Tag Archives: South Melbourne

#duckfest at St Ali, squee!

Even though I’ve been to St Ali before and reviewed its delectable breakfast options before, it hasn’t been very long that they’ve been open for dinner. Understandably, the Melbourne food and coffee loving community was excited. St Ali are remarkably savvy – they’ve shown their support for the inaugural Eat Drink Blog conference in March this year, and at the time of writing this, I learnt that they are hosting a degustation with (alcoholic) mixmasters Der Raum.

Not too long ago, St Ali hosted another degustation dedicated to the duck and I got to attend. Upon welcome, diners were invited to browse the food blogger photography exhibition in St Ali East (you can find out more about it here at Tomato) and greeted with a glass of pinot gris. It was there that the first course of “duckfest” was also served – the humble Peking duck pancake. So often, I’ve had Peking duck pancakes and the pancakes have been unbalanced – too much hoisin, not fresh enough spring onion (which is a bitch to chew if not chopped up) and stodgy pancakes. Ugh. These were the most perfectly balanced ones I’d ever tried – the duck had the right amount of meat, skin and fat, the vegetable content provided a satisfying crunch to attest to its utmost freshness, and the pancake! Whisper-soft. Like eating air. Gush.

When we were ushered into St Ali proper so that the table dining experience could begin, it was communal seating. My partner and I were very fortunate to be seated opposite a Der Raum bartender and his partner – I cannot thank them enough for their patience as we photographed the dishes that were designed to be shared equally.

The first sit-down course on offer from duckfest masterminds St Ali head chef Benjamin Cooper and MuMu Grill head chef Craig Macindoe was the duck parfait with shiraz jelly and biodynamic rye bread.

 duck parfait with shiraz jelly

A lot of people on my table were put off by what is essentially pâté – but not me. Scrumptious. The shiraz jelly was the perfect contrast – wonderful texture, and not too sweet. Comparatively, more successful than Libertine’s similar such course at their Valentines’ Day dégustation.

Next up, duck consommé. Whenever I see the word ‘consommé’, I’m reminded of the scene in Tampopo when the middle-aged Japanese businessmen all order it at a fancy French restaurant. Duckfest’s consommé was served in a shot glass. I found it a little salty and a bit of an umami overload, but very warming. It seemed very Asiatic in flavour, and not just because of the spring onion.

 duck consomme

Literally and figuratively, we get to the real meat of the meal, beginning with the crispy duck breast with deconstructed XO sauce. I’m not entirely sure how a sauce can be classified as ‘deconstructed’, but I’m guessing perhaps this one had less ingredients? In any case, it whet my appetite for more duck. I may have demolished it gracelessly due to enthusiasm.

 crispy duck breast with xo sauce

The next offering was duck san choi bow (with shredded duck leg), accompanied with freshly shucked oysters and kim chi. Oh my. It was pretty hard to share this! The duck was so delicately flavoured, and so tender, and the kim chi very addictive. Regarding oysters – you will never hear me utter a complaint against them. This was a very well received dish, even though the duck had a similar flavour profile to the consommé: the latter being more concentrated. It’d be wonderful if this were a regular main – somewhere, anywhere. It has me a little enchanted.

 duck 'san choi bow'

Alas, all good things must pass…onto better things, the roast duck breast with wilted tatsoi, poached pear and sherry glaze. Again, I found it a smidgen too salty but oh, how succulent the breast was. What a tasty tease.

 roast duck breast

The last savoury course was much anticipated given it is often thought of as a grotesque gustatory offering – turducken. It sounds so junk-food indulgent due to the fact that it contains so much meat. However, in Tudor times, it was customary at feasts to ‘invent’ imaginary animals as a spectacle no doubt to impress guests. This meant constructing a beast made of the meat of several existing animals. The immediate popular culture reference that might come to mind is Heston Blumenthal’s recreation of the Tudor feast. If you search appropriately on YouTube, the relevant clips will come up. A slight digression. So, turducken: it has its origins in aristocratic dining…

 turducken

Accompanied by a gorgeous mixed leaf salad. There were also duck fat potatoes.

 mixed leaf salad

Our table seemed to have divided opinions on this dish, and it wasn’t gobbled up as enthusiastically as the other courses. It’s definitely a lot of meat to scoff down. I think I was just glad to have tried it. It wasn’t literally a turkey with a duck with a chicken inside of the duck, but rather a very refined meatloaf-terrine hybrid. We also had the added bonus of guinea fowl (keep up! turkey stuffed with duck, then stuffed with chicken, and lastly stuffed with guinea fowl). Quite the grotesque, fascinating culinary masterpiece.

If some of the diners had trouble processing the idea of turducken, it was immediately forgotten when dessert came out: duck egg caramel served with fresh papaya and pineapple pieces which were meant to be dipped into the caramel. A lot of the diners around me found the duck egg too rich and unsurprisingly, too ‘ducky’. My main concern was whether or not I was still allergic to duck eggs! As a child in the Philippines, I enjoyed egg flans made from duck eggs, which were larger than chicken eggs. I loved it, but my body rebelled and broke out in itchy hives. It’s challenging, but I’ll be damned if I leave any dessert unfinished! We were instructed that the fresh fruit was meant to be dipped into the caramel, and I feel that this didn’t quite work. Papaya, when ripe, is very slippery, so perhaps it needed to be served slightly green. The caramel didn’t adhere to the fruit, so the serving suggestion was rendered unsuccessful. Perhaps, rather than chunks, the fruit could have been cut up a little thinner so that the suggested method of enjoying the dessert could be achieved? I realise this seems nitpicky, but I gave up in frustration and ate my fruit and caramel separately.

 duck egg caramel

There was an extremely tempting wine list for the evening, but due to driving duties (sob!), I only had a single glass of the Delta Pinot Noir 2008 from New Zealand. I have however included the complete wine list below, much thanks to Ben Cooper.

