Louis Sergeant, Wellington (NZ) by Benny

For those with a sweet tooth, Louis Sergeant is a not-to-be-missed experience when visiting Wellington. Or so I had heard on numerous occasions from Bilby who travels to New Zealand regularly. So when the opportunity came for combining a two-day workshop with a weekend in the windy city, plans were made. Expectations were high.

Louis Sergeant describes itself as a “contemporary Salon de Thé”. It is very, very French and is known for its spectacular patisserie – in this instance the term edible art is not misplaced. Tea connoisseurs can choose from a fine selection, served in floral china pots amidst chic décor that recalls memories of Parisian elegance.

Pho Mee, Melbourne CBD by Benny

Back in the early 1990s I worked within walking distance of what is still a centre of Vietnamese culture in Melbourne – Victoria Street, Richmond. Back then, it was one of the few places where you could get Vietnam’s version of that worldwide comfort food: noodle soup, and it was called “pho”. We didn’t know how to pronounce it then, but that didn’t matter; the English menu anglicised and assigned numbers to each of the dishes. Pho cost between $4 and $6 for a wonderfully fragrant, very large bowl of noodle soup, accompanied by a large plate of fresh bean shoots and plentiful Vietnamese mint leaves to be plucked from the twig and dunked in the steaming soup.

In the many years since I worked near Victoria Street, Vietnamese food culture has spread across Melbourne. A bowl of pho has become a go-to comfort food for everyone.

State of Grace, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

I've had my bespectacled eye on State of Grace for a while now.  Located on Collins Street it has the visual and upmarket glamour that I love... it's the sort of place where I don't mind being parted with my money in exchange for good food and a wonderful dining experience.  Many a-times I have scurried past SoG and have always promised myself that I have to go back and dine there.  I love its big windows and the fancy font and all the pretty people who are inside wining and dining away.  

A dinner with Ms D was the occasion to try SoG.  The staff were ever so patient with us as we were too focused on gasbagging than ordering.  We did eventually placed our order and I got this lovely duck dish.  The duck was done three ways - two pieces of roasted duck breast, a pan-fried disc of shredded slow-cooked duck, and a crumbed cube of this slightly odd mushy duck (potted duck, perhaps?).  I loved the duck breast the best (breast is best!) and the lovely waxy nuggets of chestnuts.

Wong's Lucky Bar, Box Hill by Obelix

Let me set the scene for those who are not familiar with Wong's.  It's location is on the median strip of Maroondah Hwy as it traverses through the busy hub of Box Hill with traffic rushing by on both sides.  Being on the median strip, it shares it's presence on this narrow archipelago with the tram terminal.  So one could have literally one foot at the tram stop waiting for the tram and the other foot inside Wong's ordering take away.  Wong's itself is narrow, no frills establishment.  It is approximately 5 metres wide (if that).  The owners have tacked on an extra 0.5m or so in width simply by building another wall one table's breadth away from the existing external window in order to fit in an extra three tables.  That in itself fascinates me.  The architecture;  the fact its located on the median strip on a busy highway and the intermittent 'ding ding' of the tram a hair's breadth away makes this place an endless source of wonderment for me.  How on earth did they get approval to build this? Other people on the other hand, come here for the food.  Apparently it's good. 

P and I decided to go for a seafood studded meal as that seems like what everyone else was doing.  Most of the main dishes are $18.80 with the exception of crab and lobster, etc which were more based on weight.  We ordered sauteed snow peas sprouts with century old egg and preserved salted duck egg.  It was a generous serve and even P who normally shun any greenage was very happy with this dish particularly as the soupy sauce was morish sloshed over rice. 

Nelayan Indonesian Restaurant, Melbourne CBD by Obelix

I love a good reliable cheapeats and Nelayan fits the bill.  It caters to the university crowd which is fine by me as it's Indonesian cuisine cooked homestyle with no frills service. 

Most of the Nelayan patrons go for the items in the bain marie which vary seasonally.  Most of the bain marie items include a bit of meat (eg a few curries and casseroles), a bit of veg (eg stir fries) served atop of a mountain of rice.  

Mr Hendricks, Balwyn by Bureaucrat

Thinking we'd get filthy rich, over a year ago, we started placing Google ads on our blog.  It'd be the perfect scheme: the blog would pay for itself, and in doing so, we'd get to dine out on the Googley profits.

The reality is that we earn peanuts each day from Google Inc.  So when we finally earned enough money for Google to post us a cheque, it was celebration time at Mr Hendricks, which is a place that Big Fil has had his eye on.

It's a typical breakfast-brunchy place.  Beaker ordered the crispy eggs, which came with sweet potato puree, ham hock, fennel, radish, red onion and candied walnuts.  The eggs looked delish, as they were crumbed and fried.

Rice Workshop, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

I love Rice Workshop.  It's such great value and it's consistently good.  When I first discovered it, I went there three times that week (twice for lunch, once for dinner). 

