Coffee on the Run

In the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes, pop-up cafes have, well... popped up, all over the central city.

Green Glass

Glasses

All in a Row

Cafe Aborio, Puke Ariki

New Plymouth May 2010, Ajr

Reflecting on Melbourne

It's that time again - when my thoughts turn to Melbourne.

Sadly, I have to wait a few months before I can return, but I've been pottering about in my Melbourne photo files again and here's a few of my favourite cafe and restaurant windows.

Windows, graphics, reflections - always a big attraction for me.

Above, Flinders Station reflected in a pub window.

A whispy set of reflections at the classy Spanish restaurant, Movida Coffea at the Queen Victoria Market

Highrise reflected in the Negroni window

Ito in Chinatown

And some of Ballarat's terrific architecture reflected in the Grand Hotel window.

I still shudder when I remember how baking hot it was the day I visited Ballarat. I fell in love with the place - mostly with its architecture - because certainly the heat just about killed me.....as did missing my footing and falling over and whacking my head on one of those historic stone walls! The stuff of good travel tales.

It's a Sign!

A Barking Mad Moment in Wellington

I've always had a soft spot for this sign outside the capital's

One Red Dog Cafe

www.onereddog.co.nz

Coffee in the Lane

A Moment in Time Scanning The News of the Day Melbourne Feb 2010. Ajr

France Comes to New Plymouth

Scenes of Greed

Petit Paris

A little den of deliciousness that I discoved quite by chance, wandering around the streets of New Plymouth to see what had changed since my last visit. I was supposed to be photographing sculptures and architecture but I became distracted by the edible goodies here - which in their own way, are in fact little sculptures. I loved the wonderful red flocked wallpaper!

Ready to Serve

Behind the Counter

Bread on the Bench

Ready to Serve

Floriditas, Wellington

June 2010. Ajr

Floriditas 2.

A Cafe Window Floriditas Wellington June 2010. Ajr

Guilty Pleasures

More From the Food Files

Peppermint Cake

(divine)

At Everyday Gourmet

Dunedin

May 2010. Ajr

Coffee in Centre Place

I'm back in the lanes again - Melbourne's lanes - and specifically Centre Place, which is one of the best of all the lanes for sitting around drinking coffee and taking photographs.

People gather here in their thousands every day.

I always try to arrive at lunch time because the place is packed.

It's not a long lane but it's narrow and both sides are home to 'back-to-back' cafes and sandwhich bars. You often have to wait for a seat as all the cafes are small - some are actually tiny - but it's always worth the wait.

On the other hand, you often get your best photographs by standing around outside. Centre Place is well known for the colourful graffiti that colours the walls in the dog-leg of the lane - and for its posters, its buskers and sightseers, and the constant stream of people taking it as a short cut through to one of the bigger streets. I come here often, so if you want to see more photos - it changes every time you visit - click on Centre Place in the label line below this post - or graffiti.

Sunday Lunch in Woodend

During my recent stay in Woodend, Victoria, about an hour north of Melbourne, I treated myself to the culinary delights of Maloa House in the main street - a sometimes cramped mix of cafe, deli, gourmet food and general gift store. It's like they couldn't decide what they wanted to be, so they didn't. But that doesn't actually matter in the end because the food is always delicious. Service can be patchy and from time to time you feel like a bit of a nuisance when you want to buy something and all the cafe/shop staff are trying to cope with the rush of weekend business, but I can even forgive that. Woodend itself, is a popular stop for Melburnians out on their weekend drives and the day I was there, munching through my artichoke and Parmesan rissotto cake followed by coffee and muffin, was no exception. A chummy Italian family from Carlton sat next to me and we swapped food notes in that amiable kind of way that fellow travellers often do.

Melbourne Coffee Culture

Waiting for customers - Degraves Lane Arrogantly French - Hardware Land Coffee is an essential part of Melbourne life and half the fun of any visit there for me, is not only drinking the stuff, but photographing everyone else doing the same thing - especially in the back lanes of central city, where graffiti, posters , colour and character reign supreme.

Reading the News -Centre Place

Writing a Diary - Brunetti, Centre Square

An Early Breakfast - Hardware Lane It was probably Melbourne's immigrant Italian population who got everyone hooked on coffee way back in the 1950s, when they started opening cafes - especially around the Carlton area. You'll still find a cluster of Italian businesses there, but coffee and cafes have spread far and wide since then. They're everywhere. Whether you're in Block Arcade, Centre Place, Degraves Street, Hardware Lane; in Docklands, Southbank, , Fitzroy Street or St Kilda, the one thing you can be certain of is, you won't ever be far from a cafe. The hidden arcades and lanes though are my favourite spots. Not that they were always filled with trendy cafes, boutiques and nightspots. Most were just service lanes, providing vehicle and drainage access for city buildings and they were dimly lit and uninviting. Now they're THE places of Melbourne. So how do you find them? Simply wander the streets, follow the crowds and negotiate all those narrow markings on your inner city map. And don't forget to take your camera. (If you click on Centre Place in the label line below this post, you'll see other photos I've taken in some of the lanes over the last few years).

Sweet Empire

As far as I'm concerned, no visit to Melbourne is complete without at least ONE pig-out at one of the fabulous Brunetti cafes. On this trip I swooned about their City Square establishment (above) lingering over one of my favourite cream-filled canneloni.

