Hammer and Tong, Fitzroy

Hammer and Tong is one of those cafes that has been on my wishlist for a long while after hearing lots of raves from fellow foodies. Owned by Dennis Ferreira and Simon Ward (formerly at Vue de Monde), it has gained attention not long after it opened with their deliciously unique brunch dishes such as their popular breakfast ramen, soft shell crab roll, ox cheek benedict and the duck egg and candied bacon waffle. And heck, who doesn't love an all day breakfast menu?  

Long black

Housed at the former spot of Brix, the venue has that minimalist decor with the use of grey as the main colour. Although we arrived quite late, the atmosphere was still busy and lively. Thankfully we got a table very quickly since we arrived past peak lunch hour (lol). By this time I was on my 3rd long black coffee of the day. Still needed more energy heh.  

Chilli Scrambled Eggs

Chilli scrambled eggs was F's dish pick due to her love of spicy food. Didn't try much but from what I can recall, it had a nice balance of flavours with the chilli sauce on the main dish and the avocado on the side to ease the heat. Not sure if this is still on the menu as of now though.

Breakfast Ramen

Both CC and I had our eyes on the ramen as well as a few other dishes. Eventually CC was the one who settled with Hammer and Tong's signature dish. This consisted of 62c hens egg, bacon, mushrooms, spring onion and bacon dashi. We enjoyed watching our waiter pouring the broth into the bowl in a timely and delicate manner. The broth itself was light and the egg was well-cooked along with the al-dente ramen noodles. Would love to come back again for this dish.  

Soft Shell Crab Burger

After spotting this in many photos about this cafe, I was equally eager to try the soft shell crab burger. It may look small but it felt quite filling. Plenty of crispy, fresh and juicy soft shell crab to enjoy packed into a fluffy and toasted brioche bun with shredded sesame slaw, coriander, spring onion and sriracha mayo. This is certainly one of the best soft shell crab burgers I've had mainly because all those ingredients worked so well together in terms of its taste.   

Out of all the cafes I've been to in Melbourne in the last 3 years, this is definitely one of my top picks of places to go. Satisfied with the food and the service seemed decent for us as well. If I ever live in Melbourne, this would be one of those cafes I would be keen to go back every now and then.

Hammer and Tong
Rear 412 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
(03) 9041 6033
http://hammerandtong.com.au/
 

Eating Around Melbourne - The Savoury Edition

For those of you who read my last post thinking "damn she drinks alot of coffee"...well there was savoury (and sweet) food too here and there. Here's another recap of a few places I've popped by during my brief Melbourne weekend trip

CONE HEADS, MELBOURNE CBD

Chips and Gravy (R: $6.50, L: $7.90)

I arrived in Melbourne very late on Friday and the other girls wanted to get an early rest for the following day. Sadly, Huxtaburger CBD was closed and it was too cold to walk around so we stumbled upon a few fast food eateries close to our hotel and eventually settled on Cone Heads (not to be confused with that 90's comedy movie) because it's halal friendly. Sure it may not be the first thing that will pop up into your mind when you are in Melbourne but it actually has a few franchises including one that has just opened in Pakistan! It's the type of food that we can see ourselves eating after an epic night out clubbing. Despite the many layers of thick country style gravy coating the chips, it actually didn't get soggy. Was still quite crispy after we ate more of these chips back at the hotel. If you are a big fan of poutine, this is also available at Cone Heads. Perfect for a dirty, late night feed.

Cone Heads
Shop 6, 2-26 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
http://coneheadschips.com/
Sun-Thurs: 9:00am - 1:00am
Fri-Sat: 9:00am - 3:00am
 


BELLE'S HOT CHICKEN

A few week ago, I've had the pleasure of tasting Belle's Hot Chicken at Harpoon Harry's. Even though the wait a the pop up was agonising, it was worth it in the end. It was actually my second time tasting the Nashville-style hot chicken since I have also made a visit to the Fitzroy restaurant at the recent trip. The restaurant vibe had a similar noisy, pub-like vibe with a Melbourne hipster edge judging from the crowd and the atmosphere of the venue.

