Brunch at Vulture Street Espresso

cappuccino in a black cup and saucer with a spoon on a wooden table
Skim cappuccino, $4.50.

What a whirlwind! Just spend Thursday to Monday up in Magan-djin/Brisbane for the People Against Poverty summit that I helped organise! I’ll post a recap of the event sometime this week (including my presentation which I’ll hopefully get the audio of soon and plan to do an online version of when we all have spoons again), but I’m excited to do a food blogging post for the brekkie the interstate folk had before flying out on Monday at Vulture Street Espresso in the West End.

We were treating ourselves after a weekend, week, and MONTHS of hard work pulling this together, spending our conference allowances on a great feed before returning to the reality of our sub-poverty welfare payments, job seeking responsibilities and, appointments and caring roles. It was a good chance to finally relax a little and eat slowly!

The weather was a little damp all weekend, which threw some plans out, but VSE has a back section that feels open even though it’s nicely sheltered. Lots of plants and wood! I nabbed the large table for what ended up being 10 of us.

They serve breakfast all day, and I was filled in by one of the former Brisbane residents that former lord mayor and brief premier Campbell Newman was one of the reasons cafe’s opened so early every day in Brissie, with the huge spend on bike lanes when he was (a Lycra-clad-cycling-) mayor who needed to access morning lattes with the gang.

puree avocado and creamed feta and almonds on two slices of seeded sourdough on a round bluegreen plate
Iconic Aussie Smashed Avocado – $19.50.

Many of the meals came with a poached egg, but as I don’t eat that I got my “Iconic Aussie Smashed Avocado” without the egg. There was lemon through the avo, the feta was oddly creamed and squirted but it was tasty as 🙂

Vietnamese omelet with rice and lemon on a blue plate
Vietnamese Omelette – $18.90

The Vietnamese Omeleltte was intriguing and smelled delicious – filled with bean sprouts, pork mince, onion, cucumber, carrots, capsicum, spring onion, mint and coriander, the fish sauce was noticeable and served with shallots and rice.

bacon, egg, cheese and avocado, tomato relish milk bun
Aussie Bacon, egg, and avocado roll – $13.50.
a stack of fritters with egg and bacon and lettuce
West end vegetable fritters – $18.90. With a side of bacon – $8.
two bices of French toast with bacon, syrup and fruit on a white plate
Creme Brulé French Toast – $18.90.
scrambled eggs with sourdough toast, bacon and relish
Free range eggs on toast – $10.
eggs with holondaise sauce, bacon shallots and spinach
Bao Benedict – $21.
Brissie Hash Cakes – $21.

Vulture Street Espresso was recommended by a gluten free local who came along and most meals had vegetarian and gluten free options, and a great coffee and drinks selection. They also let us split the bill and individually pay as we each needed to leave, I bought some espresso beans to try at home, which were a good start to today!

1/85 Vulture St West End QLD 4101

(07) 3844 3208

January Foodbank Snax

So most foodbanks close over the Xmas and new year period – some still offer emergency hampers and the like for people struggling, but their regular free fruit and bread isn’t there and the other groceries which are my staples. One had its first week back the 8th, another not opened til the 17th, and the little church one I frequent only went back today since it’s when school went back.

$12 Bag

So of course I’d cleared out a bunch of stuff in the move and we ran down some of the other items over the shutdown period. I’ve only gotten to Southlakes once so far, and gotten one lot of the $12 grocery bag from Cardiff, but only two weeks of Ozharvest and the like because they were closed for the public holiday last Friday. I’m not sure yet if I’ll have the car tomorrow or if I’ll be on public transport so I may have to give that a miss again this week.

It was good to restock some instant noodle cups and sauces, I LOVE the cinimini cereal but can’t bring myself to buy it at the supermarket – I only get wheat biscuit there. I haven’t had the Chicken Crimpies yet but again they’re a favourite so always keen to get some cheap. I think Bruce ate the LCMs.

$7.50The melted Xmas bikkies were fine with a coffee, and the other chockies good, if a tad melted. Last time I got te marzipan I wasn’t really fussed, so this time I was reminded that I wasn’t that into them. But they were 60c at southlakes, along with the chocolate almonds.

The Crispy Riceberry Bars were a nice little change. A lot like LCMs, but not sticky. And they had a sneaky little cashew sliver in them.

Bubble tea is something I don’t do much, but these were in the $12 bag, I like the black tea one, not quite won over on the matcha, but I’m not really into matcha either.

I have a nice little stash of hot cross buns in the freezer now for morning and afternoon tea, they’re mini ones so I can just defrost one and have it, it goes well.

I stocked up quite well this morning at the church, I had $18 of stuff but got $2 more so I wouldn’t feel bad giving them a $50 note. I also got some apples so there was some healthy things :p