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Melbourne Restaurant Review - Maha 21 Bond St Melbourne

A typical chilly winter Melbourne night, a 7pm reservation made 6 weeks ago, my husband and 2 closest friends plus one birthday (mine) is how we come to be at celebrity chef Shane Delia's restaurant last night.
So like all finer restaurants the waiter takes our coats ...and seats us at our table. I look around and am immediately drawn to the simplicity of the decor that made is so elegant.
Our waitress arrives with a Turkish tea tray with a special Lebanese tea (was cold) and i cant remember what was in it. It was sweet and sour and the purpose was to cleanse our palettes. Was really lovely. She then handed us the drinks menu. Wow, i didn't make it past the 2nd page. Let me tell you not once have i ever seen 6 different varieties of Turkish Raki on a menu and of course there were about the same in lebanese Arak. Not a Raki drinker i wondered why i was still stuck on that page so i moved to the cocktails. The sumac martini just leapt off the page so i had to order it.
The waitress arrived with our drinks and progressed to tell us about the Maha experience and let us know about our sofra (banquet) or single dishes options. The menu looked divine and as i got particularly overwhelmed by dishes such as duck breast with quince or the Atlantic salmon and mussel doughnut so i opted we should all do the 4 course sofra for $85 per person and leave it up to the chef.
So while waiting for our first course to arrive, i quietly sipped that sumac martini. It looked good but something was lost in the taste. It seemed like it needed a little more sumac molasses as I truly felt like i was drinking really strong straight vodka. I could see in the kitchen and kept trying to get a glimpse to see if Shane was working but had to conclude tonight was not the night. bummer!
Our first course arrives and the waitress takes us through the gorgeous 1 serve portions on the tray of each little dish. There was a warm pea soup in a shot glass with a mussel sesame ball over the top, eggplant, potato and carrot salad, parsley crusted labne balls and a beetroot dip. It was all lovely but only 2 of those 5 dishes made me wow. One was the pea soup and the other was the labne. The rest was pretty stock standard. 2nd course arrived pretty quickly and it was a char grilled chicken breast on a bed of roasted humus and a puff pastry covered oyster. Now this course was interesting and intimidating. I've never liked the look of oysters before and because we eat with our eyes first i never had eaten one. But i looked at them and my mind went straight to Michelin star chef Jean Christophe Novellis version of puff pastry scallop i had seen him prepare on TV once so i had to try it. It looked so pretty sitting on this massive bed of damp salt to hold it up in place. So i got straight into it. Crunch into the pastry and whatever they did to that oyster my eyes closed as my taste buds had a little party with sheer delight and surprise. Not only were my taste buds surprised but my husband looked at me in sheer shock that i had consumed an oyster and LOVED it. While i was taking in the oyster all i could hear was my husband saying wow thats good, ahhh thats good, ohhhh hmmm thats good. All of this was directed to the chicken with baked humus. The concept of baked humus seemed so bizarre to me but when i got a fork full of baked humus into my mouth i was delighted. The humus was crunchy on the outside but so soft and creamy underneath and with a little tender char grilled chicken breast it was a combination to tell the world about. By this stage i was feeling VERY full and wondering how i was too get through another two courses. Thankfully there was a little time gap between 2nd and 3rd course as i needed to give my tummy a rest. The staff were very professional yet still showed they had personality and a sense of humour. They were awesome. The 3rd course arrived with a slow cooked lamb, safron pilav, seared tuna and a pomegranate, fried chick pea and spinach salad. The slow cooked lamb and the tuna were cooked to perfection. Tuna is quite difficult to cook as its all about timing. A little over cooked and its ruined but it was perfectly soft and slightly pink inside and served with mandarin. I love the fish and citrus fruit combination. The pilav was AWFUL!!!! I was in sheer shock at just how bad the pilav was. It seemed to have been made from an short grain rice maybe arborio that is perfect for a risotto. Whatever the rice was it wasn't a long grain rice and for that reason it was too starchy and turned out glugy. The safron and butter was way too heavy. I was completely disappointed that a restaurant of that standard could get the pilav so wrong. Maybe they had an off night.
Desert arrived with a sparkler in it. My husband had told the waitress in passing that it was my birthday when we first arrived and she remembered so i got the sparkler. Now that kind of attention to detail goes a long way and will always win customers. I had read about these Turkish delight doughnuts in an issue of Gourmet Traveller magazine a few months back and there they were in front of me. Along side the doughnuts was a cum-quot semolina cake and some bizarre mixture of pudding with baked oats and pop corn. Ertan was distraught and disappointed with all the deserts especially as he is all about desert. I was not happy with 2 of the 3 deserts and yes my long awaited Turkish delight doughnut was really thick fried dough. It really didn't do it for all 4 of us on the table. The semolina cake had sooooo much honey in it, it was way too heavy and the bizarre popcorn, pudding with baked oats was quite a lovely combination.
The experience was wonderful and very authentic, the staff were exceptional and deserved every cent of the tip they were given, the food that was great was really exceptional but the consistency was not there. Pricing, its a special occasion restaurant but for the experience, the service and the food its still worth it.
I will defiantly go back and suggest if you can to experience it but i think next time ill give the banquet a miss and choose my own dishes.

