By CAMERON LUCADOUWELLS
IT’S touted as a calorie-neutral way to sample Dandenong’s diverse delicacies.
This month, as part of a Good Food Month walking and eating tour, foodies from across Melbourne are working up appetites as well as working off the weight from a smorgasboard of treats.
Last Tuesday, the movable feast included a banquet at Afghan Rahimi Restaurant, meals at Polish restaurant Kluska and African Village Kitchen, as well as taking out nibbles from Maiwand Bakery and Rob’s British Butcher and touring Dandenong Market’s The Kitchen.
What stands out is the quality ingredients cooked with cultural authenticity at each of the lunchtime pitstops — each helping to build the city’s enviable culinary repuation.
First on the menu were Polish dumplings at Kluska -cheese, mushroom and beef varieties.
As with the soups, borscht, sauerkraut and all else on the menu, they are made with locally-sourced ingredients ground and prepared daily on-site.
It is a time-consuming cooking process; the reward is ultra-fresh foods. An impressive list of Eastern-European beers and pilsners round off the traditional experience, albeit among palm trees in the rear al fresco section.
Owner and chef Barbara Szwed – a former book-keeper – cooks straight, traditional Polish food. She is bucking the trend of fusing various cultural influences, instead opting for the food she enjoyed as a child.
Next stop were hot Afghan breads – among the thousands baked each week at Maiwand Bakery, what is believed to be the first Afghan bakery in Australia.
The kitchen’s oven is a hot bed of activity as about 2000 flat breads a day are loaded, cooked, flung from the oven and sold for between 75 cents- $1.50.
Then there are the west African cuisine and sharp, sweet Kenyan mango juice at African Village Kitchen.
On the tour, a zesty lemon, onion and chicken breast dish (yassa) is dished up, followed by vegetables in a spicy peanut butter (salat aswat) that’s similar to satay.
Chef Abdoulie Sallah has a glow belying his 70-something years of age. After working at a variety of restaurants, Mr Sallah savours the chance to cook his homeland meals.
He and wife/co-proprietor Di Perdon regale rich tales of west African foods and cooking rituals as meals are supped.
As part of Good Food Month, the kitchen is hosting a feast every November night. Live African music is being performed by Ghanan kora player Randy Borquaye on Saturdays this month.
At Rob’s British Butcher, there’s a taste of his imaginatively-conjured sausages – including pork and leek, and basil, tomato and pork – and his Christmas ham sweet-cured in marmalade for seven days.
Beware the haggis, served inconspicuously in crumbed balls. An unsuspecting sampler spluttered when owner Rob Boyle informed her mid-chew.
“It’s a lovely way to introduce it,” Mr Boyle said.
“I thought it was like mushroom. That will never pass my lips again,” the sampler vowed.
However, Mr Boyle is finding ‘olde food’ is new again – selling and supplying loads of black pudding to large hotels, and British and Irish pubs.
His preservative-free, award-winning meats are made to taste like “when Granddad made them”.
All of this is the appertif for the main course, or rather courses, at a banquet of wines and foods at Afghan Rahimi Restaurant.
The mountainous run-down was lamb and herb dumplings, barberry-topped rice, lamb meatballs, charcoal-grilled lamb and chicken on sword-like skewers and fresh salads.
Gracious host Baryalai Rahimi, a former Afghani who assisted UN humanitarian efforts for people fleeing his homeland, has attracted high-flying chief executives, politicans from far and wide to his exotic, opulent restaurant.
Having just moved into a new palatial site, the restaurant is drawing loyal lunchtime patronage from the nearby Government Services Office building.
He worked hard for his restaurant’s top-notch reputation; toiling at three jobs as he paid for his four children’s private education.
It was a fitting end to the tour; none were wanting for a crumb more.
The next tour is on 26 November, 11am-2pm; $60. Bookings: 8571 1377
