Melbourne eats: Meatball & Wine Bar

I have a thing for meatballs so it should be no surprise that the trendy, new-ish Meatball & Wine Bar in Melbourne CBD was high on my list of Melbourne restaurants to visit on my last trip.

On Flinders Lane near 'it' restaurant Chin Chin, Meatball & Wine Bar is a fantastic niche with a simple and extremely well-executed concept: meatballs. Plus wine and other appropriate accompaniments for the two.

Inside Meatball & Wine Bar, Flinders Lane, Melbourne

The CBD restaurant (they recently opened another restaurant in Richmond) is a rustic, brick-walled venue in that industrial-chic look that's so easily lovable these days. It's not a narrow space that stretches the length of the bar, front drinking area and back dining room with communal tables, and a seemingly tiny kitchen.

There is a bit of a weird policy that tables at the front and side walls of the restaurant are not served main meals, but are only permitted to order appetiser/ starter type dishes and drinks – perhaps it's their way of presenting a bar menu but it's a little awkward in any case.

Samboy-flavoured jerky

Without a booking we were assigned a wall table until a 'proper' table became available. We ordered drinks (Campari and orange, and a beer – oops, no wine) and some meaty bits to start.

There's a four flavour selection of beef jerky available and we were swayed by the waiter's favourite of Samboy – that potato crisp brand that was big the 1990s and had an awesome barbeque flavour.

The dried beef, served cutely in a stamped paper bag, had a good, not-excessive chew and full beefy flavour and just a slight hint of additional seasoning that could have been any of the Samboy chip flavours but was meant to be salt and vinegar.

Charcuterie board

I find it hard to pass up charcuterie selections so the large board of four cured meats, served with a bowl of fluffy focaccia, was ordered, covering the small table. Thinly-sliced salamis flavoured with truffle and fennel seeds had great highlights, especially the earthy truffle salami.

The fat-marbled capocollo cured pork shoulder and neck is usually a favourite charcuterie cut of mine but the sensationally lush, fatty prosciutto di San Daniele had it won this time with its silky soft, opaquely thin ribbons of cured pork leg.

Mini balls

We ordered the assorted mini meatballs when seated in the 'non-proper' dining area, and hence 'non-proper meatball dish' section, and it turned out to be a pretty good option to taste a variety of balls – pork, beef and chicken served with dipping sauces of barbeque sauce, creamy aioli and a green pesto sauce.

Pork meatballs with red sauce and homemade pasta

When it comes to the proper balls part of the menu, it's a choose-your-own-meatball-adventure style with your choice of pork, beef, chicken, fish or vegetable balls and red (Italian tomato), white (creamy) or green (pesto salsa verde) sauces.

Hilariously you also get a choice of sotto palle, "something for your balls to sit on": beans, polenta, potato mash, market vegetables or the homemade pasta as we did.

A couple of large sheets of silky pasta like bedsheets beneath the larger pork and fennel meatballs, which had a definitive fennel aroma. We elected the classic Italian tomato sauce, which came topped with shavings of parmesan cheese and fennel fronds, and another slice of foccacia on the side.

This is the kind of homely, hearty food I could eat every day, especially given the reasonable pricing too.

Grilled mushroom, tallegio cheese, thyme

We added on a mushroom side that turned out to be a single field mushroom, grilled with tallegio cheese and thyme to remain in a still juicy, almost meaty state.

Tiramisu

To end, tiramisu was an easy dessert pick, as on any proper Italian menu, and I love the ones that come scooped out from a larger serving, looking generous and homely all at once.

This version featured both plain and chocolate sponge, soaked with a proper coffee hit and layered with liberal helpings of mascarpone cream and a heavy dusting of chocolate powder on top.

The restaurant and bar remained busy for the entire time we were there, showing the mass popularity of the concept and venue. Both the vibe and service are spot on, and given its price point, I think it's a place you could visit on a weekly basis.

I suppose I could say we were balled over by the experience at Meatball & Wine Bar and had a real ball.

OzHarvest Feeding the 5000 with rescued food to highlight food wastage

Food wastage is an issue close to my conscience and fridge – I hate throwing out groceries from the fridge or pantry. I feel guilty about the financial and environmental waste, as well as the thought that someone else out there really could have done with the extra food.

Feeding the 5000 by OzHarvest, Martin Place, Sydney

Australians throw out $7.8 billion of food every year, according to foodwise.com.au, which equates to every Australian household throwing out $1,038 worth of groceries each year. That’s four million tonnes per year of food which ends up in landfill, and yet there are those without enough food.

Pop-up milk crate garden

And not that food supply is an issue in Australia. Our country produces enough food to feed approximately 60 million people, according to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (including exports, of course) – yet two million people in Australia still rely on food relief every year.

