cuisine

German FFOF

Hallo! It’s been a while since FFOFs for us. A FFOF (Flickr Fuck Off Feast) is a meal where we cook food that that relate to a particular theme. Alastair and I missed the Greek FFOF due to parental issues (mine came to visit) so I was determined to make the next one. The theme this time was German.

I found it a difficult theme and it took me a lot of googling before I settled on the dishes that I was going to make –
“>zwiebelkuchen (onion pie)
and
“>hasenpfeffer

“>(sour rabbit stew)
.

I woke up on Saturday with a very sore throat – the first time that I’ve been sick this year. I had been very proud of my immune system up to that day. Bro and I headed out to pick up groceries, and I started cooking when I got home. Disaster. I haven’t had such a bad day in the kitchen for a long time! I was sick. My head was fuzzy. I broke a glass. I made the pastry for my pie, but my butter didn’t seem cold enough and I forgot to add salt. When I went to blind bake my crust, I forgot to put baking paper between the pastry and my baking weights (beans and rice). I realised my mistake after it had been in the oven for five minutes. By then it was too late – the pastry had melted just enough to trap all the small grains. #$@%$&$(*#@$@

I was not a happy baker! I must admit that I had a little tantrum and refused to start again. Fortunately, I still had the rabbit stew.

I combined two recipes that I found online (
“>this one
and
“>this one
), but focussed on the first one. I found it a bit strange. The recipe said to mix 1/2 cup of the marinade with 1/4 cup of toasted flour. That gets added to the pot, in goes the rabbit, and it stews until the meat is tender. Well, there wasn’t any liquid in my pot after I did all that, so I had to add a fair amount of water. It made me wonder how good the recipe was.

German FFOF

Rhys and Kath were the hosts for the evening and they provided us with a mug of mulled wine when we arrived. Lovely! It was perfect for such a cold, rainy night. The mug on the right belonged to Kath’s grandmother – dating back to the 50s!

German FFOF

Jaye and Tim bought some appetizers – blue cheese with a slice of pear. I really like blue cheese with a bit of fruit.

German FFOF

The next dish on offer was something that I doubt will be topped in any FFOFs to come. Tim made beer soup. Yep, beer soup. It consisted of a six pack of German beer, sour cream, sugar, and cinnamon. It was really sweet, very creamy, but with a beer after taste. NASTY. It was wrong, just wrong. And what a waste of beer!

Rhys had made some nice bread rolls that we somewhat spoilt, as we ate them with the beer soup (desperately trying to mask the taste of the soup, I suspect).

German FFOF

Fortunately, the rest of the food was more palatable. Jaye made potato dumplings, with a peach inside. Apparently it was a side or a main – our opinion that it was dessert. The dumplings were served with a brown sugar and butter sauce, and they were rather nice, although quite heavy and stodgy.

German FFOF

We then moved on to my bunny stew. The bunny was okay. The recipe said that it was an acquired taste – I certainly agreed! It had a herby, spiced flavour, with a sour after taste, and unfortunately it was a rather unappetisingly beige brown. Rhys and Kath provided some “German” potatoes.

German FFOF

The next course was Pete’s kartoffelpuffers (potato pancake). They were fried in lard and then topped with cranberry sauce. So good, but so bad.

German FFOF

And finally, when we thought we couldn’t eat any more, we finished off with dessert – apple strudel – from Pete and Jodes.

Another FFOF over, and a good time was had by all. This one was particularly memorable due to the beer soup. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget how it tasted!

Dai Duong

On the Sunday of my Bro’s birthday weekend, we went to yum cha. He woke up feeling a bit nauseous (hung over), but when I suggested that we reschedule yum cha, he bravely said that he would eat through the pain.

What a trooper!

When it comes to yum cha, we used to go to Golf Leaf in Sunshine. One day, on a whim, we tried Dai Duong because it was closer to home. Not only is it closer, but the restaurant is huge, so there’s no problem getting a table. Food comes out incredibly quickly, particularly if you get there early, and within five minutes of sitting down, our table is normally full of dim sum.

