Haven Spring Menu

Come here regularly to get my weekly coffee, but to actually try the food, I have to make the effort of waking up earlier for breakfast. Things (and prices) have changed since my last visit and 21st, so it's now more on par with other cafes in the area but still slightly cheaper with the most expensive dish for breakfast/lunch menu being $20

Passionfruit and coconut slice-$4

Would have liked a bigger slice. It's actually not too sweet/buttery, definitely get some passionfruit flavour through it. Had the option of having these slices at my 21st, but since I already had 2 cakes plus dessert and drinks, people probably wanted more savoury. 

cappuccino-$4

the cups have changed to a more 'faded' darker blue

Their coffee is good, and it can be tailored, but I just opted for just normal coffee

Mocha-$5

I've had the mocha before, but finally now in a cup :) Love the drizzle of chocolate, but if you have weak hand like me, it can make picking up the cup difficult since the other hand doesn't have much space to support the other side of the cup without getting chocolate on your fingers...I'm sure it's just me who have weak hands, haha. Not too sweet even with the chocolate on top. The added some cocoa nibs on top, so be careful when drinking to prevent choking on one...

Potato Latkes-$15.50

that egg yolk

This dish is from their winter menu (cheaper back then), so I have yet to try their spring menu. Their version of latkes is thin potatoes which have been deep fried. So it's quite oily (and unhealthy with bacon), can definitely see all the oil on the plate, but luckily your mouth doesn't have too much of an oily feel. The latkes are like hard potato crisps. My mum wouldn't have approved of this since the colour is way more than golden brown...but it's not burnt here so all good. Loved the watercress, something simple but makes the plate have more colour/ Eggs were cooked perfectly, bacon had most of the fat trimmed off/rendered. Wuold have preferred more of the vinergar. It looks like it's dripped generously, but the potatos can be quite heavy, so more acidity would have freshened up the plate more.

Cauliflower Popcorn-$15.50

It actually wasn't too oily despite seeing the remaining oil on the plate. Really fun way to eat cauliflower. The sesame seeds gave it more flavour without needing to add additional seasoning. Loved the watercress scattered throughout and that egg yolk.

Roasted Plum Parfait-$14.50

Not your average parfait. This one is more of a yoghurt one, with bits and pieces scattered throughout. Loved the sago to give it some chewy texture, the super flavourful currents gave it some sweetness, the beautifully segmented oranges and grapefruit for some acidity, coconut flakes, and fresh mint on top. 

Dragon's Breath-$6

This wasn't as sweet as I last had it, more natural tea flavour I guess. Just a bit sweet at the bottom. Definitely refreshing from that cauliflower popcorn.

Filter coffee-$6

Second time having filtered coffee. It's quite strong but fragrant, and also the temperature is hotter than your average cup of milk coffee. It's interesting but I think I prefer my capps. 

foood

KIN by us.

last friday was technically my last day of holidays since i had work on the weekend before uni started, so i decided to make the most out of it by going out to eat (:

finally contestants from a cooking show has opened a cafe in sydney. i've been watching master chef and mkr continuously, 7th year this year, and no one has opened a cafe in sydney after they left the show. uel and shanelle from last year's mkr opened up their cafe in macquarie. it's a short walk from macquarie centre, and since they're youth workers, it's opened mon-sat 7am-3pm.

we got there a bit after 2pm, and they said they weren't taking anymore people since they have no food left. after some pleading to get in since i know i won't have time to come here when uni starts, we got seated, but were told we could only get toast and coffee, which is what we ordered initially. the person said that food runs out at around 1pm, and it's best to get there at 11am.

fully open kitchen

decor

too excited and didn't realise this photo was out of focus until i got home...

after we ordered the toast, a person then came to tell us they still had enough to make one more congee and salmon, so we ordered them even though they're the more expensive dishes. we then wanted to cancel the added egg on the toast since those dishes have egg, but uel said they alread made it but would take it off the bill. in the end it wasn't taken off since he forgot to tell the person getting the bill for us. normally i would complain, but since it was their third day of opening and they let us in when they weren't taking anymore people, and managed to still make the last meals of the day for us, i didn't want to cause trouble over a $2 egg.

toast: homemade coconut jam-$7, onsen egg-$2, capp-$3.50, mocha w/melted choc-$5.50

the most expensive piece of toast i've had so far, but this coconut jam was so good. the last time i had this was when devon cafe visited out uni last year with their pandan magic muffins topped with a bit of coconut jam. this toast was slathered in it-could eat this jam every morning. added the egg since i wanted to try more things as they only allowed us to get toast. the coffees were a little bit on the runny side, but not too strong. mocha wasn't sweet which was nice. do not understand how the waitresses balance the coffee, since they're on wooden board on one side, which isn't light and can easily spill since it's not centred when you pick it up...

miso yummy: miso salmon, sesame spinach, onset eggs, sourdough-$17

this dish reminded me a bit of devon's salmon dish. the salmon was a bit on the small side but was cooked perfectly. would have preferred more miso flavour. loved the runny eggs on the bread.

congee-$17

quite pricey for congee. in HK, you can get a super large portion of authentic congee for $15HK ($2.50AUD). you can tell the difference with this since their chicken broth used was so rich and full of flavour. tasted better than MSG without actually having MSG (i hope). the quail egg inside was quite big. the congee itself was a bit more watery than what we normally have, but i guess it's their style. loved how they fried off to finish with their chinese doughnut. it's a lot more doughy inside, compared to HK version of super brown and more hollow inside. heaps of people ordered the congee.  in hatted restaurants, congee cost over $30, so everyone does their own take of congee, with an added price...

