Another week, another visit to South Wharf.

Now that I’ve been down to the revamped area several times, I really think that South Wharf has been done well, particularly compared to other dining precincts (I’m looking at you Docklands and Southbank). I like that there’s a range of different price points and all the restaurants have a different feel, which makes me want to visit them all. So last Friday night Alastair and I headed down to Meat Market for a date night. (I say that jokingly… it was just dinner.)

Meat Market is mid-range in price, and was inspired by the Australian BBQ. Not too surprisingly, with a name like Meat Market, the menu has a focus on meat, meat, and more meat, with a few seafood items thrown in. And in keeping with the whole BBQ thing, there’s a large open kitchen in the middle of the restaurant where you can watch the chefs grill and cook your preferred protein.

Alastair and I started with the bucket of prawns ($26) – eight large Australian green prawns served in a bucket of ice with a ramekin of warm butter for dipping. They came unshelled, so we got in there and got our hands dirty (there was a finger bowl of warm water provided for cleaning up). Not a good first date entree, but we’ve been together for nearly ten years so we’re well past that stage. The only thing I would’ve liked was a bit more salt in the butter. There was salt provided on the table, but somehow my desire for a bit more salt didn’t translate into me picking up the salt and adding it in. Ahh brain, what are you doing?

We shared two meaty mains, one of which was the Dorper salt bush lamb loin ($38) and the other was a 28 day dry aged Victorian porterhouse ($39). Both mains came with a small tangy side salad and we also ordered a bowl of the green beans with anchovy and shallot butter ($8). The beans were good, though perhaps a bit pricey for such a little bowl. We also had the hand cut chips ($8) [the menu says they're cut by human hands!], which were pretty awesome – thickly cut pieces of potato with soft fluffy insides served with aioli.

I enjoyed the lamb, though Alastair wasn’t so keen on it. I believe this is because it had an interesting flavour – it didn’t have that gamey, lamb taste, though it was still very meaty.

We requested the porterhouse be cooked to medium rare, and doesn’t it look beautiful? The steak was rich and robust, and really didn’t need anything to go with it, though we did also have Béarnaise sauce on the side. The other sauce options were red wine jus, peppercorn jus and anchovy and shallot butter. I think I made the best choice.

We were way too full to have dessert so left our meal there… though we did take with us a faint aroma of cooked meat. Thanks to the open kitchen, the room got a touch smokey during the night. The extraction fan was working hard, I just don’t think it could cope with the amount of smoke that was being produced. Don’t let me put you off though – it’s quite a large space, so it wasn’t too bad (unless you’re a princess like me).

Meat Market: it’s not ground breaking food (which is not a criticism) but what they do – they do well. We had an enjoyable, solid meal. And if we had been on a first date, there would definitely have been a second.

View Off the spork in a larger map

Meat Market
53 South Wharf Promenade
South Wharf 3008
Phone: 03 9008 8953
Web: meatmarketsouthwharf.com.au (autoplay sound alert)

Related posts:

1. UK: Borough Market
2. Melbourne Food & Wine Festival: Heat Beads Hawkers’ Market
3. Japan: Tsukiji fish market + sashimi breakfast

Some weeks I feel like I do lots of eating. This is one of those weeks.

But before we get into it, this week’s catspam is courtesy of our friend, Dany. She’s in NYC at the moment (woot woot) so we popped in to check on her cats. Say hello to Dougal!

On to the food. On Monday night, Alastair and I paid a visit to our favourite Korean BBQ restaurant – Donwoori. We ate lots of BBQ meat and kimchi. It’s the best.

The next night I cooked a shit dinner and was so despondent I had to eat chocolate. Bah. Bah. Bah. The mince was just boring and nothing I added made it less dull. BAH. (Chocolate helped. Me. Not the mince.)

On Wednesday I got my drink on with Dastardly at Naked for Satan.

Then we met up with Thanh, April and Shellie for dinner at Phat Brats (disclosure: we were invited and our meal was complimentary).

We went into a hot dog frenzy. It was crazy. We spent more time photographing the food than eating it. GAK.

The hot dogs were pretty good (I still prefer Snag Stand) and the cheesey fries were AWESOME.

We also brought Thanh a cake from Le Petit Gateau because it was his birthday this week. Happy birthday, Thanh! This is the Brownie and Passionfruit Chocolate Gâteau – it’s pretty damn good if you like that kind of cake (it’s a bit too rich for me).

Oh, here’s a work lunch with my work BFF again. Instead of our usual haunt of La Chicas, we went to Lava in Balaclava where we both had hummus with spiced lamb mince. It came with pita bread and a side salad. This was an epic-ally filling lunch. So. Much. Hummus. We were both sadly defeated!

(I’m also very glad we didn’t order the hummus with falafel. That would’ve been chickpea on chickpea.)

