Leapfrogs, Cafe/Restaurant

One of my favourite things about the weekend in Perth is going out for breakfast with my boys.  Yesterday after a short but intense session in the gym, we headed over to Leapfrogs Cafe/Restaurant at Wanneroo to refuel.

Leapfrogs is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven Tuesday - Sunday (dinner only served on Thursday - Sunday).  It specialises in pizza straight from their wood fired ovens, and they also serve just coffees and drinks on their own throughout the day.

Most of the seating at Leapfrogs is out on the wooden terrace surrounded by lush greenery in the botanical gardens. Sitting there reminds me of sitting amongst a rain forest (minus the rain).  There are plenty of large umbrellas so hardly any of the tables are in full sunshine.

We started by ordering coffees and drinks while we looked at the breakfast menu.  Craig went for a long black with a shot of milk, James had a Pepsi max! and I went for a skinny cappuccino.  My coffee was well made and just the right strength however I noticed just as I started drinking that there was a large chip in the cup right where my mouth would drink from the cup.

It was very busy in the cafe and we were informed by our waitress that there was a 25 minute wait for food coming out of the kitchen. This was fine with us as long as we had the coffee to drink, we were in no rush and our surroundings were relaxing. It was a good chance for the three of us to catch up as a family.

I ordered poached eggs on toast with a side of bacon. The eggs were perfectly cooked and were not wet at all. My pet hate with poached eggs on toast is when the chef lifts the egg out of the pan and puts it straight on the plate or toast without draining it properly. You either get soggy toast or a wet plate (or both).  Two chunky slices of lightly toasted bread came alongside, it could of been done for a few seconds more as it was very pale.  Then last there was a good portion of bacon which had a lovely flavour but was a little fatty. Overall though I really enjoyed my plate of food and finished nearly all of it!

James went for the Big Breaky, and boy was it big! Scrambled eggs (his choice) bacon, sausage, grilled tomato, baked beans, toast and a potato fritter. The fritter was just like a large potato cake and I think would have made a nice breakfast just on its own. James enjoyed his breakfast although his eyes are bigger than his belly and he left quite a lot (I told him he's getting the "small" breaky next time)

Craig ordered the poached eggs on toast with a side of grilled field mushrooms. All very nice in his opinion and he cleared the plate.

Half way through our meals we decided to order more coffee and a couple of fresh juices. Craig had a freshly squeezed Orange juice and James had a freshly squeezed apple juice. Both juices were really fresh and delicious and very good palate cleansers. I loved the apple and will be getting it myself next time.

We had a really nice and relaxing breakfast at Leapfrogs.  We waited a while for the drinks to come the second time but apart from this I cant fault the place. We are going to return to try out the evening dinner menu and listen to the live music they have going on at weekends. Check out the website for more details.

Leapfrogs Cafe

Sharon x

White Salt, West Coast Drive, Sorrento

Yesterday I had my hair done. I always think its a waste to spend so long in the salon chair and then just go home and do nothing for the rest of the day.....what a waste.  So, last night Craig and I went out for dinner.

Now that we are living "North of the river" (anyone from Perth will know what I mean here!) our choices for good places to eat within close range are limited. The further away from the city you go, the less good places there are.  However that's not to say that there aren't any at all, its just that there are less.

So we decided to go to White Salt Bar/Cafe/Restaurant.  Its about a 15 minute drive from our house and is on the coast road which means you can eat a meal while watching the ocean.  I have driven past this place many times since we lived here and its been in the back of my mind to visit at some point.  From the outside its actually not much to look at because its on a corner of the road with a bottle shop one side and a BP station the other.  However once you go inside its really nice.  Big windows all along the front mean that most tables have a view of the water.

We were shown to our table which was right by the window and we were just in time to see the last few minutes of the sun setting. Beautiful. Menus were handed over and the drinks menu was already on the table.  Craig has offered to drive on this occasion so I ordered a nice cold glass of chardonnay while Craig had a James Squire Golden Ale (his new favourite beer here in Oz).

The menu was not too big so it made deciding what to order fairly easy.  For an entree we settled on the White Salt Tasting Plate for 2 which was a platter of grilled local prawns with garlic butter, shredded pork belly and apple crostini, scallops with celeriac and house smoked duck breast and sesame seed salad.

