Eat Like Ushi

I was looking up stops between Apollo Bay and Geelong. I considered having lunch in Lorne but having stayed there a few times in the past few years there wasn't anywhere that particularly interested me. One of the regular names appearing was A La Grecque, a one chef hat Greek place with excellent reviews and one of the few must stops in the area. The other option is Brae, but given the detour and the intention of enjoying the coastal route, I'll have to save that for another time.

Ever since the incredible Greece trip back in 2010, the only Greek places I've eaten at are Gazi and Hellenic Republic. There's been a few souvlaki stops too but the only one worth mentioning is Jimmy Grants. It felt like a great opportunity to break free from the Calombaris stronghold on Greek cuisine in my life.

I felt lucky to be able to book Sunday lunch on the day itself. There's a carpark for the restaurant although it seems most people (including myself) don't realise until walking into the restaurant and park on the street next to it.

- Grilled kephalograviera, chargrilled peach, almonds, pekmezi $18 - I remember asking the chef in Greece what this incredible cheese in a salad was and it's been my choice ever since. Forget about halloumi, kefalograviera is much better and this was an outstanding version served. Perfectly crisp with chewy squeaky heavily salty cheese with contrast from warm peaches, nuts and mint (I would have liked more of those given the amount of cheese). It was served on a piping hot plate meaning the cheese didn't go cold and hard;
- Roast spatchcock, hilopitas, garlic, chilli, basil, olives $34 - a beautifully cooked and seasoned bird served with pasta. Good flavour and texture;
- Slow roasted goat shoulder, red onion, parsley, radish, caper, za'atar $36 - it was a toss-up between the goat or pork shoulder. I'm more partial to goat on menus since I simply see it less often (and mostly in curries). For some reason I expected more of a roast with gravy. This was tasty, relatively tender and simple meat with salty za'atar and fresh salad. The lemon really helped break the salt and brought each element to balance;
- Roasted cauliflower, golden raisins, coriander, pinenuts $11 - an excellent combination of cauliflower, sweet raisins, a salty dressing and lots of pinenuts.

The food and cooking is outstanding. I would have liked to know what meat and seafood were local but the young waiter didn't know (other than assuming everything was Australian). There's so many other interesting dishes. I probably wouldn't order the goat again next time, and if ordering for 2 would opt for kefalograviera, the scallops with black pudding, flatbread with lamb, the pork shoulder and save a bit of space for dessert.

There's aren't too many reputed food stops between Lorne and Apollo Bay. One of the few is the Wye River General Store which I was hoping would be a potential source of local products now that I'd discovered Wickens Deli in Apollo Bay had closed forever before I could ever make it there.

Wye itself seems like a lovely place to stay. There's camping ground, the ocean and the general store all very close together and its possible that it may remain quieter due to the bigger reputations of Lorne and Apollo Bay.

I didn't have the opportunity to eat a meal there but that will be for next time. The local store sold me their last white sourdough of the day, which had a firm crust nicely dusted and a soft spongy inside. It had a bit of tang to it but I could always use more. Apparently there are some specialty loaves in the works soon to be released. Unfortunately the rest of the deli section didn't have much local products, with a high amount from Coldstream and the Yarra Valley for some reason.

For a nice meal in Apollo Bay the most prominent option is Chris's Beacon Point Restaurant. Unfortunately they were booked out so I stayed in town. The two remaining options were La Bimba and Vista. Both have good and bad reviews and it was a tough decision choosing between them. What drove me toward La Bimba in the end was two things - there are more La Bimba reviews and recommendations, the website for Vista leads to some Japanese website and also when I tried to call Vista to book they didn't answer. That seems enough reasons. Funnily on the night I walked past and the place looks nice, there is a good amount of seafood there including a (rather expensive sounding) $190 fresh seafood platter with mash (no fried food and no fries they advertised to me).

La Bimba has a nice location above the bakery and there is a view of the ocean albeit quite obstructed by trees.

