Laurie Dee's - Epping, Victoria

"There is no sincerer love, than the love of food"

Bernard Shaw

When I approach the carpark at Epping Plaza there are a number of classic movie scenes that I am reminded of. No I don't mean the scene when Marty Mcfly skates up to Twin Pines. It's more like the scene in Cobra when Stallone pulls into the carpark in his 1950 Mercury custom. You know the scene when he pops out of a freezer, mist bellowing behind him and then you think hang on, how did he get in the freezer to begin with?
You're not picturing it yet? OK, try the scene from Boyz N' The Hood when they all chillin' in they 64's and then badass Cube pulls the old "We got a problem here?" as he lifts his pyjama top to expose a deuce. Still not sure what I am on about?
Let's try the scene from Les Miserable when they finish up singing Do You Hear The People Sing as the military rock up and a shootout ensues. Well pretend they are rival bikie gangs and the horses are loud obnoxious motorcycles.

So if you manage to survive parking your car and the walk through the beautiful mall area where all the eateries are, then you will find Laurie Dee's. It's an old school American style diner and has the artery clogging menu to match, but it is worth the heart attack.

I have to admit, although the burgers aren't too bad I think the best dish on the menu is the chicken club sandwich. I have had a number of club sandwiches and until Laurie Dee's came along, I was partial to the one served at Park Hyatt Melbourne. It seemed perfect at the time, but at less than half the price the Laurie Dee's club is a standout.

The burger you see in the image to the left is a Laurie Dee Double. Fresh minced patty, caramelised onions, melted cheddar cheese, Special 'D' Sauce (the name concerns me slightly), tomato, diced pickles, lettuce and relish.

The Chicken Club consists of regular club sandwich ingredients, but it isn't your regular club. I think it is the special sauce that makes it. The special sauce seems to be a better fit with the chicken than it is with the beef patties.

Lastly in that photo are the Fries which have an interesting herb seasoning through them. They are fairly tasty but sometimes seem a bit too much on the palate.


In the images below are the awesome desserts on offer. The dessert menu is epic and when it comes to the concretes and sundaes, totally customisable and a great way to finish your meal and an epic ending to any diet you may be on.

Created from images available on the Laurie Dee's website

Misty's Diner - Reservoir

Misty's Diner

Reservoir, Melbourne

"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer"

Bruce Lee

I learnt something yesterday evening when my wife and I went to Misty's for the first time. The first thing we learnt was that we have been missing out big time. The second thing we learnt was that the song Shout! wasn't only performed by our own Johnny O'Keefe but was made most famous by the Isley Brothers. These are the things you learn when you find yourself in an American themed diner.

So what brings a couple to a place like Misty's diner? A few things come into play. A voucher book, the Queens birthday long weekend and an insatiable hunger. When my wife mentioned the words American diner I was on-board. Some phone based investigation gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside as I scoured through numerous photos published by other hungry go-getters. A good indication of a place that serves a good burger is a burger challenge. Misty's burger challenge is comprised of 5 burger patties, 3 buns, 5 slices of bacon, 5 slices of cheese, mayo and barbecue sauce and a half serve of fries. If you can do all that within 14 minutes you will get a burger challenge t-shirt and your photo displayed on the burger challenge hall of fame.

Misty's has a cool 50's/60's vibe and you are greeted with American accented staff as you enter. Luckily for us we had packed our snow gear for the trip because the restaurant was full and we needed to sit in the cold Melbourne night. The menu is vast and the first thing that catches our eyes are our favourite American dish from our US trip 4 years ago... cheese & bacon potato skins. Before we look further we agree that a plate of said potato dish will be ordered.
We decided we weren't bothering adhering to diet regimen and went all out. The regular fries we ordered saw us wishing that we went in the curly fries direction as we watch a waitress carry a plate of them by.
Marleena (my wife) decided on the Western & Bacon which included a burger pattie, sauteed mushrooms, swiss cheese, mayonnaise, 3 onion rings and smokey barbecue sauce.
I ordered the Double Whammy, because if the word double is on a menu and is not superseded by the word triple, you can pretty much guarantee I am ordering it.
It had 2 beef patties and pretty much the same stuff as what my wife had ordered with the addition of the cheddar variety of cheese and some green stuff (lettuce and tomato).