These photos aren’t actually from our last visit, but we usually eat the same things whenever we have yum cha anyway.

Dai Duong yum cha

Chicken feet/fung jiao is my Bro’s favourite. We always get two, one basket for him, and one for everyone else.

Dai Duong yum cha

The prawn dumplings/har gow are pretty good.

Dai Duong yum cha

Pork dumplings/sui mai – steamed dumplings with a pork filling in a wonton skin. Actually, I don’t know why I always get these. I don’t like them that much, and I could use the stomach space for other things!

Dai Duong yum cha

Probably my favourite (apart from the egg tarts) – lou mai gai/chicken and sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf.

Dai Duong yum cha

Deep fried goodness! These taro dumplings / wu gok have a wrapper made from mashed taro, and a savoury filling (pork and other assorted ingredients) inside. I really enjoy the crispy, flakey outside.

Dai Duong yum cha

Another one of my Bro’s favourites – deep fried crescent dumplins / ham sui gok. These have a similar filling to the taro dumplings, but the wrapper is made with glutinous rice.

Dai Duong yum cha

Shrimp rice noodle rolls/cheong fun. I’m surprised to see that we got the shrimp ones for a change. I think they didn’t have the beef (which I prefer).

Dai Duong yum cha

Dessert tofu / dou fu fa – the tofu is pretty silky, but I thought that the sugar syrup could use a little more sweetness and ginger.

Dai Duong yum cha

And finally, yum cha isn’t over until I’ve had an egg tart. It doesn’t matter how full I am, I can always fit at least one in!

The prices are fairly standard and range from $4.20 – $6.20 for a standard to a deluxe dish.

Dai Duong Restaurant
Shop 5/ 64 Hopkins St
Footscray
Phone: (03) 9689 9899

Gills Diner

Groin grabbingly good! – Ben

To continue the celebration of my Bro’s birthday weekend, we headed to Gills Diner last Saturday night with a few of his friends. The quote above is from our pal, Ben, who requested that I post it on my blog sometime. He is a very articulate man indeed.

Gills Diner is a warehousish space which has been described as part school room. I got the school vibe while there, probably due to the wooden chairs, wooden tables, and school style heaters. Unlike school however, Gills is hippity, hip, hip.

The menu is on a large blackboard on the back wall. It’s cooler and funkier than having a paper menu, but a bit problematic if you have bad eyes (like me). We were seated just far away for it to become difficult to read after a glass (or two or three) of wine.

We were advised not to order a main and a starter each, so we got four starters to share between the nine of us.

Gills Diner

The first one was the farmhouse terrine with chutney ($15). It was delicious, but I’m glad that we were sharing. It was a rather large slice!

Gills Diner

We also had a plate of antipasto ($22). On the plate was little fried fish (anchovies? whitebait?), pickled vegetables, bread with pate, slices of a rolled up chicken thing with stuff in the middle, and fried cheese. Crumbed, deep fried cheese! Crispy but gooey, it was the best thing on the plate just due to the fact that it was fried cheese.

Gills Diner

And we got two plates of one of the specials – chorizo and calamari. It was pretty simple, but good.

Gills Diner

Bro had the roasted quail with saffron gnocchi ($25). All those peas looked a bit scary but it was a good dish.

Gills Diner

Alastair had the rabbit saddle, prosciutto rolled and stuffed with walnuts and dates on chickpea stew ($33).

Gills Diner

And I had the risotto with porcini and forest mushrooms and tallegio ($23). Oh, yum. I tried four other mains (we rotated our plates so we could have a taste of what everyone was eating!) and I thought that I had ordered the best dish. I was happy when it made its way back to me! The mushrooms gave the risotto an earthy flavour, and the rice had the right amount of “bite”. The buttery tallegio was delicious, particularly where it had melted into the risotto.

