Touche Hombre

Disclosure: I was invited to dine as a guest of the restaurant

Although the wave of Mexican in Melbourne seems to have passed through, with less new Mexican restaurants popping up, there are those who rode the wave successfully who are still standing, and serving up the goods. 

Walking in Touche Hombre, on Lonsdale street in the city, I couldn’t help but immediately smile at the Ghostbusters neon, flashing away next to a graffitied wall. Although some of the other Mexican players are clean and crisp, Touche Hombre is their antithesis, with a bit of grunge, colour, and texture with the music blaring (but fortunately not so loud that you’re yelling at your dinner partner!) 

Brad and I were in to try out some of the items from the new menu, but when doing Mexican, you’ve got to start with the margarita’s first! Served up in enamel mugs, we get the margarita del Tommy, with Espolon blanco, Pierre Ferrand dry Curacao, citrus and agave nectar, as well as the La Margarita de October 1941, with Espolon Reposado, damiana, Pierre Ferrand Curacao and citrus. You’ll have to forgive for not remembering which is which, as they were both delightfully potent, strong, but not overwhelming, balanced out well with a nice amount of acidity and sweetness. One was more citrus and summer, whilst the other had a herbaceous note…guess someone’s going to have to visit and let me know! 

We started our night with the spicy lamb ribs, with merquin, coriander and honey. I was amazed at how positively meaty these were, as I know my mum’s had some relatively lean lamb ribs when making them at home. Simply succulent and tender, don’t be shy of the fat, and brace yourself for the heat of the chilli, which is hot, but not unbearable at all. So much yum.

The Touche fried chicken with habanero cream with lime was also totally delicious, with a lovely spice dusting, and an insanely crunchy exterior (gluten free too)! The habanero cream had a lovely gentle kick as well, again, not so much that it would overwhelm either though! 

Our tostaditos are cute as buttons, and we were given one of each to sample. I had the blue crab with pickled chilli, lime and basil aioli, which was so refreshing, sweet and surprisingly juicy, and the tuna with candied peanuts, soy and black sesame which was also quite refreshing, but a little meatier, I felt like it could use a little more acidity though. Brad tried the chicken tinga, with mango jam, coriander and chipotle mayo and the pumpkin with cashews pepitas and jalapeño. 

Usually I don’t expect to really fill up on Mexican food, it’s tasty, filling, but typically not super huge servings. 

Well that’s until Touche Hombre brought out their tacos. These guys aren’t cheap usually (average price of $7 a taco) but they are meaty and filling.

In both the Mejilla taco, with slow cooked pork cheek, habanero cream and barbecue corn salsa and the chimichurri chicken taco with egmont cheese, taste peptise and coriander aioli, I found the proteins to be surprisingly generous and incredibly tender and delicious, especially the chimichurri chicken. Both combinations had a great mix of flavours, the Mejilla a little brighter and sweeter, and the chimmichurri rich and herbaceous. Both delicious. I had kind of forgotten how much I enjoy tacos!

To wrap up, the chocolate ice-cream sandwich with chilli and peanut butter parfait. Talk about my ideal ice-cream to biscuit ratio! Although I enjoyed this, it was a bit hard to eat, the biscuit could have been a bit shorter, so I could actually get a spoonful with the ice-cream, or have the biscuit crumble a bit more into the ice-cream, and there definitely was no chilli kick as promised (not that it was an issue, but I was looking for it). However, with other ice-cream sandwiches on the menu, I’d certainly be more than happy to see which one I like best!

Like I was saying, although I don’t normally leave Mexican restaurants feeling totally stuffed….well this was an exception. I definitely rolled out the door with Brad that evening! I think one critique my mother’s had for some of the other Mexican restaurants we’ve been to is that all the dishes tend to taste the same, as they use similar garnishes on everything, but I think what I liked a Touche Hombre, was that each dish really had it’s own flavour profile and textures, and that it was all very tasty. Would I be back? For sure. 

Touche Hombre

233 Lonsdale Street

Melbourne 3000

And we have launch! La Condesa + Man Food + Five Plus + Dish'd + Tadka Boom! + Brooks

Disclosure: I was invited to the below launches either by the restaurant or by a PR company

This year has proven to me just how chaotic and crazy Melbourne's dining scene is. I mean, it's actually great, as it's thriving and pumping and there's something new to see almost everyday, but it's also exhausting trying to keep up with it at the same time (and let me tell you, my waistline is starting to suffer!) 

Here's a quick round up of some of the launches I've been to in the last couple of months…

La Condesa

234 Johnston Street

Fitzroy 

Johnston Street seems to be getting a little more love these days, with new windowed shopfronts showing off shiny new hospitality fit outs. It's quite exciting. La Condesa is new to the strip, serving up Mexican goodness. 

I had been greedily eyeing off the menu online, which was small, concise and pretty straight forward and jumped at a chance to check it out. 

