Shu Restaurant in Collingwood: modern Sichuan on the northside

SHU
147 Johnston St, Collingwood (map)
9090 7878
Open Wednesday-Monday 6-11pm, closed Tuesday
website


A few weeks ago I was tipped off about a new restaurant opening on Johnston Street between Wellington and Hoddle, serving modern Sichuan food. Modern Sichuan eh? My curiosity was piqued: there's nothing else quite like it in Melbourne.


I was invited along to the launch of SHU last week, but with over 200 people there imbibing Champagne and posing for photos it was hard to get much of a sense of the place. There were lots of fabulous fashionistas wearing outré ensembles, but this dapper little fellow being photographed below was easily my favourite.


I went back for dinner with two friends on Friday night, the third night that the restaurant was officially open for business. The site, once a pizza parlour, has been transformed by first-time restaurateur Shu Liu into a decidedly modern space with nods to Shu's background in fashion: all stainless steel countertops, hanging lamps and beams, coloured light and Philippe Starck-esque clear plastic chairs (which, despite being slightly uncomfortable to sit in for long periods of time, make for a visually arresting window installation).


There's also a nifty little art gallery space at the back of the restaurant. Love the shadows cast by the wire coat hangers.


The menu begins in an eclectic fashion (I was surprised to see items like sashimi, edamame and prosciutto on the menu) but becomes more traditionally Sichuan by the main courses. Apparently the Sichuan recipes used in the restaurant come directly from Shu's mother, and where possible the ingredients used are organic/free range. Of the appetisers we had, we felt the King George whiting sashimi with mandarin, cinnamon and dressing (2 pieces for $5) was a citrussy misfire, but loved the lip-tingling slow cooked quail with Chinese five spice, spring onion and ground Sichuan peppercorn (2 pieces for $8).


My favourite of the appetiser/entrées we ordered was the curious-sounding intercontinental ensemble of pan-seared shishito peppers with prosciutto and Chinese black vinaigrette ($10). Shishito peppers come from Japan, but taste-wise bear a close resemblance to their Spanish cousins pimientos de Padrón. As with Padrons, you're playing Russian roulette with the heat levels of these peppers, but they're also beautifully sweet. Pairing them with the saltiness of the prosciutto and the piquant vinaigrette was unorthodox but rather brilliant.


The poached organic chicken salad with spicy sesame and pink radish ($12) had a pleasant thick sauce a little like what you'd smear over nasu dengaku, but the portion felt on the small size (more radish please!). I couldn't go past the main of char grilled tiger prawns with cumin, dried chilli and Sichuan peppercorn ($35): the three different sources of heat reminded me of my favourite dish at Dainty Sichuan. As much as I liked the prawns, I'd've preferred the intensity of the heat nudged up a few notches.


I was a huge fan of the other main we had, crispy free range pork belly stir fried with Pixian broad bean paste and snake beans ($22). The pork belly was crispy yet succulent, and the paste gave the dish richness and depth. Read more about how Pixian broad bean paste, dou ban jiang, is made here.


In addition to steamed jasmine rice there's also a steamed brown rice option ($4). The other side dish you have to order is the excellent noodles with walnut oil, roasted peanuts and preserved Oriental mustard ($8).


It's only been open five minutes, and some of SHU's first steps feel a little faltering, but I think the restaurant shows great promise. I admire Shu Liu a great deal for trying something modern and different: it's a hope of mine that once the Mexican wave ballyhoo dies down, regional Chinese cuisines could become the next Melbourne food trend.

Easy, Tiger: Smith Street mod Thai

Easy Tiger
96 Smith Street, Collingwood (map)
9417 2373
website
Open for dinner Wednesday to Sunday,
lunch Friday and Saturday


On Saturday night while her husband was out of town the lovely Em (of It Pleases Us fame) and I had a hot date at Easy Tiger, the brand new Thai restaurant on Smith Street. We'd impulsively booked a table after I'd been babbling excitedly away at her about the Thai food I'd had the weekend before up in Sydney (will write it up on the blog posthaste!), and after we'd seen some Easy Tiger-related chitchat on the Twitters from a friend whose food opinions we value highly.