- Farmer's plate $28 - Apollo Bay Bakery brioche (soft and buttery), pulled duck (soft and fatty with mild taste), cured beef (very strong flavour), local moderate strength blue cheese, chutney (may have been dates I think), beautifully spiced cauliflower and taramasalata (an odd tasting pink dip made from fish eggs);
- Pumpkin, tahini, almonds & parsley $12 - some of the best roast pumpkin I've eaten with firm skin and soft flesh and topped by flavours and textures;
- Snapper with chimmichuri $37 - a slightly plain but decently cooked fish;
- Blue eye, mussels, chorizo, green sauce $38 - a nice meaty fillet, well cooked with some small mussels, peas and salty sauce.

The food and cooking was very good overall and there's some other seafood items I'd like to try in the future - smoked eel, snapper tartare and the (slightly expensive) seafood paella for 2 for $79.

Approaching the co-op you are immediately met by the mural of an enormous octopus. As confronting as that is, it provides hope for the seafood held within.

My initial reason for visiting the co-op was to purchase some fresh seafood for dinner that evening. It's always a mystery about the variety, price and quality but if I could snare some nice lobster tails or other shell fish that would be great. My accommodation host also mentioned they did great fish and chips and the view made it worth staying there. So my lunch plans changed from fish and chips at the Apollo Bay Seafood Cafe to the co-op instead.

After wandering inside, I must admit a small bit of disappointment looking at the fresh fish counter. Admittedly it was 2pm so perhaps the best catch of the day had gone. There was surprisingly little local seafood with only flake, flathead, snapper and scallops. There were some queensland prawns (cooked in shell or raw deshelled) and a few cooked lobsters not advertised as local.

I didn't end up buying anything fresh but settled on fish and chips from the local selection. Interestingly the fish of the day was blue grenadier which I believe may be from frozen (and that's a bit disappointing).

The flake was well cooked with mild flavour. The snapper had a more distinctive bite and texture (as usual). The batter was very crisp, seasoned and welcomes some Skipping Girl white vinegar. Chips were adequate but could have been crunchier. I ordered 2 scallops and was given 3 (thanks!) which were heavily battered with good juicy scallops inside.

Next time I'd probably try the Apollo Bay Seafood Cafe as they are meant to have excellent fish and chips. The co-op is still a good option especially with a view and hopefully the local selection will be better earlier in the day.

After last month's traipse around Hobart for the local delicacy scallop pies (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/salamanca-bakehouse-hobart-01-2016) I was surprised and happy to discover Apollo Bay had its own reputed one.

After having dinner at La Bimba the previous evening and being introduced to the Bakery's smooth brioche, I was excited to return the next day for a scallop pie.

There's two types available - mornay and curry. Sticking to Hobart's tradition I tried the curry version for a high sticking price of $10. Although on the small side, the pie is excellent. Crisp pastry (would prefer a little thicker) with nice curry and 3 or 4 small but thick scallops with excellent strong flavour. It's expensive and not the most convenient to get to, but I dare say I liked it more than Hobart's offerings.

There's a huge stack of other pies to pick from as well as some bread (including a roasted pumpkin sourdough which I'm hoping may rival the outstanding tangy, spongy version occasionally sold at Crust Bakery in Fyshwick).

Every beach (actually every city) needs an ice cream/gelato place. That one in Apollo Bay is Dooley's (aka The Ice Cream Tub). There's two things that are quite intimidating about the place when you walk in - one is the queue (not as large as Messina for example, but considering the relative market population) and the other is the enormous number of awards hanging on the walls.

The flavours that tend to win the awards are chestnut, licorice, lemon curd, vanilla, coconut passionfruit and many more.

I couldn't imagine licorice appealing so much so I tried a small sample. It's creamy and lightly flavoured and unexpectedly pleasant. Having said that I don't think I could handle an entire scoop.

What I do settle on is chestnut (a smooth mild flavour) and lemon curd (essentially a potent lovely lemon cheesecake flavour). What is distinctive is how extraordinarily creamy the ice creams are, but I suppose that's the key difference in fat content between ice cream and what I usually buy in gelato. It's incredible and some of the best ice cream I've had. Overall I think I prefer gelato in being more dense and discrete but this ice cream makes it a tough call.

They unfortunately didn't have pistachio that day so I'll have to take a raincheck on that.