Proud Mary

On a lovely Summer Sunday, K and I ventured to Collingwood for some brunch action at Proud Mary. I have heard about it but never had the time to go there, so K (my favourite eating partner) drove to my house, gave me a kick up the butt, and we ventured to Collingwood to continue my brunch adventures.




We got there around 2pm and was told there was a bit of a wait, and we were fine with it. It was a lovely day and I could do with some vitamin D in my system. After about 20 minutes we were seated and the lovely waiter got us our menus and made sure we were will caffined up.

I got a soy latte to kick start my meal, and K opted for a flat white. The coffee was smooth and velvety, no wonder K was gushing about their coffee on our way there.

For the main show, we got 2 things to share. We picked one sweet and one savory.

The sweet was an easy choice, as soon as we saw the menu, both our eyes were glued to the ricotta hotcakes. It had a caramelised blood orange sauce with 3 fluffy hotcakes, coconut ice cream, slices of oranges and orange blossom. This was a very strong citrus sauce, and it really needed the coconut ice cream to penatrate through the zest. It was really scrumptious but if you don't eat it with the ice cream, you may get a slight bitter aftertaste.

For the savory we got the potato hash. This came with charred kale, smoked bacon, poached egg and bang cauda (Italian sauce of anchovies and garlic). It came with a big bed of potato hash. It was crispy on the edges and soft in the centre. The bang cauda tied the bacon and egg together with the hash really well. the charred kale tasted like crispy seaweed. The dish as a whole executed well and delicious all round. It is something I would happily go back for every week.

Addition to the coffees and the 2 dishes I made K share a super smoothie with me too. This was made up of acai berries, banana and cacao. This was a heavy smoothie and I was very glad I asked K to share with me, because there was no way I could finish it on my own.

Overall 16/20 it was a very delightful visit. The food was delectable and the coffees were good. I found the whole experience very enjoyable and it was the highlight of my Sunday.

Masak Masak

I found a scoopon for laksa hot pot at Masak Masak and given the very cold weather in Melbourne of late, I didn't need much convincing.

If you are unfamiliar, hot pot is an Asian style of eating where a group of friends/family cook out of a pot of broth. It is a very popular style of gathering in Asia once the weather gets cold.

For the hot pot in Masak Masak, they offered a traditional hot pot with laksa broth, heated on charcoal. It came with an assortment including dried wontons, prawns, crab, enoki mushrooms, bok choy, noodles, fish cake. I love the flavour of the laksa base, it wasn't too creamy or watery. 

As a side there was also the buffalo wings with onion sambal, saucy, succulent meat with just the right hint of spice for those who can't take the heat. We could smell the satay as they were cooked on charcoal but regrettably we didn't order any.

We also go the chicken rice to share. This came with a generous serve of half a chicken and a bowl of rice. Underneath the chicken there was a lot of beanshoots and sweet chicken soy sauce. It was a real shame, when this came to the table, the chicken was a bit cold. The rice had a beautiful fragrant and flavour to it, but the grains were still quite hard. Personally I would consider that rice under cooked.

For dessert we got the coconut kaffir lime sorbet, this was a good way to finish off the meal

Overall 12.5/20. We used the scoopon deal which gave us the hot pot, wings and sorbet for $19. The hot pot is normally $33 and that would serve 2 people. I was very happy with the hot pot so I would go back.