Breakfast at ...

It’s been a long, long time since my last entry. Just out of blue I felt like writing again. 

Over the last couple of years, were moments I planned to write something, like travel exeriences or Café reviews or you know, just something, anything.

I took photos which still live somewhere on my computer, under various combinations of alphabetics and numerics, and you know they exist but can't mentally picture exactly where, cos you never use them.

And by now they are all old stories. 

While I was taking a long leave from writing I can’t say I did anything constructive or much at all. Apart from usual part time job and daily house chores, I just spent fair bit of time reading Japanese online novels, I have to say I found several good ones, but most were kind of same-y plot-wise and eventually my fad is over. It was fairly long passing phase though. 

I was constantly sick last year, mainly due to hormone change, low metabolism, low immunity etc, coming with age I guess. 

However there have been a few positive changes lately.  

I have been exercising everyday for the last 3 months, doing dance-move inspired exercises in the morning and yoga at night. Nothing strict, moves are modified depending on my condition of, say, knee pains and back pains; as a result it became very different from textbook yoga. 

But this daily exercise works wonders for me. it gives me more energy and boosts my immune system, and even when I do get sick it doesn't last long. Plus I haven’t taken any sick leave yet. It's WOW considering how I was taking one or two sickies every month for well over a year.

I have been eating home cooked meal most of the time now (until last year I was a perpetual indian/thai takeout eater) and avoiding sweets the best I can. I can't say this too firmly because, as with everything else I can’t stick to my own rules for long. You know the way it is with people like me – I allow myself occasional treat. Strict regimen never works. 

At different time, with different problems with different parts of your body, you have to go through the motions accordingly, am I right or am I right???

Oh what’s that to do with sweets, you ask?

Never mind. I never eat sugar-free sweets. Guilt-free pleasure, they say – then how come are they still so sweet, some syrup or artificial sweetener must’ve been in there right? I would rather have modest amount of raw or brown sugar. 

At least they are natural aren't they, or honey – 

This is my reasoning – Not bad, Honey.

If I were a pedantic dieter, I would’ve also disapproved of Café meals but some are really good. I gotta admit. 

I went to this Café last month and it was still hot you bet. 

This place is situated near Hurstbridge station and from I gather, they are run by a family, cos the boy behind the counter at that time was talking to the local customer about some unhappy event in the family that prevented his mum from turning up that day. 

Hmmm, more unhappy news, where does it all end? I thought I’ve heard enough since the start of this year. Maybe it was the heat this summer to be blamed – it really was a long, hot summer. But we survived through it.

Oh, right. I was about to mention Café meals, now I remember – I have this bad habit of drifting off to different topic and forgetting where I was before – but yep, about Café meals. I actually don’t mind classic breakfast menu like toast with scrambled eggs or poached eggs with crispy bacon. Sometimes I do get the craving, I don't even mind the oily, leathery (rubbery?) texture of the bacon at some anonymous neighbourhood coffee joint (not stylish enough to be called Café, you know the kind I mean.), but this is different. 

Look at these.

Poached eggs were perfectly poached, not too runny or hard – and as may see (or maybe it's not quite the right angle), they have the open kitchen so you can see them preparing food. It’s getting more and more trendy to have open kitchen in a Café these days.

Then again even the simple breakfast is priced like 13 dollars. Yeah and those menu we ordered cost more. But it’s worth paying for.

You see, not just they are delicious but also beautifully presented. In the old days Café meals looked like these. 

Actually they look very, very nice. Far from those rubbery slices of bacon I mentioned...

Talking about good Café, they don’t have to look quite this fancy. 

There’s this tiny Café in Brunswick I frequent, which used to be a derelict milk bar not even 10 years ago. Now converted into one of many popular cafes in Brunswick, it only offers 2 or 3 signature menus (and the food quality is consistently high) as far as I know. 

And they are so simple and nothing too fancy and not as pricey either. 

This very cozy joint that serves one of the best cups of coffee, popular as it deserves, is called La Paloma. Staff are all friendly and many seem to have south American background. Definitely worth checking out.