MFWF 2011: Gourmet Traveller Roy Choi dinner at Coda

This year's Melbourne Food and Wine Festival was a MADCAP ten days for me, hence the radio silence here on the blog. In a blurred week of dining and wining (and cocktailing), the event I enjoyed most was the dinner hosted by Gourmet Traveller at Coda, starring LA's mash-up taco truck king of the streets, Roy Choi from Kogi.


When we got to Coda, the room was already buzzing and as the night wore on we were treated to a blasting soundtrack of James Brown, Erykah Badu, Beyoncé, Notorious B.I.G. and Big Poppa. Not your average Melbourne restaurant soundtrack! But then the food was like nothing you get in Melbourne restaurants either: street food with loads of soul and big, brazen flavours that borrowed as easily from Korean cuisine as Mexican and Hawaiian cuisines. The food was initially matched with Tiger beer, but the succession of European wines that followed were less successful - robust though they were, they just couldn't stand up to the fireworks on the plate. If you ask me, what we really needed were more beers and then a couple of nice tequilas.


We started by 'Hot Boxin It': chowing down on lotus, taro root and potato chips that had been sexed up by sprinkles of kaffir dried shrimp salt. The menu instructed us to eat them by the handful, and we did so.


'Tacos, Beachside'. Instead of using tortillas, we wrapped the contents in butter lettuce and sesame leaves (more commonly known here in Australia by their Japanese name, shiso). The taco contents: ahi poke (Hawaiian style cubed yellowfin tuna sashimi) topped with home fried shallots, red silky tofu and salsa verde. Fresh and tangy and freaking brilliant, possibly my favourite dish of the night (that or the pork).


Next were the 'Parking Lot Prawns' which were char-grilled and served on top of two salsas: avocado smash and grapefruit pico de gallo (the chunky one) and salsa roja (the smooth roasted red one). The whole thing was topped with fried garlic shavings and cilantro leaves. A brilliant combination of spicy, sweet, sour and smoky flavours with a satisfying crunch from the crispy prawn legs.


For the next dish, 'Notorious: Juicy' maybe it's best if I just let the menu do the talking as I couldn't put it better myself: 'slab of fatty, spicy pork takes a low dip in some salted baby shrimp vinaigrette and chive kimchi'. Not a dish for the faint-hearted: the vinaigrette was super salty and the pork was fatty as promised. But oh wow we loved it - particularly the sharp chive kimchi, which lifted the whole dish. In what was possibly a foolish move, Matt had thirds (forgetting we had another two meat courses to go) - that's how good it was.


For the '2Pac Chops', the menu promised 'a little sun-soaked California love rubbed into our kalbi-marinated lamb chops'. More salsa verde and this time a pickled pear gremolata. I'd invited the lovely Jackie along as my dining companion and I must say, one of the many benefits of dining with her is that she will always provide impeccable silver service as each share plate arrives at the table. This night was no exception!


On my way past the kitchen I did a Scooby Doo double take at the BRONTOSAURUS steaks waiting to be served.


The dish was called 'OG Status': gigantic 'straight-up, bone-in, aged and chilli salted prime rib' that had been roasted and grilled, then served with a lemongrass crème fraîche and rice. I didn't enjoy this dish as much as the others - the cheesy, creamy coating smeared on the meat reminded me of an Aussie pub parma. By this stage we could only manage a few small pieces - one poor prime rib sat untouched on our table of ten.


For dessert we had the 'Gracias Sujunggwa', described as 'cold, summertime persimmon cinnamon ginger tea with lychee sorbet, pine nuts, berries, berries and torn mint to cap off a hot day'. Nice and simple, and the lychee and tannins cut through all that rich meat we'd consumed.


After the last course had been served, Gourmet Traveller features editor Pat Nourse said a few words, then ran a quick Q&A session with Roy 'Papi Chulo' Choi (who got his nickname due to the 'energy' he reputedly has with Latina women). Choi spoke briefly but passionately about Kogi's driving philosophy: affordability. The Kogi aim is to flip usual expectations and show that cheap food can also be really good food, and to sacrifice profitability for 'energy'. When quizzed about when we can expect to see a Kogi cookbook, Choi grinned that infectious grin of his and declared that he'd want to write a book like one of those choose your own adventure books or Harry Potter, where the recipes are intertwined with the story. Yes please, Papi. More please, Papi...


