How to make lemon cheese cake filled easter eggs

Easter is such a great excuse for baking and eating generally.  I find the few days off work give a bit of time to get in the kitchen and after all this is a holiday where you are given licence to eat as much chocolate as you want.  One of my favourite guilty eating pleasures over Easter is Cadbury Creme Eggs.  I love that they look like a normal easter egg and then you bite in and there's more... a delicious and super sweet filling inside.

The finished filled cheese cake eggs

Melbourne's best ice-cream

It's a little known fact that I once worked in an ice-cream shop for all of about three hours.  That's as long as I lasted in what was back breaking work bending over the ice-cream tubs and using every arm muscle I had to scoop out the ice-cream.  So lets just say respect for people who work in ice-cream stores.  As for those who actually make the ice-cream, my adventures in ice-cream making at home have already taught me there's a high level of skill that goes into it.

How to make tomato passata

Patrizia Simone is a genuine food legend and after making her name through establishing and running Simone's Restaurant in Bright and writing a cook book she has now set up her own cooking school.  I was invited to attend a class there which was being run as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival program 'Pomodoro in all their glory'.  Yes a whole class devoted to tomatoes, bliss.  Patrizia has the most lovely, warm personality and attending the cooking class which is held in a purpose built kitchen in her home, feels like being invited into the Simone family for the day.

High Country World's Longest Lunch: Gourmet Chick in the High Country

Take five chefs, 150 diners, 500 plates and a whopping 1,300 wine glasses and you've got the High Country's World's Longest Lunch.  I'm a big fan of the region after exploring Beechworth and the King Valley last year so jumped at an invitation to to head to the North East of Victoria again for the regional weekend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.  The lunch was held at the spectacular setting of Boynton's Feathertop Winery just outside of Bright.  The winery has a long terrace that runs along one side, shaded with vine leaves and with sweeping views over the vines and to Mount Buffalo.  Meat-and-Three-Veg and I turned up and grabbed a glass of Dal Zotto prosecco to start before sitting down at the long table that ran under the vines.

Sitting down to lunch

Nobu

I've wanted to go to Nobu for quite a while but the price has always been a bit of a barrier.  So I was quick to jump on board the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival's Express Lunch deal at Nobu to try out the restaurant for a bargain $40 for two courses with a glass of wine.

Kingfish sashimi at Nobu

How to make sourdough bread

I have to admit I've had the occasional gripe about buying a loaf of sourdough from a fancy bakery and not getting much change out of a $10 note.  But I'm not going to complain anymore after learning how much work goes into making a sourdough loaf at a bread making class at Brasserie Bread for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Rickshaw run and afternoon tea: Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2013

It's the last week of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival so I have been trying to cram in as many events as possible.  I've been to three brilliant events in the past week which have all been pretty different.  I've raced around Footscray in a rickshaw, sipped champagne at a fantastical afternoon tea at the National Gallery of Victoria and listened to some thought provoking ideas at the festival's Theatre of Ideas.

Snacking on beef in betel leaves on the Rickshaw Run at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

Anada

Living in Melbourne a good air-conditioning system is not top of my wish list for restaurants but the past few weeks have made it an issue all of a sudden.  On a normal night I would have loved eating at Gertrude tapas bar Anada.  But on a stinking hot Saturday night in the midst of a heat wave it was not a pleasant experience despite the excellent food.  The restaurant only has two fans and a tiny air conditioner down the back.   With one fan broken even Stephanie Alexander who was eating at an adjoining table was begging for cool air (yes I was star struck).

Jamon at Anada

How to make Chocolate Hot Cross Bun Pudding

Hot Cross Buns are so good that it's a shame they are only available around Easter.  Sometimes I make my own hot cross buns but otherwise it's a case of maximising the hot cross bun eating opportunities in the lead-up to Easter.  One way to do this is by making a bread and butter pudding using hot cross buns and chocolate.  This does rely on having some uneaten hot cross buns which is sometimes difficult to achieve.  Luckily I got a delivery of organic sour dough hot cross buns from the excellent Zeally Bay Bakery so I had buns to spare.

The finished Chocolate Hot Cross Bun Pudding 

Attica

Special occasions call for a special restaurant.  So to celebrate our wedding anniversary, Meat-and-Three-Veg booked us in to Attica, a restaurant which had been on my wish list for quite a while.  I'm spoilt, I know.  Attica doesn't need much introduction in Australia but for the benefit of Gourmet Chick's international readers, the Rippon Lea based restaurant is ranked in the world's 100 best restaurants, holds Australia's highest allocade of three chef's hats and chef Ben Shewry comes with a stellar reputation.

Even a simple potato at Attica becomes something pretty spectacular

Potato tour and coffee flights: Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2013

Some people look forward to Summer, others to Christmas, but my favourite time of year is the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.  The festival kicked off this weekend and I've already managed to get along to two events.

The Urban Coffee Farm and Brew Bar at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 

Happy Palace

Chinese food was very exotic when I was growing up in the 1980's.  It was all about the prawn crackers, lemon chicken and beef with black bean sauce.  So I felt a touch nostalgic wandering up the stairs to Happy Palace on Bourke street for the restaurant's launch.  Serial restauranter Jerome Borazio has taken over this old school Chinese restaurant with its chintzy red and gold wall hangings.  He's added a bar, a balcony and some live scorpions (yes really) but otherwise left the decor pretty much in a 1980's time warp.

The drug mules death row at Happy Palace