Thursday, September 9, 2010

Taste of Melbourne... the results

By TP Little Bro

After buying tickets to Taste of Sydney and having to pull out last minute, I was excited to go to my very first Taste festival and be escorted by the finetuned palate of my big bro.

Not known to be kind on the hip pocket, Taste is a great opportunity to sample culinary creations from some of Melbourne’s top chefs. It takes away the task of having to visit each of their restaurant's individually or spend big each time. All you need to do is rock up to the Royal Exhibition Building and enjoy as many signature dishes as your stomach (or wallet) can handle. If you look at it that way, it’s a relatively cheap investment into working out which fine dining establishments you’d like to visit later on (or take a hot date to impress!).

Arriving midway during the final afternoon session (12pm – 5pm), we naively thought we could enjoy all our favourite dishes without having to fight the lunchtime rush. How wrong we were. A trap for young players – if you arrive after the lunch rush, expect to miss out on the dishes you want to try. Embrasse’s crispy pork belly, Mezzo’s Slow braised pork cheek, The Europeans' Duck tortellini to name a few. Although disappointed to miss out on my pork, I’m sure TP Big Bro was somewhat relieved after his recent forgettable experience with a pig.

The twin palates were put to good use on 8 dishes in total (6 mains, 2 desserts) so counting down from lowest to highest, here were my findings.

8. Wallaby Tataki, ginger, soy, horseradish (Charcoal Lane)

Interesting gamey meat, cooked medium rare, a little chewy but nice flavour.



7. Cured Malborough king salmon, sweet corn, chorizo, kipfler potato (Maze)

The salmon on it’s own was nothing special. Add the rest. Special.


6. John Dory cooked in squid ink served with a burnt carrot puree, beetroot puree and heirloom vegetables (Embrasse)

Don’t be fooled. The dory wasn’t burnt but covered in squid ink. It melted in my mouth and the burnt carrot puree made the dish shine.


5. Eye fillet, potato mash, sauce Bordelaise (The Palace)

Beautifully creamy mash, juicy steak and amazing Bordelaise


4. The Bombe – strawberry sorbet, white chocolate parfait and toasted meringue (Stokehouse)

Wonderful marriage of textures and flavours to produce a top class dessert. Light and creamy. Dense and smooth. Lovely.


3. Hazelnuts & chocolate parfait, forest floor (Embrasse)

Flavour goes a long way. As does creativity. Parfait was a chocoholic’s dream. The refreshing granita with the heavy chocolate forest floor, transformed this dish from a great dessert into an experience.


2. Tuna carpaccio, goats feta, rocket, ginger eschalot dressing (The Palace by Luke Mangan)

Simple ingredients. Complex flavours. Must be tasted to be believed. Seriously.


1. Yellow curry of wagyu beef with cucumber relish (Longrain)

Close to perfect curry. Tender beef marginally balanced with fresh vegies. There was so much flavour in this dish that we nearly started fighting over the last grains of rice.

The wondeful array of food above cost $90 between the two of us. I was still a little hungry at the end but we took care of that by doing a lap of the stalls and indulging in some classics (Green & Blacks chocolate fountain) and some new offerings we'd never heard of before (Nudie’s coconut water).

Overall, it was a day well spent on scouting out what's happening in the world of fine dining. It would have been great to see a couple of 2 or 3 hatters make an appearance (Press Club, Attica, Cutler & Co) but nonetheless, it’s elevated my resolve to visit Embrasse, The Palace and of course, relive the way my taste buds sung at Longrain’s Yellow Curry. Luckily for me, Longrain has a Sydney arm, meaning that memorable event is only a quick phone call away.