Purple Peanuts Japanese Cafe

620 Collins St  Melbourne, VIC 3000


Sitting at home with my eyes blaring from the bright light of my computer screen I decide that a tasty late lunch is in order. I mean, I did at least four straight hours of study...article after essay after opinion piece; I felt I deserved to try something new.
The place I went to today is not off my wonderful bucket list, it was something that I just stumbled across whilst day dreaming on Urban Spoon. 


Rated quite highly on the website and approximately 7 minutes from where I am living at the moment; 'Purple Peanuts Japanese Cafe' sits neatly inbetween the large business district of Collins Street and is quite accessible for anyone. A building that I have walked past a thousand times, never really taking notice of the interior, the one exclusion being the Japanese artwork of the Beatles that hangs above a refrigerator. Entering the small restaurant I felt as though I had walked into an average take-away sushi place that has the pre-packed sashimi accompanied by the wasabi in a plastic grass sheath... this is a pet hate of mine. But, I judged too soon; looking around the venue I noticed the attention to detail and the accommodating atmosphere. Cutlery is self serve and you can help yourself to your own jug of water and condiments (which I love).


The menu reads quite simply, meat seafood and vegetarian variations of three main styles: curries, salads or sashimi accompanied by a soup or optional white/brown rice is the basis of their dishes. 

The handwritten menu adds a touch of informality which many Japanese restaurants have, as if to claim that a sleek stylised venue = high quality dining/meals.


'Purple Peanuts Japanese Cafe' has a silly name, small venue, but some of the most delicious Japanese food I have ever eaten. Clean, healthy and organically sourced their meals seem to have purpose and don't come across as pretentious or stereotypical.

I ordered the prawn and buckwheat noodle salad with a side of miso soup. All of this only came to $11.90, which if you are familiar with Japanese food (especially quite large portions) is very cheap.
The salad was delicious, fresh and flavoursome. A creamy avocado and chilli based dressing sat beneath the noodles to allow a controlled portion. Overall the salad was exactly what I was craving and did not leave me hungry or feeling ill, two of the most common signs of a bad meal! 

Miso may not be to everyones liking, but until you have tried this version you cannot say you don't like it. I will admit, that sometimes I enjoy the preservative filled miso soup sachets that you can buy from the supermarket. They have that distinctive salty manipulated bland flavour that after a while gives your pallet quite a boring hint of tofu. This soup actually had levels of flavour, filled with silken tofu and chunks of vegetables it tasted like a soup rather then a sodium filled broth. Very cheap and very tasty.

As I was not alone on this journey my very lovely date also enjoyed his slow cooked pork doused in a chilli sauce that wasn't too spicy. The pork was unbelievably tender and had the perfect amount of fat surrounding the meat making sure it was moist and not too dry. 




'Purple Peanuts Japanese Cafe' was surprising as the actual building it not overly nice (especially on a very hot day) to sit in as there was not any (noticeable) air conditioning. Apart from the building the food both cost wise and taste were perfect and exactly what anyone could want from authentic Japanese food with that hint of a Korean influence. I definitely recommend it for anyone trying to find a decent lunch in the CBD.

A sort of bucket list.

Happy Labour Day to all! Many of you may have enjoyed Melbourne's most meaningless public holiday at home, relaxing. Perhaps you even ventured into the CBD to watch the Moomba parade (I wouldn't have recommended it due to the overload of lower class scum that seemed to be filling all of the pathways and building entrances with their sad eyes and cigarette smoke odour) apart from my own personal negativity surrounding the public holiday... purely based upon the fact that I have two options: either work or attend Deakin University (like many other universities which decide to remain open). 


All of these things have now led me to write a sort of bucket list, taking one out of Karl Pilkington's book I seek to do all of the things on my own personal itinerary. I have now written a list of eateries across Melbourne that I have to go to before the end of the year... unless I die before then. I will soon enchant all of you with my tales of foreign lands, but first I need to make a plan. This plan is to try as much as possible and not become lazy when it comes to the most important thing in the world: eating.


So here is the list. I would love to have some company across my travels, so if anyone is interested feel free to join me.

Breakfast: 

The Hardware Societe: 118-120 Hardware St 

Melbourne, VIC 3000

Sally’s Kitchen: 295 Exhibition St 

Melbourne, VIC 3000

Birdman Eating: 238 Gertrude St 

Fitzroy, VIC 3065

Lunch:

Banque: 189 Nelson Pl 

Williamstown, VIC 3016

Colonel Tans: 229 Chapel St 

Prahran, VIC 3181

Dinner:

The Post Office Hotel: 231 Sydney Rd 

Coburg, VIC 3058

Josie Bones : 8 Smith Street 

Collingwood, VIC 3066

Hellenic Republic: 434 Lygon St 

Brunswick East, VIC 305

The Royston Hotel: 12 River St 

Richmond, VIC 3121

Rockpool: Crown Casino 8 Whiteman St  

Southbank, VIC 3006

Drinks: 

Atticus Finch: 29 Lygon Street 

Brunswick East, VIC 3057

Time to start eating!

