When I submitted my PhD a pair of months back, Cindy together with I had a slightly disappointing celebratory luncheon at Seamstress. So when I got my marks dorsum this calendar week (minor changes!), Cindy made certain that our celebrations would actually hitting the mark. Spotting some lastly infinitesimal Attica cancellations on Twitter, she pounced together with booked us inwards for a Fri dark degustation spectacular. In illustration you lot can't live bothered reading the long ship ahead, simply know this: this was in all probability the best repast we've ever had! Book a tabular array at once.
Attica is degustation alone on Fri together with Sabbatum dark together with get got an 8-course vego bill of fare every bit a criterion alternative (the word on the street is that they'll create a vegan version if they're given a heads up). The fit-out is simple, fashionable together with pretty little - given its condition every bit Melbourne's best eating theater (winner of The Age Good Food Guide gong, summation ranked the 63rd best eating theater globally), it's a flake of a surprise that the Attica crew haven't expanded to cater to demand. But I'm glad they haven't - the infinite is pleasant together with non also crowded together with the service is slick together with efficient. Things larn started amongst some freshly baked sourdough rye infused amongst wattleseed together with served amongst the most ridiculously delicious emulsified olive crude oil together with dark common salt spread (see above). I embarrassed myself slathering this materials onto my breadstuff to the indicate that Cindy tried to larn photographic evidence of my greediness - luckily I was eating it also fast for our photographic boob tube camera to grab me.
Then came our amuse-bouche - pureed walnut, grated pino mushrooms together with tiny lilliputian cabbage flowers served neatly inwards walnut shells. H5N1 overnice combination of earthy flavours to start things off.
Another lilliputian appetiser came out earlier the courses proper began: crumbed, seared oyster mushrooms decorated amongst buckwheat flowers.
After biting into 1 of these, I was ready to telephone telephone a halt to proceedings together with simply inquire for a giant bucket total of them. Perfectly fried amongst a lite together with crispy crumbing simply about a squidgily delicious oyster mushroom - these were fifty-fifty improve than the fried seafood snacks they brought to mind.
I don't actually empathise why at that topographic point were iii whole dishes earlier the bill of fare proper began, but I wasn't going to ship anything dorsum - our concluding pre-meal process was a fairly uncomplicated shiitake broth scattered amongst unidentifiable leaves (our note-taking gets increasingly unreliable every bit the matching wines start to pile up!).
The broth was basically the distilled flavor of shiitakes - I enjoyed it, but it was in all probability the alone affair brought to the tabular array that didn't blow my mind. Simple together with effective, but the to the lowest degree memorable dish of the night.
Right: onto the listed dishes. First upward was the textured cauliflower amongst horseradish.
This is the vego version of a snowfall crab dish that's larn a flake of an Attica signature. It's meant to hold off similar Mount Taranaki inwards New Zealand (Ben Shewry is clearly proud of his NZ heritage, this isn't the alone dish explicitly inspired past times it). Little pieces of cooked cauliflower are teamed upward amongst puffed rice, verjuice granita, witlof, freeze-dried kokosnoot together with barberries together with dusted inwards a white horseradish powder. The dish is a wacky combination of flavours, textures together with temperatures (there's a lilliputian verjuice iciness hidden within the mountain!).
It's smart together with fun, together with plant pretty good - Cindy's was a flake heavy on the horseradish, but mine was good balanced. The horseradish pulverization is a flake on the dry out side, but if you lot brand certain to combine it amongst the relaxation of the dish you'll get got no problems. It all in all probability teeters on the border of beingness also clever for its ain good, but I was won over past times it.
Next up: leek, lovage together with mustard oil.
The leek was beautifully cooked - tender spell maintaining a flake of texture - together with the surrounding bits together with pieces were wonderful. In particular, the buffalo mozarella was easily the best I've ever tasted, its saltiness was offset nicely past times the slightly tart lovage glue together with the sweetness of the leeks. Stunning.
After a pair of lite dishes, things got a flake to a greater extent than serious amongst our side past times side course: "a uncomplicated dish of tater cooked inwards the populace it was grown".
The tater is cooked for 12 hours inwards a rigged upward version of a hāngi (using the actual soil that the spuds were grown in), resulting inwards a soft together with waxy texture. The tater itself tasted similar a skillful tater - it's a pretty uncomplicated flavor - but it was turned into something amazing past times its accompaniments. It sits on a lilliputian pool of goats curd speckled amongst java together with kokosnoot husk ash together with and then layered amongst crisply fried saltbush leaves. The java together with kokosnoot ash added an indescribable depth of flavor to the goats curd, together with the saltbush gave a flake of squelch to an otherwise shine dish. Another winner.
