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
World Food: Australian
Koliba
I have many fond memories of Eastern European hospitality from my growing up years. These memories centre around hearty, soul-warming food served in abundance (ie. quantities unable to be consumed by number of persons present).
One specific Slovakian birthday party comes to mind, where I walked through the columned entranceway to be greeted by a large table overflowing with an eye-popping selection of home-baked savouries. The table was cleared mid-party to make way for an even more eye-popping, decadent selection of desserts. The family must have been eating leftovers for weeks. Marvellous. I marvelled.
Then there were Thursday afternoons in high school where I enjoyed Greek hospitality. Although there was that one afternoon at Yiayia's when I ate a clove cookie, including the clove, biting directly into said clove. The question of whether Greek cookies were meant to be like this did enter my mind as I got the sinus clearing of a lifetime (up until Shou Sumiyaki). Yiayia's tiropitas more than compensated, and are still my favourite finger-food.
The two blessed patrons of these memories now form part of the Fantastical Five devoted to discovering world food. Courtesy of our Slovakian member, the September world food of choice was Czech and Slovak, at Koliba on Johnstone St.
I had high expectations, quantity-wise - nothing less than massive dinner plates filled to capacity with hearty stewed meat and gravy and potatoes - and I was not disappointed.
I didn't have meat myself, because I had a conniption on discovering you could order a main of crumbed, fried Camembert. Cheese as the main? Just cheese?? When they brought it out, it was an entire Camembert round, with a salad, homemade tartare sauce and about as many shoestring fries as I could eat on the side. Sure, it was no King Island Camembert, but it oozed out gloriously from its crumby coating and... it was a main of cheese. Ridiculous.
The restuarant has a warm, country tavern feel inside that makes you half expect the beer to come out in a boot, and while the food is more homestyle than refined, you certainly leave feeling satisfied. Potatoes and cabbage were big players on the menu, and I had to smile when I saw that sides on offer were "cabbage or bowl of chips". So if you're after a bowl of cabbage with your crumbed Camembert, this is a nice little place to get it.
Koliba
Czech and Slovak Restaurant
11 Johnstone St. Collingwood
Ph. 9417 3797
koliba.com.au