Tag Archives: Breakfast

Week 11 of 2013 in my Instagram life

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After the last blog post last weekend I finished with an image of chicken schnitzel. Here it is cooked with some fried eggs. Yum comfort food.

#dinner #simple Chicken thigh schnitzel and fried eggs #yummy

Chicken high schnitzel with fried eggs

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On Sunday morning I had breakfast with Bron and we went to Black Pepper for Eggs Benedict.

#breakfast Eggs Benedict with bacon and an extra side of hollandaise sauce. #yummy Bron had the same 😃

I always ask for more Hollandaise sauce

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I went to work on Sunday to catch up on some work. Fortunately I had a snack there.

#lunch It's Whoopie time 😃

An extreme chocolate whoopie

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From my garden

From my garden

From my garden

I do nothing to the garden bed in my apartment. I do not even add water and look at what grows.

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Sunday night dinner of salmon salad

#dinner Salmon and salad with pear, beetroot, spring onions, feta, coriander, tomatoes, lemon zest and juice #yummy

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Monday was a public holiday. I visited Bron and we had her homemade hot cross buns

Bron's hot cross buns #yummy #breakfast

These were really good. I had two and lots of butter.

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After another day at work on a public holiday I made chicken salad

#dinner Because I'm an old man and because I don't feel well I had an early dinner. Maple and soy chicken salad. #yummy

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Tuesday night I felt a little blergh and just made chicken and potato gems (tater tots)

#dinner I was bad. Chilli crusted chicken with potato gems (tater tots). #yummy

I felt better after eating this.

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Bron has been busy making macarons. Look at these babies. Salted caramel, rose water and vanilla.

#dessert Look what Bron came and gave me today. Homemade macarons #superyummy

A salted caramel maracon.

#dessert The most delicious salted caramel macaron I've tasted #superyummy Thank you Bron ❤

This is the best salted caramel macaron I’ve ever tasted. These were so good. I love the way the flavours change as I bit into them and then as my tongue made contact.

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My personal passport expires in about eight months. It is easier to renew it before it expires. I pick up my new one in a couple of weeks.

Morning office #coffee Time to renew personal passport.

Most of the travel I do is for work and for that I use an official passport. My current personal passport expires in January 2014. Given a passport cannot be used for the last six months of its ‘life’ and because renewing a current passport is many orders of magnitude easier than renewing an expired passport, I thought it was time.

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Nothing beats a sausage roll for a quick lunch

DIY biology and a sausage roll. Quick #lunch So busy.

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It was nice having a WIZZ FIZZ lollipop

I think I need a wizz fizz before dinner 😃

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Thursday morning treat from Bron

Bron asked me not to photograph these delicious treats. I can't help but like the nipples.

Now this is the morning after the meal at Morks so I wasn’t that hungry but who can resist macarons. 

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It was Jacqui’s birthday at work. We didn’t our usual Pay day Pie day, instead we had a burger. You may recall Jacqui from last week’s post.

#lunch Urban Bean cheese burger with bacon egg and beetroot. Amazeball chips #yummy Happy birthday @jacquimkane

This is an Urban Cheese. It is a cheeseburger from Urban Bean Espresso Bar. It has an Angus beef pattie, tasty cheese, bacon, fried egg and beetroot. The chips came with homemade mayonnaise.

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I just had a salad for dinner

#dinner with Bron. Salad and no meat. #yummy

Followed with macarons

Look what we have for #dessert Nipply macarons. Thanks Bron

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Mmm…Friday morning rituals. Mavi Breakfast wrap. This one was amazingly good.

#breakfast Getting my hand and mouth a Mavi breakfast wrap #yummy

The owner made this one and we reckon he put in more bacon and mushrooms.

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Hot chip Friday lunch of course

#lunch hot chip Friday. Sorry @snagstand too busy today.

You’d think I would have had enough of these but no.

