Tastes on my Travels

As I travel it has started to become clearer what type of restaurants I am drawn to. Of course, I love going to the classics and trying out the acclaimed chefs' places when in their home city, but what I've noticed as I browse through the restaurant recommendations I receive is that I'm drawn to a couple of things: I like quirky buildings or locations - restaurants in buildings converted from another purpose; I love the underdog - not the top restaurant in town, but the best new restaurants, off the beaten track ones; and I love interesting produce that's a bit different to the norm, but where the preparation isn't too out there with gels and soils etc. 

Recently, I've just come back from a few weeks work and play in North America - San Jose and Vancouver to be specific - where I found some restaurants I really enjoyed which fit some or all of the criteria!

Naglee Park Garage, San Jose

This recommendation came from a colleague who thought I'd love it! Of course I did. I watched a YouTube clip of the feature on Diners, Drive In's and Dives and was really excited to try it. Classic American burger and fries but with a twist! Perfect. Even better was the courtyard out to back of the converted garage in San Jose. We sat on long shared tables and relaxed on the summers evening enjoying the food, wine and music from a jazz band playing at the back. It was a great place to kick back and chill!

Wildebeest, Vancouver

I was really excited to go to Wildebeest in Vancouver. The menu looked so interesting when I was scouring websites for where to eat in Vancouver and wow! It delivered. I really enjoy the idea of share plates which are a little bigger than starter size but not as big as a main, so you can try quite a few things. These dishes were delicious with every bite packing a punch. We had a bunch of  things including bison tartare, so interesting and flavoursome; delectable quail with the hay still smoking; tender and melt-in-your-mouth beef shortrib. The restaurant had a great vibe contrasting to the quiet Gastown street outside when we left!

Fable Restaurant, Vancouver

Fable is another Vancouver favourite established a few years ago inspired by Top Chef Canada "restaurant wars." For a Monday night I didn't think we'd have trouble getting a table but this is a popular haunt and we just squeezed in for an early sitting! This was another colleague's recommendation (they really know me!) and it was fabulous. The highlight for me was the "canned tuna" - confit (I think) tuna with preserved lemons served in a "can" but the other dishes were delicious - perfectly cooked duck and lamb; clever potato crusted chicken and good old Steak Frites! 

 Ah, great food really makes a great holiday for me. And really makes me want to return to try some of the other menu items that I didn't pick - makes my travel wishlist that bit longer though!

Wham Bam Thank you Nahm!

Nahm..... the 32nd best restaurant in the world and we were THERE! And it was fabulous - a great culmination of a week of fabulous Thai feasting. Nahm's menu was inspired by David Thompson's studies into old Thai cookbooks. He also produced a cookbook called "Thai Street Food" and we definitely tasted some refined versions of the tasty street vendor fare. How could you choose from a 6 page menu, so we went for the set menu - a selection of canapes for entree, followed by one of each of the soup, salad, stir fry, curry and relish, and then dessert. Our eyes were a bit bigger than our stomachs, but it was delicious. 

Canapes

Our Menu

The canapes arrived at the table to kick the meal off. They were fresh little bites. The smoked fish, peanut and tapioca dumpling reminded us of a dish we'd not been so fond of earlier in the week - this was obviously the right way to cook tapioca! The salted threadfin perch with ginger, chilli and green mango on betel leaves was a flavour combo to be enjoyed in one bite. 

This was so spicy it nearly blew our mouths away, and had us giggling for a while, whilst sipping on our Thai cocktails and beer. We cooled down our mouths with some watermelon and mango dipped in toasted coconut before tackling the prawn and coconut wafers with pickled ginger.

