Cumulus Inc

Can you believe I've not made a Cumulus Inc post before this? Even though it's my favourite accessible restaurant in Melbourne? Wow. I guess I finally found the time to do so, though yes, at the expense of some other stuff. I'm meant to be doing more food prep at the moment, but I know that if I don't get all these posts out before the new year, they're going to get forgotten like all the other times that I've gone to Melbourne and never posted about it. So I'm trying really, really hard! A tiny little beef tartare on a thin crunchy toast thing. Delicious!While I usually take the oyster option, today's special was too good to pass up. These were Cloudy Bay clams, lightly steamed and dressed with sea urchin emulsion. They were really pricey at $12 per clam, but totally worth it - the clams were huge and it was a great change from oysters! A rare find that was absolutely delicious!While this was not super interesting, it was their special - Meatsmith Christmas ham, so I took it. Since I'm writing this after my holiday, I can say that while it was nice, it wasn't as tasty as the Fat Pig Farm ham that I bought. But now I know!FISH SPECIAL!!! WHOLE FLOUNDER IN HERB BUTTER!! WITH SALTBUSH!Woah. I still have a very strong memory of being very impressed with the flathead special the very first time I visited this place, so I keep ordering the fish here. It's actually a whole flounder! The only reason why I say that is because at Embla, the whole flounder came headless.... The herb butter wasn't as good as whatever garnish the flathead had ages ago, but it was still nice, and I love saltbush.I was really full at this point - I took my dance partner to this place and ordered enough food for 1.5 people, but I ended up eating about 1.3 people's worth... I made him eat some of the flounder though. I was also trying to do the skillful thing of taking the top half off, and then removing the bone in one piece. What I didn't expect, was a belly full of roe! Wow, lucky lady, both she and I! Though mainly me, because I got to enjoy it. My dance partner was all like, "just flip it upside down" but of course, for the show of finesse, and Asian tradition says that filleting then removing the bone whole is the only way to do it. Even the waitress complimented me afterwards haha!While I knew that adult flounder have both eyes on the top of their head, their cheeks are still on the sides, so top and bottom. My dance partner thought I was eating the eyeball! No, I don't like eyeballs unless Mr. Niland does them.So even though I was full... there's always room for dessert. This super light green apple sorbet with sheep's milk yoghurt and meringue totally hit the spot. It was light enough that I didn't feel like I was stuffing myself further.I always love coming to Cumulus Inc, it really is my favourite all rounder restaurant. I love it so much.Edit: I found my original visit''s photos already uploaded for this blog. So here it finally is: https://www.raining-chaos.net/blog/?p=4170

Lulu La Delizia

It feels like it's been a long while since I've eaten at a restaurant in Perth. I keep saving my money for interstate/international restaurants, mainly because nothing here really compares, but that's probably bias at work too. I still love Sydney the best. Of course, if I'm offered, I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to visit a restaurant that's been raved about by chefs and critics alike.I don't do Italian food because it's done so poorly and your average non food person thinks it's just all pizza and pasta, really heavy, tomatoey things. I always look for something more, like a fish soup, white pizza, or really light looking dishes, but they're hard to come by. Rosetta was really good, but not a standout - the best thing there was the olive oil for dipping bread in. There's so much mediocre stuff out there and I'm not game enough to learn the world of Italian food. But given the rave reviews and a great opportunity, I decided to give Lulu La Delizia a go.A bit of background, there's a restaurant in Perth called Lalla Rookh that caught my attention when I first came to Perth. The second Italian restaurant I was recommended was a place for Galileo. I never went to either. But, I'd heard that the head chef of Lalla Rookh quit to open a new restaurant, and lo and behold, I saw it pop up during some of my walks. I've always been curious about it, and then the reviews started coming in, saying it was the best pasta, not just in Perth, but was holding its own against level of praise of places like Tipo 00 (which I still need to go to!). My flatmate decided to treat me since I finally had (several) nights off because of my recent appendicitis, and my appetite was back so why not!I like the decor, it's pretty nice. And do you see that San Bitter bottle holding the twig of rosemary? That was pretty cool. And yeah, that's the head chef towards the centre of the photo. I may or may not have been staring ever so slightly.I also had a great conversation with the waiter because at this point he asked me if I was a blogger. Definitely not. I don't like saying I am (even though I have a blog lol?), so I kind of just said I had an Instagram account but didn't consider myself a blogger. There was also a conversation about the last restaurant I'd been to, so I mentioned I went to Waku Ghin. At the mention of Singapore, he asked if I made it to Burnt Ends. I said that I'd preferred sampling the street food there, but that I had made it it Firedoor instead. At that point he smiled and said I was a real foodie! lol.And another shot, just cause.

