Category: Ripponlea -

The Potsticker

22/9/2013

We were due to be in Elsternwick on Saturday afternoon for our anniversary activity of pottery painting so decided to also find lunch in the area. The Potsticker was on the list of places to try so today was an excellent day to go.

We arrived at 11:45 am and were pretty much the first to be there. During our time it never got hugely busy with about half a dozen dining groups at most so it was a lot calmer than other yum cha experiences. No Chinese people either though so perhaps it loses points on authenticity?! Anyway, we found the service pleasant enough. Our teapot was filled regularly and the food came round enough.

I asked for steamed sticky rice and Peking duck when we sat down unsure if these items would come round and the waitress did bring us sticky rice later on although no one else got it.

Dumplings are all fairly mainstream and there's enough to keep us interested. Some favourites didn't appear though like cheung fun, egg tarts and custard buns but I guess being quiet and catering to Western crowds probably has a factor to play.

Stand outs were probably the spring onion pancake which was tasty for a veggie dish and the chive dumpling was pretty good too. The sesame prawn toast was plump of prawn which is a good thing and I liked that the sweet and sour sauce was already on the table.

Steve still prefers Shark Fin House; I'm probably the same mainly because of the lack of choice but I did like the calmer environment and I didn't notice any MSG overuse. Sometimes I feel a bit full and heavy and thirsty after yum cha because of the quality of the meat in the dumplings and MSG but I have to say there was none of this after today's experience.

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Attica

16/10/2012

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This was our third Attica visit and our second on a Tuesday evening for Chef's Table and this time we were joined by our friends Marty and Kirsty.

As per our previous visits, service was professional and pretty on the ball. It's not the most personal but it is effective and there is attention to detail.

Sorrel with King George Whiting, Squid and Pepperberry - sweet flavours, clean finish, hit of pepper and a slight bitter note from the sorrel. Bring more please!

Black Lip Abalone, Seaweed and Sesame - very dainty and pretty. Toasty sesame notes, salty seaweed and a deeply sweet note from the abalone. Good texture from the crunch of the seaweed and chew of the abalone.

Asparagus, Sirora Pistachios and Parsley Pollen - intensely green and beautifully seasoned. Lots of respect to the asparagus and stays true to it. I'm not sure I'll ever have an asparagus dish as good as this.

Fermented Mushroom, Celeriac and Pyengana - a mass of intense mushrooms and mature cheese. There's some texture from some quinoa and the funghi is meaty and the cheese hit strong. It's a comfort dish that is rich and satisfying.

Burrata, Native Raspberries and Fennel - petals and granita and sweet raspberries and creamy cheese. What a delight! I've only ever had burrata in a savoury dish so wasn't sure what it would be like as dessert but it was amazing and there were hints of chewy bits too just like mozzarella. So very clever and so very delightful.

After dinner eggs. So sweet, chocolatey and with salted caramel. Lovely way to end the meal.

I loved the intelligence behind this meals and the flavour combinations all worked. It's expensive at $95 per head but the 50 hours that goes into making this has to be recompensed. I have to say there's not that much food for the money but what there is is truly amazing and superior. That may explain all the bread they offer!

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Attica

18/11/2011

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Long awaited three months and our Attica reservation finally becomes a reality! We had no choice in the time and just had to see when the next available table was on a Friday or Saturday evening.

Attica is the Restaurant of the Year in the 2012 Age Good Food Guide. It has been awarded three hats and chef Ben Shewry has been lauded as producing food that is quirky, original and labour intensive.

Even before Attica had won such acclaim and was just one of many much praised restaurants in Melbourne, Steve had singled it out and has been wanting to go since we arrived here. I'd put it off because to me the food doesn't sound delicious and mouthwatering but is in that avant garde, test the boundaries category which I always seem to shelve and I succumb to the familiar more taste familiar dining venues.

Based in Ripponlea amongst very little, it's a short walk from the station. We were greeted warmly and showed to a table. The dining room is intimate but the tables aren't too close together. There's a minimalist feel to the place but it doesn't feel spartan or cold. Slate grey and dark coal colours along with low lighting create an understated moody ambience.

We start with gin and tonics and opt fot Melbourne's finest tap water which is all done easily without any pressure to go for bottled water. The menu is explained to us - degustation and we opt to go with matched wines.

The dishes are not described in details so there is an element of surprise. Waiters explain the dishes as they bring it out with passion and are informative. Although they must repeat themselves so many times over in one shift, it doesn't sound repetitive.

We start with an amuse bouche of a Crystal Bay prawn with fresh mustard seeds and a Jerusalem artichoke broth. Very delicate in appearance with some strong yet fresh flavours. The prawn is sweet, the broth is intense and the mustard seeds impart a zinginess that just lingers in the mouth for a brief second.

