• Melbourne Community Farmer's Market, alternatives between Collingwood Children's Farm, GasWorks, St Kilda Peanut Farm and Abbotsford Convent (slow food):  www.mfm.com.au
• inSeason Markets runs Caulfield, Ballarat and North Melbourne markets: www.inseasonmarkets.com.au

• Start with an inventory of the pantry and fridge. Do you need more condiments, spices and staples like rice and pasta? Tissues?
• Hit the markets for fruit and veg (cheaper than Coles and the produce doesn’t look like a prop from Ikea). The supermarket yields all the dried-good essentials to restock the pantry, as well as meat to bung in the freezer, and an arsenal of canned tomatoes.
• Chop and freeze your herbs to add to any dishes in your repertoire at any time.
• Freeze a chicken with the words ‘BOILER’ on the bag and try to ignore the way its little legs point out of the freezer like a plea for liberation every time you reach for the ice-cream.
• Pick a day, generally Sunday or Monday night, and chop everything up, trawl your dog-eared recipe books, cook a few dishes, and then portion each meal into a separate meal container, preferably with your ready-made scoops of rice/pasta, meat and steamed veggies in place.
• Freeze a few portions for busier times.
• Now reheat and eat to your heart’s content for the rest of the week, knowing that after each afternoon cocktail hour you can return to your sparkling nest and your own TV dinner.

A group of five of us learned our lesson last year and made sure that we were front and centre when the doors opened, so we could rush in and nab a table, which we did successfully.

For $50 a ticket, we got entry to the Exhibition Buildings in Carlton and 30 Crowns to spend. Crowns are Taste of Melbourne currency. Each restaurant present serves up three dishes, each costing anywhere from 8 to 12 Crowns. You can indulge in a range of small tasters from restaurants like The Boathouse, Press Club, Oyster, Nobu and so on.

A lot of foodie friends don't go, criticising the event for a lack of value and soul. And while I wouldn't walk over hot coals to get here, I really enjoy the event. I get to taste samples from lots of different places and it gives me an idea where my culinary priorities lie, in terms of trying restaurants I haven't yet graced with my presence. We were in a group of five people and shared every dish, giving us tremendous scope across the various dishes on offer.

Here are the 13 restaurants and the dishes we had from each:

-Circa: Chocolate, honeycomb & salted caramel crunch -Jacques Reymond: Tempura of quail breast with tajine flavours & whipped Persian fetta, Martini of bittersweet chocolate with espresso jelly and bourbon vanilla chantilly -Oyster: 'popcorn' prawn with citrus aioli -Botanical: Wagyu burger -The Press Club/Hellenic Republic/Maha: Spring Bay half shell scallops with tarama, Turkish Delight filled doughnus wtih pine nut sugar & rosewater honey -Fifteen: Vanilla panna cotta served  with slow cooked quince -The Court House -The Boathouse: Beef, stout & onion pie floater, clotted cream mousse with ginger nut crumble -Verge: Pressed duck leg with preserved mushrooms and smoked tofu in red miso soup, Milk chocolate delice with coconut and basil and salted caramel popcorn -Movida: Slow cooked cuttlefish with chorizo & chickpeas -Nobu: Yellowtailo jalapeno with yuzu soy -Silks:Baked crab shell served with Portugese sauce -The Brasserie By Philippe Mouchel: milk fed veal tenderloin served with soft polenta and swiss chard and pancetta

Most interesting for me was the Turkish Delight doughnuts, because they ran out last year and I'm not a fan of Press Club, so I'd been hanging out to try them. The inside was gooey and pink and it got me thinking about the ways I can use Turkish Delight in future.

There were so many highlights of the day, but the most wonderful was the duck from Verge and the sashimi from Nobu, both of which were orgasm-inducing. I was also quite impressed by the Silks crab and my companion's panna cotta from Fifteen was really quite lovely, as was the clotted cream mousse from the Boathouse. The prawns from Oyster were simple but so hot and fresh and flavoursome.

