Suitman on Sips

sips cafe - yuck. was the waiter charmingly distant or just not a morning person? the chef obviously dislikes an early start. i feel sick...

Aptronym on Sips

Sips Cafe "Mushroom and Cheese Omelette"- Its strange how, every fortnight, I go to TBC with full intent to consume no eggs. Somehow, I still end up eating eggs. Today I decided to eat something (omelette) which doesn't pass my lips even once every few years, figuring that if it contained cheese and mushroom, it would be well, less egg-like. The result was a most curious specimen indeed, a disk shaped concoction with a slightly crusty bottom. I am still pondering whether it was made in one of those new fangled electric omelette makers. As an omlette perhaps it left something to be desired, but as a sort of sort of cheesy mushroomy pancake like thing, and eaten with toast, it was better than it it looked.

Dancing Wombat on Sips

It is humming to me now, the left over Bircher Muesli. "Wombat, Wombat," I hear it croon. "Just a morsel more..." As yet I can not oblige as I am full to bitso with the stuff. My Mum's favourite at hotel buffet breakfasts, when I saw 'Bircher Muesli' listed on the Sips menu I thought I'd give the thing a whirl. Apparently it was invented by one of those patent underwear fellows, fond of physical jerks of the tracksuited kind followed by platters of grated raw vegetables. This version of Bircher muesli has a sprinkling of berries on top. The berries are thawed from an erstwhile frozen state. The oats themselves have been blended with yoghurt. If lemon juice is included, I missed the flavour. Throughout the oats are slices of dried apple and dried apricot. My confession this time round is that I can not tell you if the muesli contains nuts or not. My apologies. There was a general nuttiness which I could be making up now that I am writing about the same. If there are nuts they are ground. There is also some shredded coconut. Oh Dr Bircher-Benner! Not sure if you included coconut in your Sanatoria menu but I don't mind that Sips cafe feels like going troppo. Don't know what it is supposed to taste like, but if uncooked Anzac biscuits with dried and thawed fruit rock your boat then this is your dish. And all for under eight dollars. Even without dinner last night I couldn't eat half of the bowl full and was given a container of leftovers which, as I mentioned, is sitting there singing at me.

Part of the reason I couldn't eat all of the muesli was that I requested a sausage on the side. For three dollars I received two massive bangers with two pieces of wholemeal bread, two packets of tomato sauce, and two slabs of foil wrapped butter. Suitman and Aptronym both attempted to demonstrate how to use the tomato sauce plastic packets but I retired defeated.

Half asleep we shared our general pissed-offness at the heavy handed phwoaring surrounding the APEC meeting being held in Sydney at present. Aptronym is hardest hit as the helicopters and Black Hawks keep her awake. Which led to revelations about Suitman's cat who also enjoys waking Breakfast Club members and their bed tousled lovers but is more cuddly than 'plane loads of men and women with guns.

Aptronym was polite about my dastardly manipulativeness when it came to the choice of table at which to sit and both Suitman and Aptronym were patient with my smugness over having managed a swim before making it to our seven-thirty-in-the-morning shared meal.

All in all another merry repast.

Cafe Sips
Shop 2/24 Campbell Street
Haymarket
Sydney City
(02) 9212 7633

Suitman on Two Good Eggs

two good eggs - what a rip off. the food LOOKED good but failed to deliver. impressively busy for the early hours, but i can't see the attraction. perhaps they do a good lunch. hot chocolate was boring. how can you make a boring hot chocolate?

