I recently started my internship in Altona which is along the beach in Melbourne's west. It's a very understated area, beautiful and truly unspoilt. For those of you who love the beach suburb of yesterday (Melbourne Style) I suggest a trip down to Altona on a balmy day.
In the 60's it was apparently marketed as the Miami of Melbourne. Of course this never took off and it's more pleasing cousing St Kilda won that wager.
Anyway there is a beautiful street called Pier Street right outside my offices and there are a number of eateries I intend to conquer over the course of my 6 months in Altona.
I have tried two already. I allow myself eating out here once a week because I'm trying to save a little as well as saving money for other eating adventures. And most importantly - if I were to eat out everyday, sit in an office for 8 hours. I'd basically not be very healthy.
Okay!
First place I went to was called Creme - it was crap. So it's hardly worth a mention aside from don't go there or you'll be paying about 17.95 for an tough lamb 'greek' salad which is hardly greek at all.
Second place was recommended to me by a co worker who said he enjoyed the tapas at Mosaic.
I'd often pass it as I walked down to the beach to eat my home made lunch. Which was a series of sliced vegetables to keep me regular and a bottle of water and of course a book. We have to feed the brain too.
So I happened to find myself the night before I went to Mosaic feeling rather lazy - I didn't make my lunch - and I had to buy it. I walked into Mosaic and saw a few people eating in a rather snazzy looking place - but very little staff. I couldn't be bothered waiting so I seated myself and got myself a menu.
I know people get really funny about this - but I'm willing to bypass not being greeted immediately if the food is good and it's comfortable.
Surely enough, a lovely lady comes out and greets me - noting that she didn't see me duck in - I winked and told her I was a ninja.
I scanned the menu - the tapas selection looked absolutely lovely but I was alone and I figured getting a few tapas dishes wouldn't be a good range of flavours.
The mains were quite pricey for me ($30 +) But looked mouthwatering.
Then I saw "Antipasto Platter"
It was $20 which was exactly how much I had with me. So I went for it.
The waiter also informed me that they had no cured meats at the moment because of menu transition so instead of the cured meats I would get prawns cooked lightly with bacon and spiced calamari as a substitute. I was very happy with this because it sounded like I was going to get some good value for money.
As you can see we have the prawn in the bottom left corner, sun dried tomato, some kind of meat loaf of cured meat, artichoke, dolmathes, feta, marinated mushrooms, sweet potato and some lovely bread and unfortunately breadsticks.
Now at first I was a tad confused because these bacon prawns were lacking bacon - but when I tried one - it was this beautiful harmony of bacon and prawn flavour with the acidity of the lemon embedded in a beautiful moist flesh. ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL.
The sundried tomato was actually semi sundried and SO lovely.
The meat loaf was interesting - not too salty and not dry.
Artichoke was good - not prickly.
Dolmathes were not bad - they were slightly mushy inside - i prefer mine a bit firmer. Also they put sea salt ontop which I wasn't crash hot on. BUT the flavour was just excellent.
The feta was a let down. NOW let me tell you something about feta in eateries. They always seem to get the dodgy stuff. Like it just has the texture of foam and this salty crappy brine flavour. Ew. I had half a mind to suggest they use persian feta instead because it would totally have made this dish perfect.
Marinated mushrooms were just divine! I'm a mushroom lover from way back so I'm always excited about mushroom in dishes. These were well done indeed.
Sweet Potato. Very very lovely. and not too much which is important. Personally I feel too much sweet potato makes me feel ill. I don't know about everyone else.
and how can I forget squidy squid squid! It was great. So SO soft and delicately flavoured. The batter was beautiful. I just wanted more - but I felt this taste was just enough to satisfy.
At the end I felt satisfied - not bloated or thirsty or anything. I was just content with how it went and how it left me feeling. I hate nothing more than having a meal that is too salty or oily or sweet and it leaves you with that unbalanced feeling. Like something has knocked your food Ying Yang out of whack. NO ONE wants that.
Anyway , if you're in Altona please check Mosaic out - it is on Pier St next to the post office.
No comments:
Post a Comment