suburb

Buffs – Apollo Bay + the 12 Apostles

Loch Ard GorgeLoch Ard Gorge

When my parents were here for a visit, we did the drive down the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles. The weather was lovely when we set out in the morning, and also when we stopped in Apollo Bay for lunch. However, by the time we got to the Twelve Apostles, it was pissing down and bitterly cold. We hadn’t been expecting the weather, so hadn’t bought heavy coats with us. The wind and rain meant that we piled out of the car, quickly walked to the look out, took a couple of photos and then high tailed it back to the warmth of the vehicle!

Twelve ApostlesThe Twelve Apostles (or however many are left)

On the way to the Twelve Apostles, we stopped in Apollo Bay to stretch our legs and have some lunch. Normally when we’re in an unfamiliar place we wander around looking at the cafes/restaurants for a while – and then end up back at the first one we looked at! Strangely, on this occasion we were very decisive and stepped into the first cafe we came across – Buffs.

As it was still early for lunch, we got a table without any problems. The cafe/restaurant looked comfortable rather than stylish, with lots of wood panelling, a few funky lamps, and strange art on the walls.

Buffs - Apollo Bay

For my meal I had the spinach and ricotta gnocchi with roasted tomato, baby spinach, pinenuts and black olives ($15.50). Oh. My. God. Who spewed on my plate? Yes, that was my thought when the plate arrived at the table. Fortunately, while the presentation left a lot to be desired, it tasted much better than it looked. While the gnocchi wasn’t the best I’ve ever eaten, it was perfectly acceptable – relatively light and the topping had strong flavours that helped balance out all that cheese.

Buffs - Apollo Bay

Bro had the seafood chowder with fresh local seafood cooked in a bacon and potato soup ($23). It looks great – I think he would’ve preferred it to be a little less watery, but it was full of tasty seafood and flavour.

Buffs - Apollo Bay

Alastair had the fish and chips – fish fillets in a beer batter with chips and greek salad ($17.50). The fish looked crispy but I didn’t have a taste.

Buffs - Apollo BayBuffs - Apollo Bay

Mum had the warm chicken salad with a spicy plum dressing ($14.50) and my aunt had the open steak sandwich ($15). While they were visiting, my aunt and my mum kept encouraging me to take food photos. I think they thought it was a harmless exercise that kept me happy so they were keen to play along! Dad, on the other hand, was feeling contrary that day and wouldn’t let me take a photo of his food.

Buffs - Apollo Bay

We finished off lunch with a round of coffees. I was expecting the coffee to be terrible. I have no idea why (maybe because I’m a city snob??) but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Buffs
51 Great Ocean Rd
Apollo Bay VIC 3233
Australia
Phone: (03) 5237 6403

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

Hako

I’m one of those people who like lists. I like writing them, and ticking items gives me a little frisson of satisfaction. I’ll even add completed items to my lists so I get the pleasure of marking them off!

So it’s no surprise that I have a list of restaurants that I’d like to eat at. Due to lack of time, money, and lack of energy to organise a meal out, I tend to add more and hardly ever cross ones off! The fact that I don’t have strict criteria for places to make The List doesn’t help. Do other people like it? On The List. Does the food sound interesting? On The List. Do I like the name? On The List.

Okay, so that last statement isn’t true, but you get the general idea.

Hako was one of the restaurants on The List, and I’m happy to say that I’ve managed to tick it off! Alastair and I went for dinner several weeks ago, after a few hours wandering around a home ideas show (how terribly domestic and rather tragic for a Friday night!).

It was a rather chilly evening, and I was happy to see that there were free tables. The split-level premises is quite impressive, being a rather large and roomy space. The room’s white walls are offset with a very high matte black ceiling and dark floorboards. It all seems rather simple, but very cool.

Hako
(Terrible photos courtesy of my mobile, as my Bro borrowed my little camera when he went to Vegas!)

We started off with a plate of sashimi ($17.80 entrée size, $27.80 main size). We received salmon belly, tuna and some white fish…. We weren’t told what the fish was, and I neglected to ask! Nevertheless, the mystery fish, as well as the salmon and tuna was lovely and fresh. We could’ve happily eaten the main size (even with more food to come).

Hako

Our other starter was a plate of chargrilled chicken wings with plum paste ($10.88). The plate of 3 juicy wings were perfectly grilled and had a hint of sweetness along with a lot of smokiness. In fact, they had quite a distinctive taste…. Think smokey, sweet and grassy…..

