Lots of Cravings

Sydney Fish Market @ Sydney

2012-01-27T06:52:00.000+08:00

To those still celebrating Chinese New Year, I hope its been fun.

To those who got the day off on Australia Day, I am pretty sure you are either like me, stoning in front of your office laptop or still on holiday.

Anyways, I have been busily snapping photos of food we have been eating in Melbourne and hopefully soon enough I can actually download them onto my computer and start blogging about them.

Meanwhile, one more stop in Sydney.

We arrived in Sydney mid afternoon and with a couple of hours to burn before our host finished work, the Wife suggested we go to the Sydney Fish Market.

With 30 minutes before it closed, we walked in and my eyes opened wide. The amount of fresh seafood available and the cheaper prices is a far cry to what we use to get in Brisbane. For example a coral trout in an upmarket supermarket will cost you in the region of AUD50 a kg and most places charging you between AUD30-35 a kg. Guess what, its only AUD27 a kg in Sydney!

Despite dinner being 2-3 hours away, I couldn't resist and we ordered a couple of items to snack on.

Abalone sashimi, thats a first for us. It was sweet and crunchy, very nice to eat texturally but got a bit boring after a few bites.

Somehow the oysters didn't taste all that fresh or either that it wasn't exactly the top grade ones that we got. Either way its been a while since we had some so we were happily popping them in our mouth with a squeeze of lemon.

The yabbies were awesome though. Similar to the ama ebi you get in Japanese cuisine, the meat was so sweet and juicy. The problem is one prawn doesn't really have that much meat but weighs a lot since you pay by the gram. A prawn probably cost me AUD 5.

Overall I am happy to have finally visited an "icon" in Sydney and although we must have picked up some seafood that was probably lying around for a couple of hours, it was still pretty good.

The best part? Our friend said you can get even cheaper seafood elsewhere in Sydney!

Fingers crossed, let me find good seafood in Melbourne!

Sugarcane @ Surrey Hills, NSW

2012-01-23T06:11:00.032+08:00

Time does fly and I believe this is our 2nd year being away from home during Chinese New Year. In some ways, both the Wife and I do miss home because of family and the overall festive mood. Luckily, being away since we have been married, we never did have to give out any red packets (ang pao). Anyways by the time you read this, it should be the first day of Chinese New Year, specifically Year of the Dragon.

To all my readers, Gong Xi Fa Cai or Gong Hei Fatt Choi. May everyone be blessed with good food and be prosperous enough to feed yourself with good food.

Back to blogging.

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After spending a night at Coffs Harbour, we were quite eager to soldier on to Sydney. Faced with a range of 1 lane and 2 lane roads (not to mention the turtle crawling speed limit), I was surprised that it was still rather easy to drive long distance compared to driving down the highways of Malaysia (maybe its the scenery).

A very old friend of the Wife played host for the night. The better fact was that her husband was also quite a big foodie and when we said we leave it to them to pick a dinner venue, they said let's go to Sugarcane.

Sugarcane, one of the growing restaurants in Sydney / Australia which serve Southeast Asian cuisine with a twist. The menu is not quite fusion as such but its more of the chef's interpretation of the cuisine. Headed by chefs from Longrain, I presume the pioneer restaurant who started this trend, we were told that the food will be good and luckily it was.

The downside of this place though is the noise level. It is an open kitchen concept and yes, there was a dinner group of 20 people at one end that night but the amount of echo was equivalent of entering into a bar. Not exactly the place for a quiet conversation.

The battered calamari was what it was, a standard starter served with a soy based dip.

Whole barramundi, deep fried with two dipping sauces (if I remember correctly), a soy sauce and a chili like dip. Fried to perfection; crisp skin as you run your fork in and smooth silky flesh inside. The soy sauce was a little on the thick side, if it was slightly runnier, it would have reminded me of how we used to eat fried fish in restaurants back in KL.

The pork hock served with a thai mango salad. This was the bomb dish and if you ever come here and the dish is available, you got to order it. That being said if you were vegetarian, go try the mango salad, there's that perfect mix of sweet, sour and spicy (at least for the poor soul here who can't really take his chili very well).

Not equally as good was the chicken in a tamarind / plum sauce. Again playing with the familiar sweet and sour notes, the chicken wasn't over cooked, there was crispy skin but it all seemed a bit too ordinary for me.

I am a big fan of eggplant and lo and behold we somehow ordered a plate of this cooked in a yellow bean and basil sauce. The gravy was delicious with the addition of basil and by the end of it, the eggplant had soaked in all the flavours.

A rather late comer this one, the last dish arrived after a while which was a jungle chicken curry. Maybe by now we were stuffed, so it really didn't stand out for me.

Dessert was a pumpkin "cake" and mango with black sticky rice. There were a few "ooh" and "aah" with the pumpkin cake / flan and I must admit it was pretty good. However one must realise I was stuffing myself silly with Zumbo desserts just hours earlier and everything seemed like a shadow.

Interesting thing to note is the above dishes were a mix of fixed courses from a voucher and ala carte dishes. Can you identify which is which? I personally felt after having dishes from both sides, the quality was pretty similar although the fixed courses seemed a bit flat at times. A rather old issue but restaurants will always have a dilemma between trying to break even and making sure customers do come back. Even if the food was spectacular, people looking out for bargains won't come back when they see the prices from the ala carte menu. I wonder what say you?

Overall pretty good stuff with I guess average prices of AUD25-30 a main.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Got to take off marks for the incredibly loud atmosphere and some of the dishes we tried did fall a bit flat and tasted uninspired.

Adriano Zumbo Patisserie @ Balmain, Sydney

2012-01-19T07:15:00.000+08:00

Blame it on Masterchef but the first thing on our mind when we reached Sydney was Adriano Zumbo and his desserts. A quick search on the internet and a click or two on the GPS and we were headed to their original outlet in Balmain.

Half expecting that they would have at least a table or two and 2 chairs or 3, we were disappointed to see a narrow outlet which had their air con on full blast (to presumably keep the desserts cold). Walk in to the display of desserts and you forgive everything.

With all the desserts you see on Masterchef, every item seems very complicated with different components and if I had my way (or my wallet had its way), I would have tried everything.

Despite being as sensible as possible, we still bought half a dozen of macarons and two desserts before hopping away happily.

Yum yum.

Despite the hype surrounding these babies, there were good but not exactly mind blowing. Maybe its because I was never into them or never ate them enough to like them. The flavours were all out of this world from chocolate chili, lime mojito, cola, lychee and etc.

His individual desserts were more like our cup of tea. With funky names, so funky I can't seem to remember whether it was "nuts about something" or "crazy peanuts" (but I am pretty sure there was a nut or peanut in the name), we were drooling. the far left had 4 components with different textures and flavours, from chocolate, peanut butter and mango, this was awesome. The sphere was a choux pastry with bubble tea cream and was equally crazy in the mouth.

If this was near my house, we would be eating desserts every other night so long as they keep changing the menu.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. Their individual desserts with different components and textures look and taste the bomb and definitely something that you wouldn't want to replicate at home.

Fiasco Ristorante @ Coffs Harbour, NSW

2012-01-17T04:11:00.001+08:00

I originally wanted to continue blogging about food I ate in Malaysia until I realised that I had already blogged about these places before or I had pictures of the first 2 courses before I pigged out and forgot about taking pictures.

So I guess the adventure of eating in Malaysia has come to a rather abrupt ending.

Moving on, shall we?

The first of many legs to Melbourne involved stopping over at Coffs Harbour. From certain stretches of the road, you are greeted with the most amazing coastal views that you wish greets you when you wake up every morning. However it was a pity once we reached town, I was more keen to take a nap then drive to the nearest beach for a tan.

Well I was also keen for a good meal. Urbanspoon really does wonders at this point and a quick search and a read here and there, we pinpointed Fiasco as the place to go.

While the name doesn't sound very Italian, the people running the place were definitely Italian (either that or they must have pulled off a very good accent).

Even the beers are italian! Not your typical Peroni but a slightly out of the blue Menabrea; crisp and light, perfect for the hot weather.

When we looked through the menu, it was obvious that we were still suffering from the "Asian" blues, half wanting to dig into anything that resembled Asian. However after seeing the dish arrive on our table, it was a whole different story.

Home made gnocchi with a pork ragu. This was delicious. The pork ragu was hearty and well seasoned and it went so well with the pillow soft gnocchi. Eaten together with the pieces of ricotta sprinkled on top, we couldn't ask for more, especially since we were 500km away from Sydney.

The Al Funghi Pizza was just as scrumptious. Instead of truffle oil, they used truffle honey, combining the earthy and sweet flavours was a good choice as well. Thin crust just the way I like it too!

The main was a duo of beef; seared tenderloin with a mushroom ragout and a braised beef cheek served with fried polenta and celeriac puree. The tenderloin was done well but the braised cheek needed some seasoning (well quite a fair bit actually). The gremolata drizzled around the dish helped flavoured the cheek but sadly it wasn't enough. I liked how refreshing the radish was but the polenta also tasted rather flat. After the first two dishes, we couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed.

Overall if you stick to their pizzas and pastas served with ice cold beer, I can't see why you should not come here if you are ever in Coffs Harbour, brilliant food.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. Good old pizzas and pastas done with grace.

Yap Hup Kee @ Pudu, Kuala Lumpur

2012-01-15T06:59:00.000+08:00

It seems like it was only yesterday when we got all excited about going back home to Malaysia and leaving Brisbane for good. Come to think about it, it has been exactly a month since that has happened.

