Morning sun blazes at night at Nosh's third wine dinner

A boutique Mornington Peninsula vineyard, Morning Sun, was the star of Nosh @ Newport's third wine dinner. The award-winning cool climate wines are produced from two vineyards, located 1km apart, at Main Ridge. The vines are planted on elevated slopes facing the morning sun, which creates a long and even ripening period each day with no direct exposure to harsh afternoon sunlight. The main varieties produced are pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot grigio.

At the age of 70, Mario Toniolo fulfilled a childhood fantasy when he began the winery in 1995 and he can still be found pottering around the vineyard most days.

The wine dinner began with a wild mushroom soup shot with sherry and goat's cheese croute, paired with a 2009 semillon. The intensely flavoured soup, full of wild forest fungal notes, was nicely balanced by the crisp floral and citrus bouquet of the wine.

It was followed by another dish packed full of flavours: crab with celeriac and asparagus remoulade on potato spring onion pancake with hazelnut oil. The 2008 chardonnay matched to this dish was robust enough to stand up to these strong flavours and not be overwhelmed by them.

The next dish was a blend of sweet and savoury: a confit duck leg with red quinoa salad, cranberry, brazil nuts and onion jam. The salad was light and fresh but packed full of flavour, aided by fresh parsley and coriander, with the nuts adding a delightful crunch. The matched wine was, naturally, a pinot noir; a classic pairing.

Palates were given a break with a sharp and cleansing green tea, vodka and lime granita, before moving onto another main course: beef cheek bourguignon with cauliflower puree and celery watercress salad. The beef cheeks were so tender they flaked at the touch of a fork. A rich, robust shiraz, made with grapes sourced from Heathcote, was a match made in heaven.

A farmhouse clothbound cheddar from West Country England was paired with the same shiraz, which worked equally well.

The final dish was an unusual, and not entirely successful, dessert of caramel pumpkin pannacotta with ginger and chilli. It paired well with a botrytis from Plunkett but the strong ginger and chilli notes meant this dish would work better as a finale to an Asian-inspired meal.

Morning Sun is one of the lesser-known Mornington Peninsula vineyards but it is well worth seeking out to try some of its impressive wines.

For more information about Nosh's wine dinners, contact Nosh on 9391 6404.

New York review: Bubby's

Honest home-style cooking might not sound like the best enticement for a cafe but Bubby's proves there is a market for food that combines the best of home cooking with a chef's flair.

Brunch is the main attraction at Bubby's in Tribeca (there is also an outlet in DUMBO, Brooklyn). With just 100 seats, chef Ron Silver says Bubby's still manages to serve brunch to more than 1400 people each weekend, whether they are locals, celebrities or tourists.

The menu's focus is on American cookery from every region. Ron Silver says he has collected recipes over the years, many of which are family heirlooms handed down for generations. "My goal has been to create, with a few changes, home cooking the way I remember it from my childhood," he writes in his Bubby's Brunch Cookbook.

The breakfast menu includes Bubby's famous sour cream pancakes, wild Maine blueberry pancakes, egg dishes using free-range eggs from Shady Maple Farm, Anson Mills whole hominy organic Carolina grits and homefries.

We opt for two plates of Bubby's Breakfast: two eggs, homefries or grits, bacon and toast. The servings are huge, with four pieces of toast, but the food is well-cooked and delicious. The grits are satisfying smooth while the homefries are tasty and crispy. It is an excellent way to start the day and it's easy to see why Bubby's has been embraced by locals since it opened in 1990.

Best of all, you can buy Bubby's Brunch Cookbook or Bubby's Homemade Pies on your way out and recreated your own little piece of Bubby's at home.

Bubby's, 120 Hudson St, Tribeca
Tue-Sun open 24 hours (Sat and Sun brunch 9am-4pm)
Mon open until midnight

Absolute Bagels - an absolute must in New York

Although bagels were invented in Europe, they are synonymous with New York and it's worth seeking out some local examples while visiting.

While many bagels are just baked, New York bagels are boiled first, then baked, and they come in many varieties: plain, poppy seed, sesame seed, cinnamon and blueberry are just some of the versions on offer.

Debate over where to get the best bagels in New York is fierce and H&H Bagels on the Upper West Side is usually named as one of the contenders. We did visit H&H and got a cinnamon bagel to munch on as we headed to Joe's for a coffee and then to Central Park. The downside at H&H for us was that their bagels are served unfilled (all the better to go with the feast of goodies available from Zabar's across the road), but we wanted ours ready to go.

Absolute Bagels at 2708 Broadway (between 107th and 108th Streets) on the Upper West Side was recommended to us. A short subway ride from our Midtown hotel got us there at 9.30am, where we found all nine tables packed, along with a queue and a regular stream of take-away customers. Fortunately service is quick and turn-over is high and we snagged a table before we even had a chance to order our bagels. I chose the quintessential New York bagel: a lox smear (cream cheese mixed with smoked salmon), while Adam opted for bacon and cheese.

The bagels have great vertical height and are evenly balanced between the bagel layer and the smear, which is a misleading name - this was a huge hunk of smooth cream cheese, mixed with very finely chopped smoked salmon. The bagels have a crispy surface but are soft and chewy inside and a delight to eat. Adam enjoys his bacon and cheese bagel, but I found the orange-coloured small dices of cheese off-putting.

Service is brisk, bordering on curt, and it pays to know what you are after before you get in the queue, but the dumb questions from bagel novices such as ourselves were answered patiently and our bagels were ready in double-quick time. The internet is littered with reviews naming Absolute Bagels as the best bagels in New York. We didn't try any others to compare but we were completely satisfied and this will be one of the first visits on our next trip.