Gills Diner

And finally, Lisa and I had to have dessert. We had been eyeing up the churros with chocolate ($10) the whole night. Unfortunately, for me, it turned out to be a disappointment. There was no mention of it on the menu, but the chocolate was flavoured with orange. Ew!! Personally, I think that chocolate and orange should stay as far away from each other as possible. Down to chocolate and orange! I couldn’t even eat the churros on their own, because they didn’t taste right without chocolate on them. Boo. Fortunately, Alastair doesn’t have choc/orange issues, so he happily finished off the churros, despite being “too full for dessert”.

Even though I had my issue with the churros and chocolate, we had a really good night. I enjoyed the food and atmosphere and would happily go back. Maybe no churros next time though!

Gills Diner
Gills Alley (rear of 360 Little Collins St)
Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9670 7214

Blush Foodroom (closed) – Happy Birthday, Bro!

It was Bro’s birthday on Friday – 08/08. How lovely that the Olympics were scheduled especially to celebrate his birthday!

On Friday night, we went to Blush Foodroom to kick off the eating weekend. Blush is located on a corner, in a cottage that was once a milk bar. Nowadays, it’s a split-level restaurant that also does a busy trade during weekend brunch time.

You may notice a strange blue twinge in my photos – it’s from a blue light that was outside the window.

Blush Foodroom

Alastair and I started off with the pork belly – twice cooked, served on a ginger and apple puree, with sesame seeds, spring onion and snow pea salad ($16.90). The pork belly was lovely and tender – initially I thought it was a tad salty, but it was just right when eaten with a bit of apple puree. The best part was the piece of crackling – like a salty pork chip! Yum!

Blush Foodroom

Pat had one of the specials – pea and ham soup served with a dijon crouton. I have a wee issue with peas (I don’t like them) so I didn’t have a taste.

Blush Foodroom

For mains, I had the Moroccan braised veal shanks on saffron mash, roasted baby root vegetables and served with a red peppercorn sauce ($31.90). Wow, this was huge! I found the meat very tender, but lacking in flavour. I would’ve liked a bit more oomph, particularly for something that was “Moroccan braised”. At least the mash was smooth and creamy.

Blush Foodroom

Pat and Alastair had the herb and garlic crusted lamb rump with dauphinois potatoes, orange and thyme braised fennel and crispy prosciutto served with a port wine jus ($31.90).

Blush Foodroom

And then, dessert. We all had separate ones (must have been feeling greedy that night). Alastair had the sticky date pudding ($13.50). The Boys decided that sticky date pudding is the best dessert – I don’t know if I agree with that assertion. I think creme brulee might be a winner for me. But Alastair’s sticky date pudding looked pretty good, particularly with the slowly melting ice cream….

Blush Foodroom

Bro had the cheesecake ($11.90) – on the menu it was raspberry and vanilla, but he was advised that it was unavailable and it was substituted with a Bailey’s version instead. It came with coffee bean syrup and caramelised banana.

Blush Foodroom

I had a chocolate and macadamia nut mousse with strawberry sauce and white chocolate ice cream ($12.90). The mousse was rich and smooth and I even enjoyed the ice cream, despite my general dislike of white chocolate. I also loved the crunchy chopped macadamia on top of the mousse too.

We spent the rest of the weekend eating. Stay tuned for more birthday eating adventures!

Blush Foodroom
43 Epsom Rd
Kensington 3031 VIC
Phone: (03) 9376 1222

Cafe Vue: Christmas in July cocktail night

Cafe Vue cocktail night

Reading Claire’s and Cindy and Michael’s posts on the Cafe Vue cocktail evening finally spurred me into making a booking! On Friday evenings, Cafe Vue hosts a cocktail evening, where you get five small dishes paired with five cocktails for $75. There is a different theme each month, and this month’s theme is Christmas in July.

