Clipper cafe

Before badminton a few weeks ago, we had time to go a bit further afield than usual. We headed to Glebe. The original plan had us going to Wedge Espresso, but one of it's features, a long thin set up means that there wern't enough seats for us to sit down.
We moved onto our second choice - Clipper Cafe.


I don't have a picture of it, but right next door is a lovely little bakery with delicious pastries and pies (I'll try to do a post on it next time I'm nearby), we got a chance to scope out the bakery as we had to wait a bit for our table, this also gave us a chance to check out the menu and make our decisions.


When we got inside the decor was adorable, above is a pic of the shelf on the wall next to our table, E had more photos in her blog post as well.
There was however a strange smell to the place, I think I was the only one who noticed it, but I found it very off putting, the food was ok, but to me it wouldn't be worth a return visit - again that was just me, and the place was packed, so I'm not sure what it may have been.


Due to needing to nap that afternoon before night shift, I skipped on the coffe and had, what I think was a banana and mango smoothie. This was very tasty and I didn't miss having coffee at all.


E got the clipper baked eggs with Spanish chorizo, and really enjoyed it, I think the clay pot may have been an aspect of that, she loves eating out of things like that (so do I).


We had a guest for the day, replacing B as he was at a badminton tournament, and he got the smoked salmon and asparagus with a poached egg - it looked really nice, and made me wish I could order poached eggs at a cafe - but my dislike for runny yolk is strong it it makes me feel bad to ask for a well done yolk, they're just not supposed to be cooked that way.


T got baked beans with poached eggs, I can't remember what he thought about them, but I've had the here before and found the amount of tomato sauce a bit overwhelming. T you need to let us know in the comments what you thought.


And finally my breakfast - bacon and egg roll, with boiled eggs. This was really good, nice bacon, the tomato relish was tasty and I liked the boiled eggs, something a bit different.
In conclusion, clipper cafe, pretty good food, but a funky smell. Not really somewhere I'd go back to, too much good food along Glebe point rd. I am planning on going to the bakery next door to it in the near future though :).

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Location:Glebe Point Rd, Glebe

Day Tripping

We started off Easter Sunday with the decision to travel to T for breakfast for once, so he wouldn't have far to travel for his lunch with his family (primarily his favorite niece).
So brunch was an early lunch in Kirrawe. It took ages to drive there, no wonder T is always late :).
Despite a last minute change of plans, as we were too late to make it to the original place before it closed, brunch was delicious.
I had a smoked salmon sandwich, and a bowl of chips - I had a craving :). It was delicious, a good combination of flavors and well balanced, and the salty chips were just what I wanted.





E had a grilled chicken burger, that came with it's own chips.


T had grilled fish with rice, it looked really tasty and he didn't share, so it must have tasted as good as it looked.


B had a BLAT, in keeping with his habit lately of ordering that or a BLT if it's on the menu.


Durning the brunch discussion the idea that we hang around it the far reaches of Sydney until T finished cementing his position of favorite uncle and have dinner as well.
We threw around a couple of ideas of what to do to kill time as we waited, there was visit cronulla beach, seeing how different Westfield's were out there and the winning idea - visiting Wollongong.
It was overcast and threatening rain, but that just made for beautiful lighting on our drive. On the way there we went part way on the Grand Drive, through the national park, and the rest of the way on the freeway.
When we got there we weren't quite sure where to go, B found a cafe on his phone, but when we drove down the street it was supposed to be on there was no sign of it.
So we drove down to the beach, passing a few open cafe's on the way and found the missing population of Wollongong by the lighthouse.


It was beautiful there, and we went for a bit of a wander,


but I was craving tea and scones. We walked back into town, passing a few parks on the way, and admiring the beach.


Sadly we didn't find a cafe serving tea and scones, but arguably something better - a waffle house.


During my Europe travels I picked up a taste for well made waffles, they have to be fresh of they're no good. These were fresh.
I had dragon waffles, with strawberry ice cream and fresh strawberries. And a cup of earl grey tea.



