LuxBite South Yarra

October 11, 2015October 18, 2015 ~ danib@eatmystreet.net

Today I visited LuxBite South Yarra.

I think I have found found cake-y heaven.

LuxBite in South Yarra has the most tempting display of cakes and macarons all within a cute and colourful cafe on Toorak Road in South Yarra.

I tried the iconic Lolly Bag Cake which combines six classic Australian lollies; Bananas, Freckles, Musk sticks, Spearmint leaves, Jaffas and Redskins.

I also thoughtfully selected from the glass fronted macaron cabinet. My final choices were; Red Velvet, peanut butter and jelly, hazelnut, Milo and sour watermelon. All of them good, but the Red Velvet was probably my favourite.

The real miracle is how I managed to choose at all.

Coffees started at $3.50. Today I ordered a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate and my companion had Iced-Chocolate. They were both delicious. My hot choc was accompanied by a little jug of salted caramel sauce for me to add at my discretion. Turns out I am not very discreet, I added the lot and loved every silky mouthful.

It is a big call, but I think these are the best macarons I have tasted. The filling was creamy, smooth and full of flavour and the macaron melted in my mouth. Sorry other macarons, I have a new love.

I recommend a visit.

Happy Eating.

Dani B

Jam and Cream, Heidelberg

April 3, 2015March 3, 2016 ~ eatmystreet

The name says it all really doesn’t it?

Wait. No it doesn’t! Jam and cream may be two of the best food groups available but wait, there is more.

Jam and Cream in Heidelberg is a pink, sparkly vintage dream.

Miss being a child and visiting your Nan’s house? Well pine no more. Jam and Cream serves perfectly wobbly jelly slice, 18 varieties of scone, pink lemonade, flaky sausage rolls, chocolate crackles and more. If you are really lucky you can pop out the back and enjoy it all in the sweet, soft, lacy environs of a restored 1920’s caravan.

Take your daughters, take your sisters, maybe don’t take your local footy team. The food is made on site by the passionate, enthusiastic owners (the aforementioned Nan I believe). There is a lovely little gift shop area also so you can try and take some of the pastel hued goodness to your own home.

Check out their Facebook page for opening hours and more gorgeous photos.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jam-and-Cream/972221589471144

Happy Eating!

Dani xx

HuTong Dumpling Bar, Melbourne

February 6, 2015October 18, 2015 ~ eatmystreet

I have been blagging on about HuTong Dumpling Bar for years now and have loved the food on every visit. So of course when I invited a friend to eat here with me today, and we trudged for ages through a hot, dry CBD and I even stood swaying wildly on a packed tram with my nose stuffed closely under some strange man’s armpit, well it was not that fabulous.

Service was slightly gruff but most shockingly was this.

Slightly cold Shao-Long Bao.

These lovely little morsels are normally perfection itself, but today they were not quite up to standard.

We also ordered Special Friend Rice and Spinach Dumplings. The filling in the Spinach Dumpling was slippery and tasty, but the dumpling skins were a little chunky and uneven. 🙁

I decided to try something new today and ordered Spring Rolls from the Lunch Menu. They were….. a little bland, a little nice.

They take a pretty picture though don’t you think?

It breaks my heart to speak ill of the HuTong, but today it was not quite up to standard. Lunch was still tasty but for $45 (including soda’s) we could probably have had happier bellies elsewhere.

My taste buds are fairly loyal so I will probably be back to HuTong Dumpling Bar again to rekindle the glory days of hot, slurpy pork dumpling perfection. Just please don’t let me down next time Huut-D, or the hot date with a smelly tram will just not be worth the effort.

Dani xx

HuTong Dumpling Bar, Melbourne

Address: 14-16 Market Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone:(03) 9650 8128

Longrain

June 26, 2014October 18, 2015 ~ eatmystreet

There is not a lot left to say about Longrain. Everyone loves it, including me!

If you have to wait at the bar because of the long cues, you will be happy. Once your escorted to your table in the huge, open plan, but somehow still intimate dining room, you will be happy. Once the food starts arriving you’ll be even happier and your tastebuds might just sing.

