Oh my!

It’s giveaway frenzy this week and today’s giveaway is an experience that maybe money can’t buy…because tickets to the IGA World’s Longest Lunch are almost sold out!

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is opening at midday Friday 2 March with its showcase event, a three-course lunch designed by hatted regional chefs George Biron (Sunnybrae), Patrizia Simone (Simone’s) and Annie Smithers (Annie Smithers’ Bistrot) with matched wines from Yering Station.

The 500m long table will be set by the banks of the Yarra under the trees of Alexandra Park  – the perfect location for a long, leisurely lunch.

I attended the longest lunch a few years ago with some friends and it’s a memorable experience (let’s just say that I wore a silly hat, ate and drank under the sunshine and missed my train after falling into a tipsy snooze on the way home). You’re in for a treat!

Giveaway! Thanks to Bank of Melbourne, the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival presenting partner, I have one double pass to the IGA World’s Longest Lunch to give away. To win the tickets, all you have to do is leave a comment and one lucky person will be drawn randomly on Monday 27 February as the winner. Good luck!

PS Visit the Bank of Melbourne website, share your Melbourne food tips and you could also win a year’s worth of dining for two for 12 months, valued at over $10,000.

Brunswick Flour Mill is a casual, pretension-free cafe in the heart of Sydney Road.

As their name suggests they are an artisan bakery as well as dining out venue, with loaves, cakes, pastries and ready-made sandwiches all on offer.

The all day breakfast/lunch sit down menu is not particularly fancy and frankly a bit dated (club sandwich and chicken caesar salad, anyone?) but both B and I liked what we ordered.

First off, French toast with banana and toasted pecans served with crispy bacon, maple syrup and strawberries ($14.90). This wasn’t just French toast, it was a French sandwich! Two thick slabs of eggy bread pressing together a sweet paste of banana and nuts, fried on both sides. How could you go wrong?

I would have preferred my bacon a bit crispier but it’s a small quibble. Overall the breakfast was hearty, hit all the right savoury and sweet notes and good value.

B had the Mediterranean Beef salad with couscous, rocket and roasted capsicum finished with sweet chilli mayo ($14.90). There was nothing particularly ‘Mediterranean’ about the salad except maybe the fact that it contained couscous and while a seemingly odd addition, the sweet chilli mayo worked surprisingly well with the rest of the ingredients. Again, for $14.90 good value for a huge serving.

They serve certified organic rainforest alliance coffee with a monthly single origin cup and house blend available.

The Brunswick Flour Mill isn’t the kind of cafe that will blow you away, but the food we had was simple, delicious and generously sized, while the staff were smiling and friendly. Worth a visit if you’re in the area.

For other Sydney Road cafes, try Tom Phat and Green Refectory.

Brunswick Flour Mill, 337-341 Sydney Rd, Brunswick +61 3 9078 0497

Monday – Sunday 7.30am – 5.00pm

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It’s my not-so-secret mission to taste test every high tea available in metropolitan Melbourne within the time of this blog. I think that’s an entirely doable goal – so far I’ve hit Stranger’s Corridor, The Langham Melbourne, The Westin and now The Sofitel.

Sadly, the weekday high tea at Sofi’s, the lobby lounge of The Sofitel, fell far short of the other places I’ve tried  my partner in crime Gourmet Chick was similarly unimpressed.

In terms of atmosphere it exudes the kind of refinement and elegance you’d expect from a five star hotel, with curved back chairs, cushy sofas, floral arrangements and even a grand piano in the corner.

Sofi’s afternoon tea offering is a classic 3-tiered stand suspending china plates of finger sandwiches, cakes and scones, with a glass of sparkling wine to start and tea or coffee with your treats.

However, for $45 a head the quality of the food left much to be desired.

The bread from the crustless sandwiches was stale, was too heavy buttered and the fillings were uninspired – deli ham, flavourless smoked salmon, slithers of cucumber and a paper-thin smear of egg mayonnaise. The pita bread from the roast beef roll-up had been sitting around for so long it was almost crisp.

The scones were rock hard, though the home-made jam made them more palatable.

The desserts were uniformly forgettable –  a bit of chocolate here, a bit of cream there – except for the hilariously retro carved swan profiterole! I didn’t really like any of the desserts as they lacked the sort of finesse I’d experienced at other high teas I’ve tried.

Even the tea wasn’t that great. The selection was exactly English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Peppermint, Green tea. Boring, boring, boring, boring. The only consolation was that you got to sip it out of very nice tea cups.

On the weekends Sofi’s offers a High Tea buffet for $69 per person which is the weekday offering plus a crepe station, hot and cold savoury morsels and possibly a greater choice of cakes and pastries. However, based on my experience I’d hesitate to paying even more money to try afternoon tea there again.

Sofi’s, The Sofitel Melbourne, 25 Collins St, Melbourne +61 3 9653 0000

Mon-Fri: 9am – 7pm
Sat: 10.30am – 8pm
Sun: 10.30am – 5.30pm
Mon – Fr Afternoon Tea: 2.30pm – 5pm
Sat & Sun High Tea: 2.30pm – 5pm
All day menu available from 11am daily

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If you think Melbourne Museum is a destination only for the pram-pushing set, think again.

For one night only on Thursday 1 March, Melbourne Museum is hosting SmartBar a summer pop-up bar that presents drinks and DJ tunes along with a dose of science and history, taxidermy and a dissection. Dazzle your friends with your wealth of knowledge, browse the Science and Life gallery exhibits after hours without tripping over toddlers or just enjoy a bar experience that’s a little bit different.

A limited number of tickets are available by phone 13 11 02 or online or you can enter this giveaway!

Thanks to Melbourne Museum, I have 2 x double passes to the SmartBar to give away. To win, all you have to do is leave a comment and the winners will be drawn randomly on Monday 27 February. Good luck!

To celebrate summer (or whenever the warm weather decides to end for good) popular container bar Section 8 are hosting a Friday barbecue of footlong hotdogs.

Section 8 is one of my go-to venues for out of town visitors – it’s pretty hidden away in a Chinatown vacant lot, grungy cool in the way Melbourne does best and unusually designed, with seating on stacked wooden pallets, street art all over the brickwork and the bar housed in a graffitied shipping container. It’s the pop up bar that stayed.

During lunch times it seems to be particularly popular with RMIT students and smokers, being completely outdoors. Being neither a student or a smoker I was still lured there by the thought of an enormous sausage in a bun. Never mind that I was pushing a pram and feeding baby food to my hipster-to-be.

The barbecue is a simple grill affair cunningly designed from old supermarket trolleys and the sausages are freshly cooked to order.

For $7 you get a (fancy pants) spicy pork sausage from 40 year old Continental butchers R & G Russo on Lygon Street nestled in half a baguette from Brumbys (not so fancy pants). They recommend getting two sides to go with it ($1 each) with choices ranging from gherkins, pickles, Asian salsa and caramelised onions.

When they say footlong they really mean as long as your arm! Here’s a photo with a size comparison. It’s a messy, juicy affair but oh so good for filling the lunchtime gap. I recommend the very spicy Asian salsa with caramelised onions to temper the heat.

Friday BBQ, Section 8, 27-29 Tattersalls Lane, Melbourne +61 430 291 588

12-3pm every Friday until summer ends

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Hako is a refined yet relaxed Japanese restaurant located in the office precinct of Flinders Lane. In the narrow half-block between Elizabeth and Queen Streets there are a lot of lunch options and my stomach firmly supports a trip to Hako.

