was overshadowed by the La Candelilla (what a lovely name!), a Geisha variety from Costa Rica.

The interior was stunning. Open design, raw, slightly distressed wooden tabled and metallic chairs. The flowers on the table were gorgeous, but the use of the small Italian juice bottles is getting a little common in Melbourne.

I think Prahn is way overdue for decent coffee given their superior fresh market. I said to my friends, the whole concept, the emotions, the feel behind such cafe’s makes me love Melbourne alot!

I was made note by one of the doctors that I have crossed the latte line while driving to Hamilton (not Island) – the place I will work for the next 9 weeks. On my few days break, I have returned to Melbourne to pick up my coffee machine. The first stop was Seven Seeds before I even got home. It wasn’t the caffeine I swear. It’s the smell and vibe and tingling when I see smooth and silky milk mixed with crema.

Today I went to Proud Mary, owned (as far as I know) by Nolan who used to be the ex-owner of Liar Liar. The most impressive thing is the metallic grey-blue, custom built, 6 group Synesso based on the Hydra model. This is a conjoined twin that no doctor should try and separate. Together with the deep baby blue cups, it’s a sight worth a detour. The blue beast even has foot pedal switch for steam. Around the bar, th whole set up included a syphon area and a Clover machine. It wasn’t so busy this afternoon and the coffee was great. I wonder when the place becomes packed will Nolan and his team be able serve all the different methods of brewing consistently. Lucky for them that there are not so many seats. Grab them while you can.

Open 7-4 weekdays and 8-4 weekends. 172 Oxford st, Collingwood

The OSCE of latte art: 8 minutes to make 6 drinks. I spent a few mornings and one night  in The maling Room Cafe to make coffee. Then got accustomed to the Nouva Simonelli at Toby’s Estate cafe for a couple of hours. The blend I was playing with had Bolivian Montana and Costa Rica rosted by Andrew. By the 7th day, the crema had settled and was much more pliable with milk.

I was first up on saturday in the Victorian Latte Art Champioships and felt pretty good. Auto-pilot. I didn’t get a place. But really, I thought the judges were a little harsh initially. I didn’t think someone pulling a 12-13 second shot or someone who’s hand was shaking so much was going to get the same score as me. On that note, I thought about judging the visual part of the comeptition with photos taken of each drink and then scoring it at the end.

It was fun. I was very happy with what I did. And I will be back.

Photo by Matthew Bates

This place is a meeting of minds. Whenever I don’t organize to meet people there, often coffee geeks, food loving or photo mad friends just sprout from no where. This was cupping at 7 seeds on Saturday. Again, a wonderful place to learn about your palate as you taste coffee side by side. Unfortunately on halt for a few weeks as Mark is off to a trip to US.

How coffee should be every morning.

I signed up and went to Alliance Francaise after work for my first French class. Got home and nailed a steak beautifully with some leek sauteed with Taiwanese BBQ sauce. Half an hour of Masterchef and Justine is out. She is also a good cook.

Last Sunday I went to 7 Seeds in the morning (sticking coins in the parking machine as if it was Saturday. I was at work on satuday). Afternoon was at the Workshop bar.

I realize I am going backwards. I made this coffee on Sunday afternoon.

Ok, off to Brisbane this Friday afternoon

I really think there should be a supply of instant noodles for night staff in the hospital. Really, at 4 am I cannot imagine much more than a comforting bowl of warm salty noodles. And day time I just forget to buy them. Usually I just have the toast supplied there with a healthy lashing of peanut butter and the apple I bring.

Of course, I take a small jar (baby food jar) of freshly ground coffee and my filter drip coffee maker. I was living it up last 2 nights with Esmeralda coffee. For anyone who has or wants to try brewed coffee, the Esmeralda is a must if you havent already

Sauces by Michel Roux is one of my favorite cook books. Brilliant pictures (important to me), great instructions and tips and both simple and complex sauces are included.

Parsley coulis:
Blanch and refresh a fist-full of flat leaf parsley, stalks removed. Add it to a slowly simmering half a cup of cream + 1/4 cup of milk. Cook for 5 minutes, blend and pass through a fine sieve. Season and add a touch of lemon juice. Keep warm but do not boil again.

That is a bed of fennel cooked in the same pan as the salmon.

My espresso machine is waiting for spare part so I have been drinking filtered coffee for the past month. With some awsome-ness certified coffees being offered during cupping by Brother Budan, I am certainly not running out brew.

The Ethiopian Aricha is one not to miss. Picked from an wild variety in the Yirgacheffe region, these cherries  are at their peak ripeness and sun dried. The taste is dominated by fruit, strawberry, berry jam with a creamy mouthfeel. No sign of ferment. Right-fist in the air = awesome-ness.

More informed coffee-minded people, correct any details I missed.

For some reason I have been thinking of sweets lately, which is highly unusual for me as I am normally a savory person. Perhaps I should do a glucose challenge test. I found these Madeline baking tray sitting in the cupboard so I went on an hunt online for recipes. I came across these on 101cookbooks. My recipe below has been slightly modified. These Madelines turned out pretty well and go exceptionally well with a Macchiato.

Madelines:

• 100gm butter + extra to grease pan
• 90gm plain flour + bit extra to dust pan
• 80gm sugar
• 4 large eggs
• zest of 2 lemons
• half vanilla pod

Firstly, preheat oven to 180deg Celsius and well butter the pan. Dust the pan with flour and tap out the excess.

Make clarified butter: Melt the butter in a pan in low heat and watch it boil and turn sightly golden brown in colour. Take the butter off the heat and strain it into another container removing all the milk solids and wait until it cools to room temperature.

Scrape the vanilla seeds into the sugar. (You could save the used vanilla pod into a container filled with sugar to make vanilla sugar.)

Whisk the whole eggs in mixer at high speed until it forms silky pale meringue about 3-4mins. Slowly add the sugar with vanilla seeds into the egg while whisking at high speed and continue to whisk for another minute or two.

Sift the flour onto the egg mixture and add lemon zest then fold gently until mixed then add the cooled clarified butter into the egg/flour mixture. Fold again until all mixed until just mixed. Don’t over mix this mixture or it wont rise.

Spoon the mixture into the baking tray then bake for about 5-10 minutes depending on size. Watch it change colour very quickly.

St Ali has just about everything I want in a cafe – the abundance of wood, flow of light and disorder. The first thing that hits you is the resinous yet delicate aroma of frenshly roasted and ground coffee. They offer their house blend and also the special coffee of the day. Clover machine too if you like a delicious cup of brewed coffee. Food is rustic cafe style with a hint of Middle East and Mediterranean.

Last time I had some great sardines on toast that were well spiced. An air dried beef salad was another winner. A French toast (sourdough) with mascapone cheese was so well done that sharing seemed difficult. I wonder why they dont do it the French toast anymore. 

Coffee last weekend was ok only. Used to be excellent. Although I can’t judge on one coffee, there has been a change of owner and the usual barista was in the Australian Barista Competition in Gold Coast. I am sure there are still some excellent baristas on the job though.  The past owner has opend Brother Baba Budan on Little Bourke St and is planning another cafe named 7 Beans not far away.

Some people’s interests are just unconventional. The Australian latte art and barista championships are coming up next week in Gold Coast. It’s a shame I wont be going to see it. Last year the Victorian championships were held right in the middle of my exams – though I did manage to spectate.  Good luck to the people competing this year. Watch out, there is a budding star!

This post hopefully marks a start of food blogging from me (Melbourne) and my brother (Brisbane). Suggestions and ideas are very much appreciated. Thanks!