Friendly, fun service kicks in at the front door and holds its pace until you leave.

Food bloggers drop their cameras and neglect to take photos, so caught up are they in just having a fantastic night (that actually might just have been me, sorry!).

Check out their menu here

https://longrain.com/melbourne

Longrain serves punchy, exciting flavours in their South East Asian food.

Experience it with a group so you can really sample their menu. Favourites so far for me are the caramelised pork, prawn, peanuts, sour pineapple. Or the Baby corn, snake bean, ginger, snow pea, tamarind, sesame dressing (its a salad). Or the slow braised beef cheek. In fact I have enjoyed everything served to me at Longrain and it is hard to pick.

Visit them at 40-44 Little Burke St, Melbourne.

Phone. 9671 3151

They only taken bookings for groups of 6 or more and a large group booking cane hard to get. So plan ahead. Or you could just turn up, enjoy one of their cocktails and wait your turn.

I have been four times. I have had an excellent, rollicking evening every time. I have neglected to take photo’s of the food every time because, well, I was eating……. The inter webs is chock full of photo’s though so you should survive without me this time.

Here is one of me and my friends in the cute little nook table they gave us last time we visited.

Happy Eating!

Dani xx http://facebook.com/eatmystreet

Cumulus Inc

April 27, 2014October 18, 2015 ~ eatmystreet ~ 1 Comment

45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.

I have five sisters. Yes, there are six girls in my family. No there are no boys. Yes it probably was hard on my Dad although he eventually gave up trying for a boy and claimed that six daughters was pretty special. He made the most of it I think. Lots of head rubs and cups of tea made for him and always sympathy from at least one person when he desired it.

All six of us are well grown now and some of us even have our own little brood. Every now and then we make an effort to meet together and it is always noisy and hectic and there is a lot of food involved and generally someone ends up sleeping on the floor next to someone they are not keen on. The best part of these little “sleep overs” are the shared make up tips. The worst part is the noise. There is no escape……

So this time the girls and I decided to get together sans children. We headed to the city for the night and stayed in a moderately dodgy hotel and visited Cumulus Inc for dinner. We were actually aiming for Mamasita but the line was sooo long and our chances of getting a big enough table were pretty slim anyway so we eventually just started walking along the hot spot that is Flinders Lane until we found something we liked. Committee eating is normally a failure but this time it was not. Yay!

We started our dinner propped up at the bar where a couple of us ordered cocktails. Now somehow the euphoria of finding a decent restaurant that we all agreed upon had gone to our heads and Kate and I ended up going “off piste” (it is a real phrase, look it up deniers) and telling the guy at the bar a few general ingredients that we fancied in our drink and then letting him chose the resulting cocktail. It went something like this. “I like lime and mint and she likes cranberry’s. Yes sure, whatever.”

Mistake.

$18.50 later we were handed two quite small ice drenched cocktails that immediately went to our heads because they were so strong (probably trying to ensure we did not notice the price tag).

Actually, it wasn’t me and Kate, it was “two of the sisters who shall remain nameless for the sake of their dignity.”

Eventually we were seated in the main part of the restaurant. We once again started the endless diplomatic negotiations to decide what we were going to order. The menu was fairly small and it was at this point that there was panic amongst the troops. Well it was only those of the troops who had not imbibed the gold lined cocktails, but still, there was restlessness. We had to just trust that what we were ordering was going to be good, because, well, it sounded pretty boring.

Olives $8

organic spiced almonds $8

Roast new season potatoes, confit garlic & oregano $12

I mean, take the words “organic” and “confit” out of the picture and it sounds a bit like Grandma’s shopping list.

Cumulus Inc has a great reputation. It has been awarded 1 hat by the Age Good Food Guide for 5 years in a row now. It was named number three of Melbourne’s Ten Most Influential Restaurants by non other than Matt Preston. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/masterchefs-matt-preston-names-melbournes-top-10-most-influential-restaurants/story-fni0fit3-1226751483236. Andrew McConnell is the chef and if you don’t know that he is some kind of rock star in the Melbourne dining scene then you have been living under a pretentious foodie rock (my husband- lucky he has me). So my point is, we just had to trust the restaurant and give it a try.