The interior design is Zen spare – nothing adorns the expanse of off-white walls and lighting is provided by naked bulbs suspended from the uncovered ceiling. Large groups get prime position in the elevated polished floorboard dining area – a semi-separate space looking right onto Flinders Lane.

Hako‘s lunch menu covers small plates, bento boxes, lunch sets, main courses served with rice or noodles and a small selection of sushi and sashimi. There’s no fusion or confusion – just simple, healthy, traditional Japanese fare.

For my lunch I wanted something substantial but not heavy, so decided on the soba chirashi sushi set ($23.50). Quick-as-a-flash a lacquered tray came bearing a large ceramic bowl of steaming buckwheat noodle soup and a delicate arrangement of sashimi and sweet ginger on vinegared rice.

It was a perfect combination for my appetite – the raw fish was sweet and fresh while the just-blanched noodles begged to be slurped in Japanese-style appreciation and certainly not a drop of the broth remained at the end.

The prices at Hako are a little higher than some of the quick-and-easy Japanese lunch spots around town so for me it’s more of a place for a ‘treat’ lunch than somewhere to visit every day. The dinner menu mainly focuses on small plates to share so it could still add up to be quite an expensive meal if you have a large appetite.

For other Japanese lunch options in the CBD in high-end surroundings, try Taxi,  Yu-uor Shoya.

Hako, 310 Flinders Ln, Melbourne +61 3 9621 1881

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Does Fitzroy/Collingwood has the greatest density of bike shops per square kilometre in Melbourne?

Being a cycling fan and a local I had thought I was familiar with all the bike shops in the area – but just recently I stumbled across Mottainai Cycles. As in literally stumbled – I tripped over their board sign on Brunswick Street while checking out a cool bike zooming past.

Cameron Trethowan has been operating Mottainai Cycles for around 6 months now and he doesn’t even know how many bikes he’s got in stock these days.

On weekdays you enter the garage area via a graffitied laneway off Kerr St, while on Sundays he opens the back of his open-air workshop for the Rose Street Artists Markets (Saturday is his day off). Not only does he sell restored bikes, he sells parts, does repairs and hires out bikes as well.

Bikes range from $350 upwards, with this pastel Pashley beauty catching my eye for $800. I’m not supposed to be buying any more bikes but…

Mottainai Cycles, 41 Kerr St, Fitzroy +61 448884051

CERES Community Environmental Park is arguably Melbourne’s hippie hub. CERES stands for Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies and it’s a not-for-profit, sustainable urban farm located on the banks of Merri Creek in East Brunswick.

But whether you wear hemp fisherman’s pants or carry a designer label handbag, I think everyone would enjoy a trip to CERES. There’s an organic cafe, shop, nursery, community garden, adventure playground, bike shed, conference venue, function restaurant and organic markets every Wednesday and Saturday.

The CERES Organic Cafe is a great pit-stop for your visit to CERES. A big wooden hut houses the kitchen, which cooks mainly organic food with many of the ingredients coming straight of CERES‘ organic market garden. Seating is scattered around the cafe’s wrap-around verandah, under the plastic marquee or by the shade of tea trees within sight of the kids’ sandpit. Though it’s all pretty relaxed so if you decided you wanted to louche around on a picnic blanket with your kids and pets I think that’d be ok too.

To start – iced dandelion tea ($5). I wasn’t expecting it to come with ice cream but the sweet vanilla scoop was needed to temper some of the bitterness of the tea.

The breakfast menu is very eggs-heavy (there are chooks living on site) with the most interesting version being the Indonesian eggs ($15.60). What came out was a large wholesale selection of brown rice, Asian herbs, crisp salad greens, a sweet soy sauce and a sprinkle of peanuts, all finished with two fried eggs sunny side up.

Poke your knife through the cheerful yellow yolk, cut up the whites into bite sized pieces and then toss the whole lot together with the dollop of sambal for a breakfast that’s hearty, filling and a spice sensation. Having chilli for breakfast is not for everyone but if your stomach can deal with it, I highly recommend this dish.

While I was very full, I was intrigued by the fact that the muffins were $5. I haven’t seen muffins break the $5 barrier in Melbourne before and wondered whether there was a reason they were unusually expensive. A taste test of the milk chocolate and hazelnut muffin revealed that we would have been better off saving our $5 and the calories. Amongst four people the verdict was unanimous – the muffin was too solid and dense for our liking – maybe all that almond meal inside it was what made it such an expensive item relative to everything else on the menu?

Apparently their gluten free orange and almond cake is considered one of the best in town so I’ll be trying that next time instead.

The kitchen is open until 3pm and the lunch menu looks as healthful and appetising as the breakfast options. I will definitely be returning to CERES and the CERES Organic Cafe – it’s a great day out for urbanites wanting to get in touch with their inner hippie.

For other locations where you can experience the country in the city, try the Farm Cafe at Collingwood Children’s Farm.

CERES Organic Cafe, CERES Community Environment Park, Cnr Roberts and Stewart Streets, Brunswick East +61 3 9389 0100

Monday to Friday 8.30am – 4pm
Saturday 8.30am – 5pm
Sunday 9am – 5pm

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As a regular reader of this blog you’ll know that (a) I love movies and (b) I love food.

So when one of my local favourites The Commoner invited me to the launch night of their first movie-inspired multi-course menu I could hardly say no. And the theme was chooks! Roast chooks! In the form of Poultrygeist (duh duh duuuuh).

Movie-themed meals may sound like something put on by a theatre restaurant frequented by screeching hens nights but The Commoner is much classier (and tastier) than that. Every second month this year they’ll be offering a special dinner or cocktail food menu – starting with Poultrygeist for February then Claws, Whisky Business, Back to the Butcher, Belicatessen and Planet of the Canapes. They will be available along with  The Commoner‘s standard menu.

So, back to our ghostly feathered friends….

First course were canapes of Ossau Iraty (a French cheese), a sliver of crispy chicken skin and onion jam. Never mind crostini,  just pile everything atop that fried chicken skin! The bites were paired with a cider from Bress, a small winery in Harcourt (apple country) which my friend M enjoyed the most out of all of the matched drinks. So much so she had 2 glasses of the Bon Bon Cider and then snuck in most of my glass as well!

If you feel that five courses of poulty is too much for your stomach, don’t worry it’s not just all hunks of meat on a plate. Second course was a perfectly seared scallop unfortunately overpowered by a rather salty ‘barnyard’ stock jelly, fresh peas and carrot crisp matched with a Mon Redon Cotes du Rhone Blanc.

My favourite course was the third course – Scotch egg with piccalilly [sic], pheasant terrine, spiced duck neck sausage and mustard fruits. The plate was artfully presented and I loved the repetition and alternation of savoury and sweet, savoury and sweet in each mouthful. Despite the presence of not just one but three different meats in a single dish it didn’t leave my stomach feeling hard and heavy, with just enough kick in the fruits and piccalilli to lift the savoury meatiness from the palate. The plate of small bites was accompanied by the  Bress La Gallina white blend viognier, chardonnay and sauvignon.

The main course was a brined and wood grilled quail, pickled butternut, quinoa and date puree.  The Commoner has a wood-burner in their courtyard so their roast meats are not to be missed – and this quail diving head(less) first into the pool of full-bodied gravy was no exception. Expect to roll your sleeves up and dig in with your fingers as the quail’s small proportions and rotund back-end makes slippery work of any attempt to carve it daintily.

Both M and I agreed that the quinoa and date puree were excellent accompaniments to the quail but neither of us much cared for the crunchy and sour pickled butternut. Call me traditional but a simple pumpkin mash would have been perfect.

