Unexpected treasures, or: I travel and discover gems

Mr Sam U.L. Chihuahua, my furbaby number three, is a star. Buzz and I took him down to Foster to be filmed for a TV show, dressed like a sparklyfairypinkygirl, and he behaved so so beautifully that his mother nearly burst with pride.

In the hours between arrival and filming, as is the way with television, Buzz and I retired to the nearest cafe which looked like somewhere where we could park ourselves comfortably for a while. We found The Source Cafe and settled in.

The Source has a strong and loudly proclaimed emphasis on fairtrade, organic and local produce, and displays inside all sorts of community notices and boutique products for sale. We were beyond relieved to discover that the coffee was very nice indeed, after a pretty dismal effort in a small town en route (sample conversation: "Where are you off to today?" "We're going to Foster." "What do you want to go there for, cold grey end of the earth ... like here!").


Best, though, was the lovely chef. She came out to discuss my order with me, noting down what she would cook and telling me that the bread was definitely vegan because she baked it herself.

And what bread it was! Light and crunchy, but not in a hollow way (I'm speaking to you, Flinders Bread), golden and tasting like ... real bread. Buzz's was soggier as his mushrooms and other items were pile don top, but mine remained tasting of something like harvests, hot stone ovens and aprons with flour all down the front.


It was served with what turned out to be an incredibly creditable cooked breakfast. In fact, it rated up there with some of my best breakies. Generous, fresh, each element tasting of itself, and with no scrubby little servings of one thing or another.


Inside The Source along the walls are many many awards for chutneys, jams, marmalades and other sort of preserves, and I assume that it was from these hands that the lovely light chutney on the side of my breakfast came. It was almost mangoey; like a palate cleanser between the oil gently coating the vegetables.


The baked beans were served with a fresh clean tomato and onion sauce which I think must also come from her, and unlike many non-tinned baked beans which are thick, red, saucey and heavy (and very good in their own way), these were almost a summer style bean with a delicate and soft flavour.


Each of the vegetables - tomato, mushroom, avocado and spinach - was served in generous portions and tasted of fresh, hand-cut produce (you know what I mean by a hand-cut taste; if not, please do the following: buy some fresh field mushrooms and a plastic packet of pre-sliced buttons. Eat one of each. The pre-sliced have lost something, some nutrient vitality which evaporates after slicing).


This was a tasty, hearty, delicate and real cooked breakfast, and by real I mean that it was real food cooked well by a real person in a brave cafe on a rainy monday in South Gippsland. I didn't expect to find it but it made the six hour wait for filming on that cold drizzly Monday very warm and comfortable, and I enjoyed it very much. Salut!