Melbourne Food & Wine Festival: Are you game?

Going back to the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival for a moment - as well as the Hawkers' Market, Bro and I also attended the “Are you game?” dinner at the Royal Mail Hotel on Spencer.

Also known as the “roadkill” dinner, it was an evening of dishes showcasing different Australian game meats. Apart from the yabbies, all the meat that evening was wild caught game. Drink wise, we started with a glass of Prosecco, and then over the course of the evening were served three glasses of wine from the wine label, Ladies Who Shoot their Lunch. Seriously, how perfect was that wine label for the evening. I'm not going to talk about the wine because I know sweet FA about wine, apart from the fact I like to drink it. On to the food!

There were TEN courses... when we saw the menu we thought that we might have to select from some of the options. But no, there were TEN COURSES! Oh my goodness. Let's get stuck in.

First up was a Yarra Valley yabby martini with lime aioli and spring onion cigar. The yabby meat was very delicately flavoured, and we found a bonus quail egg at the bottom of the glass. The aioli was nice and creamy, although I found the spring onion cigar rather sweet, which was disconcerting!



Next up we received a quail pithivier with wild rice and curly kale. The pithivier had light flakey pastry and I also noted that it was buttery – mhmmm so buttery – with hints of cinnamon. The wild rice was chewy and sweetish, and the kale was also buttery. It was a very enjoyable dish.



The third course was a smoked Flinders Island mutton bird salad with Mount Buffalo organic hazelnuts and grapefruit dressing. This was one dish that had everyone divided. The mutton bird was interesting, and was unlike any other bird I had ever eaten before – it had a very strong, oily anchovy flavour. Yes, anchovy! Mutton bird tastes like fish! Amazing. I can't say that mutton bird is a meat that I would seek out again, but it was interesting to try it.



After the mutton bird, we received wild barramundi with “sand of the sea” and clam foam. The barramundi was BEAUTIFUL – it had fantastic flavour, was perfectly cooked and flaked away under my fork. The “sand” was finely ground breadcrumbs, and the "foam" was tapioca. Chives represented seaweed and thinly sliced potato on the fish represented scales. I was so impressed that the fish was perfectly cooked when the kitchen would have had to cook so many portions at the same time. This was the dish of the night for me. Seriously lovely.



Following the barramundi was a duck liver parfait with apple and pear chutney and brioche. The duck liver parfait was very, very rich – to the point where it was almost bitter. It was nice though, very smooth, with the sweet, fruity chutney helping to cut through some of the richness, both from the parfait and the buttery (and heavily buttered!) brioche.



Next was a Flinders Range kangaroo rogan josh curry served with a pappadam and a piece of nann. The curry had big bold flavours and the roo meat was made into a couple of large meatballs. I’ve had (and cooked) roo many times before, and because it’s so lean it’s not a meat that is nice when overcooked. So I’m not entirely sure about roo meatballs - while the roo meatballs weren't too dry, they were noticeably drier than a beef meatball would be. It was a tasty curry though.



After the curry there was a palate cleanser of crocodile ceviche with Yarra Valley salmon roe and limoncello. This was really interesting, it was like a lemon liqueur crocodile chewing gum!



Moving into the final courses, next up was herb crumbed Daylesford venison with mushrooms, kipfler potatoes and saffron cream. Maybe I was a bit delirious with food by this stage, but I wrote in my notes that the venison had a pate like flavour with a texture that made me think of boiled meat.



And for our last savoury course, we received slow braised wild Redesdale rabbit with squid ink gnocchi. This was supposed to come with Flinders Island wallaby prosciutto, but they must have had a shortage because a small amount of the prosciutto was passed around the table (which didn’t get to us). The chewy and tough gnocchi was the only disappointment of the night. The rabbit, however, was good – tender and flavoursome, and in my notes, I wrote that it tasted like a savoury chicken pie! I think I was definitely delirious with food by this stage. The thing that was topped with a mushroom was a potato filled with rabbit liver.



