The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is now officially an adult, after clocking up 18 years of interesting food and wine themed classes, demonstrations and dining experiences.  2010 is set to be another great year with over 250 events scheduled across 12 days.  The only difficulty now is figuring out which events I [...]]]>

The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is now officially an adult, after clocking up 18 years of interesting food and wine themed classes, demonstrations and dining experiences.  2010 is set to be another great year with over 250 events scheduled across 12 days.  The only difficulty now is figuring out which events I want to go to!

To celebrate the upcoming festival, the festival organisers hosted a media launch for both industry and media, and even a few of us pesky bloggers.  We were to be led up the garden path by Michael Ryan from the Provenance Restaurant in Beechworth (@theprovenance), and Nicolas Poelaert (@NicPoelaert) from Embrasse Restaurant, with a feast inspired by regional produce and wine.

The event was held at The Abbotsford Convent, a corker of a venue perfect for such a convivial gathering.

The first course was created by Michael Ryan; raw zucchini, goats curd, zucchini confiture, parmesan gel, olive and tomato sauces and thyme.  Despite looking rather delicate and summery, this dish was infused with some great flavours.  The parmesan agar added an interesting glutamate, and with the pickle-y confiture made me think this dish could almost impersonate a carpaccio.

Michael followed this with another dish that showcased the wonderful heirloom tomatoes that are just so perfect this time of year.  The tomatoes had been prepared in a number of ways; olive-brined, dried, slow-roasted and just sliced fresh.  It tumbled down the plate on top of a spicy and sweet gazpacho,and sourdough croutons added crunch. This was just summer on a plate.

Nicholas Poelart took the helm with the next dish, a visually impressive john dory cooked with squid ink, Daylesford Organic beetroots, burnt carrot puree, rice paddy herb and glory spinach. In fact, it was not only visually impressive, but aromatically impressive as well; I could smell the sea before the plate was even put in front of us.  I just loved, loved, loved the beetroot; a variety of different colours and textures on the plate. But I can’t help chuckling when I think of Ed (@tomatom) affectionately referring to this dish as a squidmark on a plate .

The mains were served platter-style for sharing, above Nicholas Poelart’s Mt.Donatis pork belly with Warrandyte cherries, QV Market fresh mustard, Embrasse’s own white carrots rolled in very starchy potato and stuffed capsicums from Albert in Sunbury. The highlight for me, funnily enough, were those carrots, which were a sweet distraction from the richness of the meltingly tender pork.

But one of my favourite dishes (apart from dessert to come) was this creation from Michael Ryan – confit chicken wings, dashi braised eggplant, daikon, spring onion and konbu no tsukudani. This dish just tasted of Japan to me, and makes me ever so jealous to think that Michael today is jetting off to Japan for a holiday!  Anyway, the chicken wings had been boned for our convenience, and were absolutely sticky with chicken flavours.  The braised vegetables were highlighted with umami flavours, care of the dashi and the konbu, and I think the braise had been thickened with kuzu to make it silky smooth.

But the dish that had us all in awe was Nicholas Poelart’s hazelnut parfait with meringue, honey / chocolate and sorrel mint granita.  How fabulous does this culinary landscape look?  The “forest floor” was made of cakey crumbs, “mushrooms” from the meringue and parfait, “moss” from the sorrel and mint granita, and then shards of chewy honeycomb. This was an absolute delight to eat.

So which Melbourne Food & Wine Festival events are you going to?  Being a CBD resident, I’m looking forward to seeing the City Square turn into an edible garden. *sigh* I just wish something like that could be a permanent installation.

Many eateries, such as Old Town Kopitiam, Blok M Express and Singapore Chom Chom, have all tried to evoke the memories of hawker fare back home by naming themselves after famous food districts and icons.  Most of these do not live up to the [...]]]> 111 Kingsway, Glen Waverley (map)
Phone 03 9561 1388

Many eateries, such as Old Town Kopitiam, Blok M Express and Singapore Chom Chom, have all tried to evoke the memories of hawker fare back home by naming themselves after famous food districts and icons.  Most of these do not live up to the standard of their namesakes, but they certainly bring out the feelings of nostalgia in so many of us.  Petaling Street is another such eatery, named after the Chinatown district of Kuala Lumpur’s Jalan Petaling, famous as much for food as it is for pirated goods.

Petaling Street has two locations, one in Hawthorn and another in Glen Waverley.  Both do not have counterfeit Rolex watches (that I know of), but hawker food is definitely the name of the game here.  The Glen Waverley restaurant is situated on the busy Kingsway, a buzzy strip filled with shops, restaurants and cafes.

