Cantina 663

I feel that perhaps my expectations were too high for

Cantina 663
663 Beaufort Street
MOUNT LAWLEY 6050
Phone: 9370 4883

It has been on my 'go to' list for quite some time and I must admit that in the week leading up to dinner, I browsed their online menu more than once... Which normally I am very against because when you get there, you have to wait for everybody else to decide what they want and run the risk of the menu having changed and they're not serving what you planned to order. Disaster!!! So, lets just call it what it is and admit that I set myself up for a fall on this one.

We got there quite early and had to wait a while for the rest of the party to arrive, so the girls ordered a bottle of red which they said was absolutely delicious! The waitress offered me a mocktail (as I was driving) and I thoroughly enjoyed my Apple Snaffle! Really fresh, lots of mint, delightful!

For starters we shared the Duck Liver Parfait and the Chorizo with house pickles. The Parfait was absolutely divine! Smooth, rich and creamy and the caramelised onions really finished it off. Great start! The Chorizo was only warm, and quite dry. Felt like it had been sitting for a while.

There was seven of us for tea and between us, we managed to only order two of their main dishes! Three of us tried the Braised Goat with dried fruits, carrots, fregola and apple salad and the other four had the Cannelloni with chicken, kale, sugo, panagrattato and grana padano.

This is where the night went wrong. The goat was different across all three plates. J had a hard time getting the meat off her bones and seemed to have far more bone than meat. I think I was the luckiest as mine did fall off the bone and I had a reasonable amount. The problem was that the dish was incredibly sweet and each mouthful was exactly the same. It didn't seem to matter what you put on the fork or even if it was a bit of everything it all just melded together in a sweet thick glaze. The only thing that cut through it was the parsley and I don't think that parsley is the type of herb you can palette in big chunks, though this is only a personal thing. No balance of flavour to the dish.

The cannelloni looked fantastic, huge portion size. The girls did amazingly well to get through what they did! Unfortunately, on closer inspection and taste (there was plenty of extra to go around) it was a bit the same as the Goat. The only flavour you seemed to get was cheese. It had a mountain of white sauce on top and not enough tomato sauce. Every mouthful, again, tasted the same. One of the girls also said it lacked salt. It was cheesey and bland. The best bit was the pannagrattato.

We did decide, against our better judgement (both dishes were very filling despite not getting through it all), to order dessert. I just shouldn't ask for the dessert menu then I would have been fine! But, who am I to say no when they present a chocolate peanut butter tart with mascarpone and peanuts?! So, on we forged - besides, I've heard there is a separate stomach for desserts anyway.

The tart was quite gelatinous and almost jelly like. The pastry was great, light and crunchy.  The 'peanuts' probably amounted to a single peanut smashed to smithereens around the edge.

I should have gone with the meringue (orange curd, meringue, citrus sorbet and shortbread crumbs) - it looked and tasted spectacular! Z actually (semi) joked about licking the plate. It was pretty amazing. Highlight for sure. Two of the girls ordered the quince pudding with rosemary anglaise and granola crumble. Didn't try the pudding, apparently it was good but rich.

To wrap it up; parfait, meringue and apple snaffle - great. The rest very disappointing. I won't be hurrying back, it was quite an expensive meal, which, had the food been great I would have been happy to pay but I always find it hard to hand over hard earned cash for something I only semi enjoyed. Luckily, the company was wonderful, as always!

Duck Liver Parfait

Chorizo 

Braised Goat

Cannelloni

Affogato

Quince Pudding

Orange curd and Meringue

Chocolate, Peanut Butter Tart

The Beaufort Street Merchant - Part 2

The only place I knew for certain to be open on WA day was

The Beaufort Street Merchant
488 Beaufort Street
HIGHGATE
WA 6003

It's old news that I like this place. As much as I try to check out as many places as possible there is always going to be a handful of cafes I just keep going back to and this is one. Good service, great food, awesome atmosphere. We got seated in the back section which, surprisingly, I never knew existed even after having been here so many times! All sorts of goodies to nosey through! Jams, relishes, chocolate, coffee, they also sell my favourite Brookfarm Muesli and Bircher!

