So after 24 hours of being back in Melbourne, while taking a tram down to the “city” to run some errands, I dialled one of the few Australian mobile numbers I can remember off by heart. Actually I can’t even remember my family’s mobile numbers but I put that down to the constant change in numbers over the years.
“I'm back, I'm back! So when are we going to catch up?” I asked D, friend from university days, now adopted as my “Dai lo”. We met at a Hongkie club meeting a few weeks into our freshman years at Uni. Since then, D and I have spent many of days and nights swotting in Ballieu Library on the 3rd floor, fewer (thank goodness) all nighters trying to finish off our computing science projects, karaoking at Club Hollywood, and now that we can afford it, eating our way through Hong Kong and Melbourne. The only blib in our shared experience was probably our Andalucia trip ... where to my horror D opted for Maccas when we were standing right next to a jambon deli. We can laugh now, yes. In any case, things have picked up since then (food wise) and during D’s last visit to Hong Kong, we did a Central eating tour, working our way down the hill to a few places including Tsim Zai Gei wonton mee and jok, egg tarts up Lynhurst Terrace and then into LGB at IFC for lemon tarts and more macaroons (it was a macaroony kinda day).
“Hey I’m good any day this week!”
“How about lunch? I can pop down to the city … ”
“Actually, dinner’s better …”
“Ok let’s make it Wednesday” (mentally calculating that I’ve got a couple of nights of catching up to do with my sisters).
We chatted quickly about the next month or so’s schedule. We both agreed that there was a lot of exploring and dining to be had in Melbourne before I head back to HK and D leaves Melbourne for his overseas stint.
Efficient as always, the next day, D sends me an email with a few recommendations for our upcoming food extravaganza in HK.
“As for Wednesday – wanna do this place? http://www.yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/ladro/”.
I quickly flicked to my Luxe guide, which gave Ladro the thumbs up under the Relaxed section, quipping “The best pizza, daily roast and pastas. Laid-back, urban, communal tables and heinously popular”.
Yes, let’s do Ladro.
So tonight, we drove down Gertrude Street into Fitzroy. It was dark by around 7 pm, so we squinted at the shop numbers as we went past the hairdressers, Dean’s Art, funky boutiques, and a costume shop. When we saw an unassuming glass fronted restaurant, crammed with people at shared benches, we knew that we’d arrived.
Even on a weeknight, the restaurant was packed wall to wall, so we were lucky to score a couple of seats at the bar. The service is friendly and efficient, and our waitress proved spot on in her recommendations. As promised, there is a long list of about 20 pizza options, followed by appetizers (primi), and mains (secondi) … rounded off with the dolce options. Any other night we would have taken a closer look at the secondi which I recall included scotch fillet, but tonight our focus was on pizza. Some of the menu is in Italian so we needed a little help. I have to say, after my experiences in Hong Kong, it is such a pleasure when the staff know everything about the menu.
“What’s melanzane”?
“It’s eggplant. And this particular dish is eggplant battered and deep fried … it’s really quite delicious”. That proved to be the start of the waitress’ good recommendations for the evening. The entrée plate of melanzane was simply four round decent sized flattened balls of breadcrumbed eggplants (mashed), served simply on a plain plate. The salty, tender and moist eggplant filling complemented the hot and crusty breadcrumbed coating really well.
Next were the skewers of fresh grilled prawns, lightly flavoured with garlic and drizzle of lemon, sitting on a bed of rocket leaves. It went down really well with the house bread - ciabatta and extra virgin oil.
For our gourmet pizza (is t
here still such a thing in Melbourne or is the gourmet pizza the norm now?), we narrowed it down two choices: the seafood pizza which sounded delectable with mussels, fish, prawns or the truffle pizza with truffata, potato and truffle oil. We opted for the latter and we were rewarded with a massive thin crust pizza, irregularly shaped (which D loved), topped with truffata (a paste made up of porcini/cep mushrooms combined with white truffles), kipfler potatoes and yes, we could smell it, truffle oil. Very good stuff.
We ended the evening with a lovely cassata. The waitress helpfully explained that unlike the Lygon street varieties, this cassata is not the ice-cream type … this cassata was more of a trifle (tiramisu) type, with a trifle soaked in brandy, topped with ricotto cheese mixed with candied fruits. The dessert didn't turn out to be quite what I expected, and I was convinced that I would read 0.05 on a breatheliser when I took a driving lesson on D’s car after dinner (though that is another story).
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Cost: $65 for two for a pizza, 2 entrees and a dessert (and drinks).
224 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Melbourne, Australia
+613 9415 7575
In the series of posts to come, Chocci will take you on our "I'm not hungry" tour in Seoul (run from 12-14 January) by Host Chai. 
12.30 am - 6 pairs of gloves, 4 beanies and 6 puffy jackets later, we arrive at our 1st stop. "This place serves the best ox-tail soup and seafood tofu stew", Yewwei tells us as we follow him into a narrow alley. Although I usually can't eat much after a sleepless night, I am suddenly famished. After taking off our boots, we step into a little restaurant and nestle down at low traditional Korean tables with our feet tucked underneath us. "[We'll have 3 of those ox-tail soups, 2 seafood tofus, 1 bibimbap, oh and maybe some raspberry wine]", YW quickly rattles off in Korean. 
Ignoring the sounds of what appears to be two cats attempting to kill each other in the floor above (the owner shrugged as we looked at her enquiringly), we quickly stuck our metal spoons and chopsticks into the pots of goodies. The slightly spicy oxtail soup was stewed to perfection, the beef just melting off the bone ... though the best part was probably eating the oxtail off the bone with our fingers. You need to use the fingers to get to the good bits! The seafood tofu soup was spicy and all the ingredients infused with the flavour. The bibimbap was good but left me wondering - where are the crunchy bits on the bottom? 
