You probably haven’t been to a wine bar where there is a floating in a fish tank before, but in Melbourne isn’t your ordinary venue. It’s the latest project for , the chef who repurposes unwanted produce into condiments like avocado kaya and rhubarb kimchi for his business.
Yong is from Malaysia, where he grew up eating fermented foods like soy sauce and preserved vegetables. But he only started personally experimenting with fermentation when he moved to Australia in 2016, wanting to save produce that would otherwise have been discarded. He started Furrmien in 2020, while also working as a chef for the Halim Group, which owns , and . Earlier this year, group director approached him about opening a new venue.
In a matter of weeks, they put together Parcs (scraps, spelled backwards), a small wine bar focusing on fermentation and minimal waste in Melbourne’s CBD. Around 60 per cent of the ingredients on the menu come from scraps from Sunda, Aru and Hotel Windsor, as well as surplus from farmers.
“I can’t save the whole world at the moment – because I’m only one person – but I can solve one group’s problems. Sunda and Aru have lots of scraps, so I take them and turned them into dishes at the restaurant through fermentation,” explains Yong.
Dennis Yong keeps watch over SCOBY floating in a fish tank. Source: Parker Blain
The chef says he doesn’t stick to a specific cuisine, but leans towards Chinese techniques and collaborates on the menu with head chef Joseph Farrell.
“We have a wok, a fryer and an induction cooktop. There’s no oven, which is pretty weird for people starting to work here, but we’re creating something people haven’t tasted before,” he says.
The aquarium with floating SCOBY is a nod to the fish tanks you see in Chinese restaurants. The SCOBY is candied and used on oysters, a way to start a meal at Parcs with a punch.
“It’s the dish that opens up your whole palate. We have saltiness from the oysters, sweetness from candied SCOBY, acidity from the dressing of mango kombucha aged in beeswax, and then bitterness from mango peel oil,” says Yong.
Parcs has a unique take on serving oysters. Source: Parker Blain
Rescued produce gets a new lease on life on the pickle plate. The selection is ever changing, but you could get beetroot leaves from , papaya from Aru, Brussels sprouts from Sunda turned into sauerkraut, and zucchini from .
There’s no oven, which is pretty weird for people starting to work here, but we’re creating something people haven’t tasted before.
You won’t see any wagyu beef or king prawns on Parcs’ menu, Yong prefers to work with sustainable proteins like mussels and kangaroo. The latter is cooked briefly in a wok to impart , and topped with treacle made from food scraps, as well as fermented native ingredients (like saltbush or muntries).
The umami e pepe is already gaining a strong following.
It’s Yong’s take on the , with Hokkien noodles instead of pasta, and bread miso in place of cheese.
Cacio e pepe, the Roman dish typically made with pepper, pasta and cheese, gets reimagined at Parcs. Source: Parker Blain
The drink list – established by and , with manager Joshua Upton currently handling the wine program – follows similar principles as the food. Think local, minimal-intervention wines and beers, as well as cocktails like a gimlet made with passionfruit-husk wine and a sunflower highball with sunflower-head kombucha and whisky infused with the leaves.
If you want to take home the wild flavours of Parcs with you, the bar sells its , and intends to expand the product range (and stockists) in the future.
With only 20-something seats, Parcs is small enough for Yong to take the time to chat with guests about his passion – fermentation and ways to reduce and repurpose food waste. “It’s a place where I can connect with people, a vehicle to reach many people,” he says.
198 Little Collins St, Melbourne
Tue - Sat 4 – 11 pm