And finally, for dessert, we had duck egg crème brulee. This was SUPER rich, and very creamy. It was lovely, but oh my god it was SO RICH, particularly after nine other courses! I enjoyed smelling the sprig of rosemary and lemon too.

I was mostly very impressed with the food that evening. Most of it was cooked really well, presented nicely and nothing was too strange (not that Bro and I mind strange, we did do offal last year). It was a very good event to attend and we went home two happy eaters.

Royal Mail Hotel on Spencer
519 Spencer St
West Melbourne
Phone: 03 9329 6955

Cookbook Challenge: Week 23, Leaf

Recipe: Silverbeet frittata
From: The Cook's Companion

Second recipe: Chard with olive oil & lemon
From: Nigel Slater's Tender

The theme for this week's Cookbook Challenge is "leaf" and I've decided to showcase silverbeet (chard). I think silverbeet is a seriously beautiful vegetable, with its snowy white stems and large dark green, ribbed leaves. And the rainbow versions are even more stunning, with their red, yellow, purple or orange stems. When Bro and I were younger, a friend who lived near us used to give mum silverbeet throughout winter. She must have grown buckets of the stuff, because we seemed to receive it constantly. So much in fact, that after we moved houses, we didn't (couldn't?) eat silverbeet again for years!



I don't blame my mother for not cooking silverbeet again for ages. While I think it's a fantastic vegetable there's only so much I can think to do with it. And a bunch goes a rather long way - I made two recipes out of my bunch of silverbeet. The first recipe was a silverbeet frittata from the Cook's Companion. I made us a large frittata for lunch, and a wee mini one for photos - aww look! Isn't it cute? Yes, that is a mini frying pan, and it was perfect for an individual sized frittata. The frittata was lovely, the earthiness of the silverbeet working really well with the egg and particularly the cheese. It was a very satisfying lunch, which we ate with fresh tomatoes.

The second recipe was a simple one - boiled silverbeet with garlic and lemon juice. I couldn't resist adding a big knob of butter to the pan when cooking the garlic and I'm glad I did. It made a tangy, buttery, garlicky sauce for the silverbeet and was a nice side dish for dinner tonight. (I also added some to the top of the frittata as a garnish).

So silverbeet - are you a lover or hater? And does anyone have any brilliant ideas on cooking it?

See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here

Update: see the round up at My Food Trail.



Silverbeet frittata

Adapted from the Cook's Companion

Serves 4

400g silverbeet
olive oil
onion, peeled and finely diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
freshly ground black pepper
salt
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
Handful of grated mozzarella (I just added this in because I had some in the fridge)
6 eggs, lightly beaten

Separate the silverbeet leaves from the stems. Trim the ends off the stems and cut into 1cm pieces and rinse thoroughly. Give the leaves a good rinse, then roll them up and slice.

In a 22-24cm frying pan, saute the stems, diced onion and garlic in oil over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the leaves, covering the pan until the leaves are wilted, and then saute for several more minutes. Tip the stems and leaves into a colander and allow to drain. After it has cooled a bit, give the silverbeet a squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible.

Into a large bowl, add the egg, pepper, a bit of salt, cheese and drained silverbeet and mix well. Wipe the frying pan with kitchen paper and place on a high heat with a good glug of oil. When the pan is hot, tip in the egg mixture and lower the heat to medium.

Let the egg mixture cook until the top is just moist, running a spatula around the sides and under the frittata as it cooks to make sure it doesn't stick.

Slide the pan under a preheated grill for a minute to cook the top, then loosen with a spatula and slide on to a warmed plate. Cut into thick wedges and serve.


First, cook the veg (if you don't, they will release their juices into the frittata, which will be too watery). Cut the stems from the Swiss chard and roughly chop. Cook in a large pot of simmering salted water for 10 minutes. Wash the leaves well, roughly chop, and add to the pot. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes until wilted.

