Red Hill Community Market (Vic)
Posted: September 7, 2012 Filed under: Random | Tags: Arts and Craft Victoria, fresh fruits and vegetables, Lions Club Victoria, Markets Victoria, Mornington Peninsula, Red Hill, Red Hill Community Market, scout group, travel 3 Comments »Now you are probably thinking that this does not look like a typical Melbourne cafe. If you are thinking along those lines that is good. This post is more of an adventure piece. The Chommery and Co. rugged up, filled the ol’ truck with juice and set off for a one hour drive south of Melbourne’s CBD.
The destination was the Red Hill Market, operating on the first Saturday of every month from September through to May (refer to website for more details). Driving for two hours (return trip) on a Saturday is no small task, but I have been here many times and knew that it was well worth it. This market prides itself on hosting over 300 stallholders and is the self titled ‘Great Dame’ of Victoria’s markets. Established in 1975 this beauty seems to only get better each time I have visited over the years.
There is an array of fresh fruits and vegetables available at the market from the surrounding farms including locally produced cheese, bread, wine and dessert. The entire arts and crafts game is not really my scene, nevertheless there is plenty of it at this bad boy. I set forth on the first day of trading in September for one purpose – to eat! We slowly made our way around the stalls, eating as we went. I would describe it as a strolling degustation. One that I would strongly recommend to any foodie. Note: the Delgrosso’s apple juice above is liquid gold!
I have a rich history of scouting in my blood. My two brothers and I are all proud to say that we were once scouts, while my youngest sibling is currently a pack leader – making the family proud. Not to go too far off track, it is an organisation that I hold much respect for and my way of supporting the cause includes visiting their tent at the market. Not to mention, their scones totally rock!
Scones with jam and cream. Rarely would you order scones from a cafe or a restaurant so this was a real treat. They’re handmade by the Red Hill scout group in old barreled drums. You can’t beat home-made, fresh out of the oven scones. And $5.00 for 4 halves – you can’t go wrong.
These are famous caneles. These little gems may not look overly appealing but ask for a tester and you won’t be able to resist buying a few for the drive home. You are not going crazy if you think you have seen this treat before. The company Canele de Bordeaux supply these to many of your favourite Melbourne cafes but for some reason they taste so much better here!
I am sure you can tell this eating frenzy has no rules. Desserts can arrive before mains, and entrees at the end – it doesn’t really matter. An oven full of freshly baked sausage rolls and assorted meat pies is a hard one to miss.
The query was posed before eating this little beauty whether we should add some good ol’ tomato sauce. Let it be known that it was perfectly delicious on its own. This pie was the s#@*! It had generous chunks of lamb and was cooked in amazing rosemary juices. Dare I say – Better than four’n twenty.
Watching this gentleman prepare these Japanese delicacies is truly mesmerizing. You’ll stand and watch perplexed after placing your order for these small Japanese pancakes. Savoury and sweet varieties are available. Just a heads up, be prepared for a small wait – these take time to put the love and care into each one – but well worth it.
We had three different ones in total. Firstly, the chocolate with chocolate cream inside (Top left). Followed by tuna with cheese (bottom right) and lastly the green tea with red bean and cream (bottom left). These are served hot and squishy. The green tea was my pick of the day – save the best ’til last.
Poffertjes! YUMMMMMO! Who could say no to tiny pancakes! It’s like getting that precious part of the muffin in a mouthful, but of pancakes instead. Dusted with icing sugar and drizzled with maple syrup – here’s breakfast. If you ever make a smart move in your eating career you will take it upon yourself to chom a plate of these.
What’s Australia, and Melbourne, without a touch of cultural difference? So we threw in some gyoza, which were very delicious. $10.00 for a serve of 6. We had three chicken + shitake and three pork and shallot. Couldn’t for the life of me tell the difference, but they were great. As good as you would expect in a Melbourne bistro.
Had to save the best for last. The Flying Calamari Bros are a more recent stall to arrive at the market for me. I never saw this when I was a youngen. But I really feel that now I need to make up for some serious lost time. This store contains only one feature in their product line – a cone of calamari @ $12.50.
Worth every single penny. Wow. Just get them. And add the sweet chilli mayo. The calamari pieces are soft and only lightly battered. None of that rubbery crap which seems to plague many restaurants. These are truly heavenly and my market dish of choice.
Take it from me (or don’t – it doesn’t really matter) but this truly is a tremendous market if you are into your food. The stalls open at 8:00am sharp and close very promptly and efficiently at 1:00pm. The Chommery approved suggestion is to arrive somewhere between 10 and 11am and try to give yourself a relaxing two hour wander from stall to stall. Have a loose $4.00 in change for the local Red Hill Lions Club parking service.
Enough from me – once again I leave it in your capable hands.
Maybe I will catch you at the next market.
Bye for now.
Axil Coffee Roasters – Hawthorn
Posted: April 27, 2012 Filed under: Cafe | Tags: Coffee, coffee roasters, Coffee Roasting, culture, Food, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Melbourne cafe, restaurants, travel 1 Comment »Axil Coffee Roasters is a brilliant cafe and could very well be one of the best in Melbourne. Need I say more? Probably not. Will I waffle on for a bit and talk about my experience? Yes. If your goal for logging on to this post was to decide whether or not to try the lovely Axil, I would say, yes, go! If you keep reading, I have warned you that I like to have a good waffle. Mmmmm waffles.
