melbourne gastronome

Fortnightly round-up (27 February)

2012-02-27T17:00:00.001+11:00

I'll spare you the "Mexican wave" pun, but the fact is that Melbourne's appetite for new wave Mexican dining over the last two years remains insatiable. If Mamasita, the Newmarket, the Taco Truck, Paco's Tacos, Fonda, Gringo Vibes and Livin' Burrito Loca weren't enough, we've got two more trendy Mexican restaurants opening in Melbourne, both in the next month, both in the CBD.

I'm particularly excited about Señoritas: its co-founder Ricardo Amare, its head chef Hugo Reyes (formerly the head chef in several Mexican embassies) and their full cooking team are all Mexican, and "authenticity" appears to be their watchword. There's a whole page dedicated to authenticity on their website, and it promises dishes from regions like Oaxaca and Yucatan. After a somewhat lengthy gestation period the restaurant should be open in early March in Meyers Place, with the Waiters Club and Meyers Place bar on its left and San Telmo and Lily Blacks on its right. While its proximity to Mamasita suggests it may scoop up the overflow of those unwilling to wait for hours on a staircase, I'm willing to bet it'll become a star attraction in its own right.

The other one is called Touché Hombre and it'll be opening in a few weeks at the site on the corner of Lonsdale Street and Tattersalls Lane previously occupied by izakaya J-Pub Shogun. Less is known about this one but from the sounds of things, there'll be plenty of tacos, margaritas and street art. Watch this space.

I'm guest judging a baking competition at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival! A gang of bicycle belles known as the Rad Rebel Riders are organising the Bikefest Village Picnic and you're all invited. It's an optional gold coin donation on entry to the picnic, and it'll be held from 11am to 5pm on Saturday 10 March at the Mercator Lawn at Abbotsford Convent (conveniently, the Collingwood Childrens Farm Farmers Market is being held on the same day, so I'm planning to do both). More picnic and baking competition details:

A long feast table will encourage communal grazing, with the picnic concept of ‘bringing a plate to share’ extended to both friends and strangers.

The Rad Rebel Riders put your oven skills to the test with a cake-baking competition, winners taking home foodie prizes like dinner vouchers at the Italian restaurant Mister Bianco. Spread out on your picnic blanket and taste the delicous offerings of the Convent Bakery's gourmet sandwiches & Moritz's special shandies or kickstart with a short black from our Cargo Bike Coffee crew.

A face painter will get creative on kids and not so grown ups and there are Village Green style games to pick up while you’re listening to folklore-gypsy sound by Susy Blue and friends to while away the afternoon. Time Out has some magazines up for grabs, as well as homemade cupcakes and freshly squeezed lemonade.

Your bike will also get a treat, with a free professional advice and service workshop provided by Abbotsford Cycles, and why not upgrade your food carrying capacity and find the right cargobike for you with free testing available on the Convent grounds. On top of that, the red & white crew of Roll Up Bicycle Valet parking will look after your pushy while you spoil yourself on the lawns.

Submit your baking entry from 11am – 12:30pm, judging will be at 1:30pm.

Bring family, friends, your Picnic and a plate to share!

And speaking of MFWF: this weekend (3rd/4th) the Festival has arranged for all of Melbourne's food trucks to be in the same place at the same time for Melbourne's first Food Truck Jam (see Festival website for details). When news of the event broke over Twitter last week, I was amazed to see that my tweet linking to the event page was retweeted and favourited so many times that @melbgastronome started trending in Melbourne. The take home message? PEOPLE *REALLY* LIKE FOOD TRUCKS.

Know this: the hot duck roll at Ora in Kew is SENSATIONAL. They add confit duck to a ciabatta roll, wrap it in foil and place it in the oven for ten minutes, then remove it and add Kewpie mayo, black sesame, spring onion and cucumber salad. $15.

A dazzling number of apple varieties on display at the Slow Food Market at Abbotsford Convent on Saturday. Brought to you by Peter the Permie from Telopea Mountain Permaculture Farm.

Puchased at the Slow Food Market: tomatoes for Sunday night's Green Zebra Caprese, and tomatillos which I roasted for a salsa on Saturday night.

I've written before about how good the "inauthentic" pizzas are at The Moor's Head. Last week I fell in love all over again with Omar Shariff, or rather, the $17.50 pide named after him: it's made with three cheeses (twisted halloumi, feta and ashawan), nigella, fresh mint and soused onions. Highly recommended!

Links of Note:

- Why do most cafe startups fail? Peter Baskerville answers.

- Melbourne's burger experts awarded Melbourne's Top 10 Burgers of 2011 on their blog The Burger Adventure.

- I haven't been to Sydney restaurant Barrio Chino, but I like that its interior shies away from the typical "Mexican aesthetic". Design blog yellowtrace interviewed their designer, who shared her original concept presentation boards for the fitout.

- Katie Quinn Davies, aka food blogger What Katie Ate, announced her new role as a regular contributor to Delicious magazine, doing an eight page feature every month featuring 5-7 themed recipes. Nice work Katie!

- Enjoying the cocktail blog Booze in Pretty Cups, written by two bartenders in Perth.

- Burch and Purchese posted a link on their blog to 80 pages of fascinating research from the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science.

- AFR journalist Rachel Lebihan writes a blog called The Food Sage. She recently wrote about her adventures perched up at the bar for dinner in three Melbourne restaurants.

- "I just don't want to be a Noma clone. It's everywhere. You see it in the way people plate, and it's nauseating." Eater interview with Manresa chef David Kinch.

- Also via Eater: Yes, the Food Blogging For Dummies Book Is a Real Thing. Apparently chapter 7 is "How to Write a Top Ten List" and chapter 12 is "Using Words Like Toque, Delish, and Drool-Worthy For Fun and Profit." *HEADDESK*

- I was interviewed by City Weekly and asked to name some of my favourite places in the city. Coming up with good answers for some of those questions was surprisingly hard - what would you have answered?

Hanoi Hannah in Prahran: Melbourne's south side gets some Vietnamese

2012-02-25T19:22:00.001+11:00

Hanoi Hannah
180 High Street, Prahran/Windsor (map)
9939 5181
website
Open 7 days, 11am-11pm (breakfast coming soon)
No bookings

Located in Prahran/Windsor on High Street just off Chapel Street, new casual Vietnamese restaurant Hanoi Hannah cheerfully plugs a gap in Melbourne's dining scene by giving south side residents in need of a phở fix a cheap and bustling option on their side of the river.

It opened a fortnight ago, and when I tried to pop in for lunch with Jackie a few days after opening, one of the owners had to ruefully tell me that they were unexpectedly closed for lunch that day because they'd run out of food (!). I made plans with Tom to try again and we went for dinner on Wednesday night: it was already buzzing with young trendies.

Tom ordered a fresh coconut juice ($5) which came served in a branded coconut, in the manner of some of the cocktails the bartender was making. I was happy to see Halida beer from Hanoi on the menu (which I haven't had since I was in Hanoi six years ago), but our friendly waitress explained that their Halida supply was still in a boat on its way to Australia. I settled for a bottle of Ba Ba Ba Premium ($7) instead.

The bò lá lốt cigars ($8), served on skewers, were excellent: the vine leaves were crispy but the beef was succulent.

Seeing "pork belly sliders" on the menu nearly made me drop my monocle in surprise. Yes, very On-Trend Dude Food Melbourne ca 2012 (wouldn't they be more at home on the menu at The Smith across the road?), but not very Viet Nam, I'd've thought. But my curiosity was piqued, so I ordered them for us ($8 for two). And yes, they were very good - obligatory brioche bun, Sriracha Kewpie mayo and all.

Tom reported back favourably on the vermicelli salad with grilled chicken ($10).

I had a bowl of the beef phở ($9). While it wasn't the best phở I've had in Melbourne (that would probably be a tie between Hùng Vương and Phở Tam, both in Footscray), it was a damn sight better than some of the phở I've had on Victoria Street. Good price, good noodles, good beef, reasonably rich broth - though a few different garnish herbs to play with would've been great.

It's easy to see why Hanoi Hannah is packed already. The booze list is short but savvy, with an eye for what the kids are drinking in Melbourne at the moment. Most dishes hover around the $8-$10 mark: a glass noodle salad with shredded duck is the most expensive option at $13. Bánh mì are available at lunchtime and as noted at the top of this post, they'll soon be open for breakfast. I'll be back!

If you can't get in, I've heard good things about bistro Franco Choo's across the road, plus cheapish Thai food (that I loved) at Colonel Tan's is only a short walk away. The [aforementioned] Smith if you're prepared to splash some cash.

Pssst, Hanoi Hannah: upload a higher res version of the image on your website, so that we can read all the writing!

Fortnightly round-up (13 February)

2012-02-13T23:26:00.002+11:00

Last week was a big week for shock restaurant departures/closures: The Brix lost its head chef in addition to its sous chef and pastry chef (word on the street via Essjay is that they'll be reopening at the end of the month under new head chef Ashly Hicks from Brisbane's Buffalo Club), MoMo announced its 31 March closure in response to head chef Greg Malouf moving to London to head up Petersham Nurseries, and Sydney's Bird Cow Fish closed on the weekend with less than a week of warning. I've heard also that the closure of another fine dining restaurant in Melbourne is poised to be announced in the next week, once all staff have been notified. Ah, it's a tough business.

But of course, that doesn't seem to deter people from opening new places all the time. In the last fortnight we've seen some second venue openings from established Melbourne chefs (well, a seventh concurrent venue opening for George Calombaris if you count all the restaurants in the Made Establishment stable). Bishop of Ostia is the Pope Joan-adjacent bar opened last Thursday week by Matt Wilkinson and Ben Foster, and Marmalade & Soul is Ray Capaldi's new cafe/restaurant opened last week in former pub site The Recreation. I've been to both for preliminary visits (blog posts coming once they've had a chance to settle in!), and they're both very promising.

I'm yet to dine at the restaurant, but I attended the Mama Baba launch party the other week. Never before had I been to a restaurant launch where a celebrity hairdresser was working in the glass pasta room (just down from the $45,000 pasta extruder), fashioning wigs made out of pasta (!!!) for models to wear at the party...

Neil Perry's Spice Temple is now serving yum cha for lunch every day of the week (the regular menu is now for dinners only). On Friday I attended a freebie media launch lunch hosted by NP himself introducing the yum cha menu. I left very impressed by his passion for what he does (sitting next to him I got to hear all about the interesting research trips and recipe testing involved in developing the yum cha menu), the high standard of the dishes (unlike at many yum cha restaurants in Melbourne, the quality and freshness of the ingredients - especially the seafood - really stood out) and the surprisingly reasonable prices (see menu here).

Favourite dishes: the tea smoked duck, the har gow, the steamed tripe with black bean and the egg tart.

Two things I have been enjoying over the last fortnight: coffees from Patricia Coffee Brewers and honey from Melbourne City Rooftop Honey (from a hive on a rooftop in Rankins Lane).

So THAT'S what an entire lobster in tempura looks like. Served along with a whole lot of sashimi - including lobster sashimi - at a Japanese dinner I attended during the week at an underground restaurant out in the suburbs (the person who invited me asked me to not mention the name or location of the venue on the blog, as they weren't sure whether or not the local council approves). So how was the food? Better than Zingara Cucina... ;)

Food trucks/vans in Melbourne will soon no longer be confined to the cities of Darebin and Moreland: a Melbourne Times Weekly article (memorably titled 'Hipsters happy as the man lifts food van ban') confirmed that the Yarra City Council has agreed to overturn the ban on "mobile food vehicles" in the City of Yarra. The adopted guidelines that will operate in the City of Yarra can be found here.

The fly in the ointment is that we have to wait until the Council has decided on a fee structure for the permits (they say they expect the fee structure to be decided by mid-2012) before Beatbox Kitchen, Taco Truck, Le Sausage, Gumbo Kitchen and their like will be allowed to roll into the hood.

Links of Note:

- Speaking of food trucks, last month the City of Sydney announced the 10 winning food trucks that will be allowed to trade in Sydney for a twelve month trial period. The list of the chosen operators (yeah, Melbourne's Taco Truck is one of them) plus a nifty video showing the judging process is on the City of Sydney's website.

- Hot on the heels of his recent victory over 'pink slime' hamburgers, Jamie Oliver is coming to Melbourne and will be giving a talk on 6 March about promoting food education in the community - tickets went on sale today and can be purchased via The Wheeler Centre's website.

- Food is the New Rock: the blog where music and food collide.

- Broadsheet's article Decoded - What's in a Cafe Name?, explaining the origin stories of the names of several Melbourne cafes.

- Delightful Sydney-based Mexican food blog De La Tierra.

- Matt Rodbard from Food Republic (the food blog for men, because "men are underserved in today's conversation about food") writes about The 9 Best Things [He] Ate in Melbourne. Seven of the nine are from just three restaurants, and one of the other nine is a cappuccino. *cough*

- Lauren from Footscray Food Blog discovered a workday cafe in North Melbourne called Crouton that serves Mauritian food at Saturday lunchtime.

- I keep including foodie links from The Design Files in these fortnightly round-ups, but at the risk of sounding repetitive I'm including this interview with James Brown from graphic design studio Mash.

- Restaurant reviews on blogs as videos? Kate Gibbs makes a video about her visit to Surry Hills' El Capo on her blog The Kitchen Inc (I wrote about El Capo here).

- Mondrian, Duchamp, O'Keefe, Pollock, Klimt: famous artworks interpreted in sandwich form.

Attica: Tuesday Night Chef's Table

2012-02-07T00:12:00.000+11:00

Attica
74 Glen Eira Rd, Ripponlea (map)
9530 0111
website

I'd been lucky enough to dine at Attica twice before - but never on a Tuesday night, when the regular degustation menu is replaced by the Chef's Table five course degustation of dishes that head chef Ben Shewry and his team are testing and developing. The experimental Chef's Table menu is cheaper than the regular degustation, at $95 per head (or $150 per head including matching wines).

I'd been meaning to go on a Tuesday for aeons, and one day late last year something snapped and I made an impulsive reservation for four people on the next available Tuesday night after my trip to Japan. I reasoned to myself (correctly) that I'd surely be able to muster up some dining companions by then who were as keen as I was.

We went along two weeks ago, on the 24th. All of us, bar our designated driver, selected the $150 option with matching wines. As we drank our aperitifs (I had a Lighthouse and tonic), dining companion Matt confessed to us that he had been DREAMING of the smooth, creamy olive oil emulsion served with bread at Attica.

I don't blame him. It's to die for.

The meal started with a course that wasn't listed on the menu: two plump Sea Bounty Blue mussels from Port Phillip Bay, sitting in a modest quantity of simple shitake, bonito and soy broth. Umami KAPOW.

"Leeks and green sauce" was all the menu said about the next course. It turned out to be tiny leek stems standing upright amongst dollops of outrageously fresh fromage blanc (that the kitchen staff had made just that afternoon) and a pesto-like combination of purslane, lovage and dandelion. The leek stems were topped with dabs of macadamia nut oil and sprinkled mountain pepper, and the dish was finished off with a few foraged purslane and lemon thyme leaves. Matched with the Sutton Grange 2009 Fiano, a Southern Italian varietal increasingly grown in Australia.

This course and the next one were my two favourites: intricately composed without feeling muddled, and showcasing really top-notch produce.

By way of introducing the next course, our waiter explained that Ben is playing with the idea of taking the iconic Snow Crab dish (recipe - in Spanish - on the Madrid Fusion website) off the regular menu, and this is one of his alternative ideas.

It starts with a generous scrape of labne, then a layer of bell horn pepper. Add smoked black sesame seeds, spiced hazelnuts, scooped pulps of black russian tomatoes, black cherry tomatoes and juicy shreds of snow crab. Top it with tiny basil leaves from ELEVEN different varieties of basil, and you have one very special dish.

Upon reading the dish description I'd been curious about how the acidity of the tomatoes and the strong basil flavours would work with the delicacy of the snow crab but to my surprise they married perfectly, underscored by the creaminess of the labne. Matching it with a glass of savoury La Goya Manzanilla was a great addition too. I'm practically drooling at the memory of it: I've had the regular Snow Crab dish at Attica twice before, but I'd swap it for this one in a heartbeat.

It was at this point in our meal that our table was invited to tour the kitchen garden. A private tour by Ben Shewry of Attica's kitchen garden? My dining companions and I, all food nerds, leapt at the opportunity and we were led through the tiny, orderly kitchen in the middle of service to the back garden (formerly the car park). Ben showed us around and chatted amiably with us about what he's growing, both in the planter boxes on-site and in the 300sq metre plot leased from the National Trust at the nearby historic Rippon Lea Estate.

At the former site it's mainly herbs, including TWELVE varieties of basil and a mushroom plant from Papua New Guinea whose leaves - bizarrely - really do taste like a button mushroom.

We returned to our table for our next course, and couldn't help but smile at the ballsy simplicity of the "Fried King George Whiting". No micro-tweezers required to assemble this dish! Just a fillet in potato and wheat starch, fried for a minute and 20 seconds at 200 degrees and served with a minimalist cheek of lemon. It came with a glass of the 2010 Sato Riesling 'Petillant Naturel', a fascinating natural wine made by a Japanese former investment banker turned winemaker in Central Otago. He adds no sulfur during the wine-making process until just before bottling, which stops oxidation but not the ferment - giving the finished product a slight fizz. We loved it.

The meat course was beef tongue that had been poached then hot smoked. It was served with a mirepoix, tomato, white wine and beef jus, little strips of dehyrated wagyu and a couple of bitter leaves. This course didn't resonate with me as much as the others did, though I loved the matching of Best's 2010 Dolcetto.

The dessert was described simply as "Lemon Honey", but turned out to be a whole lot more than that (much like Attica's long-departed, fondly-remembered "Terroir" dessert). The base was a lemon honey cream, covered with shards of blackcurrant meringue, fresh raspberries and a green ice that looked too light to be made from sorrel (and turned out to be made from lemon thyme and fennel). All this was hidden under a thin plasticky sheet of pumpkin, which had been compressed in honey syrup. And as if that wasn't enough, the pumpkin was covered by freeze dried braeburn apples, powdered and arranged in honeycomb-like formations.

A real treat of a dish: like the Terroir, you could play around with the different flavour combinations, textures and temperatures. Served with the stonkingly good Oakridge Late Harvest Viognier 2009, an ice wine Viognier made from overripe grapes that were frozen after harvest.

It almost goes without saying that the service from the front of house team was exemplary. We loved too that we were seated directly in front of the test kitchen, where we could see sheets of what appeared to be the compressed pumpkin being prepared. Many thanks in particular to Ben for taking the time to show us around the garden.

All in all, it was a sublime meal. I can't wait to go back again.

Fortnightly round-up (30 January)

2012-01-30T00:42:00.000+11:00

Hip hip hooray: after a protracted application/objection/vindication process, the Duchess of Spotswood's liquor licence has commenced. It kicked off on Australia Day, so Tom & I headed out west pronto to enjoy a cheeky cocktail with brunch. Rather than the Bloody Mary or one of the gin-based drinks, I chose the Pimms n' Ginge, which was vividly refreshing. Love the Duchess' (newish) shady courtyard too. For now their opening hours are unchanged, but word is they're planning to open for dinners too - hopefully by March.

I had a great time on the 17th at the Fringe Food Festival's Crash Course in Creole. It was an event hosted by my good friend Jess from Burger Mary at My Mexican Cousin, and the menu highlights included the boudin fritters, the gumbo, the po'boys and the bourbon pecan pie. Jess was in sparkling form, and the evening had a fun, convivial vibe. For a complete blog post on the dinner, see I'm So Hungree.

BBQ fans: there are whispers of Burger Mary running a Texas BBQ event with the Fringe Food Festival next month, so be sure to sign up to the FFF's mailing list via their website (or follow them on Twitter or Facebook) to stay in the loop.

I had lunch last week at The Aylesbury with Cara from Gourmet Chick (add her blog to your RSS if you don't already have it, she recently returned to live back home in Melbourne after years of living - and food blogging - in London). Our lunch reconfirmed for me that I prefer The Aylesbury's rooftop bar to its ground-floor restaurant: the 'Pig and Fig' was excellent, but both the service and the other dishes were patchy.

Highlight of BBQ lunch last Sunday to celebrate my brother Buster's visit from Sydney: pineapple and peppercorn tarte Tatin.

I am obsessed with the matcha (green tea) Kit Kats I brought back from Japan. For the uninitiated, the powdered green tea is mixed with white chocolate and they taste bloody brilliant - milky sweetness with a gentle tannic finish. The number of weird and wonderful Kit Kat flavours available in Japan is legendary (eg cheese, wasabi, lemon vinegar, cucumber, miso, soy sauce, wine, wasabi, mashed edamame). A few years ago Tummy Rumbles did a great blog post rating several of the Japanese Kit Kat flavours.

The peach pie I made for Australia Day (pictured here uncooked and topless) won a lot of friends. I used this recipe from January's Gourmet Traveller, but for the crust I went with the wonderful One Pie Dough To Rule Them All recipe from Chez Pim. Use fresh yellow clingstone peaches and be sure to sprinkle demerara sugar on top.