Alice, one of the Kogi gals, wrote a very cute blog post about their take on Melbourne here.

Breakfast under the bridge, on Ponyfish Island

Ponyfish Island
Southgate Footbridge, Melbourne (map)
0426 501 857
Open daily 8am-1am


Ponyfish Island, the latest bar from "St Jerome" Borazio, is located under the Yarra Pedestrian Bridge connecting Southgate with Flinders Street Station. It opened in about December and will be there until winter.


Until then, they're open every day from early in the morning through to 1am. Carlton, Fat Yak and Bulmers on tap during hours of libation.


I went along yesterday morning for breakfast with DJ and a group of our friends, for our fortnightly CBD Bourgeois Breakfast. We had SERIOUS misgivings as we arrived, because it was gloomy, windy and cold (Melbourne having apparently leap-frogged autumn in favour of winter)...


...but fifteen minutes later the place looked like this and we were bathed in lovely early morning sunlight.


Understandably, the menu isn't expansive. While there are a couple of pastas and salads later in the day, for breakfast there were just three options (and no eggs, much to DJ's chagrin).

It must be said: the staff had a surly attitude problem. No doubt the early hour wasn't helping.


I shared toast and waffles with the charming T. The toast with avocado, feta and paprika ($8, normally also comes served with dukka but they'd run out) was dry and not terribly inspiring. A wedge of lemon on the side would've helped.


By contrast the waffles with mascarpone, walnuts, maple syrup and strawberries ($10.50) were pretty good. But DJ reckons his muesli with mango nectar, bananas, strawberries, walnuts and Black Swan yoghurt ($9) was the best dish.


I liked the design of the bar, particularly the hessian-covered recycled shipping pallets for bar stools and the battered lanterns tucked into shadowy recesses. Endearingly, Moth Design claim to have been inspired by The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.


Oh and they have free WiFi, so bear it in mind next time you and your laptop want to go somewhere a little different. Just pray it ain't windy!

The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book (Vintage Edition): Back by popular demand!

O FRABJOUS DAY!


I normally don't promote products on the blog, but I'm breaking my rule because I'm so excited about this news: boys and girls, the ORIGINAL Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book has been reprinted due to popular demand, and is for sale once more!

Yes, no longer do you have to trawl eBay for second-hand copies or (*gasp*) buy the fondant-icing-is-cheating modern version! The one we all knew and loved as we were growing up in the 80s is back in newsagents as of today and will be in Big W stores from March.


The photo below is me, aged 6, with the candy castle cake.

I've written before about the special place this book holds in my heart. The Facebook group I created called The Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book is awesome at last count has over 6,600 nostalgic members and nearly 800 photos of book-inspired cakes, and last year I fielded a couple of book-related questions from comedian Josh Earl as he prepared his Comedy Festival show Josh Earl vs the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book (I went and saw the show, it was hilarious).


I've been lucky over the last few years to have two dear friends of mine, C and J, make me book-inspired birthday cakes. In 2007, C made the piano cake, with a handmade candelabra and miniature bound sheet music to Rock Lobster (book photo on the left, C's version on the right).


In 2009, C made the bunny cake, another one I'd always wanted as a kid.


In 2010, J made the gorgeous piggy cake, with snakes for Medusa-like hair.


And this year, C decided to make the infamous swimming pool cake, with a contemporary spin.

Rather than a swimming pool filled with green jelly (a feature that had always repulsed yet fascinated me as a child), she made a hot tub with cream cheese frosting cleverly mixed with blue and green food dyes to give the illusion of swirling water.


She also threw in two bikini-clad dolls, seated close to each other to leave open the possibility of some girl-on-girl hot tub action, and painstakingly constructed a ladder out of bamboo skewers. LOVED IT!


