What’s happening around town

• Holiday cookie boxes are here and two of our favourites come from Raymond Tan’s CBD bakery Raya, and April Yoonhee Bae and Seonghee Bae’s pastry shop The Flour. Raya’s playful packaging riffs on beauty and wellness packaging and includes matcha Pocky sticks, Ribena checkerboards and more. The Flour’s tins are filled with nine biscuits including Davidson’s plum shortbread and star-shaped gingerbread.

• Sachi, Andzero and former Kisume chef Reki Reinantha has brought his Japanese pop-up Rei to Glen Iris’s Deed’s Brewing until it closes in mid-February. There’re izakaya snacks as well as $25 Wagyu steak nights on Wednesdays, katsu on Thursdays and a selection of snacks for $25 per person on Sundays.

• Reynold Poernomo’s CBD dessert shop Koi has just launched its chef’s table dessert degustation Koi Studio. Three plated desserts will be served alongside three mocktails for $115 per person.

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This week in food and drink news

• Broadsheet reinvents the restaurant guide with The Hot List.

• First look: Mischa Tropp reinvigorates Southbank with Kolkata Cricket Club.

• First look: the Soi 28 team ditch boat noodles for Southern Thai dishes at brand new restaurant R.Harn.

• Mildura winemaking royalty turn skin-contact vino into an artform with MDI.

• Coming soon: Izakaya Den enters a new era.

• Ten of the best Christmas hams to order in Melbourne. (Yes, there’s still time!)

• Melbourne’s Falastini food truck was stolen this week.

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