YumTable from Madewell Enterprises on Vimeo.

Daily deal sites have really taken off and I subscribe to a few of them. It does cross my mind whether anyone still pays full price for a massage or facial when you can get anywhere from 60% upwards off a treatment through these sites. Of course, the trick is waiting until a deal comes up for your neck of the woods and then trying to get a booking once you have purchased the deal. I just made use of some of my vouchers yesterday and I had too book for June and August. That’s far too long to wait for a facial or massage, especially for someone like me – I just want everything NOW. Because of this, I have only purchased one restaurant-related deal so far. I just don’t plan that far in advance for meals and, whilst I will book weeks ahead for special occasions, I would much rather be able to just decide on the day depending on what cuisine I feel like. For me, apps like Urban Spoon or Yelp (when overseas) have been the best way to locate good eating options.

Then this week, I learned about a new website, “Yum Table“, that provides live deals for restaurants. I have been busy checking out what deals are available in my area and they range from ’25% off the bill if you’re out before 7pm’ (good for me with two children) to ‘buy one, get one main meal free’ to ‘complimentary glass of wine’. The booking is made online and you get an SMS confirmation once it goes through. It looks like you can plan up to 2 days in advance for your day/night out and that would suit m perfectly. It seems like a good way for restaurants to attract diners on slower nights too and I’m sure the better the deal, the better the response they will get.

I was all ready to make a booking today for a local place that I’ve been wanting to visit for some time now but after a second look, realised that the restaurant offering the deal was ‘The Living Room‘ in Templestowe and not ‘Living Room‘, Malvern. Guess I’ll be making some suggestions of restaurants to add!

I have been sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation of their iPhone app and installed it as soon as it launched.I think we may be heading to Fenix soon…or Lulo…or…I’m terribly bad at making these kinds of decisions!

(On a side note, I also love the teaser video!)

Thinking I was running just a few minutes early, I found a third of the table already filled when I arrived. I managed to score a seat near Thanh and Claire, whom I first met about 2 years ago at Jamon Sushi, as well as Penny, Billy, Adrian and Emily.

So the night started with the national drink of Brazil, a Caipirinha, which I declined as I was going to be driving. After a long pause, during which we waited on a few late arrivals, the amuse-bouche of Wagyu short ribs with soy glaze and smoked eel arrived, much to the relief of all those growling stomachs whose owners had been pitifully crying out ‘I’m SO hungry. Where’s the food?’. This was accompanied by the Argentinian NV Familiar Schroeder Brut-Rose ‘Rosa de Los Vientos’, which I had a sip of thinking it’s just a sip. Talk about melt-in-your-mouth – I think that little cube of beef was falling of my little starter fork. The little potato gem could have brought its family and I would have been happy to house them all.

Next up was octopus with a mixed melon terrine, squid ink gnocchi and black garlic puree accompanied by a Barossa Valley 2006 Rockford Semillon ‘Local Growers’. The terrine looked just like my mum’s kueh lapis with its alternating layers of red and pink but it was the black garlic sludge that got the most oohs and aahs.

Until then, I was wondering where the Brazilian influence had been hiding so I was looking forward to the next dish, titled Acarajé, a traditional Brazilian street food. This is normally a deep-fried black-eyed pea patty stuffed with tomatoes and a spicy paste of dried shrimp, ground nuts and coconut milk but Steer gave us a restaurant (read ‘deconstructed’) version of it served with a soft shell crab leg and prawn. Even knowing that Brazilian food is quite eclectic and influenced by many cuisines from around the world, the spicy paste was so reminiscent of a laksa paste that I still wondered which came first. How can you not love this dish with all that deep-fried tastiness sitting atop the spicy paste? This was served with what was my favourite wine of the night – a 2007 Laplace Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh Sec from France. I should mention that by this stage I had cajoled my husband to take a train in and drive me home so all was well.

I think what was the dish of the night for just about everyone was the assiette of mushrooms – an array of pickled, braised and sauteed wild and seasonal mushrooms, duxelle tortellini and field mushroom puree. All I could think of when I was eating this was that my boys would have fallen over themselves to get to it. I would have had to draw the line for my 3 year old with the 1962 Carlo Peregrino Marsala Vergine Riserva though!

I have to say that the Marsala Vergine and the açaí sorbet confused instead of clearing my palate and my stomach had expectations that the meal was coming to an end. But no, there was a dish of roasted duck breast with caramelised witlof, confit duck leg boudin, smoked brazil nut and quinoa. I offered Adrian two slices of the duck breast but after trying it, I was ready to shout ‘give it back!’. The sausage slices however did not stand a chance against that and the sweet crunchiness of the witlof and I would have been happy to give them away. Oh, as well as the 2005 Martinus Estate Pinot Noir from New Zealand which I simply found too dry and intense.