The main course was paired with the  Bress La Gallina red blend of tempranillo, garnacha and syrah.

To finish, a very rich duck egg brulee with a side pot of tart summer rhubarb and two small rounds of shortbread dusted with sumac. Small but just right and matched with a glass of Pennyweight Gold.

If you want to enjoy the same poultry experience get along to  The Commoner  this month and make sure you book. The movie-themed menus are $60 for cocktail food, $80 for 5 courses, $120 with matching wines. Gather your friends or go for a romantic tete-a-tete on Valentines Day.

The Commoner, 122 Johnston St, Fitzroy +61 3 9415 6876

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What I love about Melbourne is that you can be going about your everyday mundaneness then bam! There’s a brand new cafe/restaurant right on your doorstep.

So it was I was trekking to the bank, chemist and Officeworks when I took a double-take. What used to be the Recreation Hotel has been transformed into Marmalade and Soul, a new project by Raymond Capaldi from Hare & Grace.

The corner building has been scrubbed of its pub roots and a homely country-kitchen style cafe/restaurant installed in its place. Marmalade and Soul will be all-day affair, with a British-leaning breakfast menu, lunch at 12pm then dinner starting soon on Thu, Fri and Sat nights.

It’s not really the done thing to review a premises on its very first day (with the lunch menu literally coming straight off the printer into my hands) so you can take any comments I make with that knowledge in mind.

I never visited the Recreation Hotel but the new fitout is artistic and cute and makes the most of showing off the fresh produce used in the kitchen. Huge wire baskets hold Christmas baubles of red capsicums, lemons and oranges and a bushy bunch of rosemary becomes a fragrant centrepiece.

Wooden spoons are turned into chandeliers (twee but it works) and the sweets display is gorgeous – rosewater and passionfruit marshmallow, fist-sized meringues and jagged bricks of honeycomb jostle for space amongst the cookies and muffins.

The waitstaff were still finding their spots but still the service impeccably friendly – not just serving me the usual glass of water when seated but asking whether I wanted some papers to read when they could see that I had my hands full. Much appreciated.

The lunch menu is curious and not the kind of home-style comfort cooking I was expecting from the restaurant’s name. Besides a selection of ready made sandwiches there are ‘Composites’ and ‘Principals’ –  presumably a split of entree/shared plates and mains. Japanese French, Italian cuisines all take a turn in an interesting and complex-sounding range of dishes – as far away from chicken parma as you can get.

I chose the pave of confit salmon with brown rice, spring onion and green tea broth ($24). The dish was beautifully presented, the salmon sweetly tender and the flavours fresh – but it wasn’t particularly thrilling, just very clean and healthful (great if you’re on a diet, which I’m not). And calling a rectangular piece of seared salmon a ‘pave‘ is a bit of unnecessary pomposity frankly.

So why does Marmalade and Soul still get a HOT? Because my curiosity has been piqued by the avant-garde menu. There are six composites and eight principals, with at least a handful of ingredients and terms I’m not familiar with. From my brief glance at their breakfast menu there are a couple of standout dishes amongst the eggs and muesli including my new favourite breakfast dish, kedgeree. The space is gorgeous and people are friendly and it’s so shiny new it’s not so busy…yet.

 Marmalade and Soul, 162 Queens Pde, North Fitzroy

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I think this Sunday Age article is kind of true – in the north there’s yoga for everybody (including dogs), hippies, fixies and all the girls look like they stepped out of frankie magazine. Which is why the shop Spelt Quinoa is perfect for the neighbourhood.

This little shop of healthy goodness opened about a year ago and it stocks bulk health food in the vein of Friends of the Earth and Organic Wholefoods. Inside you’ll find all the nuts, fruit, flour, pulses, grains and seeds you’ve ever dreamed of – including of course spelt and quinoa. You can buy the most popular products in grab-and-go paper parcels or buy only exactly how much you need, which ensures that your stocks are fresh in your pantry all the time.

Spelt Quinoa also stock gluten free bread every Wednesday and Mr Nice Guy vegan cupcakes are returning to the store soon.

If you’re confused by what’s what the owner Gemma is very helpful – we had a discussion about the relative merits of steel cut oats and rolled oats (steel cut oats for cooked porridge, rolled oats for bircher muesli), how to use amaranth and the popularity of her three muesli mixes. Apparently the good people of Fitzroy are obsessed with breakfast cereal! Who knew?

I came away with some pantry staples and will be back to have a further explore of the ‘secret back room’…

Spelt Quinoa, 40 Johnston St, Fitzroy +61 3 9939 9330

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Finally the Arts Precinct has a decent place to eat, in the form of My Mexican Cousin.

The all-day restaurant is part of the Melbourne Recital Centre and is a joint project between Savatore Malatesta (St Ali, Plantation)  and Jerome Borazio (The Resurrection, Ponyfish Island). It’s named after St Ali‘s most famous breakfast dish ‘My Mexican Cousin’, so don’t be confused into thinking that there’ll be Mexican food involved in the neo-Creole menu.

I was attending the MusicPlay concerts at the Melbourne Recital Centre for a couple of days in a row so took the opportunity to try most of the typewritten one page lunch menu with Gourmet Chick. It is mostly shared food and comes in different portion sizes, so pre-show you can go easy on the servings and post-show you can satisfy your growling stomach.

I found the food to be a bit hit-and-miss. I can’t vouch for the menu’s authenticity as I’ve never eaten much Creole, so I’m going purely by flavour and texture.  Sometimes things that sounded great on paper didn’t emerge from the kitchen as expected and sometimes blandly described dishes were interesting, original and delicious.

Case in point – Praline bacon ($6) sounded good in theory but not so good in practice. It was like really over-dried beef jerky and we left most of the plate untouched.

The scallop ceviche ($5.50) was not the expected slices of scallop but whole medallions partially pickled. Not sure how it’s possible to ‘cook’ a thick scallop in lime juice, so consider it more of a scallop sashimi with some spicy gazpacho dressing. Worth a repeat visit.

The dirty rice was a Creole-style fried rice ($12), a tasty but oily mixture of rice, ground pork and Creole seasoning which with a bit of research apparently consists of cayenne, paprika, oregano, onion, garlic and thyme.

Make sure you don’t miss the po’boy, a classic New Orleans sandwich. It comes in two sizes ($7 and $14) and half is enough if you want to try other things. It’s a small sub spread with mayonnaise and a seafood stock reduction and piled with juicy fried king prawns and lettuce leaves. A quick and filling meal if the curtain is being raised soon and not something that’s going to make you burp during interval.

For dessert the beignets looked like appetising balls of fried dough but on taking a bite Gourmet Chick suspected that they had been reheated rather than freshly fried. She used to work at a servo cooking doughnuts so she should know! They lacked the tongue-searing just-fried sizzle and the crunchy exterior of a fresh doughnut. I personally didn’t care much for the accompanying sauces either.

On a second visit I had the gumbo and crab egg roll. Again, one hit, one miss. Like the scallop ceviche, the crab egg roll ($12) was a delicate dish, beautifully presented on a narrow platter, served cold, and contained big shreds of crab meat mixed with aioli, Creole seasoning and wrapped in an omelette. Really delicious, especially in hot weather.

On the other hand, the gumbo had the slightly gluey mouthfeel of a lot of cornflour or potato thickener in its base. A cheap stomach-filler nevertheless, as a half serve of gumbo ($7) is all you need for one person.

My coffee-drinking friend who lives nearby assures me the coffee is excellent (as you’d expect from the St Ali stable) and the staff are super-friendly.

