What I Love About Melbourne

I love Melbourne for its amazing culinary scene. Plain and simple. I wined and dined myself silly in (arguably) Australia’s food capital, which would become (and remains) one of my favorite cities in the world.

While I was dining alone at Lau’s Family Kitchen in St. Kilda (oh my gawd, oysters with black bean sauce and crispy pork belly!), I was lucky enough to meet one of the Laus himself. Michael’s family owns a few of the city’s most legendary restaurants, most notably The Flower Drum, and he would quickly become my dearest foodie friend in Melbourne. In his good company, I had the pleasure of indulging in some of Melbourne’s culinary finest.

My favorite outing would have to be at the famed tapas restaurant Movida. Michael knew the folks there, so they didn’t bother giving us menus.

Instead, they told us to sit back and relax, as they doled out their best items – one brilliant tapas dish after another. It went a little something like this:

Manchego custard with fresh black truffle in egg shells, potato crisp & leek,
also known as multiple orgasms (seriously one of the best things I have ever tasted)

Hand filleted Cantabrian artisan anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet
(and you know how much I heart anchovies!)

Prawn pincho with romesco

Roasted scallop with jamon and potato foam

Squab breast, pan seared with carrot & onion puree (absolute perfection!)

Smoked Spanish mackerel with pine nut gazpacho sorbet

Pan seared quail breasts with fried bread and grapes (holy wowza!)

Gold band snapper with oven roasted heirloom tomatoes and Padrón peppers

Slowly braised beef cheek in Pedro Ximenez on cauliflower puree (oh mah gawwwd!)

Creme caramel flan with Pestiños

They really rolled out the red carpet for us – the dishes just kept on comin’ and comin’. There were four more items not pictured here, plus a couple glasses of Spanish white wine. And this was just LUNCH!

I’d unknowingly made a huge spectacle of myself with my very vocal orgasmic-Meg-Ryan-esque enjoyment of the food. I was in pure heaven!

Our waitress so loved watching me eat that she had the kitchen start preparing me a SOUFFLE! Sadly, I had to leave and catch a flight. *Sniff*

I should’ve been the one oozing with gratitude (and I was), but the staff at Movida were so delighted with my delight, they thanked ME for enjoying their food so much – and next thing I knew, they were presenting me with a 350+ page hardback Movida cookbook, signed by the chef himself!

My dear Movida Bar de Tapas y Vino, I’d like to marry you.

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Note: this amaaaaazing dining experience took place in 2009 at the beginning of my worldwide trip. Surely the menu has changed since then, but I’m sure it’s still brilliant.