New cafe news: Carolina opened on Thursday at 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton North. They're serving Seven Seeds coffee and simple brunch/lunch, plus it doubles as a neighbourhood bar (open to 11pm) with a selection of craft beers, a huge courtyard and a layout/atmosphere that's reminiscent of The Alderman and Longplay.

Links of Note:

- Keke, the beautiful food blog side project of Melbourne artist Kirra Jamison.

- A great interview on The Design Files with Claire Larritt-Evans, the stylist/designer responsible for both Market Lane locations.

- Blog post by George Biron, chef at Sunnybrae Restaurant and Cooking School, writing about oocytes and the Timballo del Gattopardo (inspired by di Lampedusa's The Leopard) he used to serve at the Grace Darling Hotel in the seventies, and about the MFWF event where he'll be hosting Frank Moorhouse.

- Steve Cumper, chef at the Red Velvet Lounge in Cygnet, Tasmania, muses on his blog about reverse cultural snobbism in gastronomy and asks what IS authentic anyway?

- That Jess Ho gets ranty.

- Chicken group La Ionica faces a $100,000 penalty after it admitted that claims that its chickens were "free to roam" were misleading or deceptive (in court last month the Federal Court heard that each chicken had only the equivalent of an A4 page on which to roam). You can read the Federal Court's judgment here.

- I'm enjoying I Love Riesling, the wine blog written by Tom Hogan (head sommelier at Lake House).

- How cute is this little kitchen? It belongs to Carla from Easy as Vegan Pie and she has some simple tips to give your kitchen some love.

- The dubious PR tactics of yet-to-open Fitzroy cafe Stencil vis-a-vis local blog Fitzroyalty really are bizarre (read parts one, two and three on Fitzroyalty). Allegedly: a six month ban from visiting the cafe, attempted bribery and perhaps even the creation of an imposter Fitzroyalty website praising the cafe (???).

- Is What I Cooked Last Night Australia's longest running food blog? Kitchen Hand has been posting several times a month, every month SINCE NOVEMBER 2003. Kudos!

Fortnightly round-up (16 January): Japan travel tips edition

2012-01-16T17:42:00.000+11:00

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Melbourne Gastronome has been quiet for the last fortnight because I have been on holiday over in Japan. すばらしい!! I just got back yesterday, and am feeling pretty woozy and spaced out today (very little sleep on the overnight flight). Because I had only intermittent internet access over there, I'm afraid I haven't had the opportunity to write a proper Fortnightly Round-up filled with news, photos and Links of Note in time for today's scheduled post.

But rather than publish nothing I thought I'd create a blog post listing all the tips and recommendations that lovely Melbourne Gastronome readers sent me for my trip to Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo: I figured that it could be a useful resource for those of you planning a trip to Japan in the future (do it!). Huge thanks once again to those of you who provided me with tips! I will of course be writing a blog post or two about the trip highlights - spoiler alert: IT WAS AMAZING - in the near future.

In the meantime I leave you with this very short video I made of a silly little something that caught my eye in Tokyo (if you can't view the embedded video below, here's the link).

As a native Japanese, I have a lot of places to recommend!

In Tokyo, Tsukiji Fish market is a 'must visit' place as a food lover - not only seeing famous Tuna auction in the main wholesale market area (you may have to register), you can enjoy shopping and dining in the JYOGAI market area. There are lots of eateries and specialty shops. Tsukiji is surrounded by old and new tourist places, so it will be a good fun to walk around on a nice day.

Also, visiting gourmet sections in Department stores will be fabulous experience -you can buy and sample all sorts of Japanese delicacies, lunch boxes, and gorgeous sweets etc., like shopping at Gallary Lafayett in Paris.

Try variety of restaurants - from top end Japanese restaurants to little eateries. Especially small eateries, majority of them are cheap and good quality, just believe your gut feeling!

Akiko

~~~
hi claire,
i love your blog.
it's been ten years since i was in japan. my recommendation for food to seek out is kyoto style 'yuba' or tofu skin. texturally, it's similar to buffalo mozzarella - so fresh, layered and delicious. in some restaurants, yuba is made on the table - a pan of soy milk (yuba milk) with a piece of orange rind (or other fragrant ingredients) sits on top of a burner and the you watch the yuba (fine film) form on top. if you can line up a japanese foodie to take you through it, i would highly recommend it. sorry i can't be more specific.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yuba-meal.jpg
http://www.kyoto-wel.com/share/kyoto_item/en02.html
many thanks for your amazing insights and discoveries.
best regards,
duyen

~~~
Hi there,

You should check out Koyasan, a Buddhist mountain retreat totally worth the train and cable car ride from Osaka. You have to stay the night there but you could easily do away with a day or night in Kyoto or Tokyo to take in this incredible, unique experience.

Once on the mountain, you stay in beautiful traditional accommodation in Buddhist temples. The monks will make you a blow your mind vegetarian Buddhist meal for dinner, and any other meals that you're there with them. It's incredibly delicious and different.

The architecture in the town is amazing and very old and the cemetery is the permanent home of some of Japan's most important Shingon Buddhists. When I went it was covered in a blanket of snow and looked so beautiful.

The monks ask you if you want to join them pre breakfast for early prayer - unfortunately I accidentally slept through this but I have heard it's quite fascinating.

As a foodie, I believe Japan is the best place in the world to visit. It's non stop excitement. Make sure amongst everything else you have, you get some takoyaki at Kyoto train station's food hall - to die for!!! And sashimi is amazing wherever you have it. Melt in the mouth. It's exciting to stay in the Gion district of Kyoto which is both beautiful and traditional Geisha territory.

The best food I've had in Japan had been home cooked, so time to tap in to all those Japanese friendships and invite yourself over for sinner, haha!

Hope you have an amazing time. Looking forward to reading all about it!

Love the blog!

Melody

~~~
Hi Melbourne gastronome,
I'm a massive fan of your blog, you always seem to be completely on the mark!
Japan is the most amazing country, I went there 2 years ago and definitely am eagerly anticipating my next journey. You definately have to go to midori zushi in shibuya Tokyo, http://quirkygastro.blogspot.com/2011/01/cheap-eats-midori-zushi-tokyo-japan.html
it is a very informal restaurant but definitely one of the most memorable, I went there about 3 times, the california roll is amazing, try and get there early or you might have to wait a little. Also try and make it to the Tsukiji fish markets an amazing experience the amount of fresh fish and variety, try and have sashimi breakfast there, it is expensive but amazingly fresh! Apart from that I just wandered around, be sure to have heaps of ramen, soba and yakitori you can grab that around any train station. I loved Kyoto and had a great degustation meal on tatami mats overlooking the river, they definitely have more traditional restaurants, it's absolutely beautiful there. I really enjoyed a day trip to Nikko which is just out of Tokyo, they have great temples and really nice national park, hiroshima is good as well and specialty down there is Korean/Japanese BBQ which is always great fun. The bullet train makes travel so easy, just make sure you get a ticket online while still in oz as you save $$$ compared to paying while there.
I hope this is helpful, feel free to shoot any questions you have through and I will do my best.
Good luck
Dan

~~~
Hi,

My Japan tip is that the massive department stores on the big main road -Ginza- have awesome food halls-two floors, no less, and the sushi bars in the food halls are excellent value for money.

JL

~~~
Hi Claire,

Not sure if you remember, but I sent you a bunch of recommendations when you were planning your US trip a couple of years ago. Thought I'd email you Japan recs rather than post a really long comment on the blog.

I went to Japan a year and a bit ago, so I'm sure heaps of good stuff has opened in the meantime, but these were my faves.

If you're at all interested in ramen, you should develop a healthy addiction to this blog: http://www.ramenadventures.com/ and read the New York Times article that made it famous: http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/travel/31ramen.html?pagewanted=all

For non ramen recommendations, this blog is also quite good: http://www.bento.com/

Anyway, these are the places I loved. They're a bit ramen-centric - I was traveling on a budget!

Tokyo:
Menya Musashi was my absolute favourite meal, ramen or otherwise: http://www.ramenadventures.com/2010/01/menya-musashi-in-shinjuku.html

Bassanova for the green curry ramen - kinda like a laksa/thai curry/ramen fusion. It's a bit out of the way though: http://www.ramenadventures.com/2009/04/basanova-in-shindaita.html. An American guy cooks there and also has a ramen blog: http://www.goramen.com/

Maisen for tonkatsu. I knew I had to go there after reading the Tummy Rumbles post. http://tummyrumbles.com/2009/09/maisen.html

Sushi Dai at Tsukiji Fish Market was the best sushi I've ever had. And it's quite reasonable priced. Something like $50 for 11 pieces of sushi, made for you one at a time. The queues are insane - I think we waited two hours to get a spot, but it was totally worth it. http://www.ededition.com/sushi-dai-tsukiji-fish-market/ . If you can't deal with the line, I think Daiwa Sushi is widely regarded as the second best at Tsukiji.

In Tokyo, I also loved the bars of the Golden Gai in Shinjuku. I also had a really great okanomiyaki in The Golden Gai, but I have no idea of the name of the restaurant. I think it's just fun to wander the lanes and pop into any bars that take your fancy. I know a bar called Albatross is friendly to English speakers.

The food basement of Isetan department store is just mind-blowing. It features every sort of over-packaged indulgence you can think of. And you can get Pierre Herme macarons there, which is always a good thing.

Kyoto:
Roan Kikunoi was my one major indulgence. It's a kaiseki style place in Kyoto. I had the 5 course lunch, which was actually quite good value. I think the total meal came to about $100. It seats about 10 people, so it feels very exclusive and special. http://kikunoi.jp/english/store/roan/

The ramen street on the top floor of Kyoto station has a number of good ramen shops. I had a really great tsukemen from a place called Tetsu. Tsukemen, or dipping ramen, was very much in fashion while I was in Japan.

I also had a great ramen at this place http://kyotofoodie.com/takaraya-ramen/.

That's probably more than enough. Sorry for bombarding you - I just get excited when I hear people are going to Japan. It's an incredible food destination. I'm sure you'll love it. Can't wait to read your posts when you get back.

Cheers,
Blair

~~~
Claire

Tour 1a for my visitors is, assuming starting from Roppongi Hills, thru the back streets to Omotesando, passing both local housing and swish fashion label shops; up O-sando. Lunch at the gyoza place mentioned by one of your correspondents or at Maisen (tonkatsu, also so mentioned). Or go to that area for dinner, to a little place where various delicacies are grilled in front of one in a glass fronted bbq pit.

Assuming it's lunch-time, walk further up O-sando via Omotesando Hills shopping centre to Meiji Jingu (Shrine), ALSO mentioned in your blog, in and out (probably witness a Japanese Shinto wedding procession), and back out to the madness that takes place around the corner in the park - rock and roll dancing, pets, picnics, kooks, etc. Then back past Harajuku station and down Takeshita Doori (Street) to see the Harajuku Gaaruzu (Girls) as we stroll down the Street. Perhaps visit Kinokuniya Dept store just to ogle at the prices and taste the French cheeses...

There are any number of side-tracks to go down as time allows.

But anywhere is fun in Tokyo! Ueno Park/area; Shinjuku shops/station; Shibuya shops/cafes; crossing; Ebisu-Daikanyama-Shibuya circle walk (old stomping ground).

Bring walking shoes!

CG

~~~
I went on holiday to Japan last year for the first time and it was awesome. Would love to go back and it would be really interesting to see how things are now after the disasters earlier this year. The one tip that I would give for an amazing meal would be to visit the restaurant ‘Okada, Tori, Umi, Yamano-sachi’ in Osaka. My friend's sister was the chef there and provided us with the best meal (http://www.blueapocalypse.com/2010/08/japan-5-okada-chicken-ocean-and.html) that I had in Japan.

Apex

~~~
I just came back from Osaka, Kyoto,and Nara. Foods there are fantastic.
Personally, I like kyoto style sushi at Izuju. http://kyotofoodie.com/izuju-best-kyoto-style-sushi/ Dango stall (petit brown wooden stall) down Shijo dori road from Izuju toward Gion Shijo also memorable. It's roasted dango soaked with shoyu sauce and topped with kinako (soy bean flour).

Nutmeg

~~~
In Tokyo,

Check out Dons de la Nature for the perfect slab of Japanese steak.
http://r.tabelog.com/tokyo/A1301/A130101/13018798/

Also try this hidden secret - Aronia De Takazawa - for a life changing experience
http://www.timelessfacade.com/2010/07/aronia-de-takazawa-life-changing.html

Anonymous

~~~
I spent a year in Japan and the best place I visited was Hakone, just getting there was an adventure, you get a train that zig zags up the mountain, then a tram kind of thing that has stepped floor as it's so steep, then a cable car and then an amazing boat across the lake. It's spectacular this time of year with the leaves changing colour. It's stuck in my head as one of my all time favourite holidays, I'll definitely go back one day. Have a great time!

MildlyCrafty

~~~
Unless going to a really cheap chain restaurant where you don't expect much, we found it hard to go wrong anywhere in Japan.

We ate at places where vividly remember our experience, but would have very little clue of location or name. I've just dug out my trip diary, where I wrote down a lot of the restaurant names (using my very vague residual knowledge of hiragana) and listed everything we ate, but even this isn't helping now!

Tips & suggestions:
- if you pick a place based on the excellence of the smell, it will mostly turn out to be eel. The first place we ate exclusively served eel and it was mind-blowing.
- eat train station bento (when travelling between cities), for fun as much as taste.
- find a place that does handmade fresh udon noodle and order with a simple broth.
- in Tokyo, go to Ueno one day for lunch. The markets are fun, and we found a downstairs place where we got an amazing whole grilled fish (and trimmings) for $11. The whole place was filled with the smell of smoke and fish. The sign outside said "Kimono-ya" but I know not more than that...
- if going to a Japanese burger chain, Mosburger is far better than Freshness Burger.

My metabolism is going crazy just writing this. Have fun!

Nat

~~~
I've had the privilege of living for 10 years in Tokyo and another 10 in Italy and can say that some of the best foodie experiences are there! Firstly, street names aren't really used in Japan so use this GMap service in Tokyo to help you find your way to places. Search by address or by restaurant name: http://gmap.jp/gmap/service.html

Restaurants:

Tonkatsu Maisen
Tokyo's famous tonkatsu (fried pork cutlets) restaurant, located in an unusually decorated former bathhouse.
Jingumae 4-8-5. Open 11am-10pm

Za Watami
Delicious Izakaya (Japanese drinking establishment) with a huge menu of drinks and food. Really fun and affordable!
Close to Shibuya station

Kinkantei
A 200-year-old soba shop in the middle of Tokyo's gay bar district, serving a full selection of soba dishes. Their hoto (hoh-toh), a Yamanashi-style udon dish with lots of vegetables, makes a very filling wintertime meal. Another specialty is deep-fried natto (fermented soybeans) wrapped in nori.
Shinjuku 2-17-1

Locanda Elio
Italian celebrities, politicians and sportsmen have all admitted that the Italian food at Elio's Calabrian restaurant is better than at home. And that's a big statement. Fantastic seafood dishes, most you would never find in Australia. Dinner is worth it and not too expensive.
2-5-2 Kojimachi
Hanzomon station

Hope this helps! :)

Naila

~~~
I would suggest staying in Osaka for a few more days if you can... it is the home of Okonomiyaki which are quite wonderful. And there are excellent places where they are cooked in front of you on hot plates. Also the 'American Village' is quite a interesting place to go out in terms of bars/clubs and check out the japanese party culture. Just having a beer on the street there is pretty fun!

This will sound really dodgy but... There is a great sushi train in the Kyoto station precinct. A few shops up from the McDonalds and across from the shop with stuffed plastic loaves of bread in the window.

We went there a few years back and it was tasty and fresh. A couple of hefty Japanese guys ate their way through 30 plates whilst we were there.

Also, any of the sushi places around the Tokyo fish market close to opening time. The freshest and tastiest sushi lunch you will ever have!

Clare

~~~
One of my favourite Tokyo cafes is A to Z in Omotesando. It was partially designed by Yoshitomo Nara, and has a great rooftop garden and oh so delicious cocktails.

Kymberly

~~~
In Kyoto make sure you go to Nishiki Market. Worth it just for the sites & smells alone.

In Tokyo try Birdland in Ginza, hard to find but really good Yakitori.
Another good one is Ramen Jiro, its a chain, but still yum.
Also you have to go to a Depachika, the food halls of the big dept stores, they are AMAZING.

I just Noticed 'Naila' recommended Tonkatsu Maisen; I absolutely second that recommendation, been to Tokyo three times and always go there.

simplymortified

~~~
There is a magnificent, tiny specialty tempura restaurant in Tokyo. It's in an unassuming quite little neighbourhood but worth the search. The chefs cook the tempura directly in front of you and it's about 10 courses of individually prepared tempura. Amazing. Like the tempura version of 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi' (if you have seen that film).
Tempura Mikawa
3-4-7 Kayabacho, Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo Prefecture
+81 3-3664-9843

Amanda

~~~
Japanese-style (wafuu) pasta is delicious and underrated - try a chain called Pontoiru, which uses duck meatballs, fresh-grated yams and these zingy Kyoto herbs I've never had before.

One of the best galleries in Tokyo is the Metropolitan Museum of Photography, also known as Syabi. The whole Ebisu/Daikanyama area is also great for wandering and picking up unusual food. www.syabi.com/e/contents/index.html

Tokyo Art Beat is the index for visual art. Tokyo is an arts-obsessed city - in my experience, even more so than Paris or NYC. So many innocuous-looking streets are studded with secret galleries upstairs. You can find amazing galleries in, say, a plumbing shop or a furniture showroom: www.tokyoartbeat.com

Lesley

~~~
Can't believe that no-one has mentioned it yet but the world famous Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo is a must for breakfast and a wander. It is stupendously wonderful.

Make sure you go to one of the little cafes a bit further down the strip away from the Metro station entrance though (towards the shrine)- will be much better value.

Geoff

~~~
Skip Tokyo, it's busy and loud. Stay in Osaka which is brilliant and Kyoto which is sublime. There's a gorgeous Persian restaurant in the Geisha area.

Ren

~~~
I was in Japan this year shortly after the earthquake. The earthquake happened 2 days before our wedding and we were booked in to go 2 days later so we braved it out - in the end all this meant we had to forgo Tokyo and stay in the south but that was ok.
I had an amazing time and would definitely go back :)

Visit Daimaru food section in Kyoto just for the experience!

You will love Le Bouchon in Kyoto if you'd like a change from Japanese fair - simple French food done well at a really decent price, we went during the week and the place was full with locals.

And also make sure you have a Kaiseki style meal in Kyoto - many restaurants do them, the one we went to was Manzara Honten, a little bit touristy but really good value for money and the quality was brilliant.

There are many great french style patisseries and bakeries dotted all over Kyoto, the only thing I did miss was decent coffee - that was touch and go.

Enjoy, I'm sure you'll have a brilliant time :)

Sylvia

~~~
I recently lived in Tokyo for 3 years and you can't go past this AMAZING gyoza restaurant. That's all they do.... gyoza. Steamed or Fried are the only options. Check it out here --> http://www.japan-i.jp/news/gyoza_lou_harajuku_part_3.html
This is in the main shopping / freak watching area Harajuku which is a must visit anyway! Enjoy!

Anonymous

~~~
If you are after a good melbourne style coffee , Dean and Delucca ( a number of sites in Tokyo and maybe elsewhere these days) are quite good.
Try to take in a ryokan in the hills outside Kyoto , and do the Kaseki thing..quite remarkable.
I can recommend a specific place if you wish

Noel

~~~
Obviously our Japan advice will be of only limited use for you, but I can't recommend Bon in Tokyo enough. Just an amazing experience - if you have only one veg meal on your trip, find a way to make it at Bon.

Pictures etc are here: http://herestheveg.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-2-2010-hiroshima-to-tokyo.html#bon

Michael

~~~
hey claire,
I defintely recommend checking out Omoide Yokocho in Shinjuku (AKA Piss Alley) for the most authentic Tokyo Yakitori experience. If you're interested, I'll send you a photo of the place there that I'd recommend. There's no names on most of the places, so you'll have to go by a photo to work out which it is!
In Osaka, there is an amazing Tsukemen restaurant, which puts a 300c red hot rock into your broth when you finish your meal. One of the best things I've eaten in Japan! I'll see if I can get their name for you if you're keen on that too - I kept their card somewhere.
Accomodation-wise, Citadines in Kyoto and Tokyo and SO damn good and cheap. It was recommended to me by michael from Provenance. We've stayed at both on both visits to Jpn. The one in Kyoto is literally next door to a famous SOBA noodle place, which is a great lunchtime visit.
Hire bikes to get around Kyoto. You can ride on the roads, footpaths, etc, and it's by far the best place to get around. It's relatively flat, so you dont need to be too fit.
A good day trip from Osaka/Kyoto is Nara, where you will see deer wandering the streets and the Giant Buddha.
Get to Gion whilst in Kyoto for some geisha spotting in the early evening. You'll also spot them wandering around the laneways of Pontocho. A must visit! I even got the Pontocho logo tattooed when I was in Kyoto - a Chidori bird.