Absolute Bagels
2708 Broadway (between 107th and 108th Streets)
Upper West Side

New York institution: Katz's Deli

Some places become famous and then turn into overpriced tourist traps. Listed in guidebooks, they still pack in the tourists but locals shun them.

Katz's Deli, which has been operating since 1888, is famous and touristy (especially since it was the venue for Meg Ryan's famous scene in When Harry Met Sally - the table where the scene was filmed is marked with a sign) but there's also a large number of locals who visit here too.

When you arrive, you are given a little ticket that you need to hang onto, as you'll need to show it to the cashier when you exit. You can line up at the long cafeteria-style bench, where up to 10 men are kept busy slicing and chopping meat and preparing sandwiches, or you can sit at a table and get wait-service. The room is vast and the decor is minimal: stark white lighting, plain laminated tables and walls adorned with photos of celebrities who have eaten here over the years.

We sat at the wait-service tables and were very quickly served with a complimentary plate of pickled dills and cucumbers. Adam opted for the half-sandwich (pastrami) and soup (split pea), while I chose the Reuben.

The split pea soup arrives quickly. It's a huge bowl - a meal in itself - and is impressively thick and full of flavour. Katz's boasts that its sandwiches are "the largest and best you'll ever try ... we dare you to finish one." It's no idle boast: even a half-serve of the famous pastrami sandwich is almost too much. Two thick slices of fresh rye bread are kept apart by a 10cm stack of thick, juicy pastrami slices. The Reuben is even bigger, piled with corned beef, melted Swiss cheese and sauerkraut.



This is not the world's greatest food but it does not aim to be. It is well-cooked and well-made deli food and it is a New York experience. We enjoyed our meal and it was great fun to eat at a place we felt we knew because of its reputation (and its film cameo). Of course the serving sizes are totally over the top but that is part of the deal and you can always get your leftovers packed into a doggie bag (although I think they taste best when eaten fresh at Katz's). It's definitely worth placing Katz's on your "to do" list.

Katz's Deli
205 East Houston St

The perfect neighbourhood bakery

You can smell Levain Bakery before you see it. The unmistakable odour of fresh yeast and hot-out-of-the-oven cookies wafts up from the underground bakery and out into the street.

Located in one of the Upper West Side's many leafy streets, Levain is an artisanal bakery that opened 15 years ago. Its French-style sign at the 167 West 74th Street site is understated but the delicious smells mean you won't miss the subterranean bakery. The bulk of the shop is given over to the kitchen, and you can perch at the little counter and watch the bread and cookies being made.

Levain Bakery is best known for its divine six-ounce (approximately 200g) cookies but it offers a full range of bakery goods, including bread - sourdough loaves and rolls, ciabatta, wholemeal walnut raisin rolls and olive bread - pizza slices, muffins and cakes (sour cream coffee cake on our first visit).



Pizza slices ($7.75) make a fabulous late morning breakfast. We chose the caramelised onion with parmesan reggiano. The crispy, flat bread base was generously layered with sweet dark onions and melted drops of parmesan. The staff thoughtfully cut it into four pieces for us and we ate it in raptures on the park bench outside the bakery.



A sweet treat was next and we chose a sourdough brioche stuffed with Vahlrona chocolate ($3). The dense and chewy texture of the brioche perfectly offset the richness of the dark chocolate. It is served either hot or cold - we chose it cold but next time I would try it warmed.

While the breakfast was delicious and I was keen to return to sample more goods, the real reason for our visit was the Levain Bakery cookies ($4), which are justifiably celebrated. They come in four varieties: chocolate chip walnut, dark chocolate chocolate chip, dark chocolate peanut butter chip and oatmeal raisin. Each cookie is at least an inch thick and about four inches in diameter. The biscuits are decadent - each chewy mouthful delivers a chunk of chocolate and walnut, or a nutty undertaste to the rich chocolate. The double chocolate version was extremely rich and we definitely could not devour it in one sitting. In fact, the cookies were perfect for all-day nibbling - a piece here and a piece there were often enough to satisfy any sugar cravings.

Unfortunately, but understandably, Levain Bakery does not publish its recipes but many people have tried to come up with their own version, which is available on the bakery website (http://www.levainbakery.com/)

While in New York, we tried to visit as many new places as possible. But we returned several times to Levain Bakery for its cookies. I only wish I could have brought lots home with me!

Levain Bakery
167 West 74th Street, Upper West Side
Mon-Sat 8am-7pm, Sun 9am-7pm
There is also a Hamptons outlet, open seasonally - see www.levainbakery.com for more details

Artisan bread - Dench's Bakery

I've long wanted to visit Dench's Bakery in North Carlton, especially as my friend John continually regales me with tales of this wonderful bakery, its enticing aroma of freshly baked bread, and the wide variety of breads available.

Dench's has an impressive website, filled with some of the most stunning, evocative shots I've ever seen. Ciabatta, baguette, focaccia, schwarzbrot, panini, beer, farmhouse, spelt, brioche, raisin, potato and walnut, apricot and honey are just some of the loaves available from its store in Scotchmans St, North Fitzroy. There is also a cafe, which serves breakfast and lunch and baked treats such as pastries, cakes, tarts and biscuits, and Genovese coffee.

My friend John recently discovered that Dench's also sells bread at the Queen Victoria Market and he brought me in a loaf of grain bread as a present. Although the loaf sat in my bag under my desk for the day, every now and then I would catch a smell of fresh bread, which made my mouth water. I couldn't wait to get home and try some!

Made from wholemeal flour, the grain bread also contains sunflower kernels, linseed and sesame seeds. It is soft and chewy, with the seeds giving it body and depth. This bread elevated my simple sandwich of ham, cheese and lettuce to another level, making it truly special. I can't wait to try more loaves in the range.

