Well, I think I’ve sufficiently recovered from the epic Hot Cross Bun tasting, to attempt another Best in Melbourne post.
Footy finals are approaching, so I thought perhaps “Best Meat Pie” might be a handy thing to know before your Grand Final party.
Suggestions, please, as to which pies ought to be included in the tasting? I’m thinking we’d better stick with the basic meat pie, for consistency’s sake.
Yes, I know, I haven’t posted in forever. No, I wasn’t being lazy, I was totally eating stuff. In Spain. It was RESEARCH.
I had two weeks over there, including Barcelona, Seville, Granada and San Sebastian. I ate my bodyweight in jamon, and drank so much Rioja that my liver threatened a walkout. I managed to get by with my three beginner’s-classes-worth of Spanish, plus my trusty Lonely Planet phrasebook (although still managed some spectacular faux-pas, such as ordering toast with “donkey” instead of butter).
How was the food? Well, pretty good, and VERY cheap compared to Melbourne. But not mind-blowing. Mostly it was pretty rustic, and actually that was when it was at its best – a simple plate of the best jamon, some crusty bread, and a big bowl of hot pimientos de Padrón.
Enough talking. LET’S GET TO THE FOOD PORN.
Where I saw some markets that crap all over the Queen Vic; spent 20 euro on a “famous” roast chicken dish that turned out to be pretty much the same as the hot chicken place in Clifton Hill; and discovered that pig’s trotters, for all their nose-to-tail foodie chic, are pretty much just fat and skin. Oh, and ate a lot of fried little fishies.
Seville: where we managed to eat three meals a day, despite nobody speaking any English (which is fair enough, it is Spain after all) and there being no menu in half the tapas bars. There was a lot of pointing at other people’s food. Oh, and there are chips with EVERYTHING. I also ate caracoles (snails), which are far more disturbing-looking than the French escargot. They had little faces and antennae. I kept waiting for one of them to yell “UNFAIR TO SNAILS!!” like Gus from Mr Squiggle.
Granada: where they have free tapas. Yep, you order a beer, they bring you food. Our favourite place was Bodega Castaneda.
Where I found my happy place. It’s like Paris, only smaller and cuter, and by the sea. Oh, and cheaper. We ate pintxos (Basque for tapas) pretty much every night; everyone recommended me to go to La Cuchara de San Telmo, which I liked but wasn’t blown away by. We had an amazing three-course lunch at Kaskazuri – spectacular food, wine and coffee included, for 24 euro a head. Unbelievable.
Does anyone have a recipe for tarta de queso? I don’t like cheesecake, but I loooooved the light gooey Spanish version – particularly at La Viña.
In which I get to crank up my Food Wanker status by being literally the first person to eat at North Fitzroy’s newest restaurant.
Jorg, 203 St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North. www.jorgrestaurant.com.au
I’ve just realised that I didn’t have a suburb tag for Fitzroy North yet! Which just goes to show: there really hasn’t been much in the way of restaurants there until now. (Except for the Moroccan Soup Kitchen, which I can’t stand, but that’s another story.)
Fitzroyals have been eagerly awaiting the opening of new restaurant Jorg, which is on St Georges Road, just before Scotchmer St (it used to be a Video Busters and then was a greengrocers for a while). And no wonder they’re excited – the chefs behind Jorg are Michael Smith, ex head chef at Jacques Reymond, and Bryce Bernhardt, ex sous chef at Church St Enoteca.
Mick and Maria live just across the road on Best St, and called me last night to tell me it was finally open. J and I met them there, to discover that we were the very first table of punters!
This is not going to be a proper review post, as I think it’s poor form to review a place on their opening night; but from our meal last night, I think it all looks really promising. I like the space, it’s minimal without being cavernous. Apparently there is a function space out the back for up to 100 people!
The food is loosely “European” – little bit Italian, little bit Spanish. The menu offers sharing-style entrees; the mains are less geared towards sharing, although we did anyway. I’d had a long and foul day at work and was not in the mood for decision making, so our lovely waitress suggested that perhaps the kitchen could just organise a menu for us. FABULOUS – I love not having to choose!
Among the starters, we particularly liked the chicken ribs; and for mains, the pork cutlet was DIVINE. We probably had a bit too much food, and with two bottles of wine it ended up being $320 for 4 people. Which is quite spendy for a impulsive Friday night, but we did have a good time.
I’m off to Spain on Monday (BOOYAH!!), but will do a proper review of Jorg when I get back. In the meantime, let me know if you go, and what you think of it!
Melbourne is arguably the food capital of Australia.
Why then is all the food and drink on offer at our major airport so appalling?!
I’ve been travelling quite a bit this year, mostly for work; and inevitably the odd flight delay here and cancellation there have resulted in me having to spend a bit of time at Tullamarine. (Time that unfortunately I’ll never get back.)
I’ve tried eating just about everywhere here, and it’s all spectacularly depressing. Even the food chains (McDonalds, Hudsons etc) have been squaloriffic, when usually you could at least count on them to be clean.
Does airport dining have to be hideous? Sydney International now boasts some actual foodie cred, with outposts of city establishments Bambini Wine Bar and Danks Street Depot. Terminal 5 at JFK in New York boasts all sorts of proper gourmet eateries.
I’d like to see Melbourne Airport lift its game. Have you come across any other airports that have decent food options for the food-loving traveller?
In which I spend a rather beautiful Saturday eating a somewhat disappointing lunch.
Joe Green, 2A Mitchell St, Northcote. Ph (03) 9481 5554
New cafes seem to be spawning like tadpoles in the primal hipster ooze of Northcote. One of the newest is Joe Green. I visited for lunch on a radiantly sunny autumn day with Dan and J.
I really liked the decor; it’s quirky, without looking like it’s trying too hard to be quirky.
Unfortunately that’s where the love ended for me, on this visit.
We ordered whitebait to come out first as a starter – but they weren’t as hot as they should have been if they were cooked to order, and the little fishies weren’t very crispy.
There was nothing to dip them in. Usually fried whitebait will come with aioli or mayonnaise or something. “Oh well, that’s weird,” we thought, and ate a few of the lukewarm fishies anyway. (Well, I was hungry.) And then a creamy tartare turned up five minutes later, after we’d given up on the whitebait.
The rest of the food turned up reasonably promptly; we ordered the Siciliana pizza, the pasta with lamb ragu, and the radicchio and cos salad.
I probably would have liked the pizza if it didn’t have quite so many capers on it. Capers are salty little buggers, and in my opinion ought to be used sparingly, like anchovies.
None of us liked the pasta, and we didn’t finish it. To me, the sauce tasted like bottled tomato sauce.
The radicchio and cos salad consisted of about eleven pieces of lettuce in a bowl. It was $6.50 and I felt ripped off. I guess it’s not like it was false advertising – it was, indeed, radicchio and cos – but seriously, $6.50 for that?
Service was friendly, but very patchy, and they weren’t busy.
Apparently the coffee is good here, according to Dan; they use Coffee Supreme. We didn’t stick around to try it.
I hope they can improve the food and service here, it’s a great location and space.
Food-loving Melbourne gal with annoying habit of critiquing everything she eats. Encouraged by friends to either shut up or tell someone who cares... hopefully you, dear reader.