To celebrate the upcoming Melbourne Food and Wine Festival check out Tourism Victoria’s top food and drink trends for 2012.

 

• Victoria is home to 90 of Australia's 150 Farmers' Markets demonstrating the accessibility of great produce and the industry’s continued focus on farm to plate and using local produce.

 

• Share plates and platters at restaurants such as St Katherine’s, Spice Temple, Chin Chin and Mamasita are taking preference over one plate menus.

 

• Move away from formal dining and white table cloths to more organic textures, colour and décor such as Cumulus Inc., Bistro Guillaume and Guy Grossi’s beautiful Merchant of Venice.

 

• Central and South American food with new Mexican (Fonda, Pacos Tacos and El Poco Burrito), Argentinean (San Telmo) and Creole (My Mexican Cousin) restaurants recently opening.

 

• Food trucks – Gumbo Kitchen is the newest gourmet food truck around town, Beatbox Kitchen, taco truck, Le Sausage – are still going strong. Find them in the more eclectic north Melbourne precincts of Northcote and Brunswick.

 

• Food theatre, made popular by TV’s Masterchef reality show at fine dining hotspots such as Vue de Monde and The Press Club.

 

• In bars, the harder to find the better, such as the recently opened Strange Wolf and Bar Ampere which has an inter-connecting door to Gin Palace.

 

• Organic cider and boutique beer and ale from regions such as Yarra Valley (White Rabbit, Hargreaves Hill, Coldstream Brewery) and Mornington Peninsula Red Hill Brewery, Mornington Peninsula Brewery, True South).

 

• Tours and trails to further appreciate the increased micro-breweries and cider producers including Aussie Brewery Tours and the self drive Yarra Valley Cider and Ale Trail.

 

• In wine, 2010 has been an absolute classic year for wine producers in Victoria. Wines from the year will continue to be released from now till March 2012.

 

• French style rosé such as the Stonier 2010 and prosecco varietals produced in the King Valley are increasingly popular summer drinks.

 

• Dude food – casual snack dining that started in the US and has caught on in some of Melbourne’s best restaurants. Examples include the Ha Noi-style rice paper rolls at Coda, lobster roll at Golden Fields, the snackburger at St Katherine’s and oyster po’boy at Huxtable.

 

• Food and wine matching, Victoria is the only state that could provide matching wines for every course topped off by Rutherglen’s unique gift to the world - fortified Muscat and Tokay wine styles, found only in this little pocket of Australia.

 

• Rise in the popularity of cool Asian-inspired joints, with Chin Chin leading the pack but also Huxtable, Easy Tiger, Coda and Gingerboy and Longrain still extremely sought after.

 

• Return of the classic cocktail with a slew of new ‘speakeasy’ style bars such as The Everleigh, Eau da vie, Waiting Room, Der Raum, The Attic (above Black Pearl, Fitzroy) and Chez Regine celebrating old time favourite cocktails.

 

• Night market experiences with international hawker cuisine in the warmer months have continued to grow, with Coburg Night Market and Geelong Night Market into their subsequent runs.

 

• Outstanding dining experiences in regional Victoria continue to flourish and grow, with newest ‘destination restaurant’ Terminus at Flinders gaining a lot of attention, and ever popular Royal Mail in Dunkeld, Provenence in Beechworth, Loam in Bellarine Peninsula, Lakehouse at Daylesford and Stefanos in Mildura.

 

• Canalés – could these French style little cakes be the next Macron? They are springing up at Farmers Markets around Victoria as well as some of the best coffee houses around town including newcomer, De Clieu, in Fitzroy.