Last week Haz asked if I wanted to go to the Bohemian for their Lagarde wine dinner. $60 for four courses and matched wines. Austerity, what austerity? I was in.
On our first visit to Bohemian last month, we sampled tapas and paella. This night, we were there for their special wine dinner in association with Argentinan winery, Lagarde.
This week: austerity? What austerity. There was dinner at the Bohemian, skewers, noodles, dumplings and FINALLY: Chin Chin.
Disclosure: I dined courtesy of Wine Selectors.
Movida, Movida, Movida. Last week was my first visit to the original Movida. I’d only previously had a lovely lunch at Movida Next Door but never visited the original. The reason for my visit was due to Wine Selectors – along with Haz and Thanh, we were there to try Frank Camorra’s signature wine that had been produced in association with Wine Selectors.
Wine Selectors started 35 years ago as a small retail space in the Hunter Valley and has morphed into Australia’s largest independent direct marketer of wine. Recently, they teamed up with several chefs and wine producers to create a wine collection designed to match each of the chefs’ cuisine styles.
Autumn means persimmons. My friend Maz has a persimmon tree in her backyard – one year she gave me 5kgs of persimmons. Holy crap. What can you do with so many persimmons? I’m the only person in the house who’ll eat them, and even then I prefer the non-astringent Fuyu type.
This year she asked if I wanted any. I firmly told her that I only wanted a few. She countered with an offer of twenty – I’m guessing her tree is rather prolific.
I grudgingly agree to twenty.
She showed up with a box. There were *definitely* more than twenty. I should’ve counted them out and made her take the extra home. 😉
Happy Sunday! This week: my first visit to MoVida (I know, I know) and… not much else. Austerity measures!
But there is also stuff on my cat. Hah.
Disclosure: I dined courtesy of Phat Brats.
First it was gourmet burgers, and now it’s time for the humble hot dog to take the leap into Gourmet Town. Step aside glammed up burgers – it’s time for posh dogs to shine.
Phat Brats is one of the latest to get in on posh dogs. Located on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, they describe themselves as having “honest sausages” and “top notch dogs”. The menu has a large selection of sausages: from lamb sausages to beef sausages to pork sausages to vege sausages, all with a wide variety of toppings. They also offer several types of fries: beer batter fries, cheesy fries, or chilli fries.
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.
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!
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.
“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.