It’s a pintxos bar which is a style of eating experience (similar to Sushi train) where you pick and choose your meal from a pre-prepared bunch of little treats, each treat has a tooth pick which they count at the end. Naked for Satan charge $2 per piece, which is exceptionally cheap considering the quality, style and deliciousness.

You have to check this place out, and my guess is there’ll be more of them popping up around Melbourne in no time.

Claire over at Melbourne Gastronome has done a smashing review.
http://www.melbournegastronome.com/2010/09/getting-naked-for-satan-in-fitzroy.html

Work has been going bananas so many 14 hr days have left me with zero energy literally falling asleep as soon as I land home.

Not cool, but hopefully it’s back to normal land now.

So last weekend I went a little “out there” and broke the weekend breakfast ritual by ordering from the LUNCH menu – whoa.

So I went a seafood broth and it was light, filling and left me wanting more. As you may already know the bread at Provenance is pretty swell, and coupled with the dish it was superb.

And this is my first post from the WordPress iPhone App, I’m guessing I’ll need to edit it when I get to a PC?

Here’s the lunch menu for those wondering… http://www.provenancefoodwine.com.au/downloads/Lunch%20june10.pdf

Christy's version

My not so beautiful but very tasty version

So here’s my version of Christy’s recipe

Serves: 4 alone, probably more with rice or vegetables added

Ingredients

• 3 medium sized chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 small cans condensed cream of chicken soup
• 2 cups crushed Ritz crackers (about 1 1/2 rolls of crackers)
• 1 small onion chopped into quarters
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 1 tsp celery salt
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• Juice from 1 1/2 lemons
• 2 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 rashers of bacon roughly chopped
• Goes well with rice or vegetables

Recipe

1. Pre-heat oven to 230 degrees (that’s the max ours will go to)
2. Boil cubed chicken with salt, 1 tsp of pepper, onion
3. Mix crushed biscuits into large bowl with poppy seeds
4. When chicken is cooked through place in casserole dish, and mix sour cream, chicken soup, celery salt, garlic, lemon juice, bacon, salt & pepper through
5. Melt butter and stir through crushed biscuits
6. Cover casserole dish mix with crushed biscuits
7. Add casserole lid (that’s one for me ) and bake for 30 minutes, until browned & sauce is bubbly
8. Serve with rice or vegetables, we had it alone and was very filling

Ingredients

• 500gm shell pasta
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 teaspoons of olive oil
• 190g basil pesto paste (we use Barilla, it’s got the highest percentage of basil)
• 10 slices of finely shaved ham, roughly chopped
• 10-15 button mushrooms, diced into cubes
• Half or a whole zucchini (totally optional)
• Sour cream to taste

Recipe

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, add pasta with a dash of olive oil
2. In a large saucepan on medium heat, fry the olive oil, onion & garlic for 2-3 mins (until onion slightly transparent)
3. Add mushrooms & zucchini to saucepan, heat for another 6-7 mins (until mushrooms are soft & slightly browned)
4. When the pasta is al dente, drain water in colander, and add the pasta back to the large pot, on very low heat
5. Quickly stir the pesto through pasta and add the ham and veges
6. Serve and add sour cream to taste (I prefer without)

Mart 130 is famous for their oven roasted corn fritters, and I’m certainly a repeat visitor to this dish. The fritters have a home & hand made feel, and being oven roasted they’re quite light, when you add the crunchy bacon, sour cream, coriander & a fruit chutney it’s an absolute sensation.

Although today I’m a little disappointed as the bacon wasn’t fantastic, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. A few bits of gristle and a little bit dry, it has nothing on Provenance’s bacon, or even the last time I came to Mart, so hopefully it was just a once off. (Just discovered Sharon also had an average bacon experience at Mart, but on the flip side Claire seems to love it, and Claire points out it won The Age Cheap Eats 2008 Breakfast of the Year.)

All that said I still love the experience at Mart, interesting staff (lots of different accents), great view (if you’re lucky enough to get a seat in the semi-outdoor area) and they make a good soy latte.

So overall I’ve given the experience a 3.5 out of 5, it would’ve been 4 if it weren’t for the bacon.

Meal: Lunchfast (late lunch, late lunch…?)

Where: Mart 130, 107A Canterbury Road, Middle Park (just behind Albert Park)

It’s a great atmosphere, usually busy, but friendly stuff and it’s never too loud. And if you have to wait for a table they lend you a red blanket and a coffee, and usually we’ve only waited for about 5-10 mins.

It’s a unique building, if you haven’t figured it out already, it’s an old tram stop building (trams still stop here, noticed the 96 a few times) and has a collection of magazines, books, art and generally interesting decor making it something special.

And according to Trip Advisor it’s ranked number 26 in Melbourne… WOW, that’s a BIG call.

Cereal is one of my all time favourite meals, when I was super young I’d eat enormous amounts of Weetbix three times a day, covered in cream and sugar and swimming in litres of milk… Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

But now I’m a grown up and can’t handle that much cream and sugar, I’ve moved on to more mature types of breaky I’m kicking off today with a bowl of muesli, good for the body and tasty (with enough honey )

Sporting the best fruit in the world, a banana, and doused in Soy Milk (I’m lactose intolerant, it’s annoying sometimes.)

Quick, tasty & healthy.

Yum.

So I heated up some Pumpkin Soup of the Woolworths Essentials variety and… it was delightfully not terrible. Not the greatest but certainly tasted like real pumpkin, filled my tummy up and kept me warm.

Now for the extra excuse, it wasn’t really lunch or dinner, just an in between meal… Does that make it any more justifiable?

This marvelous creation was enjoyed at Provenance on Smith St, a quaint place we spend out weekend mornings.  The eggs are perfectly gooey, the bread is wholesome & grainy and the hollandaise isn’t too overpowering. Do I love it much? Umm, well yea, I LOVE IT! I’ve recently fallen back in love with avocado, thanks to an awesome new dish I’ll review soon, and so added it on the side.

Meal: Late & Lazy Breakfast

Where: Provenance, Smith St, Collingwood, Melbourne

Venue review: 4.5/5

This place is super awesome, our new local regular, it’s owned by a young dude called David Hynes (@davehynesmith), the atmosphere, service and food are all humble, warm and cozy. They make an awesome array of homemade style organic-esk simple food with amazing produce.

They also do a super degustation without charging through the roof, hopefully they’ll do another one soon and I’ll take some snaps and review it!