Drain well and cool, then squeeze out any excess water. Beat the eggs, egg yolks, cream, parmesan, salt, pepper and nutmeg in a bowl. Heat the butter and oil in a non-stick fry pan, and pour in the eggs. Arrange the drained greens in the pan, jiggling them so they settle into the egg.

Cook over moderate heat until the eggs have set on the bottom and are lightly golden. Heat the grill, wrap the fry pan handle with kitchen foil and place under the grill for a few minutes until lightly golden and just-set in the middle. If it's still runny, cover the pan and give it another couple of minutes over moderate heat. Cut into big wedges and serve.


Chard with olive oil & lemon

Adapted from: Nigel Slater's Tender

450g white stemmed chard / silverbeet
3 garlic cloves, peeled & sliced finely
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
knob of butter
a lemon, cut in half

Separate the stems from the leaves and wash thoroughly in cold water.

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and add the stems. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, or until they are soft and still retain some bite. Remove the stems from the water and leave to drain in a colander.

Bring the water back to the boil and add the leaves - they will only take 1-2 minutes to cook. Remove the leaves from the water and drain in a colander.

Pour the olive oil and butter into a pan on low heat. Add the garlic and cook gently - don't let it colour. Tip in the drained silverbeet leaves and stems and fold them over in the warm oil and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, and squeeze half of the lemon over the silverbeet. Serve immediately with the other half of the lemon on the side.

Cookbook Challenge: Week 22, Red

Recipe: Must-try red cabbage braised with apple, bacon and balsamic vinegar
From: Cook with Jamie

It's week 22 of the Cookbook Challenge and the theme is "red". I had a ton of ideas for red week, but I got a bit caught up in piezzas (that's a pie/pizza hybrid for those uneducated in the way of the piezza) and opted for an easy recipe.

I seem to like a lot of vegetables that other people deem boring - eg broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and the ever so humble cabbage. I like cabbage both raw and cooked, so when I saw this red cabbage recipe AND it was titled "must-try" I naturally had to try it!

The cabbage is braised with bacon, apples and balsamic vinegar. The original recipe used a whole head of red cabbage. Now, I know I said I like cabbage, but a whole head of cabbage would mean NOTHING but cabbage for a week. So I only used half a head of cabbage, but I kept the bacon and apple quantities about the same - because you can never get enough bacon, right? At the end of the cooking time, I tasted the cabbage - Jamie's book describes it as a "gorgeously sticky-sweet cabbage dish that you'll want to eat immediately". It was tangy and vinegary, but didn't really enthuse me, but since we weren't going to be eating it that night I popped it into the fridge.



It sat in the fridge for two days, and we ate it last night with piezzas left over from the pizza party. In those two days, the flavour improved and I found it much more exciting than on the night I had made it. I was also glad I hadn't halved the quantity of bacon because the bits of salty bacon were GREAT amongst the sharp tanginess of the cabbage.

So the verdict? I think it is a must try recipe, but only if you can leave it for at least a day!

See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here.

Update: see the round up at My Food Trail.



Recipe: Must-try red cabbage braised with apple, bacon and balsamic vinegar

Adapted from Cook with Jamie

Serves 4

olive oil
250g bacon, finely sliced
1/2 tablespoon fennel seeds, bashed
1 onion, peeled and sliced
3 apples, peeled and chopped into 2.5cm pieces
1/2 red cabbage, outer leaves & core removed, chopped into irregular chunks
salt and pepper to taste
75ml balsamic vinegar
sugar to taste (if necessary)
a knob of butter
chopped parsley leaves (optional)

Heat some oil in a saucepan until hot, add the bacon and fennel and cook until golden.

Add the onion and cook with the lid on for several minutes until golden and sticky.

Add the apple, cabbage, some salt and pepper and vinegar and stir well. Put the lid on and cook on a low heat for an hour, stirring occasionally. Taste the cabbage - you may want to add some sugar if it's too vinegary.

Scoop into a serving dish, place butter on top and garnish with the parsley.

International Pizza Pie Incident Party

It's time for another global food party – last time we made gnocchi and this time we're doing pizza pie!


