[Travelogue] Melbourne: Last Day | Cento Mani Cafe : The Cheapest Ticket to Colombia | sillyandordinarygirl
By Lasmarya Hadi Purwanto - July 12, 2019
Here comes the very last post of our Melbourne trip in June 2018!
Everytime I finish a travel series, there's always a bittersweet feeling, bitter because it makes me feel that I have to say goodbye to this particular chapter in my life, as I've completed the process of immortalizing it into a digital diary. The thing that I enjoy the most whenever I'm recounting my real life travel experience in blog posts, is that I get to relive and reminisce every moment from back then as I go through the memory lane. I've been missing Melbourne and my travel buddy, Diana, a lot as I'm writing the travel series, but now, it's time to move on, which is also sweet because it may mean new experience is on the way, and it's probably gonna be the start of something new. (Remember High School Musical's soundtrack?)
So, leaving the farewell message behind, here I present you, our very last stop at the end of our trip:
Tucked in the corner of Flinders Street, this cafe serves the most authentic and traditional Colombian food. The manager and also part owner, Diego Reyes, initially came from Colombia in 2013 to study in Melbourne University. He was supposed to stay in Melbourne for only six months, but seeing how Australians were so crazy about coffee, he decided to open the cafe with two friends the following year, introducing Colombian coffee to Melbourne's CBD.
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| https://www.centomani.com.au/ |
Now, serving not only coffee, but also Colombian breakfast and lunch dishes, Cento Mani Cafe has become the safe haven for those looking to have a genuine taste of Colombia, hence the tagline, coined by Reyes, "the cheapest ticket to Colombia".
Honestly, we didn't plan to come here at all, we're supposed to go to 1932 cafe, but it was closed, so we walked around, and made an impromptu decision to came in (after seeing the reviews online first, of course). And both of us had never had any Colombian food before, so we were completely clueless of what to order. These two dishes were the recommendation of the staff, btw.
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| Cento Mani's Chocolo Pancakes (AUD 20) |
I found the chocolo pancakes (which I first thought would be 'chocolate' pancakes, but no haha) to be quite interesting. A taste that I had never savoured before, and it's definitely not bad for me. It's a bit like the usual pancake, but also a bit different. Well, I don't know how to describe it, but I quite like it. :D Oh, the flowers definitely makes the pancakes look so photogenic. Oh oh, it's also gluten free and vegetarian!
Here's what chocolo pancake is (based on what's written in their menu) :
"A mix of berries between two grilled Chocolo
Arepas. It has a hint of ricotta cheese, sprinkled
with coconut flakes and finished with a
homemade syrup of aguardiente, the most
traditional and authentic Colombian liquor." (Arepas is a type of Colombian food made of ground maize dough, so it's basically a corn cake)
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| Cento Mani's Chocolo Pancakes (AUD 20) |
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| Colombian Calentado (AUD 18) |
"Slow cooked beans mixed with scrambled eggs, white rice, and hogao (tomato and onion sauce). Served with another fried egg on top and arepa."
For this dish, the rice also tasted new for me, but it was a bit too dry for us (or maybe it's supposed to be that way, and we're just not used to it). I can't say much except that it's a very simple dish, it tasted okay, fortunately not too weird for my taste buds.
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| Colombian Calentado (AUD 18) |
2/140 Flinders Street, Melbourne VIC
(03) 8529 7610
welcome@centomani.com.au
Opening Hours:
Weekdays: 7 AM to 4 PM
Saturday: 9 AM to 4 PM
Sunday: 9 AM to 4 PM
One last chance to take pictures of St Paul's Cathedral that we passed by a lot,
I love a lot of things about Melbourne, the ambience, the art scene, the brunch cafes, the good food,
the nature, the people, the laid-backness and the chances to experience some new things, like the Wallaby meat, and Colombian food. It might be short, but I enjoyed this whole trip A LOT! Special thanks to my best travel buddy, Diana Liu, who made everything possible, who did a very good job in arranging the itinerary, and who made the entire trip very pleasant!
You rock and you're irreplaceable, you know that right? XD
Anyway, we finally reached the end of this series, it's good bye for now.
See you again in the next series? :)
Tchao,
sillyandordinarygirl
2 comments
Melbourne is a multi-cultural and cosmopolitan city. There are influences here from all over the world, from Asia to Italy, Greece, the Middle East, Russia and Poland, the list goes on – making it a diverse and exciting place.
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