I haven’t posted for a while (two or three weeks!) and feel a bit naughty about letting my twice-weekly posting schedule get away from me. This is mainly because I haven’t stopped eating. I have about 30 posts sitting in drafts and honestly if I don’t finish them soon I’m going to forget what I ate and whether I liked it.
Reasons I haven’t been on the ball:
- Mr B and I recently got very addicted to Boardwalk Empire. So much so that we are pondering things like “do you think we should drink scotch all the time”, and other important life questions…
- Work’s been busy and Mr B hasn’t been studying, leading to a surfeit of television watching, all I feel like doing when I get home (see point number one)
- And last but not least, I haven’t been on the ball because I’ve been… on my bike.
Mr B and I are training for Around the Bay in a Day, which is a 210km bike ride starting in Melbourne which can take various routes. We’re heading round Port Phillip Bay anticlockwise, to Queenscliff, ferrying it across to Sorrento, and then back up to Melbourne.
Mr B has done it before but I had never ridden further than around 30km. He got me on board in part by promising to have lunch out on our bike rides. There have been some emotional times during our training where I’ve exhibited physical but not mental fortitude (a 3 hour headwind on the way back from Frankston springs to mind) but also some good eating times. Here’s a round-up of some of the places we’ve headed to for lunch recently.
Black Rock (50km round trip)
We haven’t stopped here for lunch per se but did have an afternoon tea stop at Prague Cakes, comprising a (cream) cheese-and-cherry strudel for me and a berry crumble thing for Mr B. We ended up preferring the strudel out of the two.
The ladies running the shop on the Sunday afternoon were very friendly. The cakes (and the rest stop) were highly appreciated on the way back from my first visit to Mornington and very reasonably priced. I recommend you pop in for some friendly service without pretension.
Mordialloc (60km round trip)
Main Street Cafe on Nepean Highway in Mordy is buzzing, and justifiably so. We have noticed prices seem a little escalated out here vis-a-vis the inner city; I’m going to go ahead and put my economist hat on here and say that’s due to a lack of competition. Main Street appears to be one of the only cafes operating in Mordy (okay, there are others) at this next level of ingredients, funky fit-out and so on. Still, prices here are pretty much an “add $5 to an inner city price” for most meals.
This breakfast bucks the trend of having to order a bunch of extras.
Service is rushed off its feet when Mr Behemoth and I finally manage to nab an outside table one Sunday afternoon. A little distracted, it took a bit longer than we would have liked to get water, menus and order, but it is obviously peak hour so leeway has to be given. I go with a second breakfast for my choice, the Achilles Meal (above, $21). Sucked in by both the cheeky name and the offer of a plate with both haloumi (squeaky salty heaven!) AND smoked salmon AND poached eggs… each of the components was simple but I hoover down the lot with great enjoyment.
It is quite a behemoth of a burger.
Mr Behemoth chooses the “Bohemoth” Burger ($21.50). Definitely because of the name. The burger, essentially a burger with the lot, comes with crinkle cut chips (yay!) and a weakly flavoured garlic aioli – we couldn’t detect the presence of much garlic, and the sauce was pretty runny. Still, Mr B polishes off the burger. You can see from the photos that the number of ingredients lead to great structural instability but he coped manfully. He also downs his traditional beverage of choice, the vanilla milkshake.
Behemoths drink… vanilla milkshakes, apparently.
We enjoyed our lunch. Main Street also does dinners, and I have read some good reviews on Urbanspoon of those. Perhaps someday soon when we’re coming back from an epic bike ride, and it’s approaching dinner time…
The second time we lunch in Mordialloc, we decide to give a rather large burger joint called Big Mouth Burger Co. on the corner of Main Street and Nepean Highway a go. Obviously modelled after Grill’d, the burgers came with chicken salted chips and free dipping sauce, so I was already quite happy even before hoeing in!
My burger was called “Cluck Me”, which gave me a giggle as I ordered although the teenager taking my money was a little less impressed. She is probably over the burger names by now though – can’t blame her. The restaurant has copious seating – we took some of the sunny seats out on the footpath, to keep a handy eye on our bikes.
A generous amount of chips spilled out, wouldn’t you say?
Cluck Me comprises grilled chicken, tasty cheese, tomato, lettuce, herbed mayo and chutney. It is probably the closest thing on their menu to the Simon Says burger which I love at Grill’d – but lacking one crucial ingredient: BACON. I found the burger a bit bland in taste (if only there had been some bacon!) and didn’t end up finishing. I think, though, it’s partly my fault. This is a voyage of self-discovery; clearly I can’t order a chicken burger without bacon, or I find it too dull.
Barbecue sauce – I can’t get on board, sorry chaps.
Mr B ordered the Big Mouth Burger, which was essentially a repeat of his lunch the previous week in that it was a burger with the lot! The burger has a few nice extras such as caramelised onion and roast tomato (and bacon)… I think he made the better choice on the day.
All this for $16, which also included a drink, meant that if you are after a burger you could do worse than skipping over the road from Main Street and saving yourself $5 and the cost of a drink.
Frankston (80km round trip)
I must admit shamefacedly that the two times we have had lunch in Frankston… we ended up at McDonalds. Recommendations, please!
Mornington (120km round trip)
Well, you don’t really appreciate arriving in Mornington until you’ve done it by bike. Oliver’s Hill (just outside Frankston) in the car? “My, what a pleasant view of the city.”
Oliver’s Hill by bike: “OH GOD MY HEART IS GOING TO EXPLODE IF MY QUADS DON’T FIRST!” (I must say, whizzing back down Oliver’s Hill is also terrifying. I’m a wuss. I hold on to the brake.)
We had lunch at Coffee Traders, located just off the main drag in Mornington. The shop also sells coffee, hence the name. I ordered a skinny latte, both for the energy benefits and also because we were in a shop called Coffee Traders – but Mr B ordered the hot chocolate. Check this beauty out! If I go back, I’m SO ordering a hot chocolate.
Yep. That’s a chocolate dipstick.
My latte was very nice, as expected.
We had to have a coffee in a place called Coffee Traders… but I did have hot chocolate envy.
To eat, I got the baked beans with chorizo and egg and feta. It was delicious. I find myself in winter really drawn towards baked egg dishes at the moment. It came with two slices of sourdough toast, which were perfect for spreading the crusty baked feta bits on at the end.
Foil butter packages are welcome in my book – at least it’s real butter and not margarine!
Mr B got the chicken and bacon toasted sandwich. He liked it, but said the portion was far too small and that he’d need another meal later on. I thought that was a bit harsh – the sanga looked delicious and it’s not the cafe’s fault that we’d ridden 60 km before arriving!
Chicken and bacon toasted sanga
Coffee Traders got exceptionally busy just after we had lunched – which was odd because we arrived at 1pm. It’s a small joint, so be aware that it might be packed when you get there. Staff are lovely and there is a wide selection of delicious looking cakes in the case, which we did not sample that day (but I have designs on doing so at a later date!).
So that concludes my round-up of places to eat for now… we’re still riding, so expect some to come through from Dromana, Rosebud, Sorrento and beyond in a later post! (Just have to get my legs up to it!)
Fresh Bread 