Tomorrow the whole routine of waking up, dressing up and going to work will begin once again, this time in Melbourne. I just hope the first week of work is going to be induction and training because it will definitely take me a day to refresh myself!

Back to food blogging, I blogged about fine dining the other day but my real love belongs to also chee cheong fun (or rice rolls, if you go to "yum cha"). The smooth silky thin white sheet chopped to resemble noodles is something I be happy to eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Something I didn't get back in Brisbane is the South East Asian way of eating chee cheong fun; with curry sauce, sweet sauce or chilli sauce paired with some yong tau foo.

Needless to say, I had to satisfy those cravings and where to but to Pudu, the area where my dad grew up. Yap Hup Kee does an awesome chee cheong fun but the yong tau foo bit is somewhat lacking. Apart from the sui kao (dumplings) which is a must order (either in soup or fried), the rest of the stuff like the stuffed eggplant, bitter gourd, tau foo seems a bit average. If you are feeling brave, another must order is the pork intestines, marinated in some sweet sauce and deep fried.

A standard size portion is really small so my best advice is order one of each or if you are a glutton like me, order three. Topped with prawn floss, it is quite hard to find a better one, so let me know where you can get one.

The soup dumplings does not come with your usual clear soup but has preserved vegetables that gives it a nice zing to it.

I found the fried stuff done very sloppily, a lot of oil that was not drained off before serving.

The must order pork intestines.

A pity I didn't get to eat this more than once.

Address and contact details:

45 Jalan Brunei Barat (off Jalan Pudu)

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2148 9220

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars (4.5 stars for the chee cheong fun alone). No frills place for some chee cheong fun, nothing more, nothing less.

Extravagant Lunches @ Lafite, Shangri La Hotel and Sage, Gardens Residences

2012-01-11T09:37:00.001+08:00

The most frequent things you hear from someone who's been away from KL for a long time is how they miss the late night stalls, hawker food and the great Asian classics. However as much as I miss my bak kut teh, chee cheong fun or char siew, you got to admit fine dining in KL (especially during lunch and of course if you know where to look) is a pretty good deal when one earns Australian dollars to spend in Malaysia.

Two of the places that I have good experiences at are Lafite at the Shangri La Hotel and Sage at the Gardens Residences. Lunch at both places are pretty affordable once you convert the meal back to Australian dollars. A 4 course lunch at Lafite was RM128++ (benefit of having a friend who has the Prestige card means a further discount of 33%) and a 3 course lunch at Sage only set me back for RM100. The Australian dollar hovers around the region of RM3 - RM3.20 to a dollar.

Furthermore if you haven't been back to Malaysia for a long while, you might want to drop by for a dose of good service before realising how unfriendly and crap the service is at the shops (or maybe it was because I kept going out in my t shirt, short pants and thongs and walking into places like Hugo Boss).

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Sage is perfect for those who want to catch up for some shopping before or after the meal. Compared to any other restaurant in the mall, it still smells exclusive, no long queues and obviously no crazy amount of noise.

The lunch at Sage is not exactly suitable for the bigger eaters and you can say the portions are on the smaller side. However the bread is refillable and with the basil and parsley dipping, I was happily filling myself up.

The lunch menu is a standard 3 course meal with 2 options for entree, main and desserts unless you have specific dietary requirements. It changes every week so you can happily go back time and time and find new dishes too.

The first course was a quail, foie gras, truffle and mushroom dish. Everything was beautifully cooked on the plate but a tiny bit of jus would have tied everything nicely. Of course, who will complain if given a bigger piece of foie gras?

Judging from the above piece of steak, you will know what I mean when I first said Sage is not exactly the place for big eaters. I reckon the steak could not have weighed more than 150 grams. However, beautifully cooked and the anchovy butter was the icing on the cake. Accompanied with mash so smooth that it melts in your mouth and the red wine jus, there can be no better start to the day.

My memory is obviously failing me at this point because apart from jelly, peach vanilla ice cream and a wafer, I can't seem to link it all up. That being said, the choice of a poached fruit means you finish the meal off without feeling like you have put on a 100 pounds and head back to office snoozing.

Address and contact details:

Sage Restaurant

The Gardens Residences

6th Floor, The Gardens

Mid Valley City

Lingkaran Syed Putra

59200 Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03- 2268 1188

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Once upon a time, Lafite was like the grand daddy of fine dining but having been away from KL for a year, I am pretty sure Lafite is now only one of the many places around. The lunch menu here is slightly more interesting. You have a choice of having a buffet of starters, a main and a dessert or a fixed set of 3 course or 4 courses. Prices start from RM80-90++. I was starving and decided for the full monty, the four course.

Each course has 3-4 options including a vegetarian so you can mix and match.

If only I can stuff myself silly with everything but this time around I had a piece here and there but most of the breads on the plate was pretty good with the home made butter (if I recall correctly had figs in it).

The first course was seared scallops on a bed of passion fruit sauce that wasn't too sweet but paired well with the seafood.

This I remember slightly better, the beef broth was magnificent. Clear but packed with so much flavour, this is the kind of stuff I want to cook but I cannot imagine the amount of beef bones and time required to cook this. Served with another scallop which I didn't mind and a quail egg.

The lamb was delicious as well, cooked to a pink centre and compared to Sage, the portions are clearly more generous. I believe it came with some fried croquettes and whats there not to be like about fried items unless you are a health freak.

Dessert was an interpretation of something black forrest and sounded like the best option amongst the lot but it turned out to be well, normal. The sponge wasn't exactly very moist eventhough the mousse was delicious. I felt like the components was better off eaten separately and wasn't very cohesive.

Overall another brilliant lunch, if you have the money to spare or a friend who has the Prestige card.

Address and contact details:

11 Jalan Sultan Ismail

50250 Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

(60 3) 2074 3900

Toast & Roast @ SS2, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

2012-01-10T05:54:00.003+08:00

Over 4 days and 1700+ km, we finally reached Melbourne and where do I even start?

Do I talk about the brilliant stay back in Malaysia, the journey that took us to Coffs Harbour, Sydney and Wangaratta or how my short pants look out of place in Melbourne?

All that being said, we are now on our second day of house hunting and hopefully this doesn't take too much longer. We hope we will finally be able to settle down, our furniture to reach here in one piece, my wife will finally get the job offer that she has been waiting for since Christmas, my work starts and for life to go on.

Meanwhile in the midst of sorting out applications and inspections, I thought before offices open and agents pick up their phones, I should do what I am meant to do best; food blogging.

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On my very last day, I met up with 2 other food bloggers to catch up over lunch (you can never say no especially when there is a promise of good food). It was a good opportunity to test out the new lens that I have been dying for in the last year or so.

When it comes to char siew (barbecued pork, as some might call it), the undisputed king in my books is Meng Kee. However with that big title , comments like cocky, expensive and inconsistent has surfaced in the year that I have been away and sadly the takeaway char siew rice I tasted straight off the plane was below par.

So where do people go for good char siew, you ask? Don't fret because they are plenty out there who serves a pretty mean version. Try Toast and Roast.

If you want to sin, sin all the way and that means ordering the "pun fei sau" version. The cuts of meat reveals a clear half fat and meat proportion and with the sticky glaze sans all the charred bits that will sent you to bottom of the earth, this was a pretty damn good bbq pork. If I was not wearing my tight jeans, I would have ordered another portion to share.

Char siew aside, their side dishes is not to be disregarded and I found the green pork curry to be fantastic as well. I found this packed with flavour which means either I have been eating too much watered down versions in Australia or they definitely put in that bit extra.

In true asian spirit, one can't eat all the above without some form of noodle or rice. Toast and Roast serves out a pretty al dente Hakka Mee with some minced pork and pork lard. Well worth the calories even if it means walking everywhere I go and eating half portions in Australia.

If that's not enough, the fried dumplings are pretty good and wash it all off with their lemongrass drink. Awesome.

So was the lunch worth coming for? Yes!

Address and contact details:

No.20, Jalan SS2/72
Petaling Jaya
Selangor
016-6822249

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. Definitely a place to keep in mind!

Update on the Road Trip

2012-01-07T16:24:00.000+08:00

1500km done and 250km to go, Lots of Cravings is almost reaching Melbourne, stay tune!

Heading back home or leaving home?

2012-01-03T06:57:00.001+08:00

Hi Guys and girls

After a whirlwind holiday 17 days long, we find ourselves sitting at Starbucks, waiting for a flight to Singapore and then finally back to Australia.

It dawned upon me that I can't decide whether this trip back is one that is heading back home or leaving home. The definition of home over the last 18 months has definitely blurred into something grey and fuzzy.

I guess there's no doubt that I have missed Malaysia and the speed I transited back into KL has been almost instant. The swearing on the roads, the crazy drivers, traffic at the weirdest hours, the hot and sticky weather has bought the best out in me.

Have I missed Australia during the time away? I think I have and I guess it's time to start a new home.

I am still alive

2011-12-24T08:50:00.000+08:00

Readers,

Merry XMas and a Happy New Year to all of you.

Been so busy running around and just soaking up the time spent with some close friends and family.

Food blogging will have to wait.

For those in KL who have my number, give me a buzz!

Thanks
Joe

Medusa Dining @ Paddington, Brisbane

2011-12-14T12:30:00.000+08:00

I heard about Medusa a while ago from a fellow blogger, summarised as a nice place with whimsy and modern cuisine, foams and all too. It took us a voucher from Living Social to finally make our way there last week, venturing into Bardon, an area I actually haven't gone before!

