There is nothing like a good old outing to the Central Markets, and I am always intrigued when a new café opens. Sister café to the fabulous Maison Clement, Amicus Curiae is a great little eatery with a simple but unique and vibrant menu. Serving all day breakfast items with a French Asian twist, we left with full bellies and smiles on our faces.

We started our feast with the Breakfast Salad a scrumptious mix of croutons, pecorino cheese, quinoa, corn, seeds and a 62-degree egg served on a bed of greens. Each and every ingredient was fresh; flavoursome and you could tell that the dish had been thoroughly thought about, even being a simple salad. 62-degree egg, what is that you might ask? It is the process of cooking an egg so that the yolk remains liquid and the egg whole, similar to poaching. This method of cooking turned out to work incredibly well leaving the egg yolk runny and yellow, just how it should be.

The next dish we tried was the Leek and Gruyere Baked Eggs served with Maison Clement toast. It really enthused me to see leek combined with a breakfast dish, as it is one of my much-loved vegetables. The creamy and rich sauce, worked well with the slightly salted chorizo and created hearty flavours and texture. If you want to well and truly leave a café stuffed, then this is the dish to try.

We then got stuck into the Homemade Chicken Curry served with roti. It is rare that I would veer off from a traditional butter chicken curry, but it was time to broaden my horizons. This lightly spiced curry had beautiful flavour, and was perfectly portioned for a lunch, sized meal. The chicken used, was so juicy that it pulled apart the second it was touched. The side of roti was lightly oiled with a crispy outing, and there was nothing better than dipping this into the curry.

We could not leave before trying the Piggy Burger a delicious burger filled with pork, a fried egg, sambal mayo and greens. The first thing I said when I tried this is that is reminded me of a Bahn Mi roll. The creamy coleslaw paired with the thick and juicy pork created an explosion of flavours in the mouth. To top it all off the beautiful yellow egg helped to give the burger that extra special element.

Now to our favourite dish of the day the Tossed Egg Noodles served with greens and mushroom ragout. The first thing I noticed from this dish was the homemade noodles, and how fresh they were. I enjoyed the light spices that came from the dish, nothing too overpowering but still incredibly flavoursome. The chef did an astounding job with the way he cooks his eggs, so when there was one tossed through this dish it made it that bit more enticing. This was by far the best dish of the day and one I would order time and time again.

Next was a classic Kaya Toast served with house made coconut jam and traditional soy egg. This dish took me back to my childhood, I remember sitting up at the kitchen table so excited to dip my white toast into my runny egg, solders we would call it. Amicus Curiae did a great job with their version of solders, with a twist of sweet coconut jam. I really enjoyed this sweet, savoury combination and this is a great snack dish when not overly hungry.

The last dish we tried was the Prawn Dumpling Benedict served with Maison Clement toast, house made prawn dumplings, 62 degree eggs, greens and curry hollandaise sauce. Nothing beats good eggs benedict so I was intrigued to see their twist on this classic dish. Firstly the dumplings were cooked well, with fat sumptuous, plump prawns stuffed into the mix. The dumplings were placed onto a crisp toast and topped with the creamiest hollandaise sauce, a great recipe combination.

Thank you to Clement Labaere for inviting us along to sample his fabulous menu at his recently opened café. We were delighted with the dishes we tried and can’t wait to come back!

Words by Tomika Salerno

WHERE: Shop 1A, Central Market Arcade, Victoria Square, Adelaide