Syracuse Restaurant & Wine Bar

CBD Sour - Booker's Bourbon with a float of pinot noir - $19

We definitely wanted dessert (and cheese!), so we skipped entrees and went straight for the mains. The menu reads very much as a Philippa menu - classic European flavours with a strong focus on technique, presented with a touch of whimsy.

Duck Confit "Aux Agrumes", Green Pepper, Fennel - $36

Alaina ordered the duck confit with citrus, and it was gorgeous. The accompanying potato purée was incredibly smooth and buttery, and the duck itself was very tender and flavourful. She's generally not a fan of aniseed flavours (and incidentally, neither am I), but it was cooked until soft, and had a mild, rather than overpowering, flavour.

Risotto "Verdant", Bourguignon Garnish, Nettles, Truffle - $39

I'm notoriously indecisive, and was having a tough time deciding between the risotto and the osso buco with ricotta gnudi. (How good does that sound?) However, I do love nettles, and when our waitress explained that the Bourguignon garnish included snails, that sealed the deal. I'm glad I chose this, because it was delicious! The risotto itself was all'onda (in waves, or flowing) with the rice grains cooked just right - slightly toothsome but not chalky at all. And I loved the garnish of little pancetta cubes, snails, and teeny-tiny mushrooms. To match, the sommelier recommended a glass of 2006 Manzanos 'Reserva' Tempranillo Garnacha, which went down a treat.

Fatto Bar and Cantina

Back in August, we went to see Twisted Broadway at the Arts Centre - it was a fantastic show and if you are into musical theatre I highly recommend seeing it when it comes back next year! We wanted to get a nice meal beforehand, and decided to try Fatto Bar and Cantina, in the Arts Centre itself. I'd seen heaps of great pictures from it on Instagram and Twitter, and it looked like it would be a good choice!

Drinks list

Aperol Spritz - Aperol, Pizzini prosecco, orange, soda - $7 (during happy hour 5-7pm, $12 otherwise)

Hooray for $7 cocktails during happy hour! I loved the aperol spritz - I'm not sure if it tasted extra delicious because it was my first drink post Dry-July, but it was very very good.

Crab Spaghettini – Lemon, Chilli, Parsley, Pangrattato - $16

I was feeling very indecisive and couldn't choose between the different pastas and risottos, and in the end I chose crab spaghettini on the recommendation of our waiter. I'm glad I did, because it was great! There were generous amounts of fresh crab meat, complimented by garlic, lemon, chilli and crunchy pangrattato. It's a classic combination for a reason!

Risotto - Mushrooms, Crispy Sage, Parmesan - $22

Sandra's mushroom risotto was also impressive, with a prominent mushroom flavour, and the rice grains cooked to a pleasing al dente. Also, crispy sage leaves are always a winner in my opinion!

Of course, we ordered chips. They were crispy, hot and tasty, with herbed salt and a generous splodge of garlicky aioli.

Chips – Rosemary Salt, Aioli - $7

After all those wonderful carbs, I was too full for a proper dessert, but still wanted a little something something sweet to finish off the meal. The $6 espresso granita was the perfect option.

Espresso Granita – Whipped Cream, Chocolate - $6

The granita was a frosted glass full of strong, sweet, espresso ice crystals. The cream on top was softly whipped, and semi-frozen where it came into contact with the ice crystals. With the sprinkling of chocolate flakes on top, it was perfectly balanced and so delicious!

We were very impressed by Fatto Bar and Cantina - the food was very good, and well priced, and the service was friendly and efficient. Based on our visit, I would say it's quite a slick operation - the booking system worked well and we got in and out in time for the show, without feeling rushed. (I think most of the customers there that night were seeing shows, as it cleared out around seven forty-five!)

I wouldn't just think of it as a pre-theatre option, though. The location (walking distance from Flinders Street station) is very convenient, the atmosphere is nice, and the food is well priced, good quality and accessible. No crazy flavour combinations or trend-driven dishes, just simple Italian-inspired dishes, done well. I've recommended Fatto to friends looking for a nice place to eat, and can recommend it to you too.

Hey... Melbourne

While we're talking pre-theatre options... I'll be going to see Les Miserables soon with a group of friends - can anyone suggest a nice pre-theatre option near Her Majesty's theatre?

Hi everybody! Today I want to tell you about one of my current favourite restaurants: Rita's Cafeteria in Abbotsford.

Rita's Cafeteria
239 Johnston Street
Abbotsford, VIC 3067
Ph: (03) 9419-8233
Website

Cappuccino at Rita's - Seven Seeds blend, $3.70

Rita's opened in May 2012, and by my estimation is one of the earliest of the new wave of hipster cafes to open up along rapidly gentrifying Johnston street. (Other place on my radar are: Dr. Morse, Admiral Cheng-Ho, Bluebird Espresso and Bayte).