Before I start, let me just say that I tried very hard to remember the ingredients of the cocktails and the food that we were served. Despite my best efforts, I may have got some details incorrect. So if I’m wrong about something – please excuse my terrible memory! I did note things down, but by the time the waiters had given their spiel and walked away, I had already forgotten most of what they had said. Doh.

Cafe Vue cocktail night

The first cocktail was the Alfons, a cocktail made of Dubonnet, sparkling wine and a twist of lemon peel to add a citrus note. It was sweet and refreshing – a tasty aperitif to kick off the evening.

Cafe Vue cocktail night

It was paired with two spiced duck and rye cookies. Layers of duck and pea pate were sandwiched between pumpernickel biscuits. There was a nice contrast between the smooth, soft pate and the soft crumbly biscuit. Very, very yummy.

Cafe Vue cocktail night

The next cocktail was the Christmas Punch, made of apple juice, vodka (I think) and a cranberry, cardamom reduction (the red syrup at the bottom). It was sweet, and seriously tasted just like an apple turnover – very uncanny!

Cafe Vue cocktail night

The food dish that it was paired with was a prawn cocktail. At the bottom of the glass was a mixture of mayo, tomato sauce and Worcester sauce, then avocado puree, cos lettuce and a couple of fresh prawns on top. You could taste the quality of the prawns, which were absolutely gorgeous, and the tangy sauce was so moreish. We all loved this. I’m thinking that prawn cocktails should make a comeback!

Cafe Vue cocktail night

Next up was the Flight of the Silver Fizz. This one was a change from the two previous cocktails that had been quite sweet. The Flight of the Silver Fizz was made with gin, maraschino cherry liqueur, lemon juice and topped with foamed egg whites. It was sour with a hint of lavender.

Cafe Vue cocktail night

It was paired with a turkey and vegetable broth. The turkey had been cooked for 12 hours before being cubed and served in the savoury broth with diced vegetables and a couple of mint leaves. On top was a lid of pastry. We were advised to break the pastry into the broth and make it all bready.

Cafe Vue cocktail night

Next was a Port Cobbler, made of port, cab sav, bitters and topped with a foam of clove syrup. It had a strong port flavour scented with cloves. We were advised not to eat the clove foam as it was quite bitter and just there for the aroma. This drink felt like something you should be drinking on a snowy evening while sitting next to a roaring fire.

Cafe Vue cocktail night

The dish with the Port Cobbler was a ham croque monsieur. Some of us had been hoping for bread, to soak up some of the alcohol, but instead it was a deconstructed version of a ham croque monsieur. On the bottom was cheese foam, then lettuce, gruyere cheese and ham sandwiched in a pistachio tuile. Unfortunate that there was no bread, but it was delicious! The crispy tuile, the cheese foam, good quality ham – yum!

Cafe Vue cocktail night

Naturally, we couldn’t finish the evening without egg nog. Very apt for the theme. The bottom layer was made from brandy and egg yolks while the top, white layer was rum, vanilla sugar syrup, and egg whites foamed up and topped with a bit of grated nutmeg. We all started by tasting the top layer, which was sweet and light. Then we tasted the bottom layer – “heeeellooo brandy!!”. The egg nog had a pretty strong kick!

Cafe Vue cocktail nightCafe Vue cocktail night

The last dish was dessert – a plum pudding souffle. It came in two parts, a tube of creme anglaise (thanks to the lovely Dany for holding it) and the main souffle.

Cafe Vue cocktail night

We were instructed to poke a hole in the souffle and pour in the creme anglaise. Look! Here’s me pouring in the anglaise AND taking a photo at the same time. After four cocktails! Hopefully you’re as impressed as I was. The souffle tasted just like a plum pudding, but as light and fluffy as you’d expect a souffle to be. It was delectable and sweet, and rather boozy by the end of it.

Ah, it was a fun evening. The theme was great, and I felt that the cocktails were particularly good for Christmas in July. Some cocktails an
d dishes stood out more than others, but there wasn’t anything that I really disliked. We will definitely go again in the future!

