Erik Jensen is an award-winning journalist, biographer, screenwriter and poet. He is the founding editor of The Saturday Paper and editor-in-chief and chief executive of Schwartz Media. His recent collection of political writing is titled Angry at Breakfast, although he is rarely angry and almost never eats breakfast. Jack Shaw from Hope St Radio has described him as “my favourite home cook in Melbourne”.
Here’s Erik with how he does Melbourne.
My local is Panacea on Johnston Street in Collingwood. The first night I walked in I was looking for a drink while I edited a manuscript. I stayed until well after the doors were closed. The bar is owned by a group of friends who mix some of the best cocktails in the city and who always make you feel as if you’re dropping in to finish a conversation where you left off.
My favourite piece of writing about food here is Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion. Whenever I write, I try to write as if for a cookbook. I want to be as plain and direct as possible. I started cooking from Stephanie’s book after I moved to Melbourne and it was like being back in the kitchen with my grandmother. The recipes are clear and the writing is quarrelsome. There’s the friendly impatience you get from a good cook. Over time I started to realise how much the book is a history of the city and its restaurants.
The best new thing I’ve found is Thai Food Station on Victoria Street in Richmond. It took me a while to find great Thai food in Melbourne, and then I found a rush all at once: Nana Thai, Pa Tong, Tom Toon. The cooking at Thai Food Station is excellent and the room is exactly what you want. The boat noodles are great. So is the tang and complexity of the khao kha moo, and pretty much everything else on the menu.
When I want to celebrate an occasion with a special meal, I try to convince someone to drive me to Trentham to eat Annie Smithers’ food at Du Fermier. Annie cooks with more tenderness and knowledge than just about anyone. I love her. Failing that, I love a special occasion where you don’t book. The best meal is the one you’re prepared to be turned away from. The other day I went to Cutler after a long and lovely afternoon and ended up having one of the meals of the year. The whitebait sandwich is an instant classic and it was better for not planning it.
When I want to show off the city to friends from out of town, I take them to La Pinta in Reservoir. The cooking is straightforward, thoughtful and very tasty. Everything about the restaurant seems to be what’s best about Melbourne, which is quality and intelligence and the fact you can eat this well two doors down from a plumbing supply store. There is an absence of fuss and a keenness to focus on what’s on the plate in front of you.
My favourite place to load up on supplies is The Vegetable Connection in Fitzroy. I come here for potatoes but there is often something else to be excited about. A little while ago there was a basket of Amalfi lemons that made excellent candied peel. The potatoes are the real show, though. Sometimes I get them home and just stare at them in wonder, convinced they are too beautiful to be cooked.
There’s no better value in the city than the sea urchin at Muli Express. Van and her son prepare these urchins to order, trimming them with scissors and using tweezers to remove stray barbs. They are incredibly fresh, still in water from Port Phillip Bay. The roe tastes like rich custard and deserves to cost a lot more than $18.
And I wish more people would experience the excellence of Kolkata Cricket Club. Mischa Tropp is a singular talent and this is probably the best Indian food I’ve eaten in Australia. There is kingfish on every other menu in Melbourne but nothing as good as his macher bhorta. I love goat and the kosha mangsho is the best goat dish in the city. Dave Mackintosh invited me to the friends and family opening – you know it’s going to be a good meal when you see him on the floor – and I’ve been back as often as possible since.
My defining food moment in Melbourne was Attica for my birthday a few years ago. Ben Shewry is a close friend and his cooking is exactly what he is as a person: caring, playful and full of surprise. He made his famous potato cooked in earth and it tasted like the sunlight it had been denied all its life. He made a dessert based on the grief I felt after the death of a friend, a walnut gone black in its shell. I cried twice at how beautiful each dish was. That night I realised cooking and writing are very similar. At their best, they are about listening closely to whatever is in front of you and trying to work out what it wants to say.
If there was one thing I could change about eating and drinking in Melbourne it would be Monday nights. I wish more people were out and more places were open.
But the thing I hope never changes here is the way the city cares about its restaurants. I love eating and I love to eat in a city where every restaurant feels genuinely connected to its diners. Whether it’s the old-fashioned hospitality of Vlado’s or France-Soir or the prawns at Pipi’s Kiosk or the back room at the Builders Arms for lunch, I love the sense of care and history in Melbourne food, the idea that eating is something to take seriously and do well.
You can read Schwartz Media’s titles at thesaturdaypaper.com.au or themonthly.com.au. Erik’s cooking is on Instagram at @erikojensen.