Dench's Bakery, 109 Scotchmer St, North Fitzroy

The milkman returns

I didn't grow up in the city, so the milkman delivering milk early in the morning was never part of my life experience. Growing up in the country, all of my neighbours were dairy farmers, so we bought billies of fresh milk from them. It wasn't until I moved to Melbourne as an adult that I began to drink what I called "shop milk" from a carton.

Now, with two rapidly growing children, we consume a large amount of milk, as well as bread, butter, cheese and orange juice. Many times I've had to load the children in the car or pram to duck out and buy some milk and bread to replenish supplies. And supplies always seem to dwindle or run out just when we are busiest and have no time to go to the shops!

So I was thrilled when my friend Trudi told me about Aussie Farmers Direct, a free home delivery service offering fresh products that are 100 per cent Australian owned and produced. AFD has a My Milkman, My Green Grocer and My Butcher, meaning that most of your fresh produce needs can be met.

The AFD website says that it cuts out the middle man, ensuring that the produce comes directly from farmers and is delivered straight to the customer's door. Orders are taken online, making it a fast and easy service to use.

The AFD milkman delivers to my area on Mondays and Thursdays and my first order arrived this morning. Packed in a soft esky bag (provided free of charge), my milk, bread and orange juice were fresh and cold. We didn't hear the milkman but the order was on our doorstep when we checked at 7am.

I'm very excited to discover this service. Not only is it saving me time in rushing out to buy a few essentials, but I'm always happy to support Aussie farmers.

Coffee break in the country

The early morning rush to get four adults and two children ready and on the road for our day of berry picking at Pennyroyal, nearly two hours' drive away, meant that there was no time for a heart-starting shot of caffeine before we headed out the door.

By the time we arrived at 10.30am at Deans Marsh, a little town of nearly 700 people between Lorne and Winchelsea, our caffeine-deprived brains were screaming for a fix, and we pulled over when I spotted the words "take away cappuccinos" on the wall of the Deans Marsh General Store.

My mum grew up in Deans Marsh, so this town was like a second home to me when I was growing up, as we spent most school holidays here visiting our grandparents. Back then, it was a general store in the old-fashioned sense of the word. It sold newspapers, milk, butter, ice-creams, pies, lollies, tinned food and other grocery items - in short, everything you would need to pick up if you didn't have time to go into Birregurra or Colac to do your big weekly shop, or you ran out of an item mid-week. One thing it certainly did not sell was take-away cappuccinos.

But times have changed. Deans Marsh is no longer predominantly a farming community. Olives, grapes and llamas are some of the new local industries and artists and "tree-changers" have moved in from the city. The old Presbyterian church is now adorned with artistic rainbow-coloured ribbons and the garage has a cafe attached. And the Deans Marsh General Store makes coffee using Jasper Coffee, an Australian-owned company based in Collingwood.

The take-away cafe lattes were excellent: smooth with an aroma and flavour of caramel and a soft, mellow aftertaste. Deans Marsh has certainly changed but I'm thrilled that good coffee is now available there.

My second rural coffee of the week came during a day trip to Torquay on the Bellarine Peninsula. After a picnic lunch in the sun with friends, a dip in the ocean for the kids and an ice-cream to round things off, we farewelled our friends and went for a stroll and then a drive around town as we searched for a caffeine hit. There were several open-fronted cafes on the Esplanade but they looked upmarket and more for meals than a casual coffee with two rapidly tiring children in tow.

As we drove down Gilbert St in the town centre, I spied a cafe that looked like it might be OK and Adam miraculously found a carpark in the main street. As I opened the door, I found myself face to face with a Jasper Coffee - Caffeine Dealers banner and so I headed instead into Farm Foods, a butcher shop cum deli. I was a little sceptical when I first entered the shop: there was one person at the butcher's counter at the back of the shop and a man totting up the till at the front. I hesitantly asked if he served take-away coffees, which he did, and he turned to the large red Wega machine behind the counter. He made the coffee slowly but seemed to know what he was doing.

My first surprise came when he charged me $5 for two take-away lattes. I haven't paid $2.50 for a coffee for years! And certainly not in a beachside tourist town where coffee is usually more expensive than in Melbourne. The second surprise came when I took my first sip: this was, quite simply, one of the best coffees I've ever had. A nutty aroma, followed by a smooth-as-silk sensation on the palate with a lingering caramel aftertaste. It was such a drinkable coffee that I wished for a never-ending cup. Farm Foods will be my first stop next time I'm in Torquay.

Deans Marsh General Store, 1419 Birregurra Road, Deans Marsh

Farm Foods, 4a Gilbert Street, Torquay

A day in the country

The sky above the green hills was bruised with rainclouds and the cool rainy weather was a shock after several days of heat. But the Otway region of Victoria always seems cool and green to me. Although it was five hours' drive from my home, it was where my mother grew up and we spent most school holidays here visiting my grandparents. I know we visited Lorne in summer, so there must have been hot days, but my memories are mostly of cool, rainy weather or rambles over green hills under grey skies.

My grandparents died many years ago, so it's been a long time since I stayed at Deans Marsh, a little town of nearly 700 people midway between Winchelsea and Lorne. But now a new tradition has begun, as we visit once a year to go berry picking at the Pennyroyal Raspberry Farm, a five-minute drive from Deans Marsh.

I don't think the berry farm existed when I was a child, although I remember visiting the Pennyroyal Tea Rooms on this site (and eating some of the best scones I can ever remember eating). Thankfully scones, freshly made, are still available at the farm now, served with homemade raspberry or blackberry jam - or pickles, if you choose the cheese scones.

The blackberries, brambleberries and boysenberries were abundant and we quickly filled our containers with ripe, juicy fruit. One for me, one for the container...



