dine out... help out - StreetSmart Australia

You may already have read about it on Ed's blog, but I wanted to draw your attention to the StreetSmart campaign running from 9 November - 24 December 2009. StreetSmart is a charity that supports and strengthens smaller, grassroots community organisations helping the homeless.

A bit more about the campaign, quoting from the StreetSmart Australia website:

For the six weeks in the lead-up to Christmas, 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.


One of the great things about the StreetSmart campaign is that it helps smaller organisations that rarely receive extra funding and often lack the resources to fundraise or access the networks for grants and funding. You can learn more about the initiatives that the funding helped since its Australian inception in 2003 here.

A full list of restaurants participating in 2009 is here.

Of the participating restaurants, these are the ones I've reviewed (with links to my reviews):
Anada, 197 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Birdman Eating, 238 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
**newly participating** Cumulus Inc, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Cutler and Co, 55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
ezard, 187 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Gingerboy, 27-29 Crossley Street, Melbourne
Ladro, 224 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Laksa Me, 1/16 Liverpool Street, Melbourne
Longrain, 44 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
Paladarr Thai Issan, 7 Rowe Street, Alphington
Panama Dining Room, 3/231 Smith Street, Fitzroy
Portello Rosso, 15 Warburton Lane, Melbourne
Provenance, 288 Smith Street, Collingwood
Red Spice Road, 27 McKillop St, Melbourne
St Ali 12-18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne
St Jude's Cellars, 389-391 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
And in Noosa:
River House, 301 Weyba Road, Noosaville
Wasabi, 2 Quamby Place, Noosa Sound

If you're planning a meal out in the next six weeks, I urge you to consider choosing one of these (or one of the other participating restaurants) and donating to the campaign. I'm planning on visiting a few of the ones I haven't been to yet (at this stage I'm most interested in checking out Libertine and The Deanery, but am open to suggestions - feel free to leave a comment nominating your favourite restaurant on the list), and will write them up on the blog.

If you work in a restaurant that would like to participate in the campaign (and don't worry, it's not too late to join), find more info here. Let me know if you join the campaign, and I'll edit this post to include your details. I'm also happy to promote the details of any other restaurants already participating in the campaign that I haven't gotten around to reviewing yet.

If you're a food blogger and would like to help promote the campaign, Ed has plenty of great ideas on his related post.

You can also donate directly to the campaign here.

To stay updated on StreetSmart news and events, follow @StreetSmartAust on Twitter or join its Facebook group.

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Oh, and speaking of Facebook: there's now a Facebook page for Melbourne Gastronome. If you're a fan, why not Become a Fan? As well as sending a notification when the blog is updated, I'll also be writing the occasional silly note on the Facebook page wall - and only on the Facebook page wall - about blog-related trivia (such as the one I wrote this week entitled "PR: how to irritate a food blogger while trying to score free advertising on their blog for the product you're flogging").

Best Friends Brunch at Provenance (Collingwood)

Provenance Restaurant + Bar
288 Smith Street, Collingwood (map)
8415 0700


Provenance Restaurant + Bar (on the Collingwood-not-Fitzroy side of Smith Street, and not to be confused with the more formal restaurant of the same name in Beechworth) was the venue of choice for a recent impromptu brunch with three of my very favourite people in the world: best-friend-K, Schatzi and housemate DJ. Schatzi's partner M and their beautiful baby boy were also in attendance. I'd never been to Provenance before, but heartily approved of their tempting brunch menu and pressed metal ceilings.


Oh, DJ. Despite a massive night and very little sleep (and with a blood alcohol level that could still be accurately described as "festive"), he was still bouncing around making witty conversation, wearing my (womens) sunglasses and hiding behind pot plants. Play 'Spot the Housemate'!

DJ ordered the breakfast special, the Green Eggs and Ham ($14). They'd run out of the advertised asparagus, so substituted beans. Nice big dollop of pesto.


I ordered the mushrooms and peas with hazelnut, ricotta and thyme salad ($13). I'm not normally a big fan of peas, but I'd remembered someone writing positive things about this dish on Twitter so I ordered it. Glad I did. The ricotta and mushrooms blended nicely, and the hazelnuts were a lovely subtle touch.


