For your consideration: New Gourmet Melbourne by Deck of Secrets

I'm excited to announce here on the blog that the Melbourne dining guide I worked on earlier this year, New Gourmet Melbourne, is now available for purchase!


Michelle Matthews, jet-setter extraordinaire and creator of the Deck of Secrets guides, approached me about collaborating with her on a guide to Melbourne's hottest new restaurants, dining bars and cafes. Having been a longtime fan of the Deck of Secrets, I was only too happy to accept. She and I developed the content together, then I joined the small team of writers (I wrote about a third of the cards in the deck, you'll see my name written on the bottom of each one). As someone who writes primarily online, I can't deny that holding the physical deck of cards in my hand is rather satisfying.

So if you've been wondering where all my reviews of Melbourne's new dining hotspots are, the answer is they're in the guide. Please buy a copy! The decks of cards retail for around $9.95 and are sold at bookshops and newsagents around town (see the list of stockists for your nearest option) and online from Readings and Book Depository. And for iPhone users, if you'd rather a virtual deck there's a New Gourmet Melbourne app for $1.99. Let me know what you think!


Oh, and just a reminder: although I haven't published any other new blog posts recently, I am frequently* updating my new stand-alone pages dedicated to New Melbourne Venues, Melbourne Pop-ups and Melbourne venues opening soon - so be sure to keep checking them. Did you know that THREE places (Jimmy Grants, Shop Ramen and N2 Extreme Gelato) opened last Friday night in Fitzroy alone? Madness!

*I have been updating them frequently since I published them on 1 July, but having said that, on Saturday I'm heading off on holiday to the US for five weeks. I won't be able to monitor the Melbourne hospitality scene as closely from the land of the free and the home of the brave, so any tip-offs about new/upcoming places that you could send my way (by email, Twitter or blog comment) would be greatly appreciated...

Soi 38: pop-up tour of Thai noodles

Soi 38 is one of the events featured on my new list Pop-ups of Note. To see the full list, click here.


Why have a food truck when you can have a food cart? Andy and Tina from the Thai/Viet Melbourne food blog Krapow own a gorgeous little food cart, manufactured in the Bangkok suburb of Thonburi and imported to Melbourne for the specific purpose of introducing Melburnians some of the delicious Thai noodles dishes that aren't so well known here. The Soi 38 team includes Top, a Thai chef whose food at Appetizer and then Tidlom demonstrated his commitment to bringing more authentic Thai flavours to Melbourne. Having Andy and the other Soi 38 team members all sport blue Vin Vin vests, the kind worn by Thai motorcycle taxi drivers, is a lovely touch.

The Soi 38 cart has already popped up at a few street festivals, but starting next week on 19 July, Soi 38 will have a six week Friday night residency at North/West Melbourne cafe Sketch & Tulip. From 5pm each Friday night, they'll be dishing up $5 bowls of noodles (you'll want a couple of bowlfuls cos they're so damn good) and beers. Of course, each table will have khreuang puang (condiment caddies) containing fish sauce, white sugar, crushed dried chillies and chillies in vinegar, so that you can tweak your dish to your ideal calibration of hot, sour, sweet and salty.

The noodles will change each week:
- July 19: Kuay teow reua nua nahm (beef boat noodles)
- July 26: Kuay teow Sukhothai muu haeng (dry sukhothai pork noodles)
- August 2: Kuay teow tom yum muu nahm (hot and sour pork noodles)
- August 9: Kuay teow bamee bpuu (dry crab egg noodles)
- August 16: Kuay teow bamee bped nahm (braised duck egg noodles)
- August 23: Kuay teow tom yum muu haeng (dry hot and sour pork noodles)

Andy invited me to a family and friends night for a free preview of the boat noodles last week. I've only tried boat noodles in a few Thai places around town, but love the depth of flavour in the broth and the Soi 38 version was by far the best I've tasted! Andy can give you a better rundown on boat noodles than I can:

"Thai Boat Noodles (kwaytiao reua) are a delicious and intensely flavoured but little known traditional Thai dish. They are associated with central Thailand, and are so called because they used to be sold from small boats along the canals and rivers. These days the vendors have moved onshore and the most famous boat noodle restaurants are found in 'boat noodle' alley near the Victory Monument in Bangkok. 

Each bowl of Boat Noodles starts out with a mound of delicate rice vermicelli noodles and a scattering of water spinach and crunchy bean shoots. Added to this is a trio of gently heated sliced rump, tender braised gravy beef and a springy pork ball.

The bowl comes to life with the addition of the complex broth exuding notes of cinnamon, soy, star anise, lemongrass, galangal and pandan and more. The finishing touches are then applied with a touch of garlic oil, a few sprigs of fragrant coriander, a sprinkling of finely sliced spring onions and some crunchy fried pork crisps.

Thai Boat Noodles leave their more well-known South East Asian counterpart, Vietnamese Pho in their wake. Unfortunately Thai Boat Noodles are just not very well known in Australia, it is my dream that Soi 38 will be one of the first small steps in changing that."

