Rumi (East Brunswick) 10/2011

Rumi was a Persian Moslem, philosopher, mystic, holy figure noted for his poetry and for relating the search for God to music and with his turning to music, setting the basis for the Whirling Dervishes which developed after his death. If this has anything to do with the restaurant named after him that we visited a few days ago it escapes me.
The food is modern Levantine.
Virtually everyone who visits Rumi reports the same responses and we were no different.
The place is noisy with a friendly buzz. Bare wooden top tables, simple decor, obviously Arabic with it's stencils script, apparently something from Kalil Ghibran about food and life. Waiters will spend as much time as you need to talk about the menu which is set out on one page. It's generally a sharing menu although it does not have to be so. There is also a set three or five course menu ($40) which we chose.
Most dishes are inexpensive, $7 or $8 with a few around $12 and some mains around $16. However it's not the prices that distinguish the food. Chef owner Joseph Abboud has introduced a new element to his dishes with subtle spices that one does not experience at the common Lebanese banquets. Many things are traditional of course but there are lots of surprises. Our five courses felt more like 15 as the food kept coming, perhaps a little too quickly. Here are a few pic'sPita bread
LabneHumusMixed Lebanese and Iranian pickles - who knows which is which!CruditesAlmond TaratoorSpiced school prawns with tahini sauceCabbage salad, soused onionsPersian meatballs in tomato saffron and labne, one of their signature dishes, delicate and unusual beautifully blended flavoursQuail one of the less successful dishes as it was over seasoned with an excess of salt.Fried cauliflower with caramelized onion currants and pine nuts another unusual and very pleasing dishEggplant Kuku muhammarah, labne and mintFreekeh salad with almonds, ewes milk feta and pomegranate dressing

Tayta's soup, shredded chicken, vermicelli, rice and cinnamon Then there was another of Abboud's very special dishes, Sigara boregi, cigar shaped pastry filled with haloumi, feta and kasseri.Lamb shoulder, slow cooked for so long that it came to the table rather dry but would have been so good a few hours earlier but that was not all there were other salads and greens and roast potatoes as well asand dessert cheese stuffed apricots and the finest textured Turkish delight you could ever find.Finally a choice of mint tea or Turkish coffee. They have a small, very reasonably priced wine listThis mid priced red went well with everything we ate. There were quite a few extra ordinary dishes and it was a banquet. In it's class it is outstanding but or me it was diminished by being too much served too quickly. There were many subtle flavours and yet it lacked finesse. This is a bit unfair because that is not what it was all about. The most interesting Middle Eastern food in town.

Score: 13.75/20

Caffe Florina (South Yarra) 10/2011

This family friendly restaurant presents patrons with handsome serves of Italian style food. It is a big open place decorated with a couple of enormous wall pictures of Italian sculptures and a fairly crudely representation from part of the ceiling fresco of the Sistine Chapel.
Every thing about the place is just a bit better than ordinary without any undue distinction, which should be taken as quite complimentary since so many places do not meet that standard, but it has, for us, no rave factor, no varoom, no, zest no wow.
It's a big place with a variety of seating and has a good size bar at one side and a large, fairly central, open kitchen. It designates itself a Caffe but it's a cut above that. It's comfortable and there is no sense of hurry.
We found service friendly and enthusiastic.
The menu is not ambitious. Dishes are well prepared, the linguine marinara, ($26), well filled with prawns, calamari, scallops and muscles and plenty of pasta.Osso bucco and other mains are similarly satisfying meals. There menu is available on the I'net. As well as desserts they have a cabinet of pastries. Tea, $3.5, costs double if you want it extra strong - two tea bags!
It's convenient if you are in the area or going to Como and we're sure to go there again.
Score: 13.75/20

Chatter 42 Coco de Mer

Click on the photo to enlarge it.
No, this is not another porno site.
One hardly knows where to start in writing about this extraordinary nut. It has always been subject to mystical ideas and superstition. Because it was found floating in the sea or washed up on beaches and as no one had seen it growing it was thought to grow under water in the sea. One can only imagine this vision of tall palms with massive fruit and long fronds waving with the ebb and flow of the tides. For a time it was reserved as a drinking vessel for the aristocracy, especially as it was thought to denature poisons, an idea with absolutely nothing to support it. This lack of need for evidence is hardly surprising when we think of all the weird ideas that have currency today. It has also been used in aruvedic medicine and in traditional Chinese medicine.

So here are some facts It is the largest nut in the world and takes several years to grow to its full size. The tree, which can grow to over 30 meters in height, takes between 25 – 50 years to reach maturity and bear fruit. Leaves may be 10 meters long! Fruit may takes about 5 years to reach maturity and 2 years to germinate. A mature nut can weigh over 20 kgm. They are heavier than water and only germinated rotted out fruit float, thus they will not grow after being washed ashore. Their botanical name Lodoicea maldivica relates to King Louis XV and the Maldives where they were originally found. An earlier botanical name was Lodoicea callipyge from the Greek meaning beautiful buttocks!
It is known locally as a love nut.

