Guest reviewer (JB maybe?) made a flying visit to watch Cadel, Lance, Robbie, Stuie etc. (that would be the Tour DownUnder – ed) After a day chasing the peleton refuelling was a priority.

PARWANA – Afghan Restaurant – 124b Henley Beach Road Torrensville 08 8443 9001

Wikipedia advises that Parwana is an Urdu/Hindi word that refers to an obsessed lover – literally it is a term for a moth attracted to a flame. This moth was attracted twice –first for a quiet dinner on a Wednesday night with Adelaide-based Sis and second for food after Sunday afternoon drinks at the Union Hotel (City) and the Wheatsheaf Hotel (Thebarton) with Sis, Bro and SisiL.

Located between a funeral parlour, a hairdresser and an African Internet café, Parwana is a short taxi ride from the centre of Adelaide on the Western side of town (towards the airport). (gee – sounds promising – ed)

Interior of Parwana

In two visits we sampled:

One Appetiser ($6 ea)

Mantu – steamed dumplings filled with onion delicately spiced and topped with yoghurt and ground lamb sauce;

Mantu - delicious lamby dumplings!

One Main ($15 ea)

Chopan Kebab – Marinated lamb pieces fried with onion and green chilli, served with naan, salad and chatni

4 Sides ($6-8 ea)

Chicken Qorma – Mild Chicken curry simmered with onion, tomato and traditional spices

Banjan Boranee – Eggplant simmered in tomato sauce, topped with yoghurt and mint garnish

Dahl – Red lentils flavoured with coconut, onion, curry leaves and spices

Sabzi – Spinach sautéed with paneer, onion and spices

2 Desserts ($5 ea)

Sheeryakh – creamy rose flavoured ice-cream with nuts

Falooda – Ice cream layered with saffron jelly, rose syrup and basil seeds

2 Drinks ($3 ea)

Cardamom tea

Dogh  – yoghurt, dried mint, cucumber and salt tastes

Everything was tasty and more-ish. The spices were handled well so that there was an immediate flavour effect without repetition hours or days later. My favourites were the Mantu, Sabzi and Banjan. Sheeryakh is a good simple dessert and saves a trip to North Adelaide for gelati. The mains include pasta (main course sizes of appetisers Ashak (leek in lamb sauce topped with yoghurt /mint) and Mantu (see above) and 3 rice options.  Servings are generous (shared appetiser and main plus a dessert each was more than enough for two on Wednesday) and alcohol is BYO (bottled wine only).  We had a riesling (Pewsey Vale) and shiraz (Pike’s?) on Sunday which went well after Sunday arvo beers.

Parwana is a very good family-run suburban restaurant offering well-prepared food in a relaxed atmosphere. It is great value for money and I would frequent it if it were in North Melbourne (would even go south of the river). Fortunately it is within a walk of Sis’s place so I will be getting back next time I am in Adelaide.

The Wheatsheaf (Wheatie to the locals) is a funky neighbourhood pub a couple of blocks back from Henley Beach Road (39 George St Thebarton) which would fit easily into Fitzroy, Brunswick or Northcote. It has an extensive selection of Australian and imported craft beers (on tap and by the bottle) and whisk(e)y. It provides hanging space for local artists – current exhibition is photographs of roller derby “Derby Stacks 09” by Matt Walker and features live music from time to time. Wheatsheaf only does cheese, pate and crisps but it is within walking distance of some ethnic food options on Henley Beach Road – Parwana (Afghan) and Terranova (Italian) are recommended but there is also Thai, Abyssinian, Indian, Thai, Greek, Chinese  and Oz pub grub available.

URBAN BISTRO – 160 Fullarton Road Rose Park 08 8331 2400

This is a reasonably up-market restaurant doing food that the Gourmet Traveller classifies as “Modern Australian”. It is located on the ground floor of an apartment block opposite Victoria Park race course which probably offers verdant views in winter but seemed dominated by pits, stands etc for forthcoming Brrm Brrms. It has been around since 2002 and seems to be well-regarded for food if not for its service. The room is pleasant if a bit soulless.

We visited on a Saturday for lunch when most of Adelaide was on Willunga Hill shouting “Go Cadel” and we had a large space more or less to ourselves.