The interior of Petaling was bright and cheery, with cafe style seating and a neat mural of KL’s Petaling Street covering one side of the room.  The menu lists well over a hundred items and covers the gamut of hawker classics.  You are sure to find something you’ll like here.  Prices were also reasonable; most of the hawker dishes were around $9 and serves were pretty massive.

Dad had the char kuey teow, which was a winner.  Nicely balanced, it had a fantastic smokey charry flavour, with a good lick of chilli for measure.  The dish also contained fat prawns and lap cheong (Chinese sausage).

I greatly enjoyed my mamak mee goreng.  A squeeze of lemon added a nice tang to an otherwise well balanced dish, the fat egg noodles accompanied by generous chicken pieces and prawns.

Mellie’s nasi lemak special certainly looked the part, with sambal, egg, fried peanuts and ikan bilis.  However, it lacked a certain oomph, with the rice nowhere near coconutty enough.  The curry beef that came with the rice was quite nice though, with a surprising spicy kick.  Mum had previously tried their Hainanese chicken rice and was similarly underwelmed.  Perhaps their flavoured rice dishes are not the way to go.

Mum had the winner of the day with the seafood hor fun.  No kidding, this was one of the best hor fun’s I’ve had – not too sweet or too gluggy from excess thickeners.  As with the char kuey teow, it had serious wok hei (breath of the wok) that imparted a beautiful smokey taste to the rice noodles.  The prawns, squid and other seafood were also nicely cooked.

Alas, we didn’t get any satay but we’ll definitely be back to try them, and other dishes.  The quality of the hor fun and char kuey teow suggests that all their wok-fried dishes will be a winner.  From other tables, the curry laksa also looked interesting.  Maybe avoid the flavoured rice dishes, although their fried rice and plain rice dishes (with rendang for example) might still be OK.

The food was also very cheap – $40 for all of the above, plus one ice tea.  Man I love suburban prices!

Satay Stix Now closed

On one of our days off last year, we decided to do a satay challenge for lunch.  We wanted to know if we can find authentic, cheap and tasty satay in Melbourne CBD.  Firstly, I have [...]]]> Sataybar
Cnr of Flinders Lane & Custom House Lane (map)
Phone 03 9629 1466

Satay Stix
Now closed

On one of our days off last year, we decided to do a satay challenge for lunch.  We wanted to know if we can find authentic, cheap and tasty satay in Melbourne CBD.  Firstly, I have to say that I really hate how South East Asian hawker foods are so damn pricey here.  I mean, a satay stick costs a few cents in Singapore, but here it’s a few dollars!  I know that there are differences in labour costs, rents, etc.. but I think part of the issue is that hawker dishes are served as a restaurant food, whereas in SE Asia, it’s just street meat.  If someone would just set up a satay cart instead of serving it in fancy surroundings, the price might go down.  The public should also refuse to pay exhorbitant prices for street food!  OK rant over.

We hit up two places that specialised in satay – Satay Stix and Satay Bar.  Note that Satay Stix has since closed (let this be a lesson not to leave posts sitting around for too long), however, they did indicate that they might reopen in the near future.  So whose satay reigns supreme?

The satay at Stix looked the business.  The trimmings were all there: raw onion, cucumber and (shock horror) ketupat!  These compressed rice treats are an essential accompaniment but virtually no restaurant in Melbourne serves them with their satay.  We were very excited to see them, and they were quite tasty.  The sauce at Stix was also very good – peanutty, smokey and with a great spicy kick.  The let down was actually the meat on the skewers.  The portions were a bit too big (satay is meant to be petite portions of meat) such that they resembled kebabs, however, the marinade was not too bad.  The satays were around $2 a stick.

The next place, Satay Bar, is a slick cafe-style set up that’s still in operation and catering mostly to the weekday business lunch crowd.  For $10.60, you get a satay pack that includes 3 skewers, 3 sides and sauce, with sides including chopped salad and crackers.  Instead of ketupat, you get steam rice in the pack.  Unfortunately, we found this satay to be a let down.  Firstly, the sauce has been doused all over the satay, as you can see in the pic.  This would not have been a problem had the sauce been better.  Instead, it was like eating liquified peanut butter.  It was far too rich, thick and cloying for our liking, and we ended up scraping most of it off.  Which is too bad, because the rest of the pack was OK.  The meat was quite nice and better proportioned than Satay Stix, and the salad was crisp and fresh.  I don’t get the crackers though.  It must be an Indonesian or Malaysian thing, because I’ve not come across this in Singapore.  If someone can verify, that would be great.

