GIVEAWAY - win two tickets to a tour of the Melbourne Wholesale Market!

Disclaimer:  I have two tickets to give away to a Food and Wine Festival event (more details in body of post).  I am not being paid or otherwise compensated to run this giveaway.  See below for full disclaimer.

Image c/- Lauren Wambach

So sometime this year, a big part of the western suburbs is going to disappear.  It's the Melbourne Wholesale Fruit, Vegetable and Flower Market, which has been trading on the northern side of Footscray Road since 1969.  The market has been continuously trading, whether at Footscray Road or on other sites in the Melbourne CBD, since 1841.

Image c/- Melbourne Market Authority

The market is moving to Epping to a new purpose-built facility later this year.  I have two tickets to give away for a tour of the market, which is pretty much your last chance to check it out before it hitches a ride north!

Image c/- Lauren Wambach

I did a tour of the wholesale market back in 2010 and loved it.  It's the point in Melbourne where produce changes hands from growers to retailers, and it is normally closed up tight to the general public.

Image c/- Lauren Wambach

Says Karen Vella of the Melbourne Market Authority:  "Many of the local products are picked and placed on the shelves within 24-36 hours...  Market-sourced fruit and veg is the best way to get the freshest as the growers and retailers meet in one place, exchange goods and it’s then on the shelf all within one day."

Image c/- Melbourne Market Authority

The market is not only populated by growers, but by wholesalers too.  When I went on my tour, I remember a fascinating peek behind the scenes of a family-run, sixth-generation ginger wholesaler.  The great-great-great x 6 grandson had some wonderful stories and tall tales to tell about his family's life and work in the market over the years and down the generations.

Image c/- Melbourne Market Authority

The two tickets I have to give away are for the tour on Friday 13 March, 6am-8am.  Karen Vella reports that "our tour operator Jan will be taking visitors around the market on a little train.  Visitors will have the opportunity to meet growers and wholesalers and see a wide range of produce.  Jan will talk about the trends of produce and show visitors different varieties including heirloom vegetables, newer Asian vegetables etc…

Image c/- Melbourne Market Authority

"Each tour will be different as it depends on the growers and wholesalers available on the morning. We will be providing a light breakfast and a take-home pack."  (PS:  You don't normally get this pack if you go on a regular tour - this is a Melbourne Food and Wine Festival special!)  See more details on the MFWF website here.

And how do I win these amazing tickets, you say?  Inspired by Ros's beautiful postcard from Footscray, I want to hear in 50 words or less, your best westie story - the one that just sums Footscray, or the inner west, up.

Here's an example:  I remember being at Rina's Coffee and Nuts in Footscray Market having a coffee with Annie, the owner.  There were two old guys there - one Southern European, one Asian - and we got chatting.  One was the acupuncturist to the other - he'd been treating him at his Footscray clinic for, like, 30 years - and they always went for a coffee and a chat at Rina's after.  Footscray in a nutshell.

To enter, email your story to lauren@laurenwambach.com by midnight, this Friday, 6 March.  I'll announce the winner on Monday, 9 March.  The winning story will be published on Footscray Food Blog (if you want to remain anonymous, that is absolutely fine - I'll check with you how you'd like to be credited before publishing).

PS:  I'm not going to count the words, so don't have a fit if you're a few words over!  You can also write about elsewhere in the west, eg, Sunshine, St Albans...  And if you miss out, I believe there are still tickets to the tour available - get 'em here.

Disclaimer:  The Melbourne Market Authority contacted me asking me to help promote their Food and Wine Festival event.  I suggested a giveaway of tickets.  I was motivated to do this because I genuinely believe the Melb. Wholesale Market is an important part of the west and soon it will be gone forever.  I attended one of their tours in 2010, paid completely out of my own pocket, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I am not receiving any financial or other compensation for running this giveaway.

Show-stopping Ethiopian in North Melbourne

Telling someone who lives in Footscray that they know a great Ethiopian restaurant elsewhere in Melbourne is kind of like selling ice to eskimos.  But hey - I like ice.

Little Africa is on Victoria Street in North/West Melbourne, not far from the Vic Market.  It's teeny tiny inside and quite lovely, with interesting bits and bobs decorating the walls and each table set with a tiny red tea light.  I loved the gorgeous young waiter, softly spoken and wearing regulation hipster garb of skinny jeans turned up at the ankles and black plimsolls.

