Melbourne Patron

It's the place that was made infamous by the ' chopsticks incident ' last December, where a young Richmond Tigers AFL player drunkenly threatened to attack a woman dining nearby with his chopsticks. But of course, Mr. Miyagi had already developed a cult following well before that. LOOK OUT... CHOPSTICKS Opening in October 2013 on the ever-so-hip Windsor portion of Chapel Street , and tickling nostalgic fancies with its reference to 1984 classic  The Karate Kid , the restaurant has enjoyed a steady stream of customers since. I remember stopping by with a friend one Thursday night mid last year to enquire about a table, and we were told it would be a two-hour wait. Well! Either this place is really good, I thought, or really good at hype. Always a queue at the front desk I made a calculated plan with friends to score a table there on a Friday night recently. I rocked up nice and early, 6:45pm-ish, and put my name down for a table. They advised the wait would ...

Want Melbourne Patron blog posts delivered straight to your inbox? Click on the "Subscribe" button at the top of this page and follow the simple instructions. Magic! I am a sucker for a good steak, and lately, what with moving house and all the extra expenses that incurs, I've been on the lookout for great pub specials such as steak nights. I've been keeping a list on my phone of some of the deals I've found at venues around my home and work (mostly in the CBD, Fitzroy/Collingwood, Richmond/Abbotsford, South Yarra/Prahran/Windsor, South Melbourne) - and there are lots, so please note I haven't tried them all.  Several of my friends have asked me to send them a copy of the list - so I figure this way, I can share it with everybody who might be interested! PLEASE NOTE: This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the pub specials in Melbourne (there are many websites for that already!), nor is it necessarily current. I will do my best to keep it up-to-dat...

I am fonda Mexican. Boo-doom-TISH! Side wall of Fonda Mexican, Richmond Actually, I'm not that fond of Mexican. I used to be very anti-chilli - thankfully, not the case anymore, although I still prefer other people to cook with chilli for me, rather than cook it myself. Plus, Australia wasn't so fortunate in the '80s and '90s as it is now, with such a large spectrum of international cuisines available to us - so I never grew up eating Mexican food. Then, when I did, it was mainly crappy Tex-Mex: lots of heavy, fried, oily, cheesy stuff that actually barely resembles Real Mexican food. Only in the last few years have Melburnians been privy to (hopefully more) genuine Mexican flavours - and fresh ingredients - through the likes of Mamasita , Chingon , Acland St Cantina , and Fonda Mexican . So, I'm coming around. :) Fish taco from Fonda Mexican, Richmond In 2001, David Youl and Tim McDonald opened the original Fonda Mexican at 248 Swan Street, Richmond...

I studied German for quite a while and even participated in a student exchange to Germany during high school. I'm always tickled by a bit of German culture, food, or language. A Sunday lunch outing meant a chance to check out Melbourne's German scene at the German Club Tivoli (291 Dandenong Road, Windsor). (Is it just me, or does the word 'German' look weird when you see it a few times in a row?!) Growing up with a European-born mother and grandparents meant I was no stranger to the odd hybrid culture of immigrants to Australia. There may be two languages spoken at home; trips overseas or visits from distant family; recipes brought over and reproduced as comfort food; music, attitudes and attributes that only people from the same culture can truly understand. Particularly the older generations seem to seek out the familiar: others who share and celebrate their culture; people who have gone through the same monumental life event of moving to a country on the othe...