True South: 298 Beach Road, Black Rock, 1300 878 360
My score: 3.5/5
Just as cooler weather sees my shivery hands reaching for coat and scarf, it sees my yawning appetite leaning towards rich and comforting food, stuff that warms the bones with gelatinous creep. That’s why I’ll be back in Black Rock before spring is sprung.
This will be chef Mauro Calleguri’s second winter at True South, a large bayside microbrewery that would be hard to heat were the food not so warming. Calleguri is Argentinean but he has a long history in fine dining both in the UK, where he cooked at the House of Lords, and here at Hotel Sofitel and Fenix. The food at True South is a dressy, accessible take on South American cuisine: dishes that would be slopped in a bowl in a Buenos Aires back street are turned into picturesque creations – and that’s not easy when we’re talking locro (stew). This white corn and meat braise is the traditional dish of Argentinean independence celebrations on May 25 so this is an especially good week to eat it.
The base of Calleguri’s locro is starchy dried white corn, pork trimmings (free range), house-made chorizo and pumpkin, which breaks down into a creamy orange sludge over seven or eight hours of gentle burbling. Green beans and mint are added at the last minute in a triumph of flavour layering, creating a fragrant, hearty stew that’s also fresh and vigorous. An impressive pork belly baton is served separately: it’s been smoked over hickory, confited, pressed, crumbed and fried. It. Is. Delicious. A wedge of lemon and green chilli sofrito do their best to counteract the richness but it’s sprat versus whale in this battle.
It’s not all meat. The provoleta grilled cheese is similarly rib-sticking and there are enough vegetable dishes to build a meal, including a gorgeous roasted carrot dish tossed with coriander seeds, peanuts, chilli and honey. There’s a good kids’ menu, plenty for gluten-avoiders, and a number of desserts feature dulce de leche, the caramelised milk paste that is Melbourne’s favourite trendy tooth-rot.
True South’s beers make good friends with much of this food: ales love the asado short rib, the toasted biscuit notes of Red Truck lager get cosy with the locro. Argentinean malbecs and cabernets also feature on the wine list. Enthusiastic waiters make sense of this not-so-obvious melding of drinks and eats, striving for a truly splendid True South experience.
More pork:
The Commoner, 122 Johnston Street, Fitzroy, 9415 6876
Whatever you’re eating here, it’s food with heart and soul. Pork features in the black pudding and a pork belly dish with fennel and cider sausage.
French Brasserie, 2 Malthouse Lane, Melbourne, 9662 1632
Classic French cuisine gets a contemporary spin in this city restaurant. Pork neck or belly is braised for 18 hours and served with Brussel sprouts, black pudding, roasted apricot and anise-spiced jus.
Kumo Izakaya, 152 Lygon Street, East Brunswick, 9388 1505
Pork is given a nice work-out at this lively Japanese drinking and eating house. Consider the shabu shabu pork belly salad, prawn and pork meatballs and braised pork pie.
First published in The Age, May 20, 2012
Leave A Comment