Slavic day food at Beerfest

We had the distinct impression that it would be a sort of Slavic fair event with fun and games and tradition down at Beerfest (4 Rochester Park) - which is by the way an actual brewery/restaurant and not a beer festival as the name might have implied. In the end, it was just a one day event where they featured food from the region. 

The menu included earthy borscht, some cured fishes, dumplings and a tasty but pricey golubtsy which looked like an inside out poh piah. What was outstanding though, was their pork shashlik which featured tender and one of the juiciest grilled pork I've had. Juices that were squirting out as the knife went through the meat. Fragrant bits from the burnt ends. Wow. This pork shashlik made Shashlik look bad. Too bad it's a one off.

But beer seems pretty good and outrageously super value for the weekends. Drinks from $2 at 2pm anyone? Their cherry brew was a great flavour for the sweltering heat and there was also some fruity/yeasty kvass which I found myself enjoying.

Dinner at Tiong Bahru Market

What could be better than a plate of Lee Hong Kee roasted meat rice without a maddening queue you might wonder?

A hotdog from Bunnings Sausage Sizzle

I gathered that Bunning Sausage Sizzle is a fund raiser event for schools and community groups and a sausage stand is their way to go. We saw one of their tents at the local Bunnings and decided to "donate". This was not a bad snack at all. Sausages fresh off the grilled topped with some caramelized onions in a slice of white bread. Getting that sausage certainly reminded me of picking up hotdogs at Ikea.

Laurent Boulangerie Patisserie, Little Collins Street, Melbourne CBD

Pear tart.

Latte.

Those pear slices in the tart were remarkably fragrant. Quite definitely the best pear tart I remember having. Coffee was passable. I hear that it's easy to find good coffee in Melbourne but this cuppa here (304-306 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 9654 1011) like every other one I've had this week was just okay-ish. Maybe I just like a stronger hit from the espresso, which McCafe here does a surprisingly good shot of.

Daniel's Donuts, Springvale, Melbourne

We heard that this 24 hour donut shop (819 Princes Highway, Springvale, Melbourne) was pretty popular for a while. I'm not sure if they still are but there wasn't a crowd when we were there so we got a box to go. I liked these better than Krispy Kreme because didn't taste as sugary sweet. But otherwise, I suppose these were just pretty regular donuts. Not as light as the airy glazed ones from J.CO or the defunct Donut Factory back home but they had a bunch of flavours which I really wouldn't mind coming back for.

Breakfast at Dandenong Market

We were down at Dandenong Market (Clow St & Cleeland St, Dandenong, Melbourne) so the first thing we did when we arrived was to get some breakfast in our bellies. 

I had almost discounted this Ink-redible Calamari stall but for some reasons decided to dip into the sample tray to see if they were really inkredible.

Those calamari turned out to be outrageously tender. I mean like fish cake tender with the smooth texture and flavour of squid. I've never been so impressed with calamari before. So breakfast began with a cone of those.

One of the cooked food vendor was Dough Works. A Turkish stall selling kebabs and gozleme - the latter a griddled flatbread with stuffings.

We got the ones with spinach, feta and lamb. The gozleme were being churned out so quickly for the turn around that pretty much everything was made on order. And yes, it was the carbohydrated salt and fat and lamb-y goodness that we needed for the morning. 

There was also a delicious goat briyani from PiqNiq Hut. Saffron basmati rice stir fried upon order with onions and some vegetables that came with tender curried goat, a deep fried hard boiled egg and some fruit chutney on the side. Spicy and savoury from both the rice and goat along with a sweetness from the chutney. This was pretty impressive.