The restaurant is small (the room seats just 36) but I like what they've done with it, particularly the 1970s-esque green couch and the Spacecraft Zaishu stools from just around the corner on Gertrude Street. I didn't get the chance to see it, but apparently the restaurant also has a covered deck area out the back which seats another 40.


Em and I shared a longneck of Coopers, which we kept propped up on the shelf conveniently located next to our table. The excellent drinks menu includes a snappy list of wines, beers, ciders, classic aperitifs and even a couple of varieties of sake.


To start with we ordered two snacks each: the ma hor (little scoops of minced prawn, pork and chicken cooked in palm sugar and sitting on slices of fresh pineapple, $4 each) and a miang-like ensemble of betel leaves topped with prawns and fresh coconut ($5 each). Both looked fabulous, but were markedly lacking in the spice department. Without a chilli kick to balance the palm sugar, I found the ma hor slightly sickly sweet.


We also ordered a pair of son-in-law eggs ($4 each, listed with the side dishes rather than with the entrees). The runny son-in-law eggs schmeared with chilli jam at Gingerboy remain one of my favourite snacks/hangover-cures in town, so I was a mite disappointed to find that these were neither runny nor spicy – again, the little flecks of dried chilli seemed like they were more for decoration than anything else.


The list of mains was rather short (just five), but two dishes in particular caught our attention, possibly because they both contained melon. First was the duck and watermelon salad with green chilli, mint and peanuts ($25). I'd never tried duck and watermelon together before, and was surprised at how well they went with each other. I liked that the salad had a good whack of mint.


We also had red curry of grass fed beef shin, winter melon and snake beans ($28). Finally, a dish with some heat! The beef was beautifully tender, and the winter melon was an interesting (albeit rather firm) choice.


Ah, but dessert! Em and I shared a dessert that we instantly agreed was our favourite dish of the night: steamed duck egg custard with rice ice cream and steamed dragonfruit ($14). Turns out it was Joyce's favourite dish too! The steamed custard had a wonderfully smooth texture that contrasted with the puffed rice and lime sorbet sprinkled on top, and I loved the scrape of black sesame paste with the rich, creamy ice cream. I'd only ever eaten fresh dragonfruit before, and was charmed by its translucent appearance when poached.


We enjoyed Easy Tiger, and I'm keen to head back there soon to explore a few more items on their menu (expecially the other two desserts, the chocolate and pandanus leaf dumplings with melon and the sago pudding with coconut jelly and caramelised sugar banana). The chocolate comes from next-door neighbour Monsieur Truffe. The restaurant fitout is cute and the staff were bubbly and efficient.


If it isn't already obvious, my one gripe with Easy Tiger is the question of heat. I knew to not expect food so spicy it'd make us cry (like that AMAZING soup I had on my recent trip to Thailand). And I get that the trio running Easy Tiger are going for more of a "modern interpretation of Thai cuisine... like Longrain". But still, we couldn't help feeling that several of the dishes would be greatly improved by ratcheting up the heat just a few notches. I daresay the punters in this hipster 'hood could handle it!

A night of no bookings: Gigibaba and Rosamond

So, the no-bookings thing. It's been mentioned as the one of the next Melbourne restaurant trends every year for the last three years in the Epicure's annual "dining trends" wrap-ups, and The Age keeps running what is essentially the same story about whether or not a hot new Melbourne restaurant's refusal to take bookings is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing.

I tend to come down on the side of it being a Good Thing, but think places like MoVida Aqui do it best by offering bookings for half the restaurant (the tables) and no-bookings for the other half (the bar and tall tables along the windows). Everybody wins!