I am a big fan of the food at Misty's. From what we tried it was very impressive and of good quality. Some might find the price tag of $15 to $25 for a burger a little steep but I thought it was more than worth it. The Western & Bacon burger was pretty massive so mine was probably too big. I know, I can't believe I just said that either.

So it has been all good news right? Well, there is just one thing that made it better. The Reese's Pieces thickshake was incredible! IT had cream, chocolate, cereal, ice cream and of course Reese's Pieces.

So all-in-all the meal we had was amazing and I will be going back to try and get through 1 or 2 more burgers and hot dogs, so watch this space.

Oh, and if you are going to eat here keep the napkin dispenser close by, that shit gets all over your face.

Dinner with TC Winston

***

"It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. You'd wake up in a concert and think, wow, how did I get here?"

- John Lennon

***

Never have I met such a rude, ignorant, incorrigible waste of perfectly good oxygen in all my life. I say incorrigible yet he is probably somewhere in the middle of the pacific looking to ruin someone else's hard earned holiday as he dissipates into a small group of clouds as if he never existed to begin with.
Anyway, here is how it all went down.

Friday - 19th February 2016
Concern started to build on Friday afternoon when we became aware that Fiji airways had cancelled their flights back to Melbourne from Nadi (Nandi) for the next day, the day that we were supposed to fly out ourselves. We were flying with Virgin Australia and were hoping that they would disregard safety precautions and fly anyway. It's funny how one tends to rationalise in such situations. We ate dinner at the resort next door. Mamacita is our favorite dining location in the resort island of Denarau. My wife ordered the enormous Chipotle Chicken Burrito and I ordered the Fish and Chips. Yes, I ordered the least Mexican dish on the menu, but I already had the burrito earlier in the week.
We ordered chimichangas for dessert. They were fantastic. Follow EatLikeLoPizzo on Facebook to see the food photos.

Before bed we signed up for status updates for our flight. So far the flight was to leave as planned.

Saturday - 20th February 2016
After devouring bowel cancer and coma inducing amounts of bacon at the daily breakfast buffet at our resort, we walked to the foyer to check the notice board for the status of our good mate TC Winston. On our short walk my wife received a text message. The message was not good news. I know this because as my wife was reading it she stopped and said "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god..." and so on. Also, when she is concerned she tends to walk backwards, which after 4+ years of marriage I am yet to understand why. It is kind of cute. When she managed to build a distance of around 4 meters I asked her to express herself with more words and less footsteps. It turned out that our flight was cancelled.

Saturday was a big day for us, we went from expecting to be able to escape the wrath of the biggest asshole shitstorm that the Southern Hemisphere has ever seen to being essentially stuck in said shit storm. To the front desk! They'll help us out!
"Sorry sir, we are fully booked. You will need to check out at 11am as planned. We would call the other resorts for you but they are all booked out. Why don't you try online?" I am not shitting you, we were without shelter, albeit for a short period of time, but it was suddenly concerning nonetheless.

It was around 9am. We had just over 2 hours to organise accomodation, have showers, rebook flights and call the insurance company. Hotels.com was my job while Marleena called Virgin Australia. Earliest flight back was Wednesday, now I had a date to book the hotel. Local resorts were disappearing before my eyes.
Hilton have something! Wait, nope. All gone once you click on the link. Would you like to look at other rooms with this hotel? Fuck yes! Long story short we got a 1 bedroom apartment at the Hilton, and let me tell you, if you are looking for a place to bunker down during a tropical cyclone, this is probably the best place to do it. Right now I am typing this post up on our 1st level balcony in brilliant sunshine, watching the ocean and listening to Tiny Dancer as if the entire ordeal didn't happen.

Anyway, we walked the 2 kilometers or so to the Hilton with our luggage and managed to check in before two busloads of tourists who were evacuated from their small island resorts swarmed in and packed out the foyer. If my wife had just stepped out of the pool she would have had less water dripping off her. We were sweating like a couple of hookers waiting in line for confession.
The room would be ready at 3pm, currently it was around 1pm. We see people getting out of taxis with boxes of bottled water and jump on a golf cart back to their room. This seems like a good idea! We catch a sneaky taxi to port and stock up on water, noodles and various unhealthy snacks. Hey, if we are going to die in a tropical cyclone lets do it happy right?