Tequila cocktail in hand, I monopolised multiple baskets of homemade tortilla chips, with chick and creamy guacamole. 

Also loved their mini tacos, which were just for this event, but could be done as they make the soft shell tortilla's themselves, and it certainly showed. The mushroom filling here was quite moreish and I look forward to finding some time to try a full meal in the future. 

Man Food Book Launch

Billy Law knows how to throw a good party. Boxes of pork crackling, trays of glazed bacon and sweet pork ribs that just fall apart in your hands. 

Held at Ba'get, who offset all the testosterone driven food with light banh mi's and bun's, Billy Law gave a stunning preview of the food that his book can create. 

It's honestly wonderful to see a blogger do so well, I remember attending one of his early photography workshops, before his rise to fame on Masterchef and it's great to see him go from strength to strength. 

Now just need to find a man who'd like to cook those ribs for me…

Five Plus

265 Little Lonsdale Street

Melbourne 

I used to love freshly juiced juices, but after seeing all the waste that they left, I gravitated towards smoothies, especially green ones, stuffing them full with kale and spinach. 

Five Plus takes what I do at home, and takes it to a whole different level with their delicious range of smoothies made entirely of fruit and vegetables, a spot of coconut water and almond milk. 

Along with the ultra healthy smoothies, packed full with avocados, parsley and lemon juice, amongst other things, there are also some great sweeter options (but no less good for you I'm sure) for those just dipping their toes into the world of green smoothies.

The peanut butter cup is a favourite, with peanut butter that's blended in house, dates, cinnamon, almond milk and other delicious goodies. Aromatic, nutty and creamy. All the good things you could want for! 

Dish'd

When I heard Jacques Reymond had joined forces with a service that delivers frozen food to people, via online order, I was pretty surprised. I mean who could have seen that as a career move for him? 

I'm still working to be entirely convinced of it, but looking at the way we are now, it's not a hard stretch to imagine not too far in the future for lots of families to be ordering full meals online, in the comfort of their pi's, especially if they're reasonably priced.

At the launch, it was fascinating to go through and try the different products available, showcasing quite a variety, from pastas, to pizzas, to meats, to desserts.

Although the pastas, risottos and cheese souffle didn't excite us, and left us thinking there's still a bit of a gap for frozen food to work on, a group of us were loving the Mediterranean rice, the pizzas and the little slivers of lamb we were getting, with beans and creamy cauliflower. It was quite impressive. 

But what really shone, was the desserts, and being usually less than $10 an item (some of the cakes come in serves of two), they're actually amazing value. The chocolately desserts were rich and sumptuous, the gelato was lovely and creamy and on a whole, we were pretty impressed. 

I'm not sure I'm wholly convinced of the concept yet, but I did very much like those chocolate cakes…

Takda Boom!

22 Goldsborough Lane

Melbourne

To fully disclose here, Tadka Boom! was actually a client of my office, BrandWorks, who designed the branding, and consulted with the set up of the store as well. So when they finally held their official launch, I knew I had to be there to support them.

Besides that, I had genuinely come to enjoy the food through the tastings I had attended (perks of the job hey?)

Tadka Boom! takes Indian food and gives it a fresh twist on it's head, keeping the flavour but making the food a bit lighter and brighter…in fact, one might say it's quite a bit healthier too! 

We didn't see a single curry all night! Instead we had lentil nuggets, a nice little protein nibble (or two, or three, or four), sliders with plenty of greens, samosa salads and wholemeal roti wraps. 

Oh, and don't forget their ice-creams, I'm crazy about their 'Spice Cream', which is a Kerala spice ice-cream. Dee-licious. 

Brooks 

115/117 Collins Street

Melbourne

Whilst pairing food and wine has always been a no brainer, cocktails have slowly been making their way out of dark and broody bars, and coming in as very, very suitable food companions. 

And just in time with the warmer weather that's creeping in, Brooks bar master Shae Silvestro shook and stirred some of his new spring cocktail creations for us tot try. 

Upon descending in to Brooks, we're greeting with a spritzy and classic French 75, a spot of gin, lemon juice and sugar topped with Presecco. Dangerously easy to drink and a great aperitif.

The Sloe Coach, as it might imply with more gin, is a creation of Shae's, designed to match with a particular dish on Nic Poleart's new menu (although I've promptly forgotten which), with Byrrh, slow gin, pastis, lime juice and sugar syrup. There's a rich herbaceous flavour to this cocktail, which we all quickly fall in love with and is almost creamy on the lips as well. 

To wrap up, an amaretto sour, complete with an egg white to really turn this into dessert. Just yum.

The Black Toro

Although Brad lives out in Glen Waverley, we're often not out that way these days, since the university he's doing his PhD is close to my place, which is close to the city, where generally most of our socialising activity happens. 

