Mexican eggs for breakfast

This weekend is a weekend of pure relaxation. The house is tidy, I have what I need here, so there'll be no going out until tomorrow night. I'm staying in, cooking, listening to music (currently Nirvana), relaxing in my hoodie (it's freezing in Melbourne!) and working through my writing to do list. Easing my way into the writing with this blog entry!

Last night I was flicking through my Jamie's America cookbook - reading about the foods I may experience in America. It is an amazing book - packed with stories of the melting pot of cultures and beautiful pictures.

This morning I woke up with a mission - to make Mexican eggs, inspired by Jamie Oliver.

Mission accomplished. I cooked this for breakfast. Mexican eggs and bacon: duck eggs scrambled with chilli and coriander, avocado, tomato, bacon, lemon, cheese + salsa.

Here is the recipe. Adjust quantities to suit the number of people you are serving/how hungry you are.

Heat non stick fry pan on stove - medium heat, and place two lean bacon rashers in the pan. They will cook as the pan heats. (You can leave this bit out if you don't eat bacon. I am sure chorizo sausage would be good too.)

Lightly beat two eggs (I used duck eggs) with a drizzle of full fat milk, a small handful of coriander and half a green chilli. Season with salt. Put to the side.

Cut up one lemon into quarters, one tomato and one avocado and put onto a plate. Squeeze a quarter of lemon over the avocado so it doesn't go brown. You could probably include corn (fresh or tinned) too.

Cut or grate (I hate grating so I cut) about 50 grams of tasty cheese. Put half into the beaten eggs and save half.

By this time the bacon should be cooked. Take it out of the pan and put it on the plate with the tomato and avocado.

Heat some butter in the pan, and when melted, turn down the stove's heat and pour the beaten eggs into the pan. Agitate gently with a spoon or spatula. Cooking should take about three minutes. The eggs should be cooked when they are still runny.

Put the scrambled eggs onto the plate, top with the remaining cheese and drizzle with lemon and salsa - I used Byron Bay green chilli salsa.

Soooooooo good! Makes a difference to going out for breakfast!

Creamoata: a much loved, yet lost food of my childhood. Help me find it.

So I am using the power of blogging to aid me in finding a much loved, yet lost food of my childhood. Creamoata.

 (source)

Note, that's not how I remember Creamoata - the stuff I had was by Quaker.

When I was little Mum used to make Creamoata by Quaker for breakfast. I think it's oats ground up finely so when milk or water is added, it turns very creamy. It's kind of like semolina, only more oaty.



Creamoata is so big in New Zealand that there is a Creamoata man!

 (source)

I found this recipe which I may try, but I really want the real thing.


I have not seen it in supermarkets recently - perhaps for the past five years. I am in Melbourne Australia. Does anyone know of this, and if it's still on the market? Where can I buy it? I've seen some creamy style oats by Quaker but I think it's basically like that Uncle Toby's temptations stuff. 

Can a New Zealand reader mail me some please?

And what's your much loved, yet lost food of your childhood?

Yes sir! Yes sir! Breaky at Three Bags Full.

It's become a bit of a tradition that Jentopia and I meet up for breakfast. I think breakfast is my favourite meal to go out for. Breakfast out is generally a hearty and delicious meal, and it leaves the rest of the day free to do stuff, or nap. Whichever you choose. This photo was sensibly taken before I got a fat tummy or spilt something on me.

Jen chose Saturday's cafe: Three Bags Full in Nicholson Street, Abbotsford. She's been there after cycling and recommended it.

It's a large brick building - a converted hat factory, situated just out of the city away from the hustle ad bustle. It's family friendly - a hub for families (some with kids that were too screamy) and also dog lovers.

I am so glad she suggested it. Similar to another favourite breakfast haunt of mine, The Auction Rooms, Three Bags Full has a warehouse feel with modern rustic style. Beautiful wallpaper, feature lights and pretty flowers. Recycled objects as furniture and fittings. This review shows some of the quirky furniture. I loved it.

The counter is full of yummy baked goods.

Jen hoped that something 'outrageous' would happen for me to blog about. Things weren't very outrageous until I ordered this drink.

