It was a glorious day... it wasn't cold.. which is a good thing in Melbourne. The Boy decided to take me to Taste of Melbourne. An event which has selections of the best restaurants, chefts and producers coming together.
Basically, a foodie's dream!!
We got there a tad early... 1 hour early... got our tickets (which were $30 each, cheaper if online $27.50).
So we decided to take a tour of the Melbourne Museum (we get free entry as we are members) and try to kill the 1 hour...
That shall have to be a different post, as this is too long already...
Came out 5 minutes to 12noon (time of when the doors open)... and there was a huge crowd!!!
Managed to finally get in, where they were handing out free copies of August 2009 Gourmet Traveller
As they were the main sponsors, that was a good thing =)
Now, the first thing we see upon entering is The Boathouse.
Owned by Gary Mehigan (one of the famed 3 judges of Australia's Masterchef).
There was a pack of people surrounding him wanting autographs and pictures.
I of course was no exception. I love that man on the show, and I told him just as much =)
He is sooooo nice in real life... exactly like how he is on screen!
He also scribbled on my copy of Gourmet.. which I will show on the last post
The menu board from The Boathouse
Clotted cream mousse with gingernut crumble... (we tried this and it was soooooo delicious, creamy and filling)
Beef, stout & onion pie floater
Falafel with sour frumenty yoghurt & coriander
Areas where people can go to sit and eat and drink and be merry....
More areas...
Next to Gary's booth, was Jacques Reymond
He's a much smaller sized figure but just as imposing as on tv...
He obliged me with a photograph
So I obliged by tasting some of his food... and we had Seared Hervey Bay scallops, Thay style Sher Wagyu beef, crispy Asian salad
The Boy ate all the wagyu, and I had the scallop with the greens... absolutely delicious.. (I can tell you, I'm definitely going to go to the restaurant)
The other dish in this picture is the Tempura of qual breast, tajine flavours, whipped Persian fetta
He also had a Martini of bittersweet chocolate, espresso jelly, bourbon vanilla chantilly... *heavenly sigh*
We then popped over next door to Verge (a restaurant I've been meaning to go, but have never gone)
They had a coffee cured ocean trout, roast cauliflower, buckwheat vinaigrette; Pressed duck leg, preserved mushrooms, smoked tofu, red miso soup; and Milk Chocolate delice, coconut & basil, salted caramel popcorn
We had the ocean trout... and it was soooo good... I admit I was curious about the whole "coffee cured" bit... I couldn't tell the difference though...
Movida was next up...
Frank Camorra was there signing and selling his book... and he looks really scary in real life... ahahah...as oppose to being still in a picture in his cook books
Silks was doing a sad lonely business
My fave place in the world, Nobu... Tadashi Takahashi (head chef) saw me snapping, and he posed for me... after that he winked! ahahahah...
Since we've had the other two dishes, we decided to go with the Pork Belly with Spicy Miso...
Best pork belly dish ever.. so smooth and tender... it melted in my mouth!
More pictures to come!!
