Mekong Vietnam

241 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Phone 03 9663 3288

Let me set the record straight right from the start, I am a Pho Dzung man. It's important to state this, as people are very loyal to their favourite CBD pho noodle shop, and this loyalty can be as divided as Ford or Holden. My preference for the Dzung is not necessarily because it is the best in town, but because it is the closet one to my work. However, being a fan of the noodly and beefy soup goodness that is the mighty pho, I am not averse to trying other places.

Mekong is located smack bang in Swanston Street. It proclaims to serve "original Vietnamese rice noodle soups" and is certainly one of the first, if not the first, Vietnamese noodle soup places in the city. The interior is typical pho-shop chic: bright lights, laminex tables complete with an array of condiments and ever present flask of tea, Viet-pop blaring on TVs, and a drinks fridge stocked full of coconut and tri-colour refreshment. Drawn by the cheap prices, this is a favourite student haunt, so be prepared for sharing tables or waiting.

Mellie tried the fish ball soup that came with egg noodles.

I tried the rare sliced beef and beef ball pho. And the verdict? Well, a sign outside Meking proclaimed that Bill Clinton once had two bowls of Mekong's pho. If that's the case, he must have as great a liking for MSG as he did for interns, for I found the MSG levels of Mekong's soup to be too high for my liking. Of course, this made the soup very tasty indeed, but the effect of MSG is that it gives you an almighty thirst afterwards!

I realise that most, if not all pho shops put MSG in their broth, and that the amount can vary even from day to day. But on the day that I tried the above soup, I found that the MSG level was too much.

That said, it was a decent bowl of pho, with nice beef slices and beef balls. They were a little stingy on the sprouts and basil though, and I thought the fish balls in Mellie's dish were a little sub-par (then again, fish balls are not Mekong's speciality).

Mekong is still a good, cheap and fun place if you're in the area. There are better pho places in the suburbs, particularly in Springvale, Richmond and other Vietnamese areas, and I still prefer Pho Dzung to Mekong. However, for a quick pho hit, Mekong can more than amply provide. Just drink plenty of water aftewards!

Written by Elegant Gourmand

Vora Cafe

120 Hardware Street, Melbourne
Phone 03 9670 2008

Vora Cafe is an unusual little Korean place that sits quietly and without much fuss on Hardware Street. EG and I had walked past it many times but had never felt drawn in. To be honest, if often looked quite dead. From the street you look through the front door to a darkened kitchen, and to the right in even more subdued lighting was a dining area that occasionally supported a smattering of economising Korean students. Nonetheless, it was a place that intrigued us, and after many months, we decided to try it out.

We kicked off the meal with some passably good gyoza - pan fried dumplings filled with minced pork and vegetables that came with a lightish dipping sauce. They were a teeny bit on the oily side.

I chose the dolsot bibimbap - rice served in a hot stone bowl with a selection of vegeables and kim chi (pickles), topped with a sunny side up egg. All the ingredients were wonderfully fresh, and the kim chi straddled the sweet / sour / hot balance quite nicely.

EG chose the seafood kimchi soup - a hot pot of viciously red liquid packed full of cabbage chards of and seafood mix. It was not overly spicy, but still very flavoursome. The seafood was well cooked and the dish came with a bowl of steamed rice.

Service was friendly enough; you order at the counter before taking a seat and they bring out the food to you. The dining room too is not so bad when you sit down, although there is still something a little unsettling about the chi of the place. It more feels like a place to be fed (ie. an eat and run), as opposed to a place to kick back and relax for a good meal with mates. But it's cheap and offers passable Korean fare.

Nihonbashi Zen

87 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne

Phone 03 9639 7050

Time to interrupt our Japan holiday posts with a Melbourne dining experience, although as you can see I haven't veered too far from the current theme. We were craving a taste of the food from our recent trip, and decided that Nihonbashi Zen might satiate that need.

The restaurant is located in a small basement off Little Bourke Street in Melbourne's Chinatown, and is very Japanese in feel. Sombre lighting, Shinto vermillion walls, ikebana highlights, black lacquer and ebony coloured furniture make for a sophisticated space, whilst white linen tablecloths adds a necessary contrast. We sat at the counter, a long blond wood affair that ran alongside the kitchen, which offered a chest high view of Chef Hirokazu Yano in action. It was a shame that we couldn't see what his hands were doing though.

Nihonbashi Zen specialises in kushiyaki - skewered dishes cooked on the grill, stone grill or hot plate. You can ordered them in pairs a la carte (there is a huge selection), or venture down the banquet/degustation road. We decided on the latter.

Chef Hirokazu is renowned for sourcing and using only quality produce, and for creating one of Melbourne's best Sake wine lists (he directly imports them via refrigerated transport from Japan). Both the Sake and the food is not cheap, but you can be assured that the quality can't be beat.

Our first dish, sashimi, was some of the best raw fish I've eaten in Melbourne in some time. The salmon was deliciously fatty and melting tender in the mouth, sitting high on a pile of finely shredded seasoned daikon and seaweed. The firm red bricks of tuna were so fresh, they almost cracked when I picked them up with my chopsticks.

Tofu cheese was next, a delicious light curdy tasting block of tofu. I don't quite know how it is prepared, but it certainly has the taste and texture of fresh cheese curds. It is absolutely divine! It sat in a pool of dashi and light shoyu, and was garnished with crisp shards of nori.

Our first kushiyaki arrived sizzling on a hot plate, marinated in a heady savoury sauce. To the front, a stick of Angus beef was so good I had to close my eyes to savour the taste. Behind, a stick of tender spring lamb, once again cooked to perfection.

Our second plate of kushiyaki consisted of three double skewers of bacon wrapped goodies; Tasmania potato, firm asparagus and okra. Now as much as I love bacon, this was perhaps overkill. This was akin to eating six rashers of bacon - I don't think I can even do that for breakfast! Other than than, the chicken kushiyaki was wonderfully moist and caramalised.

Dessert was an amazing scoop of home made red bean ice cream served in a neat little suribachi (Japanese mortar). I'd go back for this ice cream alone.

Service can be a little sketchy - despite having three on the floor in a small space, there was still a bit of confusion and mishap. After we'd finished our dessert and the plates had been cleared away, we requested the bill and were informed that we should wait as there was one more dish to go. I was understandably excited - could there possibly be two desserts?!? Alas, after 20 minutes the waitress, after seeing that we still did not have dessert, checked with the chef, and realised she had made an error. She apologised, but no other recompense was offered.