So which was your favourite birthday cake from the book? :)

The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is almost upon us

The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival (4-14 March) this year is shaping up to be a big one, if my experience last year is any indication. Detox starts the week afterwards. Oh yes. Seeing as it's just around the corner, I thought I'd put up a blog post asking what your festival tips are and giving a few of mine (plus it gives me the opportunity to use the nice photos I took at the festival's media launch that I was invited to when the program first came out!).


The media launch was held at Arteveneta, the kooky venue where the Pierre Roelofs/Raúl Moreno Yagüe event was held at last year's festival.

At the lunch, Adrian Richardson (La Luna) took care of the meats, Nic Poelaert (Embrasse) did the vegetables and the big cheese himself, Will Studd, picked out some very very nice cheeses. I've gotta say, it was pretty special. I was particularly pleased to master the tricky art of serving up the aligot (a delicious, elastic, cheesy potato mash), based on how I'd seen Camm serve it at Embrasse, and I did so for my whole table.



So anyway, MFWF 2011: what to choose? The program is intimidatingly big and the MFWF website difficult to navigate, but don't think it's all fancy-pants degustations (that said, *cough*, I'm very excited about the Roy Choi dinner, the Der Raum/Burch & Purchese event and the Sommeliers Australia Long Lunch!). I've tried to pick out a few of the more unusual events.

Several MFWF events are free, eg a cooking demo and film screening of 'Eat Drink Man Woman' in Fed Square, spectating at AASCA's Victorian syphon brewing competition at Auction Rooms, cooking demos in the edible garden planted by The Digger's Club (I went last year, it was impressive), dumpling-folding and bun-making in Chinatown and the West African cultural festival at the Immigration Museum (free with museum entry). And there are some interesting-sounding events for those foodies with a social conscience: a tour, talk and meal at VicRelief Food Bank (Victoria’s largest food rescue charity), a seminar on social or environmental entrepreneurship in retail food and hospitality, and of course the Front of House Allstars dinner (all proceeds of which go to StreetSmart).

I'm also curious to check out Broadsheet's temporary cafe, taste medlar and shadberry at Southpaw's Forgotten Fruits High Tea and maybe - just maybe - psych myself up to try lobster brain sashimi.


Which events are you planning on attending, or would you recommend?

New Zealand Gastronome

In January I went to New Zealand for the the first time, to the South Island. I was there with best-friend-K for a hassle-free week of R&R. We flew in and out of Christchurch, hired a fluorescent yellow car and decided to drive up north because the weather would be warmer and we wanted sun.

It wasn't a particularly gastronomically-focused week for us, but I wanted to put up a post of photos and highlights to share with you.


Flying overseas gave us the chance to check out Shannon Bennett's new Cafe Vue at Melbourne Airport, in the international terminal past duty free (sorry, boarding pass holders only). B-f-K had porridge and I had the duck egg, bacon and hollandaise jaffle, which came out with ludicrously thick bread. Man, that duck egg was good though - as were the yuzu and cassis macarons we took to eat on the plane.


We found some great holiday accommodation through Book a Bach, a snappy, easy-to-navigate site connecting bach (NZ holiday house) owners with prospective renters. In our first destination (Kaikoura) we stayed in a lovely little bach called Room With a View. How could I resist a place that had a claw foot bathtub on the balcony?!


Kaikoura was sleepy and gorgeous. I'd never seen mountains so close to the ocean. Our first meal in New Zealand, at local pub The Whaler, was fush and chups washed down with a couple of glasses of Monteith's.


The next morning we went out whale watching and spotted not one but two sperm whales. So, so awesome to see them up close.


I'd been told by about half a dozen people that we simply HAD to stop off at Nin's Bin for crayfish (the local specialty from which Kaikoura derives its Maori name). Nin's Bin is a famous roadside caravan about 20-25km north of Kaikoura that has been serving up fresh crayfish to passersby for the last 35 years.


The price of each crayfish is written on its tail. Once we'd selected ours, the woman serving us lined it up under the guillotine and chopped it in half with a loud thwack.


