baked eggs - the tamer version

I think I was a little bit depressed this morning.  Last night before I drifted off to sleep, I was calculating a rough budget for our trip to the states at the end of the year. It came to a 5 digit figure and I felt like dying on the spot. Our trip could easily buy us a new kitchen, a new car, the cost of building a new garage...

Needed a bit of a pick me up, so I dove straight into the meat compartment of the fridge and retrieved the fattiest rashers of bacon I could find.... then commenced cooking! Hooray!  I actually had no recipe at hand and just went by gut feeling - I suck at following recipes. 

Inspired by yesterday's brunch at Circa Espresso.

pre-baking

Ingredients (3 servings):
3 eggs
3 rashers of bacon (slice a bit off each to dice/garnish)
2 tomatoes chopped into 2cm chunks
4-5 small heads of broccoli
a dab of butter/olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
tabasco sauce (optional, for that added bite)

1. Preheat that oven!  I set mine to 230 degrees C and let it preheat for 15 minutes (fan-forced).
2. Lightly fry off your bacon.
3. Chop the broccoli into halves, submerge in tapwater in a cup and microwave for 1 minute on high. Drain and set aside.
4. Chop your tomatoes into biggish cubes. 
5. Oil your ramekins (I didn't and I regret it), assemble the bacon so that it's not lying flat on any surface (so it's standing up and making a squiggly pattern in  your ramekin). 
6. Slot the tomatoes and broccoli in the folds of the bacon.
7. Crack eggs on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Chuck it in the oven for 12 minutes if you want a runny yolk, and 15 minutes for a semi-solid but gooey yolk. 

TIP: Don't add too much salt because the bacon should be salty enough for the egg whites. 

I ran out of block mozzarella cheese, so I couldn't add in cubes of that :( Mushrooms or asparagus spears would have been lovely in this too.

Alternatively, if I had a grill, I'd so make this in a shallow pan. When I move out, my kitchen will have EVERYTHING.

totes baked

yum with toast

It looked better IRL, and the juices at the bottom of the bowl were DELISHUS. So thankful it turned out great. The only thing that bugged me was the mysterious marks that appeared on the sides of the bowls. They so were not there when I put them in the oven :(

Circa Espresso - finally

FINALLY AN AFFORDABLE BRUNCH LOCATION!

There's been so much hype (on food blogs, twitter and IG) about Circa Espresso. I've realised that my recent food trips have been to these nominated restaurants/quick eat locations to confirm (I guess..) other people's opinions.  Everyone's raving on about Circa, and I can definitely see why.

It's located on Wentworth Street in Parra - pretty much adjacent to the station (not on the Hungry Jacks side) and is pretty much a hole-in-the-wall shop.  I think it used to be a tandem garage or something, but it's been decorated in a pretty funky/quirky fashion.  Definitely no time for awkward chitchat here :)

Entrance - no fancy sign! Understated, I like it!

Even though there wasn't really a sign for the cafe, as soon as I walked onto Wentworth Street, I knew exactly which shop it was.  So funky.

Coffee beans

What it looked like inside...

Towards the back of the restaurant

 Birdie painting, cloud wall and fake windows. It's such an odd combination!

Alchemy bottles?

Looks like an old school cough medicine bottle. (And check out that massive lens on that camera! Probably weighs more than the camera ;D)

Quirky wall decor

More walls..

Then the coffees came.  I think we noobed it today.  Normally people get the house special, but it was our first time, so we just ordered a latte and a cap.

A hearty latte

 The hearts they poured were pretty.

Another hearty coffee - cappuccino

A quick check of foursquare told us that they had great coffee. Maybe it's because we didn't get the house blend, or we're just not very good coffee drinkers, but I found there was a sour aftertaste. It just didn't feel very smooth (even though I ordered a full fat latte!!).

Most of the items are $7-10 and the more 'impressive' items on the menu reach about $15 - which is pretty good for brunch.  I went to Little Rock Cafe recently and one dish alone was $20.

Banana bread with passionfruit butter 

This banana bread should be renamed banana cake, because it had the lovely softness and moistness of cake. The melty passionfruit butter on top is so freaking delicious. Butter and passionfruit. A deadly combination. I LOVE THIS STUFF SO MUCH.

