newbie neccessities melbourne

[fou de Bassan]

Hi guys,

You've been so helpful already so I'm asking for more .

Where do you go for really good meat, fish, veggies and anything else pertaining to food? This includes linens and stationers and yes, candles. Who's the best and why?

I've been to Queen Victoria but what else is out there?

I have a car and am not afraid to use it. So point me in a direction. Please.

Thanks,

fou

[Dim Sim]

I have a car and am not afraid to use it.  So point me in a direction.  Please.

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Remember we drive in the opposite direction

The foodies' guides by Campion and Curtis, they upgrade it each year. I find it useful

here are a few of my personal Favourites

Bakeries

Dench Bakers, Nth Fitzroy, good sourdough bread

Filou's , Lygon St., Nth Carlton, pastries and cakes,

La Parisenne Pate for all the french smallgoods like sausages, pates, rillettes, terrine, and on friday they produce small ranges of, duck and ribbit pies, goat's cheese tarts

Sydney Road, Brunswick, for all the arabic and Middle Eastern needs,

A1 bakery for the labanese lamb pizza, cheese pie, sausage (beef) pizza, z'atar pizza. and Middle eastern grocery.

Balha's Pastry 761 Sydney Rd. Brunswick ( I hate to give this away, but a lot of people already knew about this place, what the ****), simply amazing array of sweets, if you like middle eastern sweets, you must try this place.

Miditerranean Wholesalers at 482 Sydney Road , brunswick. for your one stop Italian need; pasta, cheeses, salamis , dried cod, Italian wine, nice Italian style bread, in house cafe, terracota cookware...........................

Asian food, with strong Vietnemese influence ; Footcray Market, Little Saigon, Footcray and Vitoria Street, Richmond, likewise suburds ; Box Hill and Springvale.

For more touristy spots, Acland Street, St. Kilda for your European type cakes.

Yum Cha (Dim sum) a lot of restaurants in chinatown (little Burke Street, Melb )offer yum cha on the weekend , I like West Lake, Chilli Pepper, Shark Fin Inn, Shark Fin House, and Taipan in Doncaster East .

There are also a few farmers' Markets held all over Melbourne, one of the more popular one is in the Collingwood Childrens Farm, but it only held on certain Saturday, you might have to ring up and find out, a nice and quiet spot to walk around by the Yarra.

That is all I could think off at the moment,

As for Linens and candles, I have no idea on those, except that there are a few Antique shops in High Street , Armadale. you might find something there, Oh if you happen to be looking around there, the popular Phillippa's (they supply bread and pastries to half of Melbourne) is located at 1030 High Street, Armadale. Cheers

[fou de Bassan]

Thanks Dim Sim, this is exactly what I was hoping for!

Looks like I'll have to head to Brunswick some time soon.

Keep 'em coming.

[Shinboners]

Keep 'em coming.

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Don't hold your breath.

I think Dim Sim has it all covered!

[PCL]

For meat, I have two personal favourites:

Generally, for beef, lamb, duck, offal, pork belly... I'd send you to Excell Meat Co. on Lygon St, next to Readings Bookstore. Frank owns the joint and is an absolute pleasure to work with. He ages his own meat on the carcass, and is never too busy to help.

La Parisienne, incidentally, is just round the corner.

Now, here comes the other one, and duh, I don't know the name of the shop off-hand, but it's on Victoria St, Richmond, right next to Minh-Xuong BBQ restaurant. Friends of the family, they are Vietnamese/Chinese and sell fantastic pork, cheaper cuts of beef (skirt/shin/neck/brisket etc etc), proper free range chooks with the head/feet/giblet pack intact.

[Dim Sim]

For meat, I have two personal favourites:

Generally, for beef, lamb, duck, offal, pork belly... I'd send you to Excell Meat Co. on Lygon St

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They make very good cotechino sausage too, so sticky and gelatinous, yum......... yes, very good butcher indeed.

[Dim Sim]

Keep 'em coming.

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Don't hold your breath.

I think Dim Sim has it all covered!

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I only covered mainly the inner north and northwest, c'mon , there are all the eastern and sourth eastern suburds as well as the Yarra Valley, Mornington peninsula etc.we need more

[Shinboners]

I only covered mainly the inner north and northwest, c'mon , there are all the eastern and sourth eastern suburds as well as the Yarra Valley, Mornington peninsula etc.we need more

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Although I'm in the eastern suburbs, I do all the important bits of shopping either at the Saturday market in Richmond (Gleadell Street) or at the Queen Victoria Market.

However, Box Hill has some very good Vietnamese and Chinese groceries, as does Springvale (outer South Eastern Melbourne). There's Toscano's (Kew) for all your greengrocer needs, and Leo's Fine Food and Wine (also Kew) is a very good, if rather expensive, supermarket.

Linen. If you like to do it DIY, then Lincraft is the way to go. Otherwise, check out the main shopping strips in areas like Camberwell (Burke Road), Malvern (High Street?), Chapel Street (South Yarra), Greville Street (Prahran), Glenferrie Road (southern end...Malvern?), Acland Street (St.Kilda), and Brunswick Street (Fitzroy). There will be chains like Holy Sheet! and Bed, Bath, and Table, but you should also be able to find smaller shops that have more interesting items. You'll probably find places that can do candles for you in those same areas as well. There's also the two major department stores (Myers and David Jones), plus the usual array of cheaper department stores like K-Mart and Target. If you just want to head to one spot that probably has everything, then go to Chadstone Shopping Centre.