Pan e sugo

OK, onto the food. This was bread, but the bread was gone by the time I was bothered taking a photo (I was hungry). Bread, with cultured butter, and vegetable sugo. The sugo was ok, the butter was great, but it was the knifework on the sugo that really caught my attention. Can you see how finely chopped all those veges are? It reminded me of the tartare from Fix Wine Bar! I'm impressed. I should one day do some crazy knifework again.

Carne crudo

Hey a beef tartare on the menu! Described as raw beef crostini, smoked bone marrow, anchovy salsa. This had a great vinegary hit and the crunchy crostini really brought texture to this! Again, really nice knifework, but on the beef itself, I reckon Fix was better. I'm so shallow!Oh yeah. We got snack things at the start too. Deliciously addictive herbed popcorn! These were so good! I only decided to take a picture of them afterwards. I think I'm getting out of practise when it comes to taking pictures of food...

Braised globe artichokes

I'm addicted to artichokes even though they cost a fortune (relatively speaking), but they are so delicious. And I've been wanting to see what a restaurant does with artichokes. I hate the overly vinegary stuff from the supermarkets, and I'm pretty sure I was slightly disappointed that the last time I ordered artichokes from a restaurant, they were still a little too acidic. But this, this was really nice. It was lemony, but like lemon zest and lemon oil, rather than being soaked in lemon juice. The anchovy fillets were amazing and not overly salty or acidic either, and the ricotta helped balance out the strong lemon flavour. I quite liked this dish! It was also a better and lighter choice than Nonna's meatballs, which I also really wanted but knew I wouldn't have room for. That's a next time dish I reckon!

Ricotta gnocchi

Gnocchi was my flatmate's choice, though we got everything to share. I was more after the pasta since I'm a tougher pasta critic than I am with gnocchi (I almost never eat gnocchi, and avoid risotto like the plague). I was amused because as always, gnocchi really is just potato lump things, so trying to get it looking good in a photo was difficult! So top down it was. My memory of my favourite gnocchi is pretty old and undocumented. I think it comes from Andre's Cucina back in Adelaide. But apparently searching my history shows only my raving of their polenta. Anyway, the texture of the gnocchi was nice, but it was the sauce of blue swimmer crab, tomato, basil and chilli sugo that really made this dish shine.

Special pasta of the day

I love specials. There's always something so exciting about the anticipation laden moments of time between the waiter announcing there are specials, and then hearing them. I love that point in a restaurant outing. It's like the most glorious few seconds where nothing is actually happening, but you know that the next moment could be the most exciting moment for your ears. And imagination. Or something. Having not stalked the restaurant's or chef's feed, I didn't know what to expect. As soon as I heard that there was double sided pasta, I was sold. I really wanted to see this double sided pasta. Saffron one side, basil on the other. Green and yellow ribbons!! I just had to. And vongoles sealed the deal. Yes, I love clam pasta.It was a fantastic dish. That pasta was perfect, it had chew but there was not even the slightest hint of undercookedness. It was like this is exactly how pasta is supposed to be. It had bold flavours but wasn't heavy. It was amazing. And to top it all off, I tried playing with my food, but the two layers of basil and saffron were so well melded together in that thin ribbon that I couldn't separate them. That was so cool! Absolutely stunning stuff.

Tiramisu "corretto"

The one dish I regret. It was tasty; don't get me wrong - it was a light fluffy cream, well soaked sponge and that chocolate powder was lovely and rich. It was actually the waiter who took our dessert order that made me think that in hindsight, I should have ordered the fried custard. Basically, he came up to us and asked us if we were going to get the crema fritta. After placing my order, he got it wrong repeating it back to us, again saying the crema fritta. It made me wonder if this was something everyone ordered, and that I should have asked about and also tried. But alas, I didn't, and now I want to go back and try this wonderful thing that the waiter kept talking about. Kids, your waiter is sometimes not wrong when he or she is wrong. Take hold of that chance at serendipity!

