Melbourne Through Fresh Eyes #1

I love showing people around Melbourne - taking them to my favourite food haunts, chilling in my favourite parks, ogling at my favourite buildings. And that's just what I did when my sister came to visit last week - we literally ate our way across the city, and spent the rest of the time either digesting all that food we'd eaten or absorbing the ambience of all the wonderful places we had visited.

Breakfast/Brunch/Lunch at De Clieu, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

First food experience! I've personally been wanting to properly sample De Clieu's food properly since the last time I was there, I was too full to have anything more than a cup of coffee. So naturally, it was the perfect opportunity to kill 2 birds with one stone, so to speak - show my sister one of Fitzroy's most famous cafés and get a chance to finally sample their food for myself :)

Caramelised pork neck and fried egg on roti - how pretty does it look?!

Heirloom tomatoes, avocado and buffalo mozzarella on toast

 We managed to get a spot inside, right by a large window, with lots of sunlight shining through and a cool breeze keeping us nice and fresh, countering the heat from the sun.

The food was amazing - simple, fresh, and oh-so-tasty. One of my friends had the cured kingfish on toast, I had the tomatoes, mozzarella and avocado on toast, and my sister had the pork neck on roti. I liked how all their dishes were light and fresh - perfect food to have in the stiffling heat on that day! We all left De Clieu feeling just the right amount of full, and very satisfied with our experience :)

   


Vegie Bar (I LOVEEE VEGIE FOOD), Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

We then adjourned to the Vegie Bar on Brunswick Street for some good 'ol vegetarian/vegan/gluten free smoothies and desserts. We shared the sticky date pudding with vanilla ice cream - it was a mound of soft, golden pudding, drizzled generously with caramel sauce and perfectly complemented by 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream.

I had to try the Raw Shake (cacao, agave, and almond milk) - it was interesting... All the health food freaks out there would absolutely LOVE it. I found that the almond bits were a bit annoying - they kept getting stuck in my throat, but overall really enjoyed how healthy the shake tasted. It is probably the most guilt-free drink I've ever had in my life (apart from good ol' H20)!

I would love to go back and try their other food someday - it sounds like my cup of tea :D