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Saturday morning breakfast

Big #breakfast #yummy

This was a mistake. We had breakfast at Gourmet Deli in Belconnen Westfield shopping centre. This place has great coffee and is a fantastic delicatessen. This breakfast was a little too ‘greasy’.

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For dinner on Saturday night I was at Bron’s place. Bron has been thinking of making Jamie Oliver’s Yorkshire puddings again. She’d made them a little over a year ago and we blogged about it.

Here are some very short video sequences of the puddings being poured and rising in the oven. I have uploaded them on Vine but don’t know how to embed Vine into this blog so I’ve embedded YouTube uploads.

http://youtu.be/SO4p1wqYzLQ

http://youtu.be/aXnIZy1CEpQ

http://youtu.be/_mjHr2RZ_kU

Out of the oven

Yorkshire puddings #dinner #yummy

What a lovely plate of Yorkshire puddings

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With the smoked hit ocean trout and horseradish

Bron made Yorkshire pudding with hot smoked trout and horseradish #dinner #yummy

It’s very hard to describe just how nice it is to have the tangy trout and horseradish along with the crisp fresh fluffy pudding

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Dinner is served

Bron made Yorkshire pudding with hot smoked trout and horseradish and pear and walnut salad #dinner #yummy

It looks great doesn’t it?

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Bite sized morsels of happiness

Bron made Yorkshire pudding with hot smoked trout and horseradish #dinner #yummy

This is perfection between my fingers

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Oh yeah there was a pear and walnut salad

Pear and walnut salad #dinner #yummy

This added a lovely touch

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Dessert was Bron’s amazing sticky date pudding with butterscotch and custard

Bron made the most amazing sticky date pudding with butterscotch, custard and ice cream #dessert #yummy

This is I think Bron’s signature dessert. No one makes it better. The butterscotch sauce is to die for. The custard is perfect. The ice cream was Madagascan Vanilla Bean.

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Sunday breakfast was simple and in two stages

Bron's poached egg #yummy

Poached eggs are so yummy

River of yolk love #yummy Thanks Bron

Check it out. Hot homemade hot cross bun.

Amazing Bron breakfast. Poached egg on muffin followed by her homemade hot cross bun with butter. #breakfast #yummy #breakfastforwoojm

I hope you agree this looked so good. It tasted better.

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After a walk today I needed a snack.

Grilled Australian Havarti cheese on toast #lunch #yummy

Australian Havarti cheese on toast

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For dinner tonight I made some honey soy salmon and a salad.

#dinner Honey soy salmon with salad #yummy

I like the sweetness of mixing honey with soy on the hot fry pan and reducing it.

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For dessert Bron gave me some of her sticky date pudding.

#dessert Bron's sticky date pudding with butterscotch and custard #superyummy

It was a nice big piece with extra butterscotch sauce and custard. This was just so good.

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So ends this post.Thank you for reading this and going through my instagram experience. I’d also invite you to view my Facebook page and if you like it please click the LIKE button. Thanks.

I hope everyone has a great week at work. I know I’ve been finding my new role a challenge and it seems there is a lot of fatigue around not just in my workplace but from what I hear and read around the place. I hope everyone finds balance in their life. Take care. Live long and prosper.

On a good note, the Brisbane Broncos defeated the St George Illawarra Dragons this week and the Gold Coast Titans defeated the Canberra Raiders. It was unfortunate that the Melbourne Storm defeated the North Queensland Cowboys. I don’t feel that bad though because Melbourne are my number four team. For those who don’t know me well my top four teams in the National Rugby League are 1. Brisbane Broncos, 2. North Queensland Cowboys, 3. Gold Coast Titans, and 4. The Melbourne Storm. For Soccer it’s the Brisbane Roar. For the Australian Football League it’s the Brisbane Lions and the Gold Coast Suns. For cricket it’s the Queensland Bulls. For Rugby it’s the Queensland Reds. For State of Origin it is the Queensland XXXX Maroons. One day I’ll reveal the teams I detest.