Some frosty beers while we perused the menu.  There are loads of interesting things, all with clear descriptions.  I had my eye on kitfo - "freshly minced lean beaf sauteed with warm clarified butter, mitmita [chilli] and cardamon" or maybe dorho aletcha - "cubes of chicken breast marinated and sauteed with spices, onions and peppers".  But it's still very hard to go past just the straight-up vegetarian combo as a good marker of an Ethiopian joint.

Veg combo, $20 for one, $35 for two (each additional person $18)

WHOA - did I say marker?  I meant goalpost.  As in, sailed right through.  Yes, I know it makes no sense.  But look at those colours and textures!  The chef (mum?) brought out this huge platter covered with a big sombrero-like woven cloche.  So from the 6 o'clock possie we have dubba - pumpkin cooked until collapsing in berbere spice.  Sweet, rich, oh so divine.  Heading left, I loved these simple veg, cooked very lightly in a little garlic and still with so much freshness, colour and flavour.  What a fresh, modern touch.  Then brown lentils, cooked with berbere, earthy and just perfect.

So to the left of the lentils is fool - dried broad beans cooked down with tomatoes, chillis and onions for a warm cumin-rich treat.  Then, still heading left, my fave and something not all too often seen - shiro, powdered dried chickpeas cooked with berbere for a silky smooth, rich, seductive paste.  Then finally cabbage and carrots cooked in garlic, ginger and turmeric.  The cabbage, like the veg, was left chunky in leaves - I think I prefer it a bit more shredded.  But oh boy, the flavours, I tell you!!!  They were all brought together by lemony, super-fresh salad in the middle.  This was seriously incredible East African food.

We ate to our heart's content and then we ate some more...and some more, and suddenly our "dinner and a few beers" looked like it might be more like "one beer and stagger home, protuberant stomach first".  We managed to waddle the few doors to Prudence where we groaned in painful satisfaction and sipped icy beer very slowly.

As we sat, the lovely young man from Little Africa entered again and again with more giant trays with peaked, woven covers that emitted smells that still tantalised, despite our stuffed state.  Turns out the good citizens of North Melbourne have cottoned on to this most excellent idea, and are taking it up with gusto.

This is East African fare worth travelling for.  RUN DON'T WALK!



PS:  I would book.  They are already pretty busy!  If they're full, you can always "order in" at Prudence!
PPS:  I am pretty sure they have rice!  (I heard someone ordering it.)

Little Africa
358 Victoria Street, North Melbourne
Phone:  9329 8018

Hours:  Tues-Sun 5-10pm

Donwoori

Korean BBQ is heaps of fun.  If you are one half of a couple where you regularly lament "but my partner eats nothing but meat and bread", I promise you that Korean BBQ is the way to break that cycle.  Who can resist all that smoky, Maillard-reaction deliciousness occurring before your very eyes and most importantly, nostrils?  And so it's rice, not bread.  Meh, who cares!!

Donwoori is the newest in the string of Korean BBQ joints in West Melbourne, although when I say newest, it's been there for about four or five years.  It's quite tiny inside, with handsome young men doing a delicate dance with enormous pots of white-hot charcoal.  I love all the wood here, like at Wooga right nearby - it gives it such a cosy feeling.

The cosiness gives a convivial atmosphere, helped by the delightful young Korean waiters.  Grab a Hite Korean beer and maybe some soju, sake-like Korean rice wine.  I think it tastes like metho but Mr Baklover loves it!  Traditionally in Korea it is rude to pour your own drink, so your dining partner should pour yours, making sure they place their alternate hand on the forearm of the pouring arm.  The closer to the elbow you place this hand, the greater the status of the person you are pouring for.  There are a whole lot of other customs about who drinks first, who lights whose cigarette and so on.

You can pick and choose your meats but the banquet sets are easiest.  Little bowls of kim chi and other pickled side dishes arrive first for beery nibbling.  Often you will get lettuce to wrap your grilled meat in, but here we got an emerald bowl of shredded spring onion with sweet bean sauce.  I think it was for eating with the meat but we ate most of it beforehand, it was so yummy!

Butterflied beef rib, unfurled like a pennant.  The banquet ($39 for two) also had topside beef (no pic, too busy gorging) and...