Soi 38 is a charming labour of love by people passionate about Thai noodles, and I strongly encourage you to head down to Sketch & Tulip over the next six weeks. Further details can be found on the Soi 38 website and FB page. If you pay them a visit, be sure to wish Andy congratulations as Tina gave birth to their son on Monday!

New and upcoming Melbourne restaurants, cafes and bars

Happy New Financial Year! To celebrate, I'm sharing my reference lists of Melbourne hospitality venues that are going to open soon, or have recently opened. Links to further information, reviews and third party sources provided. As these are standalone pages that I'll be updating as new information comes to hand, my hope is that they'll end up acting as something of an historic timeline for Melbourne food and drink openings. Let me know what I've missed!

For the list of anticipated places opening soon, click here.

For the list of places that have recently opened, click here.

From New York to Melbourne with love: new cafe Bowery to Williamsburg

Bowery to Williamsburg
16 Oliver Lane, Melbourne (map)
9077 0162
Open 7:30am-3:30pm Monday-Friday, cash and walk-ins only
twitter

It's been a great week for the sandwich lovers of Melbourne's Paris end. Last Tuesday EARL Canteen opened its long-awaited second store in the Collins Place food court (directly under Pei Modern). I can't tell you how glad I am that they're now located a mere block away from my office building.

And then on Monday a new cafe opened in Oliver Lane, the cobblestoned laneway off Flinders Lane that also houses Coda. Brought to you by Will and Di (the couple who brought you The Hardware Societe), the cafe is called Bowery to Williamsburg and as the subway-inspired name suggests, it's going to put Melbourne in a New York state of mind.


Will and Di have made three trips to NYC over the last couple of years, planning the Bowery to Williamsburg concept. The care they've taken in realising their vision is evident in the fitout, which is elegantly understated yet cosy even on a three degree Melbourne morning.


BAGELS! In keeping with the New York deli theme, there are several varieties of bagel on offer - both savoury and sweet - all made by 5 and Dime. Start your day with a sour cherry bagel with a schmear of lemon curd, or perhaps a beetroot and rye bagel with a cream cheese schmear. There are cooked breakfasts too, like poached eggs with maple baked beans and a bacon slab.


Lunchwise, it's one of those sandwich menus you'll agonise over for minutes because they all sound so damn good. Will it be the Reuben, the pastrami on rye? The lox bagel with beetroot horseradish, limed onion, watercress and dill cream cheese schmear? The schmaltz chicken on walnut bread with apple celeriac slaw and prune relish??


For a set price of $16.50 you get a sandwich plus a side plus pretzels and a pickle (or pay $12.50 just for the sandwich, gluten free bread available for $1 extra). In the end I picked a sandwich almost at random, winding up with the superb hot smoked salmon on rye with heirloom tomato, fried capers, radish and a caviar cream cheese schmear, with a zingy little side salad of zucchini, peas and Persian feta.


Last but most definitely not least are the sweets, all of which are baked on the premises. It's a veritable AMERICANA CORNUCOPIA, featuring New York cheesecake, key lime pie, caramelised pumpkin pie, vanilla cherry pie, maple pecan pie, s'mores bars and choc-blueberry brownies. I had a little taste of the maple pecan pie and it was heaven.


The coffee is Padre, but you might be tempted by a peanut butter hot chocolate (served with a Reese's PB cup). At this early stage they're only open Monday to Friday, but fingers crossed that weekends will follow soon. Bowery to Williamsburg is a VERY welcome addition to the CBD.

No seriously, get down to Hihou to try the lunch menu

Hihou
Level 1, 1 Flinders Lane, Melbourne (map)
9654 5465
Open for lunch Monday to Friday 11:30am-2:30pm, evenings Monday to Saturday 5pm-1am
website


It's been nearly a year since Simon Denton, Takashi Omi and Miyuki Nakahara opened their elegant, Japanese-influenced bar Hihou above their more casual canteen Nama Nama. For all of that time, Hihou (an approximate pronunciation is "he-haw" - it means treasure in Japanese) has been a strictly evenings-only affair, serving a compact menu of bar snacks to accompany your Negro-Kan (Negroni with an umeshu twist).

Recently Hihou decided to take full advantage of its daytime view overlooking Treasury Gardens, and started opening for lunch on Mondays to Fridays. While the menu features freshly shucked Coffin Bay oysters, charcoal barbequed prawns and sashimi, the main focus is the two course set lunch - which at $35 a head represents terrific value, given the attention to detail and quality of the produce on offer.

Simon invited me as a guest to sample the lunch menu the week it opened, but I went back again last week with my lunch date as paying customers, because we couldn't stop raving about the experience and how perfectly balanced the meal had been.


The set lunch begins with a little appetiser, such as grapes with shiro-ae (a white tofu dressing) and buckwheat, or pickled wombok with kaffir lime and dainty ribbons of wonton crisps.


The hassun first course is a selection of cold starters that represent the season. Expect to see sashimi (the John Dory we had on our first visit was exceptionally good) and vegetables, perhaps with seafood-y accents like scallops or miniature house-dried prawns.


