Anada, better late than never

Añada
197 Gertrude St, Fitzroy (map)
9415 6101


My write-up of dinner at Anada has been on the back-burner for way too long, and I've been procrastinating mainly because I'm dissatisfied with the photos of the food... whilst the low low lighting was most atmospheric on the night in question, it makes for lousy camera work on my part, I'm afraid (despite A's best efforts to help by strategically placing our tealight candle next to each plate!).

Anada had been on my radar ever since it opened in February, but it was Lucy's and Duncan's suggestions following my write-up of Basque that were my catalyst for finally making a booking. I went there on a night out with the very charming A, after we'd seen a film up at the Westgarth. Rocking up at Anada after 9pm on a Wednesday night, we got the last available table for two.


The last time A and I had gone out together, we went completely over the top with ordering at Cumulus Inc, so had strictly promised each other that we'd behave this time. We started with a selection of tapas: St Helen's oysters with lemon ($3.70 each); a Marion Bay scallop with Iberico Jamon migas ($5.50), fried piquillo pepper stuffed with surf clams and coriander ($5.50); and a Western plains lamb cutlet with red Asturias anchovy and olive garum ($6). All good, especially the olive encrusted lamb cutlet and the ginormous oysters.



But my favourite of the savoury dishes has to be the first of the raciones we tried, the bottarga with organic avocado and horseradish labneh ($18). Such a great combination of flavours - the sharp horseradish in the creamy labneh, the delicately cured mullet roe with the bursting-with-flavour avocado - we both loved it.


We were also pretty happy with the slow cooked South Western Highland pork belly in fennel seeds with smoky eggplant ($17.50) and the charcoal grilled savoy cabbage with aged cabernet sauvignon vinegar and black salt ($9), particularly the latter. The prices are very reasonable given the quality of food on offer - with the exception of the paella, all of the raciones are less than $20 each, which makes it slightly cheaper than Movida, an alma mater for both halves of the couple behind Anada. Not only is it cheaper than Movida, I found the staff at Anada to be friendlier and more down-to-earth.


As well as this fancy mineral water, we each had a glass of Albariño then shared a bottle of the Artazuri Rosado de Garnacha 2006 (read a review of the rose from the excellent Melbourne-based Spanish wine blog Tinto y Blanco here).


We decided to finish off with two shared desserts: the crème Catalan ($9.50) and the pomegranate and orange blossom sorbet with sugared pistachios ($8.50). They turned out to be a great match - smooth creaminess versus pomegranate seed studded sorbet. I'd consider going back there just for these desserts.


Very happy indeed with Anada! Now that best-friend-K is back in town I will be revisiting shortly. :)

O frabjous day!

BEST. PRESENT. EVER.

My gorgeous brother Buster, who has been living in Italy since January and has been painfully missed by everybody, almost gave me, my sister Birdie and my Dad all heart attacks on Saturday night when he walked into Mum and Dad's living room. In a top secret (and I mean REALLY top secret - none of the rest of us had the faintest inkling!) mission, Mum had arranged for him to fly back home for ten days to help celebrate Birdie's 18th and Dad's 60th. We are all over the moon that he's here!!

On Sunday morning we had a brunch with the Italian side of the family to celebrate the birthdays - I made Mum promise to drop hints in advance to Nonna and Nonno about our Special Guest Star from overseas, as I was worried that they could have ACTUAL heart attacks upon seeing him...


Mum excelled herself and served up an epic three course brunch. First course was smashed lemony avocado on toast, accompanied by marinated Persian fetta and mushrooms (including a few porcini mushrooms) sauteed with thyme.


Second course was scrambled eggs on toast with a choice of either smoked salmon and dill, or fancy Otway bacon. I had the former, Bird had the latter. Mum gets her eggs from a woman she knows who gets them directly from her chickens - I'm always impressed by the vivid colour of her scrambles.



Third course was the fruit platter, accompanied by a tray of Nonna's freshly made crostoli, which always go down a treat. The three courses were washed down with champagne, freshly squeezed blood OJ and strong espressi.



O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
I chortled in my joy. :)

Back-to-uni lunch at Animal Orchestra

Animal Orchestra
163 Grattan St, Carlton (map)
9349 4944

During the last week I've been having a ball back at Melbourne Law School, doing a work-funded, intensive, very useful Masters subject (thanks, work!). Of course the other huge benefit to being back (albeit temporarily) at uni, apart from catching up with friends still studying at or working at uni, is the chance to revisit all my favourite uni food haunts and write them up here on Melb Gastronome!


Animal Orchestra is my favourite cafe within walking distance from the law school. It's up on Grattan Street opposite the Graduate Building, in an old double storey terrace that once housed a rather sad-looking French restaurant.

Back in 2005-2006, Animal Orchestra was run by brothers John and Marcello (ex-The European, if memory serves), who were always super-lovely to me and would let me sit in a decoupage-decorated corner for hour after hour with a never-ending caffe latte as I worked through my class reading.