On Friday night, Alastair and I went to Meat market in South Wharf for dinner.

For mains we had the Dorper salt bush lamb.

And a 28 day dry aged Porterhouse. LOOK AT IT. Mhmmmmm.

As expected, for a place called Meat Market, the meats were good. More in-depth post to come.

Yesterday I went to a Jazz apple masterclass hosted by Fast Ed (disclosure: I was invited). He did a cooking demonstration, and afterwards we split into three groups to cook lunch.

My group, with Thanh, Sarah and Sandra, were allocated dessert. Phew. It was the easiest course! The other courses were a slow cooked ocean trout with an apple and herb salad, and the main was a veal escalope with a potato and apple galette and mushroom sauce.

I was very full from lunch (I may or may not have gone home and had a nap…) so I put together a snack plate for dinner: more apples (from the Jazz apple class), jamon, crackers, marinated Red Hill Cheese feta and a small wedge of their Granny’s Blue cheese.

I am so sad that we have finished the blue. We still have a bit of feta left, but that too is running low.

Today was a lazy Sunday, which deserved a lazy Sunday breakfast. Toast, egg, mushrooms with feta and coffeeeeee.

It also deserved a lazy Sunday dinner. RIBS RIBS RIBS. I started off the ribs with a short stint in the pressure cooker and then finished them off under the grill. They were great.

And finally, today I also made a batch of the best ever chilli saucey. Here’s the recipe – I’ve been making it for years (I leave out the Sriracha and MSG) and it’s the most delicious thing ever. Make it! Generally it comes out pretty spicy, though it does depend on your chillies. This batch isn’t as spicy as my last one, which was blow your head off spicy.

Well done if you read all the way to the end. :p Until next week…

No related posts.

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.

Mr Hive Kitchen & Bar used to be Maze (you know, Gordon Ramsey’s Maze), and was rebranded late last year / early this year with some minor renovations. It’s located on the first floor of Crown Metropol – you can either go through Crown or walk up the stairs from the lobby of the Metropol hotel.

It took me a while but eventually I found my way to the restaurant where Hazzie was patiently waiting for me. And I’m happy to say that once I arrived (and had a cocktail) the evening picked up. Alastair, Gazman, Adrian and CnC showed up not too long after, and we wandered through to the dessert bar. We were there for a dessert bar degustation – a multi course sugar extravaganza. We were so dedicated to the cause that we hadn’t even eaten dinner yet (and it was only 6.30pm!).

We perched at the bar, where we had a great view of head pastry chef, Daniel Fletcher, preparing the desserts.

First course

Our first course was a rhubarb compote on yoghurt mousse and Sichuan ice cream. It was really delicious – smooth and tangy, with crunchy biscuit crumbs that were super buttery, and slightly peppery ice cream. It was a great dessert to start with – it had a hint of savouriness that was really appealing and a different range of textures.

Second course

For the second course, it was mixed up slightly. We all received a dessert each, but not the same dessert. There were actually three different ones, so we shared and were able to sample more of the menu.

First up was the praline soufflé – the spoon in the middle is where jasmine tea and coco nib ice cream was inserted. The soufflé was wonderful: light and eggy and fragrant with hazelnut. And I loved the contrast of the warm sweet soufflé with the ice cream.

Second was a plate of the ricotta cheesecake with yuzu, ginger and seeds. The small squares of cheesecake were smooth and creamy, with the yuzu and sorbets providing a contrasting sourness.

The last of the trio was everyone’s favourite dessert of the night: white chocolate, mango, basil and coconut. Interestingly, this is one I probably wouldn’t order based on the menu description, so I’m really glad we got to try it.

The vibrantly green basil sorbet was intensely fresh. Underneath it was a couple of blobs of mango, some caramelised coconut that looked like cornflakes, and layers of coconut mousse and sweet white chocolate. I can’t describe how brilliant this was – it tasted so fresh and clean and vibrant. It was amazing how well all the components worked together.

Third course

On to the third course, and this time there were two chocolate desserts. Again, we received a dessert each – and these were full sized desserts (gulp).

One was Mrs Hive’s chocolate bar with peanuts and caramel – a long bar of chocolate mousse on top of a crispy wafer with peanuts and peanut butter ice cream. It looks amazing, hey? This must be one of their most popular desserts – we saw several being prepared while we sat at the bar.

There was also a chocolate fondant with cardamom ice cream and salted caramel sauce. Check out that oozy chocolate – perfect. The cardamom ice cream was a good touch against the very rich and sweet chocolate, and the salted caramel was both salty and sweet in equal measure.

The two chocolate desserts were really good, but Alastair and I really struggled with the richness and sweetness of both of them, and we much preferred the first two courses. But they would be perfect for chocolate dessert lovers.

