The pig & pastry, Petersham

I've always had a bit of a chuckle whenever I drive by this cafe. 6months has gone by and I've finally decided to give it ago and it looks like I've picked the right day. It was their one year anniversary :) Right outside the cafe, they set up a table with mulled wine served and a spit roast going on for those who just wanted to take something away and sit in the park whilst soaking up the sun. Across the road, there was a little kiddie petting zoo going on much to the enjoyment of kids and parents alike.

At 9am in the morning, it was dead easy for us to get a table and the first thing I noticed was that every staff member had a pig painted on their faces. I should have taken a photo.

 Today, the missus and I both ordered skim flat whites. It was nothing much to shout about but decent enough to not complain.

First dish up was the eggs bennie with salmon. This was served on top of soft fluffy toasted brioche and the missus gives her thumbs up here.

Eggs benedict on toasted brioche with salmon $15.50

 Whilst I was busy taking photos of the above, my Sweet corn fritters turned up. Now there's only 2 ways that I like eating my bacon. Either super crispy and not dripping in oil, or rindless and tender. It was the former today. I guess you could say it was a given seeing how the dish DID state 'crispy bacon'.  I poked my fork through it and it broke into little pieces. AWESOMEEEE!!! This would go well with the other soft textured items on the plate.

Sweet corn fritters with a poached egg, crispy bacon & avocado salsa

The Corn fritter was delicious with a slight crunch on the outside but soft and sweet inside. Avocado anything is good and lastly the egg. Where do I start! It was worthy enough to make a collage which I stuck up on instagram. I also made a little animated gif but thought that was going a little overboard so decided against uploading it. Anyhow, check out the below!

oozing out like lava

Bottomline was that I thoroughly enjoyed spreading abit of avocado salsa on a slice of corn fritter, mopping abit of eggy goodness  on it and adding a few crunchy bits of bacon  for abit of texture. mmm mmmmm....

We didn't stop there! Checking out the display unit, we just HAD to get something so between us we shared the following

baked green apples a thin crust pizza base? Sorry, no idea. :P

salted chocolate chip cookie

 The baked green apple pizza (i'm just gonna call it that) was pretty good. It wasn't overly sweet and had just the right amount of tartness to it.

If you've ever had a chocolate chip cookie from West Juliett, then you'd know what this one tastes like. It was quite large so we broke it down to smaller pieces. What I loved most about it is that the chocolate chips were still soft and semi-melted. The cookie made for a sweet and satisfying way to end our brunch. 

Across the road, we saw animals of all sorts. lambs, babygoats, guinea pigs, ducks, chicks, rabbits and even the cutest little piglet I've ever seen!

it was so cuuuuuuuuuuuteeeeee!!!!!!!!!

Squeeling away, the keeper had to pick it up and apply sunscreen to him(her?). I want a pet miniature pig now!

I never knew how docile rabbits could be when they're in a little bag. All the keeper needed to do was to put these large rabbits into small sacks and just passed them to the kids to hang on to.

As opposed to some places in the inner west, PnP is able to cater for larger crowds and I can foresee myself organizing something here with my other friends in the near future.

The Pig and Pastry

Address : 1 Station Street, Petersham

opening hours : Mon to Fri 7:30am - 4:00pm (closed Tues)

                           : Sat to Sun 8:00am - 4:00pm

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Nom, Darlinghurst

An invitation by a new found friend (Junji-san) to have Japanese food and sake cannot be turned down. The workplace must be left on time, and the gym gear can stay in the bag. The venue for the night is NOM.

A modest little shop which lets its cuisine do the talking

Tucked away in a little area just off Oxford Street lies Nom with it's red signboard shining brightly. If not for that, we would have easily missed it. Anyhow, Junji-san said he'll be late and to have a drink first. No need to tell me twice. :)

The narrow entrance way and a hungry missus

Stepping through the narrow doors, we were greeted warmly by the 2 ladies(I'm guessing mother and daughter) who worked there. we mentioned our bookings and were quickly ushered to our seats. Walking in, I couldn't help but notice bottles after bottles of Sake! My excitement started to grow!

SAKEEEEEEEEEE

Suntory penguin says "Kampai!"

 As an appetizer whilst waiting, we decided to get a couple of drinks and something to munch on. Now I haven't had a Sapporo since I was last in Japan so the first  drink had to be that. The missus decided to go for glass of hot sake. We then ordered the tempura okra to start with.

Okura Tempura

My first thoughts when this dish was served was "Wow!" It was evidently busy at around 7pm and the pair that worked that kitchen didn't let their standards drop. The okra was stacked nicely on a piece of parchment paper topped with some pretty leaf and a cone of daikon radish on the side. The batter had a nice light crunch to it and the Okra was cooked well.

Round 2 - Asahikiku Junmaiginjo

 With the first meal done and our drinks finished, it was time to start sampling the sake. We asked for a recommendation and the Asahikiku was served up hot. It was light yet complex in taste and had a hint of fruitiness to it. Nom allows you to also choose your own sake cup which I thought was pretty  cute. :)
Nom has a page full of different types of sake and it's on the cards for me to learn up on what the differences are. (Note to self - organize a sake tasting session with the gang)

By about this time, Junji-san arrived and the ordering began.

Mentai potato salad

The potato salad had a good balance of flavour. I could taste pepper with every bite but it wasn't overpowering in any way. It would have been nice if there were more fish roe :)
2nd carafe of hot sake was ordered.
 

Nikomi

 Next up was basically a beef stew dish called Nikomi containing konnyaku jelly and beef. It  was a simple homemade dish which I could see myself having more off. It was subtle in flavour and the beef was really tender.
3rd carafe of hot sake was ordered.