The place looks classy but out of place in a block of shops which has Dominoes 2 doors away and a supermarket around the corner. However with all glass on 3 sides of the wall, you have one of the nicer views of the city skyline, making a good place to hold a function.

The deal that night was a 7 course degustation for two with 2 glasses of moscato for AUD 89, supposedly with a value of AUD230. However I consider myself a seasoned user of group buying websites and you learn to take the values with a pinch of salt.

Service was switched between an elderly Asian man and a young waitress. Attentive but we could have done with a bit more patience when describing dishes. The man was quick and I could barely catch more than 2 words while the girl was quite soft and I couldn't hear more than a word or two.

We were served a "surprise" from the chef, I am guessing the word is meant to be amuse bouche. However not catching what it was, it got us guessing and guessing. With a texture that was like tuna / beef, it was nothing too spectacular.

The first course was a salmon sashimi with a bed of salad, pineapple bits and pineapple emulsion. Slightly too sweet and lacking a bit of acidity to balance it. However as a first course, it was quite generous in portion.

Jamon Serrano with blood sausage dust and assorted mushrooms. Nothing wrong except we would have appreciated more bread for this or something sweet to balance out the saltiness.

The Chicken Breast was cooked to perfection, probably sous vide because it was so moist. Sitting on a bed of pumpkin puree, we started to see similar garnishing; the pineapple bits from the first course and the mushrooms from the second course. We loved this dish.

The garnishing repeats itself once again, the pineapple bits and the mushrooms appears in another role. There was nothing wrong with the carpaccio but nothing sparkled in the dish (including the quail egg). I would have also preferred this dish before the chicken for a better continuity.

The second and last hot dish of the night, the star of the night too; the pork belly. The sweet glaze, crispy crackling and melt in your mouth meat, oh why is the portion so small? What seemed like a weird combo, there was yoghurt with passionfruit along with a piece of sweet potato and a poached pear.

The cheese course was a small piece of soft cheese from Lyon. I could have easily finished that slice on my own but we had to share, boo.

Luckily we had a dessert each and got a pretty good rendition of the traditional indonesian layer cake paired with a scrumptious creamy butterscotch ice-cream. We loved this dish.

Was it worth AUD 89? Yes but could it have really cost me AUD 230? I don't think so. There were a number of recycled garnishes, only 2 hot dishes and small protein portions.

The plating was exciting at times but I didn't get the same impression that my fellow blogger had when they first visited the place. Turns out the head chef has already jumped ship to another restaurant but I guess not all is bad because there's plenty of potential from what we saw that night.

A pity we won't have the chance to return again.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Brilliant view, good food but missing the extra edge on some of the dishes to be a shining star.

Pineapple Hotel Steakhouse @ Kangaroo Point

2011-12-12T07:35:00.001+08:00

I am alive!

After stressing about how we were going to pack everything up in our unit, getting it insured, whether the removalists will come, where to park our car over Christmas, I am glad it is almost all over.

Most of the stuff is now packed in boxes, I have just paid for insurance, confirmed that I can have a parking space over Christmas at my apartment and reassured myself that the removalist is no con job.

Apart from that, we have been visiting all our favourite joints at any available opportunity; once a week of the tonkotsu ramen in Sunnybank and lots of Korean Fried Chicken.

It was not only last weekend that we said to ourselves, "hey it is our last weekend in Brisbane, yes we are kind of broke but shouldn't we try some more new places?".

So we did.

After flipping through the Entertainment Book which is well seasoned, we decided to steak out at Pineapple Hotel.

Pineapple Hotel is one of those "hotels" that actually doesn't have accommodation but is a pub / steakhouse / pokies bar. With a display of various cuts of beef in different sizes, it got us salivating.

I decided to order the signature cut, the 700 gram T Bone which was gigantic.

At AUD 40, it was not cheap but having the buy 1 free 1 deal, it was a bargain at AUD20. A steak this size at the butcher will cost you close to that. However, it wasn't perfect.

Mine didn't come with any garden salad despite the description on the menu. However I wasn't really in the mood for green leaves and I was pretty sure the waitress would have obliged to give me some. Slight oversight.

I guess the problem I had with the steak was that it didn't have enough char on it, probably due to 2 things; the grill wasn't hot enough or there was NO seasoning on the steak. Although not just exclusively to Pineapple Hotel, I find that a number of places just don't season their steak before going on the grill, is it an Australian habit?

That said, the meat was cooked according to how I want and I might have made a mistake ordering butter instead of a sauce since the steak wasn't seasoned.

If I had to go for steak at a "hotel", I am afraid there are a few places that are a notch better than this namely Caxton, Norman and Breakfast Creek.

However if you like your steak au natural with no seasoning, this is the place for you, especially if you can get hold of an entertainment voucher.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3 stars out of 5 stars. I am afraid the steaks here are not my cup of tea.

Hazel Tea Shop @ Brisbane

2011-11-29T08:59:00.000+08:00

In the last couple of months, I have read numerous updates on Facebook, plenty of blog posts and Twitter comments about the resurgence of bubble tea in Malaysia.

Queuing for 20-30 minutes for essentially a drink that has been available since I was a kid shows that even the classics can get hip and trendy.

It must have been the same time that my friends introduced this place to me for their bubble tea.

Their speciality is the "bubble" i.e. the black pearls (or does bubble mean something else?).

Soft and chewy, not too tough and hard, my friend from Hong Kong said you can't even get anything close in Hong Kong.

The flavour? It must be the Brown Sugar Milk Tea.

A bloody good drink for the 30 + degree weather we have been getting in Brisbane over the last couple of weeks.

A good alternative to my afternoon coffee habit, thankfully I don't drink afternoon coffee every day, if not I will be on sugar overload!

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4.5 stars out of 5 stars. There's another one in the city on Elizabeth Street and I can't help myself every time we walk past.

Joe can cook! Season 2 Episode 4: Comfort Food; Lasagna

2011-11-28T08:43:00.000+08:00

I reckon it is the stress of thinking about moving out all the furniture from my place, wondering if I am ripped off with the remover's quote, thinking of where to park my car while I am away to whether I would have enough money to survive in Melbourne before the new employers pay me that is causing my eating behavior to go bonkers recently.

Not usually a fan of carbs at night, I have been indulging in potatoes like no tomorrow, from frozen potato wedges to roast potatoes in the last week or so. I am pretty sure all the hard work I have put in bootcamp over the last 8 weeks have gone into shambles.

The week before we were craving for the king of all comfort food; lasagna. There's just something about digging into minced beef, tomato sauce, cheese and pasta sheets. In that twenty minutes or so we were digging into it, all worries were forgotten.

It sounds like a daunting thing to make but seriously, its easy especially if you have pre-made lasagna sheets, a simple bolognese recipe, lots of parmesan cheese and a bechamel recipe too if you feel like pigging out.

If you ever feel like pigging out, give it a try (Serving for 4):

Bolognese sauce

800 grams of minced beef

1 tin of tomatoes

4 tomatoes

Pre-mix italian herbs

2 bay leaves

5-6 cloves of garlic

2 small onions

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Lea Perrin sauce (to season)

1. Heat pan up, fry your garlic and onions till soft.

2. Season minced beef with salt, pepper and lea perrin sauce before cooking it through, get some colour into it by using medium high heat.

3. Once the meat is cooked half way through, put in your chopped tomatoes, your tin of tomatoes, italian herbs and bay leaves. If you have fresh thyme or rosemary, you can use that too.

4. Season generously and let it simmer 15-20 minutes till the sauce thickens up. If it doesn't you can make a roux which is basically equal portions of butter and flour (I reckon 15-20 grams would do), cooked into a yellow paste like form to thicken up the sauce.

Bechamel sauce

1. This is again an approximate recipe (I know I am hopeless).

2. Make a roux with butter and flour (15-20 grams).

3. 1 glass of milk, poured into the roux.

4. After that 50 grams of parmesan into the mixture.

5. Throw in an egg too for good measure.

6. Stir and cook it till it thickens

Lasagna

1. The idea is sauce, parmesan cheese and pasta.

2. Start the first layer with sauce.

3. The last layer should be sauce and then top up with bechamel sauce and a good sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

4. Into the oven at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes or till top is golden brown.

A brilliant 1 dish wonder that will drive any comfort food craving away.

Sourced Grocer @ Teneriffe, Brisbane

2011-11-23T09:03:00.000+08:00

I always thought I had a huge folder of photos, still untouched and yet to feature on the blog until I realise I am up to date.

That got me thinking, had we not been eating out and instead been cooking more at home?

Turns out if my memory serves me right that we have been frequenting familiar spots, spots that we are comfortable with. It also dawns upon me that I should be feasting on all the good stuff I have unearthed in Brisbane before we start our new adventure next year.

Luckily I still have a place that I have yet to blog about.

One place that keeps sticking out in Twitter, Facebook or the newspapers is Sourced Grocer.

What can I say about this place? Its hippy, cool and relaxed. Somewhat resembles the cafes in Melbourne.

As the name suggests, it is a grocer where you get a range of meats, bread, vegetables, fruits and etc that looks like its been hand picked and sourced. On the shelves, you get a whole load of other goodies like the Yarra Strawberry Jam that I had with my toast this morning.

On top of that, they have a section for breakfast items with coffee.

Order at the counter and take a slip. You pay at the counter where they use Macbooks as a POS, isn't that cool?

The place was packed when we went on a Sunday morning. You had people taking away, sitting on the stairs and outside the shop. Coffees took a while to arrive but were as good as gold.