We get back from frantic shopping and the room is ready thankfully, because it looks like another busload of tourists has just disembarked and turned the lobby into a sweaty congregation of varying ethnicity. As I am waiting for the keys to be set up I hear a couple next to us complain that they got to their room and there was already a couple in there when they opened the door. They had just arrived too... oh dear. Please make this uneventful. I suddenly start believing in a higher being but can't decide who to pray to.
"I will give you your key sir as the room has been cleaned but I will just need you to wait to the side until I can confirm that it has been released by management." Fuck that shit for a joke, lets go to our room! At this point the winds are picking up and the humidity is sitting at 100%. So we immediately disobey orders and hot foot it to the room. There is no one in there. No one else tries to come in either. The air-conditioner is blasting and fans spinning making the room feel like an igloo. It was as if God had setup a heaven franchised hotel room just inside the gates of hell.

Tropical Cyclone Winston
We are advised to do a few things to prepare for the storm which is just a few short hours away. We fill the bath to 3/4 with water in case the water pump in the hotel dies. The patio furniture was already moved into the room. The guy came around and put tape on the windows... not much of it. Our neighbour and I looked at each other concerned at what such a small amount of masking tape could possibly do, but anyway. The glass didn't break. My auntie in-law who volunteers with the SES in Victoria took us through some procedures to make sure we are ready to do a runner if it turns out the area was to go to the crapper "wear your clothes and shoes to bed!" So we were good to go.
By the time we watch 2 episodes of the third season of The X Files the winds started to pick up and it definitely was an interesting night. We pulled the blinds down and pushed some furniture against them and tried to sleep. We didn't sleep...
Power didn't stay off at any point, in fact after a couple of dropouts we pretty much kept power throughout the entire ordeal, which meant we could keep families updated on our situation via WhatsApp.
Now lets not forget that we are in a 5 star establishment with solid concrete walls surrounding us. We were far from being in any sort of danger in my opinion, but it was nice to hear people were concerned for our safety.

The storm itself was certainly impressive. I won't look at a pissy Melbourne lightning show the same again. Essentially this has ruined all other storms for me going forward. Thanks a lot Winston you asshole!

Sunday - 21st February 2016

I snuck out of our room during red alert the morning after the cyclone hit. It was amazing what damage can be done in such a short period of time. For a few hours that morning it was fairly still. We checked the radar and the entire cyclone had passed us. It's over right? Nope. While I was out walking it started to rain quite heavily and within about an hour we had what I would consider another cyclone. It was amazing to see it happen in the daylight. What was different to the night before was that the winds weren't quite as strong, but still like nothing I have ever experienced previously. This new storm also brought with it lightning which (if I follow the counting rule) was striking pretty much at our feet. I have never heard lightning crack that loud and that close.

Placing our hands on the glass doors we could actually feel the pressure of the wind bending it. At one point I tried to open the sliding door to do some filming but wasn't able to budge it.

Monday - 22nd February 2016

So today, as I write this we have seen very strange changing weather. My fellow Melbournians will know what I am talking about as we experience it on an almost daily basis for most of the year, it's just that Fiji is doing it at a more intense level. We went for a walk along the beach after breakfast and assessed the damage. A lot of debris was washed up on the beach which we couldn't really tell whether it was from our own island or the island we could see off into the distance. Anyway, the weather was nice this morning... and humid. Around lunchtime it was pissing down, and again with strong winds. Again it cleared up throughout the day, but at about 9:30pm we managed to get another lightning storm with a crazy amount of rain.

So that; until this point, was our experience with TC fucking Winston and his bullshit life ruining shenanigans. 

So far 15 people have lost their lives to this cyclone and our thoughts are going out to their families. Lets hope this beautiful country and it's beautiful people are able to rebuild and get back to their normal lives as soon as possible.

Bula from sunny, stormy, sunny again Fiji!

Chew Burgers - Preston

Chew Burgers, Preston

Victoria, Australia

We had the pleasure of trying Chew Burgers in Preston for the first time last night, and I have to say I was fairly impressed. As I have mentioned before, 8Bit is kind of the benchmark that I use to compare other burger places in Melbourne. For the 8 out of 10 that I give 8Bit I give Chew Burger a 7. It isn't because the burgers aren't as good, in fact the burgers are pretty amazing. I would say that they are right up there with 8Bit in terms of ingredients and the size of them makes them better value for money. The fact that I had sauce all over my face and running down my arms was a minor issue to deal with. It was all worth it. The real difference between the 2 was the lack of thick shakes. Burgers + shake = Must!!!

