A good life guide to Melbourne

As a traveller, I'm not usually one that spends an entire holiday based in a city so I never thought I'd enjoy spending 4 days in Melbourne as much as I did!

From inside National Gallery in Victoria

We went over recently with Mark and Cath and caught up with some good friends while we were over, really just to squeeze a last trip in for the year on a Jetstar 'deal'.

Melbourne to me is a food mecca, a cultural and artistic melting pot, (even the grafitti is great) a shoppers paradise and of course its surrounded by a number of fabulous wine regions, so its no surprise I guess that we had such a good time. 

Melbourne 'grafitti'

We stayed at a little boutique hotel in the city centre called The Lindrum which was perfect. We could walk pretty much everywhere in the city from there. The river was literally just out the door and this is a city that has really made use of its river and outdoor spaces.

Trams in Melbourne

I'd highly recommend a long weekend in this city and if you should find yourself in Melbourne, here are some things to check out.

Food

Melbourne was seriously a food pilgramige.  I either have recipes or cookbooks from most of the places we went to!

Corn at Mamasita

1.  Mamasita for lunch on Collins St. The quirkiest little Mexican place serving modern takes on some classics.  We arrived there at about 11.55 for a 12pm opening and there was already a queue of people!  Apparently at night, people queue all the way up the long stair case and down the road.

They do Mexican corn just the way I like, with Chipotle Mayo, a dusting of spice, some cheese and a wedge of lime, and the little tostaditas and quesadillas are fab.  All washed down with a decent margarita and I almost got transported to Mexico.

Grafitti - Movida style!

2. Movida for dinner.  Spectacular.  Simple, blow you away tapas.

 We had the 10 course degustation as there were 6 of us.  The first course was anchovy and tomato sorbet on a crostini (I don't even like anchovies!) and the last course was rabbit and in between were a number of seafood and meat tapas that went well with extremely good company, wine and atmosphere. 



Huevos flamenco at Lorca



3. Lorca for breakfast.  This is a little Spanish restaurant down one of the many interconnected alleyways in the city.  Perfect for people watching and great bistro food.  Al had huevos flamenco and I had iberico cheese and sliced serrano ham on sourdough rubbed with garlic and tomato and drizzled with olive oil.  Why can't someone serve this in Auckland!?! I'd be there tomorrow.

4. Spice Temple for dinner.  I love Neil Perry from Rockpool and this is one of his Asian inspired restaurants.  Holy dynamite. We did the 10 course banquet and some of the dishes like the bang bang chicken were blow your socks off spicy (even my equally heat loving friend Jo would have found this on the hot side!) but oh so tasty and oh so creative.



Al Stu and Mark tucking in to real food



Wine

We actually didn't do that much wine touring to be honest, but we went to some Fabulous wineries in the area.  Thanks to our good friend Stu, we had a ride through the Melbourne surrounds. He doesn't like red wine as it turns out, but we are sure working on him. (Given he lives in the home of some of the world's best reds it doesn't seem right!)  Probably the biggest wine buzz was seeing Adam and Liss's purpose built wine cellar which they've dug into the ground under the renovation they're working on!

Here are some I'd definitely recommend checking out:

Craiglee with Pat Carmody

1. Craiglee, Sunbury.  The Craiglee Sunbury Shiraz is a Langton's top Australian wine, so we were expecting a pretty flash cellar door but this truly was one of the most unassuming wineries I think we have been to.  Dilapidated entrance, parking in a sheep paddock, walk down a long overgrown path, and then...wine mecca.  A wine shed build in the 1860's and the winemaker Pat Carmody who is passionate about his wines, and not what other people think.  Tastings here are 'by appointment only' or I think he opens on a Sunday.



 2. Jasper Hill, Heathcote.  Another wine icon, Ron Laughton from Jasper Hill is the self professed pioneer of the Heathcote wine industry and the soils or 'terroir' is as good as it gets for good Shiraz.  We spent 2.5 hours here and Ron not only opened his Grenache, Georgia's Paddock and Emily's Paddock Shiraz, he also pulled a few back vintages (including '98 and '00) from his cellar.  A good time was had by all! Another 'by appointment only' tasting.

The crew with Ron from Jasper Hill

3. Ten Minutes by Tractor, Mornington Penninsula.  We had this at the last lab night dinner and their Pinot Noir is sensational

Al and Stu, 10 minutes by tractor

4. Red Hill Estate, Mornington Penninsula. This has got to be the most scenic winery in Victoria with a stunning view of the harbour and some spectacular 5 star cool climate Shiraz and Chardonnay

Other





• Drinks at the Supper Club - the coolest art deco place which also has a garden bar on the top floor.
• Went to the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) and saw a few interesting Aboriginal art exhibitions, my favourite of which was Living Waters. 
• Took a free tram ride around the city circumferance

Love the Grafitti!