Cafe Vue
430 Little Collins St, Melbourne
Phone: 9691 3888

ecpot

It’s good to have friends who go with the flow. We know people who, when we’ve taken them out for a meal and start walking through a food court, haven’t batted an eye.

Now normally, I wouldn’t be recommending that you take your friends to a food court (not in Australia anyway). But there is always the exception and ecpot is it.

ecpot is a little restaurant that opens out to the food court in the QV building (it’s next to Officeworks and across from Dan Murphys). If you’re lucky, you get to sit in the restaurant. If you’re unlucky, then you sit in the food court! Despite the location, it’s not food court food.

There’s quite an extensive menu, but we go mostly for the clay pots. Clay pot cooking is a traditional Chinese way of cooking where clay pots are lined with raw rice and then ingredients are added on top. These are then cooked on a low heat. They take a bit of time to cook (a minimum of 15 minutes) but are well worth the wait. And if you order a couple of non clay pot dishes, you can request for these to come out first.

On our last meal there, we had several clay pots, plus other dishes off the menu.

ecpot

This was the stir fried rockling fillet with chinese broccoli ($15.80). The fish was tender and flakey, and the chinese broccoli still had a pleasing crunch.

ecpot

The stir fried kung po chicken ($15.80) was packed full of dried chilli and onions. With all the chillies, it looked like this dish was going to blow our heads off. Fortunately, it wasn’t too spicy and gave the chicken a slight kick.

ecpot

The chinese sausage on glutinous rice clay pot ($10.80) is one of my favourites. Chinese sausage (lap cheung) is a dried, hard sausage that is normally made from pork. It has a high fat content, is normally smoked and is sweeter than a normal sausage. This dish does benefit from some soy sauce. Sometimes the staff will automatically bring soy sauce, but sometimes you have to ask.

ecpot

The curry beef on rice clay pot ($10.10) is beef and potatoes on top of rice in a mild Japanese style curry. It’s so fragrant and moreish.

ecpot

This is the clay pot with beef in black pepper sauce ($10.10). The tender slices of beef and snow peas come covered in a peppery sauce on top of the rice.

The best part about clay pots is the layer of rice that cooks on the very bottom. It crisps up and becomes a crunchy rice cake. When you’ve reached the bottom, you must pry off the crunchy rice – it’s delicious!

ecpot

This was the deep fried calamari and scallops in spicy salt ($18.80). It’s hard to go wrong with anything deep fried and covered with a spicy salt! The calamari and scallops were tender and with a right amount of salt – not too much, not too little.

ecpot

Char kway teoh ($9.20) is one of my favourite things to eat. The version at ecpot is full of chinese sausage, prawns, fish cake, squid and bean shoots and normally it’s a fairly decent version. The one we had on this occasion wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. I found it a bit lacking in spice and seasoning when normally it’s pretty spicy and tasty with the smokiness from the wok.

There’s no desserts, but there are some fancy (or odd) drinks (pictures of them are above the counter). We always finish off the meal with a mango sago drink, which is made with mango nectar, coconut milk/cream and sago which is a better combination than it sounds. Although, it has been remarked by others that it resembles frog spawn, so I think you need to like bubble drinks. Or else you enjoy sucking down frog spawn after a meal!

ecpot
QV Urban Market, Shop 7, Level 1, 210 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne
Phone: 9663 8319

Simply Spanish

It’s Friday, and I’m home today! This is not a fun at home day, this is more I’m home because there’s tradies on my roof and WHAT THE HELL IS THAT NOISE? Are they fixing the roof or whacking pigeons with a baseball bat? It sounds like the roof is going to cave in. Hopefully a spot of food blogging will take my mind off it…

I think I may have mentioned this previously, but South Melbourne Market is my favourite place to go for fruit and veg. It started operating in 1867, and went through a refurbishment and upgrade over the past couple of years. As part of the upgrade, new food stalls opened up on the Cecil Street frontage.

