why, hello!
it’s been a lovely afternoon… and — at the time of the photograph — it isn’t yet noon.
some minutes before, i polished off the most delicious mushroom sandwich that ever crossed my plate. it was a handful of fat field mushrooms, roasted until plump and moist, tucked into a tidy ciabatta, nestled in pillows of mild goats’ curd. there was pesto, and a few sweet chestnuts, and a good thatch of rocket. i ate it slowly, relishing the luxury of the pre-lunch crush at earl canteen (yes, it is possible, if you get there at 11.30am). there was no line forming at the counter, and nobody hungrily eyeing my spot along the polished concrete slab.
so i sipped at my hot chocolate — crowned with a smattering of solid chocolate chunklets, turned another page in my magazine, and asked for a rose macaron from the tidy rows in the glass case. it arrived swiftly on an adorable little metal dish, and when i thanked the waiter, he replied like he really meant it, “my pleasure”.
but the pleasure was mine. though small, the macaron was perfectly formed, and heavy with its delicately scented buttercream filling. it doesn’t look like a lot of filling in the picture, but once i bit into it i found it had pushed its buttery, creamy way into the surface of the biscuits, oh yeshh. from my stool i eyed off the salted caramel chocolate tart, and contemplated a takeaway black sesame macaron, but i figured i should leave a reason for a revisit sooner rather than later.
(in the interest of full disclosure, i feel i must tell you that just over an hour later i was having second dessert — a well-executed eclair — at the shiny brunetti outlet at myer, to celebrate finding the almost perfect pair of boots for winter.)
all this gallivanting around the city: early lunches, second desserts, boot shopping… it reads like i’ve fashioned a life of leisure for myself in melbourne, no? the sad truth is that most days in the four months i’ve been here are spent at the computer pushing words and pictures around a page as the little oil heater by my side labours towards cultivating an electricity bill whose arrival in the mail i’m dreading. still, i’ve somehow managed to sample macarons from all corners of the city, and there were times in the last month, as i juggled projects for five different clients, where i felt useful, and alive, dammit!
all in all, it’s been pretty good. and how are you?
9 Comments
welcome back and welcome to Melbourne from a long-time lurker!
Have you discovered Hardware Society yet? http://totallyaddictedtotaste.blogspot.com/2010/04/hardware-societe.html
I think you’ll like it.
c.
hi there! Great to see that your cake/macaron consumption hasn’t suffered in the move. With the cooler weather, there’s nothing like a cream horn or massive pastry from one of the Acland St shops. Hope you’re well, say hi to Maeve.
You do know that Earl Canteen is first on my list for places to eat. It’s where we intend to go for second breakfast when we get to town.
I’ve been a lurker forever, no comments at all from me until now. But I am so, so, so glad you posted again. You make even sandwiches sound elegant and lovely.
chris: thank you for de-lurking! i have indeed heard good things about hardware societe, but have not yet made my way there. my list of places to go just keeps getting longer!
bel: oh yes, a cream horn would be very nice! i must admit i’ve only been to st kilda twice in my time here (2 tram rides is 1 ride too many!) — and to the cake shops only once. i did come away with an enormous slab of kugelhopf though, to make up for going cakeless on the prior visit.
deborah! i imagine it must have been very hard to put this list together — what you need to do is stay a week! earl is tops, yes, and perhaps you and LJ will have to have 2 sandwiches each to cover some ground.
steph: thank you too for de-lurking. the mushroom sandwich wasn’t all that pretty, but it tasted like bliss. i’m hoping to share many more tales of delicious sandwiches here. 🙂
Yay, you’re back and blogging! Hope you and Li’l Miss Maeve are doing alright.
And that rose macaron looks so scrummy!
Good to see you blogging again. 🙂
Second Desserts? I like the sound of that.
Wooohooo – she’s baaack!
Great that you’ve reappeared RY, I was popping by every now and again in anticipation of your reappearance.
Glad to see you’ve been globetrotting and feeling like a useful citizen.
My year thus far? Well it’s been eventful as they say. But strangely enough, just as quickly as things went pear shaped (not sure what we have against pears…) they righted themselves again.
And I’m moonlighting as a chocolatier… so I’m feeling rather useful and alive myself.
Good to have you back : )
midge: hello! yes, we are doing fine, thank you. lots of fun excursions and tasty treats to be had in our new city.
marvin: thanks! still feels like a muscle i need to exercise a lot more. 😉 might need to exercise more all ’round anyway, if second dessert becomes a new habit, ho ho.
flip! hello! and thank you for leaving a comment. 🙂 that is good news about being right way up *and* working with chocolate. onya!