May 19, 2013

I Carusi (East Brunswick)

I Carusi contains tables packed elbow to elbow and serves wine in small tumblers – a bona fide sign that we were seated in a genuine Italian restaurant. This amalgam creates an atmosphere that conjures up memories of sitting in an Italian Nonna’s house, anticipating delicious pizza.

Whilst it is located in East Brunswick, just a short tram ride down Lygon St, it offers far superior pizza than the bastardized ham-scattered approach that leagues of restaurants in Australia have decided to pass off as pizza. In fact, I Carusi often scores high whenever a ‘Best Pizza’ in Melbourne list is assembled – and so it should.

I couldn’t go past the Alla Moda Di Mario Pizza, topped with tomato, fior di latte, pancetta and red onion. The wood-fired crust was flame-licked to perfection and fior di latte glistened amongst the thinly sliced pancetta and red onions. The subtle hits of chilli scattered among the homemade tomato base added delightful potency to each bite.

The “Number 26″ pizza was hard to pass up; lovingly scattered with sauteed leeks, touches of heady gorgonzola and rich dollops of oozy mozzarella. The cepaceous coins of tender leek were complimented well by the sharpness of the stinky cheese and the comforting creaminess of the fior de latte on the crisp pizza base makes this one pretty hard to ignore. It’s also refreshing to see leeks featuring prominently in a Melbourne dish, as it’s an often unsung and under appreciated hero – especially in the colder months when its character really shines.

I Carusi is all about their ingredients. It is not fussy or fancy – just how authentic Italian pizza was intended. The service is outstandingly friendly and our waitress seemed just as enthusiastic about our pizza choices as we were, admitting that the Alla Moda Di Mario is her go-to. After eyeing off an adjacent tables white chocolate and peach dessert pizza, my only regret is not having enough room to fit dessert in. There’s always next time, and there will be a next time.

May 11, 2013

Saigon Pho (Carlton)

I’d visited Saigon Pho twice ,within the same week, it was that good. Saigon Pho has probably the nicest decor and friendliest service I’ve encountered in a pho restaurant. This makes Saigon Pho have a slightly better vibe with it’s timber floors and chandeliers, compared to the average plastic chair/table combinations and abrupt service I’m accustomed to when itching my pho itch.

I ordered the Beef Pho and a cà phê sữa. I can never pass up a Vietnamese coffee with it’s thick, bitter, sludgy coffee and sweet curls of condensed milk. Saigon Pho does a great coffee and is located a stones-throw from Melbourne University. I’m very tempted to make a habit of getting sweet coffee fix between every lecture.

My beef pho came out pretty quickly, accompanied by all the usual condiments, bean sprouts, thai basil and chilli. The broth sans adding any of these wonderful condiments was very beefy and fragrant. The beef was perfectly rare and plentiful.

On my second visit I dragged J along to get our pho fix. Despite the first visit having seamless and quick service, this time our pho took ages to come out. About 30-35 minutes – which is unheard of when ordering pho. The staff were apologetic and explained it was the kitchen mixing up orders. J swore that it had better be good pho by time it arrived and was inclined to agree. Thankfully pho was godly delicious and perhaps even worth the wait.

Saigon Pho has great pho and is a bit friendlier in terms of service than your standard pho joint. The serves are massive and they don’t skimp out on the condiments or meat!

May 6, 2013

Grace (Fitzroy)

Quaint, cute and twee are the first impressions you receive from Grace, a new cafe in Fitzroy just next to the Rose St Markets. Small vials contain sugar and dainty paper flowers are placed onto each handcrafted table. The front facade contains a beautiful mural which we actually witnessed being painted after a trip to the Rose st Markets, not knowing that soon the cafe behind the mural by local artist Adnate would soon be home to delicious things (and a quark-enthused menu!)

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We ventured there to try our luck at scoring a table on a late, sunny Saturday afternoon. We were quickly seated next to a large, airy window looking out on the comers and goers of Rose st. I’m certain that Fitzroy may be the best place to get your people watching fix whilst you sip on some velvety coffee. I ordered my standard skinny flat-white and J ordered his usual dose of chai latte.

