A week in the life of ....

These few weeks have been hectic. After our holiday in Hanoi in February, we really needed to catch up with our friends. I realised that I don't really talk about what I eat on a weekly basis... Let's give it a try and see if it is interesting for you or not.

Here is a brief of where we've been in the last week:

Monday: Lunch was a sashi don from Don-Don on Swanston Street. For dinner, I made a beef stew using Harumi Kurihara : Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking cook book. It was a little bit salty, so I think I will cut down on the soya sauce a little.

Tuesday: Lunch was at Groove Train, Melbourne Central. My colleague recommended the smoke salmon salad there, and indeed it was fantastic. Roasted potatoes in a smoke salmon salad - yum!! For last minute dinner out, we were recommended to go to Olive Tree Bistro in South Melbourne for steak. It's near Tempura Hajime. We cheekily went to Hajime to see whether there were any spots before heading to Olive Tree. No luck... The steaks at Olive Tree were not bad... 400g steaks!!! .

Wednesday: Lunch was at Tokio, in the city. Love their ebi-don! For dinner, we ate at home, not very healthy but had roast chicken drumstick, Vietnamese style stir fried mung beans with onion, bean sprout, and mince pork, with fluffy rice. Made a mojito but didn't have soda or lemonade so substituted it with white wine... hehehe

Thursday: Lunch was at A1 Cafe on Russell Street, one of my favourite Chinese cafe. I had the lemongrass chicken and pork on rice. Delicious! For dinner, I had a work function at Centro Ristorante, South Melbourne. It was nice to catch up with my colleagues socially. I had the fish of the day, which was grilled ocean trout. That was followed by banana souffle. I liked to banana souffle better than my main.

Friday: I usually have home-made dumpling in my fridge when we don't want to eat out... So Friday night dinner was simple, boiled pork and shrimp dumpling and edamame with a little twist - sprinkling of sesame seed, dried sea weed and sea salt ... Best edamame so far is from Fuji Mart.

Saturday: Lunch was at Aka Tombo Sushi Bar in Prahran. My sister ordered the Sushi & Sashimi Bento, and I had the Tempura Bento. Aka Tombo can do no wrong :) I think next time I really want to try the special bentos that you have to pre-order... For dinner, my sister was kind enough to cook for me. We bought mussells and other ingrediants from Prahran and she cooked a lovely batch of steamed mussells with a chili coconut tom yum sauce to go with it. She's got magic hands :) I made rosemary and garlic roast potatoes to go with it (following Stephanie Alexander : The Cook's Companion recipe) and some roast corn corbs. Why I made rosemary potatoes for an Asian dish, I don't know. *Sigh*

Sunday: I love the weekend, don't you. Yummy food all day long.... We had yum cha at David's, Prahran. The tea there is really nice. We had the Jasmine and Pu-Er tea. Sometimes the dumpling can be over steamed... but the atmosphere there is just so inspiring. After that my cousin bought a roll for his sister at Amici Bakery Cafe (-love their breakfasts) while I went to look at a few houses around the area before heading off to a baby's 1st birthday. H was very cute and endearing.

That was all for last week.... this week also promises lots of yummy food, good company and good wines.

Have a great week!

Dontac

I have often come across the ad for Dontac in freely distributed newsletters for Japanese visitors and residents of Melbourne. You don't really expect a restaurant to be situated where it is on City Road and it is very hard to find during daytime, if you've never been before. But once there, car parking is plentiful.

Dontac is a cafe style eatery cross between a beach side shack and an Izayaka (Japanese pub). It feels like it belongs in permanent summer weather next to the beach. If you have ever watched the Japanese TV drama Beach Boys you will know what I'm talking about. Dontac has an impressive list of Shochu (Japanese vodka) and Sake (Japanese rice wine which can be served hot or cold) that could rival Kura Sake Bar's.

The menu is simple and goes best with alcohol. Don't worry they serve beer as well if you're not into shochu or sake. Table setting is simple and minimal but clean. The focus is on eating the entree-size dishes. We ordered a lot of individual dishes to share. Yuki ordered, we just ate.

Some of the dishes served here I have never heard of or have tasted before.. It could be the chef's own creation, maybe? I read from a website that it is Kyushu-style home cooking...

...Pancetta spring onion salad with ponzu sauce....

........ marinated beef and vegetable balls...........

.....sesame and pickled vegetable fried rice... boy, this was delicious....

.. grilled salmon with spring onion and ponzu sauce...

I think the chef really likes ponzu sauce and spring onion.

How could we forget our glasses of Bishonen and then chilled Nihon Shu sake drank from clear short glasses that went so well with the dishes. :)

I have to say I am not sure about this restaurant... do I like it??

I think for the sesame and picked vegetable fried rice alone I would go back....


Dontac
526 City Road
South Melbourne
03 9696 6794

Ratings
Food: Home-Style Japanese Cuisine
Top Dish: Sesame and Pickled Vegetable Fried Rice
Atmosphere: Simple and Japanese Nostalgia
Service: Informal.
Booking: Not essential. Takeaway is available.

Tempura Hajime

Pssst… I’ve been deciding whether to write a review of Tempura Hajime since I ate there on Monday. I guess I take comfort in one of the rare opportunities to review a restaurant that no one else has reviewed on the internet as of today! No internet website has even hinted of this restaurant, even the White pages has the name wrong! (Hajimer instead of Hajime).