The Plenty burger (shown below) is a double 190g wagyu patties, smokey bacon, cheddar, cos lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, mustard and their amazing creamy smoke and fire sauce which gave it a spicy kick. Like I said earlier, it was a messy burger to eat, but I ate it fast enough to not notice it too much. Oh, all between the new standard in a brioche bun.

We also ordered the Commando burger - 1 of the wagyu patties mentioned above, bacon, cheddar, cos lettuce onion rings, lava mayo and barbecue sauce. As far as taste goes, the Commando was by far the tastiest of the two which is thanks to the mix between the mayo and barbecue sauce. The shoestring fries were pretty standard but a perfect side. I was a little disappointed that we weren't given sauce when the burgers were brought out to us. Everyone knows it isn't a good idea to serve fries without the sauce to accompany it. In saying all that it wasn't like I felt like I needed to get up and go looking for any sauce, I had enough in the burgers.

It is a good place to grab a quality burger if you find yourself in that part of town. I highly recommend this place and my wife was very impressed also. Oh, and the Mexican cola was surprisingly good too.

8bit Burgers

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8 Droop Street, Footscray

Melbourne VIC

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I’m always down for a double patty burger, unless a menu be superfly and kicking a triple patty, daym! The fact that 8bits double patty burger is kicking the same name as my fav fav Nintendo game when I was a child is just a bonus. This sammich be sportin 2 beefy beef patties slammed between a whack brioche bun. 
Sauce? Killing it. 
Pickles? They there. 
Cheese? You for real? Damn straight there’s cheese. 
It’s all good man!

What, you’re thirsty? Got you covered cuz. Have a suck on the straw of a strawberry cheesecake shake, or the peanut butter shake. You heard me. You better aksomebody!

If you haven’t filled up on burgery goodness, you trippin. But flash yo cash and sort out some slick cheese and bacon fries or some greasy assed onion rings. Hot dogs yo thang? Dig it, they got those too, and there a whack selection of top tops too.

So if you chillin it out Melbourne way, slip into yo ghetto rags, strap a deuce and shoot down to 8bit crib in the hoodest part of Melbourne Town. Them feels be real in Footscray. One love, out.

On It Burgers - Ferntree Gully

***

On It Burgers - Ferntree Gully

***

Rating: 4.5 / 5

I am happy to say the trusty eastern suburbs came through last night.

My brother had been telling me about On It burgers and their black buns for some time but only last night was I able to experience them for myself. My requirement for burgers is that they are traditional, so traditionally I ordered the Double Classic. The Double classic sports two patties of prime grain fed beef, mustard, ketchup, double American melted cheese, pickles and red onion on a fantastic artisan bun. It was honestly something to behold.

The garlic and basil fries weren't too heavily seasoned but just enough to take them from fry to "oh my!" especially when dipped in the mayonnaise or the special smoky 'On It' dip.

The onion rings were pretty good, but I would rather them a little crunchier as described in the menu. They were little bit soggy than what I would usually like, but with a fine batter non the less.

Then there was 'The Luke'. This is the black bun burger that burns your retina but not your soul. American cheese, bacon jam, prime grass fed beef, pickles, lettuce, tomato, ketchup and mustard. Sounds like a lot but it works. The diameter of the burger itself is actually a little smaller that the classic variations but it has some seriously good flavors.

I originally thought that On It Burgers would be at a disadvantage being out in the eastern suburbs and not in the heart of Melbourne like the other burger joints littering our city, but I think the quality will make it a local regular and once they get known around the city people will start to travel for these burgers if they haven't already. If On It Burgers continue to do what they are doing, with their current market share in the east they will easily outlast their counterparts closer to the city.

Charlie & Co. Burgers - Melbourne Emporium

***

Charlie & Co. Burgers

Melbourne Emporium

***

I write this review with the intention of it being short. I liked Charlie & Co. Burgers at Melbourne Emporium. I wouldn't go as far as to say that they had the best burgers in Melbourne, but I thought they were very tasty. Having read the reviews on Urban Spoon I can't help but think that people are being a little harsh. A rating of 63% seems a little low too, I would have thought that at least 70% of people would have liked it, but maybe I just don't have the refined palate of the people frequenting Melbourne Emporium. Such trendy and healthy people you, but I digress.