Despite that, it is a great little restaurant with some smashing authentic Japanese cuisine, and I look forward to going back to experience the delights of the a la carte menu.

Fenix - David & Laura's Wedding

680 Victoria Street, Richmond

Phone 03 9427 8500

It's not that I'm hard up for blogging material - I have about a gazillion blog entries from Japan/Singapore just begging to be written. But when a foodie moment grabs you by the short and curlies, how can one resist?

Such a moment occurred a few weeks ago at a wedding reception of all places. My friends David and Laura decided to tie the knot, and after a beautiful, relaxed, touching ceremony held amongst the gums beside the Yarra River, we retired to Fenix for the reception.

The intimate private room on the lower level was beautifully decked out - white napery, heavy silver cutlery, nice stemware, tables strewn with deep red rose petals, and romantic mood lighting. A string quartet continued the elegant theme, with house staff flitting in and out with bubbles and canapes.

I was gripping myself for some horrid mass produced wedding fare, but I needn't have worried. Fenix has done well for itself over the last year, scoring a couple of respected reviews and a hat in the Good Food Guide. In fact, with chef Raymond Capaldi's reputation for inventiveness, this should be quite interesting!

The first course was a boudin of rabbit served with a pineapple cumberland sauce. The boudin was part sausage, part terrine, being pressed and moulded into a firm succulent roll which was sliced for serving. It sat on a mound of piquant and sweet cumberland sauce, though by my reckoning it should have been called a chutney or relish, as it was thick like a paste as opposed to being loose like a traditional Cumberland. Either way it was a winning combination - the gamey meat working very well with the sweetish accompaniment.

The delightfully named "Spring/Summer" was a cold soup of cucumber essence seasoned well to bring out the best of this crisp green fruit. The floating islands of yoghurt mozzarella was our first introduction to Capaldi's molecularly gastronomic bent, and it was wonderful. The little islands were indeed yoghurt flavoured, and were rubbery and squeaked on your teeth, just like mozzarella. A small dice of cucumber and thin slivers of blanched lemon added further freshness to this seasonal dish.

The roasted blue eye was a good looking slab of fish, the crisp skin looking almost like leather. To the side a fillet of smoked eel added a sooty hint to the squeeze of chicken parfait on top, which was further studded by slivers of sweet dehydrated apples and mushroom. Classic combinations with a modern execution.

The 36 hour cooked lamb is one of Capaldi's signatures. The meat was incredibly dark, sticky and so tender it fell to bits at the touch of my fork. It was served on a long dollop of carotene (hmm...now doesn't that sound delectable), and a side of dehydrated potatoes and sweetbreads. This was pure comfort food. I had to close my eyes to savour the taste with each mouthful.

Dessert was an absolute surprise, just because it looked so darn kookie.Violet Crumble by name and Violet Crumble by taste, it was certainly not Violet Crumble by look. In fact it didn't even shatter like it mattered at all. Beneath the viscous honeycomb flavoured bubbles was a square of decadent chocolate and almond mousse. What a fun dish to eat!

Following on was some wonderful petits fours, plus the wedding cake (croquembouche), which by this stage, I was too full to eat. Seriously, this was the best wedding meal I've *ever* had.

Lastly - David and Laura - I wish you all the best on your life journey together. May you fulfill each other in every way possible.

Dainty Sichuan...now it was my turn

26 Corrs Lane, Melbourne
(03) 9663 8861

Matt Preston's review of Dainty Sichuan in Epicure yesterday prompted me to post my views on this popular little eatery, which EG first experienced back in August. Since then we've been back a number of times, dragging parents, friends and just ourselves along for some chilli madness. To be perfectly honest the food is oily, salty and MSG-laden. But those damn chillies/sichuan peppercorns are bloody addictive, and their siren song keep you coming back for more.

The Mapo Tofu (above) is a lava-like braise of minced pork and diced tofu, spruiked up by a healthy spoon (or two) of spicy bean paste and sichuan pepper. You will not only feel the heat from the chilli, but also the mouth numbing quality of the peppercorns. The name of the dish literally translates as "pocked-face lady's tofu", so named for a pock-faced lady who, living on the outskirts of town due to her leprous appearance, enticed a farmer and his son with a dish made from the few items in her cupboard - mince beef, tofu and sichaun peppercorns. Apparently this tasty dish soon became known far and wide, and was named after her rather unfortunate condition. Or so the story goes anyway.

To cool things down, you may opt for a gentle plate of stir-fried Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce. A nice way to break up the chilli onslaught.

The delightfully named Ants Climbing A Tree is a typical Sichuan dish which surprisingly isn't too hot. Minced pork clings to threads of mung bean noodles ( looking like ants clinging to a twig, hence the name), stir fried with ginger, garlic, green onions and a modest amount of chilli. I really like this one. Tasty.

I can't remember the name of this dish (probably because my eyes instantly started watering from the three chilli rating), but these spicy pork ribs will have you reaching for the fire extinguisher. Alternatively a cold bottle of sweetened soy bean drink or milky green tea may douse the raging inferno. Spicy and salty to the extreme, four people probably wouldn't make a huge dent in this plate of meat. Heed my warning though - don't order it if you're not prepared, as it kicks like a mule.

The beer duck was wonderfully tasty, and unfortunately by this stage I was too full to have more than a piece. The duck just about fell off the bone, having been braised for a very long time in an ale flavoured chilli infused gravy. What surprised me most was the use of sprouted bean shoots, which were wonderfully crunchy and nutty - something I hadn't seen before. And as you can see, yes, there was a fair amount of oil/fat floating on the surface.

Green beans with pork mince were also good in a deep fried, oily, excessively salty kind of way. It's a popular dish in the restaurant - you'll notice it gracing most tables. And I'd be quite happy to eat just that with a bowl of steamed rice and a bottle of Tsingtao.

Listen, the Dainty Sichuan doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't, which is why I like it. It's chaotic, it's rough around the edges and the food bites you back (not only when you eat it, but 12 hours later ;-)). It is certainly an experience.