Then we launch properly into the degustation menu with a dish simply entitled "Snow Crab" which was accompanied by a sake. The snow crab is actually hidden beneath a mound of horseradish powder which looks like snow. There is also some salmon roe and barberries hidden beneath like treasure. Very witty and the crab is sweet, the salmon roe adds more sea flavours and the barberries just cut through to add some citrus which the rich crab needs. The horseradish snow is a little too strong for my palette so I leave a lot of it but the whole dish is creative

Marron, Leek, Native Pepper - delicious, fresh marron which is like a crayfresh accompanied by steamed baby leeks and with a prosciutto and mussel broth. This is like complete yumminess. The sweet and slightly crunchy marron is seasoned by the salty intense broth and the leeks add a different kind of sweetness. And as you can see it's a very pretty dish. The leaves are the results of some foraging the chefs did that morning!

A Simple Dish of Potato Cooked in the Earth it was Grown - one potato buried in the soil and cooked Maori style known as hangi. Who would think that a potato could be such a delight. It was soft and earthy and the accompanying goats curd and fried sage leaves just set it off adding sharpness and creaminess. Jacket potato with sour cream and chives is such great comfort food so take that and just up the ante a million fold and you get this wonderful plate.

Meat from the Pearl Oyster - this was a new one for us but obviously some kind of mollusc / mussel. It was accompanied by roast pig tail, shitake broth, dehydrated onion skin and some sea lettuce. Quite fishy in flavour the pearl oyster had the texture of squid but not quite as chewy. The pig tail was wonderfully deep fried with oozy porky fattiness much like good pork belly. This dish was a spin on the more common scallop and belly pork combo. Not my favourite dish as I felt the fishiness of the pearl oyster combined with the earthiness of the shitake broth was a bit too overpowering for me but again, what a pretty looking plate of food.

Artichoke, Salt Baked Celeriac, Pyengana - the dish came out without sauce and the waiter poured the creamy goodness around the egg yolk making it look like a giant poached egg. The egg had been slow cooked and we smashed into it mixing it with the cheddary sauce and toasted garlic and nuts spooning a mash up of flavours into our mouths. Not a fan of celeriac but this proved me wrong. The crunchy nut and garlic had an Asian feel to it, like what you get on the top of a laksa and reminiscent of the peanuts on a pad thai! The slow cooked egg and cheddar sauce represented comfort food at its best - creamy, rich and so yummy. The celeriac and artichoke for me didn't add to or detract from the dish. The star of this plate was the unmentioned egg combined with silky smooth cheese sauce.

Beef Tongue, Vanilla, Parsnip, Lettuce Stems - we were offered an alternative to the tongue of Wagyu rump in case we were squeamish but we decided to go with the chef's recommendation. The vanilla scented parsnip was silky smooth and just so yummy. There was a little tinge of sweetness that off set the grains of pepper on the ox tongue. The tongue itself at first reminded me of corned beef. Steve likened it to Spam and I can see the similarities! Of course this was much better than Spam. I liked the slightly salty flavour. By my last piece though, I felt the texture had become a bit spongier and a bit more tongue like so was glad that I didn't have to eat any more. I was definitely glad I'd had this over the rump though. Even if the rump was more delicious, I really enjoyed the fact that I was trying new things and getting pleasure out of that.

First dessert was Franz Josef. Named after the glacier it was Italian meringue, fromage frais ice cream, griddled mango, kiwifruit, some berry granita and toasted coconut. There was also a ribbon of green puree running through it which tastes so familiar but we couldn't place it. It was avocado and mint puree. The whole putting something where it shouldn't be baffled us so we couldn't think of what it was.!

Second dessert was Native Fruits of Australia. We were informed that if we picked these berries ourselves we would be committing an illegal act but the restaurant is allowed to buy them from a co operative that have a licence to pick this fruit and sell it on. Six different types of berries that were unlike anything I'd ever had before, bound together by a eucalyptus custard and some granita made from another berry I'd not heard of. The whole not sure what it was going to taste like made this whole dessert feel like a bush tucker trial! I'm not sure I can say I particularly like any one of the fruits but I loved the challenge of trying each one to find out!

Last surprise came out on a nest of grass. Two little eggs. We cracked the open and chocolate and caramel flooded the mouth. Like a very very good Rolo!

Service was flawless through the meal. It was a joy to watch other people eat and experience what we had - that journey of admiring the plate of food, uncertainty of what it was going to be like, to tasting, to surprise. That journey is what Attica does so well. It forces us to be adventurous and whether we decide if we like it or not is by the by as it's all about trying and being surprised.

Some places like Jaques Reymond, our tastebuds rejoice in the familiar done to a superior standard. At Attica our tastebuds and our minds rejoiced in the unfamiliar. Credit and kudos to Ben Shewry for working with the unfamiliar to come up with flavours that complement and contrast.

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The Potsticker

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