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Southgate Moveable Feasts: Pure South, Waterfront, The Deck

The Deck

Disclosure: Alastair and I attended courtesy of Southgate and Fuller PR.

It was a cold, wet, winter’s night… that could be the beginning to a really bad novel, but it also perfectly describes Melbourne right now. And it was a cold, wet, winter’s night when Alastair and I headed down to Southgate recently for one of their Moveable Feasts.

Southgate Moveable Feasts is basically a progressive dinner/lunch, where diners have three courses at three different eateries in Southgate. The program is available for Sunday lunch and Monday dinner until early August, for $65 or $85, and a glass of wine accompanies the entree and main courses, and coffee/tea with dessert.

There’s 13 or so participating restaurants for the Moveable Feasts, and the ones that Alastair and I visited were Pure South, Waterfront and The Deck.

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Din Tai Fung

Din Tai Fung

So the latest hot opening in Melbourne is Din Tai Fung, which has opened on Level 4 of Emporium. I’m sure we’re all aware of Din Tai Fung – the mega dumpling chain that started in Taiwan over 40 years ago and now has restaurants in 12 different countries. Sydney itself has 7 branches, and the Melbourne one opened only last month.

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The Pint of Milk

egg

If I see something a bit different or unusual on a brunch menu, I’m like a fly to honey. There’s no way I can pass it up, even if it’s not something I was initially feeling like eating.

So – have a look at this lovely egg yolk dribbling its way down that piece of toast. Isn’t that pretty?

This was my breakfast recently at The Pint of Milk, and right now it looks like a relatively normal dish of fried eggs and toast – right?

Let’s have another look.

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Cecconi’s

Table

Disclosure: I attended and dined courtesy of Cecconi and AMPR.

I suppose we’re officially in winter now, aren’t we? Well, let’s pretend that we’re still in autumn (I’d like to pretend that we’re not in winter anyway) as the other month I was invited to Cecconi’s for an autumn menu tasting.

Cecconi’s has been in the city for quite a long time now: apparently almost a decade, so it’s terrible that this was my first visit to the Flinders Lane location. I actually remember the Cecconi’s that was at Crown, quite a long time ago now – Alastair and I ate there with Annette and Terry not long after we moved to Melbourne.

They must be doing something right to have been around the Melbourne dining scene for so long and I was excited to finally pay them a visit.

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Hakata Gensuke

Hakata

I met Alastair for a quick dinner in the city after work one evening. It was a cold night and what better on a cold night than ramen? Not much, I tell you. So we took the opportunity to try Hakata Gensuke.

Fortunately it was early (ie just about 6pm) as I have heard stories about the queues at Hakata Gensuke. Even so, we did wait outside – fortunately while it was cold it wasn’t raining – for about 5 minutes while we waited for seats to become available.

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Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen

Ramen noodles

Disclosure: We attended the soft opening courtesy of Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen.

Ramen in Melbourne has been gradually getting better as more ramen focussed restaurants have been opening up.

The latest is Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen (IKR) and a couple of weeks ago I attended the soft opening with Alastair. As you probably know, there are numerous styles of ramen with different regions having different variations. IKR’s style is tonkotsu which originates from the Hakata district of Fukuoka city in Kyushu. Tonkotsu is made from a pork bone base, cooked at high heat for a long period of time until the soup is opaque, milky and creamy.

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Prahran Market: Taste Prahran Market

Gelato top

Disclosure: I attended courtesy of Prahran Market.

Several weeks ago I wandered Prahran Market with a voucher booklet and a food paddle collecting food when I was invited to attend the Taste of Prahran Market event, part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.

This event sells out extremely quickly each year, and now that I’ve done it, I can see why.

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Grey Goose: Taste by Appointment at Saint Crispin

Saint Crispin

Disclosure: Alastair and I attended courtesy of Grey Goose and f4 Consulting.

A few weeks ago, Alastair and I found ourselves in Collingwood, climbing possibly the steepest stairs in Melbourne to Saint Crispin’s private dining room.

The way up wasn’t much of a problem, but I did have a slight concern about how we would fare on the way down, considering we were there for Taste By Appointment, an evening created by Grey Goose to explore our personal tastes through a dinner and cocktail crafting class.

(Spoiler: the way down was absolutely fine, because the night was all rather classy and quite educational.)

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MFWF: Flavours of Asia at Caulfield Racecourse

Wonderbao

Disclosure: I attended the previous courtesy of Melbourne Racing Club

March is almost upon us – and you know what that means – it’s Melbourne Food and Wine Festival time! It officially kicks off on 27 February, and one of the first events happening is the Flavours of Asia Market Festival at the Sportingbet Blue Diamond Stakes Day at the Caulfield Racecourse.

On Thursday I attended a preview of the event. On the actual day, vendors will include Hammer & Tong, Hoy Pinoy, Wonderbao, Overdosa, Lankan Tucker, Uncle, Gogi and Eat the Chicken (menu at the bottom of this post) and a few of them were at the preview event to show us a sample of their food.

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