L'Oustal. Restaurant Express Menu

The Age Good Food Guide Restaurant Express.
Friday 22 February - Saturday 8 March, 12pm or 1.30pm.

Jump on board The Age Good Food Guide Restaurant Express and head off on this year's foodie rite of passage. Acquire the flavours of Melbourne's monopoly board of restaurants at an unbelievably reasonable price.

Two express courses with a glass of Victorian wine for lunch -at only $30.00, you'll be tempted to stop all stations. Restaurants, cafes and gastro-pubs alike, they've all made it into the annals of The Age Good Food Guide. Board The Age Good Food Guide Restaurant Express and travel the taste-scape of Victoria. Live large in a lunch hour! Dining is available in two sittings at each metropolitan location. One service only at regional locations, times vary. Book your berth now!

Vegetarian options available at all restaurants.

DINE AND WIN!

Every time you lunch at a participating restaurant during The Age Good Food Guide Restaurant Express you can go into the draw to win a free lunch every week for a year at restaurants from the guide! Conditions apply. Details online. Drawn 1 April.

Download a complete list of participating restaurants here.

( UPDATE: This restaurant is no longer open )

Mr Stickyfingers and I enjoy The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival's annual Restaurant Express events. It allows us to try places on our doorstep that we have been procrastinating about and to revisit old favourites without the big ticket expense. Our lunches are a stolen moment in a busy working day, encapsulated in an hour long experience that somehow makes the day go faster and serves to put me in a better disposition for a corporate afternoon.

This week we had a pleasurable meal at L'Oustal in Albert Park. It's a snug, traditional looking brasserie environment in a busy village of left wing affluence by the sea. Seated by the window we watched the passing parade of SUV's disgorging 'Yummy-Mummies' and on the pavement strolling retirees stopped to chat to friends.

When dining out, my beloved and I always share our meals with each other, swapping dishes half way through so as to have the broadest possible experience. We tend to favour entree and main at lunchtime over dessert.

So, we began with an exceptional soup which manifested as more of a veloute in the traditional sense - not as a foam as many seem want to describe their frothy concoctions. It was described as Mussel Chowder and saffron potatoes. We declared it delicious. A velvety soup with a generous addition of saffron was rich with the flavour of mussels. A few in fact garnished the soup as well as dice of potato which seemed to have soaked up the flavour. So good was it that the generous serving of bread brought to the table, was used to wipe the bowl clean.

The terrine, described as Brawn and Sauce Gribiche exemplified simple classic French cookery using offal. The English do something similar, though perhaps a little less subtle, known as Head Cheese. This particular execution was quite dainty and the boiled egg coupled with herbs and capers of the Gribiche offset it well with a piquancy that cut through the richness of the aspic and pork.




The first main course was Fish of the day, crushed potatoes and Bouillabaisse reduction. What appeared to be standard bistro fare was set apart by the deeply flavoured crustacean based sauce. The fragrance of it perfumed the dish but did not overwhelm the fish, which turned out to be seared salmon. I loved the texture of the crushed potato with the flakes of fish, an inspired move when some other bistro’s would have predictably served it with a mash.

The second main course was an acceptable Cassoulet. Considering that it was a very handsome dish, we eagerly anticipated a traditionally rich and earthy bowl of wonder, but although tasty, it disappointingly fell a little short of our expectations. It seemed that the principle elements of beans, Sausage, duck confit and belly pork had been prepared separately but combined at the very end of the process. The taste was lighter than expected and lacked the complexity that the dish acquires when the elements are slow braised as an ensemble.

To our minds the Cassoulet at The French Corner in Highett and the now sadly defunct Vera were vastly superior. Mr Sticky also pointed out that the pork here was a little stringy when it should have relaxed to the point of being melt-in-the-mouth and the parsimonious amount of sausage on the plate, which was not Lyonnaise, could surely have been improved on.



The wines offered as part of the package were an acceptable Zilzie Sauvignon Blanc 2007 and Zilzie Cabernet Sauvignon 2006. I followed the meal with a perfect espresso, which was included in the $30.

As I dodged the SUV's and made my way back to work, I felt sated, refreshed and not overly bloated by our indulgence. The afternoon floated by and the morning stresses had washed away.

