Syracuse Restaurant & Wine Bar

http://www.syracuserestaurant.com.au/

23 Bank Place, Melbourne, VIC 3000.

Last night we got taken out by our friends Genine and Tim for dinner to celebrate the purchase of their new city apartment - slap bang in the middle of Collins Street’s financial district.

When looking for a place to eat, we strolled up Bank Place, past the “historic” Mitre Tavern (had the usual argument about whether it was the oldest or second oldest pub in Melbourne), and then walked through the glamorous curtained narthex of ‘Syracuse’.

Syracuse, the city, is in Sicily, but I wouldn’t typify the food at its namesake restaurant as Italian.  It’s more of a high (HIGH) food blend of European cuisines with a kind of road kill twist.

Old polls... Easter and Martinis!

Luke Nguyen's Duck Blood Salad - the intro to 2013!

WELCOME!!1!

Welcome to another year of Kit's Cucina!

2013 eh? Where does the time go? We're entering the fifth year of stuffing our gobs together, and for that I'm truly thankful (well it beats the alternative - not eating ever again!).

First stop, I'd like to apologise for my erroneous assumptions about the duck blood salad in Vietnam (as per my previous "welcome") on Luke Nugyen's show. I was discussing the hygiene of such foods with a Swiss chef, who opined at least the duck would be free range, organic, local produce, hormone free, and freshly killed... unlike the majority of poultry here en Australie.

Pipped Olives Can Get Stuffed

Is it just me? OK, I get that pipped olives are notionally easier to eat, because you don't have to spit out the pips.

But THEN you find a secret pip you weren't expecting and smash a tooth (or your dentures - we're not "teethist" here) on the stone they were supposed to have removed from your path.

Bendigo Provencal: A Maldon / Castlemaine weekender

Rendez-Vous

http://www.maldonbbrendezvous.com.au/

35A Reef Street
Maldon 3463
03 5475 2194
0466 069 093

Bonjour!  Ca va?  Beauty!

Qu’est que si que ca?  Why am I speaking French while being whole heartedly Aussie?  Let me tell you a story about last weekend.

We went away with some friends up to the Central Goldfields of Victoria; specifically a weekend in Maldon with a day trip into Castlemaine.  We ate at an auberge, I gorged like I was on a Bacchanal, ended up like a haggis AND came up with the concept of "Bendigo Provencal".