Freshly squeezed pineapple, apple, strawberry and mint juice. Jen and I had moved from a communal table to a smaller table for just the two of us. The waiter brought out my drink, but gave it to the girl seated in our previous seats. We don't think she even ordered it. Nevertheless, she took a sip of it. Her friend and both of us realised it wasn't her drink before she did! And that was the outrageous event of the morning.

The breakfast menu is full of eggs done various ways, corn and pea fritters, porridgey muesli delights, salmon and bacon. Sorry for my lack of detail but my eyes were drawn to only one particular thing on the menu. Fig and raspberry bread with marscapone, passionfruit and strawberries.

The strawberry and passionfruit sauce was sweet and tangy. The fig and raspberry bread was deliciously cakey. The marscapone was generously lathered.

It was on par with the French toast I had at The Auction Rooms. Superb. Jen and I discussed how fruit toast and banana bread is often just cake termed with a healthier name of food. Whatever, it was so damn good!

Jen had the bircher muesli - she has become a connossieur of bircher muesli and rated this one highly. It had apple, yoghurt, almonds on top. It looked yummy!

While Three Bags Full is not on my side of town, I'll definitely return. The interesting breakfast menu has left me wanting more.

Three Bags Full on Urbanspoon

Sydney trip - the food and the purchases

I enjoyed the food and shopping in Sydney, though both activities were quite brief. Amazing nonetheless.

On Wednesday night, it was windy and rainy. Blustery really. The State of Origin football match was on. I was convinced that a famous rugby player was staying at my hotel. Ian Roberts I think. He smiled at me. I'd like to think it was him.

I met the gorgeous Kristy at my hotel and we walked up the street to have Greek food.

We both had moussaka to avoid food envy. It was meaty, bechamel goodness.


I had a cocktail. It was pina colada. It didn't really fit with the blustery weather or my sky high boots.


The service at the restaurant was poor. The olives were not pitted. The food and company made up for it.

Here is Kristy and I looking lovely. I really didn't need the skivvy for Sydney's weather.


In the morning, I needed to get from Circular Quay to Pyrmont so I decided to eat at the hotel before I left. It meant stress free dining. I've never had a hotel breakfast buffet before that day. The breakfast on Thursday 27 May 2010 will be etched in my food memory forever. I loved it!
This is fruit compote. Lychees. Peaches. Pineapple. Pear. Yum!

Egg, salmon, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, hashbrowns, cheese.

The style section of the Sydney Morning Herald. Bircher muesli in a shot glass. Berries suspended in jelly in a short glass. A pastry. I am still coming to terms I had jelly for breakfast. Two jellies in fact!

This amazing breakfast buffet is at Sir Stamford, Macquarie Street Circular Quay.

The Sydney Magazine came with Thursday's Sydney Morning Herald. Confirming my suspicions, it is almost identical to the Melbourne magazine that comes with the Age on the last Friday of each month. Guy Pearce on both covers.

The feature articles are the same, but they do have Sydney and Melbourne centric articles.

Lunch at the conference was salads and wraps. I didn't photograph them because of my no blogging about work rule.

But I did photograph some pretty aspects of the food at dinner. It was too good not to do so.

This is a meaty terrine thing wrapped in bacon with butter smeared on the plate, some sort of berry jam and marscapone.


This is a dessert plate. It contained pistachio and olive oil cake, lemon meringue tart, coconut cream, another meringue, chocolate and peanut tart and some other delicious things.


In between the conference and dinner, I went to a wonderful deli next to the conference venue. It is called Signorelli Gastronomia.
It is located at Ground Floor, Trouton Place, Pyrmont, Darling Island Wharf.

It was everything I dreamed of, and I was so pleased to visit it after the conference. Organic produce. Cold meats. Wine. Pasta. Pasta making courses. A cheese room! The staff let me take photos for this blog I thought I'd taken more photos but I was probably too excited at finding this amazing store.
The cheese room. Amazing. My sort of heaven.



My favourite yoghurt. Yalla. There is currently a tub of the vanilla and cardamom yoghurt in my fridge.

The chef making pasta.

I bought a few things from Signorelli Gastronomia.

This is Belgian chocolate. I tend to only eat good quality chocolate. These are cardamom and white pepper, and Indian spice.