Dont forget to check out the weirdos down at Harajuku on the weekends, on the bridge next to the station. There's also a cool temple to visit just behind the station, which is a nice shady walk, if it's warm.
If you have a spare day and want to visit an amazing spa town, check out Kinosaki. A long winding beautiful train trip up mountains, along rivers and waterfalls and rapids until you get to this magical little onsen town, where you can walk around in your traditional wooden thongs and japanese dressing gown wandering to and from the 7 onsen. The food here is primarily seafood and is famous for Crab.
If you need any other ideas, let me know!!

Redvespa

~~~
I studied Japanese for six years in high school, and found to my pleasant surprise once over there that I actually remembered much more than I'd thought I would. That said, I have NO idea what Snoopy is yelling about outside this izakaya - can anyone translate for me??

Fortnightly round-up (2 January)

2012-01-02T10:15:00.002+11:00

A happy new year to all! I've just returned from spending NYE camping on a mountain and in less than 24 hours I fly to Osaka, so while I'm scampering about today in 40 degree heat wondering what the hell I should pack for a Japanese winter (hopefully free from further earthquakes), here's the latest fortnightly round-up of snippets and links of note. Previous editions of the fortnightly round-up are now archived: see the link in the right hand side panel.

The week before Christmas I attended a seminar at EDV Melbourne organised by 666 Pure Vodka where Sam Ross (former Melbourne bartender, now manager of Milk & Honey in New York and recently awarded American Bartender of the Year at the 2011 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards) described his bartending philosophy and shared various cocktail techniques to a mostly industry-only crowd. It was a really interesting session (I took lots of notes, nerd that I am).

Beautifully simple breakfast last week at Von Haus.

Just look at the little monster that came in my Hurricane last week at The LuWOW! I'm carrying him in my handbag for good luck.

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! As heralded in my previous fortnightly round-up, new burger bar Huxtaburger opened the week before Christmas and is doing brisk business across the road from the three owners' other venue, Huxtable. May I suggest ordering the Denise - 'the hot one' - as she comes with jalapeños and Sriracha mayo ($9). Bear in mind that that the burgers are on the small size, so if you're really hungry you may want to order a version with double patties.

I hope all my readers had a happy and safe Christmas. Mine was lovely this year, celebrating with Dad's side of the family a week before and then with the Italian side of the family on Christmas day. On Christmas Day the menu consisted of:
- Sardele in saor (Venetian-style sardines), giardiniera (Italian pickled vegetables: Dad recently attended a session with Peter Demaio on preserving the Italian way and has become obsessed with pickling things) and homemade chicken terrine wrapped in prosciutto with capsicum relish
- PAELLA!
- White chocolate and strawberry mousse
- Panettone, Mum's shortbread, Mum's mince tarts

Links of Note:

- Cindy and Michael from Where's the Beef work their way through the ENTIRE dessert menu at Cutler & Co (over more than one visit, I hasten to clarify). Have a look at the desserts Cutler is serving this summer - I'm keen to try the one with white chocolate mousse and beetroot ice cream.

- Brisbane cafe owner Josh uses his blog baristafail.com to share his list of good things to know if you’re opening a cafe anytime soon.

- Former vegetarian turned free-range pig farmer Tammois calls for vegans and ethical omnivores to unite in advocating for ethical/free-range animal agriculture, on Tammi Tasting Terroir.

- Wine blogger Andrea Frost imagines the conversation that took place when wine was invented, over on New Ruby Press.

- The natural wine movement: just noise? Alice Feiring has her say.

- Janice from e_ting the world tries to set aside the "world's best restaurant" hype and write about her dining experience at Noma.

- American food writer John Mariani writes about gin and dining out in Amsterdam in the latest edition of his Virtual Gourmet newsletter.

- My aunt Paola has started a blog dedicated to Northern Italian food, called italyonmymind. I will need to HAVE WORDS with her if she starts giving away too many of Nonna's culinary secrets...

- Authentic City is a website that celebrates creative design in cities around the world. The site has featured several Melbourne restaurants from a design perspective, most recently Middle Fish and My Mexican Cousin.

- Graphic designers Under Consideration write a blog called Art of the Menu, showcasing beautiful menus from restaurants around the world. Which Australian restaurant menus would you submit for consideration?

Melbourne's 2011 Twelve Bars of Christmas

2011-12-28T14:15:00.014+11:00

(or, in other words, twelve bars that opened in Melbourne's CBD over the twelve months of 2011, listed in chronological order)

As the title suggests, I wanted to get my list of twelve great bars that opened in the city this year finished in time for Christmas - but then life got in the way and delayed completion of this blog post. If I'd been writing a list that included new bars in the suburbs, The Everleigh, the Carlton Wine Room and the tiki-tastic LuWOW would've made the cut for sure (sorry Southside, but none of your new bars have rocked my socks this year - what am I missing?).

1. Chez Régine (became a whisk(e)y bar this year)

Chez Régine
270 Russell Street, Melbourne (map)
0420 309 660
Open Thursday-Saturday 5pm-late
website

Yes technically this bar opened in 2010, but in 2011 Chez Régine effectively reinvented itself as a bar specialising in whisky/whiskey (there are nearly 200 varieties on offer at last count, from Scotland, Ireland, America, Canada, Japan, Australia, and even India and Sweden). Although Chez Régine is only open three days a week, on Fridays they're open until 5am and on the last Monday of every month they host meetings/tastings of the Single Malt Collective, which is exactly what it sounds like. They've also got plenty of other liquor to drink neat or in cocktails, plus a good range of beers.

2. Ponyfish Island (got its liquor licence in January)

Ponyfish Island
Under the Southgate Footbridge (on the island), Melbourne (map)
0426 501 857
Open daily 8am-1am
website

Jerome Borazio (of St Jerome's fame), Grant Smillie and Andrew Mackinnon launched the open-almost-all-hours cafe/bar Ponyfish Island on the island underneath the Southbank Footbridge at the start of the year. I had breakfast there in March. It survived a chilly winter and is now pumping again as Melburnians flock to the waterside (such a lovely shade of water, the Yarra River) for Fat Yak and Bulmers on tap.

3. The Den (opened March)

The Den at The Atlantic
Riverside Promenade, Crown Entertainment Complex
8 Whiteman Street, Southbank (map)
9698 8889
Open daily 5:30pm-3am
website

Hidden under Donovan Cooke's flash seafood restaurant and oyster bar The Atlantic on the Crown Riverside Promenade lurks The Den, a moody bunker of a cocktail bar. The good news is that it's open until 3am every night of the week, and the cocktails (including one made with tobacco infused Diplomatico Anejo Rum, served to you at your table in its own cigar humidor) are pretty fancypants.

4. Bar Americano (opened June)

Bar Americano
20 Presgrave Place, Melbourne (map)
No phone
Open Monday 8:30am-4pm, Tuesday-Saturday 8:30am-11pm
website

In early June, in a laneway off a laneway the site formerly known as micro-cafe Pushka was reborn as Bar Americano, the much-anticipated city sibling of Der Raum. In contrast to its Richmond counterpart, Bar Americano is much smaller (the room fits a maximum of 15 customers), more traditional in its mixology (ten cocktails to choose from, and thar be no liquid nitrogen or Aperol-filled syringes here) and more Italian (the free snacks served at aperitivo hour, the antique blue "Sali e Tabacchi" sign outside, the gorgeous fitout of white tiles, wood paneling and copper benchtops inside). The commitment to high standards for cocktails remains the same, and during the day they'll even serve you a freshly-squeezed blood orange juice, a panino and a coffee. Note that it's cash only and despite what it says on their website, on Mondays they close at 4pm. A new city favourite of mine.

5. The Lui Bar at Vue de Monde (opened July)

The Lui Bar
Level 55 Rialto, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne (map)
9691 3888
Open Monday 5:30pm-midnight, Tuesday-Wednesday midday-midnight, Thursday-Friday midday-3am,
Saturday 5:30pm-3am, Sunday midday-6pm
website

Amid great fanfare, Vue de Monde relocated from Little Collins Street and reopened at the top of the Rialto halfway through the year. And guess what, it now comes with a top notch bar where you can grab a drink even if you're not shelling out $250 for dinner or $150 for lunch in the restaurant (sadly, Vue de Monde's $60 one hour express lunches are no longer on offer, but may hopefully make a return in the future). The Lui Bar not only gets the best views across the bay and down Albert Park Lake, but serves excellent cocktails (check out the Lui Martini, with add-your-own vermouth, bitters and garnishes, and the Negroni with an ice *sphere* instead of ice cube) and classy bar snacks like the David Blackmore Wagyu beef tartare pictured.

6. The Bottom End (opened September)

The Bottom End
579 Little Collins Street, Melbourne (map)
9629 3001
Open Wednesday 4pm–12am, Thusday 4pm–2am, Friday-Saturday 4pm–5am, Sunday 4pm–12am
website

55 floors down and half a block away from The Lui Bar sits its polar opposite, a bar taking blithely trashy kitsch to a whole new level. The Bottom End markets itself as a pub/diner/disco and comes to you courtesy of Michael Delany-Korabelnikova, the man behind Honkytonks, Sorry Grandma! and Third Class. What can I say? The beer list includes a suggestion that you try a 'Lagerita', the wine list is divided into 'cheap'/'reasonable'/'good', the spirits list distinguishes between 'tough shots' and 'shots for girls', the cocktail list includes a truly horrifying-sounding Australian Martini (vodka, Cointreau rinse, vegemite smear, coon cheese, pickled onion). I think you get the idea - but it's all in good fun. They've jumped onboard the American diner food trend bandwagon - we didn't think much of the Philly cheese steak or the po boy, but the NYC Buffalo wings and the grilled parmesan & artichoke dip were both excellent. Upstairs there's a late night 'house music club for the gents' tastefully named Poof Doof, and the red-nippled statues downstairs only partially prepare you for the NSFW wallpaper in the womens and mens toilets. The place is ridiculous, but that's the whole point.

7. The Aylesbury Rooftop (opened September)

The Aylesbury
103 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne (map)
9077 0451
Rooftop open Monday-Saturday 3pm-late (Fridays open from 1pm)
Restaurant open for lunch (12pm-3pm) Monday-Friday, dinner (6pm-late) Monday-Saturday
website

The ground floor site that housed chic pizzeria Barbagallo for just under 18 months reopened in late September as The Aylesbury, the second effort from the folks behind Añada. While I've had some mixed food experiences in The Aylesbury's restaurant, I *love* their tiny rooftop bar with its copper benchtop and open terrace (enter via the restaurant and take the elevator). The view over the buildings and treetops of Lonsdale Street is gorgeous, and the tapas I've had up there are very good (my pick is the Dorper lamb ribs crumbed with zataar). Hopefully they put the 'Ping Pong at 5' (white port, lime, sugar and tonic) back on the cocktail list soon.

8. Go Go Bar downstairs at Chin Chin (opened October)

Go Go Bar
125 Flinders Lane (enter via Higsons Lane or Chin Chin restaurant), Melbourne (map)
8663 2020
Open daily 4pm–3am
website

Whether you're waiting for a table at the ridonculously popular Chin Chin or just want a couple of drinks and snacks somewhere off Flinders Lane, go to Go Go Bar. Thai-inspired hotspot Chin Chin keeps its bar hidden under the stairs like some unpopular nephew, but the black-walls-and-neon Go Go also has its own separate laneway entrance. The drinks menu is rather cleverly divided into Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter sections, both to reflect Melbourne's four-seasons-in-one-day weather and to give patrons guidance on the characteristics of the cocktails, beers and wines on offer on each page. The cocktails are very reasonably priced (most of them $15) and several of them have a Thai bent - I'm a big fan of the Thai Basil (gin, kaffir lime, fresh pressed lemon and palm sugar with a floating Thai basil leaf). There's also a snappy list of bar snacks, some of which replicate the menu upstairs and some of which (like the delicious, so-hot-right-now pulled pork sliders) are unique to Go Go. My advice: go.

9. San Telmo (opened October)

San Telmo
14 Meyers Place, Melbourne (map)
9650 5525
Open Monday-Friday 7am-1am, Saturday noon-1am
website

I wrote about new Argentinean restaurant San Telmo when it first opened, and have enjoyed subsequent visits even when it's only been to grab a drink at the back bar. Apart from one Champagne the wine list is an all-Argentinean affair, with many of the wines sourced directly by the San Telmo team and unavailable elsewhere in Australia. There are Patagonian tweaks to the cocktail menu (like the Bloody Maria made with chimichurri), and some interesting Argentinean beers (I like the Antares Porter) and Ferran Adrià's Inedit beer along with the Aussie brews on the list. Nibble on empanadas or ceviche, and try to resist the smell of meat cooking on the restaurant's parrilla coal grill.

10. Strange Wolf (opened October)

Strange Wolf
Basement 71 Collins Street (entrance via Strachan Lane off Exhibition Street), Melbourne (map)
9662 4914
Open Wednesday-Friday 5pm–3am, Saturday 8pm–3am, Sunday 8pm–late
No website

Previously the lurid Cabana Club and the gimmicky, fluctuating-drink-prices-on-the-stock-market Trader Bar, the bar under the sidewalk of Exhibition Street has been reborn as Strange Wolf. It's the new venue from the owners of the Grace Darling Hotel on Smith Street, who have pared the interior decor waaaaaay back. They've also put Trumer Pils, Mountain Goat and Coopers on tap and added a reasonably-priced local wine list, cocktails and bar snacks. Opening hours suit both the suits and the night owls.

11. Bar Ampère (opened November)

Bar Ampère
16 Russell Place, Melbourne (map)
9663 7557
Open Monday-Friday 8am-3am, Saturday-Sunday 10am-3am
website

Vernon Chalker, the dirty uncle of Melbourne's bar scene (think Gin Palace, Madame Brussels, Collins Quarter), opened Bar Ampère on Melbourne Cup Day next door to Gin Palace. I have to give him props for the bold concept and design of Bar Ampère, for it is like nothing else I've seen in Melbourne: an ode to Futurism, the movement that started in Italy in 1909 and spread to Paris before becoming associated in the 1920s and 1930s with Fascism. As an Italian nerd that studied Futurist art and design at university (and wanted to write her Honours thesis on the use of Futurist concepts in Fascist propaganda), I was always going to be fascinated by this place. The fists sticking out of the wall clutching naked light bulbs, the cogs and levers evoking machines from Modern Times or Metropolis, the predominance of concrete, glass and metal. The overall effect is ice cool and interesting rather than cosy. The wine list is largely French with an unusual emphasis on Lillet, vermouth and other aromatised wines, and bar snacks like chicken liver parfait or egg and soldiers with rosemary, porcini and chilli salt come served on clinical metal trays. For an extra touch of the bizarre, check out the 'Swamp Room' - the secret back corridor room connecting Ampère with Gin Palace.

12. EDV Melbourne (opened November)

EDV Melbourne
1 Malthouse Lane, Melbourne (map)
0412 825 441
Open Monday–Saturday 5pm–1am, Sunday 5pm-11pm
website

Last but by no means least comes the newest (and my personal favourite) of 2011's new city bars, EDV Melbourne. The Melbourne outpost of Sven Almenning's celebrated Sydney speakeasy Eau de Vie, EDV Melbourne is fronted up by dapper hooch guru Greg Sanderson (Black Pearl, The Attic) and hidden behind an unmarked door down a laneway off Flinders Lane - look for the plain door with the brass handle near the steps leading down to the Medina reception. There's all manner of technical wizardry here (including liquid nitrogen on tap, a Melbourne first if I'm not mistaken) befitting the epic cocktail menu, and the cocktails are first class: early favourites are the Vendeuse Martini and the Yuzu Mule. Old school jazz crackles over the speakers and a sliding door disguised as a bookcase reveals a private room (complete with private lockers for hire so you can store your own booze on the premises). Bookings are taken from 2 to 10 guests, and there's a great bar food menu ranging from tapas to more substantial dishes, care of chef Mark 'Fluffy' Favaloro (previously sous chef at MoVida).

One extra special feature at EDV Melbourne: the cocktail degustation (the first of which my friend and I attended as guests of EDV). For $130 per person at a communal table in The Library seating 20, guests are served a five course deg matching cocktails with food in a very fun, interactive and theatrical evening. Highlights included the DIY Martini (gin poured from a vintage 1930s cocktail shaker in the shape of a silver heeled lady's leg), the seafood platter, the punch served with duck and mango salad, the deconstructed Red Snapper (served with a white truffle rim, a spiced noodle and diced celery) and the Zacapa Old Fashioned served warm (heated with hot Japanese garden stones) rather than chilled and accompanied by a chocolate and chicory brownie. To cap off the evening, Greg flawlessly decapitated a magnum of Champagne with a sabre (sadly, not pictured!).

EDV cocktail degustations are held on Wednesdays to Saturdays at 7:30pm - contact Greg to book.

Aaaand my work here is done! But go ahead and tell me: which other new city bars did I leave out? Which new bars in the suburbs have you fallen for?

Fortnightly round-up (19 December)

2011-12-19T16:37:00.003+11:00

Franck Moreau, Group Sommelier for Merivale and recently judged Best Sommelier of Australia (see my previous round-up), has gained the highest internationally recognised qualification for sommeliers, Master Sommelier. After passing the fiendishly difficult exam set by the Court of Master Sommeliers, Franck became one of only 186 Master Sommeliers in the world. Congratulations also to the four Australians who passed the exam to become Advanced Sommeliers (of the 16 entrants in the Advanced Sommeliers exam, only seven passed). The four Aussies were Josh Elias (ex-Attica), Tom Hogan (Lake House), Jarrod Mills (Merivale) and Mark Protheroe (Grossi Group).

Due to open this week on Smith Street (hopefully on Thursday): Huxtaburger, the new burger bar from Team Huxtable, located across the road and a few doors down from their original restaurant. They're also opening an adjoining wine bar called Bill's Bar (which shares a kitchen with Huxtaburger). If the photos of the burgers that chef Dan Wilson has been teasing us with on Twitter are any indication, we're in for a treat.

Green coffee beans, fresh off the boat from Colombia to the new, still-under-construction Small Batch warehouse off Howard Street in North Melbourne. Thanks for the guided tour, Andy!

I get sent all kinds of random unsolicited food 'n drink swag these days, much of which I'm not really interested in writing about. But I'm happy to make an exception for the samples of Pepe Saya cultured butter I was sent last week, because it is *delicious*. Cultured butter is made by souring the cream with a lactic culture for two weeks before churning it, resulting in an amazingly intense buttery taste and aroma. Stockists in Victoria are listed here.

On Saturday I attended the Ninth Annual Christmas Cookoff, a friends' Christmas party held every year where prizes are awarded for best entrée, best salad, best vegetarian dish, best main, best dessert, best drink and best Christmas creation. This year it was held at the rotunda at Edinburgh Gardens, and nearly 100 of us attended. Although neither my pomegranate, cauliflower & quinoa salad nor my chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel & peanut butter frosting (recipe) won a prize - SOB! - it was a hugely enjoyable afternoon. Many many thanks to the lovely Hannah from 310Fitzroy for organising. See her Flickr album of photos from the Cookoff by clicking here (and while I can't bring myself to post a photo of it on my blog, you can see the wildly inappropriate, NSFW gingerbread tableau that won Best Christmas creation by clicking here).

Despite extensive testing, my recipe for ginandtonicsicles still needs some work. Any suggestions?

Links of Note:

- Advanced Sommelier (and reformed food blogger from many years ago) Josh Elias has set up Tasting Group: a nifty interactive video blog discussing wine, with links so that you can purchase the wines tasted. The website has only just launched, but I look forward to seeing it grow.

- Cindy and Michael from Where's The Beef have been to visit Helados Jauja, the new Argentinean gelateria on Lygon Street. I want to try their dulce de leche ice cream STAT.

- Alas, I own neither a Thermomix nor a Thermochef. But I can point you to a great blog post by Iron Chef Shellie, which presents a very thorough comparison of the two kitchen uber-gadgets.

- Check pastry chef Julie Thai's food blog for sneak previews of the desserts she's whipping up each month at CODA. This summer's CODA Bombe looks brilliant!

- Sibley does savoury (but keeps the Snickers): there has been some online buzz about Philippa Sibley's new Brunswick eatery, Albert Street Food & Wine (see, eg, Nola's review on Milk Bar Mag here). I'll hopefully get down there soon to check it out.

- Sometimes the simplest websites are the best. Type in your location and Nearest Burrito will provide you with a map to your nearest Mexican restaurant.

- In a similar vein: Where the Fuck Should I Go for Drinks?

- VEIL (Victorian Eco Innovation Lab) publishes an online urban food production map of Melbourne, recording primary produce sites such as community gardens, commercial production and market gardens, shared private gardens, and food produced on public space.

- Interesting article about the UK social media platform Sustaination, which seeks to connect food producers with local buyers to facilitate the creation of local and regional food supply networks.

- For language wankers (like me) who like to pronounce names of dishes in foreign languages correctly, LovingPho.com has a useful pronunciation guide to assist with ordering pho and other Vietnamese dishes. Pictured below: the sensational Phở Tái Gân Gầu (pho with freshly sliced beef, tendon and crispy fat brisket) at Pho Tam in Footscray.