Originally when we saw a lack of space, we wanted to take away coffees and be gone. Lucky me again, we scored two seats and I couldn't wait to dig into some breakfast.

The Croque Monsieur, eventhough in reality is ham and cheese was awesome with the addition of some rocket leaves.

Be warned though, it does take awhile for meals to be served.

All in all, a hippy breakfast place and you can even pick up some groceries too!

A word of warning for those who don't embrace the heat like me, it is not an enclosed air conditioned place so it can get a bit hot although it be perfect for autumn / winter.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. Love the concept!

Verve Restaurant @ Edward Street, Brisbane

2011-11-18T08:47:00.000+08:00

There's something cool about this place which is situated in the basement of the Metro Arts building. Maybe it is just the whole experience of walking into a dimly lit underground area which feels cold and cool at the same time. Oh did I say cool again?

Well maybe it isn't that cool but it is cooling.

The Wife and I were feeling generous that day so we decided we will pick a nicer place for lunch instead of trying to find a place that will get me a meal for under $10.

Verve which is just opposite her office was an easy option.

The menu is a simple assortment of pasta and pizza; not exactly the most authentic Italian stuff but probably more Australian/American/Modern Italian if you know what I mean.

A special of the day was a cream based prawn pasta with sun dried tomatoes. I love pasta that is cooked al-dente and this was probably a minute too long in boiling water. Else, this tasted pretty good.

I think this was a seafood pizza but honestly I think for the same price, you can get a better one at Pizza Capers.

Overall, a decent place for a pasta or pizza and a beer but nothing that was really shining. Meals are almost AUD20 per person so not cheap for an everyday lunch unless you earn a bucket load of money.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3 stars out of 5 stars. If there's consolation, I reckon it should be a couple of degrees cooler than the blistering sun we have been getting in the last week and in the upcoming weeks.

Ponycat @ New Farm, Brisbane

2011-11-16T08:13:00.000+08:00

I might as well make it official.

Yes, I am moving to Melbourne beginning 2012.

I thought I would be much more happy than I should be but it feels more like an unwanted son going back to a mother that didn't want him to begin with, compound by the fact that the unwanted son is casting away his foster mother who's been treating him well.

It was probably not a move I had anticipated but you could say one thing lead to another and the opportunity to live life in Melbourne became a reality, a chance I couldn't say no to.

There are still mixed feelings about leaving the place we called home in the last 14 months or so and we will be making the best out of it till we fly back home in mid December.

Meanwhile, I need to dig deep into the archives of photo and finish up this foodie adventure of mine.

---

Reading Urbanspoon and some of the local blogs, Ponycat seems to pop up once in a while for a good breakfast. However the thought of going there never crossed our minds and it wasn't until one day we decided, ok lets go.

Looking at the address, I had no idea it was a trot away from Choquette, my weekly source of bread and at one time, pastries.

Back to Ponycat. The place is rather small with an open kitchen so I reckon it was fortunate we got a place outside. The only troublesome thing was the menu is written on a board inside the restaurant and I found myself standing awkwardly in the middle of the restaurant reading the menu, pressured to find something I like.

The menu is a mix of classic dishes with one or two highlights.

Corn pancakes with eggplant relish and bacon was something that caught my eye. However the Wife was too tempted to just walk across to Choquette for that to die for Almond Croissant. Foodwise, the combination of ingredients and flavours worked and strayed away from the good old poached eggs and hollandaise sauce.

The Coffees were a mixed bag. I had a latte that was well made but the Cappuccino came out rather bitter, maybe an over extraction of the espresso shot.

Overall to us, it was another one of those breakfast spots that we would consider over the weekend but not dream about in our sleep.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. A decent breakfast spot in this part of town.

Govinda's @ Brisbane CBD

2011-11-14T07:34:00.000+08:00

It has certainly been a crazy week for me.

Although not cast in stone, throughout the week I have been thinking about a potential move away from Brisvegas. Look if it was 6 months ago and I was single, I be happy to pack up my bags immediately. Now, I have got furniture to think about transporting and whether my other half will find a job too. Of course it goes without saying, Brisbane and I have gone from an unwilling relationship to being good friends.

I guess that is also compounded by work piling on tables by the day. Oh well such is life.

When it is all official, readers, you will be the first to find out.

---

Now back to food, gosh, don't think there was ever a period I haven't blogged for a whole week and a bit.

Friday afternoon and somehow or rather Govinda's became the lunch spot that day for the Wife and I.

Apparently, it is a all you can eat vegetarian buffet although I couldn't see any description of that sort on the menu board. The first serving is done canteen style and dished out for you and if the rather big portion doesn't satisfy you (I didn't see a single one that day go back for seconds), that would be the time to confirm whether it is all you can eat.

For AUD 12 you get the above, dessert and a drink. Not too bad.

Open up the Pappadum and you get an assortment of vegetarian dishes piled on rice. Overall, not fantastic but rather consoling that it was all vegetarian and it should make me more healthy.

Take note that the assortment of items are fixed according to day, so you might want to drop by on different days, unless you are happy with eating the same dish.

If vegetarian indian is not your thing, they do a couple of vegetarian western dishes, like lasagna, pastries and chips.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3 stars out of 5 stars. Something different is what I would call it since my staple lunch diet over the last week has been sushi roll after sushi roll.

Mizu @ New Farm, Brisbane

2011-11-03T08:45:00.000+08:00

We are always on the look out for inspiring breakfast places with a menu that goes beyond the poached eggs, bacon and coffee. After complaining (something I am getting quite good at), one of my friends said if we wanted to try a Japanese breakfast instead. Off we went on a Sunday morning, warm and bright to Mizu.

An immediate bonus about this place was that it was near empty when we walked in at 10am. No long queues, no standing outside the sun and no crying stomach.

Instead of my coffee, we had the green tea latte instead. Done exactly the same way using green tea (powder I suspect). To really appreciate the drink though, I suggest putting a little bit of sugar. The iced version which comes with ice-cream was tempting for a takeaway but luckily a pinch on the leg reminded me that I should be on a diet (of some sorts).

I was expecting a nice big rustic looking okonomiyaki with the lot although at AUD10, you had to be realistic as to what you would get. What I did get was 2 patties which tasted spot on and a nice smiley face with some salad. Not exactly the item to fill me up for half a day but something for a change.

The Bento Box is much more filing and you can see a couple of pickled items used to presumably wake up the sleeping palate. Simple but nice for a change unless eating rice in the morning is not your cup of tea.

Overall, if you are looking for something different and think eating a bento box in the morning might do the trick, Mizu is the place to go. Having tried their food at breakfast which was quite promising, I do want to drop by for a lunch or dinner.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Japanese breakfast, how cool is that?

Jude @ Brisbane, CBD

2011-11-02T07:00:00.000+08:00

To all those who watched the Race that stops the Nation; namely the Melbourne Cup or the Emirates Melbourne Cup, cheers if you won and cheers for time off (officially or unofficially).

Having sneaked out of my office function just after the race that net me a lunch, I thought I share with you a spot in the city which is not much of a secret from the daily crowds.

We had always wanted to try Jude but was put off by a comment made about how it was all about salads and not substantial especially for a guy like me. However when we realised that there was a buy 1 free 1 deal on the Entertainment Card, we thought we might as well make the most out of it.

If there was one down side, it is the lack of menus. The only menu is up on the board which ranges from burgers, fish and ships and etc and then you got a choice of a ton of salads to go with which are on display at one side. For those who are indecisive, you will feel a bit lost in the middle of the crowd, trying to decide what you want to eat.

The Wife originally wanted to try the assorted arancinis but found out you don't get one of each flavour but two of one flavour. With that not as appealing as it did, she settle for good old fish and chips. The fish came out fresh and not dripping in oil and I must say, we found a new spot for chips because the ones at Jude are awesome!

I have been wanting to eat lasagne for awhile and it was an easy choice. Choosing the salad was a hard one though and in the end I thought order something that I would never cook at home; beetroot salad with goats cheese and it was awesome too!

Prices are slightly more than the AUD 10 budget we put to ourselves, with a main, salad and chips closer to AUD 15-18. Add a drink and you are at AUD20. Luckily with the deal on my Entertainment Card, we were right on the budget.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. Cute little place, wholesome food and yummy salads, the only thing that would stop me from coming back often is my AUD10 a meal budget.

Aria Brisbane @ Brisbane CBD

2011-10-27T11:36:00.000+08:00

I can't believe this is my 900th post and to celebrate such a momentous occasion, I thought I celebrate this with our anniversary meal we had at one of the more famous restaurants in Brisbane.

Aria is famous for both I guess the right and wrong reasons. Right because it is opened by a high profile chef by the name of Matt Moran (think MasterChef) and with a view of the river, wrong because Matt Moran appears to be more interested in spending more time on TV (think MasterChef) and writing cookbooks than running the kitchen.

Fueled by its reputation, it was quite sad we only managed a 2 hour slot on a Saturday evening, which was too short to dig into the degustation menu. If there was a lesson to learn, I have got to book way in advance if I want to dine in a nice place on a weekend night.

Walk into the restaurant and it oozes professionalism, a formal greeting and someone to walk you to your table. The ambience is quite formal but the dark tones gives off a romantic feel but at the same time suitable to also say, discuss a million dollar deal.

I guess a comment by the Wife was that the waitress serving us that night had quite a horrible coloured eye liner making her a bit scary.

Aside from bad make up, we took our time to scan the menu and settled on an entree, main and dessert.

An amuse bouche of pea soup laced with parmesan oil I believe. Meant to drink it as a shot, it was smooth, distinct flavours but not overly intriguing.

