Clipper Cafe, Glebe

During my first couple of years at Sydney Uni, a 2 hour break between classes meant a visit  to King St in Newtown for $6 Thai. It was cheap and it was filling, but I found myself going there less and less especially in my third and fourth years at uni. Perhaps my palate became more discerning, or perhaps I just got sick of eating the same pad thai and pad see ew day in and day out, but I ventured away from the Thai places in Newtown and into the cafes on Glebe Point Road.

I stumbled into Clipper Cafe one day with its cool bicycle wall hangings and relaxed vibe. It was no less busy than my usual Thai haunts in Newtown but once seated I felt like I could sit there all day sipping coffee and tapping away on my laptop (as some people were doing).

Berry Smoothie - $5.00

Bills, Surry Hills

Bills is somewhat of a breakfast institution in Sydney, and it shames me to admit that, even though I am a born and bred Sydneysider, it was only a few weeks ago that I first visited Bills for brunch. We arrived at 12 so they had already progressed onto their lunch menu, but luckily for me all of Bills classic breakfast dishes were also offered for lunch :)

Sweet corn fritters with roast tomato, spinach and bacon - $18.50

To be honest, no matter how much hype I hear about the scrambled eggs, I simply can not bring myself to pay $13.50 for scrambled eggs and toast (especially when I know the secret ingredient is lots of cream!). Instead, I opt for the sweet corn fritters, which are two lovely crisp patties of pop-in-your-mouth corn held together by an eggy batter. Sandwiched between these tasty fritters are pieces of juicy roasted roma tomatoes, baby spinach leaves and the best bacon I have tasted to date! The bacon wasn't particularly crispy but it just had the most amazing smokey bacony flavour. I don't know what kind of bacon I've been eating in the past but this is what REAL bacon should taste like! Needless to say I ate every last bit of this dish.

Semolina-crusted calamari with lemon, parsely, green beans and fennel - $19.50

Pancakes for Shrove Tuesday

Today is Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday which marks the start of Lent. I've always associated Shrove Tuesday with pancakes, and thanks to trusty Wikipedia I learnt that this was because pancakes contain ingredients such as fat, sugar and eggs which are traditionally not included in the fasting season of Lent. So Shrove Tuesday was considered the last day to enjoy these foods before engaging in 4 weeks of a restricted diet. Any excuse to eat pancakes, I say!

These pancakes were made using my favourite pancake recipe from Donna Hay. The recipe uses buttermilk which produces a deliciously light, fluffy pancake - if you don't have any buttermilk on hand, you can substitute with normal milk and lemon juice. And since we have so many gorgeous summer fruits available at the moment, I decided to top my pancakes with some mango pieces, whipped cream and maple syrup. Enjoy!