Platform 82

I've been wanting to come here since I saw this, because who doesn't want food stacked on a platter? It's a short walk from Concord West Station. There's a decent amount of seating, but relatively dimmer inside. It is next to the railway, so lighting occasionally changes when a train goes past/can be a bit noisy, and with the open doors, heaps of flies do come in. Ended up asking them to turn on the fans to help get some wind to get the flies away, but towards the end, there were some small flies stuck onto bits of food...

Breakfast platter for 2-$32pp

 

since it's not cheap, may as well get a few shots in

eggs 3 ways: fried, scrambled and poached

veggies: mushroom, spinach, does avo and tomato count?

Platter also had bacon, hash browns, salami, other deli meat, feta, four pieces of toast and meatballs. Opted for the breakfast platter since it's the OG, although the stuff itself is pretty basic and you can make it at home. You're really paying for the presentation and the ability to eat from a platter and a plate on a stand. Bacon wasn't too fatty and had heaps of slices. The eggs were cooked well, but I found the toast a bit tough and not toasty enough. There was heaps of food here and we didn't manage to finish some of the veggies.

dessert plate: cornetto, crumpets, heaps of nutella/chocolate, cookie crumbs, oreo, strawberry

Lucky we didn't upgrade the dessert to pancakes or churros, because we didn't even finish the crumpets. Crumpets are probably my least favourite packaged breakfast item (compared to bread, pancakes, waffles, pikelets, cereal, granola etc), but it was way too sweet and chocolatey since it was lathered with layers of nutella. Wished there was more fruit since there was only one strawberry cut into 4 bits, and it really needed the freshness and acidity to cut through the cookie crumble, chocolate, maple syrup and melted ice cream.

This place does give you a good feed, although not cheap, but it's fun for a novelty thing as a one off.

Wolfe & Co Take 3

(Currently catching up on all my draft posts. Travel posts to come-hopefully)

Probably the first time waking up so early for breakfast at a cafe, but it was lovely catching up with a high school friend. Decided to come to this cafe since the other one wasn't opened that day. Local is good (although more expensive in the Hills area).

 
Spread

 

Truffled mushrooms: herbed local flat mushroom, mushroom pâté, ricotta salata, black truffle, nasturtium, five grain sourdough-$15.50

I didn't really want anything too heavy for brekkie, so opted for this mushroom toast. Normally I don't have toast at cafes, but couldn't resist after seeing truffles next to it. It smelt amazing with the truffle oil, but the white truffle obviously isn't as fragrant as your typical black ones. Mushrooms were so juicy.

  

Avocado: heirloom tomato,beetroot goats curd, beetroot textures, lemon salt, sourdough w/ smoked salmon-$14.50+$4.50

Probably the prettiest avo toast I've seen, and topped with heaps of other stuff. 

 

Regular soy latte-$4, cap-$3.50

Good coffee with a decent price. 

Exam Treats ft. Bourke St, Zest Patisserie, Cosmo Coffee

my uncle came the week before and during stuvac. super inconvenient since it meant i missed out on heapsss of delicious food. the only dinner i went out to was in my last food post-Home Thai.

they also went to a cafe in surry hills, which isn't currently on my list to go, so it was ok not going (for now, if that makes sense...), but since they were there it meant they could bring me back stuff! originally i wanted some cake, but that cafe didn't really have nice cakes, then i thought, what better than treats from Bourke Street to fuel me to study? (i think i got more distracted, but enjoying the tarts took more than a few minutes).

i asked for the rhubarb one and a croissant, since i haven't had them before, but also for the ginger creme brûlée tart since the last time i had it-it was amazing! first new about it when i told people i was going to unsw, then they were like, you have to go bourse st bakery in surry hills to have their ginger brûlée tart, and the fist time i had it last year-it didn't disappoint.

they came back after they went out to dinner quite late-ish, so i guess the tarts did kind of survive (: had the lemon curd one last time as well, which is really nice and not too lemony. first time have the rhubarb one-it's ok, but the pastry is a lot thicker than the other tarts. the lamington has layers of jam inside and not too overly sweet likely the typical supermarket ones. i'm not a huge laming ton fan, but my uncle loves them, and i guess this satisfied my floury-cake craving. the croissant is a bit different, not too flaky compared to other places. i guess it depends on what you like, since this one is more "sturdier" and i guess incorporated the butter differently. it was still really good though (:

raspberry. almond, pistachio, coconut cake.

my uncle and mum also went out for coffee and cake one day, and brought me back a slice from my local patisserie. also requested that they take back some yum cha food for me since i didn't have time to go.

more cousin works in north sydney, and she also came up for dinner with my uncle at home and brought home this!

chocolate tart, more ginger creme brûlée and strawberry meringue tart.