We ordered a bottle of San Pellegrino Sparkling ($8) and couple of Trumer Pils ($9) while we perused the lunch/dinner menu, which is divided into: entree ($18-24); main course ($29-39);pasta and risotto ($26.50-35.50); and sides ($4.50 -$12.50).

The menu looked promising (see website) and after some toing and froing we opted to share a side of roast artichoke and parmesan dip and an entrée of maigret duck prosciutto with Persian feta, dry figs and fig vincotto .

Duck with Figs

For mains we ordered roast ocean trout wrapped in potato on nicoise salad, sauce gribiche and abalone ravioli with seared scallops, sweet potato and lime butter sauce.

Trout wrapped in potato

The food came promptly and was well-presented. The produce was of high quality and the combinations worked well. The roast artichoke dip was warm and unctuous, requiring extra bread to finish. The duck fig combination was very pleasant (the figs were fresh rather than dried which seems preferable).  The ravioli was very tender and tasty, the scallops perhaps slightly underdone but the lime butter and the sweet potato crisp were excellent. Ocean trout was well-prepared and presented but the gribiche combination not as successful .

abalone ravioli with seared scallops, sweet potato and lime butter sauce

We drank the 2008 Nigl Gruner Veltliner, Kremstal, Austria ($9) which was dry and round but not sweet or acidic. It was a good match with the food.

Lunch cost $150 with tip. The food quality and presentation would make Urban Bistro worth another visit.

It’s a nice room, I like the booths over Russell Street a lot – very cosy.  We split into two (noisy) tables and settled in.  We shared out table with David Li, Director at nuffnang, and the other table was hosted by Sarah Stokely from nuffnang and Lucy Owens from the Hyatt.

On reflection, it was a little bit silly to go for Chinese New Year Yum Cha for lunch (as yummy as it was…), as the nuffnang / Hyatt team really fed us well.  First we were introduced to Executive Chef, Jason Camillo who didn’t seem phased by the food nerds he was talking to, and we all joined him for a tour of the open kitchens.  I’ve seen a bit of the “food station” action in Singapore 5 star hotels, but this is the first time I’ve seen it in Australia.  I’m keen to return for breakfast /brunch to see the dimsum station in action, and to check out their omelettes.

For food nerds though, the ability to walk around the open kitchen stations was enticing, and we were all invited to do so, with Jason as our guide.   It did feel a bit strange to be invited to look at the kitchen and take as many photos as we wanted.  I’m normally pretty discrete with my photo taking, and getting more discrete nowadays as everyone is a “blogger” it seems, so it was positively relaxing to be encouraged to take photos.  Rather than the kitchen staff being “exhibits”, it felt a bit like we were being stared at by the staff (not in a bad way – but with curiosity and politeness)  heh.  Bloggers in their natural habitat!

Fresh wasabi waiting patiently to be grated and gobbled!

So of course, the wasabi was noticed and commented on as soon as we entered the kitchen (did they place it there on purpose?) Even the price per kilo didn’t phase most of us, we just wanted to know where to get our hands on some! This gave Jason the perfect opportunity to tell us about how they like to source their produce as locally as possible – but I was surprised that their mozzarella comes from Queensland, when there are Victorian makers (Shaw River for one, and another I will write about soon).

Anyway, the wasabi showed up a bit later on a platter of some of the best sashimi I’ve had in Melbourne.

Sushi Station at Collins Kitchen

Sushi and Sashimi Platter

Next station along was seafood grill.

Four little bugs, a school of prawns and some angasi

Seafood grill tasting plate

Ahead – the good ship “sliced smoker and cured meats”…

The huge mirror hanging over the deli section

My favourite, smoked meat, dried meat, tomotoes roasted in the wood fire oven, lots of cheese…a hand cranked slicer…

Jason looking pretty relaxed about talking to us food nerds - and a shiny red thing!

Antipasto platter produced by the deli section

The rockmelon was delicious and sweet and a great foil to the proscuito; next the “liverwurst” though (almost a terrine) was fan-bloody-tastic  and worth a trip back for it alone;  air dried wagyu; some grilled vegies; and roasted tomatoes with some of the afore-mentioned mozzarella.

