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A Trio of Australian Treasures
Melbourne, Australia — In my lifetime as a left-handed diner,
only three restaurants in the world have taken note, quietly transferring
tableware to my left, to make dining a bit more comfortable. The
first was Taillevent in Paris, the second was Lai Ching Heen at the
Regent Hotel in Hong Kong, the third the famed Chinese restaurant,
Flower Drum, in downtown Melbourne.
Flower Drum is often called the greatest Chinese restaurant in the
world, famed for its gigantic King Island crab meat (monsters that
weigh up to 8 kilos) and some of the finest Peking Duck to be found
on this planet. The elegant restaurant, filled with Chinese antiques
in a warm, classic setting, is also known for its consistency.
The brainchild of now-retired Gilbert Lau. The restaurant is now
in the hands of longtime chef Anthony Liu, who oversees a well-trained
brigade in his long, narrow kitchen, a spot abuzz with searing woks
and a quartet of chefs who roll by hand each and every pancake to
wrap around the outstanding Peking Duck.
The landmark, 25-year-old restaurant has a refreshing, old-fashioned
air, and is often filled with regulars who come for the duck and
lemon chicken. We began our feast with a trio of dim sum-style dumplings,
a delicate, moist crab dim sum wrapped in the thinnest of pastry,
crab-rich and steaming hot, ready for dipping into a sublime, ginger-laced
vinegar sauce. The food here not only stands the test of time, but
sets itself aside for its high standards of excellence: A case in
point is the fantastic local scallop dumpling, feathery, delicate,
and seasoned with a fiery, first-rate XO sauce. These, along with
a fat shrimp dumpling seems right at home with the chilled, nicely
acidic Pipers Brook Chardonnay from the island of Tasmania.
Drunken squab followed, deep and dense poultry meat paired with
the most delicious mung bean pasta, all slippery, spicy, full-flavored.
Plump Tasmanian oysters were teamed up with spicy vermicelli, all
chewy, briny, and spicy, well matched with the 2002 Australian Katumara
Chardonnay, lightly touched with a kiss of oak. There’s no
question that Flower Drum’s Peking Duck is among the finest
in the world, with those hand rolled pancakes steamed tableside,
filled with slivers of young 12 to 16-week old local ducks, carefully
raised to be moist, and less fatty than most. As the restaurant’s
able wine steward, Thomas Chung, notes “We send our ducks to
the gym!” A perfect wine match for the duck is the young-vine
pinot noir from the Australian Yabby Lake Vineyard, Mornington Peninsula,
vintage 2002.
A finale of whole steamed trout – rich and almost cod-like
in texture – was not only gorgeous but delicious, topped with
a colorful sauce of fresh coriander leaf and plenty of garlic.
Momo
The first time I met Melbourne chef Greg Malouf
and was introduced to his signature modern Middle
Eastern cuisine, I knew I had a culinary soul mate.
What was there not to love about chickpea battered
zucchini flowers served on a cumin-braised lentil
salad? Or sage-fried potatoes with sour cream and
cumin salt; or Greek-spiced roast rabbit with a
warm salad of crushed saffron potatoes and olives
spiced with a touch of cubed Armenian sausages.
It’s food with a history, a purpose, an audience,
gently massaged and updated for the way we want
to eat today.
In his cozy and elegant downtown Melbourne restaurant,
Momo, Malouf serves food with a distinct personality
and plenty of flair. What I love is that all the
ingredients are quite familiar to anyone who loves
Middle Eastern fare, but no one puts the pieces
of the puzzle together like he does.
My hand’s down favorite of a recent weekday
was his colorful vegetarian main course, brought
to table in a colorful terrine. In the 60’s
we might have called it a vegetable casserole,
but the combination and melding of flavors were
pure ambrosia, a finely tuned blending of soft
squares of Moroccan-baked eggplant, chickpeas,
artichokes and goat’s milk cheese, anointed
and united with a bright golden poached egg on
top.
I loved as well the idea of the Greek-spiced rabbit,
teamed up with a colorful and fragrant salad of
saffron-infused cubed potatoes, chunks of sausage
and a nice dose of olives.
The zucchini flowers were golden and perfectly
fried in a thin chickpea batter and stuffed with
the Greek cheese, haloumy. The accompanying cumin-braised
lentil salad was typical of Malouf’s ability
to create deep, intense flavors from simple ingredients,
lifting lowly lentils to grandeur, assisting them
with a complex blend of tomatoes, onions, olives,
lemons, thyme, and parsley.
The Red Emperor
At lunch time each day The Red Emperor – a
bright and modern Chinese restaurant with a panoramic
view of Melbourne’s skyline and the Yarra
river with its well-tended walkways --- serves
up what is considered the city’s finest dim
sum feast. The menu includes no less than 100 different
dim sum delicacies, with a few specialties, such
as fried garlic prawn dumplings and cheese-baked
scallops available only on Sundays.
But a weekday lunch feast was plenty for me, with
a sampling of more than a dozen painstakingly prepared
Chinese snacks, including ethereally light pork
and prawn-filled dumplings, all crispy and not
a touch greasy, made for dipping in their fiery
XO sauce. Sesame-topped barbecued pork dumplings
were fashioned from Chinese lard-based puff pastry;
while I’d give five stars to their dumplings
filled with a generous mix of scallops, chives,
and prawns. The mastery of the chefs was shown
in their crystal dumplings, made with gluten-free
flour, and showing at least nine pleats in the
tiny, almost see-through pastry, here filled with
a classic shrimp mixture. At dessert, the flakey,
light pastry reappeared, the name of a heaven-sent
custard tart. Diners have a choice of choosing
piping hot items from the rolling trolleys, or
ordering from the vast menu, all the while enjoying
the sun-kissed view of the river, listening to
soothing Chinese classical music as they feast.
Flower Drum
17 Market Lane, Melbourne
Telephone: 61 3 9662 3655.
Open for lunch Monday through Saturday, dinner
daily.
Momo
Basement 115 Collins Street, Melbourne
Telephone: 61 3 9650 0660
Web: www.momorestaurant.com.au.
Open for lunch Monday through Friday, dinner
Monday through Saturday. Closed Sunday.
The Red Emperor
UR3, upper level
3 Southgate Avenue, Southbank
Telephone: 61 3 9699 4170
Web: www.redemperor.com.au
Open daily. Dim sum at lunch only.
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