A grand looking entrance that fronts onto to Burwood Road and is situated a few metres away from the corner of Glenferrie Road in Hawthorn. The only outside seating can be seen in the above photo. Personally, I think you will have a much more enjoyable Axil experience sitting within the beast.
A bright open dining area that makes use of the signature Melbourne exposed ventilation and hanging lights among other pleasant features. You may notice the great hanging pot plant display that divides the space between the eating-in customers and the abundance of staff working their butts off behind a long work bench on the right hand side.
The soy latte was creamy, bubble free and smooth($4.00). I wouldn’t expect anything else from a cafe that not only has their own Axil coffee products station, but also a full roasting factory at the rear of the premises. You can tell that the crew behind this joint are most definitely into coffee, as well as coffee related paraphernalia.
How can anyone go past a steak sandwich ($17.00)? But really, a classic Aussie favourite that dates back to when Captain Cook first discovered Australia. Served in toasted turkish bread with rocket salad and other nice insides, not to mention a decent quality fillet. The side potato salad with mayo and red onion was a nice companion. If the other sangas are also getting served in halves, could be an option to split with a friend to sample a second.
You may have heard of the BigMac index, more recently the iPod index. The latest one of all, taking Melbourne by storm is the smashed avocado and fetta index. Now that this breakfast dish has become a staple addition to pretty much every cafe in Melbourne, we can make our own measures and conclusions of each one. Lo and behold, the smashed avocado ($14.50) at Axil was pretty damn good. This was the consensus of the group and not just the humble opinion of The Chommery. Points were awarded for the second piece of sourdough, the overly generous serving of mash and the complementary lemon.
Doesn’t the combination of greens, white, red, yellow and a few more shades of green just look magnificent. Even if this dish tasted like crap – which it certainly did not, I would have to give votes just for the amazing use of colour. These were the fritters ($17.00). A careful incision was made by no one else but a budding surgeon on this poached egg. He deemed it to be impeccably cooked.
A pasta/gnocchi dish is a very upmarket (dinner-esque) offering for a cafe – I wanted one of my fellow chommers to order it so we could see how Axil’s fared. We ordered the veal ragu with gnocchi (yes – I know that is penne ($21.00). The penne was a late substitution and we were all a little worried when we were informed of this by our bubbly waitress. The pasta was cooked exactly to our liking, al dente, and none of that watery soggy stuff either. The small cubes of veal were almost falling apart off the fork as you took each mouthful. What a great variation to standard cafe fare – a beautiful dish.
The food just kept getting better and better. The lamb wrap ($17.00) was really sensational. The lamb had been prepared in a similar fashion to the veal, in that it was as soft as cake – too good. An amazing (possibly home-made) tomato salsa and humus dressing formed a bed for the tabouleh to rest on top. My only criticism is that after I had been peer pressured to fold up the wrap and start eating it like a man, the package became much smaller. This in turn, meant my eating experience was much quicker.
I took the time to find the real definition of the word axil. Until earlier I thought it had something to do with bikes and levers. Dictionary.com defines it as ‘the upper surface of a branch or leafstalk and the stem from which it grows’ (WTF is correct). I tried several times to combine this with a witty ending note for my post using the name in some sort of pun. The result was negative. I will leave you on this note.
No more waffling, time to get serious. Axil Coffee Roasters is the bomb. Go and enjoy a beautiful breakfast or lunch.
The Important Details…
Cuisine: Cafe
Noise: Not quiet
Suitable for: All
Dress: As you like
Price: $15 – $25 a head
My View: One of Melbourne’s best Cafe – well in my top 10
Address: 322 Burwood Road, Hawthorn
Phone: (03) 9819 0091
Website: http://www.axilcoffee.com.au/
San Telmo – Melbourne
Posted: April 5, 2012 Filed under: Argentinian | Tags: Argentinian, Assado, Food, Latin America, travel, vacation 1 Comment »San Telmo is known to many as one of the oldest suburbs in Argentina. One that is very popular with tourists seeking a real Buenos Aires experience by walking the cobblestone streets while observing the antique stores that line the way. San Telmo, Melbourne, is known to many ‘in the know Melbournians’ as a new and exciting restaurant, which is churning out customers night after night, serving up excellent Argentinian fare. Due to my recent trip to the South of America, I like to think of myself as an adequate judge of this cuisine, and I tell you, the crew here are doing a bang up job.
Could Argentinian be a new food trend to take Melbourne by storm?
Located on Meyers Place in Melbourne’s city, San Telmo could be considered just a number in the scheme of top restaurants in this part of the city. Open for breakfast Monday to Friday from 8am through to lunch and dinner till late and from 9am till late on the weekends, you can rest easy that you will find a time that suits. A pleasant entrance, which isn’t too fancy, one would have no idea of the treasures inside.
