Hào Phong, 136 Hopkins St Footscray

Its 7.30ish on Monday night. So of course I’m in the study typing out a post. Not only is ‘Glee’ on, but it’s on Oprah; Glee and Oprah – TV gold, yeah-nah!

So as I said, I’m in the study and writing a post. Something about wine; like before – yeah-nah. Instead of wine I think, how about food. In just 94 days, me and the family will be heading north to sweaty Vietnam for a 22 day trek from south-to-north. To get everyone ‘tummy-ready’ we have decided to go nuts on Vietnamese food. So first stop Footscray!



With a recommendation we head to Hào Phong on Hopkins Street -136 to be precise. On our way there we see another Vietnamese restaurant that has a few people inside (no Vietnamese – what was I thinking) so we chanced our arm. Big mistake. Looking down the menu read of the best from the 70’s & 80’s – beef and black bean, sweet and sour pork, Mongolian beef. Just to be safe we thought we’d order some rice paper rolls. The reply, ‘sorry, they have not defrosted yet’. You can imagine the awkward silence. With our apologies we bidded our farewell and legged it to Hào Phong. It was only 5.45pm.


We arrive for the second time and manage to get a table for 4. Ten minutes later there is a line at the door – good timing. The menu’s come and it looks awesome – AWESOMELY AWESOME!!!! And if you’re wondering, there are no photos of food, just us eating it!

We order in 10minutes and it as follows:

• 1. Prawn and chicken rice paper rolls $7.00 for 4
• 10. Satay chicken on skewers, or chicken on a stick for my 2 year old son Henry - $4.50 for 2
• 99. BBQ pork with vegetables with plum sauce - $13.80
• 141. Scallops with ginger and shallots - $19.80
• 1. Prawn and chicken rice paper rolls $7.00 for 4 …. again
• Special - Shallow fried soft shelled crab - $18.80 for 4. That’s right, 4!!!!

Not a rice dish in sight I tell ya! All this and a bottle of Tsing Tao beer. The bill arrives and we are $88 lighter – plus tip.



There’s only 94 days to go but I can bet you we will be back a few times before we head off. And I would book. As I said, by 6pm there was a line. What a place!!

Hào Phong is my 1st ‘Hooters chicks with Birks’ rating


Where – 136 Hopkins Street Footscray 9689-8373

By the way, thanks Ronnie for the recommendation. Bisou Bisou!

Melbourne's real 'Little Italy' - Mediterranean Wholesalers - 482 Sydney Road Brunswick

There is no mistaking the sounds and smells of Italy. When I first visited Italy in 1998, I spent the best part of three months working in Bardolino, a wine town on the eastern shores of Lake Gardi in the Veneto. When you live or work in Italy, there is a certain respect that needs to be heeded to the locals and local customs. In Bardolino, and I am sure in many other towns of Italy, it was that whatever was put in front of you was to be eaten or drunk – no questions. That spring I put on 5 kg’s while performing manual labour.

Every morning there was the unmistakable smell of coffee; the aroma was that robust that it would dead-set wake you up. Breakfast was generally a small affair (it was for me anyway) with everyone in the vineyard gearing themselves up for morning tea, or the Italian version of morning tea anyway. More coffee, cheese, ham – lots and lots of ham, salami and masses of bread. Lunch was generally grilled fish and dinner was huge.

Each evening the vineyard crew would sit down to what can only be described as a feast; pasta to start with, plates of olives, artichokes, sardines, anchovies, eggplant and a copious amount of other delicacies. Then there came more fish, braised lamb, plenty of veggies and then plenty of more other stuff – every night I tell ya! To finish off we would have a digestive; grappa, amore, strega – whatever and usually home-made.

Like I said, an extra 5 Kg’s.

10 years on and I am living in Brunswick (which we know) with my family and have sadly not been back to Italy since 1999. This brings us to Mediterranean Wholesalers on Sydney Road.

From the outside it’s just another Sydney Road facade, but as soon as you walk thru the doors the smells instantly transport you back to Italy. Everything, and I mean everything you want that is Italian and yum is here. EVERYTHING!!!

Coffee, pasta, cheese, salami, hams, lentils, anchovies, prosciutto, grappa, Barolo, Bardolino, canoli’s, bread, cake, sardines, tinned tomatoes, amore, beer, strega and even retsina. You know what, there’s even more.