Gorgonzola dolce

I almost never order cheese desserts. But I've been loving gorgonzola dolce recently, and in fact, earlier that day, I almost forked out $15 for some, but decided against it because it would have cost too much money. So when I saw this as a dessert, I couldn't resist. Blue cheese and honeycomb is such a good combination! That was my night of happiness complete.I managed to order perfectly for two people, so I guess I'm still good at getting food portions right! And this was definitely a fantastic restaurant experience and it's exactly what I expected from an Italian restaurant. The flavours were great without being heavy or oily and everything was cooked so well! Again I have to mention, I loved that the flavour of the artichoke stood out and wasn't drowned by sauce.Overall, yes, this deserves all the praise it gets. It deserves its top 100 position in whichever one of those magazines, and top 50 in whatever other magazine. As far as I'm concerned, this is the only Italian restaurant you need to go to in Perth. And I like Italian food all the more, now having eaten here. I can't wait till I get to visit Tipo 00!

Attica

Alright. The big one of 2016 - Attica. Well, there was Noma too. It's certainly been an action packed year so far! I was super excited to visit and had made sure to book just as the month of July became available for bookings. Those tables of 2 went quick; halfway through the day they were gone already for dinners on Fridays and Saturdays!Too bad Ben wasn't there that week - he was instead in New York for the announcement of the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants. And once again, did very well! I'm so happy for him.The decor here was so nice, every table had a basket with feathers and weird nutty things. All throughout the night (and even now), I have no idea what they were for.Pretty glasses, anyone?There was also a hay-type material weaved animal, which my friends and I were guessing for half the night. My guess was dingo!

Cook's leaves

After having taken our drink options (juice parings gogo!), the food started. Even though I'd watched Chef's Table  and read about dishes like potato cooked in the dirt it was grown in, I hadn't actually researched (stalked) much about what to expect on the night, so everything here came as a surprise.First up, garden pickings. A davidson plum, sorrel, chard. As soon as I saw the davidson plum, I realised I'd had it before in Adelaide! It's a very confusing fruit since it has two bulbs, of which one is a seed and inedible. This one certainly tasted better than my first experience with this fruit! Having had sorrel and chard and every which vegetable happened to grow in South Australia, this starter was quite familiar to me.

Whipped corn

Next up, textures of corn. Oh yes, sweet, sweet corn! This was so simple and absolutely delicious! I miss really good creamed corn.

Cucumber and pumpkin essence

The first part of the juice pairing. The pairings spanned across two to three dishes, and this one accompanied the first few snacks. Very refreshing and the pumpkin flavour came through as sweet.

Goolwa pippies

Ah, Goolwa pippies. I had my fill of them in Adelaide, and they are certainly very good! Ben's right to showcase them here because they're absolutely delicious!

Smashed avo on toast

Because I'm hipster on the inside, this dish was a nice take on avo on toast, but not the most impressive. I was, however, spoilt by the fact that there was a heaping of finger limes on this dish! And look. at. that. knifework. If there's anything about this dish that should have been impossible, it's the fine knifework on the avocado. Usually if they're firm enough to be diced as finely as that, they're not ripe yet. But the flavour here was great. THAT KNIFEWORK. WHAT. It's soo good I couldn't stop staring at it!

Fresh cheese and honeycomb

When you're the first table to reach this dish, and the waitstaff bring out a full, fresh board of honeycomb and scoop a dollop right onto this dish. Now that's heaven. This was so light and lovely! The beauty of this dish was unmatched as well. It's so delicate, pretty and fitting!

Smoked pork

Who doesn't love succulent slices of pork to be picked up with fingers and eaten just like that! An amazing piece of meat.

Wallaby Blood Pikelet

Oh this dish. I loved this dish. Not only were these the most adorable petit pikelets ever, they also featured offal! Mmm wallaby blood (which didn't have a trace of blood flavour at all) laid out delicately on a wallaby themed linen towel. Then there was the recipe! A copy of a handwritten, humorous recipe was also given to us - affectionately titled "Wallaby Pikelets Maaate" to keep. I love souvenirs! And yes of course, this dish was delish.

Tomato and Verjus

I love tomato juice. I love savoury tomato juices. Sadly, having written this about two months after the experience, I've forgotten the exact flavour of this juice :(

Chicken Carrot

I call this one, Chicken Carrot Taco. Chicken and vegetables in a sheet of carrot, and presented in chicken shaped glassware. How cute and awesome! The aroma that came out of this one was fantastic!

