Footscray Fantastic!

Firstly, I will say sorry for my lack of post recently. This has happened for two reasons;

I have been kind of time poor with work and showing a friend around Melbourne trying to help him find a job the past few days.

I have been to a few places but they weren't anything great so I don't deem them worthy of spending time writing about the food.

HOWEVER today my friends the drought has broken! The flood of fantastic food comes plentiful!

Where you ask?

From the west of course, the wild west, traditionally the less appealing of the two (east and west). Well Footscray which is the epitomy of the west in Melbourne is a treasure trove of Asian and African delights - with a bit of Mediteranian hidden in there.

Footscray is colourful, it's edgy, it's everything you loved about Fitzroy 10 years ago. There is danger, delight and anything in between. All in all it is an adventure that will not be around for much longer. According to me it is the next inner city suburb facing gentrification - so go there while the good is good and before the yuppies move in and make it 'correct'.

How do we get to Footscray? Well you catch a train from the city - or north melbourne station. Hope on the Weribee or Sydenham lines. Catch the 82 tram from Moonee Ponds or find a bus. But train is quick. About 10 minutes from the CBD it's no hike. Don't drive, parking is a bit inconsistent and probably a bit unsafe - haha only joking...(or am i?)

Anyway so we all met up and I was telling everyone about where we'd go and if everyone fancied what I had in mind. Ethiopian food at Lalibela and cannoli at Cavallaro's. Both places in my view are pretty awesome eateries in the area. Since there was a risk of Cavallaro's closing earlier - Amy suggested we go and do our dessert first, because in the words of the girl herself "Who said dessert has to be last?"

Too true Amy, too true!

So we headed over to Cavallaro's which has been open since 1949 - and doesn't look like it's changed much since. You're greeted by friendly old European ladies and a lovely new girl who seems to have been recently employed. It gives you the feeling you're going to your grandmothers house. It's small, tan coloured tiles, mirrors, biscuits everywhere, lollies and the ladies who run the place fuss over you if you're not doing what you should be doing.

You can get your cannoli filled with ricotta filling or chocolate and vanilla custard. Both are particularly excellent - but I personally prefer the ricotta filled cannoli. I recommend trying both. Their other biscuits are pretty good and they make a decent coffee.

This is what you might get if you went there:

Quick note, the cannoli is freshly filled- none of this pre filled shit. So what you're getting is fresh.

The ricotta cannoli is heavenly. It's an almost cream cheese like consistency with the filling - and possibly some kind of hazelnut meal inside as well. It is sweet but not overly so. You can easily eat this and feel content, not full and sickly. With that said - it is totally satisfying. There is a perfectly found balance here.

These people are pros at what they do - they are efficient and genuinely nice. This place is small so it gets busy easily. But believe me it is worth waiting.

I honestly have only had maybe tried 5 or so cannoli from other places and this is the best. Absolutely the best I have tried.

But with that said - I haven't tried every cannoli so I could be wrong.

Anyway after chilling around there and making the store look full (with all 8 of us) we headed down to Lalibela. I assumed it would be open - but if it wasn't there was a good Northern Chinese Dumpling House nearby.

Well sorry Northern Chinese Dumplings because Lalibela was open.

It wasn't too busy inside, a few people here and there - but I'd recommend making a booking if you were going for dinner, because over the course of the afternoon it became fairly busy. But bookings would only be needed with larger groups.

The menu isn't big, but don't let that put you off. What is offered is all pretty darn good.

We ordered the Doro Wot (Chicken Stewed in Red Pepper Sauce), Mesir Wot (Lentil Dish), and also a cubed lamb dish with onions (sorry I forgot the name!) and also a beef dish (also forgot). These were all served on a giant plate on top of Injera which is a kind of bread often eaten with Ethiopian food. It has a slightly sour taste because before cooking, the mixture goes through a certain fermentation process.

This picture is a bit dodgy, sorry it seemed good at the time - but mainly I was excited to just dig in. And that is what you do. There is no cutlery here. You use your hands my friends! and you all eat from the same plate. It is absolutely and awesome dining experience, because you're interacting with the food and each other for the whole meal - it doesn't allow you to retreat to your own meal because you have what other people are having. I love it!

So how was it?

Effing awesome! Put simply.

But I will elaborate.

The chicken and beef dish were slightly spicy and beautifully aromatic. It is not salty but full flavoured - it is such a range, yet quite delicate at the same time. There was a boiled egg served with the chicken - it was great!

The Lamb was beautiful, it doesn't have the same amount of sauce as the others as you can see, but it was yummy. The lamb was a little tough but not overly so.

The lentil was dish was really awesome. It didn't have the spicyness of the other dishes but it was just as well flavoured and very satisfying. Now a note on this place - they have a pretty extensive vegetarian meal list - so if you're vegetarian or dining with one, try out ethiopian. It's part of the cuisine so it isn't at all tokenistic if you get my drift?

As you eat the meals, picking some up with the injera, bringing it to your mouth and tasting the slight sourness of the bread and the explosion of flavours from whatever you picked up - you will be in ecstasy.

The dishes are about 12 dollars each and drinks are cheaper than other city or inner city eateries.

OH and I must say - something completely made my day today. As we were walking back for Footscray station, my heart skipped a beat as I saw the Olympic Doughnuts Van right next to the redevelopment site of the station. Impossible, I heard the place closed. I was distraught.

BUT it was there!

I told everyone we must have some. This place is like an INSTITUTION. I would not say it about many places, but Olympic Doughnuts is an institution. Now it's future is in question because the council doesn't know where to put the place when the whole station gets redeveloped (see what gentrification does?)

It may be moved to the mall or further down the street. The lady said it is going to stay open for now though.

It's cheap, it's great and they use a dolphin to squirt the jam into the doughnuts. It is awesome. You just simply MUST have these.

The Olympic Doughnut Van is located outside Footscray station.

Cavallaro is located:

98 Hopkins St
Footscray VIC 3011
(03) 9687 4638

It is open most days, closes early on Saturday (maybe 2pm?) and I don't know if it's open on Sundays. And of course it is open on weekdays.

Lalibela is located:

91 Irving St
Footscray VIC 3011
(03) 9687 0300

Lalibela is open from 11am - 11pm daily apparently. Excellent.