The  Antalya Restaurant serving Turkish food at 233 Sydney Road Coburg is the genuine article  The Turkish food is as good as you would get it in Turkey.  I have this on the authority of a fellow diner who had recently returned from Turkey.  The place felt authentic. It felt comfortable and had an edge of homeliness.

It is a friendly place with Turkish memorabilia on the walls – mostly from the Antalya region.  The staff is friendly and you are welcomed in rather as if you are entering someone’s home.

The menu is not extensive and I see this as an advantage.  Each dish can be prepared and it doesn’t have to rely on ingredients from another dish.   One of our party lives in the area and dines there often. He directed the ordering.

To start  we shared a couple of plates of the mixed dips.  The bread was exceptional and the standard selection of dips were very good.

These were followed by shaved lamb as for doner kebab, served with yoghurt and a salad.  The lamb was delicious – the best I have tasted.

Potato Salad an up-market and tangy version of the often bland mixture.

Tabouli that was crisp and I swear was made just before it was served.  It is one of my favourite salads and I usually make do with the supermarket version – this one was a real treat.

Spinach and feta pizza this Turkish pizza is not what you would recognised as a pizza.  It was a filling of spinach and feta wrapped inside a dough, flattened and baked.   A little greasy but good.

We left to have coffee and desert elsewhere.  These are flavours that stick in my mind a couple of days later- the lamb, tabouli and the potato salad.

My only complaint is that the white table clothes are covered in plastic. So while you are sitting there your arms sort of sticks to it.   Easy of course to wipe and it keeps the laundry bills to a minimum.  That is a very minor complaint.

Where:-

Antalya Restaurant, 233 Sydney Road, Coburg.  It is on the corner of Reynard Street.

It is B Y O.

Opening Hours:-

It is closed all day Tuesdays

Wednesday it opens from 5.30 until late

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday it opens 11.30 until late

Related posts:

1. Eating Korean at Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ – Korean Food, Melbourne’s CBD
2. Booktalk Cafe, Richmond– a different style of food-and-coffee-break
3. Station Hotel, Napier Street, Footscray – lunch in their European-style dining room.

Over the years Prahran cafes and food outlets have come and gone but not  the Special Cake Shop.  It  just keeps on keeping on.  It was opened in the mid 1950s by a Greek Immigrant and then bought in 1976 by its current owner George Seherlis.

The Special Cake shop is in one of these charming old buildings that are fast disappearing from along Chapel Street

The shop has stayed the same.  The inside, which hasn’t changed since I have been buying from it,  looks a bit retro but I think it is one of those places that fashion has gone the full circle and is back with it.

The inside is divided into two parts with a wide opening between them.  As you enter there is seating to the left, the retail counter to your right and the kitchen straight ahead.    The windows are full of cakes and biscuits.  They are not all Greek cakes.   You can get an English sponge roll and lamingtons.  There are some wonderful double chocolate biscuits.

I’m told that they are still making coffee in their 1960’s coffee machine.    I haven’t checked this out.  I have had coffee there.  It was good but not the best I have had.

I usually buy and head for home. The Baklava is good – solid hearty Baklava with lots of nuts. Great  for desert.

A few years ago they introduced a spinach and feta scone  – if you think of  ’scone’ in an English sense you’ll look for the wrong thing. This scone is about the size of a saucer and oozes spinach, onion and feta. They are usually in the window but you can buy them warm from the pie-warmer or if you arrive at the right time – late morning – they are warm from the oven.

This scone is my weakness.  Every few weeks I begin to crave one and I need to have my fix.

The Special Cake Shop is a friendly place with family members working there.  They are always helpful, pleasant and quick.  Many of the customers are regulars and appear to be friends.  It would be easy  to fit into this companionable vibe. They also serve pies, sausage rolls, filled rolls and gourmet sandwiches.

Where:-
Special Cakes, 207 Chapel Street, Prahran Phone 9510 7689

Opening hours:-
Open every day from 7.00am to 6.00pm

Getting there:
Tram No 78 runs along Chapel Street to Richmond.  Tram 6 to Glen Iris leaves from the CBD, get off at the corner of High Street and Chapel Street and walk North.