Main

For main, we had the one of all the different sections of the menu:

Salad - Salad of fresh water crayfish with pork and Asian pennywort

Soup - Clear soup of roast duck with Thai basil and young coconut

Relish - Minced prawn and pork simmered in coconut cream with young chillies, red shallots and coriander with fresh vegetables and deep fried cured carp

Curry - Aromatic curry of wagyu beef and sweet potatoes with cucumber relish

Stir Fry - Scallops stir-fried with spring onions and chilli

The wagyu beef curry was definitely the highlight. Melt in your mouth slow cooked falling apart meat infused with delicious spice flavours. The scallops was a close second. Perfectly cooked and tasty!

Dessert

We really didn't need dessert! Sooooo full! But this is what we had 

Lychee in scented syrup with Thai Cup cakes

Sweet Thai wafers with poached persimmons and golden duck egg noodles.

The sweet Thai wafers were definitely an adaption of the street food that we had tried earlier in the week. These wafers though were crispy and creamy and juicy! 

The lychee was cool on our tongues and refreshing. The cup cakes were also a reminder of the markets throughout the week with the surprising (but not as surprising this time) salty, savoury spring onion mixture in the middle of the sweet batter.

32 in the world..... Amazing (but we rekon some Sydney restaurants are better!)

Gerard's Bistro, Brisbane: "Can I eat this everyday?"

Oysters with Pomegranate

When we were up in Brisbane the other day, we booked early enough to get a table at Gerard's Bistro. I had been scouring the internet, twittersphere and blogs for restaurant ideas and I'd come across a few posts about Gerard's which it turns out is the "Best New Restaurant 2013." The menu looked a bit out of the ordinary with the Middle Eastern twist on the dishes, which caught my eye, and the realistic prices also made me think that we were on to a winner!

Slow Roasted Wagyu Brisket

Winner it was! I loved the passion that all of the staff brought to their descriptions of the food, and the casual but classy atmosphere. We were watching a group next to us tucking in to what turned out to be one of the house specialties  the slow roasted Wagyu Brisket, and we couldn't get past it, so after a couple of oysters each and a charcuterie plate, we were brought our board with the melt in the mouth, tender beef and interesting veggie sides.

Spiced Date Cream

One comment from the table was "Can I eat this every day?" Yes....It was that good!

After polishing off that lip licking deliciousness, we got a dessert for the table to share - the spiced date
cream. It looked stunning and finished off a gorgeous meal perfectly whilst still allowing us to remember the piece de resistance, the gorgeous Brisket. We'll be back again the first opportunity we can get!

MasterChef Live

I am the biggest MasterChef stalker groupie fan as you know, so I was so excited to attend MasterChef Live yesterday. It is the best of it's kind with so many cooking demonstrations, in between the exhibitors, we were hopping from stage to stage watching MasterChef contestants past and present sharing tips and tricks they have learnt and learning from the real life Sydney chefs.

I have several new little techniques that I'll try in our kitchen now - deep frying enoki mushrooms seems all the rage with the Season 4 contestants. We love mushrooms, and this little technique to add some crunch to a plate sounds like it will be great for summer entertaining!

Darren Robertson's sherbet is something I'll definitely test out at home. After a meal last year at Ritual where a cardamom sherbet lined the plate, it's been something I'd love to put my own spin on, and now I know how to make it!

Prompted by a fabulous meal at Ms Gs on Friday night, chicken was on my hubbies mind, and a causal conversation with Audra Morris sparked a few ideas for him to try for a fried chicken coating to rival Audra, Mindy and Kylies "3 Pepper Chicken" from their pop up, or Dan Hong's "Naked Chicken" that we loved the other night!

Duck from the Three Blue Ducks

Of course, it wasn't just picking up on techniques for the kitchen. We came home with lots of heavily discounted booty (including pre-sale of MasterChef 2012 winner, Andy's new book "The Next Element" and our bellys full of some amazing food - the highlight for me being the Three Blue Ducks slow roasted duck with Asian greens which fell off the bone and melted in your mouth - a perfect dish for eating with a plastic fork (and I hate eating with plastic cutlery at the best of times!) whilst sheltering from the light drizzle!