I ordered the most expensive burger on the menu, which was the Mighty Charlie Burger and at $14.90 thought it was reasonable value considering the location of the restaurant and the quality of the ingredients. Every bite I took out of the burger I would look at my wife and make crazy eyes. So it tasted good! 

It had wagyu beef, smoked bacon, egg, cheddar cheese, sun ripened tomato, pickled gherkins, caramelised onion, lettuce, aioli and BBQ sauce. Did I mention it was really tasty? 

Now, as others have mentioned on reviews on Urban Spoon, I did find myself wanting more after the burger and the order of fries. Originally I thought it was just me being a greedy pig, but it turns out I wasn't the only one. I did think it was a reasonably sized burger. At almost $15, to put this burger together at Macca's with their Create Your Own Taste thing that they have going, would probably see you paying the same amount with potentially lesser quality ingredients, so I don't know what all the fuss is about. In saying that, 10 steps away at Jimmy Grants you could get a souva and chips for almost the same price as the burger (give a couple of dollars), and you can guarantee that the souva will make you feel like you are floating in the clouds.

So, if you find yourself in Melbourne Emporium and feel like a burger then I would suggest that Charlie & Co. Burgers would do the job for you. If I find myself wanting a burger next time I am at Emporium then I would probably go back.

"I would rather have a burger and beers with my mates, but I can't do that when I know I've got to dance" - Michael Flatley

1 Week A Vegan

Much to the dismay of my wife and mother, I made the decision on Monday to live like a vegan, well the diet of a vegan. You won't find me holding up a bloodied lamb in protest of Australia's sheep sheering industry. Don't get me wrong, I am all for animal rights, but the point of my decision to cut out animal products was purely a health based decision, sorry Lamb Chop, all those years as a kid I wasn't that entertained. I was just trying to work out the best way to cook a lamb puppet.

From when I woke up on Monday morning I just decided it. There was no precedent other than two food full Easter weekends, the joys of marrying into an Orthodox family. I just woke up and said it to myself initially, then to my wife when I got to work. The reply text was "lol", and plenty more of those followed throughout the day, along with some "Are you serious?" and "It isn't going to last! rofl" and "come on, stop it already". It turns out it was all very funny and she even went to the extent of discussing it and laughing along with her sister. Could it really be that hard to believe that someone like me could be a vegan? I was even referred to by my wife (with a smile on her face) as the fattest vegan alive! Well, that may be the case, but it is definitely worth the try... I am close to suggesting that I am currently dying of starvation while writing this, but that would be unfair to those that actually are dying of starvation. So instead I will try and put it another way... GIVE ME A F***ING STEAK ASAP!!!

So I have been a vegan for a week and I have to say, it was a struggle. For someone that is a big fan of all things meat, this thing has been killing me, but I think I have turned a corner. Scaled the first hurdle. Bitten off more than I can chew? Probably... it's only been a week, though I truly do think I am over that initial holy shit everything has animal in it! phase. It turns out not everything has animal in it, like carbs... well most carbs. See it turns out, without even noticing, I was eating animal when making home made pasta, because of the eggs. Stupid, tasty, no good, readily available, bastard, in everything, eggs! I have a friend who is allergic to eggs, poor guy. I now know how he feels. 

On Day 1 I just thought, hey let's have pasta with pesto tonight... as long as it is semolina pasta, not fresh. What? You serious? Man, so we had the packet pasta with a jar version of pesto which I quite like by our good friends at Barilla.
I forgot that most pesto has parmesan in it, shit! Day 1 fail.

Day 2 saw me throwing carrot, zucchini, onion and mushroom in a pan and stir frying them while whipping up some steamed rice in the Thermomix. I could have done it all in the Thermomix now that I think about it, but alas, I didn't. While I was stir frying my veggies my wife had me make her my famous omelette, so rude. Not only has she refused to cook for me this week but also made me cook something that I was not able to eat. Unbelievable! Anyway, the stir fry was a success and tasted quite good. The recipe for the Thermomix is for 500 grams of rice so it actually covered a few of my meals.