The restaurant is a large space that spans from the formal entrance in Meyers Place through to the parallel lane way of Windsor Place. The above photo displays the open kitchen where you can sit and watch these guys boil while cooking many different pieces of meat. The floor is lined with black and white tiles around the kitchen and changes to dark red carpet for the majority of the restaurant. Staff in serious work aprons, cow hide along the wall, with a massive display of wines and thick leather place mats lining the tables are some of the interesting features you may notice upon arrival.
Empanadas are a very popular snack to get you through the day while touring Argentina and will often find their way to becoming an entree before any lunch or dinner. We ordered both varieties of Empanadas on offer – firstly, beef, egg and olives. The other was provolone, mozzarella, basil and capsicum ($6.00each). To my surprise, these were heavily fried, which is interesting because I only remember eating baked ones during my travels. Nevertheless, they were a delicious treat to begin the feast and can be easily divided in half using a knife or the hands god gave you.
Humitas – fried corn, polenta and chipotle mayonnaise ($12.00). I like to think of polenta chips as the newer and cooler version of french fries and for some odd reason I convince myself they are healthier. They are, right? Delicately crunchy with a hot soft gooey inside, each bite was heaven. I may have overdressed the polenta sticks in the light mayo provided – it tasted so damn good it had to happen.
Ceviche is a common dish found in many South American destinations, from my experience, namely Peru. It usually consists of raw fish dressed in a tangy or spicy sauce and served cold. We ordered the white fish, chilli, sweet potato and ginger ceviche ($16.00). Very soft, bite sized pieces of cold fish were used, small enough to be fully coated in the superb dressing.
Provoleta – grilled provolone cheese ($12.00). Provoleta or saganaki? Are these one and the same or are they cousins? – one from Arg and the other from Greece. I am not going to debate backgrounds, I’d much rather just say: – Intense. The only word I can think of to describe how good this starter is. Squish that lemon juice all over and slice this warm piece of dairy up as well as you can out of the dark ceramic serving dish. We shared between three and that was perfect.
You will order a Chorizo Argentino – pork sausage ($14.00). It is a hefty price tag to pay for a single snag but once you sink your teeth into the pre-cut slices of juicy meat you will easily forget finances. Might I mention this is best suited for two people (three at a massive stretch) and once you have one slice, you are drooling for more. I found this to be a little oily in hindsight but considering how quickly this dish was chommed, it is amazing that any neurons had time to process a conclusion.
Zanahorias – Burnt carrots, thyme and goat’s cheese ($12.00). These soft, buttery carrots were a pleasant side to the upcoming meats. Might I mention the excellent use of melted goat’s cheese rather than the standard solid cubes you will find with breakfast.
Just to throw it out there, I have a fetish for ribs. They are fun to eat, are generally extremely flavoursome and just a top notch dish to put smiles on every face. Tira de Asado – Beef short ribs ($28.00) These ticked all my boxes as I chewed the bones dry of the salty but carefully charred little treasures. A decent size serve, cut up to share, is great to put in the middle. My accompanying Chommer did not agree with my view of these treats with the comment “they have fantastic flavour but there is little meat and are thus predominantly fat and bone.”
Something inside bellows that you have to put some greens on the table. So we followed our thoughts and ordered Pimientos con heuvos – Grilled capsicum, with egg, beans and olives ($10.00). Very self-explanatory salad with a perfectly poached egg on top just in case you haven’t had enough protein in the meal.
We probably didn’t need to order any more, but we did any way and, before we knew it, the Asado especial del dia – 8 hour slow cooked lamb ($39.00) was perched on our table. This dish is only available after 6:00pm due to the lengthy cooking time and results in amazing, tender pieces of lamb that melt in your mouth (aka no teeth required for this succulent meat). Brilliant! – mind you there are still those fatty pieces which always accompany lamb.
You don’t always have to order dessert, you don’t, control yourself…..We will have one Flan de dulce de leche please. The Flan with caramel and salted peanuts ($14.00). A sweet end to a meal is always a good end to a meal. This perfectly sized, soft creamy option was a winner and ideal to share. A couple of mouthfuls is all you need. If you are a Where’s Wally expert, I’m sure you undoubtedly saw the problem with the above photo. (Don’t tell anyone, but someone couldn’t wait for the photo to be taken – a bite is missing from the rear end)
The standard of food and drink in Buenos Aires, Argentina was exceptional to say the least (of course, granted you know where to dine). During my short visit last year, we ate meat every night till the sweats came on and drank amazing red wines well into the early morning (probably too often). San Telmo is your more local alternative if you can’t get to Argentina in the near future. Besides the pricing, I found this place to be a very authentic Argentinian Bistro that includes a variety of Argentinian wines such as Malbec, which brought back some cherished memories of South America. Make a booking, aim to go with four people or more and don’t be scared to try it all because ‘La comida es rica! (the food is delicious!)
The Important Details…
Cuisine: Argentinian
Noise: Yep, plenty
Bookings: Yes, via phone and website
Suitable for: Over 18+ crowd
Dress: Casual – smart
Price: $65 per person
My View: Pricy authentic Argentinian well worth seeking
Address: 14 Meyers Place, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9650 5526
Website: http://www.santelmo.com.au/main/index






















































