When George says you should check out Ray's food at the Gallery, I'm certainly not going to argue - the dodoni in my fridge a testament to his persuasive abilities.Persimmon is the restaurant located within the National Gallery of Victoria in St. Kilda Road. You have to look hard at the official site to even find mention of it. It's only open during the day (11am-4pm) but anyone can go there.I think Paalo got a bit misty eyed at the sight of the bread tray - well, more at the sight of the butter, prepared as it was at Fenix.For ...
Archives for August, 2008
Ninety by Joanna Murray-Smith, directed by Simon Phillips. Designed by Andrew Bellchambers, lighting design by Nick Schlieper. With Melinda Butel and Kim Gyngell. Melbourne Thetare Company @ the Fairfax Studio, Victorian Arts Centre, until October 4.Joanna Murray-Smith’s latest play, Ninety, is a short portrait of a failed marriage. Isabel, an art restorer, has begged ninety minutes from her
Brief EncounterJoanna Murray-Smith's 90 minute two-hander makes a virtue out of the trend for 90 minute, de-intervaled plays by being a story about that takes exactly 90 minutes in real-time . William (Kim Gyngell) is now a celebrity actor with a bulging schedule that includes his imminent marriage to a German celebrity actress more appropriate to his new status. He makes a flying visit to his ex-wife Isabel (Melinda Butel) who has begged some time to meet with him. She is an art restorer, currently working on a look-alike of Van Eyck's wedding portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his bride ...
Tonight's dinner is a bit different - this time we're having a special degustation.Roast tomato soup with ham hock and Comté samosa2007 Milton Chenin BlancA really interesting soup - when I think tomato soup I think of something thick and heavy but this was completely different. The flavour was certainly there from the roasted tomatoes but the texture was more delicate and light, it was creamy but not heavy. The samosa had an incredibly moist interior, the ham wonderfully juicy, it teemed well with the Comté.Green prawn and avocado cocktail; Salmon gravalax, Avruga caviar sauce2007 Mitchell Watervale RieslingI absolutely loved ...
This is a double edition of ladies who lunch – I had the pleasure of having two lunches with two friends in the same week.Jo and I went to Nudel Bar for a long over due catch up. It was a cold, wintry day, and I felt like something warm and soupy. So I ordered the Tom Yum soup ($19.80) – it was packed with egg noodles, a slurpable, spicy, sour broth, and lots of seafood (mussels and squid). It was a very large serve, and if I hadn't eaten all of it I would've been tempted ...
72 Flinders St, Melbourne; 03 9677 9677Listening to David Sedaris at the Melbourne Writers' Festival recently, I was taken with his statement that sometimes he feels like his life has become a story. At such times he resists the compunction to take out his notebook and notate what's happening, as he doesn't want to do anything to bring the situation to an end before its natural
Cafe Vue430 Little Collins St, Melbourne (map)9691 3899Cafe Vue, the cheapest and friendliest of the Vue de Monde triumvirate of venues, sells four course lunchboxes for $15 a pop. The lunchbox menu changes (and is updated on their website) monthly.I've already written about a few of Cafe Vue's monthly cocktail nights, and hereby present to you the Cafe Vue winter lunchboxes. I tried out the June, July and August lunchboxes with T, L and B, my fellow "ladies who lunch" (if by "ladies who lunch", one actually means "ladies who try to squeeze in an hour for lunch whilst beavering ...
Artist: Anita Mertzlin Content: Painting Price Range: from $800 to $5,200 Exhibition: Gallery 101 - Ground Level/101 Collins Street Melbourne 3000 Dates: August 20 - September 6 2008 By Arrangement is an exhibition of thirty still life paintings in which unlikely objects such as kettles, nests, china cups and saucers, apples and bottles of Brasso are placed together in compositions that appear to be as much a comment on time as they are space. The paintings themselves are superbly executed and the items are arranged to take full advantage of surface textures, reflections, shadows and negative space. The strength of the show for me lies in ...
