Taste of Perth is coming. That sentence alone is enough for any food obsessed individual to sit up and pay attention. It's almost hard to believe that a whole year has passed since this event first graced Perth, but now the countdown is on to this three day food spectacular held on 15-17 May at Langley Park. With over 16,000 people attending last year, I can only imagine it will be bigger and better in 2015.
Last week to get my tastebuds prepared for the festival, I was invited to attend a 'taste on tour' event where we were treated to a progressive dinner at three of the venues participating in Taste of Perth. All dishes we tried (listed below) will be on sale at Taste of Perth for this year.
Things kickstart with El Publico's 'icon dish' for Taste of Perth: Flavours of Mexico - fried crickets, chicharon and two village mezcals. I really enjoy enjoy fried crickets, they're not scary like most people would think... in fact they really are just moorish little crunchy bites. Very addictive and easy to munch away on with a beverage in hand.
El Publico's famed Mexican street corn with crema, fresh cheese, chili and lime is my go to dish whenever I eat at this restaurant, and I even have the recipe at home thanks to the Recipes and Ramblings cookbook. Despite my over indulgence in it, it never fails to impress with it's punchy flavours.
The lamb ribs twice cooked served with sesame cucumber and lime were fantastic, the bone sliding out clean. The meat melts in my mouth and has a lovely flavour. It's dishes like this that really make El Publico stand out above the pack when it comes to modern, fresh Mexican food. I can see this being a real crowd pleaser at Taste this year.
On to the next stop... Lalla Rookh. But there was no need to worry about how to get there - our chariot (aka a tram!) awaited. And off we went, cameras snapping, stories swapped and big smiles on all our faces. Seeing as this dining destination is easily one of my favourite restaurants in Perth, I couldn't wait to get my feed on and hear about their menu.
Since this was the 'main' portion of our progressive dinner, it made sense for us to have a big dish... and Lalla Rookh definitely delivered. A medieval sized braised lamb shank with peas, sweet spices and prunes came out for each of us, wafting an incredible aroma under our noses.
Lamb is definitely the new pork these days - it's so on trend at the moment and a great way to showcase local produce. Something I think is synonymous with Chef Valvasori's style of cooking.
This gigantic shank was definitely a wintery dish, and very filling too! The meat was tender and flavoursome - and best of all a little nugget of marrow was awaiting our attention in the bone. It sadly defeated me in the end much to my disappointment, but I was proud of some of my fellow diners who managed to clean the meat down to the bone.
As good as the meat was, for me the star of the show was definitely the organic white polenta and parmigiana, Nonna’s style. I'm already a huge fan of polenta, but I've never actually had it like this - it was almost like a soft, fluffy bread. I can't wait to order this, I need a whole serving to myself!
Our final stop for the evening after a second tram ride was No 4 Blake Street. Though I'd thought the savoury portion of the night was finished, I quickly learned this was not the case! You can probably imagine I rolled home after this stop feeling pretty damn full.
The first dish placed down at our tables was the 45 day dry aged organic, grass fed beef with fried egg, crispy kale and dukkah. The beef was almost like a high-end hamburger in taste, with a gooey egg on top. I thought it was lovely in it's simplicity though I'm not quite sure it would be the easiest to eat walking around at Taste - hopefully there will be cutlery on hand.
My earnest to try the taleggio and broccolini croquettes with smoked lardo and hazelnut marmalade resulted in me burning my tongue - but boy it was worth it. I do so love a good fried treat and this one was fantastic. Creamy, cheesy and crunchy, it ticked all the boxes,
Our final savoury dish was the cauliflower risotto with cocoa and burnt rice crisp. Another dish that wowed me, this was light and creamy, but had that beautiful cauliflower taste resounding through each bite. I think its safe to say I'll be spending quite a bit of time at their stand at Taste of Perth.
We finish things off with No 4's icon dish: valhrona chocolate garden with salted caramel, peanut dacquoise and sandalwood rocks. I think if there was one dish from last year's event that caused an eating frenzy, it was definitely this so it's nice to that they're featuring a slightly different version again this year.
After I ate as much of my dessert as I could, I was ready to call it a night... and as you can probably imagine I slept like a baby when I got home with a full belly and dreams of all the food I can look forward to at Taste of Perth this year. Thanks 3am Thoughts and the Taste team for organising such a wonderful preview of what's to come!
For those of you planning on attending Taste of Perth this year, I have a special ticket offer. Book general entry tickets through Ticketek and enter FOODIE in the promotional code box to get two tickets for $50 (save $22).
We missed out on the choc garden last year at ToP. We're so excited to try it finally this year: kept saying we'd go to No.4 but never made it!!
ReplyDeleteGet in nice and early to make sure you don't miss out! I'm thinking it's going to be a very popular dish again this year :)
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