And I’ll got back to have a decent go at their “cheese fridge” as well…

Fridge of cheese!

Funky heat lamps

Around the back of the pizza oven (half wood fired, half gas) we walked past the Jet Woks (the large S/s things behind the plates).  These made an amazing sound everytime they were brouight into action, we could hear them from our table quite a bit further away.  This got us all a bit excited about wok hei, and we were also quite excited by the large number of steaming plates and the thought of too many dim sum.  The platter representing this station was a selection of Chinese roast meats; pork belly, chicken, duck, roast pork- some wokked greens.

Chinese roast meat platter

Steamers, begging to be filled with dim sum

Teeny weeny cast iron pots

So next stop – the grill station.  I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t slabs of meat on display to choose from (or did I miss them?) but these darling little red post were destined to be filled with creamy, buttery mash and served alongside an 800gm hunk of aged, grain fed porterhouse.  Grain fed isn’t usually my favourite meat, and that opinion wasn’t changed by this slab’o'meat, but it was nicely cooked and smelled amazing! Cooking it on the bone ensure it has a decent flavour, and it was nice to be presented with the bone on the plate, but removed for easier eating.

Slab 'o' beef

Dessert platter - thankfully to share!

Back past the patisserie section which boasted a delightful smell and a slightly bemused chef…we returned to our tables to eat the platters of food from above.  By the time we got to dessert it was *groan* time.  Thankfully, David studiously ignored that the banana millefuille was only really divided into 4 pieces (and that was a technical skill beyond many!), next to it is a chocolate fondant, some gelato (pistachio was my favourite), a “melba” which looked like a pannacotta but wasn’t, and you can’t see the rhubarb and strawberry crumble at the end.

*oomph* – stuffed!

I’m not sure if the open stations concept will capture the imagination of “middle suburbia”, but I’m fairly sure the quality of the hotel breakfasts wont have suffered any for the transition.  I was quite surprised at how swank the Hilton looks these days, and will be trying to tempt workmates in for the lunchtime special next time we plan an outing.

A "blogger" of DSLRs?

Also poking around the kitchen and whipping out the DSLR were a whole bunch of other bloggers…

Agnes from Off the Spork
Maria from The Gourmet Challenge
Sarah from Sarah Cooks
Adrian from Food Rehab
Penny from Addictive & Consuming
Thanh from I Eat Therefore I Am
Melissa and Danny from Tummy Rumbles
Shellie from Iron Chef Shellie
Billy from Half Eaten
Neil from At My Table
Joyce from Melb: Hot or Not

I stuffed myself courtesy of nuffnang and the Collins Kitchen.

Collins Kitchen, Grand Hyatt

123 Collins Street

Melbourne VIC 3000

Phone: (03) 9657 1234

There is a definite “handmade” feel about The Estelle on High street, opposite Palomino. The back courtyard (including outside dunnies) sports a rustic brick planter box, a door masquerading as a table, potted herbs in recycled containers and real tomato plants.

The short-but-sweet menu is presented in “oh so cute” How and Why books and similar which make for alternate reading material to the usual daily papers.

The coffee is served in gorgeous double handled retro-styled cups and is rich and satisfying. The cups match the sugar bowls (just like nana’s), the vases, the tiles, the paint…you’d think they were made specifically for them, but I understand it was a lucky coincidence.

The menu pays homage to the likes of Gerald’s bar and Handsome Steve’s , featuring a fish of the day, a meat of the day, and a shared plate for two of the day offered at dinner time, with a few tasty entrees.

The breakfast / brunch menu is also a little bit left of centre featuring recently Beetroot cured salmon, brioche croque madame, black pudding and malted onion jam omelette. The beetroot gave the salmon an earthy touch and a great pink colour (not so great for hangovers perhaps?), the brioche toasted into a light golden sandwich with a perfectly fried egg on top.

When we visited for dinner it was a darn hot night. Be warned, the humble vibe goes so far as to eschew aircon. The meat of the day was lamb shanks (it was 36 degrees!), baby snapper was the fish, and the shared plate was steak…I ate from the entrees and JB started with Sydney Rock Oysters and ordered the snapper.

