Its been raining intermittently day. I had arrived from HK at around 7am and around 9am was having breakfast with Lara and Clair at Cafe Vu, run by Shannon Bennett of Vue de Monde fame. Shannon has been described as the "enfant terrible" of Australian haute cuisine. The 62 deg eggs, named as its cooked at 62 deg which is the temperature that protein denatures had the egg whites perfectly soft with runny yolk with a black sausage. Food was good however our waiter was quite snooty.
The girls had spent the afternoon shopping and Paul and I had a wander around the Prahran Market. Later in the evening Asha, Paul, Lara, Clair and I had been savouring the red berries and pepper undertones of a 1999 Domaine A Cabernet Sauvignon from the Stoney Vineyard in Tasmania which Lara kindly shared. We were sitting in the fantastic Cullen Art Hotel in Prahran surrounded by images of Ned Kelly. We had not made any firm dinner plans so we headed out to chinatown. Unfortunately we had to walk around to try and get a table having completely underestimated the melbournite passion for dinning magnified by the search for a warm place to indugle.. We eventually got into Ginger Boy which I had been wanting to try and managed to get three seats at a bar and another two at a table, not good as we were separated.. however we were able to convince a couple sitting next to our three seats at the bar to accept the nice table for two so we were all together just in time for cocktails to arrive
Ginger boy cocktails were what we had been waiting for.. The Thai Moon with muddled ginger, coriander and chillie infused vodka was unreal, it had quite a bite but so well balanced by the sweetness of the gula melaka. oh it was sooo good.. each plate of chicken and okra curry puffs with tamarind yogurt, smashed green papaya salad with sticky rice, crispy chille salt cuttlefish lemon and roasted sesame, braised duck spring rolls with spiced plum and hoi sin dressing and the red duck leg curry was delightfully balanced without heavy flavours. We lost track along the way. A bottle of 2008 Yarralock shiraz voignier from the Yarra preceded a 2005 Bannockburn shiraz from Geelong, Victoria.
Lots of laughter, lots of stories and great memories with the family. Restaurant was incredibly busy however the bar staff were very engaging and shared some great cocktail recipes with us. Definately recommended
all in all a great foodie evening
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