Best places in Melbourne for a South American feast 2015
Are we there yet, Melbourne? Is South American finally a trend? I ask because we were saying the same thing this time last year (learn about all things pisco and ceviche-related here).
Unlike the Mexican wave that hit Melbourne with spicy force, and the American burger and barbecue crazes that followed, South American food keeps cropping up in bursts, but as a food trend it fails to stick.
Every year we get excited, promise to love it forever and then it goes off the radar for 12 months.
But it's spring again, momentum is back and all signs are pointing to another hot Latin American summer.
Hot new things
In Brunswick East, chef Paul Wilson is back in the kitchen, working alongside Lady Carolina's head chef Blair Williams (ex-Piqueos) and serving up a menu of Cuban-Peruvian-Mexican-ish food to the tune of some salsa bolero. The restaurant out front is delivering a few dishes you'll need to Google, including pachamanca papas (yuka potatoes cooked with hot stones) and a char-grilled huachana sausage served with "bacon" made from strips of beef heart; but out the back they're speaking the international language of margaritas-on-tap and guacamole.
175-177 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, ladycarolina.com.au
Brand new cafe-slash-shop El Atino & Co has just burst onto the scene offering cooking classes and ceviche for breakfast. The Richmond cafe's menu is a mixed Latin bag: Argentinian bife de chorizo (not the sausage, sirloin, cooked sous vide then char-grilled), pisco sour-cured salmon, and chilli prawn tacos. French toast dulce de leche jaffles are a cross-continent culture mash that's likely to be a Melbourne crowd-pleaser.
366 Bridge Road, Richmond, 03 9690 7000
The theme is definitely European-Spanish at the reborn Lamaro's, but the upscale South Melbourne dining institution is now also somewhat of a cellar door for pig. The owners have ties to Greenvale Farm – home to ethically raised porkers – and alongside the Josper wood-fired oven in the kitchen, they have an Argentinean grill, bringing some extra char.
273 Cecil Street, South Melbourne, lamarosbodega.com.au
Strong stayers
One year and 36,000 pisco cocktails later, the ACDC Lane restaurant by the San Telmo team is still kicking. They're going through 60kg of fish every week in ceviche form and are Australia's top alpaca server. During November, they're hosting an all-alpaca party for Good Food Month, serving a banquet of smoked, grilled and dry-aged alpaca.
19 ACDC Lane, Melbourne, pastuso.com.au; I Love Alpaca dinner tickets: melbourne.goodfoodmonth.com
At Piqueos, they work the parillia (charcoal grill) hard, serving the traditional tira de asado (rib cross-section) and beef heart skewers. Occasional multi-beast Sunday sessions might feature whole, stuffed suckling pigs alongside chorizo and sweetbreads, chickens and beef; but they keep the balance with sides from Peru – a country with a stronger love of grains and fresh vegetables. The next Sunday beast fest is coming up on October 18.
298 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North, piqueos.com.au
This is authentic Peruvian food, not just inspired by. Carmen Barra is a grandmother to a growing clutch of children, and chef at this all-Peruvian restaurant where you can get a cinnamony horchata-style drink made with purple corn, and the ceviche liquor (leche de tigre) will actually bite you.
242-246 Como Parade West, Parkdale, 03 9587 8002
Hot Latin American parties
Diego Munoz of Astrid y Gaston is coming to town
Diego Munoz, chef of Astrid y Gaston, which is number 14 on the World's 50 Best restaurants list, is visiting Melbourne for Good Food Month, cooking the dishes that helped suck the world's attention towards the Inca trail. He's going head-to-head in a Peru v Mexico dinner with Lady Carolina's Paul Wilson, and will also showcase the dishes of La Barra, Astrid y Gaston's brand-new sister restaurant. Munoz is popping up at the Night Noodle Markets and at the Immigration Museum's Crop Up! event (below).
Tickets and event details here: melbourne.goodfoodmonth.com
Crop Up! at the Immigration Museum
Get an education on the importance of worldwide crops, berries and grains, deliciously. There's a pop-up deli and farmers' market stalls and Cornutopia will be serving corn-based food. Diego Munoz will speak at a seminar discussing the importance of grains to Peru, or you can watch a documentary on quinoa.
400 Flinders Street, Melbourne, November 15, museumvictoria.com.au
Johnston Street Fiesta 2015
It's the street party that fills Fitzroy with a haze of meaty smog and thumping beats for two days every summer. The Johnston Street Fiesta – often referred to as the Spanish festival, but which is actually the Hispanic Latin American Fiesta – returns next month.
Johnston Street, Fitzroy, November 21-22, free, hispanicfiesta.com.au
Gemima Cody is former chief restaurant critic for The Age and Good Food.