From the entree list I tried the Northcote smoked salami served with lightly pickled cucumber; baby beets with hazelnut praline, goats curd and sherry vinegar; Zucchini Carpaccio, balsamic and parmesan wafer; potatoes roasted in duck fat with garlic and thyme. (I did have to share some of these with JB).

His snapper was served with a fresh fennel and orange salad. He pretty much picked the bones clean, so I think that must have meant it was pretty darn good!

They’re still getting their act together, so the service can be a bit hit ‘n’ miss, but that can only improve.

The menus are so interesting – I am looking forward to going again and again and again…(copies on Flickr)

I’m not a huge fan of “the usual”, nut I really hope The Estelle catches the imagination of enough folk to keep on doing what they are doing, cause I’m loving it.

The Estelle Bar and Kitchen
243 High Sreet
Northcote
9789 4609
Closed Monday, 8am until around 11pm, Sunday 9am start!)

But this weekend, I have a 6 day break from work, and due to Melbourne Gastronome’s review, a hankering to try the pork bun recipe.

So this is what they are supposed to look like according to the foodstyled book.

And this is what they did look like, according to some food savvy bloggers who styled them quite beautifully at a potluck dinner on Saturday night.   (Thanks for the photo Claire)

The recipes is based on the one in David Chang’s book, but I have made some adjustments for Australian measurements, my preferred methods and tinkered with the pork flavour to suit my palate a bit better. A standard Australian tablespoon is 20ml. A US one is 15ml.

Steamed buns
1 x 20ml Tablespoon dried yeast
1.5 cups water (37° Celcius)

Warm bowl of mixer with dough hook fitted by filling with warm tap water and leaving to sit while you measure the water for the dough. Empty bowl, fit to the mixer, pour in water and add yeast. Stir slowly with dough hook until dissolved.

Add
4½ x 20ml tablespoons of sugar
2½ x 20ml spoons of skim milk powder
¾ x 20ml tablespoon of salt
1 x 5 ml teaspoon (Rounded) of baking powder
1 x 5 ml teaspoon of baking soda

Stir slowly with dough hook to combine.

Add 4½ cups plain or bread flour and
drop 3 x 20ml tablespoons of lard (or vegetable shortening if you must) on top.

Turn on to low setting and knead for 8 – 10 mins until it forms a soft, but not sticky ball.

Put into a lightly oiled bowl and sit in a warm place until doubled in size.

Punch the dough down and turn it out on to a board. Cut into half, and then each half into four pieces. Slightly roll each piece and cut in 25g pieces. (recipe made 48 for me). Cover with cling film and leave for 30 mins.

Cut pieces of baking parchment (silicon paper or Glad Bake), one for each piece approx 10cm x 10cm

Flatten a ball and roll it out to an oval about 10cm long using a small rolling pin or piece of dowel (I used a bottle of rosewater). Fold over in half, place on a piece of parchment and let sit for another 30 – 45mins.

Now steam in batches for 10 mins until they are puffed and glossy – don’t crowd the steamer.

Remove parchment and allow to cool. Wrap back in parchment and stack in an airtight container and place in fridge if you’re not using them straight away. or double wrap in freezer wrap to freeze.

Pork

1.5 kg slab skinless pork belly
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup salt
½ x 5ml teaspoon five spice powder
2 x 20ml tablespoon rice (or sherry) vinegar

Mix salt, sugar and five spice in a small bowl.
Trim pork belly and remove any ribs that are still attached
Rub belly with salt mix and place in small roasting pan, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, but no more than 24.

Heat oven to 230°C Conventional (210°C Fan-forced). Uncover pork and discard any liquid that has collected. Cook belly fat side up for 1 hour, basting with rendered fat halfway. Turn oven down to 120°C Conventional (110°C Fan-forced), baste pork with vinegar and cook for further hour to hour and a half until pork is soft and tender to touch, but not falling apart. Baste as often as you like during this time.

Allow pork to cool, when cool enough to handle, wrap in foil and put in the fridge until it’s thoroughly cooled. This makes it easier to cut. Cut into 1 cm slices that are about 5 cm long.

Reheat to serve (I used a microwave, or you can use a frypan)

To serve

Thinly sliced cucumber, mixed with salt sugar and vinegar for 5 – 10 mins to lightly pickle
Thinly sliced spring onions
Hoisin Sauce

Steam buns, tear open, spread with sauce, add greens and pork.

