La Latteria: Cheese glorious cheese

Wednesday 4 August 2010, 2:47 PM
By The Team | Posted in Places

It’s hard to believe that just the combination of milk, salt and time could create the wonderful, tasty substance we know today as cheese. And it’s even harder to believe that we have our very own cheesemaking operation right here – in downtown Carlton.

Since La Latteria opened it has rapidly attracted a loyal following. Cheese lovers come from far and wide, seeking La Latteria’s award-winning Italian-style, handmade cheeses. Cheeses are made by self-taught cheesemaker, Giorgio Linguanti and former Tutto Bene chef, Kristy Laird.

The pair also makes lovely European-style plain yoghurt and sells heirloom tomatoes, olive oil and bread. Fresh un-homogenised milk is sold in glass bottles that you can reuse when you need a refill.

But cheese is the main event here, made from locally sourced cow’s milk, natural preservatives and animal free rennet. Originally Giorgio was only supplying commercial restaurants such as Ceccinos, Giuseppe Arnaldo & Sons, Grossi Florentino and other well known Melbourne Italian restaurants.

However after sampling his cheese, many restaurant customers soon began asking where they could get more of these unique Italian-style cheeses – and La Latteria was born.

At the cheesemaking ‘laboratory’ at the back of the shop, cheese is made everyday using fresh mozzarella curd delivered daily from their Donnybrook factory.

Using traditional hand stretching and artisan techniques, cheesemakers produce a variety of well known Italian-type cheese such as ricotta, bocconcini and buffalo mozzarella, as well as rare cheese varieties from Giorgio’s hometown of Sicily.

Discover Scamorza which is a smoked mozzarella cheese in its classic pear-like shape or the filled provolina with a choice of blue cheese, porcini butter or natural butter at its heart.

La Latteria’s cheeses will give your Italian dishes that extra hit of authenticity or make a simple meal on their own with some good crusty bread and a glass of wine.

Spicing up your winter: Gewürzhaus

Monday 26 July 2010, 1:54 PM
By The Team | Posted in Places

Mulled wine. Roasted, marinated goodness. Big bowls of aromatic curry or fragrant soup. A cup of chai and a slice of spiced cake. This is the stuff winters are made of. And we’re here to tell you about Gewürzhaus, a shop that’s made for this kind of stuff.

This new Lygon Street treasure sells more than 300 herb and spice blends – the key to deliciousness in almost every memorable meal.

Gewürzhaus means ‘spice shop’, and it’s run by a pair of sisters, Maria and Eva, who grew up holidaying in Germany with their great-grandmother, grandmother and two great aunts. (That’s a lot of greatness, we know!)

While in Germany, Maria and Eva learned about the bold and beautiful world of spices. Their great and womanly household prepared all manner of traditional spicy fare. It was Christmas in Germany, so ample nutmeg and cinnamon was being sprinkled about the house – and sampled at those famous German Christkindlmarkts (Christmas markets).

Back here in Melbourne, Gewürzhaus is lined with hundreds of varieties of herb and spice blends. You can scoop them into pre-labelled bags, or buy them by the jar. Recipes come from that great German quartet – and from Maria and Eva as well.

Choose from blends such as: Venetian Gondola Spice; Duck, Duck Goose; Garlic Lovers; BBQ Blokes Spice; and wintry best-seller, the Glühwein (mulled wine) mix. An extensive selection of Australian native mixes is also available. Spices and herbs are ground fresh on the preimises so everything is full of fabulous flavour.

Salt comes in many varieties here, including big pink flakes, old fashioned celery, bright burgundy merlot, black lava and many more. The store also stocks a rainbow of peppercorn varieties; plus dried chillis from around the world; sugars (cardamom and pistachio, chai masala and many more); and mushrooms such as porcini and morels.

Nutmegs sit in a jar on the counter beside vanilla beans, and the store is also full of quality cooking implements (Riess enamelware, hello!), old-school cook books (love the old Woman’s Weekly collection) and other useful but beautiful homewares.

Basically, if you love cooking – or eating – Gewürzhaus has the potential to transform both of these experiences in many magical ways.

LINK:

Gewürzhaus

Hot Spots News: Claire Inc. residency at Alice Euphemia

Thursday 1 July 2010, 11:52 AM
By The Team | Posted in Things

Claire Inc. is the classy online vintage maven who has eyes only for pure cult label gold, looking down her perfectly powdered nose at hackneyed trends and frumpy retro stereotypes. Her past conquests include the Chanel Lucite earrings most girls would mortgage their left kidney for and the super hot polka dot Norma Kamali pumps. Sitting pretty amongst the cyber racks you’ll find late era 1980s and 1990s incarnations of Karl Lagerfeld, Sonia Rykiel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Yohji Yamamoto and Versace, just to name a few.

Lucky for us here in Melbourne, those racks are going to be in the real world until 21 July, with Claire Inc. becoming the latest in a long line of tightly-curated fashion residencies at local sartorial haven Alice Euphemia. This is your one-off pop-up stop for well-edited vintage, avant-garde jewels and madcap accessories. Ladies, get your game face on – there’s going to be a stampede of Lion King proportions!

Claire Inc. residency at Alice Euphemia