There's a lot of good sounding cafes in Geelong. I think it's doubtful that I'll get to most of them but from what I've read a lot seem to be in West Geelong (such as the awarded King of the Castle). Since I was based in the central area I looked a little closer and came across a funky sounding Freckleduck (the others being Cafe Go and Launch Espresso).
It was surprisingly quiet at 745am on a Monday morning - maybe I expected more business people to be queuing for their morning coffees. Then again maybe they all don't work that early. In any case I like the ad of 3000 coffees educating a girl in the 3rd world for a year. 3000 coffees seems a lot so I wonder how many they sell per day to achieve this.
Hopefully my morning The Ducks Nuts smoothie $8 (with taste hints of each element of banana, peanut butter, honey and almond milk (and less so cacao) will also assist the cause. It's a sweet drink with texture similar to thick milk. It's nice but I'd probably try either their chai boy chai latte or the Bluebird smoothie next time.
- Confit Garlic & Cheddar Polenta (with honey roasted pumpkin, pickled pumpkin, kale chips, chorizo crumbs, smoked cheddar, poached egg, chilli oil) $18 - a colourful dish with slightly plain but smooth polenta, lovely pumpkin contrasted by the pickled raw slivers, very strong cheddar and bits of textural chorizo and kale. I couldn't detect any chilli;
- FD Bacon & Eggs (with jalapeno corn bread waffle, maple baked bacon, creamed corn & poached eggs) $16.5 - the waffle was nice and quite moist for corn bread although no jalapeno and the creamed corn and eggs were nice. The star was the very thick cuts of bacon, more tender than ever and with a sweet maple flavour. It wasn't the potent cured bomb of Pialligo Estate bacon, but excellent for its own properties. Some of the best I've had.
There's a good number of things to try next time if I get the chance - beetroot & mint rosti, lamb shoulder, Korean dog and the drinks. I'll have to get a side of maple bacon with any of them also.