Trains the Sandringham Line to either Prahran Station or Windsor Station

Related posts:

1. Railway antiques, restored furniture, coffee and cakes at the Albert Park Station.
2. Trash, Treasure or vintage? It is hard to decide in Womango, 47 Chapel Street, Windsor/Prahran.
3. Scones cup cakes and lunch, Sandringham Village – by the beach

I think it is best on Saturday.  The produce seems to be fresher as if it was whisked from the soil or picked from the tree that very morning.   It is also the day when the market is flooded with locals doing their weekly shopping – a great ambiance that is unique to this market.

Shopping  before the Saturday crowds.

It’s good to be there early on Saturday and miss some of the crowd but on the other hand from about 10.30 onwards the place is full of free nibbles – you can lunch your way around the stalls eating a bit here and there.  If you watch the shoppers you can see them sampling and snacking as they weave from stall to stall.

This is a produce market.    There is a hardware stall but it is about food: fruit and veg, meat fish and poultry, delicatessens, coffee, flowers and a very popular organic stall (Ripe the Organic Grocer), selling everything including wine and cakes made with organic ingredients. It is not a market for clothes and bric-a-brac.

A good place to start is Cleo’s.  It has an entrance off Commercial Road and a window full of bread.  You can wander through the delicatessen and straight into the market.

From Cleo’s I head to stall 108,  MJ Mow Gourmet Potatoes.  Every variety of potato is available including the increasingly popular kipfler and one I had never heard of before,  Purple Congo.  This is good to mash and because of its colour good to use as a decoration.    There is a flier available that  lists 17 varieties of potatoes and  their different uses.  It is fun to experiment and I do but I love my old favourite the King Edward.

Stall 116 is Damian Pike the Wild Mushroom Specialist.  Wild mushrooms are those that come up in  a field after rain and have the best taste ever.  There not always available – it doesn’t always rain.  The stall is interesting not only because of the selection of mushrooms but for unusual seasonal items like flat peaches from China which they say they stock.  I have never seen them but I believe they exist!

You can grab good coffee or dine on something more substantial in the Market Square which is partly covered and has a play ground for the kids.

Coffee in the Market Square.

Information:-

Damian Pike Wild Mushroom specialist Phone 0411 438 465

MJ Mow Gourmet Potatoes  Phone 0417 382 354

Market Web site

Address:-

163 Commercial Road, South Yarra

Opening Hours:-
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday – dawn to 5pm
Friday Dawn to 6pm
Sunday 10am to 3.00pm

Closed:-

Monday and Wednesday

Getting there:-

Tram:- 72 and get off at Stop 30

Train:- Take the Sandringham Line to Prahran Station and walk to Commercial Road.  It’s about 2 minutes walk

Related posts:

1. Red Star Cafe right opposite The South Melbourne Market, Clarendon Street
2. Cakes and coffee at the Special Cake Shop – Chapel Street, Prahran
3. Explore the Books @ the Fed Square Book Market CBD

I knew nothing of Rocco Pantaleo on my first visit there and have subsequently eaten there on a number of occasions still not realizing why it was decorated this way.   I ate there because I liked the atmosphere and the pizzas.

I understand now that this was Mr Pantaleo’s flagship – his first restaurant. And  I see why it is full of motor bikes and racing memorabilia. This was his passion.  I’m told he was often in the restaurant so I may have seen him without realizing who he was. I believe many of the rich and famous have eaten there including Bill Clinton.

I live near the St Kilda Junction where he was killed on his way to the Grand Prix.  I will never pass that way again without thinking of him and La Porchetta in North Carlton.   I plan to visit the restaurant  next week so I can eat another delicious pizza and raise a glass of red to memory of Rocco Pantaleo.

La Porchetta

392 Rathdown Street

North Carlton – Phone 9347 8906

Getting there:-

Tram 96 to East Brunswick.

It runs along Nicholson Street. Get off at Curtain Street and walk left, through to Rathdowne Street.

Related posts:

1. Motorbikes at La Porchetta Carlton North
2. “Little Italy” – Lygon Street – Carlton
3. The Good Life, and Good Food at Albert Park Lake

My first love was “Little Italy”on Lygon Street – that small strip of Lygon Street between Gratton Street and Argyle Place North that runs alongside Argyle Square .

Italian restaurant Lygon Street lunch time 1997

It was Easter twelve years ago and I was on my first trip here.  It was a clear, sharp and windless evening.  Lygon Street was alive in a way that was a complete contrast to my home town.  It was my first experience of spruikers and back then I found them fun. We chose a restaurant and were encouraged to sit outside.  I was dubious.  It was really chilly.  Then I discovered the magic of the gas heater.  We sat under the trees and were so warm I removed my jacket.