I took work colleague and fellow Masters student J there on Wednesday. As we walked up, I was rabbiting on about how much I loved their toasted panino #5 - the one with Viet pork, lettuce, carrot and hoi sin - only to find upon arrival that it was no longer on the menu! :_(


Instead I got the new #6: roast beef, fontina, caramelised onion, Dijon mayo and lettuce. J went with the #1: chicken, bacon, tasty cheese, pesto and thyme mayo. They were $8.80 each and both were delish.

Animal Orchestra is pretty great at all hours of the day - long before I'd even heard of Birdman Eating I was coming to Animal Orchestra to get baked eggs in individual little pans with interesting combinations like leek & shanklish, sardines & fetta, or goat's cheese & caramelised witlof. In addition to lunchtime panini there are always a two soups of the day and at night you can get a few modest tapas with wines or boutique beers. Definitely worth a look!

Jeremy Oliver's Wine Annual book launch at Church St Enoteca

Church St Enoteca
527 Church Street, Richmond (map)
9428 7898

I was lucky enough to be invited along to the book launch for Jeremy Oliver's Wine Annual (2009 edition) - and yes, that's Jeremy Oliver the Australian wine writer, not Jamie Oliver the once-naked chef! The launch took place on Thursday over a six course degustation meal at Church St Enoteca, accompanied by the wines that were Jeremy's Wine of the Year finalists plus the Wine of the Year, and interspersed with interviews with a few of the wine-makers themselves. As you can imagine, after 13 glasses of wine on Thursday night my Friday was a bit of a struggle.


I was doubly happy to accept my invitation once I knew that the launch would take place at Church St Enoteca. I love this restaurant - the Art Deco facade and interior are both gorgeous (check out the online gallery of their vintage posters), the Italian food is of excellent quality (the memory of the zucchini flowers I had there a few years ago still lingers) AND it's only four minutes walk away from my house. Score!


The evening started in the Gallery (the larger of the two function rooms, out the back). I stood around chatting to friends and to a chap that does marketing for Chandon, and we were served two dry sparking wines in succession: the Dal Zotto Prosecco 2006 (scored 90/100) and the 2005 Chandon ZD Blanc de Blancs (94/100). These were matched with Long Nose Point oysters with superfine shavings of prosciutto and dollops of watermelon sorbet - a really fantastic combination of salty and sweet.

Thanks to Rumpole, my first hand model! :)


With the first of the seated courses, we were given two rieslings: the 2007 Mountadam Riesling (96/100) and the 2007 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling (also 96/100). Once Jeremy had stood up and spoken about each of these two wines, a third glass of Mystery Wine was brought out for each of us - Jermey Oliver's Wine of the Year (drumroll.......) - the 2007 Seppelt Drumborg Riesling!


Jeremy entertaining us with a very funny story about how he got started in wine writing.

With the rieslings we had a green pea soup with foie gras. I'm not wild about pea soup as a general rule, but this one tasted lovely and fresh, and the foie gras gave it a nice savoury earthiness.


With the next course we had the 2005 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay (96/100) and the 2005 Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay (96/100). I must say that I found the former to be a great disappointment: don't get me wrong, I'm not averse to wooded chardonnays, but I felt this one really knocked you over the head with broad oak - no subtlety! The Yattarna (the so-called 'White Grange'), by contrast, was marvelous - it had a really great burnt toast and oyster character.


The chardonnays were brought out with a salad of raw artichoke, fennel, broad beans and pecorino, served over shaved Fratelli Galloni prosciutto. The salad reminded me a bit of that I had a few months ago with the tuna a la plancha at Cumulus Inc. The flavours were all pretty delicate, which helped to emphasise the quality of the prosciutto.


The fourth course was a pigeon raviolo with radicchio di Treviso, walnuts and parsley. The Northern Italian in me is always a fan of the bitter flavour of radicchio, and loved with with the nutty/gamey raviolo filling. The dish was accompanied by two Victorian pinot noirs - the 2005 Kooyong Ferrous Pinot Noir (96/100) and the 2006 Epis Pinot Noir (95/100). The Epis was particularly fabulous, with hints of five spice.

A round of applause for A, my other glamorous hand model!


I was still working through the pinot when two glasses of shiraz (or Syrah if we're to be Un-Ostrayan about it) arrived. The first (pictured below) was the 2006 Clarendon Hills Astralis Syrah (97/100). The second was the 2006 De Bortoli Yarra Valley Reserve Syrah (97/100)... it had great liquorice and fairy floss flavours.


They were matched with a damn good roasted Angus eye fillet, served with porcini and briciole di patate. My steak was still pink and I loved the crunchy crumbs. Overall I must say I was extremely impressed with the quality of the food Church St Enoteca put on for us, especially considering the number of servings required.