Time and time again, I have said charging for bread is a sin. Thankfully this came complimentary with butter too. Got us chewing on something while our entrees arrived.

Another lesson I learnt that night, don't rely on the fact that there is an online menu. Barely two weeks since the meal, there is now a new online menu and guess what, the tuna dish we had that night is no longer available. Based on my fading memory, it was a duo of tuna tartare and a seared tuna loin accompanied with drops of a sweet and tangy sauce (no, it doesn't sound too posh from how i described it). Beautifully cooked and tasted brilliant.

One of the features of this restaurant is the fancy pretty plating. It is a joy to just stare at the plate before you realise you are meant to eat it.

The pork belly I believe is a signature dish but unfortunately it didn't live to its expectations. The crackling wasn't over crunchy and the meat wasn't exactly melt in your mouth. The use of black bean sauce wasn't the best idea even though it was a good idea to bring a savoury element to the dish. The apple puree was brilliant (although I realise that is quite easy to make; apples and sugar).

If I was being critical, I think the waiting time to the mains was slightly too long.

The mains consisted of a duck breast with a duck filling pastry and a rather bitter witlof with parsnip puree. The duck breast could have done with 30 seconds more for the Wife who is not the biggest fan of medium rare cooked meat but I love how crispy the skin was. The pastry brings another element to the dish and makes it a very substantial main.

There was a lamb loin and a bit of a shank on the plate served with a mini capsicum filled with cous cous. Give me well cooked meat and I am a happy man. However the use of a sweet spiced caper paste didn't exactly suited our taste buds. Again a very substantial main.

At this point I would be a very happy man but I succumbed to a suggestion to share a side dish. Like the waitress commented that night, "you can never take the chippies out from the men".

Boy the chips were good.

I am guilty to report that I polished the whole plate. It was just that good along with a generous amount of aioli.

At this point I was probably close to being in a coma but we were greedy and it was after all an anniversary meal, so we ordered desserts too.

The Banofee is a signature which seems to be retained in their latest version of their online menu. Smooth and made sweeter with the ripe banana slices and the ice-cream, this was a very satisfying dessert, especially we have recently reined in our sweet tooth and limit it to fruits on weekday nights.

This screamed chocolate, chocolate and chocolate. However, honeycomb and my teeth don't mix very well. The honeycomb was particularly chewy and just created a mess in my mouth and we had to leave most of the pieces alone. Special mention to their ice-cream, gosh it's good.

While there were many praises over their plating, well cooked meat and creativeness (plus the chips!), for a hatted restaurants, there were some negatives too. Depending on who served you, the description of your dish was vague or detailed. Unfortunately, we were being served by a girl who didn't exactly take her time to describe anything else than what she saw on the plate while the waiter next to us took his time going through how the meat was cooked and etc. Some of the elements on the dish wasn't perfect and perhaps fusion gone wrong like the black bean sauce in the pork belly and the spiced caper paste.

As expected, a 3 course meal with a drink and a coffee is in the region of AUD130-150. Since i am mentioning coffee, the latte here despite costing AUD7.50 (with petit fours) is one of the best i had!

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. Some of their ideas may not suit and some would say their ambience be a bit too formal for their liking but you can't deny the fact that their food is good in most parts and if their standard remains, I don't see why they should not stay in the top range of town.

MOS Burger @ Sunnybank, Brisbane

2011-10-26T10:05:00.000+08:00

There's something about MOS burgers and I.

Although I can't remember the days when they were in Malaysia, I do remember asking my friend to fetch me to a place that sells some when I was down in Singapore and not to mention grabbing a couple of them at the subway stations in Taipei as a snack.

Its the same urge as wanting to eat McDonalds overseas so you can have a pork patty in it because the ones in Malaysia are pork free.

So it surprised me that it took me so long to visit them (considering they have been open since April this year).

After the initial rush of patrons when they first opened, the place was considerably much quiet on a Friday night with plenty of seats. With MOS burgers, your first choice is to go for the rice burgers, after all that is one of the key differences between them and the other fast food options.

Instead of bread, you get rice, not to mention a variety of asian fillings.

Despite all that, the Wife chose the Fish Fillet Burger. Familiar? Think Fillet o Fish. Yeah, that one, looks the same, tastes the same but not the same.

There was no way I was going to order anything but a rice burger. The okonomiyaki rice burger was delicious. With bonito flakes, familiar sauce and all, the only complaint is size. Looking to fill yourself? You need two. The other rice burger had the familiar filling of beef slices but be warned, it get can a bit stringy causing a bit of a mess.

Prices are average, around the AUD10 mark if you have 2 burgers only or alternatively a burger set with drink and chips.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. I am biased, always loved MOS and will always love MOS.

AJ Noodles House @ Brisbane

2011-10-24T08:33:00.000+08:00

Back in Malaysia, if you happen to work in an area that has more air-con dining places than not, the challenge is always to find a lunch that would cost you less than RM10. Even a year ago, RM10 was always a stretch for me, with the only feasible options being the pork noodle shop that was a sweaty walk away and if I control myself; banana leaf rice, mamak food or your usual fast food joints.

Think healthy like Subway and be slapped with a RM25 bill for a foot long sandwich and a drink. Think air conditioning and you will also need to look really hard and I still remember the good old days of spending on days; RM20 - RM25 for a lunch.

The challenge is also the same in Australia and but thankfully if you look closely, you can get quite a number of options for AUD10. The easiest option for me is the really popular Katsu Curry rice which can be had for AUD7 i believe or 3 sushi rolls for the same price.

Recently, we been popping by AJ, a Vietnamese (and Chinese) casual place run by people who speak Cantonese.

Although sharing a plate of spring rolls will blow that budget of AUD10 per pax, it is worth ordering. Piping hot, the filling is delicious and you can also doubt the authenticity of the dish but you will find this hard to go wrong.

Having had this twice, I must say the first time, the soup was slightly too sweet but dashes of fish sauce fixed the problem. The second round, the soup was just right. They are also quite generous with their beef slices and noodles.

However as the hotter months loom upon us, I think I might be giving the pho a skip and go to their lemongrass pork chop salads instead but AJ won't be seeing the end of me yet.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. Fit the budget and fits my palate, the only problem is lack of seating but it is compensated with the quick turnover.

Hakataya Noodle Shop @ Sunnybank, Brisbane

2011-10-20T10:25:00.000+08:00

There appears to be no end to my adventure in Japanese cuisine. Continuing on with Japanese food and me, we have got Hakataya Ramen today.

With Hakataya, the events leading to this lunch was very much an adventure of its own. We wanted to try this place but twice we were put off by the long queue and decided to eat elsewhere. On the third attempt, we decided we will pop by on a Friday early night only to find out it was sold out!

Finally in our fourth attempt, we braved through the queue and was finally rewarded a bowl of ramen.

Despite the long queue, their system is simple but very logical. You queue up and you will be served once there are empty seats available. You put your order, pay up and wait patiently for a mere 5 minutes before you are rewarded.

For AUD 13, you get a bowl of Ramen with the richest pork stock one can get with melt in your mouth pork belly (char siew). According to the flyer, the stock is cooked over 39 hours, meaning somewhere somehow, a container of stock is being cooked continuously daily. The portion of noodles is not plenty but you will be happy to know you can get a free bowl of noodles (only) if you ask for it. Add some grinded sesame and you are good to go.

One of the variations uses chili but I feel the spiciness overpowers all that goodness from the rich pork stock.

A must try.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. They are opening up another outlet so lets hope the quality remains but the queue is shorten. Now I don't have to envy all those in Malaysia screaming Hallelujah after a number of pork ramen shops have opened.

Wagaya @ Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

2011-10-17T09:04:00.000+08:00

I think I am on a roll with all things Japanese. Another post on Japanese food for all of you.

Wagaya has been a frequent name that I have spotted in blogs and on my Facebook news feed recently. Following the trend of some bigger restaurants in Sydney by opening a branch in Brisbane, there was this initial hype about the big menu and ordering on a touch screen so much so that a friend chose Wagaya to be the place for celebrating her birthday. Had it not been for the event, I doubt I would wonder to this side of town on a Saturday night, although you may find it comforting to know that there is reduced fee of AUD 5 for Wagaya customers if you choose to park indoors.

Back to Wagaya, walking in the pretty large restaurant, there is the immediate generic ambience of Japanese restaurants in Malaysia, especially the ones situated in shopping malls. By no means is that bad but there is a sense of SOP (standard operating procedure) in everything, making everything rather cold.

You are greeted with the standard "i ra shai ma se" by waitresses of different nationalities, my friends and I could spot Korean and Chinese but no Japanese among the waitresses. You are then quickly lead to your seat and taught how to operate the almost idiot proof touch screen where you can order your drinks, food and even call for the bill.

The menu is indeed large and covers all the essentials.

Those familiar with a particular Hong Kong TV game show would know where the inspiration of this dish comes from. 6 pieces of ordinarily looking salmon sushi with one piece that has more wasabi than rice. Luckily, it was the friend sitting next to me who got the unlucky piece and teared instantly, followed by choking.

The soft shell crab maki had decent amounts of that deep fried beauty and if there was one complaint, it would be the batter was slightly on the thick side.

This must have been a roll ordered by my friend because I absolutely don't recall eating this. Plus side was the copious amounts of roe topping.

Any sushi platter that comes with a raw prawn deserve plus points. When it also comes with sea urchin, you can have some more plus points. A good mix of seafood with the only let down coming from the rice. Lack of rice vinegar or the use of questionable quality rice could have caused the ball of rice to not hold its shape and being grainy.

