Barbecue

Flavours of Asia Market Festival – 28 February 2015

I was recently lucky enough to be invited to a sneak preview for the Flavours of Asia Market Festival that is part of the 2015 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and Sportingbet Blue Diamond Stakes Day. The Flavours of Asia Market Festival is one of the first events on the 2015 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival calendar and will feature a range of delicacies from across the continent, cooking demonstrations and live entertainment. The festival is designed to bring together an array of authentic Asian street food with dishes starting from $5. Expect to find delicious menu items from Hammer & Tong, Hoy Pinoy, Wonderbao, Overdosa, Lankan Tucker, Uncle, Gogi and Eat the Chicken.

What: Sportingbet Blue Diamond Stakes Day – Flavours of Asia Market Festival

When: Saturday 28 February 2015

Time: 12:00pm – 6:00pm

Where: Caulfield Racecourse, Station Street, Caulfield

Cost: Adult $20, Concession $10, Children Under 14 Free (includes admission to the racecourse and the Flavours of Asia Market Festival.)

Tickets available via: mrc.racing.com

Now onto the menu preview. So when we first arrived we had the opportunity to sample the Flavours of Asia Market Festival’s feature cocktail ‘The Market Mule With A Kick’ which was a fusion of vodka, dry ginger ale, lime and chilli. I was a little apprehensive about the chilli at first but it actually gave this refreshing cocktail a nice gentle heat. It was seriously good. So before I knew it I had polished off my cocktail and I had forgotten to take a photo of it. Whoops. Here’s a picture of a lady dancing instead.

Wonderbao’s Pork Bao

Fluffy steamed buns filled with sweet tender pork

★★★☆☆

Hoy Pinoy’s Lechon Kwali (slow braised and crispy fried pork belly with buco, chilli and yemma sauce)

Absolutely incredible! Delicious sauce, super crispy crackling and pork that simply melts in your mouth.

★★★★☆

Hammer & Tong’s Red and Black rice salad (pomegranate, broad beans, peas, mint & grapefruit mignonette)

A light rice salad with a lot of flavour and texture.

★★★☆☆

Marinated barbecued skewers cooking over a customary BBQ from Hoy Pinoy. Candied meat. Mmmmmm. Notice that the skewers are delightfully sizeable!

Inihaw na Baboy (pork belly skewers in banana ketchup glaze)

★★★☆☆

Inihaw na Manok (chicken skewers in traditional soy glaze)

★★★★☆

Wonderbao’s ‘Roast Pork Belly Gua Bao’ with cucumber, pickled carrots, daikon & hoisin sauce and ‘Fried Silky Tofu Gua Bao’ with pickled mustard, coriander and crushed peanuts.

★★★☆☆

We also had the opportunity to see the making of Hammer & Tong’s famous Soft Shell Crab Burgers .

It isn’t surprising that up to 1000 soft shell crab burgers are sold during a night at Queen Victoria’s Wednesday Night Market!

Soft Shell Crab Burger (brioche bun, sriracha mayo, sesame seed slaw, soft shell crab, spring onion and coriander)

The perfect soft shell crab burger.

★★★★★

Wonderbao’s Ice cream Gua Bao (golden fried bao dusted with sugar and filled with sesame seed ice cream, caramel and nuts)

★★★☆☆

*Disclaimer: I dined as a guest of Melbourne Racing Club

Hammer & Tong

Rear 412 Brunswick St, Fitzroy, VIC

(03) 9041 6033

http://hammerandtong.com.au/

Hoy Pinoy

Location varies, Melbourne, VIC

Wonderbao

4/19-37 A’Beckett St, Melbourne, VIC

(03) 9654 7887

Meatmother

Wagyu Brisket and Charred Corn

The wagyu was tender and smoky, while the corn was fantastically buttery and perfectly charred.

★★★☆☆

Spare Ribs and Mac Cheese

Fairly average ribs that were a bit dry and required extra sauce. The Mac Cheese was also quite average (although I am comparing it to the delicious Lobster Mac Cheese I had at Meatmaiden).

★★☆☆☆

Overall:

This cosy little barbecue shack is a great place to head to for all you carnivores out there. Each day meat is smoked over oak for up to 12 hours which allows for the flavours to really sink in. Meat trays are offered at dinner which include the choice of one meat, one side and a serve of Texas toast (thick buttery golden brown toast). Bun trays are also available at dinner which come with the choice of a bun and a side. Service here was easy-going and the atmosphere very relaxed. Note that they only take reservations for groups of 8 people and over, and that this place is closed on Mondays.

