My Week with Home Cooking

Last week I blogged about being really inspired by my friend who seems to be a far healthier vegetarian than I am. At the beginning of last week, I moved into my new flat in Camberwell and decided to take on the challenge of eating only home cooked healthy vegetarian food (with the exception of coffee because there is no way on earth I would survive a whole week without visiting coffee roasters and trying out different brews – but strictly coffee, just pure joy of caffeine). I have to say that I am very proud of myself because I did not give into temptations. For the whole week, I managed to prepare and cook all my meals at home and only used fresh and healthy ingredients.

This might sound like a rubbish challenge, however, I am definitely a person who enjoys eating out and also quite easily gives into temptations and laziness. When I see a nice café or restaurant, I have to eat there! Or when I am too tired after a busy day, I normally tend to either grab a take-out or buy something ready made from the supermarket. Luckily (although not really luckily) as I have only been in Melbourne for a short period of time, I do not know that many people yet who I could potentially tempt to join me for brunch or dinner. Also, last week I did not have any commitments so I was flexible in terms of cooking my meals whenever I felt the need.

I have to admit that I did not attempt to cook anything too complicated and mainly just tried to use more vegetables, legumes and prepare dishes that would include proteins and fibres rather than carbohydrates (especially sugars). I ended up making some interesting observations about my body’s reactions to different foods. Most of the time I felt really good and full of energy but I have to admit that reducing sugars in my diet did affect me quite a bit. There were a couple of mornings when I felt really dizzy and almost nauseous. On those occasions, I decided to include some sugars into my breakfast and in general mornings were the main times of the day when I felt that my body was trying to challenge my experiment.

Lunchtimes were the easiest meals because I had already broken the natural fast. It also happened to be that I did my jogging between breakfast and lunch last week (I am normally an afternoon jogger but the weather was so hot all week that it was more tolerable to be outside before noon). My dinners were plentiful and nutritious. Whenever I felt after finishing my meal that I could eat more, I tried to figure out if I was actually still hungry or just craving for something sweet. I realised every single time that it was just my cravings and after drinking some water and waiting for 20 minutes, I no longer felt the need to eat any more.

What I ate for breakfast

As a vegetarian, my absolute favourite breakfast is toast with peanut butter. I especially love adding some sliced bananas and I could literally have that for every single breakfast for the rest of my life. Peanut butter and jam is also great and I had that when I felt like I needed a little bit more sugar first thing in the morning. 

My other favourite breakfast item is fruits and berries with a choice of carbs. I usually have oatmeal because I tend not to trust supermarket granola but because I had a lot of time in my hands, I decided to make some maple cinnamon granola with nuts and cranberries. Camberwell has a great selection of health food shops and I discovered The Source Bulk Food store that sells nuts, seeds, tea, coffee and other organic varieties of grains. The quality is superb and the prices are reasonable. 

On Sunday, I decided to make some pancakes so that was the only day that my carb intake really went up significantly. 

What I ate for lunch

Lunch as a vegetarian always frustrates me the most when relying on cafes or take-away places. I love bread so sandwich would be naturally my favourite lunch item but it seems that people who are not vegetarians do not seem to understand that we do not want to have sandwiches that only have a slice of tomato and lettuce in it (it is almost like taking out the meat and giving us the left overs). Even some of the grilled vegetable sandwiches seem boring and do not keep me full for very long.

For me the perfect lunch item is egg. There is no particular way I like it the most although normally a fried egg sandwich with different sides keeps it interesting. My friend who I stayed with told me about her favourite – fried egg and beetroot. I have to admit that it is quite a good combination. When I lived in Vancouver, my housemate could not tolerate the smell of hot oil on a frying plan for health reasons so I got used to making hardboiled eggs. Egg and avocado is still my personal favourite. Avocado on its own or avocado mash with squeezed lemon, chopped red onion and some seasoning is also good. 

Quite a few times at lunchtime, I ended up eating leftovers of my dinner from the night before which is a good option and saves some money as well. 

What I ate for dinner

Dinnertime was when I really tried working my vegetarian magic and cook some fulfilling dishes. I tried vegetarian chilli with kidney beans, spaghetti Bolognese with lentils, egg fried rice with black beans and spinach quinoa salad with black beans. I have also started liking corn on the cob as a side dish or snack. It is perfectly sweet and helps making the meal nice and colourful. As of vegetables, I tried adding at least one green vegetable into each dinner dish or as a side dish - these happened to be broccoli, asparagus, spinach and green bell pepper. Spinach is still my favourite because it tastes really nice either raw or cooked. In the future, I am also planning to try eat some kale which has been rated even more of a superfood than spinach but I just sometimes find its texture a bit too crunchy.