We finished with cheeses (the one thing about wine-oriented dinners is that you'll almost always get a cheese course instead of a dessert... not that I'm complaining about the cheeses we were offered) - Tourrée de l'Aubier (soooooooooo good) and Casa Madaio Calcagno Liscio (not usually so enamoured of hard cheeses, but loved it), served with the appropriate accoutrements.


It was, all up, a lovely night out. In addition to being open for dinner every night (except Sundays), Church St Enoteca is open for lunch on weekdays, with a $24.50/$31.50 two/three course lunch special.

Baked eggs at Birdman Eating on a sunny Saturday

Birdman Eating
238 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (map)
9416 4747

On Saturday the charming K took me out for breakfast. We went to Birdman Eating, his local that he's been telling me about ever since we met. It was the first time I'd been there, but I'd read about their famous baked eggs on many a food blog. At $12 a pop, there are four different kinds available each day, and each serve arrives in an individual little cast iron skillet which in turn rests on a tattered leaf of sheet music.


I'm afraid I can't report on what the interior decor or atmosphere is like because we sat outside to soak up the gorgeous sunny morning. This had the advantage of allowing me to keep my sunglasses on the whole time, which helped my delicate condition (an inevitable aftereffect of playing the VP debate drinking game with friends the night before). K and I both ordered baked eggs. He chose those with tomato sugo and pancetta. I had a taste and they were great: the tomato was not too acidic and both egg yolks were wonderfully gooey.


I had the baked eggs with kasoundi and labne. Lately, it's very hard for me to go past labne whenever I see it on the menu! The dish turned out to include cubes of eggplant, which had been cooked in the kasoundi. The creamy yoghurt was a great foil for the aromatic spiciness of the relish.


A very enjoyable first experience at Birdman Eating, will have to go back there soon to sample the wider breakfast menu. Is there anything on the rest of the menu that anyone cares to recommend?


Buzzing from two coffees, I left K and caught a tram into town to see Hotel Meina with T at the Italian Film Festival. After the movie, T's wife J met us and the three of us went for a stroll, ending up at Birrarung Marr at the NAB-sponsored event known as the Dream Festival (read one particularly disgruntled blogger's opinion of the event here). It was all rather silly and faux-arty and fun - there was a floating walkway on the Yarra, punctuated with bouncy-castle artworks. These were my favourites.

Pity that I'm so prone to seasickness that merely standing on the barge for 15 minutes made me feel seasick for the rest of the afternoon!

Grand Final day - brunch at Tom Phat

Tom Phat
184 Sydney Road, Brunswick (map)
9381 2374

On Saturday I squeezed in a brunch at Tom Phat, in between an early morning Grand Final champagne breakfast at S's place (where we watched the DVD of the 1989 VFL Grand Final: "GASP as Ablett gets tackled by his brother-in-law and kicks nine awesome goals on a losing side, Johnny 'The Rat' Platten gets concussed and Dipper plays three quarters with a punctured lung! LAUGH at the tight tight short shorts and mullets! THRILL to the sight of Dermie spewing after being run through by Yeates at the opening bounce, then going on to kick three goals despite broken ribs and internal bleeding!") and then the 2008 big game in the afternoon, which was of course brilliant. :-)

Brunch was wonderfully relaxed. O had just returned from ten days in Sardinia, and was looking outrageously tanned in a crisp white shirt. We all started with lovely freshly squeezed juices. I'd heard plenty of good things about Tom Phat (particularly their breakfasts), but previously had only ever been in there for coffee and cake. I love the way the interior design mixes polished concrete surfaces and industrial light fittings with languid Graham Greenesque ceiling fans and bamboo ceilings.

Schatz had the sweet corn fritters with poached egg, smoked salmon, capers, rocket and crème fraîche ($13.90). She gave me a taste - they were delicious, right up there with the ones I love so much at Mart 130. The capers were an especially nice touch.


A had the big breakfast: poached eggs, crispy bacon, roasted tomatoes, grilled mushrooms, avocado, minus the hollandaise but plus hash browns ($14.90 + $3). He reported back to us very favourably, noting it was nice to order crispy bacon that actually comes out crispy.


As for me, I wanted to try one of the several breakfast dishes at Tom Phat that had a tropical Asian spin on them. I was tempted by the Sri scrambled eggs (with spring onion, curry leaves and cherry tomatoes and crispy roti), the Viet eggs fried (with chilli soy and spring onion) and even Uncle Ho's breakfast (grilled marinated pork chop, crispy fried egg, tomato, cucumber and rice).

But in the end both O and I selected the clay pot baked eggs, with roasted tomato, caramelised onion and sweet tamarind minced pork and served with a hunk of crusty bread ($11.90). I loved it - the tang of the tamarind gave the dish a real lift, and matched the acidity of the tomato and the sweetness of the onion beautifully. I know the photo doesn't make the dish look especially appetising, but in this case looks are most certainly deceiving!


When I got to work today and told C about the brunch, she practically smacked me for not trying her favourite dish at Tom Phat: the roti omelette (wok-tossed with bacon, chives and roasted tomato salsa). She orders it fortnightly!