Most disappointing was definitely the burger from Botanical which didn't get anyone excited.Also a bit average was the pie from The Boathouse, which looked great, but was stodgy and lacked flavour.

Gary whatshisfacetheonethathashair and the George Theshortonewhocantcookaswellashethinkshecan Columbaris – the two chefs from Masterchef and proprieters of The Boathouse and Press Club/Hellenic Republic/Maha respectively – were swanning around, talking to people and having their photos taken. Sorry, but the whole scene made me a little nauseous. I was there to taste the food, not watch a sickening display of attempted branding. Ick.

Anyway, we had a really fun day and I strongly suggest that you give it a go. In addition to all the restaurants there are a lot of other food displays on offer from a variety of providores, in a similar fashion to the Good Food & Wine Show. A good, clean, fun time was had by all.

21 Liverpool St, Melbourne.

30mls Baileys
30mls Rubis
10mls cream
30mls milk
3 white sugar cubes
4 strawberries
1 blueberry

-Rim a rocks glass with sugar.
-Muddle three of the strawberries and white sugar in a Boston shaker then add the cream, milk, Baileys and Rubis. Then shake it like your mama taught you.
-Strain into the rocks glass and add ice to top up the drink.
-Garnish with split strawberry and a blueberry.

1. Place the flat bottom end of the bar spoon, with ‘shovel’ end pointed upwards, on top of the mixture that you want to float the champagne onto.
2. Slowly pour the champagne onto the stem of the spoon allowing it to gently slide down on the mixture.
3. As you are pouring , move the bar spoon and champagne upwards keeping the flat base of the spoon on the top of the champagne until you reach desired amount of champagne.

After much thought, I made the decision to call the restaurant and have a word with the Maitre D. Not only did he listen, he understood, took the complaint seriously and asked us back for a complimentary meal to make amends.

Sometimes restaurants get it wrong – we all do. But the making of a good restaurant is not just whether they can get it right. It’s whether they know how to fix it when they don’t.

So with much trepidation, we ventured back to Taxi Dining Room for our complimentary meal. I’m not going to score the meal, but I’m going to tell you about our second venture. It was one of the best meals I’ve had in Melbourne.

The first dish was scampi with truffle oil, with salmon roe, witlof and chervil. It was an absolute triumph. I adore witlof – the peppery flavour set against the richness and warmth of the truffle oil and saltiness of the roe. The scampi were small, sweet and succulent.

The second dish was smoked mangrove duck breast with apple and Asian mushrooms with balsamic reduction. The duck was juicy and tender and the balsamic wrapped itself around everything like a sweet, sticky, cuddly blanket.

Third up was sticky pork belly with seared scallop, red chilli sauce and a young coconut salad. The rich, fatty pork was lightened up with the fresh, crispy salad and the scallop was completely rare and tender inside – it melted away with no chewing required.

A tom kha with lightly seared kingfish, enoki and chilli was rich and flavoursome. It wasn’t too rich, which is a risk with some soups that have been over-developed. It left me wanting more.

Pan-fried wild barramundi with a cucumber and prawn salad, with king prawn tail and orange miso paste. Barra isn’t my favourite fish, but the dish was good and the serving extremely generous.

Wagyu porterhouse with king brown mushrooms and a yakuniku dipping sauce was completely divine. The meat was tender and soft and cooked rare. But the real triumph was the dipping sauce which made the meat sing with happiness in my mouth. It consists of mirin, Chinese rice wine, nashi, sesame and soy. Divine.

After quick palate refresher of orange and sake granita with strawberry jelly, we were into dessert. The dessert was a strawberry sorbet, cherry granita and strawberry soufflé. The ices were beautiful, but the piece de resistance was the soufflé – classic and utterly perfect. It tasted like an old-fashioned tea party.

We chose a 2008 pinot blanc ($90) to go with the meal.