“Arty” shot of the back wall – decorated with condensed & evaporated milk cans, huge Horlicks cans, Milo cans and the like.

We ordered three dishes to share, Ban Cheng Kui $4, Satay Chicken $8 and Roti Planta $4.50. The Ban Cheng Kui came first, and well, as it is a sweet crepe filled with coconut (kaya?) and peanuts, that was a bit weird. It was pretty yummy though – the outside crispy and the filling not too soggy. Just how I love my crepes!

The Roti was delicious and hot, with a fantastic flaky texture. They make them to order and it was amazing to watch them spreading the dough very thinly before cooking them crispy. The sides were a chilli sauce and a laksa-like sauce.

The chicken satay were again freshly cooked and very flavoursome. I liked the sides of cucumber and red onion. The presentation is definitely functional rather than “cheffy”.

To drink – we couldn’t go past the Root Beer Float. (well – who could?)

The drinks took a while to come, but when they were delivered staff explained that the fizzy drink was fizzier than they expected and they had had trouble “dealing with it” – with a wide grin on their face and an honest apology. The staff seemed to be relishing the steady stream of customers not long after opening, and I would guess, having more space between the tables and lower requirements to move customers on than at the sister restuarant in Chinatown.

The fit out is modern and clean and situated as it is on the QV square it looks out on to the (fake I guess) grass area outside. If they could stop smoking in the outside area it would be a nice place to sit in the sun and enjoy a Malaysian style coffee, or dessert, or snack.

Old Town Kopitiam Mamak
Level 2, Shop 11 QV Square
QV Building

9654 2682

Apparently New Year’s Day is their busiest day of the year and they don’t take bookings for it. We seem to often end up here on New Year’s Day, but didn’t have to wait long tonight. Just a few minutes wait under the tree then we were offered an outside table.

One thing I dislike about outside dining in Melbourne is that people smoke at outside tables. They can’t smoke inside restaurants or bars, but they can if a restaurant is set up “properly”. Thankfully, Donnini’s isn’t set up in a way that allows patrons to smoke while sitting at the table. Yay I say!

JB was taken by the Springbay Mussel soup; 3 lovely big mussels in a tasty tomato broth, with just a touch of chilli.

I started with tomoto, basil and mozzarella salad.

I was pleasantly surprised; like I said, I seem to have to always remind myself about the commitment to quality here, I don’t know why. I was expecting some (hopefully) ripe roma tomatoes, with rubbery mozzarella and some generic olive oil. What I received was 3 or four varieties of tomatoes, thinly sliced, coated with a verdant “grassy” olive oil, crumbled “real” mozzarella, and sliced basil; perfectly season, perfectly delicious!

Then we shared one of their delicious, thin crust pizzas – this time topped with leek and pancetta.

Oops! almost forgot the photo as we tucked in.

$70 for two with one glass of wine, and one mineral water.

Worth every penny!

Donnini’s
320 Lygon St
Carlton VIC 3053
(03) 9347 3128

Between Faraday and Grattan.

I adapted this recipe from an episode of “The Best in Australia” that I caught the other night, Best Vegetarian Dinner.

6 or 8 roma tomatoes, halved, seasoned with salt and pepper
2 – 3 red onions peeled, quartered
2 tablespoons sugar
Balsamic vinegar (or use vin cotto and leave out sugar)
1 x 440g can chick peas
bunch of coriander
Persian Feta

Oil a roasting dish and add tomatoes and onions. Sprinkle with sugar Roast for 1.5 hours on 120 degrees centigrade.
Stir through the drained and rinsed chick peas and pop back in the oven for a few minutes.
Roughly chop coriander and stir through the tomato and onion mix and add balsamic to taste.
Sprinkle on a tablespoon or two of feta.
Serve warm with dressing

Dressing:
200ml plain yogurt (goat or sheep’s milk is great)
mustard seeds
cumin

Toast mustard and cumin seeds in a dry frypan
Crush and stir through yogurt with salt and pepper to taste.
Let sit at least 30 mins before serving.

On The Best – the served this on top of dukka crusted eggplant slices. Meh to the eggplant.