The raspberries had been heavily picked, so we had to hunt among the leaves to find ripe berries and it took longer to fill our punnets.

I find berry picking relaxing and fun and it's great fun with kids. Daniel quickly learned the colour of ripe berries and which ones he should pick.

It's also very economical - we paid $16 a kilo for our berries. I've seen 125g punnets of raspberries in the shops for $5, which works out to be about $40 a kilo.

The first thing I did when I got home was to make a batch of raspberry jam. This is one of the easiest jams to make, as raspberries are high in pectin and you don't have to worry about adding lemon juice or commercial pectin. If you are new to jam-making, I suggest that you try raspberry jam as your first - it will give you confidence.

The raspberry jam recipe I use is extremely easy and is from Cookery the Australian Way, the textbook I used in my year eight home economics class. This classic book is still an essential reference and provides simple, clear instructions for many basic dishes (eg jams, sponges, scones), as well as advice on why dishes may fail (eg undercooked sponges that flop).



Raspberry jam

Put 500g of raspberries into a heavy-based saucepan and mash with a wooden spoon. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Add 2 cups of sugar (if you wish, you can warm the sugar before you add it). Bring back to the boil, boil for six minutes and then test* to see if it's cooked. Once cooked, pour into hot sterilised jams, let cool a little and then seal.

* I do the saucer test to test if my jam is cooked: place a saucer in the freezer for a few minutes. Remove from freezer, place a little jam on the saucer and return to freezer for a few more minutes. Remove from freezer and push the jam with your finger. It should wrinkle as you push it - this means the jam is cooked. If it doesn't, cook jam a little longer and then repeat the test.

Pennyroyal Raspberry Farm, Division Road, Murroon (between Birregurra and Barwon Downs), phone 5236 3238

Restaurant review: The Station Hotel, Footscray

Gentrification and renovation has swept much of the previously overlooked inner-western suburbs over the past few years, with many a fine old Edwardian or Federation house with lovely bones finding itself modernised. Along with the influx of artistes and yummy mummies has come a passion for good coffee and decent cafes, which has been largely catered for in Yarraville and Seddon.

Now Footscray has joined the throng, with the stately old Station Hotel, built in 1864, being brought into the modern era by highly regarded chef Sean Donovan. Footscray has long been the place to go for Asian and African food but diners west of the CBD now have a more upmarket option.


Donovan, who has worked at Michelin-starred restaurants in both London and France and formerly weaved his magic south of the river at The Botanical, has waved his wand over the Station Hotel and turned it into the area’s first gastro-pub. While the surrounding area may seem less amenable to fine dining than South Yarra, London or France, his chef’s eye for detail and use of excellent produce has transformed the pub into a thriving local where it’s difficult to snare a table if you don’t book ahead.

The focus here is firmly on the food. The dining room interior is pleasantly neutral, with one wall papered in a subtle grey paisley pattern. The wooden tables, adorned with cloth napkins and heavy cutlery, are positioned quite closely together, although the noise levels never rise unacceptably and it’s possible to conduct a conversation without shouting.

When the Station first reopened, diners ordered and paid at the bar but this has been sensibly replaced by table service. The waitstaff are friendly and helpful, eager to answer any questions about the menu and not shy about complimenting patrons on their dining choices.

While the menu does reflect Donovan’s training, there are still some traditional pub favourites, albeit with a cheffy twist, such as beer-battered fish and chips or a burger with onion fries. There is a choice of eight different steaks, either Black Angus or wagyu, grain or grass-fed. Then there are the gastro-pub offerings: blinis, farro risotto and terrine de campagne. There is also evident pride in the produce used, with names such as Fratelli Galloni Prosciutto di Parma, Coffin Bay scallops, Smoky Bay oysters and the provenance of each steak detailed on the menu.

Seafood makes up the bulk of the short entree list. Marinated ocean trout is folded delicately atop four pancake-sized buckwheat blinis. The blinis are crispy and a little oily but saved by the accompanying sauces, one zinging with piquant horseradish and the other full of little salmon roe that pop sensuously in the mouth.

The Cashel blue cheese and leek tart is an upmarket, but well made, quiche. The pastry holds the firm eggy filling without sogginess but still has a flaky lightness to it. The blue cheese adds a subtle bite and the tart’s richness is offset by a salad of radicchio and thinly sliced apple.

The relative simplicity of the entrees disappears with the more elaborate mains. On paper, the spicy wagyu beef sausages with Gorgonzola, soft polenta, candied walnuts and sage – essentially a glamorous bangers and mash – sounds messy and complicated, with too many ingredients competing for attention. But there is a harmony in the dish, with the different flavours complementing each other and the smoky sweetness of the candied walnuts adding an extra sizzle of flavour. The waitress rated the sausages as “7 out of 10” in the heat stakes but our palates clearly differ, as I found the sausages to have nothing more than a pleasing warmth to them. They are coiled on a pillow of soft and creamy polenta, flecked with herbs and Gorgonzola. Radicchio and shaved parmesan add some lightness to the pure comfort food element of the dish.

Just as detailed on paper is the black pudding dish, which features Donovan’s gelatinous, slightly spicy black pudding. When the crispy, pan-fried skin is cut, the black pudding spills out over its accompaniments of caramelised onion, a brie and duck egg omelette and a mound of lentils and bacon. A slice of walnut and fruit toast adds a firm-textured dimension. Despite the many ingredients, this dish works, and the interesting juxtaposition of sweet and sour tastes makes it memorable. Black pudding is not to everyone’s taste, but if you are a fan, this is an excellent version.