Breakfast at Elk and Pea

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In a remarkable coincidence I went to Elk and Pea with a friend for breakfast. Without thinking about it we had the same breakfast as T1 and BF on 15 January. Without wanting to offend T1, I did recall she had been to Elk and Pea but in my mind it was for dinner rather than breakfast. Sorry T1 I’d forgotten :-)

In terms of the experience we arrived at 0930 and were shown to a table in the back near the toilets. The tables were all pretty close to one another and I could hear what other diners were saying. This is a worry because I’m deaf in one ear and it was on my deaf side. It was all pretty cosy. The table we had was very wobbly. We were grateful that a waiter came over and shoved napkins under the base. After a few napkins the amount of movement was reduced but not completely. Along with the quality of napkins I get judgy about restaurants if they cannot manage decent tables and chairs. This was not a good start. It was also dark and my immediate thought was poor lighting for iPhone photography. Fortunately, as I alluded to in my end of 2012 post I’ve recently acquired an iPhone 5 and the camera is a much better tool for food photography.

We ordered coffees and then food. My breakfast buddy asked for the Paprika eggs and I asked for the smashed avocado and mushrooms. The place was busy and fairly full so we accepted it would be a longish wait. The coffees seemed to be delayed especially when later orders (from the table next to ours) came out sooner than ours. Once the coffees arrived, the food arrived in quick order :-)

The paprika eggs looked really good and tasted great too. My avocado and mushrooms was delightful. The bread was nicely toasted and the mushrooms perfectly sautéed. There was a good amount of avocado and my poached egg was perfectly cooked with a nice runny yolk. Unfortunately the poached paprika eggs were on the solid side. Marks off I’m afraid. Poached eggs really need to have soft runny yolks.

I had to use the toilet and didn’t see one specially for men. There were two women’s toilets and I used the unisex/disabled toilet. It was well appointed and also had a shower. This is a good thing for those customers who rely on a wheelchair. There were no paper towels and the air drier was pretty pathetic. I know they’re expensive but the Dyson air blade should be the standard for any restaurant toilet.

#breakfast Avocado and mushrooms #yummy

The food at Elk and Pea is really good. There is no question about that. I’m looking forward to going there for dinner this Saturday night with friends. I’ll happily go back for breakfast again. The coffee was good and I want to try the other items on the menu.

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The Elk & Pea on Urbanspoon

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I spent all afternoon at work today and came home to my ironing and decided on an easy dinner.

#dinner Chicken thigh with salad. I seasoned with Madras curry powder. #yummy

Chicken thigh seasoned with Madras curry powder and a simple salad.

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Ruchi Belconnen Southern Indian dining for a #CBRTweetUp Shout out @Sister_Ratched

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Last year I blogged a couple of times about the food at Ramas in Pearce. I have enjoyed the food there and the company on the occasions we dined there helped make the evenings memorable. After blogging about Ramas a Canberra Twitter friend, viz., Jude @Sister_Ratched commented (via Twitter and on my blog) that she thought there were better places in Canberra and Sydney for Indian cuisine. She suggested she could introduce me to such places. I was very happy to be introduced to new dining experiences.
Jude is lovely, she avidly comments on my blog and given the amount of food I post on Twitter and Instagram, Jude has shared her thoughts. At times this has been a concern for the quantity and quality of food I would post. I believe in some ways, the recent changes in my diet have been influenced by Jude’s comments about cholesterol, the importance of fresh ethically harvested produce and the health benefits of salad :-) Jude is a Registered Nurse and currently practises in gastroenterology. I respect her opinion.

On Friday night Jude organised a Canberra Tweetup. I regret not taking names and Twitter handles because I’ll offend some new friends if I don’t mention them. Suffice to say this is not the last #CBRTweetUp I will attend. It was a most enjoyable evening and it really is great to meet tweeps in real life and get to get to know them a little better. One of my favourite Canberra bloggers was also there. T1 from InTheTaratory fame. T1 has been prolific recently on Twitter as part of the #LikeCanberra campaign for the Centennial celebrations of the Australia’s capital city.