Hooked

172 Chapel Street, Windsor (near High Street)
Phone 03 9529 1075

Avast me hearties! Mel and I have been hooked by Prahran's Hooked. As far as fish and chippers go, it doesn't get any better than this. Located near the corner of High Street and Chapel, the first thing that draws your attention is the nautical decor of this neat little shopfront. Buoys, roped bollards, interesting wall stencils, and a shark-shaped fish aquarium provide a fun atmosphere without being over the top kitschy. Take-away is, of course, popular but you can also eat in at a long communal table with such weathered patina that it appears constructed from the hull of an old clipper. Interestingly, Hooked also allows BYO.

The menu includes a choice of flake, barramundi, snapper and salmon, filleted fresh on site and available beer battered or grilled in a range of special boxes and combinations. You can also get fish burgers, calamari (grilled or salt & pepper), scallops, octopus and king prawns, and there are daily blackboard specials. Chips are hand-cut, and tartare sauce, pesto and other sauces are hand-made. Healthy sides include a fabulous salad of mixed leaf, tomato, cucumber, bbq corn, ginger, bean sprouds and kumera crisps - good enough to order on its own, and will definitely rid you of scurvy. Arrrgh. You can also get tempura vegetables if you want to appear semi-healthy ;)

Packaging is very smart indeed - see above. I had the flake, whilst Mel had the barramundi in a light tempura batter with hand cut chips, home made tartare and lemon, and salad ($12.50).

What can I say - the flake was delicious. A fantastic beer batter ensured that the fish was oh so moist inside. The chips were hand hewn fritters of flavour that went a treat with good ol' Heinz ketchup. Mel's barra was also fantastic. What surprised us the most was the Hooked salad - not just the best salad that I've had in a gourmet fish and chipper but one of the best salads I've had ever! Crunchy, healthy and delicious, the Japanese-style pickled ginger and the BBQ'd corn added surprising yet tasty touches to the salad. I love the fact that Hooked tried to balance out the unhealthy with healthy options.

I know I've been waxing lyrical about what is essentially deep fried takeout, but Hooked is seriously good and highly recommended. It's not as cheap as your usual suburban fish and greasies but quality and flavour are high, and I love the thought that has gone into the place. You Prahran people are so lucky!

York Cafe

336-368 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Phone 03 9642 2882

Everyone needs a cheap and cheerful neighbourhood takeaway joint for when you can't be bothered cooking or when the pantry is stone motherless bare. Takeaway is sometimes lacking for us CBD residents, who miss out on the great suburban staples of quality pizza joints and fish and chippers. Thank god for gems like York Cafe to satisfy our take out cravings!

A bustling lunch spot, York Cafe is a haven at night for students, who converge on the place for a cheap feed during a break in studying, and also nearby apartment dwellers, who keep the delivery boy very busy indeed (minimum delivery order is $20). Rita, the pocket dynamo owner, ensures that everyone is well looked after.

A clean, bright and neat little space, York offers the gamut of Hong Kong-style fast food, from a range of soup and fried noodles, to various combinations of toppings on steaming plain rice. Nostalgia abounds, with spam and fried eggs on rice available, and the drinks menu listing Ovaltine and Horlicks. A separate a la carte menu is available, which comes with complimentary soup and rice, but is currently only written in Chinese so you may have to get Rita to translate. What I love about York is that the food is tasty but not too oily, and most dishes are usually loaded with vegies. Also, the owners go the extra mile by catering for those who are gluten intolerant.

I have tried almost everything on the menu and loved them all. Those on a budget usually go for the $6.50 beef or chicken on rice, which you can choose to have with a range of sauces, including black bean, garlic chilli, satay, curry, oyster, XO, szechuan and more. Let's see Subways match that! The York does a particularly good beef and bitter melon with black bean sauce (first pic), deliciously warming fish ball soup noodles (second pic), and one of the best examples of the Cantonese version of char kway teow ever - dry-fried beef with rice noodles that was smoky and ever so tastily licked by the breath of the wok. There's also a nice range of fried rice dishes and vego's are well catered for with seven vegetarian dishes. If you are game, request some fresh chopped chilli, which are sliced razor thin and come from Rita's home garden. They will blow your socks off.

Drinks are quirky and fun, with Hong Kong-style ice milk tea (ice tea with condensed milk) and a very nice ice lemon tea. Espresso and cafe latte's are also available. The York is not licensed but you can BYO.

I love this place! City life would have been unbearable without a great "neighbourhood" place like York Cafe.

Fifteen - lunch special

Basement, 115-117 Collins Street, Melbourne
(enter through Georges Parade)
Ph 1300 799 415

It has been almost a year since Fifteen Melbourne opened its doors, and I thought it high time I went back to see just how this little venture was going. I had noticed some heavy advertising in the newspapers of late, promoting a lunchtime special of two courses and a glass of wine for $28.50. So with EG and six work mates in tow, I made a booking for the following week (hmm...looks like one doesn't need to wait on the reservation line for 40 minutes or for a reservation months in advance anymore).

I first went to Fifteen back in October 2006, and whilst I found the food satisfying, I did feel the prices were just a little too high. Eleven months on and you will still find Aesop products in the bathroom, and the prices certainly haven't dropped. The bread is good (you get a choice of four types which they offered twice) with really grassy peppery olive oil for dipping. Front of house is still very professional, though I must admit we had a rather funky (in a bad sense of the word) smelling waiter, who emitted a foul stench whenever he lent over to deposit a plate or fill up the water glass. Eww. But let's just leave that one there.

The lunch special offers two courses from a reduced choice menu, two each of entree, pasta or dessert.

A couple of my workmates ordered the Rotolo of ricotta with a sage and burnt butter sauce (above). Looks good, huh? Tender sheets of fresh pasta had been rolled with seasoned ricotta and garnished with crispy sage and shavings of parmesan. It probably was a little heavy on the beurre noisette though, which made for a very rich dish.

Most of the group went the milk fed veal osso bucco ravioli with marrow, creamy borlotti beans and braising liquor. Despite the fact that this dish was seriously tasty, all was not well. The inside of the ravioli was good - packed full of shreds of slow cooked osso bucco meat and creamy marrow. The braising liquor (sauce) was also good, marrying well with the firm borlotti beans(cooked from the dried, not the fresh) and having the taste of a good bean minestra. But the downfall? Well...the pasta was not cooked. WHAT THE? Thats right, the pasta was absolutely raw at the seal where the two layers of pasta came together. It wasn't even raw in a nice way (ie. when you use freshly made pasta). It was inedibly hard and floury, the layer of uncooked pasta plain to the eye.