PS. Any thoughts on this Fortnightly Round-up blog post format?

Southern Thai cafe Middle Fish now open in Carlton

2011-12-13T17:14:00.001+11:00

Middle Fish
122-128 Berkeley Street, Carlton (map)
Monday-Friday 7am-5pm, Saturday-Sunday 10am-4pm

Two warehouses up from Seven Seeds you'll find Middle Fish, a Thai cafe that opened very quietly on Thursday. Middle Fish is a labour of love for the delightful Thai-born Siriporn "Pla" Liamthong and her partner David Holtum. Pla's auntie Na Sauw is in charge of the kitchen, and it's the first time she's ever left Thailand. Result: her cooking is about as close to the real thing as you can get in Melbourne.

I popped in one afternoon, ordered a serve of som tum ($12.50) and watched it being made in front of me. It tasted just like the som tum I had in Thailand last year, ie delicious and very spicy with lots of bird's eye chilli seeds - almost too spicy for my tastebuds, truth be told. Pla noted me reaching repeatedly for cold milk and asked for feedback regarding the chilli levels in the food: I said to err on the side of keeping it authentic, and perhaps make a note on the menu that the chilli may be a little more intense than we're used to in Melbourne Thai restaurants. Good advice, d'you think?

A gorgeous warehouse space, is it not? In fitting it out Pla and David collaborated with Thai artist Torlarp Larpjaroensook, who created many custom-made pieces for Middle Fish including the wrought-iron fish leaping out of waves on the wall, several paintings, cutlery, crockery and the arrestingly beautiful chandeliers.

Photos below of khai luuk kheuy (son-in-law egg), David and Pla. When I visited the full menu was not yet available, but apart from the odd Isaan dish the breakfast/lunch menu focuses on food from Southern Thailand. Provided all goes well, Middle Fish may start to open in the evening sometime in the future.

A wonderfully fresh pandan cupcake (made for the cafe by a Thai friend) rounded off the meal nicely. Coffee-wise, there're using Five Senses beans and hope to import Thai beans in the future to make Thai-style coffee and iced coffee. Pla worked for years in several St Ali/Sal Malatesta cafes including Caffeine, Sensory Lab and Outpost.

Loved the fact that the lightbulb on this tuk-tuk painting lights up! As you can probably tell, I was quite smitten by Middle Fish and I wish it every success.

Fortnightly round-up (5 December)

2011-12-05T17:47:00.000+11:00

This time next month, I will be in JAPAN! It's my first trip to the Land of the Rising Sun, and of course I'm very excited. We're thinking a night in Osaka, four nights in Kyoto and six nights in Tokyo, plus a potential daytrip out to the country somewhere (Fuji-san??). I've already been told that this book is an invaluable resource but I ask you, blog readers: what other recommendations do you have for me? Where do I *have* to visit? Any suggestions would be warmly welcomed.

(Photo by Joi, used under CC licence)

If you haven't already heard (or noticed the green buttons on my blog), charity organisation StreetSmart has launched its 2011 fundraising project DineSmart, which runs until Christmas. DineSmart in a nutshell:

"StreetSmart partners with restaurants to ask diners to make a small donation to StreetSmart on their bill. Every table is asked to add $2 or more to their bill, not even the price of a coffee or mineral water. It’s a simple idea that adds up to a big impact on the lives of people who are homeless.

So when you are planning a night out think about taking a simple action and book at a StreetSmart participating restaurant. While you are there encourage your fellow diners to dig deep and leave your donation on your bill. Be it meeting up with friends, family or an office or business function we need you to get involved.

Tipping:
Please remember that your donation should not replace any tip you would usually leave, we want you to consider any donation over and above your tip and support the staff and restaurants who are supporting us.

100% of your donation goes to work:
StreetSmart operational expenses are funded through sponsorship partners allowing us to guarantee to the community that 100% of your donations are distributed directly to charity recipients."

A list of Melbourne's participating restaurants for 2011 can be found here, and details of StreetSmart's charity recipients can be found here.

I've been supporting StreetSmart over the last few years, and I really like the fact that (unlike other bigger charities that have moved in and copied this fundraising model), StreetSmart focuses on small, local community groups that wouldn't always qualify for other funding. One such program funded by StreetSmart that I was invited to visit recently is The Social Studio, which provides training, work experience, employment and pathways to employment for refugee youth interested in clothing production, retail and hospitality. Their fashion studio, shop and cafe is located on Smith Street (and I can recommend the African burgers, injera rolls and zlabia donuts served in their cafe The Cutting Table).

On the specials board at Bar Lourinhã last week: migas (breadcrumbs) with suckling pig. Suit you sir!

Also outrageous: the Southern USA-style Thanksgiving lunch I had at Naked Espresso. For a mere $20 per head we were served a feast with all the trimmings: turkey, stuffing, candied yams (with marshmallow!), okra and beans, apple salad and individually baked cornbread, served with Southern iced tea and followed by some extraordinarily good pumpkin pie. My friend and I were seated on the communal table next to a kindly professor from the University of Georgia, who was delighted to have a culinary reminder of home Down Under.

I almost hate to give the secret away, but the fact is that the open-from-3pm tapas bar on the rooftop of The Aylesbury (brought to you by Team Añada) has quietly started opening from 1pm on Fridays. Sitting on a sun-drenched rooftop balcony snacking on Jamón and the last pimientos de Padrón of the season and drinking a 'Ping Pong at 5' (white port, lime, sugar and tonic) = PERFECTION.

Last Wednesday night I went along to the Melbourne launch of US-based review website Yelp. Yelp has been a useful resource on my trips to the US and I'm interested in seeing it succeed here in Melbourne - not only because I'm friends with Yelp's Melbourne Community Manager, but because I'm intrigued to see how effective their "review filter" (an algorithm that screens all submitted reviews to weed out malicious or fake contributions) is. Having to trawl through vindictive or hilariously uninformed reviews is my major gripe with the other review websites currently operating in Australia, such as Urbanspoon.

Yelp has partnered with Telstra's Sensis, which is providing Yelp with business listings and online advertisers. An interview with Yelp co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman about the Australia launch can be found here.

Oh, and did you attend The Design Files Open House over the weekend? I went on Saturday morning. A very ambitious project, brilliantly executed. Huge congratulations to Melbourne design blog superstar Lucy from The Design Files and Esther on their success!

Links of Note:

- The very functionally titled Melbourne Cafes Photo Blog has photos of the pop-up cafe that was open on the roof deck of The Design Files Open House.

- Tickets for next year's Melbourne Food and Wine Festival are now on sale: if you missed it in Friday's Age, a copy of the 2012 Festival Guide can be downloaded from the MFWF website.

- Finalists for the Eat. Drink. Blog. 2011 Photography Competition have been announced. I think my favourites are 'Tea break', 'Vietnamese chicken salad' and 'Chopping coconuts'.

- My favourite food blogger in Sydney outdoes herself with one helluva review of Momofuku Seibo (vegetarian and omnivore menus) on The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry.

- Following her critical post on Melbourne's new Creole restaurant My Mexican Cousin (linked to in my previous fortnightly round-up), Burger Mary revealed on her blog that MMC has addressed her comments by inviting her to come onboard as a paid temporary consultant: she's now working with them to help produce a more authentically Creole menu. I heard from a separate source that it hasn't all been smooth sailing at MMC since it opened four weeks ago, so here's hoping it works out well.

- Adam Roberts (The Amateur Gourmet) on the hunt for great tacos in East L.A.

- A coffee guy and a camera girl from Midwest America have moved with their two young sons to Burundi in Central Africa, to be closer to the coffee trees. Follow their adventures via the Long Miles Coffee Project.

- New website Birds of Unusual Vitality features interviews and beautiful portraits of people that make up Melbourne's specialty coffee scene. Look out for my clothesline making a cameo appearance in one of the photographs!

- "I always said if I wasn't going to be a chef I would have been a footballer. But I was just no good at playing it, hence I'm a chef." George Calombaris on his career choices.
Hospitality Magazine article on Calombaris cooking for David Beckham, a handy summary of the latest court decision regarding the Matthew Evans v Coco Roco restaurant review defamation case, and other hospo snippets.

- "In the beginning was the word and the word was never questioned. This is how many specialist commentators such as myself viewed our work. We wrote the reviews, the articles, the books, and sold them to a publisher who then packaged and disseminated them to a grateful readership whose only reactions to what we wrote were to follow our advice, perhaps to mutter among themselves about what they viewed as our mistakes or misconceptions, and very occasionally to go to the trouble of writing a polite letter either to us or to our publishers to comment on what we had published." Excerpt from article by wine writer/legend Jancis Robinson on the near-oracular status specialist writers used to enjoy, the rise of the blogosphere and her thoughts on attending this year's (US) Wine Bloggers' Conference. Includes a list of her favourite wine blogs.

A reminder: Japan tips would be much appreciated!

Colonel Tan's: Revolver does Thai

2011-11-30T23:55:00.001+11:00

Colonel Tan's
Upstairs at Revolver
229 Chapel Street, Prahran (map)
9521 5985
Open 5pm-11pm Tuesday-Saturday and lunch Fridays only
website

Well there's a first time for everything. Walking up the steep stairs at Revolver (taking care to not touch the sticky handrail, of course) while sober was a surreal, novel experience. It was worth the effort though, given the grungy-but-great diner hidden at the back of the iconic nightclub/live music venue. Children are welcome in the restaurant during opening hours: a family-friendly Revs, imagine!

Colonel Tan's is chef Karen Batson's Prahran offshoot of her Thai city hotspots Cookie and Choo Choo's (the late-night diner at Toff in Town), both in Curtain House on Swanston Street. At Colonel Tan's, the floral tablecloths are plastic and the drinks menu is extensive. And the food? It's cheap and very, very good.

The menu is mostly authentic Thai, plus a few random curve balls (eg rendang with roti, club steak sandwich with fries, tofu 'whopper' burger with peanut sauce). When I visited with some girlfriends the other week, we started with chilli peanuts ($3.50), snapper, peanuts, ginger, chilli and lime wrapped in betel leaves ($10.50), and grilled Thai sausage and cucumber with cabbage and ginger ($11.50). I particularly liked the Thai sausage, which was slightly crumbly without being dry.

Next was a bloody nice larb: a salad of minced pork, peanuts, tomato, cucumber, kaffir lime and chilli ($14.50). The other porky dish we ordered was the dubiously-titled-but-delicious 'Bangkok bolognaise' ($15.50), served with rice noodles, Thai basil and plenty of jungle heat from both chilli and green peppercorns. It's something of a signature dish, and I'm very glad Jack insisted that we order it.

Also enjoyed: potato, pumpkin and peas in red curry ($14.50) and the fat duck noodles ($16.50), a smoky and - relatively - mild antidote to the Bangkok bolognese noodles.

Oh, and to finish? A basket of the Colonel's five spice fried chicken served with sweet chilli ($16.50). Colonel Tan, not Sanders, and a damned sight better than anything you'd get down at KFC.

I know I often whinge on the blog about how average most Thai food in Melbourne is compared to what you can get in Sydney, but if Colonel Tan's was just around the corner from where I lived you wouldn't hear any complaints from me. For those that DO live or work in Prahran, every Thursday night at Colonel Tan's is Locals Night: if you can prove that you live or work in the 3181, you get 50% off your food bill.

Fortnightly round-up (21 November)

2011-11-21T17:09:00.006+11:00

I'm playing with the idea of writing a round-up post like this every fortnight, a space to share a few snippets of news and gossip, some Links of Note and a few amnesty photos that wouldn't otherwise get a blog post of their own.

Orange's sister restaurant in Windsor, Pandora's Box, closed very suddenly a few weeks ago. Although I never got around to writing a blog post about it, I ate there twice and was impressed by the smart, Greek-accented Euro bistro fare and sharp service. But all is not lost: rumour has it that Melbourne restaurant heavyweight Con Christopoulos (The European/Supper Club/Siglo/City Wine Shop, Gill's Diner, Pelican) has purchased not just Pandora's Box but Orange too. Here's hoping Pandora's Box reopens and Orange gets a lift and a new menu.

Word on the street is that the vacant lot on Moor Street, Fitzroy, behind the Labour in Vain and Galerie Montmartre will soon be home to a permanently parked food truck, dishing up both food and booze to hipsters seven days a week. The company running it is called Grub Food Van but no word yet on what it'll be selling - what's to bet it'll be burgers, tacos or gourmet snags?

Speaking of Moor Street, I also hear that the two adjoining sites across the road (the Vintage Sole shoe shop on the Brunswick Street corner and Kennedy Nolan architects) have been bought by a certain prominent restaurant group that has plans to transform the sites into one large, upscale eatery. We shall see!

UPDATED 8/12/11 TO ADD: Here are the first photos of the food truck being set up on Moor Street (courtesy of the lovely Michelle from Galerie Montmartre next door, and the lovely Fenn from Adioso across the street). Not only is the food truck a beautiful vintage Airstream, word on the street is that THEY WILL BE SELLING TACOS. Cue Fitzroy hipster meltdown!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of acting as one of the guest judges in the Sommeliers Australia Best Sommelier of Australia grand final. The winner, Franck Moreau from Sydney's Merivale group, will represent Australia in the ASI Asia Oceanic Competition in 2012, and the ASI Sommelier Du Monde competition in 2013. Being a part of the judging process (along with food journalists, winemakers and other sommeliers) was a nerve-wracking but fun experience that really deepened my appreciation of the skills involved in being a top somm. The three grand finalists, while all very skilled, had completely different styles of service and it was fascinating arguing it out with the other judges over which styles we preferred.

Oh, and at the Annual Sommeliers Australia Ball afterwards I got to check out Peter Marchant's most excellent tattoo.

Melbourne's Fringe Food Festival is running a 'Forcing Summer' dinner by Matt Wilkinson out in the lovely garden at Pope Joan on Thursday 1 December, featuring amongst other ingredients some organic forced rhubarb grown in the dark especially for the dinner. An outline of the planned menu and link to the bookings site can be found here - tickets still available.

Are you passionate about the future of food in our city? The City of Melbourne is currently developing a Food Policy and has released a Food Policy Discussion Paper (PDF, 2.8MB) as part of its community consultation process. Why have a food policy? The Discussion Paper touches on nutrition and health, sustainability, food security (affordability and accessability) and food safety. Whether you're a stakeholder, an industry organisation or a member of the broader community, the City of Melbourne welcomes any feedback you have on the Discussion Paper (closing date for feedback is Friday 9 December 2011).

Two drinks I mightily enjoyed last week: the Thai Basil cocktail from Chin Chin's GoGo Bar, and traditional Colombian hot chocolate from Sonido, served con queso. Cheese in a hot chocolate: so wrong it's right.

Traditional Japanese breakfast, prepared for our family by the lovely Mari-san on her return visit to Melbourne. The first time I tasted nattō (very pungent fermented soybeans).

Most outrageous cupcake ever: The Elvis, from Beatrix. Banana buttercake, peanut butter buttercream and smoky bacon praline, consumed on Saturday. As they said on their Facebook page, it's a hunka hunka buttery love.

Links of Note:

- Sausage sizzle or popup charcuterie? Great article by Phil from The Last Appetite about food truck culture in Melbourne.

- In case you missed it, food blogger king David Lebovitz gave a rundown on the Sydney dining scene during his recent trip to Australia.

- Sydney design blog yellowtrace recently did a post on places to eat and drink in Barcelona.

- The Milk Bar article on new Brunswick cafe Acústico made me keen to visit next time I'm up near Union Street. Add it to the list.

- Michael from My Aching Head wrote a blog post entitled How to better engage the new (and old) media. PR people trying to lure decent bloggers to restaurants, take note.

- Dan Sims from The Wine Guide gets his rant on about Australia's most expensive wine on release and the Twitter debate that followed.

- Five lovely friends of mine who share a house in Fitzroy recently started the excellent group food blog 310 Fitzroy, which I recommend you add to your RSS reader. One of the five is a cookbook editor, all five of them are brilliant in the kitchen, and I have to compete against them in a cooking competition in December. GULP.

- Another one to add to your RSS reader if you don't already know it: Sydney blog What Katie Ate. Her food photography is gorgeous.

- Burger Mary wrote an open letter to My Mexican Cousin (the new Creole-inspired cafe/restaurant at the Melbourne Recital Centre), decrying the recent trend of Melbourne restaurants cashing in on American comfort food.

- Ending on an academic note, Tammi's blog post Authenticity: not 'what' but 'why' questions what makes an 'authentic' burrito and offers some interesting thoughts on individual cuisines in a cosmopolitan context.

Got a Link of Note from another blog you think I should include next time? Let me know!

Wellington Gastronome - a giveaway and a photo tour of Welly

2011-11-15T15:49:00.003+11:00

It was a happy collision of events. In the same week that reading Max's article on Wellington in the September issue of Gourmet Traveller had piqued my interest in visiting New Zealand's political and food capital, Positively Wellington Tourism contacted me to invite me along on a weekend-long blog junket to check out the food and drink scene in Wellington. Seeing as I'd never even been to New Zealand's North Island before (see a post about my trip to the South Island here), it was an opportunity I felt I couldn't refuse.

The junket was part of the publicity for PWT's current tourism campaign in Melbourne to promote Wellington as a cool dining destination - culminating in a two-weeks-only pop-up restaurant on Gertrude Street Fitzroy, run exclusively by Kiwis and using Wellington produce.

The restaurant, called WLG, is operating in the Rue de Fleurus site at 153 Gertrude Street (formerly known as Claypots and conveniently located just across the road from The Everleigh). WLG opens TONIGHT and runs every night until 27 November. The three course menu is a ridiculous bargain at only $35 per head, plus $30 per bottle of NZ wine. Other details about the restaurant, including about the five chefs who've designed the menu and will be running it, can be found here.

Ticket reservations for the restaurant were available through the Time Out website but have already been snapped up - however they'll still accept walk-ins each night, so you may get lucky. OR you might like to enter the Melbourne Gastronome WLG ticket giveaway - I've got a double pass to the restaurant to give away to a blog reader. The pass is for two people for dinner at 8pm on this Sunday, 20th November (so don't enter the competition if you can't attend on Sunday night, obvs). To enter, leave a comment on this blog post stating your favourite New Zealand import in Australia - cultural, culinary or otherwise - before NOON on Friday 18th (if I don't already know you through blogs/Twitter etc, make sure I know how to contact you in case you win). I'll announce the winner on Friday afternoon (via both Facebook and Twitter, so keep your eyes peeled), and I'll email the winner their PDF double pass.

Wednesday update: Photos of the restaurant and meals served on WLG's opening night can now be seen on Shellie's blog. I was also invited along last night, and was particularly taken with my main (slow-cooked venison in Tunisian brik pastry with veal sweetbreads - mmmmm - broadbeans, peas and pancetta), my dessert (licoricello panna cotta with vodka lime parfait and pistachio wafer) and the laid-back Kiwi charm of a waiter sporting a truly outrageous moustache.

So, a photo tour of Wellington (apologies, I'd half-drafted this post last week but I've been struck down with illness over the last four days and am currently running a fever, so this post will be light on analysis).

I went to Welly a few weekends ago, accompanied by three other Melbourne food bloggers (Ed, Penny and Shellie). During the two days I attended three of the restaurants whose chefs will be running the WLG pop-up.

Lunch on Saturday was at Logan Brown, one of Wellington's most upmarket restaurants. If the facade looks a little imposing, it's because the 1920s building used to be a bank.

Lovely high-ceilinged interior. We had a good chat before lunch to head chef Shaun Clouston (one of the WLG chefs) about the provenance of his produce.

I was particularly excited about trying the local shellfish that we can't get in Oz, like tua tua surf clams from Cloudy Bay (similar to pipis), and Tio Point Bluff oysters and Mahurangi Pacific oysters. Sensational.

Special mention also to the chestnut flour pappardelle with porcini mushrooms, macadamias and gorgonzola, and the Whangamata scallops with cauliflower cream, coppa wafer, apple and preserved lemon. Some beautiful organic biodynamic Urlar wines, too.

In between restaurants I made a beeline for some of the tourist sights: the Wellington Cable Car (see photo at the top of this post) up to the Botanic Gardens and lookout over the city, and an hour at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa.

