Let’s Play Catch-Up Chicken @ Kinfolk

Kinfolk (673 Bourke Street, Melbourne)


With our increasingly busy professional lives, most people divide their social interaction time between two groups – the inner circle (weekends, some weeknights) and the outer circle (mid-week 50 minute lunches called “catch-ups”).  The mid-week lunch is a perfect way to retain a friendship by exerting the most minimal amount of effort. 


The build up to the Catch-up is generally like a game of chicken.  It’s like 2 cars driving towards each other, with the first to steer away, losing the game.  Often Catch-Up Chicken begins with a random meeting on the street with the words “we should catch-up for lunch one day soon” signalling the start of the game.  Then follows an extended email exchange whilst a date and time is set, outlook calendar invitations sent out and accepted to “lock it in”.  


Next is the most interesting part of the game.  More often than not, one person bails on the Catch-Up – just like the car steering away just before contact in the game of chicken. The date is usually then rain-checked and then starts Round 2 of the game.  


Thursday was the culmination of an epic game of Catch-Up Chicken with my friend Maggie. This 20+ round belter had been going on for over 1.5 years or so.  It had involved venue relocations, third party contestants, email address changes, proxy catch-ups, optimistic Friday night cocktail bar crawls and more rain-checks than I care to remember.  


But finally, on the prized 2nd last day in the CBD before I left for Japan, our game ended.  Maggie and I caught-up over one of the better city lunches I’ve had for a long time at Kinfolk, which is a Bourke Street café that is run as a not-for-profit and raises money for some great causes.  The food is rustic and fresh – we shared a Vietnamese Poached Chicken Coleslaw (great Viet flavours, fresh cabbage, tender chicken) and Dark Rye with fresh sliced tomatoes, basil and olive-tapenade (simple but perfect).  I’ve also done the brekky here and strongly recommend it, especially the coffee which rivals anywhere in the city. 


So for all those who regularly partake in Catch-Up Chicken, here are 4 Key Rules of Engagement:


1. Never schedule a catch-up on a Monday – you are much more likely to cancel on a Monday than other days.
2. Do not tolerate multiple cancellations – your time is valuable too.
3. Control venue selection – you don’t want to end up eating a kebab.  
4. Prepare a good excuse in case you want to bail early. 

Kiddush @ Caulfield Synagogue

Caulfield Synagogue 572 Inkerman Road Caulfield (FREE)

The bible tells us that God made the Jews walk through the desert in circles for 40 odd years until they had atoned for their sins and could be let into the holy land.  Similarly, on Saturday mornings, God makes the Jews wait for about 3.5 hours until they can get into the Kiddush.  For those uninitiated, the Kiddush is a meal at the end of the Sabbath Saturday morning prayers, usually arranged by either a bar-mitzvah boy's or a groom's family.  

This particular Saturday followed a long night at my own going away party at the Espy, so I woke up particularly dusty, praying that I had slept in my suit so as to avoid getting dressed.  Unfortunately Saturday morning followed casual Friday at work so I had no such luck and proceded to find something respectable to wear to the synagogue.  

The great part of the synagogue is that you can sit with your mates and stare up at the bride and all her friends who sit above you, like deities.  The rest is relatively over-rated.  As soon as we hear the Rabbi winding up proceedings it's like there's been a fire and in George Kostanza-esque tradition, everyone is pushing over the women and children to get to the exit first.  

The Kiddush is in a big room and the table is heaving with the usual goodies.  Fish is generally the preferred option (so as not to breach the dietary laws of mixing meat and milk) and for those who are not fish eaters, I recommend staying away.  I was delegated responsibility for the groom's best mate (who is not jewish) and made a critical error of walking behind him near the food.  Having been to many of these, I appreciate there is no room for pleasantries and the elbows come out and you can physically move people out of your way to get to the table.   

This Kiddush food is one of the greats (oily sweet fried gefilte fish balls, herring, salmon, fried fish, horseradish and more).  I had devoured 3 small plastic plates-full before remembering my dignity and saying hi to the bride to be.  I looked at the traditional Johnny Walker shots and unusually declined in favour of hitting the desert spread which was equally impressive, particularly the mini-chocolate Babka.

$25 will get you a big brekkie, coffee and a juice at Los Chicas after a 30 minute wait for a table.  If you have a suit, a couple of hours spare and are strapped for cash, the kiddush is a great way to eat well for free (and meet girls).  What more could you want?

Could this be the best breakfast place in Melbourne? @ Cowderoy's Dairy

Cowderoy's Dairy (14 Cowderoy St St Kilda West)

I had a bad experience once at Mart so for 4 years wrote off anything that was near Canterbury Road.  But after a big Friday night at the Toff in the city and a morning of apologies to my extremely tolerant girlfriend, I had to dig deep to win her heart back, with the handicap of a debilitating hangover.  


We got in the car and she enquired: "Where are we going?"  
Me: "It's a surprise" (thinking I'm screwed if I dont pull something out fast, as we turn right onto St Kilda Road into 3182)


Driving down Canterbury Road I just prayed the damn place was still open. And it was, and it was perfect.  Built in an old dairy adjacent to a park, this place is made for a chilled brekky, away from the queueing masses at Los Chicas and Batch.  The array of food available is immense (and intimidating because a lot is on display and it all looks as good as it sounds on the menu).   


I went for poached eggs on ciabatta with avocado and fetta.  The girl had toast soldiers with soft boiled eggs and anchovy butter (an extremely great novel concept).  Both were excellent in their simplicity and use of fresh quality ingredients.  Coffees were also pretty good as were the fresh juices (although maybe a little too natural in terms of pip content) and shakes.   They also do jaffles which can be made to go so as to be eaten in the park - Great idea! 


So would this be up there with one of the better brekkie places in Melbourne?  Easily.  Any place that can put a smile on a girlfriend's face would undoubtedly fall in the same category.