Tasty tidbits, from fish and chips to duck parfait at IDES

Time for another blog amnesty post!  I wanted to share with you some westside and city dining highlights from the last couple of months.  First up:  IDES.

IDES is a pop-up dinner put together by mates and passionate chefs Peter Gunn and Lindsay Fush (second and third from the left above respectively), who met while working at the Royal Mail in Dunkeld.  Peter is now junior sous chef at Attica, while Lindsay is working at a local pub in Hamilton.  Late last year they formed their own catering business and then began to explore the idea of using their days off to host a pop-up tasting menu here in Melbourne.  You know how they say if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life?  These guys have obviously nailed it.

The menu is six courses of intricate yet playful food, a steal at $90.  It's at Tonik in Kensington, who provide drinks for purchase.  Sure, the space isn't nearly as classy as the food, but Peter and "Fushie" bring in all their own crockery and cutlery to enhance the experience of what's on the plate.

One thing I love is that with the exception of Raffaele Mastrovincenzo (front of house at Attica and wearing black in the photo above), the chefs do all the service, bringing out plates and chatting with you about their ingredients, technique and so on.

One of my faves was this exquisite duck liver parfait served with smoked salt, toasted black pepper and chervil, gorgeous heaped onto toasted bread.  I also loved a starter of an amazing, rich broth that was apparently only made with turnip, onion and mustard oil.

As of today, there are a mere 10 spots left for the next dinner on Monday, 23 September.  Book via the details above, and you can also check out the IDES Facebook page here.

Well, from the sensational to the...somewhat disappointing.  I was pretty stoked to hear that Dumplings Plus were opening a new branch at Highpoint.  If I'm stuck and starving, I'd prefer to have a choice like this rather than the usual food court suspects.

This wonton soup was spoiled, though, by absolute buckets of MSG.  Interesting exchange I had with a Chinese restaurateur recently, though - I said in my opinion restaurant X used too much MSG and he said, quite surprised, "You can taste MSG?"  I think it's like boar taint.  Some find it overpowering; others can't taste it at all.  Anyway, do try Dumplings Plus yourself - I'd go for the plain panfried dumplings next time.

What DOESN'T have a lot of MSG is this quite delicious beef pho from Green Leaf, Moonee Ponds.  We were so struck by its rich flavour yet lack of that particular "kapow" MSG denotes that we checked with the owner and there is only the tiniest pinch in a 20-litre stockpot.

Trying to convince a Footscray resident to go elsewhere for Vietnamese is like selling coal to Newcastle, but if Moonee Ponds is close to you, give Green Leaf a try.  Their prices are a bit dearer than Footscray or Sunshine but they have a lovely little story behind their business and their food is obviously made with care.  Their Facebook page is here.

Rockfish has changed owners and the word on the street is it's not the Rockfish we knew and loved.  I've been quite liking fish and chips from the very awesomely old-school Charles Street Fish and Chips in Seddon (67 Charles Street).

They have a really big range of fish, with ten choices including flathead, whiting, snapper, flounder and more.  Beer care of Seddon Wine Store.

With summer coming up, you could go and explore Point Cook Homestead.  It's quite odd to drive there, getting to the end of the glossy housing estates in Point Cook and suddenly being surrounded by fields and the odd horse, with the city hovering in the distance like a mirage.  The kids kept asking, "Are we in the country now?"  I didn't really know the answer.

You get the feeling they could do so much more with the space - there's a small but lovely old home that I think is mainly used for wedding photos, some empty stables, a herd of geese behind a gate and old farm machinery for the kids to play on.  The restaurant there is called Scrumpy Brown's and they do food that is not mindblowing but nice all the same.

Viz. this nice Caesar salad.  Lattes were pretty good too.

It's not far to scramble down to this lonely, lovely stretch of beach...

...and do some beachcombing.  (We put these back, of course.)  But do heed the warning signs of snakes - we nearly trod on a baby tiger!

