Short Bites: Kara Irving with Melbourne’s latest food news
The inner-west suburb’s new Mexican restaurant was booked out for days after opening last week. Here’s how you can snare a seat.
Food
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After the year that was, many would say you were crazy for opening a restaurant.
Súperchido, Seddon’s new Mexican outfit, was a passion project dreamt up in lockdown by
founders Beatrice Nacor, her partner Daniel Pineda and his sister Sarah Pineda.
The 66-seater opened for the first time last Wednesday and was so popular it booked out its first three days of trade.
Mr Pineda is the executive chef at Súperchido (that’s Spanish for super cool) and cooks a small selection of Mexican favourites including beer battered barramundi and pork belly tacos, yellowfin tuna tostadas and an authentic winter soup, birra de res, of slow braised Angus beef and homemade tortillas.
All three owners have Filipino heritage but Nacor said her partner’s love and knowledge for Mexican food was the driving force behind the cuisine.
The trio also wanted to give Seddon locals a place to enjoy tacos without having to visit Yarraville.
“The Philippines was colonised by the Spanish, and I appreciate and have embraced Spanish and Mexican styles of cooking from a young age,” she said.
As for whether we’ll see a fusion of Filipino and Mexican at Súperchido soon?
“We are definitely keen to do something like this, as a special.”
Súperchido is open Wednesday-Sunday for dinner. Bookings: superchido.com.au
WINE YOU CAN TASTE WITH YOUR EARS
Food and wine make a fitting pair, but does your merlot have a musical match?
Melbourne musician and producer Dr Gene Shill who hears “harmony in colour and texture” has written a soundtrack for a bottle of Heathcote shiraz.
“We can pair wine with food, but we can also pair it with music,” he said.
Dr Shill, who has worked with Kanye West and Katy Perry, approached Heathcote II winery in central Victoria with the idea last September.
In March he launched an electronic chill-out, six-track album to be enjoyed with a bottle of their 2017 shiraz.
Accessed via a QR code on the bottle, listeners can immerse themselves in a “unique sensorial experience” while listening to tracks called “decant”, “palate” and “body”.
“This is an organic, instrumental album that mimics those organic processes of making the wine,” he said.
Dr Shill hopes people appreciate music more while enjoying the wine with friends or family.
While some may see the interpretative experience as unusual, Dr Shill has recently worked with Porsche to create a soundtrack for the Australian release of its battery-powered 2021 Taycan model.
Dr Shill is working with more Australian wineries to develop his next soundtrack, and one day hopes to create a suite of music made exclusively for wine.
Listen to Shiraz 2017 on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, or via: https://amalfirecords.com/heathcote-ii/
WHERE THERE’S SMOKE …
“Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start.”
The late Anthony Bourdain’s eloquent ode to smoked meats inspired young chef Josh Pavia to open an American barbecue restaurant in Sunbury — a cuisine that’s booming in the north. Pav’s Bar and Grill opened last June and is one of three to have opened last year.
Rogue 43 Smokehouse fired up the grill last December, while bulging-burger joint American Social opened days before Melbourne’s first lockdown. They join chicken and waffle house NutBug, which has been around since 2018.
Pavia’s biggest hits include his smoked beef brisket lasagne, southern-fried chicken parmigiana and crumbed lamb cutlets.
The self-taught meat smoker said Sunbury locals loved their smoked meats.
“We’re all about the classic comfort food up here,” he said.
Pav’s Bar and Grill is open for lunch Thurs to Sun and dinner Tue to Sun. pavsbarandgrill.com.au
BEER FESTIVAL
There’s still time to take one final sip of Good Beer Week this weekend.
Pick up a coldie and some sweets at the Garage Project Milk Bar at Collingwood’s Falco Bakery, work up a sweat at The Great Dodgeball Slam at Two Birds Nest in Spotswood on Saturday or cool down with a surf, sips and snacks at Tubular Trinity at UBRNSURF Melbourne on Sunday. This weekend marks the end of the 10-day beer spectacular, closing with GABS Craft Beer and Cider Festival.
A WINE TIME
Enjoy the fruits of the Mornington Peninsula at Winter Wine Weekend. The two-day festival celebrates the region’s finest wineries and winemakers, and for the first time, will host the Long Lunch at the Pavilion. Drink wine from appointment-only wineries, such as Kyberd Hills, Woodhaven, Dexter, Handpicked and Miceli, paired with a three-course meal.
Long Lunch at the Pavilion at Red Hill is on Sunday June 13 (Queen’s Birthday long weekend). Tickets: $170 per person.
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