• Caught up with our great friends, Adam, Liss, and Stu
• Went to St Kilda for brunch and the Street Market
• Went shopping at Zara and David Jones
• Lots of walking along the waterfront and Southbank



• 

Cool Art at NGV




The cool art deco window at Supper Club

 



Melbourne's Southbank at dusk



Cinnamon and Hazelnut Meringues

A number of cafes I've been to lately are serving these giant, fluffy coloured and flavoured meringues as cabinet food, so, the other day when I was browsing through a recently acquired cookbook, Ottolenghi The Cookbook,  I came upon the most interesting recipe for meringues and I decided to give it a go.

What I found intriguing about this recipe was that the egg whites are heated up.  Hmmmm... I had images of scrambled egg going through my mind.  Apparently this is called the Swiss Method which involves dissolving brown sugar and egg whites in a bowl over simmering water so they mix properly.  Well, it actually worked!

As I've mentioned previously, I have an abundance of cookbooks.  I can't help myself - the more pictures and the more unique the recipes the better!  Some books I haven't cooked a single recipe from, but I have gotten inspiration from the pictures or the way ingredients are used and adapted these into my own recipes.  Yotam Ottolenghi is definitely a favourite source of inspiration, his cookbooks are beautiful, and I can loose myself in the creativity of the recipes. (and I've actually tried a few of his recipes!) Ottolenghi is a UK based cook with middle eastern, mediterranean influences to his cooking, but all with a modern, light twist.  He started a cafe with Sami Tamimi in Notting Hill, with whom he co-authored this book and also wrote a more recent cookbook called Plenty which is equally mesmerising.  They have a website with blog and recipes as well, which for those who haven't come across him before, here's the link: http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/

Give this recipe a try if you ever have some spare egg whites around - I will definitely try this again and I had a very happy husband when these came out of the oven!

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Cinnamon and hazelnut meringues.

• 200g egg whites (about 7)
• 260g Caster sugar
• 140g dark brown muscovado sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 30g unskinned hazelnuts, roughly chopped

(I only had 4 egg whites, but I weighed them on the kitchen scale and applied the ratio to the rest of the ingredients which worked well.)

1. Preheat oven to 110C.
2. Place the egg whites and both sugars in a heatproof bowl and put over lightly simmering water, making sure it doesn't actually touch the water. Stir occasionally until the sugars have dissolved into the whites (the recipe suggest 10min and 40C but this only took about 5 min for me. Obviously if it looks like a scramble is imminent, I would suggest taking this off the heat sooner rather than later!)
3. Pour into the bowl of an electric mixer (you really need a free standing one for this - handheld is going to take forever) and whip for about 8 minutes.  When ready, it should be firm and glossy and keep its shape when you lift a bit with a spoon.
4. Sprinkle the cinnamon over the meringue mix and fold in gently.
5. Line a baking tray (or 2) with baking paper and using 2 spoons, scoop a generous amount of the mixture (the size of a medium apple) with one and use the other to scrape this onto the tray (leave plenty of room between the meringues for them to expand in the oven) and sprinkle with chopped nuts. 
6. Place in the preheated oven and for anything from 1 1/4 - 2 hours, (I left them in for about 1 1/2 hours).  The meringues should be nice and dry underneath and still a little soft in the centre.
7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.  Stored in a dry place, but not the fridge.

Adapted from Ottolenghi The Cookbook

Tis the season for wine....

Only 6 weeks until Christmas - the silly season has officially started again with Christmas parties, birthday parties (for some reason there are a lot in Dec-Jan), and then there's that funny phenomenon of needing to catch up with people before the end of the year.

This last week I put myself on the 'wine' line, trying out the best of the season.  I've been to a Champagne tasting, First Glass on Wednesday, an Ascension new release tasting, and lab night last Sunday. 

Here are some of the wine highlights from this week, which are incidentally all whites, but that's probably because summer is coming:

1. Cuisine top ten Champagne -
-Taittinger Les Folies de la Marquetterie NV.  My favourite last year was also the Tattinger, so not much of a surprise, but this single vinyard champagne was exquisite with plenty of silky bubbles, slight citrus and yeast, and a long lingering finish. Yum.  This is the special ocassion wine for Christmas.
-Piper NV was also impressive this year.  This is slightly lower in price, but hits the right marks.  It was generous and yeasty in the right ways and showed better than the Veuve or the Moet on the night, though these never disappoint either.