My advice for dining at My Mexican Cousin is to select from  the menu carefully (if you are inclined, read the menu’s Creole-pedia for an explanation of the abbreviated codes next to the dishes). If you end up with more misses than hits at least the prices will be reasonable and there’s really no better option for pre or post-theatre dining close by.

My Mexican Cousin, Corner Sturt St and Southbank Boulevard, Southbank +61 3 9686 3389
Mon 7am – 4pm
Tues – Fri 7 till late
Weekends 8am till late

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Carolina is a new cafe in East Brunswick where pram-pushing mums, bike riders and hip young things collide (or sometimes, in my case, I like to think I’m all three).

What was a former Italian shoe store called ‘Invicta’ has been transformed into a casual cafe with all the right elements to appeal to their three-prong target demographic. The owners have kept the shop’s original gold decal on the window so look out for the tiny curbside blackboard pointing you in the right direction.

For the hipsters – a small room with a smattering of tables, a high-walled bar and cosy wooden booths lining up one side. There are cute knick-knacks dotted around, including antique shoe moulds harking back to the premises’ original purpose.

For the parents – walk down the corridor and find yourself in a gorgeous courtyard with a backdrop of reclaimed wood. The spacious setting includes garden beds filled with herbs and vegetables, tangles of trellised vines and overhead, swatches of hessian that pull along wires to create shade where needed. In one corner, a clean little sandpit with toys!

For the cyclists – turn off the Capital City Trail near the bike shop Velo Cycles, take a left down the cobblestone laneway and enter the cafe through the gate for the back entrance. Plenty of space to park your bike or even wheel it in if you’re particularly precious about it.

Now, to the menu. The coffee comes from Seven Seeds and breakfast staples like eggs, muesli and French toast all make an appearance, but with a twist. I tried a half-serve of housemade fruit brioche toasted with poached peaches, a squiggle of orange blossom spiced syrup, a large dollop of marscapone and fresh mint ($6.50 for half, $13 for whole). The bread was quite dense, all the better to soak up the syrup which I would have liked more of. The mint was a welcome addition to a reasonably rich dish.

From the lunch menu, which starts at 11am, I chose the Tunisian-style brik pastry rolls filled with mozzarella, basil and pinenuts ($14). This was served with some summery ratatouille, the slight sharpness an effective foil for the cheesy, nutty, finger-licking oily pastries. I hope that in future they might let you choose one of their wholefood salads as an accompaniment – I particularly liked the sound of organic quinoa, roast pumpkin, apple, snowpeas and tamari pepitas ($9).

There is lots to like about Carolina – both the breakfast and lunch menus are wholesome and inventive, the service is friendly and the setting is wonderful. I’ll be back, pushing a pram or riding my bike.

For other kid-friendly cafes near the Capital City bike trail, try Farm Cafe, Small Block and Squirrel Cafe.

Carolina, 11 Nicholson St, East Brunswick
Tue-Fri 7.30am-11pm
Sat-Sun 8.30am-11pm

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Do you have a brother?

Does he make you coffee? Cook you eggs? Bake you muffins?

If he’s an annoying brother, then he might just do so.

Annoying Brother Espresso + Kitchen is a small new cafe that’s opened on the southern end of Nicholson St village on the corner of Bik Lane. I have no idea about the origins of the name but it’s catchy and I like the on-theme blackboard cartoon that comprises part of the cafe’s decor.

During my weekday visit it was popular with nearby office workers and most curiously, Irish construction workers in fluorescent orange vests! Guess there must be a site nearby and who’s to say that they don’t deserve better than builders tea?

As the name suggests, the cafe specialises in coffee – they roast and grind their own beans and there’s a rotating menu of blends to try. I have it on good authority from Miss Kish that the coffee is excellent! The food menu is a short affair of about a dozen breakfast items made from locally sourced ingredients – eggs, pancakes, muesli – and a handful of ‘lunchie’ things – a steak sandwich, fritters.

I love dukkah eggs when I see them on a menu and this version was two jolly poached eggs sitting atop a tomato and red capsicum chunky salsa, fresh spinach greens and sprinkled with spice mix ($14.50). I don’t usually comment too much about toast  (it’s just a base for toppings a lot of the time) but this bread was remarkable for its inability to yield to a steak knife. Absolutely rock hard and inedible.

I requested a side of buttered thyme mushrooms ($3.50) which was the opposite of the bread – soft, juicy, buttery and moreish. Next time I might go the Tetris instead –  a build-your-own breakfast of eggs done how you like with a choice of sides including the magnificent mushrooms.

For sweet things I had three house made options – banana bread, muffin and cookie. After asking the owner what he recommended I went with his favourite – the raspberry and white chocolate muffin.

As he took my plate away he asked me how he liked my breakfast and I was honest – I said the eggs were great but the bread was really hard and dry. He apologised, explaining that the sourdough was fresh yesterday but had hardened overnight, and then to my surprise when he brought out the muffin on the wooden platter he said that it was on the house. A small gesture but that’s the way to treat your customers – surprise and delight.

The muffin was a just-baked soft and fluffy ending, filled with gooey chocolate and oozing raspberries (and served with a pat of butter. Really? People put butter on top on their buttery, sugary, muffin?). On par with the muffins from Proud Mary, which I consider in my muffin-eating experience to be the best in Melbourne. Muffins that are definitely worth a return visit, gratis or not.

For other great cafes in North Fitzroy, try Mitte and Mixed Business.

Annoying Brother Espresso, 660 Nicholson St, North Fitzroy +61 3 9482 9494
Mon-Fri 7am – 4pm
Sat-Sun 8:30am – 4pm

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New cafes seem to spring up every week in Fitzroy so when a cafe manages to outlast the competition for over a decade you know it must be good.

So it goes with Alimentari.  I remember when it used to be just a crushed little front room but the back room now opens up for a large communal table in the centre and 4 person tables with provided high chairs. All the more space for all the loyal patrons who go all the time for their great sandwiches, fresh salads, take away deli items and hearty breakfasts.

They are also one of the few cafes in the area open on a Monday which means that on our lunch visit it was particularly packed.

The lunch menu has lots of bready options including sandwiches, wraps and piadinas as well as nibbles from the glass cabinet and daily changing salads. Being a hot day I went straight for the smoked salmon salad with asparagus, dill, capers and poached egg ($15) while J ordered the silverbeet dolmades ($8) with a plate of the day’s salad of rocket, nectarines, walnuts and feta ($7).

I don’t normally get too excited by salad but these two combinations are worth a few handclaps. Crunchy fresh greens, a twist of classic flavours as a topping and just a smattering of dressing so no drowned leaves are left wilting on your plate. I would have preferred my egg a little less cooked but that’s a very minor quibble.

Tempted by the hot sandwich of the day we also shared a roll with roast pork with apple sauce and slaw ($10.50). The bread was very much like the Vietnamese rolls used for banh mi – super thin crunchiness on the outside, white softness on the inside – and really you can’t go wrong with a sandwich that contains crackling. A crack(l)ing meal indeed!

If you want to continue the Alimentari goodness past the early dinner hour, the hard-working owners of Alimentari have also opened an excellent night-time venue Gorski & Jones in nearby Collingwood.

Alimentari, 251 Brunswick St, Fitzroy +61 3 9416 2001

8am – 8pm 7 days a week

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In the documentary and cross-cultural love story ‘Banana in a Nutshell’ there’s a funny moment where the Chinese girl and her Anglo boyfriend argue whether cereal is a breakfast food or ‘anytime’ food. It mirrors the kind of conversations that I’ve had with RM before – to me cereal is only for breakfast, whereas he thinks it’s weird to eat noodles in the morning.

