Sunday, October 29, 2017

After The Tears, Elsternwick, Melbourne

Melbourne, After The Tears

We’ve never had Polish food before. Eastern/Central European food has never been in easy access from this part of the world we live in, so besides the short lived Dracula and Kaiserhaus, I don’t think we’ve had much from that part of the world. While it’s not very different to the rest of European food, it’s not exactly the same too.

Melbourne, After The Tears, chilli lemon vodka

We eased into the meal with some chilli lemon vodka because After The Tears (9B Gordon Street, Elsternwick, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 8592 4642) was also a vodka bar with more brands than one has teeth.

Melbourne, After The Tears, pierogis

One of what's not the same about Polish food are pierogis. While they're recognizeable in form as some sort of dumpling with stuffings, they're insistent that these are Polish dumplings that aren't ravioli. Who would we be to say otherwise? These ones stuffed with minced roasted duck and apple, topped with cooked sour cherry were delicious!

Melbourne, After The Tears, golabki

While the Greeks have their lahanodolmades, the Polish have gołąbki - boiled cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and meat amongst other things. This meat used in this particular one was veal. The whole of which topped with a paprika laced roasted tomato sauce. Even though I generally avoid tomato based sauces, I'd have to admit that this was tasty in a very rustic homely kind of way which I enjoyed. 

Melbourne, After The Tears, crispy rice balls

We had some crispy rice balls aren't so different from the Italian arancini. Bread crumbed and fried, these rice balls had bits of artichoke and are well flavoured with Parmesan cheese. Tasted a lot better than the looks suggested. Those pink stuff are beetroot aioli by the way. 

Melbourne, After The Tears, blood sausages

Couldn't pass on their kaszanka which I had spied on the menu; blood sausages/black pudding by another name. These ones had stuffings that included buckwheat groats. Served with mashed potatoes, mustard and an apple & onion slaw. The latter a foil for all the richness of the dish. Again, delicious.

Melbourne, After The Tears, barramundi

The restaurant also did a delicious pan seared barramundi. Yes, I'm aware that I've used the word delicious a number of times already. Crispy skinned barramundi that came with sautéed potatoes, beans and spinach. And delicious capers that were not overly salty. Savoury and hearty would be good words here.

Melbourne, After The Tears, pierogi

What do we have here? More pierogi! This one was stuffed with sauerkraut and porcini, sautéed with brown butter and sage and topped with a little dab of cranberry horseradish. Pretty tasty stuff too though the earlier one with the duck tops this.

Melbourne, After The Tears, bbq ribs

Their sticky BBQ ribs with red wine and honey were a little sweet at this point of the dinner where we were definitely encountering diminishing returns from each bite. The flavour was almost peculiar. Almost like Chinese lor bak (braised pork) minus the spices. Unanimously agreed upon that it would be something that none of us would be ordering again.

Melbourne, After The Tears, poppyseed cake

We finished up with a poppyseed cake with Maraschino cherries and cream, drizzled with a spiced coulis.

Melbourne, After The Tears

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