SBS Featured Foodies

January 12, 2012

While the blog itself has been quiet this month, we've been popping up in a few other places. Yesterday Cindy's guest post turned up on Limes and Lycopene, while today we're featured on the SBS Food website. So if you're missing our regular posts, head on over and check out our interview. Special kudos to Toby from In the Mood for Noodles for being our go-to photographer.

Normal service will resume here shortly!

where's the beef? at Limes & Lycopene

Today where's the beef? is appearing at Limes & Lycopene! L&L author Kathryn Elliott has been posting sensible, accessible and veg-friendly articles on nutrition for years and I'm chuffed to have been invited to contribute to her series on what makes it easier to eat well. You can read my post here.

Queen Margaret

January 7, 2012

Cindy's been working ridiculously hard over summer and is spending the first few weeks of the new year out in the field doing real science*. Meanwhile, I'm at home doing a pretty poor job of keeping this blog ticking over. So when friends wanted to go out for dinner in Fitzroy, I made sure we went somewhere new. Thanks to Claire and Joyce, Queen Margaret has been on my radar for a while - I'm a sucker for good pizza and I've been looking for something to replace Bande Apart in my affections.

Queen Margaret (named after Queen Margherita who in turn gave her name to margherita pizzas) is going for the same trendy pizzeria vibe as Pizza Meine Liebe or D.O.C. It's got a simple and stylish fit-out and is already doing a roaring trade - which is a small problem, as things get pretty noisy. Lots of the buzz about QM has focussed on the three kinds of margherita that they offer, but I like a bit more excitement on my pizzas, so we didn't sample them (see Claire's post for the full margherita run-down).

Instead, we started with the butternut (Pumpkin, Mozzarella, Spinach, Chèvre, Pine Nuts and Thyme, $18)

This was excellent - with creamy chevre and sweet pumpkin with big spinachy patches and a sprinkling of pine nuts for texture. The bases are excellent of course - not too bready but not super crunchy either, a nice balance.

Inspired by our favourite I Carusi pizza, the second pizza of the night was the broccolini (Broccoli, Mozzarella, Chili, Parmesan, Tomato, $17).

This didn't quite measure up to the I Carusi version - they were a little lighter on the chilli, and I really missed the tang of the lemon juice. Still, broccoli on a pizza is a surprisingly good idea.

Queen Margaret have a great range of booze on offer and service was friendly and capable. They offer gluten-free bases (for an extra $2), but vegans are going to have problems finding anything to suit their needs. The prices are a bit steep, but two pizzas comfortably fed three of us. I was pretty happy with the Queen Margaret experience - it's definitely good enough to drag Cindy along to when she's back in town.

* She has taken the camera and photo-processing skills with her, so you're stuck with my awful phone photos.

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Queen Margaret hasn't had much blog-love beyond the reviews at melbourne gastronome and Mel: Hot or Not that put it on our radar.

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Queen Margaret
356 Queens Parade, Fitzroy North
9482 5988
Vegie pizzas $15 - $19
http://www.queenmargaret.com.au/

Accessibility: There's a flat entryway into a fairly spacious restaurant (although the front area gets a bit crowded up with takeaway customers. Ordering and payment takes place at the tables.

Chin Chin II

January 2, 2012

I'm not sure that Chin Chin needs much introduction - anybody with access to the internet or other media will have read rave after rave after rave (for illustration, see the massive list of reviews at the end of this post). In summary: it's a super-hip, no-bookings place that does modern SE-Asian food and typically has lines out the door and a 90 minute wait for a table. We quite enjoyed our first visit, but hadn't been willing to deal with the stress and queues for a return trip until the combo of late lunch, heatwave and new year's day public holiday gave us an opportunity to visit when tables were in slightly less demand.

Even at 2pm on a 40 degree public holiday when the CBD was basically deserted, Chin Chin is pretty packed. Still, we managed to snare a table for four without having to wait, which I imagine is a are luxury. The menu had changed a bit since our first visit, meaning we were able to order a bunch of different dishes this time around.

First up: son in law eggs with chilli jam ($8).

The wonderful chilli jam made this dish a star - just the right balance of sweetness and heat.

We ordered a couple of mains to share - first up stir-fried snow peas, baby corn and chive flowers with black vinegar dressing ($15).

The vegies in this were super fresh, with the big chunks of raw chilli letting you decide how spicy you wanted your share to me (me: quite spicy, Cindy: mild). Cindy was a big fan, raving about the black vinegar dressing, while I thought it was refreshing and tasty without really offering anything stunning.

On the other hand, the aromatic yellow curry of roast pumpkin, char-grilled tofu and green beans ($17) knocked my socks off.

The deep, rich flavour of this curry was just outstanding - I'd love to get the recipe for their paste. The big chunks of char-grilled tofu and the tender, sweet pumpkin chunks combined beautifully as well - the best dish of our two trips to this place in my opinion.

We had another shot at the roti bread ($4) - this time around it was perfect, flaky and fresh and nothing like the rubbery version we had last time.

It's worth noting that both our mains were vegan, the pumpkin curry was gluten-free, and the menu promises that dietary requirements of all types can be catered for. Inclusivity for the win! It's also worth noting the portion sizes - after splitting two mains and a starter with Cindy I was stuffed to the gills. I suspect I ate more than my fair share of the curry though, because Cindy somehow still had room for dessert.