And finally, to finish off there were small bottles of thick chocolate milk corked with a salted caramel truffle that was completely liquid inside.

After all that sugar, we had a quick kitchen tour (hoorah!) and wandered off to eat something savoury at The Boatbuilders Yard – we definitely needed it.

Reverse dinner ahoy.

Mr Hive Kitchen & Bar hold the dessert degustations in the evenings at the dessert bar after 6pm. They don’t take bookings for the dessert bar and it only seats six people. It costs $45 for three incredibly generous serves of dessert, with matched wines an extra $25. I don’t think you *have* to do three courses – but hey, if you’re there anyway, you may as well eat enough sugar to last a month. Right?

For more on the dessert bar, Peach water also paid a visit as part of dinner.

View Off the spork in a larger map

Mr Hive Kitchen & Bar
Crown Metropol
Level 1
8 Whiteman St
Southbank, VIC 3006
Phone: 03 9292 8300
Web: crownmetropol.com.au

Related posts:

1. Provenance: Valentine’s Day Berry degustation
2. Comme Kitchen
3. Charcoal Lane: dessert

“Hey Azzie. I’m in your hood,” Haz messaged me one day. “We’re going to Fifty-six threads.”

“Where? Are you buying sewing supplies?” was my response.

She told me it was a social enterprise venture that had launched at the end of last year by AMES – an organisation that helps new and recently arrived migrants and refugees to settle in Victoria. The main aim of the cafe is to provide employment and training for new migrants who want to work in the hospitality industry.

I was a bit confused by Haz’s message, because I hadn’t seen any new cafes pop up in the area. It turned out that Fifty-six Threads is located away from the main Kensington Village shopping strip, at the end of Derby Street under the housing commission tower. It’s been fitted out really well with an open kitchen and lots of wood grained and angled geometric surfaces, extending to the tables and suspended light fittings.

On my first visit, I went for a breakfast that had poached eggs, smoked salmon, spinach, avocado and sourdough toast ($14). This was meant to come with hollandaise sauce but it was replaced with tomato relish as they were out that day. One of my eggs was perfect while the other was slightly over-poached. It was no big deal – the rest of my breakfast was fine.

Alastair had the Shakshuka ($13) – baked eggs in a rich and spicy tomato and capscium sauce with toast. He loved his breakfast and told me that the bread was really, really good. Actually, he couldn’t stop raving to me about his bread. “This bread is so yum!” Hah.

The coffee beans at Fifty-six Threads are from Social Roasting Company (another place I like) and was served in slightly annoying square cups. We must be a bit uncoordinated because we found them a bit hard to drink out of, though they did suit the geometric decor of the café.

A couple of weeks later, we returned for a quick brunch with Annette and Terry. The menu had been revamped since our first visit, with more items.

Alastair and Terry both had the Fifty-six Threads breakfast. This came with eggs (poached, scrambled or fried, depending on your preference), served with house-made red onion jam, bacon, sausages, garlic mushrooms and spinach on toasted sourdough ($15). Talk about a big breakfast. They were both very full afterwards.

Annette had scrambled eggs (which I neglected to take a photo of), while I choose the green eggs – scrambled eggs served with a parsley pesto, avocado, spinach and garlic mushrooms on toasted sourdough ($15).

I had a view of the open kitchen from where I was sitting and could see one person cooking all four meals by herself. She did a really good job – everything came out together and it was pretty prompt.

Fifty-Six Threads serve breakfast all day, but if breakfast isn’t your thing, there’s also a few lunch style items on the menu (pita bread pizza, spring rolls, zucchini fritters when we were there), as well as bacon rolls/muffins and other baked goods at the counter.

I like Fifty-six threads. It’s not super hip, there’s no siphon and cold drip here, but it’s comfortable and they do well cooked, satisfying food with good coffee. The service is friendly and they give out coffee cards (we’ve already got enough for a free coffee – ace).

For more on Fifty-Six Threads, check out I-Hua and Consider the Sauce.

View Off the spork in a larger map

Fifty-Six Threads Cafe
56 Derby St
Kensington
Phone: 03 9376 6885
Web: fiftysixthreads.com.au

Related posts:

1. Cafe Plum
2. Café Vue: Melbourne Airport T2
3. Cafe Plum: revisited

Hello and happy Sunday! This week: it was pretty quiet. YAYAYAYAY. Oh yeah, there was dessert too.

At the beginning of the week, my work BFF and I had lunch at La Chicas (again). We both had the lamb salad special – cured lamb, rocket and pear with honey and dukkah. It was great. So simple, but delicious. I must recreate it at home sometime.

Dinner one evening was a simple steak on a warm wombock and carrot salad with some crumbled blue cheese. Oh man, I love blue cheese.

