A Few of My Favourite Things !

We went to the Taste of Melbourne on a Friday afternoon again this year to avoid the crowds, and what a lovely way it was to spend a rainy afternoon. Thanks to Green & Black’s, entry was free so we just had to buy crown currency to use at the stalls. Despite concentrating solely on food and skipping all the wine stalls, we still managed to spend a leisurely three hours at the impressive and gorgeous Royal Exhibition Centre. My friends who went the next day, and did all the wine stalls as well as the HSBC VIP Lounge, stayed until they got kicked out at 4:30pm.

Onto the food then and in order of appearance:

Mezzo Bar & Grill’s organic slow braised pork cheek, white polenta, raisins and marsala sauce. So delightful that the woman standing across from us felt a need to share with us how much she enjoyed hers. Maybe it’s not a bad thing that Mezzo has gone Italian since reinventing itself after Oyster Little Bourke.

Melbourne Wine Room/Mr Wolf‘s Livornese seafood stew. Just one whiff of this could have sent me to heaven however I nearly broke my tooth on that bread stick! Such an appropriate dish for a cold, grey day so more of the broth would have been welcome. That said, it didn’t diminish our enjoyment of the stew, especially as we watched the queue crawling slowly towards The Palace for Luke Mangan’s Wagyu Burger. Being the most substantial dish and for just 10 crowns may have explained the lines, but we had been forewarned that the burger was nothing special.

Mmeh, The European’s duck tortelloni with pea puree & truffle oil really did not do it for me. One bite and I was happy to leave the rest to A. who ate it more out of hunger than desire.

Thankfully, it was a completely different story when we got to Comida Bebe. We chose to eschew the more popular Paella Fiesta for the baby chorizo glazed in cider, served on a skewer with candied and fresh apple and topped with an apple toffee sauce and boy, was it worth it! The chorizo was smokey, chewy and mouthwateringly moreish. They really should do more than just pop-up here and there.

Next door was the Libertine/Le Traiteur stall where the entire menu had my eyes popping. As I was getting quite full though, we skipped the pissaladiere feuillete and smoked duck, apple & walnut rilettes for the game consomme and truffled rabbit agnolotti – clear broth spiked with amontillado sherryl. A very delicate dish that A. enjoyed more than me.

Onto the opposite side where the (IMO) most eye-catching stalls had been set up – Longrain and Longrain Bar. Although the yellow curry of wagyu beef with cucumber relish looked tempting, I immediately wanted the salted Western Plains pork prawn sweet roll with pickled vegetables. Unlike Circa’s try-hard version of the banh mi last year, this one hit the mark and was one of my favourite dishes of the afternoon. Crackling pork skin with sweet chilli sauce – I could have had 3 of these if I wasn’t so full.

We also had their vanilla tapioca pudding with poached pears and jackfruit.

Charcoal Lane is restaurant, supported by Mission Australia, that enables Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people to obtain comprehensive hospitality training. A good enough reason to try their food and visit the restaurant, right? But what makes it better is that the food is actually well-worth tasting. We only had the seared Kingfish, red curry, puffed rice and coconut dish but it’s enough for me to want to schedule in a dinner there soon.

To finish off, we had the pistachio ‘panna cotta’ with caramel salted popcorn from Sarti. Salted caramel is really taking off in Melbourne in a BIG way but so few places get it right (I think the only place that A has give the thumbs up to is the creperie in Hardware Lane). Unfortunately, this was one of them. The popcorn did not taste of salted caramel at all but it was saved by the amazing pistachio panna cotta.

Well, we finished up at the restaurant stalls but, of course, there were a few other things we had to taste =) The original Monaco Bar was one of my favourite ice creams as a child so when I first read about Pat & Stick’s ice cream range in Gourmet Traveller about, oh, 6 years ago I knew that I had to try it. Unfortunately, their products were not stocked in Melbourne so I’ve had to wait until now for one of their sandwiches. Apparently the Caramel Pecan is one of the more popular so that’s what we got. It was good but, really, it could be SOOOOO much better. The cookie could and should have been nuttier and it reminded me of the cheap peanut cookies that you can get at Aldi. I hope the rest of the range is better but I’m more inclined to make my own next time.