Day 3 was much the same with all that rice that I made which made the worry of now what do I eat? a non issue. Day 4 on the other hand didn't work out so well. The day started okay, foraging around the house for something to nibble on, but then my brought home some Arabic pizzas for dinner. I ate the curried mushroom one which was OK for Vegans, I think? But then I was still hungry, so I ate the vegetarian pizza too. It had cheese on it. So I officially failed at being a vegan on day 4.

Day 5 started well, made some pasta with a red sauce but even though I managed to refrain from adding parmesan to it, for dinner I caved and we ordered pizza from our local pizza shop. So day 5 really blew out any chance of considering this a vegan week, and I sure as hell wasn't going to ask for a vegetarian with no cheese. Am I right? But I think I will just have to next time if I want to make a serious attempt.

Day 6 is Saturday and football day. Carlton V Essendon, and there is my wifes left over pizza in the fridge. It has ham, and I eat a slice. Vegetarian chances this week also out the window. I think 6 days without meat is a pretty good effort. Especially if you knew how much meat I was eating. Went to mums to chill, had a burger from Grill'd. Saturday is not a good day to be a vegan.

Day 7, today, is an interesting day. Trying to keep myself busy around the house and on the computer to keep my mind off the meat. I look at my dogs and the cat and wonder how they would taste. They can't taste that bad surely. Take it easy, I'm not a feral, I wouldn't just cook them and eat them. I would probably serve them with a side of fries, or a salad.

Don't you all go worrying about my mental state now, I am not some crazed vegan that's going to go around telling the world. I don't want to be the butt of that joke, How do you know if there is a vegan at a bbq? Don't worry they'll tell you.
I will be using the vegan diet as an everyday lifestyle choice and where absolutely necessary I will eat animal stuff, ie when my Mum has us over for dinner, reviewing a restaurant (unless it is a vegan restaurant). So don't fear, my blog will still be full of amazing mouth watering reviews about meat and other such non vegan anomalies. Although this week is well and truly a vegan and vegetarian fail, I think I had a pretty good go at it and will be moving forward to seriously take this challenge on.

In saying all of this, if you vegans/vegetarians would like to see a review on a particular vegan/vegetarian restaurant or you can suggest any good places for me to try out, I would love to hear the names of the places. Just leave them in the comments section below. Until then, wish me luck on this long journey that I have (stupidly or not) thrown myself into.

In the words of Kirk Lazarus, Everybody knows you never go full vegan.

ITALI.CO Italian Restaurant

ITALI.CO

173 Barkly Street, St Kilda

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***

ITALI.CO sits in the heart of one of Melbourne's trendiest eating spots, St Kilda - just a short stride to Acland Street and not much further to the iconic Luna Park and Palais Theatre.

On this particular Friday evening we managed to avoid being stuck in traffic and easily found a parking spot 100 metres away from the front door, granted we booked for the unusually early time of 5:30pm, but I thought it was worth it.
The restaurant had a restrained elegance if you can work out what that means. It was subtle, but beautiful at the same time. Floor to ceiling windows surrounding the majority of the restaurant allowed for a naturally lit space, light timber floors and the white marble bar top contrasted will with the black chairs and was a nice change from the current tendency for restaurants to take the darker approach to their interiors.

A waitress brought us to our table which looked out at passing cars on the not so busy Barkly Street. The table sported 2 paper menus, a saucer with a small jar of red chopped chillies in oil and the obligatory salt & pepper grinders. We sat trying to decide what to order but were constantly distracted by the characters that would pass by our window, don't get me wrong, the drug fuelled exuberance of those that passed us by was definitely entertaining, but distracting nonetheless.

We decided to start with the Foccacia with Extra Virgin Ligurian Olive Oil, Garlic and Rosemary Salt to share, which was absolutely amazing for something so simple. The olive oil and balsamic vinegar were hardly required and rarely used. I ordered the Gnocchi Al Ragú D'Agnello which was home made gnocchi with a spring lamb ragú and carrot purée, and my wife; via the specials board, ordered the Duck with Parsnip Soufflé, Orange, Fried Baby Kale and Pomegranate. 

The Gnocchi was beautifully light and soft and the sauce was by no means too flavoursome as these types of ragú sauces can be, though I would have added more salt to the dish during the cooking process. I dislike the addition of salt to an already completed dish, it just isn't the same. The Duck was amazing, it was cooked to perfection and again the accompanying sauce was exactly that, just an accompaniment. It didn't detract from the duck at all but had an amazing flavour. To my surprise the Parsnip Soufflé was a great addition to the dish as well.