However a couple of weekends ago, we were going to spend a weekend out at his, since we had a friend's engagement party to go to around there. Which is wonderful let me say, but it's also kind of weird seeing friends get engaged and married off, especially since I'm so far away from taking that next big life step…or something like that. 

Anyway, so it completely surprised me when Brad then suggested that we get dinner The Black Toro beforehand, somewhere I had been harping on about for ages, lusting over their famous deconstructed peanut butter cheesecake. I mean…Brad…make a suggestion? What is this?!

So it was with glee that I called them up and made the booking for a rather frosty Saturday night. My toes snap froze walking from the car to the restaurant! 

Thankfully The Black Toro was a cosy little reprieve from the cold, where I sneakily snuck my toes out of my heels so that I could thaw them out (sshh, don't tell them)!

I loved the colourful mural, it's neat and tidy fit out, dark tables and black napkins (they look so much neater than white ones!) against the white walls…also, finally! A restaurant that's not afraid of their electricity bill, there's light! 

The Black Toro is a surprising little addition to Kingsway in Glen Waverley, a little bit of Latin America in an ocean of Asian cuisine. 

From the 'Poco Plates' selection, we started with crispy soft shell crab with buttermilk dressing and sriracha. Whilst the batter was a bit on the soft side and not really 'crispy' there was certainly a little crunch there, which was nice for a bit of texture and on a whole these were quite tasty. Honestly, it's a little hard to go too wrong with soft shell crab or sriarcha (if you ask me anyway!). Mmm, spicy!

Spicy pulled pork taco's with shredded cabbage and sour cream were a treat on the eye, with bright colours and lively garnishes, which translated to the palate in bright and zesty flavours. Loved the purple cabbage for a bit of crunch too! With the generous mounds of pulled pork, it was a slightly messy, but delicious affair!

The quesadilla with frijoles, smoked bacon and melted cheese came out lovely piping hot, crowned with a piece of crackling on each slice. The crackling? Mmmhmm. Perfectly crisp, light, like chicharron from the Philippines. And honestly, how can melted cheese go wrong? Really? My only wish is that this was a corn tortilla quesadilla, but my bad for not checking really. 

For our mains, we went with the spicy video soap seca with roasted zucchini, black beans, salsa fresco and queso fresco. From the summary on the menu, we figured this was essentially a mexican noodle casserole. 

This quite surprised me, with it's big flavours, it was quite spicy and peppery, but light as well. I hadn't really had anything like it (although I guess I haven't really had that much Mexican food either) and loved the great big dollops of queso fresco, which was a very creamy in texture but light on the palate cheese. Between the two of us, after all our little entrees, this was quite a feed!

I also could not resist ordering the triple cooked chips with paprika salt and garlic aioli, after our stint in the states…I was having potato withdrawals! I was a bit disappointed though that these weren't super duper crispy, as that's what I generally expect when the term triple cooked is thrown about. They did have the skin on them though, which added to the flavour and the garlic aioli was absolutely to die for. 

As the waiter came over to clear our plates, I didn't even need to get the menu back to know what I wanted to order for dessert. This must be a common occurrence, as the waiter smiled knowingly when I asked if I could order dessert already.

It was time.

Time for a deconstructed peanut butter cheesecake with chocolate ice cream and honeycomb. Oh gym gods, I have sinned. Sinned so bad. 

The chocolate ice-cream was dense with a lovely and full dark chocolate flavour, it seemed softer and creamier than ice-cream even, I would have said it was like a mousse. Surprisingly, it was lighter than it's peanut butter counterpart which hit you hard. Real hard. But it was good. A thick rich glob of creamy peanut butter that you just had to slowly roll around your mouth, one because that's the best way to enjoy it, and two, because it's so darned dense, good luck to you to get it down any faster! 

The honeycomb gave a nice crunch, and gave a bit of lightness. I really couldn't imagine ordering one dessert each…Brad and I just managed to get it down between the two of us!

Whilst I have seen reviews that have said service has been a bit slow at the Black Toro, on this particular night, I didn't notice so much of that, but maybe because we were in the 6pm seating and they needed to make sure they got us out by 8:15? Drinks and food were all brought out quite promptly, and staff were efficient, but also quite friendly, it felt naturally speedy rather than rushed. 

Brad and I thoroughly enjoyed our meal at The Black Toro and left with comfortably warm bellies, at a price I thought was quite reasonable. For all the food above, plus a drink each, it all came to under $100. Maybe if we had chosen a meaty main it would have been a bit more, but looking at the chicken on the table next to us…well…I was glad we hadn't. It was huge!

The Black Toro is a little, but welcome surprise and I'm sure if I was actually a local I would have popped by much earlier…and returned many more times….after all that frozen nutella parfait dessert with broken tres leches cake is surely calling my name….

The Black Toro

79 Kingsway

Glen Waverley

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