L'Oustal 166 Bridport St, Albert Park, Victoria, Australia.
Ph. +613 9699 8969

La Petite Parisienne

Paris, the summer of 1973 - I am a diminutive 6 year old. Dressed like a porcelain doll in my favourite crisp peach cotton dress that falls from the hip into three deep frills scalloped with lace, I feel special.

Across my bodice are intricate embroideries of flowers, birds and butterflies forming exotic, random circular motifs – to wear this dress meant that we must be going somewhere extra nice – for this is an expensive dress. But as fate would have it, my pride would tumble during an altercation with my food. That afternoon I was to walk in the glaring sun feeling humiliated down the Champs Elysées, ashamed of the bright splashes of Bouillabaisse
on my skirt.

My dramatic self-saucing happened whilst lunching in the care of my parents under a portrait of a young HRH Queen Elizabeth II, herself dressed in an extravagant yellow tulle evening gown. It was said that she too had dined on the same classic Mediterranean seafood dish in the very same venue. Even after all these years the flavour of that particular Bouillabaisse lingers in my memory today, redolent with saffron and tomato, rich, warm and fishy - like a stroll on a pier at the height of a summer’s day - and the garlicky stains it left as I missed my mouth and launched it into my lap, leaning up to a too high table.

But in fact, that was actually to be the second humbling moment of the day, in my precocious epicurean upbringing. For that morning I had another more simple, though thoroughly iconic Gallic awakening of the tastebuds, accompanied by yet more childhood embarrassment.

I was standing in a pool of the morning sun streaming through the window of the Pensione dining room. I squinted upwards to look at the lovely Châtelaine, when she produced a small triangular silver parcel from a round cardboard box. Pulling a red tab, she deftly unwrapped it and placed it in my palm, motioning for me to eat it. I looked at the creamy triangular lump on the splayed open foil and gingerly stroked the surface suspiciously. Afraid of offending the kind lady I bit it in half. THOCKKK! The gooey concoction glued itself determinedly to the roof of my mouth and as my little face contorted with discomfort and confusion, Madame doubled up with laughter at the sight of it. This was my first experience of La Vache Qui Rit.

Towards the end of World War 1, Fromageries Bel in Jura, created La Vache Qui Rit as a result of melting down left overs, creating a “fromage fondu”. Bel were at the time a maturation house for cheese and did not produce any cheeses of their own, so unsold stock of Comté, Gruyere and Emmental, were melted down and milk was added. The cheese was cooked which allowed for a long shelf life and packaged.

The recipe was continually revised and was initially sold as a pasteurised product in round metal containers, becoming known as a “Modern Cheese” in that it broke the tradition of provincial cheeses by establishing a national product. It is reputed to be the first cheese to become a registered product (1921). The triangular portions came about in acknowledgement of a rising demand for snack foods. Innovative with marketing, they were one of the first companies to include promotional items such as free children’s trading cards and sponsorship of events such as cycling races.

The now famous laughing cow image, named the “Wachkyrie” was a parody of the cow that appeared on German supply trucks during the war, known as Valkyrie - in reference to the mythical creatures who provided sustenance and care to the Norse Gods in battle. Benjamin Rabier, the celebrated Graphic Designer and Illustrator was commissioned to draw the laughing cow from one of Leon Bel’s own sketches. That design was used until the 1950’s, when it was further simplified to the again slightly modified, graphic image still in use today.

Fromageries Bel exports La Vache Qui Rit to Australia from Slovenia, one of their 14 factories outside of France. The USA has their own factory, which came about when the South Beach Diet rocketed up sales by including the low fat version of LVQR in its list of recommended products. Bel were expecting a mere sales spike, but while the interest in the diet has receded, their market share continues to grow. The brand is also ingrained in the Vietnamese food culture as a consequence of the much-loathed French colonial period.

I didn’t touch LVQR again until I was an adult and it then became one of my pantry staples. Mr Stickyfingers shares my enjoyment, but we have recently moved on, preferring Vache Grosjean - La Vache Sérieuse, which is still made in France. We keep it in the fridge so as to avoid glueing up my chops during gobbling. I’ve found it’s also a wonderful addition to French style Macaroni Cheese, something quite irresistible to children - and adults in need of simple comfort food.