Blog Archives -

Lord Cardigan

29/11/2013

This week's Friday feed took place in Albert Park and Steve selected Lord Cardigan. I thought it was going to be a pub but was pleasantly surprised when it appeared as a cute and cosy little neighbourhood bistro that was intimate and buzzy.

We had a table towards the back of the dining room and had a good view of everyone else. Everyone seemed to be having a good time which lifted the atmosphere.

Our choice of starter were the:

Blue swimmer crab with asparagus, corn and caper, poached quail egg and dill pollen
Mushroom ravioli served on sauteed mushrooms with truffle butter

I had the crab and I liked the sweetness of the crab and corn, the touch of zestiness from some citrus, the iron flavour of the asparagus and then some herbaceous notes from the dill and other greenery. Light and appetite inducing it was a good starter.

Steve's pasta was also a solid performer, Thin pasta and a rich filling with a buttery sauce. Delicious.

And then we had waited and it was a good hour before our main courses arrived. I think that's a bit too long really especially on a Friday night when a hard day of toil has taken place.

Hickory-smoked duck breast served with house gnocchi, chorizo and fresh peas
Prime aged Gippsland Black Angus beef sirloin served with a gruyere cheese and onion tart, red wine jus
House chips with rosemary salt
Roasted beetroot, orange, walnut, cherry tomato, witlof and Yarra Valley fetta salad

This was a our feast for our main course. Dishes were attractively presented and appetisingly so. The steak was soft especially for a sirloin and the meat tasty. The gruyere and onion tart was extremely delicious and I loved the jus absorbing pastry. The house chips were lovely and golden with a crispy outer and the salad was just so fresh and delicious with the creamy decadence of feta.eg

I have to begrudgingly admit that the wait was worth it. It was good food. And that meant I willingly waited for dessert...

We shared the terrine of ices – mascarpone, passionfruit and berry, topped with Italian meringue, finished with a strawberry and orange salad.

Pretty colours - creamy marscapone on the bottom, sweet foamy meringue on the top and then jaw zappingly, sharp but in a good way raspberry and passionfruit notes screaming of their fruitiness.

Lord Cardigan is a lovely neighbourhood restaurant that is producing great food. My only quibble was the delay in our main course and not much of an acknowledgement of this lengthy wait but the good cooking outweighed the inconvenience of waiting.

Lord Cardigan on Urbanspoon

Spice Temple

27/11/2013

Steve and I are big fans of Spice Temple and go at least once a month for yum cha on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I think Neil has done wonders with the spicy regions of China and his interpretation of the dishes is really tasty. The service is usually friendly and efficient but never all that personal and we're never really made to feel as if we're valued regulars but in spite of that the food is what we enjoy the most so we forgive that because it's not as if we're treated badly.

As part of The Age Good Food Month celebrations, there was a Cantonese banquet and we decided to attend, I was interested in how the more subtle flavours of Cantonese cuisine that I'd grown up with would turn out.

We were seated with three other couples so 8 to a rectangular table. Both floors of the restaurant were full. There were definitely some of the more regular wait staff there augmented by a few roped in for the event I'm sure as one of the guys near us had no idea about the food, the drinks or even the table numbers!

The atmosphere was good; jovial and noisy much like a Chinese wedding banquet and the the set menu reminded me of those events I'd attended as child and teen with my parents. Neil came and gave an opening speech and then it all started.

Superior soup with pork, chicken, tofu and vermicelli

Prawn wontons with red vinegar

Roast pork belly with plum sauce

Lucky duck noodles with pickled vegetables

King Prawn stuffed tofu with special soy

Stir fried spanner crab with sweet corn and egg white

Char siu roasted tooth fish with pickled bamboo

Eight treasure chicken

Twice cooked beef cheeks with shiitake and garlic stems

Stir fried cabbage with xo sauce

Mango pudding and sago cream

It wasn't fine dining because the fact that it was an event with everyone starting at the same time made it banquet catering and when it's banquet catering I always find, you have to lower your expectations because the food is never of the standard of actual dining.

