Brunch review: Xtraordinary fuses the old and new

Wasabi adds a bit of heat to the very non-traditional eggs benedict.

Xtraordinary
Cost: $43 for two
Address: 57 Glenvar Ridge Rd, Long Bay

We arrived: Among Facebook's lost/found cats, dogs and parakeets, the suspicious characters reportedly lurking in the neighbourhood and self-congratulatory reports of having topped up the community larder was the announcement of a new cafe in the new development. As Britain has Newquay and Auckland has Newmarket, Long Bay will always have "New development". The once-green hillsides are now covered with cookie-cutter homes jampacked between narrow roads edged with spiky grasses. Xtraordinary is north of the new New World but south of the new ponds. It's one of a row of new cafes and restaurants.

Xtraordinary's bacon and egg bao.

We ate:Xtraordinary's menu scatters shiitake, wasabi and matcha among the eggs in a variety of styles, pancake and congee. Ordering the eggs benedict was done with much trepidation, given that it came with wasabi. One's mouth has usually been awake for some hours and prepared for potent radish's atomic blast of heat, so having it for breakfast was new. Luckily, the bene ($18), although very generous in the salmon department, was not overwhelmed by the wasabi, which added more of a frisson of flavour than scorched sinuses. It was so barely there it was pretty much unnoticeable. My bacon and eggs were fused with bao steamed buns to produce a bland-looking arrangement on the plate but a perfectly acceptable point of difference to such a common breakfast. The wasabi mayo was also barely noticeable.

We observed: It seemed most of the people at Xtraordinary were "new" locals from the surrounding apartments and terraces; most seemed to have walked here. Most of the other diners were tanned and casually dressed teenagers, presumably gathering before heading to Long Bay for a day at the beach. Soon, everyone will get over talking about the sheep that used to live here and how the New Road crosses through where the Long Bay Primary School kids used to do their cross country. And will welcome a fusion of old and new to the neighbourhood.