mess hall breakfast

We got married! We're back from our honeymoon! And doing all kinds of married stuff. For example, in a brave effort to normalise our waistlines (we're not fat, just cuddly) we have decided, in true married fashion, to take yoga classes together. Not just any normal yoga class though - goddamn 6.15am yoga classes in the city which require us to get up at the hour of 5 and 15 and roll in to do the following postures:

BADASS HEADSTAND!
Image taken from http://theia-fitgoddess.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/i-did-headstand-in-yoga-last-night.html

BOSS SHOULDER STAND!!

Yes, it is as hard as it looks. Especially for someone like me who was FAT AS as a kid (scroll down to the bottom of this post for illustration) so during the formative years I never learned how to do handstands on the oval. In the words of the thespian Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys 2, "Shit just got real." Maybe if we get really good we'll post photos of ourselves doing it!

So we've started to have breakfast regularly in the city. Smiley face.

We found Mess Hall on Bourke Street with cool morning music and decent food. The chai is very good. The sparse (and tense) morning corporate breakfast crowd kills our yoga buzz a little, but if you have suggestions as to where to avoid suit-wearers on a weekday in the city, we're happy to receive your non-existent recommendations.

The sweet options are yummy and surprisingly filling.

Blueberry and ricotta pancakes with maple syrup. Don't be deceived by the pretty berry topping, this is a man's dish. Would feed my whole family, really.

Homemade granola with poached rhubarb and yoghurt

The eggs are gooood. But as 1405's "I have never eaten so much egg in my life until I met you" suggests, I like eggs, most ways.

Poached asparagus with scrambled eggs and shaved parmigiano

One morning they didn't poach eggs. From the waitress' tone it sounded like the chef went on a poaching strike so we got scrambled eggs in a hollandaise dish - it was nice but I was eyeing everyone else's poached eggs as we were leaving. Maybe the chef caved in to the tense suits.

Hollandaise eggs with ham, spinach, hollandaise and dukkah on a sweet bun. Usually with poached eggs.

We have told too many people that we're doing a yoga thing this year to stop going now. I imagine when we're done (although one can never be done with yoga...) with these city classes Mess Hall memories will be forever linked to the sheer sweaty terror of being upside down, in a good way.

The Mess Hall
51 Bourke Street
Melbourne
9654 6800