The check table clothes were a feature I liked in 1997

The crowds swarmed by, the atmosphere was convivial, the house red was soft and mellow – there was nowhere else in the world I wanted  to be but there at a table on the sidewalk in Lygon Street eating Italian food.

Lunch time 2010

Now I live here I go only when I have guests.  I take them so they can experience the magic I once felt.  Not everyone feels the magic.  Not everyone likes the spruikers.  Not everyone thinks the food is great.  Not everyone enjoys the evening crowds but most people like the atmosphere.  The experience is best explored in the evening.  During the day it is quieter and over those twelve years the other side of the street, the west side,  has flourished and that is where you find the lunch time crowds.

Lunch time 2010
Time has seen changes in the restaurants.  My original favourite Il Primo has gone.  It was at Il Primo that I first ate gnocchi and so another love affair began.

Now I choose Il Gusto.  I like their pasta and they have a good web site with their full menu.  This allows you to read the menu in advance; to think about what to eat,  to discuss it with your fellow diners,  to change your mind a couple of times and to get your mouth watering.

The Lygon Street experience now seems to have diminished a little from what it was or perhaps it is just that I am used to it.    Check it out it every now and again.  It is so much part of Melbourne’s heritage.  It is to be hoped that it all just doesn’t drift away.

Information:-

Most of the restaurants along the strip are open from 12 noon to 12 midnight.  These include;
Il Gusto Restaurant– 256 Lygon Street – Phone 9663 6396
Villa Romana Trattoria – 252 Lygon Street –Phone 9650 7990
La Spaghettata  Restaurant  – 238 Lygon Street – Phone 9663 6102

Getting there:-

The easiest  way to get there is  tram  to Melbourne University and walk along Gratton Street.  The trams that go there include; 3, 5, 6, 16, 64,67,72.
There parking in the area but most of it is for one hour only.

Related posts:

1. Rocco Pantaleo – La Porchetta North Carlton
2. A touch of France on Park Street, South Melbourne
3. Cakes and ice cream – the GeloBar, East Brunswick

Chimmys was the place to grab a coffee before racing to a meeting or a training course.  The Head Office moved and I forgot about Chimmys until recently when I was in Park Street and wanted a coffee.  I remember it always being busy on those work-day mornings and it was busy on the recent Sunday when I popped in.

The flat white doesn’t have any pretty designs but it has the silkiest milk I’ve tasted for a while and the coffee is the best.

To me the cafe has a French feel, and the man who makes the coffee a Gallic charm – you need to experience this charm for yourself.  Perhaps it is just European ambience and charm but I like to think of it as French. The filled baguettes reinforce the French ambience .

The interior says, “It’s all about the food!”  That is, it is not decorated.  There are two large rooms with a wide doorway between them, dark brown tables, pale cream walls and sort of  orange/brown lino tiles on the floor. Relaxing?  Not particularly.  The best place to be is outside under the veranda .

Most of the first room is taken up with display cases and one end is given over to the ovens with a row of tables along the remaining wall.   The second room is the cafe area with tables spaced so you feel separate from your fellow coffee drinkers.

The cafe is popular with locals. This is a breakfast and lunch place.  By mid afternoon most of the food has been sold.  This is a good thing because you know everything is made the day you buy it. The baguettes with egg and bacon are just as good at breakfast as they are for lunch and if you just want a coffee try a raspberry shortbread with it.  Delicious.

Then there is the bread.  I bought some  bread ‘pain de campagne’ and I will be back for more and I’m told the ’seven grain’ bread is delicious.

For a Francophile this tiny area of Park Street, South Melbourne is a good place to hang out.  Manon is at 294 Park Street and then further towards Clarendon Street on the other side there is Le Metro,  Byoux et Accessories, at 231 Park Street. The shop is a French experience. Check it out here

Getting there:-

The number 1 tram goes past Chimmys on its way to the South Melbourne Beach.  You can get off, buy a filled baguette and a pastry and perhaps a take away coffee, get on the next tram and picnic at the beach.

Chimmys info and opening hours:-

They serve a cooked breakfast from Wednesday through to Sunday.