Stand out dishes for us were probably the roast pork belly and the toothfish. The pork belly had delicious crackling to it and real plum sauce that was fresh and zingy. The toothfish had a real sweetness to it reminiscent of char siu because it had been made in that same lacquered BBQ way and it wasn't unlike the black cod miso at Nobu. Highly enjoyable with the slightly tangy pickled bamboo. I also like that they brought out fresh rice with the last two meat courses so there was no cold rice situation. On the whole the dishes came out quickly and it didn't feel too dragged out which can be tedious when seated with strangers and the night feels like it's just going on and on with lots of wait time. On the upside, our dining companions were a lot of fun.

What didn't work for me included the fact that the soup came out cold. Flavours were good but the temperature was lacking. I'm not sure if that was because the soup was left to wait whilst Neil Perry finished speaking. An idea is rather than have the soup ladled out into bowls already that cook quickly due to lack of volume, is to have a big bowl or tureen and it's then dished out at the table. With larger volume, the liquid retains the heat more.

The prawns in the tofu were mushy and paste like and I don't like mushy prawns. I did like the silken tofu in the soy though. Shame the prawns added an unwelcome element.

It was an interesting way to break up the week and overall it was enjoyable. I'm not sure it was good enough to convince the Spice Temple newbie to give it another go tsas I don't think it showcased the strength and quality Spice Temple is capable of.

Spice Temple on Urbanspoon

London Tavern

24/11/2013

Pub lunch get together with Family Davis so that's mum, dad Davis and the twins, Tom and Pete. We were there just after midday and the place was pretty much empty so lots of space to sit and spread out.

As a table we ordered lots of different things including grilled calamari, gyozas, spring rolls, burgers, parma, steak sandwiches and fish and chips. The folk behind the bar taking our orders were friendly and helpful throughout and food arrived quickly.

The pub food was good. Crunchy chips, fresh salad, good gyozas. Steve and I tried the burger and steak sandwich together and they were both good but the burger gets the edge for me.

Yep a good place for an informal and tasty pub lunch.

London Tavern Hotel on Urbanspoon

LuxBite

20/11/2013

I was kindly invited to the LuxBite Christmas (Luxmas?) Party and having never had the pleasure I jumped at the chance and the lovely Stefanie was my date.

The place was busy when we arrived but we were still warmly welcomed into the sugary bosom of confectioners delight.

Such beautiful items to look and taste. The beautiful mouthful of milk chocolate mousse, raspberry cream, dark chocolate crunch, chocolate glaze, freeze dried raspberry was probably our favourite. The assymemtrical trapezium chocolates were also amazing - crispy crackly outer shell with a filling. I tried the salted caramel one and then the green tea one; intense flavour but not overly sweet and cloying.

See you again LuxBite!

LuxBite on Urbanspoon

Teppankai

18/11/2013

We were very kindly invited as non paying guests to the relaunch of Teppankai in South Yarra for a sit down meal to sample what new things they have to offer.

The place was very busy and we were shown to the two seats allocated to us in front of one of the grilling stations.

We were served drinks and were invited to look at the menu for the evening.

Our little entree came quite quickly - Horenso ohistahi - chilled blanched spinach and shitake mushrooms in light soy sauce, Exactly how it was described it wasn't pleasant enough and felt light and healthy.

Salmon carpaccio - salmon sashimi with tosazu and micro shiso came next and we really enjoyed the citrus notes along with the richness of the raw salmon. Very enjoyable.

The spicy fish tempura roll - lightly tempura battered spicy salmon sushi roll with special sauce and shredded dried chilli was also delicious. The rolls had a delicate crunch and were tasty. The tempura zucchini flower was a touch greasy but still enjoyable.

After a prompt start with the courses, things slowed down as orders got lost and things became more confused. The chefs on the grills and the waitresses seemed to lose some of the control and whilst there was no shouting, the stress levels had definitely increased

Kai kani maki - teppan seared crab salad wrapped in nori sheets and barramundi, smothered with secret aioli, flamed with tobiko and drizzled with a sweet soy reduction finally came and we ate it very quickly! Not my favourite as I found the aioli too creamy and a bit too heavy but Steve enjoyed it which I didn't expect as he usually doesn't like things heavy on the mayo.