Waka, waka, waka

Now I know that pizza pie can refer to just a regular pizza, but I really wanted to do a PIZZA PIE. So I have two offerings to bring to the party.



The first, is a pizza in a pie form - pies with a pizza filling! I made a savoury shortcrust for the bottom pastry, which was then placed into pie tins and blind baked. Then I filled the pie shells with pureed tomatoes, salami, olives, mushrooms and mozzarella. Then it was topped with a lid of (store bought) puff pastry and baked to pizza pie perfection. Despite my lack of pie making experience (and trust me, it showed when I just tried to whack the puff pastry lid on top without wetting it, thinking it would stick by itself) these were still very good. My shortcrust pastry was buttery and soft, and the filling tasted just like pizza. A definite pizza pie success.



My second pizza pie is a pie in pizza form! I cooked up a pot of meat pie filling by browning some diced beef in seasoned flour, and then stewing it with a couple of diced carrots, onions and celery and chicken stock. I made pizza bases from no-knead pizza dough, spread on pureed tomatoes, and then added a thin layer of meat pie filling. Shredded mozzarella went on top of that, and then a piece of puff pastry. Again, it was baked to pizza pie perfection - I LOVED this version, most likely because the pie filling was savoury and moreish.



I did also do regular pizza, but unfortunately Bro ate the ones I was going to photograph (nice one, Bro!). And you may also be wondering about the cupcakes? Well, it's Penny's birthday and it can't be a party without cake. So Penny received vanilla cupcakes with lemon buttercream and pizza slice fondant toppers. Happy birthday!

A big thanks to Dany for coming over and critiquing my pizza pie creations. Huge thanks also to Alastair for doing the mountain of dishes I generated! I hope you enjoyed my offerings to the party – visit the other attendees to see what they prepared:

Addictive and Consuming
Sense & Serendipity
Christine’s Recipes
Eat, Live, Travel, Write
Tasty Trix
Hold the Beef
Enriching your kid
Five Star Foodie
Kitchen Butterfly
Second Helping
Berry Travels
Cafe Campana
Momofuku for 2
Fried Wontons for You
A Food Lover’s Journey
Sweet Cherrie Pie
Tangled Noodle

Week of eats: Ron Mueck & Persimmon

During the week of eating that we had while my in laws, Annette and Terry, were in town, we went to the Ron Mueck exhibition at the NGV. (My posts are all out of order, but never mind). Has anyone gone to see the exhibition? Wasn’t it fantastic? And if you haven’t gone, it’s closing this weekend, so quick sticks!



I'm so glad we went, as I loved it. My favourite sculpture was the little old ladies above. Dead Dad (photo at the top) was also fantastic, and I also loved Drift below).




If you have time this weekend - go go go.



After the exhibition, we had lunch at Persimmon. It was Annette and Terry's last day in Melbourne, so we were hoping for a good last meal with them. I was pretty confident that Persimmon wouldn't disappoint.



We were given some warm rolls while we decided what to eat. On the board was a selection - brioche, caramelised shallot and pumpkin seed rolls.



For starters, Bro ordered a serve of the soft shell school prawns, with garlic and herb aioli ($15), intending to share it with the table. Everyone else ordered their own starter... and then we ordered ANOTHER serve of the prawns. Greedy, but to be fair, the prawns were great - crunchy, and intensely prawny flavoured.



I had the olive oil poached veal carpaccio, with quail’s eggs, sweetbreads and rocket ($18). The meat was very tender and rare, and I loved the little fried quail's eggs and sweetbreads.



Alastair had the salmon “mi cuit” with avocado, beetroot & horseradish ($17). Thank goodness for internet enabled phones, we had to google “mi cuit” (which means half/semi cooked). This looked really good, and I loved the teeny little beetroot pieces.



Annette had the chicken liver parfait, apples, pears, raisins & capers and toasted brioche ($26). I didn't try any, but it sounded like it was a good dish.