I went a little rogue and decided to try something other than the muesli and ordered the spinach and bacon omelette. It came out hot off the grill and was absolutely ginormous! Big chunky bits of bacon through the centre with lots of spinach. There must have been at least four eggs in this thing, it was a monster! Unfortunately, the egg to filling ratio wasn't quite right and I was left with this huge amount of egg and not enough filling. Having said that, there is no way I could have eaten it all anyway. 

The Muesli trifle looked pretty impressive but the portion size looked a little measly in comparison to my omelette! The girls said it was amazing and I don't doubt it. Interesting way of presenting it too! 

Coffee here is some of the best in Perth. Knock your socks off, wake you up kind of coffee! 

I got a 'Cure' juice as well - orange, lemon, apple and ginger, really fresh and delicious but at $9.60 it would want to be pretty good. I don't really remember ever thinking Beaufort Street was pricey before but at nearly $40.00 for an omelette, coffee and juice it is getting up there. 

Lovely morning at a great cafe with excellent company. Is there a better way to spend a public holiday?!

Omelette & Muesli Trifle

Belgian Hot Chocolate and gourmet food section

Piccolo's Corner

Thank you to one of my lovely readers who recommended

Piccolo's Corner
58 St. Leonards Avenue
WEST LEEDERVILLE
WA 6007

Let's start with a couple of negatives. Parking. What a nightmare! Heading here for breakfast on a school day - bad idea, we had to park a million miles away as the streets all seem to be no parking and school drop off was taking up all the 2 hour parking. 

This place is CASH ONLY and there are no ATM's around, so rock up with no cash and you're up the proverbial creek. 

Ok, negatives out of the way. Every mouthful was amazing! Piping hot pumpkin and danish feta all smooshed up on ciabatta bread with a perfectly poached egg and pesto. Far and away the best savoury breakfast I've had in a long while. Creamy, gooey, abundant portion that disappeared all too quickly. Just quietly, my pumpkin smash does not even come close to this, I admit absolute defeat. 

My sister ordered the smashed avocado and lime with chorizo and poached egg on ciabatta. Really good, looked fantastic, the lime was really interesting and quite zingy. Lovely dish.

Their counter options all looked really impressive as well. Almost seemed like a competition between all the cakes and quiches as which one could have the highest tower of toppings. I am hanging out to hear how Mama's caramel slice was. 

The staff were really friendly and welcoming and the service was good. The place is really sweet and quaint, more mismatched, vintage style dishes and cutlery, painted furniture, exposed brick wall. I feel like a broken record, all the best brunch spots seem to be following the same form of interior decor at the moment, I'm not complaining, they are really fun and intimate and cosy but they are getting to be a little same same, not that that is the fault of Piccolo's Corner or even necessarily a bad thing! But as an exercise, run through your mind being at Sayers Sister, Mrs. S, Piccolo's Corner, Little Stove - look familiar?

I did like the addition of the Stormie Mills paintings though. We decided to go to Nedlands afterwards and ended up getting a great coffee at Boubar whilst admiring another of his wonderful, intriguing, endearing little creatures. I work next door to what used to be Linton and Kay gallery in Subiaco so I have the pleasure of greeting a couple of them every morning. Check out Stormie Mills on Instagram @stormiemills.

Another nice thing is that I was planning to go to Piccolo's Corner on Monday (WA day) but didn't know if they were open, I asked on Facebook and Jesse (owner I'm assuming) was kind enough to get back to me, letting me know that they were closed. The best thing was though, that she recommended another couple of cafes that were open. 

Did anybody else have extreme issues finding somewhere for breakfast on WA day Public Holiday?! Nothing was open!!! We ended up at our old faithful Beaufort Street Merchant with what seemed like half of Perth!

All in all, take cash, go on the weekend, get the smashed pumpkin. I will definitely be back!

More Breakfast Ideas!

Well it is coming hard and fast into Winter now and I have found myself wanting hot breakfasts in the morning, so I have been doing lots of experimenting! My last breakfast ideas post was really successful and people have been telling me how much they have been enjoying trying out new things so I think it's past time for Part 2!

As always, if you find a way to improve upon my recipes, I'd love to hear it and if you have a dish I need to know about, I'm dying to have it!

As before, I am not including calories counts for these, but rest assured they are all healthy, nutritious calorie conscious breakfasts that will keep you full until lunch!

