Having eaten a fairly substantial late lunch not long before, I only had room for one dish, so didn’t have a chance to sample the veg. entree option “Hand made Spaghettini with Blue Cheese, Walnuts, Herbs and Cream” but I was delighted with the “Woodfired Eggplant Stuffed with Cous Cous, Walnuts, Sultanas, Roast Pear and a Spiced Yoghurt Dressing” main. Upon passing on my compliments the wait-person I was informed that people come from Sydney to eat the dish, the staff have tried taking it off the menu to replace it with something else but riots have almost resulted so they have had to put it back (I suggested that maybe if they’re bored and want to come up with something else they could add it as well as, not instead of!)

Perhaps it was the method of cooking the eggplant, maybe it was the combination of the filling ingredients, but whatever it was, it sure worked for me.

As is the case in many (all?) of the Mudgee eateries, there is a range of local wine available.

Wandering past again today I noticed a sign on the window saying the business is for sale. Let’s hope any new owners will maintain the dish on the menu.

Good to know it’s open on a Sunday too!

As mentioned I ate a hearty lunch, at Outside the Square (facebook). I started with one of my all-time favourites, Eggs Florentine (there’s something about hollandaise sauce and English spinach), and went on to treat myself to a dessert of one of the all-day breakfast items, Buttermilk Pancakes, served with a berry compote and agave syrup. The cafe uses organic ingredients where possible, including some bottled juices – I had the beetroot, apple and carrot, and though I didn’t try the coffee there were fair trade posters on the wall.

The atmosphere is bright and friendly and it’s open seven days, though not for dinner, closing at 5pm every day but Sunday, when it closes at 4.

The cafe’s facebook page says “we do a range of delicious meals for breakfast and lunch, cakes baked fresh daily, and great coffee. We have a range of fair trade handicrafts. As a business we strive to be environmentally responsible and to support fair trade. We have an interest in supporting the local community and in raising awareness about issues that affect our local and global community.”

Fast forward to dessert, Sunday night, after the Eltons Brasseries main.

My companion and I were staying at the Cobb and Co Court Boutique Hotel (found on wotif) and decided to try their Wineglass Restaurant desserts back in the room after our meal out (there little choice vegetarian-wise on the hotel restaurant menu, and I didn’t fancy risotto). We were not disappointed. I have just checked their website however and it is quite out of date, both in content and price, but suffice it to say that they were absolutely divine, in taste and appearance. The coffee was great too, earlier that evening, but it seems to depend a lot on who is making it – the friendly barista who made my macchiato knew exactly how to do it, whereas the one I had for breakfast this morning was nowhere nearly as good.

Our stay in Mudgee was short, but we squeezed in a lot of eating, culminating in lunch at Sajo’s which, like Eltons, has given new life to a building that once housed a chemist and druggist. Again, not many veg. options in the “lighter” section of the menu so my lunch choice was a  bit of a repeat of breakfast but with haloumi instead of eggs – mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach and haloumi on some rather tough and not very interesting bread.

Before lunch it was great to be able to visit the new Botobolar shop, which opened in town on the June 2011 long weekend. It stocks local and local organic produce as well as, of course, Botobolar wines. I came away with three different sorts of organic pasta (durum, spelt and besan and buckwheat) and two bottles of wine, after a wide-ranging discussion with Botobolar owner Trina covering topics such as the carbon tax, wind energy, locust plagues, organic versus local taking into account food miles and genetic manipulation.

And now we’re In Oberon. A bit of a contrast, especially in regard to food options…

Our favourite perch was on the lounge near the front window, which often had some space on it, especially later at night (the kitchen closes at 11). The attention that eaters and drinkers receive at Bar Lourinha is outstanding, with an always knowledgeable and friendly wait person coming over soon after one’s arrival to explain in detail what was available. The first one we encountered disappeared for a while but when we saw her again a couple of years later  she still remembered us – perhaps because we (politely and unobtrusively and with our fingers) licked the plates? There is a wide variety of wines and other alcoholic drinks to choose from and as with many Tapas-type establishments, some great vegetarian options.

