Prawn toast to princess cake: The best things we ate in Victoria this year for under $20

Finding good food is a round-the-clock job, and one our team is completely devoted to. Breakfast, dessert, pre-dinner snacks, lunch on the run – we see every bite as a chance to discover something exceptional. It’s those everyday items that we’ve combed our memories (or more likely our photo library) for, to bring you a list of the best sandwiches, pieces of cake and hangover cures of our year – all under $20. Soon enough, we reckon they’ll be on high rotation for you too.

Tatar ze sledzia at Eat Pierogi Make Love, Brunswick East, $18

I like fishy fish, acidity and textural breadth. Herring tartare catches my eye on the menu. Soon, a mesa of diced ingredients arrives: salted herring, crunchy red onion and green apple, pickled champignons and radish, all dressed in dill-infused olive oil. Scooping some up with a rye cracker, the only challenge I now have is deciding between a sip of kompot (a cooling stewed fruit drink) or specialty vodka as a chaser. I ate this in the first week of January – and it still feels like the best food choice I’ve made all year. Sanka Amadoru

161 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, eatpierogimakelove.com

Bastourma toast at Zareh, Collingwood, $12

You might think “things on toast” are old news in the restaurant snack game. Let The Age Good Food Guide’s New Restaurant of the Year give you a refresher. A four-decker delight starts with well-grilled Akimbo bread then a lush terrain of ricotta and chevre, rife with dill. On top, slices of air-dried, spice-rubbed wagyu beef are arranged like salty rosettes. You’re so focused on those, you barely notice the game-changing middle layer: smoky-from-the-fire bullhorn peppers, all juicy and sweet. The contrasts and ratios – key to the success of bready snacks – are just right. It’s a delicious lesson; don’t skip it. Emma Breheny

368 Smith Street, Collingwood, zareh.com.au

Hot salami deli sandwich at Tooradeli, Toora, $18

If Tooradeli were tucked away on a Collingwood backstreet, the lines would snake out the door for its deli sandwiches. Instead, this shopfront cafe-deli sits squarely on the main street of Toora, a tiny dot on the map two hours south-east of Melbourne’s CBD. The star of the menu is the house-baked puccia, a round, airy roll originally from Puglia. Its dough has a crisp crust and a tender, hollow interior – all the better for stuffing with ingredients pulled straight from the cafe’s deli cabinet. Make mine the hot salami with provolone, semi-dried tomatoes, rocket and Italian chilli, thanks. Roslyn Grundy

60 Stanley Street, Toora, tooradeli.com

Char siu bacon and egg roll at Moon Mart, South Melbourne, $16

What do you order the morning after a few celebratory cocktails at the Good Food Guide awards? Moon Mart’s shokupan sandos and wholesome rice bowls were possibilities, but it was the bacon and egg roll that beckoned. Thick-cut bacon glazed with char siu sauce cosies up to a gooey fried egg and cheese inside the warmth of a soft milk bun. The cafe’s herbaceous mayo amped up with green chilli and fermented plum adds X-factor. It’s a 10/10 hangover cure. (Be sure to grab extra napkins – it’s saucy.) Emily Holgate

315 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne, moonmart.com.au

Sisig kapampangan at Mrs Parks Kitchen, Caroline Springs, $21.50*

I confess I didn’t know a great deal about Filipino food before I went to this fantastic little family-run restaurant on the edge of a car park. And I still don’t. But after demolishing an entire plate – make that platter – of sisig kapampangan, I want to learn (and try) a lot more, cholesterol permitting. Juicy, salty, fatty nubs of pork head, crispy in parts, soft in others, melt into a backdrop of velvety chicken liver, onion and chilli. Piled high on a still-sizzling plate, it was a decadent and incredibly good-value feast for one I can’t stop thinking about. Andrea McGinniss

*Yep, it’s over $20 but it should serve at least two.

218-222 Caroline Springs Boulevard, Caroline Springs, mrsparkskitchen.com.au

Shawarma from Knafeh Nabulseyeh, Coburg, $15.90

Recently, when needing to move house, I tried to convince my long-suffering partner that far north Brunswick was a good place to live, mostly for its proximity to Knafeh Nabulseyeh and the shawarma wrap they make. He almost agreed, probably because he’s sick of me dragging him there to get said shawarma – I’ve become a bit obsessed. It’s the ratio that makes it, the proportion of smoky meat to snappy pickle to creamy tahini. There’s enough parsley to feel its crunch and taste its grassy goodness, and the soft bread is just exactly yielding enough. It’s a slim wrap rather than a messy feast, but that means you get everything in one bite, every time. Perfect. Besha Rodell

442 Sydney Road, Coburg, instagram.com/knafehnabulseyeh

King prawn toast at Ho Jiak Junda’s Playground, city, $11

Sydney chef Junda Khoo’s laksa bomb dumplings are a Ho Jiak signature, but another hot bombshell has entered the villa. A panko and black sesame-crusted sphere, sized somewhere between a golf and tennis ball, it presents like an arancini. But instead of rice, the body is all plump prawn meat; its centre gooey duck egg yolk, not melted cheese. Generously showered in grated yolk, it’s sweet and rich; crunchy and fancy; but most of all, surprise and delight. Annabel Smith

Level 1, Rainbow Alley, Melbourne, hojiak.com.au

Pandan princess cake at Dua Bakehouse, Collingwood, $13

This cake is so pretty it makes me feel pretty. It’s known in Sweden as the prinsesstarta, a simple sponge with a centre of jam and cream, wrapped in a waxy layer of frog-green marzipan. They’re always lovely, but the one by Raymond Tan, founder of Dua in Collingwood, is exceptional. Softer, creamier and more delicate than its Melbourne contemporaries, Dua’s princess cake is enrobed in a pandan marzipan and buttressed with pandan chiffon and pandan custard cream for bonus South-East Asian delight. Just to hold it makes me feel like a beautiful Scandinavian princess. (Finally!) Frank Sweet

Collingwood Yards, Shop 1/35 Johnston Street, Collingwood, instagram.com/duabakehouse

Hoppers at Prince of Yazh, Dandenong, between $3 and $5

Many of Melbourne’s Sri Lankan restaurants do hoppers one day a week: the bowl-shaped pancakes made with a fermented rice-flour batter are a lot of work. But this family-run destination will make them any time at a dedicated hopper station. Hot, fresh and crisp, the classic or egg versions are perfect for scooping sambols, but you should also try the new dessert milk hopper, which has a wibbly-wobbly coconut custard in the base. Tear, dip, swoon. Dani Valent

111 Foster Street, Dandenong, instagram.com/princeofyazh

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