A little bit of this, a little bit of that

In an attempt to clear some of the blog backlog, here's an odds 'n ends post about a few places I've been to lately, with a few other photos (that I've been wanting an excuse to include on the blog) thrown in for good measure... starting with a shot of my new teapot, given to my by Mum and Dad for my birthday. Made from fine Gien china and featuring the incomparable Petit Prince, c'est complètement adorable, n'est-ce pas?

Red Mullet Fish Caf
210 Glenferrie Rd, Malvern (map)
9500 9338
Thanks to eagle-eyed Chian who'd spotted that I originally had an incorrect address!



The ridiculously bountiful Seafood Platter for Two (!!) at Red Mullet, a fish caf in Glenferrie Road Malvern. It's $90 and can feed an army - having had some entrees of whitebait and salt and pepper squid, we ordered two of the platters for eight of us and were quite unable to finish them. Bloody good though - I even braved the mussels, despite my crippling fear of them (baaaaad moules-related food poisoning many years ago in Montmartre) and they were delicious! Oysters, prawns, smoked trout, steamed mussels (onion, white wine, fennel), smoked salmon, fried Blue Grenadier, grilled Trevally, steamed crab (tomato and chilli), seafood skewers of scallops and prawns, calamari rings, etc etc etc!

Don Too
6/340 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne (map)
9679 7113

Beetroot
123 Hardware St, Melbourne (map)
9600 0695



The Don Too/Beetroot lunch combination remains as fabulous as ever. I'm thrilled to report that since I last blogged about the combo and bitched about the fact that the Beetroot staff refused to serve us at 1:45pm if we were "just" getting coffees, Beetroot has undergone a change of ownership and the lovely new guys running it are more than happy to serve us. And of course, they've kept the sensational hot chocolates topped with Persian fairy floss on the menu!

Don Too likewise continues to excite. Last time I tried the Seared Tuna Steak Salad special (above), costing all of $8 and served with tofu, veggies, balsamic soy dressing and a side serve of rice and shimaya shibazuke (purple pickled cucumber that I CANNOT get enough of). Highly highly recommended!


A panna cotta production line we had going at a recent family lunch with Nonna and Nonno chez Mum and Dad.

City Wine Shop
159 Spring St, Melbourne (map)
9654 6657


On Friday I'd arranged to meet O, freshly arrived back from a trip to the UK, USA and Nicaragua, for a drink at Seamstress. While waiting in the cocktail bar for O, I bumped into Ed, who was meeting stickyfingers and the gobbler - it was quite the mini food bloggers meet-up! O and I joined the fellow bloggers and we all sampled the Seamstress tasting platter, then afterwards O and I sauntered over to the City Wine Shop for a champagne nightcap. O very naughtily shouted the two of us a bottle of the 1998 Pol Roger *, which was out of this world. Drinking champagne that nice makes me regret every glass of cheap nasty bubbly I've ever drunk! The Wine Shop staff were SO lovely - when we requested the 1998 vintage and they had to phone upstairs to retrieve the last bottle, the chap serving us asked "While we're waiting for the bottle to be fetched, can I offer you a taste of something interesting and white?", and provided us with two half glasses (a German Riesling and a Peninsula unwooded Chardonnay) on the house. Now that's service!

* Rumpole (you know who you are) has been complaining that for a former winemaking student, I write bugger all on my blog about wine... this is true. But Rumps, as you read far more about wine than I do, I reckon it's you who should be starting a grog blog called Melbourne Vinophile! :)

King / Bourke Quest Part 7 : Teriyaki Don at Don Too

Don Too
6/340 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne (map)
9679 7113

During my student days one of the most reliable dirt cheap meals I loved to buy, if it was lunchtime and I was in the CBD heading up to uni, was the teriyaki don at Don Don (321 Swanston St). At Don Don, I loved the Japanese kids who worked in the minuscule open kitchen at lightning speed, I loved the incongruous flamenco and mambo music, I loved that the teriyaki don came with lots of fluoro pickled ginger and a sprig of broccoli. Most of all I loved the fact that the filling dish cost a mere $5.80!

Joy of joys: Don Don has spawned Don Too, in Lt Lonsdale St up near Horse Bazaar. Although this sequel restaurant has slightly posher furnishings (ie shabby-chic battered antique tables) than Don Don and its clientele consists more of suits than students, Don Too retains the menu and ludicrously cheap prices of the original.

It's a bit of a walk from King and Bourke Streets to qualify for the King/Bourke Quest, but my lovely colleagues L, K & C and I love going there so much that I'll make an exception in this case. Here is the yummy teriyaki don, with a bit of cabbage instead of broccoli.

L also has a signature dish at Don Too: the tofu curry don. As you can see, it's one of those lovely thick gravy-like Japanese curry sauces.

Last time we visited, I decided to branch out and try something different. A girl sitting at the next table was tucking in to the sashimi don which looked so gorgeous I knew I had to order it! The generously thick slices of raw salmon were tucked in the shape of a huge rosette, surrounded by veggie goodies and served on a big bed of steamed rice. From memory all this still costs less than $8 - soooo much nicer than the miserly sashimi box for $9.80 in the Bourke Place food court!

Our Don Too lunch is traditionally capped off by getting milk hot chocolates with Persian fairy floss at Beetroot (I've already blogged about these decadent beauties here).

I don't like to whinge, but the last time we went on a Don Too/Beetroot excursion we arrived at Beetroot at 1:45 and although all the tables (bar one) were occupied inside, the communal table outside had several spare places. When we sat at the outside table and asked the woman who runs the place whether we could order hot chocolates, she curtly informed us that "you're not allowed" to order just drinks between the hours of 12 and 2pm - you have to order food too. We were outraged - we'd visited before several times at late lunchtime and ordered hot chocolates without a hitch, plus by 1:45 the lunch crowd was petering out and there appeared to be no great demand for the outside communal table on such a windy day. It's a real shame, because I've always really loved Beetroot (see my previous gushing review) and I really WANT to keep loving Beetroot, but this new "rule" left a bad taste in my mouth. I've have it on good authority that the couple who run Beetroot are selling up - here's hoping the new owners will keep the Persian fairy floss but won't be quite so greedy to squeeze extra dollars out of customers, and will keep customers' loyalty!