Roll up, roll up!

Just finished 'Water for Elephants'.

Am thinking of running off to join the circus - minus the scary equestrian director, thanks.

Pic from weheartit

She's done it again

Could she get any more gorgeous?!

Pic from here

St Ali yum

During my recent visit to Melbourne, we caught up with Bree's sister Kelly, brother-in-law Mark and the divine Miss Zara (her niece) for breakfast at the much talked about St Ali in South Melbourne.

(You'll remember these groovers from the fabulous Little Birdie and Humpty Dumpty parties I've featured)

Lill's friend Tom said it was a must on this side of town (even though he's a loyal North Melbourne resident) and gosh, if the line up of people on the street was anything to go by, he was right!

Table water came out of long neck beer bottles, diners sat on bench seats at communal tables (which I love) and the vibe was brilliant - LOVED the styling of the warehouse feel.

My juice was 'the winter 3' - pear, strawberry and mint - and it was delish.

Kelly ordered the 'childhood memory' - plum and coconut bread with poached plums, coffee mascarpone and cinnamon dukkah.

Mark and Bree had the age old favourite of eggs and bacon (I'd hate to call them boring!)

I tried something different and opted for the 'corny baby' - creamed corn with poached eggs, green chilli relish, pinenuts and witlof salad on sourdough toast. It was so different and unusual and delicious, hit the spot.

Not a good pic, but we also ordered the corn fritters which were not what we expected - deep fried rather than pikelet style. Sounded ah-mazing in 'my mexian cousin'

 

Zara LOVED her babycino

And we had fun with her Qantas colouring in set and toys (PS. Loving my Liza Emanuele scarf on a cold Winter's day! I feel like someone in the circus!)

And how cool were these tulips? So clever and striking. These Melbournians never cease to ah-maze me.

Check out the menu here.

And if you're down that way, make sure you stop by - they don't take bookings, but the wait isn't normally longer than 10 minutes or so.

Inside out

Do you remember my excitement at scoring a fabulous Ikea Klippan from the equally as fabulous Amy a  little while back? I'd toyed with dyeing the cover but settled on a new 'Liberace' pink instead.

Well, the dyeing option might be something I have to revisit later - just ask Jimmie Martin whose uber cool London flat is featured in the current issue of Adore Home Online Magazine.

It was during my Saturday morning 'blogging in bed' (noone was going to bring me breakfast, so I needed another excuse to stay under the covers!) that I noticed his fab couch with colourful cushions. When I read it was an Ikea couch, I was overjoyed! How clever to turn the cover inside out to expose the seams.

This, people, is why I'm no decorator - I would never have thought of that!

Pics from Adore

Not long now!

Another good reason why I should move to Melbourne.

Something borrowed, and I'm feeling a bit blue

I just got home from the movies and feel kind of blugh.

Loved catching up with Gem (wish the previews had gone on longer so we had more time to chat!) but can't put my finger on whether I liked the movie or not.

Has anyone else seen Something Borrowed?

PS. Great eye candy. Hello Dex! Where have you been my whole life?

A saintly experience

I am a food groupie - I love celebrity chefs, I'm a sucker for cooking gadgets (the Tupperware piping bag thing changed my life!) and watch all things cuisine on telly (hello Nigella, Jamie et al).

So naturally all my holidays revolve around food. My dear friend Bel and I joked that our three month European holiday a few years back was our 'Food Tour of Europe' - cheese in France, chocolate in Belgium, tapas in Spain . . . the list goes on. No need to worry about those churches and art galleries (kidding - of course we did them . . . with baguette in hand of course).

It was a given then, that when I flew over to visit the darling Bree in Melbourne last week, we would indulge in all things delicious and decadent - especially because it's probably the last time we'd catch up in Melbs before she has her bubba in November (and after that, it'll be all play cafes and babycinos!).

I left her to surprise me with a booking somewhere and she done good!

St Katherine's is a new venture between George Colombaris and Shane Delia.

And it is ah-MAZING!

Clocking in for a long and lazy ladies' lunch, we did the safe and boring thing but I'm so glad we did - we chose the $58 tasting menu which took the hard work out of deciding what to order.

But goodness me, it was A LOT of food!

Here's Bree with the first course . . .

 

Oysters . . Turkish lamb dumplings . . Olives . . Taramasalata with prawn crackers . . House made bread . . Fig, haloumi and ricotta pide with sticky balsamic . . Some other pide (can't put my finger on the flavour - roast cap I think) . . Pickled vegetables with dukkah . . Bean dip (Shane's Dad's recipe!) . . Wild seed, caper and pomegranate salad

Then there was a beautiful piece of swordfish each, plus a king prawn with a lovely little salad of cos lettuce, dukkah, pomegranate and viniagrette dressing.

Next a waiter came up with another plate of food that we assumed he'd directed to the wrong table - surely we couldn't have anything else before dessert? But oh yes, the heaped platter of rotisserie lamb and chicken was definitely for us - complete with side dish of rice.

Wow.

Finally, after hardly even touching the sides of the meat, we were treated to dessert . . .

Yes, we played the birthday card and I got a candle! It was the first time I'd seen Bree since my birthday, so it only seemed fair!

We indulged in a Mr Whippy soft serve (coconut icecream for the mum-to-be) with chocolate ganache, turkish delight and crispy cocoa pops. Lots of fun.

 We also made room for the divine watermelon salad which helped cleanse the palette and get rid of the 'blugh' feeling of having eaten too much. Beautiful chunks of watermelon with mint jelly and cinnamon labne. Delish.

 

To top it off, I celebrated with a Jansz and Apple Tea (separately - not in one glass of course!) while Bree treated herself to a refreshing mocktail of raspberry, lime and mint.

It was goooood.

 

We walked out of there like zombies. I was seriously in a food coma for a good 12 hours afterwards.

 

Now, I'm no food writer or critic, but I know what I like and I LURVED this place - reasonably priced, a great vibe to it, beautifully light filled and spacious and delicious food. I reallly liked the special touches like the cutlery in the tomato paste cans and the bread delivered to your table in a brown paper bag. Very cool.

 

Check out the full menu here

 

This is one happy food groupie.