A Mexican Table fights for Fitzroy St

Posted by & filed under Eat streets, Fitzroy Street, Mexican, St Kilda.

There I am, sitting opposite someone who has had more botox than expected and a smooth, smooth forehead. It’s the polar opposite to the chef to my left who has the hairline of Mel Gibson, the intensity of Russell Crowe and a brow so furrowed with concentration that it makes Gordon Ramsay look baby-faced. We’re in the St Kilda combat zone of Fitzroy Street, defined on the North by Grey St and the South by Acland St. It’s not a pretty place with some blaming the residents of the notorious Gatwick Hotel boarding house for dragging the area down. Certainly the wrong sort of crowd is attracted to this strip of dubious late night bars that are the drinking holes of last resort, that may or may not have something to do with the blood I’ve frequently seen being scrubbed off the street on Monday mornings. This strip isn’t a happy place to be for many a restaurateur. If fact St Kilda isn’t a happy place for all but a few operators, having lost its status as a destination to the Melbourne CBD and arriviste suburbs such Fitzroy and Collingwood. In fact you could argue St Kilda is broken bad with a council distracted by the future of the Triangle and festivals. Amid this chaos, a few years back, chef owner James Blackman opened The Table not too far up the street from Di Stasio (which is about to open a next door bar) and a planned Asian bar concept from David Zhou, the owner of the Oriental Tea Houses and David’s in Prahran. Blackman slowly has been building a reputation for Mexican-style food. It’s largely been ignored by the established paper-based food guides and reviews (probably because of the lamentable service) but has a health 82% score on Urbanspoon at the time of writing (despite the negative reviews generated by Scoopon deals). So what do you get for your money? The wine list is a handful of whites and reds and a single rosé, not inspiring but perfectly quaffable (as are the margaritas which I moved to). In terms of dollar per hour a lot and that’s because the service is slow, very slow. But once the food arrives it is a terrific surprise. We began with the Oyster Shooter Tomato & Mezcal Consommé, Cream Fraiche Ice Cream & Manchego Tuile ($9.5). The oyster itself looks like an alien floating… Read more »

An amphora dinner that will show why wines made with ancient techniques are so exciting

Posted by & filed under Drinks, Fringe Food Festival, Tasting, Wine.

What: Amphora Wine Dinner at Virginia Plain When: Tuesday 13 November 2012 7pm Where: Virginia Plain, 31 Flinders Lane (next to Cumulus Inc) How much: $110.00 (plus 30c booking fee) How to book: Booking only through Trybooking here. The other day I received two bottles of some of the most exciting wines I’ve bought. They were made by former Fosters head winemaker Glenn James not in bulk in stainless steel (like most Aussie wine) but in an amphora – that’s a large pot which he’d crawled inside and lined with beeswax. It’s part of a movement where winemakers are turning their backs on the last half century’s tradition of using stainless steel for everything and the previous 500 hundred years of French and other European techniques usually involving oak barrels. Instead James used the amphora pictured above by simply dumping in a blend of grapes. Typically, there is no intervention in terms of adding yeast, sugar, acid or oak to the wine. Although a little sulphur is sometimes used to aid preservation. The grapes are left in the amphora for up to a month or two and nature is left to do its job. We’ve pulled together a dinner with Ducks in a Row and Virginia Plain and Fringe Food to showcase and compared some locally made amphora wines with some internationally recognised cult wines including Gravner and Pheasant Tears. For me Amphora (and natural) wines are textural and packed with umami – a bit like sherry – making them perfect match for food. I find that they stop me in my tracks and make me want to savour rather than sink several bottles. Glenn James, former head winemaker at Fosters, from Ducks in a Row and other winemakers will be there on the night to talk about his story and amphora wines. This is what wine writer Huon Hooksaid in the Sydney Morning Herald about James’ amphora wine: “Now, readers of this column know I am a little sceptical about ‘natural’ wines, but here is one made by a seriously competent and experienced winemaker, and it is a quality wine – but also one made with the least manipulation imaginable. And it tastes terrific. The colour is lightly cloudy mid-yellow, without any brown tints. Its bouquet is delightfully floral and spicy, with the muscaty fragrance of the moscato giallo dominant, although it is a small percentage of the blend…. Read more »