Terry ordered the snail’s tempura with pearl barley risotto, parsley and garlic ($17). This was the most interesting dish out of all of them! I tried a bit of a snail, and while it was good, I'm not sure this is a dish I would ever order.



Time for mains. Terry and I both had the lamb’s loin, lamb shoulder, vegetables Provencale and jus gras ($30). Underneath the leaning tower of lamb's loin slices was a crumbed square of braised lamb shoulder, which I swear tasted almost like something Bro and I used to eat back in New Zealand (a lasagna square for any kiwis out there who remember them!). Oh the memories! Even without the food flashback, I really enjoyed my dish. A fair bit of meat, but it was done well with great flavour.



Alastair and Bro had the scotch fillet, which came with broccoli, white onion & garlic jam, potato crisps and smoked salt ($35). The broccoli was actually pureed - that green bit on the plate. The crisps were behind the greenery, but I think the white onion and garlic jam hadn't made an appearance on their plates. That, or it was in disguise.



Annette had the butternut pumpkin gnocchi with onions, macadamias, capers and bontazola ($26). This looked absolutely delicious.



It was recommended that we order sides, so we selected a salad and green beans. I particularly loved the beans which still had a bit of firm crunch but weren't squeaky.



Service was fantastic. And this was true even before the story I'll tell you in the next paragraph. Our waitress was happy and cheery, and friendly without being OTT. One example – we looked at the dessert menu after our mains, and noticed that some of the desserts had pop rocks. And we discovered that Annette and Terry had never tried pop rocks before (I know, we couldn't believe it either!). When our waitress come back, we decided not to order dessert but made a passing comment about Annette and Terry's lack of pop rock experience. And so she insisted that we HAD to try some and came back with a little bowl of pop rocks for us! The left hand side had honey flavoured pop rocks, and the right had chocolate covered ones. Pop rocks go posh!

Okay, so here’s my story. We had a lovely bottle of wine with our mains, a Stefano Lubiana Merlot 2005, and I only remember this because when the sommelier (I believe) came to the table to refill our glasses with the bottle, Annette and Terry requested that I take a photograph of it. And somehow that lead to them outing me as a food blogger (facepalm).



So it may have been due to the blog that we received the following.... complimentary dessert! Which was a peanut butter parfait, with caramelised banana, marshmallow and pistachio ice cream. And chocolate pop rocks - I can't forget the pop rocks! I have a deep, enduring love affair with peanut butter so it's no surprise that I loved dessert.

We had such a lovely meal and it was the perfect finale to Annette and Terry's visit.

Read about a previous visit to Persimmon here.

Persimmon
Café/Bistro
Ground Level
NGV International
180 St Kilda Road
Melbourne

Melbourne CBD ramen hunting

Last Monday, a group of us headed out for an epic ramen hunt in in an effort to find the best ramen in the Melbourne CBD. I was very happy to be part of the group, particularly after eating ramen in Japan.

This is a long post, so settle in! My fellow ramen hunters were Penny from Addictive and Consuming, th0i3, Maria and Daz from The Gourmet Challenge, Adrian from Food Rehab, and Billy from Half-eaten.

We ate at seven different restaurants to try out their ramen, and gave scores out of five on three categories - broth, toppings and noodles. Billy put together score cards and scoring sheets for us to use - cute!

Just a quick note, the scores are no indication of the restaurants as a whole, as we were only scoring the ramen.



Stop 1: Menya
Shop L01 146A, Melbourne Central,
211 LaTrobe Street, Melbourne
Tel: 03 9639 3383

Our quest started at Menya. Because it's so teeny, we split into two groups. Alastair and I shared a table with Maria and Daz where we tried the Sapporo ramen in shoyu (soy based) soup ($9.20) and Maria and Daz had the chashu (pork) ramen. The two ramen were essentially the same except for a slight variation in toppings.



The Sapporo ramen came with pork, vegetables, egg and seafood extender.