I/we should have sent it back straight away, but at this stage we had already been sitting there for forty-five minutes and a work lunch hour ticks by way too fast. I ate the filling, the beans, and left the rim of the ravioli as evidence.

Okay now I reckon this is pretty poor, especially as Fifteen Melbourne boasts an Italian Mediterranean style. Pasta should be the one thing they are getting bang on right.

We showed this to the waiter and watched as he passed it on to the kitchen/chef. Unfortunately the advice wasn't heeded, as one of our party, who had ordered an entree first, received his ravioli about fifteen minutes later. And that one too was raw! We complained to the waiter again and he apologised and offered free coffees in compensation.

Dessert too was a little hit and miss. The hot sticky fig pudding with butterscotch and mascarpone was a popular choice on the table - it was moist, caramelly and nicely plated with a quenelle of mascarpone sitting in a brandy snap curl.

The baked custard and prune tart with walnut icecream was a bit of a miss though. To start with the pastry wasn't cooked and the filling (what there was of it) was bland and uninspiring. The scrape of prune puree wasn't enough to impart any flavour at all, and it just looked limp and insipid on the plate.

We really didn't have time to hang around for our free coffee (we'd been there an hour and a half already), so we bid Fifteen adieu.

Now I love what Fifteen are all about - giving disadvantaged kids the opportunity of acquiring a trade etc. But I also expect value for money - and whilst the venue, the service, the ingredients etc. were all great (...and worth what I paid), damn, they just lost it in the execution. I hope they lift their game.

Hofbrauhaus

18-24 Market Lane, Melbourne
Telephone 03 9663 3361

A recent post by Thanh over at I Eat Therefore I Am reminded me of an entry that has been sitting in my drafts since March (...such is the state of my drafts!). So I thought I would add my two cents.

Established in 1968, Hofbrauhaus is where you want to go if you have a hankering for slap dancing, yodeling and stodgy Bavarian fare. There is also beer, which you may very well need once the knee-slapping and live band starts up (is this what hell is like?). Despite that, it is an "experience" if one has a penchant for such things.

There is a lot of meat on this menu - schnitzels, hocks, meatloafs, bratwursts, frankfurters, krainers, debreciners, goulash, kassler, and stews. Then there are potatoes and sauerkraut. You get the drift. We spied the house special pork hock (which Thanh mentioned/ate in his post), and we were seriously scared. It quivered gelatiniously on the plate, the size of a football. That was one chunk of meat!

EG went the bratwurst, or beef sausage, which was served as a pair over a pile of buttery (!)mash and sauerkraut ($23.90). It wasn't quite what he expected - the sausages were a little on the bland side, which was quite surprising considering the Bavarians are known for their wurst (well hey, they do boast over 1500 types of the buggers). The sausages and mash also sat in a pool of salty water, which unfortunately wasn't sauce-like or flavoursome at all.

I couldn't go past the crumbed new age pork schnitzel served with salad and mash ($26.50). Funnily enough, this behemouth is the small version (it also comes in a giant version for $29.50). The schnitzel wasn't too bad - it was tender and nicely crumbed, although there was just a little too much of it. The sprinkle of chopped parsley on both dishes was also an interesting retro touch ;-).

Journal Canteen

1st floor, 253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Phone 03 9650 4399

We had an exquisite lunch yesterday at the newish Journal Canteen at the Centre for Adult Education (CAE). A member of the Con Christopoulos empire, which also includes the Melbourne Supper Club, European, City Wine Shop, Journal Cafe and Pelican, the Canteen is a more than worthy addition. Doubling as a catering school on weekend's, the Canteen's concrete bunker space is softened by smart use of colour - chalk coloured walls broken up by a green tongue and groove dado, black steel frames, gold mesh panels, honeywood laminate and lovely vases with a single pink tulip stem in each. Retro touches abounded, like a 50's looking floor fan, and a silver cake stand displaying the daily dessert.

Furniture is decidely old school, literally. Communal tables and steel legged chairs takes you back to school days, the retro aesthetic stemming from Christopoulos' love of using recycled furniture in all his places. A long bench along the entire north side of the space provides views of buzzy Flinders Lane, appreciated by patrons perched on steel-legged Happy Days style stools. The open kitchen tempts diners with fabulous smells, the sizzling of the grill and the glorious antipasti lined up at the pass.

The food experience simulates being invited to lunch at manager Rosa's house - homely food with a Sicillian bent. The menu is small and changes daily, but will always include an antipasto, soup, choice of two or three mains, one or two desserts, wines by the glass and beers; all have an Italian accent.

I had the squid ink spaghetti and Mellie chose the veal involtini with beans (both $18). We could also have chosen from pasta brodo (pasta in soup) or a bistecca (thinly sliced steak) and mash. The spaghetti was simply delicious; one of the best I've had this year. The squid ink imparted a beautiful sea flavour to the dish without being overly fishy or salty. The pasta was of excellent quality, and was deliciously studded with smoky pieces of squid. The involtini was magnificent, too; real melt-in-your-mouth stuff, with a very piquant and tasty sugo, and wonderfully garlicky beans. A complimentary lettuce and fennel salad was well-dressed and refreshing.

We couldn't go past the cannoli for dessert ($3.50), which was freshly filled on demand by the chef. A beautiful crunchy pastry lead to a tasty ricotta honey-scented filling that was simply divine. It went well with the strong complimentary stovetop espresso - no pithy caffe lattes here :)

Service was proficient and friendly, especially the vivacious Rosa, though orders were slow to come out of the kitchen once the place filled up. My advice would be to get there early.

All up, a more than satisfying lunch venue (it's not open for dinner or on weekends), with delicious food, quirky but cool decor, and a wonderful vibe. Another winner for Mr "Midas Touch" Christopoulos!

Cafe Vue - July Lunch Box

430 Little Collins Street (at the front of the Normanby Chambers Building)
Phone 03 9691 3899

I'm a little late with this blog entry - too much work and not enough time makes Mellie a very untimely blogger. So you'll have to suffer through this particular entry as this lunch box is no longer available. But don't worry, you can check out the current Cafe Vue lunchbox menu here, which I figure will be just as mouth watering as previous boxes.

For the uninitiated, the lunch box, which comes in neat red packaging, changes on a monthly basis and will set you back $15.

