South Yarra’s Prahran Market is the oldest of Melbourne's food markets. Photo / Anna King Shahab
South Yarra’s Prahran Market is the oldest of Melbourne's food markets. Photo / Anna King Shahab
Melbourne’s oldest food market is having a revival and it’s helping put Prahran back on the map, writes Anna King Shahab
Melbourne is blessed with several permanent food markets – a fact that sparks envy in my heart every time I visit. South Yarra’s Prahran Market is the oldest of the bunch – established in 1864, yet on a recent visit it felt very much in the vibrant throes of a new lease of life.
When I first visited Melbourne in the early-2000s, MoVida and Prahran Market were among several places right at the top of my must-do list. Fast-forward 20 years and in Auckland, where I live, we’ve grown up enough to boast our own MoVida, but much to my disappointment we still don’t have a permanent undercover market (Christchurch you lucky thing to have Riverside). While Prahran and the Chapel Street area was such a hotspot for shopping and hospitality for a long time, it had been looking and feeling a little tired in recent years – but happily, with the city emerging from the long and heavy fog of Covid last year, the area is undergoing significant regeneration and this part of town needs to go back on your to-do list.
Put Prahran Market back on your Melbourne must-do list. Photo / Anna King Shahab
As is generally the case with getting around Melbourne, it couldn’t be easier getting to Prahran Market from the CBD – a scenic tram ride over the river and past the Botanic Gardens, depositing you right at the market’s door. On the first Saturday of every month, market tours are offered – a small fee gets you a coffee in your hand, an hour-long tour with a local expert meeting stallholders and enjoying tastings, and a jute market bag to fill as you go. My guide Mish Lilley – proud local and well-known food stylist and recipe writer – was full of insider tips and insights into the dazzling array of produce on display.
Melbourne is in the grip of mushroom mania. Photo / Anna King Shahab
We met Damian Pike, the mushroom man, his stall feathered with fungi of all descriptions – up to 40 varieties at any given time. I had noticed that Melbourne menus were in the grip of mushroom mania, and when you see Damian’s selection, it’s easy to understand why – the variety in appearance alone is a beautiful thing, let alone that all have unique flavours and textures. Cascading lion’s mane, honeycombed morels (look away, trypophobics), and fairy-like enoki rub shoulders with fresh truffles (when in season). We made our way through the aisles calling in delis – Greek, Italian, South American, ogling rows of jewel-coloured Turkish delight and halva, admiring spiky posies of native wildflowers, envying the bounty of fresh prawns from Aussie waters, and sidling up to taste butchery Gary McBean’s excellent house-smoked Berkshire ham of Gary’s Quality Meats.
Try Gary McBean’s excellent house-smoked Berkshire ham of Gary’s Quality Meats. Photo / Anna King Shahab
The care taken in arranging all this food so elegantly is something we just don’t see at home in Aotearoa, and the beautiful sights together with the smell of fresh baking, cheese, and coffee, and the sounds of a vibrant community going about its day etched itself on my mind – it really is a feast for the senses.
Ready for something more than a taste, we stopped in at the “chapel of cheese”, Maker and Monger, where we met founder and expert cheesemonger Damien Femia. As well for its achingly good line-up of cheeses from around the world (it even boasts a sizeable cheese ageing room to mature cheeses to their peak) and a good showing of local Aussie ones, the place has become famous for its cheese toasties. Damien serves us up his Fondue Special as we stand by the counter chatting. Oozing comté and that beaut ham from Gary’s are sandwiched between slices of sourdough crisped to deep golden with the help of Gippsland cultured jersey butter, a light dusting of flaky salt making the magic finishing touch.
Maker and Monger has become famous for its cheese toasties. Photo / Anna King Shahab
Spill out of the markets and wander along Chapel Street to . . .
Stella joins a tradition Melbourne excels at – the multi-storey dining and drinking establishment. A celebration of Italian cuisine over four levels, Stella features a trattoria on ground level, a private dining up the first flight of stairs, a cocktail bar above that, and then the cherry on top, a cheeky rooftop bar with an eyeful of the South Yarra neighbourhood and a slick pizza-focused bar menu. The trattoria boasts a Marana Forni rotary pizza oven (in short: perfect pizza every time), but I had eyes for pasta, so after a beautiful entree of kingfish crudo I moved on to a generous bowl of pappardelle loaded with king brown and porcini mushrooms.
Yugen Dining in the Capitol Grand building. It more recently joined renowned Yugen Tea Bar, adding a culinary offering in strikingly designed subterranean surrounds. You can opt for a la carte in the main dining area or head to the mezzanine for intimate omakase. The high-end Japanese cuisine is sublime – sushi, sashimi, silky chawanmushi – and if you have cash to burn through, you won’t want to miss the wagyu, as high on the marbling score as it gets.
The high-end Japanese cuisine is sublime at Yugen. Photo / Anna King Shahab
Checklist:
Melbourne
GETTING THERE
Air New Zealand, Jetstar and Qantas all fly direct from Auckland to Melbourne.
