The Old Crow, Perth
Food babies are usually fun to make, but this one was particularly satisfying, a Sunday breakfast of pulled pork and hotcakes, crispy potatoes, and a cheese-smothered hotdog. YES, a hotdog for breakfast. This meal was a total food blogger’s cliché. And at the risk of sounding like a food blogger going gaga, I haven’t been this excited about a Perth breakfast menu in ages.
The hotdog (AU$13): a salty house cheese kransky in a soft bun lined with jalapenos, filled with gooey cheese sauce and topped with more finely grated cheese, served with a crisp sour green pickle covered with even more finely grated cheese, and a bottle of Louisiana chipotle hot sauce. Lean close to the plate when you bite – it’s a serious dripper.
The fried potatoes with Cajun salt and ranch sauce (AU$9) were straight out of the deep-frying textbook: spuds roughly cut into chunks, skin left on, dark golden craggy edges, crunchy on the outside, fluffy in the middle.
The maple glazed pork with hotcakes, fried egg and fresh green apple (AU$20) probably wins my unofficial award for breakfast dish of 2013: gloriously tender pulled pork, housemade hot cakes soaking up the sweetly spiced porky juices, a crinkle-edged fried egg with a sunny soft yolk, and julienned green apple, fresh and tart, with a sprinkling of tiny chopped chives. No need for lunch. And that’s how you make a food baby.
Next door, The Tuckshop was jam-packed with a queue out the front, clearly still the breakfast champion at this end of town. But for punters with an open mind, it’s only a matter of time before The Old Crow comforts, feeds and delights the soul.
The Old Crow
172 Newcastle St, Perth WA 6000
Telephone: (08) 9227 9995
Sunday and Monday 8am to 10pm
Closed Tuesday and Wednesday
Thursday 10am to 10pm
Friday 10am to late
Saturday 8am to late (breakfast 8am to 11.30am)
Sunday 8am to 10pm (breakfast 8am to 11.30am)