Barnacle Bills

Scallops Deling

On a recent trip to Cairns even though short we of course had to pay a visit to his favourite restaurant Barnacle Bills. When he was living and working there it was a real institution and he knew and hung out with the some of the family of the family owned and run establishment. It is a classic seafood restaurant on the esplanade with a fabulous menu and generous portions. We started off with a share plate of scallops and pork belly. Yum! What a delicious combination.

Seafood Curry

For some reason I had been craving curry for dinner and unusually for me I chose a seafood curry from the extensive picks of seafood options. I typically don't go for dishes where the seafood flavour has been masked by a strong sauce but this one was perfect. There was just enough heat but the sauce really complimented the perfectly cooked fish and seafood. After filling up on entree and main full of the flavour of the sea there was no way I could fit in dessert, but a great evening and can't wait for our next trip to TNQ so we can pay another visit!

Top of the Pop(up)s

On Monday night we had a very unique experience at Bar H, a little stylish contemporary bar in Surry Hills. Tonight wasn't a normal night there but one when the kitchen was taken over by Mindy, Audra and Kylie - our favourite MasterChef girls! I was ecstatic to get a booking after feeling like I had left it a bit late for the "first in best dressed" booking policy so Audra's confirmation made my day! And how glad I was - such a fun evening and great food. It is a strange thing meeting the MasterChef girls. We know them so well like friends we have shared every evening for the last few months with so it didn't feel surprising when we walked in and there was Audra greeting everyone while Mindy and Kylie smiled and cooked in the open plan kitchen.

The service was fantastic and drinks were here in no time for my hubbie and I to toast to the meal to come. The little bowl of caramelised nuts and tiny crispy fish reminded me of snacks in the Philippines and Japan so I couldn't stop going back for another nibble! The girls greeted everyone and announced a family style menu. First up was a 3 pepper chicken served in a bag for everyone to dig in. The pepper hit was great and what succulent pieces of meat. We polished off our bag in no time and soon it was an amazing slow cooked beef short ribs in an Asian sauce with some Gai lan stir fried with garlic and chilli - some of our favourite flavour combinations. No sooner had we polished off the beef, but a Mapo Tofu (Grandmothers tofu) was presented. It looked fabulous, but I was worried I was going to have to eat this one alone, as Cam isn't a big tofu fan. I gave him a bit to try and he was hooked! The spiciness with the Chinese sausage and pork mince complemented the tofu perfectly and we finished our plate.

With our mouths still with that slight chilli burn, we were presented with an individual dessert with a number of components. There was a lychee granita - so sherbetty and with such great lychee flavour that it cleansed the palate beautifully before the black sesame ice cream and the coconut tapioca with fried won ton slivers to give a crispy texture. All the flavours worked so well as a great end to a fabulous meal - or so we thought!

Just before we got kicked out so they could prepare for the next sitting finally came a Szechuan Salt Chocolate Truffle and a home made fortune cookie! Now it truly was the end, and the girls calmly saw everyone off before I'm sure they rushed back to the stove to prepare for the next round!

It really was a night to remember, the food, the wonderful hostesses and the fun!

High Steaks

Best Steak in the World?

This is supposed to be the best steak in the world. Actually whoever made that claim must have travelled far and wide. I have never been to New York but I have heard that they do some passable steaks there. Our Chilean friends reckon they do a pretty mean steak in their homeland too. We have first hand experience of Steak Florentine - a monster Italian t-bone and it would be hard to top that. My hubbie's steak, however, is the hardest to beat if you ask me! We've been on camping trips in the middle of nowhere and had some of the tenderest, juiciest steaks cooked on our camp BBQ. So good is he at steak cooking that I had to write it into our vows that he promise to cook it for me just the way I like it for all our lives!

Balcony BBQ Steak

I am always confident he will cook it perfectly rare to my taste and he times them impeccably so they all arrive at the table together no matter how you like it cooked.

The steak with the lofty promises was great - perfectly cooked and with some great char patterns but nothing can beat a good steak coming off the BBQ on our balcony with some homemade sides of veg for a weeknight treat.

