This month, there are mammoth mortadella sangas and meatballs subs, three excellent new takeaway options (including a Viking Feast and a dedicated dip-delivery service), and regal lamington-pavlova hybrid. Plus, tune in as MIFF and Melbourne Writers Festival bring their 2020 programs online. Here’s what Broadsheet Melbourne assistant editor Tomas Telegramma thinks you should check out in August.

Try these iso-improving sangas
Carlton’s new Brazilian cafe Bossa Nova ensures maximum mortadella in its sandwiches by hollowing out the inside of each roll. Layers upon layers – ooft. (There’s a just-as-stacked roast beef alternative with melted mozzarella, tomato and pickles.)

In Fitzroy, pop-up Italian sanga shop Rocco’s Bologna Discoteca (aka “Italian Macca’s”) has made a glorious return for lockdown 2.0. There are even more meatballs this time around, as well as those cheesy, saucy rolls stuffed with fried bologna.

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Zhoosh up your takeaway rotation
Melbourne’s most unusual restaurant, Enter Via Laundry, is in a Box Hill living room. This month you can have a similar experience in your own living room with EVL at Home. Get regional Indian specialties – many hardly seen in Melbourne – delivered.

You can also channel your inner Ragnar Lothbrok with Mjolner’s at-home medieval Viking Feast. On the menu: “meat-glazed” beef short rib; charry, whole rotisserie chook; and a roasted bone marrow worth getting your hands dirty for.

Side-stepping meat altogether is this new, all-vegan dip-delivery service by a former Epocha and Rumi chef. If you’ve never had a dedicated dip dinner, you’re missing out – all you need to organise are some hardy vessels. (Our dip pick is the muhammara, a chunky mash-up of chargrilled capsicum, walnuts, garlic and pomegranate.)

Just looking for the basics? New sustainable grocery-delivery service My Milkman is doing weekly drops of eggs, milk (in glass bottles – how old-school), sourdough and coffee – minus the plastic packaging.

Sweet relief
Celebrating (at home)? Splash out on Attica’s regal new dessert, “The Pavington”. It’s half lamington, half pavlova and wholly genius. Truly the best of both worlds.

On the south side, an ex-Miznon chef has assumed a new Instagram alter ego, Babka Boi, and he’s selling Nutella-filled choc-hazelnut babkas (dense, rich, mesmerisingly braided cakes). We reckon he’s nailed the dough-to-chocolate ratio.

Meanwhile, Piccolina has dialled up the dessert nostalgia with a riff on Cottee’s Ice Magic. The groovy ice-cream topping, made with Callebaut dark couverture chocolate, insta-freezes on impact.

Support struggling pubs, get free beer
Holing up at your favourite pub, flanked by a parma and a pint, may feel like a distant memory. But iso initiative Counter Covid will reward you with a free Moon Dog tinnie for every takeaway meal you order from your local watering hole. The Robbie Burns, The Tote, Leonard’s House of Love – and more than a dozen others – are in on the action.

It’s (virtual) festival season
Not even a pandemic could derail two of Melbourne’s most thought-provoking festivals.

MIFF’s first-ever streamable program goes live on August 6, with an impressive 113 films. Catch an indie drama (starring Parks & Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza) that launched at Sundance, eye-opening docos, and dozens of shorts (ideal for short attention spans).

From August 7, Melbourne Writers Festival is also taking its 2020 program online – and most events are “pay what you can”. Hear from 100 guests including two ex-PMs, big-name Aussie writers Helen Garner (Monkey Grip) and Claire G Coleman (Terra Nullius), and more.

Working (out) from home
Still feeling cooped up after your allocated one hour of state-sanctioned outdoor exercise? We’ve compiled a live list of online fitness classes you can do in your living room. And lot of them are free.