under $20

HOT: Mixed Business, 486 Queens Pde, Clifton Hill

January 27, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

After what seemed like endless weeks of packing, I’ve finally moved into a new house. As we boxed up our worldly goods, I cursed RM’s penchant for book-buying and RM banned me from buying any more kitchen gadgets. So even though I spotted a waffle maker for $20 recently, I resisted temptation. Which is a [...]

HOT: Babycino’s Garden Cafe, Northampton Place, South Yarra

January 18, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

While I don’t yet have kids, there is a baby boom happening with my friends and acquaintances such that I increasingly have to consider whether or not a venue is kid-friendly when I suggest meeting up. If you’re in a similar situation, then I highly recommend Babycino’s. Nestled in the back streets of South Yarra [...]

HOT: Arcadia, 193 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

January 13, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

With so many great cafes on Gertrude Street, both old and new, it can be difficult to choose where to go. My advice? Just start from one end and work your way down :–) That way, at some stage you’ll make your way to the pine-tree stencilled windows of the excellent Arcadia. Arcadia ticks all [...]

HOT: Penny Farthing Espresso, 206 High St, Northcote

January 12, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

Penny Farthing Espresso is a cute combination of the bygone era of top hats and handlebar moustaches with insouciant Northcote coolness. The cafe first caught my eye because of the fabulous steampunk bicycle in the window. Apparently it’s a working apparatus, although the penny farthing enthusiast who built it has only ridden it twice…and fallen off [...]

HOT: De Clieu, 187 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

January 10, 2011 ⋅ 8 comments

De Clieu is the hottest cafe on the Gertrude Street strip at the moment and it was one of the reasons I’d avoided it till now. The crowd overspilling into the footpath tables and lounging in the frame of the large street-facing windows seemed too cool for school (or at least too cool for me) [...]

HOT: Hooked, 384 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

January 6, 2011 ⋅ 5 comments

“A chain fish-and-chippery is HOT?” I hear you think dubiously. I too had my doubts until my friends recommended that I give Hooked a try. For health reasons I really need to eat more fish at the moment and with a lack of fishmongers around my home (I’m going to test-run a seafood delivery service [...]

HOT: Ying Thai 2, 110 Lygon St, Carlton

December 16, 2010 ⋅ 6 comments

For some people, the term ‘blogger’ implies a computer geek sitting at home, in the dark, tap-tap-tapping away at their computer keyboard for hours on end and only communicating to the outside world via an online persona. Obviously they have never come across someone who blogs about food, because it’s simply the nature of food [...]

HOT: Babble Bar and Cafe, 4 Izett St, Prahran

December 14, 2010 ⋅ 3 comments

On outward appearances, Babble doesn’t appear to be the kind of place that would be my scene. The weatherboard corner-block cafe fronts onto gorgeous vistas of the Prahran Safeway carpark, the narrow outside bar seating is marred by practical but ugly beer mats and the wraparound wooden verandah attracts tanned boys in muscle Ts and [...]

HOT: Nelayan Indonesian Restaurant, 265-267 Swanston St, Melbourne

December 13, 2010 ⋅ 3 comments

In the second of my recent forays into Indonesian food, I was pointed to Nelayan by Sally, an Indonesian student. Out of all of the cheap Asian eats on Swanston Street, Nelayan seems to be one of the more popular. Very early on a weekday evening, the tables were doing a quick turnover of heading-home [...]

HOT: Fritz Gelato, Stall 120, Prahran Market, Elizabeth St, South Yarra

December 9, 2010 ⋅ 2 comments

I’m not a hot-weather person. That’s the explanation I give when people ask me why I moved from sunny Queensland to drizzly Melbourne. The one benefit of hot weather though is it gives me a good excuse to eat ice cream as a meal (although I eat quite a bit of ice cream in winter [...]