This is just a roundabout introduction to say that I LOVE NOODLES and consider myself a bit of a noodle freak. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, I could eat them all day (and for 3 weeks in Vietnam, I did). So when I heard Kokoro Ramen had opened I rushed there, post-haste, to broaden my noodle horizons.

Kokoro Ramen is a roomy ramen joint where the noodles are made fresh on site. The colourful menu is fairly overwhelming with all the possible options (you can even create your own toppings with your choice of broth) so I went straight for the menu recommendation – deep-fried soft shelled crab with the Tokyo chicken and seafood stock base ($14.90).

The bowl that arrived was generous with the noodles and less generous with the toppings – but I guess for under $15 you can’t be expecting too much seafood. At least the crab was juicy yet crunchy, spurting out soup stock at every bite.

But when it came to the noodles and the broth, disappointment set in.

I love noodles that are bouncy and toothsome, with a slight chew and glutinous resistance. These noodles were deadened. One chomp and a nothingness of noodle dough lying in your mouth.

I also found the broth very bland – spoon after spoon I sniffed and slurped, trying to discern some skerrick of chicken or seafood flavours. All I got was a semi-salty murkiness. There was no fragrance, no clarity. And I didn’t have a blocked nose…

On my visit Kokoro Ramen was busy with blue-shirted male office workers in a scene reminiscent of neat Japanese salarymen bedding down for their lunch at their local. And the ramen at Kokoro Ramen is certainly filling and reasonably priced and makes a change from a ham and cheese sandwich, so if you work in the area I can see the attraction.

However, I’m voting with my feet and walking that extra couple of blocks to Ramen Ya.

Kokoro Ramen, 157-159 Lonsdale St, Melbourne +61 3 9650 1215

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Another day, another George Calombaris restaurant opens. That man (along with Andrew McConnell and Chris Lucas) is taking over this town!

But that’s ok, when he’s able to bring consistently excellent food and service to the four corners of Melbourne. He’s got it all covered – north, south, east, central…the only place missing is west (and I’m sure it’s coming soon).

His southside and newest venture is Mama Baba, an Italian/Greek eatery celebrating the heritage of his parents – his Greek mother (Mama) and his half-Italian father (Baba). The focus is all about food, family and that infamous $45,000 pasta extruder so sorry gluten-intolerant diners, I don’t think there’s much here for you.

Happily gluten tolerant, Gourmet Chick, her partner in crime MTV boyfriend, RM and I enjoyed Sunday lunch there a few days after opening. Surprisingly, it was half-empty given Calombaris’ reputation (but I guess it’s early days) and given its hidden away location in a cul-de-sac in South Yarra I don’t think they’d be getting any passing foot traffic. Maybe some referrals from their neighbour The Olsen Art Series Hotel will help.

Despite the semi-empty warehouse feel to the premises we didn’t feel like we had to be hush-hush during lunch. The long length of open kitchen keeps the vibe noisy and bustling. It’s interesting theatre watching the chefs roll out bread dough, roast baby tomatoes and chop onions.

To start we shared some arancani ($7.5) of bolognese and mashed potato, grilled scallops with garlic skordalia and crumbs ($3.50 each) and the parma ($7.50), with varying success.

The parma was the surprising standout, given I’m not a fan of parmas generally. This was more of a American-style slider with an Italiano twist- a small sweet glazed bun filled with jamon, crumbed chicken fillet, some cheese and tomato ketchup and speared with some cutesy Greek and Italian flags.

The grilled scallops were plump and fresh though the delicate marine sweetness was a little masked by the heavy crumbing, while the arancini were not very appetising, though exactly as described – crumbled spag bol mince rolled up with mash potato and fried.

The main pasta menu is split into two section – Greek and Italian. We tried two dishes from each country, again with varying success.

A highlight was the fat tortellini filled with prawn, saganaki cheese and dressed with tomato and feta ($23). It was the perfect light, summery dish for the hot weather outside with a good balance of subtle flavours. My spaghetti carbonara ($27) was a fancy pants version of the peasant staple – slippery spaghetti with calamari, crispy pork bits, maple bacon, a sprinkling of pumpkin parmesan, with a saffron brodo poured over the poached egg wobbling on top, ready for the toss to create the carbonara sauce. It was fun and filling and will be great as a hearty winter meal.

I was less enamoured of the gnudi ($24). The golf-ball sized ricotta dumplings were served with a sauce of burnt butter, honey, walnuts, crispy sage and capers, making for an extremely rich and heavy-in-the-stomach meal. It’s a dish that is better shared – after that fifth dumpling you just want to crawl under the table and sleep.

I also didn’t particularly like the ravioles ($23) as I felt that the weak flavours of the celery and lemon didn’t match well with the heartiness of the shredded meat inside the parcels. Perhaps that combination is authentic Greek? Don’t accidentally order this if in fact you’re wanting ravioli with beef and bone marrow, beetroot, wasabi!

Dessert was a throw-back to hot school afternoon treats. Waffle ice cream cones ($8) were topped with milk and milo ice cream, vanilla splice and crunchy peanut butter and salt, with the latter being my favourite flavour – nutty and not too sweet.

From the dessert trolley we also tried a deconstructed version of the rum baba – the ‘Mum-baba’ and a very rich Ferrero Rocher ($10.50) (sorry, photos gone AWOL). While both were sophisticated takes on classic dessert combinations, I think I would have preferred two simple scoops of that crunchy peanut butter ice-cream instead.

I thought that the food at Mama Baba was generally good and the ambience, decor and service excellent – but out of all of Calombaris’ restaurants that I’ve tried, I feel that Mama Baba is the least strong of them all. Maybe it’s just too early to tell and it has a lot of buzz to live up to, so it’s worth giving the restaurant a chance.

Mama Baba, 21 Daly St, South Yarra +61 3 9207 7421
Monday – Thursday and Saturday 5:00pm – late
Friday and Sunday 12pm – late

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So George Calombaris may not know about the calculation of penalty rates for his waitstaff, but he does know how to run a good quality restaurant. PM24, Hellenic Republic, The Press Club and now St Katherine’s all get my whole-hearted recommendation.

St Katherine’s showcases mid-priced, relaxed, high quality region-influenced food and I think this Greek/Turkish/Middle Eastern hybrid is Melbourne-style dining at its best.

Although you can’t really tell the ethnic influences from fairly plain the street front, the large downstairs dining area is light and bright, with subtle Ottomon accents in the patterned stencilled window panes, the painted tableware and the use of empty food cans emblazoned in foreign languages to house each table’s cutlery and napkins.

On Monday to Fridays, St Katherine’s offers what is possibly one of Melbourne’s best value lunch deals – a 2 course ‘Xpress’ lunch shared between the table for $19.50 a head.

What is on the lunch menu changes regularly but it will involve dishes roasted on the Turkish grill, rotisserie and baked in the wood-fired oven.

First course is the St Katherine’s “bento style” lunch meze, a theatrical stage laying out flat ramekins of various meze – on our visit salty marinated feta, house made hommus with chunks of roasted almonds dotted on top (I’m stealing that idea for my next dinner party) and baby carrots mixed with yoghurt, cardamom, caraway and honey. The dips were delicious smeared on bread though I was less enamoured of the carrots, mainly because the dressing reminded me the smell of ladies handcream.

The platform also contained the pide of the day – ours was spiced lamb mixed with tomato, garlic, parsley and freshened with a squeeze of lemon juice – and on stage left, slices of warm fennel seed bread presented inside a lucky-dip style St Katherine’s paper bag.

