A few weekends ago, I found myself feeling listless and, on a whim, decided to join the truffle tour at Queen Victoria Market. I figured that a QVM Truffle Tour, Melbourne’s most iconic market, was worth braving the cold and gloomy winter morning for this foodie. Fortunately, by the time I stood in front of the String Bean Alley entrance, along with other tour-goers—mostly Melburnians—the weather had cleared up.
QVM Truffle Tour
The tour began with the distribution of the iconic QVM tote bag, of which I already have two at home.
We then received a brief history of QVM, most of which I zoned out on (I’m not proud of myself, but my brain doesn’t function well on cold winter mornings—especially when it’s not adequately caffeinated). However, the guide caught my attention when they mentioned that the market, visited by 3,000 people every day and home to 700+ businesses, used to be a graveyard. I also learned that the market is big on sustainability, has dedicated bins for compost, and has banned plastic bags since 2018.
Truffle 101
June to August is officially truffle season in Australia (so is in Queen Victoria Market) as truffles need the coldest weather to grow like fungi. Australia is the fourth largest truffle producer in the world (most of them from Western Australia) and has been in the truffle business for at least 25 years
Interestingly, truffles are not native to European culture for cooking. It’s believed that indigenous people have used local truffles to infuse their cooking with a bit of magic in different cultures.
After the intro, we started walking until we reached my favourite part of the market, the meat and seafood section (the oldest part of the market). Here, we had our first official truffle tour stop to eat… fresh oysters—truffle-less oysters.
Don’t get me wrong—I love oysters—I can eat them all day by the dozen, cooked and uncooked—but it made me wonder why they didn’t add some truffle-infused sauce.
Wouldn’t that be more exciting and delicious for a truffle tour?
The Pantry
Next, we went to the deli and were served wine-infused kangaroo meat and garlic chicken balls. Both were absolutely delicious, and the store owner warmly chatted with us, but again, no truffles. I started to question the legitimacy of this QVM Truffle Tour. I mean, surely, they could drizzle a wee bit of truffle on them.
Ripe Iconic Truffle Toasties
Thankfully, the next stop was finally about truffles.
Ripe, which just won the small business award, is Australia’s biggest single truffle purchaser. The owner showed off a 3kg truffle, worth thousands of dollars, kept in a jar and let us whiff like it was opium because, as he said, truffles are all about the aroma.
But then it got better—arguably the best part of the day—when he returned with a board of freshly made truffle toasties. These truffle toasties are legendary, and I’ve heard rumours of people breaking the lockdown’s 5km rule and even travelling more than a hundred kilometres from outside Melbourne just to have them during bleak Covid time.
The smell of freshly made toasties was already inviting, but he upped the ante by shaving gold-worth of truffles on them.
The truffle toastie is worth coming to QVM for alone. It is made of sourdough, butter, mozzarella, cheddar, truffle honey, and 50 grams of truffle inside and shaved on top. The toastie costs $27, and he said at least $25 worth of truffles are on it.
How do they make their margin? I don’t know, but Ripe (the only all-Australian cheese shop in the world) should definitely be on your #MelbourneEats radar.
We were still high from truffle toasties when we were herded to the next stop—Epicurean.
Truffle Treats at Epicurean
The owner introduced herself and her family, who have been running the store for generations. What a lovely part of the tour. It reminded me of the generational families and strong sense of community at St Albans Market.
We were offered truffle cheese with spinach quince on top, sourdough with truffle, vinegar, olive oil dip, and truffle aioli bacon. They were delicious, especially the truffle cheese and quince, which I took a second serving of.
We also got to try truffle brie, which was so good that I bought some on the spot.
Then we moved to truffle honey on cheese and crackers from the opposite store, Hellenic Deli. This was happiness in cracker form—my dopamine level hit the roof! I had to buy truffle honey immediately, and I did.
What Truffle is Next on the QVM Truffle Tour?
I couldn’t wait to see what would be next. Would it be the earthy truffle gin—earthy instead of citrusy? Truffle chips? Truffle popcorn? OMG, would it be pasta with a drizzle of truffle on it? Anything! I was truffle-ready! Unfortunately, the above was the last truffle I tried on this tour.
The next stop the guide took us to was a palate cleanser: a plate of sliced fruits. I bought some golden apples for Fafa to try them, drizzled with the truffle honey that was recently procured.
Truffle-less American Doughnut Kitchen
Then we went to the famous American Doughnut Kitchen stand. Don’t get me wrong—I am crazy about QVM American Doughnuts. They’re my favourite treat at the market, even more than the oysters, and possibly my favourite dessert in Melbourne. I had no complaints about indulging in one (or five), but I did wonder—how was this truffle-related?
No Truffle Pizza at Rewine for Us
The final stop was at a wine bar called Rewine – the sustainable wine shop. The owner is dedicated to reducing wine’s carbon footprint by offering refills. He shared a story about a customer who has refilled their wine bottle 500 times. I was glad for any chance to enjoy wine before noon, but this part of the tour had nothing to do with truffles. Except when asked for wine recommendations to pair with truffle dishes, the owner admitted that he isn’t into truffles (and he’s saying this to a group on a truffle tour) before suggesting any strong white wine, like Chardonnay, as it’s more about complementing the main dish than the truffle seasoning.
He also mentioned they’d be serving Truffle Pizza later in the afternoon, and all I could think about was how great it would be to try a slice of said Truffle Pizza with a glass of white wine right then and there—especially since we were on a truffle tour.
Is the QVM Truffle Tour Worth It?
As I walked back to the tram, I reflected on this so-called QVM Truffle Tour. I had worried I’d be overwhelmed by truffles, enough to make me swear off them for a while, but I wasn’t—it was even enough truffle for a truffle food tour.
Also, I was disappointed that no pasta was served as part of this truffle tour. First of all, QVM is famous for its homemade pasta, and my first experience with truffle was with pasta (and the last one before this tour was shaved on top of Vietnamese broken rice in ARU—it was to die for). Lastly, I learned on the tour that truffles add umami-ness, and their flavour opens up with a bit of heat from the pasta—it’s a perfect combo to add to butter, fat, and dairy-rich food.
To appease myself, I bought some pasta from The Traditional Pasta Shop, thinking I’d recreate the dream of truffle pasta at home, only to realise that I forgot to buy the actual truffle to shave on top of it once I got home. Haiz!!!
All in all, I still learned about truffles and enjoyed some of the best food QVM offers. So, while it might not have been the truffle-filled day I had hoped for, the QVM Truffle Tour is still worth checking out when you’re visiting Melbourne and are into truffles. If you are not, believe me when I say that truffles add magic to cooking; they are the MSG of Western cooking. Therefore, you must try it at least once.
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Those truffle apples were delish!!
Also, truffles are the msg of Western cooking !! 👏👏👏
Thank you… let’s eat truffle toasties next time yu
It’s a date