We have had the bro' and his b with us for the weekend. It was terrific!! We had a relaxing time just chillin ... no I mean literally ... we spent most of the time outside warming the cockles with some of our finer bottles and shortening lives with designer fire sticks!
It was great to catch up on familial goss and also to see pics of holidays and more importantly little vids of the recent renos ... and lemme tell ya ... its jaw droppingly beautiful ... and I can't help but feel a tinge of green devils coming on ... but we all have our lives to lead ...
It was also great to show off our part of Melbourne .. but I'm not quite sure how it all went down ... there was lunch at Trunk and then dinner over at Lucky Star (which I think did impress!) ... then there was brunch-tunch over at Birdman Eating and finally dinner at St Jude's Cellars.
Now let me just say that St Jude's was for me a bit of a dissappointment. When I looked up the menu online ... it was still structured as a series of sharing plates which was a huge selling point for me ... and then we rocked up we were presented with a chef's choice set menu of sharing plates and then an a la carte menu. Cheffy was having an one night methinks as the choices were a little too prosaic for the $55 price tag .... so this is what we opted for:
Entrees -
C & Me - Spanner crab, preserved lemon, basil, bread and french butter:
The crab was sweet and the combination of preserved lemon and butter on the bread was scrumptious - big big tick from me.
M had Hot smoked Brook trout, quail egg, and braised baby radish:
The combination of smoked trout, the soft quail's egg yolk and the mayo was TDF ... although a slightly stronger fish would have provided an interesting accent. One of the better smoked trout entrees around.
G had the Root vegetable, pearl barley and borlotti bean soup:
Good hearty soup - perhaps a little too homemade given its context ... but delicious - I would have added a bit of kale or mustard leaf to cut the sweetness ... oh listen to me I'm going all master cheffy now ... hope you're rolling eyes at the mo ... or giving the screen a side-eye!!!
As we had been drinking for the better part of the day, we slowed down with just one bottle - a temperanillo from WA - Bella Ridge Estate which we picked from the cellar itself. The prices listed are take away prices ... you add $15 if you're drinking in house ... you can order from the menu itself which has a vastly reduced list ... but the prices listed already include the $15 corkage.
After the such promising entrees, the mains were a bit of a letdown. Not that they were disastrously bad, but the flavour combinations just missed a little. I think mine and C's were the most successful.
I had Slow cooked pork scotch, pearl barley, cabbage and green sauce:
The taste of the pork was like a milder version of soya suace pork. It was just the right amount of tender and the cabage and pearly barley provided interesting texture and taste highlights ... the green sauce was tasty enough ... but I'm not sure if I would have missed it if it wasn't there.
C had the rabbit - Roasted rabbit, hazelnut, grain salad and cavolo nero:
It certainly looked great and M assures me that it tasted divine .. but its rabbit so I can't really comment.
Both G & M had the beef: Dry aged beef, roast jerusalem artichokes, king brown mushrooms:
For M it was a no-brainer as it came with Jerusalem Artichokes which he ranks up there with Black truffles ... unfotch no one else really shares his passion ... or at least no one else was as ebullient when they had a taste ... but this was the dish that marked the evening ... the beef was tough!! Too tough for these prices ... so I mentioned it to our friendly waitress who hopefully fed this back to the kitchen.
We couldn't stomach sweets so we went home for much needed respite! So whats the final word - good, but I wouldn't be hanging!
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