Already quite full we were pleasantly surprised by the generous servings of the second courses –  platters of slow roasted free range chicken, the juicy shreds of meat tossed amongst herbs and salad leaves, seared salmon fillets grilled over coal with a simple marinade of fennel seeds and lemon and a sweet rice pilaf of dill, apricot, carrot and toasted pumpkin seeds. The salmon was the most memorable – perfectly seared, a zesty crust and so well matched with the nuttiness of the pilaf.

After two courses you will definitely be full but we couldn’t resist the temptation of dessert – a peanut butter parfait with chocolate sorbet, baklava crumbs and orange blossom foam ($14.90). The dessert takes a sophisticated approach to what are essentially childhood dessert flavours of chocolate and peanut butter and it works. To my surprise, the sweetness of the foam enhanced rather than overwhelmed the other sweet flavours – that hint of fragrant citrus lifted what would otherwise have been very rich chocolate and nut mouthfuls.

The service was impeccable throughout the lunch – the waitstaff were smiling and friendly, were happy to keep picking up dropped toys and seemed well-used to dealing with ladies who lunch to families with kids. They all seemed to really love the fun of the place!

Based in Kew, St Katherine’s may be what you’d consider a local suburban restaurant but my interstate guests and I were all impressed with the the wholesome, appetising food splashed with some fun elements, the high quality of the service and the attention to detail in the decor. Less than $25 a head for a filling and delicious lunch. Kew residents are very lucky!

St Katherine’s, 26 Cotham Rd, Kew +61 3 9207 7477
Mon – Fri: 12pm – 4pm, 5.30pm – 11pm
Weekends 11.30am till late

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Ah summer!

There are certain events that happen every year which really mark the season in Melbourne. Cricket. Tennis. The Suzuki Night Market. Free music in the parks. And one of my favourites, outdoor cinema.

Every year I try to get to at least one summer movie screening under the stars – it’s still a novelty outing for me. Despite growing up in balmy Brisbane, outdoor cinema never really took off while I was living there. I think people were just used to hiding from the humidity inside air-conditioned multiplexes and the thought of sitting on a rug battling bugs to watch an old film didn’t really appeal.

Melburnians are a much hardier lot! Despite the freezing, blustery weather that greeted us for our screening of The Blues Brothers at Rooftop Cinema, it was a sold out session. We wore long pants, jackets, brought a rug and still needed to hire another rug ($5 and totally worth it if you don’t dress up in ski gear, like one movie-goer we spotted).

Despite Melbourne’s unpredictable and at times inclement weather, Rooftop Cinema is a magical experience. Have a pre-movie drink at the Rooftop bar or enjoy burgers, fries and ice-cream from All-Day Burger (courtesy of the folks behind Beatbox Kitchen).

Listen to the sounds of the city’s nightlife rise up amongst the rooftops. Watch the lights of the city glow glamorrously against the fading light.

Then sit back in a deck chair, curl up under your blanket(s) and sing along to ‘Rawhide’ in the ‘mission from God’.

I heart you Melbourne. Thank you for bringing us Rooftop Cinema.

Rooftop Cinema, 6/252 Swanston St, Melbourne

A couple of years ago RM and I had a week’s holiday in Shanghai. We ate ourselves silly in all manner of restaurants, with a particularly memorable dumpling gorge at Crystal Jade which is still my gold standard for dumplings worldwide (well, limited to the dumpling places that I’ve tried around the world).

Shanghai Street Dumpling brings a little bit of Shanghai culture to Melbourne. It’s a tightly spaced, no-frills restaurant that specialises in Shanghai style dumplings, mini buns and a plethora of noodle and rice dishes with most dishes under $10. There are queues outside all the time but tables turn quickly.

For a quick and cheap pre-movie meal RM and I shared some of their must-try dishes – the xiao long bao ($8.80), the shen jian bao ($7.80) and boiled dumplings.

The bamboo steamer of xiao long bao contained eight squat little parcels bulging with piping hot soup and a pork filling inside. The skins were variable in thickness – some very delicate, some a little less so. Evidently they don’t use the Din Tai Fung method of weighing each ball of dough to the exact gram before rolling it out, but that’s not to say that the thicker-skinned dumplings were bad. Just noticeably heavier in the chewing.

As for the filling – oh my! Subtle flavoured pork broth swimming with a gently moulded pork mince inside.

The plate of pot-sticker mini buns came out next, with the bases browned and a nice even dough wrapping a juicy meatball. Eat them with the table-top chilli sauce for an added dimension.

Finally, despite the unglamorous name of ‘boiled dumplings’ I actually loved the chicken filling of these dumpling more than I expected. Very sweet, very juicy and perfect slathered in that chilli sauce again.

If you like dumplings, get yourself in the queue for Shanghai Street Dumpling as soon as you can. You won’t be disappointed! After several disappointing outings to old favourite Hutong Dumpling lately, I’m switching allegiances.

Shanghai Street Dumpling, 342 Little Bourke St, Melbourne +61 3 9600 2250

Mon-Sat, 11.30am-8.30pm

I’ve been eye off the maroon meat slicer in the window of Gorski & Jones since it opened about 2 months ago. It’s a big, shiny, impressive beast atop a long white marble bar and it announces the restaurant’s Italianate roots with no need for dinky red gingham tablecloths and an accordian player.

Gorski & Jones is a handsome establishment serving rustic, affordable comfort food from the folks behind Alimentari (By the way, what is with restauranteurs in the inner north expanding to another restaurant in the same suburb? That’s three reviews in a row now where that’s happened. Next thing you know Andrew McConnell will be opening another resto in Fitzroy…..Wait! The Builders Arms has been bought by McConnell and will reopen in its revamped glory in April 2012.)

The space has high ceilings, a long narrow expanse of burnished mirror on both sides, exposed brick walls and those ubiquitous industrial lampshades and it manages to be spacious and light while exuding warmth and cosiness at the same time.

The back courtyard is particularly inviting being amongst greenery and quiet and they are getting planning permission for streetside tables as well.

The kitchen is half open, half behind the wall and there’s a glorious wood-fired oven taking pride of place. The pantry is piled on shelves in open view so they have nothing to hide – fresh ingredients are core to their cooking.

First thing to note is that the complimentary bread at Gorski & Jones is amazing. Unlike any sort of ciabatta I’ve ever had, it had the lightest and thinnest of crusts (almost to the point of being filo-pastry like) while still having a substantial crunch. As we arrived at almost the start of dinner service the bread came to our table still warm from the oven. Ask nicely for seconds!

The menu is divided into antipasto, entrees, mains, sides and desserts. As we were in a hurry we went straight for the extremely well-priced main dishes – the fish of the day of medium-seared tuna with caponata, a risotto with spanner crab, lemon oil and fennel ($26) and roasted and stuffed spatchcock with quinoa salad ($30) – all accompanied with a side of classic caprese salad ($6).

When our dishes arrived we were impressed with the generous servings and fresh and vibrant presentation of all our dishes.

The fish was cooked perfectly (nothing worse than a dry hunk of tuna steak) and the lively scent of the basil pesto and salty caponata gave the fish a huge flavour kick.

The risotto was declared by D to be ‘one of the best risottos I’ve ever tasted’. Light, yet full of flavour, each grain of rice was just the right texture and not drowned in the richness of butter or cheese.

Wood-roasted meats have a particularly salivating aroma and this spatchcock was no exception. The tunnel-boned, extremely juicy bird was paired with a refreshing pyramid of quinoa, tomato, parsley and red onion. Filling without being heavy and rich.