 You can learn to make Turkish recipes and Turkish food at Turkish Thyme cooking school. Learn more.

Turkish food for vegetarian teenagers - finger licking success

This year Santa surprised me with a visit by my 13 year old niece from Sydney. I couldn't hold in my excitement. There was one thing i really needed to know though. She had become a vegetarian.

The stereotype of 13 year old girls can be a bit daunting and my mind began to wonder of what could go wrong. Thankfully, my 13 year old niece is a true delight.

13. Its a funny age really. No longer a kid, but not yet an adult. They no longer eat off the kids menu in a cafe but are not quite at the stage of decrypting cafe menus with fancy meal descriptions such as:
Turkish Anatolian Lamb: Succulent lamb, slow cooked for 16 hours, with char grilled vegetables, pearl cous cous and a fig and date jus.

So what do you cook for these "in between" teens with the added vegetarian twist. As all people including teens are different, let me share with you what this teen loved as the only thing she didnt want after her first day was the Special K cereal out of the box.

Breakfast: Home made jams with fresh fat free Turkish bread - Apple, pear and cinnamon jam was the favorite. So much so, I had to make a fresh batch and send her back to Sydney with a jar full to eat at home. She even requested the recipe to have her mum make it for her. My poor sis, I've created work for her.

Salads: Turkish Cokelek cheese salad. Cokelek is a salty cheese and I wasn't quite sure if she would like it. This salad was another she requested the recipe for so she could have her mum make it. :) One day at the supermarket we were thinking about dinner when she said to me, "can you make the salad you made 2 days ago".. Bingo! So we had Cokelek again that night and I had a satisfied teen.

Kisir - Turkish tabouli

Kisir - Turkish Tabouli. The kisir I make is my mother in laws recipe and is quite spicy. Its filled with pimento, all spice, isot (Turkish black pepper with kick) and turkish pepper paste which also has kick. I warned her it was spicy and if she didn't like it, I'd make her an omelet. I never made the omelet. :) Bingo again.

Lentil kofte & pomegranate salad

Borek: She ate a lot of borek. Feta and leek triangles, ricotta and spinach cigars and pumpkin and cinnamon rolls. Add salad and you have lunch or dinner. Also a great order when out in a cafe that is a healthier option than a burger and chips.


Kofte: We all think of kofte as meat. Try the red lentil version with a pomegranate and parsley salad... Lentils are a high source of protein for vegetarians and can often be used in place of meat. Its also a quick easy dish to make. Serve the kofte with a green salad for a healthy, quick and easy meal with a gourmet feel that will keep your whole family happy.


So next time your teen asks "whats for dinner?" try some of the Turkish recipes that were a hit with my niece.