The coffee was silky, strong and just how I like it. I managed to steal a sip of the chai and it, too, was delicious.

The first thing that lured me to Grace was the promise of Quark Filled Crepes, served with either cream & berry coulis or lemon curd. Quark cheese is something that my family adores and growing up I was privy to the incessant complaints about the lack of quark supplies in Melbourne. Not here. Quark is served with crepes, and salmon bagels. Wanting something not so sweet for breakfast, I opted for the smoked salmon bagel served with quark, red onion and rocket. Naturally, I had to coerce J into ordering the crepes with lemon curd, just so I could taste test them…

As soon as the crepes were laid out in front of J we were in holy crepe heaven. Handsomely crisp on the outside, filled with creamy quark cheese and served with generous amounts of cream and lemon curd. These were perfection.

Although this photo doesn’t quite depict the bagel spewing out quark out of its hole, that is exactly what happened. Delicious quark was lathered onto the fresh,smoked salmon. Served with a lemon wedge, this may have been the greatest bagel I’ve ever devoured. To be fair, I don’t usually order bagels because I find them quite pedestrian but it was so hard to go past salmon and quark together- like they should be.

Everything about Grace is so lovely. I hate using the word ‘lovely’, but that is the right word to describe this Fitzroy cafe which unbelievably used to be a brothel and porn studio.The crepes and salmon bagel was served on cutesy European plate ware that reminded me of an afternoon tea at Grandmas .Everything tastes better served on Grandma-esque floral plates. The waitress that served us was so lovely and sweet. I actually can’t imagine any bad service (or food) coming from Grace and it is well worth a visit.

April 27, 2013

Mankoushe (Brunswick)

The middle-eastern bakery delights of Mankoushe tease me daily on my regular commute to and from the city. Countless times I’ve been wandering along Lygon Street in my spare time and stopped with whiplash urgency to peruse the menu and gaze longingly towards the wood-fired oven churning out waves of soft bready wonders.

We wandered into Mankoushe on a Saturday afternoon (unwittingly just before the afternoon close, but the staff were kind enough not to mention it or pressure us to leave) and sat down with a $2.50 whack of Turkish coffee. It’s challenging, rich and bitter with satisfying thickness both in body and flavour. It’s a great place to sit outside, musing over a coffee while the parade of Brunswick hipsters amble awkwardly up and down Lygon street.

If you’ve never had labneh before you’ve only been living half a life. The thick, tangy goat’s milk yoghurt is a dream – the perfect accomplice for cucumber, mint and soft doughy wrappings. Think of it as a collection of your favourite dips rolled up into one comprehensively tasty package.

If you’re in the mood for something warmer, the saroukh is also rather smashing. Creamy french cream cheese, melted into haloumi with olives: it’s almost like a more subtle calzone but with soft cushions of bread instead of chewy pizza dough. For lovers of cheese, you can’t go wrong here. As we made our way home, I couldn’t help regretting not ordering a second one to take with me. I guess that’s kind of the best recommendation I can give, isn’t it?

Mankoushe is a tasty, unique offering for the location and the prices are effortlessly reasonable. Would undoubtedly nom again.

April 21, 2013

Wonderbao (CBD)

Wonderbao has been on my radar since receiving endless praise from the Urbanspoon community. At the time of writing this post it is comfortably number 3 on the ‘most talked about’ list. I was so intent of getting my bao fix one lunchtime that I searched behind RMIT for the elusive Wonderbao to bring an assortment of bao delights to J’s office for lunch. Finding Wonderbao itself was a feat, but equipped with phone gps in hand and a fellow bloggers advice to access it through Literature Lane led me to the clique of Bao enthusiasts.

Suddenly the daunting task of choosing a few Bao for J and I to share set in when I realised that I would happily consume everything on Wonderbao’s menu. A lengthy line of students and office workers preceded me, which I was partly thankful for as it would give me some time to plan my attack. I wanted to devour all Wonderbao had to offer. Wonderbao’s line moves efficiently and before I could compose myself to make a well-rounded order, I was umming and erring in front of the friendly cashier.

