The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
We made just a quick stop at Peaberry between inspections as we engaged in Australia’s national pasttime.
We came near closing – tempted by images of fish burgers and smash burgers on Google Maps with only half an hour to eat. Sadly the burgers no longer existed on their menu, leaving us with these sandwiches instead.
The Frankie’s Pick ($12) was also my pick of the two sandwiches, featuring peppered corned beef, American cheese, American mustard, and a huge amount of thinly sliced American pickles from Mcclure’s between toasted Turkish bread. The choice of bread, and the bread to filling ratio in particular, I thought allowed for a high level of tanginess and tastiness without too much unneccessary density. A good package.
The Cuban ($12) was quite similar to Frankie’s Pick, but with triple smoked ham and sliced jalapneos in place of corned beef and pickles. My partner preferred this one over Frankie’s, but I personally would have preferred some roast pork a la the classics rather than just ham itself.
I’m sad about the lack of burger, which really did look good online.
The Peaberry Cafe 202 Elizabeth St, Croydon NSW 2132
We spent like half an hour doing a post-walk stand-around waiting for a table at Little West, but we got to see a little cat after our meal, so it was kind of worth it to me.
The smoked brisket sausage roll ($10) was somewhat small in size, but made up for it with its good texture, both internally in the house smoked beef brisket filling, as well as externally in the buttery and flaky pastry. The house made bush tomato sauce was a bit tangier than your regular tomato sauce, almost similar to a BBQ sauce.
This banana & macadamia loaf ($7), toasted with a slab of cultured butter, did very little for me. At the very least I can say it was not too sweet, but I think overall it was not too anything in terms of taste.
This brunch bowl with house hot smoked salmon($24 including a $7 salmon supplement) was wholesome and good, hitting the mark on a number of counts, including a good corn fritter, well poached eggs, and a varied smattering of fresh greenery. Little West’s commitment to making a bunch of different ingredients in house, where your usual café might just buy their smoked salmon from an external supplier, is pretty impressive, even if the quality of the end product does not differ noticeably from something off-the-shelf.
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Little West Shop 2, 53-55 Waratah St, Haberfield NSW 2045 0482 078 099
We had quite a yummy and leafy brunch at relatively new spot Superfreak in Marrickville.
Taking a break from tradition, here’s a photo of an ultra-cozy shaggy booth bench to start.
The lunch plate ($32) allegedly with seasonal vegetables (in today’s case – carrot, cucumber, and strawberries), comte, LP’s saucisson sec, ham, sauerkraut, fig (where was this), whiped ricotta, butter, house pickles and bread was a medley of freshness and deliciousness on one plate. Each portion of the meal, apart from the comte, had its own fresh and non-overpowering flavour, layering upon each other to create a variety of mixed mouthfuls. The whipped ricotta was mild and delicious, the ham was similarly not too salty with a good mouthfeel (from Emilio’s butcher), and the bread was crunchy and excellent with a bit of butter and layered with everything else. The dutch carrots were served somewhat annoyingly with long stalks for no reason but display, but were fresh and cruchy, and the strawberries were very sweet. I didn’t have a strong adoration for the comte, especially in such a large quantity, but the sauerkraut was nice. Ever my partner, someone not generally in to cured salumis, enjoyed the saucisson sec from LP’s. This plate was overall a fun mixture of flavours.
Even better than the lunch plate was this trio of salads ($24), to which we added a side of gremolata encrusted Ora king salmon ($10). The pumpkin wedge salad was probably the best of the three, with a delicious sweet and moist wedge of roasted pumpkin in a green coriander and cashew cream dressing. The fioretto and lentil salad would be my second pick, not for the pulses, but for the mustardy leek, roasted fioretto (which soaked up so much dressing flavour) and dill, while the crunchy green salad made predominately of lettuce was quite missable, in my opinion.