Our side salad could not have been any better – torn mozzarella, juicy ripe tomatoes and freshly picked basil drizzled with olive oil and with a smattering of salt and cracked pepper.

From the dessert menu I wanted to try the tiramisu ($10) but it couldn’t be taken away as it’s already presented in crystal glasses. Never mind, I’ll definitely be returning to Gorski & Jones. It’s a good value local restaurant with food that makes my stomach growl for more.

For more beautiful photos of this delicious food, check out Melbourne Food Files and Two Munch.

Gorski & Jones, 304 Smith St, Collingwood +61 3 9417 7779

In Fitzroy, it’s another day, another new cafe….

Backstreet Cafe is the new project from the people behind Birdman Eating and it takes some of what’s great about that Fitzroy stalwart and extends it beyond – or more precisely below. More on that later.

The cafe is located in a corner spot in amongst residential premises, though it’s not exactly a ‘backstreet’ as such because it’s right on the popular Napier Street bike path. Prime position is definitely via the street front tables, breezy yet shaded by a wooden trellised roof and an open view of the dining room within. Street side also provides great opportunities for style watching, particularly for the cycle chic ambling past.

The inside decor is almost too sleek for Fitzroy – everything is shiny bronze and black and it all matches :–) I particularly liked the laser cut geometry of the unvarnished wooden floor. Please don’t wear stiletto heels inside ladies!

The daytime menu ranges from traditional breakfast-y options like baked eggs, muesli and porridge but done with a twist, to more lunchtime fare like sandwiches and salads.

If you’re a meat eater then may I steer you towards something cured, smoked or salted. Why? Again, more on that later.

For lunch I chose the Salty Pork Roll with green olive tapenade ($9.50) which was a soft white roll containing slices of porky, salty, fatty deliciousness. The tapenade heightened the saltiness of the sandwich while lending a sharpness and piquancy to every bite. While I wouldn’t hesitate to return for that roll I overheard one of the staff highly recommending the Golden Muffin (sausage, fried egg, scormoza and tomato sauce) so that’s where I’ll be going next time.

For dessert the friendly waitress told me that the avocado brulee was amazing ($11.50). A perfectly crisp burnt sugar lid covered the pot of smooth green-tinged custard and I liked the Birdman Eating-esque presentation of the musical note sheet. A sharp crack with the spoon revealed a distinctly avocado flavoured custard (so slightly odd) but with a hint of citrus and flecked with vanilla bean seeds (so more traditional). I’m not sure whether I’d repeat the experience but it was worth trying.

Other items from the menu jumped out at me – a pomegranate tabbouleh, braised chickpeas, pork and saffron and kassler, grunkohl, toast and sous-vide egg will all be taste-tested at some stage. I’m not sure whether the dinner menu will be the same or not but I’ll soon find out as they’re hoping to open for dinner from next week along with the grant of their liquor licence.

Besides the fact that Backstreet will be opening 7 days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the most exciting aspect of the cafe is down the stairs. Not the toilets to the right, but the providore and meat fridge to the left.

Yes, salivate against the temperature controlled unit filled with hanging house-made charcuterie! Sadly none of the cold cuts will be able to be sold as take away (I did plant the idea of a Fitzroy-based cured meat black market) but in about 2 weeks there will be other items you can take home with you – jars of preserves, tins of anchovies, Calasparra paella rice, homemade sausages and a beaut idea for takeaway lasagne. Basically you pay a deposit for the ceramic dish that the lasagne comes in and when you return the dish you receive your deposit back. Though if it’s a Le Creuset I might just decide to keep it (and forfeit the deposit).

I’m really looking forward to raiding that food store and trying out Backstreet Cafe morning, noon and night. Welcome to my backstreet!

Backstreet Cafe, 152 Kerr St, Fitzroy +61 3 9417 1212
Mon-Fri 7am-10:30pm
Sat-Sun 8am-10:30pm

Thanks to the folks at deliciously excellent Huxtable, Smith Street now boasts its own American-style burger and beer joint.
It’s a small space across the road from the mother ship with a few outdoor tables and continues the Cosby Show theme with the moniker Huxtaburger. Cute!

The menu is short and straightforward – there are no lentils, tofu, fish or chicken burgers to be found. Just a choice of five burgers consisting of a toasted sesame seed bun (of the super-soft kind that I love about filet-o-fish, my guilty food secret) stuffed with a juicy wagyu beef pattie and various accoutrements.

All the burgers are named after members of the Huxtable family, from Bill to Theo to Denise (the hot one). Double cute!

Always a sucker for heat, I picked Denise, a mouth-watering and head-sweating combo of beef, cheese, salad, jalapeno and sriracha mayo ($9). Beware, there are a lot of chillies in that burger!

RM wanted bacon on his burger so went with Theo ($11), not realising that it came with two patties instead of one, thus causing an outbreak of meat sweats on the way home. Unless you’re feeling particularly carnivorous, it may be better to stick with the Huxtaburger ($8) a classic mix of beef, lettuce, tomato, cheese and then add an extra slice of crispy bacon for $1.

We accompanied our burgers with a large cardboard bucket of hot chips ($3), crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I reckon the crinkle cut is the key to their crispiness – more surface area to expose to hot oil.

On a related note if you are going to order sides then my advice is to decide whether you’re going to tackle the burger or the sides first! Once you’re committed to that burger you’ll find yourself clutching a dripping handful of bread-and-meat deliciousness that you won’t be able to put down (or pick up again without making a huge mess).  Mental note – BYO moist towelettes next time.

And we will definitely be returning because, to paraphrase a well-known marketing slogan, ‘The burgers are better at…Huxtaburger‘. My curiosity has also been piqued by the Bill Cosbys tacked onto the storefront next door…will Huxtaburger be extending the burger and beer experience? I think some milkshakes in steel cups and Mom’s apple pie would go down well.

Huxtaburger, 106 Smith St, Collingwood

Tuesday to Sunday, midday till late

Happy New Year! Hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday break.

Apparently one of the best ways to stretch out that happy holiday mood is to continue one holiday habit in your everyday life. With Melbourne’s unpredictable heat waves, one holiday habit I’ll be continuing is daily ice-cream!

Fortunately in Melbourne there’s lot of places to choose from, though I’m pretty sure that Helados Jauja is the only Argentinian ice cream shop in town. It’s a small store front in the midst of the Italian gelati and serves up a daily changing mix of traditional ice cream flavours along with some more unusual offerings.

I like Helados Jauja for three  reasons. One, the ice cream is handmade on premises with natural ingredients – milk, eggs, fresh cream, fruit, nuts and even the mint is picked fresh from the potted mint plant on the counter bench. They don’t use flavouring, colouring or premixes so the ice cream you get has a fresh, clean and vibrant flavour. Now that I make my own ice cream I can really appreciate how different standard commercial ice cream can taste.

Secondly, Helados Jauja offers flavours I’ve never tried anywhere else (not having visited South America before) – soursop, yerba mate and dulce de leche with different mix-ins. They occasionally dip into Asian flavours too – coconut, black sesame and pandan have all made an appearance.

Finally, Helados Jauja is the work of Po-Lin, an ex-lawyer and ice-cream enthusiast who left a job that she’d expected to be her lifelong career to follow her dream of opening an ice cream store. I love hearing about people who drop out of the corporate world to do something they’re passionate about and which has nothing to do with a desk behind a cubicle!