We all met at Ruchi Belconnen. Ruchi specialises in Southern Indian cuisine. Jude recommended I try a Thali. A Thali is a tasting plate made up of a selection of various dishes. The food is served in small bowls on a round tray. In the middle there was bread and plus a piece of flesh (fish in my case). I asked for the Ruchi Special Non­‐Vegetarian Thali for $24.50. This consisted of Chapatti, channa curry, Kerala chicken, beef vindaloo, pickles, thayir pachadi, rasam, and boiled rice. When the food was being served I heard the waiter say “special non-vegetarian Thali” and I assumed it was mine. It turned out not to be what I asked for but it was a Mysore Maharajah Non-­Vegetarian Thali which consisted of Meen porichadu, chapathi, boiled rice, sambar, Mysore chilli chicken, daal, lamb korma, rasam, thayir pachadi, pickles, and a coconut dessert. This dish was considerably hotter in terms of spices than what I was expecting. It was not at all unpleasant, on the contrary it was delightful. I really enjoyed this tasting plate of Southern Indian delights. The company was great and in the end it was not a late evening but it was certainly a very enjoyable one. The next #CBRTweetUp is being organised. I’m looking forward to it.

Ruchi special non-vegetarian thallis #cbrtweetup

Mysore Maharajah Non-­Vegetarian Thali

The menu can be downloaded from http://www.outincanberra.com.au/files/client-menus/Ruchi-Menu-August-2012-Dine-in-menu.pdf

I would definitely recommend Ruchi Belconnen. I’ll be returning.

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Friday was made even better with a Mavi Breakfast wrap which meant I didn’t need lunch.

#breakfast Tongue of bacon in my Mavi breakfast wrap #yummy

A beautiful tongue of bacon.

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This afternoon. I enjoyed a pastry treat from Ricardo’s Cafe at the Jamison Plaza.

The Peanut Paste #yummy

This is the Peanut Butter. It contains a very subtle peanut paste flavoured mousse with a heart of caramel resting on a delicate chocolate crumb biscuit base. It was lovely.

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Ruchi

Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/JB0q2


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http://www.outincanberra.com.au/ruchibelconnen

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Ramas
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/aE655


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Brisbane high rise and food glorious food

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The last few days have been fairly busy and on Thursday and Friday I had to be in Brisbane for an important meeting.

On Wednesday I forgot my lunch and after a frantic morning I was in a café and spied a Chiko roll. I haven’t had one in years. My maternal grandfather‘s brother told me many times when I was young that our family had somehow been involved in the invention of the Chiko roll. At the time they owned a Chinese café at a truck stop in Rocklea in Brisbane. They used to sell these super large spring rolls mostly composed of cabbage and chicken. They sold them as chicken rolls. Mum and her brother have confirmed this story for me. They claim someone got the idea for the Chiko roll from my grandparents chiekn rolls at the Golden Pagoda in Rocklea. The Golden Pagoda was destroyed in the great flood of 1974 and the loss destroyed my grandparents and immediate family. They never really recovered.

Later that afternoon a work mate said she was going out to get some chocolate and I asked her get me some. I love my work mates. They know me. Look at what came back :-)

Check out the size of the block.

That night I didn’t feel that hungry but had some chicken thigh meat thawing (and no I didn’t eat all that chocolate in one sitting).

The chicken burgers were tasty, you can see I used an English muffin for one and a hamburger roll for the other.

The next morning I woke up early for a 0620 AEST flight from Canberra to Brisbane. I like that the Qantas Club has breakfast.

On board the flight I had another breakfast.

I spent Thursday night in my hotel room working. The view of the Brisbane River from the twenty-fifth floor was pretty good.

I went and bought a couple of hot pies and an apple crumble to get me through the night.

