A Simple Breakfast.......with a fantastic view - Botanical Cafe, Kings Park

We are now into our second full week of living in Perth and now that James has got a gym membership, this is leaving me a bit of time to myself.

This mornings task was to go to the Medicare office and get registered, unfortunately it turned out that I was unable to do this task without my two boys in tow.  So armed with the forms to fill in and some leaflets to read I found myself with a spare couple of hours to fill while James worked on pumping up his ever expanding muscles!

We are fortunate enough to be living temporarily across the road from Kings Park which has to be the most stunning park I have ever seen. It has the added bonus of having an awesome view of the Perth city skyline and the Swan River.

I headed up to the park and left the car along Fraser Avenue and walked up to the Botanical Cafe looking for coffee and breakfast.  I was pleased to find the place had lots of tables free both inside and out however there were enough people in the place to give it atmosphere.  I decided I wanted to sit inside, although its an open sided cafe so it was like being outside anyway.  On the way to my chosen table (the one with a newspaper conveniently left behind) I noticed some of the food others were eating.  In particular the Raspberry Pancakes with Rhubarb Stew and Vanilla Gelato, and Warm Scones served with double cream and Strawberry Jam both looked delicious and made my mouth water. However in an effort not to consume my body weight in calories I decided to stick with coffee and toast.

So first the coffee, back in the UK I had though I was really into coffee and considered myself a bit of an addict, however since lining down under I now realise I know nothing about this subject and I have alot to learn.  So for now I am sticking with a trusted cappuccino which you cant go far wrong with. I always drink it skinny as I cant stomach full fat milk. They present their coffees beautifully over here but then again all the baristas have had proper training I believe.

To go with my coffee I ordered Sourdough Toast with butter & preserves.  My choice of preserve was Australian Honey which I adore on toast. I had two little pots, one for each slice!

The toast came as two huge slices with four little individual portions of butter. These had already melted a little but no matter.  The sourdough had a lovely chewy texture with a good crunch and that lovely sharp  taste of sourdough.

The cafe has a lovely atmosphere and an amazing view of the park and the city skyline beyond.

While I was there the breakfast menus were taken away and replaced with the lunch menus. One or tow tables ordered from this while I was there and everything I saw looked delicious.

I really enjoyed spending an hour at The Botanical Cafe with my coffee and the papers (I forgot to fill the forms in!!). I'm looking forward to going back another time with Craig in tow to check out the lunch menu.  But for now I have a feeling this is going to become my cafe of choice for the next few weeks until we move away from the city into a house.

Botanical Cafe Web site

Sharon x

Barchetta, North Cottesloe, Perth

Today was our last day in holiday mode before Craig starts his new job, so we decided to have an afternoon exploring the beach and a couple of surf clubs? 

We headed to one in Cottesloe which is one of the more popular beaches and had expected not to be able to park the car.  We were pleasantly surprised to find lots of spaces so no worries on that front.  Car parked and towels in hand we headed towards the surf life saving club to make some enquiries for James.  Unfortunately the membership office had shut so we didn’t find out the information we wanted.  So we decided to head on back up the beach to find some lunch and then have a swim and catch a few rays afterwards.

I had checked out a few guide books and other food blogs to find out what was good in Cottesloe and I had narrowed it down to one of two places, either Barchetta or The Blue Duck.

We came across Barchetta first so we headed on it and asked for a table.  To my surprise we managed to get a table on the balcony overhanging the beach, absolutely glorious.  It was really windy today though so weirdly enough we got a little bit chilly as we were sat in the shade........although I am NOT complaining about the weather.

All the waiting staff here everywhere we have been are so friendly and efficient, and it wasn’t long before menus arrived and drinks orders were taken.  They have a drink in Oz called lemon, lime and bitters which is so refreshing so I ordered one of those while the boys had cokes.

One thing I hadn’t taken into account when picking a cafe on the beach was the fact that the prices would be inflated.  I got a bit of a shock when I looked at the menu however the choices were lovely.

James stuck with one of his old favourites, Margarita Pizza.  It filled the dinner plate and a nice thin base.  There was a good covering of cheese and a scattering (technical term) of halved cherry tomatoes. James enjoyed the pizza and Craig also tried a piece and declared it good.

Craig had earlier seen the table next to us chowing down on a plate of fantastic looking Calamari which is one of his favourites and nice and light to eat in the sun (or shade!).  A substantial plateful arrived garnished with rocket salad and some garlic mayonnaise.  Delicious. I tried a piece and no word of a lie it was the nicest calamari I have ever had......light, not rubbery, gently browned and not greasy, just perfect.

