Lazy, Hazy, Friday Afternoon Lunch

Autumn at its Finest

The other day my mate was feeling a little down and as all good mates should do I took her out to lunch to cheer her up. On the way to the cafe we passed the bottle shop and quickly ducked in to grab an accompaniment for our lunch, now I'm not a white wine drinker... pretty much at all. I dont mind some champers, roses, pinots or anything else thats extremely pale in colour but I've never been keen on white but it was a warm day and even I had to admit it was not the weather for a red. We chatted to the shop attendant and he suggested Saint Clair Sauvignon Blanc 2011, it was beautiful. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a wine afficionado but this didn't have the thing that I can't stand about whites and thats the incredibly acidic, eating your stomach lining away finish, instead it was light, fresh and fruity, perfect for our Autumn afternoon.

We wandered across to Relish, a little cafe in North Avalon. Normally I have only had breakfast here or have ordered a baguette to go, we grabbed a stool at the bench outside, all the other seats and tables where taken (this is always a good sign), nice weather, cool breeze, seats outside, it was a good start.

I ordered the sauteed harissa and lime prawns, mango, macadamia and avocado salad with a tahini and coconut dressing, OH MY GOD, it was fantastic, one of the best salads/lunches/meals/food I have had in a long time. The salad was a beautiful mix of sweet and spicy, all the ingredients where crispy and fresh and the macadamia's perfectly toasted, the prawns, well, the prawns where just the icing on an otherwise perfect cake, brilliant,  on a scale of 1 to awesome that was definitely an awesome.

Now I don't normally have a sweet tooth but ever since I quit smoking I have had mega sugar cravings, hello muffin tops and thunder thighs, so when it came to finishing off the meal with a little something something I was a go-er and the apple and raspberry crumble had my name all over it. In consideration to my rapidly rising weight I figured sharing my dessert was a concession that I was going to have to make, bad move, it was delicious. Served with vanilla bean icecream, fresh strawberry and a little chocolate sauce we proceeded to have spoon wars over the crumble. The apple and raspberry where balanced brilliantly, the raspberry flavour was easily detected and the apple was not over powered, all in all a fantastic lunch, if you're up in Avalon on a lazy, warm day, make Cafe Relish your lunch destination, close enough to the beach without being out of your way and fantastic food, staff and ambience.