In Melbourne, a city full of food, and obsessed by coffee, I cook, I eat, I share the good news and the bad.
In Melbourne, a city full of food, and obsessed by coffee, I cook, I eat, I share the good news and the bad.
Jorg opened last night (Friday 4 June) for dinner. EatingMelbourne has already been. Finally with a recognisable shopfront we can tell you a bit more about new bar/cafe/restaurant (?) Jorg. As of Tuesday 1st June they aren’t open yet, but it doesn’t look like it’s far off. “Jacques Reymond’s head chef, Michael Smith, and Church […]
We recently dined at Circa The Prince in St Kilda, and I was really surprised by the Chestnut soup we were served. I asked chef, Matt Wilkinson, if he would share the recipe with me. He graciously agreed. The soup I made isn’t quite as refined as the one they serve at Circa but the […]
On the 25th April 2010 we treated ourselves to lunch at Circa The Prince in St Kilda to celebrate JB’s birthday. I haven’t written the full post yet, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to ask Chef Matt Wilkinson for the recipe for one of the dishes we ate that day, Chestnut soup. […]
I often just cook “classic” recipes. Bit of experience, bit of what I have on hand, bit of what I feel like playing around with. As an obvious result, I tend to forget the really good versions! So, I’m going to start blogging them so that I can retain what I learn along the way.
It’s been a few months now since Rita Micali’s new venture, Supermaxi, opened it’s doors. I’ve been back a few times now, so lets have a look beyond first impressions. I’ve dined alone at the bar, with a friend a couple of times and with a group including children.
A few weeks ago we got together for a feast of Momofuku themed dinner party. Master baker Anne brought along some “Compost Cookies” from David Chang’s Milk Bar restaurant. They were chewy and crunchie and salty and sweet and very very moorish. I was stuffed full of pork, and there was “Crack Pie” to […]
This delicious torte is actually pretty easy to make, and works well with frozen or preserved cherries, but is perhaps best in the middle of cherry season. The fresh local juicy cherries that I buy from the Farmers’ Markets were my inspiration to try this recipe. That and I almost always have all the ingredients I need […]
A quick mini-review. Supermaxi has taken over the home of the very uninspiring Middle Eastern restaurant on St Georges road, next to the linear bike park. The outside hasn’t changed, still ugly puce with graffiti, inside has been tarted up a bit, not too much. The view out on to the bike park is actually […]
There has been action a-plenty on St Georges Road North Fitzroy lately. There’s news of Rita Macali’s new pizza joint Supermaxi opening soon, the lentil place has had a revamp, Bryce Bernhardt and Michael Smith’s curiously named Jorg is set to open, even La Sera’s been painted.
Adelaide – Flying Visit 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 […]
Recently I was invited to dinner at the Grand Hyatt Collins Kitchen by nuffnang, the blog advertising people. It was nice to get together with some bloggers I know well, some I’m getting to know, and some I’ve not met before. It didn’t take long for us to be engrossed in a conversation about food […]
The Estelle changed hands in May 2011. I’ve visited The Estelle numerous times now dear reader, but I have to admit, not only because of my dedication and commitment to bringing you the full and balanced reviews of the best establishments in town. No, I must admit, the coffee is awfully good, and it’s only […]
I’ve been splurging on cookbooks lately – the strong Aussie dollar has been making it too difficult to resist. The Momofuku Cook book (by David Chang and Peter Meehan) arrived after Christmas and has been inspiring me non-structurally for a few weeks. By that I mean I haven’t sat down, read through a recipe, gone […]
Sunday arvo in the city and we had paused in our shopping for a cold iced coffee (Journal: not too sweet, good espresso flavour). I checked my twitter stream and read that Old Town Kopitiam’s new outpost in QV was open for business. It’s a bit dull bite-wise in the CBD this time of year […]
Every time we go to Donnini’s I ask myself why we don’t get here more often. I guess we take them for granted, but are thankful for their commitment to good food on a street that has a mistaken reputation for good food.