lunch for 2 (:

super cute and good idea for the sugar. just poor it out instead of using your spoon. my mum wanted to buy one haha

loved this cafe, staff was super friendly and food was delicious. i got a photo with uel and shannelle, but the person taking it didn't focus it...

spent the morning finding $20 gift vouchers from T2 (:

Not your average pancakes and toast

couldn't find anything in the fridge i wanted to eat for lunch today, so it was the perfect time to make some single serving recipes from another insta account: nourishnotpunish. story behind this girl was that she suffered from anorexia etc, but now eating healthily

buckwheat pancakes with caramelised bananas

this looks like sludge...yeah, i'm pretty bad with presentation. i cut the banana up into random sized pieces =/ and i haven't flipped pancakes in a while, so it was originally a circle but....anyways, pancake mis was super simple: 1/4 cup buckwheat flour, 1/4 almond milk, 1 tbs cacao. didn't haven any mesquite powder so i just omitted it. i was a bit skeptical about buckwheat and almond milk, but it turned out to be a pretty good batter! fried the single serving pancake off with 1 tsp coconut oil, much healthier than butter. also used that oil to caramelise my banana with a dash of honey and cinnamon. again, much healthier than caramelising bananas in a block of butter like they did in mkr tonight... yum, some crunchy caramelised bits. the pancake was really filling, probably because of the buckwheat, and bananas fill you up as well. if you've never had cacao before, it has a bitter taste like dark choc, so the caramelised bananas added sweetness to the pancakes and there wasn't any need for extra honey/jam. 

coconut french toast

i didn't want to waste the little bit of coconut oil in the pan, so tried to do a healthy version of french toast. it kinda worked...ok, not as well as i expected it to. i didn't use plain/thick bread, but she used guten free normal sized bread. also, my bread came from the fridge... egg wash: 1 egg, cinnamon, dash of almond milk, 1 tsp vanilla essence, then dipped the bread into it and then coated with shredded coconut. second piece of bread didn't really have enough egg wash...and since the pan didn't have enough oil, it didn't really crisp up and become golden, and a tad bit of the egg cooked =/ but it still smelt nice (: and this is healthier than using heaps of butter to fry it. i totally understand what all those mc/mkr contestants mean by "keeping an eye on it". i had some random bits of coconut i wanted to toast so i put them in the pan for about a sec then turned off the heat and packed some stuff away. nek minnit the shredded coconut is a dark brown since the pan was still hot =/ i just had a slice of the toast (i try to not eat as much at home, usually it fails...)

zumbo had free tim tams at the star today and was apparently signing/taking photos! last time he was at rozelle for 1 hour only scooping ice cream, so no time for photos...but ceebs going out to the star just for free tim tams since they predicted torrential rains in the city in the arvo. and i think i'm kinda banned from buying tim tams since a couple of times my mum stocked up on them when they were half price, but almost all the time they expire before we even get through half the stash...and my bro and i aren't massive tim tam fans either....

PLUS Outing with Johnny's Pizza

the title of this post isn't a reflection of what i ate today.

breakfast: toasted wholemeal bread with avocado and some chunks of cream cheese with chives. just missing my tomatoes and we just ran out of sourdough, but outside it would cost $7+.

lunch: toasted croissant with honey roasted leg ham and tasty cheese. outside at cafes it would cost $6+ this was accompanied by sweet potato fries and a fresh coconut drink. in restaurants it would cost $5/6+, at the shops it is normally $3.50, got it for $1.50 on special (: it was also really fresh and the inside was refreshing whilst the flesh was fun to scrape and eat.

had PLUS (uni youth group) girls' outing at friend's house
before dinner. junk food.

dinner: pizza

the bottom pizza, thai sea, was 11inches. a quick google search told me the "big pizza" is 25 inches, heapsss bigger than costco. we made it have 4 quarters, so the big pizza had 4 flavours; ham and pineapple, four seasons, mexicano (it had chilli and i survived it guys!), and something else. 

i always get their menu's in the junk mail, but finally tried it out today. it was alright, nothing that special.

dessert: fondue. chopped up some strawberries/banana/pear/apple and dipped in milk and dark melted nestle cooking chocolate. pretty good (: no wonder why they always have candles underneath the chocolate since it does harden up pretty quickly.

so unhealthy today D=

did more make-up shopping today, and buy "shopping" i mean trying things in store, then whatsapping to tell my aunt what i want (figured this out after i realised the thing i bought this week is so much more expensive in aus than in hk, luckily i got a free gift with it or else i would've felt even more ripped off....) like mac lipstick in aus is 36, in hk, even if the dollar has dropped, it's 20. i don't mind the dollar dropping, but it better rise when i go back overseas (hopefully america) at the end of next year. need to make the most of every dollar. i have quite a lot of aunts, so having a "make-up" aunt is good. last time she was like "so sorry Elisa, can't take you out for make-up shopping, will do so next time you come". well, she's "retiring" this year to assist with her children's homework/monitor her son's work/exams to go into high school. yeah, asian countries competition into high school/uni is more competitive than aus since they have more people, and they're all asian.