Happy 4th of July people! Hope that you had an awesome weekend!

So, after reading a couple of food blogger’s recommendations (in particular, Chocolatesuze and Here Comes the Food), my boyfriend and I decided to go to cafe ish (82 Campbell Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia) for brunch yesterday. cafe ish is a tiny little cosy cafe, which serves a brilliant and unique combination of native Australian and Japanese food.

As we both love to indulge in our breakfast fare, we decided to go with the traditional coffee + breakfast combo (even though it was about 2pm in the afternoon!). My boyfriend ordered the much talked about Wattle Maccacino and Crab Omelette, while I ordered the Hot Chocolate and cafe ish’s take on Eggs Benedict (aka Benedict ish).

To tell you the truth, I’m not much of a coffee fan myself but I did have a sip of the Wattle Maccacino. It was very nice and soothing, but most importantly not too bitter for my taste. I guess the use of both wattle seed and macadamia somehow manage to disguise the bitter coffee taste. It was nonetheless a very well done and satisfying cuppa (says my boyfriend, a former barrister and coffee lover).

Wattle Maccacino

My hot chocolate was made just the way I like it. Served in a ‘hug mug’, not too ‘milky’ but ‘chocolaty’ enough… it was oh so yummy! It was gone within a minute of me laying my eyes on it =)

Hot Chocolate

Flower display at cafe ish — Just loved the colours!

But the highlight of the brunch has got to be the dishes (and not forgetting our chat with Josh, the head chef and co-owner of the cafe – read more about that later in this post). Our mouth-watering dishes arrived at the table and we had never seen anything quite like it before. It was definitely worth a picture!!

My Benedict ish with Turkish toast was just absolutely gorgeous. The very nicely done soft shell crab just gave the traditional Eggs Benedict a whole new look and taste. While the typical Eggs Benedict (served with either ham or smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce on a muffin) can be quite filling and heavy; the Benedict ish was light and delicious and kept you going back for more! My boyfriend had a taste of it and wanted to swap dishes… but of course I said No! LOLs.

Benedict ish (Crispy crab, sautéed spinach, poached egg, toast and sake hollandaise)

Benedict ish – Take 2 (this picture was taken by my boyfriend)

The Crab Omelette was very nicely done as well. Neatly wrapped inside were the soft shell crab and avocado, and on top of it was a beautiful dressing which gave the dish a nice balance of sweetness, spiciness, and saltiness…

Crab Omelette (Crispy crab, avocado, shallot, garlic, chilli, soy, ginger dressing and lime)

Pepper grinder (left), Green Tea – Genmaicha (right)

The other thing that caught my eye (and taste buds) at cafe ish was the cute pepper grinder and condiment plate with three different types of salt – citrus, volcano and green tea. I thought it was a rather clever idea and unique experience for me. I liked the citrus salt the best as it gave me a nice tingling sensation. Loved the salty-citrusy feeling… Wouldn’t mind just eating the salt by itself =p But that being said, I thought that all three salts worked really well with my Benedict ish =) At the end of the day, it is all a matter of preference.

Citrus, Volcano & Green Tea salt

Now, back to my conversation with Josh…

Josh came down to speak to us after I told him that I was a food blogger* who was just starting up and cafe ish would be my second food blog post. He was very friendly and was quite happy to share with us about his experiences with food bloggers. We spoke about the famous Chocolatesuze + Co. (incl. Billy from A Table for Two and Helen from Grab Your Fork) and that every week without fail, he would get about 3-4 huge cameras (in comparison to my baby Nikon D40) clicking away in his cafe… Needless to say, he was initially a little bothered by it but he’s getting more accustomed to the droves of people coming in to take pictures and blogging about it (just as long as you ask permission first! ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’ are the magic words…) =)

As a closing note, I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading my second food blog post just as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Special thanks to Josh and Ai for being so welcoming and for sharing with us your amazing food. Please follow cafe ish on twitter and do check out the cafe (if you haven’t already done so!). cafe ish is open 7 days a week for breakfast.

*Note: I did mention that I was a food blogger but my focus is on the actual food photography as opposed to writing up foodie articles. I love my food but I am still learning the art of food talk and blogging. I am trying to gain more practice on how to put my thoughts into words… So, please bear with me. In the meantime, please allow me to let my humble pictures do the talking 🙂

Have a great week ahead!