Bourbon Iced Tea

There were heaps of choices on the beverage menu - particularly wine. However, I was intrigued by their uniquely combined Bourbon Iced Tea. While there's that alcoholic taste from the bourbon liquor, the sweet ice tea makes it drinkable like a normal ice tea if straight bourbon isn't your strength. This is perfect to wash down after devouring the fried chicken pieces.

Belle's Hot Chicken Tenders with Mixed Pickles ($16.00)

For Belle's famous chicken, you get a choice of tenders, wings or dark meat (drumstick and thigh). At $16.00, the meat menu comes with a choice of 1 side for no extra cost. Feeling a little guilty about the food I've consumed all day, I opted for mixed pickles as my side dish. While it was called "mixed pickles", it was actually a variety of veggies with a sour taste that helps with the fatty flavour from the chicken. You also get to choose the level of spice for your chicken. FYI, I tried the hot level at Harpoon Harry and my tongue was already burning from that level let alone their hottest "Really f@$*in hot" flavour. At medium, I was already getting quick a kick from the spices though I thoroughly enjoyed its crumbled skin and tender chicken meat. Definitely one of my fave eats in Melbourne for this trip.

Belle's Hot Chicken
150 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
(03) 9077 0788
http://www.belleshotchicken.com/
Mon-Sun: 12:00pm - 10:00pm
 


KOKORO RAMEN

This review was mostly through the perspective of my friends T and AC who were still hungry after our visit to Supernormal. On the other hand, I was too full but went along to check it out with them. I did have a small tasting of each of the bowls and from what I can tell, they were completely satisfied with the ramen at this joint. 

Miso Ramen with Soft Shell Crab ($18.00) with extra Ajitama egg (additional $2.00)

The menu at Kokoro is 12 pages worth of food including many different types of ramen from various regions of Japan. It even gives you a bit of background history behind the origin of the ramen, which is pretty cool. There is even a ramen burger! GG. The miso ramen that T tried was based in the Sapporo region. It has a thick, tonkotsu pork broth with an additional miso paste for that tangy, slow-cooked flavour. This was served with an Ajitama egg (though T wanted more so he ordered an extra one!), bamboo shoot, spring onion, black fungi, sesame seeds and a thin, straight and firm egg noodle. Loved the colourful look of the broth and it seemed to be more flavoursome than some of the other miso ramens I've had in the past from what I've sampled. T gave this two thumbs up. 

Shio Ramen - small ($7.80) with Soft Shell Crab ($8.00)

AC got a smaller bowl of the lighter, salt-based Shio Ramen. This type of ramen was based in the Nagahama region in the southern island of Japan. The broth was clearer and not as flavoursome as the miso ramen but AC seemed to enjoy this as well. Both bowls had that irresistably gooey egg and the guys have also opted for the soft shell version, which was highly recommended at Kokoro ramen. It was crisp on the outside, juicy on the inside and seemed to stood out so well in both bowls. The pork that came with the shio ramen was on the thick side and seemed quite tender from what I've tasted. It's a shame that I was quite full to get a proper experience at Kokoro Ramen but it was good to see the mates feeling so satisfied from their time here. 

Kokoro Ramen
157 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9650 1215
http://kokororamen.com/
Mon-Fri: 11:30am - 3:00pm, 5:00pm - 10:30pm
Sat: 11:30am - 10:30pm
Sun: 11:30am - 9:00pm
 

Stay tuned for the final Melbourne recap on The Random Foodie (for now) where I explore lots and lots of sweet stores in Melbourne CBD and South Yarra.

Naked For Satan - Fitzroy, Melbourne

Since my trip to Spain in 2012, I became a huge fan of pintxos (or Spanish finger food on a stick). So I was sad to hear that The Carrington, one of the very few places in Sydney that serves pintxos, has ceased serving these bite sized snacks for good and has now altered the menu to Latin American dishes. But that's for another review. When I heard that Melbourne has a pintxos and vodka bar known as Naked for Satan, I knew I had to include it in my list of places to eat for my trip. Though it was a bit hard trying to convince some of my friends that it was not a venue involving naked people and Satanism.