Best-friend-K and I are making a habit of going out for no-bookings dinners together on Thursday nights. This week we decided at the last minute to cumulus it up (walked in at 6:45 and got the last two seats without having to wait, SCORE!)... I'd write a post about it, but I've already written enough slobbering loveletters to Cumulus Inc on the blog, so let me just say: their new dish of globe artichokes and asparagus barigoule with salt cod aioli and a soft boiled egg is *extremely* good.

But the Thursday before, we'd decided on a no-bookings double feature on Smith Street, with savoury at Gigibaba and sweet at Rosamond.

Gigibaba
102 Smith Street, Collingwood (map)
9486 0345

I hadn't been to Gigibaba since my (one and only) visit in April 2009, and I was keen to head back there to give Ismail Tosun's Turkish food another try. Thankfully, my new camera is much better at coping with Gigibaba's lighting conditions than its predecessor.


The no-bookings gods were smiling upon us as b-f-K had managed to grab a perch at the bar without waiting. We ordered a few beers and started the night with a lovely simple dish of smoked eggplant, tomato, roast peppers, pinenuts and currants ($14).


B-f-K insisted we get the rose-scented beetroot with chard and walnut ($14). Rose and beetroot seemed like an unlikely pairing to me, but they worked together beautifully.


We also shared a serve of barbecued hellim cheese (aka haloumi), accompanied by a sticky, sweet, spiced medjool date ($10). Another great combination.


The chicken, black olive and mint borek topped with a slow poached egg ($18) was probably my favourite dish that we ordered - the pastry in particular was superb. As our waitress brought the dish over to us at the bar, the egg slid gracefully off the borek with a gentle plop. Being slow poached, the egg just sort of pouted yolk at us rather than dribbling everywhere, so we scooped it back up onto the borek and pretended nothing had happened. But that's the reason for the somewhat haphazard presentation in the photo below.

Slow cooked eggs are cropping up on menus everywhere these days. A Melbourne food trend I'm very happy about.


I love Gigibaba's blue, red and white colour-coded bookshelves for cookbooks.


Our no-bookings karma had to run out at some point. There was a wait of over half an hour for a table at Rosamond, but we were happy to leave a mobile phone number and repair to Panama Dining Room for a while, where we could sip glasses of Prosecco, plan overseas holidays and look out over the Collingwood skyline through the floor-to-ceiling Play School arched windows.

Cafe Rosamond
Rear 191 Smith Street, Fitzroy (map)
9419 2270

I've also written about Pierre Roelofs' dessert evenings every Thursday at Rosamond before, but the brand new menu each week means you're always in for a surprise. You can order one, two or all three of that week's dishes, plus each week there's also a different dessert tube (containing four different elements in cross-section... just hold it up to your lips and suck).

Pierre gives his loyal fans advance notice via Twitter of what the dessert tube will be each week, and on the week we were going I was excited to hear that it'd be a snickers tube - layers of chocolate, nougat, caramel and peanuts. Giddy up. Reminded of other Melbourne chef Philippa Sibley's famous snickers dessert, I went over to have a chat to Pierre and learned that a group of people who work with Philippa were seated at the table next to mine!


We had two of the dessert dishes, the first involving berries and bubblegum. I'm not much of a bubblegum fan (and I'm a little hazy now about exactly what elements were involved in the dish), but I just loved the presentation.


The other dessert was served in an old-school cut glass bowl (with a doily underneath!) and contained a fabulous jumble of elements including pandan, coffee and whisky spheres (made using a bottle of whisky the rarely-drinking Pierre was given for Christmas). But what elevated this dish from delicious and interesting to JUST INSANE was the addition of chocolate coated "explosive rock candy". I hadn't had any form of carbonated candy since I had Pop Rocks as a kid. Talk about having a party in your mouth!


Pierre showed me the jar of explosive rock candy (imported from Spain) and enthusiastically explained to me the science involved in making it. Crazy stuff!


So where should we go for our next no-bookings Thursday?

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.

* * * * *
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.