A fabulous dinner at C'est Bon French restaurant - Port Melbourne

My husband and I had made our reservation and rocked up right on 7.30. We were greeted and seated by a 30 something French man, french accent and all. Once we got settled, we were immediately brought the wine and food menu. While the f...rench waiter left us to peruse our menus the maitre de, a lovely Australian older blonde lady who was very refined and well spoken came to let us know all about the specials for the evening. While tossing up what to have, we were served with two very warm little aranchini balls. Normally i dont really like them as i find them to be ricey glug but these were DEVINE. Ertan and i were so in awe of the menu we decided that stuff the portion sizes for a night and we were going to over eat and have an entree, main and dessert each and taste each others food. So we ordered a lovely bottle of french reising from the rhone valley along side, hazel nut and rocket salad with sweatbreads and a cheese souffle for entree. For main we ordered duck breast in an orange sauce on a bed of sweet potato and chicken in a creme cheese sauce that had the pungency of blue cheese but wasn't blue cheese.
The service was fantastic with the empty plate of the aranchini balls taken away swiftly and the bread arriving whilst our waiter was topping up our wine. All of this was being done so gently that although we were getting all the attention in the world they were delicate and not over servicing us and were not in our faces.
When the entrees arrived, i tucked into the bread and it was like french bread should be. So soft and airy in the middle yet had a nice thick layer of fresh and crisp crunch. I put a piece of the sweetbread into my mouth along with some salad and my taste buds began to sing. Delicately, i carved a piece of the souffle iwth my fork and it was smooth, light and had an airy texture and amazingly delicate flavour.
We were very happy at this stage cause everything we had put into our mouths had been exceptional. Not good, not very good but exceptional.
In a perfect amount of time after we finished out entrees, about 20 minutes our mains arrived. The presentation of the food was an art form. So much so the Asian couple next to us were taking photos of their plates.. Yes I'm not joking but they were.
Duck is usually a heavy meat, but it had been cooked to perfection. It was not dry and the orange gave a lovely balance to what is normally a heavy meat. Ertan's chicken with the pungent cheese sauce was so creamy and still moist.
By this stage I was beyond full but as i was so highly satisfied with everything i had to have dessert. The menu has some typical french things like chocolate mousse and creme brulee but i decided to have a biscuit with marinaded strawberries with a honeycomb ice creme and hazelnut mousse. I thought Ertan was being boring ordering creme brulee but now i understand the difference between a normal creme brulee and a VERY good one. There was no trace of that egg yolky taste you normally get from a brulee. My biscuit concoction i ate in tiny tiny bits as i didnt want it to finish...
So impressed, we then decided to see what their coffee was like. 2 long macciatos. Wow,, they even do great coffee with fabulous presentation served with a chocolate rum ball..
Price wise, we payed $210 which i thought wasnt too bad for the quality of food and service considering the bottle of wine was $60... Mains are about 34-40, and entrees and desserts to make it simple budget for $20.
Its a lovely special occasion venue where you will be guaranteed GREAT food and GREAT service. They were very deserving of the $10 tip we left for them.
Its a definite MUST GO and experience ...

How to make Dolmades ( stuffed vine leaves) South East Anatolian Style

Dolmades – Stuffed vine leaves – South East Anatolian Style

These sarma or dolmades as they are better known as in Australia do not resemble the slimy, oily dolmades that you’ll find in your local deli. You can learn to cook dolmades in Turkish Thyme’s cooking classes.

Ingredients Vine leaves – 150 grams 1 onion finely diced ½ tin of pureed tomato 2 tbsp pine nuts 1 tsp mixed herbs ½  tsp vegeta Lemon juice 1 1/3 cup long grain rice Pomegranate molasses 2 tbsp currents salt and pepper 1/3 cup of water 1 tsp mild Hungarian paprika Olive oil

1. Wash the vine leaves and leave to soak to remove the salt for at least 2 hours changing the water at least once.
   
2. Wash rice until the milky water is clear. Set aside.
   
3. In a frying pan, add oil and sauté the onions with vegeta, mixed herbs, paprika, salt and pepper.
   
4. Add the washed rice and cook until the rice separates and no longer sticks together (about 10-15 minutes). Add the pomegranate molasses, pureed tomatoes and lemon juice.
   
5. When the rice is half cooked, add the pine nuts and currents and cook together for another minute or so.
   
6. Place the vine leaf on a flat surface with the veins face up. Place the prepared filling to the top and fold the edges over the filling and then wrap it.
   
7. Cover the bottom of a saucepan with broken and ripped leaves. About 3-4 layers deep. Place the sarma over them.
   
8. Place a flat plate over the sarma. Heat the water and add to the pan slowly, pouring from the edge. Add some olive oil and another drizzling of pomegranate molasses.
   
9. Cover and simmer over a low heat for 45 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish when cooked. Serve with yoghurt and lemon.
   