My absolute favourite dish is the pork katsu don - a juicy piece of pork, with a perfectly crispy and thin batter.  There's no gristle and has just enough of fat to make it moreish.  Served in a bowl of short grain rice, drizzled with kewpie mayo and teriyaki sauce.  I love the extra bits of sliced spring onions and toasted seaweed. It's finished offer with fresh salad and pickled veg.  The the above size is a small and is less than ten bucks.  It's the perfect size for me for lunch. 

Hello Sailor, Hawthorn by Obelix

We finally are having brief periods of sun!  It's been a long bleak winter which is not really conducive to al fresco dining.  So when the first glimpse of sustained sunshine blessed us earlier this week, I took my dog Bobby for lunch at Hello Sailor and ate outside attempting to soak in the weak sun's rays.  It was a treat for the ole Bob.  Hello Sailor is located in the Auburn Village strip which is conveniently opposite his vet.  So after his annual check up, Bob and I wandered over for lunch. 

Hello Sailor as the name implies is a nautically themed cafe with plenty of outdoor tables for diners with prams and pooches.  The menu is breakfasty-brunchy and seasonally rotated.

I went for more a breakfast offering of smashed avocado, poached eggs, chargrilled lime on toasted sourdough ($18).  

Giveaway—WIN a Carbs By Numbers cookbook!

Thank you to everyone who entered the competition :)  However, there can only be one winner, and that is: Elaine Fitzgerald!

Elaine has until Wednesday, 9 September 2015 to email us (eatandbemerrycrew @ gmail.com) with her postal address so that we can post the prize to her.

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Yes, it’s giveaway time!  Local duo Sandra Dunbar and Meg Pell, who live on the Mornington Peninsula, have teamed up to write Carbs By Numbers – a cookbook where each recipe has 15g of carbs or less per serve.


Every recipe comes with a gorgeous photo, extensive nutrition details and is also gluten-free.  Recipes include artichoke, hazelnut and bacon soup (you had me at bacon!), cauliflower couscous with blueberries and preserved lemon, and steak strips with mustard and buttered celeriac.  To tempt you to enter, the authors have kindly shared a recipe for you to try.

Nabe One, Melbourne CBD by Benny

A 1pm appointment of uncertain duration demands an early lunch, and since it is already noon, the many options at Emporium beckon – we need quick, but we don’t want to compromise on quality. Despite this being a Sunday in the middle of the city, queues are already forming at some of the better known eateries, especially in the foodie enclave on the 3rd floor. So we wander in to Nabe One on level 2 – away from the hustle and bustle, but the food being served to the few diners already eating looks promising.

The menu reveals a fairly good, although largely standard selection of rice, udon and ramen dishes, a couple of bento options and some interesting sounding entrees. As speed is of the essence, we opt to share a serve of Gyoza to be followed by Tempura Udon (two tempura prawns and some tempura vegetables) and Kani Ramen (soft shell crab & marinated egg).

Spring Flavour Exchange - 2 for 1 tickets!

The fantastic guys at the Spring Flavour Exchange are offering Eat and Be Merry Crew readers special 2 for 1 tickets for this Thursday and Friday (3-4 September 2015) at Federation Square.  That's a saving of just over $33!

Fortnums, Sassafras by Bureaucrat

Up until about a year or two ago, I used to love going to Mt Dandenong to grab a pie from Pie in the Sky.  If we were hungry, we'd eat the pie in the restaurant; if I wasn't hungry just yet, I'd buy two pies (that's two pies per person... I'm not sharing!) and keep it in the car as we wandered around the village; and if I was really not hungry, I'd buy a few frozen pies to take home.  Sadly, in the last few times that I've been there the quality has been going downhill. It's a shame since those pies used to be really, really good.

So in search of a new place for eats, we figured we'd give Fortnums a try.  It's one of them twee restaurants that caters for the tourist crowd, the daytrippers and those getting married.  Bang on midday we turned up and was surprised to see the place fairly full - they were all senior citizens, big groups and small groups.

The place is decorated in a rather dated late-1990s vision of a mountainside reception hall should look like - the now faded pastel green walls, with white trims, lattices...it kinda feels like a time warp... it's just missing some pink carnations and lots of baby's breath. The staff are super friendly and attentive but are very understaffed and rushed off their feet.


Placing our order and waiting for the food to arrive did take quite a bit of time, but we were luckily not in a rush.  The Lawyer's fisherman's basket was a big plate of golden crunchiness.  While everything was from frozen ingredients, it was nicely fried - light batter, golden colour and piping hot.


I had one of the specials, which were corn pancakes with smoked salmon.  Nice fluffy pancakes and a reasonable amount of smoked salmon.  It came with a simple fresh salad. Simple and tasty.


I also got a pot of tea.

Verdict: we liked it.

Overall
The food tastes nice but a touch on the expensive side for the what it is.  I don't know if we just happened to be there on a day when they were short-staffed.  I'd go back again but I'd make sure that we had time to linger for a long lunch.  Also, while you're there, check out the massive (and I mean, MASSIVE... they look like white prehistoric creatures) cockatoos that reside in the garden....SQUAWK!