Then there was the Green & Black’s chocolate fountain. A pile of skewered marshmallows to hold under the flowing river of chocolate, it was funny watching a woman tentatively reaching her skewer towards the waterfall and pulling back just before it touched. So good that I had two and would have gone back for a third before heading out the door before remembering that this afternoon was already going to mean extra gym time.

We enjoyed Dello Mano’s gourmet brownies so much last year that I made a beeline as soon as I spotted their sign. Of course, it helps when you have an owner like Bien who is passionate about their product and wants you to enjoy it as much as they do (unlike a certain fussy helper at the King Island Dairy stall).

We bought a few chocolates from The Chocolate Master but haven’t tasted them as yet as we are fairly chocolated out right now.

Who else has been and blogged (so far)? I have to slowly make my way through all these posts over the next few days…
Jeroxie
I Eat Therefore I Am
Travelling in Mary Janes
My Food Trail
Iron Chef Shellie
Green Gourmet Giraffe
Kitchen Wench
…It Pleases Us
Melbourne Gastronome
MEL: hot or not
The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua
Sweet Cherrie Pie

We had to dodge puddles to get there but we did make it to the Connex Sizzle yesterday. Not great weather for a BBQ but good news for people with prams as we didn’t have to weave our way through heavy crowds and contend with dirty looks.

We purchased a $35 ticket for 4 tasting plates and I already knew which 4 dishes I wanted to try.

This was A’s selection as he had heard so many good things about Maha – the Lamb Kebab by Shane Delia. Pretty tasty but not much about this particular kebab would induce me to pick it over a roadside or cheap cafe kebab.

Mmmm, this Bebere Marinated Chicken, Smoked Tomato, Cucumber & MInt Salad in Pita Bread by Matt Wilkinson of Circa was really yummy. They could have done me a favour by using less fatty chicken. I’m not usually someone who fastidiously picks away every bit of skin but I estimate that I pulled off about 20% of each chicken piece.

By far the most disappointing of the four, I had had such high hopes for Teage Eqard’s BBQ Char Siu Pork with Plum Sauce and Marinated Beanshoots but it failed to convert. I found the pork just that side of overdone and lacking in flavour, especially since the name had my mouth watering at the thought of real char siu. A pity as there was a big push on pork products at the festival with a 2-for-1 offer that was being handed out by the lovely ladies.

Whoa!!! Dallas Cuddy of Verge‘s Miso Marinated Prawn with Salad of Soba Noodles, Spring Onions and Ponzu was the absolute pick of the bunch. I could have eaten this ten times over, no joke, and I even crunched down the tail, shell & all. Even my one year old couldn’t stop munching on the prawns and slurping down the soba.

We also managed to drag (!) ourselves down for Wicked Sunday today however I have to say that having been here twice now, this event just doesn’t excite me. I love chocolate, I love cakes, I love gelati but…y’know how it is when you just feel…well, nothing. There are heaps of coffee stalls so this is heaven for any coffee connoisseurs, but still how many cups can one person have? I guess some more than others! What I can say is that I LOVED the way St Ali set up their stall:

and also, this could get REALLY confusing…

When an opportunity like this comes along, you HAVE to grab it with both hands!

I love living in the city, especially in summer, because you can stumble across so many festivals and events that you may otherwise be unaware of. Throughout the week, I had stopped a number of times to watch the Aerial Antics performed by The Flying Trapeze and their participants. All the sessions were completely booked out but as I walked by on Wednesday, something drew me closer and prompted me to ask about it anyway. It turned out that there was a cancellation for 11am the next morning! My wonderful parents came to the party by caring for E and my wonderful husband agreed to not seeing E for two whole days while he stayed with mum & dad.

