Missing Melbourne
Laksa longings and yum cha yearning – expat Melbourne foodies spill the beans on homesickness and hunger pangs
There are two outstanding regrets in my life. The first being that bowl of prawn capellini left unfinished at 1 Fitzroy Street. And the second? That I now have to fly 17,000 kilometres for a second helping.
Alongside friends and family, food is the third ‘f’ in the holy trinity of expatriate homesickness. Needless to say, with an estimated 860,000 Aussie’s thought to be living overseas – more than a third of those expat Victorian’s – that makes for a lot of (at least occasionally) miserably hungry emigrant Melburnians.
For some it’s a yearning for yum cha in Little Bourke Street. For others it’s craving the ephemeral pleasure of perfect espresso on a sunny St Kilda sidewalk. Me? While the tart citron from French patisserie, Ladurée, has proven a decent stand-in for the lip-pursingly perfect lemon tart at Spring Street’s European, the memory of Misuzu’s veggie-stacked miso soup continues to exert its hunger-inducing pull.
And I’m not the only one - many of our transplanted food and wine professionals still long for a taste of Melbourne.
Brett Crittenden, a wine buyer, left Melbourne in 1998 for Argentina with Chandon Estates. Two years later he moved to London, where he and wife Kelly are still based, running their international wine consultancy while dreaming of sun and the Stokehouse.
“One of my absolute institutions is to go from the airport directly to Prahran Market. We go straight to Claringbold’s and buy three dozen Coffin Bay oysters – we buy them unopened because I love to eat them absolutely fresh. I love that market. There may be markets with more things attached to them, but it’s the familiarity. And you get all that great seafood.
Or we head straight for the middle of the deck at the Stokehouse. Up on the verandah in the sun, with a bottle of Champagne… France-Soir is also an absolute mandatory, for the oysters and the salmon and the steak tartar.
A lot of our life revolves around food and wine and to me (these places) are institutions. It’s food you can eat every day of your life. Food that is brilliantly simple but in a classic way. And that’s what I love about Melbourne – it’s sophisticated, it’s alive, it’s got a real pulse, and it’s got a real heart.”
Hotelier Geoffrey Johnstone left the Meridian Rialto in 2005 to head up Moscow Country Club, one of the Russian capital’s premier hotels. Though, for Geoffrey, Russian caviar can’t replace the appeal of a great Melbourne pizza.
“There is a real multi-cultural feel about Moscow, there’s no doubt about that, but the food is very expensive and wine is exorbitant. We were at dinner the other night – just a nice Italian spot, nothing special – and it would have cost about 10,000 rubles, which is about AUS$500 for three of us and one bottle of wine. But, you know, that’s about what you pay to go out in Moscow.
So what do I miss most? A casual BYO. Where you can grab something from your own wine shelf, just jump in the car and have a casual evening. On the spur of the moment you can go somewhere and just know that you’ll get good food.
There’s just such a variety in Melbourne. You can go from the very expensive, like the Flower Drum, to some nice, inexpensive Italian place. One of our favourites that I started going to way back in the ‘80s, and it’s still there today, is Pizza Napoli in Russell Street. I think that’s just about the best pizza in Melbourne. From Jim and Carlo. I always drop in and see how the boys are going.”
From Melbourne to Europe, India, Dubai and now Bermuda at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, Anthony Reynolds has cooked on four continents. But he still can’t refuse a Bannockburn chardonnay.
“For me, Melbourne cuisine is fresh and it’s fast. It’s not laboured over, and that’s something I miss. Like Café Cucina in Chapel Street. That is great food, fantastic coffee, good wines, great service. And it’s still going for, well, must be 10 years now.
And the markets too. I mean, I love hanging out at the Vic and Prahran markets, with the fresh pasta and all the organics.
My dream Melbourne food day? Breakfast would have to be on South Bank, then a nice long brunch at the Windsor or the Regent Hotel. Those two places I love. And dinner, um, Mietta’s in Queenscliff. I love that place to death.
I do take things back. Last time it was a box of mangoes from Melbourne and a box of Bannockburn chardonnay to give to all the staff here. To bring it in through importers is a nightmare. And I have a friend up in the Yarra Valley who makes a great pinot noir, which is awesome. I brought back six bottles of that and paid a heap of duty when I got in to Bermuda.
But it was worth it.”
Heading up wine for Jamie Oliver’s 15 restaurant group keeps Matt Skinner busy in London, though he still has time to miss Sunday yum cha in Melbourne’s Chinatown.
“I was home last in August for the launch of Thirsty Work (Skinner’s latest wine book) and I kind of strategically planned my first day in Melbourne, you know, lived it out in my mind so many times before I actually did it. Which is a bit sad, isn’t it?
First off was Café Racer on Marine Parade, St Kilda. It’s my favourite place for coffee. In London they just don’t value coffee like we value coffee in Melbourne. So that’s the one thing I miss above all else. Then it was on to yum cha at Shark Finn House in Little Bourke Street, which is something I miss massively as well. Growing up, Sunday yum cha was a regular occurrence for our family.
