Dish of the Month - August and September

Well, here we are again...

A hiccup in my blogging world has lead me to combine August and September dishes of the month. This really needs to stop I know, but I'm none the less glad to share this with you, belatedly.

Dish of the Month, and probably dinner of the month, for August belongs to Cumulus Inc.

I had a mammoth 4 hour experience there grazing at the bar, watching the chefs, sipping wine, chatting to friendly faces and just loving the space.

I could include any number of dishes; from the broad selection of interesting charcuterie, to the salt cod soup, the sows ear silk purse or the as-boozy-as-you-can-bear rum baba. But the loving care that the shucked to order oysters received, has to make them extra special.

August Dish of the Month

Oysters at Cumulus Inc
Carefully, a wiggling shucker breaks the seal into the oysters briny home, pops the top off with a slip of the knife and they are ready to go. Plated with a cheek of lemon and perhaps a little swipe from a tiny artists brush to remove any shell remnants, you can watch them twitch as a squeeze of lemon juice dresses them before the plunge of your oyster fork.

The night we dined, I tried all 6 that were on offer, the Moonlight Flat angasi were the stand out. The menu lists that these have been identified as nearly identical to the celebrated French Bélon oyster. Meaty, iodine flavour with firmly textured flesh and a large white adductor muscle.

September Dish of the Month

Gravadlax at Gills Diner
An incredibly generous portion of house cured salmon, cured Scandinavian style with salt and sugar, also known as gravlax. Sliced thinly and served with a salad of picked soft herbs, some sliced cornichons, a lemon cheek and a quenelle of herby crème fraîche.
Clean, bright salmon flavours perfectly seasoned and utterly moreish, just the thing to accompany the fantastic house made breads.

I still have not gotten past the entrees at Gills, the portions are just too generous and we love the selection of sharable dishes.

I can't wait to get back to both of these Melbourne dining institutions in the making. No doubt with the current economic woes, casual dining spots like this - were you can feel comfortable having as much or as little to eat as you like - will become even more popular to the detriment of the formal experiences.
I for one, will not stop dining out but will probably be a little more tempted towards the accessible end of the market then the fancy end. I think dining out has become cultural for many Australians and giving up a key social part of the week will not happen, it will just become a little more informal, laid back and in line with the dining experiences of Cumulus Inc and Gills Diner.

Gills Diner, Melbourne

I finally had the pleasure of a visit to Gills Diner this week. I've been wanting to check it out since it opened but just haven't made it, but Tuesday was our night.

Gills Diner is part of the Con Christopoulos group, you can tell. It screams smart Melbourne hospitality; the room is simple plank wood tables, blackboard menu, thick churchlike candles. I had a good feeling immediately, it just seemed right.

My 'palate' for dining venues has developed and changed in the last few years. I have become more food and service smart but the thing that can linger the most in my mind is the ambience. I've been pondering this far too much (to PDC's torture!) since dining fancy at Jacques Reymond late last year. I never intended to blog that experience but it surprised me; I didn’t take notes or photos but my memory is one of…blah… it just wasn’t for me. The ambience was aimed at my parents or grandparents looking for a special night out, the food was ‘worked’ as they say in the business and in my opinion too worked. The service was fine, I had no reason to love or hate them, I guess I just was looking for something to be excited about, and I found nothing apart from a quaint experience that seemed captured in time – 10 years ago.

Moving forward Gills is a dining room of the future. A level of casualness (as I also found at Mugaritz), that did not reflect through to the quality of the experience; this is hard for me to explain but it was more like how I would invite someone to my home to eat, casual yet with the utmost care.
The food was generous in size yet was refined in its quality. I only got to try three dishes, we thought we had ordered entrees to start, yet they were so substantial we did not get past them. The Gills nicoise for $26 was represented as an entrée, so I thought, yet was more generous than a main course at many places. It consisted of rosy seared, fillet of tuna, a salad of all the usual suspects, the potatoes are waxy and thinly cut, the eggs soft boiled, the anchovies white, you couldn’t go wrong.
The antipasto was again large. It was compiled from what looked like yesterdays menu; the thing is I have no problem with this, I guess it is the true nature of antipasto. Some components were obviously made especially for the plate such as pickled cauliflower, and liver parfait on long toasts, yet arancini was filled with the carrot risotto on the menu and a moreish slice of roast rabbit stuffed leg was also there. I would have been happy to eat these as their main course incarnation, so I was more than happy to nibble them on the tasting plate.
My favourite dish was a salad of Februarys Pick, figs. Combined with classical flavours of duck confit, gorgonzola, walnuts and witlof, it was a heavy salad that I could happily eat on it own as a meal and be satisfied. The type of dish I would make for myself at home, if I had all the bits on hand.

A unforgettable component of Gills that I can’t respect enough is the service. PDC and I are known to Laszlo the manager from his time at Carlisle –our ultimate local. We were given a welcome that befits the Gills Diner as a whole, it was special, and the staff generally were enthusiastic about were they worked and what they served. The wine list reflected early Carlisle Wine Bar; eclectic to the point of being bad for business, unless you had dynamic guidance through it. Pennyweight Lane fino from Beechworth was my aperitif, a Hendricks gin martini for PDC, garnished thoughtfully with cucumber. Again we were reassured, we were in good hands.

I’ll definitely be back to Gills, all the components of a successful experience were fulfilled for me. I understand what they are about and I think they ‘get’ me as a diner, as well. Dining is more and more about personalities or in some cases lack-there-of and I know that Gill’s Diner and mine are aligned.
Jack

Gills Diner
Gills Alley, Melbourne
03 9670 7214