I think I might have missed out on Jackie's Amnesty fortnight... but better late than never! Today's post is on restaurants! These were visited in a period from November last year up until the present...

Della Nonna's Bruschetta

Della Nonna
844 Glenferrie Rd
Hawthorn Vic 3122
(03) 9819-6444

We visited Della Nonna in November 08 for a Sunday lunch... as it was so long ago I can't remember the exact prices or menu details, sorry! It was a little pricey for a casual Sunday lunch, but I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it!

Wagyu carpaccio... or was it bresoala? I can't remember... but I remember it tasted great and came with rocket, salty olives and fresh anchovies. Such a great combo!

Sausage Pizza


Koliba Czech and Slovak Restaurant
11 Johnston St
Collingwood Vic 3066
(03) 9417-3797
Website
Duck kiev with 2 red cabbage, sweet & sour cabbage and potato dumplings - $22.50

Another visit to our favourite Czech and Slovak restaurant. (Well, it's the only one we know of, but we really like it!) Special of the day was duck with 2 types of cabbage. (Just like in Prague!) Ooooh yeah. Service is super-friendly, and has gotten a lot smoother since the first time we went. Lovely!


D.O.C.
295 Drummond Street
Carlton Vic 3053
(03) 9347-2998
Buffalo mozzarella with speck - $24

We love D.O.C. The pizze, the mozzarella!!!! My cousin Barry (quite the wine buff) was intrigued by my Facebook status: "I'm looking forward to the pizza and prosecco at D.O.C!", and asked if they went well together. Please, everything goes well with prosecco. In addition to the speck e mozzarella, we had porcini pizza, Napolitana pizza (mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes, anchovies) and pimped-up margherita (i.e. with luxurious buffalo mozzarella). Delicioso.


JJ's Bar and Grill
Level 1
Crown Towers
(03) 9292-6891

We had a stunning meal at JJ's for my brother's birthday this year. (Previous visit in '06 blogged here). The highlights included:

Grilled Scampi and Scallop Risotto - $19.50 (entree)

Yellowtail king fish with pine nut salsa and citrus reduction - $36.50


St. Ali
12-18 Yarra Place
South Melbourne Vic 3205
(03) 9686-2990
Website
Zucchini fritters with baby spinach, a fried egg, grilled halloumi and beetroot relish

I came here the first time for a coffee tasting event (blogged in detail by Claire), and knew from the funky set-up and insane focus on coffee quality that my bro would love it. We came a couple of weeks later, and were suitably impressed. My bro's gf ordered the zucchini fritters with baby spinach, a fried egg, grilled halloumi and beetroot relish. The combination was great, and the halloumi just put it over the top. I've just moved offices to South Melbourne, so I envisage that I'll be visiting St. Ali much more often. Yay! (I should add, that the next time I visited, I ordered the fritters for myself, and they were still raw on the inside... Eek! But a trip to St. Ali is worth it, just for the coffee alone).


Belgian Beer Cafe
557 St Kilda Road
Melbourne Vic 3004
(03) 9529 2899
Website
Beef Pie with peas and mashed potatoes

We always have fun at the Belgian Beer Garden. (Way better than the similar, but crappier Little Creatures Dining Hall). This visit was on a cold day, so we went inside the cafe itself for hot food rather than standing around outside with beers. I seem to recall we all had an intense craving for waffles... but had to get through some frites, a pie, a croque monsieur, some escargot and some beers first, hehe. That was shared between 4 of us! Previous visit blogged here.


Ambrosia Mediterranean Cuisine
221 Camberwell Road
Hawthorn East VIC 3122
(03) 9882-3422

Ambrosia is a friendly yet professional family-run restaurant. Servings are generous and the food is super-fresh. Very nice!
Fresh Sardines - price forgotten (approx $20??)

Jel (the owner) gets up at the crack of dawn every morning to bake his own bread. Yummm.



Maedaya
400 Bridge Rd
Richmond Vic 3121
(03) 9428-3918
Quail's eggs wrapped in bacon

I like going to Maedaya when I start to miss smoky Japanese izakaya and kushi-katsu bars. Or just when I want a good feed and good sake at even better prices. I like to sit upstairs so I can order some yakitori (like the incredibly delicious quail egg and bacon you see above), and then get stuck into grilling my own meats over a smoky little brazier.
Hot Tip: don't wash your hair before you visit. And the free sauces kick ass.



I *heart* Melbourne!

More backlog...

11/3/2008 - Roast Pork and Dumplings
This dinner was made quite speedily with store-bought ingredients.


Small pork roast: Otway Pork, shrinkwrapped in plastic from Safeway. Got good crackling from it.
Semmelknoedel, from box. You drop them im Kochbeutel! into a pan of boiling water until the little grains in there become one big dumpling.

Dessert was grilled plums topped with brown sugar and almonds, and frozen yoghurt (Greek yoghurt + icing sugar, churned in an ice-cream machine). Refreshing.


25/04/2008 - Hainan Chicken Rice

My Aunty Ding (not my real aunty, my parents' friend) makes the best Hainan chicken rice. Please note the rice - brown from being cooked in chicken stock and with chicken fat - and the garlic chilli sauce - made with lots of garlic and chicken stock. MMMM Yum.


25/06/2008 - Courgette Pie

One of the first Nigella recipes I ever made, I still love it. You start by cooking cubes of zucchini with cumin, coriander and turmeric. Once it's softened, you add basmati rice and stock, scoop-by-scoop. This risotto-y mixture is poured into a filo-lined springform, topped with more filo and baked. Fabulous.

Inspired by Jackie's Amnesty post, I have decided to finally, properly clear up this backlog of food photos that I've been accumulating since I came back from Germany. Let's start at the oldest and work our way forwards, shall we?

Incidentally, Jackie blames Twitter for her reduction in blogpost frequency. I don't even tweet, and I still have a massive backlog! I guess I just eat and cook and bake and take photos much faster than I blog.

Let's go.

20/2/2008 - Puffed Apple Pancake


Made this from Bill Granger's Holiday (Celebrate! It would be so nice!) over a year ago (oh dear). I thought it would be great, a light batter poured over apple slices and baked in a hot oven, just like Nigella's sweet Yorkshire pudding. Sadly not that nice. It was quite bland and doughy.


24/02/2008 - Chocolate and Almond Pudding

Again, from Bill's Holiday (Celebrate! It would be so nice! - no, that joke doesn't get old), these puddings contain almond meal and are cooked in muffin tins. More cakey than a classic molten chocolate pudding, with a pleasant texture from the ground almonds. They weren't standouts though, so I haven't made them since. (You can imagine how many molten chocolate pudding recipes I still have to try, from cookbooks, magazines, blogs etc....)


16/3/2008 - Carrot and Almond Cake

From Neil Perry's Good Food, (Good Food is a Good Book!), this cake is a little unusual. I love a good old American-style carrot cake, with thick cream-cheese icing, but this was something altogether different. Not that it's any less delicious.
Vibrant colours!

It looks quite classy, and is rather flat and torte-like, with the texture of a moist flourless cake. It does contain flour, however, in the form of rougly chopped savoiardi biscuits. It also contains ground almonds, roasted walnuts and grated carrot. It is incredibly moist, and totally delicious. Even people who don't like carrot cake and were "suspicious of this carrot cake you've made, Sarah", thought it was fantastic and came back for seconds. Hurrah!