Touche Hombre - Second Mexican Dinner in a Week

Having read a few reviews about Touche Hombre, I wasn't expecting much. Flic and I got a spot at the bar as the bar tender was mixing up a beer cocktail. We opted for Sour Watermelon Granitas and added tequila which made the granita that much better than the ones you get at Pellegrini's. There was an El Secreto taco on the menu, with "Ask Your Waiter" written underneath. We were asked if we had any allergies, what our heat tolerance is and if we felt adventurous. Along with the El Secreto, we ordered Ceviche Fish, a meatball taco to share and a fish taco to share. The El Secreto came first and as we were tucking in to it, the waiter read out the ingredients sheep's brain...I didn't hear anything else, it was pretty tasty though, and not as mushy as I remembered brain to be! The ceviche beat the one I had a My Mexican Cousin a few nights before and after eating the other tacos, we ordered another round! From the reviews, it read that it was a really noisy place that people wouldn't go back to. It was definitely noisy and this added to the atmosphere. There was a dj playing some great tracks and when "The Next Episode" came on, all the kitchen staff and bar staff had a bit of a dance. Definitely going back for the beer cocktail and another El Secreto. 

Adalita and My Mexican Cousin

After seeing Adalita and being south of the river, we decided to try out My Mexican Cousin. There were four stools propped outside at the bar which kinda felt like Gyuamas, minus the dogs! The four dishes we ordered were: Seafood Gumbo, Ceviche, Soft Shell Crab and Beef Ribs. Whilst the food here was a step up from the street style food in Gyuamas, I'd still go back to see their change of menu which they are going to do on Monday!

Weekend Breakfast

Last weekend's breakfast consisted of spanish omelette done on the weber on Saturday morning. This was a bit of a saviour after a few too many beers at the soccer the night before!

Sunday morning breakfast consisted of potato rostis with smoked salmon, eggs and Mum's relish!!

Foodie Icon

Working at Target has it's perks. The other week, I got to "have lunch" with Jamie Oliver. This consisted of him flying to GTown in a chopper, judging the inhouse bake off and managing to score a pic with the short, tubby cook before he flew back to the big smoke!

Huxtaburger

The week after ticking two places off my "Places to Eat Before the End of Summer" list, I ticked a third off. Whilst visiting stores in Collingwood and Fitzroy for work, I had lunch at Huxtaburger!! All the burgers are named after the Huxtable family from the Cosby Show. I had the Bills which consisted of a burger with pineapple, beetroot, egg and bacon, everything I love in a burger.

Melbourne Food & Wine Festival

I was imagining posting about the Cellar Door and Farm Gate day that we went to for the Food and Wine Fest, but it was pissing down all day, so after a few tastings and getting waterlogged feet, Soph, Betts and I went to Greenhouse for a "few drinks". The fried cauliflower at the Greenhouse went down well with a few White Rabbit Dark Ales and a few Little Creatures Pale Ales.

Even though Summer had ended by this time, I managed to tick off two "Places to Eat Before the End of Summer". Across the river from the Greenhouse (the Northside aka the Good Side!!) the food vans were out in full force. Whilst this pic is what Soph had, I went for the "health option" of Sausage and Ochra Gumbo - "I Love Gumbo". Then the next day, I went back for my first dining experience at the Taco Truck. While Chicken and Fish were going to be my choices, the fish sold out whilst in queue so I had to settle for Chicken and Potato. Since then, Taco Truck was at Golden Plains, so I got to sample the fish taco...twice!!

Slacker

It's been a while, but plenty of good food has been cooked and eaten, time for an update!!

Saturday Morning Breakfast

Love turning on Rage on a Saturday morning, putting the coffee on then cooking up breakfast. This morning consisted of homemade hash browns, sausages, baked beans, an egg and some of Mum's spicy tomato relish. Even better when there's the Saturday papers to read too!

Friday Night Fish Cakes

It was time to get the weber fired up again and decided to do fish cakes cos i haven;t had them in ages. With a cheap fish, like pink ling, some flour, an egg, kaffir lime leave, lime juice, fresh lemongrass and pepper, I made fish cakes for dinner. Also whipped up a little salsa consisting of tomato, cucumber, nectarine and corn with some lettuce. Woulda been better with a Tsing Tao, but there weren't any at the bottle'o so had to settle for a Henninger.