On another exciting note, I got a mention in Pocket Change "Best of the Web" last week! It was such a privilege to be included in their collection of some awesome looking blogs!

Fresh from Freshwater

We were fortunate the other day to have an fantastic meal at Pilu at Freshwater. Although it was evening and being a big group, in the interior of the restaurant, we still got to take advantage of the view of the waves by night arriving on a blustery Autumn evening! We had the Sardinian tasting menu with matching wines, Pilu's specialty degustation. The highlight course for me was the opener, Smokey Kingfish, pomegranate and red vein sorrel, but all were a delicious progression of Italian cuisine. Such a delicious meal that all our party were raving about!

Instead of talking through it course by course I thought the pictures would speak for themselves!

Bicol Express

Bicol Express

One of the specialities of the southern Luzon province, Bicol, where we spend a few days on our recent Philippine Trip, is the spicy food. JB from J.B.Jose recommended we try the Bicol Express, which was exactly to our taste buds. It featured on the menu of most of the restaurants we frequented but one of the highlight meals of the trip was on our last day in the area at Kozina Tyche where we ordered Bicol Express along with several other stand out dishes!

Pork Sisig

Along with the speciality spicy pork and chilli, Bicol Express, which wasn't a disappointment, we ordered Sizzling Pork Sisig, a rich combination of minced pork, calamansi juice, served with a soft egg; Chicharon, crispy pork crackling; Crab Relleno, a stuffed crab dish, and Pinaputok na Cream Dory Fish, a beautiful looking dish of fish wrapped in banana leaves, which 

Pinaputok na Cream Dory Fish

The dishes were presented beautifully, looked and tasted delicious, reinforcing that Bicol was a great place for sampling typical local cuisine.

Let's Get Laud..ico!

Adobo Shitake Mushroom Cappuccino

In Manila we were delighted to be invited to a family lunch at Chef Laudico Bistro Filipino at the Fort to try some modern Filipino cuisine. I loved the idea of the menu as soon as I read it: All you can Eat Degustation. It was perfect for trying all the restaurant had to offer. You could order whatever you liked and it would come it in small portions - allowing you to try many more dishes than had you ordered A la Carte, but with much more flexibility than a traditional degustation. The most daunting, but smart thing was the clean plate policy - we had to eat everything up - but it wasn't too difficult!

Sisig Shooters

One of the signature dishes of the restaurant is the Adobo Shitake Mushroom soup which was served just like a cappuccino but tasted nothing like it! The creamy mushroom flavour was so smooth and flavourful - yum! Another favourite was the Sisig Shooters. The sisig was served in a crispy cup on the top of the shot glass with a quail egg shooter in the glass. Interesting presentation, and whilst I'm not a huge fan of hard boiled eggs, the sisig flavour was delicious.

Crispy Pata

A range of more main style dishes were presented to us at the table: Telapia, Adobo Overload, Crispy Pata, Beef Estofado and it seemed many more plates for us to dig our forks into to try. Then came the desserts. I had a few of the mini dessert offerings, but by far the tastiest was the Yema Balls - donut like balls with custard, to dip in chocolate sauce.

It was a fabulous meal, lots of delicious food, laughter and great times with our Filipino family.

Welcome to Sydney Jamie!

Bucatini Carbonara at Jamie's Italian

We were trying our luck to get into Jamie's Italian, Sydney's first offering from our favourite chef, Jamie Oliver, on the first Saturday of it opening, but with the no booking policy I figured we had as much hope as anybody. Just for Jamie we agreed to the 30 min wait for a table for 4. As it turned out, a date would have been quicker as there are plenty tables of 2! It was well worth the wait!

Being from the UK it was great to have some banter early on with the English bar men, shaking up mojitos and topping up our champagne glass, so the half hour went quickly by.