The venue does not do bookings and it was a Saturday night so the best thing to do is rock up. Once we were inside, the atmosphere was crazy but there was no front of house staff to put you on a waiting list. So we had to wait or look around for a table and luckily there was a group about to leave. There was a hip, casual and buzzing vibe inside the bar with lots of cool kids mingling around and posters of naked people lingering around the walls to keep up with the name. Oh and dim lighting. Sorry about the pics. 

The pintxos bar is similar to a buffet, only much more delicious! Very cheap too at only $2 per pintxos and if you show up during weekday lunch or have dinner on the less busy nights, then it's only $1! Great place if you are on a budget though if you like chowing down pintxo after pintxo like me then it's easy to get carried away. Basically, you get whichever dish you want with the provided tongs onto your plate and make sure you keep the toothpicks which will be used to pay later on when you are done. We weren't sure if this was an effective method since it's easy to lose more than a few toothpicks and pay less for your feed (especially if you are drunk or a tightarse) but apparently it seems to work. 

Seafood with Prawn and Capsicum 

The Imaya - Garlic, Cherry Tomato, White Anchovy, Parsley - FAVE

Wagyu Bresaola - FAVE

Tortilla (Egg, Potato and Onions) with Aioli

Smoked Chilli Mussels and Chickpea

Sundried Tomato with Cispy Pancetta and Peas- FAVE

Smoked Salmon with Pickled Onion - FAVE

Pissaladiere - Onions, Anchovy and Olive

Smoked Duck with Relish - quite sweet actually

Black eyed Bean Salad with Carrot

As you can see, I definitely got carried away with the pintxos because they were so tasty and addictive. While there were so many with generous and perhaps unusual toppings, my pick of the bunch was actually the fresh and simple smoked salmon and the plain-looking wagyu bresola. Seriously, I could eat cured meat on a slice bread all day and never get sick of it. Even got seconds! Another top pick of mine was the sun-dried tomato with pancetta and peas because the overall flavours worked so well together...and of course the pancetta! Everything else were just as delicious though my least fave would have to be the Pissaladiere because of its strong and salty flavours and the grainy texture. There was also a few that were tasty but I reckon woul be even better if they were delivered hot to our table such as the Tortilla with Aioli. 

Croquette

Empanada

Speaking of which, you often get waiters carrying plates of hot pintxos delivered to your table where you get the option of grabbing that bite or not. Very similar to what you see at yum cha but with a Spanish touch. Really enjoyed the creamy and cheesy croquette and the empanada. Wished I had the stomach to try more of the hot pintxos.

Chorizo, Cream Cheese and Green Chilli

I didn't end up trying the above dish but most of my friends did and reckon this deserves a shoutout. This was one of their faves out of the pintxos for them even though they thought it was slightly spicy. A couple of them even got seconds for this plate. 

Rich Chocolate Rum Ball with Pistachio

Within the platter of savoury dishes, you can even find a few sweet pintxos when you are feel like having dessert. The rich chocolate rum ball had an intense, bitter but sweet flavour that you would usually expect from truffles. Very nice to have after eating so many savoury pintxos.

We didn't end up checking out their rooftop area 'Naked in the Sky' because of the long queues to get to that space nor did we end up trying out the signature vodka (we ended up having sangria as usual). While the service was friendly, we wished that there was a person at the front taking names down and call us back later since it was incredibly packed and messy. Other than that, this bar reminded me of the restaurants in my Barcelona trip  eating up all the pintxos. It's a great place to chill and mingle with your friends while nibbling on these snacks. And it's super cheap which will make your wallet happy. If I lived in Melbourne or have more trips in the near future, I will definitely be returning to try more pintxos and to make a visit to Naked in the Sky. I do love a good rooftop bar.

Naked for Satan
285 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
(03) 9416 2238
http://www.nakedforsatan.com.au/
Sun-Thurs: 12:00pm - 12:00am
Fri-Sat: 12:00pm - 1:00am