Taking a breather at this point to step away from the Chef’s table that we were at, I had a chance to admire the decor and the artwork, as would be required when you’re sharing a site with The Olsen ‘Art Series’ Hotel, of Cezary Stulgis. I was quickly called back to enjoy the action of serving the Churrasco, whereby executive chef Stacy Thompson and his team gave each of us a turn to grab the meat with tongs as they walked around the table slicing it. A platter each of rump and sirloin slices were then brought to the table and served with feijoada, a black bean and chorizo stew, and chorizo stew and fresh orange slices. I found the rump most enjoyable of the three cuts and it still made me salivate despite protestations from the groaning stomach. I’m sure the feijoada is great but I think it was just too heavy for me by this stage. I also wasn’t taken with the only Brazilian wine of the night, a 2005 Miolo ‘Gran Lovara’.

The comeback arrived in a BIG way with dessert – a petit gateau de dulce de leche served with caramel fondant, a flourless (?) pistachio cake, cubes of goiabada (guava paste) and açaí sorbet. I want the recipe for that gateau!!! STAT! NV Chambers Muscadelle ‘Old Vine’ Classic.

Finally, our night finished off with little brigadeiro truffles made of condensed milk, butter and cocoa powder then dusted with either coconut or cocoa. I don’t have a photo but I can report that many took seconds for the road when the plate was passed round again. This was followed by a digestive, 1998 Chiyo Shuzo ‘Genshu Koshu’ sake. It smelled and tasted medicinal -herbal and bitter. Sommelier Raúl Moreno Yagüe said that it would settle our stomachs so I drank it in the same way that I might drink a herbal soup that mum brews for its cooling qualities – holding my nose.

I already want to bring my brother to try out the place but enough about the food already. There was also a surprise announcement when we were there – Steer are offering two bloggers an opportunity to undertake a 2 week stage or internship to experience a little of what goes into running a restaurant. Only a small taste, of course, but what an interesting opportunity for putting out your tentacles and getting a feel for the industry, especially if one is considering foraying from their current career path. The decision was made to come to a decision as to who would participate by COB Friday. Am I contemplating it? As with most, the concern was being able to put the time into doing it. But also, the other question is do I want it more than the four hands that went up when the question was asked?

Others who were also there included Joyce, Joanna, Ben and Phyllis, Tristan, Neil, Matt. I hope I didn’t miss anyone…please let me know if I did.

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

My photos are all dim and blurry so I haven’t taken the trouble to upload them here. My favourite dish of the night was the scallops wrapped in speck, capers & raisin vinaigrette. This was followed closely by the crispy school prawns sauteed with chilli & garlic – imagine having a bowl of these in front of you while watching the Saturday night movie! – then tuna tartare with crushed green pea salad (my husband’s favourite), the boudin noir, smoked tomato & parsley salad and finally the silk purse from a slow’s ear, ravigote & green sauce.

As you can tell, I was already delighted with the meal so far however I was also getting quite full so skipping dessert wouldn’t have bothered me in the least. However, my husband overruled me and ordered two – the coconut sago, meringue, coconut sorbet and the petit fours (hazelnut chocolate, salted caramel) – and boy am I glad that he did! The coconut sago turned out to be one of the loveliest desserts I’ve had in a long time. So much that I popped into Laguna the next day to buy a pack of sago to recreate it at home.

One of the best aspects of the meal for us was being served by the staff at Cumulus. Not only were they knowledgeable but they actually appeared happy to be there, somewhat of a rarity these days in the customer service field.

Here’s my version of the Cumulus dessert. Sago drizzled with coconut milk sweetened with a palm sugar syrup served with softly whipped egg white and Serendipity’s Coconut & Kaffir Lime sorbet:

Today Ben and I finally thought we would try out a relatively new place in Glen Waverley on Springvale Road called Yum Cha Inn. We checked out the menu, and it seemed an interesting concept where the yum cha menu is on a sheet of A4 paper and you get to select how many serves of each item you would like to order. The idea then is your order is made up for you and brought directly to your table, so the food is nice and hot off the steamer, stove, oven, etc.

So Ben and I went through the list and picked our favourites like the “siu mai”, and “har gow”, “char siu sow”, “loh bak gou”, another scallop dumpling (my Cantonese fails me here) and custard tarts (“dan tart”). And proceeded to wait in anticipation.

And we waited.

And waited.

Finally a dish appeared about 30 minutes later, it was “ham sui gok” and I thought, huh, did we order this? Perhaps we did, perhaps my English interpretation of “char siu sow” was actually “ham sui gok” so I thought ok, never mind, we’ll accept the dish. And we ate it. It had just the right amount of pork filling inside, not too much and not too little. The pastry was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a delicate sweetness that offset the savoury filling.