My homemade week was a very productive one and I did a lot of healthy cooking. However, it will not be my goal to try eat every single meal at home for the rest of my life. I think it was just good to try different foods and decide what works best for me. As I have started working in a restaurant in Camberwell, I will be eating some of their food during my breaks but luckily the menu has a variety of vegetarian dishes and lots of the items are reasonably healthy. I will definitely also try discover some interesting new recipes that can make my dinners more exciting.

Coffee in the Coffee Capital: High Expectations

As one of my motivations for choosing Melbourne for my main destination in Australia was my interest in coffee and the presumption that this city can live up to my standards, the expectation to find some perfect coffee locations was high. There are millions and trillions of speciality coffee shops, roasters, cafes and other places that think they know everything about coffee in Melbourne! Due to the high volume of coffee available though, it is even harder to find these great spots that have the highest standards and succeed in making the best cup.

When I visit coffee shops in different cities, I try to do some research beforehand to get some information whether the place is supposedly a ‘coffee heaven’ (like Melbourne) or if they rather sell them through other features (in which case the existence of good quality coffee is still highly likely but there are less recommendations made beforehand by other guests via the internet). I normally pick a few cafés that have great feedback and try fit them into my daily agenda. If I have more time in a specific location, I usually tend to make trips to coffee roasters that are a bit out of the way but look interesting enough for a special visit (these are places that have really high ratings by other coffee enthusiasts and usually do not disappoint). Then I also randomly visit places that I have not seen on any list but that suddenly pop up on my way to other places (these might end up being good or bad) and attract me for whatever reason (cool design, professional coffee equipment, barista who knows what they are doing etc).

Following this logic normally works in smaller places or cities where coffee culture is existent in moderate levels. Well, let me tell you, in Melbourne it is impossible because coffee is literally EVERYWHERE! Melbourne is full of establishments that sell coffee and I am not even talking about centralised coffee chains but loads and loads of genuine individually owned places that all have their own branding. And this is not just in the CBD area but in the suburbs as well. Melbourne has the most coffee places I have ever seen anywhere before!

But now comes the interesting part: are they actually good quality? That is the tricky part. I was obviously very excited about coming to Melbourne and trying ‘the best coffee in the world’ because that was what all the Australians who I had met previously had told me. I think the truth is somewhere in between. Melbourne has been voted as the coffee capital of the world by ‘experts who know these things’. This does not automatically mean that ALL coffee is perfect in Melbourne. I have already been to multiple places that use Melbourne’s name and reputation to praise their own coffee but actually serve pretty average stuff made by average baristas. In one particular place, I have even unfortunately been asked by a head barista what ‘coffee brewing’ means. In another place I was told that the longer you run a shot the ‘stronger’ the coffee will be. It is not all perfect so some establishments that want to sell coffee but not invest into training or quality product still try and promote their coffee by using the city’s good name.

One thing is for sure – coffee is the best at the places that actually specialise in producing it (surprise lol)! There are plenty of quality coffee roasters that serve fresh brew or perfect latte made by experienced baristas. Some cafes use beans from a coffee roaster because they do not have a roasting room and depending on how much they focus on coffee making and how knowledgeable their staff is, it might still be possible to get great coffee there. Places that focus mainly on food but label themselves a ‘café’ are usually the type of establishments where the chances of getting some average stuff and astonishingly uneducated answers from baristas are higher. And this is because coffee is not their main product and they should not sell themselves as the ‘provider of best coffee in town’! OK, most of them do not but some do.

One is for sure – it is a highly competitive market and only the best ones survive and grow. Although the thirst for their daily coffee is strong in Melbourians, they are picky and spoilt when it comes to it. Only the best make it!

Here are some of my favourite picks so far (in no particular order):

1.     Dukes Coffee Roasters (CBD) – great selection of beans including some great single origins and organic espresso 

2.     Patricia Coffee Brewers (CBD) – great spot, perfect on a sunny day for enjoying your coffee outside or by the big open windows 

3.     My Other Brother (Camberwell) – great local brunch café with good quality coffee, including single origin brewing options 

4.     Seven Seeds Specialty Coffee (Carlton) – they have a roasting room with cuppings and plenty of space in a trendy industrial environment, their coffee is great 

5.     Axil Coffee Roasters (Hawthorn) – spacious spot with great food options and plenty of choices for great coffee from the roasters 

6.     The Maling Room (Cantebury) – interesting café that looks like a random old café from outside but has excellent selection of beans, coffee equipment and very knowledgeable staff 

I I hope this list will get longer and longer as I discover the greatest coffee spots in Melbourne!