So which is the superior satay? Really, both had shortcomings but in this comparison we must give it to Satay Stix.  Although the proportions were all wrong, it was very tasty, the sauce was kickass and it had the added bonus of ketupat!  Pity that it’s now closed, as it had potential.  Satay Bar’s sauce was just too thick, rich and peanut butter-esque.  Maybe this appeals to their clientele, but I thought that it really wasn’t proper satay sauce.

Oh well, the search continues.  We have since tried Old Town Kopitiam Mamak’s satay and it was quite good (no ketupat though) and I’ve heard good things about Jack’s Satay Bar.  Does anyone have any good satay recommendations?

Chowder always reminds me of The Simpsons episode where Mayor Quimby’s nephew, Freddy Quimby, ridicules a French waiter over the pronunciation of this soupy classic.  ”Say it Frenchy!  Say Chow-dah,” Freddy would mock in a high pitch JFK parody, to which the [...]]]> 97 Main Rd, Hepburn Springs (map)
Phone 03 5348 2221

Chowder always reminds me of The Simpsons episode where Mayor Quimby’s nephew, Freddy Quimby, ridicules a French waiter over the pronunciation of this soupy classic.  ”Say it Frenchy!  Say Chow-dah,” Freddy would mock in a high pitch JFK parody, to which the waiter would defiantly reply ”Chaudière”.  Pandemonium subsequently ensued.

However you pronounce it, I have always wanted to try this dish.  I got my wish, not on the east coast of America, but in the spa capital of Victoria (Hepburn Springs) at the popular Chowder House.

The name of this diner proclaims its speciality as loudly as the decor of its kitsch interior, which is a mish mash of retro 50’s vinyl chairs, tablecloths and paraphenalia.  There’s even a vintage ladies hairdryer (one of them conical ones on a stand) in the loos.  The main attraction, however, were the charming staff and owners, one of whom was reading out the newspaper quiz as we walked in, with diners calling out the answers.

The menu consists of  seven or so chowder (natch), plus brekkie dishes like pancakes and Frenchies (toast, not waiters), as well as muffins and cakes.

We opted for pescatorial chowders in the form of smoked cod and the New England classic of clams.  Just look at this bad boy!  A rich, creamy yet light broth came laden with chunks of cod so smokey, we felt like we had just left a BBQ stoked by a forest of hickory.  Mellie actually found it a tad too smokey to finish it all.

We ordered side serves of the most delectable corn bread - a slight crunch on the outside and moist and corny on the inside.  I know that this term has been poo-poo’d by many blogger/tweets but feck it – it was TO DIE FOR!

I channelled my inner Kennedy with the extremely tasty clam chowder.  The soup base was a little less rich than Mel’s and it was chock full of little sweet pippi-like clams.  It was seriously a Soup Nazi moment for me, a broth so tasty you had to sit down to eat it.

The servings were so huge that we didn’t quite finish everything, for which we were good naturedly chided by the owners.  In reply, we lamented that the serves were so big that we now couldn’t fit in one of their passionfruit fairy cakes.  Imagine our surprise when, after we had paid and were leaving, one of the owners gave us a free fairy cake to take away!  Money just can’t buy the happy and friendly vibe coming from this diner.

Alas, we drove by the next day and noticed that Chowder House has a Business For Sale sign on the door   We were somewhat saddened, yet hopeful that the new owners (whoever they may be), continue the legacy of serving top broth in spa country.  Less hopeful are we about replicating the charm of the staff and owners, who will prove a hard act to follow.

The new complex at 206 Bourke Street, billed as an “Asian dining, retail and entertainment hub” has so far failed to impress in culinary terms.  When I first read about the multi-million dollar redevelopment of the former Village City Centre, I was excited at [...]]]> Level 1, 206 Bourke Street, Melbourne (map)
Phone 03 9663 0005

The new complex at 206 Bourke Street, billed as an “Asian dining, retail and entertainment hub” has so far failed to impress in culinary terms.  When I first read about the multi-million dollar redevelopment of the former Village City Centre, I was excited at the potential reinvigoration of a Chinatown dining scene that has, in parts, fallen into such mediocrity that restaurants rely on street touts to lure in customers.  Amongst 206’s star recruits are Dynasty, a 600-seater Cantonese and dim sum specialist based at Shanghai’s Renaissance Yangtze Hotel;  a high end Japanese restaurant called Opulent; and Nan Xing Steam Bun, another yum cha specialist.  All of these restaurants are yet to open.  The existing tenant, John So’s Dragon Boat, has reopened, having been renovated and expanded over two floors.  You can see why I’d be excited.