There was also a delay before the arrivak of the braised Japanese hamburger - braised beef ball in Japanese teriyaki glazed with poached egg and lotus root chips with matcha salt.

I thought the egg would be warm but it wasn't and I'm not a fun of cold runny egg so this spoilt it for me. The burger itself was quite salty so have to say not my preferred dish of the night.

And there was another delay before our kaisen teppanyaki was ready. This was the Chef's selection of assorted seasonal seafood cooked at the hotplate with soy ponzu dipping sauce. We had watched the chef skilfully cook up a number of these as other diners received their food. We enjoyed it all and it was all fresh. Nothing not to like about grilled seafood.

Kobe style eye fillet - grain fed local eye fillet seared on the hotplate with a splash of sake, assorted mushroom and a miso dipping sauce was our final course and I was so keen to get it I forgot to take the pictures. Cubes of beef and some mixed mushrooms. Like the seafood it was a pleasant main course.

Dessert was black sesame tiramisu - ladyfinger with black sesame syrup and rum infused mascarpone and expectations were low as we're not fans of Asian style dessert.

But we were surprised, this was good. Light sponge, creaminess, sweetness and then toastiness from the black sesame.

Teppankai has a lovely decor and is a fun place to eat whether seated at the grill watching the chefs, tucked away in a corner or at an outside table in the sunshine. It's hard to be creative and a trail blazer with Japanese teppanyaki as there is only so much you can do with a hotplate, soy, sake and butter and a lot of it is down to good produce. So if in the mood for teppanyaki then I would recommend Teppankai as one of the good places to go.

I have had to talk about the delays we experienced in receiving our food but this was a banquet occasion and the whole place became busy at the same time so I'm sure it will be better when the tables are booked at more spaced out times.

Thank you for including us at your relaunch party and we hope to return soon for some teppenyaki action. As has been made obvious, we were non paying guests at this event.

Teppankai on Urbanspoon

Morris Jones

13/11/2013

Steve and I were very kindly invited to try Matthew Butcher's mastery at Morris Jones and we headed there one evening after work.

I had been before about a year ago and it was a pleasant enough experience and I recall I always thought I would return but I guess I just got distracted by other places and it just didn't happen.

There's a pleasant feel to Morris Jones; roominess with the high timber ceilings, dark wood floors and tables, leather chairs...it's all quite manly. The menus have a wooden back board and a leather cover so definitely on the testosterone side of things. Steve felt quite at home, whereas I felt a little bit of an outsider...like a guest but as a guest, you get treated well so it's not a bad thing to not feel completely at home at times.

We admired the creativity of the menu - circles and and flow chart like. Creative yet not unscientific reminiscent of those molecule diagrams we used to draw in high school. As we browsed, Sebastian the lovely waiter was very attentive and ever so pleasant.

We were in the hands of chef Matthew Butcher who really proved to us that he is an extremely skilful technician yet also has an inspiring creative streak too that he calls being "quirky". This "quirkiness" is what make his dishes unexpected and a little bit exciting.

The first items to come out were bread with what was described by Sebastian has whipped honey butter. It was delicious. Creamy butter with a hint of sweetness a little bit like raw cake mixture. I thought I loved salted butter; it turns out I also love honey butter!

Our amuse bouche was a mouthful of the busty beet salad - goat's curd, red sorrel, buckwheat. Classic combination of flavours perhaps but there was a real sharp tang in the curd and then a saltiness from the buckwheat. A strong indication that what was to come would be delicious.

Two China plates with glass cloches over them arrived and when the cloches were lifted; smoke billowed out revealing the dish of:
Black and blue tuna - white radish, chestnut, puffed quinoa, yuzu and soy

Meaty squares of chargrilled tuna, with snaps of pickled mushroom flavours coming through, toasty notes from the quinoa, classic soy and sashimi and then a cleansing flavour of chestnut. Very clever, very creative and very delicious all with a little theatre. Accompanied by a glass of Moet this was such a wonderful way to celebrate a Wednesday evening! Nothing more decadent than French champagne on a non occasion - it turns it into an occasion!