The July starter consisted of a truffle and mushroom risotto cake with pipette of garlic mayonnaise. Unfortunately I think this would have benefited from some heat, as it was just a little on the cold side. Truffle responds ever so nicely to a bit of warmth in which to release the aroma/taste, and the chill just blunted the flavour somewhat. Otherwise, it was a nice puck of creamery rice.

The salad consisted of leafy rocket, shavings of courgette (zucchini) and parmesan, with a test-tube of lemony vinegarette on the side. It was a great combination, and the dressing was perfect in the balance of salt to lip puckering tartness.

Now to the best bit, the rabbit sausage roll. To start from the outside, the puff was an absolute study in the art of pastrymaking. Layered every so finely, the pastry was buttery, crisp and topped with a smattering of sesame seeds. The rabbit within was minced, seasoned and delicately gamey. I initially wondered where the sauce was (well hey...how can you have a sausage roll without sauce?!), but on second thought I'm glad the roll arrived nude, as the sweet pleasant earthiness would have been overwhelmed. Ooh...I could eat this again and again and again.

For sweets, a duo of Eccles cakes. Different to what I know Eccles to be, these cakes were round like a golf ball. Once again buttery pastry (though not as puffy as the sausage roll) encased plump currants. During the cooking process the juices had leaked out to create a treacle-like toffee topping, almost like the caramel coating on a croquembouche. Divine.

Dainty Sichuan

26 Corrs Lane, Melbourne
(03) 9663 8861

I have a love-hate relationship with spicy foods. I absolutely love the flavour and taste of chilli, curry, peppercorns, wasabi etc but my weak stomach so hates the after effects. There have been several occasions where I was really floored by such fiery treats, but three stand out from memory. The first one was eating a whole glob of wasabi after mistaking it for a salad (I was young and naive). The second time was in Bangkok, where I was incapacitated by a tom yum soup laced with deadly birds' eye chillies. The third time was in Singapore, where I had peyote-like hallucinations after eating an incendiary lamb biryani. However, like a gimp, I always went back for more punishment. Dainty Sichuan Restaurant (surely an oxymoron) has just given me yet another chapter in my inglorious encounters with spice.

Located down the narrowest and possibly skankiest laneway in Chinatown (Corrs Lane), Dainty Sichuan is a haven for uni students, who come for the cheap and authentic fare, but it also means the restaurant is as utilitarian as they come, with help yourself cutlery and drinks from the glass cabinet. Fat goldfish stare out from a fish tank, seemingly mocking those foolish enough to brave this food.

Lunch specials are around $8. There is a more extensive a la carte menu that has pictures of the restaurants' specialities, including the infamous Chongqing Chicken, which we ordered. Spice factor are rated by stars, with four being the maximum. I was assured by my dining companion that the four star dishes are quite inedible, although the ones with three stars are sufficiently able to burn the roof of your mouth off. There are several non-spicy dishes available.

The chicken came as a massive plate of dry-fried diced chicken (bone on), completely enveloped by a ton of whole dried chillies and topped with spring onions. You of course don't eat the chillies; they apparently help to infuse the chicken with flavour. Yeah... like magma flavouring molten lava. The chicken pieces were tiny and you kinda have to sift through the forest of chillies to find them, but damn they're tasty! They were salty, spicy, flavoursome and with so much chilli heat that my lips were quivering and anaesthetised within moments. I was desparately reaching for a bottle of sweetened soya milk - a recommended accompaniment. But like all spicy foods and crack cocaine, the chicken is addictive and you just keep going for that next piece! A word of advice: eat other dishes before this one because once you start on the ol' Chongqing, you will find that you can longer taste anything else.

We also ordered Ants Climbing A Tree (geez the Chinese have buttery descriptions for their dishes) which turned out to be stir-fried mung bean shoots with ground beef. This was also a very tasty dish - salty, spicy and thankfully not as hot as the chicken. It was good. Oh so good.

I thought I had previously tried Sichuan food but these two dishes totally debunked my previous perception of what Sichuan food really ought to be. I knew it was hot, but not this hot! Dainty Sichuan is about as authentic as it gets and is highly recommended, but not for the faint hearted! Also, after experiencing the 12 hour test, may I recommend that you find yourself a bathroom with a nice cooling bidet.

Sweet, strong and sexy at Inkari

237 Lygon Street, Carlton
Phone 03 9349 5500

By their own admission, the Bombom at Inkari is sweet, strong and sexy - and I'm certainly not going to argue. This double shot of espresso comes with a sunken layer of deliciously sweet condensed milk, giving one the dilemna of whether to dip your spoon in and extract a clump of milky sweetness, or to stir the whole lot around, making the short black into a kind of short sweet milky brown. Either way, there is absolutely no need for extra sweetness as this lil' beauty will not only kick you in the pants with the caffeine, but will send you on your merry wee way with the sugar hit. A perfect kick-you-up at any time of the day.

You can read a couple of further reviews about this Latin American restaurant here, here and here.

The Stork Hotel

504 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
Phone: 03 9663 6237

In case you thought I was somewhat smitten with Japanese restaurants of late, here is an entry that will throw that assumption right out the window (but stay tuned, because there is one more Japanese review coming up shortly ;-)).

The Stork Hotel has been gracing the corner of Elizabeth and Therry Streets since 1852. Back in the day when people rode horses rather than cars, it used to be the last pub on the dusty track to Ballarat, a burgeoning goldmining town.

It now sits rather colourfully on the corner across the road from the Queen Victoria Market. It is part backpackers, part cafe, and wholly old time traditional pub that still sports its fair share of local clientele. And yay - not a taberet machine in sight!

What I do find rather unusual about the Stork is the menu. It straddles traditional pub fare (think parma, burgers and steak), but also ventures into some South American items. It may not be wholly traditional, but it is still interesting to find in a good ol' Aussie pub.

EG went the chacarero, a traditional Chilean sandwich made with grilled steak, steamed green beans, tomato and mayonnaise. It came in a burger bun with a side serve of crunchy chips cooked in fresh oil (in fact, some of the best chips we've eaten in quite some time). The steak was incredibly juicy, spurting out with each massive mouthful.

I went the lomito, another traditional Chilean sandwich of pork and mashed avocado. The loin pork chop had been nicely caramalised on the grill with a generous sprinkle of seasoning. It was perhaps too much pork for my liking, but those who are so inclined would find it absolutely mouthwatering.