OzHarvest volunteers

Just last month, OzHarvest – the not-for-profit organisation that rescues food and delivers it to people in need – hosted a major awareness event in Sydney CBD's Martin Place, partnering with the United Nations Environment Program (OzHarvest is the official Australian partner on the global Think.Eat.Save – Reduce your Foodprint campaign).

Maeve O'Meara (centre) with volunteers

Feeding the 5000 brought together a number of restaurant chefs and industry figures, hundreds of OzHarvest volunteers and rescued ingredients to raise awareness of food waste and consumer tips to help reduce wastage.

Chef Lauren Murdoch (left) at the vegetable curry station

Surplus vegetable curry with rescued rice, onion relish and yoghurt

A free hot lunch for 5000 people was created out of ingredients that would have otherwise ended up as landfill. The menu included a full-flavoured vegetable curry made of surplus vegetables from the Sydney Markets and rescued sauce from MARS Food, served with rescued rice, onion relish, yoghurt and day-old bread salvaged from Brasserie Bread.

Brasserie Bread and saved potato and ham hock soup station

Dessermakers, Heilala Vanilla and Brasserie Bread's rescued bread & butter pudding station

Lemonade by 42 Bannerman

There was also saved potato soup with smoked ham hock by Martin Boetz of the Cooks Co-Op and James Viles of Biota; rescued bread and butter pudding by Dessertmakers, Pepe Saya and Heilala Vanilla; onion relish by Three Blue Ducks, chapatti from the Sydney Sikh community; gazpacho by Hungry Mondays, yoghurt by Kristen at the Full Circle and a fantastically refreshing home-style spiced lemonade by Salvatore Mammoti from 42 Bannerman Trattoria e Bar.

OzHarvest founder and CEO Ronni Kahn (left) and OzHarvest patron Thérèse Rein
(Photo by Giles Park, courtesy of Liquid Ideas)

Founder and CEO of OzHarvest, Ronni Kahn, said the aim behind the Feeding the 5000 event globally is to help raise awareness about the disturbing amount of food wasted around the world and how individuals, producers, supermarkets and governments can do a lot more to reduce food waste in our country.

"Food waste is a huge challenge that needs to be addressed locally and be embraced within our own homes first, so that we can affect incremental change globally. Our challenge is to create a sustainable food culture that can be shared by all. It’s a paradox that we produce enough food to feed all seven billion of us, yet so many in this world go hungry," Kahn said.

"The aim of this event is to educate all people – producers, consumers and businesses alike. We should not buy into the fact that fruit and veg needs to be cosmetically beautiful before we’ll buy it, because for every bendy or blemished carrot thrown out – we throw away embedded water, energy and fuel,” she said.

Billy Kwong's Kylie Kwong dishing out the vegetable curry
(Photo by Giles Park, courtesy of Liquid Ideas)

Nick Nuttall, UNEP spokesperson, added: “The way humanity manages or mismanages its food supply will in many ways define the 21st century – currently we know that we are not doing a great job with at least one-third of all food produced lost or wasted.”

"All of us are connected to food and every one of us can make a difference in the lives of those in need and the health of our planet,” he said.

In attendance at the Feeding the 500 event were OzHarvest patron and current First Lady (or Mrs Kevin Rudd) Thérèse Rein; Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore and United Nations representative Julia Dean.

OzHarvest founder and CEO Ronni Kahn speaking on the panel

There was also a panel discussion on Food Waste, Food Sustainability & Food Security featuring OzHarvest’s Ronni Kahn; Joost Bakker, sustainable architect of Greenhouse by Joost fame; Anabella Sao, a local grower; Indira Naidoo, author, blogger and former TV personality; Professor Veena Sahajwalla of the University of New South Wales; and Stephen Beaman, Director of Waste and Resource Recovery, NSW Environment Protection Authority.

Efendy's Somer Sivrioglu (right) cooking at the stove(Photo by Giles Park, courtesy of Liquid Ideas)

Chefs throwing in a helping hand included Kylie Kwong of Billy Kwong; Martin Boetz of The Cook’s Co-op (and formerly Longrain); James Viles of Biota Dining; Lauren Murdoch of Three Weeds; Somer Sivrioglu of Efendy; Grant LaBrooy of Three Blue Ducks; and Omar Ivan Andrade, Ben Sampson and Hendrik Vogelzang of Hungry Mondays.

The event was also supported by the NSW Environment Protection Authority’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted. Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes). Food loss and waste also amount to a major squandering of resources, including water, land, energy, labour and capital and needlessly produce greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global warming and climate change.

Food is Fashion (part 2): Cara&Co Restaurant

If food is indeed fashion, there's no better example than Cara&Co on Level 4 in Westfield Sydney: part fashion retailer, part fine dining restaurant and all completely delicious.

Like fashion seasons and collections, Cara&Co presents a new menu at the turn of every season. Crafted by Belgian chef Dave de Belder, this winter's menu is said to explore the textures, temperature and taste of winter flavours, with a very fine, very modern European touch.