Topping wise, I found the egg was too salty. It must have been soaked in soy sauce, judging by the brown colour. I wasn’t fond of the pork either - you know that taste and dryness that boiled pork has? It tasted like soup pork, which is fine if you're drinking Chinese soup but not for ramen. The broth was thin, although I did write in my notes that it was okay for what it was. The noodles however, were gluggy and overcooked. Not a great start to the ramen hunt, unfortunately.

My scores for Menya were:

Broth: 3/5
Noodles: 2/5
Topping: 2/5
Total: 7/15



Stop 2: Hanaichi (unscheduled)
QV Square Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9662 9409

Our next stop was Meshiya in QV. As we were walking there, we passed by Hanaichi, a little shop above the QV food court (where Wagamama used to be located). Someone (I believe it was Billy!) insisted that we had to try it. There was only one ramen on the menu and it was described on the menu as ramen (egg noodle soup) - $6.90.



As you can see, it came out in paper bowls - this was real food court stuff. The noodles, which you may be able to just see under the pork, were a scary, fluorescent yellow, but were not that bad. At least they weren't overcooked. However, the pork was tasteless and below average, and the broth, well that was also not great.

My scores for Hanaichi were:

Broth: 2/5
Noodle: 3/5
Toppings: 1/5
Total: 6/15

Stop 3: Meshiya
200 Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9654 6242

Our next stop was Meshiya. We sat down, after rearranging their tables to accommodate the nine of us, looked at menus and decided what to order... and then we discovered that Meshiya was OUT OF RAMEN. Whaaaaaaa? How does that happen? We decided not to order anything, apologised, put the tables back and continued on the ramen hunt.



Proper Stop 3: Edoya (unscheduled)
138 Russell St, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9654 7358)

So on we went, making another unscheduled stop, and went to Edoya. We all got a little side tracked here and everyone ordered items other than ramen. I blame the complimentary edamame and seaweed salad that we received.



Alastair and I had some sashimi, while others ordered ox tongue, yukke, and soft shell crab! There was beer too. What a terrible lack of focus. Tsk tsk.



In addition to everything else, we did also order two bowls of ramen to share. On the menu, it just said ramen ($14). Sadly, it was another very average bowl of ramen. I thought the noodles were okay, and found that the pork was pretty good, but the broth had a VERY strange taste that I couldn't stomach. I marked down the broth quite heavily for this.

The other food we ate from Edoya was fine though.

My scores for Edoya were:

Broth: 1/5 (ouch - but I think someone else gave a 0/5...!)
Noodles: 2/5
Topping: 3/5
Total: 6/15



Stop 4: Ito Japanese Noodle Cafe
122 Bourke St, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9663 2788

Stop 4 was Ito Japanese Noodle Cafe, where we ordered three bowls to share between us - the chashu in shoyu, the tori kara in miso, and the tonkatsu in miso (all $9.80) We wanted to order the tonkotsu, but this wasn't available that day. I wonder how often it's available to order?



At this point, Alastair decided he needed to eat lunch and scoffed down a bowl of katsu curry don - apparently the noodles weren't doing enough to fill him up!



The rest of us stuck with ramen. This was the chashu ramen in shoyu soup. I thought it was the best out of the three bowls.



The tori kara in miso soup - basically deep fried chicken.



And the tonkatsu in miso soup - deep fried pork cutlet.

Hallejuah! Finally some good ramen. The noodles were good, the toppings were great and overall the broth was tasty. I found the miso soups a bit too salty, but the shoyu was really good. The chashu was really tender, and all the toppings were done well, although there were comments that the bamboo shoots in the bowls had a very strong and distracting flavour.

My scores for Ito Noodle Cafe were:

Broth: 4/5
Noodle: 4/5
Toppings: 4/5
Total: 12/15

Stop 5: Ajisen Ramen
130 Bourke St, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9662 1100

Our next stop was just down the road - to be honest we could've used a longer walk due to all the noodles already consumed - but we pushed on. Again, we ordered three bowls to share - chargrilled ramen ($12.50), spicy miso ramen ($11) and chashu ramen ($11). I haven't noted down what soups we had, I assume the chargrilled and chashu ramen were shoyu, and the spicy miso was miso.