It was delicious. We loved every single dish. The whole slow roast lamb shoulder to share was AMAZING. We were all politely fighting over it.

“Does anyone mind if I? No, you first. Are you sure? Hey, who stabbed me with a fork?”

The potatoes were maybe even more popular (although I politely declined to explain what confit was to the more diet conscious eaters in the room.)

The service was also very good. Polite, informative, well timed.

The decor in the room was impressively unnoticeably sophisticated. Melbourne at it’s best I would have to say.

Overall we had an excellent night and the phrase “what happens at Cumulus Inc, stays at Cumulus Inc, may have been coined. Although I doubt that our giggly group of girls will be the first or the last to use it.

We didn’t even miss the superb mexican stylings of Mamasita. And that is saying something!

For more info you can visit their website. http://cumulusinc.com.au

Chin Chin

April 11, 2014 ~ eatmystreet ~ 2 Comments

I recently celebrated my 14 year wedding anniversary. To celebrate I headed into the city with my husband (I am thinking of trademarking that….. a noun to describe the man I am married to beside “other half” “himself” “MOTH”. I’ll let you know how I get on.) We in turn went to Chin Chin and ate dinner with two complete strangers (125 Flinders Lane, Melbourne).

Excuse me, how rude am I? They are not strangers, one of them was a backpacker out visiting Australia from Spain and the other was a young man who grew up in Melbourne with his sister before she moved to the Country, got divorced and then hooked up with the before mentioned back packer. I don’t know their names or anything because we were never formally introduced but we sat SO CLOSE TO EACH OTHER in the restaurant that I heard every word they uttered. If I were being precise (don’t worry I won’t make a habit of it) I would say that the young spanish gentleman was sitting closer to my husband than I was. At one stage they even offered to share their food with us. Wish I was brave enough to have pretended I did not realise he was joking…..

This is my prevailing memory of Chin Chin. Dinner with three dudes.

Now let me get to the food.

It was delicious, as befits the restaurant’s “hot as right now” status. Chin Chin’s has been hot right now for a while and I am desperately hoping that someone else will come along and steal their thunder so maybe they can concentrate on other things like separating their tables appropriately. How about Dutch food Melbourne? A restaurant in the shape of a clog in the forecourt at Fed Square. Croquette’s anyone? Lasagne with peaches in it? Oliebollen?

Hang on, shame on me for joking, Olibollen are actually delicious. Try them!

In the moments where my mouth could concentrate, I thoroughly enjoyed the corn and zucchini fritters with chilli jam. My husband ordered the Massaman curry because he always does. It was almost perfect. The meat was pre roasted and sticky and melty all at once. The onion and potatoes were also pre roasted and then they had gone all gooey in the massaman sauce. It was sweet and rich and probably had enough saturated fat in it to keep a whole family of walrus’ warm through winter. As always I benefited from his lack of interest in the health properties of a meal when ordering. I also ordered the Chin Chin pork roll ups ($18) and a chicken/ coconut salad. It was all very tasty and the highlight would be those fritters. Service was rushed and all of our food was brought out at once. I assume the line snaking out the door had something to do with this.

I really wanted to love Chin Chin’s and I thought I would. I had been turned back from the door before because the line was too long, I mean what is not to love about that level of popularity. All the cool kids seem to love it, the bloggers have gone mad for it. But frankly, it gave me the irrits.

I have been to LOTS of restaurants where it is all about the food and I am happy to ignore the decor and service (nearly every single dumpling house for instance). This was not one of them, nor were the prices reflective of this style of dining. This restaurant was reported to have ambience, je ne sais quois, X factor etc etc. But all I got from it was delicious food and a head ache.

Here’s a photo to distract us from my grumpiness (and I’m not even that old…..)