No complaints with the adegashi tofu. This was quite good.

The chicken kara age was pretty good too.

Overall you can't help but feel that the kitchen must have operated with SOP vs. an individual chef and his brigade let free to do their own thing, especially from the number of items on the menu. Credit must be given at the efficiency of the touch screen system, orders were dished out with accuracy and speed. More privacy for those who don't like to be asked every 10 minutes if everything is alright. To me, if you want generic Japanese food and quick services, this is the place.

However as someone who very much prefers a cozy small place, once is probably enough for me.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3 stars out of 5 stars. A generic Japanese restaurant with a generic menu.

Sakana @ Clayfield, Brisbane

2011-10-14T08:26:00.000+08:00

Going with the Japanese theme from my last Salmon Don post, I thought I go with the flow and let you in on a place up at Clayfield where we also do our grocery shopping. Although I can't credit myself for finding this place (that credit goes to a newspaper who was doing a top 5 place for Japanese food / sushi rolls), it was nevertheless a pat in the back for actually checking out Sakana.

The place is small cozy, the inside can probably accommodate around 20 pax, with the option of sitting outside. If you look at the menu, you will see that it skew towards sushi rolls and their sizzling plates. Having read about how good their sushi rolls, we had to order one. Deciding against a sizzling plate which looks and smelled good from across the other table, we ordered something healthier; chirashi sushi.

A simple salad with a vinaigrette dressing and the basic miso soup to start the meal.

The sushi rolls are all huge and fusion styled. We had a topping of crab meat and tempura batter and inside was filled with cream cheese and unagi. I believe the other 10 options have some familiar items like soft shell crab and salmon avocado but otherwise its a mish mash of everything.

Back to the roll, it was good and pretty much substantial enough to fill up one person.

However the chirashi sushi seemed a bit lacking. The cuts of fish was unexciting, quite thin in cut and I guess I expected maybe a slice or two more for AUD20 (especially after how much salmon sashimi I yielded for AUD20).

Otherwise, the other slight disappointment is realising the restaurant is run by Koreans. No offence to the Koreans but a sign of authenticity is matching the nationality of the cooking staff with the cuisine served. However since we are talking about fusion sushi, who cares (especially half the sushi stalls are manned by Koreans in town)?

Will definitely come back for somemore sushi rolls.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. I have always had a soft spot for small cozy restaurants that serve decent food. Sakana fits the bill.

Joe can cook! Season 2 Episode 3: Salmon Don with Skin

2011-10-12T07:12:00.000+08:00

This is technically not the hardest of recipes, matter of fact, the only cooking required is putting the salmon skin in the oven. However, having not used the DSLR for months and letting it rot in a black box in a corner of the unit, I couldn't resist taking it out for a few snaps.

It looks like the camera is still serving me well and looking at my own pictures, I would love to dig into a bowl of this for lunch.

Once too often, we find ourselves paying AUD 15-20 for a bowl of rice topped with some salmon sashimi but can we not make it ourselves for a much cheaper price?

It looks like we can! Excuse my ignorance but for the longest times I have been going to fishmongers looking out for sashimi quality salmon. Until one day, I couldn't take it anymore and asked, where can I get some. Guess what? The whole salmon that I was buying is sashimi grade to begin with! For AUD 25 per kg, the 3 kg salmon can yield a lot of sashimi I tell you!

Best discovery is finding whole salmon for AUD 15 per kg at Yuen's market in the Valley that is according to them is also sashimi grade!

How to assemble:

1. What we do is usually cut the belly section out for eating sashimi and it actually makes it easier to portion the rest out evenly.

2. Cut the skin out, seasoned with salt and pepper and pop it in the oven on grill mode till it crisps up like a cracker.

3. Cook some Japanese / Korean short grain rice, cool down and mix with some rice vinegar (the one meant for sushi).

4. Assemble everything together like the picture.

Voila! You have got a pretty good healthy meal!

Oktoberfest @ Bavarian Bier Cafe

2011-10-10T09:24:00.000+08:00

Before I let this slip past into the wrong end of October, it is time to celebrate Oktoberfest. Now although the name suggests Oktoberfest, I am told the celebration officially starts from late September and well, it can end anytime you want I presume.

So bring on the big mugs of imported beer and feast on all the good fried things that goes well with it like schnitzel and pork belly.

We were lucky to be invited to Bavarian Bier Cafe that night when they were going to officiate the event by opening a keg of imported Lowenbrau or was it Hofbrau or some other beer that literally has the ability to quench your thirst.

As fresh as it comes.

We were also treated to some finger food which I found out to take some pictures of but to get a picture, it was a range of German pub food; sausages, pork belly, schnitzels, chips, wedges and so on and so forth. Even though the portions were small and we had to corner the waiters, it was in good fun picking on a bit of everything.

Having eaten here once before and left quite happy too (may I add), it shouldn't be too long before heading back.

So if you guys are looking for a place to drink some beer, Bavarian Bier Cafe seems like a safe bet to me.

Hancook @ Annerley Road, Brisbane

2011-10-06T09:20:00.000+08:00

It appears that all these Korean / Japanese newspapers you see by the entrance of the Asian grocery stores is pretty useful. Apart from giving that feeling of home to the koreans or the japanese, it is an advertising haven that shows you where the latest asian restaurants are opening at. My friend being one of them must take a copy whenever he does his grocery shopping.

While Hancook is not exactly new (this is when the newspaper comes handy), my friend told me a new chef had taken the helm of the kitchen and the food has improved tremendously. One to always get a bite of asian food, we took his word and decided to dine there (with him, of course).

Before we started the meal, we were giving a round flat disc which pops up into a towel when water is poured on them. Ingenious! If only luggage on holiday could shrink with such technology.

The beginning of every korean meal is their side dishes or known as ban chan. While I am used to seeing mountains of these dishes, Hancook serves three including the absolute essential kim chi.

One of the bigger reasons for eating korean that night was for some bosam or a braised pork belly. Apparently as easy as it sounds or look, my korean friend says this method of cooking involves tying up the meat, a few rounds of braising and other funky procedures which results in almost no oil dripping from the sliced meat (despite the layer of fat). Eaten as is with an oyster kim chi or if you prefer wrapped with lettuce, the portion was generous. Tastewise, I had a better one at Maru but this was not shabby at all.

We thought no way 3 of us would be satisfied with order one plate of Bosam so I tasked my friend to choose a hotpot. Despite how "unkorean" this looked and sound, it is quite a staple diet in Korea. Kim chi soup with luncheon meat, sausages, cheese along with noodles and dumplings. I actually loved it, I mean who doesn't love to sneak in a meal of processed meat?

Prices are also much cheaper in some ways when you look at the huge portions with us paying around AUD20 per pax.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Not the best in town but certainly one of the best I have tried to date.

Ipoh Laksa @ Kangaroo Point, Brisbane

2011-10-03T08:50:00.000+08:00

I should start blogging according to date of consumption instead of adopting the Last In First Out method. With so many 'older' pictures stuck in the later pages of my Flickr account untouched, it makes it that much harder to even remember where the place was, not to mention talking about flavours.

Rewind back to Malaysia's National Day on August 31, the patriotism in me sounded out to my stomach and consequently my head for some local Malaysian food to celebrate the day Malaysia became an independent country. Whether there was a noble cause for us to drive out that night for dinner or just any reason we could think of, I leave it up to you to decide.

With a name like Ipoh Laksa, Ipoh being a town where Mom was born and raised which a 2 hour drive away from Kuala Lumpur, we went in, fingers crossed that the food would be good. A quick browse at the menu shows a range of familiar sounding dishes; the roti canai, the rendangs, curries, noodles and rice. Not overly "Ipoh" in my books which to me is all about smooth hor fun soup served alongside poached chicken and beansprouts or salt baked chicken (about the only items I must have when I visit Ipoh).

We decided to give Hokkien Mee a try, a dish that this place in Melbourne has replicated almost to the dot. Lookwise, the noodles used were too thin, apparently a problem that my friend in the business is facing. The only alternative to thick huge yellow noodles you get in this dish is udon noodles but the price of a packet is probably two-three times the price of yellow noodles. However tastewise, it scored pretty big points with the use of pork lard pieces. A bit more dark soya sauce in the dish would like cherry on top of an icing cake.

Ipoh Hor Fun to me, is a hor fun in broth that is made from chicken and prawn heads served with some poached chicken breast and prawns. However, this version is more akin to a Wat Dan Hor. The flavours were pretty good but slightly more of that eggy sauce would be nice.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Near enough for me with average prices and familiar flavours ticks all the right boxes for me. Won't mind sampling a few more dishes.

Burger Urge @ New Farm, Brisbane

2011-09-30T12:00:00.001+08:00

Someone commented on the blog recently to ask me to give Burger Urge a go after seeing how happy I was with my simple burger and fries at Grill'd.

It could not have been a better time as soon after I spotted a deal at one of the group buying sites; 2 burgers and fries for AUD 17 (50%)!

Needless to say I bought it and finally took us a couple of weeks before we found time to try the burgers and fries.

With two destinations, both decently nearby our place, we voted to go to the one at New Farm. Not the biggest of places and with an open kitchen that has alot of grilling and deep frying involved, try your best not to sit inside or do a takeaway like most people seem to be doing.

We went in a group of 7-8 so the only choice was the long table inside.

