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. 

Melbourne in Winter

Some scenery posts taken at the start and middle of winter in Victoria that I didn't have time to post earlier. This winter was milder than previous ones that I recall, but that could just be because I was renting a proper apartment and not in student accommodation. 

The view of Melbourne city taken from Kinglake National Park some 60kms away, on a rare clear winter's day. 

The road to Mount Buller with views of snow-capped mountain ranges in the distance 

The road up Buller

The Mount Buller summit. Best snow out of all my trips to Buller. 

Another view looking up towards the Summit chairlift

Snow covered gum trees along one of the blue runs

The summit at twilight 

Looking the other way back towards the Village

Friday night fireworks at the Docklands - on every Friday during July and August

The road to Lake Mountain from Marysville

Gorgeous winter scenery with fresh snow falling at Lake Mountain

Hakata Mizutaki Toriden, Fukuoka

I've talked previously about meals where you just have to write about them the minute you leave the restaurant, and I was so excited to have one of those encounters at Toriden in Fukuoka. It was a spur of the moment just-book-and-fly trip, and without doing much trip or food planning, I was fortunate enough to stumble across this website and the description for Toriden caught my fancy. The stars further aligned when I gave up a sushi reservation for our final night due to a combination of disrupted schedules and weak stomachs. So off we went in search of Toriden, which we found easily thanks to google maps. 

We knew we were in the right place when we saw the bird

We couldn't speak a word of Japanese and they couldn't speak a word of English. Fortunately it was obvious there was a set course meal, and we ordered one 3800Y course and one 4800Y course.

I had a cold sake from somewhere near Kyoto which cost about 750Y.  

All the tools being set up. The yellow stuff for dipping was fresh yuzu kosho - it was simply incredible.

First up among the appetisers - this boiled egg which came on what appeared to be a bed of savoury and slightly spicy miso. 

A beautifully cooked egg with a perfectly semi runny yolk, infused with a tinge of soy. 

The next appetiser was a katsuo sashimi with sweet onions topped with a vinegary agar like substance, with finely sliced spring onions. The flavours together were fantastic.

Super fresh fish and even more amazing with the seared outside

We also got to see the chef at work behind the counter.

This was about the most exciting moment of the meal - having an entire pot of thick, rich, collagen filled chicken stock and pieces being placed in front of us, with the chicken aroma filling the room. 

The waitress started us each with a small bowl of chicken broth and it was incredible how sensations of happiness, warmth and incredible contentment could fit all in one small bowl. I can't even describe how amazing the experience was. 

The waitress took out the chicken pieces inside the pot, and then put in thinly sliced spring onions and negi to be cooked. 

She looked pretty happy doing her job

The chicken was, well, boiled chicken. But it was tender, tasty and I was already in a very forgiving and exhilerated state of nothing-can-be-wrong-with-my-dinner, so I possibly wasn't very objective when I thought it had to be the best boiled chicken ever.

Our lovely server came out with a bowl of minced chicken and proceeded to shape meatballs for cooking

All the veggies being cooked in the pot - the aromas were starting to get quite incredible

The next round of appetisers came up, namely fish sashimi for the 4800Y course and chicken sashimi for the 3800Y course - at least that was what I understood, although I couldn't quite understand why the more exciting chicken sashimi was served with the cheaper course.

The chicken sashimi looked like it had been boiled lightly on the outside. I was slightly nervous but figured it had to be reliable. It had a scallop-like texture and flavour, although not quite as sweet. 

Some chicken tempura, which was all right. 

The meatballs were finally done by then, and so were the vegetables. We had cabbage, carrots, tofu, enoki mushrooms and what appeared to be sweet potato noodles. By then, the broth tasted even more amazing. 

The vegetables, we were told, were free flow. I was getting pretty stuffed after finishing my third bowl of meatballs and veggies, and sadly, couldn't manage any more. 

Right at the end we were asked if we wanted rice or noodles, and decided to go for the porridge. 

After the rice went in, the chef beat an egg and poured it in

This was perhaps the best chicken porridge on the planet

The meal ended off with green tea panna cotta

Fortunately this was a small serve...we were completely stuffed by then. It was absolutely delicious. 

As we were walking out, I noticed a Fukuoka/Saga Michelin guide with a bookmark in it, and then only I discovered that Toriden had been awarded 1 star. It was just about the most amazing meal of my trip, and I found it so, so reasonable. Given the quality, it was fantastic value for money and I would so definitely go back if I was in Fukuoka again. 

Website: http://www.toriden.com/