The serves here are generous and desserts are no exception. A hot Valrhona chocolate cake, about the size of an entree plate, has surprise packages of poached quince pieces hidden inside. The fruit, and the bitter notes of good-quality dark chocolate, save the cake from being cloying or overly sweet, and it is finished off with a scoop of Jock’s vanilla ice-cream. The Station’s version of ubiquitous sticky date pudding is excellent: a large wedge of pudding is studded with walnuts and doused with a thick butterscotch sauce.

The Station Hotel has been embraced by locals and it’s easy to see why. While simple dishes are executed well and will not scare off those who are after a pub meal, there is enough innovation, passion and pride in the food here to attract those who want something a little more adventurous.


The Station Hotel
59 Napier St, Footscray
(03) 9687 2913

The disastrous day trip

I've lived half my life in the country and half in the city but I forget how "citified" I've become until a small incident shows that there can still be a gulf between rural and urban life. Let me explain.

For several years, I've hankered to visit Kyneton, a small town in the Macedon Ranges and a comfortable drive from Melbourne. Specifically, I wanted to visit Annie Smithers' Bistro, which kick-started the culinary revolution in Piper St and which this year received its third successive The Age Good Food Guide hat. Since the bistro opened, Piper Street's lovely old bluestone and historic buildings have slowly been revived, with cafes, cake shops, an upmarket pizzeria, a gastropub, homewares stores and a gallery all crammed into a relatively short strip just out of the main centre of an otherwise ordinary Victorian rural town.

Two weeks ago, with some time off work and the children being looked after for the day, Adam and I decided to head to Kyneton for a day trip, with the planned highlight being lunch at Annie Smithers' Bistro. It was only as we drove up to the beautiful old bluestone building that houses the Bistro, which looked suspiciously dark and unoccupied, that it dawned on me that I should have checked the opening hours. Right on cue, Adam asked me "Did you check the opening hours?" And I had to confess that not only had I not checked, but that the thought had not occurred to me. I've become so used to Melbourne's seven-day-a-week culture that I did not stop to think that country towns, especially those that rely on weekend traffic from Melbourne, were likely to have a few days off early in the week. It was a Tuesday and the bistro's opening hours were Wednesday to Sunday.

Not to worry, we consoled ourselves. There were plenty of options in Piper St, as highlighted in the article and photo spread in the September issue of Delicious magazine. But, alas, most of the other options were also closed. Thankfully, Slow Living, at 54 Piper St, was open. It's a lovely, welcoming big open space, with lots of spacious wooden tables and a central counter stocked with a coffee machine and some cakes and biscuits. There's a grassed area to one side that would be perfect on a sunny day, with plenty of space for children to play while the parents relax with food and coffee.

The smallish menu features locally grown and mostly organic food, with several breakfast options and a couple of lunch specials each day. We chose the vegetarian lentil burger, a generously sized pattie bursting with lentils, chickpeas, corn, carrot and some spices. It came on a thick slice of sourdough, with salad and spiced yoghurt to the side. It may be just mind over matter, but there seems to be so much more flavour in organic food. This lentil burger was an excellent meal in its own right and was worth the drive from Melbourne.

To rub salt into our wounds, the cover story in today's Epicure is all about the revival of Piper St and Kyneton, and just reiterated to us how much we want to visit again (probably on a weekend!) and try out some more options. Next time, I will be more organised and will definitely check ahead for opening hours!

Where have all the avocados gone?

Where have all the avocados in Seddon gone? If you're having trouble finding any, perhaps it's because they're all being used in what has to be my breakfast dish of the year, the Promite Special at Le Chien cafe.

It's a deceptively simple dish that Adam raved about and I was keen to try. I love my Vegemite but I also have a soft spot for the sweeter, gentler Promite. A generously thick slice of bread is smeared with butter and Promite, then sliced avocado and tomato is jumbled across the top of two gently poached eggs perched on the bread. The combination of eggs and fresh avocado is a winner in my book anyway but the Promite adds a subtle, yeasty caramel note that lifts the dish into the realms of breakfast heaven. This is no small dish either: the kitchen does not skimp on the avocado or tomato and you will feel satisfied for hours afterwards.

We weren't the only ones in love with this dish, as plate after plate of the Promite Special appeared from the kitchen and was placed on almost every occupied table.

The finishing touch here is one of the best coffees in the inner west. Made with the Supreme blend, the long black is sweet and pure, with no need for sugar, while the cafe latte is simply perfect. It's easy to see why Le Chien inspires a strong and loyal following from locals.

Review: Donna Hay chocolate cookies

Packet mixes of cakes and biscuits are not often a feature in my trolley. I prefer home-made treats where possible, mostly for taste reasons but also because I know exactly what's going into the final product and there's no hidden preservatives or chemicals.

But I admit to a twinge of curiosity when Donna Hay recently launched her own brand of cupcake and cookie mixes. I'm a huge Donna fan and have all her cookbooks. I couldn't imagine her putting her name and brand to any product that wasn't of the highest quality.

Last week, when visiting Andrew's Choice in Yarraville, which is so much more than a butcher's shop and stocks a great range of deli items, my son Daniel found a box of Donna Hay chocolate chunk cookie mix, conveniently placed at exactly his eye level. He was entranced by the enticing picture on the front of the box and no doubt thought he could open the box and find the biscuits inside, waiting to be devoured by a hungry toddler.

So, in the interests of research, the cookie mix came home with us and we baked the biscuits. Making biscuits is not a hugely time-consuming exercise at the best of times, but mixing up the biscuits was so fast that the 12-minute cooking time felt like an eternity. We provided 80g of soft butter and a melted egg, and the box provided the cookie mix and a generous bag of dark chocolate buttons.

