Farmer’s Daughters deli delivers on fresh Gippsland produce

Venison terrine and cured oxtongue are among the unusual bites at Gippsland-themed restaurant Farmer’s Daughters’ deli— are you game enough to try them?

Dan Stock

@dantonstock

3 min read

March 5, 2021 - 1:43PM

Farmer's Daughters deli is more laid-back, but just as good, as the restaurant upstairs.

Food

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Alejandro Saravia’s three-level love letter to Gippsland might be a year late in opening its doors but it surely couldn’t have come at a better time.

For while our cooped up state is making the most of getting away for the weekend, a shining showcase of the best of the country in the heart of the city is the type of 2021 energy our CBD needs.

Three years in the making, what began as Saravia’s loose collective to showcase the produce and producers of Gippsland, Farmer’s Daughters is now one of the signature hospitality venues at 80 Collins and features a ground floor deli, second-level restaurant and rooftop bar.

Saravia first brought tastes of his homeland Peru to Australian plates at Pastuso off Flinders Lane, but it’s the produce of Gippsland that has captured his heart.

Cured Gippsland meat. Picture: David Geraghty.

He’s been the official food and beverage ambassador for the region for years, passionately beating the drum for its world-class dairy, its fish from river and sea, its grass-fed beef and organic lamb and its wine, of course.

But before getting stuck into that good Gippsland grape juice, I highly recommend opening the ledger with a splash of bespoke vermouth on ice. Made from a mourvedre base with native juniper, strawberry gum and lemon-scented tea-tree, it’s like taking a summer bushwalk through the Croajingolong National Park one sip at a time ($9).

While the upstairs it’s a four-or-six-course set menu affair, the deli offers mix-and-match plates to suit moods stretching from drop in and dash through lingering lunches and three course dinners that end up with nightcaps on the roof.

From the deli cabinet — from which meats and cheeses and pickles and booze are available to grab and go for home — the changing terrine and cured meats are a must.

Today’s venison terrine is a standout: dense and properly gamy, a terrific apple, onion and black garlic chutney alongside tames the terrine’s complex funkiness and brings out the meat’s sweet creaminess. Fantastic ($18).

Farmer's Daughters’ Corner Inlet whiting, turnip, nettle pesto.

But so, too, is a generous plate of cured ox tongue, the offcut artfully seasoned to lift the gossamer, velvety sheaths of subtly rich meat dressed with fat petals of pickled onion.

It’s as fine — and delicious — example of nose to tail you’ll find ($21), but if your tastes aren’t tuned to tongue then the pickled whiting is equally excellent.

From Corner Inlet — one of Victoria’s oldest professional fisheries that today is one of its most sustainable and where fish caught is usually on the plate within 24 hours — the fish fillets are pickled firm and served under scales of crunchy/juicy turnip and dressed with vibrant nettle pesto. It’s a beautiful, elegant dish ($13) to which it’s well worth adding a serve of sweet/nutty soda bread with cultured butter ($6).

The crumbed fish at Farmer’s Daughters in Melbourne. Picture: David Geraghty

The daily changing fish fresh off the Lakes Entrance boats is another win from the sea, today’s hapuka ($32), is a textbook example of letting prime produce shine.

Two generous fillets are crumbed and pan-fried to buttery crispness, a bright, light hollandaise speckled with spring onion and a salad of freshly picked parsley and dill the only accompaniment needed — though you’ll likely want to add a side of fries made from the season’s best spuds from acclaimed Jones’ farm in Warragul ($8). In for a penny …

A last of the summer rainbow of zucchinis are roasted soft, and teamed with a tomato harissa for heat and a clever broccoli cream that packs a proper vegetal punch.

The terrine Picture: David Geraghty.

A delicious way to five a day ($21), especially if you include the crunchy green beans tossed in brown butter that are the bed for 180g of beef from O’Connor who have been grazing on Gippsland grass for three generations. The butcher’s cut, in this instance flank, is pitch perfectly cooked, its blackened crust giving way to a juicy pink inner, the cut’s satisfyingly chewy texture delivering bang-for-buck flavour ($33). Add a glass of juicy, chewy cabernet franc from Warragul’s Wild Dog winery ($14), or a young, bright pinot from up-and-coming Fleet wines in Leongatha ($14) — or even the excellent house Stringer’s Creek pilsner ($7.5/$11) — and country life’s looking pretty darn good.

And if you leave room for sweets (you should), the signature trifle filled with cherries and cream is an elegant execution of the classic ($15), though the silky warm custard with Tambo Valley honey topped with a sticky cider caramel is the stand out for mine ($14).

Produce, provenance and a proud celebration of producers, Farmer’s Daughter is a postcard from the country written from the heart that eats just as well as it reads.