Brunches lately

Here's a shot at wrapping up my brunches in Melbourne lately.

We were introduced by the lovely H&H to South Yarra's charming little cafe Two Birds One Stone, which has become a regular brunch go-to of late.. So far the best rueben sandwich I've tasted is here, and pictured above is their house-smoked salmon with corn fritters and Doben's eggs benedict with extra bacon and beans. 

I finally got to try the signature (breakfast) dish Shakshuka of Melbourne institution, Cumulus Inc. Delicious indeed.

As well as their well known freshly baked lemon curd madeleines.

House smoked salmon with corn fritters and banana bread at Friends of Mine in Richmond.

H&H introduced us to another fantastic brunch spot: Top Paddock in Richmond. I tried their ricotta hot cakes that was almost too beautiful to eat. Lucky the taste lived up to its good looks. 

We ate loads of broken rice with grilled pork at Tan Thanh Loi. 

And quite possibly one of the best sandwiches (bánh mì) in the world found in the most unexpected location in Footscray from Nhu Ngoc Bakery.

After back tracking all of my brunch highlights, I realise that H&H introduced us to every place I've noted here, except Cumulus Inc. Thanks H&H for making sure I am well fed! 

To see more of my recent face gorging, see my Foodspotting account here.

I Love Pho 264

I Love Pho 264 (formerly Pho Chu The) has been our regular weekly pho joint for over 5 years now. The owners are the friendliest on Victoria Street, and their pho beats all others I have eaten in Melbourne. The combination of a sweet and tasty broth, slightly chewy noodles and fresh garnishes makes for a bowl of pure happiness. I love to eat my pho with lots of fresh basil, hot bean shoots and a big spoon of chili sate sauce. Pho goodness.

Arriving very hungry, we ordered prawn spring rolls as well. I love to add basil and cold bean shoots to my lettuce and spring roll, then dip the wrap in chili sate sauce! And we can never leave without ordering an iced coffee or 3 colour drink to get us back on our feet.

 I Love Pho 264 is a must-try of Melbourne's great institutions and will ensure you leave deeply satisfied each time.

I Love Pho 264

264 Victoria St

Richmond, VIC 3121

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1640956/restaurant/Melbourne/I-Love-Pho-264-Richmond

Consuming Food Love re-cap

To wrap up the last year of eating and potting along in life, here are just a few of my many delicious encounters.

At home, I cooked many new things, especially during heavy study periods to escape the insanity that assignment work and exam preparation brings.

I was given some home-grown white / yellow peppers from my mum's friend so I had a go at making töltött paprika. 

Fresh peppers

Stuffed peppers

Töltött paprika

I came across "ube" flavour liquid in Braybook which is very hard to find here in Australia. "Ube" is a type of purple yam that is commonly used in ice cream flavouring, cakes and other sweet dishes in The Philippines. 

Ube flavour

When I visit The Phillippines I love to eat everything that is ube flavour, especially the ice cream, so I did a cheat version by just adding the flavour to a plain vanilla ice cream.

My cheat version ube ice cream! (I think I was a little excited!)

And for most Filipinos the obvious answer to an ube ice cream is halo-halo which translates to "mix mix". Halo-halo is a shaved ice dessert which is topped with various toppings, generally including ice cream (ube flavour), coloured nata de coco (coconut gel), leche flan (creme caramel), coloured kaong (palm seed), sweet beans and many other endless options. 

My version of halo-halo with ube ice cream, leche flan, nata, jackfruit and kaong.

Shaved ice desserts are very popular throughout South East Asia with the Malaysian version ais kacang, Indonesia's version es campur and Vietnam's 3 colour dessert / drink.

As for eating out we devoured some of the delicious offerings at Dead Man Espresso..

Dead man espresso - http://www.deadmanespresso.com.au/

Our absolute favourite place for a soul soothing bowl of Pho at I Love Pho 264 in Richmond..