The raw dough tasted as good as anything else I've made and the final product was delicious - one of the best chocolate chip cookies I've eaten. In fact, it tasted exactly like the Donna Hay chocolate cookies that I make from her cookbooks. Checking the ingredients list, I discovered that the mix contains wheat flour, brown sugar, natural vanilla flavour and raising agents 450 and 500. There are no added artificial colours or preservatives.

The verdict? This product gets a huge thumbs-up. Most people would not be able to pick that the biscuits originate from a box and it certainly does save time in the kitchen. The only slight downside is the price: on the Donna Hay website, they are listed at $14.95 (although currently on special at a more reasonable $8.95). I know choc bits and other baking goods have recently increased in price but $15 seems quite steep for a box of biscuits - I don't think it would cost that much to make a batch from scratch.


But that is a minor quibble - chocolate chip cookies are a treat, rather than an everyday indulgence anyway. As Donna says on the box, these biscuits is "as good as baking from scratch, only foolproof." I'll definitely use this product again.

Nibbles: Carman's Muesli Bites

Hot on the heels of the recently released Carman's Rounds, Carman's has now released Muesli Bites, snack-sized little muesli bars that contain less than 100 calories per serve.

Available in fruit muesli or apricot muesli, the bites are GM-free and contain no preservatives. Unlike the Rounds, which had a biscuit-like texture and are marketed as a breakfast replacement, these Bites taste just like Carman's muesli. They are not too sweet and are a reasonably filling snack. The small size makes them easy to tuck into handbags or backpacks.

Carman's is an Australian-owned company, with the factory based in Melbourne, and no preservatives, genetically modified ingredients or artificial colours or flavours are used in their products.

Carman's Muesli Bites are available from all major supermarkets.

Nosh @ Newport: wine degustation dinner

A tiny kitchen is no limit to the imagination of great chefs. This was proved at the inaugural Nosh @ Newport wine dinner where chef David Azzopardi sent out seven tasting plates matched to wines from Red Hill Estate on the Mornington Peninsula.

Nosh is primarily a daytime cafe, serving excellent coffee and food to cafe-starved locals, who have flocked there since it opened in 2007. It's particularly popular with local mums and bubs because of its relaxed ambiance and healthy children's menu that offers no fried food.

Nosh now opens on Friday nights, where Azzopardi, who has cooked upstairs at the Stokehouse and at Ezard's, is given more of a chance to strut his dining stuff. The inaugural wine dinner was also a chance for him to display his talent. Forty people gathered at Nosh to eat Azzopardi's food and hear Red Hill Estate winemaker Michael Kyberd discuss the wines.

Dinner started with a glass of blanc de blancs, a dry aperitif wine, matched with a chestnut soup drizzled with truffle oil. Despite the soup's rich flavouring, it was quite a light broth and this married well with the dry wine, as there was no strong contrast between the two to produce disharmony on the palate.

Next were half-shelled scallops on baba ghanoush with parsley, pine nut and preserved lemon salad, matched with a pinot grigio. The wine was sweet at first sip but then dry, with no aftertaste. It was balanced perfectly by the smoky ghanoush and juicy scallops.

A glass of buttery, full-bodied chardonnay was paired with ocean trout on sauteed kipflers, cherry tomatoes, broad beans and lemon butter sauce. This was a strong dish but the flavours of both food and wine were of equal intensity. The lemon butter sauce highlighted citrus notes in the chardonnay.

Then it was time to move onto reds. In a classic pairing, confit duck leg with marinated beetroot and watercress was matched with pinot noir. The pinot's ripe cherry taste subtly counterbalanced the saltiness of the duck. If the trout and chardonnay were examples of flavours that bridge each other, this match was an example of flavours that complement each other.

A pink grapefruit granita was served as a palate cleanser before the next dish, which was voted by the audience as the dish of the night. Beef braised in black vinegar with coconut rice, broccolini, hot and sour salad and crispy garlic was an amazing dish in its own right but even more so when paired with a full-bodied shiraz. The tender melt fell apart at the touch of a fork and the coconut rice was sublime. The shiraz stood up well to these strong flavours and its slight sweetness was balanced by the savoury dish.

A very runny, salty soft brie, from Locheilan Kaarimba, was matched with botrytis semillon. On paper, it might sound like a strange combination, but the saltiness of the cheese was well balanced by the sweet, sultana-like wine.

The final pairing of the night was liqueur muscat, made with grapes from Rutherglen, matched with a rich chocolate fondant with orange semifreddo and honeycomb. Winemaker Michael Kyberd explained that, when matching desserts, the wine needs to be sweeter than the dessert or the wine's flavours will disappear. This dish was a good example of that.

Judging by the happy patrons spilling out onto the street, Nosh @ Newport's inaugural wine dinner was a success and many are eagerly looking forward to the next one.

Nibbles: Carman's Rounds

Carman's colour-coded boxes of breakfast muesli and muesli bars are a staple in many kitchens. But for those who are too time-pressed to fit in even a small bowl of cereal before they leave for work, Carman's now has an answer: breakfast rounds.

Marketed as a "breakfast replacement", the rounds come in classic fruit & nut or apricot & almond varieties. They are GM free and contain no preservatives. The rounds are more like a biscuit than a breakfast dish; they taste like muesli but have a dense biscuit texture. Each round is individually wrapped and easily transportable for breakfast on the run. I found them too sweet and too small to satisfy me for breakfast (unlike the muesli) but the rounds made a good snack during the day.

Carman's is an Australian-owned company, with the factory based in Melbourne, and no preservatives, genetically modified ingredients or artificial colours or flavours are used in their products.

Previously available on Qantas flights, the breakfast rounds are now available from Coles and Franklins stores.

