Not only am I flying down with an entourage of girlfriends, we are celebrating one very special occasion: the last weeks of my singledom!

Running from 26-29 August, Taste of Melbourne will transform the Royal Exhibition Buildings into a culinary haven featuring signature dishes from Melbourne’s top restaurants.

Participating restaurants include:

* Stokehouse+ Bar
* Longrain + Bar
* Sarti
* Maze
* Fifteen
* The Palace by Luke Mangan
* Melbourne Wine Room
* Mr. Wolf
* Esposito
* Libertine
* Mezzo

This year’s festival will also feature pop up restaurants which change with each day of the show – these include Embrasse, Koots Salle a Manger and Entre Tapas y Vinos.

As with the Sydney show earlier this year, leading local producers will exhibit their delicious wares for tasting and buying. Anthea Loucas, editor of Gourmet Traveller magazine will also host cooking demonstrations by Melbourne’s leading chefs.

Win tickets to Taste of Melbourne!

Thanks to the organisers, Brand Events, we are giving away 5 double passes to Taste of Melbourne, which can be used at any session during the show. Unfortunately, flights are not included for interstate readers but there are great deals on offer from Tiger and Virgin.

To be in the running, simply leave a comment below and tell us which Melbourne restaurant you’d most like to see at the show – whether they are part of this year’s show or not!

For me, it will have to be maze, although I’m a little disappointed that Nobu and Movida aren’t participating this year.

Competition closes at 6pm Sunday 22 August. For more information, please visit www.tastefestivals.com.au.

When we were last in Melbourne, we spent the good part of an afternoon walking up and down Brunswick Street in search of the Alannah Hill outlet (we later found out that it had moved a kilometre from its original spot). After an hour of frolicking through piles of beaded cardigans and tulle dresses, we were in desperate need of a drink.

No less than 20 metres away, we found Little Creatures Dining Hall, a warehouse sized beer cafe jam packed with punters in need of a late afternoon pick me up. There was something oddly church-like about the place, only the thing being worshiped here was beer.

Awesome beer aside, Little Creatures does fantastic pub grub. It’s tasty, fast and goes along so well with beer.

Our first order was the garlic prawns, which were served whole to retain most of its original flavour. The garlic wasn’t too overpowering and I found myself chomping through the whole prawn – even the head which I’m not normally a fan of.

Whole crystal bay garlic prawns - $15

The chicken wings were also well received, we just wished there was more of it. Barbecued with a tomato based marinade, the wings were tasty and had a little kick in them too.

BBQ'd chicken wings - $14

The highlight for me was the grilled flatbread, which came with a very satisfying bowl of chunky beetroot and feta dip. The flatbread was very soft and still warm from the grill.

Beetroot and feta dip with grilled flatbread - $9

When we polished off the last chicken wing, we called over the bill, which arrived tucked into a Little Golden Book entitled “Mickey Mouse and Goofy: The Big Bear Scare”. I couldn’t help but squeal a little, it was so adorable!

No doubt a great place to go if you’ve got the afternoon munchies, but we were a little let down by the portions at Little Creatures. Judging by the size of the beers that were filtering out of the bar, we could’ve done with an extra prawn or two.

Little Creatures Dining Hall
222 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy VIC
# 03 9417 5500
www.littlecreatures.com.au

We had already spent the day eating non stop, walking up and down every street and making pointless stops at shops we weren’t interested in. Sitting on a bench, watching office workers giving themselves early marks and heading home, kids flocking out of trams and into fast food restaurants, Ms. Taste hits her iPhone to find some things to do.

“We’ve still got time left on our ticket, lets go ride the 96 tram, we haven’t done that route yet”, I suggest. Ms. Taste shakes her head and lets out an exasperated sigh, “What is your obsession with trams?”

Then she remembers that No Reservations episode where Tony visits Melbourne and with a few more minutes of googlising, we are walking again with a purpose, towards Chinatown in search of Dainty Sichuan.

After walking all the way to Little Bourke St, we find that Dainty Sichuan has moved and in it’s place, serving the same Sichuan delights with the same kitchen and wait staff is Sichuan House. It’s only 4:30 in the afternoon but there’s already two tables full of loud students tucking into their plates of chilli.

These tables weren't empty for long

Cumin Lamb Ribs

Ms. Taste orders the Cumin Lamb Ribs because Tony did it No Reservations, despite her dislike for cumin. There had to have been a jar of cumin in this dish (and a similar amount of garlic and sichuan pepper). It was an assault on the senses, with the aroma of all the strong spices, the crisp deep-fried outside and soft meat inside, and the lingering burning of the lips after each bite always itching for the next.

Fish Sour Stew with Pickled Vegetables

The stewed fish with pickled vegetables is a favourite of ours. However, each restaurant seems to have their own spin on the dish. The version at Sichuan House has plenty of bean sprouts to soak up the sour soup and that subtle, unassuming kick from all the chillis hiding under and in between all the ingredients.