Hako

For mains, Alastair had the ebi tempura ($17.80) which was soba buckwheat noodles in soup served with prawn tempura. The prawns had been stretched out before being battered and deep fried, which I thought made them resemble worms! They were served separately to the soup, which kept them crisp. However, Alastair dunked them in his soup as he ate them – heathen!

Hako

I had the unagi don – char grilled eel with rice and miso soup ($22.80). A generous portion of eel came to the table on top of rice. The eel was rich and tasty, with the fillets glazed in a sticky, sweet, dark sauce. I was rather satisfied with my meal and hunted down every last piece of rice and eel.

Service was charming. It wasn’t perfect, but the wait staff were likable and eager to please. We had such a pleasant evening that it made me wonder why it took me so long to get there. Hopefully I won’t wait so long to go back!

Hako
310 Flinders Lane, Melbourne,
Phone: (03) 9620 1881

De Bortoli

Last week was a busy one – work was unusually silly and my mother-in-law, Annette, was visiting.

De Bortoli

On Monday, Alastair and I took the day off and the three of us headed out to the Yarra Valley for a long lunch. Alastair had a new GPS unit to play with, so we entered a random road in the Yarra Valley to test it out. The GPS unit got us there – eventually – via the scenic route. Instead of taking the Eastern Freeway, we ended up driving through the windy, hilly roads behind the Valley.

De Bortoli

We decided to have lunch at De Bortoli, one of the prettiest wineries out in the Yarra Valley (in my opinion!). Our table was right by the window, giving us a beautiful view of the Great Dividing Range and the vines.

De Bortoli

After we had a chance to look at the menu, we were bought some bread and white bean puree. The bread was one of the best I’ve ever eaten. It was seriously amazing! The bread had been baked on the premises that morning, and the inside was moist and spongy. The crust was topped with crystals of rock salt, which crunched and gave off little bursts of saltiness. The bean puree was a nice complement, with a lovely fruity olive oil. We were given six generously sized slices of bread, and were offered more, which we had to regretfully decline due to lack of stomach space. It was a very regretful decline on my part. A week later and I’m still lusting after that bread!

De Bortoli

Annette’s starter was the pumpkin risotto – a risotto of carnaroli rice with pumpkin and pancetta ($17). Annette had been wavering between this and another starter, and asked the waiter what he thought of her two choices. He said the risotto without a second thought, and it was easy to see why. The dish was magnificent, intensely flavoured with pumpkin but also very creamy.

De Bortoli

Alastair had the wagyu bresaola which was thinly sliced and served with rocket, black pepper and shavings of parmesan ($18). The dried meat was sweet and tender.

De Bortoli

As for me, I ordered the insalata di gamberi which were char grilled prawns with Sardinian pasta ($19). The four prawns were large and juicy and generously dressed with olive oil. The pasta was a touch salty, but otherwise nicely flavoured with lemon and herbs.

De Bortoli
De Bortoli

For mains, Annette had the veal rib eye with green beans and salsa d’erbe ($34). Alastair had the duck – which was steamed and roasted in balsamic and pinot noir, then stuffed with lemon and sage and served with swiss chard, muscatels and pan juices ($34). Both looked really good and there were no complaints about either dish!

De Bortoli

My main was the ocean trout – the fillet was pan fried and served on top of a castelluccio lentil, roast vine tomato and herb salad ($32). The lentils were dressed with an anchovy and rosemary dressing. They had managed to crisp the skin without overcooking the fish and it was moist and tender. The lentils were perfectly cooked and the dressing complemented the fish well. As a bonus, the little tomatoes were a little burst of intense tomato flavour – yum!

De Bortoli

We also ordered a side of Italian fried potatoes with rosemary and garlic ($7). The potatoes were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside – perfect and very moreish.

De Bortoli

Afterwards we finished, we had a look at the dessert menu but soon realised there was no chance of fitting it in. We ordered coffees instead, and along with the coffees we received some biscotti and little cake things.

De Bortoli

After a quick walk around the winery, we headed back the long way to Melbourne. Yep, we tried the GPS unit again! Despite the extra travelling time, it was one of the most pleasurable lunches I’ve had in a while. The location, food and wine were wonderful, but as always with meals out, it was the company that was the best thing.

To visit the Yarra Valley & De Bortoli check out Wine Compass.

De Bortoli Winery & Restaurant
Pinnacle Lane, Dixons Creek
Yarra Valley, Victoria 3775
Telephone (03) 5965 2271

Brunches: Bunyip, Red Star, Panette and El Mirage

Bunyip coffee

Bunyip

We seem to visit South Melbourne every couple of weeks, probably because I like going to the market there. We tend to have brunch before visiting the South Melbourne market, and recently we brunch at Bunyip. Bunyip is located in an old Victorian, which looks like it once may have been a house. It was a glorious day, and we ended up sitting outside underneath a couple of large, yellow umbrellas. I didn’t notice until I uploaded the photos to my camera, but the umbrellas gave an unpleasant tint to my pictures that I haven’t been able to totally correct. Doh!

