Taste of Melbourne

Melbourne prides itself on being the art, food, and wine capital of Australia, and I'd have to say I might agree with that. Albeit, Melbourne just recently scored a little lower than Sydney on their restaurant reviews (to continue with the age old city rivalry), but since Melbourne's been my home for the past 2 years, I'm a little biased.

The annual Taste of Melbourne festival just came through the city this weekend, and we hit it up on Friday night - definitely some great food.

Melbourne's finest restaurants were in attendance, including: Circa; Jacques Reymond; Oyster; Botanical; The Press Club/Hellenic Republic/Maha; Fifteen; The Court House; The Boathouse; Verge; Movida; Nobu; Silks; The Brasserie.

They each offered a total of 3 dishes (mostly 2 savoury and 1 dessert), a la tapas style.

What we tried:

Jacques Reymond
http://www.jacquesreymond.com.au/menu-wine-list.html
Definitely our favorite, we had all 3 dishes - the seared Harvey Bay scallops with Thai style Sher Wagyu beef and a crispy Asian salad. We tried the tempura of quail breast with tajine flavours (cumin in there for sure) and whipped Persian fetta (I love fetta). The dessert looked fancier than it tasted, presented in a martini glass was bittersweet chocolate with espresso jello (basically) and some bourbon vanilla chantilly to top it off.

Hellenic Republic
http://www.hellenicrepublic.com.au/
George Calombaris' newest, he carries with him the fame from his judging on the first ever Melbourne's Master Chef TV show. We tried his saganaki with peppered figs - it was very good, and very interesting with the saltiness of the cheese combined with the sweetness of the figs. And yes we got to see George :) Apparently the lamb souvlaki from his Press Club is outstanding, but we skipped that dish for some reason unknown to us now.

Verge
http://www.vergerestaurant.com.au/
We tried their pressed duck leg and preserved mushrooms and smoked tofu, all floating in a little bowl of miso soup. It was okay - the miso soup somewhat over-powered all of the other fun things inside, as miso usually does. The smokey flavor of the tofu shone through a little, too bad I don't appreciate smokey flavours.

Silks
http://www.silksatcrown.com.au/Content.aspx?topicID=233
I've never eaten here, but this restaurant sits inside the Crown casino, a jewel magnet for tourists and a bit of an eye-sore for locals. Their baked crab shell stuffed with Portugese sauce was, mostly, a little bit of crab and a lot of cheese inside the shell. Not impressed, but it did look pretty.

The Brasserie
http://www.thebrasserieatcrown.com.au/Content.aspx?topicID=688
Phillipe Mouchel's award-winning restaurant competes a bit with Jacques Reymond. We had the veal tenderloin served on a bed of soft polenta with Swiss chard and pancetta. It was decent, nothing to really pop out at us, and we definitely enjoyed his competitor's dishes more. We don't try too many French restaurants, but if we happen to have a whim we'll probably head in Jacques' direction.

An overall awesome experience nonetheless, complete with several wine and beer tasting kiosks as well as a whiskey tasting to keep Timmy's palate satisfied.

On a side note, I took Timmy to Cumulus Inc. last night.
http://www.cumulusinc.com.au/
We had a moonlight en surface harvested oyster, which reportedly removed the metallic mineral taste. Then out came scallops wrapped in spec with a caper and raisin vinaigrette; followed by crispy school prawns (albeit I took the heads off) with chili and garlic, then grilled quail stuffed in vine leaves with aioli. Next was the plate of charcuterie, which included hand cut salami, wagyu bresaola with remoulade, prociutto, and coppacolla. Finally, was the ridiculously yummy gnocchi with artichoke hearts, tallegio, and truffle topping, then the spiced cauliflower with goats curd. Altogether a very tasty meal :)