Alrighty…

1st Course. – The Sausage.

Soon after we arrive and are tucking into our meal-opening beer the waiter brings us each a single sausage. It is no larger than your standard sausage and certainly not like one of those huge kransky-types you get at gourmet sausage stands – and given that this is essentially an appetiser you would not WANT it to be any bigger.

The sausage is “continental” in style, ie: the contents have not been ground to a fine paste as per your average supermarket sausage. It was quite tasty, but having been raised on continental sausages I would argue that the butchers at the Preston and Victoria Markets do it better.

A very basic lettuce and tomato salad was the accompaniment. The tomato chunks were a bit big for my liking. In fact the salad was fairly crap all round. The two mustards provided (horseradish and … I think French) were also quite average – but more on my gripes later.

2nd Course – Mixed Grill.

The next course was a plate containing small pieces/strips of assorted meats including liver, pork, beef fillet, possibly some lamb. and some tiny hamburger. Again quite tasty.

3rd Course – Slab O Meat.

Now comes the fun part…. The waiter brings out a tray containing 4 steaks – a “smaller” and “larger” porterhouse (wonderfully marbled) and the same again in fillet. You can choose what cut and size you would like and how you would like it cooked. Which one to choose? Having now had both the fillet and porterhouse I can summarise the difference as follows: the fillet is more tender, the porterhouse has more flavour. Both have their pros and cons, but I think I lean a bit more towards the porterhouse. On this occasion I went for the fillet (rare). The steak was superb – I mean really outstanding. I can see why this place has become such a Melbourne institution. The steak knives are HUGE – the kind of thing you would see as a murder weopon on “Law & Order”. The steaks are so tender that one doesn’t really need such a full-on implement, but it is certainly a nice touch.

Please note that anyone ordering the larger cuts of meat and actually finishing them may require some form of colonic irrigation the following day.

Dessert/Coffee.

I wanted to enjoy digesting my steak so I skipped on dessert. There are only two options – strawberries with ice-cream and strawberry pancakes – neither of which look much different to what you’d get at a Pizza Hut dessert bar. In terms of coffee you can have filtered coffee – full strength or decaf – no lattes or affogati here.

All in all…

All in all I really enjoyed both the meal and the experience of dining at Vlados. They have always claimed that they specialise in meat and nothing else and I have to agree with them. Yes the meat is fantastic. But on the two occasions I’ve been to Vlado’s I have felt that if they provided a half-decent salad along with some quality condiments – the meal could go from being great to being magnificent. Will this stop me going? Of course not – this meat is too good to pass up.

Tonight I’m going to Vlados. There’s something quite satisfying about the mass consumption of excellent quality beef. I’ll let the link above give you the rundown – but gee it’s good. Even more satisfying is the knowledge that work is paying for the meal. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm…

I’ve been trying to vary my cooking repertoire a little of late and have come to the conclusion that soup is highly under-rated in this day and age. Over the weekend I made a pot of minestrone (and a batch of pesto so I could add a dollop when serving the soup). It was wonderful – nourishing for the body and soul. This time around I used a tin of borlotti beans instead of soaking the dried beans in water the night before. Serves me right for not planning ahead. As I said above the minestrone was great, but missing a little something – that little something being the “meaty” and nutty flavour of the beans when they are at their best. A lesson learned I suppose.

Once you’ve got a container of soup in the fridge it’s so nice to come home from work knowing that some if not all of dinner is already taken care of. I just don’t hear a lot about soup anymore, and thinking about it – I used to have soup all time when I was growing up – where has it gone? Can people not be bothered waiting for it to cook anymore? Whenever you go out for a meal it is not uncommon to see “soup of the day” on the menu. I tend to stay away from many of these as I’ve been burnt a few times. Soup is so cheap and easy to make. I am going to make a concerted effort to have a batch on the go throughout winter. I would love some suggestions for recipes from the three people who occasionally read this.

Stock
My next ambition in the soup department is to get into making my own stock. I got some bones and a little boiling beef from my butcher a couple of weeks ago. My parents proceeded to berate me for using the bones. Their view was along the lines of “If you want a meaty flavour – use meat! You should only boil the bones if you are trying to make soap” – I was a bit taken aback at how emphatic they were being so I did a bit of research. According to my “A Celebration of Soup” book, Italians hardly ever use bones in making their brodo – but many other ethnic groups do, so I suppose it’s all a case of what you’re used to. However, with the advent of mad cow disease I wonder how much of the nasty stuff works its way through to the bone marrow which then gets boiled down in soups (or soap … which we then lovingly consume. I might hold off that discussion until MCD becomes a plague in Australia – and I really hope it doesn’t.

I find that when I make stock I end up cheating a little and adding a stock cube or two. Now ideally you shouldn’t need to – but I find that the stocks I make are not as flavoursome as they could be otherwise. Are stocks meant to be subtle by their nature or has my palate been spoiled by nearly 30 years of having too much salt in my food?