She went with the three-colour pudding (layers of sweet beans with pandan infused tapioca, caramel and crushed ice, $11).

This is basically a jazzed up version of Cendol. And like Cendol it has some wonderful novelty value (look at it!), but is all a bit sweet and sugary. Cindy didn't really love it, although that may have in part been because she was already basically full.

We had a pretty damn excellent lunch at Chin Chin - friendly service, great food and, most importantly when it's 40 degrees outside, air conditioning. Despite all the hype, the prices for vegetarian dishes at Chin Chin are still reasonable - Cindy and I managed two mains, a starter plus a roti and some rice for less than $50 (watch out for the drinks though, that's where they get you). We'll definitely return, but probably only when we can time it to avoid the crazy stress of their busy-ness (early and late lunches seem to be the best bets).

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Read about our first visit to Chin Chin here. Then, if you can face it, make your way through all the other blog reviews. Nouveau Potato and Veg Food Diaries have given it the thumps up from a veg perspective, while non-vegos The Chronicles of Ms I-hua, Egg tarts and apple pies, Niche, Fork, Knife and Chopsticks, No Ordinary Man, Makansudah, Dangerous Duplicity, Makan Melbourne, Dine With Me, The Quince Poacher, Tiny Savages, Where Adles Eats, Irrepressible Food Baby, Poppets Window, i destination, Peach water, Sweet and Sour Fork, Melbourne Food Files, Dying 4 Desserts, Two Munch, eat, drink, stagger, The sticky and sweet, The Melbourne Foodie, Gastrogasmic, Melbourne Culinary Journal, capitalgourmand, dear melbourne, Fill My Belly in Melbourne, angryaussiefood, Temasek, onemelbournian, Food Chee, Excuse Me Waiter, Relish food and life, Popcorn and Toast, Eat This, Food Lovers Society, Gastronomical ramblings, table to tummy, Almost Always Ravenous, Does My Bomb Look Big in This?, Outright Gluttony, Köstlich, foodbitesandflights, mochii eats, kran and nina, funky ass and Addictive and Consuming have all enjoyed it since we last visited.

A few bloggers have been a bit disappointed by the much-hyped Chin Chin - see Very very Hungry Caterpillar, Gastrono Me, foodloca, Miss Adriennely, Momo and Coco, Hold the Peas and je t'aime l'automne.

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Chin Chin
125 Flinders Lane, Melbourne CBD
8663 2000
veg snacks and mains $8-16, desserts $9-12
http://chinchinrestaurant.com.au/

Accessibility: The entry is wide and flat; space between tables is mixed. All service is at the table and there's a 'disabled'-labelled toilet.

Middle Fish

Edit 30/08/2017: Sadly Middle Fish is now closed! Their instagram account reports that they'll be opening at a new address in 2019.

30 December, 2011

When Claire first blogged about about Middle Fish, the stylish new Thai place in our neighbourhood, Cindy and I were cautiously enthused. Enthused because of the beautiful fitout and fresh sounding food and cautious because of their much-vaunted authenticity. Authenticity for a Thai place basically means fish sauce and/or shrimp paste in everything, so we were uncertain as to whether or not Middle Fish would have much to offer us. But I wandered in for lunch, relieved to find something open in the Christmas/NY gap (this was an unplanned solo visit, so the photos are all from my phone and not up to Cindy's usual standards).

As with Seven Seeds (where Middle Fish source their coffee), this is a converted warehouse, which means high ceilings and loads of space. It's outfitted with wonderfully designed sculptures and fittings courtesy of visiting Thai designer Torlap Larpjaroensook. The basic menu has almost nothing vego on it, but there's a sentence at the bottom promising veg adaptations are available. After a quick chat with one of the very friendly staff, I'm given a decent range of options, settling on a version of fried rice minus the pork. They checked in with me about various ingredients - it was particularly reassuring when they asked me about fish sauce - and relayed my answers to the kitchen.

What came out was this:

A generous serve of fried rice, filled with crispy fresh vegies and accompanied by a bowl of biting chilli-soy sauce. The combo of slightly vinegary flavours, soy and heaps of fresh chilli really went down well with me. I was particularly pleased to find out that Middle Fish don't load things up with sugar or skimp too much on the heat - the bottle of water on the table certainly came in handy.

This was an excellent lunch - quick, fresh and tasty and served by super-friendly staff who were happy to deal with vegetarian fussiness. The only slight downside was the price - $14.50 might be okay if you're paying for the fancy pork version of this but is a bit steep otherwise. Vegetarians clearly aren't the main priority of Middle Fish, yet it was nice to discover that they'll happily cater for us - I'm going to drag Cindy back to find out what else they can do.

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Middle Fish is gradually developing some blog-buzz: Melbourne gastronome, Authenticcity and The Very Very Hungry Caterpillar have all raved about it since it opened a few weeks back.

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Middle Fish
122-128 Berkeley Street, Carlton
9348 1704
salads $12.50, mains $14.50

Accessibility: There's a flat entry way leading into an incredibly spacious and naturally well-lit dining area. Service takes place at the table, payment at a low counter.