Gazza's Vegemite Pie

Mmm yes Vegemite! Incorporated into a lamb pie! I couldn't think of a better combination. Plus being presented on brown paper? That is so much nostalgia of a school canteen when pies were handed out in paper bags. Loved the flavour of this one! It's actually hard to go wrong with Vegemite (though I'm sure a lot of people would say otherwise!).

Lance Wiffin's Mussel

I spy karkalla! These were lovely fried morsels of mussel goodness, and the painted shell was a great addition too - it's a portrait of the mussel farmer himself, painted by a local artist. How cool!

Beef on the Bone

Ah, who doesn't love beef on the bone. I've also forgotten what beef this was. But it was delicious and so tender!

Aromatic Ripponlea Broth

Ah, the lovely Ripponlea broth, made up of 20+ different herbs from the garden at the back. So delicate and light, and it was great trying to taste out each one! I didn't fare so well, for me the only ones I knew for sure were watercress and fennnel!

Wattleseed Bread

And that marked the end of the starters. The wattleseed bread was great, and the butter was great, but the absolute best thing was the macadamia butter (I think) with saltbush! That was absolutely incredible and we ran out of that quickly!

Salted Red Kangaroo and Bunya Bunya

Now the first of the larger courses. This was one I've seen before, and is certainly impressive in real life! Such beautiful carrots and really lovely kangaroo tartare! The bunya nut cream was at the bottom, but if anything, I liked the whole nut featured in Noma Austrlaia's dish better, but who can really compare to Noma, right?

Rooibos and Houjicha

Well, I should start experimenting with tea flavours. Mixing green and white teas is so "safe" as this drink proved to me. Who would have thought the sweetness of rooibos went so well with that earthy, roasty aroma of houjicha!

All Parts of the Pumpkin

I like pumpkin, but not that much. This had an amazing beer foam topping some lovely soft pumpkin and and a healthy dose of pumpkin seeds. I didn't particularly like this dish (it was too... normal?) since I generally eat enough pumkpin, but my friends really loved this one. I would have preferred potato or cabbage (how cool is a name like 142 days on earth!) dish here.

Red Grape and Coriander

I'm so glad I don't have the "coriander tastes like soap" gene! This one tasted quite nice, loved the fact that the herb was in it!

Marron with Quandong and Pearl

Oh my goodness. This is what I've been waiting for. I saw pictures of this dish with various toppings, and I so desperately wanted it to stay on the menu on my visit. And here it is!!! What a gorgeous half marron! I loved the quandong and pearl mix too, this was just perfect! No nutcrackers here though; the staff said there was nothing under the shell.

But...

My teeth are/were "certified" nutcrackers, so we (yes my friends convinced me to, hence the "we" and ended up being slightly alarmed at the cracking noises from me crushing the shells) ignored the waitstaff's advice (at our risk! I very much doubt they would be pleased if someone broke a tooth or two!), and I was rewarded with some excellent leg and claw meat. Soooooo good! There were a few other tables that did this too. We ended up with a very cleaned out pile of shell!

Muntries and Grapefruit

Grapefruit juice is so wonderful! It went so well with the marron, and the muntries/quandong combination made the whole thing just work!

Emu's Egg

For me, it didn't get more nostalgic than this dish. It was my favourite (okay, so the marron was my favourite but this one has an entirely different reason) not for the flavour (which my friends said was a tad too salty, but for me was borderline and therefore bearable), but rather for the nostalgia. This dish took me straight back to primary school by the sole fact that it was served on a bed of grass. The grass is the very definition of an Australian playground/park - grass, eucaluptus and clovers. It transported me to an entirely different place, and after finishing the food, I continued playing with the grass because that's what I did as a child. I rummaged though the patch looking for four leave clovers and secretly hoped to find some bindis (those really annoying painful spikey things in the grass that you always ended up stepping or putting your hand on). It was such a tactile experience! I would come back again and again based on just how powerfully memory-invoking this dish was alone.

Cold-smoked Granny Smith Apple

Wow. There's apple juice, then there's this. That smokeyness was super intense in an incredible way. It gave it so much more "bite" and mouthfeel, and a lovely smokey aroma that filled the nose, kind of like the smell of bacon - to the point where since it was paired with the egg, was almost like green eggs and ham - yet another reference to my childhood (though I don't think I ever read the book?). It ended up savoury, tart and sweet at the same time, it was amazing!