By the way, I think backpacker-guy (BG) and grew-up-in-the-city-but-sister-moved-to-the-country-guy(GUITCBSMTTCG) had a nice dinner. BG seemed to pass all the tests set for him by GUITCBSMTTCG (that is definitely too long). They enjoyed their meal.

It was just a pity that considering their proximity, I was not brave enough to sample their food. Maybe next time.

http://facebook.com/eatmystreet

Om Nom in city land.

April 11, 2014October 10, 2015 ~ eatmystreet

This post fits into the beyond Berwick category. More specifically, the far off land of tall buildings us urban fringe dwellers call “the city.”

You might have visited this strange land, accessible from Berwick only via the long car park some people jokingly call the Monash Freeway. Alternatively you may have taken this “Freeway” between the magic hours of 11.30-2pm when the traffic actually moves at a pace and you can be at your destination within the hour. Unless there is a taxi driver protest or an accident, both of which we came across on our recent travels. If you live locally in Berwick then I will leave it up to you as to wether you can actually ever be bothered heading into the city. But if you do, I recommend a visit to the Om Nom Dessert Bar at the Adelphi Hotel. 187 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.

I had read about this dessert bar in the local rag, The Age. They said good things.

http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/eat-out/review/restaurant/om-nom-20140331-35tms.html

Dessert dedicated dining had been on my bucket list for a while so I was straight keen to give it a go. The long journey into the city gave me time to reflect on my bucket list and the fact that it is almost completely based on dining experiences. I think I need to broaden my horizons, but until that happens (probably never, although I do love reading, does that count?), at least I will be well fed.

The Adelphi is pretty uber cool. I know saying the word excludes me from any real knowledge of it’s parameters but I can’t help it. It. was. just. cool.

There is a real sized horse made out of wire in the foyer and the reception desk is a carriage. There is also candy at the front desk and you can help your self! Did I mention the swinging geometrically patterned couches? I am easily persuaded at the best of times so you can imagine how excited I was by all this. Take a look at their website for some more images.

http://adelphi.com.au

Now to the food. Let me start with a photo.

Let me finish with some words.

It tasted good too.

Okay, well I am not really going to finish because what have I got to offer if not an over effusive use of words when describing food?

Christy Tania is apparently the chef responsible for the desserts. We ordered the Raspberry Village ($24). Raspberry and lychee sorbet, raspberry and rosewater panna cotta, lychee and rosewater spheres, meringue. It looked amazing and it tasted great. The little sphere’s explode in your mouth and dribble precious droplets down your throat. The sorbet was tangy and sweet and smooth. We could have ordered almost anything off the menu as they all sounded equally delicious. In fact you can do almost just that by getting the tasting plate with three dishes for around $50. They also serve High Tea on a Sunday.

If I was being picky, which I am, then I would say that the staff were maybe a little too friendly. This might just be a me thing and the average punter would love chatting to every single wait staff about the weather and the day and the food. It felt a little like the staff manual said “one of our strengths as a Hotel is the friendliness of the staff. Be friendly or die” or something like that. Some people might like it but it was just a bit much for me.

I do note that Ms Dubecki of The Age, only gives it 13.5/20. I do tend to think that if she reviews your restaurant and it get’s printed then it means you are doing pretty well. The score is almost irrelevant until we get up around the 17-18 mark which almost NEVER happens here in Melbourne. To me a score of 13.5 means you are pretty spesh. I do note however the local scandal of April 2013 when our own local restaurant Eighty One, Berwick was awarded a 12/20. Locals were upset, bloggers were upset, the restaurant itself seemed a little defensive and probably upset about the score. I, however, got on the phone and immediately booked a table, relieved that something out here in Suburbia land was actually on the radar. So I know we do not all react the same to a score (yes I am talking to you Type A’s).

Whatever the score, Om Nom is fun, delicious and gorgeous. Plus am pretty sure Austin Powers would enjoy partying here.

Enough said.

I definitely recommend you visit Om Nom, just maybe take a helicopter instead of the car.