Bunyip baked egg

I ordered the Spanish eggs ($14). Two poached eggs came in a rich napoli sauce, with chorizo and black olives. The sauce was thick and a touch spicy and the eggs were happily runny. Initially I thought there was only one egg, but there was one hidden underneath the sauce. Happy days!

Bunyip fritters

The Boys had corn fritters with roast tomato, bacon and relish ($12). I love corn fritters for brunch, and these looked pretty good.

Bunyip Cafe,
313 Coventry Street, South Melbourne,
Phone: 03 9682 5844

Ice coffee

Red Star

The scorching weather last week was a surprise, as was the fact that at Red Star I had a sweet breakfast, while Alastair had a savoury one. I started off with an iced coffee, which was large and full of milk and ice cream. It wasn’t very strong coffee wise though, which was slightly disappointing.

Big star french toast

I ordered the french toast with maple syrup ($7.50) adding grilled banana and bacon ($2.60 each). I think I could’ve skipped the banana, and I did wonder where the other half of my banana went (in the photo you can see a nub of the other half)! They were very generous with the bacon however, and that was great with the french toast. Points off for the fake maple syrup though.

Red star big brekkie

Alastair and Pat had the big breakfast which came with two eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown, tomatoes, mushrooms and scwhob’s toast ($19). I thought it was a bit on the expensive side, even for a big brekkie. The toast was great – Pat took one bite and drooled due to the generous buttering. I ate a piece too and it was gooooooooood.

Red Star
315 Coventry Street
South Melbourne, 3205
Phone: 03 9682 1678

Panette

Panette

I have blogged about the fabulous gnocchi bolognaise previously, and Panette also do a spinach gnocchi. For some reason I haven’t noted down any details about this one, but from what I can remember the spinach gnocchi is served with a napoli sauce and topped with mozzarella.

Panette gnocchi

It’s not as light and as tasty as the other gnocchi but it’s pretty good. And if you’re watching your weight, just try and ignore the massive amount of cheese!

Caffe Panette
144 Cecil St, South Melbourne 3205 VIC
Phone: (03) 9690 2803

El Mirage coffee

El Mirage

The other weekend we were in the Brunswick East area because I had to drop by a friend’s house, and we took the opportunity to try a new cafe.

El Mirage was very busy when we arrived, and we had to wait a few minutes for a table. As we ordered, the waitress advised us that meals would take about half an hour, due to lots of people ordering at once. That was okay with us, so we ordered and waited.

Everyone in the cafe, especially the staff, seemed very trendy, and I felt like we weren’t cool enough to be there. 🙂

My long mac was very enjoyable, although I tried to delay drinking it. I knew that drinking it 30 minutes before eating would make me all jittery from the caffeine!

El Mirage gringo

Either the time went very quickly, or 30 minutes was a worst case scenario, but it didn’t seem to be too long before our food arrived. Bro and I both had the Gringo ($15) which came with poached eggs, mexican beans, tomato, bacon and “home-fries”. The eggs were soft and runny, and I loved the beans and the home-fries. I always like it when you can get something a bit different from regular eggs and toast.

El Mirage
349 Lygon St
Brunswick East
Phone: 03 9388 0966

Hien Vuong Pasteur

Whenever we have visitors, we mostly let them sort out their own sightseeing. I love this city, but I find it hard to think of interesting “touristy” things to do. Unlike other cities that have several must-see sights, Melbourne has charms that grow on you over time.

While we’re not good with the sightseeing agenda, we do have a food agenda. This is a list of must-eat items that our visitors need to experience. On the list are things like: dumplings at Camy, a hot chocolate at Koko Black, perhaps a claypot at EC pot (I need to go back and write a post on this place!), a parma, and a big bowl of pho.

pho

On a recent visit to Footscray, we decided to try a different pho restaurant. We walked past one that was packed with customers, always a good sign, so we took our chances and went in. The restaurant was decked out in the usual style – brightly lit with mirrored walls, menu written on the wall, and inexpensive tables and chairs. There’s also two large plasma TVs mounted on the walls, providing something else to focus on apart from your reflection (which was a tad distracting).

pho

The bowls of pho come in three different sizes – small for $6.50, medium for $7.50 and large for $8.50. The rice noodles and meat come swimming in a beef soup that has so much flavour, this is now our pho restaurant of choice. The one pictured here is a large – the Boys were hungry that night!