Karaage Chicken

I could smell the karaage chicken being cooked and when it was served, I wished we had ordered more! Deep fried perfectly, the crispy outer layer cracked with every bite. We savoured these by sipping on sake and nibbling away trying to make it last as long as possible.

Junji-san, a lemon slice and some sliced ox tongue

Junji-San explained that the Japanese version of Ox tongue is usually more tender when compared to the grilled Korean version. It had the consistency of a slice of ham and the accompaniment of lemon juice and pepper on the other side, this dish was a pleasure to eat.
4th carafe of hot sake was ordered.

Nom is a pocket rocket of an Izakaya restaurant. It has friendly staff and really good food. The range of sake is delicious and it's very obvious that the Obachan who cooks everything takes pride in what she serves to the patrons.
I'm coming back here again in the near future.
 

 

Nom
Address : 166 Riley Street, Darlinghurst NSW
Opening hours : Not listed, I suggest making reservations. 02 9332 1156
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The Grumpy Barista, Petersham

With a name like The Grumpy Barista, I just had to visit the place and see if he really was grumpy ...and to check the food out as well of course! 

Pretty damn chilly when in the shade. Try to sit inside during winter.

We had a late start to the day as Friday night was pretty boozy and alcohol fueled. Whilst waiting outside we saw the menu lying close-by and decided to check it out. I've mentioned this in previous posts about how I give points to cafes that try doing things differently be it good or bad. In this case, I liked how they gave their menu that rustic look. The hanging signboard was of a furry moustache too! I wanted touch it for some strange reason...

The rustic menu. The torn bits at the top were purely coincidental I think.

lol!

the cosy inside can seat 20 odd people.

Cool stool.

Can't remember the name. Grilled chicken sandwich?

This weekend, WN decided to go for something a little more plain so she ordered a grilled chicken sandwich. I forgot to take note of what was on the menu. oops. On the inside it had spinach, grilled chicken, pumpkin, homemade relish and abit of aioli sauce. This dish didn't really impress her as the sourdough bread was not toasted so it didn't have that nice crunch. The pumpkin pieces were chopped into large cubes which made it slightly tricky to handle. The taste wasn't bad but it failed to impress the missus. 

The Italian Pot

Looking through the menu, I decided to go for the eggplant stack. 5 minutes into sipping my coffee, the waitress returned to say that they've ran out of eggplant. No problems here. I always have a backup dish and asked for the "Italian Pot". 5 minutes passed again and the waitress returned to say that they've ran out of mushrooms. This ingredient was replaced with eggplant (hang on, I thought they told me earlier that there's none left??) Turns out they use different type of eggplants for both these dishes. 

The Italian pot consisted of baked eggs, eggplant, chorizo and a chilli/tomato sauce, sprinkled with parmesan cheese on top. I really liked the tomato sauce as it wasn't too tangy and had an almost sweet like. The egg was still nice and runny and the chorizos added a good salty kick with each mouthful. With this dish, I tore up my toasted sourdough bread into bite sized pieces and drown them in the mixture. Once soaked through I took large spoonfuls of the goop and smashed this dish down. 

We wanted to end this meal with a cronut but because it was already so late(12:30pm), they ran out of it. 

The Grumpy Barista is another addition to a somewhat quiet suburb. The coffee is excellent and the food was not bad. Definitely worth a visit however do dress up warmly just in case you get the outdoor seats during winter. 

The Grumpy Barista

Address : 110 Audley Street, Petersham

Opening hours : Mon - Sat,  7am - 3pm

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Aslan Coffee, St Peters

Aslan Coffee is a place that I drive by quite regularly.  I've always thought it was humorous to name your cafe after a character from the series of Narnia books. The owner must be a massive fan. 

rawr

Located just off May street near St Peters station lies this little cafe. Whilst small in size, the one thing they are big on, is their coffee.

Always good to know what time it is in Bali

skim milk makes for tricky latte art

The aroma of coffee beans drew us to sit inside the shop with it's red bright walls. From what I saw, most of their customers came by to get takeaway. There were the occasional 'compliments to the barista' as well (Good job Ryan!) :) I like the fact that you can place orders via text message... Good for the person who's on the move. 

Ryan hard at work.

When it got a little quiet, I had a chat with Ryan, Aslans barista about their beans. Now I'm probably not going to do him justice and get this wrong but from what I understood, the boss (who is Indonesian)  sources for his coffee beans from his home country, testing out different regions to find the best one possible. In the past few months, they've purchased Bali coffee beans whilst still green and have been experimenting with different ways of roasting them in-house. For a more information about their coffee, do visit their website. Their story's actually pretty cool!

The Roastmax

Breakfast choices here is pretty limited and it was amusing to see Beef Rendang on the menu. I chuckled and ordered it! Maybe next time, you could also add Martabak Manis to your menu as a sweet treat!! :)

Beef Rendang ($12.50)

The beef was pretty good, really tender and had a good kick of spice to it. Perfect for a winters morning. Brown rice was served and this was cooked well. I would have preferred the salads to be replaced with green beans or something else stir-fried to go with the whole asian theme.. 

Breakfast roll on organic mini soft baguettes ($9.50)

WN had the breakfast roll in a mini baguette. No complaints from her. 

I forgot to mention earlier that there was also an assortment of cakes and pastries too which they get from Lux Bakery in Newtown. I took a photo of but it turned out pretty bad. :P I blame my super slow Iphone 4.... (note to self - please buy yourself a new phone)

Social marketing is the way to go in this day and age.

Overall, I'd come back here for a takeaway coffee any day. The staff are friendly and the coffee is good. I'm going to save their number down for when I do drive by again sometime in the future. 

Aslan Coffee
Address : 1 Council Street, St Peters, New South Wales, 2044
Opening hours : 
   Mon to Fri : 7:00am - 2:30pm
   Saturday   : 8:00am - 2:00pm
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