MuMu headman Craig Macindoe has provided heaps of wonderful infomation on his blog about the origins of his produce for the evening. Reading through it was most certainly illuminating.

Having paid $65 a head for dinner for the evening was ridiculously good value. There will be the more expensive Der Raum one this week and if you’re able to go, you should be in for an absolute treat.

St Ali on Urbanspoon

which man’s burger reigns supreme?

Why is it that the best burger joints in Melbourne are just men’s names? You’ve got Danny’s in North Fitzroy, and Andrew’s in Albert Park, and both have excellent reputations. I finally got to try out the burgers at both and decide which for myself was the winner.

I love cheeseburgers, and fast food burgers are cardboard, let’s be honest. Being out and about late at night in the city, Danny’s is an excellent choice – not too far out of the city, has a lovely diner feel and the burgers are made with fresh buns, shredded lettuce and patties.

My dining partner’s burger of choice is the burger with the lot – cheese, tomato, egg, bacon. Often, several patties.

burger, detail

I ordered a cheeseburger at Danny’s but couldn’t get a photo that really captured its glory properly. But here’s one of their chips. We ate more than we should have, but they were just so good. It made The Age’s top ten list a while ago when they did a feature on the best chips in Melbourne.

large chips

The diner is really nice at Danny’s, but even though I’ve been in there several times of late, I don’t find the staff to be particularly friendly. However, their drawcard is they are open till 2am. If I’ve driven into the city for a gig and am feeling peckish after, guess where I end up!

Andrew’s shut at 9pm and when I went there, it was packed. There isn’t really anywhere to linger and sit. Albert Park is nowhere near where I live (whereas at least North Fitzroy isn’t too far) so it’s a little bit of a problem not having anywhere to eat my burger. We ended up across the road on a park bench.

cheeseburger

Here’s my cheeseburger. Easily one of the best I’ve ever had. None of this plastic-tasting cheese business. The meat patty and cheese together was so satisfying – more flavoursome than Danny’s.

burger with the lot

The burger with the lot is fantastic. Delicious meat patties and fresh, flavoursome ingredients. You don’t need to add extra condiments. The chips, however, were absolutely awful – they were very dry and tasted old. I rarely throw food away, but these were turfed on account of how bad they were.

By an inch, I would declare Andrew’s as serving the superior burger. Proximity and the late night opening means that I would most likely frequent Danny’s. However, you can’t be disappointed by either when in the mood for a good old-fashioned (non-gourmet) burger.

Danny's Burgers on Urbanspoon Andrew's Hamburgers on Urbanspoon

the patron saint of coffee

Even though it’s a fair trek from my edge of Melbourne, the specialty coffee roasting house St Ali in South Melbourne is absolutely worth the journey. Admittedly, I’m not a big coffee drinker (sadly, coffee doesn’t interact well with some long-term medication I’m on) so it always feels indulgent to have it.

Even more so at St Ali. I’ve tried three different blends (though rotation of blends is constant) and the aromas and tasting notes have always been markedly different from one another. I genuinely had no idea coffee could be so diverse – it’s like wine, beer and tea. Going to places like this inspires me to want to learn more.

It seemed an excellent idea to revisit for a birthday breakfast. My partner had a short black of an Ethiopian blend, and I tried the syphon. I was curious to know what was special about the syphon coffee and was told it was tea-like. Being a mad tea fiend, that was enough to convince me.

The syphon coffee is very mellow – as if all the harshness has been squeezed out of the coffee. It comes in a very fancy contraption.

syphon coffee

The first time I had breakfast here, I went with the classic traditional breakfast – scrambled eggs, bacon and braised beans. Tomato relish and sourdough always comes with eggs (and of course you have the choice of poached, scrambled or fried).

trad breffix

Even though it looks simple, do not ignore fruit toast as a choice. This places does the breakfast basics beautifully.

fruit toast

For birthday breakfast, more recently, I nearly went the eggs again. I thought that would be silly and a little safe. I opted for the grilled salmon instead. I’m determined for a childhood of canned sardines not to get me down. These very adult sardines were served with slow cooked tomato, a pepper and apple compote with a dressing of mint, parsley and capers. Hiding underneath all that was rye bread. It sure sounds a mouthful, and a delicious one it was too.

grilled sardines

My partner had the sultan’s eggs – eggs (poached or fried, the former being chosen) with sourdough soldiers, cumin salt, herb salsa and garlic yoghurt. Judging by the speed on consumption, it was very much enjoyed.

the sultan's eggs

Would have loved to have gone to the Melbourne food blogger dinner St Ali are offering, but it booked out pretty quickly. However, there is an upcoming duck dégustation that I’ll be going to, and naturally hope to report on that.

Cheers St Ali for a great birthday breakfast, and some stellar service. It’ll be good to see you soon.

St Ali on Urbanspoon