It seemed that every foodie brought their taste-testing appetites to the Royal Exhibition Buildings this weekend for the four days of Taste of Melbourne (26-29 August). The Taste festivals in Melbourne and Sydney are a chance for diners to create their own tasting menu from the selection of dishes offered by some of the city’s well-known restaurants. This year the Melbourne restaurants included oldies like The European and Stokehouse alongside newbies like Le Traiteur and maze. The idea is that you pay for entry ($27.50) and then you have to pay extra for ‘crowns’, the currency of the festival, which you ...
Archives for “Australia”
Help me Doctor!: We are in Melbourne for a long weekend next week and want to fit as many great eateries in as possible. Can you suggest ones that serve smaller dishes so we can visit more than one a night/day/meal? Thanks – Louise Your prescription: Hi Louise, great to hear that you’re planning your Melbourne eating in advance :–) My suggestions for eateries that serve small dishes (all of which I’ve reviewed except the last one): MoVida Aqui Izakaya Den Cutler & Co (Front bar, not restaurant) Auction Rooms Shark Fin House Old Town Kopitiam Cumulus Inc (dinner menu) Peko Peko Yu-u (dinner menu) Anada Markov Place Mamasita Hope that helps! - Jetsetting Joyce
Design:Made:Trade was a 4 day exhibition (2 day trade, 2 day public) set up in the beautiful heritage listed Royal Exhibition Buildings and a keystone event of State of Design 2010, Victoria’s annual design festival. The grand vaulted space was segmented with 3×3 metre VISY cardboard booths, each containing fabulous furniture, fashion and industrial design brands. It was inspiring to see how the designers transformed the same space to reflect their brand, for example by using felt circles, drawing silhouettes of gabled windows or turning it into a 50s lounge room. A ‘no photographs’ sign was prominently displayed at the entrance so ...
As winter approaches I am really starting to indulge in my love of hearty comfort food. While I love all food, in all honestly I don’t get that excited by salads or a sorbet – but I love a good pork belly roast and melting chocolate pudding. Mutti’s is a German endearment for ‘Mother’ and my German friend Lisa from Social Media Podcast found that many of the dishes on the menu were classics from her childhood, even though Mutti’s proclaims itself more of an Eastern European restaurant than a German one. Six of us (Kimberley from The Value-Add, Penny from Addictive & ...
You may remember that at the Nuffnang Christmas party I met Akisa, the brains behind a cool beauty website called BeautySwatch. I liked her idea so much (a huge colour library containing swatches for thousands of lipsticks) I thought you might be interested to hear more about Akisa and her work with BeautySwatch. Hi Akisa, can you tell me a little bit about your background? I’m a corporate rat by day and BeautySwatch editor by night – I have no affiliations with the beauty industry but do have a love for beauty products and the way they make you feel when you transform ...
Today my recently Melbourne-relocated Sydney friend commented that Melbourne seems to have a particular fascination with Spanish cuisine which wasn’t evident in the Sydney dining scene. I can’t vouch for whether that’s actually true or not, but tonight I found yet another cool restaurant/bar serving Spanish-inspired food. And it was muy bueno. Markov Place is the perfect Melburnian space – an unadorned concrete frontage hides a cool front bar and more. The bar reminded me of shadowy 60s vintage pictures of coiffed women perched on cocktail chairs, profiles silhouetted against the mirror. But walk in a little further down the corridor ...
Lin Tan and I go hunting for the finest gelato in Melbourne. Joyce: When you think about ‘Italian culture’ in Melbourne, you think Carlton. Hence, the perfect place to start our, ‘In The Search For The Perfect Gelato’? – Lygon Street. So what makes a perfect gelato? In our view – small batches, taste, texture and colour. Gelati-making is an artisanal industry, so the gelati must be made daily on the premises, not in a huge manufacturing plant. It must be made with fresh ingredients, especially fresh fruit, and not with the pre-packaged mixture often used in high-volume manufactured gelati, ...