After a very short wait the plate arrived, looking appetising and delicious.  Starting with the prawns they were sweet and tender and cooked perfectly in their shells. The garlic butter was subtle and not at all overpowering.  I don't eat scallops so Craig ate all of these and said they were nice although nothing extra special. Nothing wrong with them though.  The shredded pork was absolutely delicious and full of flavour. I have been avoiding pork lately as I have noticed it gives me stomach ache but a small portion like this was ok.  And lastly the duck. My only gripe with this is that this was sharing plate for two people yet there were only three slices of duck. This meant that we had to decide who was having what. Anyway, the duck was full of flavour and nice and tender and the salad that went with it was a real surprise. Usually the salad is just a garnish but on this occasion it was part of the dish and really made it special.  I would of liked this element of the dish as a meal in its own right.

For our main course I had hoped to have something nice and light like a salad (duck?) however most of the menu was fairly rich and heavy.  I was surprised to see Rabbit & Mushroom Pie as the weather has been so hot. That's the sort of dish I associate with cooler weather and a nice bottle of red wine.

I had the Marinated Rump of Lamb which was served with boulangere potatoes, caponata and salsa verde. The lamb was served pink which Ilike and was exceptionally tender. I would have liked it to have been seasoned in the kitchen more though and I ended up adding a fair amount of salt and pepper. The potatoes were served as a square cake and were delicious although again there lacked seasoning.  Caponata is similar to a ratatouille except all the ingredients are finely diced and the main element is egg plant (aubergine). There are also sultanas in the mix. There was a good heaped spoonful on the plate and went beautifully with the lamb although it was served room temperature and would have preferred it to be hot. The whole dish was dressed with a well flavoured sauce which I think was red wine based. Overall it was a great dish which I would be more than happy to order again despite the few things I picked on.

Craig had the Beef Fillet with Dauphinoise potato, asparagus and red wine jus. The beef was cooked medium rare and again was lovely and tender with great flavour to the meat. The potato was the same as mine and Craig agreed that it needed seasoning. The asparagus was cooked so it still had some bite to it while not being raw.  Again overall a really good dish and he cleared his plate which is always a good sign.

The restaurant was very busy and unfortunately we felt that the staff were so busy that we felt a little ignored at times.  it took us quite a while to get the attention of one of the waitresses to order some more drinks even though our glasses had been empty for a while before that. and then after we did order them we waited quite a while for the drinks to arrive by which time we had finished our main courses. However when we did see the staff they were all very nice and friendly.

We decided not to have coffee or dessert as we had to go and pick our son up at Hilliary's so we thought we would wait to get a coffee over there to pass the time while we waited for him.

White Salt is open all day and does breakfast and lunch as well.  We will return at some point and would recommend it to friends.  Ask for a window table as its a great people watching spot.

White Salt

Sharon x

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

Spice Fusion, Maidstone

Of all the types of food out there, Craig's absolute favourite is Indian so he was very happy to find out we had a new Indian restaurant in town.

Spice Fusion opened in an old pub which has been fully refurbished a couple of months ago.  We have driven past a few times and to be honest from the outside it looks very odd and stark, however we didn't let this put us of trying it out.  A friend of mine who has very high standards visited this place a few weeks back and she gave a glowing report so on the back of that we decided to give it a go last night.

I had a look at the menu online in advance so I already knew that this place seemed a bit different to your average Indian.  It seemed more modern and fresh with more interesting menu choices.  It listed Connoisseur's starters and traditional starters, connoisseurs mains and traditional mains, plus a section for Biryani's, North Indian Tandoori specialities, vegetable main courses, vegetable side orders, rice & breads.

When we arrived at about 8pm there were only a couple of other tables seated.  You enter through a very contemporary and modern bar area which has high stools and red sofas and I could imagine spending a bit of time in here either before or after a meal having a few drinks.  We went straight through to the restaurant......wow.  Wooden floors, crisp white table clothes, funky down lighting at every table and a HUGE central chandelier plus a long yellow leather bench along one side of the room made up the decor.  Even the cutlery was modern and cool.

Menus and drinlks in hand we set about choosing what to eat.  I started with the Jhinga Til Tinka which was King Prawns marinated with fresh spices, dipped in batter, then cooked with breadcrumbs and sesame seeds and served with a mango sauce.  The prawn was a giant prawn split down the middle and was plenty for a starter although it was so nice I could have easily eaten another one.  The mango sauce was not too sweet and had a very subtle spice flavour. 