After lacklustre dim sum at the restaurant of John So (he’s no longer my bro), we decided to have dinner at 206’s other new restaurant, The Bund.  Named after Shanghai’s famous quay, the Bund specialises in Shanghainese cuisine, with influences from Zhejiang, a province known for dishes like Dongpo rou (Fried pork belly stewed in soy sauce and wine), Jiaohua ji (beggar’s chicken) and Xi Hu cu yu (West Lake sweet and sour fish).  It is also the region where the famous Dragon Well green tea originated.

The alarm bells should have been ringing after the spin campaign touted ”affordable luxury with 5 star chefs from Shanghai’s Shangri-la Pudong Hotel” who will ”bring the amazing taste of Shanghai to Melbourne’s doorstep and present it in one of the most opulent settings the city has seen”.  The opulence obviously includes “two five-tonne shark tanks”, the purpose of which caused me some confusion when I first read it: were live sharks’ fins going to be offered?  The sales pitch continued on their Facebook page, which offered daily free glasses of wine and “buy one cocktail get one free” deals.

The Bund is located on Level 1 of the 206 complex.  Led up the escalator by one of the two friendly touts at street level, we arrived at a pleasant and modern dining room dominated by a large marbled bar smack bang in the middle.  Starched table cloths and funky light features lent to the opulent aspirations although this was somewhat cheapened by A4 paper plastered all over the front windows which advertised the specials.  The entrance also had a design quirk in that it didn’t have a partition or front greeting area, so that the table closest to it feels as if it’s halfway out the door! (Luckily that was not our table).

The sales puffery started to dissipate once we were seated: the shark tanks turned out to be a colourful aquarium behind the bar – nice but nary a shark in sight – and we were not offered any free drinks, with wine glasses quickly whisked away after we asked for water.  Perhaps they should have made it clear what the conditions of the offer were?

Now to the food: the menu was divided into various sections for seafood, meat etc.  However, descriptions were scant, with the provincial origin of dishes often not stated.

Drunken Chicken

Shanghai smoked fish

Xiao Long Bao

We started with entrees of Shanghai smoked fish, drunken chicken and six Xiao Long Bao (soupy pork dumplings).  The smoked fish was tasty though nothing exceptional.  The XLBs were also nice, with a good broth inside each dumpling, however, the skin was a tad too thick and certainly not a patch on Hu Tong.  The poached drunken chicken had great flavour and was very tender indeed.  However, it was marred by the bright red bone attached to most pieces.  I know that the cooking technique calls for the bone to remain rare, but it’s off-putting to cop shards of bloodied bone whilst eating and for one’s plate to pool with red liquid.  Perhaps the chicken could have been deboned or presented differently?

Spinach cooked with salted and century egg

Dragon Well Tea prawns

"Grandma's" braised pork belly

Our mains arrived in extremely quick succession, almost without a break from our entrees.  We shared spinach cooked with salted and century egg, Dragon Well Tea prawns, “Grandma’s” braised pork belly, and seafood fried noodles.  The spinach, which turned out to be snow pea shoots, was the dish that was probably the pick of the bunch (pun intended).  Swimming in a nice soupy gravy, it was tasty though the century egg lacked a bit of flavour.  The prawns were very bland, with a complete absence of any tea flavour.  Instead, Mellie noted an unpleasant aftertaste which suggested that the prawns might not have been very fresh.  The fatty pork belly was OK, though it was too sweet and cut a little too thickly for our liking.

Seafood noodles

After instantaneous serving of our mains, the fried noodles took an eternity to arrive.  We had to ask about it twice.  When it finally arrived, it was disappointingly not worth the wait, as it was the stinker of the night.  Completely lacking in wok hei charriness, the noodles were soggy rather than crispy, with a tasteless brothy sauce containing some bland seafood, particularly the rubbery calamari.  Terrible.

Service was friendly but a little lacking in areas.  We were not offered spoons with the XLBs or the noodles and had to ask for these.  Plates with piles of chicken bones were also not cleared promptly.

I realise that The Bund is newly opened and every restaurant has teething problems.  I do hope they sort these out, but our dinner was very disappointing.  It’s all fine to have a great fit-out but it has to be matched to good food and intuitive service.  Additionally, the ugly side of social media of the kind that’s been perpetuated by the complex must be backed up by substance.  You can fool tourists but food-savvy locals will be turned away if things are not up to scratch.    I will continue to try the other new restaurants at 206 as they open, as I believe in giving eateries a fair go, but I now do so with trepidation given our two experiences so far.

As we left the complex, The Bund’s touts, obviously having forgotten who we were, asked if we wanted to try some Chinese food.  No thanks.