I first came here early in the year for lunch with my friend D-Slam, who loves their pizzas. We really enjoyed it, and I've since been back twice more: once for Sandra's birthday dinner with some awesome blogger buddies, and most recently for brunch with my folks.

The pizzas are thin crust, and have a crisp, almost biscuity base, and there are over twenty flavours to choose from. Normally such a really wide-ranging menu would trigger alarm bells for me, but all the pizzas we've tried have been excellent. They're also well priced - at approximately $14 for a medium or $18 for a large. (The pizzas below are all medium sized).

Prosciutto - tomato, mozzarella, caramelised onion, pecorino, truffle oil and rocket - $15 for medium

Prosciutto with tomato, mozzarella, onion, pecorino and rocket - a simple combo done really well.

Capriciossa - tomato, mozzarella, oregano, mushrooms, olives and ham - $14 for medium

Rita's capriciossa is a world away from the ones I used to eat as a kid at my local suburban Italian joint, which were piled high with a thick layer of dubious ham shreds and dry sliced olives.

Eggplant parmigiana - tomato, fior di latte, eggplant and basil - $13 for medium

Although I am certainly a fan of ze cured meats, the eggplant parmigiana is also a favourite of mine - love the silky eggplant, rich tomato sauce, and milky, milky fior di latte.

These next photos are from the dinner we had there for Sandra's birthday. We went in a group of seven (reservations are accepted for groups of six or more), and in addition to the pizzas, we also got to try some different dishes, antipasti and desserts - all of which were impressive. I should mention that the atmosphere on a busy evening is quite different from during the day. Whilst it's quite laid back during the day, the night we were there it was packed and extremely noisy, with the service being a little distracted as a result. (E.g. it was really hard to get the waitstaff's attention, water jugs went unrefilled, the table was cleared halfway and then forgotten about). These weren't dealbreakers, and whilst it didn't impede our enjoyment of the evening, I thought it was worth mentioning, as the atmosphere seems really different between lunch and dinner.

Ok, let's look at the food!

Pork and veal meatballs with soft polenta - $12

The polenta here was rich, smooth and creamy, and the meatballs were juicy and full of flavour. On a side note, I am a sucker for enamel plates. Aren't they pretty!

Cured meats and pizza fritta - $14

I loved the plate of cured meats, especially the pizza fritta: fried pieces of bread dough wrapped in pancetta. Also noteworthy was the nduja, a spicy spreadable pork sausage. Yum!

Mushroom - garlic base, mozzarella, gruyere, truffle oil and oregano - $14 for medium

The mushroom pizza is my favourite of all, and we've ordered it on every visit. It's simple but delicious, and the judicious drizzle of truffle oil enhances the mushroomy flavours without being overpowering.

Pepperoni - tomato, mozzarella, salami, red onion and chilli - $14 for medium

I don't really need to describe the pepperoni pizza - you can see in the picture how awesome it was!

Meat eater - tomato, mozzarella, salami, ham and meatball - $15 for medium

The Meat Eater pizza is intense, but really good if you've got a big appetite and are super into delicious meats.

Risotto with pine mushrooms, chestnuts and truffled pecorino - $23

I shared the pine mushroom risotto with Wince - it was cooked well and had generous chunks of grainy chestnuts throughout. A nice, rich, autumnal dish.

Risotto with prawn and crab, peas, basil and lemon mascarpone - $25

I didn't try the prawn and crab risotto, but it looked pretty, and my friend who ordered it gave it the thumbs up!

Spaghetti with mussels, clams, scampi and rouille - $26

The seafood spaghetti was a generous serving, piled high with fresh mussels, clams and even a scampi, but the cold rouille didn't seem to add much.

Roast new potatoes and bone marrow - $9

Ok, so for a pizza joint, I was not expecting to have any exciting side dishes (I mean, pizzas, pastas and risotti are pretty filling) - but seeing as we were here in a big group we got to try these mysterious-sounding roast new potatoes and bone marrow. And OMG - they were totally amazing! The potatoes were roasted in bone marrow, meaning they were fluffy on the inside, and super-duper crispy and delicious on the outside. They're the best roast potatoes I've ever had at a restaurant!

And after all of that, we still had room for dessert. (Well, we were a group of food bloggers / instagrammers / general bon vivants - it didn't take much convincing!)

