Loving Cafes that are Mixing Things Up!

My favourite meal of the day would have to be breakfast, but not too early! The great thing about 'brekky' is that it can be savoury or sweet, just depending on your mood. No other meal gets away with having such a great choice of 'mains' that satisfy either way you feel.

My new favourite spot is Pope Joan, a cafe born in a rather uninspiring area of Nicholson Street in East Brunswick. When I've mentioned to people where it's location is at, they look at me rather quizzical as there's not much around. In fact, there's an ironworks place next door so you could be forgiven for missing it.

I dined there again the other day (for brekky - but at 12 midday - c'mon, it was Sunday!!!) and was pleasantly surprised to see something completely different on the plate of my dining companion. When I enquired as to what it was, I had to ask twice and even verify the spelling with a return phone call the next day. Have you ever heard of purslane?

No, neither had I so I did what we now all take for granted - I 'googled' it.

Purslane is an annual succulent from the Portulacaceae family. I remember having Portulaca growing in my garden at home when I was young. And I was even more surprised (morphic resonance some would call it) when I walked past a garden bed at the back of my work building and noticed purslane growing almost as a weed in between some of the larger plants.

Purslane can be used fresh as a salad base, stir fried, or cooked like spinach, and because of its thickening quality it is also suitable for soups and stews. In fact, Australian Aborigines use the seeds in their own food preparation. On the other side of the world, Greeks fry the leaves and stems and mix them up with feta cheese, tomato, onion, garlic, oregano and olive oil. YUM!

Pope Joan had it as an added extra in their scrambled eggs dish, mixing it up with feta, tomatoes and something else that was green (can't remember). I nibbled on a bit on its own to see what the flavour was like, and it was quite fresh on the palate. Enough for me to check things out further and discover that purslane contains more omega-3 fatty acids (normally found prominently in fish and flax seeds) than any other leafy vegetable plant! Wow! It also contains vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B and carotenoids along with magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron.

That's enough........go and get yourself some purslane from your local nursery and include a pot in your herb/vegie patch. You can go wrong.