We'd spotted the side past times side dish on its agency to other tables all dark long - turns out it's the showtime dish inwards the regular degustation. It had a slightly foreboding lift for an anti-tomato activist similar myself: Tomato, smoked sesame, eleven basils.
This was a compressed piece of capsicum topped amongst smoked dark sesame seeds, spiced hazelnuts, sheep's milk yoghurt, a pair of skinned dark Russian cherry tomatoes, the within goop from some other tomatoes together with eleven kinds of basil leaves (all plucked from the Attica garden). This had a really Italian feel, amongst the tomato/basil/cheese combo, but the introduction of the smoked sesame seeds together with spiced nuts took things a measuring away from a at 1 bring out reinvention of a caprese salad. I must tell that the eleven kinds of basil were non peculiarly distinctive - 1 time to a greater extent than an thought a flake to a greater extent than most beingness clever than actually adding specific flavours - but the whole dish worked actually nicely together. Maybe if tomatoes desire me to swallow them inwards future, they should brand certain they e'er larn prepared past times a 3-hatted chef.
We yet had 2 savoury courses left, together with side past times side upward was the richest of the bunch: kumara, almond, Pyengana.
Pyengana turns out to live a cheddar cheese, which is turned into an astonishlingy skillful creamy sauce together with poured over the relaxation of the dish at the table. The base of operations of the dish is a sprinkling of almond pieces dull roasted inwards butter together with garlic, there's a large wodge of nicely cooked kumara (sweet potato) on transcend of a shallot puree, a dull cooked egg yolk, broccolini buds together with buckwheat leaves. Wowsers. This is a rich dish, but it plant perfectly - the textures together with flavours are all strong, but they don't overpower each other together with you're left amongst a actually wonderful melange. I remember this in all probability won out every bit my favourite dish of the dark (olive crude oil emulsion aside).
Onto our concluding savoury of the night: mushrooms, mulled vino together with pearl onions.
The centrepiece of this dish was a pair of pieces of slippery jack mushroom, cooked inwards a vanilla mulled vino together with covered inwards herbs together with freeze-dried dark currants. There were a pair of half-bulbs of pearl onions together with some compressed onion stalks, served along amongst a parsnip puree. The mushrooms were fantastic - some sweetness together with acidity afterwards the heavy richness of the previous dish, but the onions were a flake to a greater extent than problem than they were worth. We both had problem chasing them simply about the plate and, spell they were soft together with tasty, they didn't actually wow either of us.
Onto dessert! First, native fruits of Australia.
Onto our concluding savoury of the night: mushrooms, mulled vino together with pearl onions.
Onto dessert! First, native fruits of Australia.
Another parochial dish, made upward of a arrive at of native Australian goodies including lemon aspen, quandong, candied rosella, native limes, native currants together with some others that nosotros didn't larn down. The fruits were served on a sheeps milk custard amongst a bush currant H2O ice on top. Another really clever dish - it was nifty to get got the peril to gustation such a broad arrive at of native goodies. Not all of them were amazing, but the freshness together with seize amongst teeth of them all was a refreshing palate cleanser afterwards the savoury courses.
The concluding listed dessert was the Plight of the Bees.
The transcend of this was a sparse layer of dehydrated pumpkin covered inwards freeze-dried apple. Underneath was a while-thyme honey, thyme-infused cream enriched amongst egg yolk, meringue chunks, Mandarin segments - at that topographic point was fennel inwards at that topographic point somewhere every bit well. Another wonderful combo of flavours together with textures - the thyme came through inwards patches every bit did the fennel, adding some complexity to an otherwise pretty sugariness dish. The pumpkin layer reminded me a flake of a roll-up, together with the meringue was perfectly crispy.
We were a flake distressing that neither dessert had featured chocolate, hence when they offered us a bonus dessert inspired past times Afghan Biscuits that included chocolate, cornflakes together with walnuts nosotros were sold ($15).