Orange and ricotta donuts w/ vanilla ice-cream - $10

I loved the orange and ricotta donuts. Some in our group found them a little undercooked, but I'm a fan of doughiness so I enjoyed them. I'm not into all those crazy iced donuts that seem to be so crazy popular right now, and much prefer simple balls of fried dough dusted in sugar.

Nutella calzone with vanilla ice-cream - $10

Nutella calzone, what can I say? Crisp and chewy yeasted dough, loads of nutella, and a light dusting of cinnamon sugar. Wow.

Nutella baby!

And we also got a tiramisu.

Tiramisu - mascarpone, cream and coffee-soaked sponge - $10

This was the best tiramisu I've had in ages. For some reason, I'd been ordering tiramisu heaps over the April / May birthday period - Cecconi's, Mister Bianco, Tutto Bene, each of which presented the classic dessert in their own individual way - and Rita's simple version was my favourite. It had the perfect balance of coffee and liquor, was lovely and creamy whilst still being light in texture. If you can only get one dessert, I'd suggest you go for this one.

We took my parents here for pizza last weekend - Sandra got her favourite mushroom pizza and Dad got the meat eaters, but mum and I couldn't resist their extensive breakfast menu. (Apple crumble pancakes or nutella-filled French toast, anyone?)

Goodies from Crumbs Organic Vegan Bakery

Pumpkin and kale fritters - poached egg, avocado and chimichurri salsa - $17

My mum unintentionally went for the hipster-est item on the brekky menu: pumpkin and kale fritters, with poached eggs, smashed avocado and chimicurri. She really liked it, with the salty chimichurri matching nicely with the slightly sweet pumpkin fritters.

Vego bubble and squeak - truffled mushrooms, goats curd, rocket & poached eggs - $17

I went for the vego bubble and squeak - a giant fried mashed potato patty with truffled sauteed mushrooms, goats curd and two poached eggs. I am always in favour of potato-based meals, hehe.

Perfectly cooked yolk

Unfortunately on this visit we were too full for anything sweet (not even those donuts on the counter!), so will have to save that for a future visit. Hopefully sooner rather than later!

With so many different restaurants and cafes opening up all the time in Melbourne, it's really rare for me to find somewhere that I want to visit more than once, and even rarer for me to like it so much that I actually make the repeat visits. Good job, Rita's, good job.

The Mess Hall

Up at the top end of Bourke Street, The Mess Hall is pretty nondescript. I must have walked past it dozens of times without noticing it, and the first time it caught my eye was out of sheer necessity. We'd just had dinner at nearby Shimbashi, followed by gelato at Spring Street Grocery. It was about 10 pm, and we weren't quite ready to call it a night, but definitely weren't up for hitting a nearby bar. (What can I say? I'm a grandma and sometimes even the notion of a nightclub or even a quiet cocktail bar is just too exhausting to contemplate!) We just wanted somewhere warm where we could sit and keep chatting. The Mess Hall was open and had a free table - success!

I felt a bit self conscious just ordering hot drinks, and checked with a waitress if it would be okay before we sat down, but there was no problem at all. Even though the four of us literally only ordered a cup of tea each, the staff were really friendly and super-chilled. So nice of them! The plates of food being delivered to nearby tables looked and smelled fantastic too, so we decided that we simply must come back and try their food.

And that's exactly what we did a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night! Cheers to the weekend!

Campari soda

A Campari soda was the tipple of choice for both Adrian and myself - although it was pretty funny, one came out obviously stronger (i.e. much redder) than the other... no idea why! We actually swapped after the first couple of sips because Adrian got the stronger one and found it too bitter, and I was dissatisfied with my insipid one. I want ALL OF THE CAMPARI!

Being super indecisive, we spent ages umming and ah-ing over the menu, which is a concise list comprising a few starters, some pizzas, pastas, salads and three "main plates", but all ended up choosing pasta or risotto. I actually threw out the receipt before writing up this post, and the menu online seems to be a bit out of date, so I don't have exact prices for the dishes, but the pastas and risotto were all around the $22 mark, and the dessert was about $11.

Pumpkin-filled pasta with burnt butter, sage and amaretti biscuits

No surprise, I went for the dish that had pumpkin, burnt butter and sage. I know that it's classic to crush sweet amaretti biscuits over this type of dish, but I'd never tried it before. Newsflash: it's amazing. The pasta parcels were filled with soft, sweet pumpkin, and I loved the nutty burnt butter and the herbal hit of the crisp sage.