They open from 7am every day of the week.  In the weekend they close at 3pm and during the week 4pm.

You can confirm hours etc:- Chimmys phone 9696 7418

Related posts:

1. Red Star Cafe right opposite The South Melbourne Market, Clarendon Street
2. Gas Eateries and Supply Cafe – South Melbourne
3. A French Experience at Noisette’s Port Melbourne

The Langham Hotel overlooking the Yarra River catching the last rays of the day’s sun.

This hotel used to be called the Sheraton Towers.  It retains the sophistication, service, stunning entrance foyer and has an easy welcoming ambiance.

The Melba Room hosts a buffet luncheon every day.   It is at the top of the Grand curving staircase that has a centre fountain which takes your breath. The feast  is an extravaganza and it is well worth missing breakfast for.

I was there to celebrate a birthday.  We had booked a table by a window that looks onto the Yarra River.

At one stage clouds came over and the skies darkened,  “How cosy!  How wonderful,“   We exclaimed.    We gazed onto the river with the rain spotting it  and watched people along the Promenade scuttling for cover.   We relaxed in our comfortable chairs and wondered what to eat next.

I am the first to admit that there is something rather uncouth about a buffet.  My group behaved as if we hadn’t eaten for a week.  Other groups did likewise.  There was a group celebrating the end of a year twelve commitment.  They were very dressed up and sophisticated but they couldn’t resist the temptation to pile their plates and then go back for more and more.

This can be a leisurely feast.    Start with soup, three choices, then move to the seafood and fill your plate with oysters, prawns, crab and a choice of mayonnaise.  That just gets you started.  A couple of year twelves had several seafood courses before they progressed.  They mentioned this to me as I was wondering about more prawns.

That is the beauty of it.  You can make your whole meal of prawns and oysters.  But why would you when there is every variety and mixture of food possible including Japanese?  A Japanese chef is there to help you make choices.

The desserts are interesting and the chef  knows you are going to want to try everything.  Mini, individual servings are produced of dozens of items.  Rather like mini works of art.

There was coffee and cheese and biscuits to finish.

The quality of the food?   It did vary a little but I loved the Japanese, the seafood and the curries and also the breads.
We plan to return for another celebration.

A very different light fitting hangs over the Japanese food.

Times:
The Melba Room starts serving luncheon at noon, the hot food is removed at 2.30 and the restaurant closes at 4.00 to prepare for dinner.
Costs:
Monday to Friday is $47.00 with a reduction for senior card holder of $4.00 and on Monday $8.00
Prices in the weekend are higher with no concessions:-
Saturday $69.00
Sunday $75.00
I understand that the prices will go up nearer Christmas when they provide a special Christmas menu.
It is suggested you book especially on Saturday and Sunday when it can be very busy.

Getting there:
The Melba Room, The Langham Hotel, 1 Southgate Avenue, Southgate  8696 8888.

You can enter from The Southbank Promenade along the river or it is just off St Kilda Road, in Southgate Avenue
Trams:
Any tram that goes to Federation Square or Flinders Street Station will get you there.
If you take your car there is valet parking.

Related posts:

1. The Melba Room at the Langham hotel-a return visit and another great eating experience.
2. Station Hotel, Napier Street, Footscray – lunch in their European-style dining room.
3. Hotel Albion, Port Melbourne – Great Bar-Food and Good Value Nights.

I was browsing  there the other day and rummaged right into the depths of the shop – the depths of Books for Cooks is a sort of back room tucked away on the left hand side of the shop.

It was there I had one of those great nostalgic moments that come occasionally – a sort of arrow shot from the blue that takes you back in time.  I discovered the Books for Cooks collection of the Time Life Series of ‘Foods of the World’.

I was immediately flung back to a basic eat-in kitchen of  years ago and the magic a couple of these books brought to our quiet traditional suburban lives. It was a time when we ate meat, potatoes and two vegetables for the main meal of the day.

Pomegranate and Coffee

The first book I ever saw was ‘Cooking of the Middle East’ and it opened a whole other world to us. The cover features a picture a pomegranate.  I had never seen one of these  and at that time at least half of the ingredients used in the recipes were unobtainable where I lived. This prevented us from experimenting with many of the recipes.  ‘The Cooking of Italy’ was of more use to us.

