A Few of My Favourite Things !

Wow, I was at Prahran Market on the weekend and heard some fantastic news from the owner of my favourite chocolate store – Monsieur Truffe.

Thibaullt’s stall in the centre of the fruit & veg section is oft-visited and much-lauded by bloggers. The great news for all Monsieur Truffe fans (and for those who have yet to try his truffles – what are you waiting for?) is that a Monsieur Truffe store will be opening on Smith Street in Collingwood. He has started advertising for staff on his blog and the opening is expected to take place sometime in August. The store will stock all the current favourites but will also double as a cafe that serves pastries and host chocolate & wine tasting evenings.

Another chocolate store also opened five weeks ago on Toorak Road near the corner of Chapel St – Ganache Chocolate. It’s reminiscent of Koko Black in its decor and has similar chocolate blocks studded with various fruit & nuts. We didn’t try any chocolates but did pick up a pan au chocolat to go. Their pastries are made by the chef from Le Petit Gateau on Lt Collins St and this version has a raspberry puree smear under the chocolate. Pretty good.

Update: According to Ed’s “Ed lines” in the Herald Sun (29 April 2008), Arno Backes is the man behind Ganache Chocolates – no wonder the similarity to Koko Black then given that he was the second master chocolatier there…

Disappointed to miss out on yet another blogger meet-up , I ensured that our weekend included a food-related adventure by dragging A away from a Saturday sleep-in to the Docklands Farmers Market at the Waterfront City Piazza, Docklands.

Apparently the opening, held last week, was pretty disastrous due to the windy weather but even the pleasant morning we had on Saturday didn’t attract a larger crowd. The market was so well attended that there could have been tumbleweed rolling across the concourse!

I have not seen most of these stalls at the other markets around Melbourne before. We discovered one that sold the most delicious lamingtons – traditional and a passionfruit.

We also picked up some ingredients for dinner. A. cooked the King Island steak to perfection while I made a salad of rocket, white peaches, prosciutto and Berrys Creek Oak Blue cheese.

We also picked up bread from two different stalls – Amici and Matisse – and an amazingly moist and tasty carrot cake.

Well, this market doesn’t appear to have reached the radars of Dockland residents yet but hopefully it soon will. It’s great to have a farmers market in the city area although, in my opinion, locating it in Southbank would guarantee more success.