Champagne Deveaux at Cara&Co Restaurant, Level 4, Westfield Sydney

There’s no more perfect a start (to anything really) than champagne – the toasty Champagne Deveaux tickling the palate as Cara&Co’s exemplary bread rolls arrived to the table alongside butter topped with black salt flakes.

Bread roll with butter and salt

Amuse bouche

The amuse bouche at Cara&Co never fail to impress with their intricate and impactful flavour combinations.

The moist cake of sun dried tomato hinted at the Mediterranean with somewhat summery accompaniments of a cucumber jelly sheet and lemon cream; the flavours combining for a momentary escape from winter.

Amuse bouche

Our second amuse was a porcini mushroom-dusted tapioca cracker, served on a polished stone with a dab of lettuce cream, a tiny porcini mushroom and micro leaves of cress; forming an umami-packed and crunchy couple of mouthfuls.

Salmon at the Dill Academy – Cured salmon gravlax, dill, brioche, lettuce, crab

There was something about the cold entrées that attracted us – perhaps in subconscious preparation for heartier mains.

The gravlax entrée featured lusciously thick slices of cured salmon, tinged green by dill on the outer surfaces.

Texturally-varied accompaniments included a herbaceous sorbet, crisp air-dried brioche, lettuce segments and crunchy tubes filled with spanner crab flesh; all allowing the salmon to shine as the star ingredient.

King of the Bulls – Beef tartare, capers, quail egg, chive, oyster

The beef tartare was surprisingly creamy and velvety on the palate in its chunky mince form, with quail egg yolks adding to the richness, cut by caperberries. The thins of crispbread played the role of garnish rather than eating implement while chive foam added greenery.

But it was all outshone by the oyster pearls which were tiny, liquid nitrogen-frozen spheres of pureed natural oysters. Melting in the mouth the pearls disseminated the pure, unadulterated and even intensified flavour of oysters in an absolutely astonishing addition to the dish.

Lamb a la Dolce Vita – Lamb shoulder, sweet potato, plum, Earl Gray tea

Braised meats entered the spotlight on the mains menu; exuding hearty, comfort and Belgian-ness all at once - and really, winter food at its best.

The slow cooked lamb shoulder, which had a sous vide and roast treatment, arrived as neat little squares of fall-apart meat, rich with fattiness and hours of seasoning and cooking.

It was served with an unlikely partner of plums - prunes and seemingly fresh slices - adding sweetness to the dish along with a puree of sweet potato. The early grey tea-scented veal jus was the finishing touch, poured at the table.

Slow Cooked Bull Wins the Race – Wagyu beef, radish, pastrami, aged cheese, wild grains

The slow-cooked wagyu beef main was similarly fall-apart tender like the lamb, served cylindrically with pastrami crisps and raw radish slices.

Crisp pearl barley was a great way to present the grains on the side and add texture while the distinctly aged cheddar foam was a dominant flavour of the dish though melding reasonably well with the jus.

No Animals were Harmed – Gnocchi, celeriac, carrot, beetroot, nutmeg

We also sampled the vegetarian main of pan-fried gnocchi that was like squares of mashed potato cakes with a great, rich and meat-free nutmeg-spiked sauce.

The colourful carrots and beetroots were a delight to look at and eat, with cubes of celeriac (not feta cheese as I'd originally thought) upping the vegetable count.

Bon Bon Bomb – Macadamia, apple, raspberry, chilli

Cara&Co's desserts of many components also feature the stunning plating and presentation that impressed through the night; only fitting for a fashion-oriented establishment really.

The intense macadamia nut cream dessert toys with refreshing apple sorbet and fresh apple rings, while the chilli aspect was a bit lost on me, unless it was somehow in the perfect quenelle of raspberry sorbet.

Noisette de Indochine – Keffir lime leaf, hazelnut, coffee

Hazelnut features in another dessert - roasted halves and a creamy hemisphere atop a citrusy kaffir lime scented cream. An accompanying coffee cream was just as intense in flavour as the nutty aspects and most surprising was the liquid-filled chocolate ball - best eaten in one mouthful and not cracked on the plate.

Petit fours

Like their always interesting amuse bouche, Cara&Co ends the meal with petit fours on every occasion too. This time it was a short, buttery, chocolate-filled biscuit that had a fancy French name and looked like a toffee-topped mini muffin.

Petit fours

I preferred the tiny dark chocolate brownie square; a rich, fudgey rendition studded with almonds to finish the gorgeous meal, which did feel like quite the fashion collection.

It had so many colours and textures, accessories and main events, all combining for an overall look and feel that's undeniably fine, European style. And don't forget to strut, just a little, on the catwalk way out because, darling, it's fashion.

Food, booze and shoes dined as a guest of Cara&Co Restaurant, with thanks to WM Media.