Lechon Love

Blame the Hubby and Heston Blumenthal.   

I offered to cater for the 38th day party of my new niece T, and was in the midst of planning the menu.  I mentioned to the Hubby that I was thinking of having a centrepiece of sorts for the party, but wasn't quite sure what it should be.  We were watching the program "Feasts" by Heston Blumenthal, where he served a whole pig to his guests, complete with "intestines" made out of fancy sausages, when it hit me - of course!  Why not truly celebrate T's coming into the world with a lechon?   

And so the quest was born of finding a Victorian supplier for the much-loved Filipino feast specialty - a whole pig(let) roasted over hot coals and served whole, covered with the most delicious mahogany brown crackling that you can imagine.  It's a lavish dish traditionally reserved for very special occasions, and Filipinos will know well that nothing beats biting into that sweet, succulent flesh and seriously wonderful crackling. 

After Googling and a few phone calls to Apolo's Lechon, plus an almost clandestine rendezvous (worthy of a Tarantino movie) at a carpark marked by a Subway sandwich restaurant in an outer suburb of Melbourne, the 31-kilo and 1 metre long lechon graced T's party.  My brother-in-law was fit to burst with excitement, and so was I - it had only been around 15 years since I had eaten lechon, and the Hubby was chuffed that his idea worked so well.  The party girl T just greeted the whole hullaballoo with a yawn and a little "wah" while in the arms of her Mum - after all, she wasn't even going to get a taste of the pig. Her big brother J was too busy at the swings to give the piggy much thought, but the other kids around were incredibly curious and frankly fascinated.

M was given the honour of dissecting the pig with his beautiful Global cleaver, and with great aplomb and skill too (thank God for his chef's apprenticeship!) despite him feeling quite under the weather.  Thanks, M.  And to everyone's credit, despite some initial shock and feelings of being confronted with seeing where their meal was coming from, everyone dug in and had some lechon, with a few going back for seconds, thirds and even fourths.

There was other stuf to eat too, of course, including my Mum's Bicol Express (a wickedly hot chili dish) reincarnated as a canape on crisp wonton cups, and Thai-style prawn and chicken miang on betel leaves.

A particularly fabulous find at Melbourne's Queen Victoria Markets was Pimientos de Padron  - a chili that I always thought could only be grown in Queensland by Midyim Eco Growers, who had suffered previous poor harvests due to inclement weather. 

Suffice it to say I was beyond thrilled to see the pimientos available to serve at T's party, as I only ever know to serve it one way - sauteed in plenty of olive oil until charred with whole blanched almonds and plenty of salt, then on a platter to be picked at and eaten whole.  Also known as the Russian roulette of peppers, it's said that 1 in 10 Pimientos de Padron is seriously hot, the rest sweet as capsicum.  Absolutely perfect party food when there's lots of brave partygoers and alcohol to wash down the (potential) chili heat.

But back to the lechon - many Filipinos would agree that lechon leftovers are even better than the main event, in the guise of "paksiw na lechon" - an unctuous stew with soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns, bay leaves, garlic and the leftover special lechon sauce.  Best served with lots and lots of steaming hot rice - yummo!

With remarkably only around 8 kilos of lechon left over (we only did have around 25 adults to devour the beast!), there were plenty of leftovers, and even enough for us to take back to Sydney. Absolute bliss!

Marvelous Maha Bar & Grill, Melbourne

I love Melbourne. There, I've said it.  Sydneysiders feel free to slag me off now, but I have to say that if there was any other city I would choose to live in Australia, it would be Melbourne. 

And yes, I think the food and service is better in Melbourne restaurants than in Sydney.  So much so that the Hubby and I chose to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary in Melbourne and with a very memorable loooong lunch at Vue du Monde with their Gastronome menu - a ridiculously decadent 10 courses with matched wines, and as it was Perigord truffle season we had that shaved over a few of our dishes as well. That meal currently stands as our best and most expensive to date.

So on the odd occasion that we do head over to Melbourne for a day or so, I do my research and decide which restaurants we should eat in - always a pleasurable but painful undertaking, as we only have so few meals and so many restaurants to choose from!  We could only fit in one dinner for this visit too, so that was seriously difficult.  After much umming and ahhing, it was a feature on Maha Bar & Grill and some of their recipes in a recent Gourmet Traveller issue that sealed the deal for me.  And I was very happy with the experience.

We chose to go with the 5-course "soufra" menu - basically a tasting menu made up of their signature dishes.  I must say that the "tastes"were rather large, much more generous than your usual degustation style serves, but that would be my only complaint in an otherwise meal-perfect night.

We started off with an incredible starter soup - a white bean shourba with a venison kefta skewer.  It was so delicious, and the Hubby was happy with the white bean aspect of the dish as he is mad keen on anything bean-y or lentil-y. This was perfectly matched with an Efe Fresh Grape Raki.  It's an ouzo-like aperitif with a very strong aniseed flavour, and at 45% alcohol it's strong in another way so do take in small amounts.

This was followed by an array of cold mezze, comprised of:

• havouch-Turkish carrot and yoghurt
• fried cauliflower, tahini and walnuts
• olives-fel fel
• anchovy bastilla, tomato salad, feta foam
• pilaki-turkish carrot, bean and dill
• pickled eggplant with pomegranates

Yes, I know, all of that!  And it was delicious, with the anchovy bastilla (the one in the glass) and the eggplant my personal favourites.  It was interesting that this course was matched with a Chardonnay - Medina Girgentina D.O.K 2007 from Malta  Not being a chardie fan I was quite dubious, but it was quite a fine match considering the range of flavours on the platter.

The hot mezze was next, with two stand-out dishes: salmon, saffron, fennel and mussel doughnuts, and a family recipe of fenek stuffat,(braised rabbit) with potatoes and green peas.  The rabbit was particularly scrumptious - again, not a big bunny fan  as I have cooked with it only twice in my life and find it difficult to not think cute, white, fluffy bunny wabbit while slicing into it - but I don't mind it cooked for me and this was dish was superb. 

At this stage I was pretty full, and was a bit worried about stuffing two more courses in.  But I simply, simply had to have room for the grill course - the famed Maha Bar & Grill 12-hour roast lamb with shaved iceberg and kousa (preserved lemon).  It was, as expected, heartmeltingly tender. 

Not to be outdone in the melting stakes was the grilled butterfish in aleppo pepper butter sauce. It certainly lived up to its name as a butterfish!  Both dishes were served with a pine nut rice, and with a lovely red wine - Massaya Silver Selection from Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.

After all this beautfiul, beautiful food, the trio of desserts did not disappoint as the final course.  We were presented with the signature Maha doughnuts with a Turkish delight and pine nut praline, sweet corn cream and salted caramel with burnt butter ice cream (my fave!), and a quite interesting beetroot and chocolate sponge with chocolate mousse and milk ice cream.  We of course just had to wash it down with a Yarden Muscat 2007 from Israel.

Thank goodness our hotel was at least a 15-minute slow walk up the hill - I needed every bit of exercise after such an incredibly indulgent meal.  But hey, we're only in Melbourne once in a blue moon, and the dining experience in Maha Bar & Grill was well worth the wrath of my nutritionist! 

The only other thing to make this whole experience complete?  I'd like to know where I can buy aleppo pepper please!  It's quite integral to many of Maha's dishes, and I am dying to try the recipes out.  I have inquired into so many places for this, including Herbie's and the actual suppliers to Maha (Bas Foods), and still have no joy.  So if anyone knows where I can buy it, please let me know!