I’ll even admit that over the past week, as we have welcomed Spring (goddammit!) with 6 or so days at or over 30 degrees C, I have been craving an Espresso Frappacino from Starbucks. But not enough to walk to one of the two surviving stores on Swanston Street to indulge. Moccona have released a new range of little or no milk cold coffees in a bottle, but I haven’t seen them close to work as yet. What do you do for a caffeine hit in the hot weather? I can’t deal with the usual iced coffee we Aussies get – too milky, not enough caffeine. I’ll have a lovely Liaison coffee in the morning, but what to do for my mid-morning hit? at 30+ degrees?

So … that’s the long story, I was looking for a decent coffee this morning to make up for it. I detoured to Seven Seeds to buy one, and thought I would have some breakfast as well.

I grab a spot on the communal table and check out the menu:-

• Bircher Muesli? nope. C’mon it’s Sunday!
• French Toast with banana, butterscotch sauce and peanut brittle? Sounds lovely but .. it’s breakfast! Even I can’t stomach anything that sweet for breakfast
• Pastries? ho hum
• Fruit Toast (ho-er hum .. ho-ho hum? Greater Hum)
• Sour Dough bread served with bits…salmon? don’t eat it; hummous tomato, olive oil and dukkah? sounds like lunch; African nutella and molasses, sounds like a diabetic coma
• Toasties – already written about them; not my idea of nice, way too much bread

No-one has come to take my order yet – I’m still not even sure after 5 or 6 visits if they do – no one has ever approached me before I’ve walked up to the counter to order. Can someone tell me if they do table service?

I approach the counter and order two lattes to take away – both for me as they only have a regular size.

*sigh*

The coffee is really lovely, deep and rich and satisfying, but the food? I just don’t get it. What am i missing out on? Dench bread is OK – but it is my local so it’s not “exotic” for me. But the slices are way too thick in my opinion and I just don’t want anything that carbo loaded ever really.

So tell me what I’m missing….

I’ve never been a real fan of the site Embrasse occupies in Drummond street, not now, and not when it was Mrs Jones, nor 312. It’s a bit of a strange room being square rather than rectangular, it feels like it’s been cut off – and that there is more fun happening “out the back”. I think it’s a difficult size to create some “buzz” as well, although not funereal as it has been described, it was a bit introspective the day we were there. Eventually a loud party of four walk-ins filled the table in the middle of the room and gave all us couples something other than each other to look at.

At any rate, we were there for the food. Nicolas Poelaert was recently named our Young Chef of the Year, and I was a bit surprised to find some quite “mature” food on our plates. What do I mean? I mean subtle flavours where the produce shines, not the technique, and the guts to have a plate of vegetables as a main course. We wavered a bit about trying the degustation or not, but decided to go al la carte.

Arty shot of the amuse bouche.

(Sorry, I think it’s time for a tripod)

Selection of root vegetables, mushroom / ink crumbs, 62C egg and wood Sorrel

The egg is cooked for 1.5 hours and the texture of the egg is soft, but the yolk doesn’t run. JB declared it delicious.

Confit Pork Belly, asparagus, apple, gingerbread, wild alliums, oxalis flower.
By far the prettiest dish of the night, I loved the subtle garlic flavour and the tang of the oxalis. I have eaten a lot of oxalis lately. I must get on to the weeding!

Wagyu and onion tart with korean black garlic, black sesame, bread sauce and nasturtiums.
Or maybe this was the prettiest? The onions made a pattern that reminded me of Japanese paper. The meat was a fantastic colour, and though I’m not a huge wagyu fan, it was very flavoursome.

It would seem that I have forgotten to take a picture of my own main…very strange.

I ordered the meli melo of vegetables, sprouts, herbs and flowers, herb emulsions, perhaps because I knew it was one of the signature dishes, perhaps because I was pining for Mugaritz, perhaps because it was spring: and spring vegies are delicious. And it was a delicious. The vegies were perfectly cooked, asparagus, broad beans, carrots, something that might have been taro or manioc? zucchini, snow peas, many tasty little non-beasties. It was perfectly light and flavoursome and left room for dessert.

