The Hungry Lawyer » Beer

White Rabbit Brewery, Healesville

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:02:57 +0000

As mentioned in my previous post, a recent busy patch at work has resulted in some tardy (okay, extremely slack) blogging. Consequently, this post has been sitting in the drafts now for well over a month now – since that last spell of very hot summer weather we had in February and is very, very overdue. Anyway, enough rambling excuses.

To make the most of the last of the few weeks of uni holidays, The Brother in Law came down to visit us a self-declared long weekend. While The Brother In Law is not much of a talker, he certainly enjoys a fine brew – particularly on one of those truly hot summer’s day - so we used his visit as an excuse to drive out to the Yarra Valley and stock up on supplies.

Everyone knows that the Yarra Valley is a fantastic Australian wine region, however a lot of people don’t realise that there is also a thriving craft beer and cider scene out there. In fact one of my absolute favorite beers – the White Rabbit White Ale – is brewed in locally in Healesville (which is just over an hour’s drive outside of Melbourne).

White Rabbit White Ale

The White Ale is produced using an open ferment method – which results in a ‘cloudy’ appearance (similar to a Hoegaarden). On the website, the experts describe the flavour of the White Ale as follows “White Rabbit White Ale delivers refreshing hints of coriander, juniper berry and bitter orange, with fresh fruity aromas and only a gentle amount of bitterness. A touch of local honey naturally conditions the ale, with a final abv of 4.5%”. I am not sure if I could taste the juniper berry, but I can say that the beer was icy cold, had a distinct fruity aroma and was very refreshing.

If you want to sample the beer straight from the source, the White Rabbit Brewery is open to the public for tastings each day 11:00am to 5:00pm. The Brewery can only be described as the ultimate man’s shed. The cavernous space is filled with gleaming stainless steel brewing equipment, tables fashioned from shopping crates and the all important pyramids of beer and cider on every available inch of floor space. You can even by beer themed underwear if that sort of thing floats your boat. For a mere $7, you can buy yourself a refreshing pint of beer, sink back into a green velour, uni-student style couch and kick back. Buy some local olives for $5 to snack on while you sip on your beer for a wonderfully refreshing afternoon snack.

The green velour, uni-student style couch

If you like what you try and don’t want the afternoon to end, for $65 you can take a carton (24 bottles for non-Australian readers) home. If you ask nicely, the guys who work at the Brewery will even carry your carton out to the car for you!

Red Hill Brewery, Red Hill

admin — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 01:57:20 +0000

I have a confession to make. I have actually had this post sitting in my drafts for some time now, but have held off publishing it due to the dismal weather. However, finally, after a few sneaky days (weeks? months?) of rain, summer – aka perfect beer drinking weather - seems to be back with a vengence and I now feeling sufficiently ‘inspired’ to tell you about my (semi) recent trip to the Red Hill Brewery.

As mentioned a few posts back, The Brooding Architect and I recently had a whirlwind weekend visit from Glamorous Sister No. 2 and her boyfriend, The Strong Silent Type. To be completely honest, a whole lot of the weekend was about the things Glamorous Sister No. 2 wanted to do – we drank lots of coffee, we shopped for turbans and we ate. There is however one thing we did just to light up The Strong Silent Type’s trip – we visited the Red Hill Brewery for a tasting paddle of their finest brews.

The Red Hill Brewery are a local Victorian craft brewers based down at the Mornington Peninsula – which, as you can see, is an absolutely gorgeous part of the world on a sunny day.

The view from the Peninsula lookout

After a scenic drive along Shoreham Road, we arrived at the Brewery. Although it’s a bit hard to tell from this photo, for a man who does not get excited too often, The Strong Silent Type was over the moon. If you squint, you can just make out the beginning of a smile under the cap.

The Strong Silent Type at the Brewhouse

We ordered the tasting paddles, which let you taste the Brewery’s three specialty beers – Golden Ale, Wheat Beer and Scotch Ale - as well as one of their seasonal brews. We scored the Temptation, which is a refreshing, golden, Belgian-style beer. Extremely refreshing on a hot summer’s day. The current seasonal brew is the Christmas Ale - which I have been told is sensational. A perfect last minute Christmas present for the man who has everything, or is just too hard to shop for.

Attached to the Brewery is a relaxed cafe, which has a lovely big timber deck on the back, surrounded by the leafy, green hops grown on site used to produce the beers. The perfect spot to sit and enjoy your beer on a relaxed Saturday afternoon.

Tasting Paddle of Brews

The group favourite was the award winning, Golden Ale – a crisp, pilsner-stlye, pale ale with loads of fruity flavour. We ended up buying a few 6 packs for the road (only half of which made it back to Melbourne). If you like what you see, the full list of beers produced on site can be found on the Brewery’s website. A brief word of warning though, some of the beers at the Red Hill Brewery pack quite a punch – the Temptation has an 8% alcohol content – meaning you will need to allocate a designated driver.

Since we were absolutely stuffed with treats from our earlier stop at the Red Hill Kitchen, we did not order any snacks to go with our beers. I have to say that I got some serious food lust when I saw the Brewmaster’s Ploughmans come out to another table. House made pickled onions (one my absolute favourite snack foods no less) , pork pie, ham and vintage cheddar – perfect beer drinking food. I cannot wait to go back and try it for myself.