Neil Perry's Rockpool Melbourne Restaurant review

I know its not very Turkish in food but I thought you'd still be interested.
Last Tuesday night, my husband and I went to the famous Neil Perry's Melbourne restaurant, Rockpool.
It was a lovely balmy Melbourne evening where I met my husband along the banks of the Yarra, where we stepped inside Rockpool. We wandered through a dark corridor where we found ourselves at what looked like a mini hotel reception. So the staff greeted us warmly but then there was a little kerfuffle as they couldn't find our booking,, Last name, first name, spelling of last name, spelling of first name, they couldn't find our booking although my husband had received a phone call from the restaurant only an hour prior to  confirm we were still dining at 7pm.  So luckily there were plenty of tables and we were seated in a large dining room.

It was lovely in the sense that the kitchen was open for everyone to see so you could watch the chefs, cooks and apprentices at work, busily weighing everything to ensure precise portion sizes and exact measurements.
We wine menu arrived in a lovely brown leather bound book and no jokes it was like a book. Prices varied from $45 to $5900 for a bottle.. So we opted for the lower end of the budget, a nice Bannackburn Sav Blanc (Geelong region) which was lovely and crisp without being dry.
It took a while for our dinner menus to arrive and except we didnt quite realise it was the menu. A piece of butcher paper with a black and white cow was printed on it and was layed on the table in front of us, cow facing up. It felt like the tray lining at Mc Donalds and i have no idea why i lifted it and turned it around but lucky i did. It was the menu!!! So as we perused the menu, it was really lovely and i must say, somethings were priced reasonably and others seemed crazy. $150 for a 300gm steak but clearly it was special.. I didnt order it. For entree i had a chicken waldorf salad which was perfectly balanced sharpness from the apple but had the creaminess from the mayo and soft crunch from the walnuts. Truely magical. Ertan has the king prawns which he said was lovely. What was nice was they had sliced them down the middle so they kept thier shape but they also could be eaten with a knife and fork, leaving his hands nice and clean.
We sat there with dirty plates in front of us for 20 minutes or so which surprised and disappointed me. I would expect a restaurant with that  
For mains, Ertan had a steak, not the $150 one and i chose a duck cooked in an apple sauce on a mango cheek. We ordered sauteed mushrooms and garlic brocollini for sides.
The food was nice but did it have the wow factor i would expect from that standard of restaurant. Not one little bit. I ate it enjoying my meal but thinking to myself, this place is an fancy steak house.
It was time for dessert and although i understand consistency, I got quite confused with this next part. The dessert manu arrived. This time a smaller piece of butchers paper with a printed black and white cow. Turn the page and voila.. the dessert menu.. Now i didn't understand how the cow was quite relevant to the dessert menu. Thankfully the dessert was  truely devine. I had a hazlenut macaroon sandwich with banana icecream. finally i got the WOW factor i had been looking for. Ertan had the strawberry tart of which he enjoyed but didnt get the wow i had just experienced.
Time for the bill,, so we requested the bill and again, we were wondering what was happening. Why was it taking so long. Then the waitress proceeds to tell us there is a queue for the credit card machine therefore our bill will be out shortly.
So all in all we found ourselves a little disappointed as our expectations of 2 hatted restaurant were clearly higher.. Its quite funny, as we seem to find little gems of restaurants and cafes for a fraction of the cost were we are offered the same if not better quality of food and better service.
Do i recommend it, no... I would take my chances on another 2 hatted restaurant and see how that goes..

Gourmet Cooking Class - 11 Dec

Yesterday's gourmet cooking class was a complete success. We went over time a little but that's ok. I had a happy customer and that's all that mattered.
My client a young Anglo-Indian male had come back to the cooking school after completing a traditional cooking class 2 weeks ago. He loved the personal nature of the classes and that they were so small.
We tweaked the class menu to suit his tastes and needs. He wasn't confident in the kitchen but has left the Turkish Thyme kitchen we more confidence.
The menu went like this, stuffed capsicum with pine nuts and currents, toasted walnut pomegranate and green olive salad, helloumi stuffed, pistachio crusted zucchini flowers and finally lamb with a morello cherry and thyme sauce and a bed of cauliflower mash.
When he completed all his food and went on to taste it all, there were lots of noises of satisfaction when he was taking a bite of each meal, particularly the lamb with cherry sauce.