I really like the Stork - the corner position across from the market is a great spot to sit in the sun with a brew (or two) and watch the passing parade. It has cheap beer and cheap food (though it won't win any hats), and is kind of like slipping on a pair of ol' comfortable duds - you won't feel uncomfortable in here.

Shoya - Yakiniku

25 Market Lane, Melbourne
Phone: 03 9650 0848

"Spread the meat to the grill with fizzle to the sizzle. Wait till heat get smokin' flava with da juice drippin' to the charcoal. Then eat up with dippin' to da bangin' soy sauce."
- Ghengis Khan gets hip - The Japan Times Online

Vegetarians - I advise you avert your eyes just for a moment as I delve into the world of yakiniku, the Japanese art of grilling various cuts of meat for ones' carniverous pleasure.

I was not familiar with this style of dining, so my more experienced companions chose the smokeless grill at Shoya. You see, one small problem with the traditional style of yakiniku is that you come out of the encounter smelling somewhat like a grease-pit, as it is all about cooking the meat to your liking. The smokeless grill on the other hand solves this quandry - a gas flame cooks the ingredients whilst a vacuum sucks the smelly smoke downwards. Also, it is a fairly healthy style of cooking, as the grill allows the fat to drip clean through.

Shoya itself is perhaps one of the better Japanese restaurants in this town, but unfortunately I think it is let down by a distinct lack of customer service. This is not an uncommon experience it seems (check out Cin's review and the comments over on Ed's site). That being said, I love the very dark and very Japanese multi-level/multi-partioned dining space, and the food can really be something quite special. The service - well, there may be a few mistakes, a few misordered items, and a lack of wanting to rectify the issue. Although on this particular night they sent out a less than acceptable dessert (ten minutes after everyone elses dessert arrived), with the promise that a perfect one was on it's way, and it arrived about twenty minutes after that. It was bloody good, but in the end we had to wait over forty minutes for it.

Anyway, back to the meatfest.

The yakiniku menu is quite extensive. If you've got a big stomach you can go the "Gouka Tokusen" special set menu for $55.00, which apparently will have you crying for mercy at the end. Alternatively you can pick a la carte, ordering several types of sliced raw meat, fish or vegetables. You can then dip the cooked ingredients into a number of sauces which vary from the sweet, the salty, to the hot.

The first of the meats to arrive was the 500 day grain fed Wagyu rosu - six slices of highly marbled beef. This didn't take too long to cook, and after a suitable saliva-inducting sear had been acheived on the outside, we whipped it off before over-cooking. It was a total melt in the mouth experience.

Tsura hoho niku, or beef cheek on the other hand was a rather interesting cut of meat. Obviously the cheek of a cow gets a lot of work chewing cud all day, so it is a very flavoursome and muscular cut. Obviously this would make slow cooking a preferable method of preparation, allowing the gelatinous nature of the fibres to tenderise. So it was interesting to have this on the yakiniku menu, especially as the idea is to cook it quickly. That being said, it was an extremely tasty morsel, if somewhat chewier (obviously) than the wagyu.

Negi tan, or ox tongue, was prepared using spring onion and salt. The tongue was almost wafer thin, and didn't need much cooking at all. Despite the fact that I was eating something rather gross by some peoples standards, I found this to be one of my favourites. The flavour was delicate and it cooked really well on the grill. Mmm...I'd have this one again in a heartbeat.

This is a good photo that shows how the BBQ grill actually works. The vents on the side are responsible for sucking the smoke away, and the fat from the meat falls straight through the grill. The heat is obviously hotter in the middle of the grill, and you can place slower/longer cooking items on the sides.

We also had the kurobuta rosu, which is black hair pork loin. Unfortunately the photo didn't turn out so great, but the pork tasted bloody good!

The Wagyu soseiji, which was basically just a beef sausage, arrived partially cooked. A quick slice with the knife saw chunks layed on the grill for a final heat up and sear. It came with a side dish of wholegrain mustard, but I felt went so much better with a sidedish of smoky sweet chilli.

It was not all about the meat mind you, and we did have some vegetables dishes. This was just some simple sliced zucchini, onion, carrot and eggplant.

Some salady sides included a seaweed, lettuce and radish salad, or negi wakame salad. The addition of pine kernals added a lovely nuttiness to the saltiness of the seaweed. Delectable.

The mentai potato salad had as totally enraptured. Whilst there was meant to be some spicy cod roe in it (as far as the menu was concerned anyway), we didn't see it. But we certainly didn't miss it as this plate of creamy potato rocked. It was garnished with long shreds of daikon and bright green edamame.

We finished out meatfest with some onigiri, which frankly is some of the best I've had in this town. The rice was still blissfully warm and flecked with big flakes of grilled salmon, or ume (sour plum), okaka (bonito flakes and soy) or mentaiko (spicy cod roe). Made fresh and made to order is the only way to go.

With a couple of glasses of wine and desserts, we came out of the experience at about $60 per person. I think that is great value for a dining experience that is a little out of the ordinary.

Sake Bar Kura

1 Malthouse Lane, Melbourne
Phone (03) 9654 7454

Sake Bar Kura is quirky little hidey-hole restaurant located at the end of a derelict laneway (Malthouse) which runs off another lane (Flinders). The industrial/rustic Japanese entrance, complete with sauna-like cladding and kooky sake barrel, seems kind of surprising in the environment. Which I guess is one of the reasons this eatery is quite popular with the white collar lunch brigade.

The lunch set menu ($15) consists of pickled vegetables, entree of the day, grilled or fried fish, miso soup, main dish (13 to choose from) and fruit. I think that $15 is a reasonable price to pay for such a selection, but perhaps it is just a tad over what I would normally spend for lunch on a regular work day (I usually aim in the $6 to $10 bracket).

The venue itself is rather funky. The timber cladding on the outside follows inside to some very rustic (and extremely heavy) tables and bench seats. A certain amount of design has been influenced by Japanese aesthetic, partnering clean lines with natural elements such as a faux slate walls and bamboo featurettes. A little technosavvy device on the table will alert staff when you need them, which I initially thought was rather neat, yet felt reluctant to exercise. Call me old fashioned, but I like the game of catching the waiters eye when they wizz past.