Helados Jauja, 254 Lygon St, Carlton

If you know people living in from Melbourne with little ones who love to eat out, I’ve got the perfect Christmas stocking stuffer for you.

Deck of Secrets and Melbourne-based eating out blog Little Eats have teamed up to publish a new Deck of Secrets guide featuring 52 of the best kid-friendly cafes in Melbourne. I have a couple of Deck of Secrets guides at home so was very excited to receive their latest deck to review and add to my collection.

The cute pack, which will fit neatly into your nappy bag, contains a deck of 52 cards with a cafe or restaurant on each card detailing the cafe’s address, phone number, opening days, website, photo and bite-sized review. That means you can scan the pack, pick out the place you want to visit and just pop that card into your wallet. Easy!

Most importantly for parents, there’s a pictorial guide to the kid-friendly facilities available at each spot – high chairs, kids menus, pram access, change table, toys, play areas and whether the venue can be booked for kids parties.

Cafe Secrets Melbourne for Little Ones has given me lots of ideas about where to venture with my young baby– I thought I’d hit most of the kid-friendly places near my house but it seems there’s more out there! Particularly useful are the ‘list’ cards with 5 places pizzerias, 5 cafes by the sea, 5 winery restaurants etc.

Cafe Secrets Melbourne for Little Ones is $9.95 and is available from  Readings (including online), selected Dymocks & Collins stores, newsagents, kids boutiques and some featured cafes.

Giveaway! Thank to Little Eats I have one Cafe Secrets Melbourne for Little Ones to give away. All you have to do is write a comment and the winner will be drawn randomly and announced on Monday 19 December – just in time for Christmas!

The winner of last week’s La Madre Bakery giveaway is Esz. Your prize is on its way!

Giveaway closed. The winner is Chris W, congratulations!

Under the big shed they’ve created a space for small shops and pop up sites called SO:ME Space. It’s filled with clothing, accessories, artwork and bikes – a fun place to browse before or after your market grocery shopping.

Some of the designers include previous blog favourites Wet & Wendy and Skinny Nelson at Jane, plus cool bikes and accessories from Bakerlite and a very eye-catching shop display at Stone Glint and Bone.

SO:ME Space, South Melbourne Market, 322-326 Coventry St, South Melbourne

Wed 9am-4pm
Thurs 5pm-9pm
Fri 9am-5pm
Sat 9am-4pm
Sun 9am-4pm

Following on from my carb-fest at La Madre Bakery recently I am excited to offer a giveaway of a selection of La Madre‘s new Christmas range!

The sweet and savoury treats come presented in a reuseable cookie tin and inside you’ll find a sample of:

• Vanilla Snowflake Shortbread made from Heilala Vanilla vanilla paste and topped with a sweet snowflake shaped fondant;
• Dark chocolate dipped dehydrated blood orange slices;
• Gingerbread Angels;
• buttery Stained-glass Window Shortbread, which make lovely edible Christmas ornaments;
• Bite-sized Parmesan and Nigella Shortbread;
• Cranberry & Pistachio Shortbread; and
• Almond & Vanilla Biscotti.

To win this box of deliciousness all you have to do is leave a comment below and a winner will be drawn randomly. Good luck!

If you’re keen to try some La Madre Christmas treats for yourself, check out their list of stockists. If you’re in the Geelong area, this year La Madre are making a limited run of 100 gingerbread houses, which can be bought constructed or flat packed for construction and decoration at home. Orders must be placed via phone (03 5272 1727) or email (info@lamadre.com.au) by Friday 9 December for pickup from their bakery in Geelong.

The winner of last week’s giveaway for The Casual Cyclist’s Guide to Melbourne is Valissa! Your prize will be sent to you very soon.

PS If you want another chance to win La Madre Christmas goodies – pop over to my parenting blog TOT: HOT OR NOT for your chance to win a La Madre Gingerbread House!

Threefold is a casual cafe/bar tucked into a narrow corner space on Flinders Lane and Tavistock Place. You’ll recognise it by the planter boxes laden with fresh herbs at its entrance - a happy  contrast to the soulless vistas offered by its office block neighbours.

It’s a smart establishment that seats mostly business people along narrow benches and small tables which all face the long marble bench stacked with colourful, fresh dishes served in big white bowls and platters.

For lunch the choices range from terrines to tarts to imaginative salads (not an iceberg lettuce leaf to be seen). On my visit I tried the pork belly with a choice of two spring salads ($18.50). Sadly the pork belly did not live up to its good looks – the meat did not fall from my fork as expected, requiring a bit of sawing to get through, and the crackling didn’t crackle and got left behind.

R fared better with pastrami and melted gruyere sandwiched on thick-cut rye with a zingy side salad of apple, radish and shaved cabbage ($13.50). A gourmet twist to the toasted ham and cheese sanga.

I finished off the meal with a small slice of marble cake ($6.50) while R received a very pretty latte made using organic beans from Espresso Syndicate.

Finally, a word on their service. When I wanted to eat at Threefold with a friend with a baby in tow, the staff said ‘no problems’. They reserved a table for us at the front near the door with the most room, helped shuffle chairs and tables around and were very accommodating in the face of a slightly troublesome crowd of pram, shopping trolley, dropped cutlery and dirty bibs.

Threefold is a welcome gourmet addition to the slightly dull, business end of town. I liked the look of the dinner specials up on the blackboard and they open late for after-work drinks on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Much better than getting greasy takeaway on your way home.

Threefold, 381 Flinders Lane, Melbourne +61 3 9614 8194
Mon – Tue:7:00 am-4:00 pm
Wed – Fri:7:00 am-11:00 pm

I’ve written previously about the great author events that specialist cookbook store Books for Cooks run. They are becoming so popular that they’ve started moving certain events out of their store – too many books and people to fit into a small space!

While the non-store events are generally not free, the great thing is that they tend to pick local restaurants with a particular affinity for the cuisine in question. So for the launch of Janet de Neefe’s cookbook Bali: My Island Home, we met up at Rice Queen for a talk by the author and four tastes from the book prepared by the Rice Queen kitchen for $20.

Janet began her talk describing how she came to live in Bali. She travelled to Bali with her family as a teenager and was immediately captivated by its exoticness compared to Melbourne. Ten years later she returned after university and met her future husband. She also fell in love with Bali and started collecting Balinese and Indonesian recipes from her sister-in-law and other locals – and with no formal culinary training opened her first restaurant. Janet and her husband have since opened restaurants Casa Luna, Bar Luna and Indus, a bakery, the Casa Luna cooking school and the Honeymoon Guesthouses.

I’m visiting Bali next year so I purchased Bali: My Island Home to gain an insight into the island and its cuisine. The big glossy tome not only gives mouth-watering recipes of Balinese dishes but the photos and text explore the daily life and culture of Bali. It was interesting flicking through the book and encountering new ingredients – fortunately there’s a glossary for things such as candlenuts and salam leaf.

As for the tastes from the book – I highly recommend the black tapioca pearls in coconut milk!

A few weeks ago I attended the Paris to Provence Festival as the end stop of the Melbourne Tweed Ride. It was a bright sunshiney day and perfect for strolling around the grounds of Como House eating and drinking French delights, doing a spot of shopping and apparently a great opportunity to pull out your mini Marie Antoinette costume :–)

While the festival has been and gone I wanted to share my favourite find  - Castlemaine-based homewares company Malmaison which imports French products and sells French-inspired items. In particular, I fell in love with their pocket advent calendar which is currently adorning the fireplace in my house in the countdown to Christmas.

I’ve filled each of the little calico pouches with edible treats – no dinky plastic toys or crappy chocolates for me!