The day started miserably - we were lined up outside the building waiting for the doors to open and was caught in the rain which progressively grew worse. Gaz and I didn't have an umbrella so could only hold the event brochure over our heads. As we went into the hall, a guy closed his umbrella and dripped water right over me so my hair and jacket were all wet! How rude..!!
Luckily, from there it got better... Sweet smells of food wafted to our noses and we wasted no time getting some sample dishes. Our first dish was seared scallops topped with wagyu beef with an Asian salad side by Jacques Reymond. No pictures of this dish because I was so hungry I gobbled it all down before Gaz could take any pics.
Our second dish was the winner of the day - Black Cod with Miso by Nobu. Cod is always my fave fish, and this dish was nicely done. The fish slid down our throats like sweet butter. I'm not sure what the lychee looking red fruit at the side of the fish was, but it tasted a teeny bit sour, and had a seed inside. No idea what that spring onion lookalike either...
Third dish of Yellowtail Jalapeno with Yuzu Soy. The fish is probably 'cooked' with lemon. It was not soft like raw fish. I don't like Jalapeno, but Gaz ate it with the fish so the combo must work.
We attended a chef talk session with George Calombaris. About 22 of us sat around a large table, and were served these king salmon starters. One spoon had smoked salmon with cream cheese, and the other had diced raw salmon with capers and caviar. We were also served complimentary wine.
George Calombaris, of Masterchef fame and owner of several upmarket restaurants in Melbourne. He talked about his Greek inspired cooking, dishes when he was growing up, and even granted a boy his wish of working in his restaurant kitchen!
After the session, we got more food. The portions were quite small so we had to order more. Fourth dish - Baked crab sell served with Portuguese Sauce by Silks. Strong flavour of spices and creamy. I've tasted this somewhere else before, it's a Cantonese dish. I thought it had decent amount of crab flesh in there.
There were other non-restaurant stalls selling their products. This one is a chocolatier - hand crafted choc petals. Looks nice eh?
From the same stall - chocolate feathers.
Fifth dish - Lamb Souvlaki from Hellenic Republic, one of George's r'ant. The bread was really soft and fluffy. He told us that the baker uses yogourt in the bread to achieve the fluffiness. Unique thing is that the souvlaki has mustard and chips in it, can you see the chips?
Sixth dish - Pressed duck leg, preserved mushrooms, smoked tofu in red miso soup from Verge. Soup was nice and hot for the cold winter day. The pressed duck leg, submerged in the soup was meaty but give me a Cantonese roast duck anytime!
Seventh dish - Pork and prawn siu mai from Silks, just to fill my tummy up with something familiar :)
Eighth dish - Chocolate, honeycomb and salted caramel crunch from Circa, the Prince. It had really yummy sweet crunchy caramel in in the middle. The layers looked really good and I love the vases of flowers on the table. I didn't like the caramel at the bottom of the glass, too rich for me!
The exhibition building is a heritage building, and it had some great views.
Gaz wanted something refreshing so we had some gourmet ice cream from a stall. This is honey and walnut flavour. It tasted really natural, the sweetness is from the honey and completely natural tasting. There was nothing commercial about this tub!
Overall, the food was great and I can really see the difference between upmarket and normal r'ant food quality. I was glad to see that the r'ants being environmentally friendly by using eco friendly papier mache plates and bowls.
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