Fortnightly round-up (21 December)

As we all wind down for the year, I thought I'd share some recent food and drink highlights.

My #1 drink for the summer is Summer Cup by Sipsmith. Over the last year I've been an avid fan of the clean, elegant London Dry Gin put out by Sipsmith, the micro-distillery that was granted its distilling licence in 2009 (the first distillery granted a licence in London since Beefeater got theirs in 1853, and one of only four distilleries currently opering within London's city limits). The new product, the Summer Cup, is Sipsmith's answer to Pimm's: a concoction of gin, orange curaçao, sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters, maraschino cherry liqueur, lemon verbena distillate, Earl Grey tea, cardamom and cucumber. It is *delicious*. Mix it with fresh fruit and three parts good quality lemonade or ginger ale, or add it to Champagne to make a Summer Royale, or sub it in for vermouth in a Negroni, or just sip it over ice.

Note: I was invited to an industry tasting, and this bottle was a freebie, but I've already bought myself an additional bottle cos it's so damn good. Sipsmith spirits are imported by Hippocampus in Australia and if you want to get your mitts on a retail bottle in Melbourne, visit King & Godfree or order online from Nick's.


We may all lament the closure of Nic Poelaert's Embrasse in Carlton, but the good news is that Nic has teamed up with Gerald and Mario from Gerald's Bar to bring us Brooks of Melbourne, in the slick city basement (formerly the old MoMo, then Fifteen, then The Kitchen Cat) underneath the Hermes boutique on Collins Street. The space is warm, the service gets that balance between old-school professional and personable warmth just right, and Nic's food gets a chance to shine.

Some of the menu items are more snacky and informal than his previous offerings, like the 'cheeky bun' (I opted for the vegetarian version over the meat burger, and loved it), but some of the favourites from Embrasse have survived the move, including the exquisite méli-mélo of 25 vegetables (Nic's souvenir of his time at Michel Bras' eponymous restaurant in Laguiole, France), the cheesy potato mash aligot and the 'forest floor' dessert. Of the newer dishes I've tried, the broad bean soup with black olive and olive oil is superb. Afraid I haven't listed prices because I couldn't track them down online, but know that their five couse chef's menu is excellent value at $80 a head - get on it, people.



As much as I've enjoyed the restaurant menu at Pei Modern (the entree of Dutch cream potatoes, bone marrow, coffee and mojama and the dessert of caramelised tomato stuffed with 12 spices are must-order items, in my book), I keep coming back to the smart bar menu. Highlights on the Pei bar menu include the O'Connor steak tartare ($18.50) and the Ortiz anchovy shortbread with Parmesan custard ($4.50 each).


David's, the Shanghai mainstay of Melbourne's southside, has had a stunning refurb after 15 years in Prahran. Rebadged as David’s Country Shanghai, the restaurant's interior has been transformed into an airy, sunlit space and its menu has been revamped to include some contemporary as well as traditional dishes, skewed to the more casual end of the dining spectrum. My picks are the steamed bao (two for $10 and a selection to choose from) and the Gong Bo chicken pictured below ($19), stir-fried with radish, cucumber, chilli, garlic and a whole lotta Sichuan peppercorns.


After years of listening to Sydneysiders waxing rhapsodic about how great the roti was at Sydney's Mamak restaurants, Melbourne got a Mamak of its own on Lonsdale Street. The roti canai ($5.50) really is very good - fluffy and crispy without being oily, and with just enough chew. While I was underwhelmed by the kari ikan (fish curry), I rated the chicken satay sticks ($9). And if you want to double down on the roti, make sure you also order the sweet version filled with kaya (pandan and coconut).


This was the second year I attended the Christmas Cookoff held annually by 310Fitzroy and some other lovely friends of mine. My entries this year: Beetroot Gravlax (adapting an excellent recipe in issue 16 of the SBS Feast Magazine) and the Iced Horchata recipe recently featured on Trotski & Ash. I was equally pleased by how both recipes turned out!



Links of Note:

- Sad to read on George Biron's blog that he and his wife are putting their restaurant Sunnybrae on the market in 2013. Hoping that some brilliant chef looking for a change snaps up the opportunity: it's one helluva setup they've got down there at Birregurra (I wrote glowing words about my visit here).