Groin grabbingly good! - BenTo continue the celebration of my Bro's birthday weekend, we headed to Gills Diner last Saturday night with a few of his friends. The quote above is from our pal, Ben, who requested that I post it on my blog sometime. He is a very articulate man indeed. Gills Diner is a warehousish space which has been described as part school room. I got the school vibe while there, probably due to the wooden chairs, wooden tables, and school style heaters. Unlike school however, Gills is hippity, hip, hip. ...
Artist: Elizabeth Delfs and Robyn Beeche Content: Photography Price Range: $1650 (photographs) $650 (garment) Exhibition: Guildford Lane Gallery - 20 -24 Guildford Lane Melbourne 3000 Dates: August 1 - September 28 2008 This is an exhibition of fourteen unframed photographs of bodies in motion, adorned in strange costumes that enhance the sense of movement and create a tension between violent struggle and graceful dance. The inclusion in the show of one of these costumes, an “architectural” foam garment, complements the lightness of the images with a three-dimensional solidity. I could not find numbers next to the photographs to match the titles in the information sheet, so ...
Bean Jelly with Cucumber Salad Hot & Sour Noodle Soup with Tofu & Mushroom Chilli Noodle Soup with Pork & Peanuts Santogold – I’m A Lady (zSHARE) 175 Russell Street, Melbourne 03 9654 2828
Artist: Nina Sellars Content: Photography Price Range: Works in sets of nine from $54,000. Six available for individual sale for $7000 Exhibition: Guildford Lane Gallery - 20 -24 Guildford Lane Melbourne 3000 Dates: August 1 - September 28 2008 Oblique is an exhibition of nine Large photographs depicting Stelarc’s extra ear surgery in which he had a cartilage ear constructed and implanted into his left forearm. The images allow the viewer to gaze into a fascinating, uncomfortable and beautiful space in which the body becomes an art form. The images do not shy away from the surgery and are very much about the ambiguities of inside ...
123 Hardware St, Melbourne; 03 9600 0695Beetroot have assessed their market and tailored an irresistible lunch option accordingly. During the week, a good range of pre-prepared meals are available for $10 and a tumbler of their house wine for just $1. If that won't get you away from your desk and out of the office, I don't know what you're waiting for!The pre-preparation is an indicator that
Despite being stranded in the US South, Cindy kept her finger on the Melbourne food pulse and sent around an email reminding me of The Age's Winter Restaurant Express - a week-long promotion where some of Melbourne's fanciest restaurants offer two-course lunches with a glass of wine for just $30. We'd visited Oyster the last time this kind of promotion was on, and been just slightly underwhelmed by the vego dish on offer. We were wowed by Cafe Vue's vego work at their cocktail night, so we had high hopes that Bistro Vue would come through for us ...
On Saturday night we were after a quick meal in the city before heading to MIFF. I took the opportunity to complete the Bourke St trio of Indian restaurants by visiting Jaipur Curry Bar. Nestled between Green Pepper and Red Pepper, the setting straddles the two - tables are very much cafeteria style but some effort's been made to colour and decorate the walls. Interestingly the menu includes beef, though goat is more dominant.Jaipur initially scored points for actually having the mango lassi that was advertised on the menu. Entirely for the sake of comparison, ...
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, directed by Gale Edwards. Set and costumes by Stephen Curtis, lighting design by Matt Scott, music composed by Paul Grabowsky. With Essie Davis, Martin Henderson, Rebekah Stone, Deidre Rubenstein, Chris Haywood, Gary Files, Grant Piro and Terry Norris. Melbourne Theatre Company @ the Playhouse Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre until September 13. Bookings
Abbotsford St North Melbourne: Sign Nerd Heaven?Yes. Here we have some nice painted billboards (ancient) for Astor radios and Penfolds wine, on old sign on the side of a sub station, and the sign above a baby health centre which is still used for the same purpose, albeit as a 'maternal and child health centre'.