We popped into one of those newish ones, Simply Spanish, for brunch a few weeks back. The brunch menu had all the usual favourites, but with a little twist. For example, bacon and eggs came with a caramelised onion and tomato relish, scrambled eggs were served with sliced chorizo and eggs benedict had a saffron lime hollandaise.

Unfortunately we arrived too early for paella – a massive pan had just started cooking when we were seated. The smells kept wafting our way as we had our brunch, making me wish we had shown up just a little bit later!

Simply Spanish

Instead of paella, I had the Gypsy Eggs – soft poached eggs rolled in a Middle Eastern dukkah served with wilted spinach on grilled sourdough and a romesco spread ($15.50).

Simply Spanish

The eggs were perfectly poached – check out that oozy goodness! The sprinkled dukkah helped lift the eggs and complemented the capsciumish tasting spread on the toast.

Simply Spanish

Both of the boys had the Spanish claypot eggs with smoked chorizo ($16.50). This was a poached egg in a tomato and herb salsa, served in a claypot with toasted sour dough. This looked rich and full of flavour, although I noticed that the salsa seemed quite watery.

Simply Spanish

Unfortunately the coffee was a little lacking – I found it too sour to drink, much less enjoy! But the food was fine, and I’m sure that we will visit again. Perhaps next time we’ll time it right and try the paella!


Simply Spanish
116 Cecil Street,
South Melbourne 3205
Phone: 03 9682 6100

Journal Canteen: Ladies who Lunch

Isn’t it annoying how life always gets in the way? When I first started working in the city, my friend Emily and I had the intention of having lunch about once a month. With lots of stuff happening in both our lives, it was difficult to set a date and we skipped a couple of months. In April, we finally managed to get together again, and headed to Journal Canteen.

Journal Canteen

Journal Canteen is located in the Centre for Adult Education building, and used to be a vacant first floor classroom. The menu, written on a couple of blackboards around the room, changes often but generally comprises antipasto, a couple of main courses and a dessert.

On our visit, the main choices were orrechiette with peas, pancetta and fresh ricotta, chicken coletta with cucumber and tomato, stuffed peppers with green beans, and spaghetti with three meat ragu.

Journal Canteen

I had the spaghetti with three meat ragu ($18). The braised, shredded meat in the rich, tomato based sauce was nothing fancy, but it sure hit the spot.

Journal Canteen

Em had the stuffed pepper with green beans ($18). I’m not sure what the pepper was filled with – we were too busy yakking for me to find out!

Journal Canteen

And we got a wee salad.

Journal Canteen

To finish off, we each had a freshly filled ricotta cannoli ($4.50 each) and a complimentary stovetop espresso. The cannoli was perfect – the fat tubes, dusted with icing sugar, were wonderfully crunchy with just a touch of sweetness. A lovely end to a long overdue lunch.

Journal Canteen
253 Flinders Lane
Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9650 4399

Hong Kong BBQ & Seafood Chinese Restaurant

Phillip Island - The Nobbies

Phillip Island - The Nobbies

The Nobbies – Phillip Island

As mentioned in an earlier post, my mum and dad were over for a visit recently. Mum did manage to find the three surfaces that I had neglected to clean, but since she cleaned up as she complained, that was a-okay! Along with cleaning my poor neglected house, mum and dad also did our laundry… and the vacuuming… and took us out for meals… so I was sad when they left!

Phillip Island - The Nobbies

Phillip Island - The Nobbies

The Nobbies – Phillip Island

They entertained themselves most of the time, but we did a couple of touristy things with them. One of those things was driving down to Phillip Island to see the Penguin Parade. We got there quite early, and sat on the cold, hard, wet steps for an hour in the intermittent drizzle. Fortunately it didn’t rain too heavily, and because the sky was quite overcast the penguins came clambering out of the water on schedule. They were gorgeous little things, and it was very amusing watching them waddling up the beach.