For the main course you choose from one of three sets, each made with premium produce. The kodawari set, which I ordered on my first visit, included delicate sous vide Tasmanian red bream and soy beans in a mild gin-an sauce, with miso soup and rice.


The shichirin set, ordered on my second visit, included charcoal grilled (and beautifully tender) Cape Grim Beef rump with green tea salt, grilled daikon, yakiniku dipping sauce, sumashi clear soup and brown rice.


The set lunch finishes with tea or coffee. I *strongly* recommend shelling out a little more for dessert from the lacquered three-tiered treat box that will be laid out before you. The treat box is filled with all kinds of goodies, from traditional Japanese sweets to Western petits fours with a Japanese spin (such as tartlets filled with yuzu instead of lemon). The treats are $3-$5 each, or a plate of five for $18.


I couldn't resist ordering the sweet potato wrapped in miso paper, and the chestnut and buckwheat steamed manju. Both were exquisite.


And how kawaiiiii is this pumpkin-shaped shiro-an (white bean paste) wagashi?!


It's great to see one of my favourite city bars becoming one of my favourite city lunch spots, and there's talk that in the near future Hihou may also open in the afternoons, offering a Japanese version of high tea. Here's hoping.

A note for the uninitiated: entry to Hihou is via the (unmarked) first door on Flinders Lane. Press the buzzer and you will be ushered in.

A note for herbivores: while the three main course options on the current menu contain either meat or seafood, the kitchen will happily provide a vegetarian option.

La Tortilleria in Kensington: the BEST tortillas in Melbourne

La Tortilleria
72 Stubbs Street, Kensington (map)
9376 5577
Open Thursday and Friday, 12-2:30pm and 6pm-late
Saturday and Sunday, 11:30am-3:30pm and 6pm-late
Closed Monday-Wednesday
website


My friend Ben tipped me off last week about the existence of La Tortilleria, a tortilla bakery and Mexican street eatery in a light-industrial pocket of Kensington near the freeway. I'm smitten.


La Tortilleria purports to be the only tortilleria in Melbourne making tortillas according to the traditional Aztec 'nixtamal' method, by stone-grinding fresh wholegrain corn rather than making a dough from processed corn flour and water. I met Diana (one of the proprietors, along with Mexican Gerardo) and she talked me through the nixtamalisation process. She explained that the traditional method they use of soaking the fresh corn grain in calcium hydroxide overnight results in significant nutritional benefits, as it releases the niacin (vitamin B3) enabling it to be readily absorbed by the body, improves the bio-availability of amino acids, increases calcium levels and reduces mycotoxin levels - all of which adds up to making them easier to digest and better for you. The Aztecs figured out the enhanced nutritional benefits yielded by nixtamalisation centuries ago because they used to grind the corn on limestone.

The various modern gadgetry used to make the tortillas is proudly on display, including the tank in which the corn grain is cooked and soaked, the stone-grinding mill that makes the nixtamal masa (dough), and the tortilla machine itself. The tortillas are baked fresh each day.


But it's not just about the health benefits: the nixtamal tortillas also have a noticibly enhanced aroma and flavour compared to their processed-corn-flour-and-water counterparts. As La Tortelleria's website states, the difference in the two methods is like making mashed potatoes from fresh potatoes rather than from instant mash powder! Their tortillas are free of preservatives, additives, gluten, cholesterol, and fats (both saturated and trans). They come sold in stacks, either fresh or vacuum-sealed, by the half kilo ($8, approx 22 tortillas) or kilo ($15, approx 45 tortillas).

If you'd like to dine in, you can order tacos ($4.50 each) al pastor with pork and pineapple, with carne asada (grilled beef) or with mushrooms and white cheese. They are FRESH and freaking delicious.


The short menu also includes a few quesadilla options ($4.50 each), guacamole with totopos tortilla chips ($6), and sopes de pollo ($6.50, also available in a vegetarian version). The freshly made totopos were the tastiest tortilla chips I've ever tried, and the sope with beans, lettuce, chicken and crema on a thick tortilla base was equally good.

Speaking of which, when is a Melbourne restaurateur riding the ubiquitous Mexican wave going to open a dedicated sopes house? It needs to happen.


There are various Mexigoods for sale in the tiendita operating in partnership with online Mexican groceries retailer guaca Mall-e, a self-serve salsa station (providing pico de gallo and spicier salsas that are homemade using fresh ingredients), and enough stores of corn grain to last the winter.


And just in case you needed MORE reasons to love La Tortilleria:
- the meat and eggs they use are strictly free range;
- many of their menu items can easily be made vegan;
- for $40 you can order a huge platter for two, which includes most of the items on the menu;
- they serve Mexican spiced coffee and hot chocolate, and flan for dessert;
- they're BYO; and
- provided things go well, Diana hopes to add chilaquiles and huaraches to the menu in the future (!!).

Bear in mind that they're closed Monday to Wednesday. There aren't many tables and as word catches on I'm guessing it will become harder to snare one of them, so consider phoning ahead to book.