chocolate one is chocolatey without being overly sweet. it's easy to cut up and divide since it's more solid. this ginger one had more ginger flavour compared to the bourse st one from a few days ago. usually the original store is the best, since the north syd ones are delivered from the other kitchens...i guess the other not as gingery one was just that batch....the strawberry meringue tart is so magical! it's my second favourite, after the ginger. you keep eating it, and the meringue and mousse-like filling inside is just super light, that you don't realised you've finished eating it until you look at it and see it's gone. sooo light and delicious. meringue again isn't too sweet and the strawberry has some slight sourness, and it's just so magical (:

shout out to Dandelion and Iced Trees from taking time out of your study to visit me! too bad that when i was coming back home, there was another accident on the m2=massive traffic during peak hour, so i just missed you guys... (there's been so many traffic accidents this past year compared to last year-be careful guys!) so blessed to have such thoughtful friends <3

and thank you for the snacks! i love this type of study food snacks! and yay variety, haha. 

how did i forget to mention this? WE WERE GIVEN AN ASSIGNMENT FROM OPTM SUBJECT DURING FINALS. everyone was super angry. like, how could they give us an assignment right before finals, then DURING finals when i had four exams left? didn't think you could do that, but apparently you can. well, the course convenor is our main lecturer, so people complained to her and asked for extensions but nup. part of her explanation was: 

"Probably, had I known that you had another exam on Thursday I would have been happy to make it Thursday night as a deadline, but, UNSW no longer gives me access to when your other course exams are on, and I would have had to chase around for that info which just takes time that I no longer have.  But on the other hand, that would have committed me to working on my Friday off in order to get the marking done in time for the UNSW-imposed deadline next week

After giving it a few hours thought and asking around what is fair, I have decided 'NO', the original deadline will stand."

oh boo hop, you have to come to work on Friday. and that exam on Thursday was our visn exam, and that lecturer's office is just two doors down from hers, and they're like besties since they always talk/share info etc. so she can't spend 1 minute asking what day our visn exam is, but she can spend a few hours pondering if she should give us an extension, even though though she said before "just takes time that I no longer have" my mum called me when you guys came over, but i was on the bus madly typing so i missed her call telling me you guys dropped by....

yes, so much stress. i can't think of a single person's course during 2nd year who has finals worse than optom students. if so, tell me so i know we just not the only ones dying.

also went out for breakfast at Cosmo Coffee at towers. that wasn't the intention of going outside my house, had to do something there...anyways, shared with mum since i'm trying to "save money"

cappuccino, large-$4.20

a regular is 3.50, which i think it's ok priced for towers, some cafes charge around $5. this coffee was really hot to touch, and more hot than i would've liked to be drinking temp, but my mum likes it hot so she didn't mind. coffee was alright, would've preferred more foam.

big breakfast-$17.90 hash brown, sausages, eggs, spinach, mushrooms, bacon, tomato and turkish bread.

yep, it's pretty expensive compared to other places. towers generally is expensive. the eggs were cooked nicely and runny, sausage was nice and lean. the only problem was that the hash brown was a tad over fried since it's a bit brown not golden, and i think there isn't enough potatoes in it. it was actually filling to share this breakfast between two. the cafe was quite full in the morning, wow, people are willing to take their kids out for some brekky. i would love to do that as well (if i had the money...) then again, it would be pointless for my dad to take my bro and me out for food since he's fat inside...

they made the entrance thing for castle towers train station, and put up this big ugly wall, making it more "secretive". (right now the wall it grew to blend into scenery i guess, but the other day it was grey or cream/brown or something).

ate so much snacks, and food which i'm not supposed to it, but then i always tell myself when i'm eating food whilst i'm studying-my brain needs energy to study as well.

Single Origin Roasters

i've wanted to come here for over a year now because of their coffee-it's so exotic! their drinks as well, like spiders (carbonated coffee with vanilla gelato), wonder what that will taste like, and coffees which change flavour weekly. this place is a bit pricey compared to others. it has minimal seating indoors, and not many seats outside either. we were lucky to have a table of 5. a door down they have a store just for takeaway coffee. we were there for about an hour, and the coffee line didn't shorten. so happy seeing people before uni, since there wasn't a lecture on this morning (: 

single origin roasters latte-$4

i actually ordered the reservoir blend for that week "La Cima" which had citrus, butter pastry, berry jam and other stuff in a latte, but the guy came and said it was the single origin roasters one. i guess i didn't mind since i wanted to try their "original" latte, and i was running short of time and ceebs to ask. their coffee is definitely more mild than other places, so if you don't like strong stuff, single origin coffee will suit you. i think i like my coffee stronger now, but the consistency of this cup was good. however, it's a pretty small cup for $4 (and it's hard to take a good photo of outdoors...) and a tiny bit of grounded coffee at the bottom...maybe if i have some spare time in the morning i'll grab some coffee from the reservoir list. it's really close to central (so close that Dandelion and I kinda walked past the street lol)