La Tortilleria - real tacos in Kensington

I have just returned from Mexico.  It took me 15 minutes to get home.  Let me explain.

La Tortilleria is a tiny, authentic tortilla factory in an industrial part of Kensington.  It's owned and run by the lovely Gerardo and Diana, who are passionate about the real way to make tortillas - from wholegrain corn rather than corn flour.  Diana knows what she's doing - she's previously worked in a tortilleria in Mexico.

The way to make real tortillas is called nixtamal and, save for the machinery involved, hasn't changed since Aztec times.  Most modern tortillerias (and according to Diana, all other tortillerias in Melbourne) use processed flour, which is kind of like using instant coffee powder to make coffee.  At La Tortilleria, the process starts the night before with non-GMO Australian corn that's soaked in a calcium solution.  This helps the corn to release nutrients such as niacin (vitamin B3) and become more digestible.

The next morning it's ground in a stone grinder to create the masa or dough.  Other tortillerias start here, by mixing the prepared corn flour with water.  As I understood it, that's like instant coffee made with coffee powder...versus using freshly-ground beans and the resultant shot that's just streets ahead.  It also means that La Tortilleria's tortillas are 100% preservative and additive free.

The masa is fed into a tortilla press which rumbles and jiggles before plopping heavenly, warm, real Mexican tortillas onto a conveyer belt...into your heart.  You can buy them fresh, vacuum sealed (if you want to cook with them, say, in a few days' time) or best of all - eat them in house with some Mexican street-style toppings!

Gerardo and Diana are really proud that they have the support of Melbourne's Mexican community who have been coming in droves to have Mexican that's just like back home.  They have a disarmingly simple menu of tacos, taquitos (rolled and deep-fried filled tortillas), sopes (hand-pressed, fat tortillas) and more.  This behemoth platter for two (four goodies each, plus guacamole) was $40.  Guess what - La Tortilleria use only free range meat and eggs!

I've eaten a lot of great tacos in Chicago, which has a large Mexican community.  My fave is tacos al pastor - you can read a bit about them in Chi-town in this old post of mine.  La Tortilleria's were delicious, with the meat carved from the spit (like a souvlaki) and spiked with spiced pineapple.  I thought they needed a dash of salt, but apart from that, holy tamales!

La Tortilleria have a fantastic self-serve sauce "bench" where you can load up with amazing chipotle sauce, Gerardo's special sweet mango salsa, pico de gallo and real corn chips, made by deep-frying actual tortillas.

Adored this Mexican spiced coffee, black and sweet with cinnamon and more.  I was so excited about the food I forgot to ask how it's made, but it's delicious.  La Tortilleria also have a fantastic selection of Mexican ingredients for sale - tomatillos, achiote paste and more.

La Tortilleria are open for lunch and dinner Thursday through Sunday.  The business is only five weeks old, but I predict it's about to go absolutely gangbusters.  This is the sort of thing Melbourne loves - uncompromisingly authentic food, made with skill and passion.  And how many times can you say you've eaten food made by someone who's climbed Mount Everest?  Gerardo has!

La Tortilleria (Facebook page)

72 Stubbs Street, Kensington

Phone:  9376 5577

Hours:  Thurs-Fri noon-2.30pm, 6pm-late; Sat-Sun 11.30am-3.30pm, 6pm-late

fifty-six threads Cafe - A Brunch of Cultures

I was invited to attend fifty-six threads' Melbourne Food and Wine Festival event, "A Brunch of Cultures", as a non-paying guest.  See end of post for full disclosure.

From the outside, my friend's Mazda was travelling at a sedate 50 kmh up Kensington Road, but inside she was fanging it.  Due to numerous babysitting stuff-ups, we thought we were going to be late for this epic five-course brunch, but as we approached I knew we were making good time.  "Turn here," I said when we got to Derby Street and a few seconds later, "Pull over there - here we are!"  She braked and looked around.  "Are you sure?"

fifty-six threads may have an unlikely location at the bottom of a Housing Commission block, but it's all part of the story behind this unique social enterprise.  It is run by AMES who provide humanitarian settlement services, English language teaching and work placement.  Their mission is "full participation for all in a cohesive and diverse society".  I liked them already, and I hadn't even tried their food yet!