Small beef pho

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1640956/restaurant/Melbourne/I-Love-Pho-264-Richmond

And celebrated another year of life at the flawless Kenzan (inside Sofitel).

Kenzan Sushi and Sashimi Set (medium)

Kenzan Tatsuta Age, Tempura Vegetables and Prawn and Shiitake Tempura.

http://www.kenzan.com.au/

This was the fourth time I have visited Kenzan and every time the food and service is consistently at a very high standard. I am always astounded at the impeccable freshness and preparation of their sashimi and the lightness of their tempura. Will definitely be back for more. 

However, I have vowed to not eat any Japanese food until October, which is when Doben and I are heading off to Tokyo! 

With a decent tax return, a very determined saver, a Jetstar sale (which coincidentally fell on the time that I will complete my degree) and off we are to the land of raw fish, perfection deep frying, sake, magnificent landscapes and all things that make Japan such a mysterious and intriguing north-east corner of Asia. 

I am absolutely beside myself with excitement and really hope that I don't burn all my friend's and colleague's ears off about the every-single-detail of plans in the upcoming months (apologies in advance!).

Taste of Melbourne 2010

Naturally I was excited for Taste of Melbourne 2010 after having a great time last year with my Doben. We went on Friday night and Sunday with two very different experiences. Friday night was very busy and frantic in a night club sort of way, having to push through crowds and wait in long lines to buy food. I forgot to take my camera on Friday night, so the only photos I have of what I ate were the dishes that I ate again on Sunday when I did bring my camera! 

First up on Friday we went to Longrain's busy and loud niche upstairs to try their Yellow curry of wagyu beef with cucumber relish. It was good, but seemed to lack something that we have found in their other curries at Longrain. Next we tried the Seared atlantic scallops, lardo, breadcrumbs, gazpacho dressing, Stokehouse, which I ate again on Sunday.

Seared atlantic scallops, lardo, breadcrumbs, gazpacho dressing - Stokehouse

Next we tried the Cavatelli di messina with prawns, peas, pecorino, lemon oil - Mezzo Bar & Grill which was nice and piping hot. I then tried The Palace Wagyu burger, which was a bit disappointing with a dry pattie and dry bread accompanied by a very sweet red wine chutney. After that, we decided to try a dessert and happened to come across one that knocked all that bitter disappointment of my face! 

The Bombe - strawberry sorbet, white chocolate parfait and toasted meringue - Stokehouse

Yes! I have a photo because I insisted we have this again on Sunday. I went with different group of friends on Friday to Sunday, so on Sunday I watched everyones reaction when they ate it! What a dessert. I have never eaten a bombe alaska due to it being a trendy concoction in the '80s ('90s?), which I was unfortunately too young or non existent to enjoy. I did often see this in some of my mum's cooking books and was always intrigued by the fact it being a ice cream sort of cake. I have had no other bombe to compare it to, but I think that everyone who tried it would agree, Stokehouse did The Bombe every justice it deserved to ignite a comeback. 

We didn't eat very much on Friday due to eating quite slow and saving the proper run for Sunday. I feared similar or worse crowds but thankfully there were fewer crowds and a more relaxed bunch they were. So Sunday: first up was what sold out on Friday,

Organic slow braised pork cheek, white polenta, raisins and marsala sauce - Mezzo Bar & Grill
I loved this. It was nicely braised and tasty but I wished I could have more polenta to go with it! Next up was Maze:

Seared cured Marlborough king salmon, warm sweet corn and potato salad: Maze Restaurant & Maze Grill

The fish was buttery to eat and very moist. The sweet corn and chorizo really worked nicely. Next was one of our absolute favourites of the whole day from The Palace by Luke Mangan,

Eye fillet, potato mash and sauce bordelaise - The Palace by Luke Mangan

I did over look this dish on Friday but this really was spot on. The two times that we ate it, everything was piping hot and melt in your mouth wonderful. 