E and B shared the ultimate waffles, with choc and vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, strawberries and bananas with caramel and choc sauce, it was awesome and the caramel actually tasted like it had started out life as liquified burnt sugar.


B also had a flat white, which came out in a huge cup - it's hard to see in this pic, but it's about twice as big as a usual coffee cup.


After our snack, we still had a few hrs to kill, so we went the long way back to the car, visiting the beach again along the way.


We went down onto the sand this time, but none of us were wearing suitable shoes, so we took some pics, admired the view and moved back up onto the path.


On the way back to Sutherland for dinner with T went the whole way on the Grand Drive. It was absolutely beautiful. We stopped at one point and took some pics.
The view off the cliff into the water:


Some of the flowers were really bright and pretty:


And the view on the other side of the road, with bonus E:


We met up with T in Sutherland and had Thai for dinner:
Curry puffs and Satay Chicken for entree, the satay chicken was so good, we finished it before we got around to taking a photo:






And three other main dishes, I can't remember what they were, one was duck, ones was prawns and the other one was veg:









We finished them all off - they were all very tasty, although the prawn dish was very spicy:


All in all a very tasty day. With bonus gorgeous scenery from our impromptu day trip.
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Gnome Espresso and Winebar

I moved a few weeks ago, on a Saturday morning, and I think it kind of illustrative of how little I own, that I was able to go to the market before moving and meet up with my cafe buddies after moving.
We decided to visit Gnome, it was on our list and the blogs looked good. It was actually blogs about this cafe which led me to ordering the breakfast board at Toby's Estate the day before,
I got there much earlier than E&B, despite being late myself, and had an OJ, freshly squeezed, which was wonderful, but I forgot to take a picture of it.
I had plenty of time to look through the menu, and guard my table from all comers, it's a small cafe and very busy, and when I finished my juice I couldn't resist the allure of an iced tea with lemon and lemon sorbet.


You can see my point right - not something to pass up. It looked good and tasted great, not teeth curlingly sweet, like iced teas can often be. The lemon sober was nice and lemony and as it melted into the iced tea it gave it an increasing lemon kick. It meant the taste of the tea changed subtly as I drank it - really really good.


Once B&E arrived we decided on food, they were playing badminton after, so didn't want something too heavy and I had been eyeing off the boards for a week or so online. We decide on a chicken sandwich - which was pretty good - nothing to write home about, but I'd get it again if I was in the area.
The board on the other hand was fantastic, there was this one and a seafood one, and I think we chose well.
Lovely fatty salami, smooth pate and salty procuitto. There were sharp pickles to cut the salt and beautiful cheeses. A sharp aged cheese and a delicious creamy blue.




Definitely a place to return to, sadly Surry Hills is not my local area, and there are so many other places still to try. Obviously the answer is to eat out more:).
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Location:Surry Hills

Toby's Estate

Fridays on weeks I work nights, I get up early - around 11am :), and go for a walk and lunch with my parents. Previously these walks have been around the harbor, but I didn't have my camera then so all you get are this weeks pics, where we walked to Broadway, to get some shopping done :).
On the way we stopped at Toby's Estate on City Rd.
Excellent coffee and good food, pretty shop too, and in keeping with the rest of my blog, I didn't get a pic of the best wall - a wall of coffee.




I ordered a ristretto, just to try it, only to find out when it arrived that it wasn't supposed to have caffeine - I felt a bit betrayed at this, coming off night shift, caffeine was very important. But it was a very nice coffee, and something I will have to remember when avoiding caffeine in the future.
M&D shared a vegetarian toasted sandwich, which tasted really good.


I had been reading blogs about another cafe with boards, and was intrigued, so when I saw the breakfast board on the menu I had to try it.  Bread, boiled egg, ricotta, ham, avocado and tomato.  It was quite nice, I liked the egg, and the ability to make myself  a variety of small different sandwiches and to just eat the various components by themselves.

I am way behind in posting though, so this was three weeks ago, and I can't say the meal or the cafe has really stood out in my memory - although the ristretto and my parents coffee was very good.