2. First Glass 12 Different Varieties
-Villa Maria 2010 Ihumatao Chardonnay from Auckland.  Villa's Ihumatao and Keltern Chardonnays are consistently among my favourite NZ Chardonnays.  It is best summed up in the First Glass newsletter: Mouthfilling, beautifully balanced and quite simply delicious.
Incidentally, the Air New Zealand Wine Awards have just been announced and the Villa Maria Keltern 2010 just won 3 Trophys: Champion Wine of the Show, Champion Sustainable Wine, and Champion Chardonnay. Neither the Ihumatao or Keltern will disappoint.
-Lawsons Pioneer Series Gewurtztraminer 2010 from Marlborough.  This is a winner of a Gewurtz.  Another of my favourite Gewurtz is Johaneshoff and this is right up there with it.  Slightly European in character and well balanced.  It has also just been awarded a trophy at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards for Champion Exhibition White or Sparkling

For those interested, here's a link to the Air New Zealand Wine Awards Trophy list: http://www.airnzwineawards.com/assets/sm/6816/73/anzwa-trophy-list-2011.pdf

3. Ascension new release tasting
This was a great tasting put on by Ascension vinyards from Matakana at the Hopetoun Alpha in Auckland. About 500 people turned up to try the 7 new releases, with nibbles matched to each wine.  The favourites of the night were on the white side of the ledger with a lovely Rose called 'The Roasrian' Matakana Rose 2011 which wasn't too sweet and had a bit of substance to it. We also liked the 'the Vestal Virgin' Matakana Viognier 2011.  Nice and aromatic, the right amount of spice, and refreshingly summery.  Ascension is only about an hour up the road from Auckland and such a nice place for a wine lunch with friends. I might have to put that on the list of places to visit this summer - it consistently seems to make the list of top 10 wine, beer, food, entertainment places.
On another wine note, I have also just received my latest 'Fine Cooking' magazine from the US and it was great to see a New Zealand wine matched with a Christmas dinner course.  The Coopers Creek Sauvignon Blanc was matched with Potted Shrimp on Toast with Celery Radish Salad.  We quite often have some of the Coopers Creek crew at Lab Night, so it's great to see their global reach!

Finally, here are some of the wine pics  from Lab Night at Pinot Plus at our table(only a small selection as there so many other nice wines including a Coleraine at the neighbouring table). The food, wine and company were as great as ever.

2009 Ten Minutes by Tractor Pinot Noir from Mornington Penninsula in Vic, Australia.  We are heading over there shortly, so was great to sample in advance what we're in for.

Dry River 2007 Syrah and 2000 Mt Langi Shiraz (one of my all time favourite Australian wines!)

Here's the South African treat of the month

Not sure I have done the entree justice with this picture.  It was Ceviche (yum!) and egg plant roulade wrapped around a fig and walnut paste.  Very nice.

Update - just thought I'd add some of the comments Jo made on some of the wines from the Lab Night email:

I guess it goes without saying that there were many stunning wines.  Here are some notes on just a few of them:

·         2002 Palliser Estate Martinborough Reisling.  This wine was definitely showing its age – but not in a bad way.  On the nose lovely apple and grapefruit notes were paired with a heady kerosene note.  The palate was honey and crisp granny smith.  An absolute delight.

·         2009 Ten Minutes by Tractor Estate Pinot Noir.  This was a surprise package from the Swainbanks who recently holidaying in this region.  It was fabulously heady with aromas of strawberries and red cherry, with a bright and vivacious palate with the same flavour spectrum as the nose.  Along with its youth and exuberance, this lighter style Pinot Noir was beautifully made, and showed all the varietal characters you’d hope for in a  Pinot Noir.

·         2005 Valli Bannockburn Pinot Noir.  Wow!  This Pinot is at the other end of the spectrum.  With a few years of age on it, this wine was an amazing mix of primary fruit (mostly dark cherries) and dense secondary forest floor, mushroom, and gamey notes.  It went stunningly well with the slightly wintery foods we were eating.

·         2005 Miles Mossop Wines Max.  This Bordeaux blend from the Stellenbosch region in South Africa was a balanced mixture of power and elegance.  A Cabernet forward blend gave it very striking notes of cassis, with Petit Verdot and Merlot providing balance and texture to the wine.  It truly filled the mouth with flavour that seemed to carry on and on, and despite having six years of age on it the wine felt young and vibrant still. 