And, of course, we ate. One evening we all headed down to Chinatown and ended up having a very uninspiring Chinese meal. The food was boring and cliché (think sweet and sour pork, and lemon chicken), prices were expensive for what was received, and service was disjointed and forgetful. Fortunately, mum and dad picked the restaurant, so we didn’t have to bear the complaints about how terrible it was. We only ate there because mum was fixated on eating lobster. After entering the restaurant, we realised that the lobster in the tank was too small, and decided not to have it after all! Goodness!

A different evening found us stopping in Footscray for dinner. Pat and I choose the Hong Kong BBQ & Seafood Chinese Restaurant merely because we have driven past many times and admired the roast ducks hanging in the window.

Hong Kong BBQ Restaurant

The bustling, brightly lit room painted with large murals won’t win any interior design awards, and there was a touch of griminess about the place. But there was a Chinese version of the menu, and the wait staff spoke Chinese, so Pat and I hoped that we had made a good choice. The fact that the restaurant was completely full was also a good sign.

Hong Kong BBQ Restaurant

Mum noticed a large lobster in the tank as we walked in. She hadn’t satisfied her lobster fixation yet, so we had to have it. The 3 pound lobster was cooked in XO sauce and noodles were $3 extra ($101.40 all up). My mum’s a smartie – before we ordered we had agreed that Alastair and I would pay for the meal!

Hong Kong BBQ Restaurant

We also had to try the roast pork ($19) and roast duck ($11.80). I didn’t eat any of the duck, but the roast pork was good! The skin was very crispy and the meat was flavoursome and porky.

Hong Kong BBQ Restaurant

Another dish was the deep fried flounder with spicy salt and chilli ($13.80). Oh boy, this was good. The entire fish was battered, deep fried and then covered in chilli laden salt and coriander.

Hong Kong BBQ Restaurant

We had a plate of stir fried water spinach (around $12 I think). Pretty simple, but tasty.

Hong Kong BBQ Restaurant

And our last dish was a plate of pickled duck’s feet and jellyfish ($14.80). The duck’s feet (at the bottom of the plate in the photo above) were deboned and pickled and I must admit that they were kind of strange. The feet were firm and chewy, and pretty tasteless. I found the webbing between the toes odd too – perhaps because most of my bird feet eating experience is with chicken’s feet, which obviously doesn’t have webbing. Still, the jellyfish and the pickled vegetables were good!

Even with the lobster, the total cost of the meal was still less than the dull one we had in Chinatown. There was a touch too much msg for my liking though, as I had the worst msg thirst that evening – it was like all the moisture had been sucked out of my mouth. Gak.

Hong Kong BBQ & Seafood Chinese Restaurant
118 Hopkins Street
Footscray VIC
(03) 9687 8488

Money Order Office (MOO)

In the middle of a long article in Epicure last Tuesday about what’s cutting-edge in haute cuisine, was this intriguing quote:

“Blumenthal has a PHD student at Nottingham university researching taste perception.

‘She’s found that when we are excited we taste far more acutely – this is good for the dining experience. Conversely if stressed chefs taste salt and sweet up to 50% less clearly they could easily over season.’ ‘”

Perhaps this could explain the rather salty experience that we had at Money Order Office (MOO) recently?

Alastair’s mother, Annette, and her husband, Terry, came for a visit a few weeks ago. Not only did we get the pleasure of their company, but they also insisted on taking us out to dinner before they left. Annette’s only requests were for a place with a view – perhaps by the river or the ocean. We took that into account… and ended up going to a restaurant that could not have any less of a view if it tried. Whoops!

MOO, is located in a laneway off Little Bourke Street, and occupies a basement area of the Old Money Order Office. The dining area is separated from the bar by wrought-iron gates, and despite the fact that the restaurant is down in a basement, it doesn’t feel small or claustrophobic. The decorator obviously knew the tricks of preventing the room from being a dim, enclosed space. There is a large mirror on the far wall of the restaurant, and rather clever rectangles in the booths against the walls are painted alternating stripes of a dark and gold/yellow colour, which creates an illusion of blinds covering a window.