The verdict on the burgers? I think Burger Urge gets top marks in terms of the different burgers on the menu. Very creative with some of the items compared to the Grill'd menu which got a bit boring when we went back on a monthly basis. The premium Wagyu Burger with blue cheese cost me an additional AUD 2 with the voucher was a good choice. The blue cheese wasn't overpowering and to be honest, in a burger, you can't really taste wagyu over normal beef.

Another thing, the portions look bigger than Grill'd.

The someone told me that the sweet potato fries were to die for as well but it was a hit and miss for me. It is special since its sweet potato, healthier since it is sweet potato but felt slightly too soggy and not crunchy probably because it is sweet potato. In this respect, I still think the regular fries at Grill'd wins but you may think otherwise.

So if you are looking for an alternative to Grill'd, I suggest Burger Urge, similar prices, similar concept but different combinations. The only let down is probably the open kitchen and the lack of seating in the New Farm outlet.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Good sized burgers and the option of sweet potato fries that appears to drive some people nuts about them.

Joe can cook! Season 2 Episode 2: Good Old Lotus Root Soup

2011-09-28T08:00:00.001+08:00

One of the things I miss most about home is the soup that Mom cooks almost on a daily basis. The extra effort of cooking it over charcoal outside the house and letting it simmer from day to dawn is to die for after a long day's work. Not to mention (I suspect) a big bowl of soup helps me fill up since I was almost on a 3-4 weekday carb free dinner regime over the last few years.

It never cross my mind that I should venture into cooking soup on my own, I mean how hard is it to chop a few carrots, potatoes, onions and chicken and simmer in a pot of boiling water for a couple of hours (which by the way makes for a good ABC soup).

Hankering for some lotus root soup, the day came when we saw some at the market. After buying some, I realised I still had no idea how to make it so after resorting to the internet, we found an easy recipe from Rasa Malaysia which I hope she doesn't mind if i share with you all with a couple of tweaks.

Despite my mother's practice of not keeping leftovers especially soup, I love how I can make a big batch and individually freeze them for a simple dinner the day after so its up to you.

My best purchase for the kitchen so far, a 8.9 litre stock pot which sadly has gone into repair after a couple of months when one of the handles dropped off!

Drink it as a first course or eat it with some rice, its up to you!

Recipe:

1. The recipe roughly calls for 300 grams of pork (bone or meat) to 1 litre of water.

For the soup, I use a mix of pork bone, soft pork bone and pork ribs (the asian butcher at the Valley is a good source, especially their special pork ribs)

2. Boil your meat before hand to get rid of the impurities - 5-10 minutes in boiling water should get rid of some but not all, any longer and I believe you are eating into the flavour.

3. Boil the water and put in your pre-boiled meat and bones, bring to a boil and let it simmer.

4. Skim away the impurities as they float to the surface, preferably skim away majority of it before you proceed with putting the below ingredients. This should take a good 15-20 minutes.

5. With the lotus roots, peel off the skin, wash and cut in medium size slices before putting it into the pot.

6. Finally, the magic ingredient to put in is dates. The recipe calls for red dates and dried honey dates. Use 5 red dates and 1 dried honey date per 1 litre of water. Can be easily found in an asian grocer. The dried honey dates give the soup a very sweet tone to it so if you don't fancy the soup being too sweet, skip it or reduce the quantity.

7. Let it simmer away for as long as you can, I say 2-3 hours will be good but more time means more flavour. However keep in mind if you do put in some meaty pork ribs, it is perfect after 2 hours of cooking and can be too soft to eat if you cook it any longer (so if you want to cook it for half a day, add the pork ribs in the last 2 hours of cooking time).

8. Have a taste and if you think there's a need to season with salt, go ahead, its a personal preference.

9. To serve, pour yourself a bowl of soup, add a couple of the lotus root and the pork ribs you put in ( you can throw away the pork bones).

Lets hope I can get through the lazy cooking bug and actually cook something worthy of a recipe post soon!

Restaurant Two @ Edward Street, Brisbane

2011-09-26T09:39:00.000+08:00

Last year, I celebrated my birthday in Melbourne, jobless. Not exactly the best of conditions to call and make a reservation at a hatted restaurant and splurge on a degustation menu. However that being said, I had a quiet night with a few cousins and a home made birthday cake too.

This year, with a job, with a Wife that has a job, I was given liberty to choose a restaurant with no expenses spared (even though the menu and prices had to be pre-approved, to avoid any heart attack on the table).

Always one up for a bargain, I took to the Entertainment Book and Restaurant II (or Two) popped up. Being a two hatted restaurant (however unlike Sydney and Melbourne, I couldn't find an official list online except for the Australian Good Food Guide which gave it a score of 16/20, meaning two hats), expectations were huge and the wallet was filled up enough to go for a 9 course meal.

Walking into the restaurant on a weekday night, the first impression you get is the place is very serious. With the wooden flooring and a safe ambience, it is a place for a formal meal. I woudn't say I hated the layout but felt with all the space they had, they could have either space out the tables really far away from each other to give everyone alot of privacy vs. a dining space that was at one area, with the front housing the rather long bar.

Formal or not, we sat down and got right into it.

Before you start to ask why the pictures are not up to scratch, I resorted to the iPhone after deciding I wouldn't want to be taking pictures with a big camera at such a formal restaurant.

Sourdough bread with good old butter and an amuse bouche in the form of a tuna tartare. Observe how uneven the portions were, a point that should be picked up before leaving the kitchen.

The Celeriac Soup, Pheasant, Wood Mushrooms and Chestnuts, Walnut Cream was poured table side which allowed you to have a glimpse of the treasures before a thick creamy soup covers it. The Wife not being the biggest fan of celery immediately found the familiar note and didn't exactly like it after that. For me, it was a good old creamy soup with the right accompaniments.

I must have missed out the picture for the salad of baby beetroot, fennel, goats curd, pistachio, toasted grains, orange, pomegranate, hone and chardonnay vinegar. It was alright but beautifully plate but otherwise the only flavour you get is from the goats curd. With two dishes that were slightly above average at best, the Wife and I were waiting to be wowed.

The Game Terrine of Pheasant, Guinea Fowl, Venison, Rabbit, Duck and Gooralie Pork, Truffle, Foie Gras and condiments being the third dish didn't do it . With so many animals and ingredients in the terrine, my palate seriously couldn't identify the elements. However as a whole, I wouldn't mind the dish, just not a dish that I would order.

The Moussaka of Seared XL Hervey Bay Scallops and Eggplant, Taramasalata, Smoked Tomato Butter, Crisp Onion Salad, I believe is a classic signature dish of Restaurant Two and I can identify with that. Every component worked except my scallop was seared on one side and to be honest, it was too rare for me. I contemplated probably twice to return it back before I let it go and polished off everything.

Sauteed Gnocchi, Roasted Rannoch Farm Quail, Tombe of Sweetbreads and Mushrooms, Thyme Cream again was not the best we had. The quail could have done with more colour and the gnocchi wasn't as light as it could be. By this point, the Wife asked if she could take back her offer on paying for the meal and bring me to somewhere else instead. This was not heading in the right direction.

The disaster continued with the Roast Corn Fed Duck Breast, Sweet Potato, Steamed Broccolini, Date and Tamarind Puree, Braised Shitake and Lentils, Honey Mandarin Sauce. The duck breast was cooked well, despite the small portion but the puree was over powering against the sauce. The sweet potato and broccolini looked and tasted ordinary and the lentils were just out of place. As much as I wanted to like the dish, I don't think I can.

The Best End of "Milly Hill" Lamb and Spiced Boneless Shank, Buttered Cabbage, Red Vegetable Crumble, Peas, Rosemary Garlic Jus shot himself/herself on the foot. While the cutlet was impeccable, the shank tasted gamey. What made it worse in the eyes of the Wife was the "creativeness" they put into the plate i.e. buttered cabbage and peas.

At this point, while I couldn't fault the portions because I was stuffed, I wasn't impressed at all. The Wife also revealed that she called to see if they could arrange a small birthday cake / dessert but was rejected. In the end, the compromise was we will write it somewhere on the dessert plate.

This by the way is not on the degustation menu. We requested to forgo the cheese and the dessert course for this dessert platter to share and lets just say it was probably the best moment of the night. Note the promise of the happy birthday note was missing (although to clarify, I was greeted Happy Birthday at the door).

6 different kind of desserts; if I can remember correctly, one was a sticky date pudding, a corn theme dessert, a chocolate fondant, creme brulee, a deconstructed tiramisu and a cucumber stripe with something else or rather. I could write a whole page about this but in summary, this was faultless except maybe by the time we ooh and aahed and finished the dessert one by one, the ice-cream was close to melting.

Each was beautifully constructed with different textures, modern in taste and all painted out like a masterpiece. What we failed to understand is how come the way they approach desserts is not replicated across their rather boring and mundane menu.

A closer look at their August menu (which has not been updated on their website) reveals the same protein and cooking style with slight tweaks here and there on their degustation menu. The produce used was no doubt one of the best around town but I think in our meal, it was in some cases not executed perfectly and in others it was too safe.

I can very understand the theory of don't fix anything that is not broken with Restaurant Two successfully being awarded the hats year in and out but I think it is about time they think about conceptualise their menu the same way they approach their modern dessert platter.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3 stars out of 5 stars. A very formal dining environment making it the perfect scene to seal a deal but the safe and rather boring menu did not do it for us. At AUD 140 per pax for the 9 course degustation menu (we got 25% off from our Entertainment Card), we can safely say though, we won't be back soon.

Grub Street @ Samford Road, Brisbane

2011-09-21T06:55:00.000+08:00

Having stayed in Brisbane for almost a year an heavily relying on the GPS, we ventured up North again looking for some inspiring breakfast.

