My partner and I hit up Aldinga Beach a few weekends ago, mainly to go to the Sea and Vines festival held in the McClaren Vale wine region. This was supposed to be around twenty wineries pairing up with local restaurants and serving their wine with seafood dishes. It was really a bit more like the movie Animal House, Aussie style. Most of the food was overpriced at best, and there were literally buses full of drunk Australians ready to get completely pissed (Aussie slang for drunk). And oh, how the pissing occurred, both literally and figuratively.
But at least the morning of was great. We were staying at a beach house, so we went for a walk on the beach when we woke up. It was gorgeous, just blue that goes on forever one side, and these lush rolling green hills on the other. I believe the only phrase in my vocabulary that can accurately capture the moment is kick ass. It was most kick ass.
Especially when a random fish jumped out of the ocean to pay me this compliment in the sand?too cool. It?s good to know no matter where I am in the world, my reputation precedes me.
After that, we headed out for breakfast at the Hundred Eaves.
And guess what greeted our arrival?
A slightly obese kitty sitting on a car. If you know my partner and I at all, you know we LOVE rotund felines. LOVE THEM. We exchanged a knowing glance and just knew, this place was gonna rock our worlds a little bit. So the Hundred Eaves has only been open for around four months (EXACTLY how long we have been in Australia) and is only open Friday-Sunday for brekky and dinner. It is made out of an old tiny church and is just fricking adorable on the inside.
They have rustic country tables (seats around 35 people or so), cute little church windows?from our table, we were able to see the parking lot, neighboring farms, the ocean?
and if you look really closely, a certain chunky kitty wandering on top of cars. We laughed so hard I reckon someone peed a little. The menu is small and changes based on what is in season and in stock?we spoke a little to the chef, Jules (who looked suspiciously like the guy from the show HOUSE), and you could tell, he was one bad ass chef. He told us he cooks how he wants to?ingredients are fresh and local when possible (he has an herb garden and some random ducks floating around in the back yard to prove it),
and there is a considerable wait for everything because Jules makes it from scratch, sometimes not chopping up the food until right when he needs it (Slow food to the extreme). If he runs out of a dish, it?s gone for the night. He does it how he wants when he wants it. The brekky menu pointed out that eggs other than sunnyside up would not be made unless you paid him a $1 extra or bought him a beer. This might scare some people, but once you have tasted his food, you just know. He?s one of the good ones. Our host got the omelet and although I didn?t taste it, it looked pretty good with bacon poking out of the side. BACON!
I chose the veggie hash. Un-fricking-believable.
I am not afraid to swing on the veggie side in restaurants, but it is so hard to find a place that can make veggie dishes with flavor. This one had a piece of thick toast on the bottom, a crap ton of fried potatoes, pumpkin, onion, beet greens, just about everything you can think of, and was topped with a googie (Aussie slang for egg). There was this almost apple cider vinaigrette on it, maybe it was straight vinegar, I don?t know, but it really gave the veggies a kick that was awesome. There was also a roasted tomato topped with pesto that came on the side. Probably one of the best vegetarian dishes I have eaten anywhere in the world. The partner got a special, which was pancakes torn up and topped with fresh berries, berry syrup and heavy cream.
Wow. I didn?t think it possible to perfect the already perfect pancake, but Jules did it. The cake was crispy on the outside and super fluffy on the inside, with just a hint of spice underneath. The berry-syrup-cream combo was perfect and fresh tasting. Best pancakes EVER. Right before our food came, the door opened and in trotted our new best friend, Oatsy the cat. He walked directly over to our table and proceeded to let us pet his adorable chunkosity. Doesn?t he look like a puddle of cat here?
Chunky=adorable, people. Trust me. Animals greeted us on our way out, too.
They randomly had two llamas chilling in the back yard, Alpacas. Llamas happen to be one of my favorite animals?I love their little llama afros! We will be back…and we’re probably gonna steal Oatsy the cat if we can rent a wagon. ~LTG
