Birdman Eating
238 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (map)
9416 4747
On Saturday the charming K took me out for breakfast. We went to Birdman Eating, his local that he's been telling me about ever since we met. It was the first time I'd been there, but I'd read about their famous baked eggs on many a food blog. At $12 a pop, there are four different kinds available each day, and each serve arrives in an individual little cast iron skillet which in turn rests on a tattered leaf of sheet music.
I'm afraid I can't report on what the interior decor or atmosphere is like because we sat outside to soak up the gorgeous sunny morning. This had the advantage of allowing me to keep my sunglasses on the whole time, which helped my delicate condition (an inevitable aftereffect of playing the VP debate drinking game with friends the night before). K and I both ordered baked eggs. He chose those with tomato sugo and pancetta. I had a taste and they were great: the tomato was not too acidic and both egg yolks were wonderfully gooey.
I had the baked eggs with kasoundi and labne. Lately, it's very hard for me to go past labne whenever I see it on the menu! The dish turned out to include cubes of eggplant, which had been cooked in the kasoundi. The creamy yoghurt was a great foil for the aromatic spiciness of the relish.
A very enjoyable first experience at Birdman Eating, will have to go back there soon to sample the wider breakfast menu. Is there anything on the rest of the menu that anyone cares to recommend?
Buzzing from two coffees, I left K and caught a tram into town to see Hotel Meina with T at the Italian Film Festival. After the movie, T's wife J met us and the three of us went for a stroll, ending up at Birrarung Marr at the NAB-sponsored event known as the Dream Festival (read one particularly disgruntled blogger's opinion of the event here). It was all rather silly and faux-arty and fun - there was a floating walkway on the Yarra, punctuated with bouncy-castle artworks. These were my favourites.
Pity that I'm so prone to seasickness that merely standing on the barge for 15 minutes made me feel seasick for the rest of the afternoon!
