Snack Bar: Thi Le’s Ca Com Now Serves Broken Rice for Dinner and More Melbourne Food News

What’s happening around town

• Ca Com, Thi Le and Jia-Yen Lee’s beloved Richmond banh mi shop, is now open for dinner. From Thursday to Saturday from 5pm to 8pm, the restaurant replaces its signature banh mi with com tam (broken rice) served with your choice of pork, chicken, steak or fish – the latter two are available at market price. A set with the lot also comes with salted fish, pork terrine, shredded pork skin and a fried egg. There’s also house-made sorbet and hot bone broth. Plus, Vietnamese beer, wine, salted-lime soda, and pineapple and chilli rice wine. If you’re not able to snag one of Ca Com’s 18 seats, the broken rice sets are available to order for takeaway in-store.

• Blackburn’s Natural Science Wine and Liquor is hosting Onwards & Upwards, an event spotlighting producers in Central Victoria. Tickets are $20, and the team will donate the full amount to the relief funds for Harcourt and Strathbogie, two regions affected by bushfires earlier this year.

• Mr Mills, the sibling bar to Marmelo, is hosting live music nights until Friday October 9. Every Friday from 7pm to 9pm, there’ll be a changing line-up of acts performing soul, funk, disco and jazz standards until DJs take over from 9pm to 11pm. There’ll be a special cocktail and snack menu to enjoy with the music. 

• Kew cafe Arthur’s Milk Bar is serving savoury garlic oats and crème brûlée porridge with poached pears, mascarpone and a hazelnut crumble until Sunday August 2. For every bowl sold, the team at Red Tractor will donate a 1.6-kilogram bag of oats to Foodbank, as part of the organisation’s Buy One Give One campaign.

• Lone Star Ranch is now available for purchase online or via some independent grocers. The Melbourne-made condiment is a take on the classic American dressing, from Wyoming natives Cora Mitchell and Charlie and Henry Hawks.

• On Saturday August 1, food journalist Dani Valent will host a nose-to-tail four-course lunch at Scrub Hill in Newlyn with Rumi-chef-turned-farmer Jenna Abbruzzese. Lunch is $220 per person and includes retired sow salami and pork, sage and white wine ragu with polenta bianco. Plus, matched wines from Merth vineyard in Spring Hill. Bookings essential.

Dine Out

• 16 Dine Out specials to try this weekend.

• Three to try: Thai menus at Dine Out.

• Five minutes with: former Gymkhana chef Sid Ahuja brings classic north Indian dishes to Dine Out.

What we covered this week

• First look: Cremorne’s Cherry Tree Hotel has a new lease on life.

• First look: 76-year-old Hanoi icon Pho Gia Truyen opens in Melbourne as Pho Bat Dan.

• First look: is Atelier Enso the future of Melbourne coffee shops?

• First look: the Reine and La Rue team open moody cocktail bar Privé in another historic building.

• “Things just come to an end naturally”: Cafe Di Stasio St Kilda has closed.

• Three to try: international Asian restaurants open new outposts in Melbourne’s CBD.

• New hire: Denmark House head chef Raj Shrestha wants Melburnians to eat better rye.

• Inside MIFF’s food and film program.