Rumi Kills Breakfast?

After reading much ranting and raving about Rumi, I decided it was time to try breakfast, Persian style. So I dragged myself half-way across town in search of a plate of deep fried eggs and dukkah. Would this mecca of modern-middle-eastern win me over? Or was I destined for disappointment? The latter, I'm afraid. The place was shut. It was 11am on a Saturday morning and I can only conclude that Rumi don't do breakfast no more. Is it true? Has Rumi killed breakfast?

A Minor Place, Brunswick

I wonder if Kelvin Thomson ever wrote a character reference for the nice people at A Minor Place, 103 Albion Street, Brunswick, Tel +61 3 9384 3131? Maybe not. Something tells me they might vote Green. Not that Kelvin needs to worry too much. With a big fat margin of 20%, this is safe labor turf.



Which means there's not much chance of Kevin 07 dropping by for an espresso and a quick bite of earwax. Better to focus on the marginals. Like Bennelong.

This is good news for the voters of Wills. They can eat their breakfast in peace. Simple things like homemade crumpets with blackberry butter. Sweet things like french toasted casalinga with pistachio ricotta, stewed rhubarb and maple syrup. Savoury things like a toasted "brontosaurus bagel" with currant relish, fresh tomato, cucumber, avocado, rocket and lemon mustard dressing. And satisfying things like "a minor breakfast" of poached eggs on toast with grilled ham, roast tomato, white beans and spinach (a few leaves of raw spinach, unfortunately).

The food is all good quality stuff (organic free range eggs, etc), but falls just short of top marks. And while the service is efficient (no mistakes), it wouldn't hurt them to throw in the odd smile.

16/20 "brunswick buzz"

Gingerlee, Brunswick East

Whatever you do, don't make the mistake of typing "Ginger Lee" into Google during work hours. Or, worse, school hours. Because you may stumble across a clip from "Stuffin Young Muffins 5", which... how do I put this... is not a cooking video. But don't worry. There are no muffins on the breakfast menu at Gingerlee, 117 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, Tel +61 3 9380 4430. You can, however, "check display for daily tarts".



I'm not really a tart man, so I went with poached eggs, shaved ham, roasted tomato, spicy pork and fennel sausage, shallot jam and rocket (lots of rocket). The eggs were very good, and, even better, served on toasted Dench sourdough. But the pork sausage was the star of the show. Worth the $16.50 price tag.

By all accounts, the rest of the menu is equally good. Ange has already raved about the Syrian style French toast with orange blossom syrup, honey labne, stewed rhubarb and pistachios (mmmm... pistachios). The Veggies have raved about the poached eggs with "slow braised" mushrooms, avocado, lemon and persian feta. And I quite liked the sound of the gluten free toasted macadamia muesli with kiwi, banana and honey cinnamon yoghurt.

Gingerlee is also a very stylish venue, with concrete floors, high ceilings, black tables and nice brown bentwood chairs. The syndicate organic free trade coffee was very good, too.

Originally I gave this place the benefit of the doubt and scored it 18/20. But in light of all the comments I'm downgrading to 16/20.

16/20 "food porn"

Fat Little Fritters at Small Block

I think Small Block deserves an upgrade to at least 16/20, with full marks (3/3) for the "other" stuff, ie, things other than eggs. These were some fine corn fritters, with a tasty side of creme fraiche and some kind of chili relish. Good bacon, too.



The Small Block menu also deserves special mention for variety. Oodles of choice, and plenty of creative twists.

Tom Phat, Brunswick

Say hello to the Cheap Eats 2007 breakfast dish of the year: the roti omelette at Tom Phat, 184 Sydney Rd, Brunswick, Tel +61 3 9381 2374. A monster dish of twisted roti, grilled bacon and asian-style omelette topped with roasted tomato salsa and fried shallots. A bit annoying to eat - roti is better ripped up in the hand than chopped up with knife and fork - but tasty and very filling.



Tom Phat is fusion food done well: viet eggs fried with chilli soy and spring onion; sri scrambled eggs with spring onion, curry leaves, cherry tomatoes and crispy roti; and uncle ho's breakfast with grilled marinated pork chop, crispy fried egg, tomato, cucumber and rice; and south african fruit toast with cracked wheat, sultanas and poppy seeds. They also have "normal" food, like toasted muesli, corn fritters, and a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, tomato, mushroom, avocado and hollandaise.

Another strong point is the Coffee Supreme coffee. It had a superb, almost caramel-like flavour. It was organic. It was fair trade. And it was brewed up by a dude with a mohawk.

If you prefer your drinks cold and fresh, Tom Phat does a nice line of juices and smoothies with cute names. Pineapple, watermelon and apple is a "fruit tingle". Banana, apple and yohurt is "monkey magic". And watermelon, apple and ginger is "fit and fresh".