As for stationery, do what most people do and head over to Officeworks. I'm not sure if they're still around (they were in financial trouble last year), but you could also look up Penfolds The Stationers (or at least, I think that was their name).

[fou de Bassan]

I'm expanding my list...

So what about the eastern and southeastern suburbs? I've also heard there are great shops in Healesville and on the Mornington Peninsula but have gotten no names.

I will definitely stop by excel meats as we are all ferocious carnivores.

[Dim Sim]

I'm expanding my list...

So what about the eastern and southeastern suburbs?  I've also heard there are great shops in Healesville and on the Mornington Peninsula but have gotten no names.

I will definitely stop by excel meats   as we are all ferocious carnivores.

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Heard lots of wonderful things about Healesville Hotel there is a produce store next to it which is very good selling lots of local produce, like bread from Fruition bakery(woodfired), Yarra Valley Pasta (very very good and interesting filled pasta, their own pasta shop just down the road a bit. I am not too sure if they open on weekend). Come to think of it there are some crafty shops selling aromatic , aromatherapy thingy you might be able to find candles there, lots of wineries , Chateau Yering is beautiful and has a well known restaurant, I am not too sure if this link will still work but worth a try www.yarravalleyfood.com.au . cheers.

[PCL]

I second the call for Leo's Food and Wine. The Kew store is the closest to me, and man, the meat section is like, top of the range. Very cool, very good quality. If you're looking for top shelf condiments, it's the place to go. And service is great!

[fou de Bassan]

We stopped by Excell Meats today and you were spot on. Great place and Frank is sooo nice, thanks for the recs. Also went to La Parisienne and picked up a few things for snacks. The smell in there is wonderful!

Now, anyone know where to buy great flour? Preferably organic? The bread we've been making with flour from Safeway just isn't what we want.

[loiosh]

Now,  anyone know where to buy great flour?  Preferably organic?  The bread we've been making with flour from Safeway just isn't what we want.

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Try "natural foods" stores which sell bread flour and organic stuff in bulk. You will want to freeze anything you buy there for three days or you'll have pantry moths from hell.

[Dim Sim]

We stopped by Excell Meats today and you were spot on.  Great place and Frank is sooo nice, thanks for the recs.  Also went to La Parisienne and picked up a few things for snacks.  The smell in there is wonderful! 

Now,  anyone know where to buy great flour?  Preferably organic?  The bread we've been making with flour from Safeway just isn't what we want.

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I was there(at Excell meats) last weeks, and bought some veal for vitello tonnato and cotechino sausages for my dinner partyboth were exceptionally good, it is hard to come across veal , and they always stock it.

if you scroll down the Australia and NZ thread you will find some discussions about bread flour, I got my in 25 kg bag from the Gertrude Organic bakery just before they closed, there is a store in the organic section at the QV market that sell organic baker flour, I find the best one is the one bakeries use, I am using Laucke organic baker flour at the moment and quite happy with it, if you are nice to your local baker, he or she might sell you some, in my opinion, there is almost nothing you can buy retail that could rival the stuff most bakeries use.

[piazzola]

I have never had any real need to get except for yerba mate and ocassionaly some jamon crudo or prosciutto but currently it is very hard to find good and properly cured hams unlike 20 years ago in most places the ham is in raw state falls apart and it is yuky pale redish or pinkish for I still don't understand how people buy and eat that stuff.

I make my own sausages(chorizos and salamis) and I have a Moldovian friend who makes Easter European sausages and smokes them too at Rippon Lea

I built my own BBQ (Argentinean style 15 years ago and bake my own bread, pizzas and focaccias (I buy bulk flour) daily ocassionaly I indulge in patisserie (love danishes and petite foux I keep three types of flour for my needs 13.5% protein, farina 00 and premium bakers flour all up around 75kg.

Sydney Road is good for the Arab and Turkish stuff though still can get some good deals in Broadmeadows and Glenroy. Other oriental stores in Richmond, Springvale, Box Hill.

The so called Italian stuff is much overrated and you won't get good quality goods unless you pay a good price because Italians keep the good stuff to themselves and to some other closer communities therefore price/quaility not so good anyway besides there not much Italian stuff that you cannot make with market or supermarket or other closely related

Most of the good stuffs is home made by friends and circulated withinh the communities however there are some Spanish/Portuguese stores or Latin American who may happen to stock the same goods for less price anyway.

On the other hand Balaclava, Murrumbeena, Dandenong and Noble Park offers good bargains but they may be wholesalers and maufacturers.

Food manufactures and distibutors, by bulk that is the best way to by cheap good quality and fresh at best prices.

[fou de Bassan]

Thanks for all the information!

Piazzola, may I ask where you get your bulk flour? We use between 6 and 10 kilos a month so I'd be buying much less than you do. THanks for taking the time to answer.

Tonight, rack of lamb from Excell!

[piazzola]

All depends where you live really sometimes Greek delis, Indian bulk stores and Turkish grocers do carry a good variety of flours have large bags $22 *25kg or you can source a bulk distributor and you may pay $15*25kg bag. Not supermarkets their flour is just pants. PM me thanks

For seafood and pork produce try Springvale Vietnamese suppliers there are few large ones selling to the public.

Edited December 28, 2005 by piazzola (log)