Dan Stock rates the best Victorian dishes of 2018
From a bonkers “donug” invention to tiramisu like you’ve never seen it — as well as the world’s best sausage roll — here are the best things I ate this year, writes Dan Stock.
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It’s taken me decades searching up hill and down dale, but I think I have found it.
Yes, I think I’ve found the perfect sausage roll.
And it could just about be, in a year filled to bursting with brilliant bites, the best thing I ate this year.
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But it wasn’t just an unbeatable sauso roll that made my heart beat just that little bit faster, for this year other posh takes on low-rent staples were where some great eating was done.
At Captain Baxter’s fancy new digs on the St Kilda foreshore you’ll find knockout potato cakes — small discs of fluffy fried crunch served with a mayo brightened with yuzukosho (a Japanese citrus and chilli condiment) — while at the Red Hill Hotel in Chewton they’re serving a bonkers/brilliant invention called a “donug” – a chicken nugget doughnut that’s a spiced chicken mix covered in crunchy panko and served with a dollop of Dijon and a sprinkle of chilli flakes.
At Capitano in Carlton you’ll find the city’s best — and most expensive — parmigiana that’s a Rolls Royce to the usual pub Torana and is worth taking for a spin.
And I reckon you’ll find the state’s best steak sanga in the pretty village of Yarra Junction at the homely Nancy’s of the Valley.
With terrifically tender scotch fillet, chunky chutney, creamy aioli, fried egg and sharp vintage tasty cheese melted on toasted sourdough buttered on top, it’s magnificent.
Once the mainstay of the timid diner, thanks to some of our best chefs chicken is where some real winner winner dinners were found, whether the simple, generous charms of a country roast served with hunks of smoky bacon and pine mushrooms at Muse at Mitchelton, or the tricked up — though no less delicious — ballotine at Ballarat’s Underbar, where Derek Boath takes freshly plucked (or plundered) nectarines and cherries from his neighbours’ trees to add fruity foil to crisp pancetta-wrapped chicken piped with chicken mousse.
At Brae, Dan Hunter turns a Sommerlad from Milking Yard Farm into a true beak-to-tail celebration of this most regal bird creating the savoury course finale on five plates, while down at Pt Leo Estate in the depths of winter, Phil Wood’s wood-fired crumpet topped with chicken and finished with truffle was the season’s best use of the fancy fungi.
And I’ll definitely miss Shaun Quade’s wit and whimsy at Lume when he moves to LA in the new year, for such dishes as his c hicken and the egg are clever sleights of hand that are also completely, outrageously delicious.
It wasn’t just chicken getting a good look in this year, for we now see duck gracing most menus across Melbourne. There it is at new CBD worldly barbecue joint Cheek dry ageing in the glass cabinet before being served darkly roasted with a deeply thick, salty and smoky hoisin sauce.
You’ll find it served in bone broth, smoked breast and chorizo sausage form at boldly innovative Japanese restaurant Wa Kenbo in Fitzroy, but the standout version at Vue de monde — a Macedon Ranges bird with perfectly ruby flesh under a sheen of just-chewy skin served with a quince and mushroom farce — was the best duck dish I’ve eaten, whether this year or ever.
THE 20 BEST DISHES TO EAT IN VICTORIA RIGHT NOW
My mind was similarly blown at Lello, where chef Leo Gelsomino is serving an extraordinary version of vincigrassi, a lasagne of finesse and refinement that teams feather light pasta sheets with a ragu amped with offal for a pasta dish that’s last-meal stuff.
At Seville Estate’s new-look cellar I had a knockout gnocchi where pan-tanned pillows came tossed through slivers of smoked chicken and tarragon, while down at Ercolano at Patterson Lakes, patriarch Nino’s s picy sausages are rightfully famed, though they are just one good reason to visit this fabulous family restaurant.
It was good to see interesting things from the sea being increasingly served, whether beaut barramundi collars at Carlton’s Super Ling — floured then crunchy fried fish wing bits served with a light soy/spring onion and ginger dressing — or Murray cod served in terrific tartare form at Yarraville’s new fine diner Navi.
John Dory’s lesser-known cousin King Dory took pride of place on the plate at Collins Quarter in the city, where chef Luke Headon served it with a slice of char-edged cabbage, cucumber balls and a butter sauce enlivened with desert limes for a winning lunch.
And down at Sardine on the Gippsland Lakes, Mark Briggs’s flappingly fresh fisherman’s stew is reason alone to jump in the car.
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It’s been a year that chefs made a hearty veg pledge with side dishes becoming the main attraction — see the chargrilled carrots with curd and pepitas at Asado; spectacular roasted pumpkin with almonds at Ballarat’s Mr Jones — while the mezze plate piled high with Egyptian falafel made from broad beans, chunky beetroot dip, hummus and warmed pita is a signature dish for every good reason at Bairnsdale’s reborn Grand Terminus hotel.
Of course you can’t dine at this year’s best new restaurant — Sunda in the city — without ordering the off-the-menu buttermilk roti with Vegemite, but likewise you shouldn’t miss the lamb, for this rendition that serves tender rump on a thick pond of cashew cream with a “native curry” sauce and scattering of crunchy saltbush leaves atop is as clever and deft a lamb dish I’ve yet seen.
At cool and clever Collingwood wine bar Congress the light, spiced treacle cake served with whipped custard, thin apple ribbons and pecans for crunch sent me smiling into the night, as did the punchy V ietnamese coffee ice cream with crisp Chinese doughnuts and coconut cream at perennially packed Lucy Liu. But end of meal theatrics don’t come any more dramatic than the eminently — and literally — smashable tiramisu orb at South Yarra’s Bar Carolina.
And those sausage rolls? For that I have Sean Donovan at Prahran’s fabulously made-over Mt Erica Hotelto thank. Flaky puff pastry so decadently buttery it would make Daisy the cow blush, surrounding gloriously juicy pork mince with a hidden chilli hit, they’re served with tomato sauce and a lemony tahini yoghurt for dunking.
They are, quite simply, perfect. See you there.
DAN STOCK’S TOP 5 RESTAURANTS OF 2018
1. Laura at Pt Leo Estate, Merricks — 17/20
2. Vue de monde, CBD — 16.5/20
3. Ishizuka, CBD — 16/20
4. Underbar, Ballarat — 15.5/20
5. Provenance, Beechworth — 15.5/20
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