FoodMeUpScotty: EDB13 Perth Trip - Sayers Sister Northbridge

http://www.sayersfood.com.au/

Phew, it was the morning after the night before and we were feeling in need of a top breakfast to re-energise for our long flight home to Brisbane later in the afternoon. It was hard to believe that Eat Drink Blog 2013 was over, it had been an amazing 24 hours of meeting so many other passionate foodies at the conference.

The morning before had started nice and early, especially so as I had arrived early to check out the Perth City Farm, which is an organic growers market and a perfect spot to hold a food bloggers conference. I wasn't the only early bird and it was soon apparent that some of the other Queensland and Victorian bloggers were going to get an early start too. I'd made up my mind before the conference that I was going to step outside of my normal shy and introverted nature and meet as many of the other delegates as possible, starting off with meeting all of the male bloggers. A pretty easy first step because there were only about fifteen or so male bloggers!

As EDB commenced and the day progressed, there were so many interesting and relevant sessions from speakers that were well versed in the world of food blogging, I had so much to learn. I'd actually met my first goal of meeting the boy bloggers fairly early on in the day, so set about the fun task of meeting the rest of the hundred or so bloggers. I was going to be the networking king! The breaks in-between sessions and lunch became my opportunities to walk up to individuals and groups and just start talking and I did just that. You know what? As scary as it seems to walk up to people that you don't know, it's actually not so bad, on the whole, everyone is feeling just as apprehensive about meeting new people as me!

As the conference concluded there was a sense of awe washed over me for the effort that was put into EDB by a group of fellow bloggers with a passion to share their love. Surely it would be our turn to host this event in Brisbane the next time? I continued my quest to meet everyone attending EDB and it became clear that those in attendance really wanted us to pick up the baton in Queensland and people asked if I had the guts to get involved....

Dinner time was especially great with the EDB crew organising a heap of food trucks to come to the food rescue. There was a lot of amazing food on offer but the highlight for me was checking out Butty's American Style Burgers. I'd been hanging out for an American style burger ever since coming back from New York and experiencing burger heaven (see post here). The Butty's cheeseburger was the most amazing burger I have had in Australia and easily compared with the best burgers I had in the states. I really wished we had something like it in Brisbane.

My daydream of the previous days event came to a sudden halt when SC gave me a nudge to go up and order our breakfast. I quickly snapped back to reality and again took in my surroundings, we were in a funky little cafe in one of the inner Perth suburbs called Sayers Sister and it was filling up fast. I'd been staring at the menu motionless for a few minutes and SC was starting to get worried...

The menu at Sayers Sister is fairly traditional but has a couple of contemporary twists that make it a little interesting. It's not table service at the cafe and we had to place our order at the front counter, which is right in the middle of the dining area. I thought it was a cool layout, with a huge bench running down the centre of the cafe with seats and tables either side and at the end. There was a light and airy feel to Sayers Sister, with exposed brick walls and lots of hanging lights that should have given it an old world feel but gave a more contemporary feel.

Orders placed and our drinks arrived in short order. SC had ordered a half strength latte which came in a cappuccino cup instead of a glass, which was unusual and novel at the same time. It was a really nice coffee which had clearly been extracted well and had milk that was just the right temperature. I ordered a juice with was a watermelon and lemon juice blend which was extremely refreshing on what would turn out to be a 39 degree day in Perth.

With a few options that looked great, SC considered the bubble and squeak before throwing caution to the wind and ordering the buttermilk pancakes with poached peaches, raspberry compote, almond praline and double cream. There was a warning with this order that highlighted that the pancakes would take twenty minutes, which surprised us, how long could it take to make pancakes? Our question was answered about twenty five minutes later.... Only the best damn pancakes SC had ever tasted! They pancakes were thick, I mean really thick but they were still light and fluffy and incredibly smooth with the buttermilk flavour standing out. Poached peaches are unusual to see for breakfast but they worked beautifully with the pancakes and with the sweetness offset somewhat by the raspberry compote. This was a large and decedent breakfast and SC did really well to eat most of it.

My quest to find the best scrambled eggs went national as I ordered the free range eggs, scrambled with toasted extra virgin olive oil ciabatta. To accompany the scrambled eggs I ordered some bacon, chorizo sausage and tomato with balsamic and pesto mushroom. There was a lot to love about my breakfast, namely the buttery and smooth scrambled eggs that were pure pleasure to eat, the 'just right' bacon that had a light smokey flavour and the oven roasted tomatoes that were full of flavour and a little juicy. But, there were some things I didn't get or enjoy with the breakfast. I love chorizo and try to eat it as much as possible but the chorizo from Sayers Sister was just not that nice, it was compact and a little bland but it was made worse by adding a squirt of BBQ sauce, it made it taste like pizza. The other element I didn't like was the balsamic and pesto mushroom which could have been better if there was just some seasoning added. I guess the idea was to get the flavour from the pesto, but without seasoning, mushrooms can be very bland. So, a mixed bag but the key component of scrambled eggs were wonderful.

One thing I loved about Sayers Sister was how comfortable we felt just sitting around and hanging out. We had spent quite a while in the cafe, mainly waiting for the pancakes, but during that time it just felt great. We watched the cafe fill up pretty quickly and for a while felt guilty about taking up a four person table with just the two of us, but we were not the only ones doing this.... I guess the old saying first in best dressed still rings true.

I can see why they don't have table service, its a reasonable size inside and there is alfresco dining outside, but I just think something can be lost without table service, call me old fashioned. The staff that we saw were as friendly as you can get when you are just dropping food off at a table and they seemed really efficient at clearing tables for the next group of customers to come in for a yummy breakfast.

It was our last day in Perth and I still had my French Patisserie masterclass with legendary Perth chef Emmanuel Mollis (a tale for another post). With a few hours to kill and a super hot day ahead of us there was only one thing left to do..... It was beach time and our destination would be Cottisloe - what a great time to be alive.

@FoodMeUpScotty