But let's get down to it - the food. Today the lunch set included pickled zucchini and daikon, a meat ball with braised fennel, and deep fried fish/prawn ball. Of the three, the deep fried fish/prawn ball was probably my favourite, but then that old adage of "deep frying leading to goodness" is never far wrong. Personally, I think the pickled veg could have had more pickle about them - the flavour just vaguely dabbled in sweet and sour.

I chose the Katsudon for my main - a panko crumbed pork fillet served with a demiglass (sic) sauce on cabbage and rice. The pork itself was wonderfully tender and juicy, but what really added interest was the demi-glace. Past experience of katsudon sauce has been a dark brown worcestershire-like brew. But this one was full of the taste of tomato and was very very picquant (vinegary?). It really was quite interesting. I don't know how traditional it is (and to be perfectly honest, this sauce was far from being demi-glace as I know it), though I have read that the Okayama version of the dish uses this style of sauce.

EG went the attractively plated Sashimi don - slices of fresh salmon, tuna and kingfish with wasabi, ginger and soy on rice. As you can see it was attractively plated (...though I still think you can't beat the ridiculously cheap sashi don at Don Don), and the fish was wonderfully fresh. The warmth of the rice beneath went to warming the raw fish on top.

To finish, we were given a quarter of an orange. Yup. One quarter. Obviously $15 doesn't allow for much more than that ;-). Oh, and another puzzling thing. We ordered green tea and were given two western style cups with a green tea bag in it. What the?!? This just didn't make sense. Once again, call me old fashioned, but what the heck happened to teapots?

So whilst the food was somewhat interesting, I think it misses the mark in some areas. It would do well to foster the location with some more interesting, inventive and value for money food. And teapots. Yeah. That would do it.

Shira Nui

247 Springvale Road, Glen Waverley
Phone 03 9886 7755

Is your mouth watering? Can you taste it? This is the maguro steak nigirizushi at Shira Nui. Put simply, it absolutely rocks.

Seared on the grill and left beautifully rare, the quick flash of the heat made the long thin tuna steak crack and fissure into barely held together flakes of reddish brown flesh. Sprinkled with a salts and spices, it sat sliced on an oblong mound of warm seasoned rice. A strip of thin nori hugged the two together, and a fresh garnish of sliced green onion added colour and bite. OMfG.

Shira Nui is a place that has long held the reputation for providing some of the best (if not THE best) sushi in Melbourne. EG had been a number of times, but I was a Shira Nui virgin. Since we met he had regaled me (incessantly) with tales of exquisite sushi and of entrusting oneself to the mastery of chef Hiro Nishikura's omakase. And now it was my turn to find out what all the fuss was about.

The restaurant is located in the very suburban Glen Waverley, which I think is fast becoming a hotbed of a culinary interest. The exterior is rather non-descript, as is the interior. But I feel comfortable - the angalise coloured walls, the long blondwood sushi counter, Japanese glass ball fishing floats and ceramic fish hanging from the walls, a hunger-inducing cabinet full of chunks of raw fish, rustic Japanese ceramic ware, bottles of sake lined up in a row, and the friendly welcome of "irasshaimase" when we walk in.

Chef Hiro-san is the man responsible for Shira Nui. Now I cringe as I am about to write this, and heck, it's probably been written a hundred times before. But there is a certain warrior quality about Hiro-san - whether it be in the samurai-like swish of his forearm long sushi knife, the single minded focus on the task at hand, the gruffness when he barks "soy" or "no soy" at you, or the way he eyes you up, checking to see whether you are worthy and appreciative of his sushi making skills. I pity the fool who dips the non-soy sushi into soy. They are liable to have their hand chopped clean off!

But despite the gruffness, there is a very likeable cheekiness to him as well. He is quick to laughter and quip, but only when it appears you have achieved that venerable stage of respect between appreciative sushi eater and masterful sushi chef. It is a balance and a relationship. That is what I really love about eating at a sushi counter (or a tempura counter for that matter) - the direct relationship with the person who creates your food. At the end of the day, it is not just about the food. It is about the food AND the experience.

On a side note, I often get asked by readers whether the chef minds when I take a photograph. Does this explain it?!?

Seriously (or not seriously for that matter), we were actually having a good ol' chuckle with Hiro-san and his very able sidekick (pictured above, name unknown). It started with the ol' V sign popularised as the sign to make when posing for photos. This then went on to paparazzi like protestations, which was when I snapped this photo. Apparently many people take photos in his restaurant - and Hiro-san seemed quite perplexed as to why people would want to do such a thing. I shrugged my shoulders and told him because his food was too beautiful not too. That got a smile.

Anyway, the tuna mentioned above wasn't the first sushi we had during the omakase (it was the sixth). So to start from the beginning...

Our first pair of nigirizushi was shiromi. The slices of delicate white fish were so translucent you could see the daub of bright green wasabi beneath. It was seasoned simply with freshly squeezed lemon juice and salt, and draped wide around the rice. Obviously, this was a "no soy" sushi - the subtly of the fish would have been destroyed otherwise. And lesson number two, this sushi should always be eaten in one mouthful. Otherwise you will not get a perfectly seasoned "bite", which is how Hiro-san designs his sushi.

This is what good sushi is all about; magnificently fresh produce, superb slicing technique which allows one to enjoy the texture of the fish, hand pressed rice and perfect seasoning. True respect for the ingredient and an absolute pleasure to devour.

To accompany our sushi we shared a magnificent bottle of sake that was both dry and sweet. Damn if I could remember the name, but it was served hot to counteract the very chilly weather outside.

The pan salmon with shichimi togarashi, a Japanese 7-spice blend that is both peppery and citrusy, hit me smack bang in the cortex. I could have melted off my chair it was THAT good. It had the taste of the flame on it, being somewhat caramelised in places, and was insanely balanced in spice and sweetness, yet overwhelmingly salmony. I can hardly describe what an absolute joy it was to eat.

Saba, or Mackerel with white seaweed was so wonderful to look at, I didn't want to eat it. I kept snapping away with my camera, listening as EG moaned with delight beside me. The mackerel itself was firm and unctuously oily, sprinkled with ground sesame seeds, pepper and sliced spring onion. But instead of nori, a translucent sheet of sweet white seaweed wrapped around the fish and rice. The seaweed is a type of rare and expensive kombu which is sliced thinly and steeped in a sugar syrup/mirin reduction. Wow - what a perfect accompaniment to the oily mackerel.