So now that I was willing and able, I was nervous about whether I could actually perform the moves required. I didn’t know whether I should have breakfast or not, figuring that I would need the energy but not wanting to bring it up again following the upside-down time! Along with 11 other participants, I was taken through the practice bar once before we climbed the ladder and had two tries without the catcher and two with. I had joked with one of the trainers, Dylan, that the most important part was listening but once I was on that bar, hearing any of the instructions that Scott was calling out was near impossible with all the blood rushing to my head and my mind trying to make sense of the world swooshing by.

This was the BEST adrenaline high ever! I could not wipe the grin off my face for the rest of the day nor stop regaling my husband about the morning (thanks for listening, babe). I also wolfish devoured half of A’s Lords of the Fries dinner.

A huge thanks to Dylan & Scott for being so much fun, and an even bigger thanks to the other Scott for shooting the video so that I could share it with my family & friends, none of whom were there (or aware that I was attempting this).

Something that Neil wrote reminded me of a story from my quick visit to the local supermarket a few weeks back. Occasionally the checkout staff wil not know what a certain fruit or vegetable item is, especially if they are of the more exotic variety for a supermarket item – pomegranate, persimmon, starfruit – and that’s okay with me. This evening, the girl reached the last item in my basket, a bulb of baby fennel. She waved it at me and stated “This is garlic, right?”

That makes me sad.

On a different topic, we visited the Good Food Show last Friday and can I just say what a disappointment that was? $25 per person for entry but there was nothing new to discover. Like others, we tried to purchase individual Boscastle pies but they were only selling them in variety packs, we were rushed out of the Nestle Noir tent after sampling one piece although there was no line, there just seemed to be a general lack of enthusiasm from those manning the stands.

One funny thing though was the Asian stand selling Jasmine rice. They were giving out samples of rice served with a red curry and one woman came up and said “Can we have some curry without the rice? My husband doesn’t eat rice”. You can imagine the look on the server’s face!

There are so many events on this weekend that one hardly knows how to spend one’s time – the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, the Antipodes Festival, the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, the 12th FINA World Championships. As much as I love the latter two, I couldn’t go past the International Flour Festival that took place this weekend as part of the food festival.

The YUZU catering company does some really inventive and tasty food. We had the seafood okonomiyaki to kick off our afternoon and a side dish of sun balls (behind the prawns), which are like arancini with an asian kick – rice, shitakes, sesame seeds.

Next up, a ‘Paesan’ pizza from Pizza Farro who specialise in spelt pizza bases which are lighter in texture and great for wheat-intolerant pizza lovers.

I have never been a big fan of Mexican food but assumed that I hadn’t tried any authentic yet. Los Amates claims to be ‘the place where Mexicans come to eat’ however their Sopes didn’t do much to win me over. The handmade case is slightly sour in flavour and the refried bean, salsa and cheese topping tasteless. Is it just that my tastebuds are not tuned into Mexican food or is there a place someone can recommend me that would awaken them?

Alaysa Turkish Restaurant had a yummy looking stand filled with boreks and thick fluffy-based pizzas.

I had been craving naan and curry for some weeks now so it was fortuitous that Tandoori Den Camberwell was there. We shared a combination platter which had a scoop of each curry (butter chicken, dhall, vegetable, beef vindaloo), 2 samosas, rice and a piece of naan. Butter chicken is still my favourite but their beef vindaloo was up there too.

AMES had a stand that was selling curries and stews the like of which I had never come across. Unfortunately, we had had our fill and couldn’t try all these out

It was a great day overall but I can’t understand why there was pretty much only one stall representing each cuisine when Melbourne has some of the most amazing restaurants around. If it’s okay to have several bread stalls, then why not two or three Japanese food stands or more than one stall making roti. Surely there would not be too much overlap? Maybe that’s something to consider for next year…