Tom Phat, Brunswick

admin — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 05:45:57 +0000

I have been a bad blogger over the last week . I blame:

Having to be a ‘real lawyer’ and preparing not one but two matters for trial this week; and
A whirlwind weekend visit from Glamorous Sister No. 2.

Anyway, enough excuses – let’s just say I have lots of food stories to catch up on.

Glamorous Sister No. 2 brought her boyfriend, Strong Silent Type, along for the trip and since he had never been to Melbourne before, The Brooding Architect and I were keen to share some of our favourite Melbourne experiences. We ate breakfast at La Paloma, we had fancy cocktails at New Gold Mountain, we soaked in the hot springs down the Peninsula and we had dinner at our local, Tom Phat.

Tom Phat is a modern Pan Asian restaurant located on Sydney Road, Brunswick. The half-Singaporean part of me tends to avoid any restaurant which describes its food as ‘Pan Asian’ – but the food at Tom Phat genuinely works. The flavours are predominately Thai and Vietnamese with lots of coconut-y curries, tangy tamarind and fresh chilli and lime. These flavours are all rolled together in the signature dish of crunchy pork belly and seared scallops served with a sweet caramalised sauce. I have eaten this (too) many times before and vouch for how good it is.

Tom Phat has has recently been expanded to include a trendy bar section with cozy booths, Sapporo beer on tap and a great record selection. Most importantly though, you can sit in the bar section and still order from the full restaurant menu. The bar area is dark, brooding and a little rough around the edges (or as I like to say, the bar equivalent of The Brooding Architect).

Tom Phat Bar - Dark, brooding and a little rough around the edges

The main meals at Tom Phat are very generous, so you can easily skip an entree (to save room for dessert of course). Between our group of four we shared two entrees and four mains and still had to be rolled out the door.

We started with some smoky chicken satay sticks ($9.50), served with a crunchy peanut sauce and some spicy Thai fish cakes ($8.50), served with a traditional Thai sweet chilli / lime / cucumber dipping sauce. Again, let me stress that portion sizes are extremely generous – there were 5 chicken satay sticks and 6 fishcakes in each serve.

Smoky Chicken Satay

Spicy Thai Fishcakes

The entrees are not 100% authentic, but they were fresh and packed with plenty of the right – and when washed down with a round of Sapporo beer ($6 per pint) and some Westons Organic Cider ($12 for a 750mL bottle) authenticity does not seem to matter that much.

Westons Organic Cider

For the mains, we lived dangerously and ordered specials for that night. The specials ranged in price from $20 to $25. We ordered:

Whole Prawns in a rich, creamy coconut sauce
Twice cooked duck, served with a star anise and orange broth
Red Thai curry with pork belly
Whole fried crispy barramundi, served with a chilli, pineapple and tamarind sauce

And it was all as good as it sounds…

The prawns were so delicious that the whole plate had been eaten up before I even remembered to take any photos. The prawns had been cooked in the shell, which although makes the dish a bit more tricky to eat, but results in a juicy, succulent end product. The prawns were slathered with a rich coconut sauce and served with lots of fresh chilli, coriander and lime. In true (half) Singaporean style, Glamorous Sister No. 2 and I sucked the juicy goodness out of the prawn heads, while The Brooding Architect and Strong Silent Type looked on with disgust.

I am one of those people that likes to order duck when I go out for dinner, for the simple reason that it is not something that I cook at home (if I did, I would probably end up with a common aliment amongst lawyers – gout). The duck was beautifully cooked. The meat melted in your mouth, allowing you to savour the infused flavours of star anise, Chinese five spice, ginger and soy sauce. The dish was very rich though – certainly recommended for sharing, unless you are a true duck aficionado.

Twice Cooked Duck

Next out was the Thai Red Curry. Using pork belly in place of the standard chicken or beef, transformed a simple Red Curry into something unique. The curry had all of the usual suspects you would find in a Thai-style red curry – coconut cream, dried red chillies, galangal and fish sauce. The dish was lightened up through the addition of fresh red chillies, coriander, lime and cherry tomatoes. This really assisted in balancing the richness of the pork belly.

Red Curry with Pork Belly

Despite a not so promising start, the Barramundi was my dish of the night. The first time the Barramundi came out it looked fantastically impressive, but unfortunately was not cooked all the way through. When we brought this to our waiter/barman’s attention he quickly organised a replacement Barramundi for us. No questions, no attitude and no snarkiness whatsoever. It was even generously and unexpectedly taken off the bill at the end of the night. Refreshingly good service. Fortunately, Barramundi No. 2 came it out cooked to perfection. The skin was crispy and crunchy, a wonderful contrast to the sweet fish flesh and tangy tamarind and chilli sauce.

Whole Cooked Barramundi

Sadly, given that we had been eating and drinking for two days straight, there was no room for dessert. If I had any room at all I would have ordered the delicious sounding Five-Spice Banana Spring Rolls with coconut icecream. I’ll save that for next time.