Such a great museum! One of the best I've been to in years, I wish I'd had more time to explore it - especially the exhibitions about the geology and flora and fauna of New Zealand, and the Mana Whenua exhibition about Maori culture (including a copy of the Treaty of Waitangi, which I studied at uni).

On the Saturday night we went to dinner at The Larder in Miramar, a suburb 15 minutes drive away that is also home to Peter Jackson's Weta studios (filming for The Hobbit movies is currently underway, but alas I didn't spy any Middle-earth inhabitants).

Chef/owner Jacob Brown takes great pride in the relationships The Larder has with its suppliers: to reinforce the point, black and white portraits of various suppliers adorn the walls of the restaurant, and Jacob (also appearing at WLG) can tell you an anecdote about each one.

Culinary highlights included my carpaccio of peppered venison fillet with spiced pear, pear jelly and beetroot; Penny's pig's head baked in brik pastry with seared chicken livers, radish and cress; and my main of pork belly with crumbed black pudding, apple calvados puree and pepper caramel. A Valrhona fondant and parfait were also excellent.

Back in town, we went for cocktails at Matterhorn, recently voted one of the 50 Best Bars in the World by Eater.

In addition to flying back some Martinborough pinot and a bottle of the suddenly-very-trendy-in-Melbourne Lighthouse Gin (hand-crafted and hand-distilled in the Wairarapa), I also bought a bottle of Smoke & Oakum's Gunpowder Rum, an outrageous, you'll-love-it-or-you'll-hate-it small batch blended rum infused with tobacco, chillies and actual muzzle-loader style black gunpowder. It's... a little intense.

Although I was in Wellington for less than 48 hours, I liked that my schedule allowed me some time to explore the town on my own. One solo expedition led me to breakfast at Sweet Mother's Kitchen.

SMK was kooky in all the right ways, decorated with lowbrow trinkets and staffed by friendly kids who kept swapping ridiculous afro wigs. The casual (yet ambitious) home cookin' menu, which included Creole, Cajun and Mexican dishes, has no equivalent in cafe-saturated Melbourne - I'd LOVE to know what my N'awlins/Texas expert (and cuisine purist) friend Burger Mary would've thought of it, had she been with me. Those beignets were damned tasty.

Just some photos of buildings in the city centre that caught my eye.

On the Sunday morning we all visited Wellington's weekly food and wine artisan City Market, where we were welcomed and shown around by one of the Market's co-founders, the personable Rachel Taulelei (owner of seafood supplier Yellow Brick Road).

Lots of produce from the City Market will be served at the WLG pop-up in Melbourne.

More local colour at the Market. I really liked that Crooked Cider Lars was selling - it was cloudy, very dry and made from proper cider apples. If only I hadn't already reached my customs alcohol limit, sigh.

Outside at the regular Harbourside Market, loads of red kumara plus bananas SO CHEAP they'd make an Australian weep.

Our last meal was at Capitol, another restaurant whose head chef/owner Tom Hutchison will also be cooking at the WLG pop-up. Photo of Ms Jeroxie taking a photo.

Shellie opted for something sweet at Capitol, French toast with shaved apple and passion fruit salad. The dish I was taken with was the seared scallops with parsnip puree and pancetta crumble.

And finally, a word about coffee. Welly is officially crazy for coffee: there are over twenty coffee roasteries in the Wellington area alone (a remarkable fact when you consider that the city's population is less than 400,000), and the third wave coffee movement has definitely made its mark.

I stopped in at the Memphis Belle Coffee House, the home of Flight Coffee (best ethically traded coffee in New Zealand, according to this year's NZ Coffee Awards). From the coffee station offering Chemex, Syphon, V60 Pour-over or Swiss Gold brewing methods, I chose the Chemex for my Brazilian Moreninha Formosa. Seriously cute little cafe.

And so ends my weekend blog junket to New Zealand! If you're in Melbourne, be sure to enter the giveaway above for a chance to check out the WLG pop-up for yourself on Sunday, otherwise you might like to try your luck with walk-ins if you're wandering down Gertrude Street during the next fortnight.

(Obvious disclaimer due to nearly-all-expenses-paid nature of blog junket to New Zealand, care of Positively Wellington Tourism)

Hello Paco's Tacos (goodbye MoVida Terraza)

2011-11-13T18:15:00.001+11:00

Paco's Tacos
Level 1, 500 Bourke Street (access via Lt Bourke St), Melbourne (map)
9663 3038
Open for lunch Monday-Friday, evenings Thursday-Friday
Note: closed weekends (at this stage)

The Mexican wave of culinary invasion continues apace in Melbourne, with Team MoVida setting aside Spanish food this time and jumping on the taco bandwagon, in the outdoors kiosk across from MoVida Aqui that used to house MoVida Terraza. The redesign of the place was by Joost Bakker, which explains the vaguely Greenhouse-y feel of the cage wall, repurposed heavy timber tables and liberal use of greenery in flowerpots.

As at the Taco Truck, the tacos are all $6 each. They're made from 100% corn tortillas and all come with coriander, cabbage and spring onions. There's a choice of pulled pork, braised beef, roasted duck, prawn, fish or vegetarian (pinto beans, guacamole, pico de gallo, queso and crema).

When I went with Em on Thursday, we each tried one with carnitas (pulled pork and pineapple salsa) and one with carne asada (braised beef, chipotle and pico de gallo). Both kinds were pretty tasty, though we both felt that the sauce the beef was braised in was a little too acidic.

In addition to the tacos there are a few other snacks on the menu, including one dish that sent my porkophile Twitter/Instagram followers into meltdown mode when I posted a photo of it online: chicharonnes. A $10, heart attack-inducing basket of crispy pig crackling with salsa verde, chipotle and lime. As sinfully delicious as it was, Em and I couldn't bring ourselves to finish our serve: if you can finish a basket, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

We also tried their version of elotes callejeros ($6), the grilled corn on the cob with cheese, spices and lime dish that keeps cropping up on restaurant menus in Melbourne and Sydney (see Mamasita, Newmarket, The Dip, Mexicano and Barrio Chino, plus some restaurants without a Latino focus, like St Katherine's and Ms G's). As with the version at Mamasita, the Paco's Tacos version uses chipotle mayo but the latter is longer, cheesier and more charred.

For now, Paco's Tacos is closed on weekends, open for lunch during the week and only open for dinner on Thursdays and Fridays. Hopefully that'll change as summer kicks into high gear, as the drinks menu includes several rum and tequila-based cocktails, plus sangria, beers (Moritz, Corona, Pacifico) with an optional tequila chaser, cider on tap, Jarritos soft drinks and even a shandy (!).

Melbourne CBD lunch venues in the sunshine

2011-11-07T13:38:00.008+11:00

When you work in a skyscraper like I do, days like this make you YEARN for the outside world and the feeling of the sun on your face. On a similarly sunny day a few weeks ago, while I was waiting to meet up with Emily for lunch, I asked the Twitterverse for suggestions of lunch venues in the city where you can sit outside in the sun.

(Sidenote: we ended up having a disastrous indoor lunch that day at Crazy Wing, where the "offensively spicy" titular dish lived up to its name and nearly destroyed my tastebuds. Warning: those crazy wings be crazy.)

A list-in-progress of sunny al fresco CBD lunch spots (please leave a comment to add venues):
Arintji
Beer DeLuxe
The Carlton balcony (lunch Thursdays, Fridays and weekends only)
Cookie balcony (tiny balcony, hard to get an outside seat)
EARL Canteen
Espressino
The European / City Wine Shop
Federal Coffee Palace
Fugazza
Grossi Florentino / The Cellar Bar Grossi Florentino
The Hardware Societe
Hare & Grace
Le Traiteur
Le Triskel
Madame Brussels (limited menu - chicken sandwiches recommended)
The Mess Hall
Miss Chu
Movida Aqui and Terraza
Mr Tulk
Piadina Slowfood
Ponyfish Island
Pure South
Riverland
Sarti
Shanghai Street Dumpling (limited seating outside)
Transport
Trunk / Trunk Diner
Wallis & Ed
Plus the usual string of cafes along Degraves Street and Hardware Lane
The courtyard at the end of Madame Brussels Lane (assorted cafes)

And one of my personal favourites (which I had today)...
Take-away bánh mì from N Lee, to be consumed in Treasury Gardens

What's missing? Must be: (a) in the CBD; (b) open for lunch during the week; and (c) have outside seating, preferable in direct sunlight.

First glimpse of San Telmo, Melbourne's new Argentinean grill

2011-10-20T23:27:00.003+11:00

San Telmo
14 Meyers Place, Melbourne (map)
9650 5525
website

I know, it's very naughty of me to write about a restaurant that's only been open for about five minutes. But tonight I had a really great meal at San Telmo, and in my excitement I really wanted to share my first impressions. They're still very much in soft open mode (eg limited menu), so go easy on them if you visit this week.

I've wittered on in the past on the blog about my love for Porteño, Sydney's sexy, stylish Argentinean grill. I'm thrilled that Melbourne too now has a similar establishment, a big glam restaurant that places Argentinean grilled meat centre stage.

San Telmo is brought to you by Jason McConnell (The Aviary and The Vic, cousin of Andrew and Matt), wife Renee and Dave and Mickey Parker. It's located in Meyers Place, next door to Lily Blacks.

The interior is all black and white tiles and wood and cowhide leather (the waiters even wear brown leather aprons). The grill is at the entrance of the restaurant, and the cocktail bar and small courtyard are located out the back.

Loved the mosaic wallpaper of photos of famous Argentines!

The sliding door entrance/exit to the toilets vestibule is operated by a green light button that you have to press, which is kinda gimmicky and silly (but fun).

The restaurant's centrepiece, the gigantic Parrilla (coal grill) with a lever that looks like it should be switching railroad tracks, required not only transportation from Argentina by boat but also a genuine Argentino engineer to assemble it.

Cowhide menu!

Among the dishes we tried were the chorizo ($16) and the zappallito (grilled zucchini, asparagus, toasted almond, $10). Oh, and 300g of fantastic entraña steak ($36), served with plenty of chimichurri and a mean-looking mother of a knife. If we hadn't been dining with a no pork girl, we definitely would have ordered the roast pork neck as well.

Loved the morcilla ($14) too. And you MUST leave room for one of these alfajores (Argentine cookies filled with dulce de leche, $5 each).

Really looking forward to revisiting once it's fully operational!

Inauthentic pizza at The Moor's Head, Thornbury

2011-10-20T00:22:00.001+11:00

The Moor's Head
2/774 High Street, Thornbury (map)
9484 0173
Open Wed-Sun from 5:30pm
website

When my friend Matt and I learned through Twitter that Rumi's Joseph Abboud was about to open a second restaurant, specialising in so-called inauthentic pizza made by "two Arabs who love pizza and Middle Eastern flavours", we made a pact that we'd visit as soon as possible, given our shared love of Rumi (Matt even brought his food blog out of retirement to write about it last year). So shortly after The Moor's Head opened about four weeks ago, we hiked up to Thornbury one Friday night with two friends to check it out.

The warehouse interior is all high ceilings, black booths and noirish film posters. It's chic while still being very low-key. We ordered a combination of round pizzas (manoushé) and boat-shaped pidé, along with a jug of one of Thornbury's own microbrews, the 3 Ravens Pale Ale. The drinks menu also includes the arak of the day, a handful or wines and short black tea served from The Moor's Head samovar.

I'm going to keep this brief - let's just say that all the food was brilliant. Simple, pure flavours, smart combinations, great dough, reasonable prices. Go there, now.

We started with some pickled vegetables and olives ($8) and some wonderfully fresh cucumber and salt (also $8). The first manoushé we tried was the Oum Kalthoum ($16.50) which comes with tomato, black chilli, oregano and ashawan (a semi hard sheep milk cheese, our menu helpfully informed us). Possibly my favourite.

The Saladin manoushé ($16.50) comes with za'atar, red pepper paste, parsley, mint, walnuts, cumin and rocket. Also pictured is a chickpea side salad with parsley, tahini yoghurt and almonds ($8.50).

The two pidés we had were The Golden Terrace ($18) with minced beef, fresh tomato, chilli, almonds and lemon, and the Shams of Tabriz ($17.50) with tomato, eggplant, feta, pine nuts and fresh parsley. I'd commented to Matt in a tweet that I didn't know what the Shams of Tabriz were but that I was pretty sure I wanted them - turns out Shams of Tabriz was a person (the spiritual instructor of Rumi). Both of these also extremely good, though I'd have to say The Golden Terrace had the edge.

For dessert, the menu lists three types of sweet fatayer. We chose the one filled with ricotta and honey, The Jamil ($9). If one of our party hadn't been averse to banana I would've loved to try the banana and halva combination.

Be sure to have some of the excellent rose and almond Turkish delight ($6) - it comes from Pantheon Confectionery in Yarraville, and it's the same one served at Rumi.

Oh, and everything on the menu can be ordered take away. Well worth the trip oop north to Thornbury!

Sydney Gastronome: the most recent visit

2011-10-07T08:33:00.001+11:00

Sydney, Sydney, Sydney. I went there for four days a few weeks ago to visit my brother and my friends. We went a little berserk, food and drinkswise. Details below.

Jed's Food Store
96 Glenayr Avenue, North Bondi (map)
(02) 9365 0022

The lovely Miss N was hosting me in Bondi, and one morning we went down to her local, the ultra-laidback Jed's Food Store. I can recommend the Zapatista Eggs (Chiapas style scrambled eggs and corn tortilla, served with pickled cactus and white corn, coriander, avocado, crumbled cheese and green salsa for $16.50). For a bit of extra kick, season to taste with any of the FOUR El Yucateco hot salsas on offer.

Bodega Tapas Restaurant & Bar
216 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills (map)
(02) 9212 7766
website

Despite my obsession with Ben Milgate, Elvis Abrahanowicz and Sarah Doyle's Porteño, I'd never been to the rockabilly tapas restaurant where it all started five years ago, Bodega. New head chefs Nic Wong and Joel Humphrey have taken over from Ben and Elvis, and the food continues to impress the critics and draw the crowds.

My lunch date had to cancel on me at the last minute due to a work crisis but I was happy to go by myself. I perched up at the bar, drank Rosado and chatted up the cute staff.

I was planning on a seafood-only lunch, but the dapper waiter suggested I try a chipotle pulled pork steamed bun. I hesitated. Chipotle, pulled pork and steamed buns - thanks, Mr Chang - are three "on-trend" (ugh) ingredients that are all rapidly becoming as damn ubiquitous as macarons.

But boy, the Bodega chipotle pulled pork steamed bun ($6) shakes you by the lapels and shows you who's boss. The soft sweet bun and juicy pork neck fall apart in your mouth, punctuated beautifully by the pickled carrot and miso mayo. A must-order.

Another must-order? The signature dish, the Bodega "fish fingers" ($18). Kingfish sashimi on fat fingers of charred garlic toast, sprinkled with cuttlefish ceviche and mojama, topped with tiny slivers of raw onion. Strong flavours that somehow balance perfectly AND show off the freshness of the sashimi.

The other dish I tried was the mussels and harissa with fried bread ($20). I guess I was expecting the "fried bread" to be more charred fingers of a bread loaf, but to my surprise I was presented with a deep fried hunk of dough more akin to youtiao, the traditional congee accompaniment. It turned out to be an inspired foil for the mussels and their rich, spicy juices. Gahhhh, so good.

If I'd ordered dessert at Bodega, I'd've been all over the dark chocolate aero with beetroot sorbet and buttermilk grantita like a rash.

The Dip
55 Liverpool St, Sydney (map)
(02) 9283 8792
website

I'd read good things about The Dip (yes, named after the green liquid that nearly killed Roger Rabbit), the canteen serving up American-inspired munchies in a tiki-esque corner of underground bar/club Goodgod. Pictured below is the the Southern Smoke ($12), a 12 hour smoked pulled pork sandwich with BBQ beans, apple & cabbage slaw and spicy BBQ sauce, and Lev's Dawg ($12), a smoked kosher hot dog with chipotle mayo, fresh tomato salsa, grilled yellow peppers and American mustard on a steamed bun. To be honest this food didn't grab me the way I'd been expecting/hoping it would, as it was stodgy and surprisingly bland. Maybe we ordered badly - I hear the two desserts, the Ice Cold Guac and the Cookies & Cream, are ten kinds of awesome.

El Loco Mexican Cantina Y Barra / The Excelsior
64 Foveaux St, Surry Hills (map)
(02) 9211 4945
website

El Loco is the name of Dan Hong's Mexican cantina, grafted onto the back of pub and former live music venue The Excelsior. Before visiting I was feeling uneasy about what my grumpy Sydney friends termed the Merivale hipsterfication of what used to be one of the few small (150 capacity) live music venues left in inner Sydney... but on the other hand I'd loved the food at Dan Hong's other restaurants Lotus and Ms G's, and my friend Matt had said the El Loco tacos were the best he'd had in Australia.

Sorry Matt - we tried a bunch of tacos, including pollo, tofu and pork al pastor ($5 each), and they got the thumbs down. The al pastor was particularly disappointing, with dry, tough meat (not nearly as tender and juicy as I've had in the past prepared in this manner) and a chalky, slightly stale tortilla. I'd wanted to like them, but I didn't.

El Capo
52 Waterloo St. Surry Hills (map)
(02) 9699 2518
website

By contrast, I loved what I tasted at El Capo (the OTHER Latino-inspired restaurant starting with 'El' that opened in Surry Hills this year). On the Saturday afternoon I met up with the lovely Lee Tran Lam from the Sydney food blog The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry and we did the El Loco/El Capo double feature.

Latino but not Mexican, El Capo markets itself as serving 'good food for bad people'. The narco cinema fitout includes seats made from bundles of counterfeit drug money, and walls emblazoned with pictures of guns, cars and a rooster-headed pinup with a hunting knife. It was mid-afternoon by the time we sidled in, so we grazed on plantain chips and Colombian empanadas ($7, $10) and drank horchata almond milk ($4).

But the dish that blew both of us away was the three milk cake, which is part of the evening menu (but we sweet-talked them into serving it to us in the afternoon). It involves milk sponge soaked in buttermilk, two shmears of dulce de leche plus a host of other goodies, which have changed from when LTL first visited and wrote her review. Ours had mango purée, ice cream, malt powder, double cream, scorched meringue, fresh strawberries and blueberries plus sensational freeze dried raspberries. One helluva dessert for only $13.

Porteño / Gardel's Bar
358 Cleveland St, Surry Hills (map)
(02) 8399 1440
website

On the Friday night I went to my favourite Sydney restaurant with J and Miss N.

I've written about Porteño before so I won't repeat myself. I will say though that I'd never tried their famous 8 hour woodfired pig before, and it was EXQUISITE. Ditto for the grilled radicchio with root vegetables, pancetta and hazelnuts, ditto for the shaved fennel salad with apricot, black olives and amontillado dressing, ditto for the smoked mackerel with palm heart, avocado and pickled celery. We drank an excellent bottle of 2010 Trapiche Broquel Torrontes.

Oh and we couldn't resist the postre chaja (South American style pavlova) and the leche quemada (burnt milk custard with orange jam and chocolate ice cream).

And another thing... Gardel's Bar, the upstairs cocktail bar? Also brilliant. We went up there after dinner and downed several cocktails. My favourite was the El Niño, made by a friendly bartender who was as excited about The West Winds Gin as I am.

121BC
4/50 Holt St (enter via Gladstone St), Surry Hills (map)
(02) 9699 1582
website

While we're on the subject of excellent Sydney bars let me mention 121BC, a wonderful new cantina/enoteca specialising in biodynamic wines from Italy. LTL and I wandered in after our El Loco/El Capo expedition to stickybeak in the wine shop, only to find a Montepulciano wine tasting going on in the 121BC bar. We joined in, and I got to talk about the Palio, argue about DOCG and practice my Italian with Alan from Italian Wine Importers. Looking forward to revisiting the enoteca for a bite to eat and several glasses of wine next time I'm in town.

Grandma's
Basement 275 Clarence St, Sydney (map)
(02) 9264 3004
website

Grandma's Bar, the scene of the crime where I ordered a Mai Tai served in a tiki mug so ridiculously enormous you needed two hands to lift it. The bartender MAY have accidentally set fire to the benchtop in the process of making my drink.

Hinky Dinks
185 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst (map)
(02) 8084 6379
website

On my last night I went out to dinner with my brother Buster and his lady friends. Before our meal, we stopped in for a cocktail at the recently-opened, retro-inspired bar Hinky Dinks.

Don't know which one I loved more - that gorgeous vintage (and fully operational) fridge sitting on checkered linoleum, the rosemary popcorn that arrived complimentary at the table upon arrival, or my cocktail, El Presidente. Bacardi 8, Martini Rosso and bitters, mixed and then house-aged in American oak before being served on block ice with a citrus garnish. Ay. Hinky Dinks also has an appealing food menu: see LTL's blog for details.

Gastro Park
5-9 Roslyn St, Potts Point / Kings Cross (map)
(02) 8068 1017
website

The restaurant I went to with Buster and his friends was Gastro Park, the extraordinary new restaurant opened by former Pier head chef Grant King in the skankiest part of Kings Cross. It's billed as the playground of good food and it is exactly that - the ideas are fresh and imaginative, the culinary techniques are technical, the presentation is playful and service (especially from front of house manager Martijn de Boer and sommelier Timothee Servajean) is cheeky, charming and hilarious. It's some of the most exciting food I've tasted all year. Never mind the off-putting name: if you visit Sydney, GO.

This blog post is already ridiculously long, so I'll keep the descriptions of some of the dishes we had brief. Loved the texture that the enoki mushroom stems gave to the warm sashimi of scallops with soy, ginger & bonito dressing ($18). Another 'snack' we enjoyed was a saddle of roast wild hare wrapped in a beetroot tube, with lashings of shaved foie gras and a startling red cabbage granita ($18).

