As I was in Sydney over the weekend for a concert , I decided to go check out Circa cafe, a joint that is topping the cafe rankings on Urbanspoon for Parramatta. It was such a lovely place, with nice waiting staff and the best French toast I've had so far in my life. Pictures and Full review down below...
Circa
The cafe was set in a tiny little garage
The grand entrance :D
From where I sat
A cool teapot of Chai
The BEST french toast I've ever had
And another one before I ate it.
This is what I saw from my table while I ate :)
The table next to me
An awesome interior!
Mirror menu...
And cow print couch, yeah!
Graffiti walls
I really liked these hats...
But these coolest things were definitely this comic wall
And this window and sky corner! :)
Cafe: When I think Sydney, I usually think big cafes (and usually spaces that lack the personality that Melbourne cafes do...Can you tell that I'm a Melbourne snob? :P) But I was pleasantly surprised when I found Circa, a tiny little cafe converted from the garage of an old building, off a hidden street in Parramatta. Circa was lovely and reminded me of all the places we have at home. It was a very little, narrow space, but had exhibited wonderful personality from the graffiti walls and roller-doors to the actual people working inside (Or outside. You could sit on mismatching little chairs outside if you wanted more space). The place was super cool with lots of quirky and whimsical bits and pieces. My favourite things were: The mirror menu, the fake deer's head, the penny-farthing bicycles mounted on the walls, the Elvis Presley street sign and comic wall at the back and finally, the 'sky' corner - with faux windows and walls painted like the sky and whimsical flying toys and mobiles hanging from the ceiling. All very cool.
Customer Service: Was really good, actually! The guy who came out to greet me was very helpful with introducing the menu and was pretty attentive to orders and questions. And he was friendly, conversational and super nice about my tourist habit of taking photos of every little corner of the cafe. The food came out quite quickly with no problems at all. All the other waiters/ chefs/staff I encountered were also very polite.
Food: I had a Chai tea and a French toast with labne (yoghurt), rhubarb and pistachios....and I wanted to eat more because everything I got was so delicious and everything I didn't get looked just as good, but I was so full that it just wasn't possible! The Chai tea was perfect, not too bitter or spicy and not too sweet. And it was served in a lovely Asian teapot. The French toast with labne, rhubarb and pistachios was the BEST French toast I have ever had, hands down. The bread was thick and soft, with a slightly crunchier surface. It was coated with the right amount of egg mixture, so it wasn't soggy or overly battered. It was sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, which gave it that lovely, sweet taste and scent. The labne, a creamy, thick yoghurt and rhubarb, a very sweet, tangy and pulpy sauce gave the dish wonderful contrasting flavours and textures. The pistachios gave the toast crunch. I really enjoyed this brunch, especially after a 10 hour bus trip. As I said before, if I could, I would have eaten more. I'm hoping I'll get the chance to try the Portobello mushroom on toast next time. And I'd recommend anything from here, not just for the wonderful taste of the food, but because everything, from memory, was only around the $7 mark!!! Which is super cheap compared to the brunch stuff we have at a lot of cafes in Melbourne! I'm definitely coming back, for sure.
Anyway, information if you make the trip...
Price: $5-$15 (I think there were some pricier lunch stuff, but most of the food only costs as much as the drinks!)
Delicious dark chocolate on toast: Tartine au chocolate!
With salt...so goood...
Hot cakes
Pan fried carrot cake with carrot gel and dust, carrots and ...cheese
I was intrigued with the carrot dust and carrot gel
Pretty chocolate related stuff
A few chocolate posters
Chocolate postcards and such!
At the counter :)
The space
Where the masses eat
lovely plants :)
lovely pastries
lovely chocolate rooster!
The greenery on our table
The little red door
Cafe: What a nice cafe/shop! I'm pretty sure I once heard that L'atelier had taken over an old warehouse space (that probably explains the suburb we were in - it looked like a place for warehouses and clearance departments!) It was relatively easy to find - no sign, but the red door was a good giveaway. The cafe had plenty of open space and good natural lighting from having a clear ceiling. There were minimal decorations, so it had a nice natural feel to it - but what it did have was lots of plants and chocolate, both of which I liked. Look out for the giant chocolate rooster! :D
Customer service: We had a nice waitress. She was attentive enough to come back and take our orders without our flagging her down after we sent her away because we were having trouble deciding. The only odd thing was that they didn't have enough menus. It was a busy day for brunch (Sunday morning when I went with my friends) so I guess that makes sense, but I've always gotten a menu for brunch, no matter how busy the place...