...marinated flank steak.  The meat sizzles away merrily over the hot charcoal and depending on the establishment, will be turned and taken off for you.  I find it hard to wait though!  There are sauces for dipping, a sweetened bean sauce and sesame oil with garlic, and tender short grain rice.

Also part of our set was this soybean paste stew, which was gorgeous, like a warm hug from the inside.  It had juicy tofu and seductively soft cubes of potato and zucchini as well as petals of cooked beef, all in a smooth soybean broth.

Seafood pancake, $12

Looooved this Korean pancake.  Sometimes called Korean pizza, they are crispy, usually thin pancakes filled with all manner of tender seafood and just-cooked veg.

I really enjoyed Donwoori, although IIRC I think the meat was a little tastier at Wooga next door.  (Also much love for Hwaro in the city which I will write about one day.)  Donwoori is a firm favourite of Melbourne bloggers Agnes and Thanh.  Get that stick-in-the-mud partner down there and get stuck in.

Donwoori

276 Victoria Street, West Melbourne



View Footscrayfoodblog reviews in a larger map

White Lotus

Mock meat.  If you're a meat-eater, what's the point?  It seems obvious, but consider - why walk when you can drive?  Why grow vegetables when you can buy them from the shop?  Because sometimes the less obvious option, that might initially seem like a mere conceit, is actually pleasurable in itself.

The White Lotus is a real Melbourne fixture.  It is a genuine family-run business and all the mock meats are made on the premises.  There is a strong tradition of vegetarianism in Buddhism, and Buddhist cuisine has evolved as a unique entity, focusing on creating mock meats out of "beans, taro, yam, gluten and flour by [the] chef Shirley Lee", to quote their menu.

So old school, I love it.  Napkins in little hats, red lanterns, plastic flowers - almost the vision of a suburban Chinese restaurant.  But instead of those restaurant's relative opulence, with dark carpet and fake gold trim, The White Lotus' white tiled walls give it a slight air of austerity.

Roast Vegetarian Duck, $19

The mock duck is anything but austere, however.  I lifted a piece suspiciously to my mouth and felt my eyebrows rise in unison with those of my dining companions.  It was really, really good!  The "skin" was crispy and underneath had a layer of tasty "fat", just like real duck skin.  The "meat" was juicy and rich - the main differentiating factor was that it lacked the grain that real meat has.  But the taste!  It actually tasted like duck but with no off-putting greasiness.  I have no idea how they did it.  The sauce was light, soy-based and the duck came on snow peas and bean sprouts.  Divine!  When we went to pay, we saw a family of four, three of whom all had their own individual plates of duck.  It was that good.

Vegetarian Fish in Tamarind Sauce, $19

This tamarind fish won Cheap Eats' vegetarian dish of the year back in 2007.  It is really incredible.  Apparently the gluten is layered somehow to produce a very delicate, almost flaky texture, just like real fish.  The crispy skin is made from a layer of beancurd over a layer of nori seaweed to give the scent of the sea.  The sauce was fabulous of itself - very much like Assam sauce apparently, based on sour tamarind but mellowed with a little sweetness and perhaps tomato.

White Lotus Special Vegetable Combination, $16

These vegies were okay - the White Lotus uses no garlic, onion or anything else from the allium family and I noticed the lack of garlic in this dish.  I also doubt they use MSG.  Nevertheless this worked as a palate cleanser for the other two much stronger-flavoured dishes.  It included interesting Chinese ingredients such as lotus buds, white fungus, black fungus and lotus root.  The black fungus is often found in spring rolls - look for the little black strips

I really respect vegetarians.  For me, meat is something of a carnal pleasure - I can't resist that charred, fatty, rounded mouth feel it has.  I get really annoyed when Anthony Bourdain or other chefs bag vegetarians because to me it is a beautiful philosophy and something, try as I might, I don't know if I have the strength to maintain.  In both Hindu and Buddhist cultures there are traditions of on-off vegetarianism which people may take up as a spiritual exercise.  I like that idea.

Meanwhile, if you do eat meat, why bother going to White Lotus?  Because the bottom line is, it tastes awesome.

P.S.  Vegetarians and vegans, did you know there is a vegetarian yum cha place in Box Hill??



White Lotus

185 Victoria Street, West Melbourne (map)

Phone:  9326 6040
Hours:  Thurs to Sat only, 6pm-10pm

Gurney Drive, West Melbourne

UPDATE:  This restaurant is now closed.  Kari Leaf is in its place and is reportedly not as good.