·         2005 Te Mata Coleraine.  This wine was everything you’d expect.  Cassis balanced with lovely herby and brambly notes, but without ever feeling under ripe or vegetal.  The tannins were fine but still had a good presence on the edges of the tongue that made it feel like it could have aged for many more years getting silkier and silkier.  This wine justified its ranking as one of NZ’s finest Bordeaux blends.  A word of warning however; it may have just been this bottle but the cork (whilst it wasn’t leaking at all) was very soft and despite a corkscrew being screwed through the entire length of the cork still tore in half (with a core being removed from the bottom half of the cork).  Fortunately, we did manage to get the cork out in the end.  Just be mindful of this when opening any 2005s that you have lying around (oh to be so lucky).



Spring in the Garden

Strawberries and Asparagus - rejoice!  As the days get longer and warmer, and the weather a bit more stable, both of these ingredients are synonymous with the beginning of spring in New Zealand. Between now and Christmas, they are prolific and I simply can't help myself from gorging on them. 

Here's a a really basic asparagus 'recipe' (if you can call it that) to start, which I recently acquired thanks to Hugh Fernley-Whitingstall from River Cottage.  I quite often have this for a quick, somehow virtuous breakfast (maybe except for the butter!): 

"drop a scrap of butter and a dash of white-wine vinegar into a soft-boiled egg, season and use asparagus "soldiers" to stir the yolk into instant, cheaty hollandaise."

 
Though I don't consider myself a green thumb, I have once again started planting my urban veggie patch with my usual overdose of tomato plants and various other summer treasures - fresh heirloom tomatoes with fresh basil and mozzerella are only a few months away.  Though I'm sure I don't plant them properly, or the right distance apart and many can't believe how many tomato plants I have relative to the size of the garden, I always manage to grow heeps of them and there generall aren't a lot left by the end of the season!  My sage and thyme have survived winter, as have a handful of my peppers, and I have decided to plant a few extra companion plants for the bees. 

I am not by any stretch a good gardener unlike my friends Jo and Elle who have a veritable vegetable forest which is well fertilised, well thought out and which produces an abundance of treats all year round.  Jo, who has previously written an article for my blog on lab night, has put together another post on life in the potato patch. I hope he will become a regular contributor to this post.  I'm sure you'll agree he has some interesting 'good life' perspectives:

Over to Jo.......

Yesterday my wife Elle and I dug up the first of our new potatoes.  We've been growing them for a couple of years now, and both springs have enjoyed delicious tender potatoes.  Its some kind of wonderful to dig through moist rich earth and dig out these cream coloured little morsels.

It would be an absolute crime to peel them - even a gentle scrub takes off a lot of the skin.

We boiled them for a few minutes (although with really fresh new potatoes we often steam them) and served them as an entree, tossed with some chopped chives, butter, and some fresh ground salt and pepper.  They were absolutely sensational, and proof (as if we needed more) that spring really is on the way.

The way we grow our potatos is a variation on a theme, and one I first read about in a seattle newspaper.  A lot of people grow potatoes in a stack of tyres.  As the plants grow tall enough, you add another tyre, another layer of seed potatoes and soil, and keep going.  The plants on the bottom layer will keep growing up and up every time you cover their stems.  The variation we use is a wooden box.  This allows the potatoes to be harvested from the bottom, while other layers are still growing above.

I've included plans for the box (which is a bit over engineered, but thats just me).

Here's how it all works:
You'll need:
A = 4 lots of 100x75x1200mm Rough Sawn H4 tanalised Pine
B = 32 lots of 50x150x600mm Rough Sawn H4 tanalised Pine
Lots of 75 or 100mm long Screws

To start with, screw four lots of B (the sides of your box) to your four A’s (the uprights of the box), and fill with a layer of dirt and a layer of seed potatoes (and possibly some special potato fertiliser).As the plants grow to about 200mm about the level of the dirt, add another set of boards, another layer of potatoes, and another layer of dirt.

You can carry this on until the box is completely full of dirt and lots of lovely potatoes.

When a layer has been growing for long enough (it varies on the type of potato you’ve planted), you can simply unscrew the front panel B on the appropriate layer, root around and pull out loads of lovely fresh potatoes. The dirt will be compact enough that it won’t all go everywhere.

At the end of the growing season, the whole thing can be unscrewed, all the potatoes you missed dug out, and then the box can be put in storage for the next season.

The dinner photo is from our second forage into the potato box and is a spring salad of salad greens, sauted asparagus, broad beans, sugar snap peas, a creamy herb dressing, and topped with a poached duck egg along with new potatoes tossed in butter, parsley and chives