Canneloni though, are a mere drop in the ocean of Brunetti temptations; and what started as a tiny cake shop on Lygon Street in Carlton a few decades ago, is now showing signs of becoming an empire. Brunetti Cakes began trading at their current Faraday Street location (Carloton) in 1985. The Angele family bought the business in 1991 and it's been expanding ever since. In addition to the Carlton spot, they've opened this stylish new cafe in City Square and another in Camberwell; and, according to their website, they have plans to open in both Singapore and Dubai soon.

Giorgio Angele began his training in Rome when he was 10. In 1956, at the age of 23, he travelled to Australia with the Italian Olympic team as a pastry chef, and was given the opportunity to migrate there after the Olympics. He's been baking up a storm ever since and now the name Brunetti is synonymous with divine, sweet temptations. I love to visit their Pasticcerias as much to photograph the cakes as to eat them. It's a feast for the eyes and the stomach - and that charming Italian service? Unbeatable! To see shots taken previously in their Carlton outlet, click on the name Brunetti in the label line below. www.brunetti.com.au

Through the Cafe Window

One of my favourite activities in Melbourne - or anywhere for that matter - is cruising the city streets with my camera, always alert for a potential photograph, stopping here and there at a cafe to watch the 'world' go by. Cafe windows in fact are a favourite sport.

For me, there's something about the layering of reflections, graphics and human activity that serves as a metaphor for city life - that busy over-layering that somehow sums up how we fill our days with multiple activities.

Cafes and restaurants say a lot more about a city than we think. Certainly, in Melbourne, there's no shortage of either and they are in fact, central to the social fabric of the city. They're a statement about the people and the multi-cultural maze that makes up the population; they're a statement about preferred lifestyle; and they're a statement about architecture and design. And it's no coincidence that this small photographic representation features all Italian names - Italian cafes and restaurants reflect the large Italian population that calls Melbourne home.

Small Cafe Big on Style - Rural Victoria

Every year when I return to Melbourne and the many rural Victorian towns and cities that surround it, I like to return to my favourite cafe haunts. I also love to discover something new. As I passed through the little historic town of Trentham on my way to Daylesford, I noticed a new fashion/design store/cafe combo - TWIGS - had opened its doors on the main street. I felt bound to investigate.

Inside, the little slither of a store bulges with goodies - homemade produce from the Hepburn Spa and the Macedon Ranges regions, beautiful woollen garments, accessories, superb food and cookbooks and much more.

Everything about the place - right down to its very attractive website - oozes terrific presentation, so they won me over instantly. I like a business that goes that extra mile to create something original, attractive, creative and different; and nowhere is that more important than in the highly competitive cafe/restaurant trade, where (for this reviewer) 'average' is often generous terminology. Too many businesses seem to equate creativity with expense but in this case, what could be simple and less costly than playing around with twigs? It's a winner in my view and I'm very pleased I stopped long enough to indulge in their superb lemon tart. www.twigsonline.com.au

From the Food Files

One Divine, Glistening

Dairy-Free Parsnip & Carrot Cake

Nor'Wester Cafe

Amberley, North Canterbury

www.norwestercafe.co.nz

For Chocoholics!

If there's one thing Amberley's Nor'Wester Cafe does to perfection, it's a contemporary take on the old-fashioned chocolate pudding. That's not to say their astonishingly good Chocolate Mud Cake isn't also worthy of attention too. In fact, if you like chocolate, you could just about spend the day here trying a little bit of everything. www.norwestercafe.co.nz

Highway Highlight -The Perfect Stop

The giant Phoenix palm outside the yellow ochre, 1928 bungalow beside State Highway 1 in Amberley, North Canterbury, is famous. Not so much for being a giant Phoenix palm, as being an easily recognised marker for the much-awarded Nor'Wester Cafe. Back when owners Tim and Trish Coleman first opened its doors in 1997, the Nor'Wester was something of a sensation. It was one of the first decent cafes in the Amberley-Waipara area and predictably, it took off.

I called in there for breakfast with friends on a recent trip north, to Hanmer Springs. Located just 25 minutes or so north of Christchurch on the main highway, it's perfectly placed for the first stop and if you strike a fine morning, there's nothing nicer than a warm, alfresco breakfast among the lavender and agapathus. Like just about every other restaurant and cafe I've ever set foot in, up and down the country, they make a big deal out of using fresh, local ingredients but I'm prepared to forgive them the cliche because in this case it's true - and it tastes like it. Their brunch meals are beautifully presented and tasty with it. See for yourself above. We pigged out on Smoked salmon, caper berries, preserved lemon, cream cheese, rocket and toasted whole-grain cabatta (top); and Eggs Benedict with spinach (lower image). The Nor'Wester is open every day and from start to finish the menu is filled with temptations. Parmesan dumplings, prawn cutlets, sticky pork belly with soba noodles and coconut and pomegranate panna cotta with pineapple marmalade are so far removed from the old home's former life as the town's medical centre, it's almost laughable. Some in our party that day, are regulars at the Nor'Wester and so enamoured are they of its chocolate desserts, that we were all talked into trying one - for breakfast. I can think of worse fates. And I will be back to show you the photographic proof that a chocolate dessert at the Nor'Wester is a thing well remembered. www.norwestercafe.co.nz

From the Food Files

One Fat Golden Brioche

@

Le Cafe, Christchurch Arts Centre