And then we waited again.

Finally another two dishes appeared, a green-coloured dumpling dish and another with beancurd. Now I was definitely certain I didn’t order these and so we checked with the wait staff, and sure enough it wasn’t our’s. My heart sank as I realised we’d have to wait again for the rest of our meal.

An hour after we had walked through the door, I finally asked about our order and made it quite clear that the wait had been unacceptable. We were assured our order was only 2 minutes away and they apologised for a mix up in the kitchen. Strike 1, they had not kept the customer informed regarding the unusual delay.

We finally got our dumplings and remaining order, except the “loh bak gou”. Upon enquiry we were told they had run out of that particular dish. One would have thought that they would have informed us earlier so we could order alternatives. This was strike 2. Our “char siu sow” then surprisingly made an appearance! We were informed the “ham sui gok” we had earlier wasn’t actually our’s. Oh well, so be it, they had made the mistake and it was not our fault that we had already eaten it. Pretty sure they charged us for it anyway.

When we did make alternative orders of “char siu bau” and the lotus wrapped steamed glutinous rice to replace the “loh bak gou”, the order only took 5 minutes to arrive at our table, proving that the 50 minute wait was simply unnecessary.

Apart from the terrible wait time, the food in general was only fairly average. The highlight was the very flaky pastry on the custard tarts which I loved.

The restaurant gave us complimentary drinks and took 10% off our bill to compensate for the very long wait we had to endure. However needless to say it will be a while before we will venture into Yum Cha Inn again.

Friday afternoon turned out to be a great time to go as we didn’t have to queue at all. The busiest stand by far was the Press Club/Hellenic Republic & Maha one, probably as a result of George’s high profile after Masterchef Australia. Or possibly because it was three stands in one. Indeed, as we waited for our Lamb Kustilji we continually heard ‘Masterchef’ or ‘George’ being dropped in every conversation. The man himself was there behind the counter but he didn’t seem especially friendly. On the other hand, Shane Delia was all smiles and “yalla, yalla!”, welcoming everyone to their stand.

Maha’s Lamb Kustilji: crispy lamb ribs, roast nuts & spices, lemon & yoghurt. A really fun, stand up & eat kind of dish.

The Press Club/Hellenic Republic & Maha stand:

We had a quick chat to the lovely Frank Camorra at Movida, who recommended his slow-cooked cuttlefish with chorizo & chickpeas. I personally would have preferred to try the braised beef with spanish paprika, saffron & potatoes but A. happily slurped down this dish.

I was really excited about Nobu’s black cod with miso, having read so much about it. And thankully, it was everything I expected and more.

One of my absolute favourite “sandwiches” is the char siew pau so when I saw Circa’s BBQ She Wagyu, steamed bun, pickled carrot, spring onion & hoisin I was imagining a classy cross between the humble char siew pau, pekind duck pancakes & banh mi, if that makes any sense at all! It had good strong flavours and came SO close, but in the end it just wasn’t quite there yet. Maybe it was the steamed bun not having the right texture – it was neither fluffy enough for a pau nor crunchy enough for a baguette – or maybe there was too much of the hoisin sauce…something.

Our next stop, Verge, for the milk chocolate delice, coconut & basil, salted caramel popcorn which looked so beautiful I couldn’t go past it. Rich, rich, rich! (whisper: actually I preferred the brownies below)

Lots of stands that you could sample goods at, chat to the producers. We didn’t have a lot of time away from our son but even so we managed to do two rounds of the Exhibition Building and covered most of these. We bought outstanding brownies from Dello Mano, a Brisbane-based company. Each 50g little square was $6 but pretty delish, although
A. loyally agreed that mine were as good if not better =)

There are actually queues forming in Melbourne! We are used to seeing queues in Paris or Tokyo but today, for pretty much the first time we remember, there was a queue to get into Koko Black in the Block Arcade and the new Lindt Cafe on Collins St. The Lindt store is so new that it hasn’t made it into their website yet.

The Lindt Cafe is set in a beautiful building – high ceilings with a little balcony that runs along both sides and across the back of the second storey, book cases set along the entire length of it. My idea of heaven really – a chocolate cafe below and books above. I wonder if you’re allowed up there. Anyway, no cakes or chocolates this time as I’ve tried a few from the Sydney store. But the macarons (which they call delice) tempt me and so I ask for the hazelnut, milk chocolate and roselli. As an afterthought, I say “You should give me the broken passionfruit one too” and they do. Mmmmmmm, thin crunchy shell with a chewy interior then the creamy ganache.

I’ll make them soon, hon, I promise…

Too good and had us licking our lips for the rest of the trip. It’s a pity we didn’t get to go back for seconds =(