Tuna carpaccio, goats feta, rocket and ginger eschalot dressing - The Palace by Luke Mangan

This was nice, only I really wished that the tuna was sliced a bit thicker and without goats cheese. The goats cheese was really strong against the subtle fish and overpowered the dish.

Smoked duck, apple ad walnut rillettes - Libertine & Le Traiteur

I really, really enjoyed this. We were offered a matched red for 4crowns, how could one resist? And together with the rillettes was so heavenly. I really loved the apples together with the duck.

Mr Donati's crispy Pork Bellly, peas and wild sorrel coulis, purple potato, fromage frais, garden herbs - Embrasse

Dory cooked in squid, organic beetroots and carrots - Embrasse

Unfortunately I think this dish worked against Embrasse being served as a tasting size. I have seen that this dish is on the menu in house, obviously with a thicker and larger piece of fish. I can see how this would work with a bigger piece as the smaller piece was overpowered by the squid ink.

Hazelnuts and chocolate parfait Forest Floor - Embrasse

We all really enjoyed this along with the cute presentation. Very creative and delicious mushroom with dirt.

Raspberry and rosella flower cannelloni, strawberry and native mint salad - Charcoal Lane

Pistachio 'panna cotta', caramel salted popcorn - Sarti

Overall I had a great time at Taste this year. I had the opportunity to try dishes from restaurants that I would otherwise overlook or reluctant to try. Places I would really like to visit now are Stokehouse and Libertine from their outstanding dishes. As for next year we have all planned to do it all over on the Sunday and I hope I can arrange to make it to Sydney in March to try out what Sydney's Taste has for me to devour! 

Coda

It was a few weeks back now that Doben and I finally payed a visit to Coda to celebrate his birthday. Like always, a first visit to a new place is a mix of excitement and fear.. 

First we had a salmon gravlax with baby vegetables and goats cheese was our absolute favourite dish of the entire meal. The salmon was perfect, vegetables, cheese, the whole thing just worked so incredibly well. I would go back just to eat this but unfortunately it only comes as a starter size. I was so overwhelmed eating this I would go back to eat this but I might have to order 3 serves!

After my amazing salmon salad were crispy rice paper rolls with a very tasty mix of pork and black fungus. I have to say, I have eaten these in Tien An in Footsgray and the skin was very crunchy. Unfortunately these had a chewy texture, which was a bit disappointing when I was anticipating the same crunch we found in Footscray. It was a shame because my Doben and I absolutely adore Vietnamese hot mint with spring rolls. I have tried to make these fried rice paper rolls at home but I couldn't distinguish between the rice paper for the fresh rolls and the fried ones. Mine were most definitely the wrong rice paper and had very similar texture to these. 

Next were spanner crab betel "beetle" leaves. They were fresh and delicate. The flavours of the pomelo, lime and galangal all worked together with the crab very nicely. 

Quail lettuce delight - I loved the sauce used here and the combination of the shitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, lup cheong and quail was literally mouth-watering at each bite. 

Bone marrow spring rolls. Intense.

Lastly was our roasted yellow duck curry with taro chips. We were expecting to get a Thai or Malay inspired curry, but this curry was definitely Indian inspired. The spices were quite strong which I suppose suited the strong flavour of the duck. Maybe a personal preference of curry style, but we found the spices a bit too strong and it overwhelmed our palates a bit more than we wanted. We were quite full and still in 'bone marrow shock' so this may have influenced our palates at this stage.

And so we fled, quite ironically to Longrain for dessert and a drink.

Our flavour packed pork and prawn betel leaves alongside some very strong drinks to end of the night with a bit of kick..

Finally our dessert of taro and coconut pudding with roasted coconut ice cream which was amazing!

Longrain's desserts are insanely good. Really, they have dessert like no where else in Melbourne that I've tried. I have eaten a similar taro pudding to the one served in the Philippines, but in combination with the roasted coconut ice cream and the palm sugar syrup, it becomes something else. Last time we ate a custard apple and coconut trifle with coconut ice cream which just the same left us speechless. Can't wait to go back for more.