The Town Hall Hotel in Bank St, South Melbourne is another Melbourne pub that received a deco make-over in the 1930s.According to Pots, Punks & Punters, the St Kilda Historical Society's excellent history of St Kilda and South Melbourne pubs by Becky Aizen, the Cosmopolitan Hotel was in operation here in 1868.It was renamed the Town Hall Hotel in 1881, probably as a result of the construction of the magnificent South Melbourne Town Hall a year or so earlier. The town hall is also located in Bank Street but it is almost two blocks from the hotel so to ...
Trunk275 Exhibition St (cnr Lt Lonsdale St), Melbourne (map)9663 7994Friend M left Melbourne a few weeks ago, heading to the 'Berra and the glamourous legal position awaiting her there. We wanted to catch up for a final dinner in the CBD, ideally somewhere up towards Carlton way. I wanted to try somewhere different, so spent some time browsing the excellent map function on yourRestaurants and came up with Trunk. In the formal restaurant the mains are around the $32 mark - we ended up eating from the cheaper bar menu.Despite its very fetching interior and general air of fabulousness, ...
359 Little Bourke St, MelbourneHot drinks have had their moments in the spotlight on this blog, but they tend to be on the peripheral of reviews, mentioned in addition to the food on offer as an extra indication of a venue's style and worth. On this occasion, however, there's no food stealing the limelight, in part because this particular venue doesn't really serve food (with the exception of
MAIN GALLERY | Vittoria di Stefano, Kirsten Perry & Clair Dougherty SKINNY GALLERY | Ian Wadley SOUND GALLERY | dimple…) Opening Tuesday 12 August 6-8pm …Until Saturday 30 August I EAT MEMORIES | Vittoria di Stefano, Kirsten Perry & Clair Dougherty They say that at the moment of death, one’s life flashes before them. This montage of images documents the moments that comprise our own private story. How would this movie play out? Which images would be pulled from the recesses of consciousness to illustrate our own journey? Which images remain significant to us, and which fade into the ether? How accurate would our ...
Artist: Petrus Spronk Content: Ceramics Price Range: Most works from $600 to $3300 Exhibition: Gallery 101 - Ground Level / 101 Collins St Melbourne 3000. Dates: July 23 - August 16 2008 On Saturday I attended a floor talk by ceramic artist Petrus Spronk who discussed the work behind his latest exhibition Inner Landscapes. He spoke about the development of his technique in which he uses basic earth kilns, how this technique began out of necessity (an affordable way to fire ceramics) and subsequently developed into a lifetime of intense study and refining of this method to create unique ceramics. Inner Landscapes is a series of ...
Found this posted on Cherry Bar's MySpace. Look's like they are planning on re-opening late October 2008. That's Rocktober Kids!
Delta SkelterTo celebrate the 65th birthday and negative cancer test of 'Big Daddy' Pollitt (Chris Haywood), the richest man on the Mississippi Delta, his sons Gooper (Grant Piro) and Brick (Martin Henderson) gather at the family home with their wives Mae (Rebekah Stone) and Margaret (Essie Davis) for the party. Mae is pregnant with their sixth child while Brick and Maggie are childless and their marriage is on the rocks. Brick is an alcoholic, his leg in plaster from a drunken prank the night before, and indifferent to his beautiful wife. Despite that Maggie is crazy for love of him. ...
When we found out that Vue de Monde's Sommelier Raúl Moreno Yagüe was hosting a Spanish Wine Lunch at Bistro Vue, we knew that it would be a perfect opportunity to learn a bit more about these wines.The first wine is a NV Bodegas Argüeso Manzanilla Clasica San Leon San Lúcar de Barrameda - made from 100% Palomino grapesIt was matched to the canapé - Pumpkin Consommé with tomato confit spherical ball, goat's cheese croutonsMore Vue de Monde than Bistro - it was a deceptively simple dish. A real surprise was the pumpkin consommé - served just warm, it was ...
