Suzuran, Camberwell, Melbourne

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It's already evident from my existing blog posts that I'm a Japanese food devotee. Authentic Japanese food in Melbourne is generally quite pricey and fancy, and sometimes I find myself just wanting a quick, cheap fix. Unfortunately, while there are sushi takeaways all over Melbourne, it's a real struggle to find an authentic one.

Suzuran, an unassuming little place at the northern end of Burke Rd in Camberwell, is welcome relief in Melbourne's sea of faux-Japanese. This is a grocery shop and sushi takeaway run by an all-Japanese team, which becomes apparent as soon as you walk in and hear the Japanese chatter and see the handwritten Japanese signs everywhere.

My family and I dropped in near closing time to pick up some sushi for dinner. The queue of customers even at that hour was a good first sign. A further glance around revealed that for a takeaway shop, Suzuran's roster of sushi and sashimi offerings is pretty impressive. You can order from a long list of platter combinations and/or from the individual piece menu. I noticed rather cool ingredients on the list, such as yuzu and whelk on the individual piece menu. I'm also pleased to report that Suzuran is super vegetarian-friendly; they offer many vegetarian platters and are also happy to do customised vegetarian platters.

The platter menu

Manchester Press

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My internet is finally back up and running after my area's cables got damaged in those raging Melbourne winds over the last two weeks, thank goodness! You really don't appreciate the necessity of the internet in the 21st century until you're left without it. At the same time, it was a nice little pause from being wired up 24/7!

Anyway, as my return to blogging, I thought I'd do a brunch-oriented review today. Manchester Press is a good summary of Melbourne brunch: eclectic, warehouse space found tucked away in a laneway. An interstate friend was in town for the weekend and our usual "thing" is to go for a girls' brunch, so I proposed Manchester Press, knowing that she enjoys artsy places like this and having seen the photos. Sure enough, it lived up to its expectations in that department.

The menu was relatively short; the focal points were definitely bagels and coffee. Although I'm not a coffee drinker myself, my friend rated her coffee highly and it was served with beautiful coffee art. Our other friend and I opted for the "juice of the day", which in our case was watermelon, rockmelon and mint. Can't say no to a beautifully made, all-natural, fresh juice!

At the time of my visit, I did not find the menu particularly vegetarian-friendly. There were virtually no savoury vegetarian items, with most of the bagel dishes coming with things like salmon, salami or pulled pork. The meateaters will be right at home here - looking at the menu, I thought that the combinations are very thoughtful and gourmet-quality, and judging by my friends' orders, the ingredients used are only the freshest. As for me, I looked to the sweet selection and ultimately opted for this bagel with marscapone, mixed berries, and pistachio dust:

The fruit marscapone was well done, being neither too heavy nor too sweet. If anything, I perhaps would have liked to see a few more berries in the mix. As for the bagel itself, well, the fantastic bagels which I had the privilege of trying in New York still set the benchmark for me, particularly in texture - the NYC bagels which I liked the most were ever so slightly softer and less dense in texture than these, but that may be my personal preference. And my benchmark is informed by awfully high standards, given that I woke up to bagels from famed NYC bakery Balthazar's in my hotel breakfast every morning! The Manchester Press take on the bagel is definitely great quality and one of the best I've tried in Melbourne and I would be happy to recommend it to anyone looking for a bagel fix here. Also note that you can ask for plain, seeded or fruit and nut bagels with your order as you please.

Manchester Press is one of those places which keeps a tight focus on doing a select few things, and doing them well. I'd come here if you're in the mood for good coffee, bagel-based dishes, and perhaps some fresh juice and cakes/slices on the side. If you want a more conventional meal with less bread or bagels and more things like cooked meat, pasta, risotto, and so on, or a menu with more variety in the type of dish served, I would look elsewhere. Meateaters will be happiest here judging by the menu, though I believe that since my visit, the lack of savoury vegetarian choices has been remedied with the addition of a bagel served with avocado, feta, chili and mint mash and cherry tomatoes, rocket and pine nuts. Overall, I was definitely impressed by the quality of what I had and by the atmosphere, and would definitely recommend Manchester Press to anyone looking for the kinds of things which fall within the focal scope of their work.