On Friday, Alastair and I went to Mr Hive Kitchen & Bar for a dessert degustation with Haz, Gazman, Adrian and CnC. We had THREE courses of dessert – all before we had even eaten dinner. Whoa. This was the hazelnut souffle and there was much, much more. So much sugar…

Afterwards we went roaming in search of much needed savoury food. We tried to go to The Sharing House but it was full, so we went to The Boatbuilders Yard instead. Alastair and I shared a burger.

Mhmmmmmmmm burger. YAY salt!!

Yesterday’s breakfast was fried eggs, bacon and avocado. Plus coffee, of course. I probably should’ve used a larger plate. Hehehe.

And dinner was beef stew – just a random mixture of stuff I threw into the pressure cooker. (I still love my pressure cooker.) This was also tonight’s dinner. Woot.

Today I spent a quiet day at home and even did some baking! I trialed a persimmon cake – my friend gave me a box of Hachiya persimmons from her garden. I don’t really like eating them that much – I prefer the non-astringent type when they’re still a bit crunchy, so into a cake some of them went. It was okay. I think it can be improved. I still have some that are waiting to ripen so I might try again next week.

And here’s your weekly dose of catspam. How was your week?

Related posts:

1. The week in brief: 16 April – 22 April 2012
2. The week in brief: 2 April – 8 April
3. The week in brief: 9 April – 15 April

Disclosure: Alastair and I dined courtesy of the venues.

Last week Hazzie and I were invited to check out a few venues in the fairly new South Wharf Promenade, located on the southern banks of the Yarra River. Last time I was down in South Wharf, it was the middle of winter last year, and the cargo sheds that several of the restaurants are in were still being fitted out.

We had four venues to hit up in a mini progressive tour/dinner. Dragging along Alastair and Gazman, we met down at South Wharf on a very dark and dreary night – not the best evening to be traipsing around outside. Fortunately, the venues were all fairly close together, so we spent minimal time in the rain.

Our itinerary was as follows:

Boatbuilders Yard: bar snacks and drinks
Akachochin: Entrees and sake
Bohemian: Tapas and paella
The Sharing House: Desserts

Boatbuilders Yard

Our first stop was the Boatbuilders Yard. Located in an ex-boat maintenance shed, the BBY has been renovated and expanded into a bar and casual eatery. The design of the place has subtle nautical touches, referencing the original building’s history, such as the marine flags painted on the side of the large central bar that’s clad with recycled timber, and the red and green shipping lights outside.

As mentioned, it was a horrid night when we visited, which was unfortunate because most of the seating is outside the building. And the metal table and chairs inside – while funky- were cold: brrr! We were told that there are plans to warm the place up – enclosing some of the outside spaces with blinds and installing heating, as well as offering blankets and mulled wine.

In keeping with the casualness of the place, customers pick up food from the kitchen. We received a buzzer, and when the buzzer lit up to alert us that our food was ready, Haz and I trudged out into the cold to pick up our food since the boys were engrossed in their conversation about phones or tech stuff or gaming or SOMETHING (so much for chivalry). At the kitchen we managed to have a nice chat to the head chef, Rodney Shah, before heading back inside with our tray.

We tried the Sicilian calamari with croutons and raisins and the salt and pepper organic tofu with braised eggplant. Both were pretty good.

So were the cauliflower and haloumi fritters that were spiced with cumin and chilli and served with yoghurt. But my favourite was the school prawns – so crisp and sweet.

Drinks and snacks consumed, we headed off for our next stop: Akachochin.

Akachochin

Akachochin, a Japanese izakaya style restaurant, turned out to be our favourite of the night. The head chef is Kengo Hiromatsu, who previously worked at Nobu, and his menu highlights regional Japanese dishes with a slightly modern interpretation.

The fit out has been done really well – the cargo shed has been converted into a very comfortable, warm room. One side of the room is dominated by a large panelled blond wood wall, with the gaps inbetween the panels backlit by LED lighting.

A long sushi bar is on the other side, providing glimpses into the kitchen, and neatly arranged around the rest of the room are marble tables and blond wood chairs.

We took seats at the sushi bar and were poured our first sake. This was a sparkling sake – we were told that it was particularly good served with sashimi, as it was refreshing on the palate.

Our first entree was the Hiramasa namerou with rice crackers – a Japanese style tartar made with chopped kingfish with spring onions, moromiso (fermented soy bean), kizami-wasabi, and olive oil. It was served with the most incredible rice crackers – really thin and super crispy, though they did end up sticking to the back teeth.

Our next sake was one made from pure rice – it was full bodied and good for oily, deep fried food.

Which lead us to our next entree – the chicken wing dumpling. Yes, a combined chicken wing AND dumpling: AMAZING. All four of us sat there eating and going, “Mhmmm… mhmmmm… mhmmm…”

The wing had been deboned and then marinated for a day in a master stock containing daikon, shiitake mushroom, cinnamon, star anise and orange skin (amongst other things). It was then stuffed with a chicken dumpling mixture and deep fried. Sounds good, huh? It was so good – the crunchy shell/skin, the marinated chicken meat, the tasty dumpling… it was an incredible combo.