Craig went for Nizami Sheek which was minced lamb mixed with coriander, tomatoes, mint cheese and spring onions.  This was no ordinary sheek kebab.  The meat was moist and tender and the spicing really well balanced.  It was also served with the same mango sauce as my starter.

For my main course I choose South Indian Garlic Chilli Chicken.  I didn't want rice and bread so I asked for a side salad to go with it. The side salad turned out to be a mixture of various leaves, fresh green peas, green peppers, red onions, cucumber and tomatoes.  It was fantastic although my only complaint would be that there were not many leaves in it.  The chicken dish was probably the best chicken curry dish I have ever had.  Long strips of chicken breast in a rich sauce that had a very gentle heat.  the chicken was still very moist and tender.

Craig ordered a Chicken Rogan Josh, Bombay Aloo, Mushroom Pilau, and a nann bread (why do men always feel the need to order half the menu?)  We shared the naan which was hot, light and fluffy, very nice.  The potato dish was also very good with decent sized chunks of potato in a tomato spiced sauce. For some reason I forgot to take a photo of the curry! Sorry.

When we had finished the table was cleared and the waiter brought us a dessert menu.  We didn't have anything as we were both full so we just asked for the bill.  The bill arrived on a plate with 2 chocolates and 4 straws of sherbet which is something I have never seen in a restaurant before.  I thought this was a nice touch.

I know I have said this before but this is now our new favourite Indian restaurant in Maidstone.  The food was much lighter, fresher and more modern.  I liked the decor, and the little touches like the sherbet.

Give it a go, its worth it.

Spice Fusion

Sharon x

Beer Butt Chicken

I never imagined the day would come where I cooked a roast chicken by putting a can of beer up its bum!!!

I had heard this method of cooking mentioned in the past (in fact I think my sister has done it?) but had never seen a recipe until recently.  I was looking through "Jamie's America" by Jamie Oliver and I came across the recipe accompanied by a rather obscene looking photo of the chicken cooking (see first photo).

With friends due for lunch on the Sunday I went out a bought a couple of free range chickens (never battery!) and some large cans of Budweiser beer.  This was going to be a joint cooking effort between Craig and I since there was a barbecue involved!

The whole idea of cooking this way is that the beer in the can heats up and steams the chicken from the inside out keeping it nice and moist while the outside gets nice and crisp.

The recipe starts by making a rub for the chicken and letting it maride for a while.  Once you have mixed up the rub use your hands to massage it all over the chicken making sure you get all the nooks and cranny's!

The rub is made up of the following -

1 heaped teaspoon fennel seeds - ground up in a pestle and mortar
1 level teaspoon cumin seeds - ground up in a pestle and mortar
1 level teaspoon smoked paprika
1 heaped teaspoon brown sugar
1 level teaspoon mild chilli powder
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

Mix everything together and massage into the chicken in a large dish. Cover and leave to marinade for a couple of hours or overnight.

When you are ready to cook you need to get your kettle BBQ hot.  Move the coals to either side so you are not putting the chicken over a direct heat.  And the BBQ must have a lid.  If you don't have a BBQ you can do this in the oven, you just need to make sure you have the height so you might need to take out the shelves.

You need a 473ml can of beer.  We used Budweiser but I don't think it matter what beer you use.  Drink or pour away a few good gulps so that the can is about half full.  Then lower the chicken over the can so that it is sitting upright.

Then put the chicken on the BBQ for about an hour and 10 minutes to an hour and a half until its golden and the juices run clear.  Its important to keep the lid on while cooking so the heat stays in.

This photo is the chicken ready to get cooking, how weird does that look!  We put a tray underneath them to make it easier to lift them out and catch all the juices as they cooked.

The last photo is the chickens when they have cooked, you can see some juice in the tray.  I think we cooked then for slightly too long however the finished product was delicious.

It was a really fun recipe to cook and it had a "wow" factor however I obviously wouldn't do it like this every time I cooked a chicken.  I would use the rub for a normal roast chicken though or even on chicken breasts on their own.  One word of caution, the beer is very hot when you take the chicken of the BBQ and we accidentally pierced the can and hot beer poured out so be careful (another comical sight - use your imagination!!!)

Have fun :-)

Sharon x