World Food: Australian

This month, world food took a bit of a novelty turn. One of the gang had heard about a restaurant in Federation Square that served 'native Australian' food. I think we half went out of curiosity because we had no idea what in the world would constitute Australian food. Would there be damper? Witchetty grubs? Mum's spag bol??

No. And no meat pies either. The menu at Tjananbi was much more along the lines of 'char-grilled emu fan fillet and crispy pancetta served medium rare with a vegetable sunset timbale and a sauce of sweet and sour North Queensland plums'. Basically, native Australian animals plus flavours and ingredients you typically associate with Oz, eg. wild rosella, eucalyptus, macadamia, with lots of regional name-dropping.

First the waiter brings out fresh bread rolls which you dip in olive oil and then in a native seed and nut mix. The menu gives you flexible ordering options - taster plates, small plates and main dishes - so you can do a lot of sampling. We ordered a table of small plates to share of calamari, prawns, crocodile rice paper rolls, duck wings, asparagus and pork belly, and one had a main of kangaroo. The food was light, fresh and well-presented, but also light on portion size, and we were ready to prowl Swanston Street for coffee and dessert immediately.

I found the whole thing a tad confusing. The restaurant has an Aboriginal name and preamble, and while I'm sure native Australians ate wallaby and emu and so forth, somehow I doubt they ever served them with a desiree potato saute and Victorian quandong jus.

As we passed the touristy gift shops in the Atrium with their glass sculptures and Australian-themed holiday house decor items, it suddenly clicked that Tjanabi was like the restaurant version of these shops. You can buy something good quality and interesting there, if not a little overpriced, but they're really places contrived for visitors. Which have their place - there aren't many places about town you can enjoy fresh crocodile rice paper rolls.


Tjanjabi @ Fed Square - Australian

The Atrium
Federation Square
Flinders St. Melbourne
Ph. 9662 1225
tjanabi.com.au
$24-$38