The last entrée was the wagyu teriyaki. Haz doesn’t eat beef, so she received pork belly, and boy, did she miss out (though she did say her pork was delicious). In our dish, the beef cut used was the shoulder, which is tender but not too fatty. The meat was coated in a slightly spicy sauce, and man oh man, was the meat incredible – really soft, almost creamy, and the sauce gave it a small spicy kick. Delicious.

It was matched with a plum sake, which is less alcoholic and not as sweet as the usual plum wine made with vodka. It had a lovely pink colour, and tastewise it started with the usual sake aroma but finished with a hint of sweetness on the palate. Really nice. I also loved how it was described to us, “Quiet but sweet.” So poetic.

We were all very enamoured with Akachochin. I could’ve happily sat there eating and drinking sake for the rest of the night, but we had to move on.

Bohemian

The next stop was Bohemian, a Spanish tapas restaurant. Dark and dim, the restaurant has dark drapes, dark wood, and a screen hanging from the ceiling showing foreign movies (French ones the evening we were there).

We slid into one of the booths, where I had a good view of the movie screen. It was strangely compelling – like watching late night SBS (except with less nudity).

We had a couple of tapas to start with. First was the patatas bravas – tubes of soft potato with a crisp shell and aioli on top. These were nice, though a tad salty.

The octopus with potato and smoked paprika was really interesting. Seasoning was a bit inconsistent – the octopus needed more salt, but the potato puree it came with was perfect. The octopus was very meaty – it was firmly textured but not chewy, and made me think of dried fish snacks.

We shared paella next. Bohemian serve three types – a paella de montana with rabbit loin stuffed with black sausage, a paella negar with squid ink and cuttlefish, and the one we tried – the paella mixta, a mixed paella with chicken prawns, squid and mussels. Strongly flavoured with chicken and seafood stock, it was hearty and comforting.

To finish off our time at Bohemian, we had their suckling pig dish. This part was a bit strange – there were four of us but only three portions. Haz didn’t get a plate, and was told that the waiter would come back – but it didn’t happen. Whoops. If we had known there would only be three portions, we would’ve shared.

Despite the mix up, the dish was rather good. The pork had a thin crisp skin on top, and came with a carrot ice cream and a balsamic soy, which gave an interesting contrast between warm / cold and meaty / sweet.

Unfortunately there was no time to linger at Bohemian, as we were over an hour late for The Sharing House. Timekeeping fail. Back into the cold night we went.

The Sharing House

We arrived at The Sharing House ready for desserts. The head chef there is Mark Briggs, formerly of Vue de Monde, and the food is modern European.

I loved the fit out of The Sharing House. It’s open and quirky: astro turf covered one wall and Lego and Duplo were used for decorative touches. And impressively (or rather scarily) the Lego bar reportedly cost $12,000 (gulp!).

We had four desserts to share. First was the mini ice cream cones, which came displayed in a test tube holder. There were five flavours: strawberry and limoncello, coco nib, pistachio, pedro ximenez and vanilla bean.

They were all pretty good, as were the crunchy cones. Special mention goes to the vanilla bean, which was unlike any vanilla ice cream I’ve eaten before – very creamy but with a bitter edge. I really liked it, but it might not be to everyone’s taste. The other special mention is for the mint ice cream, which tasted like freshly picked mint leaves.

Where are you on the jaffa divide – yay or nay? I’m a big NAY NAY NAY so the deconstructed jaffa cake didn’t excite me much. However, because it was deconstructed, it minimised the mingling of chocolate and citrus so even a jaffa hater like me could enjoy it. There were very small, but rich and dark chocolate fondants (very good), freeze dried mandarin pieces, small piece of mandarins, and mandarin and blood orange jellies covered in sugar.

The afternoon tea selection showcased several small delicacies. We had a little battenberg cake, ginger cream horn, lemon tart, hazelnut eclair and a passionfruit meringue.

And finally, there was an apple tart, made from layers of pastry and apple flavoured with cinnamon. We were warned that it was meant to be eaten with the vanilla ice cream (which was bitterish like the one in the cone) so it would be very sweet. Thank goodness for the warning because it was tooth achingly sweet on it’s own, but just right eaten with the ice cream.

Desserts eaten, our tour/dinner was complete. We gave the giraffe a pat and headed home.

South Wharf is an interesting location because it *feels* like it’s really far away from everything, but it’s atually only five minutes walk past the Melbourne Exhibition building. I have to say – it’s worth the walk. I really liked that all the venues were very distinctly different from one another, and were enjoyable for their own reasons. I can see myself heading back to any of them, and definitely will make it back to Akachochin very soon. I’d also like to try the savoury dishes at The Sharing House in the near future.