After about a year the nut has a slightly sweetish gelatin like edible inner layer. This slowly hardens to become rock hard. In 1786 it was found to be endemic on several uninhabited islands in the Seychelles. It is now only found on the islands of Praslin and Curieuse, where it is protected, and in some botanical gardens, in the Seychelles. Planted sub populations occur on Mahé and Silhouette Islands.

The long maturing time, the exploitation of the seeds, the threat of fire have made this exotic plant vulnerable to extinction.

Tataki (Elsternwick) 09/2011

There seem to be Japanese restaurants in every suburban shopping strip. Not infrequently they advertise their dishes with window displays which I find discouraging but his can be a mistaken view.
Tataki, which I'm told means something like "be happy" at 470 Glenhuntly Rd. fell into that class. It's a small place, simply furnished exuding a quiet air, perhaps because it was only half full when we were there.

An entree of Gyoza, five of them, filled with pork and vegetables, ($7.5), were just half the price, and much more to my taste with a touch of mirin sweetening the dipping sauce, than the ones at Heirloom. Age Dafi Dofu, crisp deep fried bean din a soy based sauce were undistinguished and not really crisp at all.We followed this with an eggplant with a miso paste which tasted as good as it looked. A very successful dish that I have not seen before was a mixed seafood offering in a white sauce. The accompanying salad on the plate was aesthetically unusual. The textural and taste contrast here were such that I would have preferred the salad on another plate however the sea food was excellent. A prawn tempura, three prawns and vegetables ($17) also had a slightly wine sweetened dipping sauce. The batter could have been lighter but it was a reasonable dish. Tataki duck ($27) eight portions of roast duck with home made miso paste wrapped in crepes, a version of Peking duck, was especially satisfying. They are licensed and accept BYO. Open daily for dinner an Tuesday to Sunday for lunch and also serve takeaway meals. Theyalso have a function room that seats 30. I would not hesitate to stop by here for a casual meal.Score: 13.5/20







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Heirloom (Melbourne CBD) 09/2011

One way or another many restaurants which get extreme scores from controversial reviewer Stephen Downes fail to live up to expectations when we visit them and that goes as much for some of the critical reviews as it does for the highly complimentary ones. I find it hard to think of any restaurant meal at which the food has been so excellent in every way that it would merit a perfect score but that is what Downes felt about Heirloom.

This French/Japanese hybrid occupies an impressive space with high ceilings and a very open feel to it in Melbourne’s CBD. We had to book a long way ahead and it was well worth going there but perfect it certainly is not. We tried a couple of Isakaya, the Japanese equivalent of tapas.
The slow roast duck gyoza, sauce a la orange ($3 ea) looked crisp but were flaccid and, although well filled with duck it was quite hard to recognise any duck taste.
The crisp salmon and chive cigar ($9) was a misnomer not being at all crisp and also, whilst pleasant enough, certainly not an outstanding offering. I was tempted to have the charcuterie entrée but it hardly displays a chef’s ability. All the dishes had a lot of accompaniments on the plate which kept the kitchen in frantic activity. This resulted in very erratic service at some tables where some diners had finished their dishes before others were served. Kabocha pumpkin parfait, hazelnuts, salted buffalo ricotta, sesame brittle, wasabi pearls, soy, yoghurt emulsion. ($18) was very attractively presented. I found the parfait a bit dull, the yogurt, which had been foamed fell off it and did not improve it for me. Another very well presented dish the rare seared yellow fin tuna loin, piperade, crisp basil, white anchovy tempura, black olive crumbs, ($20) was quite excellent, the tempura especially good. Hickory smoked Pekin duck breast, miso glazed endame, daikon fondant, quail scotch egg, (very cute), bacon bouillon. ($34) was first class. Oddly, whilst ours was extremely tasty and tender, so very good, another member of our party found his duck very chewy and not very good at all!
48 hour pork belly and seared Akami tuna, ginger caviar, braised orange witlof, cider foam, granny smith puree. ($35) another multi product dish was very well prepared, the pork melted in the mouth, the tuna seared, perhaps for 20 seconds more than I would have liked, remained delicate. It did seem to me to be a rather strange pairing but I treated it as two separate dishes on the one plate. The crisp skinned Hamachi/kingfish fillet, crushed kipfler, anagi, octopus tempura, pickled seaweed, smoked tomato sauce ($34) was, I’m told, very good but I did not taste it. Three sorts of bread were served at the end of the meal. It was particularly moorish and perhaps just as well it did not come earlier but I would have liked it sooner. Wines were not notable but I enjoyed the Saki the waitress recommended.

Crockery was attractive as it so often is at Japanese restaurants without being over the top and cutlery very average.Petit fours were colourful.

This was an interesting meal with testing modern cooking techniques on display in every dish.

Score 15/20