8 months later...

...and I'm back.  Hello 2012! After an 8 month absence I am back with stories to tell, recipes to distribute and kilos to lose. Time has been very kind being spent quite leisurely, eating, drinking, writing and baking.

London. Manchester. Dublin. Paris.



All the secrets and details of my 5 week food travels will be revealed and hopefully some ideas that will help us all feel as though we are experiencing something worth while in the way we consume food and alcohol.

Watch this space.

The Fitz Cafe

Location: 347 Brunswick Street Fitzroy, 3065
Hours: Breakfast/Lunch and Dinner (7am-11pm)
Guests: Nicole, Richard
http://www.thefitz.com.au/gallery.html

The 'Fitz Cafe' is misleading in many ways, the name sounds as though it should be a grungy pub, with a large outside seating area filled with scum puffing their lives away near the entrance... This could not be further from the truth. The Fitz has a slight cafe atmosphere, with bustling waitresses and the smell of coffee filling the small dining room.

When we walked in we were welcomed by an open fire and large wooden tables with dark leather seats. Chalk boards are scattered on the walls, large white chalk letters stating the decadent menu for the Friday evening. The prices were in the $18-30 for a main meal, but all of the fresh and italian inspired ingredients seemed worth it. As a started we all shared a bread selection, with a rosemary and caramelised onion topping. It was delicious, and perfect for three people.


The mains we ordered were Pork belly on a bed of mash and red cabbage soaked in cider, Lamb shanks with a carrot puree' and winter vegetables and a Harissa lamb fillet served on seasonal veg with a minted yoghurt. Can I just say... Yum! All of the food was rustic and visually enticing. We all loved our meals and left holding our stomachs from the large portion sizes. The Fitz had to be some of the best food I have eaten in a really long time!

Yong Green Food

So let's start from the beginning...

Location: 421 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy 3065
Hours: Open for lunch/dinner
Guests: Dan, Jonathan, Richard

Yong Green Food is a small little cafe style restaurant that has an eco-friendly mentality, providing vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and raw organic meals. The menu is split into two parts (raw, and cooked). At first glance the menu seems slightly overwhelming with the amount of ingredients in each of the dishes, lists of vegetables and soy products filling the page.

I think the best approach for people who eat meat and are not used to such "sustainable" food is to choose something that you would ordinarily like for example: Lasagne, then pick the raw vegan interpretation. I really enjoyed the venue and all of our meals were very tasty and reasonably priced.

I ordered a 'Lentil Hot Pot'... which on the freezing cold night was perfectly suited, afterwards I was extremely full, but could have continued eating out of curiosity of what things would taste like.

We all got raw cheesecakes to share, which seemed like a bizarre concept... How do you make a cheesecake without any dairy and no cooking at all? Our chocolate cheesecake tasted like a 'true' cacao bean and had an interesting mousse like texture.

Dan and Jonathan got a green tea raw cheesecake which was bright and sickly sweet in flavour. The desserts were quite delicious and the idea of all of the products being organically sourced made us feel good about what we were consuming.

 I would say that Young Green Food may be more suited as a lunch venue as you could order something fresh and light to keep you going throughout the day.

I believe you should all try it for something new!

Three weeks is far too long.

I do apologise for my lack of new material, but don't let my absence fool you... I have been using each spare moment to try something new. This month I have dined out in numerous places across Melbourne and over the next two days I shall share each experience with you!

Afghan Cookies

Source: http://www.grouprecipes.com/23374/afghan-cookies.html


Ingredients: 

• 200 grams butter
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 2 cups corn flakes
• Now this was not my first choice of recipe for these crunchy easy cookies. I browsed through many recipe books and websites and stumbled across this one. It seemed to be larger in quantity and had more ingredients; such as coconut and vanilla essence. There are many different versions of the 'Afghan cookie'; but as it is a know treat to our friends in New Zealand, I trusted the advice from a New Zealand woman who claims she has perfected the recipe. 
• Method: 
• Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla essence.
  • Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt and using a metal spoon stir into the creamed mixture with the coconut and corn flakes. Spoon large tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto greased trays. Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes.Cool on a cake rack before icing with chocolate icing.
  • Icing: In a bowl sift 11/2 cups icing sugar and 2 tblsp cocoa. Blend in 1 tsp melted butter and 2-3 tblsp warm milk until you have a thick icing of spreadable consistency.
  • The only trouble I had during this whole process was beating the butter, sugar and egg mixture. It seemed once the egg was added it all sort of separated and refused to turn into a "light and creamy mixture". I used a combination of electric beater and a large metal spoon (which to my surprise, worked better). 
  • The cookies are very flavoursome and filling! Perfect with icing or without!