The gremolata encrusted Ora king salmon ($10) was absolutely delicious, slightly seared on the outside and perfectly fatty and soft on the inside, served wiht a tangy leafy topping. It was absolutely a key component of the salad dish, if optional, and deserves to star in its own adventure on the menu on its next iteration.
Decor
The rare subsequent decor photo, they painted the air conditioner 1980s tobacco yellow to match the wall, as well as a ceiling fan and opposing wall air conditioner green. Kind of cute.
Overall thoughts Yummy. Can recommend the salmon. Parking is OK around the corner.
Look, this is really a review of a cookie that I had at Blair St Dairy, because that was closest to where we were and had to be again within a 45 minute window (some kind of magnesium sulfate floaty thing in Bondi Junction – my partner’s idea, but I agreed to go because she wanted me to, and magnesium sulfate is probably my most used drug). It really doesn’t matter though, because it’s only a cookie, and both places are run by the same people.
So what can I tell you about this chocolate chip cookie ($?6.50) that you can’t tell just from the photos? It was big, it was thick. It was warmed up for us before serving, which made it quite nice and soft. It was initially though to be not-too-sweet based on cookie, but opinion was changed to too-sweet once the taste of chocolate chip was established. The oiliness and sweetness of the cookie didn’t quite fit with the overall vibe of The Bondi Local, but these are probably the people who have some extra calories to spare anyway.
We had fun looking at all the Halloween displays outside the homes between our car and the café. You don’t get that as much when your house is worth less than $3 million of inter-generational wealth.
Anyway if you want the cookie and have an acceptable Trigs/HDL/LDL/HbA1c it’s probably more efficient to buy their cookie dough from the shops and bake your own.
I worked at the base of the Blue Mountains for two years in my youth, and despite asking my partner on a regular basis we never made the trip up. It would take another two years for her to actually want to go of her own accord, an opportunity that I jumped at – not only to climb an awful amount of slippery steps, but also to eat at the famed Yellow Deli.
The Yellow Deli, according to the internet, is a kind of global chain cafe run by adherents of certain subgroup of Christians. Though many of the online reviews for the cafe deplore the group’s alleged “child abuse”, on further reading it appears that they refer to the use of physical discipline, which whilst I don’t believe is really OK, kind of just sounds like growing up as an Asian kid.
Common amongst the Yellow Delis is this extremely rustic aesthetic, with fit outs of recycled timber, hanging lanterns, and leather-on-chairs. It felt like something you would find in rural New Zealand, though I guess just as appropriately at a town in the mountains.
To drink we had a Hazlenut Dande Mate Latte, which was creamy and nutty and quite pleasant. I will comment here only about the experience of having the drink, and not about any of its purported health benefits.
To eat we had a bowl of chilli con carne ($13), served with jalapeno bread and whipped butter. Whilst the chilli didn’t taste so different from any other chilli, we did appreciate the inclusion of large meatballs within it, though it meant that the meat was focused in discrete areas, and once gone so did we lose our desire to continue eating the rest of the chilli. The jalapeno bread was quite good though, sweet and still warm, and well paired with the butter. It was quite a lot of food for the price.
The reuben sandwich ($13.50) was unfortunately not an advance on the classic, served with housemade potato crisps but otherwise generally uninspiring.
The deli rose sandwich ($13.50), was however quite good, with two types of beef (roast and corned), provolone, onions, butter, and tomato amongst other things. I enjoyed the onion roll here more than I did the light rye bread of the reuben, with its increased softness and textural palatability. This sandwich was also just more moist than the other, with the tomato, although ultimately reminded us strongly of something from Subway. Pretty good though.
COMMENTS I think the main draw for the Yellow Deli, apart from the obvious, is its sick interior. We had just seen a video about some 1000 year old pub in the UK, and whilst we don’t have any such historic buildings here in the colonies, you could totally imagine this place to have a history like that. Food-wise, nothing particularly special, but out of the things we did eat we liked the deli rose sandwich the most. Most things were a bit too salty for me.
