Apart from the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, the only other food festival that we genuinely look forward to is Taste of Melbourne. Over four days a little food and wine island sets up Alfresco style on Pelican Lawn at Albert Park lake lined with food stalls showcasing signature dishes from some of Melbourne’s key restaurants and Australian food and beverage producers. Attend workshops, demonstrations, discover new dishes, and re-discover old favourites (think Chin Chin, Mamasita and MoVida). Last year, we spent three out of four days at the festival!
This year we have been fortunate enough to be invited to preview some of the restaurants featuring at Taste – the first held last night and hosted by one of our favourite southside restaurants (and probably the private venue of our next birthday), The Smith.
Dinner started with their signature dish, the Soft shell crab tortilla with avocado, black bean and jalapeño salad. If you try one thing from The Smith at Taste is has to be this! (the above image taken at our last visit to The Smith – all other images taken on the night.)
Next arrived the Sticky beef bun with black vinegar & cucumber – the chilli sauce (on the side) was fantastic!
Our next sample was the Asian Style Tuna Tartare with black sesame crackers.
The last of the main meals was the crisp master stock free-range chicken with crisp noodle salad, hot & sour dressing. It was almost as if the chicken had it’s own crackling with a marmalade flavour.
Last and a perfect way to end the night was The Smith’s deconstructed rocky road – a little artwork unto itself.
And accompanying each of our dishes were three very sparkly glasses of Champagne by Laurent Perrier, the Brut (Non-vintage), the Brut Mille’sime’ 2004 (Vintage) and The Rose’. Surprisingly the Brut was our favourite – very smooth and made our preview event feel even more special.
Thank you to The Smith, Laurent Perrier and Taste of Melbourne, for having us – the countdown is on!
GIVEAWAY: And in more news, Taste of Melbourne have been kind enough to offer us two double passes to the whole event (November 14-17, 2013). Stay tuned on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find out how you can win.
Website: www.tasteofmelbourne.com.au
Twitter: @tastemelbourne
Facebook: Taste of Melbourne
Instagram: @tasteofmelbourne
Notes: Being a foodie event it’s no surprise that most of the conversation over dinner was about food. Here are some of the highly recommended cafés and restaurants that came up around the table: Chin Chin (at Taste this year), FT Tuckshop (hamburger toastie and the meatball sub), Nshry (burger), St Crispin (at Taste this year), Estelle (degustation), The Little Ox, Cowderoy’s Dairy and Tuckshop Takeaway (burger).