Lolly heaven

As a child, we had lollies only on special occasions. There would be pretty glass bowls filled with mixed lollies at our birthday spreads and Santa Claus would usually bring us a bag of lollies at Christmas-time. I always got chocolate bullets, my middle sister always got jaffas and my youngest sister got strawberries and cream. I'm not sure whether we asked for these specific types because we liked them or whether our parents just found it easier to give us the same lollies each year! (I think it must be because we liked them, as chocolate bullets are still my favourite lolly now).

These were the days when 20 cents would buy you a good-sized bag of lollies to munch away on during the afternoon: white chocolate whirls, caramel-filled mates, whizzy rainbow sherbets, raspberries, milk bottles and bananas. We'd linger over the selection, choosing as wide a selection as possible to go into the white paper bag that the shopkeeper would finish off with a slight twist at the top.

If we were ever given - or found on the ground - 50 cents ... well, that was a special treat! It bought you a big fat bag of lollies that could keep you going for a day or two. I loved going to the local shop, where the glass cabinet, conveniently located at the height of a child's eyes, was filled with small cardboard boxes of different lollies, some costing 1 cent each and others 2 cents. Am I showing my age? This was only the 1980s - doesn't feel so long ago to me!

Alas, many corner shops and milk bars have disappeared, put out of business by big open-nearly-all-hours supermarkets and convenience stores. Lollies appear to be one of the five food groups for most children now, rather than a special treat. But the demise of the milk bar has meant there are now some specialist lolly shops that cater to old-fashioned tastes instead: Sweet Port in Port Melbourne, Brighton Chocolates, the Williamstown Chocolate Shop, the Old Village Lolly Shop in Yarraville and the Original Lolly Store in Carlton. And, tucked away in a nondescript shopping strip in Melbourne Rd, Newport, situated among a maternity shop, a pet store, a Thai takeaway and the local vet, is Snowballs Ice Cream & Lollies shop.

This shop is crammed full of every type and sort of lolly you could wish for, especially old-fashioned lollies that are difficult to find: spearmint leaves, chocolate rock, speckles, sour dummies, wine gums, bananas, strawberries and cream, raspberries, chicos, pineapples, jelly babies, snakes, dark and milk chocolate bullets, white raspberry bullets, Newman's dark and milk chocolate ginger, peppermints, Belgian milk and dark chocolate couverture chocolate chips, Wizz Fizz, zombie bars, raspberry licorice straps, blocks of European chocolate, Cocoa Farm wine chocolates, Pink Lady chocolates, licorice all-sorts, striped lolly-pops, boiled lollies, fudge, humbugs, rocky road, coconut roughs and cherry bites. There's also Norgen-Vaaz ice-cream and you can order ice-cream cakes.

Every available surface in this shop is crammed with lollies and sweet treats and I found myself lost in nostalgia as I found many lollies I hadn't seen for years. I also find this shop very useful for sourcing lollies to decorate birthday cakes. Every year, like my mother did for me, I make my children's birthday cakes from the classic Australian Women's Weekly birthday cakes book, which has quite specific requirements in what lollies it uses to decorate and create masterpieces. My local supermarket has an increasingly restricted range - can you believe I couldn't find spearmint leaves there when I looked last week? - and I never have a problem sourcing what I need from Snowballs. It's good to have such a treasure on my doorstep.

Snowballs Ice Creams & Lollies, 320 Melbourne Road, Newport

How do you take your coffee? Part II

Melburnians, despite their love of good coffee, are yet to discover the wonders of single origin specialty coffee beans, says coffee hunter Stephen Hurst, from Mercanta the Coffee Hunters.

As I recently wrote, Mr Hurst believes that the future of coffee lies in the "flavour discovery" of single origin specialty coffee beans. He says consumers are used to drinking the industrial blends offered to them but he believes good coffee starts from single estate, or single origin, specialty coffee beans.

Unfortunately, like most good things in life, quality comes at an expense. While not specifying prices, Mr Hurst did acknowledge that single origin estate coffee would be more expensive. When penning my original article, I queried whether people would be willing to pay more for premium coffee, especially when a good coffee depends on so much more than the beans (a decent barista and coffee machine are also necessities).

Now, thanks to the good folk at Melbourne Coffee Merchants (the local offshoot of Mercanta), I have sampled some single origin estate coffee - and it is seriously good!

The coffee was El Guabo from north-eastern Peru. The beans were roasted, but not ground, and, in order to enjoy the coffee at its best, I also received a special filter cup, filter papers and an A4 sheet of instructions on how to correctly prepare filtered coffee.




The roasted beans had an intense, earthy caffeine smell that was quite intoxicating, especially once ground, although the aroma faded once the coffee was poured. It didn't have the same intense caffeine smell as a coffee extracted from a machine. There's no crema with a filtered coffee, so it was the blackest coffee I've ever seen.




The coffee was very smooth on the palate and quite sweet. Drinking this is how I imagine eating silk would be like. It slides sweetly down the throat with no acid aftertaste or puckering on the palate. I kept sipping, craving more, and suddenly the cup was empty. I drank this coffee black and there was no need to add sugar. There was a shortish aftertaste but this coffee improved after each sip and became more mellow.

The next day, I ground the beans and got Adam, who's the expert barista in our house, to make some coffees from the machine. I had a long black and Adam added some sugar but this was a mistake, as it made the coffee too sweet. The taste was softer on the palate than the filtered coffee but it was also not as flavoursome. The second coffee Adam made was a flat white and this was a massive disappointment. The milk did not blend well with the coffee. It tasted sickly and the coffee flavour was masked. The best way to enjoy this coffee is as a long black with no sugar added; this allows the full flavours and characteristics of the bean to shine through.