Vegetarian lunch options over summer include a frittata and a bruschetta – both delicious, with the latter oozing (but not too much) with a quality olive oil, a soft and not too salty fetta, plump tomatoes and of course some fresh basil. The organic sourdough bread used for the bruschetta comes from the local bakery – not the one frequented by tourists in the main street but Dojo Bread up the laneway behind the pizza place, a favourite with those in the know. The baker uses only the finest organic ingredients and loves to talk about the ratios of grains and flours, and any other aspect of the process.

It is clear that Cafe Albion management requires high standards in its wait people and accordingly the staff are friendly and thorough. The outdoor area, which is on the verandah of this corner building, is usually frequented by smokers, and unfortunately the smoke drifts inside if any of the windows are open. In winter there is slow combustion stove which provides welcome warmth in comparison to the low outdoor temperatures.

While popular with locals, many of whom go there daily for coffee, food or socialising, it is gaining notoriety with the many tourists who stop in Braidwood on their way to or from the coast. The tap water provided can taste pretty poor, but that’s a problem with the town water supply rather then the cafe, though perhaps a filter might help.

The cafe has recently decided to open for dinner, following its obtaining a liquor licence, and is open from 6 from Friday to Sunday. Breakfast is served untill 12, and lunch until 3. If you’re desperate for coffee, make sure you leave enough time for it, as you can’t guarantee that the machine will still be on if you get there too close to the 4pm cafe closing time.

Braidwood is NSW’s only heritage-listed town, situated on the Kings Highway between Canberra/Queanbeyan and the coast. The town could do with a by-pass, as it’s hard to find a park anyway near the main street on Fridays and Saturdays but more of more relevance is the number of vehicles, including B-doubles and other large trucks, that pass through without stopping, making it hard for pedestrians and unpleasantly noisy at times for outside diners who people walking up and down the interesting main street.

Postscript, January 25: I have just discovered that Cafe Albion is now closing at 3.30pm and will no longer be open on Tuesdays.

Postscript, July 2011: it now closes at 3, is closed on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays over winter, and the business is for sale. The coffee is still my favourite in town.

I’ve tried most of the vegetarian breakfast/brunch options over time, and they are all excellent. The baked eggs, which are free range and usually cooked to perfection are listed on the board and are available all day. They come with some interesting additions (provided they don’t run out) which always include at least a couple of vegetarian options. There are crumpets, baked in house – dry-ish but nice, especially with the honey; baked vanilla ricotta with fresh fruit and almonds; ricotta hotcakes with berry compote and vanilla icecream, and coconut quinoa porridge with banana and palm sugar (vegan).

The baked eggs come in still very hot cast iron skillets, under which are pages from old books. In the early days of my patronage there they used to be pages of music manuscript, from the colleciton of the owner’s grandmother, but they must have run out. I always save them for collages as I can’t bear to think of them ending up in the bin.

Brunch is available every day till five (it’s increasingly easy these days, as well as very pleasing, to find a place that continues to serve breakfast all day) and dinner from midday.

The dinner choices are good if you don’t feel like breakfast-type food, but I could eat all of it any time if I had a bottomless wallet. Not that it’s over-priced. To maximise choice, it’s best to have a friend to share with, and I have now tried all of the vegetarian printed menu dishes as well, which usually include bread, dukkah and olive oil; mixed marinated olives; zucchini and fetta fritters; roast cauliflower with buttered almonds; roasted green beans with fetta and chardonnay vinaigrette; fried haloumi with walnuts, carrots and dates; sauteed potatoes with cumin and sour cream; and leek pate with sesame lavosh.

There is also ricotta gnocchi with vanilla cream, silver beet and parmesan. I am not usually a fan of gnocchi as, being usually potato-based, it so often tastes like starch, but this version is light, and fragrant with the addition of the vanilla. A good accompaniment is the green leaf sald with sherry vinaigrette. The blackboard specials also include vegetarian options, and one of the daily specials is a meal with a drink, which is nice if you feel like a glass of alcohol with lunch.

