Foodie Adventure

Melbourne is famous for its posh food and coffee culture. During my first week here, I went to a cafe and ordered a regular coffee, ignorant of the fact that in Melbourne there is no "regular" coffee. The idea of anyone drinking from a drip coffee maker makes Melbournians cringe. "Regular" coffee is either a cappuccino, latte, flat white, or long black. The strength of the food culture is similar; Melbourne is famous for having tons of diverse, quality restaurants. People take eating very seriously here; much of the food is organic and preservative free, and it's not difficult to find exceptional places to eat.
I am not very posh or sophisticated when it comes to these things, and generally eat whatever is in front of me. But, a classmate of mine writes a food blog and reviews various restaurants around town. I had been reading her blog and drooling over pictures of the food she's had, and asked her to take me on a Melbourne foodie adventure! We went to Cumulus Inc, one of her favorites, and I had my first taste of fine dining!

We started with raw tuna and peas. I forget the name of the dish, but that's what was in it. And it was delicious. I really like raw fish, and tuna is one of my favorites! It had a really nice seasoning, and the peas complimented it well. Yum!

You totally want to eat this

 Next, we had pheasant! And it came with crackers, mustard, and rhubarb. I've never had pheasant or rhubarb before, and I was happy with both. We put the pheasant and rhubarb on top of the crackers and topped it off with the mustard. Delicious!

Pheasant!

Our seats were at the bar, which was neat because we got to see all the cooks in the kitchen preparing the food! It was so cool to look at them go! They were so intense and professional. It seemed like such a small place for all of them to work in at once, but they weaved around each other seamlessly and nobody ever got in the way.

Cooks in the kitchen!

Our main course was the duck, and it came on top of this amazing warm seed and nut salad. It was mind blowingly phenomenal. The duck was so tender and juicy, and the salad was out of this world! It was so warm and nutty and delicious, and had little bits of duck meat mixed into it. My mouth is watering just thinking about how amazing this dish was!

Succulent!

After that, we had the eggplant salad. They put pomegranate seeds on it, which were a really tasty touch! It went along so well with the rest of the dish and added lovely, tangy bursts of flavor to it.

For dessert we had cappuccinos and these amazing lemon cookies! Also, since we were sitting right at the bar, we saw the cook preparing and baking them for us! They were warm and crispy on the outside, and filled with lemony goodness!

Lemony goodness!

 I have now officially become one of those people who take pictures of their food.
Cumulus Inc was incredible, and I'm so glad I got to go! I knew I was in good hands, and got just what I bargained for! You should check out my friend's blog. I linked it above, but here it is again: http://letmefeedyoumelbourne.blogspot.com.au/