Only a mere minute or so after I’d gracelessly placed an order for Da Pork Bao, Da Chicken Bao, Char Siu Bao and the Nai Wong Bao, I had a hot little box full of Bao in my hands. I excitedly lept over to the bench which had soy and siracha condiments, gave each Bao a decent lathering (and accidentally forgot one of them was the desert custard Bao – oops)

I spent the next 10 minutes dodging the hordes of workers off to their lunchtimes, fostering hope that they wouldn’t be too cold before I arrived. I deserve a ‘best girlfriend award’ for achieving record time in crossing the CBD at peak lunchtime. They were still warm, pillowy by time and we spent lunchtime eating in a small garden. Perfection.

The Char Siu Bao was the first to be gently torn apart, inside revealing generous slivers of pork and an almost creamy BBQ sauce. This simple favourite made for a perfect introduction to the Wonderbao genius. This may have been the best Bao I’ve had in recent memory . It didn’t last 10 seconds.

Da Pork Bao was next in line. Delightful amounts of pork, shittake mushroom, egg and chinese sausage burst from the delicate, sweet dough. Da Pork Bao. Whilst not aesthetically pleasing in the slightest, these were enormous and I felt that one of these would make for a filling lunch. But a food bloggers peril is the need to sample as many things as possible, even it it does equate to a stomach bursting like a bao.

Da Chicken Bao was as substantial as Da Pork Bao – filled with egg and shittake mushroom. Da Chicken Bao, however, wasn’t going to be the star of the bunch even though it was an ample dose of delicious.

The Nai Wong Bao, brimming with sweet egg custard was saved for desert. Being quite full, I only managed to fit in a mouthful of this but would return to Wonderbao to attain this compact, textually delightful bao alone.

Wonderbao prides itself on offering substantial Bao, delicious and generous fillings at meager prices and our 4 baos only came to a total of $10.10. Get around it.

April 19, 2013

Bento King (Carlton)

Decent student eateries around Melbourne University are far and few in between. Boring, cheap Asian cuisine seems to cluster itself around the area, and Bento King is no exception. Bento King offers a special kind of average. The kind that balances the perfect harmony of boring flavours and drab surroundings fully equiped uninspiring ‘lunchtime specials’.

Fate would have it that a few friends would coerce me into a quick lunchtime meal at Bento King. The menu itself is longer than the ol’ faithful Don Tojo around the corner but nothing inspiring can be found here.

After much deliberation,I ordered the Okakodon ($8.50), purely based on not wanting soup or a bento box. Oyakodon literally means parent and child donburi – or Japanese rice dish. It came served with a few large pieces of chicken, pickled ginger, vegies and egg. The dish itself is very poetic in it’s name and references the fact that both chicken and egg are presented. That is where the romanticism of Japanese Cuisine stops, because any flavour (or even salt) was absent and the rice to chicken/vegetable ratio was appalingly high.

A few friends ordered the Katsu Don, which undoubtedly was a bit better than my own dish and ever so slight food envy ensued on my part. Slight food envy because despite my meal being uninspired, theirs wasn’t exactly brimming with flavour and most of the boxes were left unfinished.

Bento King is the definition of banal student eats, and it’s cheapness isn’t a major draw card when popular Don Tojo is just a small stroll away.

April 17, 2013

Kake Di Hatti (Brunswick)

Kake Di Hatti is located in East Brunswick, just a small stroll down from popular, cheap,no frills Thaila Thai. Similarly, Kake Di Hatti is in the same spirit , offering decent Indian food at an amazingly low cost. In fact, the bill between the two of us was about $30 which cemented our newly acquired love for this no-fuss,no-frills Indian restaurant.

After reading several blogs rave about Kake Di Hatti , I decided on a whim to check it out late on a Tuesday evening. There is nothing pretentious to be found here. Just cheap, flavourful north Indian cuisine. And oh, the garlic naan…the naan is an essential side and at Kake Di Hatti it is perfection.

