Visiting wine bars is my new favourite thing (I know – I’m severely behind the times) because regardless of which wine you choose, you’re winning and the food is equivalent to fine dining without the hefty price tag.
Author: Sonia Nair
Sonia Nair is a Melbourne-based food writer who persists with her love of everything deep fried and spicy, despite being diagnosed with a histamine intolerance and lactose intolerance after incorrectly thinking she was fructose-intolerant for several years.
Banish all thoughts of McCain’s cheese and bacon pizza pockets (as satisfying as they can be) because Melbourne chef Guy Grossi has opened up a casual eatery called Pezzo, which specialises in pizza pockets that house ingredients decidedly more gourmet than homebrand cheese and bacon – think calamari, polpette (meatballs) and cotoletta (veal breaded cutlet).
A short menu makes me nervous because I’m afraid there won’t be a dish on it that will cater to all my intolerances, but I shouldn’t have worried at Little Andorra.
What I loved best about Camus was how nostalgic flavours of my childhood – from the chickpea pancake and the fried okra to the lime pickle – punctuated dishes in fresh and exciting ways that I hadn’t tasted before.
A few happy hour wines deep one Friday night, Beer Jenga Master, Gingko Leaf Girl and I hatched the idea to form a Fine Dining Club.
I first learned about Handsome Her when it made headlines for charging men an 18% surcharge to account for the gender pay gap, proceeds of which go to women’s services – a noble endeavour that I am 100% in favour of.
Nosh has a readymade ‘signature poke bowl’ menu, a DIY bowl option and nori tacos where corn tortillas are replaced by seaweed, a novel idea but for the fact that each taco costs $7.50, a hefty price considering seaweed isn’t nearly half as filling as a taco shell.
It’s a laidback vibe at Benny Burger. You get paper menus from the front counter and happily settle into pinball machine tables-cum-booths set against graffiti-splattered walls or two-seater tables if you’re not lucky enough to nab a booth.
Only upon my usual pre-meal menu stalking activities did I realise that there were entirely separate menus for fructose-intolerant people and vegans respectively at Maccaroni Osteria Italiana i.e. what is this heaven and why had I never heard of it?
One of my favourite things to eat that I can’t eat are pies, be they Four’N Twenty meat pies or apple pies of the McDonalds variety, hence why I jumped at the chance to try The Pie Shop, an offshoot of Matt Wilkinson’s Pope Joan.
Whatever Floats Your Bloat 