The two level restaurant on Pitt Street is urban chic style - some classy graffiti on the walls, warehouse style decor, and pretty unexpected nestled between the impersonal office blocks flanking each side. Perfect for the casual style of the restaurant.

We enjoyed the salt and pepper squid and the Arancini risotto balls as a first course. The pasta - I couldn't get past the traditional carbonara - was deliciously al dente, and apparenetly the sausages were served with the best lentils our friend had ever tasted.

With attentive staff, a fun ambience and great food. We would have been happy to hang around, but the theatre called. Anyway, we'll be back and I think it will be a city favourite, a reasonably priced fun and delicious restaurant certainly filling a gap and very welcome!

Heavenly Hanuman

Hanuman Oysters

Jimmy Shu's Hanuman restaurant was one that was overwhelmingly recommended by those hearing we were heading to Darwin and for those that know us, they could have been pretty sure it would be a hit with a signature dish of oysters with a spicy sauce - our favourites all rolled in to one!

On the menu for us, as well as the signature oysters, we also had some delicious Trumpet Mushrooms, with lightly curried pork & prawn mince, and a coconut sauce, and tandoori prawns.

Rogan Josh Lamb Shanks

The Indian inspired Rogan Josh Lamb Shanks were probably the best lamb shanks I've had -l'll be trying that out when the cold weather comes again next year!  My fave Indian dish, chicken tikka masala didn't disappoint, and we left feeling very satisfied, but not satisfied that we'd done the menu justice and had to come back again for another try, this time of the Thai style dishes. For our second visit, we tasted the Meen Moolie, barramundi spiced with turmeric in a creamy coconut sauce and Cam's staple Thai favourite - Red Curry Duck. What is usually a sweet dish, was beautifully balanced with great spicy and fresh pineapple to counter balance.

Trumpet Mushrooms

We didn't even look at the dessert menu we were so full, but could quite happily come back for more another time. Just a shame Hanuman Sydney isn't on the cards.

Universal Success

Seared Scallops

Since I saw Jimmy and Claire at Universal restaurant last season of MasterChef, I've been looking for an opportunity to pay it a visit. I knew I would enjoy Christine Manfield's food style as I love spicy dishes. 


Using the excuse of a free bottle of wine, thanks to Citibank's Dining deal, we headed down a few Friday's ago to the Darlinghurst restaurant. No wonder I hadn't heard of it before MasterChef as it's in a small courtyard near not very much else!

Steamed Snapper

The whole experience was right up my alley! There was a "smart casual" feel to the restaurant with coloured lights and the buzz of light conversation, but with a fine dining presentation. What I loved about the food at Universal was that the spice complemented each dish in a different way. They also used great produce showcasing the fantastic flavour without the hype of foams and jellys of some of the more serious restaurants. This just made it a bit more relaxed and made us feel a bit more at home than when we're on our best behaviour on one off visits to "posh" restaurants!

The shared plates were perfect sized and fun for us, and perfect since there was no order envy and we got to taste quite a few things on the menu. We went for seared scallops green asparagus tempura with wasabi avocado, pork belly, steamed pink snapper wrapped in jamon with white asparagus, sichuan pepper mandarin duck, slow braised green chilli galangal wagyu beef shin.
Universal was a great success and will become a real favourite for us. Can't wait for the next excuse to dine there!

Off the Wall!

Ritual Restaurant in Nelson Bay gave us a fantastic culinary experience last weekend. Their philosophy is "food is art" rather than "food is fuel" and the entire meal was inspired by the poem "My Country" by Dorothea Mackellar. The food journey was around 3 hours of tasty morsels, bites and taste sensations. To keep our tastebuds alert, a novel part of the experience was Ritual's Wall Art. The Wall Art consisted of 3 or 4 plaques on the wall with teaspoons slotted into the holes. On each spoon was a bite of a different flavour or texture combination.

Crispy Artichoke Shell being filled
with Artichoke Paste

Our first spoonful was two different types of artichoke: a crispy shell into which we squeezed a paste from a little tube we were served. I love artichoke and it was a really delicious bite full of intense artichoke flavour but crunchy and cream textures.