This was some other dish that played amongst textures together with temperatures - at that topographic point was a large weblog of deliciously rich ganache underneath the pile somewhere, along amongst a chocolate custard, freeze-dried cocoa mass, cocoa nibs, some sort of sorbet, chocolate pastry bits, sugariness crumbled house-made cornflakes together with grated walnuts. This was in all probability my favourite dessert - the combination of innovative techniques together with varied temperatures added to some wonderfully rich chocolatey goodness. Seriously - every degustation needs a chocolate-based dessert at the end.
To cease the night, we're presented amongst a pukeko nest amongst 2 speckled eggs sitting inwards it. Being a nerd, I checked the eggs against those inwards my iphone plain guide (a pukeko is the New-Zealand lift for the purple swamp-hen - encounter the eggs here) together with was impressed past times their ornithological accuracy. Kudos.
More importantly, they were wonderful - the within filled amongst gooey, salty caramel. The pukeko nest is meant to stand upward for Ben Shewry's approach to cooking - taking bits together with pieces from other places together with making his ain beautiful concoctions. The metaphor seemed a flake stretched to me, but these were a lovely complete to maybe the most satisfying repast of our lives.
Our wait-staff were friendly together with helpful (even stopping to explicate what the crazy chemistry-lab-looking machine inwards the kitchen did), my matching wines were fantastic (even if I create rest largely uncultured - for all the sommelier's speak of 'minerality', I honour myself amongst few decent adjectives to depict wine) together with the setting was relaxed together with simple. We quite liked Attica the showtime fourth dimension nosotros went, but things get got clearly gone to some other degree since together with then - it's a wonderful eating theater doing nutrient amongst a uniquely local inspiration (especially if you lot count NZ every bit local!). I can't recommend it plenty - volume inwards together with endeavour it for yourself.
The concluding listed dessert was the Plight of the Bees.
The transcend of this was a sparse layer of dehydrated pumpkin covered inwards freeze-dried apple. Underneath was a while-thyme honey, thyme-infused cream enriched amongst egg yolk, meringue chunks, Mandarin segments - at that topographic point was fennel inwards at that topographic point somewhere every bit well. Another wonderful combo of flavours together with textures - the thyme came through inwards patches every bit did the fennel, adding some complexity to an otherwise pretty sugariness dish. The pumpkin layer reminded me a flake of a roll-up, together with the meringue was perfectly crispy.
We were a flake distressing that neither dessert had featured chocolate, hence when they offered us a bonus dessert inspired past times Afghan Biscuits that included chocolate, cornflakes together with walnuts nosotros were sold ($15).
To cease the night, we're presented amongst a pukeko nest amongst 2 speckled eggs sitting inwards it. Being a nerd, I checked the eggs against those inwards my iphone plain guide (a pukeko is the New-Zealand lift for the purple swamp-hen - encounter the eggs here) together with was impressed past times their ornithological accuracy. Kudos.
Our wait-staff were friendly together with helpful (even stopping to explicate what the crazy chemistry-lab-looking machine inwards the kitchen did), my matching wines were fantastic (even if I create rest largely uncultured - for all the sommelier's speak of 'minerality', I honour myself amongst few decent adjectives to depict wine) together with the setting was relaxed together with simple. We quite liked Attica the showtime fourth dimension nosotros went, but things get got clearly gone to some other degree since together with then - it's a wonderful eating theater doing nutrient amongst a uniquely local inspiration (especially if you lot count NZ every bit local!). I can't recommend it plenty - volume inwards together with endeavour it for yourself.
____________
Unsurprisingly, Attica has been well-reviewed since our first visit, although non past times the vegetarian laid - nosotros alone institute this rave from melbourne gastronome (twice together with thrice), Laws of the Kitchen, Just Degusting, Absolutely Famished (including a veg review), 1001 Dinners, 1001 Nights, omnomnomnom & more, The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua, Eating Melbourne, Melbies together with Foodies, Plate Licker, Let's Get Fat Together, Barley Blog, EatThis, Melbourne Dining Experiences.
On the other hand, Melbourne Culinary Journal together with One Mouthful were a flake underwhelmed past times the Attica experience.
____________
Attica
74 Glen Eira Road, Ripponlea
9530 0111
8 course of educational activity veg degustation $175, matching wines $115,
bonus dessert $15
bonus dessert $15
Accessibility: Attica has a pair of steps on entry. It's non also cramped within given its overall size. The toilets are upward some other pair of little steps, although 1 time you lot larn at that topographic point they're pretty spacious together with slow to manoeuvre in. Lighting is depression without beingness ridiculous. Ordering together with payment are all at the table.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar