Good times collective #11: Melbourne must-eats

Even as a not-so-common visitor to Melbourne these days, there are places and dishes that are almost quintessentially Melbourne from a Sydney perspective, as I'm sure there are the other way around - though perhaps less so with various restaurants and trends capturing stomachs in both states.

Fried eggs with jamon, figs and potato tortilla from Hardware Societe, Hardware Street, Melbourne

The hype around CBD laneway cafe Hardware Societe doesn't seem to have died down at all, if my last two visits to Melbourne are anything to go by.

Always turned off by the usual breakfast queues, I was pleasantly surprised on a Thursday morning with no queue but still a jam-packed venue including a shared communal table.

Fried eggs with jamon, figs and potato tortilla from Hardware Societe

Breakfast at Hardware Societe is no light affair. With Spanish and French influences throughout the menu, breakfast is a little more glam than your standard cafe breakfast and quite irresistibly so.

Spanish jamon cured ham and a wedge of potato tortilla made an appearance alongside in-season fresh figs and a scattering of pumpkin seeds in a gorgeous spin on breakfast eggs and toast that was as gourmet as it was filling.

Herb roasted mushrooms with twice cooked gruyere de comte souffle from Hardware Societe

Even more rich was the vegetarian dish of buttery, herb roasted mushrooms atop seeded toast, with watercress and two fluffy cheese "souffles" finished with a herbed creme fraiche; certainly one of the richest, and ultimately deliciously filling vegetarian meals I've had to date.

Bills burger from Huxtaburger, Fulham Place, Melbourne

There's yet to be a burger joint in Sydney with the name and following of Huxtaburger in Melbourne, which has three venues throughout Melbourne and avid, die-hard fans. The CBD outlet, hidden in a laneway and backing out into a food court, is licensed and with indoor and outdoor seating.

It's a more of a scoff-and-dash venue, which is fine by the hungry devourers of the all-Aussie Bills burger featuring a fried egg and bacon with the juicy beef pattie, and beetroot and a pineapple ring in addition to lettuce and tomato - a burger doesn't get much more Australian than that.

Rudy burger with chipotle fries from Huxtaburger

After a holiday standard breakfast; that is, a relatively huge one, I could only manage a kids-size burger. And large fries but only because they were of the nostalgic crinkle-cut variety, tossed in a lightly spiced chipotle seasoning.

The cute Rudy burger on a shiny mini burger bun with a beef pattie, lettuce and tomato was a classic burger with both tomato sauce and mayonnaise. For a proper meat hit, though, go the full size.

Tam Tam ramen from Fukuryu Ramen, Corrs Lane, Melbourne

Melbourne's a little behind Sydney on the ramen game - while we can virtually turn any corner in the city and inner suburbs and find a great ramen joint (post coming next week on the new, second Ippudo in the Central Park complex, Broadway), it's not quite as easy in Melbourne.

Fukuryu Ramen is located up a couple flights of stairs in an aged laneway building, but once you're up there, it's like any other brightly-lit fast food restaurant. Order at the front and get a neat little tracker, rather than a buzzer, that alerts waistaff to your seating location once your food is ready for table delivery.

Offered in regular or large size (adults aren't allowed to order the kid's size - I tried), the mildly spicy, red-hued 'Tam Tam' ramen featured chasuhu roast pork slices and nori seaweed sheets propped up against the side of the bowl, as well as half a googy-yolked egg and pork mince through the soup. The broth had a fantastic smoky umami-ness that strongly encouraged one to finish the entire bowl of soup.

Miso ramen from Fukuryu Ramen

There wasn't quite the same depth of flavour in the miso ramen which had a chicken and fish based broth. It came with toppings of buttered corn, shallots, nori, chashu, egg and oddly, also some of the minced pork at the bottom of the bowl. While it was decently rich with miso, it wasn't the best miso ramen I've ever had and not nearly as good as my neighbouring bowl.

Sweet potato fries with Vietnamese spicy chilli mayonnaise from Lord of the Fries, Flinders Street, Melbourne

I'm actually yet to visit the Lord of the Fries outlet in Sydney, but happily divert to the store near Flinders Street station every time for a hit of fried potatoes - or in this instance, sweet potato.

Darkly fried, the sweet potato chips alternate between crunchy and soggy, enriched with the 'Vietnamese' sauce - a lightly spiced mayonnaise.

Ninjabread martini, Section 8, Tattersalls Lane

An outdoor, converted shipping container bar pumping with music in a Chinatown lane is quite the concept and Section 8 seems to pull it off effortlessly. Downstairs from other nearby bars, I assume the noise isn't an issue - how un-Sydney - and while sangria jugs and beers seemed the popular choice, I was completely and somewhat unexpectedly delighted with my Ninjabread martini.

Vanilla vodka featured with a touch of cream in the shaken cocktail that seemed to lack a real ginger hit, but it was the gingerbread crumb rim that won me over in the decidedly 'yum' cocktail.

Jia zhang noodles from Camy Shanghai Dumpling, Tattersalls Lane, Melbourne

After a drink or two, the allure of cheap dumplings and noodles nearby in Tattersalls Lane is hard to resist. The well-priced menu and brusque service go hand in hand, and there's even an all-you-can-eat option for the seriously hungry.

The meaty, saucy jia zhang wheat noodles are fabulous for booze-soaking, and general eating too. The generous bowl of dry noodles is topped with a fine pork mince and finely chopped other ingredients in the Asian bolognaise-like sauce, with Chinese greenery on the side.