One of my favourite savoury dishes was the sweet onion purée and mushroom consommé "macchiato", topped with a juicy caramelised veal sweetbread impaled on a twig of rosemary ($9).

Two of the girls we were dining with ordered an entrée described on the menu as "textures of duck with local wild mushroom tagliatelle" ($28), including smoked duck, duck ham, roast duck and a film of duck jelly.

I didn't get to taste the saddle of lamb with textures of artichokes and mushrooms ($42) that Buster's girlfriend ordered, but I did try Buster's crispy scaled snapper with smoked potato purée, calamari crackling and ink sauce ($39). This dish has got everyone talking about the fact that rather than scaling the fish, King has made the scales themselves a feature, pushing them back and coating them in hot oil until they're crispy and edible. The calamari crackling, looking like giant black mottled prawn crackers, was another elegant touch.

It's not pictured, but the potato mash we had with Madeira sauce and freshly shaved truffle was OUTRAGEOUS.

And oh, the desserts. The five of us shared three of them. The nitro pavlova ($20) came out looking like a delicious giant clam, hiding a guava sorbet centre and surrounded by pieces of pineapple and coconut bubbles. I also loved the sticky pain perdu with caramelised apple and balsamic ice cream ($18).

But the star dessert was the white chocolate sphere ($22), which arrived shrouded in liquid nitrogen. Cracking open the sphere with a spoon unleashed two rich creams (one mandarin, one honeycomb) that started oozing across the plate. The plate was also dotted with cookies 'n cream components (some nitrogen frozen) plus a couple of minuscule violet macarons no larger than my little finger tip. A fitting climax to a brilliant meal.

Thanks to Miss N for hosting me and the rest the Sydney crew for showing me such a good time!

Margherita pizza taste test at Queen Margaret

2011-09-26T19:19:00.000+10:00

Queen Margaret
356 Queens Parade, Fitzroy North/Clifton Hill (map)
9482 5988
Tuesday-Sunday, 5:30-Late

Not to go all Austen on you, but is a truth universally acknowledged that the margherita pizza is the yardstick by which one can judge the skill of a pizzaiolo. When I heard that new pizzeria Queen Margaret in Clifton Hill village was serving not one but THREE kinds of margherita pizza, I knew I'd have to visit with housemate J (who is both vegetarian and a margherita connoisseur).

Queen Margaret is the new venture from Robert (Cavallini) Coco. The restaurant fitout is stylish, with dark timber panels along one wall and exposed pipes and light bulbs. The walls leading to the toilets boldly spell out the origin story of pizza and the role in that story played by Queen Margherita of Savoy, first Queen of Italy post-unification.

When we got there, J decreed that in order to properly review the margherita pizzas, we'd have to try all of them. As no half/half pizzas are allowed, we explained to our bemused waitress that yes, we'd like three pizzas for two people please (for the record, we shared the QM II, then had half of the QM I and the QM III, leaving us with the equivalent of one pizza to take home for leftovers). We also polished off a very decent bottle of Rioja.

All three of the QM margherita pizzas are made with tomato and basil, of course, but the cheeses for each one differ. First of all, a word about the common ingredients: the tomato was just shy of jammy with the right touch of acidity, and the pizza base was chewy and a little bready (a bit thicker than at Ladro or Supermaxi) without being doughy. A little longer in the oven would've amped up the char factor a notch or two, but the base had a depth of flavour that I really liked (the dough is fermented for at least 24 hours).

The first of the three pizzas, the QM I, was $15 and made with fior di latte. J and I agreed that the fior di latte had an unexpected bite to it that we'd more commonly associate with a blue cheese. So far, so good.

The QM II was $19 and made with mozzarella di bufala. Ding ding ding ding we have a winner! In my opinion, it's ALWAYS worth paying the few extra bucks for buffalo mozzarella, cos it's so damn buttery.

The QM III was $16 and made with mozzarella AND parmigiano. Probably our least favourite of the three, as I'm not convinced the nuttiness of parmesan belongs on a margherita, but it was still pretty great.

The pizza menu includes more complex flavour combinations (see Joyce's review for some other options), with idiosyncratic names like 'Sock it to me', 'My only crush', 'Yeah... whatever!', 'Sally... where are the kids?' and 'The end of the affair'. Gluten free pizzas are available for $2 extra. If pizza is not your thing, there's lasagne al forno ($18) and spinach and ricotta agnolotti ($18), plus several small plates.

We're spoiled for choice when it comes to great pizzerias in this hood, but I'll definitely be back.

The Brix comes to Fitzroy

2011-09-07T00:11:00.002+10:00

The Brix Cafe and Bistrot
Rear 412 Brunswick Street (cnr Westgarth St), Fitzroy (map)
9417 6114
website

Tuesday 6pm-late, Wednesday-Friday 12pm-3pm, 6pm-late
Saturday, 8am-3pm, 6pm-late, Sunday 8am-long lunch
(Set menu Friday, Saturday nights & Sunday lunch)

The Brix is the snappy new kid on the Brunswick Street block, run by Emma O’Mara and Keir Vaughan. It's a modern French bistro, with ex-Royal Mail Hotel chefs Joel Alderson and Daniel Dobra in the kitchen. Ainslie Lubbock, also formerly at the Royal Mail and more recently at Attica, helped put the excellent wine list together.

Emma's background in interior design has really paid dividends, particularly when you consider what the site looked like before.

I went along with my housemate J on a Tuesday night not long after it had opened, when every second table seemed to be someone from the industry (I counted three local restaurateurs and one major newspaper restaurant critic). We were seated in the narrow vestibule dotted with hanging plants which links the main room to the outdoor courtyard.

Over dinner we shared a bottle of 2009 Paul Janin et Fils Moulin-à-Vent Clos du Tremblay, a pleasantly chewy and weighty Gamay.

The à la carte menu (which is available Tuesday-Thursday) is simple: five entrées, four mains and on the night we visited two specials. Unfortunately for my vegetarian housemate there was only one vegetarian dish listed (an entrée), but when we asked the kitchen was happy to prepare a vegetarian main for him.

I had a sensational entrée special of marron poached in a rich and viscous roasted chicken broth, with very fresh roasted baby artichokes and tiles of crisp chicken skin ($17). J had the equally good shallot and Banyuls caramel tarte tatin, which was served with a dollop of fromage blanc and a baby leaf salad ($15). The pastry was buttery and crisp on the bottom, and the sweet shallots were still a bit sharp. Great stuff.

After a very very long wait between courses (hopefully just the teething problems of a new restaurant still finding its feet) our mains arrived. My main of roast beef came with smoked spring onion, leek, potato red wine and braised tendon ($32). Holy hell, the texture and concentrated flavour of those strips of mucilaginous tendon was pretty damn outrageous. J's off-the-menu vegetarian main consisted of smoked oven roasted vegetables, including heirloom carrots, spring onions, leeks and potatoes, served with a nettle sauce. He wasn't crazy about the nettle sauce, but really appreciated the quality of the young vegetables.

We shared a $14 dessert of chestnut, honey, apple and date, served in the deconstructed-mélange-of-flavours-and-textures style that's so popular these days. The chestnut purée was a winner, as were the supersoft apple meringue and chewy, candied date crumbs. We were split on the slivers of raw chestnut: J hated them, but I loved the dry crisp texture.

I went back two weeks later with T and our friend F, cos I wanted to see it during daylight and to try out the breakfast menu. The space is even better looking during the day (as Essjay and Jess noted, it's no mean feat to get that much natural light into a narrow south facing room).

The menu cover reproduces a section of the remarkable commissioned painting on the north wall of the restaurant: it looks like one of those Dutch 17th century banquet still lifes, but updated with a few choice contemporary objects (like a toy train and an electric guitar).

The aforementioned painting, in situ.

I ordered the cured ocean trout, which came with a zippy little sauce "bois bourdan" (I think it's meant to be "bois boudran", a shallot, worcestershire sauce, tabasco and fresh herb vinaigrette), and lovely soft coddled egg and brioche ($16). T got his protein and iron on with rich black pudding, fried duck egg, brioche and an apple, cider and sorrel salad ($16).

Our friend F (one of the 310Fitzroy crew - check out their brilliant new food blog here) ordered a dish you don't often see on a breakfast menu: pork cassoulet with baked egg, persillade and rye bread ($17).

Having all the floor staff wear black skinny jeans, white shirts and braces is a little precious, but the space is brilliant and I love what I've seen so far from the menu and wine list. Particularly keen to go back in a few weeks to try the five course fixed price dinner ($80 per head) served on Friday and Saturday nights. Very promising, go check it out.

And be sure to give the life sized pig statue a pat on the way out.

Epic sandwichcraft at Beatrix

2011-08-17T23:41:00.006+10:00

Beatrix Cafe and Bake-a-way
688 Queensberry Street cnr Lothian Street, North Melbourne (map)
9090 7301
Monday: 8am-4pm
Closed Tuesday
Wednesday-Friday: 8am-4pm
Saturday-Sunday: 9am-4pm

I'd heard good things and had been meaning to check out Beatrix ever since it opened at the start of the year. But it was my friend Matt, a fervent Beatrix devotee, who inspired me to lunch there the other weekend. He'd visited Beatrix on consecutive days, SMSing me each time to rhapsodise about its sandwiches.

Our texts to each other are almost invariably food-related. It's great.

The cafe is tiny and tucked in a quiet corner of North Melbourne. Inside, the cuteness is dialled up to Frankie levels, with a collection of vintage eggbeaters adorning the back wall and sweet, friendly staff serving up the Allpress coffee, Art of Tea teas and food.

When you visit you may recognise one of the staff members as muso Evelyn 'Pikelet' Morris: when we had lunch there, a beardy young male customer was breathlessly fanboying her ("Oh yeah, I remember at that gig you were drumming with those guys. It was awesome!").

The savoury menu at Beatrix is very short, consisting of granola, a few toasties, a soup special and one or two ciabatta specials (check their Facebook page in advance for details of that week's specials). As Matt had promised, the ciabatta sandwiches were SERIOUSLY good. Right up there with EARL Canteen, Pope Joan, and the Auction Rooms knuckle sandwich.

I ordered the St Brigid, the roasted chicken ciabatta that had so enraptured Matt. It came in two sizes, $12 and $10, and included fennel mustard mayonnaise and cos-slaw. The free range chicken was succulent, the mustard mayo was perfectly balanced and the ciabatta roll (from Let’s-A-Loaf bakery, in Caroline Springs) was very fresh and neither too dense nor too chewy. A perfect sandwich.

Matt and his lady friend S shared the St Brigid and The Phoenix ($9/$11), a vegetarian option which included sweet roasted pumpkin (the provenance of which was listed on the menu, but alas I cannot recall), smoky baba ghannouj and chopped chickpea salad. I had a small taste, and loved that the baba ghannouj was smoky but not so smoky as to smother the other ingredients.

My one regret with my visit to Beatrix is that I didn't order a slice of cake to take away. Owner Nat Paull, a much praised pastry chef and baker, keeps the counter filled with amazing-looking cakes that are the main focus of the business. What can I say?? I was stuffed full of sandwich and wasn't thinking straight. But just look at those lemon squares, and that coconut buttercake. Sigh. NEXT TIME, MY PRETTIES!

Kumo Izakaya opens in Brunswick East

2011-08-10T23:21:00.001+10:00

Kumo Izakaya & Sake Bar
152 Lygon Street, East Brunswick (map)
9388 1505
website
Monday-Saturday, 5:30pm-late

Of the handful of izakaya in Mebourne beyond the confines of the CBD, most are located Southside (En Izakaya in Balaclava, Ichi Ni in St Kilda and the South Melbourne branch of Izakaya Chuji) or in Richmond (Maedaya). See my previous Melbourne izakaya rundown here.

But now the Northside has an awesome izakaya to call its own, with Kumo ('cloud') Izakaya opening last week in Lygon Street, Brunswick East (just up the road from favourites like Rumi and Bar Idda). As a new resident of the Northside, I'm pretty rapt.

Restaurant owner Andre Bishop also ran the two Chuji restaurants, Nihonshu and Robot bar, but this is the first izakaya he's had the opportunity to build from the ground up. A trio of talented women have been enlisted: lending her fine dining nous is restaurant manager Sally Humble (former Cutler sommelier), and running the kitchen are Japanese chefs Akimi Iguchi (Yu-U and Bar Lourinha) and Eriko Hamabe (Kobe Jones and Royal George Hotel).

The fitout is extremely impressive: the corner site used to be a bank that was built in the 1950s, but the only original elements of the bank that remain are the glass wall separating the dining area from the kitchen, and the old bank vault. The bank vault is now the sake vault, but Andre laments the fact that practicalities and safety considerations forced him to ditch the vault's gargantuan sealed door.

The long communal table with framed downlights is reminiscent of a teller's counter, and the antique green lights along the bar beneath the mezzanine level are equal parts bank and State Library reading room.

Andre visits Japan at least twice a year, and is an unabashed professional sake nerd. Helping with the sake side of things is Todd Eng, aka @ToddtheSakeMan from San Francisco who is only too happy to help educate your sake palate. There are also several beers on tap and a wine list selected by Sally that includes some bespoke Mt Langi wines on tap. House wines on tap are beginning to crop up more frequently in hot new Melbourne restaurants, most notably Chin Chin.

I visited Kumo early on Friday night with the lovely Kate. To begin with, Sally brought us a selection of otsumame (drinking snacks): shichimi crispy soy beans ($6), grilled edamame with Murray River pink salt ($8) and pu-er tea infused walnuts ($10). I've noted the prices on the menu but for those keeping score at home, these three snacks were comped. I'd usually indifferent at best to walnuts, but these fragrant, tea-infused ones were freaking brilliant.

Make sure you order some.

We ordered the tuna yukke with onsen-poached (!) quail egg sitting in a crispy cup ($18) and the salad of thinly sliced seared ox tongue with tomato, wild rocket and horseradish cream ($17). Loved the yukke with its slow cooked egg, but was less convinced by the rocket and tomato in the salad. The ox tongue itself was wonderfully tender though.

A serve of kushimori (assorted skewers) included chicken skin, thigh and breast ($12). Another standout dish was the king prawns swaddled in strips of potato, fried and served with green tea salt (but at $16 for two seemed rather pricey).

But my favourite dish of the night? The succulent, incredibly rich, braised Kurobuta pork belly pie ($16).

Kumo is definitely at the chic, Den end of the izakaya scale. In keeping with izakaya tradition the servings are small (so as at Den, the total bill can creep up on you a bit), but I love that the kitchen is taking a few risks and straying away from purely traditional fare. Looking forward to returning with a big group so that we can take over the traditional tatami room at the back of the restuarant and really make a night of it!

Love love love the Duchess of Spotswood

2011-08-02T23:01:00.008+10:00

Duchess of Spotswood
87 Hudsons Road, Spotswood (map)
9391 6016
Breakfast and lunch, open seven days

I don't often write about the same place twice, but I felt compelled to share my most recent visit to the Duchess of Spotswood (a cafe I wrote about last year). In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the Duchess of Spotswood is my FAVOURITE breakfast cafe in Melbourne. Here, in no particular order, are some of the reasons why:

- The location, in downtown Spotswood (it's a fun excursion over the West Gate for us, plus there's a great vintage collectibles shop just down the road);
- The fitout of the cafe, including the huge front window, the chandelier and the eau-de-Nil painted ceiling;
- The red La Marzocco FB/70, which looks like the shiny lovechild of an espresso machine and a Vespa;
- The Small Batch (Auction Rooms) coffee expertly used with the aforementioned La Marzocco;
- The friendly staff, who will on busy mornings offer to take down your phone number and call you when a table becomes free (and then try to tweet you to alert you to your table when your phone has an OptusFail);
- The menu, right down to the puntastic names for each dish and the use of Oxford commas; and of course
- The FOOD, especially the virtuosic use of British ingredients, the sensible portion sizes (which are often on the smaller side, to take into account the richness of the food) and the always perfectly poached eggs.

Below are photos and menu descriptions of the dishes we enjoyed when T and I visited with some close friends of ours one Saturday a few weeks ago. Every dish rocked.

'The Breakfast of Champignons' ($17.50): potato and barley hash with field mushrooms, English Stilton, and poached eggs.

'Idle Tongues' ($16.50): seared ox tongue with smoked semolina, crispy pork neck, and fried duck egg.

'Prince of Wales' ($15.50): house smoked salmon fillet with potato pancake, poached egg, and sourdough toast.

'Royal Fanfare' ($18.50): salt cured trumpeter with spicy lamb sausage, home made chutney, and crumbed poached egg.

'Simple Pleasures' ($15.50): globe artichoke with sauteed potato, goats curd, and warm chestnuts - pictured with poached eggs ($2 extra) and gluten free bread.

Italian bistro Lupino opens on Little Collins Street

2011-07-29T19:03:00.007+10:00

Lupino
41 Little Collins Street, Melbourne (map)
9639 0333
Open Wednesdays-Sundays, lunch and dinner, 11:30am onwards

Look for the little neon wolf!

Lupino, the new bistro and bar from Becco alums Richard Lodge and chef Marco Lori, opened on Wednesday. It's located at the top end of Little Collins Street in the site formerly occupied by the Champagne Lounge, next door to Bar Lourinhã. Lupino means 'little wolf' in Italian, so it's only fitting that a neon wolf cub's head marks the venue entrance.

The interior is trattoria-casual: lots of orange tiles, wicker-backed chairs, an open kitchen and nary a starched tablecloth in sight. The menu is pretty short and snappy, including bar snacks and antipasti, half a dozen pasta dishes and a few more substantial secondi. They also have a wonderfully minimalist pizza menu (Margarita or Prosciutto or Garlic & Rosemary or Anchovy), which warmed my "pizza: less is more" heart.

When I dropped in for lunch on Thursday with my Sydney friend J, he ordered the veal tortelloni with fresh tomato, bocconcini, basil and brodo ($22). I had an excellent risotto of rabbit, porcini, pancetta and green olives ($24). A glass each of Devil Bend Creek Pinot Noir sealed the deal.

J loves apple and pastry, so ordering the apple strudel ($14) was a given. He loved it. My eye was caught by the promise of bomboloni with imported Italian Nutella ($14, and yes, the difference in taste for the imported stuff is noticeable). HOLY HELL they were epic, both in terms of size and the generous slatherings of Nutella. They tasted damn authentic though, like the ones I used to buy when I lived over in Italy. The scoop of slightly sharp yoghurt ice cream was a nice touch. But play it smart and share this dessert with another person.

Or if you're feeling brave (and don't need to go back to the office afterwards), order the Scroppino - lemon gelato and Prosecco with a shot of vodka.

The windows looking out over Ridgway Place, offering glimpses of the Melbourne Club's tropical Secret garden.

This corner of the CBD just gets better and better: as well as Lourinhã you've got Danny and Siany at Liaison (happily, now a regular coffee haunt of mine since I started my new job), Mamasita, and - coming soon - San Telmo. San Telmo is the Argentinian restaurant that Jason McConnell (from The Aviary, and cousin of Andrew and Matt) is going to open in Meyers Place, once the fancy-pants custom-made grill manages to make its way over here on a boat from South America. Quietly hoping San Telmo will be Melbourne's Porteño!

Bushranger brunch! Gypsey & Musquito in Bridge Rd, Richmond

2011-07-19T00:26:00.002+10:00

Gypsey & Musquito
382 Bridge Road, Richmond (map)
9939 9314
website
Breakfast and lunch, 7 days

'One of the more notorious bushrangers was an Aborigine from New South Wales called Musquito who had been employed as a stockman and later as a black tracker. In this latter role he had been instrumental in the capture of many bushrangers. In 1823 Musquito was transported to Van Diemen's Land for the murder of his wife, an event which was not a crime under Aboriginal law. He subsequently escaped and became a bushranger. With the aid of another Aboriginal named Black Jack he led a gang of Tasmanian Aborigines in raids against white settlers and storekeepers for about two years. He was responsible for at least two murders, including that of a storekeeper named William Holyoak at Grindstone on 15 November 1823.'

'Musquito made a friend of another bushranger, known as Gypsey. Gypsey's real name was George Shirley, the son of a wealthy English family. Distressed at the death of his bride giving birth to their daughter, Shirley had taken to bushranging. When Gypsey was captured and killed after he had opened fire on some troops, Musquito vowed to avenge his death. Musquito marked Gypsey's grave with a rough-hewn stone carved with the words 'Gypsey My Friend'. Musquito continued to deliver money to Gypsey's daughter Georgina until Musquito was captured in 1824 by another local Aborigine. When the death sentence was passed, Musquito replied: 'Hanging no bloody good for blackfellow …. Very good for whitefellow, he used to it'. Musquito was hanged in Hobart in 1825 alongside Black Jack.'

Sources: here and here.

Gypsey & Musquito may have been dead for 185 years, but their names live on thanks to a new cafe on Bridge Road, Richmond: a street where for every brunch hit (eg Bosisto's, RHCL) there are several misses. Gypsey & Musquito, however, is definitely a hit in my book. The fitout is cosy and homely, especially the upstairs dining room which features colonial furniture and lots of natural light.