And then we pushed on and had beers in the sun down at the Prince. I’ll tell you what, I ticked a lot of boxes that I’d been looking forward to ticking that day.
The other one that springs to mind: my mother-in-law lives on Beach Road so my wife and I always go to Sandy Fish and Chips in Sandringham, sit on the rocks at Black Rock car park, and look over Melbourne eating fish and chips.
Do I take anything back? Yeah, usually a few extra kilos. Around my waist.”
Chef Lucas Glanville left Melbourne four years ago for Singapore. He has since moved to head up 160 chefs at the Grand Hyatt Erawan in Bangkok, where his two kids are as likely to eat sushi as Vegemite sandwiches and he dreams of Sunday brunch.
“There’re about 16 million people in Bangkok and it’s probably built to hold about half of that, so it’s non-stop. The city never sleeps. For us, a normal day would probably be 3000 covers.
So I’ll tell you what I miss about Melbourne – going out for breakfast on a Sunday. Going to Ackland Street for a hearty brunch, good coffee and catching up with a newspaper. The café society here hasn’t really kicked in yet. Most stand-alone restaurants are either hawker style or pretty ordinary. You know, a local guy trying to do Italian food and he’s not really pulling it off. So that sort of leaves the five-star hotels, which takes the fun out of it a bit.
And to be able to go to a winery restaurant in Red Hill with your family, that’s a million dollars coming from a city like this. Lounging out on the lawn, eating the local products, and drinking the local wine while enjoying views of the bay.
Yep, coming from this neck of the woods, that is priceless.”
Since launching on to New York’s food photography scene a year ago, Justin Bernhaut has had plenty of opportunity to discover the pleasure of a perfect bagel – and just how much he misses burnt sausages.
“Last week I had a one-inch thick slab of sashimi – generous, but it kind of missed the point. Melbourne not only has a great Asian influence, but there is also a subtlety that I miss. Not to mention Cascade beer – as rare as a Thylacine in New York.
But I really think Melbourne food is as good, if not better, than anywhere in the world.
There’s Cheese Freaks café in Yarra Glen, Daniel Chirico’s bakery, the Vic market early on a Saturday and mangoes, mangoes, mangoes. And I really miss BBQ’s in a backyard.
The perfect day for me back home would be brekky at The Galleon: espresso, poached eggs with avocado, fresh juice, another espresso, and the Good Weekend. (My wife insists that they make the best pot of tea in Melbourne). Lunch at home – linguini with fresh prawns from South Melbourne market – and dinner at Shira Nuiway out in Glen Waverley. Or a take-away laksa from somewhere.
Of course, NYC is the only city in the world where a bagel is as it should be: a hot bagel from H&H with cream cheese is total bliss. Vegemite? Visits from friends means we’ve had two or three deliveries, and a consignment of Tim Tams, but I must confess to only eating it sporadically.”
London Times food editor and Epicure contributor Jill Dupleix has no trouble finding great pubs in her adopted home. But great coffee? That’s what trips back to Melbourne are for.
“It’s funny, having first moved from Melbourne to Sydney for six years, moving to London was a lot like moving back to Melbourne - the two cities have a lot in common.
But while London has great pubs, there is no real café scene (except for one cute little Antipodean caff in Soho called Flat White). And you wouldn’t believe it, but it’s hard to find good tea here in all but the best places.
My dream day would start with Café Racer, so I’d start there for either porridge or fruit or a toastie. Then I’d pick up some bread at D. Chirico in St Kilda, go to the farmer’s market by the Yarra, and then get a tram over to Mario’s in Brunny Street for a coffee. Lunch would be sushi at Taxi, then dinner at The Rose in Port Melbourne: home-made dips with Turkish bread, amazing rolled moussaka with nettles, and best of all, a whole page of fish specials of the day.
I also miss Melbourne’s Greek and Italian influences: in the food, the way they run a restaurant, the friendliness, the service. Every time I go to Italy or Greece I feel so much more at home than I do in England.
Being here makes you realise how European Melbourne is, rather than how British.”
He has infinite access to great foie gras, but the appeal of great pub grub is one Melbourne memory that Houston-based chef and restaurant owner, Jason Gould, just can’t shake.
“It’s been just over four years for me in Houston now, but I actually left Melbourne back in ’98 to do the London thing. Actually, the last time I was back was three years ago, so there is definitely a part of me that misses home.
Like Melbourne pub food. There’s nothing like that over here – I was talking to my sister about this the other day – and that was one of the reasons I opened up the style of restaurant here that I did. In Houston, there’re lots of fast food restaurants, chains everywhere, and then the next step is almost fine dining. But just a casual environment where you can go and have a great meal and enjoy yourself with friends? There’s nothing really like that here. Whereas the pubs at home are perfect.
So I really miss that, just that casualness
And meat pies. Actually, I got half a dozen pies and sausage rolls and pasties for Valentine’s Day this year from my girlfriend. There is a company here called Atlanta Baking Company, owned by an Australian, and he bakes sausage rolls, meat pies and pasties and ships them all over the US.
I ate them with Heinz tomato sauce. My (American) girlfriend was looking at me like I was mad when I was doing it, but I told her that you can’t really do it any other way.”
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