We quickly ordered garlic naan, rice, the goat curry and chicken korma. When asked how spicy we wanted it, we gave the usual hopeful response of ‘very spicy, we like spice!’. Bring it on. Whilst waiting we broke open the bottle of wine J had brought. I freakin’ love BYO and at 99c per person, we couldn’t resist even if it was a uni/work night for us. We weren’t left waiting long and within about 10 minutes our curries arrives, steaming of wonderful fragrance.

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The chicken korma was creamy, super tasty but lacked the spicy punch we’d anticipated. Nevermind, I was too preoccupied with soaking my naan in it’s sweet flavours it to worry about spice. The boneless chicken pieces were large and held the korma flavour well.

The Goat Curry was also very tasty, but unfortunately could not contend with the chicken korma which was outrageously delicious. J noted it had strong notes of tomato, which for me isn’t a bad thing but I do acknowledge that some people prefer their curries to be less tomato-heavy. The meat was for the most part good, but I did have to remove a couple of pesky bones.

The service was friendly, quick and I’m always delighted when questioned on the desired spice level in my meal (Kake Di Hatti gets a small nod for this).

Kake Di Hatti will be a favourite local Indian restaurant and I do not doubt that we will return when the Indian cravings take hold.

April 14, 2013

Virginia Plain (CBD)

You know how you look forward to something so much that you worry you might be setting yourself up for disappointment? This dreadful fear had played devilishly in the back of my mind for weeks leading up to our Wednesday-night booking at Virginia Plain. Praise be to the gods and goddesses of decadence and delight – I had nothing to fear.

Up a wee set of stairs off Flinders Lane, Virginia Plain occupies an intimidatingly cool ex-warehouse space that has been given a careful and loving makeover. It’s one of those restaurants that you can tell somebody really cares about; fresh Australian native flowers, a biblically-long bar and a dining room that disappears into infinity with a multitude of warm, cosy corners and expansive tables. Did I mention the open kitchen? Because I’m a sucker for an open kitchen. It’s really got it all.

In a restaurant that looks like it could be set in a certain Bret Easton Ellis novel, it’s the personal touches that make this place truly memorable. From the relaxed quips from the staff, to the comprehensive wine list segmented by theme (joy!) and the rustic chunks of sourdough served in a quaint little bag with salt, pepper and a rich olive oil.

We had so much trouble deciding what to eat. The a la carte menu isn’t an exhaustive list but every single item on it sounded enticing – we were even close to flipping a coin at one stage. In the end, the pigs trotters stuffed with black pudding served with scallops and parsnip remoulade sounded too good to pass up. It’s a dish full of unctuous textures: the full-bodied farmyard melt of the blood sausage with the pork linking flavour through the bed of parsnip to the distant ocean sweetness of the scallop. It’s a real treat.

Sometime after I managed to mangle the pronunciation of ‘ceviche’, our second entree arrived: the ceviche of kingfish with ink, sesame, campari and a flowing curl of finely sliced cucumber. I wanted to be blown away by this dish but perhaps the subtlety of it was lost on me. It might have been a mistake to try this seconds after downing the bold flavours of the pig’s trotters and a massive glass of Pinot. That being said, it looks absolutely beautiful – so much so that I almost felt bad dismantling the plate. It’s not a bad set of flavours in any way, just drowned out a little bit by the more outgoing personalities.

Every dish we saw was an absolute feast for the eyes and our lamb main was no exception: a gorgeous array of crispy fried sweetbreads, tender pieces of shoulder, a cutlet robed in thick basil mousse, smoked baba ganoush – all dotted with fresh baby peas, sprouts and eggplant. The lamb (sourced from Flinders Island, home of sinfully good triple brie) was plated with such respect and care by every set of hands in the kitchen that it truly allows you to rediscover each element of the dish, savouring each piece with slow-dawning wonderment.

That past twelve months of my life have been filled with ‘best ofs’ and Virginia Plain’s wagyu has sauntered into my consciousness with what I have to say must be the best steak I’ve ever eaten. Served with a green salad of radish and celery and crispy shoestring fries, this is 300 grams of pure bloodthirsty haemoglobic ecstasy. Brushed with garlic, the Maillard-caramel of the crust melts away in your mouth with each bite. If I were inclined to believe in a creator, this would be proof and I think it speaks volumes about the skill on show in the kitchen.

