Halevantini (Tel Aviv) 07/2018

In the heart of Tel Aviv small cafe/restaurants abound. Every few yards there are chairs and tables on the sidewalk 

with endless diners enjoying meals.
This looked nice and clean with spacious tables. 
in an open medium size room.

Conveniently menus are in both in Hebrew

and English

All meals come with a collection of salads and dips and a choice of rice or chips.

These included, from the bottom clockwise, Tehina, Humus, Eggplant, toasted pita, spicy tomato and Israeli salad.

A moment later a pickled vegetable dish arrived. 
Felafel are always available.

I suppose there are others but I don't know of them, where you can get a shashlik stick of Foie gras d'oie plus half a dozen side dishes for less than A$40.
 Foie gras is a luxury food item. It is the liver of a duck or goose, especially fattened by force feeding large amounts of corn through a funnel pushed down the birds throat, a process called gavage. It is controversial with animal rights advocates claiming that it is cruel and it is banned in Australia. At the same time in France it is protected as part of the cultural and gastronomic heritage of the country. It has a very long history, dating back to Egyptian times. More recently, in the 17th century, Foie gras production was developed by Jews in Alsace. France continues to be by far the biggest producer in the world. 
Here, in Israel, one finds it on the menu at many small Turkish, Arabic and Israeli restaurants. On the menu here we were delighted to have it.

Cooked for only about 20 seconds on very high heat it was superb. The rich, buttery delicate taste is as much a sensation, a feeling, as it is a flavour. A mouthful of luxury.
Sweatbreads are usually from the pancreas, other glands also qualify, and are rarely served in Australia except as a small accompaniment to a main dish. Here they were available as a shashlik.

This was not a dish to write home about. The sweatbreads were overcooked and lacked any delicacy and the chips were oily and unappealing. A skewer of barely cooked, grilled vegetables didn't do much to help.

Beef shashlik was tasty but tough. 

I asked for it to be blue and the waiter turned up with two beef shashliks with no idea which was which so they took it back and made another, and it was blue!They also have vegetarian dishes, for example this bowl of rice with lentils. 

This near tasteless dish was rice covered with a cucumber salad.

Things like this make me glad I'm a carnivore. 
We finished our meal with Malabi, a sort of Middle Eastern version of cream brulée.

This is supposed to have a special taste from the milk that is used but this one was more like a sweet custard.

There was nothing special about this restaurant except for the Foie gras but that was out of this world.

Score: 13/20

Kizumé (Melbourne CBD) 06/2018

We went all out and had the tasting menu with the additional de luxe sushi upgrade ($88 + $33 PP). They also have Comments Score: /20

an extensive a la carte menu. They also have an omakase "seasonal appetizer chefs selection of sushi, miso soup at three price levels $88, $120 and $140, which I had not noticed before we ordered.

The meal began with a plate of edamame which was char griled with sea salt, shizo flower and garlic oil

Crispy Pork Gyoza came with a spicy tofu emulsion.

A platter of cured kingfish was served before .

Le Petit Tracteur (Main Ridge, Mornington Peninsula) 06/2018

Rightly or wrongly I always thought the idea that the name 10 Miles by Tractor was intended to convey was of environmentally conscious organic local food. That restaurant is now closed but it's little brother, you might say, Petit Tracteur, is serving French style cuisine in an attractive rural environment roughly an hour and a quarter out of Melbourne concentrates on the same sort of thing.
Adjacent to the restaurant we came across something new to me.

 but we came to eat and anyway I had a three hour drive later that afternoon so alcohol had to be minimal.
The restaurant has a room attached to the main venue which is a sort of conservatorium, filled with greenery.

 Tables are large, attractively set

and well spaced.
Waitstaff are neatly dressed in white shirts and blue overalls.

Remi looked after us very well.
They offer a typical French style of food though the bread, which was appealing, was not the typical baton.

 Between us we tastes quite a few dishes starting with Coffin Bay oysters ($15 for 6!)
 
 Steak tartare

Seasoned minced raw fillet steak, egg yolk, capers, shallots, croutons. A little light on the seasoning.

Tarte au Celeri-Rave

Puff pastry celariac tart, mushroom duxelle, salt baked celeriac. Good but dominated by the pastry.

Portrine de Porc

Pork belly, quince puree, black barley, pork jus.  Aparently some people order this dish and then complain it is too fatty, au contraire, as the French might say, it could have been even more so, and could have been cooked for longer too. The skin looked good but was barely crisp but the black barley was excellent. 

Barramundi au Legumes D'Automne

Crispy skinned Barramundi, leek consomme, roasted celeriac. Perfectly cooked, it could not have been better, moist and rich.

Selle D'Agneau au Topinambour

Pan seared lamb rump, artichoke puree, roasted Jerusalem artichoke, lamb jus. Almost sweet this very tender piece of meat was excellently prepared and presented. Not too fussy it ticked all the boxes.
Canard a la Orange

Confit duck leg, orange sauce, green beans. A classical French dish.
Peas

This side dish was brilliant. I'm not sure what was in it apart from the peas, some onion, probably shallots and lardons which gave the whole dish a fabulous mouth watering taste. Yum.
With a long drive ahead of me I was happy to drink a 5% alcohol Massolino Moscato d'Asti

which fitted well with the desserts.
Tart Tatin

Pink Lady apples served with cream and ice cream was too sweet and lacked character.

Cream Brulee

looked good even with the unusual berry dressing but the custard had the wrong texture and was so loose that it ran onto the plate once the crust was broken and a spoonful had been eaten.

Tea was nicely presented.

Let down by the desserts this is well above average though a little short of 'fine dining'.

Score: 15/20