A Melbourne cafe owner has spoken out in defence of a deconstructed egg and avocado dish that is being taunted for being “Australia’s most pretentious breakfast”.
The cafe’s $17 breakfast offering, Spiced Togarashi Avocado, has a do-it-yourself approach to avocado on toast.
It’s served as has half an avocado, dipped in Japanese chilli spice with a bit of edamame and citrus avo-smash as a side alongside egg and toast.
Reddit user Rupert_Bear007's photo of the Abbotsford cafe's breakfast board attracted hundreds of comments online - with some claiming the breakfast is "peak hipster".
"When we created our menu we didn't want to have your typical avocado smash, we thought the customers deserved something else," says Kitty Burns cafe owner, Josephine Pulitano.
One commenter user said they would deconstruct their payment if the meal was presented to them.
"I would deconstruct my payment for it. 'Get my wallet from my bag, or write down this BSB and account number'," they said.
Pulitano says the meal is their biggest seller.
"Funnily enough, people are still obsessed with avocado on toast. It's an approachable dish," she told Mamamia.
"In the morning people tend to be creatures of habit. At lunchtime people are willing to stray from what they normally have but in the morning you either a sweet or a savoury - you like toast or porridge."
The cafe owner says the deconstructed trend might be because it photographs better.
"Things such as smashes don't photograph as well, so potentially we're deconstructing things now because Instagram is so popular. Potentially we are deconstructing things in order to represent things in a photo.
Listen: Are you living a lavish life of daily brunches? No WONDER you can’t buy a house. (Post continues.)
"But we didn't deconstruct it on purpose. It was just that we wanted to serve an avocado so we give them a whole avocado in two different ways.
"That's the only thing that we serve deconstructed - well, that and our iced coffee, and that's just more because people like the strength of their coffee in a different way."
Pulitano says if you really want to look like a local in Melbourne, "avocado and toast is the most Melbourne breakfast".
"It is testament that avocado ion toast is still what people want."
But do all people want their food and drinks deconstructed?
Another Reddit user explained their pain over a Melbourne order of Vegemite on toast.
"They brought me toast, butter and Vegemite separately," posted AusGeno.
"As all good Aussies know there's a small window of time after the toast comes out of the toaster where the butter has to go on so it melts into a consistency that can be mixed with the Vegemite creating Vegemite on toast as we all know it.
"This consistency is unachievable with room temperature toast," they said.
On the weekend Bachelorette Georgia Love also had a very Melbourne meal:
While dining out in Chapel St, the 27-year-old had to put together her own sushi.
"Deconstructed sushi?!" she captioned a snap on for her Instagram story.
"Could this BE any more Melbourne?!
Have you seen any deconstructed meals recently?
Top Comments
I personally don't care for avocado (yes, I am from Melbourne).
But poached eggs on a wooden board? That is the most ridiculous part of this meal.
In about twenty years, we are all going to piss ourselves laughing at this 'deconstructed' obsession. The same way we now laugh at the fancy vintage recipes involving gelatine and some sort of mould, large quantities of mayonnaise, and elaborate decoration. My personal favourite - Banana and Ham Hollandaise.