We made the dangerous but well thought out decision of ordering not one but TWO desserts, and I am glad we did. Being a massive fan of the Nutella Dessert Pizza at DOC just off Lygon Street I decided it would be a strong comparison for ITALI.CO's version. ITALI.CO fell a little short. I prefer the way DOC serve it as a Calzone, rather than a pizza. ITALI.CO's version was by no means a bad dessert (how can it be with a sweet pizza base covered in Nutella), but it just wasn't as good. The vanilla bean ice-cream wasn't too bad, but I have had better in that department too.
The other dessert we ordered was the Tortino Di Cioccolato Con Cuore Fondente, it's a bit of a mouthful but loosely translates to mini chocolate fondant cake. This was probably the best chocolate fondant cake that I have eaten. It was exquisite! The warm chocolate spilled slowly from the centre of the cake as my wife cut it open, an event which I would have filmed on my phone if it hadn't of decided to fail as it was happening. The 2 seconds of video isn't worth posting, so you will need to take my word for it. It tasted fantastic, and in addition to the chocolate awesomeness was the peanut butter fudge to make it that little bit more amazing. The homemade Tahiti Vanilla Gelato that is was served with, I could have done without. I would have much preferred the normal vanilla bean ice-cream that came with the Nutella Pizza.

ITALI.CO was a great place to eat. The food was great and the staff friendly. The cost was to the higher side of average I would say, but worth every penny.
Take your family for a nice meal or bring a potential suitor if you want to impress him/her with your impeccable taste for the finer things in life.

Pershing Square - New York City

***

"The only thing I like better than talking about food is eating"

John Walters

***

While we were staying in New York City on our USA trip a couple of years ago, we would constantly walk past Pershing Square as it was located directly across the road from our hotel at Grand Central Station. It didn't look like much from the outside; just your standard old school New York cafe, so we never really thought it that important to go for a meal. About a week into the New York visit, when we had run out of local places to eat hot dogs and pizza got a little boring, we decided to give it a go. It was pretty impressive.

You walk in through the front door and it transforms into this beautifully lit and decorated restaurant. It isn't like your typical New York cafe, which are a dime a dozen throughout Manhattan. It has an edge to it that is warm and inviting. It sported dark red tones throughout, and once you walk through a more relaxed cafe type area out front, you find yourself in a reasonably sized restaurant. 

The restaurants website refers to it as a "casual American cuisine in a bustling classic bistro environment" and boasts as having the "busiest and best breakfast in New York." I can't vouch for the breakfast claim, though I can confirm that they offer three all-day-breakfast options on the menu, plus a fairly extensive list of options for actual breakfast. The lighting set a nice mood and accentuated the dark red colour scheme, the little lamps on each of the tables were a nice touch too.

The service left a lot to be desired. Unfortunately we had come directly from Las Vegas which is a very hospitable city whose people seem to really strive to get that tip that they so desperately need, most of the New Yorkers aren't quite that way inclined. Very rarely are you offered a smile or any real earth shattering service, which is disappointing because I really did want to leave a reasonable tip, but we'll go into that a bit more as I explain further.

We went over the menu and I kept finding myself drawn to the Maine Lobster roll. This is where the service was first slightly troubling. I asked the waiter whether the lobster is actually from Maine, or whether it is just what they call the dish. I thought it was a reasonable question. He looked at me kind of puzzled and wasn't able to answer the question. Surely he is aware of the origins of the dish name. When I worked in a restaurant as a kid I was expected to know even the tiniest aspect of  each of the dishes, and we didn't accept tips... so I ordered the lobster roll anyway, and my wife ordered the House Made Ricotta Ravioli. I had never had lobster roll before, or since to be honest but it was beautiful and sweet, and weirdly enough the bowl of potato chips it was served with were a good accompaniment. The ravioli were very well done, but the sauce wasn't anything special. Most Italian restaurants back in Melbourne do it much better. In addition to these meals we got ourselves a bowl of fries which were pretty standard.