Aptronym on Two Good Eggs

"Eggs Florentine with Bacon @ Two Good Eggs" - $14.50. This has been my favourite breakfast so far. Effort was put into the aesthetics of the dish and it didn't taste too badly either. If I had to have one small quibble it would be that the eggs were a little overdone. Otherwise a nice TBC experience in a light and airy environment, even despite the strange hooded pacing man in the park

Dancing Wombat on Two Good Eggs

Strewth that was tough mate - choosing a venue for two gourmands within a tight geographic circle of the city. My suggestions got wilder as the pressure grew. Our loose boundaries had included a big breakfast for ten dollars or under so I thought that Two Good Eggs' might not squeeze through, but put the idea forward regardless. Ideal choice for my first selection I thought, as the place has natural lighting and a big window over a park. The park was full of sleepy joggers and pogo bouncing dogs. Plus local colour in the form of a lurking stranger. Drug dealer? White slave trader? Bookie? Who can say? On the day I turned up late although I live the closest to the venue and so we missed out on our special reserved table. In my adventurousness I ordered eggs florentine forgetting to ask them to sabotage the dish by withholding the hollandaise sauce. The sauce was light and tangy and most enjoyable, until my body's disinclination to digest such admirable richness took hold. Not the cafe's fault though, and there wasn't vinegar all over my poached eggs which I appreciate greatly.

Two Good Eggs
2/148 Goulburn Street
Surry Hills
(02) 9283 9694

Suitman on the Cafe Caliniere

cafe caliniere - they looked surprised to see people turn up early, and they told us to expect breakfast to be delayed. average breakfast, average service (although the french accent was cute). i don't mind if the chef decides not to present good food well, but the food wasn't good.

Aptronym on Cafe Caliniere

"Eggs Benedict" - $9 at Caliniere. Although quite nice, with a nice tart edge to the Hollandaise that I quite enjoyed, the portion was extraordinarily small for the price. A pleasant breakfast environment but perhaps the rent rates mean slightly exorbitant prices.

Dancing Wombat on Cafe Caliniere

The need to peer wins my heart immediately. Nothing like a lack of fluorescent tubing to set a smile on the dial. Order my first Croque Monsieur, which is a fancy pants ham and cheese sandwich with Proustian connections no less. Never had one before, and have a personal suspicion of melted cheese. This one hits the spot most satisfactorily, conjuring private memories of the now forgotten yumbo, and another proprieter's fried bread. Can't help pondering also the Chilean and Argentinian love affair with the ham and cheese sandwich. In Mendoza if you have poor Spanish like this dancing wombat you end up with a ham and cheese sandwich on top of every food item served to you, including your dulce de leche. Instead of 'My Aunt is at the train station,' language courses should be teaching students how to say, 'Only one ham and cheese sandwich with that, thank you, oh if you insist, thank you, two'.

Caliniere Cafe
World Square
Piazza level
Shop 17-18 Liverpool Street
Sydney City
(02) 9264 3661

Suitman on the Woolworths' Cafeteria

Woollies cafeteria - charming place, that is if you don't mind your poached eggs boiled. excellent value and always guaranteed a seat. no annoying music or wait staff. no piercings, midriffs, tattooes or cleavage. great place to meet, just don't expect the perfect breakfast.

Aptronym on the Woolworths' Cafeteria

"Woolworths Breakfast" - $8. Tea, mushrooms, eggs, toast (brown). The lights were bright, the red was bold, the place was clean. My breakfast, alas, was enough to dampen the quite cheerful surrounds of this supermarket cafeteria. Although quaint, all the food was, unfortunately, precooked and had been sitting in the bain marie for a little bit too long. The mushrooms didn't seem to have any salt or pepper. I have eaten a lot worse and it was perfectly edible but well, although quite a fun experience, perhaps not again, unless I'm in a nostalgic mood....

Dancing Wombat on the Woolworths' Cafeteria

Suitman has founded a club and invited Aptronym and me to join. Breakfast is my favourite meal so consider me to be most chipper. First meeting requires moving half asleep through the bowels of the city to arrive at the Woollies' cafe. Didn't take into account when I accepted that Suitman and Aptronym would be capable of clever conversation so early in the day. For the next meeting I will write down a few witty asides on my hand the night before. Someone must have published some witty asides sometime somewhere, in list form hopefully. The Woollies' cafeteria is stylish in a way that I didn't expect with heaps of healthy sunshine but the mushrooms don't let me down. Chunky and stewed. Yumbo! Cheap and cheerful.

Cafeteria
Woolworths
Sydney Town Hall store
Corner George and Park Streets
Sydney City

(02) 9264 1927