In the morning the view was better. I left Brisbane in 1995 to live in Darwin until coming to Canberra in 2007. Brisbane city has certainly grown.

Look at the huge tree. they are amazing. I love them.

I indulged in a Starbucks breakfast of toast and a caramel mocha with cream.

So on the way back to Canberra I spent time chatting with a work mate and eating.

The pork buns here were crap. They are from the Sydney Qantas club and rubbish. You want to see a nice barbecue pork bun go to the Dumpling Inn. Check out the image here.

The soup was a spicy Mexican lentil dish.

On Saturday we went to Costco to buy some food. I hadn’t had lunch. I tried a Costco hot dog. It wasn’t that good.

For afternoon tea we went to Ricardo’s Cafe at Jamison and had a caramel praline mousse.

Last night Bron and I cooked dinner together. I cooked a steak with an onion dijon sauce and Bron cooked the cauliflower blue cheese gratin. The gratin was amazing. I ate two. I wanted more.

Bron cooked a caramel chocolate tart and a lemon tart for dessert. They were out of this world. Bron is amazing.

Caramel chocolate tart

Lemon tart

This morning we went light and had a poached egg before our big lunch.

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Food glorious food; since Wednesday; this has included dining out and home cooked happiness

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On Wednesday I spent the day in Sydney for a meeting. I flew back to Canberra on Virgin Australia. I was able to enjoy an afternoon snack of cheese and ice cream plus some quince paste.

A snack on a Virgin Australia flight. Cheese, quince paste and an ice cream sandwich.

On Thursday morning inspired by the Ranting Chef and a post on 09 August I made baked beans on toast. I added a little Holbrooks Worcestershire sauce and some chili flakes plus Tabasco sauce for spice. I would have added an egg but it was already going to be enough.

Baked beans on toast with coffee

On Thursday evening we went to celebrate the birthday of a friend. We went to Sanur’s Balinese Restaurant in Belconnen. We’ve been there a few times before and I’ve blogged about the experience. Bron and I shared an entrée (Sanur’s Deluxe Platter for Two $18.9 A platter of mixed spring roll, chicken or beef satay, sweet corn patties and battered prawns) and I asked for fried chicken (“Chicken” Char Grilled or Fried ½ Chicken $18.9 Sanur Style Chicken marinated in house special ingredients and served with sambal bajak). I was a little disappointed it was dry and not that flavoursome. Bron had the Crispy Ayam ($18.9 Battered marinated chicken thigh tossed with garlic and aromatic salt) which was delicious. The chicken was moist, tender and tasty. For dessert we both enjoyed the Coconut Delusion ($8.90 Coconut pancake filled with unti (shredded coconut) with pandan anglaise, ice cream & toasted almonds).

Entrée platter

Entrée platter

Fried chicken

Bron’s chicken

Coconut dessert

The evening was punctuated with hilarious stories of menstrual period iPhone apps and videos of a bloke called Merv who is good at sucking. The flow of the conversation had periods of tension and hilarity. There was lots of talk about the ladies cycling together. I didn’t know they all had bicycles. :-)

This is Merv

On Friday morning Bron and I enjoyed our regular Mavi Breakfast wrap.

Mavi breakfast wrap

For lunch on Friday I felt like some hot chips from Urban Bean in my work building. These chips are delicious. A small container costs $4 which sounds expensive (and it is) but the container is quite large. It also comes with some aioli.

Great hot chips

On Friday night Bron made a light dinner. We had a baked egg in a creamy Italian style risotto. It was delicious. This is a split photograph edited before and after the egg was cracked.

Baked egg and risotto

For breakfast on Saturday we had poached eggs and ham. I wanted a little cranberry sauce too.

Poached egg with ham and cranberry

After doing some washing  and house work we went out to Ricardo’s café in Jamison for afternoon tea. Bron had a golden mousse and I ate a swan.