In keeping with the name and upstairs decor, cafe owners Kirrily Stewart and Anna Ingle have given the menu a very Australian flavour, with almost all of the dishes including a native Australian ingredient. Forget about those awful 1990s tourist restaurants serving dodgy quandong pannacotta - here, the use of native ingredients is much savvier and the effect is far more organic and pleasant.

When I went there a few weekends ago with my gentleman friend, I braved the "breakkie skillet" ($16): a wee, cast-iron pan crammed with crispy bacon, tomato, field mushrooms, torn pieces of toast (that went slightly soggy from the juices of the other ingredients, like in a panzanella) and native riberry confit, topped with a crocodile sausage and a poached egg. Loved those tart little riberries! He had the potato and herb hash with crispy free range bacon, poached eggs and a luridly yellow lemon myrtle hollandaise ($14), and reported back favourably. The coffee (Five Senses on a Synesso) was also good, and if I'd still been hungry I'd've accompanied it with a moist-looking quince tea cake or lamington.

Oh, and there's free wifi, too. Add it to the list!

Brunswick brunch at the lovely Miss Marmalade

2011-07-03T19:02:00.000+10:00

Miss Marmalade
126 Union Street, Brunswick (map)
9388 8202
website

A few weeks ago I met my two best friends, b-f-K and Schatzi, for brunch up in Brunswick. We were accompanied by the latter's husband and two year old son, and selected Miss Marmalade as our destination on the basis of Schatzi's description of it as cute, cosy and child-friendly.

The coffee is Five Senses (on a Synesso machine, natch) and the all day breakfast menu is joined by a light lunch menu from midday. We're also talking single origin teas, La Madre bread and Green eggs.

We managed to score the prized corner booth in the window, which afforded us a good view of the busy cafe interior. Love the tram scroll on the wall!

Both Schatzi and I ordered the huevos rancheros ($14.50): rather than traditional corn tortillas, there were two sweet corn fritters topped with a fried egg, roast tomato salsa, guacamole and a side serve of sweet hots. My kind of brunch dish: the corn fritters were not at all doughy (as can often be the case), and those pickles were mouth-wateringly good.

Schatzi's husband ordered the eggs benny, which came with leg ham off the bone, homemade corn bread and a formidable-looking brick of hash browns ($15.90). B-f-K went with the Jacks cheddar on sourdough with vine-ripened tomatoes, rosemary and bacon ($12.90). Both reported back favourably on their dishes.

The back room at Miss Marmalade is kitted out with toys and children's furniture, making it a great place to bring groups of kids. Parents' groups, take note! It's not something I've had to really be conscious of in the past, but given that Schatzi has just had another baby (yay!), can anyone recommend other child-friendly - but good - brunch destinations?

Union Dining opens on Swan Street Richmond just as I leave the suburb, dammit

2011-06-21T18:12:00.001+10:00

Union Dining
272 Swan Street, Richmond (map)
9428 2988
website
Dinner Tuesdays-Saturdays (bar open from 5pm), lunch Fridays-Saturdays

It's only been a few weeks since I moved house and left my beloved 3121 postcode (hence the delay in writing blog posts), but one of the things about Richmond that I'll miss most — apart from my house, Der Raum, the Dimmeys clocktower, the Cherry Tree, Picture Search Video and the dilapidated Cremorne Gardens mural — is also one of the newest additions to the suburb.

Union Dining opened in early May, the baby of business partners Nicky Reimer (most recently cheffing at Melbourne Wine Room) and Adam Cash (you may remember him as the bespectacled restaurant manager taking excellent care of you at Cutler & Co). The food is provincial European with strong Northern Italian influences, the fitout is relaxed bistro, the service is warm and professional. It's located on Swan Street, east of the Dirty Swan and that string of Greek restaurants (the Union Dining site itself used to be a large Greek restaurant), and is exactly the kind of smart, classy restaurant that the culinarily-patchy area has needed.

On my first visit with Melbourne J, we ordered the porchetta tonnato with rocket ($17.50), a great porcine twist on the usual poached veal, and the terrine de maison ($16), which from memory was pork & pickled tongue and came with wonderfully agrodolce pickled Dutch carrots. Tick and tick.

Another UD appetiser I love is the one I had on my visit with Sydney J, the bresaola with slow roasted eggplant relish ($16).

Sydney J went retro, ordering the humungous "prawns on the grill" with roast garlic and saffron butter ($15). As messy and date-inappropriate as they are delicious. The only starter I wasn't wild about was the steak tartare ($19), which is done in the Piedmont style with horseradish and lashings of pecorino, parsley and celery. Much milder in style than the usual affair with raw egg, onions, capers and seasoning.

While Melbourne J worked his way through an eye fillet I was rapt by my main course: soft soft soft white polenta with juicy chargrilled quail and oh-so-rich pine mushrooms ($20/$29).

At my urging, Sydney J ordered the abbacchio of goat with braised peppers and Manzanilla olives ($33), a dish of Nicky's that I'd loved when I had it a few months earlier at the MFWF Long Lunch held by Sommeliers Australia. It's understandably something of a signature dish for Union Dining, and the meat falls apart upon the slightest nudge from your fork. While he had the goat I enjoyed the pappardelle with rabbit ragu, green olives and ricotta saltata ($19/$26), a fine dish that made me horribly homesick for Northern Italy. Fingers crossed I can get back there to visit family next year.

Melbourne J, ever the Melbourne Gastronome hand model, pictured with a platter of Ossau Iraty and mustard fruits ($12). In addition to cheeses, Union Dining offers a selection of ice cream/sorbet coupes and desserts (if I'd ordered dessert I totally would've dived headfirst into the pot roasted quince with almonds and anglaise).

I also wanted to mention that Union Dining is going to be the venue for the next [TOYS] Collective Melbourne dinner event. Its title (Issue #6: Stars & Stripes) is appropriate given the date on which it's being held (4th of July). The dinner will feature chefs Nicky Riemer (Union Dining), Aaron Turner (Loam), John Paul Twomey (Cutler & Co), Daniel Wilson (Huxtable), Yen Yee & Bernard Chu (Luxbite) and Andrea Riess (Chez Dre), plus 'Trink Tank' (Der Raum's new, experimental arm). A few tickets ($160 per head plus booking fee) are still available: more info can be found here and here.

I really loved the last TOYS event I went to at Embrasse: read all about it here.

Starlight Five Chefs Gala Dinner 2011 Melbourne

2011-05-30T00:11:00.000+10:00

Last week I was invited along by the Starlight Children's Foundation to attend the media launch for their major fundraising event of the year, the Starlight Five Chefs Gala Dinner at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne. It's a fundraiser I'm very happy to write about because I think it's an excellent event for an excellent cause: just about everything (including food, wine, staff, venue and auction items) is donated by some of the best names in the business, and the Starlight Children's Foundation doesn't receive any government funding for any of its core programs.

Each of the five chefs spoke to us afterwards, sharing stories about their visits to the Starlight Express Rooms the foundation has in paediatric hospitals around the country (in the photo below, Shane Delia was telling us about the teenage girl who repeatedly kicked his arse playing Super Mario on Wii).

The menu on the night (Thursday 16 June at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne) will be the same as we had at the media launch: I've included photos and descriptions below. Tickets to the event are $350 each: if you're interested in raising money for the cause and attending, further details and tickets can be found by clicking here and here.

The course I was most eagerly anticipating was the first one, prepared by Dan Hunter (the head chef from a little place in Dunkeld that you may have heard of, called the Royal Mail Hotel). The degustation at the Royal Mail was my favourite meal of 2009, after all.

And boy, the dish did NOT disappoint: Jerusalem artichoke, roasted and stuffed with triple cream cheese, on hazelnut and thyme (served with the Dal Zotto NV Sparkling). The Jerusalem artichoke had been soaked for three hours in a calcium oxide (quicklime!) brine, which had the effect once roasted of forming a crust on the outside and turning the inside of the vegetable to the most amazing purée that has to be tasted to be believed. OH MY.

Shane Delia from Maha and just-opened St Katherine's was responsible for the second course (which I also loved). Sous vide butter poached salmon (which had been rubbed in salt and cardamom, then honey) with vanilla-flecked fazolia, toasted cous cous, fennel seeds and almonds. The rich dish was matched with the 2010 De Bortoli Yarra Valley Estate Grown Chardonnay.

Next course was from MoVida (one of Frank Camorra's chefs was standing in for him as he was in Spain). "Mont y mar", aka MoVida's delicious Catalan interpretation of a surf 'n turf. Baby calamari filled with a braised pork neck and pork belly farce then roasted, served with steamed mussels and slow cooked chickpeas. Matched with a bloody lovely pinot noir, the 2008 from Yabby Lake Vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula.

Jason Camillo, the head chef at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, served the next course: corned Wagyu eye of rump served with a creamed onion soubise (which had a zing of horseradish) and roasted baby beets, carrots and pearl onions. A hearty dish matched with Best's Great West Bin No 1 Shiraz 2009.

The final course was by Melbourne's Willy Wonka-esque dessert maestri, Burch & Purchese, and had many of my fellow diners moaning in pleasure. It was made from yoghurt sponge, pineapple jelly infused with Vietnamese mint, homemade pineapple jam, dried spiced pineapple, Heilala vanilla yoghurt crunchies made with maltodextrine & freeze dried yoghurt powder. A great combination of textures and flavours, and matched with a Campbells Rutherglen Tokay.

If you haven't already visited the Burchese & Purchese Sweet Studio on Chapel Street South Yarra, GET DOWN THERE. I visited this afternoon and bought an obscenely good miniature cake made from caramelised white chocolate & vanilla mousse, crunchy macadamia meringue, caramelised banana cream, passionfruit jelly, caramelised white chocolate velvet spray and caramelised milk solids.

Once again, if you'd like to attend the Starlight Five Chefs Gala Dinner on the 16th of June, details are here.

Melbourne restaurants open on Monday nights

2011-05-24T23:40:00.012+10:00

UPDATED 29/08/11: more than doubled the length of the list from 52 restaurants to 107!

I've been meaning to write this post for over a year, but was prompted to do so today when my lovely friend H was racking her brains on Twitter trying to think of a nice restaurant where she could have a birthday dinner next Monday. Given that so many restaurants are closed on Monday nights (the traditional hospo night off), finding somwhere good to eat can prove a challenge.

So I thought I'd dedicate this post to listing Melbourne restaurants that are open for dinner on Mondays - and I'll do my best to keep the post updated. I've done a quick sweep of restaurants I can think of to get the list started, but if you can think of any other places in Melbourne to include (or if you know that one of the places listed is no longer open on Monday nights) please leave a comment letting me know and I'll update the list.

Albert Park Hotel (Albert Park)
Anada (Fitzroy)
The Atlantic (Southbank)
Bacash (South Yarra)
Bar Idda (Brunswick East)
Bar Lourinha (CBD)
Becco (CBD)
Benito's (CBD)
Birdman Eating (Fitzroy)
Bisto Guillaume (Southbank)
Bistro Thierry (Prahran)
Bistro Vue (CBD)
Bottega (CBD)
Cafe Di Stasio (St Kilda)
Chester White (Hawthorn)
Chin Chin (CBD)
Chin Chin's at Koto Moon (Carlton North)
China Red (CBD)
Chinese Jin Dumpling House (Kew)
Chocolate Buddha (CBD)
Cicciolina (St Kilda)
Circa, the Prince (St Kilda)
City Wine Shop (CBD)
Coda (CBD)
Collins Quarter (CBD)
Comme Kitchen (CBD)
Cookie (CBD)
The Court House (North Melbourne)
The Crimean (North Melbourne)
Crystal Jade (CBD)
Cumulus Inc (CBD)
Da Noi (South Yarra)
Dainty Sichuan (South Yarra)
De Los Santos (Fitzroy)
The Deanery (CBD)
DOC (Carlton)
Donovans (St Kilda)
Esposito at Toofey's (Carlton)
The European (CBD)
Ezard (CBD)
Flower Drum (CBD)
France-Soir (South Yarra)
Gami (CBD)
Gerald's Bar (Carlton North)
Gill's Diner (CBD)
Gingerboy (CBD)
Giuseppe, Arnaldo & Sons (Southbank)
The Graham (Port Melbourne)
The Grand (Burnley)
Grossi Florentino (CBD)
Hako (CBD)
Hare and Grace (CBD)
Hellenic Republic (Brunswick East)
HuTong Dumpling Bar (CBD)
HuTong Dumpling (Prahran)
Il Bacaro (CBD)
Ilona Staller (Balaclava)
The Italian (CBD)
Izakaya Den (CBD)
Josie Bones (Collingwood)
Kenzan Japanese (CBD)
Kumo Izakaya (Brunswick East)
Ladro (Fitzroy)
Ladro (Prahran)
Laksa King (Flemington)
Lamaro's (South Melbourne)
Longrain (CBD)
Maedaya (Richmond)
Maha (CBD)
Mama Ganoush (Windsor)
Mamasita (CBD)
Matteo's (Fitzroy North)
Maze (Southbank)
Merchant (CBD)
Mezzo Bar & Grill (CBD)
Middle Park Hotel (Middle Park)
MoVida (CBD)
MoVida Aqui (CBD)
Newmarket (St Kilda)
Nobu (Southbank)
North Fitzroy Star (Fitzroy North)
Omah's Malaysian (Hawthorn)
Omah's Malaysian (Port Melbourne)
The Palace by Luke Mangan (South Melbourne)
Pearl (Richmond)
Philhellene Provincial Greek Cuisine (Moonee Ponds)
PM24 (CBD)
The Point (Albert Park)
The Press Club (CBD) / Little Press (CBD)
Rice Queen (Fitzroy)
Rockpool (Southbank)
Rosa's Kitchen (Williamstown)
St Katherine's (Kew)
Saint Peter's (CBD)
Sarti (CBD)
Shakahari (Carlton)
Sho Noodle Bar (Southbank)
Shoya (CBD)
Spice Temple (Southbank)
Station Hotel (Footscray)
Stokehouse (St Kilda)
Taxi Dining Room (CBD)
Thai Nee Cafe (Brunswick)
Verge (CBD)
Vue de Monde (CBD)
Yu-U (CBD)

So which ones have I missed? In particular, which cheap eats have I missed?

Oh, and for those who didn't see me note it on Twitter/Facebook, I thought I'd just mention in passing that Monday was the four year anniversary of the start of Melbourne Gastronome. Thanks to all for reading!

I'll leave it to my Nonno (pictured here celebrating his 90th birthday on the weekend) to blow out the candles... :)

Golden Fields: first peek at Andrew McConnell's St Kilda restaurant

2011-05-16T00:35:00.002+10:00

Golden Fields
157 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda (map)
No phone
website
Bookings restricted to 8-14 people set banquets (book via email)
Open noon-midnight, Tuesday-Sunday
(from June, open for breakfasts Friday-Sunday)

It hasn't officially opened yet (well, it's still in soft opening mode), but on Saturday night Jack, best-friend-K and I braved the brutal Melbourne weather conditions to check out the Cumulus of the South, Golden Fields. As Jack commented on Twitter, it takes a special kind of restaurant to get her out on public transport on a night like that! Discretionary taxi afterwards.

Let me point out at the outset that I have a mental block with the name of this restaurant... EVERY damn time I go to say the name aloud, I mistakenly call it Golden Plains instead of Golden Fields. It's a really annoying habit I don't seem to be able to shake.

The restaurant's interior has been designed by Projects of Imagination (who set up a Tumblr photo blog detailing the fitout process), but is remarkably similar to Cumulus Inc: the coat hooks, the white marble and tiles, the minimal signage, the clean lines, the round high table in the corner with stools. It has the unmistakeable feel of an Andrew McConnell restaurant. A golden lucky cat statue presides over the kitchen, and I was rather taken with the golden rollerskate over the bar.

The menu is divided into sections labelled Raw, To Start, Salads & Vegetables and Meat & Fish. There were so many small dishes we liked the sound of that we decided to skip getting a big meat or fish dish and just graze on things to share. To start with, I had a kickass martini, the Big Boss Impressionist (Miller's, Lillet Blanc and orange blossom, $18) and we were brought a little plate of pumpkin seeds as an appetiser.

We noted with interest that the white wine list was divided into Riesling (of which there were over a dozen) and Other, and were happily nudged into ordering a bottle of German Riesling.

A pleasing starter of fresh sea urchin, flat bread, crisp lardo, escabeche ($5 each).

Like the other Andrew McConnell restaurants, oysters from Steve Feletti's Moonlight Flat oysterage up in Batemans Bay are on hand. We went with a trio of the special not listed on the menu, the angasi oysters ($6 each). We also ordered a single bowl of the white onion and conpoy soup with shredded pearl meat ($10), just so we could each have a taste of the velvety broth given an umami kick in the pants from the conpoy. I loved it and would definitely order it again next time.

Along with the sea urchin and pearl meat, there are other rather luxe seafood items on the menu including Moreton Bay bugs and crayfish. The crayfish is in a starter I suspect could become a Golden Fields signature item: a New England lobster roll ($15), consisting of a hot buttered bun with cold poached crayfish, watercress and Kewpie (love that the menu specifies that it's Kewpie mayo). The little bun is sweet, the crayfish is fresh and together with the mayo it made me wish we'd ordered more than one to split three ways. When Epicure does its next round-up of Melbourne's top 10 sandwiches, this one ought to make the list.

The school prawns were retired from the Cumulus Inc menu a little while ago, but they've popped up again down at Golden Fields, and this time they've been sexed up with one of the Dude Food flavours du jour, PIG TAIL SCRATCHING. Yep, they're "pork and prawn" fried school prawns, served with garlic mayo ($12). Dirty and delicious.

The salad we ordered was described on the menu as shredded chicken, sesame paste, house-made cold rice noodles, chilli oil ($12). It was presented to us in layers: the cold rice noodles, Sichuan pepper and chilli oil, shredded poached thigh, tahini, cucumber, coriander and sous-vide breast on top.

The use of tahini as the sesame agent in a dish featuring Sichuan pepper and chilli oil is a good example of the way the Golden Fields menu interprets its Shanghai/Hong Kong focus in a creative way.

The other vegetables we shared were beans braised simply with garlic and ginger ($13 - according to the menu usually served "spicy as", but the spicy version wasn't available on the night we visited), and a dish of steamed eggplant, silken tofu and pickled chillies ($14).

We hadn't ordered it, but a serve of rustic pork dumplings with Shanghai chilli vinegar arrived compliments of the kitchen. I gave a happy yelp when they arrived - they're my favourite dish on the bar menu at Cutler (and yes, as Andrew explained when he gave the recipe to Gourmet Traveller last month, they're technically steamed buns but he calls them dumplings). Thanks chef!

For sweets we'd ordered the peanut butter parfait with salted caramel and soft chocolate ($10 and pretty much my wet dream of a dessert). We were also brought (compliments of the kitchen again) a dessert of soft black sesame cake with lime ice cream and yoghurt which, while less obviously a crowd-pleaser than the caramel/chocolate, was delicate and unusual in the way that the best desserts at Cutler are. For the adventurous, you might like to try the dessert described on the menu as green tea ice cream, pumpkin and liquorice.

So it's pretty much a rave review from me - not a dud dish and the service was excellent. Very eager to revisit and work my way through more dishes (like the shredded cabbage with Moreton Bay bugs, Kampot pepper and mint, or the slow-roast lamb shoulder with cumin seed and salted lemon). Oh, and the weekend breakfast menu once it starts up in June!

ps Remember - no bookings unless you're in a group of 8-14 and want a set banquet. To maximise your Golden ~~Plai~~Fields dining experience, get there early or late on a night where you're not pressed for time, and enjoy a drink at the bar if you have to wait. Try that Big Boss Impressionist martini.

pps Oh, and suckling pig junkies: they're offering a whole suckling pig banquet. Shall we book one?!

The tale of Darac and the mystery dish

2011-05-12T01:07:00.000+10:00

Darac Grill & Bar
51 A'Beckett Street, Melbourne (map)
9662 2441
Lunch Mon-Fri, dinner Mon-Sat

From about Little Lonsdale Street in the CBD to Victoria Street in North Melbourne, the Queen Victoria Market district is increasingly becoming Melbourne's Little Korea with a swag of great little student-packed restaurants and cafes where you can bibimbap to your heart's content.

The fabulous H & F introduced me to their favourite of these restaurants a few Fridays ago, after we'd been along to the kozyndan exhibition opening at Outré. Darac is casual and friendly, with a loft-like interior dotted with artwork and knick-knacks. Although they don't do Korean BBQ, there are plenty of grilled and unusual dishes on the Korean/Japanese menu that caught our eyes as F and I necked beers and H drank a cocktail that tasted exactly like an alcoholic lemonade spider.

Foodwise, we started with the pork shabushabu salad (poached pork belly and green salad with a sesame dressing, $11) and the Korean hamburger steak ($16) which was flame grilled and served with a spicy sauce. Both cracking dishes, particularly the delicate shavings of tender pork belly.

Next we ordered one of the grilled sashimi sets ($21), the one with salmon and soured mackerel. Oh yeah, and the sashimi was grilled before our eyes by a waitress wielding a blowtorch. For all the theatre, we were underwhelmed by the dish (H in particular disliked the texture of the mackerel), and debated whether or not the grilling disqualified it from the definition of "sashimi".

We also ordered a serve of the cheese fire chicken ($16). Buldak (fire chicken) consists of pieces of boneless chicken which are marinated in chilli sauce and seared. This process is repeated several times with several layers of chilli sauce until the dish is insanely spicy. It's a recent trend in Korean cuisine and particularly popular with students. Incongruously, the chicken was covered with grilled mozzarella cheese as though it were American pizza. It sounded all kinds of Wrongtown, but the cheese turned out to be just what the dish needed - not for the faint-hearted, but strangely addictive. I'd totally order it again, though it feels like the sort of dish best enjoyed drunk.

One dish I'm not certain I can brave though is the "beondegi tang". It was the only dish on the menu that didn't have an English translation, so naturally our curiosity was piqued. Upon our inquiry, our sweet waitress gave a timid giggle and said it wasn't for foreign people. When we pressed her, she said it was "difficult to explain in English... it is... the flying people?"

