Brunch Adventures: Proud Mary

There seems to be many good brunch places close to church.

I say brunch but we went during lunch. Thank God for All-Day-Breakfasts. We didn't go on a Sunday, because we were all on holiday and decided to go on a weekday instead, but we were not smart enough to make a booking for 9 people (We didn't know we could! But yes, bookings can be made on weekdays. In fact, if you intend to show up with 9 people, the waitress would MUCH prefer you make a booking.) and also were not smart enough to avoid the lunch crowd.


So after waiting for about.. 20 minutes. We got a table. We volunteered to sit outside to make the waitress' life easier, but it was more so we could get a table faster because we were (read: I was) really really hungry. Nobody wanted to sit outside (we soon figured out why) so it was MUCH easier for us to get seats as opposed to have to wait for 4 tables-of-two to simultaneously leave at the same time who were coincidentally sitting next to each other.


It was a drizzly morning. Which turned into a little more than a drizzle after we sat down. And then a lot more. After a very challenging seat/umbrella-rearrangement session to avoid getting wet (during which many ideas were thrown around, some of which gave us the exact opposite of the desired result), we made it work in the end!

Lamb Sandwich with Beetroot and Herb Yoghurt

The most popular dish here seems to be the Pork Belly Sandwich (among my friends anyway. On that day itself, out of the 9 of us, we ordered 5 serves of the Pork Belly). Its nice, but since I'm not much of a pork belly fan, I much prefer the lamb sandwich. And there's beetroot in it! How can you say no to beetroot! Nutritious, delicious, and purple.

Pork Ragu with Parpadelle and Parmesan

This was a winner. Not sure if its because it really was amazingly amazing, or if my judgement was swayed due to being REALLY hungry and in desperate need of warm comfort food thanks to the rain. And comfort food, this sure is. The pork is cooked for a certain number of hours (12? 24? DETAILS DETAILS. But its a long time, basically) and so its nice and soft and juicy. This was my first time having parpadelle, and I had a little bit of trouble eating it... in a dainty way. I couldn't get the whole thing in my mouth in a neat lump initially because well, you cant scoop it up with a spoon like spirelli or twist it around a fork and shove it in your mouth like spaghetti/linguine (both of these methods were what I tried before I figured out how to do it, which is to sort of fold it and stab it with your fork before it unfolds, and then eat it. But that was after I got my face all dirty). The yellow shards on top: I think it was parmesan. It tasted like parmesan. Once again - details. But it was definitely cheese.

I did think the portion was a little tinier than what I had expected, but then again I have a pretty big appetite, and like I said I was really hungry.

Syphon - Geisha - Columbia

Proud Mary is pretty well known for their speciality coffee. Never have I faced as many options while ordering coffee ever before. To keep with the coffee tutorial theme, I went with filtered coffee. Firstly, the way the coffee is filtered/extracted : syphon, French press, V60, or Chemex. And then which type of beans you wanted. I ordered a Geisha (among many other options the waitress was reciting to me), because it was impressed on me that that was the coffee to order. And then I had to choose which country's Geisha I wanted. This was all very overwhelming without my coffee mentor beside me (he was late).

But I got my coffee in the end, it was nice, but not mind-blowingly so. It had a very clean taste (what does that even mean). I guess what I mean by "clean" is... crisp/not complex I guess. I cant help but imagine a sheet of white linen when I say "clean". But besides the "cleanliness", I still don't know how to appreciate this to the full - yet.

Paid 10 AUD for this baby. Never in my life have I paid that much for a single cup of coffee. It must've been really good. Maybe I should've saved this one for a session at the later part of my coffee-appreciation program, after I've developed the taste buds for it. What a waste :(



Speaking of coffee, my dentist has expressed deep concern about my new habits... "OMG WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR TEETH THEY USED TO BE WHITE NOW THEY'RE BROWN OMG OMG  I am not very happy."
Isn't it funny how dentists try to talk to you when they're jamming foreign metal objects into your wide open mouth?

Till next time! x

Proud Mary Coffee Roasters and Cafe

172 Oxford Street

Collingwood

03-9417 5930

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