Cuppa Tea and Bikkies in the Garden

There was a lovely intermission here, where we were escorted into the little garden past the kitchen. It was mighty cold on that winter's night, but that's nothing a good ol' cuppa can't fix! I can't remember what kind of tea it was, but I love tea so it was great. Then there was this cute little crocodile arrowroot biscuit! How adorable! And tasted infinitely better than an Arnott's milk arrowroot! Another trip down memory lane, that was...

You can also see tulips in the background, which was the purpose of us being here - tulip petals are actually edible (well at least a few varieties)! So here, our role was to pick (and snip) our own tulip for the next dish. My friends nominated me as a tulip picker. so here's the fancy fellow I chose:

Tulips DIY

After some magic in the kitchen, here was the first of our lovely desserts! A beautiful striking red, with rhubarb and some lemon myrtle cream. I love tart things (I can thank my Adelaide barista for that!) so I really enjoyed this dish, and I can add another flower to my (non existent) list of edible flowers eaten!

Wild Hibiscus and Davidsonia

If there was one downside, it was that the juice pairing was also quite tart, so the double sour was at the limit of what I could handle. It was delicious though!

Byron Sunrise and Fresh Coconut Cream

We saw chefs plating this dish as we were walking back to our tables after tulip picking, but it wasn't until it reached our table that we realised just how awesome it actually was. Look at that spiral!! How does it not fall over? What is this sorcery??? It was like the most intricate granny smith apple slinky volcano ever, with a bright red finger lime surprise inside! And the ash on the outside... it was just incredible. The coconut cream was definitely needed to offset all the acidity!

Native Tamarind, Pineapple and Vanilla

And of course, pineapple is the other half of coconut while being on the same sour strain to tie in with the finger limes. Such genius! Again, the only downside was all the sour. I could handle it, but my friends couldn't, so I did end up finishing their juices for them.

When one is offered coffee at a Melbourne fine dining restaurant not sponsored by Vittoria, one says yes to the coffee. And it was a cold brew! (They don't do espresso.) It was very lovely even though I don't have a particular fondness for cold brew. And even though my palate isn't calibrated for this stuff, I still took a pretty good guess at the coffee - always have to flex those tastebuds! I guessed "South America, not roasted by Seven Seeds". I believe my guess was Colombia, but the actual coffee was a Brazil, roasted by Proud Mary. Hey, that's pretty close! I was so proud of myself and I think I surprised my friends with that!

Attica Cheftales

Nothing beats this set of petit fours. Chef's tales, a take on Fantales. And the wrappers were so fun to read! There was that mystifying moment again when I guessed the chefs (not by name, but could describe exactly which chef it was) when my friends read out the descriptions.

My one was Rosia Sanchez, and I guessed it as "the lady who runs Hija de Sanchez" as soon as I read the line "I quit my job as pastry chef at one of the world's best restaurants... I wanted to bring good, humble Mexican food". I also guessed Christina Tosi as "the person who invented the Momofuku crack pie" as soon as I heard "I eat cookie dough every day" and the launch of Milk Bar. My friends were amazed! Too bad it's the only sort of trivia that lives in my head.

Attica was such an amazing experience. I'm so happy that there are so many places that use native Australian ingredients now that I don't feel that getting this stuff is few and far between anymore - which is great! It means that I tie this place, Noma Australia, and Orana as the same class of restaurants.  All of these are such great representations of modern Australian cuisine!

New lens, food shooting

Taking pictures of food is so much fun! Random photo spam incoming:

