The best things to eat in Melbourne and Victoria this weekend
From the best pie you’ll ever eat to a Sunday lunch in the country that’s all style, here are the best things to eat and drink this weekend across the state.
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Whether a Friday night pie by the telly, a spicy jaffle mash up with wine or a Sunday lunch in the country that’s all style, here are the best things to eat and drink this weekend.
HESTON’S UNUSUAL MELBOURNE MARTINI
FOR A TV DINNER
New life of pie
Forget Friday night fish and chips, for the best end-of-the-working-week dinner look no further than the humble pie. Fine dining chef-turned-food service entrepreneur Ray Capaldi has turned his attention to making “the best pie you’ll ever eat” and he has just opened a retail outlet in the city for his booming Wonderpies brand.
At Wonderpop & Deli you’ll find a full range of pies to eat in or take home with a range of sides that includes the most decadent mash you’ll likely eat. There’s also such items as chicken parfait, pickled veg and duck confit to pick up from the deli counter, while old-school cakes and doughnuts take care of sweets.
Note: vegetarians and vegans are well looked after, with Capaldi nominating the vegan pie his pick even over the beef version.
Wonderpop & Deli, 18 Lt Lonsdale St, Melbourne. wonderpopanddeli.com.au
FOR SPICY GOOD TIMES
Jaffles and wine
Head to Super Ling in Carlton, a new Chinese canteen from publican Iain Ling from the Hotel Lincoln next door, for a take on Hakka cuisine, a style of Chinese food rarely seen in Melbourne.
The meat platter is one for the adventurous, but fortune favours the brave. You’ll find pigs ears drizzled with chilli oil and topped with peanuts and spring onion, squares of honeycomb tripe, braised silken and sweetly fragrant in masterstock, and thick cubes of tongue, tender yet still firm to the bite. There are slices of fatty brisket and slivers of shin slow cooked so soft they fall apart at the merest suggestion of a chopstick.
With a bowl of fabulous fried rice, the light, fluffy grains tossed through wok-fried egg and cubes of lap cheong that add its unmistakeable sweet, porky perfumed richness, you have a mighty meaty meal that’s hard to beat.
For those not keen to dig on offal, the mapo tofu jaffle is a simpler – though no less spicy – pleasure, while fried barramundi collars are filled with deliciously tasty meat for those not afraid to get stuck right in.
In a pocket of Carlton that’s recently welcomed yakitori/ramen restaurant Torisong and Chinese brasserie Tuan Tuan opposite, Super Ling is a nicely priced mod Chinese with a difference.
Superling, 138 Queensberry St, Carlton. superling.com.au
FOR A TOP COUNTRY LUNCH
Pub grub that’s great
The best country pubs no longer just offer pots, pool and a parma but are increasingly celebrating the best of their region and The Farmer’s Arms in Creswick is a perfect case in point.
Here you’ll find house-made charcuterie and in-house whole beast butchery as well as great local beers and a wine list made up of drops from the nearby Macedon Ranges.
Head into the handsome dining room and order the regional tasting platter – slivers of soft and sweet wagyu bresaola (air dried beef) and salty, chewy lombo (cured pork loin) teamed with terrific pulled pork croquettes decadent cheese croquettes filled with oozy Delice de Affinois. There are fat marinated Mt Zero olives and sharp pickled veg and a great beetroot relish and black garlic whipped butter to spread on toasted sourdough. It’s a great way to taste the best of this pub and its region.
Housemade bangers on buttery mash are a homely winner, while lamb from Tuki farm up the road is a brilliant dish of cutlets and slow-cooked shoulder and a pithivier (a puff pastry pie) filled with ragu.
A good line in steaks, a changing pie of the day and a couple of housemade pastas (gnocchi, fettuccine) – along with that parma for pub purists – round out the offering.
A super cute outdoor area puts the garden into beer garden and is the perfect spot for a sunny afternoon.
The Farmer’s Arms charms are well worth a drive, for this is the type of country pub we’re loving seeing more of.
The Farmer’s Arms, 31 Albert St, Creswick. farmersarmscreswick.com
FOR MODERN MIDDLE EASTERN
A favourite feed
The people have spoken – Bar Saracen in the CBD’s Punch Lane has fans far and wide and has just been crowned the People’s Choice winner of the 2018 delicious.100.
It’s where two of our city’s great hospo heads — Rumi’s Joseph Abboud and front-of-house pro Ari Vlassopoulos — have created a restaurant “of Middle Eastern appearance”.
That means boreks filled with truffled egg and cheese (swoon) and smoky soft eggplant with barbecue-burnt onions on a pool of fermented whey called kashik.
It looks like octopus with pickled green chilli and crisp-skinned Murray cod with tahini, while a plate of creamy-sharp hummus topped with crisp fried chickpeas and a tiny tender dice of prawns to be eaten with hot, fluffy house made pita.
The food is excellent and keenly priced and the interesting wines — locals plus a few from “wherever the Arabs have been” — are chosen for diners’ enjoyment not a sommelier’s ego.
Bar Saracen is delicious fun as welcoming for a quick sip and snack as it is for those making a full night of it that will likely end with arrack, either in shots or splashed over pineapple.
Bar Saracen, 22 Punch Lane, city. barsaracen.com.au
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