I opted for the Meatball Sandwich which is something I have always wanted to try but never got round to doing. It came as a warm white baguette filled with mini meatballs and smothered in a rich tomato sauce and shaved provolone cheese. This was all served up with a portion of home cooked fries.  The meatball sandwich was really nice although I couldn’t eat it all as it was so rich.  Craig had a chunk to help me out.

The fries deserve a special mention as they were so good. The potatoes still had their skins left on and were cut quite thinly. They were not greasy at all and had been nicely seasoned with sea salt and rosemary.  I would have happily eaten just the chips for lunch with a mayonnaise dip......next time.

Overall our food was delicious and we will come back again. I have heard this place does great breakfast and looking at that menu (see their web site) I am keen to come and find out for myself.  The location is just stunning and the staff are all so lovely how could you not want to come back.

And after lunch a swim on the beach below......................

A photo of the restaurant taken from the beach below.

Barchetta

Sharon x

Twilight Hawkers Market, Perth

So, our foodie adventure down under begins.  I have been looking forward to this for a long time now.

It’s only our second evening in our new home town but we couldn’t wait to get out and start finding out what Perth has to offer by way of foodie adventures.  Due to my research I knew that the Twilight Hawkers market takes place every Friday evening between 5pm and 8pm in the Central Business District.  It’s a summer event that runs from October until March.

The market is made up of around 20 or so food stalls from around the world all selling delicious smelling a good looking food at reasonable prices.  I had already read a few other reviews on some local food blogs so I knew what to expect.  I also had a good idea of what I wanted to try.

We wanted to ensure we got to the market before all the popular dishes ran out so at around 4.30pm we headed out down to the train station to catch a quick ride into the CBD.  When we arrived just after 5pm the place was buzzing with activity and lots of people were milling around the stalls checking out what was on offer or already sitting down at the plastic tables eating their dishes.

Craig took about 0.2 seconds to decide he wanted curry from the Two Fat Indians stall. I think this is because somebody had mentioned to him previously that you can’t get a good curry in Perth and he sees this as a challenge now!!

A very generous portion of butter chicken and saffron rice was purchased for $10 (roughly £6.60).  The meat was in big juicy chunks in a rich tomato based sauce.  I tried a mouthful and it was delicious and tender.  Not spicy at all.  I might have this myself next time.

I headed for the Chinese Dim Sun stall. Partly because I have eaten so much rich and filling food lately I felt like something light and partly because I absolutely love Dim Sum and it’s really hard to find back in Maidstone.

The man on the stall was a very cheerful chap as you can see from the photo.  There was a choice of Steamed Pork Buns, Pork Dumplings or Prawn Dumplings.  I opted for the Pork Buns even though I had bought some frozen ones earlier when I did a big supermarket shop.

I got 2 in a portion for $4.50 (roughly £3). Two are plenty especially as I wanted to try a couple of things so I didn’t want to get too full.  The buns were delicious, very light bread like outside with a slightly sweet barbecued shredded pork filling.  The only thing missing was some soy sauce to dip them in but even without this they were great.

We had managed to find a couple of chairs and a table free so we were able to sit down while we ate our food.  We watched while people chomped on various foods. There was one stall that was selling “Spud Spirals”.  Essentially this was a potato that had been cut into a spiral using a special tool and put on a skewer then deep fried.

Other stalls were selling Japanese noodles and pancakes, donuts, Mexican food, Spanish Paella, Malaysian Satay, steamed dumplings, spud spirals, churros, Australian foods, Ice-cream and various others that I don’t remember.

After we had eaten our curry and Pork Buns we decided we needed a glass of wine/beer to wash it down so we headed up to the main street to find a bar.

Suitably refreshed we headed back to the Market for some Malaysian satay on sticks.  We just wanted a small taste so we opted for 2 chicken satay sticks and 2 beef satay sticks served in a cup.  The meat had been cooked on a BBQ while being fanned in the traditional way.  They were then served up in a polystyrene cup with a ladleful of peanut satay sauce poured over.

We each had a beef and a chicken skewer.  The meat was nicely charred from the coals and really moist. The satay sauce was a bit too sweet for my liking but the peanuts in it were nice and crunchy.

We decided we needed something sweet to finish off so we headed to the Portuguese donut stalls and got 2 donuts each......they were only small!  They were hot and dredged in cinnamon sugar and in the centre there was a small amount of sweet jam.  I could have eaten another 2 of these as they were so good but that would just be greedy!!!

So satisfied and full we decided to head back to the apartment.  The market was a great way to kick of our foodie adventure down under and we can’t wait until next Friday so we can go again, albeit next time Craig will have been at work so I will meet him in town.

Sharon x