July 7, 2007: Mr Tulk II

Our weekend was enlivened by a surprise visit from Patrick, one of our old friends from Brisbane. The highlight of the visit was a trip to the Pixar exhibition at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. It was filled with brilliant sketches, paintings and sculptures that provide an insight into just how much work goes into producing films like The Incredibles and Toy Story. But the undoubted star of the show was the 3d zoetrope - a manual animation of a bunch of Toy Story characters. They've placed a series of Toy Story figurines on a disc, which spins quickly while a strobe light flashes, giving the illusion of motion. I haven't explained it very well, and you really need to go to see it yourself. If you're not in Melbourne, go here and make sure you click on the 'movie' link. It's not quite as good as the real thing, but it's pretty great.

Anyway, this is a food blog, so now that I've stressed how great the exhibition was I'll cut to the chase: lunch. We stopped by Mr Tulk on our way home, determined to sample something off the menu after our failure to fully explore our options last time. With the winter rain tumbling down outside, I was destined to opt for soup - creamy parsnip with whipped feta. Served with the obligatory toast (and, strangely, on a page torn out of a Charlie Chaplin biography - seemed a bit sacreligious for a cafe based in a library to be tearing pages out of books) it was rich and hearty and, at least until I worked my through the feta layer, delicious. The parsnip base was fine, but a little dull once the feta was gone - I probably should have stirred it through a bit more. Still, it both filled and warmed me up, so I wasn't too disappointed.

Cindy's first option was avocado on toast, but unfortunately they'd run out of avo by the time we turned up at 3 in the afternoon. As a fallback, she chose a goat's curd and pickled tomato bruschetta (see above). It was vibrant to look at - the bright green basil, lurid pickled tomato and white cheese made it a feast for the eyes. Given my tomato issues I didn't sample it, but Cindy was a fan - particularly of the intense flavour of the pickled tomato.

The cafe has a very appropriate feel - the communal table has the look of library study cubicles and the walls are lined with books. It also has the feel of a place that people spend half their Saturday's at lazily reading the papers, but unfortunately they closed at 4, so we were bustled out of there almost as soon as we finished our late lunch. Next time we'll get there early enough to give their brekkie menu a go - it looks like it might be a winner.

Read about our previous visit to Mr Tulk here.