A bit of a dumb name, I’ll admit, but it turned out to be a bunch of fun. I read about it on Sunday when I spent most of the day at home categorising my coupons (by restaurant ranking) from the entertainment book Jenny gave me because she didn’t use it. Eh, nothing else planned for a Monday night.

Monday daytime, however, I spent doing a bit of eating. You see, Sunday night I realised that the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival’s restaurant express program, where you get two courses, a wine and a coffee for $35 at totally fancy places, ends next Wednesday, but I’m busy every lunchtime from this Wednesday!! Who says I can’t fit a few lunches into Monday Tuesday I have off.

I stayed up all night researching the restaurants and whether you could book online and see their set menu. The reviews for a restaurant at the national gallery were really standout, but you had to call, so I set my alarm for opening time. Only available for late lunch, which worked in just fine with my dual-lunch plan. Tried to get into pm24 but never got off hold, so called and booked at Papa Goose and headed in straight away.

An empty restaurant, a friendly waiter, and a phone to keep me company. Look what resulted!

Anything with confit in the name I would consider pretty fancy, so I gave it a go. It had a really nice crispy skin and was soft and smooth inside. The salad was interesting and I probably would have been impressed if it didn’t taste so similar to one that I get at the surf club in Soutbank. The avocado mush and those fried yoghurt balls were amazing though!

The dessert was a bit eh, as I didn’t enjoy the stout ice cream or the sour cherries. The half of the terrine with crackles in it was nice and tasted like peanut butter, the other: eh. But, it takes a nice photo for facebook!!

I had to wait for a while at the end to get my coat which they’d taken, because people kept arriving and taking the waiters’ attention, but got out eventually- without a tip: I claim ignorance!

On my way to the next restaurant I took a wander through the Moomba festival.. didn’t see very much (except a million prams in my way), but grabbed a festival program to read during lunch number 2, at Persimmon.

The chicken. So delicious. This is what I was expecting at an expensive place. The mush (pea I think) was sweet, the chicken was so soft, and the brown sauce was fantastic. And the wine didn’t even make me shudder! Must be fancy stuff!

Chilli, chocolate, raspberries and pop rocks. Pretty good idea if you ask me.. The first few bites were incredible (nice spice from the chilli) but by the end I was definitely struggling! (the previous three courses and the luke warm flavourless chai latte might have had something to do with it.. no more food for me for a while I think!)

Afterwards I spent the afternoon with a Meetup group.. so good, instant friends! I really enjoyed watching the trapeze artists.. but moreover the trapeze classes. I spent aaages watching them, it was way more interesting than the ones who had perfected it.. what an interesting concept!

There was only one thing that I was set on once I read it from the program.. a silent disco. Ehhh, sure. but the theme? 80s. Hell yeah! I danced the night away with my instant friends and had a super good time inside a skate park with headphones on. As you do.

Went to the Speigeltent for some drinks afterwards, saw Josh Thomas, went over and had an awkward chat (how could I not!?). Only in Melbourne..