The Cooking of Italy

We knew about spaghetti.  We ate it from a can and we bought macaroni which we could substitute for the unavailable pastas.  The cheeses in the photos looked mouth-watering but were not readily available so our dishes had a distinct cheddar flavour.

Italian Cheese numbered and discussed

There are two books in the package.  A coffee-table-size full of stunning photos,  the  history of the food and wines of the country,  useful information and some recipes.  An A5 ring binder gives most of the recipes and is easy to use on the bench.   Books for Cooks are selling them separately.

Italian wines numbered and discussed

These books have stood the test of time although some of the fashion in the photos is a bit retro. It surprises me that the books haven’t been revised and re-published.   I was astounded to find there are 27 titles,  and they cover such little known traditional food-styles as  American Creole,  Acadian  Cooking and Cooking of the Caribbean Islands?

I’m heading back to Books to Cooks for another bit of nostalgia and to add to my growing collection of  the Time Life Series of ‘Foods of the World’.     I think I will be the person who buys Acadian Cooking.  It’s the cooking of the French-speakers who live in the French-speaking areas of Atlantic Canada.  They like to use one pot for everything which is appealing.

Books for Cooks is at 233-235 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy – just around the corner from Smith Street.
Phone 8415 1415
Opening hours: 10.00 to 6.00 Monday to Saturday, 11.00 to 5.00 Sundays

Getting there:-

Take the 86 or the 95 tram from the city
There is metered parking in Gertrude Street

Related posts:

1. Books for Cooks Gertrude Street – Fitzroy
2. Fitzroy Nursery – Garden Oasis in Fitzroy
3. Pre-loved books move around the community in Port Philip

How about The Hearty Hungarian, in Carlisle Street East St Kilda?

The food is ready to go – no waiting around.  All you have to do is make choices.  The Hearty Hungarian – is right next door to the St Kilda branch of the Port Phillip Library Service so you can roll out of there and step into it..

The first time I got food from there I’d been to the library and at closing stepped from that warm building into the chill of the evening.  There it was, the Hearty Hungarian in all its unsophisticated glory – Hungarian colours, bright lights and hot filling food.

The café has been here for a couple for a couple of years and is becoming known for serving up good home cooked traditional Hungarian food.  The meals are cooked by a Hungarian cook who has been feeding her family delicious wholesome food for 30 years or more

The food is ‘cheap and cheerful’.  There is nothing polished about this place.  The tables inside are covered with flower patterned oil-cloth.

A meal, $11.90, is served with a main and two sides.  I believe you get enough food to feed two with the one serving but of course that depends on how much you eat and how hungry you are.

$11.90 meal

Tightly filled cabbage rolls ( 2 per serve) are baked with sauerkraut. When you think of a cabbage roll keep the thought of a spring roll out of your mind. These are huge in comparison.   The taste is interesting and could well come from the paprika that is used extensively in Hungarian cooking.

My favourite main is stuffed red peppers.  They are filled with delicate flavoured rice and mince.  The slightly sweetish taste that I love and go back to the Hearty Hungarian for may come from the red pepper and possibly paprika.

stuffed red pepper with sauce and cabbage roll

I have a retro Hungarian cook book written by Kato Frank published in 1963.  Kato Frank talks a lot about the heavy use of Paprika in Hungarian food. The stuffed Red Peppers have a great colour too.

A $11.90 meal consisted of two peppers or two cabbage rolls or another main such beef  stroganoff or meat loaf and two sides.  For side dishes I like lentils and Hungarian gnocchi  a very small sized pasta about the size of a pea and it goes well with the red peppers.  The lentils are particularly good.

lentils and Hungarian gnocchi

This little food outlet enhances the European  feel you get on this part of   Carlisle Street St Kilda East.

Getting there:

Trams 12, 3, going along Carlisle Street, first stop past St Kilda Road. 67 Tram get off at the corner of Carlisle and St Kilda Road  or a 78 that runs from Richmond to the St Kilda East end of Chapel Street.

The café is between Chapel Street and St Kilda Road, beside the entrance to the St Kilda Library and opposite the St Kilda Town Hall.

You can also can take the Sandringham Line train to Balaclava Station and walk towards Chapel Street.

Related posts:

1. Eastern European Flavours in East St Kilda
2. Carlisle Street in St Kilda East is evolving. Check out the Carlisle Street Bazaar
3. Salvos move to Carlisle Street, St Kilda and take on a new look.