Check out I-Hua’s post on our evening, as well as Thanh’s visit to South Wharf on a different night.

View Off the spork in a larger map

South Wharf Promenade

Boatbuilders Yard
23 South Wharf Promenade
South Wharf
Phone: 03 9686 5088
Web: theboatbuildersyard.com

Akachochin
33 Dukes Walk
South Wharf
Phone: 03 9245 9900
Web: akachochin.com.au

Bohemian Bar & Restaurant
35 Dukes Walk
South Wharf
Phone: 04 9682 0566
Web: thebohemian.com.au

The Sharing House
35 Dukes Walk
South Wharf
Phone: 03 92459 9800
Web: thesharinghouse.com.au

Related posts:

1. True South Brewery
2. Campari House: a toast to Campari House roasts
3. Tao Tao House

Located just about on the beach on Beaconsfield Parade in Albert Park, Nshry (pronounced Noshery) used to be a run down kiosk that has now been renovated into a nice cafe with a slightly silly name. (Sorry, it is. Gotta say it.)

I visited the other week with Alastair and my MIL Annette. I had heard that the corn fritters at Nshry were really good, and I was keen to take my MIL somewhere with a view of the ocean to take full advantage of the glorious autumn weather.

While it was sunny and the sky was blue, it was slightly cool outside, so we took seats inside and ordered a round of coffees. Other patrons were made of tougher stuff, because most of the outside tables were taken. Even though we were inside, the large windows and the design of the building meant that we could still appreciate the view.

Since I had already decided on the fritters, I tried to steer Alastair towards another breakfast item that I also wanted to try (hah). Unfortunately, he ignored my subtle clues and ordered the spicy eggs – poached eggs, spinach, chorizo, parmesan, gryuere and chilli infused oil on Noisette sun dried tomato and chilli sourdough ($18). I have to grudgingly admit that he made a good choice – the eggs were perfectly poached and covered in cheese, and the chorizo and chilli oil gave it a great spicy kick.

Annette had the eggs benedict – ham, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce on toasted sourdough ($16). When ordering, she asked for her eggs to be poached for longer so they weren’t too runny. When she received her breakfast, she was really happy to see that the eggs were exactly as she wanted them.

I, of course, had the fritters – panko crumbed corn and zucchini fritters topped with smoked salmon, avocado, a poached egg and wasabi kewpie ($19). Wow, there was so much going on with this dish. I loved the panko, which gave the fritters a great crunchy crust. However, I think I would’ve preferred bacon over smoked salmon (bacon wins everything all the time) and the zucchini meant that they weren’t corn fritters in the truest sense. They were pretty damn good though.

Nshry also serve other tempting breakfast items, as well as a short lunch menu – word is that the burger is very good. Earlier this year they started opening for dinner, which would be interesting to check out (though I think I may wait until the weather becomes nicer).

Good food and coffee in a fairly unique and beautiful location, combined with a potential walk along the beach to work off your meal – what more could you ask for? Nshry, despite the missing vowels, you’re doing something right.

View Off the spork in a larger map

Nshry
129a Beaconsfield Parade
Albert Park
Phone: 03 9682 1077
Web: nshry.com.au

Related posts:

1. Cafe Plum: revisited
2. Simply Spanish
3. Brunches: Bunyip, Red Star, Panette and El Mirage

This week: a visit to South Wharf, a parma bigger than MY HEAD, and slightly more home cooked meals.

On Tuesday night, Haz and I had a little mini tour of a few restaurants in the South Wharf precinct (disclosure: we were invited). They were all good, though our fave was Akachochin – a gorgeous Japanese restaurant. Post coming up next week.

What did everyone get up to for Anzac Day? We were meant to head out during the day, but piked because Alastair was feeling a bit ill. He felt better by the evening so we met up with an ex-customer of his for a parma at the Albion Hotel. Check out the size of the parma! (20 cent coin for scale.) MASSIVE. I was sadly defeated.

On Saturday, April hosted an awesome BBQ. Chicken wings, ribs, sausages, ahoy. I think I was too busy playing the logo game to take photos of the food, but it was all awesome. (Logo game is this week’s latest obsession.)

And the sun was out! We sat outside in the sunshine. YAY.

This was today’s breakfast: sauteed mushrooms, bacon and a fried egg. Yayayay.

Alastair and I then went to Streat (formerly Social Roasting Company) for a late lunch. We shared an open lamb souvlaki. Yum.

And finally, tonight we had hot pot for dinner. Double yum.

And here is the obligatory catspam (hi Hazzie!).

That’s it from me – how was your week?