Pan fried pork dumplings from Camy Shanghai Dumplings

The crisp bottomed pan-fried dumplings are also people-pleasers, with a unique situation where the dumpling wrapper is just as good as the juicy, porky filling. With vinegar sauce and a touch of chilli, these are the kinds of dumplings that I could just eat forever, for the rest of time.

Hot and sour soup from Camy Shanghai Dumpling

The generosity of serving sizes continued with the hot and sour soup, served searingly hot and thick, jam-packed with tofu, bamboo shoots and other goodies in a well balanced vinegary and chilli soup base.

Xiao long bao from Camy Shanghai Dumpling

The only disappointment at Camy Shanghai Dumpling were the xiao long bao soup dumplings which were quite terrible and even worse than the frozen, steam-at-home varieties. Cooked in a too-small bamboo steamer, the dumpling skins ripped and lost what little soup they held while the filling flavour was so mediocre that even vinegar and soy sauces couldn't help.

I always feel like I need a salad week or two after an eating and drinking weekend in Melbourne, but it's all about the balance and the good times afterall.



 

 

Melbourne wrap #3

This is the last of the Melbourne posts, starting from last year. After one particular day of city tripping, through Flinders Street on the way back to our serviced apartment, we see people clutching cones of fresh cooked potato chips and eagerly join the queue at Lord of the Fries.

It’s not just chips – there’s the huge range of sauces, onion rings, burgers and even “nuggets” – not bad for a vegetarian/vegan outlet. For a very late lunch we order a few boxes of deep fried goodies drenched in sauces to take home for a proper pig-out, six-pack in hand – all class.

Fries with Swiss and Belgian sauces from Lord of the Fries,
Flinders Street, Melbourne CBD

The box of chips gets soggy quickly, steaming away as we rushed home – I wonder if the cones keep them crisp more effectively? It’s not helped by the puddles of two different sauces on top: the special of a Swiss mustard in bright chutney yellow and the creamy Belgian ‘euro’ mayo.

Thickly cut and well browned, I struggle to find a single crispy chip in the box, but the thick, creamy and herbs/spice-dotted mayonnaise makes up for it, mostly.

Onion rings with Aussie sauce

The box full on onion rings is also doused in a sauce; this the Aussie, a tomato sauce with vinegar. I’m not sure what’s so Australian about that, but it’s a refreshing change from good old ‘dead horse’.

Perhaps caused by the golden crumb on the rings of onion, this pack actually maintained some crispness and was my favourite of the lot.

Nuggets with Vietnamese sauce

I momentarily forgot that Lord of the Fries is vegetarian when I ordered the nuggets; enticed by one of my childhood favourites and current ‘guilty pleasure’ foods. Rather free in form, these golden battered blobs are drowning in the Vietnamese sauce that is a sweet chilli mayonnaise.

Nugget inner

Biting into the nugget, I think anyone could easily mistake it for chicken. The texture was spot-on (although I suppose chicken nuggets come in varying textures anyway, with rather unknown contents), but there was definitely a lack of flavour that probably comes from chicken fat (and feathers, bones and beaks if some people are to be believed). Improved with the sauce, we polish off this box too, crumbs and all.

Post Lord of the Fries meal

Re-energised, lined stomachs and a bit thirsty from the salty fare, a few drinks were in order. We managed to get to Lonsdale Street where the bar hopping started; the first two bars were great though – the subsequent ones less and less memorable and ending quite unmemorably at Crown Casino.

Seamstress, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD

I found Seamstress (or more accurately, its basement, Sweatshop) a few years ago after stumbling out of a Chinatown laneway. With three levels (basement bar, first level restaurant, top level cocktail bar), there’s something for most; although the kitchen was closed at our late hour. While both bars were relatively quiet, we sat up at the bar at Seamstress for a cocktail.

The Tri-fecta

I couldn’t resist the menu of ‘Short drinks in fancy glasses’, and beautiful, fancy glasses they were. Based on vodka, lime, sugar and delectable elderflower cordial, it was a refreshing tipple, especially with the cucumber and mint additions.

In fact, the cucumber flavour came through more strongly than the elderflower, as did the lime. It was a very pretty yet properly warming drink.

Bartender's tipple

Written up on a board next to the bar, the ‘bartender’s tipple’ was a special that included pisco, pineapple juice and lemon, and was a stronger drink, equally warming if not more so. Pisco is not one of my poisons of choice, with its strong rum-like, in my opinion.

Nihonshu, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD

A literal hop and skip away, we pass a dimly lit shopfront with a long bar running down its length and step back to see Nihonshu looking back invitingly. I see two seats inside at the high-seated bar and pull up to the substantial menu of sake and shochu.

Shelves stocked with sake

The shelves behind the bar are almost groaning under the weight of a huge selection of bottles and tins of beers, with Japanese snacks to match. We see others further up the bar choosing their own sake cups of different patterns for their immediate use.

Winter special and potato chips

We ordered a winter special of umeshu (plum wine) with black tea and sugar, which arrives piping hot in a large earthenware teacup. It’s strong in all three facets, with the alcohol in the plum wine almost amplified by the heat, toned down somewhat by the bitterness of the tea.

We also share chips and soy crisps in more gorgeous crockery from an actual menu of Japanese snack foods.

Nihonshu interior

Chilling at Nihonshu

It felt quite Japanese underground in the bar, so it was a little odd to step back out into the cold Melbourne CBD street and see Saturday night crowds out and about. The night continues at The Toff in Town (a lot of colourful characters, to say the least) and Match Bar (much more subdued and cruisey).

With the wisdom of not being quite so young and stupid anymore, the night ends with a degree of decorum and the morning after starts with a refreshing, hangover-free swim and spa session. I’m finally seeing some positives in maturity.