It’s always a pleasure to meet other foodies, because we have something in common (other than the fact that we’re food enthusiats) ; it’s natural to take photos of food when its served. At least it’s not so weird or uncommon with them. Anyway, this trip down to Melbourne, I managed to meet up some foodies.

We went to Enoteca Vino Bar @ Lygon St. It’s a pretty nice Italian restaurant with great ambience for people to catch up. They had a small wine cellar next to the restaurant and they looked pretty impressive.

The bar

Along with wines and coffee bags, there were some selections of Italian cookies and biscottis displayed in the bar counter. Great for those who’re just up for coffee or wine..

So there’s me, Shirley, Thanh (obviously the only guy in there), Mel and Yvonne.

I was quite happy that this foodies-meet turned out pretty well. I posted a msg on my blog before I went to Melbourne and Thanh msged me. Mel tagged along as well. Then Shirley and Yvonne was quite a coincidental thingy. Both of them sms-ed me on those places to go in Melbourne. I thought I should just call them too since I’ve not met Thanh and Mel either.. I mean, the more the merrier right ? tsk tsk. We pretty much were able to talk along cause we’re sorta in the same age group. (3 students, 1 engineer, 1 unemployed pastry chef)

Ok, its time for food. We did ponder quite a while on the menu because everything in there was just amazing. Skip the wine list, they had a pretty impressive selection of mains (Pasta, Risotto, Meat) and Entrees / Appetizers which they call Assaggini.

We ordered 3 assagginis, sorta like just pin-pointing and also with some help from the waitress, cause there were just tooooo much to choose from.

Involtino de pesce spada
Baked swordfish involtino

Involtini di prosciutto e carciofi alla Romana
Preserved, steamed artichoks wrapped in prosciutto

Carpaccio di pagello con pesto di ortaggi
Red emperor carpaccio with vegetable pesto

Let see, the carpaccio was my least favourite. I couldnt really get what it is except that it looked so much like cooked egg whites. Second was the Baked swordfish. Texture was ok, but i think it had too much lemon juice in it (yeah because they gave us an unproportionate slice of lemon in regards with the size of the swordfish). I think they’re like the size of my .. index finger only .Haha, yeah, maybe slightly thicker. Then the wrapped artichokes with proscuitto was quite good, given that I’ve never tasted artichokes my whole life! It had this kinda texture that reminded me of a kind of ingredient thats cooked with chinese congee, but i just couldnt recall what it’s called. (not dried scallop ok..)

And bread was served as well. Er, as usual, bread is really not my kinda thing. Shirley kinda reminded me when she said “I know Swee doesnt like bread and she only eats it when it’s freshly baked” *blush blush* I didn’t think that people would actually remember that..

For mains, we each ordered one and decided to share among one another so we could actually taste everthing. haha. And it’s kinda a norm thing for us Chinese / Asians to share food (No offence to non-Chinese/Asian tho)

*I’m not bothered to type the Italian name of dish because it’s just TOOO LONG!!*
Lamb slow-braised with red wine, cloves , juniper berries and Vincotto Originale served on farro with chives, toasted pine nuts and stracchino chees.

*phew* that’s a pretty long one, eh ? I ordered this dish and the farro was pretty interesting. It reminded me of a dish I ordered from a Roman restaurant though except that it was really barley-rice kinda thingy. Anyway, Thanh said this dish reminded him about Hot Cross Buns. Maybe because of the cloves in it. The texture of the lamb is tough on some and tender on some. weird

Risotto with leek puree and blue swimmer crab

Shirley ordered this dish. It was abit porridge-y for me and it tasted very chinese-y too. A couple of them said that the first bite of this dish was very good, and towards the end, they changed their mind. But I thought maybe because it’s nicer if it’s eaten hot. like real hot!

Saddle of rabbit with a thyme and onion stuffing. Olive oil poached rabbit leg and braised fennel.

Thanh ordered this and it was very wise of him. haha because it tasted really good!! The rabbit, thyme and onion stuffing was really good and tender. I didn’t taste the rabbit leg though.

Risotto of pear and gorgonzola picante

This is by far the most interesting dish of the night. Mel ordered this dish because of it’s interesting-ness. and indeed it was a very curious dish! The flavour was very similar to a mild blue cheese, and that’s all I have to say. Haha.

Saffron Risotto with slow cooked veal shank

This was my fave dish. Yvonne ordered this and it was great that she sat next to me. Haha. The golden colour of the risotto made the dish looked really beautiful. Some said it tasted like mac and cheese (well it did at some certain point) The veal shank was done right. I kinda had a bad experience eating veal, so everytime I see veal on the menu, I tend to skip it. But this one was exceptional though.

By the time we finished the mains, we were really full, but of course we always have a second stomach for desserts. I wasn’t really up to it because of the overdose of desserts from Savour (which I’ll post up soon enough).

We’re just doing what we do best (besides eating). So the new trend is taking photos at people taking photos of food. Hah

Three fruit sorbet with blood orange reduction. Sorbet flavours were lemon (white), Blood plum (dark red)(actually I didn’t really know what was it but based on Thanh’s blog, he said it was blood plum.. and watermelon (pink). It’s served with caramelized orange slice. Having tasting watermelon sorbets 2 nights in a row isn’t really a good thing especially when it doesnt taste good at all. Well, I’m not sure if watermelon sorbet is suppose to taste like that, but to me, it’s like the watermelon flavoured bubble gum.

Italian Tiramisu.

Nice plate garnishing though. Simple and sweet. It was really full on coffee (for me; because I’m a noob at coffee). But it was pretty good too.

White chocolate zabaglione with a toffee-crust served with berry-fruit gelato

This was pretty interesting too. It kinda looked like a creme brulee here because of the caramelized sugar crust. It was indeed kinda like creme brulee except that the filling was a sabayon based with white chocolate and I think, Marsala or some liqueur too.

Overall, it was pretty good. Company was very nice too! It was a waste that I didnt have more time in Melb, so we can go visit the 1-m long pizza place, eh ?

Other writeups, Thanh & Mel.

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