MOO

For my entree, I ordered the scallops, which were seared and presented with Chinese whitebait and onion bhaji, hummus and shaved fennel ($20). There was rather a lot going on with this dish! The scallops were cooked nicely, but I wasn’t sure about them with the onion bhaji and hummus AND fennel. It was also a touch too salty.

MOO

Alastair had one of the specials that evening – fresh oysters. There were two different types – Sydney rock oysters and the other was Pacific oysters from Tasmania. I can’t remember which one was which now (Sydney large, Tassie small or was it the other way around?), but Alastair said that the smaller ones were tastier.

MOOMOO

Everyone else had either the scallops or the pork belly. The pork belly was braised and seasoned with cumin, and served with a pea pannacotta, crackling and pork jelly ($18). The long, thin stick in the picture was the crackling – rather novel, I thought! I’m not a big fan of peas, but I tasted some of the pannacotta and it was smooth and silky. The others mentioned that the pork belly was also a bit salty but otherwise good.

MOO

For my main, I ordered the rabbit – a braised leg and loin of rabbit, brioche, leek and field mushroom puree ($36). Like the scallops, there was a lot going on with the meal and again, it was just a bit too salty. But the rabbit was cooked well, and although the mushroom puree looked a bit… um… gross… it had a strong, pleasant flavour.

MOOMOO

Alastair had the roast lamb cutlet with lamb hotpot and curly kale ($38).

MOO

Annette had the gnocchi – and received rather large pan fried potato gnocchi with parmesan roast root vegetables ($32). This looked really interesting, although someone was rather generous with the salad garnish! You can just see a piece of gnocchi peeking out from under the greens in the left of the picture.

MOO

My Bro had the quail – a boneless quail wrapped in proscuitto with grilled cotechino sausage, quail egg and pedro ximenz jus ($35).

MOO

And last, Terry had one of the specials of the evening – a confit of rabbit leg. Again, someone was rather generous with the salad leaves. I can’t even see any rabbit in this picture!

Across the board, everyone found that their food was a bit too salty. Alastair and I have eaten at MOO before (about a year ago now) and didn’t have a problem with over seasoning at our previous meal, so I’m not sure if the saltiness was just a problem on this night. And let me clarify – it wasn’t salty to the point where the food was inedible, it was just enough for everyone to say, “This is a bit salty!” We still had a good meal, but it could’ve been a really good meal if the seasoning had been toned down.

MOO

For dessert, I had a fig tart tartin with red wine ice cream and muscat reduction ($14). When the dessert came out, the waiter advised me that they didn’t have any red wine ice cream and substituted it with coconut. That was fine by me, and I rather enjoyed the coconut ice cream. The fig tart tartin was slightly too caramelised, and damn hard to eat with a spoon!

MOO

Alastair and Pat both went for chocolate – a rich chocolate and expresso marquise with fresh raspberries and raspberry sauce ($14). It looked very decadent. I don’t know why I didn’t try any since I normally steal a bite from what Alastair’s eating. Perhaps I was kept busy by trying to cut my fig tart tartin with a spoon!

MOO
MOO

Annette and Terry skipped the sweet stuff and shared some cheese instead. With the selection of cheeses, came fresh grapes, quince paste and apricot and walnut bread ($22).

Apart from the glitches mentioned, we did have a wonderful time. The ambiance there is great – not too dark, not too bright, not too loud, and not too quiet. Service was friendly without being overbearing or too casual. Oh, and I almost can’t believe that I’ve gone the whole post without mentioning the wine list. The menu is 4 pages long but the wine list stretches to something like 18 pages. It would help to go to MOO with someone who knows something about wine!

Money Order Office (MOO)
Basement 318, Lt. Bourke Street, Melbourne
Phone: 03 9639 3020