All recipes serve 1 unless otherwise stated.

Spanish Baked Eggs:
In a lightly oiled fry pan, fry off some diced mushrooms, onion, ham and capsicum, add 200g of diced tomatoes, season with Salt and Pepper.
Transfer mixture to a shallow, oven proof bowl. Make two wells and crack an egg into each one. Bake for as long as it takes for your eggs to be cooked to your liking. They do taste best oozey, I feel!
Serve with a slice of wholegrain toast, baby spinach, basil and a little feta cheese.
*Naughty option: Chorizo instead of ham!

Quinoa Porridge:
I have been cooking up a massive batch of Quinoa on the weekends using just water and freezing it in 100g packets. It's always ready to go then for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Mix 100g of cooked quinoa with 1/2 cup of Unsweetened Almond Milk, 1 teaspoon of Chia Seeds, 1 Tablespoon of Chocolate PB2 or Cacao Powder. Top with 80g of your favourite Greek Yoghurt (plain Chobani for me! I will quite often mix it with protein powder), 60g of frozen mixed Berries - microwaved until warm. A teaspoon of Almond Butter and 10g of Cereal Topper (see related post). The yoghurt gets all warm and it all becomes a big bowl of creamy mess! This is truly one ugly looking, decadent tasting, high protein breakfast!! Great for after a weights training class.

Pumpkin Smash:
This stuff is amazing! I actually began by making it as a dip for an antipasto platter and I had a heap left and one morning, I was looking at it thinking how can I eat the rest of this? Wa la! Pumpkin smash on toast! Of course it was so good, I immediately made another batch and wondered how can I make this better? POACHED EGG!
Start by roasting 250g of pumpkin, seasoned with ground cumin, ground coriander, salt and pepper. Add a garlic clove as well, it will cook down and become sweet and almost caramelised. Once cooked through, smash it with a fork to get a chunky consistency, squeeze your garlic in and then let it cool. Add chopped coriander, chopped parsley, toasted sunflowers and pepitas (about 20g total) and mix it all together. Serve on toast with a poached egg and feta cheese and a little basil pesto. This makes enough for two slices of toast. The dip recipe originally had sautéed onion and capsicum through it, feel free to add this at the 'smashing' stage!

 

Oat Pancakes:
I have been seeing versions of these on Instagram for a while now and I have finally gotten around to making some. This recipe is adapted from @the_melbourne_nutritionista. This makes 4 chunky pancakes and serves 2.
In a bowl mix together 1 egg, 50g instant oats, 2/3 cup of unsweetened almond milk, 2 tablespoons of plain wholemeal flour, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of stevia. I let this sit whilst I went to the gym so the oats could go quite soft. Add a little extra milk if the mixture seems too thick or cook straight away.
Serve with Greek Yoghurt and berries or fruit of your choice. I added cereal topper too. Mm mmm! Who says you can't have pancakes and be healthy at the same time?!

Basic poached Eggs:
I poach my eggs in a saucepan of salted rolling water - not a fierce boil, with a teaspoon of vinegar. Easy peasy. Try serving them:
On a wholemeal English Muffin with some vegetable chutney, ham, avocado and pepper.
On a wholemeal English Muffin with spinach and mushrooms sautéed in a little almond milk mixed with a teaspoon of Dijon Mustard.
With vegemite and avocado on wholegrain toast - sounds weird but seriously, try it!

My basic Porridge:
I know I covered Porridge in the first breakfast post but I thought I'd recap as I have changed to unsweetened almond milk now as it contains far less sugar than skim milk. (Skim milk has 12g of sugar per cup!!)
50g Wholegrain Oats (not quick oats)
1 cup Almond Milk - Unsweetened
Extra water as required - add bit by bit
Mix everything together in a saucepan and cook until you reach your desired consistency. Try adding PB2, cinnamon, dried fruits, grated apple (either mixed through or on top), any fruit you like and then top it with nuts, seeds, chia seeds, almond butter, freeze dried fruit. Whatever takes your fancy, you know what you love to eat!  