So I am a convert to this coffee. But what cost would there be to my hip pocket? Well, it turns out to be not as bad as I feared. St Ali sells 250g of the El Guabo coffee for $13.50, as opposed to $11 for 250g of the St Ali espresso blend (which also makes a very nice coffee). For such a small price difference, I would be willing to buy single origin estate coffee beans, as I think the extra flavour sensation is worth it, particularly if, like me, you make and drink a lot of black coffee at home. And I also think I would buy a coffee made from single origin estate beans from a cafe, as long as it was a cafe that took its coffee seriously, had an excellent barista, and the single origin beans were competitively priced against the industrial blend beans.

How do you take your coffee?

The coffee revolution has not yet begun, according to international coffee expert Stephen Hurst.

Mr Hurst, the founder of specialty coffee company Mercanta The Coffee Hunters, says the future for coffee lies in developing a premium market and highlighting the characteristics of different coffee beans in a way similar to wine.

Even water has been marketed in terms of different flavour characteristics and a premium water market has emerged, he said.

"It's amazing that coffee has not been differentiated in a premium way yet," Mr Hurst told a gathering of coffee lovers at Melbourne caffeine temple St Ali.

"The future will be in flavour discovery: single estate and single varietals of coffee beans."

Despite Melbourne's strong coffee culture, he said coffee lovers often remained uninformed on the origins of the coffee served and how it was selected by suppliers. And the concept of single estate, or single origin specialty coffee, rather than industrial blends, is also new to Australia, he said.

Mr Hurst said the existence of futures markets for coffee has "commoditised" the product and there is a false assumption that coffee is "generic", as if every bag from a single origin or country somehow tastes the same. He said good coffee needed to start from a good basis and that was with the green beans.

"The quality of the coffee is in the beans. Everyone has their own idea of what a specialty coffee is but if you roast good beans well and serve it well, that's specialty coffee," he said.

Mr Hurst founded his company Mercanta The Coffee Hunters in 1996 and supplies fine coffees to specialty coffee roasters around the world. He is also involved with the Cup of Excellence, a competition that selects the very best coffee produced in a particular country each year.

Contrary to popular business wisdom, Mr Hurst believes that the customer is not king when it comes to choosing the best coffee.

"Customers don't have the tools to make a good choice." he said.

"They ask for coffee that they've read about or heard about. There's a lot of things about coffee that are not understood. The baristas should be advising clients what to buy."

Mr Hurst said that fine quality coffee does cost more and acknowledged that it would be difficult to sell more expensive coffee, especially given the current economic climate.

This, to me, was one of the most interesting points of the night and got me thinking about our relationship with coffee: why do we drink it? For some people, it's because of addiction and they need a caffeine hit to start the day. For others, drinking coffee is a social thing to do, a pleasant way to pass the time or something to do while conducting a meeting or catching up with friends. Others enjoy going to new cafes and sampling different coffees.

We're fortunate in Melbourne because we have a strong coffee and cafe culture. In general, Melburnians are quite knowledgeable about coffee and we're fortunate that it's not hard to find excellent coffee. People are quite particular about their favourite type, whether it's a skinny latte or a macchiato, and more dedicated caffeine fiends have favourite cafes, and even favourite baristas.

But coffee is also a drink that's often consumed on the go, in take-away cups, or slurped down in a hurry before catching a train or rushing to the next meeting. It's not always savoured in the same way a glass of fine wine might be.

Is there a market in Melbourne for more expensive coffee? Would the average punter, despite our good coffee knowledge, be able to discern the difference between their usual flat white and one that's made with a single origin coffee bean? If you can get a good cup of coffee for $3, are you likely to pay $6 or $8 for a coffee that uses so-called superior beans?

I love my coffee, and I've learnt a lot about it through studying a barista course and reviewing for the Melbourne Coffee Guide. But I'm not sure that I would be persuaded to pay double the price for a coffee made with single origin beans - and definitely not for every cup of coffee I consume. I haven't yet tasted any coffee made from these specialty beans, and I may change my mind once I do so - perhaps it really is obviously superior to the blends currently offered. I agree that you often pay a price for a premium product but do we want to be drinking premium beans every time we grab a coffee? It's like drinking Grange at every meal.

There's also so much more that goes into a coffee than just the beans - the machine, the temperature, the milk and especially the barista can all make a difference. In fact, the barista's talent is the biggest variable of them all and even the best green beans in the world will not save a poor barista from making bad coffee.

Still, anything that increases our knowledge, and our choices, about coffee is a good thing, so it will be interesting to see how the concept of single origin beans slots into the current market.

Cocoa Farm shiraz chocolates

I find the rich, sensual taste of chocolate hard to match with wine. It tends to pair beautifully with the honeyed richness of Rutherglen tokays, muscats and ports and I've been to several Melbourne Food and Wine Festival events where we sampled a range of chocolates matched with these Rutherglen wines, with some interesting combinations.

But I've tended to steer clear of matching chocolate with other wines. Now, however, I've discovered that the peppery flavours of shiraz can match wonderfully well with smooth dark chocolate - and it can happen without the need for separate glasses and plates.

Farm By Nature is a Melbourne-based chocolate company that makes the Cocoa Farm brand. I've discovered their range of Wine Chocolate: milk and dark chocolate combined with raisins that have been infused with shiraz, pinot noir or merlot. The latest release is shiraz wine chocolate barrel gift boxes. Cutely shaped like a wine barrel, the individually-wrapped chocolates are studded with plump raisins and have a distinctive peppery shiraz aroma. The first mouthful yields strong peppery notes on the palate, followed by a smooth wine aftertaste mixed with satisfyingly rich, but not cloying, dark chocolate. The aftertaste is long and you could almost believe that you had just had a sip of shiraz. I found it impossible to stop at just one chocolate and had to hide the box to ensure Adam didn't polish them all off. I hope Santa brings me some more of these in my Christmas stocking!

For stockists, see www.farmbynature.com.au