Taste of Melbourne

Last week I headed back to Taste of Melbourne, for my second consecutive year, to enjoy a Tapas-style tour of Melbourne’s most popular restaurants.

A group of five of us learned our lesson last year and made sure that we were front and centre when the doors opened, so we could rush in and nab a table, which we did successfully.

For $50 a ticket, we got entry to the Exhibition Buildings in Carlton and 30 Crowns to spend. Crowns are Taste of Melbourne currency. Each restaurant present serves up three dishes, each costing anywhere from 8 to 12 Crowns. You can indulge in a range of small tasters from restaurants like The Boathouse, Press Club, Oyster, Nobu and so on.

A lot of foodie friends don’t go, criticising the event for a lack of value and soul. And while I wouldn’t walk over hot coals to get here, I really enjoy the event. I get to taste samples from lots of different places and it gives me an idea where my culinary priorities lie, in terms of trying restaurants I haven’t yet graced with my presence. We were in a group of five people and shared every dish, giving us tremendous scope across the various dishes on offer.

Here are the 13 restaurants and the dishes we had from each:

-Circa: Chocolate, honeycomb & salted caramel crunch
-Jacques Reymond: Tempura of quail breast with tajine flavours & whipped Persian fetta, Martini of bittersweet chocolate with espresso jelly and bourbon vanilla chantilly
-Oyster: ‘popcorn’ prawn with citrus aioli
-Botanical: Wagyu burger
-The Press Club/Hellenic Republic/Maha: Spring Bay half shell scallops with tarama, Turkish Delight filled doughnus wtih pine nut sugar & rosewater honey
-Fifteen: Vanilla panna cotta served  with slow cooked quince
-The Court House
-The Boathouse: Beef, stout & onion pie floater, clotted cream mousse with ginger nut crumble
-Verge: Pressed duck leg with preserved mushrooms and smoked tofu in red miso soup, Milk chocolate delice with coconut and basil and salted caramel popcorn
-Movida: Slow cooked cuttlefish with chorizo & chickpeas
-Nobu: Yellowtailo jalapeno with yuzu soy
-Silks:Baked crab shell served with Portugese sauce
-The Brasserie By Philippe Mouchel: milk fed veal tenderloin served with soft polenta and swiss chard and pancetta

Most interesting for me was the Turkish Delight doughnuts, because they ran out last year and I’m not a fan of Press Club, so I’d been hanging out to try them. The inside was gooey and pink and it got me thinking about the ways I can use Turkish Delight in future.

There were so many highlights of the day, but the most wonderful was the duck from Verge and the sashimi from Nobu, both of which were orgasm-inducing. I was also quite impressed by the Silks crab and my companion’s panna cotta from Fifteen was really quite lovely, as was the clotted cream mousse from the Boathouse. The prawns from Oyster were simple but so hot and fresh and flavoursome.

Most disappointing was definitely the burger from Botanical which didn’t get anyone excited.Also a bit average was the pie from The Boathouse, which looked great, but was stodgy and lacked flavour.

Gary whatshisfacetheonethathashair and the George Theshortonewhocantcookaswellashethinkshecan Columbaris – the two chefs from Masterchef and proprieters of The Boathouse and Press Club/Hellenic Republic/Maha respectively – were swanning around, talking to people and having their photos taken. Sorry, but the whole scene made me a little nauseous. I was there to taste the food, not watch a sickening display of attempted branding. Ick.

Anyway, we had a really fun day and I strongly suggest that you give it a go. In addition to all the restaurants there are a lot of other food displays on offer from a variety of providores, in a similar fashion to the Good Food & Wine Show. A good, clean, fun time was had by all.