- An inspiring post on Talor Browne's blog about how her quest for excellence in specialty coffee, dating from when St Ali was sold in 2006, has taken her from Melbourne to Paris to Oslo.

- The Melbourne Coffee Review has a bit of a rant about the Melbourne specialty coffee scene and rival coffee publications/apps.

- Ms Stickifingers wrote an excellent primer post on social media for food and beverage businesses on her blog Deep Dish Dreams. Essential reading for anyone in the hospo industry who doesn't understand how social media works.

- "The notion of 'sustainable seafood' is arguably the most misunderstood, misguided, poorly managed and hypocritical debate in food." A contentious article by John Susman in this month's foodService.

- Cocktail enthusiasts should check out Only Bitters, a new Australian online store that retails over 100 varieties of cocktail bitters and will soon also sell commercial batches of 'perfect' cocktail cherries that the Melbourne owners of the site have made themselves.

- Reviews of Melbourne's best pubs can be found on the PubStars website.

- I've been enjoying reading Alex's writing on tsp. (The Sad Pig), whether it's lamenting the lost days of good menu writing or slipping in a reference to Paul Simon lyrics in a macaroon vs macaron treatise.

- On the Anatomy of Thrift: Pork Provendor in the Home Kitchen video posts. How to love pigs, and living.

- A jukeboxed American-style diner in a decommissioned Melbourne train carriage in Cabramatta? Grab Your Fork dishes the dirt.

Merry Christmas everyone! xx Claire

Fortnightly round-up (28 September)

It's been a while since the last installment of these Fortnightly(-in-name-only) Round-up posts, so I'm going to ease my way back into it by posting some happy snaps of food highlights that I've had about town since my return from Singapore and Hong Kong (related posts coming soon, honest).

On my morning coffee run about a month ago, I noticed that the Japanese restaurant at 17 Liverpool Street formerly known as Aka Tombo had re-opened as Shimbashi Soba & Sake Bar, and the chef was standing in the front window making soba by hand - kneading, rolling and chopping. Chef Taka-san makes their soba fresh from organic ingredients every morning, and again in the afternoon if supplies are running low. Read Lauren's blog post on Footscray Food Blog for a more detailed description of the process.

My favourite way to eat Shimbashi's soba is as soba seiro, served chilled on a mat alongside spring onions, wasabi and a dipping sauce known as tsuyu. At the end of the meal be sure to ask for the soba-yu (the liquid the soba have been cooked in): add it to the leftover tsuyu and drink it like a soup.




While we're talking Japanese food: I've written before about my love of the tsuke sashimi salad at Purple Peanuts on Collins Street. What I discovered recently is that I like it even better with brown rice ($1 surcharge) instead of white. Their house-made matcha chocolate is also very very good, the green tea tannins nicely balancing out the white chocolate sweetness.


A sensational salad of burrata, broad beans, olives and mint that I was lucky enough to enjoy at my aunt Paola's house a few weeks ago (recipe on her blog Italy on my Mind).


One of the new dishes on the Dainty Sichuan menu is the cumin chilli rabbit, a variant on the cumin lamb slices (my favourite Dainty dish, narrowly beating the fish flavoured eggplant). As delicious as the rabbit was, the fiddliness with bunny bones means I'll be back on the lamb slices next time. We also braved the dish entitled "boiling fish in golden basin" for the first time: while it arrived looking completely TERRIFYING, bubbling like magma from Mount Doom, the slices of fish that were sieved out turned out to have a surprisingly mild and delicate - well, relatively speaking - flavour. Recommended!


Walk, don't run, to Chin Chin to try their newest dessert: coconut sago with sweetcorn ice cream, praline and puffed wild rice.


The menu at Neapoli, Con Christopoulos' latest venture, is a mash-up that veers wildly from continent to continent: brown rice nori rolls sit alongside spanakopita, curries, chilli con carne, ceviche, tempura and rabbit stifado. I can however vouch for their epic Reuben, and am glad to see it featured in Epicure's recent list of Melbourne venues serving the increasingly popular sandwich.