Recommended by the owners of Tokyo Mart, Tempura Hajime is as discreet as Yu-u. Not surprising as it is the new venture of the former Yu-U owners Daisuke and Noriko. Daisuke wanted to bring back his own experience at a tempura restaurant in Tokyo and at the same time have a small restaurant so that he can chat and get to know his customers. He felt that Yuu was getting too big and too tiring for him.

With only 12 seats in this minimalist restaurant, you can chat to Daisuke to your heart’s content and vice versa.

As you arrive at 60 park street, there is no distinct landmark to suggest that there is any restaurant or retail space. Your eyes however hone in on the soild wooden door (see photo), which seems quietly out of place amongst the opaque glass. Look through the small porthole on the door and you see a neatly written sign announcing that you are in the right place.

Open the door, and you are in a small corridor joining a slate walled room similar the high-end bars in Tokyo. You are then asked whether you would like to sit and have a drink at the bar or to proceed into the dining room. We opted for the dining room. In contrast to the bar, you walk through the sliding door to arrive at a well lit small dining room with a tempura counter (see photo).

There is no a la cart menu, it is a Degustation menu with a small appetizer, tempura seafood and vegetables served fresh from the frying bowl, ochazuke or the dry version of ochazuke, dessert, and tea. Their selection of sakes were limiting but of good quality. We had cold sake with our meal – don't remember which one. Surprisingly filling, we struggled to finish the ochazuke. The apricot yogurt pannacotta was a nice touch to finish off the meal in a happy mood.

I really love the plates and bowls that they use, all from a specialty street in Tokyo, one of the owner’s favourite shopping places.

Don't tell too many people as I want to be able to get a table next time! And if they ask you on the phone who recommended you, tell them “Karen” sent you!

Tempura Hajime

60 Park Street
South Melbourne
03 9696 0051

Wedding Bellies

Our foodie friend from Malaysian came down for a few weeks mainly to attend a mutual friend's wedding. It's always a treat to hear him talk so passionately about food, in fact, he knows more about the restaurants in Melbourne than I do!!!

The night before the wedding, we met them after their dinner at Taxi and had wonderful desserts there. As M was to drive the bridal party around, B & S agreed to pick me up the next day.

After the ceremony, which we arrived just in time to rush in before the bride, we headed off to have brunch at MART 130 in Middle Park under B's directions. We actually went to Pearl first but were too late for their brunch, which ended at 12pm. It was 12:45pm

MART 130 was a treat! It felt like I was in a lego cafe, somewhere surreal. The location itself is surreal - a tram stop in Middle Park. The breakfast is simple and straight-forward, the service simple and friendly. We ordered 3 of the four breakfast eggs numbered dishes: Poached eggs with bacon and avocado on toasted sour dough; poached eggs with chorizos, onions, tomatoes with a side of bacon; and poached eggs with smoked salmon, chives etc... All delicious and in generous serves. Definitely will go back again to this quirky little cafe

After that, even after a fairly full stomach, we headed off to South Melbourne for some cakes at Let Them Eat Cake. I must say, their special occasion cakes weren't didn't look very spectacular but the bread and butter pudding and dates pudding was fantastic, especially the dates pudding. The brown sugar and the caramelised coconut slices on the cake just danced in your mouth! The atmosphere was nice as well for a summery afternoon. Highly recommended the decorative gingerbread men there as well

Oh yes and there was the wedding reception at Zinc after that....

MART 130
107A Canterbury Road
Middle Park
03 9690 8831

Let Them Eat Cake
147-149 Cecil Street
South Melbourne
03 9686 0077

Libertine

For our belated anniversary dinner, on impulse, we decided to go to Libertine in South Melbourne, by the recommendation of Melbourne Citysearch. Luckily, we got the last table on Friday night.

We got lost getting there on time because I thought it was North Melbourne instead of South Melbourne. But parking was not to hard to fine either in North Melbourne.

Libertine started about two months ago, "the love child" of chef Nick Creswick (ex-Attica) and wife Zoe Ladyman, until recently sommelier at Ezard. Apparently they share a love of France, French cuisine and wine, so the direction of their own place was more or less pre-determined. The review described it has having "the interior of 19th century opulence and sensuality". I particularly like the vintage chandeliers.

Finally, somewhere that serves Cassis on the menu! I ordered my favourite drink - Cassis and Orange for appertif. We ordered the foie gras first, it came with four pieces of toasted bread not enough for the serving of foie gras but we had lovely warm bread to go with it. Not too over powering so I would definitely recommend that dish to everyone. For entrees, we went for the soup options - seafood bisque and garlic soup with truffle souffle (off the Degustation Menu). For mains, we had the roast duck breast with quince and chestnut, on a bed of pumpkin puree (which M loved surprisingly), eye fillet with a scoop of foie gras and slice of truffle, and a side of green salad.

While we waited for our pear and praline creme brulee, we looked around and could see that everyone was having either a special occasion or romantic dinner. I guess the place and cuisine lends itself to a quiet tête à tête meal with your love ones.

The meal was fantasticly satisfying, however my steak was well-done eventhough I asked for medium. I will have to emphasis that next time. Yes there will be a next time. Booking is essential as it is a small restaurant.

Libertine
500 Victoria Street
South Melbourne
Tel: 03 9329 5228