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Location:City Rd, possibly Newtown

Sherpa Kitchen

On my last night in Newtown, eating alone, I wandered down King St trying to decide what to eat. I settled on a place and cuisine I've been meaning to try for ages - Nepalese at the Sherpa Kitchen. When it first opened a few years ago I was interested and after it's survival for a few years on the competitive King St, I knew it was worth a try.
So I wandered by and looked at the menu and was sold when I saw the Thali plates, one vegetarian, on non-vegetarian. Perfect for eating alone, a range of different choices in one handy meal.

After consideration I went with the non-vegetarian, spurred on by my love of butter chicken and the offered goat curry. It was a good choice.


Not the best photo ever. Non vegetarian Thali: $21.90. Tempered dal, goat curry, butter chicken, tomato chutney, rice and pappadums.
Of course as roti was on the menu, I had to get one as well, can't pass up a chance at bread, plain roti: $3


And well worth it, the bread was light, crispy and tasting of butter :).

The meal in general was delicious. I did find the dal a bit bland, could have done with a bit more something, but the butter chicken had that meaty smokey aftertaste which defines good butter chicken, the goats curry had a bit of a bite (and a marrow bone hidden in it's depths :)) - but wasn't too much and the tomato chutney was both tasty and a good way to swap between the chicken and goat without too much flavor transference.
The service was good, although that may have been because I went early on a thursday and was the only person there, but they brought a jug of water for me with the menu, which is a huge plus for me.


In summary: Sherpa Kitchen, tasty food, good service. A place I'd def go back to if I still lived in Newtown or found myself in the area, not sure I'd travel for it though.
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Location:Newtown

Harry's cafe de Wheels

After Badminton on Sunday we decided that pies were in order. E has been really excited about going here since we drove past last Sunday.

As a place with a good reputation, but mainly as a post drinking session snack I was intrigued. After extensive online research and blog reviewing I decided on the Harry's Tiger. An old classic, their signature dish. Consisting of pie with mashed potato on top, mushy peas on top of that and gravy on top of that, with the classic beef pie.
E and I decided that since we were there, and the hotdogs looked awesome we had to try one of those as well. So we got a Hot Dog de Wheels to share.



This is our hot dog being made, it was kind of epic, the Frankfurt, mushy peas, chilli con carne and garlic onions with cheese sauce and chilli sauce, and we got a bit of mustard on it too, we thought it might need it :).
I somehow managed to not take a pic of the decor of the place, but it was very American diner.
And of course it wouldn't have been an authentic experience without a thick shake, I got banana flavor, E had choc and B was a bit more restrained than us, he had a tiger, but with a curry pie and a vanilla thick shake.


The verdict - the thick shake was fantastic, thick tasty and I didn't feel sick after two mouthfuls!



The pie was good - not the best pie I've ever had, but I'm picky about my pies, and it made a good base for the mash and mushy peas. They were genius, and the gravy was really good. The addition of a bit of worcestershire sauce did lift it up to another level though.



The hot dog was tasty, but a tiny bit busy. I think without the mushy peas, would have been great. The heat from the chilli sauce and chilli con carne was good, and the cheese sauce was tasty - it would be great on chips, but they didn't serve any chips. Understandable with the mashed spud, but I do like chips with pies.



Overall, as you can see above a tasty meal, great for after badminton and I think it would be fantastic after a big night :), but not something I'd have on a regular basis.

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Location:Burwood

Dresden

Not much to say about dresden, it was a lunch stop between berlin and Prauge.
It was almost completely destroyed during the second world war, but has been fully restored to it's former glory. It was a beautiful city.









But also the site of an awesome lunch. The restaurant we went to has goose fat with bread on the menu, how could I turn down trying that!


It was actually really tasty, Although the portion size was a bit much.
This was followed up by a pumpkin quiche


And shared cake, although only two pieces between three, we didn't attempt the whole selection :).


So Dresden, pretty city with great food!



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