The dumplings at I Love Dumplings on Bridge Road are good. Really good. Their Urbanspoon entry has the predictable whinges about vague waitresses and long waits for orders so I went there on Sunday night expecting lousy service, but was pleasantly surprised. Thanks to our American visitors Dan and Claire for finding this place and telling me about it!


And thanks also to Dan and Claire for sharing with me their favourite way to cook Brussels sprouts: think bacon, lime and sriracha. Here's a recipe on The Paupered Chef for this method, which is in turn based on a David Chang recipe in GQ. I made the sprouts pictured below last night, and while they may not be pretty let me assure you that they're ridiculously tasty.


Links of Note:

- "Reviewing restaurants is a bit like being put out to stud: the basic activity involved may be pleasurable, but when you have to do it, and with whom you're told, it loses a lot of its appeal." Andrew Colman on whether restaurant critics are an endangered species.

- Two cute cakes: a Tetris cake with macarons on Raspberri Cupcakes (love the animated gif), and a polka dot cake on Once Upon a Pedestal.

- Essjay sends depressing dispatches from the Royal Melbourne Show Baking Competition, where judges advocate using custard powder and a past winner advises others to use supermarket eggs instead of free range eggs, because "some judges don't like yellow sponges".

- Stickifingers on supermarket vs free range eggs.

- "It’s like a miniaturization of all my favorite cities: Tokyo and Seoul and New York and Los Angeles, all in one." Roy Choi on why he loves Melbourne.

- Craft beer gaining traction in Paris: love the look of this beautiful shop in Montmartre.

- My favourite Sydney food blog The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry now has its own podcasts! Check them out, people...

- Has Tasmania reached a [culinary] tipping point? Steve Cumper offers a chef's perspective.

- Cook Republic on 10 social and community websites to drive traffic to your food blog. I've never used any of them, apart from tinkering with Pinterest for personal, non-Melbourne Gastronome purposes, but they may be of interest for other food bloggers (especially those with recipe blogs).

- Baristas vs customers: how we can all get along.

Fortnightly round-up (July 20)

Happy Friday everyone! It's been a while since I put out a round-up post (misleadingly labelled as a "fortnightly" round-up, hem-hem), so here goes.

Eat Drink Man Woman, the all day eating house that opened last year on Brunswick Street in the site that used to be Retro, traded for a bit over six months before closing. After a bit of a rethink, the EDMW team are renovating and reopening the venue as a burger bar (yep, another one Melbourne). Judging from the neon sign being installed last week, the burgerfication process is nearly complete.


It's been a few months since my first taste of the yum cha menu at Spice Temple, but I went back a few weekends ago with my family for my brother's birthday lunch. Very impressive (those braised lamb shoulder pot stickers, my God). Someone asked me online whether I thought it was better than traditional yum cha in the suburbs, and I have to say that I don't really consider the two experiences comparable - it's a completely different concept, quality of produce, price point etc. That said though it was less expensive than we'd anticipated (less than $70 a head with beers, two bottles of nice Pinot Noir and Rumpole getting carried away with ordering dishes).


My love affair with The Moor's Head continues. They now have a banquet option which is insanely good value at $25 a head. When I visited last week I particularly enjoyed the little radishes sprinkled with black salt, and the Omar Sharif pide made with three cheeses (twisted halloumi, feta and ashawan), nigella, fresh mint and soused onions.


If your friends aren't home, we recommend simply posting the Warialda Belted Galloway beef you bought them at the farmers market through their mail slot. :) Congrats by the way, Warialda, on winning a medal on Monday night at the Delicious Magazine Produce Awards!


Gratuitous comfort food shot, home cooking edition. Cauliflower cheese made with purple cauliflower > cauliflower cheese made with white cauliflower.


Last week I was invited along as a guest to a dinner at Heirloom. They've ditched the French-Japanese fusion concept that they opened with last year (I dined there once under its former guise, and didn't think the two cuisines sat well together) in favour of being a modern izakaya, headed up by Executive Chef Ryo Kitahara (direct student of Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai) and Chef Shigeo Nonaka (Shoya). I'd enjoyed the more Japanese aspects of my meal on my previous visit, so I was curious to see the new incarnation.