Poached chicken, gorgonzola dolce, almond slivers, celery and spinach

Super glad the salad was picked from the menu.  It was the best recovery dish after I ate the baked eggs (below). It's very "fresh" and feels super healthy and cleansing. It must be the combination of cucumbers, celery and lemon juice. I could drink this lemon dressing. Very tangy/sour. The asparagus was very full of flavour. Very asparagus-y. :P  Spinach was a nice base, but the peas were meh. And the poached chicken was just a bit ordinary :)  But overall, a very nice dish!

Baked eggs with sujuk, danish feta, tomato and chili in a pan

BEST THING EVER. Baked eggs. I am totally making a non-chili version of this tomorrow morning (though I admit the spice gave the eggs a whole lotta BITE!) with bacon instead of the sujuk (is this just spicy chorizo?) and maybe I'll throw in a few mushrooms if I can find any.  

But going back to these eggs... This was really enjoyable. I love eggs. I love tomatoes. And I love soy and linseed bread. So this was a clear winner in my books. Such a hearty breakfast. If I ever had a blissful facial expression, I would have been wearing this face when I was eating from this pan (yes, what originally attracted me to this was the fact that I got to eat out of a pan :P).

ORDER THIS IF YOU GO!

I'm going to try and go again before I leave the country. I want to try the other stuff so badly. 

I think w thought I was kidding when I said we should order three things from the menu. But I wasn't. We were really full afterwards, but I'm sure there was no trace of regret anywhere. 

All good for the heart and soul.

Penny farthings! Looks like a smiley face!

Little Rock Cafe - Lunch in the 'burbs

Little Rock Cafe has been in Westfield for YEARS. I remember in primary school, M would sometimes (on the rare occasion) sit and sip a cap while my sister and I each got a foamy babycino. I never really got around to enjoying cafe-style food until starting full time work, when I really got to choose where I ate.  Asian cuisine is my preference for dinner, but modern Australian/fusion will always be my first choice for lunch/brunch.

SO, K's finished with exams.

And I was not really getting any work done. 

So naturally we went out to eat. 

Little Rock Cafe Special

So yum. It was basically just a mescalin mix, tossed with pine nuts, sundried tomatoes (yum), roasted chicken pieces. I believe they used balsamic vinaigrette to mix. Like all other salads, the bottom/last bits are always the best parts. A bit soggy from drowning in the dressing.  

Incredibly terrible photo below. UGH. We were just in such a rush to eat!

Chicken Pollo Avo

Bummed at the shops for a bit - bought a new pasta rolling machine/device and two new springform tins. They look super cute because they're tiny. I want to make a mini baked cheesecake before I go on holidays. :)

New app of the week - Finger Zoo.
Reason why I downloaded it - because I needed stamps to edit/cover up my windswept hair in this pic.

Walking home - feat made bearable with the aid of a $3.30 slurpee. 

Drafted this a few days ago. Thought I'd stick it up for the weekend.

Longest day today. TGIF. Happy weekend folks!

never far

I just remembered an interesting conversation I had earlier this week.  I was chatting to M, a stranger who was also buying a coffee at Azzuri, who had moved around a lot when he was a kid.

I made a comment about him being lucky, getting the chance to be exposed to so much culture at such a young age.

He raised an eyebrow and said that it was a difficult-ish childhood and it was painful to constantly part with friends and make new ones else where.

M: I can barely remember the name of my best friend in primary school.

Right at that moment, primary school friend (from yr 1) walked into the cafe.

And then I realised how lucky I am to be surrounded by things I am familiar with.  There is a place I can call home, people that I can call friends, and friends that I know I can trust (from years of experience).

This was a very rewarding conversation, and I had to pat myself on the back for initiating it. Yep. So rare, but it happened.


PS. If it's possible to fall in love via Instagram - I think I have!  Or at least, if his instagram is a true reflection of his life, I wish I was living it!  And his baked eggs look amazing.  @hendyo

cos it's a jack johnson kinda day today

Feeling really sleepy today. But I must. stay. awake.

Tomorrow:
- 9am: 3000 words due.
- 4pm: Another 3000 words due.
 -4.01pm: PARTY ON DOWN SISTAH.

Just kidding. I'm gonna hop on a bus to Surry again to see if Sparkle Cupcakes is still open. =-=  If they're not, I'll just proceed to Gelato Messina for some apple pie ice cream OR I could just hit up one of the 40 cafe's I've saved on foursquare (I didn't realise you could make lists!!) in the area.

WHT:
I ate a mango. And it was perfect.

The end.