17/20 "phat"



Eggs & Bacon $9.90 BB100 -1%

Poached, Brunswick

As the Labor caucus tries to choose between Harry Potter and Blow-hard Beazley, this morning I faced a difficult choice of my own... where to go and what to have for breakfast? Not crumpets, that much was easy. Not after I read that "Rudd is the thinking woman's crumpet". No, I was in the mood for the old favorite: "Eggs benedict please, with a side of grilled potatoes." And what better place to order poached eggs than a cafe called "Poached", 169 Lygon Street, East Brunswick, Tel +61 3 9387 2396.



It really should come as no surprise to anyone that Kev's taken his Field Marshal's baton out of his backback and given it a good hard polish. Beazley may be a nice guy (Mark Latham would beg to differ), but he really is a total wind-bag and most people don't have a clue what he's mumbling about. Even when he's trying to say "I can keep it simple", he says things like "I have learnt over the course of the past 18 months that simplicity is one of the things I need to carry around with me as a talisman..." Huh? A talis-what? Need I say more?

Speaking of simplicity, I am coming to the view that "special" ingredients are best left out of breakfast classics like eggs benedict. Simple twists can work. But adding slow roasted tomatoes is not what I'd call a simple twist. It was not an improvement on the classic benedict. Otherwise, it was a reasonable effort, with eggs soft-poached, thin slices of grilled gypsy ham, acceptable hollandaise (albeit a tad bland and lacking in lemon) and some grilled slices of spud.

I get the impression that Ange was very happy with the Eggs Florentine at Poached. I can also report that the plate of French toast delivered to the table next to mine looked huge (a big heap with pears, marscapone, topped with crispy bacon, and swimming in maple syrup). Otherwise you can get all the usual stuff like croissants, bircher muesli, eggs and extras (including zucchini, which is rare).

The Lavazza coffee was good, but not great, and the service was swift. As a venue, Poached has a very average, standard, mainstream, cafe vibe, which is not really what you expect to find just a few doors down from Small Block and Sugardough. But it was a good mainstream vibe, if that makes any sense. And excellent value. My eggs benny with two coffees was just over $15.

13/20 "eggs with zucchini"

Cafe 3A, Brunswick

It turns out that size doesn't matter after all. It's all about performance. Admirably demonstrated this morning (this afternoon actually) at Cafe 3A, 3A Edward Street, Brunswick, Tel +61 3 9380 4996. The venue is tiny. The "Pistachio Poached" breakfast was very good. And the Ethiopian Gold coffee was superb.



I enjoyed my "lemon butter pistachio pesto spread on sourdough with two poached eggs, whipped ricotta and preserved lemon and avocado salad." But as good as it was, the the menu made it sound so good that the actual dish struggled to live up to high expectations. The flavour of the lemon butter pistachio "pesto" was too subtle. It lacked the tasty kick you get from traditional garlic-basil pesto. And neither the whipped ricotta nor the avocado managed to fill the flavour void. Call me picky.

I reckon a better option might be the Olivada Poached, served on sourdough with olivada, fetta and capers (a bargain at $7.50). Or maybe the scrambled green eggs and ham with salsa verde, bacon and slow roasted tomato.

15/20 "is small, is good"



Eggs & Bacon $8.00 BB100 -20%

Small Block, Brunswick East

Slowly but surely the latte left has grown up, paired off, and settled in Brunswick. With a critical mass of comrades invading Melbourne's once desolate inner urban North, it was only a matter of time before the cafes sprang up to service their needs. Enter Small Block, at 130 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, Tel +61 3 9381 2244. A comrade's gotta eat.



Cheap Eats reckons this place serves up one of Melbourne's "sunniest serves of eggs benedict". What exactly is that supposed to mean? Are they the best? Or is this just a fluffy way of saying that there's Eggs Benedict on the menu and they're not too bad? I'm voting for the latter. The eggs and ham were good, the toasted bread roll was an interesting twist, but the hollandaise lacked zing. And good hollandaise needs some zing.

A better option, in my view, would have been the Small Block Summer Breakfast of eggs, beetroot relish, avocado and spinach with a potato and shallot pancake. Or maybe Jed's Bircher muesli with Rhubarb?

As a venue, Small Block is a great example of designer grunge meets industrial chic... the combination of polished concrete floors, original pressed tin ceilings, and comfy 2nd-hand furniture just seemed to work. The place was busy and buzzing, without feeling cramped.

My coffee was good (but not very good), and the service was friendly, if a little slow. Well worth a visit if you're North of the city and looking for eggs.

15/20 "designer grunge for the latte left"