What a different world

Before I came here, I was reassuring everyone that Cape Town wasn't that dangerous and wasn't plagued with ebola. This is still true! It is a pain having to be so much more cautious and placing a curfew on myself so that I'm not alone outside after the sun sets, but I'm still having a lot of fun!I am starting to get a little over high end food though, but because of how spoilt I've been, I continue to cringe when I receive badly prepared food - which means I have a very narrow range of places to visit that will satisfy me and not break the bank. Valentine's Day was my secret excuse for seeking out once-off treats from cafes - and I wasn't disappointed! This special cronut was from Jason's Bakery - a marshmallow cream cronut with chocolate and turkish delight - I liked it so much better than the previous week's cronut.I can also confirm that they do in fact make the best pies - I was lucky enough to sample a braised wagyu beef, potato and bean + pea pie, and wow. Wowowowowow. THAT is a pie! I was so used to pies being pastry with half goo, half stuff - but this was pastry stuffed completely full of actual food! All the sauce was absorbed by the meat and vegetables so that the full flavour was there too. I don't think I could eat any other pie ever again - but I'm always happy to be proved wrong.I also had a ramen craving, and I only found one noteworthy place according to good old Google. The place is called Downtown Ramen, which was inside a place called Lefty's Dive Bar. I was incredibly lucky that some other people wanted ramen too, because we walked through some pretty shady looking streets. It turns out my sense of direction was also pretty perfect as well, having lead them correctly and not having to backtrack, which is a common occurrence when I'm left to my own devices.This pork bun was actually quite large! It did have good flavour, though I was hoping for a better tasting pickle sauce - this one actually had a lemon dressing to it, and the pork belly was cooked very nicely.Pork belly shoyu ramen with thick noodles. This place only had two ramen choices - shoyu pork belly and a vegetarian ramen. It was actually better tasting than I thought - and that pork belly was actually one of the tastiest I've had! However I would have loved a richer, fattier broth and better cooked noodles (I have a strong preference for thin and "harder" noodles). For a lack of Japanese presence though, I'd say this was pretty good experience.This is where I'll go on a little bit of a rambling about some observations I've made during my time here...First of all, it's quite interesting the number of things that we take for granted in the developed, Western world. For example, the humble lemon lime and bitters. They don't have it here. A few of the restaurants we visited, and the hotel bar, didn't know what it was, to the point where we had to show them how to make one.There was also a time when a colleague had ordered a raspberry iced tea - 3 times, and each version arrived with very different sweetness levels, as well as significantly different garnishes - mint versus orange! We were slightly bemused that this kind of inconsistency existed for a single drink.There's actually a lot of small inconsistencies in a lot of the average places, I think it might be due to the fact that a lot of the people who work in the hospitality industry don't experience the lifestyle that their customers do - the socio-economic divide is so large that I can appreciate that they don't necessarily have the same standards and experiences. I'm just an overly spoilt wannabe hipsterish snob, and I admit to it, so my expectations of waitstaff, service and consistency are insanely high. Luckily, I'm also incredibly nice and patient so while I notice it, I don't actually mind, since that itself is an experience.That being said, the top end restaurants are distinctly different. I've been to a couple of "expensive" places now - like Chalk and Cork, and the service levels are much higher. The staff and clientele are also vastly different. You get many more international customers - in fact I hear a lot of German conversations between the customers and staff. Since I'm not sure if I will do a revisit for the following restaurant, here are the pictures and experiences of Chef's Warehouse and Kitchen:

Tempura vegetables

And I thought Japanese restaurants knew how to make and plate tempura! Chef's Warehouse and Kitchen does a set tapas menu for two, however easily accommodate for single diners by halving the cost, and then reducing the set 8 dishes to a choice of 4 from the list. Research indicated that there is a heavy Asian influence on the dishes, though many other cuisines and techniques are present - in fact, one of the dishes I chose was a mushroom risotto which was so good, but again I experienced the sad confirmation that I simply don't like risotto.

Salmon togarashi

What I assumed was a twist on nigiri, this was a great dish! The wasabi was amazing, and the crispy skin fragment had great crunch. The rice wasn't great though, since I've had very good sushi rice. The salmon and the seaweed made the whole dish a classic sushi experience for me.

Deep fried squid

Yes, the menu description  said squid, though I'm still convinced it was octopus, with some calamari. It was on sriracha and a bed of finely shredded cabbage dressed in vinegar. This squid was cooked so well! It made me happy and reminded me why I love fine dining so much. The presentation was so good and was so delicious. I am more than likely going to revisit this restaurant because it's been my favourite so far.

On the topic of pretty and well cooked good, I totally didn't realised there was a San Pellegrino Top 50 restaurant in Cape Town by the name of The Test Kitchen. I realised too late that it was something I had to cross off on my list, so alas, there were no tables available. I do kind of regret being indecisive as there was a chance for me to have booked a table, but I know I'll be better off saving money for other adventures.

One thing I've been very proud of, while remaining on the topic of food (when do I ever not talk about food!), is that I've now had ostrich, zebra, springbok, warthog, and even a mopane worm! I am quite enjoying the different kinds of game here, and what's even crazier is that I had some of the game as marinated meat at a Korean BBQ! It did make it impossible to tell the different meats apart though. I was actually surprised that zebra meat was lighter than I thought - it was closer to white meat than red, which I wasn't expecting. Regardless, it was a great experience. I still have kudu and whatever other interesting food I can get my hands on. For example, this sheep's head, which someone brought to work. I think I shocked a few people by agreeing to eat it, while eagerly asking questions about brains, eyeballs and various parts of sheep head anatomy. It was quite tasty and I was happily getting my hands dirty to claim some amazing cheek meat.