Amazingly, I haven’t tried all the desserts, but what I have has not been disappointing. I can recommend the flourless orange cake with labne (cheese made from yoghurt) and orange syrup; blueberry, pistachio and rosemary nougat; the creme brulee with date and kahlua compot;e and the basboussa – lemon, semolina, almond and yoghurt syrup cake. The honeycomb was a bit sweet but worth trying nevertheless. All delicious on their own or, as I usually have them, with coffee – also excellent here.

There are outside tables which are usually smoky and can be quite noisy, with the trams going up or down Gertrude St; needless to say I always choose inside, as far away as possible from the door. Although the menu stays pretty much the same, the daily specials make up for that, and why change something so good anyway? Birdman Eating is at 238 Gertrude St, Fitzroy, near the Smith St intersection.

But it’s time to resume, and the first place I want to mention is Bar Zini at 78 Harris St, Pyrmont. It was one of our absolute favourites for breakfasts and lunches (it’s not open for dinner) from the moment we noticed that its opening was imminent as we walked past one day late in 2007. The baked eggs were (and most likely still are) divine, as were the simple but imaginative salads and the individual pieces of pizza (when they had vegetarian and we were able to sample them.) The coffee was also top quality, but you’d expect nothing less from Gianni, owner and barista and business partner and head chef Charlie, both maintainers of the highest standards.

Don’t expect the menu to remain static though (and why would it?!) Not long after W died, I went on some food and coffee pilgrammages, to all our favourite places to eat all the things we used to enjoy. One of my first stops was this one, and when I was told that the baked eggs with English spinach (our special treat) was no longer available but had been replaced was a new one with capsicum, I promptly burst into tears. The confused waitperson (one of the nice regular young women there) was able to reassure me that the English spinach version could be provided anyway. Once I had composed myself, I explained what had happened and felt very comforted by the attentive and sympathetic staff, who were then subjected a few days later to a blow by blow account of the “celebration of W’s life”, complete with description of the recycled cardboard coffin.

Bar Zini is a small place, with tables outside as well. My only gripe was that it was hard to escape the smoke; even if you sit inside it drifts in. My smoke aversion used to drive W mad, as he would like to sit in the sun and I wouldn’t be able to. After a while even he couldn’t manage it either though, as it would cause him to cough too much.

I haven’t been there for a while, as I am a long way from Pyrmont now W is not around, but I will return soon and look forward to updating the blog with the latest offerings from Bar Zini.

In memory of W, who died aged 54 of lung cancer.

And on a global level, here’s to a genuine attempt to make poverty history and ensure a fairer distribution of the planet’s wealth of food, of which all people deserve a fair share.

Unlike our breakfast experience at one of our regular haunts the day before, where table service does not exist and where we had waited 50 minutes for our meal which, when it came, was missing some of its vital parts, we were attended by no less than four helpful and friendly waiting staff during the course of our stay.

We were eventually told (the first person to take our order had only arrived from Italy the day before and had trouble understanding our exacting requests) that the muesli came with yoghurt and fruit salad. So W, who is not eating dairy products (except on special occasions) asked for soy milk instead. Our breakfasts arrived on large plates with fruit salad in one bowl and (for C) musli and yoghurt in a second. W received a very small bowl containing the muesli and a large bowl with the soy milk, somewhat out of proportion to the amount of muesli. C, used to plain yoghurt wherever she has a breakfast like this, was surprised and a bit disappointed to find that the yoghurt tasted very sweet. She mentioned this to the maitre d’it when she came to inquire if everything had been satisfactory, but was reassured that the yoghurt was indeed natural, and made by a Greek man especially for the cafe. C remained unconvinced.

The muesli and fruit salad was a fairly standard $10, and the coffee, which was excellent, was $2.20, much cheaper than most around the city. We look forward to returning, next time to sample a cooked egg breakfast. Chill Out Cafe is also open for lunch and dinner.

Come back soon to share some of our recent experiences in our favourite and newly discovered eating and drinking places in and around Sydney and Melbourne, and in other Australian places too.

C and W