Day after Boxing Day BBQ – we’re getting more confident with the BabyQ and felt that we could give some of the fabulous steak from Largo a decent send off. I grabbed some rump steaks from Simon that had been dry-aged on the bone since 7th November and we put together some salads. So easy […]
On my way to the Vic Markets this morning I was in dire need of a coffee. This hot weather has made it hard for me to keep my caffeine intake at the required level. Yesterday I grabbed an affogato from Cavallini on Queens Parade. I was too late for a “Toby Coffee”, but I […]
For a bit of a special treat, we decided to visit Embrasse, which has been “on the list” for a while now, but you know, Mugaritz and Paris got in the way! (darn them!). I’ve never been a real fan of the site Embrasse occupies in Drummond street, not now, and not when it was […]
North Melbourne Primary School now hosts a “Farmers Market” on the first Sunday of the month. I missed out on the last Abbotsford Convent market, so was kinda hankering for a market morning – and the boy lives walking distance to this one, so I was quite looking forward to it. I do hope this […]
I tell myself (and others) that the purpose of the overseas trip was to see some new things, experience some new things, eat a few Michelin stars and chill out. Reviewing my photos from the trip, I can’t ignore the shear number of macaron photos I took. I have decided to put them all together […]
Have you even eating Holy Goat cheese? Perhaps you have run into Anne Marie and Carla selling it at one of the Farmer’s Markets around Melbourne? They are opening their farm in Sutton Grange as a slow food event. “Ever wondered how a certified organic dairy goat farm, with cheese production, really works? This slow […]
I’ve eaten at Adrian Richardson’s Carlton Institution many times, but I’ve only had the steak once before. I generally get tempted by the kid or the suckling pig well before I get to the steak list. But, tonight I was on a mission, to eat steak. That doesn’t quite explain while all three of my […]
I’m cleaning out the freezer and so the plan today was to cook chicken. I defrosted some Lilydale breasts and some wonton wrappers (the crap that accumulates!). The Gasworks Farmers’ Market brought us baby leeks and coriander to round out the filling, and the Prahran Market Tour from a few weeks ago turned up some […]
Robert Coco’s Cavallini bakery is a brilliant addition to the Queens Parade strip. I doubted the place could bare one more bakery (in fact one has closed recently) but Cavallini is of such high quality, folks come from miles around the sample a leek, proscuitto and taleggio tart and some of Toby’s decent coffee. I […]
“Tuesday is Cheeseday” but thankfully not Mainland Cheese. This is my second delivery of Bruny Island Cheese. I read a few pre-emptive tweets on the way home, there’s the white box waiting for me when I get there. Inside … Left to Right: Ring-in Woodfire Toasted MuesliCow’s Milk FettaWoodfired oven roasted nutssaint: surfaced ripened “soft […]
I joined the Bruny Island Cheese Club recently and their first box arrived a little while ago. I also ordered some Rare Food Berkshire Pork Rillettes and there was Quince and Rosemary Jelly to go with the cheese. On first opening the box, the unmistakable aroma of washed rind cheese whacked me about a bit. […]
I was sent this photo along with the comment “Oops – forgot to take a ‘before’ shot”. Hmmm….yes – I get unsolicited food photos. Yes – they sometimes aren’t technically of food!
After a few hours in the weak summer sunshine (and the bitterly cold wind) what I really needed was a good cup of tea. Thankfully – my friend Ms M can be very much relied upon to provide tea of a decent quality at the drop of a text message – and there were CWA […]
It was a very lazy Saturday morning for me – rather getting up early and getting to Piedemonte’s, Mecca Bros, Largo and/or the Farmers’ Market – I was lazy around reading and drinking tea in bed, before heading out to the Prahran Market for a preview of their Hidden Gems Tour. We found black garlic […]
I joined the Bruny Island Cheese Co. Cheese club a few weeks back after reading the rave reviews of some fellow tweeters. First order arrived today. Well packaged box, and well sealed. Boy! does that washed rind smell like … well a smelly washed rind cheese! Can’t wait to try the Oen I’ve only tried […]
On birthdays and special occasions we’ll often try to get to a “name” restaurant. We both like “dining out” and it gives us a chance to justify the “hang the expense” dining experience (and I get to overuse quotation marks). I suspect that habit will now change, and we will make Attica our destination of […]
I can’t call them muffins as my religion forbids me, and these are just too good. They are destined for the lads in Accounts who have been working too hard in the lead up to the end of financial year, and I’ve been making a lot of that work for them. I think these are […]
We popped in to Seven Seeds again this morning as promised. It is between my place and JB’s so we do drive past it fairly regularly. Coffee was much better today – delicious in fact, and they has keen beavers chatting to folk as they came in the door, much improved. But 10 mins for […]