This is elderflower cordial. I once had some elderflower drink in Tasmania and loved it.

This is paella spice mix, a present for my parents. They cook paella.

I really wanted to buy cheese. But realistically, unless I ate it in the hotel, it would not have traveled well.

Sydney foodie folk - you really have to go to this deli. It is an experience. You can eat dinner there as well as shop and do cooking classes. Sydney Shop Girl, I set you a blogging challenge - visit it and blog about it!

The next day, I went to Paddington. I did very well, or poorly on the shopping front, depending on how optimistic you are about my bank balance. I didn't buy much. The reality was, the shops that I could afford to shop at were places I frequent in Melbourne. The really interesting and unique shops sold things far out of my affordability range. I thought, if only I didn't frequent those affordable stores in Melbourne quite so much...

I bought the following from Ariel books:

A sticker label stationery set.



A present for Kristy, to be posted tomorrow.


I also bought season one of Underbelly. The one featuring Callan Mulvey. The one that can't be screened or sold in Victoria. I have watched five episodes already.

While Callan was nice to look at, and a great actor I didn't care for the violence or glorification of gangster crime so close to home. And I really wished Callan played a character that lived longer.

A funny thing happened when I walked through the city. Cathy, a blog reader, saw me and recognised me. She wrote on my blog comments that she did a double take, wondering why I was in Sydney not Melbourne!

So that was my short trip to Sydney in many pictures. I had a great time. Can't wait to visit again. Thank you for reading.

Australia Day breakfast

Happy Australia Day! Aside from the sometimes relentless heat, I am so happy to live in Australia, and thankful that we are still the lucky country, full of opportunities for everyone. I really hope we as a nation continue to progress with multiculturalism - racism seems too prominent in recent years.

Today I am staying home and pottering around the house and getting it in order before I return to work tomorrow. I'll be listening to the Hottest 100 - which I didn't realise starts at 12:00 pm this year. Later on I will crank up my indoor barbequeue that my parents bought me for Christmas - will have some lamb chops, sweet potato, capsicum and eggplant.

Cooking is a huge part of my life - I've certainly inherited this love from my Mum - and I realise I haven't actually blogged about cooking much yet. So I will.

I have just finished a delicious breakfast that I cooked myself. Breakfast (excluding cereal and eggs that aren't scrambled) is often my favourite meal of the day. I love salmon and avocado with scrambled eggs, bircher muesli, toast topped with honey and cream cheese and peaches, porridge with banana and brown sugar....

On workdays in the warmer months I make a smoothie with banana, and add berries, mango, peaches or whatever other fruits I have, and I put yoghurt and bran in with the milk. In winter I have porridge. I have a breakfast meeting with my managers once a week - we take it in turns to bring in breakfast. I love these days - it makes the meetings informal and I look forward to planning what to cook the day before.

I enjoy making breakfast but I also love going out to cafes. Yesterday I had corn cakes with bacon and roast tomato and aoli from a local cafe. Sunday I had bacon, egg and cheese crepes served with spinach and a thick, custardy hot chocolate to drink from Fraus.

Today I got up at the leisurely time of 9:45 am and showered and put on some washing, then cooked breakfast.

I have a book called Marie Claire Breakfast - I sometimes refer to the recipes, but generally I just make up recipes as I go along.


Chocolatey French toast with banana and peach and maple syrup.

I used three slices of the end of my loaf of bread (Edwards rye with soy and linseed - gluten and yeast free)
Two eggs
About a quarter of a cup of full cream milk
Two tablespoons of white sugar

Beat eggs and milk and sugar in a square container, and soak bread for about five minutes.

Heat pan with a teaspoon of butter.

When butter is bubbling, place eggy bread and egg mixture in the pan.

I topped one piece of bread with some small pieces of Green and Black Maya Gold chocolate (his is dark chocolate with orange and spices).

Cook one one side until golden, then flip bread and egg mixture over.

Serve on a plate with one cut peach and one sliced banana, and drizzle with maple syrup.



Please note - I didn't actually eat all of this at once - I have saved a slice of French toast for later, but I did eat all the fruit.

It was delicious!