Next came the Jerusalem artichoke soup - mock truffle, Shimeji mushroom, snow peas. Matthew poured the soup over the dry ingredients at our table.

The soup was special - deep in flavour so I know the stock used must have been good and veiled over with the nutty creaminess of Jerusalem artichoke. The mock truffle, we found out is toasted breadcrumbs infused with truffle oil and that added fragrance as well as texture. There was chew from the mushroom and crunch from the snow peas and such deep deep savoury flavours that touched the very depths of our souls.

This was Steve's favourite dish which was surprising given it's a veggie dish!

Otway crispy pig - prawn popcorn, cucumber, dashi and basil seed was our main dish. Pale pink mini crackers atop a slab of belly pork presented so prettily.

The prawn crackers were salty and tasty and belly pork so juicy yet crunchy. With a Japanese twist from the dashi, the flavours worked well but to get to the meat the crackers would fall into the broth and become a slimy mess which was less appetising. I think the best way to eat this was to munch on all the crackers first before going with the pork. Visually this worked; practically it wasn't the easiest to eat.

Quick palate cleanser of kiwi lollipops came out next. Covered in some gel that was a bit gooey, I think I'd have preferred a crackly sugar coating like a toffee apple. However, I still liked the sharpness and the freeze of the fruit and yes my palate was refreshed and cleansed ready for dessert.

Chocolate pudd, raspberry sorbet, salted caramel
Strawberry and cream, texture of strawberry, white chocolate

Two contrastingly wonderful desserts; the strawberry plate was right up my street. Creaminess, sweetness, coldness, toasty shortbread crumbs, strawberriness, Summer on a plate. Steve loved the salted caramel and chocolate. I'm not a huge chocolate dessert fan and whilst I enjoyed the sorbet I found the pud a little grainy in texture but Steve ate it all!

We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner at Morris Jones and are really excited about what it wants to do and where it wants to go, Thank you for sharing your story with us. Throughout our meal, sommelier Tim kept our glasses topped up and chose some beautiful wines to accompany our exciting dishes. Loved it so much that Steve booked us in the next week to join them on their "Wild Table" dinner which I'll go into later on.

Morris Jones is definitely going through a renaissance and we have been lucky to be their for the tail end of it. It's time other people begin to see this too and get to enjoy the talents of Matthew Butcher who has been a little under the radar in the Melbourne food scene. I

The Urbanspoon score is low but the reviews from the last 6 months have been stellar and that demonstrates and indicates the re birth this place has had and the new direction it is moving in and Steve and I have bought into this and want to support it as much as we can.

Matthew explained to us that he has spearheaded a new initiative called the Morris Jones Food Society where a 4 course menu is served with a theme and there's a bit of education / discussion thrown in. This month's was about foraging and Matthew Connelly, chef at The Commoner and forager was working with him to provide produce and insight into foraging. We love The Commoner also so Steve signed us up there and then to join in. Our menu was:

Shells from the Sea - Local pippies and clams, sea herbs, pig face flowers, jamon consomme
Northside Community Garden - Mushroom dirt, Spring vegetables, garlic flowers
Duck Loquats - Duck breast and leg, coastal spinach, nasturtiums, pomme souffle
Choc Joint R18 - Smoked chocolate, edible ash, choc mint

The italic ingredients indicate what was foraged. And there was a little palate cleanser of home made lemonade from some stole lemons! Foraging, stealing...there's a fine line?! No that's not what we were told, just my opinion!

We were seated at a table of 6, we enjoyed the company of Paige and Erin as well as others and we definitely enjoyed the food. The stand out for me was the delicious duck with crispy potatoes. The breast was done rare and plump and juicy whereas the leg was slow cooked, shredded and delicious. Steve loved the veggie dish (they do their veggies well here) and I have to say, I hate carrots but even I ate them. I loved the English style salad cream Matthew incorporated into the dish.