As a former pastry chef at Circa and the original Vue de Monde I was expecting a decent stab at dessert here. We weren’t disappointed by “Choclate parfait, meringue, chocolate crumb, sorrel granita”

The “mushroom” tops were the chocolate parfait, soft and with a jelly-ish texture, they reminded me of a non-frozen gelato. The stalks were meringue, and the granita was (the now ubiquitous) sorrel. The dirt was crumbled cake and it was the one part of the dessert that I wasn’t enamoured by.

So now to the elephant in the room, the service. There’s been a bit written about the service recently; we found it a tad overly-keen, friendly, perhaps a bit inexperienced, but with good hearts and especially with the young man who helped us choose our wine, passion. Young Chef of the Year, Nicolas Poelaert introduced himself towards the end of the meal and we spoke about Le Chateaubriand and his friend chef Inaki Aizpitarte. Nicolas hasn’t eaten Inaki’s food, so good blogger that I am, I pulled out the camera and showed him the photos from our recent meal. (that’s a bit weird right? But it happened). It certainly deserves to be full on a Friday night.

We’ll be back to see how this young chef develops, and hope that like Shannon Bennett, for whom Nic worked across the road where DOC is now, we will be proud to say one day “I remember when…”


Embrasse
312 Drummond Street
Carlton VIC 3053
03 9347 3312

I do hope this market picks up a bit, it wasn’t really what I would consider “up to speed” yet. I really didn’t like being accosted by GetUp! on my way there… go inside and have a stall and I’ll come see you if I want to folks.

The grounds of the school are quite well set up for the market, and to sit and have a coffee and a bit of breakfast, but the coffee was pretty ordinary, made with Coles UHT milk which was a HUGE step down from Schulz’s Organic Fresh Milk as we get at Abbotsford and Collingwood, and the beans were quite a mild roast.

The collection of stalls was a bit eccentric, but as it was the first market I can only hope it picks up. They were also quite sparse.

There was:
Ross Creek Garlic (who sold Garlic)
Honey
Lamadre Bakery
Olive Branch Preserves
Pud for All Seasons
A loose leaf tea seller
Little Creek Cattle Company/Killara Rise Lamb (from NSW!)
A Gozleme and turkish bread seller
Lockton Farm Gourmet Sausages (Chicken, Cheese and Asparagus sausages? Gourmet Pizza Sausages? Madras Curry and Cheese Sausages? I could go on but…urgh)
Marie’s Natural Herbs ‘n’ Stuff
Meredith Cheese
Flower seller
A Chicken shop
Someone selling stonefruit I think
A Market Gardener
Picanha Premium Beef
and perhaps a couple more?

There weren’t a lot of names on the stalls, and I missed the little bios that a lot of the Farmers put up at other more established markets. I used inverted commas in the first paragraph as there didn’t seem to be a lot of farmers – more of the value added stuff which isn’t what I look for at these markets.

But there was some good and some truly weird…

Now the dumpling stall took my fancy – I like dumplings! But I was disappointed to see only dim sims, hear the stall holder say ” well you can steam them, but they are much better deep fried” and then read the name of the stall..Wun Hung Lo? They’re kidding right? Seriously not impressed with the attempt at humour I’m afraid.

Then there was the scarf lady…seeing as it was more than 30 degrees yesterday that seemed really incongruous. Good thing it drizzled this morning I guess.

Then there was these guys – Michael and Jo, Red Bean coffee beans.

They were the suppliers of the beans in the aforementioned bland coffee, they asked me how it was, and I told them it was pretty bland, I blamed the milk – they blamed the roast the coffee makers had chosen (which they called a “girlie” roast). They sold me some Brazilian rainforest alliance beans. These two are ex-construction industry who have taken up roasting their own beans to make the kind of coffee they like to drink. I liked them, they were chatty (always a good sign at a market) and passionate about what they were doing. (You need a sign for that marque though lads!)

So…not a great start I’m afraid for this market, but hopefully things will improve with a better mix of stalls. Or maybe they will pitch themselves at the “Sunday Shopper”, buying those little indulgences. I certainly couldn’t do my weekly shop here – or even buy ingredients for a whole meal. But I’ll be back to see how they are progressing.

North Melbourne Farmers’ Market
1st Sunday every month (except January – second Sunday)
North Melbourne Primary School
210 Errol Street
North Melbourne
Inseason Markets