The final bit of my food adventures for this post concludes with what else, but coffee! There's a great market place called The Old Biscuit Mill that's especially vibrant on Saturdays, so I had my mini coffee crawl there. There's a lot food as well as jewellery, clothes and other knick-knacks for sale. Even though I vowed not to spend money, I did end up buying some earrings and a necklace. That's what I get for listening to my hipster-on-the-inside.

Espresso Lab micro-roasters, which is a hugely popular place that uses two La Marzoccos. They have a really cool espresso menu - which is that periodic table to the right. I tried their Costa Rica Los Lajas as an espresso and it was actually really nice and cherry. I was glad they had that particular one as their single origin because I've previously had it as a filter at Switch Coffee in Tokyo.

It's a very white and clean space, with an awesome roaster at the back as well as a brew bench. Due to how busy the place was, I didn't ask if they served any filter coffee - but it is a pretty cool setup regardless! They also sold Fool magazine, which was pretty awesome.

I found this little syphon at the Origin Artisan coffee roasters stand, but didn't actually have it - for me it was an espresso here of their house blend. I enjoyed the shot back at V&A Waterfront a lot more than the one I had here, but I believe it was a different blend.

The final coffee stand I visited was the Rosetta brew bar, where only filter coffee was sold. They had a choice of a Costa Rica or Yirgacheffe if I remember correctly, and I chose the Yirgacheffe upon asking for the barista's preference. It was also roasted really well and super tasty!

I've also finally figured out why the flat white is a predominant drink here - it's because the biggest roaster/wholesaler, Deluxe coffeeworks, was founded by a New Zealander! It all makes sense now! However I still feel that a lot of the beans are roasted too dark for my liking - I have too much of an Australian palate when it comes to how I prefer my coffee prepared. It's still great talking to all the baristas to learn how they treat their coffees though!

While I've been to Truth Coffee Roasters, the great big steampunk cafe, I haven't decided to post any pictures yet as I'm yet to take better pictures and form a better opinion - but I wanted to mention it as it turns out I do actually have a "slayer" sense, but I failed to recognise that beautiful machine on my first visit :(. I first spotted their Synesso at their takeaway window and took a picture of that as it's the first Synesso I've seen. I figured that coffee machines are relatively expensive for the average cafe owner, which is why there aren't many. It could possibly be due to the cost of such a machine, but it might also be due to the repair and support available for the brand. Or it could be as simple as a Visa versus Mastercard/Coke versus Pepsi kind of situation.

I did notice a flashy white coffee machine that I at first thought was a Slayer, however for some reason, even though I checked out the sides to verify, didn't actually 100% recognise, so I walked away thinking it was a second Synesso. Am I crazy??? It was only later when I related to my surrogate baristas over at Flat Mountain Coffee Roasters that I'd paid Truth a visit, that they indeed confirmed that a Slayer lived there. So now I have to go back and then talk about how the decor and waitstaff are all very steampunky!

Anyway, enough about coffee.

The other day I finally said yes to climbing a mountain - Lion's Head. I wasn't sure if I could actually complete the adventure since though I was confident in my walking abilities, if it involved any other physical strain, I knew I'd be in trouble since I'm the most unfit person ever. I often make jokes about not knowing how to breathe and even that I forget to breathe, but this is actually true! Normal breathing is actually quite shallow, and you don't notice until you take deep breaths.

So the initial uphill walk was a small challenge, but doable and I could keep up with my super fit colleagues. However, it then became quite rocky and steps and climbing were involved. Wow, I haven't had my lungs hurt like that since cross country in primary school! (which I hated), and they were still sore the next day. I didn't even know lungs could be sore. It was well worth climbing to the top where I took plenty of photos - though it was too bright up there so I had trouble checking my panoramic shots - so half of them turned out having colour issues halfway through the picture, but they were so breathtaking so that it didn't actually matter. They way down was actually really fun and confirmed that my muscles could cope with the exercise, it's just my lungs that can't. I'm going to stick with the theory that it's because I smoke candle fumes (i.e. put myself in an enclosed room and start burning masses of candles at least once every winter).

As these three pictures are all panorama shots, they've been hyperlinked so that you can actually see them.

EXPLORATION