Meatmother

167 Swan St, Richmond, VIC

(03) 9041 5393

Home

Dahon Tea Lounge

Shop 5, 111 Cecil St, South Melbourne 9696 5704

Mango and Passionfruit Tea, Berry Tea, Pandan Sago Drink

BBQ wings with java rice

Kalabasang may gata

Boneless bangus (milkfish)

BBQ skewers (chicken inasal and pork tocino)

Sans rivals

Ube macapuno

Thoughts:

Gourmet Iced Teas – all tasted very sweet and very artificial = Not bad

BBQ wings with java rice – well marinated, crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, smoky BBQ chicken wings that went really well with the java (tomato) rice = Good

Kalabasang may gata – prawns, fish, pumpkin and vegetables in a creamy coconut sauce, served with steamed rice. I liked the fact that even though this dish contained a creamy coconut sauce, it wasn’t heavy = Good

Boneless bangus – tasty pieces of fried milkfish served with a simple salad = Good

BBQ skewers – marinated in lemon and kumquat, the chicken inasal skewers were surprisingly moist and citrusy. The pork tocino (Filipino sweet cured pork) skewers on the other hand were sweet and a bit more harder to chew than the chicken skewers = Not bad

Sans rivals – cashew meringue that reminded me of the inside of a Snickers bar, but with cashews instead of peanuts. Sticky and sweet, this is a dessert that is best shared = Not bad

Ube macapuno – purple yam and coconut cake. A soft, light, airy cake that contained small pieces of coconut in the middle. This was quite eggy and unfortunately had no yam flavour to it at all = Not bad

Overall:

A casual place where the service is very prompt, and the food is terrific value for money and is somewhat unique (as Filipino restaurants in Melbourne are not very common).

The Tree Of Us

71 Church St, Richmond 9077 3839

House onion rings

Ribs

Breakie burger

Stelios burger

Thoughts:

House onion rings – thinly sliced onion rings covered in a really nice crispy batter = Good

Ribs – average ribs covered in a sweet Jack Daniels BBQ sauce, served with mash potato (which tasted like it had been sitting around for a while) and some salad = Not bad

Breakie burger – bacon, chorizo sausage, egg, house hash, relish, rocket lettuce and mayo all combined into one delicious burger! = Good

Stelios burger – an epic burger made up of 2 x 140g beef patties, bacon, mushroom, lettuce, tomato, jalapeños, swisse cheese, mozzarella, tomato relish and truffle mayo. The beef patties were extremely juicy and the truffle mayo taste was quite distinct = Good

Overall:

A cozy little place that has friendly service and terrific burgers. The front dining area has a contemporary feel with lots of interesting artwork displayed, whereas the back courtyard has a very relaxed feel with its fake grass and colourful fairy lights (I can imagine it being a great place in summer for having after work drinks). Note that wednesday nights are their rib night and that on thursday nights the beers are only $2 with any food purchase. Bargain!

Big Boy BBQ (Caulfield)

764 Glenhuntly Road, Caulfield South 9523 7410

The New Yorker

Big Boy Smoked BBQ Meat Platter

Sides

Peanut butter cream pie with chocolate ganache

Condensed milk and banana ice cream

Thoughts:

The New Yorker – layers of salty herb infused beef pastrami, melted swiss cheese, mustard and pickles on toasted rye bread = Good

Big Boy Smoked BBQ Meat Platter – beef brisket, pulled pork scotch fillet, pulled lamb shoulder, beef pastrami, ½ rack of pork ribs, ½ rack of lamb ribs and chicken wings. So this menu option comes with 3 jumbo sides but for some reason we got 5 sides (not that I’m complaining). The sides we got were crunchy chips, onion strings, coleslaw, potato salad and corn bread. Now the menu said that this platter could feed between 1-6 people. Imagine one person eating all of this by themselves. Yikes!

So all the meat at this place is slow cooked and as a result has a salty smoky flavour. Apart from the pulled pork scotch fillet (which was quite spicy compared to the rest of the meat), everything tasted very similar after a little while once it was covered in the sweet BBQ sauce. As for the sides, the crunchy chips were extremely crunchy (in a delightful way), the onion strings were mostly just deep fried batter, the coleslaw was fairly average, the creamy potato salad had a nice tanginess to it due to the pickles and the corn bread was quite sweet (which I suppose is normal for cornbread) = Not bad

Peanut butter cream pie with chocolate ganache – deliciously creamy with a great balance of peanut butter and chocolate ganache = Good

Condensed milk and banana ice cream – came prepackaged in a little container and tasted like condensed milk mixed with banana Nesquik (ie. had a very artificial taste to it) = Not bad

Overall:

The place to go to if you want to have a break from eating vegetables and instead indulge yourself in a lot of meat. Although the food here is not exactly amazing, the concept of having slow cooked food that is served fast is different and interesting. (Their meat is smoked at low temperatures for up to 16 hours, hence the food isn’t hot but warm when it is served). The staff here are young and friendly and the atmosphere is very casual.