Caffe Albano, Northmead, 1st August 2010

A brisk walk from Winston Hills up to the Windsor Road and on a beautiful Sunday morning we headed for Caffe Albano at 13 Ventura Road, in Northmead. A very unassuming little cafe that we have often seen out of the corner of an eye as we drive down the Windsor Road.

The sky was blue and the sun shining...and the cafe was quite busy...doing a good trade in take away coffees...always a good sign. We sat outside and soaked up the sun. The menu is very basic, but that was fine. Sarah ordered her usual double shot skinny latte and I played safe with an orange juice. Eventually they arrived and my bottled juice was pretty much what I expected with the additional feature of some trivia on the underside of the cap. Did you know that all of the continents start and end with the same letter?

I looked at Sarah's coffee and it was a good colour, but the artwork was fading fast as the semi large bubbles on the poorly stretched milk began to fuzz. Apparently it didn't taste too good either. I opted for sausage, egg and baked beans. The waitress was one of those young girls who make you feel uncomfortable through their own lack of confidence or charisma. It was basically a stop, eat and go sort of place. Nothing that would make you want to go back. It always makes me smile when we wait a long time and are presented with something that has no artistic merit. The sausage split and face down, two just about right eggs nearing the turn and a beaker of warm baked beans. That's what you ordered, so that's what you get. It filled a gap. Sarah had a bacon, egg and cheese melt. And that's what she got. Two slices of toast, layer of bacon, egg and melted cheese. What...you want art....at these prices! What we witnessed was an unusual set up inside, with the coffee machine and counter all against one wall with no counter. Lots of wasted space and no x-factor. This is a real shame because these guys have a goldmine here. Its a good busy location. It seems as though they just don't have to try hard so they don't. Unfortunately we won't be trying hard to go back either.

Masterchef Australia Let Down

Don't get me wrong...I like the Masterchef programme and have been glued to it, but the final was a fiasco. Not that Callum wasn't up to the competition with Adam...no, in fact Callum has come on in leaps and bounds. I don't think you could say that he didn't deserve to be there, but his lack of experience in the basics let him down.

So without meaning a pun...whats my beef? Well its the fact that the producers treat us like idiots. All that rubbish about revealing the scores and dragging it out as if we just have no idea who could have won! It was blatantly obvious by the reaction of the judges in the last pressure test that although Callum had done a pretty good job, Adam hadn't done enough wrong to loose from that point. I knew just like the rest of Australia that before the judges revealed their scores that he was the new 2010 Masterchef...but they had to string it out and treat the viewing public like idiots. Very bad production I'm afraid guys which spoilt an otherwise entertaining game...which is what it basically is. Don't tell me Callum was really the person who should have been up against Adam?