While I really loved the sashimi plate (theatrically served on a big block of ice), the yakitori and the tataki, I was less taken with some of the more creative dishes, like the potato dango (cubed Japanese 'gnocchi' with Roquefort cheese and Saikyo miso cream) or the sweet, quinoa-crusted salmon. What can I say, I prefer simple izakaya fare. They also have a good range of sake, shochu and Japanese beer - I tried one from Coedo, a microbrewery in Kawagoe-shi, Saitama Prefecture.



There's been a lot of buzz in the three weeks since Silo by Joost opened in Hardware Street. The cafe, run by hospo stalwart Danny Colls (most recently, you'd know him and his wife Siany from Liaison), translates many of Joost Bakker's sustainability concepts from the Greenhouse incarnations that you've seen pop up sporadically in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, and house them in a permanent cafe that creates zero waste. Read about how they've achieved that feat here: Danny gave me a tour on Tuesday, and as well as all the nifty tweaks they've given the interior (including the modified Wega), the food waste dehydrator they've got out the back that turns 100 litres of waste into 10 litres of clean, nutrient rich dry fertiliser returned to farms is very impressive.

But what I hope doesn't get overshadowed in amongst the sustainability jazz is how deft and interesting the food is, thanks to chef Douglas McMaster who over the last two years was a stagiaire in nine of the world's top 15 restaurants (including St John and Noma). From the short, simple lunch menu I chose one of the cheffier combinations: the $12 plate of braised leek, slow-poached egg yolk and seeds (mustard seed dressing and sunflower seeds), which I mopped up with bread made onsite from flour ground onsite. My lunch date had Sian's rainfed rice, which had been cooked in stock and topped with pine mushrooms, curdy quark and wood sorrel ($14). They'll be running intimate dinners soon too - if you want in on the action, get together 10-12 friends and talk to Danny.



Last thing before we get to the links of note: the Electrolux Appetite For Excellence national finalists have been announced, and there's a good representation from Victoria in the categories of Young Chef (Kah-wai Lo from Hare & Grace, Michael Fox from Henry & The Fox, Michael Demagistris from Sorrento Golf Club), Young Waiter (Simone Spicer from Pei Modern, Pierre-Etienne Geoffroy from Jacques Reymond, Damien Byrne from Lot 7) and Young Restaurateur (Dan Wilson from Huxtable). A Whet Your Appetite dinner put together by these young chefs and yound waiters is being held on the 31st of July - click here for details.

Links of Note:

- A voice sorely-missed from Melbourne's food blogging scene over the past two years, Eating With Jack is back from hiatus and writing a food blog about her baby Z's first forays into eating solids (taleggio and eel at 18 weeks!).

- Next time you hear people complaining that the burgers at Huxtaburger or Trunk Diner are too small, bear in mind that burgers have tripled in size since the 1950s.

- Read about Gillian's misadventures making a cake from the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book (hint: a cat is involved) on My Square Frying Pan.

- Billy writes about the Footscray gentrification trap on Half Eaten.

- The Naked for Satan folks are building a gigantic rooftop garden and they're blogging the construction process on a blog called Naked in the Sky.

- My aunt Paola is currently visiting our Italian relatives in Friuli Venezia Giulia, and she's driving me crazy with jealousy as she chronicles her trip on her blog Italy on my Mind. See her beautiful posts on breakfast with zio Livio in Monfalcone and a seafood lunch in Grado.

- Do I go with the safe option? Everyone likes a chicken Caesar so it makes sense to put that on the menu. The accountant smiles contentedly. Or
I haven’t worked for x amount of years and pushed myself hard in order to put a bloody chicken Caesar on my menu. The accountant looks anxious. My point is: Is the safe choice always the best one?
Chef Steve Cumper puts his serious face on for a moment and writes on The view from my porch about the recent spate of restaurant closures.

- Ai-Ling finds the best bánh mì in Perth on Blue Apocalypse.

- Read about how the design and branding of Melbourne newcomer Patricia Coffee Brewers was developed on Identity Designed.

- In the first Fortnightly Round-up that I wrote in November I mentioned the food policy that was being developed by the City of Melbourne. It has now been published - check it out here.

