Hammer & Tong (Reprise)

After our first visit to Hammer and Tong, I became a regular visitor each time I was in the Fitzroy area. One Sunday morning I sat at the bar alone and tried the breakfast ramen ($15), which came with bacon, mushrooms and a sous vide egg. 

It was a very pretty bowl, but somehow it was odd having bacon flavours in ramen. It was decent but I didn't quite think this was worth ordering again. 

What the menu looked like the next time I went back

After falling in love with the soft shell crab burger on the last visit, I knew I had to have it again. And so, I ordered it together with a lavender yogurt custard. 

My friend had the tabasco deviled eggs with bacon and guinness marmadale - it appeared rather strange and I don't think she enjoyed it very much. 

The lavender yogurt custard with strawberry and pineapple gel and berries was such a beautiful sight to behold, with a mixture of freeze dried and fresh fruit. Possibly one of the most gorgeous and visually stunning meals ever. 

Cumulus

Cumulus turned out to be one of our favorite restaurants in Melbourne, with beautifully and tastefully executed dishes. It was pretty easy to plan a long evening out starting with drinks at the bar upstairs - Cumulus Up - followed by a late dinner downstairs.

I have to qualify that our visits to Cumulus took place a few months ago and as a result of not blogging about the visits immediately, I've forgotten quite a bit about the details of the experience. However, Cumulus is one of those places which I would highly recommend to any visitor to Melbourne - it's been talked about so much, but I think the hype is entirely justified and the quality has been so consistent on every visit. 

Our dinners usually start with waiting at Cumulus Up for a table to open up downstairs 

Starting off with mussels baked with a tomato-ish sauce. These weren't too memorable, sadly. 

These pigs head croquettes were amazing - without knowing or thinking too much about what was inside. Kind of like a terrine with breadcrumbs. 

Pigs head on the inside, gelatinous and creamy. Absolutely delicious.

Black pudding, which I didn't taste. 

This was an amazing Pinot Noir - which also cost an arm and a leg, if I don't recall wrongly

There was a grilled John Dory (I think) with lentils - this was surprisingly tasty given the rather drab appearance of the dish. 

We also ordered a couple of sides; this was a roast pumpkin which was beautifully soft and sweet. 

The steak had to be the standout dish of the evening. I recall that it had such a plain description on the menu, but it was so nicely grilled and tasty and tender that we regretted only ordering one serve. 

Their salads were so good too. For someone who is hopeless at assembling salads, I'm always impressed as to how people figure out what to put in, how much, and what dressing to add. 

Dessert was an assortment of no less than 3 desserts - a chocolate mousse, a strawberry dessert and a rum baba

The chocolate mousse was nice but sadly arrived looking like a very healthy grain and seed loaf

My favourite dessert was the one with strawberries (trying hard to recall if they were soaked in alcohol)

The rum baba was pretty amazing too, and they left the bottle on the table so we could add as much as we wanted. 

On another visit, we started with a bottle of wine at Cumulus Up which we carried down with us. One of my favourite Italian wines which in recent years has become easier to find, although most restaurants still carry more Chiantis and other Tuscan wines.  

The menu at the bar

We tried the duck waffle with foie gras - this was pretty mind blowing. I'd go back just for this as a pre dinner snack. 

A mussel and clam escabache (whatever that is!), which we enjoyed less than the duck waffle. Perhaps it was because we couldn't quite understand the dish. 

It felt too much like a chutney. 

Loved the design of the bar

We finally made it downstairs at around 10pm, I recall

Starting off with some breads

We started the dinner off with the sweetest smokiest shrimp - this just blew us away. The flavours were incredibly complex, and the shrimps were so juicy. 

The burrata with pesto brought our dinner experience to another level of awesomeness - super creamy and so well balanced with the pesto

The tuna tartare with crushed green pea salad was perhaps the weakest link that night. It was good, but was nothing special. 

We ordered the steak, which was recommended to be accompanied by this cos lettuce and radish salad - the salad itself was pretty good....

while the char grilled Cape Grim steak with leek was so, so, so good. 

Seared to medium rare perfection

Ending the evening off with a mango granita

Possibly my top choice for THE must-visit restaurant in Melbourne.

Website: http://cumulusinc.com.au/

Claypots Evening Star at South Melbourne Market

South Melbourne Market has become my favourite market in Melbourne. The produce- whether fruits, veg, meat or seafood- is reasonably priced and the free parking for 2 hours on market days doesn't hurt one bit as well. There's nothing better than doing one's shopping and then heading to Clement's or Padre for a latte. 

Everything is just calling out to be bought and brought home

But I digress. The whole intention of this post is to talk about one of the most amazing food experiences I had in Melbourne, where the focus was just on the food and enjoying the time alone. Claypots Evening Star is a seafood place at the corner of the market just under the red sign (see below) that I had wanted to try for some time, and when I had a Saturday afternoon to myself, I just did it. Alone. 

The menu looked something like this. 

I had a bar seat right in front of the seafood display. It was quite exciting to see what was available. 

The prawns looked super fresh

The clams, scallops and mussels looked all right too, but I knew I couldn't eat everything.

The skewers looked exciting too - or as I found out, they're called pintxos. 

The view from my seat - it was pretty crowded for a late afternoon.

I had a glass of wine since it was happy hour - $5 for the house sauv blanc. Pretty tasty too. 

The first dish to come out was the spaghetti with white anchovies. This was awesome. It was tasty, well mixed and done al dente. 

I also ordered a grilled prawn with sambal and because the prawn was so fresh, it didn't really matter that the sambal wasn't hot. Licked up every last drop of sauce. 

The first two dishes at my bar counter...I couldn't eat fast enough for the plates to be cleared. 

Possibly the yummiest simplest pasta I can recall in a long time. 

I also had the grilled cuttlefish which came with squid ink sauce. Very tasty.  

The fish ceviche taco was not as exciting as the other dishes, so probably wouldn't order this again.

That late lunch came up to $38 altogether including wine - quite good value I thought. It was such a memorable meal that I dragged the husband there for another dinner shortly after that. 

The menu for that night. 

We had a glass of wine each - I realised the house wine was $8 a glass at non happy hour prices. The husband had a Hunky Dory and I had the same sauv blanc. 

We were seated in the corridor this time.

We had a serve of garlic clams, which was nice but rather tiny. 

It was 3 clams per person. Tasty but really expensive. 

The cuttlefish pintxo again. This was as good as I remembered. 

We also ordered a grilled John Dory with sambal. This was pretty good, but expensive at $35.

Fish was fresh though.

And this was the dish I had been waiting for - I saw the chef cook this that afternoon but couldn't order it since it was meant for two. 

It arrived not quite as steaming hot as the anchovy pasta, and somehow it looked more tomato-ey than the version I saw that Saturday. Tasty nonetheless. 

And this was the damage.