Event - La Luna Bistro

This is part of the 15th Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. An event hosted at La Luna Bistro called Suckling Pig and Beyond.

The event description was as follows:

A rare change to experience the delicious and versatile delights of Pork at a shared table feast. In celebration of the Year of the Pig, diners will start with handmade charcuterie by Adrian Richardson, La Luna's Prince of Pork - from terrine to sausages, porcetta to salamis. The evening's culinary crescendo will build to the hedonistic suckling pig and indulgent braised pork belly cassoulet. Accompanied by premium selected wines this unique evening will conclude with La Luna's divine dessert platter.

The restaurant had been arranged into 3 large tables and our one complaint would be that the seating was way too close. It was a case of dodging elbows all night.



Our first course was an antipasto of various preserved meats, all made in house. We had Prosciutto, Coppa Collo (which is so hard to find these days), Bresaola (the only non-pig item made from beef girello) and spicy and mild Salamis.

While we were still enjoying the meats, plates of pork and fennel sausages on Tabouli arrived, followed by an item we later found out to be Brawn.



The final dish in this series was Cotechino on braised lentils which you can see on the photo below right.



The Cotechino just melted in your mouth, wonderfully gelatinous and you certainly can understand why the lentils are such a traditional accompaniment.

After these dishes were cleared away, it was time for the main event. Four suckling pigs were paraded through the room - it actually surprised us how large they were. They consisted of 3 females and one male and were 4 weeks old.



The suckling pig was sliced in the kitchen and overflowing platters of succulent pork and wafer thin crackling dotted the tables - not so good for the squeamish were the fact that the heads were also deposited on the tables.



Roasted vegetables - potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots and garlic green beans accompanied the pork along with apple sauce.





Now if you read the blurb on this meal you might note that pork belly cassoulet was supposed to be part of the menu - no explanation was given for it's absence. That's not to say that it would have been extremely hard to fit in.

Dessert platters consisted of Creme Brulee in espresso cup, rich chocolate brownie, Meringue on macerated berries, watermelon sorbet, Passionfruit bavarois and a choc-hazelnut ice cream with biscotti.



Somehow, we managed to destroy the platter.



The evening wrapped up fairly quickly and we were out of there just after 10pm.




The details:

La Luna Bistro
320 Rathdowne Street, Carlton
Phone: 03 9349 4888

Open:
Lunch
Tuesday-Friday: Noon - 3pm
Dinner
Tuesday-Sunday: 6pm-10pm
Brunch
Saturday-Sunday: 10am-3pm

web
http://www.lalunabistro.com.au/

Lunch @ Cucina Rossa

After the fun and games at Punt Road Winery we headed over to Bianchet Winery for a light lunch at their in house restaurant, Cucina Rossa.

The food is great and I love their wines but why oh why do they have such a pathetic website ? Do people think it's expensive or just don't understand the potential. I don't want this to be seen as I'm picking on Bianchet but really Australian companies are generally shocking when it comes to web presence. I would have thought that for people in the food industry a good web face would be vital. Anyway, enough of the ranting, let's get back to the food.

We opted to share the normal and vegetarian antipasto plates - funny considering we skipped the antipasto at Punt Road.



This is the normal version - pickled gherkins, chicken meatballs, oyster, spicy sausage (chorizo), chicken liver pate, terrine, prosciutto, pastrami, cheddar and bread and butter zucchini in the centre.







And this is the vegetarian - frittata slice, deep fried polenta, roasted red pepper, grilled mushrooms and zucchini, fried eggplant wedges and green olives.



With clotted cream on the dessert menu, Paalo just couldn't resist the bread and butter pudding with Yarra Valley clotted cream




and I opted for one (but they gave me two and after tasting it I was glad they did!) scoops of vanilla and mascarpone ice-cream (also from the Yarra Valley).








The details

Cucina Rossa at Bianchet Winery
187 Victoria Rd, Lilydale
Tel: (03) 9739 1120


Note:
There's been a change of owners since this post was written so this type and style of food is no longer available. I would strongly recommend looking for a more recent report if you are considering visiting.

Event - Punt Road Winery

Part of the 15th Melbourne Food and Wine Festival this event was called Master of the Barrel Room and was hosted by Riedel and Punt Roat Winery.

The event description was as follows:

Have you ever wondered why fine wine should be enjoyed in the right glass?
To find out, join us at a Riedel masterclass hosted by Riedel and Punt Road
Winemaker Kate Goodman. Experience the difference the correct glass makes when you taste our Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet
Sauvignon.

The biggest thing I learnt was that Riedel is not pronounced Rye-del but Reedle, to rhyme with needle.



The event was held in the Barrel Room at Punt Road Winery - basically it's a huge farm shed, stocked to the roof with wine casks as you can see



The tables formed a large U-shape - actually I'm surprised how big this event is considering how small last nights was.



The objective was to discover how wine changes it's taste depending on the glass used and four Punt Road Wines were the test subjects -
2006 Sauvignon Blanc
2005 Chardonnay
2005 Pinot Noir
2002 Cabernet Sauvignon



A lot of time was spent pouring wine from one glass to another to experience the differences, if any existed.

For the first wine, the Sauvignon Blanc after tasting it in it's correct glass it was then moved to the Joker glass.



This Joker is the standard tasting glass - surprisingly there was a difference. The wine wasn't quite as open as we had initially found it to be and it's flavours were a bit underdeveloped. We then poured it back into the correct glass and gave it another taste before emptying the glass for the next round of comparisons.