In fact, I have had a long relationship with AMES.  My mum used to volunteer teaching English to migrants through their home tutor program and I started doing the same in my early 20s.  I still remember my first student, Thuy, who lived in the Richmond flats and who would make me awesome Vietnamese food after every lesson.  Over the ensuing years I had more lovely students from Sudan and Lebanon and somehow always managed to wrangle a delicious, home-cooked meal after every class.  What a scammer!

fifty-six threads has been open for just over 12 months.  It has been staffed and run like a regular business for this opening phase and now that good systems are in place, it's about to move into its next phase as a training ground for AMES clients including work experience, vocational training courses and work placement opportunities.  The cafe is also part of the larger Kensington redevelopment project which has seen new public and private homes built around the existing Commission flats in an attempt to integrate the estate both physically and socially into the surrounding area and create a vibrant, connected community.

I feel that food, coffee and restaurant culture are powerful tools that can be used for good.  Menus can set the bar for us at home by raising awareness of ethical, local produce.  The Cup of Excellence provides real incentives for Third World producers to produce stellar coffee, with accompanying monetary returns far above those which even Fair Trade certification would offer.  Cafes and restaurants can also give back to the community through not-for-profit or charitable initiatives such as at Kinfolk or training as through Scarf.  If you believe in an equitable, diverse Melbourne community, dining at fifty-six threads is putting your money where your mouth is.

Anyway, enough proselytising - onto the food!  Course number one was a gorgeous, warmed seasonal fig with creamy Greek yoghurt, pistachios and honey.  Just divine.  We then dove into a Middle Eastern mezze platter with really good olives, thick tangy labne, ful (mashed dried broad beans), pita, boiled egg and more.  Delicious and healthy!  Perhaps the hummus could have been more zesty, but if you thought I'm a coffee snob, I'm an even worse hummus one.

I loved this dish - an "Asian frittata" with snow pea shoots and sweet soy.  The eggy slice was silky and moreish, lovely with a quick swipe through the kecap manis-like sauce.  The snow pea shoots are so typical of that fantastic Asian tendency to use everything - not just the fruit, but the leaves, stalks and roots as well.  I've even seen chilli and melon leaves and stems for sale in Little Saigon - nothing is chucked out.

Last savoury course - a statuesque pork and fennel sausage and wickedly good bacon, both from venerable Carlton butcher Donati's.  They cuddled up next to a potato farl which I believe is Irish potato bread that has been fried - a bit like a giant potato cake!  I believe that fifty-six threads are moving to source all their meat from Donati's in the future.

AMES' first social enterprise was the Sorghum Sisters.  The "sisters" in question were a group of refugee women from the Horn of Africa who came up with their own catering business.  From these clever cookies came this selection of baklava, basbosa coconut slice, bikkies and honey-draped donuts. fifty-six threads use coffee from fellow social enterprise STREAT, also in Kensington.  My espresso was great, although I must say I popped in the week before and another short black then was really not good.  On that visit I didn't hear the tell-tale buzz of the grinder before the espresso was made.  I wonder if the grinder's hopper might have been full from a previous grind - to get the full flavour profile, coffee really needs to be extracted from beans ground to order, just seconds before pulling the shot.  Still, the short black this day was on the money.