This was the chargrilled ramen - basically seared steak (which we requested to be rare) on top of the noodles. It was rather garlicky.



And here's the chashu ramen.



And finally the spicy miso. In the small bowl to the right is the spicy meat. We were asked if we wanted to keep it separate as it was quite spicy. It did have a fair kick to it, but I'm sure we could've coped with it in the big bowl.

The noodles at Ajisen Ramen were really strange - they were similar to spaghetti, not like other ramen noodles at all. While they weren't bad, they weren't ramen noodles! Broth-wise, in all three bowls, it was SALTY SALTY SALTY. I would've given the broth a higher score if it hadn't been so FREAKIN' SALTY as it was rather flavoursome. The toppings were good too, so the broth (and strange noodles) did let Ajisen down.

My scores for Ajisen Ramen were:

Broth: 3/5
Noodle: 3/5
Toppings: 4/5
Total: 10/15



Stop 6: Ramen Ya
Shop 25G Melbourne GPO
350 Bourke St, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9654 5838

Ramen Ya was up next. At Ramen Ya, you can select your soup base - tonkotsu (FINALLY!), shoyu or miso. And then the topping - chashu, tsukune (minced chicken), and gyoza. We ordered three bowls - chashu in tonkotsu, chashu in shoyu and tsukune (minced chicken) in miso.



This was the tsukune (minced chicken) in miso soup.



I'm pretty sure this one was the chashu in tonkotsu.



Which would make this the chashu in shoyu.

A hush descended over the table as we started slurping up the noodles. Even though it was our second to last stop we polished off all the bowls, and looking around at the scores, it was obvious that it was the best ramen so far. All the broths were good, particularly the tonkotsu (naturally!), and the toppings were fantastic, although there wasn't much of the chashu, which was a shame because it was tender and delicious. The noodles were also good - springy with a bit of bite.

My scores for Ramen Ya were:

Broth: 4.5/5
Noodle: 4/5
Toppings: 4.5/5


Stop 7: Chocolate Buddha

Federation Square, Melbourne

Phone:(03) 9654 5688

Our group wandered down to Fed Square for our LAST STOP - Chocolate Buddha. We nabbed a table outside, sitting in the sun and looking over Fed Square. It was a very nice way to end the day!

We ordered two bowls - the gyu ramen ($19.80) and the tori miso ramen ($19.80). There was also a salmon ramen on the menu, but I think our bellies would have burst if we had tried all three. Expectations were high for Chocolate Buddha as the ramen cost twice the amount of other restaurants.



The gyu ramen was nice. The beef was tender and full of flavour, and the broth (a shoyu broth?) was tasty.

However, the tori miso ramen was a mixed bag. The chicken was really good - juicy and soft. But the broth, oh the broth! It was REALLY sweet. It let the whole bowl down. Disappointing for a $20 bowl of ramen.

My scores for Chocolate Buddha were:

Broth: 3/5
Noodle: 4/5
Toppings: 4/5
Total: 11/15

We completed the ramen hunt by tallying up the scores. Here they are - 5.5 hours and 19 bowls later, we had a very conclusive result.

7th place: Hanaichi - 45/105

6th place: Edoya - 51/105

5th place: Menya - 58/105

4th place: Ajisen - 63/105

3rd place: Chocolate Buddha - 70/105

2nd place: Ito Noodle Cafe - 82/105

And the winner..... the best ramen in the Melbourne CBD was -

1st place: Ramen Ya - 89.5/105

Well I certainly can't eat ramen again for a while, but I had a great day. I wasn't particularly surprised that Ramen Ya came out on top, but I hadn't expected Ito Japanese Noodle Cafe to score so well. A big thanks to my fellow ramen hunters for the company and laughs!

We discussed doing more hunts in the future - any suggestions for what we could do next?