kedgeree of quinoa, smoked ocean trout, egg, chermoula cauliflower, dukkah and goats cheese-$16.50

not your typical breakfast food. didn't know what a kedgeree was (until i googled it after i ate it), but i'm one of those adventurous types, and would try whatever sounds interesting (as long as it doesn't have heaps of chilli). all those ingredients i don't mind eating. even if i order something, and there's some parts i don't like, i still eat it since it's still paid for. whenever i go out to these days, there's so many things i'm not supposed to have (like coffee), but i just make exceptions...like i can have goats milk but not cheese, but since cheese is made from milk, does that mean i can have goats cheese...? side note, people say goats milk have that distinctive taste, but i can't really taste that "taste," so i don't mind drinking goats milk/having goats cheese. this quinoa was really delicious! definitely seasoned well not with salt, but with herbs and all those fancy things like chermoula and dukkah (:

uni is already tiring after the first week, and i only had about half of my classes. the best news today i received was that i don't have five 9am starts-i only have four! good enough. there's a group with one 8am start. really hope traffic conditions improve/ i swear i always get caught up in thunderstorms. this arvo on the m2, you could see out west hose big lighting flashes out west. last time i was caught up in storms in the east, this time west. luckily i only live north west, so it in the middle of the thunderstorm. it was raining heavily when i got out the bus, but started pouring once i got home. if i was to say i was scared of something, being struck by lighting is probably one of them.

Le Pain Quotidien

first time going out to the city to have breakfast. belgium breakfast.

the cafe is pretty good and it was cheap! originally it was 16, but because i like to save money, used group on vouchers, so the whole meal was $6. it was really good!

bro had the hot chocolate with belgium chocolate. tried a bit, so good. unlike normal cafes, this one did not use chocolate sauce. people say "oh, this hot choc is so good" because it's sweet and they use chocolate syrup (which is cheaper than using actual chocolate), but this isn't normal plain choc sauce. this is belgium chocolate, and it's been melted in a nice mini jug. it's actually not sweet, since you can taste the dark chocolate, so if you have a sweet tooth, this won't be nice for you. the milk was frothed to perfection! after my bro finished pouring it out in his bowl, i scraped the rest of the froth stuck to the jug.

cappuccino 

mocha. i'm used to my mocha being a bit sweet, but since it's dark chocolate, it kind of cut out the coffee and sweetness.

story is, the waitress set down the bowl of coffee and said it was mocha, so i started drinking it. then i'm like "this isn't barely sweet at all" so i started to add some choc from my bro's jug, then my mum said her coffee was too sweet. turns out the waitres got it wrong, and i started to drink my mum's cappacino. the thing with mocha is that it can vary in shades and taste, so i was thinking my "mocha" didn't have enough flavour...we swapped coffees after a few sips.

i asked for the juice to be take away, since i knew i wouldn't be able to finish it.

i got the almond croissant. so good! it's nice and flaky and not too sweet even though it has icing sugar, and unlike woolies/coles/costco croissants in which all you can taste it butter, you could taste the almond in this one, so the butter wasn't overpowering! there was some coconut/almond paste inside. it was subtle since i couldn't really taste the coconut until after a few bites, but i didn't mind. 

my mum has 2 slices of 5 grain organic toast with 3 organic spreads (normally $4 which is a massive rip off. $4 you can buy a loaf of bread), and my bro had a blueberry muffin. the muffin was alright, nothing that special. my bro decided to add heaps of blueberry jam to his blueberry muffin-blueberry overload.

they don't have cups of coffees here, they have bowls. when we were waiting for our food, my mum was looking at other people (heaps of people used vouchers) and she was all like why couldn't we order soups instead of coffee, but i'm like the deal only included coffee and juice. then she saw this person putting in "pepper" in their "soup". turns out they serve their coffee in a bowl, a massive bowl. it's hard to take a photo of the massiveness, i was full form that coffee from the whole day. we all had regular sized drinks (normally $5.50 hot choc/mocha and $4.75 other coffees) and small is one of those normal sized asian rice bowls. so yes, that voucher was worth it. ended up taking the juices home.

went to Asian Express for lunch, again, group on. half priced lunch. the asians there were all so frantic about scanning our vouchers (to see if its legit i guess). food was wayyy too salty, even my bro said it was salty and he loves flavouring in his food. i only had a bit since i was still full from coffee. not that great there, even though it's cheap ($6 for a plate w/ dumplings or pan fried buns), wouldn't go there again. not worth putting up a photo.

the masterchef truck isn't at world square today. it was yday...oh wells, my bro said it was overpriced, but i still would like to buy something mastercheffy....

thanks batter for hosting the dinner! food was so good. would have eaten more if i wasn't so full from the morning. everyone's foods were so good! here's a pic of the dessert (: better's choc tart looks so professional (: and thanks Happy Apple for the bell haha.

so full. hopefully the fullness would last me tomorrow.