As I said, I’m not going to rate this meal, because to be fair it would have to be a hybrid review of the first and second visits. But I will say this: they set out to win us back and they did. If this is what Taxi is capable of, then I hope they keep doing it because it was one of our best meals this year.

Also, apologies for the terrible photos - the restaurant was one of the darkest I've been to, but the views were phenomenal.

57 Gertrude St

There are two phases of cooking an awesome Turkey. The first is the brining. The second is the baking. This recipe is based on the use of a 3.5kg turkey.

The bird must be defrosted by placing in the fridge around two days before you plan to start brining. The brining should be around 24 hours, or at least overnight.

Also, at the end I've included a recipe for gravy.

Brining ingredients

-14 cups of water water
-3/4 cups coarse salt
-4 bay leaves
-1 tbsp whole coriander seeds
-1.5 tbsp whole black peppercorns
-1 tbsp fennel seeds
-1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
-1/2 bottle dry white wine
-1 medium onion sliced
-4 garlic cloves, crushed
-1/2 bunch fresh thyme

-Place the white wine and three cups of the water in a saucepan with the salt and spices, that is everything on the list except the wine, onion, garlic and thyme. Boil until the salt is dissolved.
-Get a large bucket and line it with a large, clear plastic bag. Fill the bag with the remaining water and add the salt mixture and the remaining ingredients.
-Place the bird in the water, breast side down, adding water to cover. Tie the bag and weigh down the bird with a plate, if need be, to be fully immersed.
-Put in the fridge or a cool esky for 24 hours or at least overnight.
-Remove the bird from the brine mix, pat dry.

Ingredients for baking
-Stuffing (look here for some inspiration)
-White wine (you can use the half an unused bottle from the brining)
-200g butter

-Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
-Sprinkle some salt and pepper in the turkey cavity, then stuff your turkey, stick wingtips underneath and tie legs together. Do not overstuff the bird - loosely packed stuffing is preferable, as it will expand during cooking.
-Melt the butter and add the white wine and combine. Take piece of cheesecloth, soak it in the butter/wine mixture. -Put the turkey on a rack, in a baking dish.  Squeeze the cheesecloth gently and lay over the breast of the bird, covering only the breast meat, not the legs. Baste the whole bird with butter/wine mixture. Add half a cup of water to the bottom of the pan, then place the bird in the oven.
-Every half an hour, baste the bird, including the cheesecloth, with the white wine and butter mixture and add half a cup of water to the bottom of the pan (to avoid the turkey juices from burning, because you want to use them for gravy). Two hours in, remove the cheesecloth and baste again, and keep cooking. In total it should take around three hours for the bird to cook. Lower the temperature if you think it's cooking to quickly.
-Use a meat thermometer to test the stuffing, which should be at around 160 degrees, while the thickest part of the leg meat should be at 180 degrees.
-Remove and rest for at least half an hour before carving.

Gravy ingredients
-Neck from the turkey and 500ml water or just 500ml chicken stock.
-One small onion
-2 sticks of celery
-Two peeled carrots
-One small leek, trimmed
-Half a handful of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
-1/2 cup Madeira or Rum Port or Port
-Two tbsp cornflour, dissolved in half a cup of cold water

-Put the neck in 500ml of water and bring to the boil, otherwise do the same with your stock.
-Add your vegetables (not the rosemary) and boil for at least an hour, preferably 2, covered. Strain out the vegetables and return to the pan.
-When the turkey is cooked and resting, pour its pan juices into your saucepan of stock and bring to a simmer, throwing in your rosemary and stirring in your alcohol. Reduce until the flavour is at desired strength, then season accordingly.
-Stir your cornflour mixture thoroughly to ensure all the flour is dissolved (it can clump if left to stand), then while your stock is is boiling, get a whisk and start whisking, slowly drizzing in about a quarter of your cornflour mixture. Keep whisking until it is fully incorporated, then allow to boil and thicken. Repeat this process until the gravy is at the desired thickness, then turn of the heat, but leave on the stove to reheat when you are ready to serve you turkey.

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