You're given the option of having your crayfish served hot with garlic, but we preferred to have ours cold - as nature intended it. We took Pinchy to one of the picnic tables outside and ate him then and there with our fingers.


My favourite thing that I ate in NZ. Deeeeelicious, especially the meat in the legs.


We stayed in Picton for a couple of nights - if Kaikoura was sleepy, then Picton was practically comatose. But again, oh so pretty. From our B&B up on the hill, we had a lovely view over the valley and down to the harbour.


One night in Picton we went to local restaurant Le Cafe for dinner. The warehou carpaccio I ordered was sensationally fresh (although HUGE points off for covering it with cheap nasty dried parsley) and B-f-K raved about her NZ green-lipped mussels. We were also served some Seresin Estate extra virgin olive oil that was so good we drove to Seresin Estate the next day to buy a bottle.


Two of the days were spent grape grazing through Marlborough. B-f-K and I are both pinot noir fiends, so the excellent 2009 Marlborough Report from the fellas at Pinot Unearthed was a useful resource.

But our biggest surprise in Marlborough was discovering NZ sauvignon blanc that was not only drinkable, but actually really nice! My favourites were the Mount Riley Seventeen Valley 2008 and Mahi's The Alias 2008 (the fact that they're from small vineyards and both oaked may have something to do with it).


The other wines we adored were Forrest's The Doctors Arneis 2010 and several from Bladen Wines: the 2007 Merlot/Malbec, the 2009 Riesling and the 2008 Gewürtztraminer, a variety I usually despise. Happily, Bladen's wines are available in Melbourne at Burwood Cellars, so I drove out there to buy a case last weekend.


One morning we got up early and caught a boat across the Marlborough Sounds for a day of tramping along the spectacular Queen Charlotte Track.


15km later, we were ferried back to Picton on the boat. We saw dolphins!


The one posh meal we had in NZ was the degustation at Herzog, on the recommendation of Kate. While the setting, food and wine were all beautiful, we didn't enjoy the meal as much as we thought we would - probably because the very formal atmosphere and mannered service from the army of German/Austrian/Swiss girls working front of house came across as a bit old-fashioned and stuffy to the two of us who were in chilled out holiday mode.


Highlights amongst the dishes were the beetroot cured freshwater salmon with tuna tartar and cucumber/wasabi sorbet, and the wonderful cold smoked quail brest with a curious pea/mint mousse.


We ate handsomely from the cheese trolley and enjoyed a "symphony of cherries, chocolate and hazelnut".


Leaving Marlborough and heading back south, we stopped in at The Store at Kekerengu, a stylish cafe halfway between Blenheim and Kaikoura, for a strong coffee and shared slice of cake.


After a night up in Hanmer Springs (where we soaked in the hot springs and mineral pools), we drove to Waipara Valley for more grape grazing. We hadn't heard of many of the Waipara's wineries (other than Pegasus Bay), and were delighted to discover some lovely pinot noirs and rieslings, as well as the 2010 Bascand Pinot Gris from Waipara Springs that was ridiculously good (and a steal at NZ$19 a bottle).


In Christchurch (or CHCH, as I learned it is called), we stayed in a fantastic self-contained heritage cottage Mayque Cottage on Caledonian which we can't recommend highly enough. Beautifully kitted out, startlingly cheap and in a handy location. We spent an afternoon wandering around town, browsing in shops and noting the earthquake damage to older buildings.


On our last day we went to the Banks Peninsula and drove down to Akaroa. The dramatic landscape and harbours are due to the twin craters of a massive ancient volcano.


Akaroa is a cute, slightly kitsch village whose French street names tout its Gallic connection (it was briefly settled by the French, before the Brits claimed New Zealand as their own). We stopped off at The Pepper Tree for a sandwich in their garden.


Akaroa harbour. Gorgeous colour of the water.


All in all, a lovely trip! Next time though, I'm definitely going to Central Otago (pinot nerd) and Queenstown. Any tips for me in either of those locales?