By the time we reached the fourth wine we would be pouring the wine from the correct Bordeaux glass to the Joker then to the Bourgogne followed by the Montrachet and finally the Sauvignon Blanc glass before being returned to the first glass.

After all the sniffing and tasting and drinking, antipasto platters supplied by The Healesville Hotel were brought out. Each platter to be shared between four.



We didn't stay to savour the platters as we had something else in mind - a trip to nearby Bianchet Winery and Cucina Rossa.

The details:
Punt Road Wines
10 St Huberts Road, Coldstream

Event - Fenix

This is part of the 15th Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. An event hosted at Fenix called La Cucina Povera.

The event description was as follows:

This dinner draws on a cuisine born of necessity, seasoned with the salt of the earth. The flavours will be robust, the food shared and washed down by wines from some of the world's most famous peasant regions.

We began outside with a choice of Sicilian lager (Messina) or NV Kellybrook traditional apple Cider from the Yarra Valley.



The dinner itself was held in one of the private dining rooms rather than the main dining room. To get into the mood, two large tables had been set and the room lit by candlelight. Unfortunately that meant that the photos aren't going to be that great but you should get an idea of what we had.





It proved a simpler matter to photograph a plate with all the separate offerings than try to take a picture of each individual dish.

So what we had from top left - Prosciutto Parma, Roma tomatoes halves with basil and olives, Roasted red peppers, Cauliflower & Carrot Saffron Pickle, House made Terrine, Sautéed eggplant with raisins, Italian tuna, Sardines with Gomasio salt. One dish I didn't photograph due to already having a photo - scallops on the half shell with aioli and garlic breadcrumbs

Wines offered were 2005 Covallina Grecanico (Sicily, Italy) and 2005 Argiolas Sierra Lori (Cannonau Sardinia, Italy)

Second Course comprised of
Whole milk fed Lamb cooked in hay
Salmon & walnuts
Turnip and Pumpkin crumble and Pomme Boulangere

Wines offered were a 2004 Nicola Primitivo (Lecce, Italy) and 2004 Delas st espirit Cotes du Rhone (Rhone Valley, France)

The lamb was brought out to the dining room, complete with remnants of hay.



and there's Ray busy carving the lamb



The salmon must have been slow cooked, it had lost none of it's vibrant colour and was coated in a mix of yoghurt and roasted walnuts.




In the top corner there's a glimpse of the turnip and pumpkin crumble (wonderfully rich). The Pomme Boulangere was super crispy on the top and underneath lay a generous amount of caramelised onions.






Final course was Cheese:



a melting Brie, chunks of Quickes cheddar, Roquefort and Morbier served with 2003 El Coto Tempranillo (Rioja, Spain).

I suppose the only negative was that so few people actually turned up for this but I'm sure that the 15 that did were extremely happy to have experienced this wonderful event

The details:

Fenix can be found at
680 Victoria Street Richmond
(03) 9427 8500

Open:
Tuesday - Sunday for Lunch
Tuesday - Saturday for Dinner

web
http://www.fenix.com.au

Lunch @ Pearl

Tomorrow is a public holiday - Labour Day here in Victoria, so we've decided to take a leisurely lunch at Pearl.

Labour day commemorates the 1856 battle by construction workers to improve their condiditions - their catch cry was "8 hours labour, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours rest". If only those type of conditions applied these days!



For starters we had:


Seared and Coconut dressed Yellowfin Tuna with cucumber, fried shallots and finger limes





Buffalo milk mozzarella and black mission figs with pomegranite syrup and seeds, fresh pistachios and wild fennel seeds

For mains:


Roast Lamb served in an Eggplant with Hummus Sauce


Roast Red Duck Curry, a crispy fried egg, shallots, mint, sweet fish sauce and coconut rice


Cheese Course:

Valdeón (Spain) and Munster (France)



Woodside Chabichou (South Australia)

With Coffee:



Hedgehog and Lamington

The details:

Pearl Restaurant
631-633 Church Street, Richmond

Dinner:
Sunday-Friday 6.30pm-11.00pm
Saturday 6.00pm-11.00pm

Lunch:
Sunday-Friday 12.00pm-3.00pm

Phone: 03 9421 4599

web: www.pearlrestaurant.com.au

Lunch @ Fenix

We often dine as a spur of the moment thing and that is exactly why we find ourselves at Fenix for lunch.



We begin as usual with glasses of Drappier Champagne and it doesn't take too much to convince ourselves to have the 5 course lunch degustation.



Sugar crusted Yabbies with mango tapioca & lychees
Wine: Viognier from France



"Red" - beetroot terrine, plum, cherries, beetroot gazpacho and aerated sour cream
Wine: Evesham Wood Blanc du Puit Sec (a Pinot Gris/Gewurztraminer blend) from Oregon



Cold Confit Salmon topped with an Ile flottante of Smoked milk, Celeriac puree, Salt Cod Brandade, Salmon roe
Wine: Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay


Grated Quickes Cheddar with white balsamic pickled granny smith apples, raisins, toasted brioche crumbs and baby shiso leaves
Wine: J L Wolf 2005 Wachenheimer Riesling from Germany


Almond sable crush, raspberry foam, rose-water jelly, lemon curd, grated frozen yoghurt, yoghurt ice-cream
Wine: Mornington Peninsula Rosé


Petit Fours: Pink Peach Popsicle, Pineapple and Passionfruit Jelly and Salt and Vinegar Chocolate straws


The Details

Fenix can be found at
680 Victoria Street Richmond
(03) 9427 8500

Open:
Tuesday - Sunday for Lunch
Tuesday - Saturday for Dinner

www.fenix.com.au