Fortnightly round-up (25 June)

There was a bit of a stampede on Thursday and Friday as foodies rushed to be among the first to check out Nama Nama, the new Japanese cafe opened by Izakaya Den owners Simon Denton, Miyuki Nakahara and Takashi Omi on the old Verge site. I like that there's now a cafe serving Market Lane Coffee so close to my office, and I'll definitely be signing up for bento membership with my very own reusable bento box! Will report back, readers.

Speaking of coffee, there are two serious coffee cafes due to open this week: Common Galaxia and Clement Coffee. Common Galaxia will be open from Tuesday at 130 Victoria Street, Seddon, brought to you by the folks from Dead Man Espresso. Its name comes from a type of native fish found in the Maribyrnong River.

Clement Coffee is opening in a tiny site in South Melbourne Market by Kris Wood (who you may recognise from his previous stints at Proud Mary, Sensory Lab and St Ali). He'll be doing his own roasting off-site.


It was a close call, but I hereby decree that The Cornish is the best sandwich at Pope Joan. Roasted Milawa chicken, stuffing, lettuce and jalapeño ($12).


You know that slightly funny-looking apartment building in Collingwood on the corner of Peel Street and Cambridge Street, the one with the wavy facade and porthole windows? A great little Japanese cafe called Akasiro opened on its ground floor a few months ago. They serve eleven kinds of teishoku (set menus): on a cold Sunday afternoon I enjoyed the buta-kakuni teishoku with slow-cooked pork belly and daikon in a soy and sweet sake sauce ($18 with all the rice, salad, miso trimmings). They also do a very good curry based on the chef's grandfather's recipe ($8).

Akasiro doesn't have a website or a phone number but you can find them at 106 Cambridge Street Collingwood, Tuesday to Sunday 11am to 4pm. If they swing a liquor license they hope to open at night down the track as an izakaya.



There's nothing wrong with going next door to Bill's Bar for a quick single malt while you're waiting for your take away Huxtaburger, is there? I'm not necessarily saying that I did... but I will note that the Yamazaki 12 year old they're serving is velvety smooth. Oh, and Bill's flat pricing structure (all spirits $9 each) means that you can get some really interesting drops for a very good price.


The Farm Barn Restaurant dinner at Embrasse the other week was a lot of fun (for those keeping score at home I paid for my dining companion's seat, but my seat was on the house): we were seated on hay bales and surrounded by farm equipment and giant pumpkins. Chef/owner Nic Poelaert welcomed us and spoke passionately about the local producers who supply Embrasse and about the rustic meals he enjoyed growing up in France that had inspired the dinner. Menu highlights included Nic's father's onion soup, roasted Bendigo chicken with aligot and the pear & frangipane tart. I've previously written about Embrasse here.


Links of note:

- Heading to Barcelona soon? You should take a market tour and cooking class with Papa Serra (run by a lovely guy who used to write a Melbourne food blog).

- This week in depressing news: there will be a pop-up Masterchef restaurant in Sydney next month (via Prick With A Fork).

- A great article by Jancis Robinson on what Twitter has done for wine.

- My favourite new Melbourne food blog: Croissant Smasher, in which a Frenchman rates the croissants of Melbourne looking for the perfect buttery/flaky specimen.

- Submissions have opened for the Eat Drink Design awards, the inaugural awards program dedicated to hospitality design. Is there an Australian or New Zealand hospitality project you think deserves recognition?

- Eating local hurts the planet: two scientists challenging the locavore philosophy.

- Did you hear about Argyll and Bute council, the Scottish council that provoked an uproar by banning a nine year old food blogger from taking photos of her lunches at school? Read about how the story progressed here, here, here and here.

- Tips from the HiP Paris blog on avoiding bad food in Paris.

- Former Aussie-based, now Korea-based blogger Pikelet & Pie writes about gopchang, one of the uglier delicacies in Seoul (cow’s small intestine, for those who were wondering).

- Haha, Amateur Gourmet: how to fake your way through law school while secretly becoming a food writer.

- The last link is a bit of self-promotion: I was interviewed by Milk Bar as part of their Melbourne blogger profile series. See below: Milk Bar is bringing you the latest news about sourdough, Melbourne Gastronome and Aussie p**n. Something for everyone!