Mediterranean Wholesalers is like Bunning’s – you go in there for some basil seeds and come out with three trailer loads of stuff that you don’t need, but hey, seemed like a good idea at the time.

Located at 482 Sydney Road, Mediterranean Wholesalers seems like it has been there forever. It is essentially split in too two areas – dry goods and deli area on the right and alcohol, coffee and bread on the left. The centre isle is essentially pasta heaven; any sort of pasta you can think of is here. The deli is down the back, but you already know this when you walk in from the scent of cheese and meat smallgoods. On the left there is a great assortment of wine, stuff that you will only find here, liqueurs, digestives and imported beers. And the beer is genuine, like the Stella Artois – this one is brewed in Belgium, not Sydney, and only $14 a six-pack – gold!

Also on the left is one coffee machine with one patrone behind the grips. You will not find any chai or soy or vanilla syrup. This guy makes coffee; cafe latte in the morning and espresso and macchiato in the afternoon. And if you get your daughter to ask nice, he will make a little hot chocolate for her.

Mediterranean Wholesalers is Italy in Melbourne. Lygon Street Carlton thinks it is Melbourne’s answer to Italy, but is so far off the mark when it comes to authenticity and quality. Mediterranean Wholesalers has the smell, or the stink - a really sweet stink, sound and soul of the Italy that I experienced 10 odd years ago (yeah yeah, I know it sounds corny).

By now you know I have a Birk rating for eateries. Now Mediterranean Wholesalers is not what you would call an eatery, but it has everything, so it is going to get a Birk – a gold one.

Buy your pasta there, buy your wine there and buy your cheese there. Just get there.

St. Jude's Cellars - Brunswick Street Fitzroy

It’s the gospel hour on cooked and bottled, and being Sunday and all, we’re going to talk about causes – lost causes.

St. Jude, one of those whacky 12 apostles, is commonly known as the patron saint of lost causes for his insistence that man live a squalid life and that the faithful should persevere in the environment of harsh, difficult circumstances, just as their forefathers had done before them. Geez, that sounds like fun.

Progressing two millennia, our lost causes have made their way to Brunswick Street in Fitzroy and created St. Jude’s Cellars, a little (quite large space actually) bistro come bar come cafe come wine shop has popped up at the old site of the Hideout Cafe.

From the get-go, St Jude’s Cellars is quite a sleek looking operation with polished concrete floors and a stark white ceiling. On my first visit I was fully expecting to greeted by some beautiful young thing in a monk’s apron, but of course, this is Brunswick Street, so the young pretty thing greeted me with a nod while tasting a newly opened bottle of wine in their best retro style t-shirt that probably set them back $150, but enough on haute couture.

Even though I have been there about 3 or 4 times, there is one item on the menu that I keep ordering; the Reuben sandwich – veal silverside, sauerkraut, gruyere and Russian dressing between two pieces of rye. I just love it.

They have a day menu there which changes often, with most of the dishes resembling mezze style plates with wild mushrooms with fetta, Thai style fishcakes, braised red cabbage and marmalade – another favourite and curried Spring Bay mussels. The dinner menu has a few winter staples such as roasted rabbit and braised ox cheek. The kitchen is also lucky enough to have Shona, who I worked with at Vue de monde, who is also currently doing a few other gigs around Fitzroy to fund a three month starge at Noma in Copenhagen.

The wine is a major pull for me here with a great wine shop selection that you won’t find at BWS or Dan’s. The great catch is that you just add $15 on the sticker price and have it in the restaurant or at the bar. My last visit entailed a couple of glasses of Sutton Grange 2008 Viognier from Bendigo in central Victoria, with a Rueben of course. I enjoyed the wine so much I bought a bottle for home (blog to come).

St Jude’s Cellars is a real bit of class on Brunswick Street that has unfortunately gone the way of nachos and thick crusted pizza’s since the demise of Interlude, Guernica and Bistro Inferno. Do yourself a favour and walk in for the Reuben and a glass of something something. And do engage the staff; they may wear expensive retro gear, but they are informative and good for a chat.

St. Jude’s Cellars – 389 Brunswick Street Fitzroy

http://www.stjudescellars.com.au/