Restaurants jump on the brunch bandwagon

We're eating… RESTAURANT BREAKFASTS

Dorothea Mackellar might as well have written, "I love a sunburnt country, a land of heaving plates, of world-class late-start brunches, of poached eggs and breakfast dates". Australia's breakfast standards keep rising, with top establishments offering restaurant-standard brunches.

In Sydney there's Acme's Filipino-style offering and beachside brunch at Sean's Panorama, or you can order sea urchin crumpets on weekends at Saint Peter, Chinese dim sum at Billy Kwong and smoked trout waffle at The Centennial.

Melbourne does it too: when Pure South reopened in December, they added breakfast to the menu, enlisting Jesse McTavish of Kettle Black to help them set the standard. Other under-appreciated breakfast spots in the CBD include Magic Mountain Saloon, Trattoria Emilia and the ever-classic Cumulus Inc.

We can't believe that… LAB-GROWN FRIED CHICKEN EXISTS

First we had the Impossible Burger, the plant-based pattie that bleeds, but this week San Francisco-based Memphis Meats created the first laboratory-grown poultry. Cells harvested from living animals (no chickens were harmed in the making of these nuggets) were grown into tenders over four to six weeks. The company served the product as southern fried chicken and duck a l'orange to food experts who said it tasted just like chicken.

We're reading… LOVE LETTER NAPKINS

It seems a shame to wipe your mouth on these gorgeous napkins, with love letters from literary greats hand-screened onto sheets of sheer cotton voile. There are three sets including words of endearment from Emily Dickenson, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Lord Byron and more. They are packaged beautifully in a string-tie envelope and shipped to Australia from shopsirmadam.com. Sets start from $58.