Wall Art at Ritual

The next spoonfuls came together later: "chicken sandwich," a rye crisp with crispy chicken skin, capers and cheese. It really did have the flavour of a full sandwich. And pork crackling which was crunchy with the salty recognisable flavour, but with zing of sour plum.

Strawberry Scent &
Celery Seed Rice Cracker

The Wall Art tastings were scattered throughout the meal, so after our entrée and before main, we had an interesting flavour pairing: celery crackers with a strawberry skoosh. It was one of the dishes that was most difficult to understand but at best the strawberry flavour is supposed to bring out the different notes in the celery. For me it was just a fun excuse to spray and crunch!

Next was the meatless bacon and eggs which really did have the flavour of meat despite just being a smoked and pickled quail egg.

Hunter Valley ‘Blumembert,’ Pineapple
Pillows with Lemon Basil 

The "cheese course" was a really interesting flavour combination. We are all familiar with the good old cheese and pineapple toothpicks, well it's a tried and tested combo which worked beautifully on the spoons. The Hunter Valley cheese was complimented by the pineapple "pillow."

Finally the dessert spoon was a really wonderful fudgy dark and white chocolate bite with pink peppercorns giving it a bit of a kick. It was a really unusual mix of flavours, creamy and peppery, and given my love of pepper, I found it delicious! Maybe even more so than the real dessert which followed!

It was a really innovative idea to keep us engaged between courses and to showcase some delicious fusions of flavour. A great addition to such a wonderful meal and in keeping with Ritual,'s food philosophy: fascinating and a lot of fun!

Top Marque

For a special birthday treat (maybe more for me than him) I took my hubbie to Marque restaurant in Surry Hills for the degustation menu. Marque is an understated elegant restaurant on Crown Street and they pride themselves on showcasing the food more than the views! We've heard fabulous reviews of the restaurant so I was excited to be trying it finally!

The first course came out, a mandarin crisp which was so fruity it was almost juicy (even though it was a thin crisp!) and a large prawn cracker. After this unusual palate cleanser the real show began with course after course of interesting textures, fascinating cooking techniques and delicious flavours.

We started with an Almond Jelly with Blue Swimmer Crab on a sweet corn custart. It had crumbs of Popcorn to add a little texture.

Next was a normal Calamari straw, with a Calamari pickled in Ink which had a texture of kelp, with some compressed mint. This was probably my least favourite course of the night. It was a bit difficult to eat, although was interestingly flavoured!

One of the most delicious courses followed, a wafer thin potato crisp sandwich, filled with bonito, fois gras butter and olive truffle. The crisp of the potato contrasted to the creamy fois gras and the dish just melted in his mouth!

The course that bridged the seafood to the meat was a beautiful duck egg poached at 60 degrees for 45 mins. The resulting egg was soft and sticky inside and perfectly cooked. The small brussel sprout crispy leaves were a delicious complement to the egg!

The next course was unusual and probably my favourite course of the night - Pigeon with Poached Oyster in a foam, on Sautéed Lettuce. The little Pigeon leg was flavoursome and tasty, but not as succulent as the amazing breast meat. It looked beautifully decorated on the plate with some little edible flowers.

Wagyu Beef with Onion, Black Tea & Stem Salad, with a Sorrel sauce was the final savoury course. It was beautifully cooked and tender with a great flavoured fresh sauce.

To ease us into the Dessert we had a Pre-Dessert which was a luxurious Sauternes Custard served in an egg cup. It really did look like a soft boiled egg but didn't last as long - there would have been no patience for soldiers!

Finally, we finished on a fun combination of flavours called "Pomme Pomme:" Jerusalem Artichoke ice cream with apple, caramel, cocoa and chestnut tasty sauces. The balance of tastes was a really nice fresh,  and the dessert wasn't too sweet an end to a fabulous meal.

Happy Birthday Cam!