Related posts:

1. The week in brief: 16 April – 22 April 2012
2. The week in brief: 2 April – 8 April
3. The week in brief: 9 April – 15 April

Tired of going to lunch at wineries? Yeah, me too. Wineries are so last year – the latest destination dining is in a garden.

Okay, that is not true. But we did eat lunch in a garden recently when Annette and Terry, Alastair’s mum and step-dad, arrived the other week for a visit. They arrived during the week when we had the beautiful autumn weather: coldish mornings, but lovely warm days, blue skies and wonderful sunsets. Having flown in from the UK, Annette and Terry were particularly happy to see the sunshine, and it was perfect weather for lunch at Fork to Fork. Fork to Fork is located in Heronswood, a garden that is the home of The Diggers Club.

The Diggers Club is Australia’s largest garden club and was formed in 1978. They specialise in unusual and heirloom plants, which can be purchased via mail order, or by visiting one of their nurseries – such as Heronswood. In addition to the garden nursery, Heronswood also has five separate vegetable gardens, as well as other extensive plantings, and a gorgeous seaview. Diggers Club members can take a walk through the gardens for free, while non-members have to pay $10.

The restaurant is located on the grounds of Heronswood in a lovely thatch roofed building – through the garden nursery. We got a bit distracted by the plants in the garden centre. There’s many interesting plants for purchase – such as a chocolate pudding fruit plant, so we took our time wandering through to the restaurant.

It was a beautiful day and pleasant enough to be able to sit outside. The menu is focused on seasonal ingredients, with many of the fruit and vegetables used grown organically in the gardens. Fish comes from the bay, the meat is free range, and their wine, beer and cheese is from Mornington Peninsula. Two courses costs $49 and three courses is $59.

We started with a plate of bread and olives (included in the price of lunch). The big bread roll was crusty and soft, and the olives were particularly good – not too salty and very moreish.

For entree, I decided to have the warm figs with proscuitto, peninsula honey and rocket. So did Alastair and Annette – obviously none of us can pass up an opportunity for figs.

They were very simply done and the perfect autumn dish. The figs had been wrapped with proscuitto, baked, and then drizzled with honey. It was really nice, though there was a bit too much honey on the plate. I would have loved to have had some blue cheese with this – yum.

Terry’s choice was the warm beetroot salad with chives, walnuts and horseradish cream.

For mains, Terry and Alastair both had the pan roasted snapper with parsnip and fennel puree and garden silverbeet. They both said it was good.

Annette and I both went for the meaty option and had the roasted lamp rump with carrots, roast red onion, feta and spiced yoghurt. The meat was cooked to medium and was juicy and full of flavour, and the carrots and onion were just lovely. They probably could’ve left off the feta and yoghurt, since the lamb wasn’t spiced and it was rather good unadorned without any additional flavouring. It was quite a big serve though – I was very full afterwards, despite giving away some of my lamb to Alastair.

We didn’t have dessert and instead had a leisurely stroll back out through the garden centre and admired the view a bit more. It was a very nice place for lunch – the food was pretty straight forward but done well, and the location was lovely.

For more on Fork to Fork, check out Wandering Spice and Sharking for Chips and Drinks.

View Off the spork in a larger map

Fork to Fork at Heronswood
105 Latrobe Parade
Dromana / Rosebud 3936
Phone: 03 5984 7318
Web: diggers.com.au

Related posts:

1. Pier 10: Week of Eats
2. The week in brief: 9 April – 15 April
3. De Bortoli

Disclosure: I dined courtesy of Touche Hombre.

The Melbourne craze for Mexican food continues full steam ahead, with Touché Hombre being one of the latest to open in the past month or so. The team behind it, Maison Davis, have obviously had a bit of fun putting the restaurant together. There’s many tongue in cheek references to be found: from the tag line “héroes de medio caparazón” (heroes in a half shell), to the arcade games at the entrance, to the “who ya gonna call?” neon sign, and the big cheery chicken jugs that pour cocktails out of the beak, just to name a few.

Aside from all the light hearted touches, Touche Hombre taps into that whole cool, casual Melbourne restaurant thing that this city seems to do so well: exposed brick walls, distressed wooden tables, an open warehouse style room with high ceilings, drinks served in all kinds of vessels except for glasses, and a mostly no booking policy (as far as I’m aware). It’s a good thing they don’t take themselves too seriously, or the place would be far too hip.

I dined with a group of other bloggers, and we were seated at the back of the restaurant on the “wrestling ring” table (which I believe can be booked). The table was under dim red lighting – a very challenging lighting situation for food photography.

We started off the evening with a drink, and it was only right that the first cocktail we tried was a margarita. Touche Hombre make a damn fine one using Espolon Reposado tequila, Agava Sec liqueur, and fresh pressed lemon and lime ($15.50 / $55 for supersize). They were served in old style metal mugs that had salt crusted on the side, and were very easy to drink.

