Curated Gifts and a Dining Experience To Remember: How To Spoil Mum in the CBD This Year

Buying a Mother’s Day present can be tricky, and all too often ends in a last-minute purchase. Then there’s the challenge of figuring out how to make mum feel extra special on the day. If you’re looking for some inspiration (because May 12 is just around the corner), plan a day out in and around Fed Square.

With year-round free events, entertainment and boundary-pushing installations, the precinct offers up some beautiful ways to celebrate Mother’s Day, including a rich array of First Nations experiences and gifts.

To start, book ahead for a long lunch at Mabu Mabu Big Esso, from owner-chef Nornie Bero. The all-day diner and bar on Wurundjeri land champions native Torres Strait food and traditions, and exclusively uses Australian produce and products. Mabu Mabu means “help yourself” and is something Torres Strait Islander people say when gathered for a shared meal.

For Mother’s Day, its three-course set menu – put together by executive chef Inma Peña Sierra and head chef Zac Jolly – includes seven dishes and a cocktail or mocktail (for $75 per person). It has some crossover with their à la carte menu, “but also a few things that are in season we can’t put on the [usual] menu because it’s too limited … it’s something special,” says executive manager Kessavee Lutchmanen.

For the first course, it’s all about getting a taste for what Mabu Mabu’s been about since its inception in 2018 at the South Melbourne Market. “We’re going to start with oysters with a riberry mignonette and the Island damper, which at the moment is a chestnut and cinnamon myrtle flavour with golden syrup [butter] on the side,” says Lutchmanen. “We also have cassava and native thyme rosti with a house-made crème fraîche and crispy saltbush … It’s not just for decoration, it enhances the dish.”

The second course features ati (octopus) with desert lime XO sauce and pickled papaya, and emu heart anticucho skewers. The main dish is emu steak with macadamia macha with charred samphire aside kukuwam (hibiscus) and pickled pears with sea succulents.

To drink, they’ve created an Ode to Aba cocktail, featuring Mabu Mabu’s kara meta Aba’s tea syrup, grapefruit and Eros infused vodka. “Aba means grandma … so it’s an ode to our grandma, our mum, our auntie,” says Lutchmanen.

For a little something extra, Lutchmanen recommends the wattleseed chocolate marquise with bunya nut mousse, “It’s really rich but also tangy, served with bunya nut cream, crunchy caramelised bunya nut and blackberry.”

If you dine in on Mother’s Day, you will automatically go into the draw to win a hamper – which is also available to purchase as a gift for mothers, grandmothers, or anyone else deserving of some spoiling. Featuring a range of Mabu Mabu’s Kara Meta (meaning “my home”) pantry staples, it includes a damper kit with a saltbush flour mix, hibiscus and strawberry gum jam, golden syrup and a recipe card with a link to watch Bero’s cooking demonstration. There are also three teas (Aba’s, blak mint and chai), Kakadu Plum Co chocolate and spice jars of strawberry gum and cinnamon myrtle.

“You can have a little cooking class with Nornie, and then indulge in our chocolate and teas,” says Lutchmanen.

There are plenty of other options around Fed Square too. Victoria by Farmer’s Daughters also has a set-menu lunch on for the day. Chef Alejandro Saravia showcases the best of the state’s food and drink in the sprawling riverside venue. You’ll be feasting on the likes of Cobb Lane sourdough, smoked Portarlington mussels, baked Goulburn Valley trout, O’Connor beef scotch fillet, and tarte tatin made using Starward Whisky.

If you’ve left mum’s gift to the last minute, tie in a spot of shopping pre- or post-lunch as if it was the plan all along, without even having to stray far from Fed Square.

While the exhibitions and films on at ACMI are the drawcard, the ACMI shop has a range of special gifts like Kinya Lerrk candles by Aboriginal artists Emma Bamblett and Megan Van Den Berg. There’s also the Koorie Heritage Trust’s permanent collection and exhibits to explore before heading into the shopKHT, which is full of art prints and other creations by First Nations producers.

From the NGV Design Store at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, there’s always a treasure trove of keepsakes to take home. Artisan gifts include exclusively designed silk scarves featuring Ewald Namatjira’s Untitled to mugs by self-taught Wollongong-based ceramicist Rhiannon Gill.

Broadsheet is a proud media partner of Fed Square.