We don’t write about new product launches too often at The City Lane but occasionally we receive an offer to try something and we think it warrants a piece. Tucker Street is a newly launched Melbourne based online company that offers customers a choice of meals from a constantly rotating selection. Once the order is complete, customers receive a delivery of ingredients along with a detailed, easy to follow recipe card for each meal. Everything is measured, cut and portioned straight out of the box.
Tucker Street focuses on using fresh, high quality, locally sourced produce to inspire their menus, which change regularly in sync with seasonality and availability. The City Lane was sent a box containing the ingredients and recipes for 3 meals, which Lauren cooked up for dinner over the course of 3 consecutive days. The meals were:
- Coconut Poached Barramundi
- Duck and Pomegranate Salad
- Roasted Cauliflower and Quail Egg Angel Hair Pasta
Coconut Poached Barramundi
The Barramundi fillet (the photo above also contains the duck breast we used in the next dish) and all the ingredients were fresh and packed in a cooler bag with an ice pack. We were very impressed by the quality of the ingredients.
We were quite surprised to see that ample fish sauce was provided. Quite often it is excluded in dishes as it is pungent and often unpleasant to those who aren’t used to the smell and flavour. The combination of the fish sauce and the hot spicy powder give the dish a very authentic Asian flare.
Another thing that surprised us about this dish’s authenticity was the use of spice. The recipe instructed us to add the entire spice powder mix however we would recommend adding it with caution. We (Lauren and Paul) both like spicy food however Paul struggled with the level of heat in this dish. This was even before the chilli garnish had been added. As a new company though the team at Tucker Street are still learning and we imagine that in the future there might be some sort of note section or info box on the recipe card giving people a heads up on a few taste aspects of the dish that individuals might want to modify.
In any event, the Coconut Poached Barramundi was an authentic, tasty dish and we would happily make it again.
Crispy Duck and Pomegranate Salad
The Crispy Duck and Pomegranate Salad was deliciously light and tangy. Tucker Street have taken the classic pairing of duck and orange and elevated the flavours by adding pomegranate and toasted hazelnuts into the mix.
Duck can be quite oily if cooked incorrectly however the cooking method specified on the recipe card ensured that most of the fat was rendered out, ensuring the lightness of the salad was retained. Another really tasty option that we’d cook again.
Roasted Cauliflower and Quail Egg Angel Hair Pasta
The Roasted Cauliflower and Quail Egg Angel Hair Pasta was the only dish we tried that didn’t quite hit the mark. The nutmeg overpowered the other components making the flavour profile a little mono-tonal. It wasn’t bad by any means, but compared to the other 2 which were brilliant, this one fell a bit flat.
This one also took 40 minutes to cook while the other two dishes only took 20 minutes. Given that one of the key selling points of the Tucker Street service is that those with busy lives can cook great meals quickly, the recipes that can be on the plate and ready to eat in less than half an hour have a big advantage.
Overall we can comfortably say that the Tucker Street recipes fulfilled their stated aim of providing easy to make meals that are full of flavour and use high quality ingredients. While there are still a few niggles that need to be ironed out, our overall impression was very positive.
It must be noted that the meals can be pricey, ranging from $12-18 with a minimum of 4 recipes per order. Having said that though, the serving sizes are very generous. All of these recipes were designed to feed 2 however we found the serving sizes were enough to feed 3 comfortably.
Tucker Street currently delivers only to the Melbourne Metro area.
