Lume (South Melbourne) 12/2017

The Road – 

Saturday, 2 December 2017
Since we have been here before we were well aware that one comes to Lume not so much for a meal but for an experience. Of course it is an experience mediated by food - a series of dishes designed to titivate the senses, especially visual and taste and textures. I'm more than happy to try that.
Show plates carry the circumflex and the acute over the restaurant name BUT the name is missing!

We had the 14 course degustation menu. 

Crab taco's
The taco looked like it had a baby corn in it was actually crab, picked, coloured and moulded to look exactly like corn - cute, although not a taste sensation 
Cuttlefish and cucumber tart smoked potato and salmon eggs 

This little tart is the work of a master chef. Not only does it display imagination and technique but it also a curious and appealing combination of ingredients. The salmon eggs added a lot to the dish.
They slipped this little duck egg tart in without mentioning it on the menu and now, two weeks later, I recall I enjoyed it but not much else.

Marron and salted elderberries, apple and mountain marigold apple, cardamon and mountain pepper.

Pearl on the ocean floor 

An exotic combination of seafoods.
This little smoked tart also slipped out of my memory.

Periwinkle and kohlrabi asparagus smoked over lemon myrtle with flathead and over-ripe lime.

A lot of dishes here have been smoked over various woods. The flavours from these varieties did not resonate with me at all.
Another little deception.Barbecued abalone with emu ham and kombu.

Perhaps a little too fussy a dish.

Finger lime verjus Spanish mackerel with fermented pine mushroom and sea urchin.

Artichoke bread with eel butter and corn honey 

Aged duck smoked over melaleuca
‘Hanami’

Simply delicious, deliciously simple - you may have guessed I love duck and this was very much to my taste. 
Cauliflower cheese with apple and Olida gum Willie Smith ‘Somerset Redstreak’

More trickery - these Camember rounds were cauliflower puree.
Fermented passion fruit, rhubarb and Geraldton wax olive oil and mandarin peel ice-cream, fennel and absinthe 

a simple piece of vanilla 

Of course it wasn't. It's rhubarb!
And these musk sticks (reminds me of school days) were not musk sticks either.

and the last dessert.

“the other side of what?” 
Score:
That's a problem.
Ambiance 15/20
Presentation 19/20
Variety and ingenuity 19/20
Taste 14/20
Service 17/20
Total: 16.75/20
But don't take my word for it - go and try it out for yourself!