Walking to Gurney Drive past window after window of happy people eating Korean BBQ, resist the temptation to text your friends "want beef ribs instead?"  This small Penang-style hawker restaurant is worth holding out for.

Gurney Drive is apparently the name of a famous hawker centre in Penang, an island off the coast of Malaysia, somewhat near the Thai border.  Penang is most famous for its Assam laksa which is a non-coconut-based laksa, dark and tangy with tamarind.

Penang Char Kuey Teow, $9.80

THIS HAS COCKLES.  I repeat... COCKLES.  Here in Melbourne, it seems these tiny molluscs are the most elusive feature of authentic char kuey teow.  This version was unlike the Singaporean style which is much darker and richer from the dark soy used.  This was lightly seasoned, had good chilli heat and really tasted fresh and lively.  It was simply the sum of its parts, which were all good quality and so tasty.  Thanks Wendy for the tip a while ago!

Combination hor fun, $9.50

This is a new favourite of mine even though at first glance it looks so unappealing with so much wet sauce on a small amount of noodles.  The noodles here were the classic wide rice noodles, licked with wok hei and then buried beneath lots of thick, delicious, mild gravy.  Very fresh prawns, calamari and fish cake featured and were divine with a little soy and fresh chilli.

Nyonya fish, $16.80

A heaping plate of rice flour-dusted, thin fish fillets, curled and crispy, doused in "Nyonya-style" sauce which was tangy with tamarind, ginger and tomato.  This was well executed and tasty but I would try something else next time.  I always think deep frying is wasted on things that then have a sauce over the top!

Sambal kang kong, $13.80

I must have been a water insect in another life as I can't get enough of this aquatic plant, kang kong or water spianch.  It grows like a weed across Southeast Asia and has intriguing, tender, hollow stems.  You can see huge bunches of it in the markets in Footscray under its Vietnamese name, rau muong.  This was so fantastic - cooked with sweeter Malaysian-style sambal, heady with belacan and dried shrimp and with plenty of well-fried garlic.  I loved it - I could eat this every day!

Gurney Drive was packed when we left with not a spare seat in the house, and for good reason.  Two big thumbs up!

Gurney Drive

284 Victoria Street, West Melbourne (map)

Phone:  9329 6649 

No Wheelchair access 

Melbourne Wholesale Fruit & Vegie Market

I have previously written about farmers' markets and I assumed that by cutting out the middleman, this could be nothing more than beneficial for both parties.  The comments on that post surprised me somewhat to learn that farmers actually struggle to turn a profit at a farmers' market and many prefer to sell to the wholesale fruit & vegie market as has been traditional, and perhaps supplement that with farmgate sales.  Like many Western suburbanites, I have driven past the wholesale fruit & vegie market in Footscray Road innumerable times and wondered what went on inside.  It was so exciting then when Deb invited me on one of their regular tours - finally I could see the "missing link" in the chain that connected farmers with fruit & veg shops.

So at 6am we donned fluoro yellow vests and boarded our little noddy bus for a 2-hour tour with our friendly and knowledgeable guide.  The wholesale fruit & vegie market has been on this West Melbourne site since 1969.  Previously it was located at the Vic Market which basically ran 24 hours a day at that time - all night for wholesale and almost all day for retail.

Under the long roof, the wholesalers line the outer edges of the market.  These businessmen and women buy fruit and veg from various growers and then specialise in a certain range of produce, be it capsicums and stone fruit or sweet potatoes and ginger.  Everything is sold by the box.  There aren't any prices but apparently they are similar everywhere in the market.  The wholesalers have snazzier premises and at the end of the day, put everything back inside, shut the rollerdoors and then turn on big cooling fans inside to refrigerate the produce until the next trading day.  I learnt that La Manna bananas are actually a group of banana growers, not just an enormous plantation, who have banded together to become their own kind of cooperative.

In the centre of the market are the small-scale producers.  They are all within 2 hours of Melbourne, from Bacchus Marsh, Werribee, Cranbourne and other places.  They come in every day and pack up everything at the end of that day to take it back to their farm.  A group of us banded together and bought a huge bunch of Australian garlic from this lovely man, which we then split up between us.  The wholesale fruit & vegie market supplies fruit & veg shops, retail market stalls and independent supermarkets.  The big supermarkets generally have contracts with farms direct and buy their entire crop.