Food: My favourite brunch pick was definately the Tartine au chocolate! We'd all decided our own dishes, but we were tempted to try the chocolate stuff as L'atelier is well known for its chocolate (...it's brother store being the famous collingwood chocolate place, Monsieur Truffe!) We had our Tartine with dark chocolate, which was delicious (It was probably a good choice too, given how much chocolate was on the toast. You wouldn't want to OD on that stuff :D) The toast was hot and crunchy, the chocolate creamy and soft and the salt brought out the sweetness in our little treat. My friends picked nice dishes - the Croque-monsieur (no pictures, sorry) was nice and crunchy, with lots of cheese, ham and served with salad - it was also massive! The hot cakes also looked awesome with fruit (but they forgot the lemon sauce? :S) And me? I picked the strangest dish on the menu. Pan fried carrot cake with carrot dust, carrot gel, dutch carrots and some sort of cheese...I enjoy trying new things and I get tempted when I see weird combinations? The carrot cake was really good. The carrot gel was tangy and sweet :) But the dutch carrots, although honey-gazed, and the savory cheese just felt weird with the cake...like it should have been a separate dish. I think if they wanted to make it work better, the carrots should have been sweeter (more honey) and the cheese should have been Mascarpone cheese rather than what I had (sorry, the name has slipped me at the moment, will update if I remember!) Nonetheless, it plated up well. All in all, lovely place - You must try their chocolate dishes!
Price range: $6-$20
With thanks to: My brunching buddies Harini and Kate for a nice morning out!
Ramble: I spend a lot of my time watching movies these days - ushering sessions for work and getting through all the stuff my brother and I rent/download/borrow/ buy and watch in cinemas and on TV. A lot of the films I see, no matter how enjoyable they are, remain with me, at best, for a few hours before I move onto some new thing. Some would say I've become numb to the thrill of film-watching. But I just think I haven't seen anything worth obsessing over lately. But all this changed a few days ago when I went to see Drive with my brother. I can't stop thinking about how awesome this film is...
Unlike most girls (and my brother), I've never liked The Notebook (shock horror). So no, I wasn't originally a Ryan Gosling fan and I didn't choose the film to appease any sort of fangirl need... I really wanted to see Drive because I remember reading about its awesome plot on the MIFF guide earlier in the year, but missing out because I was too poor to buy tickets to go see it (It was the closing night film and tickets were like $120+). So what made this movie so awesome?
For starters, the story was the best action-drama-romance combination that's been on the market for awhile. The plot revolves around an unnamed character, The "driver" (Ryan Gosling), who works as a mechanic and stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night. He is employed by a man named Shannon, who takes loans and makes transactions with local gangsters, Bernie and Nino. Shannon, impressed with the driver's talent, promotes him to these gangsters as part of a deal he makes. The driver does as he's told without taking much interest in anything except Irene (Carey Mulligan), the young woman next door who is raising a child by herself while her husband is in jail. Although the pair have a strong mutual attraction for each other, things get complicated when the husband returns and requires the help of the driver...I love everything about this movie. The plot is wonderful - simple but sophisticated, the acting is awesome, the editing and flow of events is fantastic - Warning: Minor Spoilers - As my friend pointed out, one moment you see Irene's car breaking down, then you see a scene of The Driver looking at her and then it cuts to him carrying her bags into her house. The story is told through actions and events, rather than dialogue. It was beautiful story-telling - every gesture had meaning and portrayed more than what was said on screen. - End Spoilers - All in all, the film is done exceptionally well, setting it apart from other films that fall under the 'bad-ass-fast-car-grand-theft-auto' umbrella. It is effectively suspenseful and tender in all the right moments, and excels in all the genres it sets out to cover.
Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan are amazing in Drive, both as individuals and as a pair. Like I mentioned before, I've never been much of a Ryan Gosling fan in the past, but this has undone all the damage The Notebook did to him for me. In some ways, the Driver was nothing he couldn't pull off - you've all seen him in that brooding, man-of-few-words protagonist role before. But I liked his portrayal of The Driver more than of all his previous, similar roles. The Driver was a character with very, very, very few words and (at the start) very few grand, passionate actions. So the character didn't develop through dialogue, but rather through the lack of it. He had to come out through subtle things like tone of voice, gaze, gestures, smiles etc...And in my opinion, Ryan Gosling did a good job. His two word responses were always packed with overwhelming emotion when it was said in conversation to Irene or to her son, and his glances and smirks towards Bernie and Nino always gave off that feeling of rage hidden under the external guise of indifference. As for Carey Mulligan, I have always been a fan since I saw Pride and Prejudice and Never let me go, so I may be biased, but she was the best choice for this role. Again, I don't think this role is anything outside her comfort zone as she is 'the girl next door' (pardon the pun :D). But Carey Mulligan played a convincing single mother, and while she smiled brightly and shined with liveliness and cheek in her eyes, she also added this lovely hidden sadness to her character, Irene. Together, Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan had such intense on-screen chemistry that you'd have to be blind to have missed all those sparks. Watching them smiling shyly at each other for a few long, silent minutes made the film as enjoyable as watching all the (very) bloody fight scenes (And I do love myself a good bloody fight scene when its seen through my fingers :D).
But more than just the acting, I think I also like the characters themselves. The Driver was more than just a moody kid with a dual
identity - on the outside, he was mysterious, he was very indifferent, he was cold, he had no past and he cared little about the conventions of morality. But he was also carried his own beliefs and silent struggles. And his loyalty to the people he loved made him a fantastic character, both simple and complicated, much like a dark, vigilante comic book character.
Actually most of the film had the comic book element to it: a fantastic 80's synth influenced soundtrack that is cool and detached, yet buzzing with underlying emotion, costumes including a shiny scorpion jacket and leather driving gloves, hot pink credit fonts, gory bloodbath violence, gangsters, a few strippers...That whole vice city feel to it. But yes, I really enjoyed the whole film. It has surprisingly wedged its way into my favourite's list and I'd recommend this movie to anyone who likes action, a good love story, a great comic book/vigilante hero and vice-city landscape to go watch this!
Should I go? Yes: I love every element of it - characters, acting, landscape, plot, directing. And it did win the director a 'Best Director' award at the Cannes film festival, so I can't be the only one who's in love with this film.
No: It's a fantastic movie, but if you're expecting a fast and the furious type movie, this won't be your thing, I think.
You'll like this if you liked: The Departed, Man from Nowhere, Sin city
And to finish off, the intro with Nightcall by Kavinsky ft. Lovefoxxx...
Not so long ago, I met up with my China crew for another one of our famous food adventure. (As you can tell, we all love good food, cool little brunch spots and photo-taking :D). We were going to go check out Madame Mango, but that turned out to be closed, so we ended up at this little Parisian joint.
Provence Artisan Bakers
Nice looking bread loafs and cakes
From where I sat
Mediterranean eggs with bread and herb mayonnaise
A closer look :D
Veggie breakfast!
Mushrooms :)
Drooling at breads once again :D
Plants and coffee
Lights that remind me of lamp posts
Just another Parisian cafe
Pretty droopy pot plant!
Such nice decorations everywhere!
From the front
Cafe: This is one of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it cafes on Burke St in Camberwell. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary little coffee shop...but when you walk it, it becomes a quaint little French-inspired bakery, complete with Parisian styled decor and rows of pastries, breads, muffins and vanilla slice :D There are lots of little pot plants, lovely framed pictures and fancy little bits and pieces to look at. The cafe is small and doesn't seat many, but you're welcome to sit outside or by the window, where its easier to join a couple of tables.
Customer Service: The cafe was rather busy when we were in, so the waitresses were busy with their jobs and our breakfast orders were late. But as it was really busy and there were several of us (some who had missed their alarms and were on their way :P), we didn't really mind. The service was pretty ok.
Food: All the pasteries and bread looked sooo good! I'm sad to say that I didn't get to try any on the day I was there, but I'll update you if I ever get my hands on that vanilla slice. For brunch, I had the Mediterranean breakfast, which was Provence Artisan Bakers' specialty dish. This was pretty much eggs scrambled in a tomato sauce with feta cheese sprinkled on the top and a serving of rye bread and herbed mayo on the side. The dish was nice - cooked well and presented well - but not the best brunch dish I've picked. It was a matter of personal taste- I think I'm just not much of a tomato paste person. But it did add a nice, sweet tomato flavour to the eggs and I really liked the way they were served in a cute little red pan. The bread and herb mayo were delicious too. Personally, I really liked the look of the Vegetarian big breakfast and the mushroom and avocado on toast. Those looked tasty. All in all, try the breads and pastries...and try the breakfasts - they're all very good vegetarian/ healthy options!
