rosti

Judging newcomers can be a bit like asking a newborn foal to run the Melbourne Cup - it usually takes them time to find their feet. Not so at Oscar Cooper! They flew out of the gates only 7 weeks ago and now they're a full length ahead of their closest Prahran rivals.

Occasionally I go somewhere for breakfast and immediately feel more beautiful and more relaxed just for being there. Parlor Milk Bar & Kitchen is one such place, and not just because the name itself is so darling. It's a combination of, well, everything about it - the provincial decor, the perpetual smell of baking, the shuttered windows and the open fire. It's like going home to see your parents, if they were tasteful and elegant French people.

It’s not often table centrepieces are made out of vegetables. But this is Kensington, and when you have the pretty streets, dogs, babies and trees that Kensington does you’re allowed to put whatever you want in the middle of a table. Hell, put a Kenny G Christmas album there and people will probably be ok with it.

In a review Anna recently posted, she rightly showcased how spelling something differently in an attempt to look funky results in people thinking you have asparagus for a brain.  Unfortunately the trend continues on the northern side of Melbourne, but I liked Piccane Caffe enough to assume they weren't trying to be hip by spelling 'cafe' with two 'f's, but in fact actually meant that it was Piccante's coffee, but in Italian...because in Italian ‘caffe’ means coffee in. You think I'm educated and worldly now, don't you? That's because I am.

Sometimes you sit down to eat and you just know it's an off day. You can see the look on the wait staff's faces as they explain why things are delayed, cold, burned or wrong. And you can totally understand that it's no one's fault and that it's the kind of thing that occasionally happens in the hospitality industry. But still, you were hoping for food that tasted good, at the end of the day, and you didn't get it.