Risotto of the day - prawns, shrimp, fresh peas - $22.50

Even though I only tried one spoon of the risotto, I was really impressed by it. The rice was perfectly cooked, and had a wonderful rich seafood aroma, and was generously studded with prawns and shrimps. (The specials board, intriguingly, listed "prawns" and "shrimp" as separate ingredients).  It can be hard to find a good risotto around town - there are many good ones, but also many very bad ones, and I'm especially wary of seafood risottos - but this was excellent. I highly recommend it if it's on the specials board!

Chicken, ricotta & walnut tortellini w goats cheese and mushrooms

Sandra's chicken, ricotta and walnut tortellini was also a winner. The tortellini themselves were generously sized, and the mushroom sauce was quite intense, but in a pleasant, rather than overpowering way. The walnuts seemed to be an unusual addition (perhaps common in Italy, but not one that I see too often here), but fit in really well with the dish, providing both flavour and texture. This also reminds me that I really must try making that pasta with walnut sauce that Nigella made on one of her Christmas specials many years ago!

Orange chiffon cake

The only letdown was dessert - we shared a piece of orange chiffon cake, and whilst it was pretty nice (moist, and with lots of nice pieces of candied orange), it felt a bit small for something that cost over ten dollars.

Despite the dessert, we really liked The Mess Hall - they serve well made, tasty and unpretentious food in a relaxed yet buzzy environment. I'd definitely want to go back! Whilst the risotto and pastas we tried were indeed, very good, we saw a few plates of their pork belly dish being ferried around and it looked and smelled incredible!

Just under a month ago, I was approached by Kitchenware Direct to see if I'd like to test out one of their slow cookers or pressure cookers.  Y'all know how obsessed I am with cookware, so of course my answer was yes!  After looking through all the slow cookers and pressure cookers on the website, I ended up choosing the New Wave 5-in-1 6L Multicooker, which has both slow and pressure cooking functions!

When I was a kid, my mum often used an old-school stove top pressure cooker - it rattled, it shook, and it spewed forth loud bursts of steam.  In short, I was terrified of it.  Many years later she upgraded to an electric pressure cooker, but we only used it a few times before it got relegated to the cupboard.  I guess at that point we just didn't cook enough stews to make it worthwhile.

So given my past experience with pressure cookers, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I like the Multicooker and how often I've been using it!  One issue though: the accompanying instructions aren't very clear, so it took quite some time and effort for us so set it up and actually start cooking.  The first time I used it for pressure cooking, I was actually kinda winging it - but luckily it's pretty intuitive and has always worked just fine.  And as soon it was set up it, it's been all-systems-go: stews, braises, soups, risottos, and more.  I've found it so useful to make hearty dinners after work in a short time.  And some examples...


Shiraz Braised Beef

Tonight I made shiraz-braised beef, which only took 30 minutes on the pressure cooking function, plus about 10 minutes either side to brown the meat and veggies, and to thicken the sauce at the end.  Pretty good going for a dish that usually takes 3-4 hours!

The browning function heats up very quickly and evenly, and it's easy to get a nice crust on meat.  You can't adjust it though, so sometimes it can be too strong if you're, say, sautéing onions as the first step of a stew.  I'll often turn the heat off if it's getting too hot, and turn it back on again to keep the temperature under control.

While the stew was having its 30 minutes pressure-cooking, I whipped up some petits pois à la Francaise and some potato/celeriac mash.  Wonderfully comforting for such a cold and blustery day!


Pea and Ham Soup

The soup function is pretty much the same as the low-pressure function, and I've found it useful for making soups (duh) and stocks in a short amount of time.  For example, let's take a look at this split-pea and ham soup I made!

It took 25 minutes to go from this...

... to this!  A hearty, smooth soup.


7-Minute Mushroom Risotto

Perhaps the most exciting discovery we made was that you can make risotto in 7 minutes in the cooker!  There was a recipe for mushroom risotto in the instruction booklet, and I must admit I was curious, and more than a little skeptical about a pressure-cooked risotto.  You start as per a standard risotto: cooking onions in a little oil, adding the rice and some wine.  But rather than ladling in stock bit-by-bit, you tip it all in, with the mushrooms.

Mushrooms

Chuck it on the high-pressure function and cook for 7 minutes.  And then - ta-dah! - al dente grains of rice! Not gluggy, not mushy, no crusty baked on bits on the bottom of the pan!  And best of all: no stirring.  Love it!

We've been eating a lot of risotto since the cooker arrived.  I've done mushroom risotto twice already this month, and have also made cauliflower risotto using the same method.

I've been really happy with the cooker, and significantly, it's already become a regular part of my standard kitchen kit.  In my enthusiasm, I also picked up a cheap, old-fashioned "Pressure Cooker Recipes" cookbook, and am really looking forward to making more warming dishes for this wintry weather!