Break of Dawn, Orange County

Fancy eggs in the most unlikely of places. In this case, a shopping strip in Orange County, playing host to a very impressive serve of designer eggs benedict. Nicely trimmed poached eggs, artsy swirls of pesto hollandaise, fat slabs of juicy ham, all carefully balanced on a couple of slices of toasted potato bread. They do breakfast in style at Break of Dawn, 24351 Avenida De La Carlota, Laguna Hills, California. And not a real housewife in sight.

Fandango, North Melbourne

Things are changing in North Melbourne. Women can walk up King Street without being groped by Wayne Carey. Children can walk down Arden Street without being offered smack. The Kangaroos are about to relocate to the Gold Coast. And you can now enjoy a very fine breakfast on Errol Street, thanks to the arrival of Fandango, 97 Errol Street, North Melbourne, Tel +61 3 9329 0693. But don't go there on a Monday. It's closed. Open Tues-Sun 7.30am-3pm.



This was, without doubt, one of the most delicious serves of scrambled eggs and bacon I have ever had. The pesto-scrambled eggs were rich and tasty (flecked with little baby chunks of pine nut); the sourdough toast was thick and buttery (with a distinct sour note); and the bacon perfectly crispy (by which I mean crisp, but not to the point of shattering). I also switched the grilled tomato for some fresh, ripe avocado, which was great.

Vegetarians will no doubt be tempted by the poached eggs with beetroot and fetta relish, which you can have with spinach and/or mushrooms. It looked excellent. Or, if you like it sweet, the triple stack of pancakes sounded pretty good, served with banana, strawberries, home-made honeyed cream cheese and maple syrup.

The venue is neither big, nor fancy, but it has a place-to-be buzz and the staff are friendly and efficient. I think there are some tables "out the back", but I didn't get that far. They serve a very good Coffee Supreme brew, too.

18/20 "best scrambled ever?"

Cafe Zest, Port Melbourne

Apparently someone bet Dr Seuss $50 that he couldn't write a book using 50 words or less. Green Eggs and Ham won him the bet. I'm almost tempted to bet $50 that I just had the best plate of green eggs and ham Melbourne has to offer. The venue? Cafe Zest, 55 Beach Street, Port Melbourne, Tel +61 3 9646 9182. Nice bayside views, too.



As Mark Twain once wrote: "Nothing helps scenery like ham and eggs... Ham and eggs and scenery... these make happiness." On this score, Zest is a very happy place. The scrambled eggs and seared ham were great, and the pesto gave the dish a real kick.

What Twain forgot to say was: "Nothing helps breakfast like good coffee. Ham, eggs and a double-shot cappucino... these make a perfect breakfast." Zest scores again. The Amici coffee was excellent.

I can only speculate about the rest of the food, having neither viddied nor tasted it. But it all sounds promising: coconut & cinnamon or vanilla chai porridge; lemongrass creamed rice with poached pears; French toast fingers with marscapone and lemon scented apple; hazelnut pancakes with berry compote, strawberries and marscapone; a smoked salmon thingy on sweet corn fritters; and shakshukah (Middle eastern eggs in tomoato sauce, apparently).

16/20 "ham, eggs and scenery"



Eggs & Bacon $10.90 BB100 +9%