It is definitely soup weather! I have been making big batches and freezing them for lunches. Most of the time they seem to be vegetarian though and I have been finding it hard to get enough protein into my diet. I have discovered that if you add protein powder to porridge it becomes this law unto itself! I'm going to call it a PORRIDGE CLOUD! Light, fluffy and delicious! It seems to expand all over the place so you feel like you are getting this enormous bowl of goodness! Definitely recommend trying it! I have been using Venom Protein Powders, with my favourites so far being Caramel, Butterscotch and Vanilla. TRY IT! Not sure that all protein powders will react the same way - will try out a few others and keep you posted.

I have also recently discovered Brookfarm Bircher Muesli - not a hot breakfast but I can't seem to get enough of it at the moment! I've been serving it as per the packet instructions then in the morning mixing though grated apple, chia seeds and topping it with my cereal topper, freeze dried fruit and almond butter. Amazing!

Are you following me on Instagram? I post all sorts of meals and if there is anything you particularly want the recipe for I am happy to oblige!

Pure Bar / Chocolatier San Churro

I think there is going to be a lot more dinners in Subiaco now that one of my long lost friends is working just down the road!

Pure Bar
331 Hay Street
SUBIACO
WA 6008
Phone:9382 3330

Not overly exciting in terms of décor but a fairly slick, after work drinks style bar. Definitely the type of place you can expect to see lots of suits on a Friday night!

We ordered a Tapas plate for two, which came with three dips, a tzatziki, hummus and tomato chutney (I think!), some warm flat bread, chorizo, lamb kofta, tandoori chicken skewers, arancini balls and some salad. Not a bad spread! A little strange that there was three of some things considering it was a plate for two though.

The dips were nice though nothing I would write home about. The kofta was a bit dry, the chicken was only warm. The bread was really nice and the arancini were great. Salad was pretty basic and I'm not sure it was even dressed.

They had a big function on in the room next door so the staffs' attention was mainly focussed on that, one poor guy had to stand at the bar and yell for service!

Great cider on offer that I haven't tried before called Weka.

All in all, a cheap, light dinner. At $28.00 for the platter, you got your moneys worth in quantity but execution was a little lacking, however I will return on another night to see if it was just the fact that there was a function on. The rest of their menu sounds fantastic and I would like to try a burger!

Well, after such a light tea and with so much to catch up on we decided that dessert was definitely in order and wandered down to

Chocolatier San Churro

Ground Floor, 1 Rokeby Road

SUBIACO
WA 6008

Phone: 9388 2288

You can just smell the 'chocolatey' goodness when you walk in the door! We were in a sharing mood and decided to be little piggies and order the Fondue for Two. Banana, strawberries, pretzels, brownie, marshmallows, nougat, mini churros and a pot of melted milk chocolate. Oh, happy day! 

It's hard to get this wrong really, other than to say that there was just not enough chocolate! But is there ever really enough chocolate? Is there even such a thing? Perhaps we are just greedy gutses...Coffee wasn't too bad, though I wish I ordered the hot chocolate because I know how delicious it is! I was trying to be slightly restrained after my Cantina episode where I felt like I needed to be rolled home. A few extra sessions at the gym required this week after all that but definitely worth it!





Cereal Topper

This is hardly a recipe but it kind of follows on from my Breakfast Ideas post a few months back. I always refer to it on Instagram so I thought I had better blog the combination! I use this on pretty much anything! You can use it to crust meat, on salads, on cereal, in yoghurt for a little crunch in the afternoon. It is incredibly versatile and well worth keeping a jar stocked up! It is also so much cheaper than buying commercial versions.

Ingredients:
50g Hazelnuts 
50g Peanuts
50g Almonds
50g Sunflower and Pepita Seed Mix or 25g of each
20g Chia Seeds
50g Loving Earth Buckini's
50g Shredded Coconut
40g Flaxseeds
40g Sesame Seeds

Method:
Set the oven to 180C and roast all the nuts until slightly golden brown. Add the coconut at the last minute and toast until it turns light brown. Remove Hazelnut husks by rubbing them together in a dry tea towel. Let cool.

Roughly chop or blend all the nuts and seeds. Add the remaining ingredients. Store in an airtight container or jar. 

Feel free to adjust this recipe to use your favourite nuts, cacao nibs would be a great addition, also Activeats Rawnola will be added in my next round!

Serving size: 10g
Calories per serve: 55
Carbs: 2g, Fats: 4g, Protein: 2g, Sodium: 3g, Sugar: 0g