We remained uncomprehending, so a waiter came over to help her out. "Oh, it's um... beef. We don't have it today." His evasive tone aroused our suspicions so we turned to the internet for enlightenment, where we discovered that beondegi tang is in fact stewed silkworm pupae soup. Which explains why they don't translate it for round-eyes. Who's game to try it with me??

Quick housekeeping post

2011-05-11T13:35:00.003+10:00

Just a quick post to update you on two fronts:

The Moonee Valley Library Writers Panel I've been asked to speak on this year is on this Saturday 14 May at 2pm, at the Sam Merrifield Library in Moonee Ponds. It's called "Food on the Page", is about food and writing, and will include Rita Erlich and Charmaine O'Brien, plus me. It's free but bookings are necessary (call 8325 1950 - further details on the library website). If you're not doing much on Saturday afternoon and want to attend, please come and say hi to me.

Thanks to those who entered the Melbourne Gastronome Bourdain/Gill giveaway! The lucky recipient of the tickets was Tom from the Canberra blog Capital Gourmand, who will be making a trip to Sydney that weekend. Congratulations Tom and hope you enjoy the event, be sure to report back!

Nonna's fritole

2011-05-08T23:24:00.005+10:00

This afternoon I went with my sister Birdie and her boyfriend to visit our gorgeous Nonna, Livia, for (Grand)Mother's Day. When we arrived, we discovered to our delight that she was making fritole for us.

Fritole (depending on the dialect, sometimes known as frittelle) are a kind of doughnut from the North-East of Italy (my Nonna had them when she was growing up in a small village near Treviso, in the Veneto). In Venice they're traditionally eaten during Carnevale. Sometimes they're made with rice (yuk) or ricotta and pine nuts, but Nonna makes them with sultanas swollen with grappa.

The fritole I see out and about in Melbourne always look greasy and gluggy (same goes for most of the ones in Italy), but Nonna's are always beautifully light and fluffy. She used to make them for us as a treat when we were children, but before today she hadn't made them in over three years. Along with her crostoli, they're just about my favourite Italian sweet treats, so I grabbed a pen and paper and did my best to take down the recipe (sorry about its imprecise quantities and vague method!).

Before you start be sure to grab a jar, fill it with sultanas, cover the sultanas with grappa, and leave them to soak in the fridge. Actually, you should soak some sultanas in grappa even if you're NOT going to make this recipe - you never know when they're going to come in handy. Every household should have a jar of drunken sultanas in the fridge.

Fritole della Nonna Livia
4-6 tablespoons self-raising flour
4 tablespoons white sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
approx half a glass of milk
dash of vanilla extract
finely grated zest of one orange
finely grated zest of half a lemon
1 apple, peeled and roughly grated (granny smith or pink lady)
handful of sultanas pre-soaked in grappa
olive oil for deep frying
icing sugar to serve

Mix the flour and sugar. Lightly beat together the eggs and the milk. Make a well in the flour and add the egg mixture, stirring to obtain a smooth batter that is not too thick, with a consistency like wet porridge. If it's too dry, add more milk. If it's too runny, add more flour.

Add the vanilla extract, orange zest, lemon zest, grated apple and sultanas. Stir until smooth.

In a small pan, add about 6-7cm olive oil for deep frying. Heat the oil slowly and gently on a medium-low heat, making sure it doesn't burn. When the oil is hot, use an ice cream scoop or largeish spoon to carefully add dollops of batter into the pan.

Deep fry 'em in batches, turning them occasionally with a spoon (heat the spoon briefly in the oil before touching the dollops of batter, or the batter will adhere to the spoon).

When the fritole have turned a deep golden brown, fish them out and onto a plate covered in a few sheets of kitchen paper. Press them with kitchen paper to remove any excess oil, then transfer them to a clean plate. Continue cooking the rest of the fritole, adding a bit of extra milk or flour if the batter gets dry/runny.

Before serving, sprinkle with icing sugar. Best served warm. Warning: IMPOSSIBLE to eat just one.

A milestone, a giveaway and some Sydney Gastronome highlights

2011-04-29T01:01:00.002+10:00

This evening Melbourne Gastronome reached one million hits! I was out having dinner with the charming J (he who always orders the most boring thing on the menu), and we happened to check the stat counter JUST as it ticked over to 1,000,000. Thank you all so much for reading!

To celebrate the milestone, I thought I'd have a giveaway on the blog - the prize is two tickets to Food Fighters - a conversation with Anthony Bourdain and AA Gill at the Sydney Writers' Festival. The event is at Sydney Town Hall at 6pm on Thursday 19th May 2011 (so you need to either live in Sydney, or be able to get yourself to Sydney on the 19th).

I bought the tickets (that ice cream van afternoon when I was hepped up on Sudafed goofballs and feeling feverish and impulsive) but unfortunately I will not be able to attend, for several reasons. I'll be gutted to be missing out though - Gill's review of L'Ami Louis remains one of the funniest things I've read this year, and Bourdain is, well, BOURDAIN (you might like read what he has to say about food bloggers here). But I thought the next best thing would be for me to give away the tickets to a Melbourne Gastronome reader who can make good use of them!

To enter the giveaway, send me an email (click "Email" on my profile for the address) answering the following question:
If you could take Bourdain or Gill to any cafe/restaurant/bar in Australia, which one would you take (Bourdain or Gill), where would you take him, and why?
Entries close 6pm (Melbourne time) on Wednesday 4th May - after that I'll pick my favourite answer, announce the winner and post the tickets out to you. I may even share some entries on the blog (by entering you consent to possible publication on the blog of your entry and your first name - don't worry, I'll keep your other details private). Anyone in Australia is welcome to enter.

Speaking of Sydney, the rest of this post is a bit of a Blog Amnesty of culinary highlights from my two recent Sydney trips. It's long, but it's not as detailed as I usually like - forgive me, the hour is late.

Greenhouse by Joost
Circular Quay West, Sydney (map)
Pop-up now closed (website)

I visited the first Greenhouse by Joost, which was installed in Melbourne's Federation Square, back in 2008. Since then a permanent Greenhouse has been installed in Perth, and Sydney had a pop-up version (sorry Jess Ho, it's the dreaded "p" word) for the first few months of this year. The location was pretty kick-ass: right on the western tip of Circular Quay, opposite the Opera House and almost in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge.

Much like the Spiegeltent, Greenhouse is going to go on a bit of a world tour. The level of detail employed to ensure Greenhouse operates waste-free, and the fact that it's made from recycled and recyclable materials using sustainable construction techniques and operating procedures is very impressive. See detail here and read more about it on their website here.

I went along on the last Friday it was open. As I arrived it was the kind of effortlessly dazzling, sunlight-glinting-off-the-water Sydney afternoon that makes a Melbourne girl want to burn all her black clothing and move north.

Sydney Rock oysters ($3.50 each). Cos I was in The Rocks, Sydney.

Wagu beef gerello, with green papaya, peanut and tamarind ($25), and an outrageously good peaches and cream ($10) which had been finished off in the pizza oven. Drinks in jam jars.

To stay in the loop about where the next incarnation of Greenhouse pops up (rumour has it in Sydney again), check their website and join the mailing list.

Home Thai Restaurant
Shops 1-2, 299 Sussex St, Sydney (map)
02 9261 5058
Open lunch and dinner, 7 days
website

Home (not to be confused with House, another awesome Sydney Thai restaurant) is a bustling, student-filled eatery that bears more than a passing resemblance to Chat Thai. I went with my family, who were up the same weekend I was there visiting brother Buster.

Highlights included this sensational Yum Hua Plee ($14.90), a banana flower salad with chicken, prawn, dried coconut and chilli jam.

Also excellent was the Sai Groog Isan (homemade sausage, $10.90). Does anyone know where you can get a good version of this in Melbourne?

I liked that the Larb Ped Udon ($12.90) was on the dry side - the ground roasted rice stuck to the minced duck better.

We also loved the Kor Moo Yang ($10.90) - grilled marinated pork neck with nam jim jiew and fresh vegetables.

Four in Hand
105 Sutherland Street, Paddington (map)
(02) 9326 2254
website

On my most recent trip to Sydney, I had a hot date with C and J at the Four in Hand, an excellent gastropub in Paddington. We went a little berserk with the pork.

J had the special of braised pig tail (!) with crab and roast sweetcorn salad, with a lobster chowder poured over the top ($28). The dish sounded just insane but like chef Colin Fassnidge's other dishes that aren't afraid to mix meat and seafood, it worked like a charm. That chowder was sensational. I had the pigs ear schnitzel (!!) with cured pork cheek, crab and sprout coleslaw ($26).

For main course J went the head to toe lamb, but expressed envy when he saw the roast suckling pig that C and I shared. It came with celeriac remoulade (my favourite) and sinful buttery colcannon. The Four in Hand also serves WHOLE suckling pigs with all the trimmings for tables of 10+ (book ahead, and it's a minimum price of $800).

We concluded with jelly & cream, plus the right-up-my-alley signature dessert, the '4's' chocolate snickers ($16 each). Damn one eats well at the Four in Hand.

For the second trip the lovely N let me stay in her Bondi Beach apartment. We had Saturday breakfast and tapas later that night (accompanied by yet another charming J - clearly I know too many men whose names begin with the letter J) at Speakeasy Bar, her local.

They did bloody good shallow baked eggs.

Another highlight on this trip was to stop in briefly at Fix St James, a wine bistro whose owner Stuart Knox I'd conversed with many times on the twitters but had never met before. I drank a Hawkes Bay chardonnay and munched on an excellent salad of fennel, strzelecki and grapes ($15). Keen to head back for a full meal and extensive stroll through their wine list next time.

I'm going through a bit of a Mexican craze at the moment (actually let's face it, I've been going through this Mexican craze since 2005). A Melbourne friend suggested I check out the burritos and tacos at Sydney fresh fast food chain Guzman y Gomez, as they reminded him of the Mexican food you get in the Mission in San Francisco. The Guzman y Gomez outlets are similar in terms of fitout and style of food to Sydney's other chain Mad Mex (which has a Melbourne outpost). I was impressed to see THREE varieties of Tabasco on offer.

Two pork chipotle tacos ($8.50). Very impressive by Australian fast food standards.

Baffi and Mo
94 Redfern Street, Redfern (map)
(02) 8065 3294

On my last day in Sydney I was caught up with the women behind my three favourite Sydney food blogs: Put It In Your Mouth, I Am Obsessed With Food and The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry. First up was brunch with Mel from Put It In Your Mouth: we went to Baffi & Mo in Redfern.

We had the tomatoes and avocado on toast, and the potato hash stack with salmon, avocado, tomato and asparagus topped with a poached egg. The food was rather average, but the look of the place was supercute and the coffee was good.

In the afternoon I met Reem from I Am Obsessed With Food for a hot chocolate and gossip at the Lindt Cafe and then in the evening - on my way to the airport - there was just enough time for cocktails and a bite to eat at Stitch with Lee from The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry.

Stitch
61 York Street, Sydney (map)
(02) 9299 2719
Open nights, Mon-Sat
website

Beneath an unassuming entrance strewn with bolts of fabric, sewing machines and other tailoring accessories lies new underground bar Stitch. It specialises in proper cocktails and posh American burgers and hot dogs (all of which come served with CURLY FRIES). I enjoyed the Salty Candy (South gin with Génépi and dry vermouth, $18) cocktail, even if the cute bartender did chide me for leaving the pickled onion.

Foodwise, Lee had the vegie burger (field mushroom, bourgol and chickpea with lime mayonnaise, vine-ripened tomato and rocket, $16). On the cute bartender's recommendation I had the Bulldog ($17), a spicy dog with black eyed beans, spicy tomato salsa, avocado and jalapenos. Loved the food (especially the curly fries) and the cocktails (the second one I had, the Elegantly Wasted, was even better). The bar had a lovely relaxed vibe to it (being there on a Monday probably helped).

Okay, enough Sydney rambling from me. Get busy entering the Melbourne Gastronome giveaway!

The Little Mule: laneways, lunch and bicycles

2011-04-27T00:02:00.002+10:00

The Little Mule Co Pty Ltd
19 Somerset Place, Melbourne (map)
9670 4904
website
Open 7:30-3:30, Monday-Saturday

Narrow laneway location. Minimalist warehouse chic fitout. Specialty coffee. Custom-made fixies. Drinking water out of jam jars. Men with neatly trimmed beards and cutely-bespectacled girls wearing dresses and cardigans, sitting on milk crates.

Seriously, could this cafe BE any more Melbourne? No I don't think so.

While it would look equally at home in the vicinity of Gertrude Street, the laneway in question is in the CBD (near Brother Baba Budan). And yes, The Little Mule is a combination bicycle workshop and cafe, run by a trio of bicycle/coffee nerds. My former work colleague, the charming J, invited me to lunch there a couple of weeks ago: he was very excited as we'd be collecting the bike The Little Mule had custom-made for him.

My initial fears that the cafe might be a bit too cool for school were swiftly allayed by the friendly, enthusiastic staff. Most of the seating in the cafe apart from the comfy couch is at communal tables and the menu is compact, consisting mainly of melts, toasted sandwiches, baguettes and a seasonal salad or soup.

I ordered the $10 sandwich on the specials board because hello, PULLED PORK. Moist 12 hour slow cooked pulled pork with coleslaw in a roll, served not only with crisps (as at De Clieu) but also with a pickle! Delicious. J ordered a melt - I think it was the $8.50 one with semi-dried tomato, artichoke, basil pesto and scamorza.

The coffee beans at The Little Mule come from The Little Marionette, a Sydney cafe I visited way back in January 2008. I discovered to my great interest that The Little Mule also uses The Little Marionette's recipe for their sensational banana bread. Must try it next time I'm back in that part of the city.

For those who (unlike me) know about fixies, here's J's description of his new baby:

My handlebars are ‘Nitto Track’ NJS approved and so are my pedals. The colour scheme is midnight blue with white handlebar-tape and white leather saddle with a completely chrome fork (I think you’ll agree that is a nice little touch). The frame of course, is made and designed by Little Mule.

‘What does NJS approved mean?’ I hear you ask. Well, this explanation I just found online sums it up pretty well:
Japan's unique event, Keirin racing, is very strictly regulated. Because Keirin is run by a Japanese government agency and because Keirin's raison d'etre is actually gambling (proceeds from which fund Japan's schools), it is absolutely critical that the equipment be standardized, uniform and dependable. Certified Keirin components bear the NJS Keirin Approved label.

Cool huh?

I must admit, it's an extremely handsome bicycle. More pictures are on The Little Mule's blog.

Oh, and in other Melbourne laneway news...

Just when you thought the city's laneways couldn't get any laneway-ier, along comes sibling bar to Der Raum, Bar Americano (opening late May). It's tiny, hidden in a tucked-away laneway off another laneway (giving its location a Croft Institute degree of difficulty), and will be serving espresso by day and old skool cocktails by night. Yessssss.

Food on the Page - Moonee Valley Library Writers Panel

2011-04-22T00:52:00.005+10:00

Just a quick note to let you know that I've been asked to speak on a writers panel: Moonee Valley Libraries hosts an annual writers panel and this year’s panel, "Food on the Page", is about food and writing. The discussion will be about "what constitutes good food writing and what skills it takes to translate the physicality and sensuality of cooking and eating into words and ideas." The panel will include (real authors) Rita Erlich and Charmaine O'Brien, plus me. Eeeek!

It's on at 2pm on Saturday 14 May at the Sam Merrifield Library in Moonee Ponds, the event is free but bookings are necessary (call 8325 1950 - further details on the library website). If any of you would like to come along it'd be great to have you there - maybe we can kick back over a muggins of tea, coffee or gin & tonic afterwards.

One of the things I've been asked by the library to provide is a list of my top 5 favourite books. As I've been compiling my list, I've been reflecting on how books about food fit into my top 5. Do any books about food make yours?

Spice in the northeast corner of the CBD

2011-04-20T12:56:00.001+10:00

Almost while we weren't looking, the northeast corner of the CBD has undergone a bit of a renaissance over the last 12 months. You can now get top notch coffee at places like 65 Degrees and Padre's The League of Honest Coffee, and I've written before about the great quesadillas and wagyu burgers on offer at Trunk Diner. Now add to the list Vietnamese tuckshop Miss Chu, and Thai restaurant and bar Appetizer - oh and please let me know what else I should check out in this neck of the woods, as soon I'll be working up the Paris end of the city...

Miss Chu
297 Exhibition Street, Melbourne (map)
9077 1097
Open 11am - 10pm, Monday to Saturday
website (autoplays music, beware)

Miss Chu opened a few months ago, a Melbourne version of Nahji Chu's popular Vietnamese tuckshop in Sydney's Darlinghurst. The tuckshop is very casual (no bookings), dishing up hawker food with a bit of a contemporary twist. I like several of the dishes but have noted some consistency issues over the course of my visits - hopefully they manage to iron them out soon.

Love the light fittings made from blue & white porcelain bowls.

I'm not usually a fan of rice paper rolls, but I have to admit that these ones with roast duck and banana flower ($8 for two) were pretty great, accented as they were with lashings of shiso and Vietnamese mint. Other rice paper roll combos that are available ($6 for two) include tiger prawn & green mango, satay chicken & coconut young and a vegan option. I can also recommend the spring rolls - we had the traditional Hanoi pork ones ($5 a serve).

On another visit, we were disappointed by the som dtum ($12) - too much carrot and cashew filler, not enough green papaya. But we did love the wagyu pho and its rich broth (though paying $13 for pho still stings a little, even if the beef IS a cut above).

Drinkswise: juices, beers, wines and whiskeys are on offer, as well as varieties of "frozen young coconut crush" ($5, or $9 spiked with vodka). I had lychee & cucumber.

The Miss Chu menu also includes dumplings (of which I have heard mixed reports) and several kinds of warm vermicelli salads ($12). They also offer a dial-a-dumpling service for locals, delivering within a 1km on G-force electric bikes - as their website quips, "you ling, we bling!"

Appetizer
285 Spring Street (corner Spring and Victoria/Latrobe), Melbourne (map)
9650 8838
Lunch and dinner, 7 days

Appetizer has been open for a few years now, but its existence has been kept a jealously-guarded secret by its fans (whispers about it started spilling out through Twitter about six months ago, and then on Penny's blog). It's tucked in the very corner of the CBD grid, diagonally opposite from Carlton Gardens.

As Penny wrote, the place is "totally Asian" - international students (from the next door City Park Apartments complex and beyond) make up much of the clientele, the mostly-written-in-Thai menu hasn't been watered down for Westerners, there's live Thai pop music inside and optional shisha & beer towers outside.

I went along one Friday night with best-friend-K and a colleague of hers. We ordered the som dtum version with crispy soft shell crab ($15.90) thinking it would be the mild antidote to the other dishes, but in amongst the fresh papaya the chilli still had a real kick to it. We loved it. Equally spicy was the larb gai ($12.90), though the roasted rice was ground rather more coarsely than I'm used to.

The one disappointment was the whole crispy fish (market price): it was too dry and the dipping sauce was rather dull. But boy did we love the Bangkok style tom yum goong ($16.90), with its enormous prawns and almost-make-you-cry spice!

I'm keen to head back soon, as there's still heaps on the menu I haven't tried (including all sorts of porky dishes that b-f-K doesn't care for). I'm yet to find a Thai restaurant in Melbourne that I like as much as my favourite Thai places in Sydney, but Appetizer comes very close.

A silly little story

2011-04-13T00:01:00.003+10:00

Don't you just hate it when you're unable to enjoy a gloriously sunny autumn afternoon because you're sick in bed with a fluey bug and a fever? There I was last Thursday: lying on my bed in my pajamas, listlessly trying to watch a DVD playing on my laptop but unable to concentrate on the shenanigans taking place at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce... when I became aware of a faint jingly-jangly music coming from my open window. I hit pause on the DVD and squinted my ears, and gradually realised that the jingle-jangle was a sped-up recording of 'Greensleeves' and was getting louder, which could only mean one thing: an ice cream van was about to drive past my bedroom window.

Remarkably, it proceeded to park a mere twenty metres from my doorstep. "IT'S A SIGN!", my febrile mind deduced, and without another thought I grabbed some coins, thongs and my phone, aimed myself at the front door and lurched through it.

After the children in front of me had bought their ice creams, I stepped up and asked for a cone dipped in chocolate and nuts. The ice cream man cast his eyes down at my pajama pants and raised his eyebrows. When I explained that I was home from work sick, he not only wished me a speedy recovery but also added a flake to my ice cream cone FOR FREE.

Best sick day EVER.