verms

Apart from the 20 different styles of noodle soup, there’s also the usual spring rolls and pork chops on rice and vermicelli. I believe this bowl of vermicelli was $8 (the price isn’t written on the walls). It was a huge bowl of noodle, and while the sauce wasn’t as tasty as in other places, it wasn’t bad.

verms

I had actually ordered it because I had a hankering for some crunchy spring rolls – and didn’t spot the springs rolls on the menu until after I ordered. I was a tad envious of the Boys with their bowls of pho.

four colour drink

The one disappointment is the tea tastes a bit strange. It may be due what they use to clean the thermoses. Both times we visited, the tea had an overwhelming taste and smell of detergent. But with three colour drinks cheaply priced at $2, and a big bowl of soup to drink after you’ve finished scavenging every last meat and noodle scrap from the bowl, who needs tea?

Update: they seem to have fixed the strange tasting tea! It has been fine in subsequent visits.

Hien Vuong Pasteur
144 Hopkins Street
Melbourne , VIC 3011
Phone: 03 9687 9698

Café Plum 4 (closed)

We eat out a lot during the weekend. Often we’ll go out for brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, and normally at least one evening meal is eaten out as well. I try not to let us eat out too much because it gets expensive. In addition, when faced with an unhealthy option versus a healthy option, unhealthy will win out 99% of the time (if I cook, it’s easier for me to choose to make something healthy). But on the other hand, it’s something that we enjoy, so I’m not too strict about it.

Speaking of things that we enjoy, we recently went to Café Plum. I was happy that we didn’t have to settle for Café Bland again!

Omelette

I had an omelette, filled with goats cheese, spinach and caramelised onion ($13). I haven’t quite acquired the taste for goat’s cheese yet but I’m close. You know how it has that “goaty” flavour that seems to work it’s way into your nasal passages? I keep trying it and I have no doubt that I will love it eventually, just like I’ve learnt to love blue cheese and very dark, bitter chocolate. I found that the sweetness of the onions helped counteract some of that strong “goatiness” in the cheese, and I really enjoyed this omelette. I was also happy to see that it was a proper omelette – I’m not a fan of the open omelette as they tend to be dry and rubbery.

Fritters

Alastair had the corn fritters, with smoked salmon, crème fraiche and avocado ($15.90). He said that it was good, but not as good as the ones I make (he has been trained well!). It was rather large and filling though, and he couldn’t quite fit it all in.

Previous visits can be read here, here and here.

Cafe Plum
193 Flemington Rd, North Melbourne 3051
Ph: (03) 9329 8867

The Abyssinian

Platter

Recently, to celebrate a friend getting older and wiser, we had a meal at an Ethiopian restaurant located in Flemington, the Abyssinian.

The food is based on recipes from the Horn of Africa. The menu was rather long, so we took the easy option and ordered the meat combination platter. The platter comes with slow cooked stews: chicken, lamb, fish and vegetables, on a large enamel tray lined with injera bread. The cost is $25 for one person, $45 for two and then $22 for each additional person. There is also a wholly vegetarian platter.

Goat

Injera is a spongy, sour flatbread. Traditionally, it is made with a small round grain called teff. The flour is mixed with water and left to ferment for a few days, which gives it a slight sourness and an airy, bubbly texture. At the Abynissian, the bread is made with self raising rice and corn flours. You rip off a piece of injera, roll it around a bit of stew and eat.

Ripping injera

We’ve been to a different Ethiopian restaurant before, and found that the injera was too sour for our tastes. The injera at the Abyssinian was much nicer – very soft and not too sour. However, the parts of the injera that sat under the stews soaked up the sauces and became too soggy to pick up. Thankfully, even though cutlery isn’t traditional, we had also been given spoons, which helped us scoop up every last bit of stew and injera.

Chicken

Dotted around the tray on the injera were several different stews. There were several diffferent vegetable stews: lentils cooked in a light sauce, cabbage and carrots, spinach and beans, and pumpkin. They were all pretty tasty. For the meat stews, we had some lovely tender goat, a rather spicy (and therefore awesome!) lamb, a chicken stew and the last was a mixture shrimp and nile perch in a slightly spicy and tangy sauce.

Being a little group of gluttons, we polished off the lot and really could have eaten more. There were five of us, and I think that if there had been one more person, we might’ve gotten another platter (I was eyeing up other tables to see what they got).

It was a good place to celebrate a birthday. The atmosphere is casual and lively, and the service is friendly, although a little sporadic.

The Abyssinian
277 Racecourse Road, Flemington
Phone: (03) 9376 8754