It's like a little city inside the market with about five separate, independent cafes.  There are forklifts everywhere travelling at buttock-clenching speeds, dodging pedestrians, weaving in and out of towering stacks of produce.  There are also funny little sputtering, diesel-belching motorbikes with pallets attached that reminded me of the tuk-tuks in India.

I highly recommend the tour - this is just a very basic overview.  We had lots of great chats to both wholesalers and small-scale producers.  The history of Melbourne, in particular that of its immigrants, is written all over this market.  There are some family businesses here that are in their sixth generation!  The tour gave me a much better appreciation of the links between grocer or market, farmer and consumer.  And don't worry, you get a coffee included to cope with the 6 am start!

Melbourne Wholesale Fruit & Vegie Market
Footscray Road, West Melbourne (map)

Book a tour here 

Woo Ga

OK, I think I made a bad call.  Hyeung Jae in Hopkins St, aka "the new Korean BBQ place", is not that great after all.  I took a group of friends there having raved about it and we were all sorely disappointed.  Yes, the pork belly was good, but the portions were smaller, the seafood pancake mushy and gritty, the bulgogi soggy and sweet and the salad underdressed.  Maybe it was just that night but I really am sorry if I sent you there on a fool's errand.  Anyway, I have the cure for all your Korean BBQ cravings - Woo Ga in West Melbourne!

I love the whole thing in Melbourne where we love to make "little" things - kind of like our revolt against the rest of Australia's obsession with big things.  Three restaurants of one ethnicity or cuisine and suddenly a strip is "Little Athens" or "Little Tokyo".  Following this logic, "Little Seoul" is along Victoria Street in West Melbourne, facing the Queen Vic Market and under the shadow of the tall city buildings beyond.

Wooga is all wood inside, with chunky tables with dark centres scarred from innumerable charcoal braziers being placed on top.  Its specialty, you see, is Korean BBQ which is traditionally cooked semi-DIY-style at your table.  Despite going on a Monday night it was packed.

We chose a banquet that come with marinated topside, beef brisket and a butterflied beef rib ($39).  A great stone bowl of real charcoal is placed in the middle of the table, radiating warmth, and a removable grill placed over the top.  The staff expertly place the meat atop the coals for you and any smoke is sucked up the retractable, practical yet attractive copper flue that hovers above each table.

One thing I love about Korean BBQ is the little archipelago of side dishes you can flavour-hop between while waiting for your meat to be done.  Here we have sweet, tangy pickled onions that had a slightly hot and spicy onion kick in the tail; a riotously crunchy slaw with a light sesame and vinegar dressing; the most fabulous kim chi, fermented cabbage in a mild yet flavoursome chilli sauce; and a warm salad of gently wilted bean sprouts tossed with sesame.  As is traditional, when finished all of the dishes will be refilled ad infinitum.

When the meat is done, you can dip it in either this Korean bean sauce (somewhat like hoi sin but with a much less cloying flavour) or sesame oil mixed with a little minced garlic and pepper.  Atop a little rice, a bit of Wooga's grilled beef is a little slice of heaven.  I think my favourite was the marinated topside, having the right amount of weight to undergo enough grilling to have both caramelised exterior, tender interior and plenty of real beefy flavour.  The thin butterflied beef rib was very good too, and the wafer-thin brisket was tasty but needed careful attention it did not overcook.

Also included in our banquet was the "bean paste soup" - a rich, tasty, miso-esque broth with a little of that mild chilli that coated the kim chi, loaded with diced silken tofu, potato, zucchini, onion and spring onion.  Miso with benefits!

What a lovely, social, interactive way to enjoy a meal.  It was such a step up from Hyeung Jae.  We were delighted too to get the bill and find out that it had been $39 for the entire meal rather than $39 each.  Awesome value!  The staff were delightful, there was cool jazz piano playing, and it was a buzz to walk out the door and see the city right there.  The city skyline - that's a big thing I rate wholeheartedly.



Wooga/Woo Ga
270 Victoria Street, West Melbourne (map)
Phone:  9328 1221
Hours:  Mon-Fri 5.30pm-10.30pm, Sat & Sun noon - 3pm

Wheelchair Accessibility
Door:  Multiple steps to enter
Layout:  Somewhat roomy; could accommodate

Bathroom:  Somewhat inaccessible