Music. Comedy. Musical Comedy. The greatest art form of all. That was the premise of the two man singing and dancing extravaganza, Art v Smart Casual. Actually, it was brothers Roger David and Fletcher Jones (the latter hilariously nicknamed ‘Ginger Claus’ by the former) donning checked shirts and jeans and cracking jokes, impersonating animal noises and breaking out occasionally into song. I think they could have upped the ante in terms of maintaining energy (more shouting, less mumbling) but some of the jokes had a lot of potential. I particularly liked their segment on ‘Avant-Garde’ (French for ‘I don’t know’), art appreciation ...
Emma and Tom were in town, with their little tyke Sam. ‘Love to catch up – do you know any kid-friendly places where we could have dinner?’. Gosh, very few of my Melburnian friends have children – kid-friendly restaurants has never been on my radar. But then I remembered DOC. It always seemed to be filled with kids. There must be a reason. DOC stands for Denominazione d’Origine Controllata, a mark given to wines and foods from certain regions in Italy. So on one side of DOC’s paper menu there is an appealing list of starters, salads and a pizzas, while on ...
Opening night of She’s My Baby and it was a full house in the cosy Old Council Chambers of the Victorian Trades Hall. The intimate horseshoe shaped setting suited the show’s minimal staging – a frilly pink baby basket, comfy lounge chair and a wooden park bench. She’s My Baby, debuting with the new production company Fifth Gear Productions, was the story of a typical suburban couple raising children, as told through two contrasting monologues. The first half was from the point of view of the new mum (writer and director Adele Shelley) – over-protective, filled with nervous tension and gushing with ...
La Mama is an intimate one-room shoebox tucked away in Carlton, and it’s a terrible/wonderful theatre space. Terrible if you’re stuck with a boring show, as there’s nowhere to hide, snooze or make a hasty escape. Wonderful if you’re sharing the space with a witty, invigorating production, as the sense of intimacy really feels like you’re witness to an exciting secret. UK theatre duo Ridiculusmus have brought their works-in-progress Goodbye Princes, Total Football and A Conversation About Comedy to La Mama as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. David Woods and Jon Haynes are my comedic heroes ever since I saw ...
For a smallish city of 4 million people, I think that the Melbourne restaurant scene is disproportionately vibrant – it seems every month I add yet another dozen new restaurant openings to my must-eat-and-blog list. Yet Melbourne has an even longer list of under-appreciated stalwarts, the restaurants and cafes who do their stuff without celebrities, fanfare and month-long waitlists, but who have, over the years, provided my hungry (and critical) tummy with consistently good food coupled with great service at an affordable price. For me, Donnini’s is one such classic. The relaxed and stylish Italian restaurant is a beacon of culinary light ...
Yesterday I wrote about a drinking fountain in Hardy Reserve, Carlton. Today I've got another drinking fountain in Carlton but with a different design.This one is on the other side of Princes Park near Royal Parade. It is constructed from thin red brick with a, perhaps, granite top inscribed with the legend "Reynold's Reserve".The cavity for the fountain is a beautiful stepped semi-dome. I couldn't see any details of who Reynolds was and why the reserve was named in their honour.See my prints and t-shirts at www.redbubble.com/people/dct66 and tees and other giftware at www.zazzle.com/davidt66*.
Previously I've written about a pair of drinking fountains in Yarra Park at either end of Brunton Avenue (see thumbnail images, right). Recently I found another one in Carlton and, as you can see, the design of all three fountains is identical.This one is in Hardy Reserve, directly behind the Melbourne General Cemetery.It bears a plaque explaining the reserve is named after Cr Robert John Hardy who was a local representative for Victoria Ward on Melbourne City Council from 17 May 1915 to 23 May 1937.Brunton Avenue Drinking Fountain Another Brunton Avenue Drinking Fountain See ...