As soon as I heard the staff quietly mention the pear tart with salted caramel ice cream to the table next to us, I knew that we had to be together. Like eyes meeting for the first time across a crowded room, it was a magical experience. There’s a powerful hit of salt from the rapidly melting ice cream spreading like rapture across the burnished golden brown of the tart that I could see myself loving for the rest of my life. I want to take it home, make it feel special and marry it.

I don’t mean to gush but we were both completely charmed by Virginia Plain. The service, atmosphere and menu was nearly faultless when it could easily have been arrogant and pretentious (and probably gotten away with it, too). I can’t wait to go back.

April 9, 2013

Pho Dzung (CBD)

Warning: Another Pho post follows (I’ll stop slurping my way through Melbourne’s Pho soon – I promise!)

I admit that recently I’ve been obsessing over pho , but with good reason. I’m in search of ~~great pho~~ the best pho that Melbourne has to offer. Which is why I suggested to J that we would go to find some city pho for breakfast/lunch. We decided to visit Pho Dzung based on rave reviews from fellow Melbourne pho affectionados. Like most Asian eateries, the decor is not the focus here. In fact, the theme of plastic chairs and kitsch wall hangings is usually welcomed as a sign of a place that lets their food sing. Pho Dzung is no exception to this.

Seated quickly at a table, we pluck the menu from the wall next to us and begin deciding on pho. Joe decides on the chicken pho (which I,too, was keen on). The waiter approaches us within a minute or so and we quickly order two coconut drinks, a Chicken Pho and I spontaneously order the Hue Spicy Pho. I had no idea what to expect and was feeling instant regret that it was possible I’d have to spend the next 15 minutes suffering from severe food envy.

We were served a generous serving of bean sprouts, chilli, lemon wedges and fresh Thai basil. Mmm.

The Hue Spicy Pho arrived and I was delighted at the amount of beef and pork sausage. My concerns over having food envy instantly evaporated as I tasted the beefy,spicy broth. The sausage was soft , gently absorbing the fragrant broth. The beef was tenderly thinly sliced.

The great thing about Pho Dzung is that they are very generous with the amount of meat in each serving. Personally, I will always sacrifice the noodles in order to save room for the broth and meaty goodness.

The damage for two of us (including our drinks) was about $23. Pho Dzung is the best pho I’ve experienced in Melbournes CBD and the service is noticeably friendlier than other bustling pho establishments.

April 4, 2013

Dumplings Plus (CBD)

Dumplings are my go-to meal if I’m rushed for time and hungry for small morsels of delicately wrapped pork. In this instance, we were rushing off to the Comedy Festival to see Arj Barker and hadn’t planned what we were going to scoff down quickly before the show.

Naturally, dumplings were our first choice but as we hadn’t booked a table for the oh-so popular Hutong, nor were we in the mood for revisiting Shanghai Dumpling Houses’ constantly depreciating quality of dumplings, after wandering around in search for a promising dumpling experience, we stumbled into Dumplings Plus.

I’ve visited Dumplings Plus several times over a few years and they never fail to provide decent dumplings. I’ve never ventured into non-dumpling territory but the table next to us seemed to be enjoying various hot pots.

We quickly ordered pork and chilli dumplings ($9.80) for 15 and the Shanghai Dumplings – which are just Shao Long Bao.

The Pork Chilli Dumplings arrived super fast and were hotter than the surface of the sun. Although their pockets of pork were delicious, J agreed that the skin was far too thick for our liking and this seemed to be a theme across all of our dishes. The skin seemed to be a bit gluey and had the thickness of market dim sum.

Next to arrive was old faithful Shao Long Bao (or Shanghai Dumplings). These too had quite a thick skin and were quite a bit larger than the Shao Long Bao you’ll find in Melbourne. As a result, they are filled with loads of brothy soup which we siphoned out with glee.

Although probably not as delicious as the dumplings you can experience at Hutong or China red, the price is just right and the service is ninja-fast, making Dumplings Plus a viable option if you’re rushing off to see a show and need something to satisfy those hunger pangs.