B-f-K wanted something sweet, so chose the French toast with apricot, fig, maple yoghurt and hazelnuts (also $13). They like their hazelnuts at Provenance!


As well as being a reliable source for decent coffee and brunches on Smith Street, Provenance hosts a series of interesting-sounding degustation dinners based around key ingredients, eg "Get Fig'ed", "Quince This, Quail That" and "How Mushroom is Too Mushroom" (the last one was recently reviewed by Fitzroyalty). I'm keen to head down to one of these dinners soon.

The next event is a goat degustation this weekend (see site for details) called "Something to Goat About". It's being advertised using a photo of the most adorable soft-eared kid you've ever seen - awwwwww!

That old hawker magic at The Old Raffles Place

The Old Raffles Place
68-70 Johnston Street, Collingwood (map)
9419 3092 (take away) / 9417 4450 (bookings)


This afternoon I caught up with Jess (yes, That Jess Ho) for lunch in Fitzroy/Collingwood. Feeling under the weather due to a respiratory infection and in need of comfort food, she suggested we head on down to The Old Raffles Place, on the corner of Johnston Street and Wellington Street.

The Old Raffles Place is one of those standbys that I'd always been aware of and vaguely intended to visit, but never had. It promises the "unforgettable heritage flavours of the Singaporean cuisine". In terms of fitout and decor, the Raffles Hotel it certainly ain't (plus you have to practically walk through the kitchen in order to reach the tables)... but hawker food isn't meant to be consumed in a posh setting, and the timeworn dining room retains a certain low-budget charm.


Something on the specials board caught my eye and so intrigued me that I had to double-check with Jess that I was reading it right: crispy fried banana prawn roll with plum sauce ($9.50). "Banana as in banana leaf, or banana banana, d'you reckon?"

Our apron-clad waiter confirmed that it was indeed banana as in banana banana. It sounded so bizarre, we *had* to order it! As you can see, the roll of minced prawn had a golden strip of banana down its centre and was wrapped in crispy beancurd skin. Somewhat surprisingly, we rather liked it.


Jess ordered another special, the skate Assam Curry ($19.50). It arrived smelling wonderfully sour and spicy, and scored bonus points for containing okra. Pungent, authentic and delicious.


After much deliberation I'd skipped my usual hawker noodle order of Mee Goreng and ordered the Racecourse Char Kway Teow ($12) instead. As well as yellow Hokkien noodles AND flat rice noodles, the dish also contained prawns, fish cakes, pak choy, tons of bean shoots and Chinese sausage. The sauce was lovely and rich. Jess dubbed it the best char kway teow she'd tried in ages.


Other stuff on the ORP menu that I want to try (note this is not an exhaustive list):
- Hainanese Chicken Rice;
- Little India Mee Goreng;
- Old Tanglin Combination Laksa (particularly keen to see how they do these three standards);
- People's Park Chee Cheong Fun;
- Nonya Fish;
- Sambal Kangkung;
- Old Chinatown Salted Fish Fried Rice; and
- Eunos Sambal Kway Teow Goreng.

In case that list doesn't make it clear, did I mention I love Singaporean food?

Trippy Taco dinner, Cutler and Co dessert

Trippy Taco
48 Smith Street, Collingwood (map)
9415 7711


Okay, this one will be short and sweet. I had a lovely time when the delightful Miss C and I met up for dinner recently. Our venue of choice was a place I'd read about on Tummy Rumbles and Where's the Beef: Trippy Taco. Yes the name is cringe-worthy, and the minuscule interior is rather basic, but their all-vegetarian Mexican food is very cheap and good.

On my way there on the 86 tram, I rang to ask whether we needed to book. The girl at Trippy Taco: "Oh, it's DEAD here at the moment. You'll be fine getting a table." Um, encouraging!


We shared two dishes, the Taquitos (three rolled-up, crispy corn tortillas with black bean filling topped with guacamole, salsa, cheese, salad and lime) and the Original Trippy Tacos (fresh home-made corn tortillas topped with cheese, black beans, salad, salsa, avocado and a squeeze of fresh lime). Each dish cost only $8.50 and both were simple, fresh and generous.


So, from $8.50 meals with a beer at Trippy Taco...


...to $17 desserts and cocktails at Cutler & Co!

