All about the Sanger

Ok ... it seems to be all about the humble (or rather, not so humble) sanger recently. I've been meaning to post about this for some time, but my stomach has decided to chuck a tanty and rail against all the rich food I've been trying to shove down its gullet, so its puffed its cheeks out and held its breath in a sulk, and caused an impasse which resulted in me throwing up and popping back antacids to calm the back bile ... yah ... pretty picture ... I know.

Anyhoo, we finally made it to Earl Canteen, and by we I mean the 2 T's and myself ... this is the food blogger's lunch venue du jour ... made even more significant by the fact that a couple of food bloggers set up this establishment. And in typical melbourne fashion, its not easily seen from the street. Its in a courtyard section behind a major building and although the street address is Bourke Street, unless you know to walk through the foyer of said building, they recommend you enter via the street behind ... Melbourne!

Anyhoo, you can read a review here ... because we pretty much agree ... although be warned, someone in house makes the macarons now ... still yummy though.

I had the Duck Confit sandwhich which comes with caramelised wild figs, walnuts, onion jam, radicchio and watercress served in a ciabatta roll.

The 2 T's had the same Pork Belly sanga which is Crisp skin Otway Pork belly (posh places always tell you where the meat is from) served in a baguette with apple, cabbage coleslaw, wilted silverbeet and most importantly ... crackling!!! And really yummy crackling at that!

In other Sanger related news, me and M were stuck for something to do of a Saturday arvo, so we headed out to the Duchess of Spotswood for a little afternoon repast. Thanks to a headsup from the lovely Claire.

If you're driving out here keep your eyes peeled when you hit Hudson road. If you blink you may miss this place as it slinks unassumingly amongst the rest of this tiny, and slightly depressing, shopping strip. Much of the strip remained resolutely shut when we were there at about 2 pm. Although I think the cafe must face one of the prettier residential streets in Spotswood ... actually on closer inspection, there are quite a few pretty houses around!!

I had the pork belly sandwhich which, unlike the one at Auction rooms, came with suitably piquant mustard relish and cornichons! Big tick! And lets face it, its pointless talking about the coffee (although we should mention that they use Small Batch) because if it was shit ... I wouldn't really give the joint much column space apart from saying Avoid!!

M had this brilliant bacon soup (part of the specials list) with little cubed vegetables. It was amazing. How they managed to keep it bacony but not too fatty is just a testament to skillful clarification.

And I love the fact that they have a twitter page that keeps you abreast of the ingredients they are using ... but more importantly, that they are quickly running out of!! Oh and also whats new on the menu!!

PS - I haven't been blogging of late having been holed up over the toilet seat for the past few days ... but my stats haven't dipped ... so to all my reader(s) ... top left!