Golden mousse

Swan

For dinner on Saturday we celebrated another friend’s birthday and went to Chairman and Yip after drinks at Benchmark wine bar. I was a little disappointed by the Benchmark wine bar. The drinks were really expensive and I got the feeling they were trying to get us out yet the restaurant was only about a third full. There was a huge hens party going on and we had wait staff asking us if we wanted more drinks every five minutes. My greatest disappointment as someone who cannot drink alcohol though is the absence of pineapple juice. That’s what I wanted. In the end I settled for a lemon lime and bitters. To be fair it was our waiter’s first shift. A friend asked for a Chardonnay and he received Chandon sparkling wine. Our waiter was very apologetic and smiled a lot.

At Chairman and Yip it was very different. The wait staff were efficient yet unobtrusive and allowed us to enjoy our meal. This was one of the nicest meals I’ve eaten in Canberra. For en entrée I asked for duck pancakes and ended up sharing with Bron who had pan fried Kurobuta Rich River (Victoria) pork cake with red wine vinaigrette. Both entrées come for $16.50. Both were delicious although the pork cakes were more filling.

Duck pancakes

char-grilled fillet of beef with shallot and spring onion sauce

For a main course I asked for a char-grilled fillet of beef with shallot and spring onion sauce. Bron asked for beef and scallop ground pepper hot pot, M asked for chairman’s red curry chicken and L asked for pumpkin and cucumber with caramelised chili and kaffir lime.

pumpkin and cucumber with caramelised chili and kaffir lime

My first plate, in the end we shared everything amongst each other.

For dessert I asked for a panna cotta with a passionfruit sauce. Bron asked for Pyramid of chocolate mousse over white chocolate mousse that sounded like chocolate fellatio which created uproar at our table. :-)

Panna cotta with passionfruit sauce

This morning we had breakfast at Ellacure in Bruce. We’ve been meaning to do this for a long time. It didn’t disappoint. I asked for poached eggs on toast with a side of hollandaise and avocado while Bron asked for Eggs Benedict with bacon (this is Bron’s instagram image). Breakfast at Ellacure is very worthwhile. The service is very good and the food is delicious. The service verged on trying to get us out, but really, it was 0900 in the morning and they would be very busy after 0930. They were very efficient. I would rank this a great place in Canberra for breakfast or brunch.

Look I got pineapple juice :-)

The best thing was I got pineapple juice :-)

Poached eggs, hollandaise and avocado. This is one of the best photographs I’ve taken.

Don’t forget coffee :-)

Tonight I was inspired by another blogger I follow, viz., Live2EatEat2Live aka The Mouse. He recently posted a picture that I have fond memories of as a boy. This is my version.

Rice with egg, lup chong and soy plus some spring onions

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My first Mavi breakfast wrap experience

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This morning Bron asked me to breakfast at Mavi in Phillip. The breakfast wrap comes as a coffee deal for $9.50. Not a bad breakfast.

Every breakfast should start with coffee

Not the greatest coffee. It tasted okay but it was not hot so it felt very ‘milky’.

This is a large wrap. It's a full dinner plate there.

No, I didn’t have two, although I reckon I could knock off two.

In my hand. Look at the size of it.

The smell of the bacon and egg was so powerful :-)

A close up of the open end.

The wrap contains mushrooms, bacon, fried egg and hash brown potato. I reckon a nice pork sausage or some black pudding would be nice too.

The aftermath. I'm a messy eater.

Mind you there was nothing left over and very little barbecue sauce spillage.

My Hawaiian Schnitzel with ham and pineapple added.

The chips were amazing. It’s a pity I went to a meeting before I could finish the schnitzel. Cold schnitzel isn’t that tasty.

Breakfast of champions in Mexico City

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This was good after a big meal last night!

A fried egg easy over with soft yolk (yes I know I’m taking a risk), bacon, beef tenderloin with a spicy Mexican sauce, refried beans, and a hamburger patty (and coffee). Spicy savoury delights to keep me going until lunch time.

Breakfast of champions in Mexico City