My kind of ribs and beer

Sichuan House

Sichuan House was just the hit we needed before our flight home. And as we sat on the runway waiting for our plane to take off, we could still feel the tingle of Sichuan House on our tongues and took comfort in the thought that there couldn’t have been a better way to end our trip.

Sichuan House
22-26 Corrs Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
# 03 9650 8589

Crusty white bread sandwich, bacon, egg, tomato, avocado & lemon mayonnaise - $14

After a wonderful meal at Cutler & Co, we visited Andrew O’Connell’s other hatted restaurant, Cumulus Inc for some late morning breakfast.

The full English – farmhouse slab bacon, blood sausage on toast, fried eggs & smoked tomato - $18

The breakfast menu had a good variety of choices, guaranteed to appease the fussiest of eaters. However, the menu didn’t allow for changes to any of the dishes – so if you wanted to swap the sides around, you couldn’t.

Sardines with parsley, tomato and lemon on grilled sourdough - $13

CUMULUS INC. breakfast – boiled egg, toast, preserves, yoghurt, organic orange juice & coffee or tea - $16

The service was painfully slow at Cumulus Inc. It took me half an hour before I got my coffee (the waitress had apparently forgotten my order) and another hour for us to get our food. Even with 10 or so chefs in the open plan kitchen and six other tables, we all stared at each other in bewilderment as to what was holding up our food.

When our orders finally arrived, we hoed in without hesitation. It was satisfying, but it was far from fantastic. Everything tasted great and there was nothing I could fault, but the meal lacked the wow factor of Cutler & Co. Here, we just felt a little short changed.

Cumulus Inc.
45 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC
# 03 9650 1445
www.cummulusinc.com.au

When our flight landed at 7pm, we raced from the airport to the city, dropped off our bags and caught the 86 tram to Fitzroy. The restaurant had a great vibe when we walked in and our party of four was shown a table near the back.

We had a bit of trouble deciding what to order from the menu – the dishes all sounded really fantastic and we wanted to cover as much ground as possible. We did travel farther than anyone else to eat there after all.

Amuse Bouche of Crisp Crostini with Tender, Slow-cooked Octopus, Chorizo and Aioli

Parmesan chips

Mr. Taste and I shared the Salad Lyonnaise for our entree, which had a poached egg yolk encased in caramel as its centrepiece. I had seen it on the food blog, Melbourne Dining Experiences beforehand and was dying to try it.

I absolutely loved this dish, it was a smorgasbord of contrasting textures, colours and flavours. The egg was a real highlight and had me wondering how I could recreate it at home.

Salad Lyonnaise - frisee salad with crisp pancetta, garlic sausage, smoked tongue, confit gizzards and poached egg yolk - $19

Our friends, Wendy and Molly shared the Asparagus Salad as their entree. Decorated with Nasturtium flowers, this dish tasted as good as it looked. “Real” crab is hard to come by on restaurant menus. We normally see the frozen variety, but at Cutler & Co, we were pleased to find fleshy chunks of spanner crab lining the plate.

Asparagus Salad, Seared Scallop & Picked Spanner Crab - $26

Mr. Taste’s main, the line caught snapper, had him enthralled from the first bite. The glistening flakes of fish, accompanied by the broad beans, shallots and potato aioli was a winning combination.

Line caught local snapper, broad beans, glazed shallots, potato aioli - $39

The pork belly was also a memorable part of the evening. Cooked sous vide (a method used all too often on Top Chef), the pork was pull-apart tender, with lots of flavour. The crisp layer of crackling on top provided the perfect finish.

Roast suckling pig, sweet and sour onion, prune vinegar - $43

While I’m not a big lamb eater, I chose the slow roast lamb for my main. The dish was accompanied by a ’spring roll’ filled with a confit of slow braised lamb. The roast lamb was probably a little too rare for my liking, but its braised counterpart was right up my alley.

Slow roast lamb, merguez spice, carrot & black olive oil - $40

Throughout the night, we had excellent service from our attentive waiter who didn’t hesitate to check up on us regularly. This made us wonder whether we had been sticking up with Sydney’s notoriously bad customer service for too long.

Violet icecream, chocolate ganache, sour cherry sauce and chocolate sponge - $17

Although our original plan was to skip dessert at Cutler & Co and head somewhere else, we found it hard to move (literally). So we settled on a third course of strawberry sorbet on vanilla rice and chocolate sponge with violet ice cream. The two desserts couldn’t be any more different and yet, we enjoyed them all the same.

Strawberry sorbet, vanilla rice & verjuice jelly - $18

Cutler & Co
55-57 Gertrude St, Fitzroy
03 9419 4888
www.cutlerandco.com.au

Open for lunch on Friday and Sunday from noon and dinner from Tuesday to Sunday from 6pm-11pm.

