The 8th Annual Olive Festival will NOT be held at the usual Mt Atkinson Olive & Nut Grove Farm but at the Witchmount Estate, which is accessible from Melton Highway. A short ride from home, Witchmount is next to the Windmill restaurant, another place which you can’t miss from the road, it boasts a windmill!

There will, of course, be the olives and olive-derived products, namely locally produced olive oil. I mean why purchase overseas products made months or years ago when you can buy locally produced, fresh olive oil?

So, make it a day trip, and a family one, there will be cooking demonstrations, live music, as well as children’s activities.

Entrance is free, parking is free, tasting samples will of course, be free. Event starts at 10 am and finishes at 5 pm.

Do not forget that, Witchmount Estate is also famous for their Shiraz, winner of the Best Shiraz 2008 of the Syrah Du Monde of France.

If you don’t already own a bottle of the 2004 Witchmount Shiraz, well, its too late now. It has recently won the Syrah du Monde wine competition held annually in France. If you do have a bottle, you might want to keep it for another 6 years til maturity. At $26 a bottle, its really quite a bargain.

So, if you are ever in the area, Witchmount is along the Melton Highway. It is surrounded by an English pub called the Gamekeepers Inn and a Windmill restaurant (of course, featuring a huge windmill!).

Links
Syrah du Monde Press release
The Age “…world’s best shiraz“

So now where am I supposed to go for my all you can eat ribs served by such lovely waitresses?

Previously: Hard Rock Cafe
Hospitality Magazine: Hard Rock to shut

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Australia, Hard Rock Cafe

Burgers are great. I’ve had the big but now I want to try this fancy burger. Food critic / flogger Ed Charles deems this the best burger in Melbourne and looking at the picture he may be right. This burger is made of Wagyu meat which is described by Wikipedia as a “unique breed of cattle known for its intense marbling and producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat.” In other words its an expensive piece of meat with tasty fat naturally mixed in.

You can get this at the bar of the Rockpool Bar & Grill and it will only set you back $15. That is cheap compared to some dishes on their restaurant menu which run up to $130.

Some more burger goodness:

Rockpool [via Tomatom]
Crown Complex, Southbank

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Australia, Burger, Rockpool

One of the best places for congee – don’t quote me on that – is Supper Inn in Chinatown. I’ve heard good things about the place so we decided to check it out.

We arrived to find a crowded Supper Inn. I exchanged pleasantries with the waiter and decided to wait for a table for two. Ten minutes later, a couple left. The waiter began clearing the dishes. And then a peculiar thing happened.

Emptying the table, the waiter flipped the white table cloth over and placed the dirty side of the cloth onto the table. Had a new customer arrived just a minute later, he’d have thought there’s a spanking new, bleached-clean table cloth on the table.

I was mortified.

Before I could raise a finger – “Do something…anything damnit!” – the waiter expertly placed two side dishes, two pairs of chopsticks and a spoon onto the – I hesitate to say this – clean table cloth.

I asked the waiter why didn’t he use a new cloth.

“Company policy, mate!” he replied rather casually in his broad Hong Kong accent.

“Charmed,” I thought.

A couple of diners sitting just two tables down smiled at me and shrugged. They must have been privy to the re-used table cloth too.

Thirty minutes into my meal, I counted four tables reset the same way. Strangely, customers witnessed the whole nine yards and didn’t make a big fuss over it.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me. Or the customers after me were regulars.

24-hr Pancake Parlour in Doncaster? Chapelli’s on Chapel St? (maybe you actually want to find parking, avoid the drunkenness and the definite booze+drug bust on the trip home.)

Well, I found the Pancake Parlour at Glen Waverly still open (lucky me, its a Friday night/Saturday morning, so they open till 3am), so I was saved from having to chow down fast food at a Maccas drive-thru.

Where do you eat when hunger strikes after midnight?
(maybe next time we’ll investigate restaurants that close at 2am… there are a lot more of these, I assure you)

What is the Bogan Burger?

• steak (rump)
• chicken schnitzel
• potato cake
• bacon
• egg
• cheese
• onion
• pineapple
• beetroot

sandwiched between a Turkish bread roll and served with wedges and salad.

It will set you back $15.50 and 17,000 7,000 (sorry) kilojoules. Even with a couple of beers, I felt pretty good after eating it, although I didn’t manage to eat anything until the next day.

The Napier Hotel
210 Napier Street, Fitzroy

Picture via Supersizedmeals.com

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Australia, Fitzroy, Napier Hotel, Napier, Bogan Burger

• Nam Loong Restaurant, Russell St. – repeat offender, live and dead cockroach/rodent droppings. 2004 was their previous lucky year, when someone found a cockroach ina  meal. Remind me again never to eat there, ever.
• Jenny Pan’s Beijing Hot Pot and Dumpling Cafe, Russell St. – I like dumplings, but I don’t recall ever eating here. Have you?

Wouldn’t have seen this online, if I didn’t read todays dead tree edition of the newspaper.

If you have other dirty restaurant stories that could be of public interest, don’t hesitate to comment here. Photos, videos, etc. are also accepted. I for one would welcome a list of previously marked dirty restaurants, so that people think twice before visiting them…

Technorati Tags: chinatown, russell st, nam loong, jenny pan’s beijing hot pot and dumpling cafe, hygiene, poor hygiene

Why, you ask? Wide variety, of cheap food. Their famous “young tofu” (sic.) comes with either curry, soup or laksa, and includes six ingredients you pick up from the bain marie. These include stuffed chillies, tofu, stuffed peppers, fish balls, dumplings, and so much more. Whats more is they throw in noodles – all for a meagre $8.50.

How’s the place like? Decor is simple, its always bustling, there are some paintings of Malaysia to stare at, but beyond that you go get your own cutlery, water, bowls, and condiments. A bit like a canteen in that sense, food is delivered to your table, and they all come out at pretty much the same time.

If yong tau foo isn’t what you’re after, they have a wide, and varied menu offering lots of other food items – nasi lemak, kueh teow, and so forth. Pay the Grand Tofu a visit, for a good, cheap, healthy, and delicious meal!

The Grand Tofu is located at Shop 5, 53 Kingsway, Glen Waverly. It is open daily, from 10am – 10pm. Reservations are not necessary. They do take-out, as well. They can be reached at 9574 7676.

neomien has been kicking round the city, dealing with life offline. Not much of an excuse, but you know how it goes.

One of the most wonderful things about melbourne is the food glorious food.

Literally.

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is coming to a close, replete with well satisfied swollen bellies and tastebuds tantalised.

An aunt of mine was in town recently and I took her on a mini tour of my favorite spots, eating and drinking that is. Yes, I’m a bit of a f**die – I suspect most of us are…..it’s a melbourne thing.

We’re spoilt for choice, so spoilt.

And the beauty of it is that it doesn’t matter what your budget is, you’re bound to find something delish to suit……and no, fastfood does NOT count…….unless you count a quick fresh soft shelled crab hand roll from Kenzan @ GPO or a reviving lamb souv dripping with garlic sauce in the early hours from Stalactites.

In my next couple of posts I’m going to reveal a few of my favs for all occasions……I’d love for you to share your favs with me too……cause there’s nothing I love more than finding a new haunt.

ps. The above pic is taken from the kitchen table of ole skool establishment Pelligrini’s Espresso Bar, home of killer coffee – the good stuff and pasta just like nonna makes.