Munch & Muse: Breakfast Club Meeting - Numero Uno @ Proud Mary, Oxford Street, Collingwood

Recently, some of my workmates and I realised that we share a passion (yes, passion is the right word to use here) for trying out new breakfast places around Melbourne. The natural next step was to (OBVIOUSLY) form a Breakfast Club. At that time, I was unaware of the fact that this was the name of an 80s movie that was apparently quite big in the 80s... Not that I would know.. The DVD is still sitting on my desk waiting to be watched (courtesy of fellow Breakfast Clubber, DS).

So anyway, back to the subject matter of this post: Armed with a copy of The Age's Cheap Eats Guide, we decided upon Proud Mary as the venue for our first ever Breakfast Club meeting. *Life changing moment* (Not really... but kinda a little bit...) So on one slightly gloomy, slightly chilly Saturday morning, me and my fellow Breakfast Club Buddies (BCBs) trudged down to Oxford Street for the exciting event that was our inaugural club meeting!

Proud Mary is housed in a very cool industrial-looking building, on the corner of a misleadingly quiet street just off Smith Street. Being the tram-ride junkie that I am, I kinda got carried away daydreaming on the tram and missed the stop and then had to struggle with the annoying GPS on my phone to direct me back to the correct street! (My brain was faster than the GPS... That's how slow it was :p)

There is something about that area that I took an immediate liking to. If you want to get a table quickly, you HAVE to go early. Even then, quickly may well be a 10 minute wait... The good thing is that, there is plenty of off-street parking for those who drive.

Blackboard!

Our waiter was very enthusiastic and animated and happily bustled about serving us our drinks to start. I ordered a chai latte and was slightly upset that it wasn't served in a teapot. But still, it was good chai - I can't complain. The others had the coffee, which is apparently pretty good. So after my chai, I had a weak flat white. I can appreciate that the coffee was good (well-roasted, good source? I have not idea how to describe good coffee apart from saying that it tasted good..) Despite it being a weak flat white, it was still too strong for me. Talk about unnecessary energy... and no outlet for it...

My Chai Latte

MK was running late but still managed to get there before our food was served. She ordered her heirloom tomatoes, avocado and feta on toast, and it was served before all our orders, that we had put in a good 20 minutes before she'd arrived! After picking each and every piece of tomato out of the amalgamation of vegie and cheese, she finally commenced her eating. I was slightly upset that our super-efficient and dedicated waiter cleared her plate so quickly that I didn't get the chance to eat the tomatoes that were left in a neat pile on her plate!

Avocado, heirloom tomatoes and feta on toast

My other 3 BCBs - BL, DS and EP - ordered the potato hash, a dish that is one of the most popular at this joint. I opted not to order it for my meal because it was served with a sauce called "bagna cauda" which is made from garlic, olive oil, butter and anchovies. I'm ~~a bit~~ very fussy about anchovies... The only ones I eat are the deep-fried salted and dried anchovies called "ikan bilis" in Malay. To be fair, I tried a bit of DS' bagna cauda and found it to be quite tasty. Just not really my thing though. It kinda reminded me of the unfortunate time that my mother had made ikan bilis soup (blegh!) and I had no choice but to consume it... :s But the others really enjoyed the hash and everything it came with - so it was obviously a winner! Another dead giveaway as to the quality of the food was the fact that our whole table was silent when the food arrived - being the foodies we are, we were just revelling in the haze of awesome tastiness that was the dish that had been placed in front of each of us. (That, and also, we were absolutely famished!)

I ordered the pork belly sandwich instead. It was pretty darn tasty! Loved the flavour combination of the sweet and smokey paprika, with the slightly charred pork belly, and the salty and slightly tangy aioli. The sandwich bread was also very, very yummy. So gooood :) It filled me up from 12pm all the way to 7pm!! (Yes, I have a fairly small stomach. I know.)

Overall, a very good start for the Breakfast Club! I think it's fair to say that everyone really enjoyed the meeting, company and the food (and coffee). Success!! :D

Stay tuned - a post about our second BC meeting is coming soon!! :) :)