If you’re one of those weird people who don’t like margaritas, there are other cocktails. We also tried a blood orange Madagascar, made with Casco Viejo Reposado tequila, blood orange and Orange Colombo liqueur, and served on the rocks with vanilla sugar drops and vanilla scented straws ($15.50 / $62 supersize). One for vanilla citrus fans.

Did you know that the paloma is the most popular tequila cocktail in Mexico? Touche Hombre do a version called La Paloma, which is made from Tromba Blanco tequila, fresh pink grapefruit, organic agave nectar, a Mexican pinch of salt and toronja soda ($17.50 / $68 supersize). I’m presuming that a Mexican pinch of salt is a rather generous pinch, because it was definitely distinctly salty. I’m not really a fan of grapefruit, but I still enjoyed it.

Oh, and have you noticed that this was the only cocktail that we received in a glass?

Finally, we also tried the Mexican beer cocktail ($9). These came served in a jar with Tecante Mexican lager, Touche’s salsa and Hombre’s chipotle puree with fresh lime, ice and a salted rim. This was spicy and beery all in one – definitely worth a try.

But what about the food? Between us we managed to sample a fair amount of the menu. The chicken tostaditos ($12 for 3) was a nice little bite – the corn chip was piled high with a generous amount of spiced chicken, mango jam, and toasted sesame and chipotle mayo. They are fairly small though.

The elotes callegjeros – grilled corn with coriander, smoked paprika, butter and grated Egmont cheese ($6) were also nice, but flavourwise could’ve been pushed further – more charring, more cheese, more spice.

I really enjoyed the ceviche ($12) made with diced fish, mussels, coriander, chilli, red onion, tomato and guacamole with tortilla chips. The ceviche was on the sour side and the chips were thicker than normal, both of which I quite liked.

Now if you saw a menu item called fatty lamb ribs ($8), would you order it? If you say yes: you’re my kind of eater. Because these are awesome – fatty yes, but not too much. Crispy on the outside and coated with honey, they were fantastic with a squeeze of the provided lemon.

Taco time! Touche has a list of eight different tacos, plus an additional secret squirrel taco that changes each day. Apparently the waiters won’t tell you what the secret taco is until AFTER you’ve eaten it, possibly because it’s likely that the filling may include offal. Our first taco was the soft shell crab, with corn cream, pea shoots, lime and mint ($7). I liked the battered soft shell crab and I liked the soft tortilla, but I feel it could’ve used a touch more lime to cut through the batter and corn cream.

I much preferred the breakfast taco ($6.50) which contained omelette, salchichas, Egmont cheese, beans, avocado, salsa, fried onions and habanero cream. It was even better after I added a few dashes of hot sauce.

The chicken taco was filled with chargrilled chicken, chimichurri and toasted pepitas, and it was a slight anticlimax after the breakfast one. It was pleasant but flavourwise it wasn’t as exciting – I should’ve added some of the hot sauce.

If I had ordered my own tacos, top of my list would have been the de carnitas – spiced pork, apple, sage, chicharrones and habanero cream, or the de morcilla – blood pudding, piquillo peppers, pico de gallo and soft egg aioli.

After tacos we refreshed our palates (ahem) by sipping a small glass of the house tequila.

Palates suitably refreshed (hah) we turned to dessert. They have three ice cream sangas (sandwiches) on offer. My favourite one was the chocolate and chilli peanut cookie ($7) – the crumbly chocolate cookie had a definite spicy kick and was filled with peanut ice cream.

The second was the dulce de leche ($7) which had a slightly tangy strawberry parfait, chopped pistachios and a sliver of dulce de leche.

And lastly, there was a rice pudding and cinnamon sanga ($7) – a caramel parfait, rice pudding and cinnamon sugar. By the way, if you can’t decide on which sanga you’d like, you can get a selection of all three for $18.

Overall, I thought our meal at Touche Hombre was pretty good. However, I must mention one thing in particular that I didn’t like: water was served in disposable cups, cutlery was disposable, and food arrived in cardboard boxes with paper liners. I know it goes with the whole casual theme of the restaurant, but there’s casual and then there’s “I’m paying Melbourne restaurant prices but feel like I’m at a damn picnic” casual. I hope they recycle at least.

Our visit was on a Tuesday night and they were packed, and this after only being open for a month. It’s easy to see why. While I do think they could push the flavours in the food a bit more – more zing, more freshness, more spiciness – the food was mostly pretty good and there was a fun vibe in the place. It’s early days, but there is a lot of potential.

For more on Touche Hombre, check out:

View Off the spork in a larger map

Touché Hombre
233 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone: 03 9663 0811
Web: touchehombre

Related posts:

1. Melbourne CBD ramen hunting
2. Japanese ITO Noodle Cafe: Siblings who lunch
3. Quanjude