Of course, I completely forget to do this and those words kept haunting me over the weekend at the times when I could do nothing about it, like on the plane or at 2am. I kept reminding myself that we are coming back in a few weeks, it won’t be a major drama if we miss out this trip, I’ll have plenty of time to book it for then.

Movida Exterior

So Ms. Taste and I end up wandering around Melbourne’s inner-city suburbs on a Sunday morning, bored out of our wits as nothing is open besides Coles (we went to the Coles in Richmond and then to the Coles in Fitzroy! Yes it was boring!). A pretty unsatisfactory leg of our unusually unprepared trip. So I suggest we might as well give MoVida a shot, worst case is that we get rejected and make a booking for our next trip (saving on a phone call, oh cheapskate-ness ahoy!) or we wait for a while and hopefully be lucky enough to snag a table.

Chalkboard full of desserts

Back onto the tram, we jump off into the empty wind-tunnel streets of the CBD and make our way down a few blocks to Hosier Lane, just off Flinders St and sort of in front of Federation Square. There’s a group of tourists taking photos and posing in front of the murals. It’s hard to tell whether they’re there to admire the art on the walls or whether they’re a bunch of excited foodies. Somehow we’ve arrived on the stroke of noon, just as they’re opening. The tables are all empty and reserved and the bar and window seats are already occupied save two seats. Lady Luck must have been making up for that boring morning with a fun afternoon ahead. “Are you OK to sit at the bar?”, asks the hostess. “Eh, I don’t think that will be a problem”, we reply, grinning with excited giggles.

Seated at the bar

Complimentary bread and olive oil

We’re immediately greeted with a few slices of soft bread, a few of a crustier nature and a small pool of olive oil. Our friendly bartender/waiter explains how we should order – The tapa are small individual bite-sized pieces, whilst the racion are plates to share amongst two or more people. Whilst we both sit silently, contemplating our ordering strategy (How many things can we eat? What looks like good value? Uh, wait didn’t we just eat?), our barman returns with our drinks and some more slices of bread for our freshly vacated bread plate.

Apple Cider - Le Pere Jules Cidre Bouche $8.00

Anchoa: Hand filleted Cantabrian artisan anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet - $4.50

Anchoa

Our waiter suggests the Anchoa, one taste changed how he looks at the world he tells us (or was it how he looked at anchovies? Eh, same thing). The cool smoky foam fills the nostrils whilst the intense salty anchovy and the texture of the crispy crouton provide a enjoyably complex mouthful to slowly take in and digest.

Viera: Roasted Spring Bay scallop with jamon and potato foam - $4.80 each

Next is the Viera, with it’s sliver of jamon that also gives off that wonderful smoky aroma. The fresh and juicy scallop is quickly devoured and any of the leftover creamy potato foam is mopped up with some bread.

Gambas al ajillo: Prawns cooked in garlic and fino with broad beans - $18.50

Gambas al ajillo - $18.50

The ubiquitous Spanish garlic prawns dish, but with fino and broad beans! The prawns were fresh and cooked perfectly, the flavourful leftover sauce is again eagerly mopped up with what had to be our 5th refill of bread.

San Jacobo de cordonice: Hunter Valley quail, partially boned, crumbed, and filled with jamon and mahon cheese - $8.00

An amazing chicken nugget filled with amazing treasures inside its crunchy and crispy exterior. The cheese oozes out as we split this one down the middle, we both enjoy our portion and agree that half was just right for this relatively heavy dish.

Costilla con sobrasada: Roast lamb cutlet encased in a Catalan pork and paprika pate - $7.50

The green sauce is similar to a chimichurri, a strong parsley taste with the pork and paprika a little too subtle for my tastebuds. Also cooked perfectly, both of us very satisfied with this dish.

Carillera de buey: Slowly braised beef cheek in Pedro Ximenez on cauliflower puree - $18.50

Carillera de buey - $18.50

Ms. Taste’s favourite dish, the soft sweet and juicy beef cheek, falling apart and melting in our mouths. The penultimate course, I leave it to Ms. Taste to polish it off as it is very rich and flavourful.

Daily Special - Barramundi and other seafood

Our last dish, the daily special with barramundi and some other creatures from the sea. It’s unlucky that this dish came after the beef cheek. I have a harder time tasting the subtleties of the sauce and the seafood as there’s still the strong meaty taste lingering on my tongue. But everything is definitely fresh and it goes undeservingly unloved due to its order in the lineup and our already over-filled stomachs.

A highlight of our short trip to Melbourne, it leaves us hankering for some more tapas on our return to Sydney. Sitting just a few spots above MoVida on the Gourmet Traveller Top 100 is Surry Hills’ Bodega Tapas Bar, and top of our to-do list is to brave the crowds and their no-bookings policy to see if the high standards set at MoVida are exceeded.

MoVida
1 Hosier Lane
Melbourne
# 03 9663 3038
www.movida.com.au

Open daily from noon until late.