Where else can you order bottles of Parker 2003 Cabernet for $49 a bottle? Griff’s wine pub has been quietly feeding the faithful for almost two years under it’s latest guise (let’s all try to forget about the Purple Turtle shall we?). On the corner of Johnston and Napier streets in Fitzroy, it’s a stylish […]
Melbourne’s hottest new bright shiny coffee house in Carlton didn’t push any happy buttons for me today unfortunately. I was a bit excited by the buzz, and Melbourne Gastronome’s blogand the fact it was a sibling to Brother Baba Budan, but still I was a bit underwhelmed. I found the space a bit difficult I […]
We’ve just started feeling the chill of winter, and the need for some heavier food. The Court House isn’t far away from us, and generally a tasty, easy-to-like, meal. I rarely feel like boring, pedestrian food (who does really?), but sometimes I do just want life to be a bit easier to deal with than […]
“Whattya call this love?” – “Stew” Feels like Lamb Shank night, and it was. Some lovely (but my aren’t they expensive now!) lamb shanks, two onions, half a bottle of decent cab and water to simmer with a muslin bag including tangerine peel, peppercorns, juniper berries, a cinnamon stick and three bay leaves. After an […]
A lovely Saturday night had been planned, a laid back dinner with some new friends at Black Ruby and on to Geralds for scotch and dessert (not necessarily in that order). It was a pretty frosty when we headed out, and arrived in Rathdowne street to see our dinner guests standing out on the street…ah […]
A lazy Saturday morning beckoned, and a trip to The Commoner seemed to be the order of the day, but alas, when we arrived the door was firmly shut. A quick scan through the mental rolodex of places I’ve always meant to get to, but haven’t – Birdman Eating. It’s not far away, the parking gods are on our […]
One of the things I really like about being fully employed again, is that I can be a bit less strict at the Farmers’ Markets. This morning really felt Autumnal, a chilly bite to the air, which made me anticipate harvest weather and fabulous, overlfowing Farmers’ Markets. Many people know of my love for the […]
We drank this with a 1998 D’Arenberg The High Trellis Cabernet Sauvingnon which was bought when I first started collecting wine with a view to drinking it later. It was pretty scrummy. Serves 2 4 Lamb Fillets or Backstraps 1 large (or two small) lemons Coucous Tablespoon Pine Nuts Dried Mint, fresh mint Cinnamon Sweet […]
JB called and said – I’ve got chicken and bread and stuff .. lets eat somewhere in the sunshine. Good Idea I thought. Off to Carlton Gardens to take advantage of the perfect picnicking weather. Blue Skies, not too hot to sit in the sun, not too hot for sensible clothing. Nice 🙂 I got […]
I woke fairly early and let the beasties out into the un-seasonal cool and went back to bed. I was happily reading when Sundance popped in with a gleeful jump and pounce and roll and jump. I saw one of his long tailed toys on the floor and in the gloom thought it was that […]
Although Lygon St in Carlton is the name on every tourist’s lists when they want to eat out in Melbourne, unfortunately the food is mostly pedestrian, and sometimes awful! JB and I have a running joke about one “traditional” Lygon street establishment that we allowed a friend of a friend to drag us along to, […]
New Year’s? blerh Let’s avoid the sobriety (of watching fireworks in town with families and NO alcohol – blerg) and the transport troubles of going somewhere for a meal / drink. Lets cook something wonderful and open a darn nice bottle of wine. So we did. We opened two in fact. Starting with a Coldstream […]
I suspect that due to the four day Christmas weekend, there were no places to put the cats over Christmas (I tried in October!) so I didn’t get to Queensland this weekend. I really should have been there this year as Mum has not been very well, and Dad is struggling to look after her […]
Wednesday night we ventured to Lygon Street, east Brunswick to try out the fairly new-ish Baba. Chef James Wilkinson is cooking there and I really enjoyed his food at Jimmy Watson’s some years ago. The space is a bit sparse, and I expected it to be a bit busier on a Wednesday night – but […]
I was mucking around trying to work our how to link Flickr to Livejournal (feel free to tell me how! I can’t work it out) and I came across photos of the kittens. I haven’t transferred photos over from my old laptop yet – so I haven’t seen these in ages… awwww They will be […]
Today was a total skive-off. JB has switched his day off at work this week and suggested we get “out and about” . I’ve wanted to go to Heronswood Homestead in Dromana for some time now. We happened across the companion cool climate garden for Diggers Seeds (heritage and heirloom seed savers) a few weeks […]
And today – I found a great cuppa! I read about Old Malcom’s Inn in the Age. Okay -so they sent me down a pretty dodgy rough road on their mud map – but they are forgiven – if only due to the big pot of strong tea – made with tank water and the […]
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