Rating: A+

Vegetarian Friendliness: 6/10

Price Range: $

 

Manchester Press

8 Rankins Lane, Melbourne

VIC 3000

Australia

 

(Ph): (03) 9600 4054

(W): www.facebook.com/manchesterpress
 

 

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Tuck Shop Take Away, Caulfield North

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Today I was in the mood for some lunchtime vegicurean exploration, so I made a trip to Caulfield North to test out this cute new eatery which a friend had told me about the day before. I did some pre-dining research, and learned that this is a new project started by husband-wife dream team Clinton and Katrina, who have honed their craft with the likes of Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck), Ben Shewry (Attica) and Shannon Bennett (Vue de Monde).

Tuck Shop is the epitome of what I view as one of this year's culinary trends: childhood food made good (remember that LuxBite lolly bag cake on Masterchef!). It reminds me of one of my fondest memories of New York, Momofuku Milk Bar. Americans reminisce over their milk bar snacks...we Aussies reminisce over our good old school tuckshops. I've long craved for a place in the same vein as Momofuku in Melbourne, and at last I've found it.

The eatery commands a prime position at the corner of Glen Eira Rd and Hawthorn Rd. It's a lovely spot to enjoy a bite while sitting at the window, watching the world go by, with Glen Eira Town Hall in the background. This was my view from the window seat:

The menu is approximately 50% savoury and 50% sweet. When I visited today, there were about four vegetarian options among the savoury items: a gourmet veggie burger, hand-cut chips, creamed corn-caramelised onion jaffles, and baked bean-double cheese jaffles. For such a small tuckshop-type place, that's plenty enough to keep vegos satisfied. Bring a meateating friend along to enjoy their regular burgers, which are already getting plenty of buzz around town!

I went for the creamed corn and caramelised onion jaffles as my savoury choice. Freshly pressed with a hint of melted cheese inside, these were very, very tasty and the flavour combination was excellent - "classic with a gourmet twist".

I'll confess that the vast majority of my visit was spent sinfully devouring sweet temptations. With my jaffles, I enjoyed an absolutely divine salted caramel milkshake. Yes, you heard that right! Other flavours on the milkshake menu include Nutella, Redskin and peanut butter, so it's safe to say I'll be coming back for some more taste-testing!

My second round of ordering consisted of a nutella soft-serve plus a redskin tart. Yum!!

There were several other sweet items which I didn't get around to trying: sweet jaffles, holey donuts, redskin-chocolate brownies, and huge choc-potato chip cookies. I'm also keen to try a few more of their constantly rotating soft serve flavours. Next time ;-) Side note: I'm an ex-Caulfield Grammar student - at the other campus out east, but I was often at the Glen Eira Rd campus for activities - and I'm unspeakably jealous of this generation of Grammarians who now have a "second tuckshop" just down the road in the form of Tuck Shop Take Away!

A lovely quirky little lunch or snack spot which is reasonably priced for the quality you get. The only thing is that the shop is really small and it's pretty hard to get a seat, so you'll just have to be a bit patient if you come in wanting to stick around and taste test instead of taking away (...like me!). Overall, a highly recommended spot for both vegetarians and omnivores with a sweet tooth, which manages to successfully mix childhood nostalgia with gourmet grown-up cooking.

UPDATE Wednesday 18/9: I went back with a friend today on a food run after a long day and finally came with enough appetite to try the veggie burger plus a few other things, so I thought I'd add these comments to my original review. Tired and hungry while waiting for our burgers, we started with dessert, opting for their brand-new concoction, the toffee apple crumble. Big thumbs up - I loved the interaction between the apple pie crumble, ganache icing, apple cream cheese and the sponge cake.

Then, along came our "mains", and we both thought the high-quality, mildly sweet brioche buns matched up so well with the savoury patties. The fries were also beautifully done, with a texture which is soft but lightly crispy on the outside. Alongside our mains, I tried the peanut butter milkshake while my friend followed my recommendation to try the salted caramel; both of us agreed that although both were great, the salted caramel is the better of the two from a milkshake perspective. Finally, I finished our sneaky little food run with a very, very more-ish Redskin-chocolate brownie to take away...well, truth be told, it only got as far as my car before we just had to devour it. By the way, we got the owners' tick of approval for splitting our dessert-eating between before and after mains ;-)

 

Rating: A+

Vegetarian Friendliness: 8.5/10

Price Range: $

 

Tuck Shop Take Away

273 Hawthorn Rd.

Caulfield North, VIC

Australia
 

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