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Rear 360 Little Collins Street (Gills Alley), Melbourne, 9670 7214
My score: 4/5
Let’s start with the gnocco fritto, because I’d love an excuse to think about them again. Not to be confused with gnocchi, these gnocco are fried bread puffs laced with pork fat, served very hot, and eaten with cured meats. You tear gnocco, stuff them with salami, prosciutto or mortadella mousse and let the fat melt in your mouth. Eating is always in the present tense but it doesn’t always seize a moment: this does.
Emilia has taken over the old Gills Diner premises and brightened it with charming artwork and fetching pink-striped terrazzo. It’s a celebration of Emilia Romagna, in north-eastern Italy, and particularly Modena, hometown of chefs Luca Flammia and Francesco Rota. The pair emigrated in 2008 and cooked at Da Noi and Tea Rooms of Yarck. Now co-owners, they’re truly putting their hearts into it. Proper balsamic vinegar is emblematic of Modena, thick black gold, as precious as unicorn tears but infinitely more delicious. Here it’s drizzled over tender beef carpaccio and shaved parmigiano reggiano (also a regional treasure) and it adds tart spark to the cherry compote accompanying succulent pork. Nearby Bologna is represented by everyone’s favourite pork and beef ragu, rendered here in Flammia’s secret recipe (the only snippet I gleaned is that he lets the meat catch on the bottom of the pot). This paragon of sauces is tangled with flowing ribbons of tagliatelle. If you can forego a classic, the lasagne with asparagus, speck and scamorza (like mozzarella) is outstanding.
The offering is professional but the mood is casual: do Emilia as a drop-in (there are lunchtime porchetta rolls and they make a mean Venetian spritz in the bar) or a big night out (the $69 degustation makes good value very easy). Service is spry and the mood is happy; park yourself and partake.
See their website.
More Fried and Fabulous:
American Doughnut Kitchen, Queen Victoria Market, Queen Street, Melbourne, 0432 763 741.
When ADK opened in 1950, doughnuts were just about the only food you could buy from a van. Times have changed but the doughnuts haven’t: they’re still fresh, fried and stabbed with jam.
Belle’s Hot Chicken, 150 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, 9077 0788.
Choose your cut (dark meat for me), select your heat (really hot is really hot), boost it with sides and sauces (blue cheese) and let the fried chicken frenzy commence.
DC Dumpling, 590 Station Street, Box Hill, 9898 1620.
As well as pan-fried pork, beef and fish dumplings, DC does deep-fried sesame balls and bread and, if you still want more, banana and pineapple fritters.
First published in The Age, September 27th, 2015.
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