~ Curious Charlie ~

Hello New Orleans! @ The Moldy Fig @ Monday, January 29, 2018

Charlie & Co. dined as guests.
Thursday 18th January

While Melbourne does food from all around the world, who would have guessed a 'a slice of New Orleans' could be found in Brunswick? We were delighted to attend a banquet dinner on a summer's evening. Especially as we're currently binge watching 'The Originals' set in the French Quarter and graveyard of New Orleans.

The Moldy Fig is quite close to the trams and can be easily spotted with a huge mural across the wall outside. Inside there's a beautiful blue jazzy mural duplicating the French Quarter of New Orleans. Live music is featured Thursday-Saturday nights, and on the day we went Michael Yule was playing.They also do swing dance classes/social here, more details at the end.

Pomegranate and Passionfruit Hurricane

The Moldy Fig's signature version of Pat O’Brien’s classic: white

and dark rum with orange juice, passionfruit and pomegranate

We started off with the signature c/mocktail, with rum for him and me without. A fruity blend that tastes like summer, not too sweet or tart but just right.

Introductions were made, we met chef & owner Dorelle and her daughter Vivian (also our very friendly waitress over the evening), who told us about the origins of 'The Moldy Fig'. The cuisine is a combination of cajun and creole in the New Orleans style. French origins with Jamaican and West Indies mixed in to create creole.

Dorelle's passion was discovered when gifted a New Orleans cookbook, followed by many trips to Southern Louisiana, and New Orleans, a collection of authentic family recipes passed on from locals 'The Moldy Fig' was created and almost a year old.

The kitchen pass is a replica of a French Quarter house with their shutters and decorative mantels and the colours are chosen from list created by city heritage, to maintain the authenticity of the old city. The mural on the wall is of Bourbon St and features many lovely French-style apartment balconies and old fashioned bars.

Take a walk down the hall, the walls are of a scene from Jackson Park.

I love that, painting the hallways to make them interesting.

Po'Boys = New Orleans Style Burgers

Southern Fried Shrimp Po'Boy

Deep fried shrimp in crispy buttermilk and spiced batter

with Louisana red cabbage slaw, tomatoes and remoulade

While I love all things deep fried and shrimp (yes that's the same thing as a prawn) this was lacking something. A white sauce? 1000 Thousand Islands? The slaw was different.

Beef Brisket Po'Boy

Slow cooked beef brisket with homemade spicy bbq sauce,

lettuce, tomatoes and homemade chili onion jam

Juicy and tender beef brisket with that beautiful onion jam (that I always have a jar of in the fridge) this is the jam!! It was absolutely amazing. And Fernando said the hot sauce works well with the beef. Sitting in a super crusty bread roll, that reminds me of the Vietnamese ones, which also has a French influence.

Fernando - Loved the brisket, the shrimp was honestly disappointing, I agree it needed some sort of sauce or something

Hot Sauces! Fernanado loves everything hot. The first one is the housemade one.

Cornbread (Original, Chili & Garlic)

I've never had cornbread before and these were scone shaped and sized, but tasted like a warm hug - as a cake though. Served very warm the butter melts into it magically. The garlic was my favourite.

He says - They were like scones, the garlic one was actually really good, it was an interesting combination with the fluffy bready texture to have garlic on it. Chili was not as successful, I didn't get the same fusion feel when chili is used well.

Gator Bites Aussie Style

Crocodile meatballs served with a refreshing mango salsa

Full of flavour with all the spices, it tastes a like chicken. There was definitely chili in there! Which the mango salsa was perfect for, till I realized there was more chili in there! XD

He says - I love chilli and chilli all the things please! There is something else going on in the background I can't put my finger on, but it was enjoyable and the chilli was used well here to compliment the meat.

Turkey Meatballs

Wrapped in pancetta with cranberry infused red cabbage

Fernando absolutely loved these! So incredibly more-ish! The pancetta wrap was beautiful giving it this salty exterior. The cabbage is also really nice with the cranberry infusion, I devoured that without even realizing.

Gumbo (The Official Dish of Louisiana) with chicken and andouille sausage

Mild heat. Reminds me of a Vietnamese dish that I can't quite name. The first one is to show you what's in it, a close up, though the second is the serving size. I love the presentation, as that's how I did it when I studied home economics!

He says - This is where I discovered the "Crystal" hot sauce. It's just like mum's cooking, a delicious combination of vegetables in a brothy sauce that gets absorbed by the rice and comes alive with the cayenne pepper hot sauce. Probably my favourite thing on the menu narrowly edging out the Po Boy, though I'm super biased as I love this dish. Went back for a second helping. I love the chunky vegetables in the sauce, they were the first time vegetables didn't seem so bad as a kid

Strawberry Salad with Bloody Mary Dressing

To contrast all our mains, meats and dishes we had a refreshing salad. I love fruit in salad! The strawberries were very sweet, and the bloody mary dressing bought out the flavours even more. I could taste a bit of lime. Strawberries, cucumber, purple onion & lettuce.

Jambalaya - A Spanish paella influenced dish with chicken and prawn

This does remind me of paella with a tomatoy rice base, it was hearty and filling. Seasoned & spiced it had plenty of flavour though no chilli - unlike Fernando I don't do chilli.

Deep fried in crispy Louisiana style batter. Mixed vegetable or chicken, served with remoulade and a chili. Well I can't say I've ever deep fried cauliflower before :P A crispy batter, we just had a bit as we really have tried a bit of everything!

Ribs of the Day - Slow cooked dry rub ribs with a bourbon glaze

served with our famous Louisiana Red Cabbage Slaw

Fernando says - The Bourbon glaze gave the ribs a delicious flavour boost, mixing well with the dried spices with the juicy meat.

Mississippi Mud Chocolate Cake. Served in a Cup with Cream. I love the presentation of this dessert! With cream and sprinkles on top too, though I simply can't resist pie, our national dessert.

Pumpkin Pie with Ice/Cream

With a crispy pie shell, and pumpkin filling full of spices. It was perfect!! As good as grandma makes them. After a banquet you might want to share one of these.

Sticky Date Pudding with Rum

Fernando - The surprise twist, the pudding has banana in it! I couldn't help but be reminded of banana muffins with the delicious and sweet sauce that makes all sticky date puddings come alive. The rum and the banana make this a very different experience to what you normally expect, it packed more punch and had more fire with the rum, and seemed more fluffy and light making it not as dangerous as a thick heavy pudding on the back of a large meal.

The Courtyard

Overall everything had plenty of flavour and was delicious, he loved the gumbo and po'boy most, while the po'boy, Jambalaya and pie were my favourites. The turkey pancetta meatballs are perfect for sharing.

I love that this place caters for everyone, though if you're vegetarian you're really missing out :P There's lots of GF/DF/veg and vegan options.

It was very very hot that night, and the fans weren't cutting it. They really need air con. Though fortunately the really hot days aren't all year round.

Definitely give 'The Moldy Fig' a go, best to go in groups so you can order and try more!

Notes - There's live music Thu-Sat Night. And on every second Sunday starting at 1.30pm there's swing dancing is hosted by Swing Patrol with beginners classes and followed by social dancing till 5pm.