Birthday Dinner

I turned the ripe old age of 32 on Thursday and to celebrate, I went to The Junction Beer Hall for dinner. Whilst it's all polished floorboards and white walls, the dining is pretty relaxed. After a pint of Australian Ale, I had steak and chips, with a little bit of lettuce on the side and some garlic butter. The steak was pretty tasty, but a better condiment and side salad woulda been nice.

Wednesday Morning Coffee

I'd read about Patricia, and as Wednesday was my day in Bourke St, thought I'd drop in for my morning coffee. After falling in love with Seven Seeds in Lorne over the weekend, I was glad to see they had it on offer. Whilst waiting for my coffee, I was given a sample of a tasty Colombian brew! The coffee was great and the pear danish just topped it off!

Tuesday Night Ramen

After an extended long weekend in Lorne eating, drinking, swimming and more drinking, I'm trying to eat healthy this week. With a colder day today, I needed something to warm me up, so headed to King St for...some Ramen!! There's never anyone in this place, but it's pretty cheap, right near my house and the menu is on an iPad, that you use to send your order through too!!

PS, I didn't have the Spam entree, but did have the IPONDO Special Beef Ramen!

Huxtaburger in today's Epicure

After posting that I wanted to check out Huxtaburger, I opened the Epicure today to find it in the CHECK OUT... section, better get down there soon.

Also in today's Epicure was Larissa Dubecki's review on Albert St Food & Wine where Philippa Sibley heads up the kitchen. She gave it 15/20. I think I'll make my own judgement on that...and add Albert St Food & Wine to my "Places I wanna eat at before the end of Summer".

http://www.albertst.com.au/

Sunday in Portarlington

After finishing dinner and getting ready to watch the Tomic v Federer clash, thought I'd give an update.  Started the day with sausages, home made hash browns, home grown tomatoes and an egg for breakfast. One of my favourite things in Summer is to have ice in my coffee for breakfast, something I picked up when I was in Japan!!

Moving on to lunch and there was still some salsa left. I cooked up some lamb and made mini souvas and squeezed some oranges to have a fresh OJ to go with it.

As we'd missed out on a drink at the new wine bar in Portarlington, I made a Beef Noodle Salad for dinner. Rice vermicelli noodles, marinated beef and yep, you guessed it, salsa, this time with cashew nuts! The best thing is that there's still enough left for lunch tomorrow!!

Paco's Tacos

I was going to post about Paco's Tacos when I posted my fish tacos from last night, but forgot, so here it is.  Paco's Tacos is where Movida Terraza used to be - right next to Movida Aqui, above Earl Canteen, all at the back of 500 Bourke St. I've had the Pescado (marinated fish, pic below) a few times and tried the Camarones (prawn). I'm yet to try the Pato Asado (duck), but am sure it'll be as tasty as the others.

Places I wanna eat at before the end of Summer

Gumbo Kitchen

San Telmo

Taco Truck

Huxtaburger

Seafood for lunch, seafood for dinner

There was plenty of "the" salsa left after lunch so I cooked fish taco's for dinner. There were cheap Dory fillets at the supermarket, so I cooked them up, but a cheap fish like Basa woulda done the job! Instead of lettuce I put cabbage and made a mean guac to go on them.

Gazpacho Yabby Shooters

I was going to do prawn cocktails for my Mum's birthday lunch, but when I got to the Vic Market, there were yabbies on sale. It's been ages since I had yabbies, but one of the last times I had a yabby was in a seafood bisque shooter. With the warmer weather, I asked my sister Soph to make a gazpacho and peeled the tails of the yabbies, leaving the head and claws intact and placed them into the soup!

Last Saturday Night

If only I'd started this last weekend, I coulda taken photos of the dinner I did for Flic and George. Four courses in total included:
Calamari Cones,
Prawn Cocktail (Cafe Vue Style - including the prawn crackers!!),
Green Tea Soba Noodle Salad with Ocean Trout,
Nectarine Pudding.
A bottle each of Hollick's Sparkling Merlot, Pizzini Pinot Grigio and nearly two six packs of Asahi, I managed to impress my chef friends and decided to leave the dishes until Sunday morning!

Friday Night Dinner

I'm doing a birthday lunch for my Mum's birthday tomorrow and Schnitzel burgers are on the menu. I'd bought too many schnitzels at the Vic Market yesterday, so I cooked one for my dinner and made a red wine gravy to go on it. My famous salsa is also on the menu for the birthday lunch so I made that early and had some with the schnitzel and washed it down with a Henniger lager!