southbank

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.

(more…)

Crown: Colours of Cuba

Nobu cocktails

Disclosure: I attended Colours of Cuba courtesy of Crown.

I’m currently in Canada, but a couple of Mondays ago I was in Cuba.

Actually, that is a total and blatant untruth. I was actually at Crown for the kick off for their Colours of Cuba fiesta.

Colours of Cuba is running over four weeks (so there’s a couple of weeks left) and all venues within Crown are interpreting the theme in their own way with special drinks and food.

(more…)

Nobu: Taste of Peru

Nobu

Disclosure: I attended courtesy of Nobu and Media Moguls.

Peru is awesome. Peru is good. Peru is definitely worth a visit.

But it’s also very, very far from Australia. So if you can’t make it to the actual country, you could instead head to Nobu for a Taste of Peru.

But what does a Japanese restaurant have to do with Peruvian cuisine? Well the menu at Nobu has South American influences, which comes from Nobu Matsuhisa’s years in Lima after he moved there when he was 24 to open a restaurant.

Nobu Melbourne’s Executive Chef, Christopher Shane, is paying homage to Nobu’s history on Thursday nights with a special menu of 16 Peruvian style tapas and nine cocktails, and I was invited there late last year for a preview of the menu.

(more…)

Bistro Guillaume: Champagne Dinner

Champers

Disclosure: I dined courtesy of Good Food Month and Undertow Media.

According to Guillaume Brahimi, champagne is for any time of the day – even breakfast.

Now I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I can definitely accept champagne on a warm summer night. As part of Good Food Month, I headed to Bistro Guillaume in late November for one of the highlight events: four courses of delicious food matched with champagne.

(more…)

Silks: mid-autumn / mooncake festival banquet

Silks

Disclosure: I dined courtesy of Silks, Crown and Media Moguls.

In the Chinese / lunar calendar, the mid-autumn festival is one of the most important events of the year. It’s held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar year, when the moon is said to be at its brightest.

One of the ways the festival is celebrated is by eating mooncakes – confections / pastries made with a thin pastry skin and traditionally filled with lotus paste or red bean and often containing salted egg yolk (my favourite part and anyone who does like yolks, well you have no taste thanks bye).

This year, the mid-autumn festival falls on Thursday 19 September. In the couple of weeks leading up to it, there’s a series of events happening at Crown, including a special banquet menu available at Silks.

(more…)

The Langham: Chocolate High Tea at the Aria Bar 2

Display

Disclosure: I attended the Chocolate High Tea courtesy of The Langham and Media Moguls.

Afternoon teas seem to be hot, hot, hot this year. They’ve always been around but lots of new ones seem to have been launched in the past six months.

While that’s been happening, the classics keep chugging along.

For example: The Langham. They have been holding their Chocolate Bar afternoon tea in the Aria Bar for many years now. The last time I visited was a couple of years ago, and since then there’s been a change in head pastry chef, who has revamped all the chocolate treats to be a bit more modern.

(more…)

Mr Hive Kitchen and Bar: dessert degustation

The evening didn’t start well. First I literally just missed the tram – I was five meters to the tram stop when I saw the tram slowly roll away. Wah wah guitar.

I then became lost at Crown. I thought I knew where Mr Hive was located, but I was wrong – I had no clue. Which lead me to walk up and down the street several times trying to figure out how to get to the first floor of Crown Metropol until it finally clicked that I needed to go “inside” the main part of Crown. Into the disorienting Crown maze I went. And first thing I did? Went in the wrong direction and took the wrong escalator. BAH. Things weren’t going my way.

(more…)

The Langham Aria Bar: Burch and Purchese afternoon tea

Disclosure: I attended courtesy of The Langham and Media Moguls.

The other week I was invited to attend the launch of the Burch and Purchese afternoon tea at The Langham. It’s a limited series of afternoon teas starting in April – replacing the chocolate bar at the Aria Bar (which I have also attended previously), cakes and treats will instead be created by Darren Purchese from Burch and Purchese Sweet Studio in South Yarra.

If you’ve visited the B&P Sweet Studio, you’ll know that it’s like a crazy science lab for sweet things, so I was eager to see whether some of those whimsical and interesting flavour combinations would be brought across to The Langham.

(more…)

The Langham: Christmas in July pudding making workshop

Pudding making class at the Langham

Disclosure: I attended this event courtesy of The Langham and Media Moguls.

So it’s July, and you know what that means, don’t you? Time to think about Christmas! Okay, perhaps it’s not quite time to plan for Christmas, but it will be right about the corner before you know it. Isn’t that a scary thought?

Last week I headed to the Langham with several other food bloggers and food media for a Christmas in July event. I was particularly excited by the fact that we would be having a Christmas pudding making session.

After a series of canapés and glasses of bubbles (I didn’t take pictures of the canapés, but check out some of the other bloggers linked below for details), we put on aprons and chefs’ hats and headed down to the pastry kitchen. Being a food geek, I was very excited at taking the big elevator down and checking out the commercial kitchen. Oooh. It was so shiny! And clean! And bright! And shiny! Plus you should have seen the massive commercial mixer – ahhh. It was almost as tall as me – which is not saying much, to tell you the truth. I wish I had thought to take a photo of it! (more…)

The Langham: Chocolate High Tea at the Aria Bar

Disclosure: I attended the Chocolate High Tea courtesy of The Langham and Nuffnang.

Last month I was invited to a food and fashion bloggers’ chocolate morning tea at the Langham, organised by Nuffnang. I don’t normally stuff myself with cakes and chocolates for breakfast – but you know what they say about not turning down an opportunity.

Chocolate High Tea at the Langham

When I arrived, I walked past this table and thought, “Ooooooh is that for us?” And what do you know – it was! We were introduced to the German pastry chef, Chef Markus Bohm, who talked us through the various treats on offer. All of the items used a different type of single origin chocolate (apart from the Lindt and Callebaut) with the cocoas from places like Yucatan, Costa Rica and Madagascar. We’ll take a closer look in a moment.

(more…)