Uh huh...I know this one will do it for you as well. Yakiniku or grilled wagyu beef was like a kiss from BBQ heaven. I'm sure the beef, being very thinly sliced, only got the quickest of flashes on the grill. But the taste of smoke, the beefiness, the sweetness from a plum/onion type jam on top. Yeah baby.

Akagi or Ark Shell was a very interesting sushi. It didn't have a strong flavour, tasting mainly of the sea in a very pure way. Visually, the bright red-orange flesh was very impressive. But what got me was the texture. It felt "snappy" in the mouth, like you were biting down on a really strong jelly. It was denser than calamari, but probably of a similar vein.

Ama Ebi or sweet red shrimp freaked me out just a little, as I had never seen these type of shrimp before. Their tails seemed completely alien to me. But damn, they tasted bloody good! It was sliced in half and splayed lengthways across the rice and layered with salty fish roe. I absolutely adore biting down on the little sacs of salty brine, feeling them explode in your mouth.

Hamachi zuke, which I will confess to not knowing whether it was king fish or yellowtail, was magnificent. Even though EG had been to Shira Nui a number of times, this was a new one for him. The fish had been criss-crossed ever so slightly on the face, and then given the blow torch treatment. The fish was cooked on the surface, but still raw underneath and on the tail. Another "no soy" moment to truly marvel in the texture and delicacy of this beautiful sublime piece of fish.

The kaki sushi was done gunkan or battleship style. The rice is wrapped cylindrically upright with a wide sheet of nori, making for a cup to hold fillings. In this case the oyster, which had been cooked under the grill, was placed, with juices into the cup. A squirt of Japanese mayonnaise and a bit of blowtorch action, and voila, an incredibly creamy, delicious, briny sushi that will just about knock you over with its richness. In fact, I think only one of these would be sufficient. Two is almost too much.

And it was at this point that Hiro-san raised an eyebrow and queried, "More?". Oooh...okay, twist my arm... "Bring it on".

Round two in our battleship sushi was hotate, or scallop. The scallops had been glazed with a sticky red miso-sesame paste, which tasted earthy yet salty at the same time. I have a particular soft spot for these bivalve molluscs, and Hiro-san didn't disappoint.

"More?"

EG and I look at one another. We doth protest, although obviously not enough.

"I have a special one for you. Very light. Spicy."

"Ohh." We exchange a look and grin. "Ok. One more."

Asparagus with spicy cod roe (mentaiko) was the perfect way to end our sushi journey. The asparagus was cooked to a perfect crispness, and topped with cod roe that had been pickled with garlic and cayenne. Oh yeah...there was a lil' heat here, which was rather pleasant against the sweetness of the rice.

We couldn't say no to dessert (we have an extra stomach for times like these). EG went the cappuccino mousse, which really was a well-executed pannacotta. It sat in a pool of pouring cream, and a dice of fruits. It tasted very mild in the coffee department - perhaps more a latte than a caffe.

I couldn't go past the black sesame creme brulee. Served in a small espresso cup, the black sesame custard was only accessible by cracking through the burnt toffee topping. Oh yeah...this was fantastic. It too was served with a fruit salad and ice cream dice. It was a little on the small side, but seriously, I couldn't have done any bigger after such a feast.

I really like Shira Nui - I love the passion of Hiro-san, the slightly daggy interior, the hospitable nature of the staff, the kick-arse sushi. And apparently, so does everyone else. There wasn't a spare seat in the house that night.

I can't wait to go back.

Vue de monde

430 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Phone 03 9691 3888

We had real trouble writing this entry for Vue de monde. How does one write about an experience that could possibly be rated the best restaurant dining experience we've ever had? The answer is, with great difficulty. We wanted the review to perfectly convey the orgiastic night of feasting we experienced at Vue's Chefs' Table. We wanted the words and pictures to describe precisely the hedonistic pleasure that Shannon Bennett wrought on our grateful palates. However, this meant that we continually put off completing it, attempting to make sure the flavour was perfect, just like the flavours of the food we indulged in. The entry was in danger of never being published and read. Therefore, we just decided to get it out there, so here it is! Nothing is perfect, and we took solace in the fact that even Vue is fallible (more on this later), although such fallibilities did not detract one bit from our experience.

Vue de monde has enough wow factor to impress even the most discerning of diners. It is located in the historic and grand Normandy Chambers; the entrance is opulent and reminiscent of a 5-star hotel, the elegant table settings and ambience befitting the Age's reigning Restaurant of the Year, and the marble pass is magnificent. However, Vue de monde's beauty lies in the details. Fabulous Laguoile cutlery sitting on nifty Tom Samek designed ceramic rests (see picture above), the Chef's Table made from timber that was formerly seating at the now demolished Ponsford stand at the MCG, gorgeous bathrooms with L'Occitane handwash and complimentary Vetiver cologne. These small details completed the experience for us.

To make it even more special, we decided to give ourselves wholly to the experience; Gastronomes menu at $250 a pop, which is the top level menu incorporating several premium ingredients, matched wine degustation at approx $120 per person, and dining at the Chef's table, a special little alcove to the side of the kitchen seating only six people. All of this contributed towards an unadulterated and unobstructed experience of the restaurant and kitchen - the tastes, the sights, the smells, the sounds and the heat (and yes, it did get hot in there!). One also gets to interact directly with the Chefs, which I think gives one an even greater appreciation of the artistry, skill and passion that goes into each and every dish. For the gourmand, this is like being at the altar of a church.

The man responsible for all that is VDM is Shannon Bennett, the wild haired culinary-wunderkind pictured above. You can sense he is absolutely passionate and driven, probably to the point of being obsessed, by food and his restaurant. But he was absolutely lovely, even somewhat modest, when we arrived, welcoming us with a genuine smile and the hope that we enjoy our experience (and yes, thank-you very much, we certainly did!). From our secluded and exclusive vantage point, we watched as he impressively orchestrated the management of the kitchen. He was the calm in the storm - directing, organising, advising, overseeing, and even jumping in and cooking where required.

Further to his excellence in the kitchen (which you will see the product of shortly) was the excellence in service. This is a fine dining establishment, so whilst some may think it a little pretentious or pompous, I just love it. The formality, the tradition and the etiquette is something rare indeed in this town - so I applaud Shannon for upholding the virtue. If you want a casual dining experi