Up to this point, there was no offer from the waiter for a top up of our drinks and he pretty much ignored us for the rest of the night. We managed to get his attention so that we could order dessert. I had never heard the term New York style cheesecake and simply asked whether that meant that it was baked. Again, the waiter looked at me like I had two heads. I ordered the cheesecake anyway as I was curious. Since I have recently been more interested in food, I understand that it did in fact mean that it was baked cheesecake as we are used to getting here in Australia. But I didn't at the time, and still don't think that it was a particularly stupid question. The cheesecake was very good...

All-in-all the experience was fairly pleasant. Though the service could use some work (I may have caught the waiter on a bad day or something), the meal itself was very well done and sported some very fresh ingredients and was well presented. I have one concern that baffled me a little bit, for some reason this particular restaurant was the only one we went to in the entire USA that automatically charged an 18% tip to our bill without us being aware of it. I was going to give the guy a tip anyway, but in no way was it anywhere near 18% considering he did absolutely nothing for us other than write 5 words on a piece of paper and grunt when I asked questions about the menu. I understand that America's minimum wage situation makes it difficult for people to earn a good living. Automatically applying a tip to a bill means that they are then less inclined to provide a high level of service to your clients. Management should just increase their wages. Anyway, it is a nice place to eat and worth every penny.

http://www.pershingsquare.com/index.html

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Tookaiya Japanese Restaurant

Tookaiya Japanese Restaurant

314 Keilor Road, North Essendon

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Japanese Proverb:

Tai-mo hitori-ha umakazu - Even sea bream is not delicious when eaten in loneliness

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My wife and I are massive fans of Tookaiya Japanese. We try and eat there at least once a month to get the fresh seafood they are so famous for serving. We have our favourite dishes which we will order every time, though we haven't been disappointed with anything else on the menu so far.

On Monday night we decided we had waited long enough between visits and rocked up at around 6pm. Being a Monday night it was pretty quiet which was good for a change, no need to book a table.

Prawn inside out sushi rolls

We normally start with some inside out sushi rolls, my wife likes the prawn and I like the raw tuna or salmon, in this case, I went with the raw tuna. The light flavour of the fresh fish is so refreshing, especially in the warm weather, and you don't feel so bad when you are eating it either. The sushi rolls are covered in caviar giving you those beautiful little bursts of flavour when you bite into them. The size of these little parcels of joy are just perfect to slip an entire piece in your mouth without looking like you are gorging yourself.

Grilled butter and garlic squid

In addition to the inside out sushi, we will normally order a bowl of Ika Yaki which is grilled squid in a garlic butter sauce, I can't go to Tookaiya without ordering this dish. I have in the past been to Tookaiya not really very hungry but still had to order the Ika Yaki, it truly is a must have dish. It isn't anything that fancy, but has such an amazing flavour it is hard to go past. We will normally order the Gyoza (pot stickers) and the Yakitori (teriyaki chicken skewers). I am not going to lie, all this can be hard to get through but it is difficult to avoid ordering it all. The Gyoza are pretty good, though I must admit I have had better just from the local food court and the chicken skewers are pretty good too though I would take a satay skewer over a teriyaki skewer every day of the week. 

Teriyaki Chicken Skewers

Previous visits have seen us ordering some main dishes also. The fried rice here is pretty damn good, but I avoid it as I am already a frequent eater of fried rice and this place has so much good, fresh food on the menu I am able to avoid it. To accompany the fried rice I can suggest ordering the Teriyaki Chicken dish. It is a lot like the flavour of the skewers but has some veggies cooked through it and goes very well with the fried rice. Being a Japanese newbie, eating straight raw fish isn't something I would have normally gone out of my way to do, but this was the perfect place to get into it. The sashimi combination is a good way to start as it gives you a variety of different fresh fish to choose from. It isn't for everyone, even sushi rolls can be a stretch for some people which is understandable, but it is definitely worth a try. We are yet to taste any desserts, just can't seem to allow room for it. One day...

Gyoza

Tookaiya have been around for almost 16 years now, and have been a local icon in Keilor Road. I am only new to the sushi scene, but I would say that this is a great place to start if you want to try sushi for the first time. Saying all that, I have family and friends that are seasoned sushi eaters and they would agree that this is one of the best sushi places in Melbourne in it's price range. It is a very clean restaurant and the staff are very friendly and accommodating, though you should just be careful at busy times as you might not get a table without a booking over the weekend period.

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