Melbourne Airport food and drink: awful.

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?

May 27, 2010 | Kate | 6 Comments »

Joe Green Cafe, Northcote

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.

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I really liked the decor; it’s quirky, without looking like it’s trying too hard to be quirky.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Joe Green on Urbanspoon

May 26, 2010 | Kate | Tags: | No Comments »

EARL Canteen, Melbourne CBD

In which we eat some rather tasty sandwiches and OD on macarons.

EARL Canteen, 500 Bourke St (Little Bourke St courtyard), Melbourne. www.earlcanteen.com.au

I had arranged to meet my brother Dan for lunch today, so it seemed like an excellent excuse to visit the newly-opened EARL Canteen – a gourmet sandwich bar that opened last week in the little courtyard underneath MoVida Aqui at 500 Bourke St.

(I should mention here that the twittoblogosphere is very excited about EARL, because the people behind it are Jackie [Eating with Jack] and her partner Simon – self-confessed “food nerds”, both with quite the Melbourne hospitality pedigree. Not to mention Duncan’s macarons- but I’ll get to that in a minute.)

EARL Canteen is pretty much a sandwich bar – but not as you know it. Sandwiches, yes, but “gooor-mett” sandwiches.  I ordered the “Bacon Rage” ($13): thick cut Otway bacon, spicy kimchi and green leaves on ciabatta.

03 Bacon Rage

I confess that my main motivation for ordering this was my glee at the idea of a  #momofukurage-themed sandwich. Fortunately it was also delicious – the spicy kimchi added a lovely zing and heat to the salty-sweet bacon.  Also had a coffee to accompany my meal – they use Coffee Supreme beans, and make a very pleasant latte.

Dan ordered the Wagyu Meatball ($12.50): Moondarra wagyu meatballs in sugo, with zucchini pickles and shaved parmesan on a baguette.

04 Wagyu Meatball

Again, very tasty, although the meatballs could have been heated up a bit more – they were lukewarm in the middle. And not a sandwich that I’d try and eat on a lunch date, it’s a bit hard to get one’s mouth around without getting meatballs up one’s nose. (A classy look.)

To finish, we had to have macarons “By Duncan”. Duncan writes the Syrup and Tang blog, and is a macaron guru. (In fact I can thank his blog exclusively for teaching me how to successfully make macarons. I use the Italian meringue method, btw.)  Duncan is now also not only writing about macarons, but making them – and exclusively for EARL. That’s a big WOO and HOO for the macaron-loving people of Melbourne!

05 Macarons

We tried “Clancy Dark”, finger lime + dark chocolate; and “Yannic Intense”, salted caramel. ($2.50 each.)

I should confess at this point that I never really understood the appeal of macarons before. Yes, I’ve baked them (after seeing Zumbo’s on Masterchef last year), and they’re a nice challenge for a try-hard baker like me… but they never tasted that great, and for all the trouble they took, they weren’t as popular as, say, sponge cake.

Duncan’s macarons? Finally I get what all the fuss is about! I’m now inspired to have another crack at baking them myself. So light and delicate in texture, but very intense in flavour. Macarongasmic.

My only quibble is that they are very small, so the macarongasm is over far too quickly.

Highly recommend EARL for a tasty weekday lunch in the city. In fact I wish to bob there was somewhere like this closer to my work.

EARL Canteen on Urbanspoon

May 7, 2010 | Kate | Tags: | 8 Comments »

Your recs for Spain and Paris

“Hey, do you wanna go to Spain?” J asked me about three weeks ago.
“Yeah, all right,” I said. “When shall we go?”
“How about May?”

And so it was that we came to plan a last minute trip to Europe. As you do. And it’s less than 3 weeks away now!

So, gentle readers: where shall I eat? We’re spending a few days each in Barcelona, Seville, Granada and San Sebastian; then finishing up with two days in Paris, just because it doesn’t seem right to fly all the way over there wihout squeezing in some Paris-time.

Your recs, por favor!

May 1, 2010 | Kate | 6 Comments »

Central Otago Wine Trail, New Zealand

RIGHT. Let’s clear this bloody drafts folder, shall we?

Way back in February, as you may recall, I spent a week in the South Island of NZ. I ate everything in Queenstown, and while I did not drink everything in Central Otago, I gave it a fair crack.

A bit of background: Central Otago is all about the pinot noir, baby – in fact it makes up 85% of vineyard plantings. It’s the most southerly wine-growing region in the world, and apparently has a climate very similar to Burgundy in France. (You can read more about the region at the Central Otago Winegrowers Association website, if you’re so inclined.)

Day 1: Bannockburn

We tasted some excellent single vineyard pinot noirs at Felton Road, and snickered at the saucily-named Nipple Hill Pinot Noir at Olssens, before heading to Mt Difficulty for tastings and rather a tasty lunch. Finished up the day with some rather magnificent pinot gris at Bald Hills.

Day 2: Gibbston Valley

The Gibbston Valley area of Central Otago is only 15 minutes or so out of Queenstown, so we managed to fit in quite a few tastings. Started with Waitiri Creek, whose tasting room is a very cute little chapel, but whose cellar door staff weren’t particularly friendly and charged a tasting fee. Moved on to Peregrine, whose winery is rather spectacular, and some jolly good pinot gris and pinot noir too – I particularly liked the limited release Karearea Pinot Noir.

Lunch was at Brennan Wines, where they offer a nifty little picnic hamper full of cheeses, meats, crackers and fruit, which you can take into the gardens with a glass of wine. And play a bit of petanque, if you are so inclined.

But no rest for the wicked! On to Gibbston Valley Wines, which seemed to me to be all about the merchandising. How many ways can they part the punters with their money? There’s a cheesery, and an icecream shop, and a wine cave where you can pay for tours, and wine “flights” which all cost moolah, and the gift shop, and the restaurant… bleah.  We did a vertical tasting of their pinot noir over four vintages, and it was interesting, but to be honest I found the wine quite pricey for the quality, in comparison to others we’d tasted.

Finally, Chard Farm. Make sure your skipper is sober for this one as it’s quite a hairy drive up a narrow road that’ll have you tumbling down a ravine if your steering is, ahem, under the influence.  Fortunately I was the designated booze hag, with J as the skipper, so I was the only one tasting here! Alas, none of the wines really floated my boat.

Day 3: Rippon (Wanaka)

Actually this was the very first winery we did, as we drove back to Queenstown from Franz Josef Glacier on the west coast via Wanaka.

I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say that Rippon, on the banks of Lake Wanaka, may well have the most spectacularly beautiful vineyards in the world. And it’s not just a pretty face – the riesling is to die for, the pinot noir is spectacular, and the gewurztraminer is pretty delicious too.

Ahhh… fun times. Get yourselves to Central Otago, kids. Tell ‘em Kate sent ya.

April 30, 2010 | Kate | Tags: | No Comments »
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