I have such fond memories of working with AMES, and I'm happy to know they are still working hard to make the path of settlement a little easier.  This mesmerising image is called "New Life in Australia" and is by Nay Ta Gay Wah, an entrant in AMES' annual refugee fine art prize, Heartlands.  I encourage you to look through the past winners, whose stories are both heartbreaking and heartening.  fifty-six threads' name is inspired by the many threads of the community weaving their stories, skills and passions through the cafe.  I love this vision of Australia - a beautiful tapestry of talents and tales from all around the globe.



fifty-six threads
56 Derby Street, Kensington
Phone:  9376 6885
Open:  Wed-Sun 7.30am-3.30pm

Disclosure:  AMES invited me and a guest to join the senior communications coordinator of AMES at AMES' 2013 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival event, "A Brunch of Cultures".  Attendance was not conditional on writing a subsequent post.  Neither AMES nor fifty-six threads have sought nor been given any editorial control of this post.

Pizza non pazza at La Cannella

"I'd like to book a table for eight, please - five kids in total."

"Great!  We'll put you in the back room, upstairs."

Cue visions of a cobwebbed seclusion room for breeders and their spawn.  I imagined having to traverse this lovely neighbourhood bistro to "the back room", dragging my snotty children as diners looked on like smug business class passengers do as you stumble through to economy, head bowed.  What awaited us "upstairs"?  Boxes of napkins for seats and the only music the tinkle of a flushing toilet below?

Imagine my delight when this is what I discovered La Cannella meant by "the upstairs back room".

The stairs in question are only two or three and mean that your group can have relative seclusion, meaning that if you have kids with you, you may actually find dinner a relaxing experience.

This little pizzeria is tucked away in a gorgeous part of Kensington, nestled among big old trees.  They're open Wednesday to Sunday evenings (live music Sundays from 4 pm!)

Now, not only will the lovely staff bring the kids unbreakable cups, allow them to play with the animals in the old fireplace (not as Victorian as it sounds) and ply them with colouring books, as well as delicious pizza, the big drawcard here is the "make your own pizza" activity for kids.

Littlies get a mini ball of dough and pizza tray and can then squish, squeeze, stretch and smoosh to their heart's content...

Roast garlic focaccia, $8.50

...while parents can high five it over the table while reaching for a piece of this awesome foccaccia, each piece studded with a juicy, caramelised garlic clove.

The "kids - we get it" approach continues with kids' pizzas for $8.50 each, with anything you want on them.  Saffron only wants pesto and artichoke?  You got it.  Ham and cheese, hold the tears?  No sweat.  (No Aussie tinned pineapple though!)

Melanzano (eggplant, passata, ricotta, pesto), $19

Grown-up pizzas are generously sized.  With six out of twelve pizzas vegetarian and gluten-free bases available, there's something for everyone.  This eggplant number got the thumbs up.

Rustica (scamorza, caramelised onion, potato, rosemary), $19

At first I found the chunky potato on my "Rustica" odd, as I had been expecting thinly sliced, but combined with silky sweet onion and a top-notch base, it won me over in the end.  I'd love to check out their recent special, the Yabbie Dabba Do, with yabbies, marscapone and chives.

Savoy cabbage salad, $8.50

Big love for this clean and refreshing shaved Savoy cabbage salad with parmesan, lemon, pepper and mint - gorgeous!

Fish of the day, $25

La Cannella also do daily-changing mains like slow-roasted pork belly, veal saltimbocca and gnocchi, perhaps baked with blue cheese.  This blue grenadier was delicate, fresh and lovely.

Dinner done, the kids' dough creations are returned to them, dusted in cinnamon and icing sugar!

Dessert pizza, $9.50

...leaving surprisingly non-frazzled parents to enjoy ZEE BEST dessert pizza with luscious poached pears and a scandalous amount of molten dark chocolate.  Fifty shades of yum.

Coffee roasted by Flemington's STREAT (formerly the Social Roasting Company) tops off a dinner that has managed to please everyone - parents, kids and, in our child-centred world, the oft-forgotten other diners.  With genuine, switched-on service, La Cannella make it seem almost easy.

Thanks for the lovely company, M, B, C, E and F!

La Cannella (Facebook)

43 Epsom Road, Kensington

Phone:  9939 7241

Open:  Wed-Sat from 5.30 pm, Sundays from 4 pm


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