The Botanical – what i’m eating at the time 03.07.2012

The Botanical

Hello my fine dining friends, welcome back for another first class post. First, some housekeeping. Thank you to my newest mystery follower no. 23, much appreciated; you made my week!  Also, thank you to the people who left some posts in the comments section, again, I really appreciate the simple acknowledgement of my work and the time taken to say hello! 🙂

Ok, so back to the good stuff. Last week we had another “birthday cousin’s night” and following tradition (like our last outing) we hit up The Botanical. The Botanical was/is somewhat of a little icon in Melbourne. It recently had a significant renovation and now is a very swish looking wine bar and restaurant with decorated Executive Chef Cheong Liew. Cheong used to head “The Grange” restaurant at Hilton Hotel in Adelaide and has been given a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services in developing and influencing the style of contemporary Australian cuisine. His approach is adopting seasonal freshness and raw ingredients and breaking a few rules in between.

Vue de Monde – what i’m eating at the time 16.03.2012

Vue De Monde

It’s Friday! Yay! Was so so tired last week and was tempted not to write this but thought of my 10 followers (hehe actually, its 11 now! thank you email follower! please comment to let me know who you are!) and said “what the hell”. I have some time after work so I went and looked for a little meeting room and try to take a nap. I ended up chatting the hour away before having to run off to Vue. A bunch of friends booked the mega chef’s table at the new Vue de Monde. We almost had the full 18 but after a miss count, only 17 bums were on the seats. I was really looking forward to this night since I have been to the original Vue on little Collins St before the move and some of those dishes….just wow. A few of the people who shared that night with us were coming again for a repeat experience so expectations were high. We still talk about some of those dishes today! If you have been, you will definitely remember the burnt butter marron, chocolate/coffee smoked kangaroo, cranberry marrow waygu and “the egg”. Magic.

The Fat Duck

 

The Fat Duck

The name says it all. Heston Blumethal, 3 Michelin Stars, rated as one of best restaurants in the world. Originally inspired by the three star Michelin restaurant L’Oustau de Baumaniere when he was sixteen, Heston taught himself how to cook and in 1995, bought a quaint little pub called “The Bell” which has been transformed into what we all know today as Fat Duck. He led the way of culinary gastronomy and earned his third star in under a decade. Heston loves to question everything and push the boundaries of food and cooking bringing all the senses into the eating experience. Like a kid in the candy shop.