The shells from the sea was delicious and I loved the salty savouriness of the consomme. The plump sea herbs added a real briny touch that emphasised the shellfish element. My slight quibble was by the time our consomme was poured into our dishes the temperature could have been warmer and given there wasn't that much of it, it cooled down and became cold consomme quite quickly. Whilst that wasn't unpleasant I'm pretty sure, hot consomme is better than cold consomme.

The choc joint was creatively presented in a glass ash tray and had an ash tip. I wasn't a huge fan of the ash - too much like chewing an old cigarette but the chocolate mint mousse like cigar was yummy and the mint prevented the chocolate dish from being too cloying. I think a scoop of something cold like an ice cream would have added a temperature dimension to the dessert but maybe that's just me being greedy!

And this review is only my opinion and Steve's opinion based on our visits. Our first visit was with the kind compliments of Morris Jones (thank you very much) and the second was paid for by Bank of Barley.

Morris Jones on Urbanspoon

Ca De Vin

11/11/2013

It was grey and wet and Steve and I were in the city and wanting to shelter somewhere warm and inviting and cosy. I thought of Ca De Vin having walked through the little laneway many a time but never stopped to eat.

On this miserable day the collection of silver lanterns in the doorway welcomed us into the gothic like dining room that is part laneway, part Venetian back alley. There was flickering candle light and the whole place was romantic.

Service was a little erratic and not the most attentive but the mind can be distracted by flickering candle light and a little romance.

We ordered the prosciutto pizza and and the fettucine with meat ragu. Homely dishes to stave off the wet and the cold.

The pizza looks impressive, thin crust and large. The topping was generous too. Flavour wise it just missed punch. Maybe a bit more tomato. The base although thin and crispy was a little dry, a bit too close to cardboard. Not terrible pizza but there's definitely better out there.

The pasta pretty much hit the same result. The sauce was a little soupy / watery. You can even see in the photo the wateriness of it. Flavour wise not bad but the whole dish lacked something.

I guess what the dishes lack, the surroundings and settings are meant to make up for it. Too a certain degree it does work because I'd love to sit there again and pretend I'm in Florence or Siena but then when the food arrives, I'm brought back to reality. I'm in a pretend place and a pretend place with mediocre food is not where I want to spend my hard earned cash so I'll have to overlook the romance and intrigue and walk on.

Ca de Vin on Urbanspoon

Casa Ciuccio

9/11/2013

Saturday night came round and Steve said we should go out somewhere enjoyable. He suggested trying Moon Under Water but I wanted to go somewhere where I knew I would feel comfortable and enjoy and I suggested revisiting Casa Ciuccio to which he happily agreed.

I called on the Friday to make the reservation for the next day and was pleased that they could accommodate us later at 8:30pm onwards which suited us. I requested our favourite table 29 next to the pass in the kitchen.

Upon arrival it was still very busy and sadly 29 wasn't available. We had another great little table though in the front dining room tucked away in the corner where we could sit at 90 degrees to each other.

Just like last time we were well looked after and appreciated the guidance regarding what to order.

We enjoyed a few of the small bite size tapas such as the tuna gallega, anchovy montadio, mussels and an anchovy, cucumber, fennel, cornichon skewer. I love these little canapes. It's like being at a party!

Then we shared the fish special which was a delicious piece of beautifully grilled snapper with a lemon dressing and fresh peas. I loved the sour lemon with the white fish and the sweet peas. We also shared the morcilla special which came on a bed of sweet and sour onions and capsicums and a deep fried egg. Complete contrast to the fish in that this was pure dense richness. Our final dish was another special which was a pork loin fillet with eel butter and purple cabbage. The meat was so tender and the flavours so special.

Our desserts were the 'marinated' watermelon milk pudding and the chocolate bunuelos with hazelnut sauce. The watermelon milk pudding was like runny panna cotta with some cinammon spice flavours coming through. I loved the chocolate bunuelos - light and fluffy pancake batter in a croquette shape and not overly sweet or chocolatey. Perfect for me and I didn't think I'd get through all 4 but I managed 3 easily and donated 1 to Steve. Now that I think back....maybe I could have managed 4!

Another great evening at Casa Ciuccio, If we lived closer, we'd be there all the time!

Casa Ciuccio on Urbanspoon

Dalmatino

4/11/2013

The night before Melbourne Cup Day, Steve and I decided it would be nice to go out for dinner and so he reserved a table at Dalmatino in Port Melbourne.

When we walked into the restaurant, I immediately felt that it was a comfortable and relaxed place to dine; kind of elegant bistro style. I liked the dark woods and intimacy of the dining room. Our welcome was warm ish but certainly efficient and that's how I'd describe the service. We were looked after by three staff members - a forthright, efficient lady but who was also personal in her approach when we spoke to her, a softer spoken waitress who was probably the junior team member and another gentleman who had a similar style to the efficient lady.

The menu was described as for sharing and it certainly had a strong Croatian and Eastern European bias to it. We decided to share every course and go with things we liked the sound of. Having said that, it was hard to choose. There were lots of delicious sounding goodies and a couple of specials too.

We started off with the traditional bean, corn and prosciutto soup. Our efficient waitress informed us she'd get the chef to divide the soup into two servings for us to make things easier so points for taking control and organisation.

The soup was delicious - saltiness from the ham and then some sweetness from the corn and heartiness from the beans. Deliciously wholesome.

Next up came our meat course and we enjoyed:

House made gourmet skinless Croatian sausages served with capsicum, eggplant relish and kajmak cheese
House made potato dumplings with rich beef ragu

Oh wow. Firstly the ragu and potato dumplings which were like bigger pieces of gnocchi. They were so pillowy soft yet heartwarmingly heavy at the same time. The beef ragu was so tasty with chunks of beef meat and a savoury satisfying flavour.

The sausages had a great chargrill flavour and had a meatiness to them that wasn't too dense and heavy. I liked the capsicum relish (not sure where the eggplant was) and the kajmak cheese was like a yoghurty / sour cream dip. Two great meat dishes.

We should have finished things here but I guess we didn't know how big the dishes were.

Next up came the traditional Dalmatian fish stew with soft polenta accompanied by fresh green beans and tomato tossed with almonds. It was beautifully presented in an earthenware dish with plump mussels, queen scallops, chunks of fish, delicate prawns in this amazing fish broth / bisque.

The soft polenta was in a ball in the middle of the dish. I have to admit the polenta wasn't my favourite part of the dish and my personal thoughts would be a few braised potatoes would have been a nicer starch as an accompaniment or crusty bread. Our waitress did bring us some extra bread which was delicious soaked in the broth. I think if I wasn't so full I'd have drank every drop of that elixir.

The green beans were a delicious fresh accompaniment to the stew.

Neither of us had room for dessert in spite of Steve declaring that he wanted it! Next time hopefully now that we know how filling and big the portion sizes are. It was great to see that the restaurant was busy on the Monday night and that some of the clientele spoke in what I assumed was Croatian. I can imagine that if we lived in Port Melbourne, this would be a great neighbourhood restaurant to frequent regularly.

Dalmatino on Urbanspoon

Dahon Tea Lounge

3/11/2013

Sunday at South Melbourne market is something we do pretty regularly and we often have lunch at one of the local eateries.

This time we gave Dahon a try. We enjoyed the wide choice of teas and Steve had the stir fry chicken and cashew nuts and I went with the pork belly with Java rice. We also enjoyed some BBQ chicken wings.

Service is attentive and the food arrives quickly, It's obviously popular with locals too which is good to see. Steve enjoued his stir fry. The pork belly was crispy and tasty with a vinegary dipping sauce and a tomato rice. Very enjoyable. And the chicken wings were tasty with a good chargrill flavour.

Well priced, well executed, this is an unusual place that does some pretty tasty plates of food and some well brewed cups of tea.

Dahon Tea Lounge on Urbanspoon