Cutler and Co
55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (map)
9419 4888


This really was very cheeky of us, but we kept justifying the lavish dessert by reminding ourselves how cheap the rest of the dinner had been. I felt compelled to introduce Miss C to my aperitif obsession du mois, the Aperol Spritz. Noting our fondness for Aperol, the incredibly nice barman then whipped up two incredibly strong Aperol Sours, using Belvedere orange blossom vodka, lemon juice, a hint of vanilla syrup and egg white for the froth. They were sensational.

Just as sensational as the chocolate ice cream sandwich with vanilla parfait and salted caramel ($16, already raved about by me here). Miss C had never had salted caramel before, and she loooved it.


We shared a second dessert too: the toffee apple ($17). The roasted apple was thinly encased in toffee over what turned out to be a sweet reduction of black olive (!), with cubes of cider jelly to the left and a length of spiced shortbread topped with daubs of fromage blanc to the right. What a dish. WHAT A DISH.

Gigibaba: a most sminki pinki addition to Smith Street

Gigibaba
102 Smith Street, Collingwood (map)
9486 0345

After two failed attempts to visit Gigibaba since it opened late last year, I was determined that nothing would stop me from dining there the third time around. Contrary to popular belief, it is not actually impossible to get in at Ismail Tosun's tiny, incredibly popular, no-bookings, modern Turkish restaurant. You just need to:

• make peace with the fact that there will almost certainly be a wait of at least 40 minutes;


• get at least one of your party to show up as early as possible to get your name put on the waiting list; and


• go somewhere else for a pre-dinner drink and await your phone call.

There are plenty of great places to drink nearby in Fitzroy while you wait (eg Gertrude Street Enoteca, Caz Reitop's Dirty Secrets). Birdie and I went across the road to enjoy a mocktail and an umeshu, respectively, in the spic 'n span Cocoro Japanese Pottery Cafe. I must return to Cocoro soon to buy one of the cute little ceramic spoons and to try the gobo salad that the latest Cheap Eats guide raves about.


We were called back to Gigibaba and were seated at one of the few tables at the front. From our vantage point, we had a great view of the sumptuously-patterned bar, twinkling under a loose canopy of threaded, oversized, low-wattage, bare light bulbs. Drool.


It's billed as a "Turkish tapas" restaurant. Although the dishes are inexpensive, bear in mind that they are very small serves - and five or six dishes adds up quickly! The food is, however, delicious.

When I'd told her where I'd be going to dinner, one of my Melbourne Gastronome readers had insisted I try the pickled octopus salad ($8). She was right to recommend it - the octopus was tender and oh so nicely piquant, very similar to the way my nonna makes it. Thanks, B! :)


The skinny little vineleaf sarma rolls were filled with lamb and served with a dill yoghurt ($9). I also loved the baharat spiced BBQ mushrooms topped with a parsley and feta crust ($9). Birdie normally hates feta but even she was won over by the stuffed mushies.


Bizarrely enough, the highlight of the meal for me was the $8 cauliflower. Yeah, I know. Cauliflower! The world's most boring vegetable! And yet... spiced with zatar... it was heavenly.


We finished off the savoury dishes with lovely fresh eggplant-wrapped BBQ prawns ($12) and (an admittedly slightly unexciting) braised rabbit with sucuk ($18). I'm not normally much of a bread eater, but the restaurant-made bread brought out to mop up the rabbit sauce was just beautiful.


I loved how all of the surplus chairs were hooked up on the wall facing the bar, serving a Brother Baba Budan-like decorative function as well as a utilitarian one. :)


Bird and I then shared the dessert platter (I think it was $12 or $15). The desserts offered in the platter change daily. We were served two little diamonds of dense, moist orange and almond cake (again, very similar to how nonna makes it!), two little ladyfinger pastries that just dissolved deliciously in the mouth, and a gorgeous pot of crème brûlée containing both ginger and one of my very favourite liqueurs, Poire Williams. Best crème brûlée I've had in ages.


As was mentioned in the Epicure, Gigibaba is a little TOO popular for its own good, and - for the sake of the sanity of its small family of staff - has cut back on its opening hours (no more weekend brunches or Sunday dinners). It's still open for dinner Tuesdays to Sundays, but be prepared for a bit of a wait. It's worth it!