Now unlike an encyclopedia of bloggers in Malaysia where you are updated of every single new place, the place to be and the place to avoid, there aren't too many sources to rely upon. After reading the piece from Couriermail on their top 10 or 12 breakfast spots to visit in Brisbane, we decided to venture North again.

After exploring this part of town where we found Elixir HQ , we decided we will head back to the area and find Grub Street.

Funny of the day: Although I keep referring to this part of town as a new playground to me, it was only last weekend that I realised Chermside, one of the bigger if not the biggest shopping centre where we waste our hours during the weekends was also up North! So the North is not exactly new to me!

Back to Grub Street. You are greeted in the front door where the open kitchen is and obviously where all the good smell comes from too. Fortunately the dining area is in another room, so that you don't end up smelling like bacon and eggs.

While coffee isn't as refined as some I have been drinking lately, it is still a decent latte that would not fall out of place in Australia.

I ordered the Asian Pulled Pork Omelette with chilli jam, herb salad & black vinegar dressing which sounded like the item to inspire me to go searching for more breakfast places once again. It did not fail me with the similar flavours of a good char kuey teow (minus the kueh teow). While the pulled pork was slightly dry, the result from getting the lean bits, the rest of the dish was flawless. The result from probably an inspiration from South East Asia that was done with enough integrity, if only i can bring in some blanched kuey teow with me. The chili jam was more of a spicy sambal, so an excellent condiment.

The Haloumi & zuchinni fritters with poached eggs, spinach, za'atar & smoky eggplant was much lighter than my heavy omelette. The fritters were crispy and had a good bite, dipped with the egg yolk and smoky eggplant. I question whether a piece of bread would have been good to mop up any liquid yolk and dip but it seems like it was more than enough for the Wife.

The sweet tooth struck again with the choice going to a rhubarb and apple muffin if I remember correctly, not overly sweet, nice chunky pieces of rhubarb and apple, it made for the perfect end.

The place seems more cozier and friendlier, without so much the "snobbish" or "classy" feeling you get in places closer to the city. A place that I would like to come back again since they also change their menu quite regularly.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. The breakfast place that perked up the taste buds, can't wait to find another new breakfast place instead of resorting to stuffing myself silly with dim sum.

Sunnybank Oriental @ Sunnybank, Brisbane

2011-09-19T07:00:00.000+08:00

If you are reading this and you were in Brisbane yesterday, you and I would have felt the sudden change in warm weather; welcoming Spring which is exactly a whole cycle since I landed in Australia.

With the car thermometer showing 33 degrees, our whole house felt like an oven and we resorted to driving about, looking for a place to eat, preferably with air-con. Our drive yesterday lead us to Sunnybank, with half a mind to buy lotus root to cook soup. The original idea of having ramen at Sunnybank Plaza was dashed after seeing the queue of a dozen people.

Walking around and seeing a rather mouthwatering menu on display, we walked into Sunnybank Oriental. With quite a number of people inside, it had to be at least half decent. Indeed it was.

Although the menu probably had 50 or more items and we ordered two, i must say we were lucky to order two items that were satisfyingly enough.

The Wat Dan Hor is becoming quite a staple order when we eat in places that serves one. The love of eating hor fun in an egg based sauce started from the days of university where we frequently visited this place and ordered nothing but Wat Dan Hor. For those wondering what is Wat Dan Hor, it is usually called "Combination Noodles something or rather". While the version in Sunnybank Oriental is not the best, i will happily order this again.

When the claypot beef brisket arrived, I was in shock at the portion. For AUD 14.90, the claypot can easily feed two plus the bowl of rice that is filled to the brim. Full of flavour and not overly spiced, even the Wife who will usually shy away at the dish was picking into it happily.

Finishing off the meal with a huge glass of "yin yeong" or a glass of milk coffee and tea in one was a good choice.

After going back to Urbanspoon to look up on this place and reading comments like small portions and average food, I better be thanking my lucky stars that our meal was enormous and tasted above average in my books.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Asian cafe with a huge variety of rice and noodle dishes, not to mention again, huge portions that can you eat half and take away half for your next meal, what more can I ask for?

Moo Moo The Wine Bar & Grill @ Brisbane

2011-09-15T07:00:00.000+08:00

The farewell of a recent friend who decided that her next destination was Melbourne called for a good meal. With the Entertainment Book not being utilised enough, i flipped the book again and decided we were going to have some good steak at Moo Moo.

A year ago, I told myself that there was no point in eating steak outside. I could easily buy a nice cut of Wagyu Ribeye for AUD 25 that would cost me 3-4 times more to eat it outside. With plenty of practice, I could usually nail the meat the way I like it to be; medium rare. However, something will always be lacking and its that charcoal grill that the restaurants get to use and I must admit another reason why we chose Moo Moos was I secretly want to eat steak outside again.

With a restaurant that builds its concept around the Cow, you are greeted with a fridge of meat at the entrance that gets you thinking of which cut and area should be on your plate. In fact it should never cross your mind that you should order something non Beef in this restaurant.

The amuse bouche was a Wagyu meat ball. Not the most creative of starts and lets be honest, no one takes a good cut of Wagyu to make items like meat balls unless its a cut no one wants or its past its prime. Nevertheless, a good bite to start things off.

Something that irritates me though is that in a fine dining restaurant or a restaurant of this class, why is bread not complimentary but instead as an item on the appetiser list, furthermore at 4 dollars per pax?

With a student amongst the crowd, we were conscious on costs, so we skipped past the appetisers and got straight onto the mains.

I don't think I have ever tried dried age beef, always cooking fresh cuts. First impression is that the beef is less juicy and the redness of the meat does look a bit more cooked than medium rare. Flavourwise, it was pack a punch. The Moo Moo In House Dry Aged Black Angus Ribeye on the Bone was a good choice for me. However, for 400 grams, it did look a tad smaller on the plate.

The other steaks we had that night include AACO Wagyu, the Stockland Wagyu and the Cape Grim. From Striploin, Sirloin and Tenderloin, everyone was happy with their steaks. The same problem with one of the Wagyu was again the size. At 300 grams, we expected a thickness worthy of cutting into, but we got a really thin cut instead.

As you can see, it is served with a simple roast tomato and half a lemon, so it called for some worthy sides.

A pear, parmesan and rocket salad, some roast potatoes with chorizo and some onion rings (picture below) completed the meal. All very worthy of ordering and we were loving it. Amongst the long list, the truffle mash potatoes was also very tempting.

We didn't stay for dessert, opting to have a scoop of gelati at Rosalie but we were "warned" that it was a huge mistake to not order their signature chocolate brownie. Maybe next time.

With the Entertainment Card discount, the final price of around AUD70 per pax including what turned out to be a decent Shiraz (with a markup of almost 250%) is not too bad considering I can never replicate the meal without a proper charcoal grill.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. With no price advantage the next time we visit, I am told Cha Cha Char is another worthy rival of this place, so it might be a while before I save enough money in the piggy bank to try that one and come back to Moo Moo.

Taste Gallery @ Sunnybank, Brisbane

2011-09-12T07:00:00.000+08:00

Having not been to Market Square for a while, it almost seemed like Taste Gallery had magically opened up over night in a spot that I have no memory of what it was before. With the newer restaurants in Sunnybank, this was done up nicely with the open display similar to Ding Tai Fung. Specialising in all things dumpling, the menu surprised me with a glaring omission of noodles. After all, when I think of dumplings like xiao long bao, I think of my handmade noodles too. Instead, Taste Gallery does a myriad of dishes that are meant to be shared and to be accompanied with rice.

With a small appetite and two other mouths to feed, we opt for a couple of dumplings and some side dishes instead of going all out like a banquet.

San Cheen Bao is like a steam bun with a meat filling that has been cooked similarly to a wor tip ("dumpling"). So what you get is a crispy bottom and a soft top and when you bite into it, hopefully some of the juices from the filling will spill out. What we got was exactly just that, the way I like it to be.

Unfortunately, the wor tip or the dumplings was a disaster. You are meant to get a crisp bottom and soft top but the whole dumpling was just hard. The dough texture didn't seem right at all.

The xiao long bao was pretty good except for two facts: 1. They expect you to pay extra for ginger slices, a prerequisite for eating xiao long bao and 2. It was not hot enough, almost as if it has been sitting out of the steamer too long.

The stir fry rice cake was good but it was this dish that suddenly got me flashing back to the first time we had Shanghainese food in Brisbane, pretty close isn't? Slightly sweet and savoury, it is definitely a better alternative to eating fried rice, an item that I usually avoid at all cost outside.

With so many side dishes, I finally settled on a stir fry beef with a copious amount of mayonnaise that was unnecessary. With beef slices in a Chinese restaurant, you can half expect them to tenderise it with baking soda or with something else to that effect. The plus point is that the beef almost requires no chewing.

Another staple dish that I associate with Shanghainese cuisine is the drunken chicken. Awhile back I attempted to make the same dish and lets just say it will be a while before you see that recipe in this blog as it failed quite miserably. This on the other hand was cooked to perfection but lacking a sauce and more chinese wine would be appreciated.

The food that night didn't exactly impress although I have heard more positive reviews if you go in the day (a suspicion that the dumplings are made fresh during the day) vs. eating at night. With a clean decor and slightly above average prices, it is still a good option for those who frequent Market Square.

Point to note, this place is opened by the same people as Shangpaign Kitchen so if you find yourself wanting to eat some dumplings without wanting to wait for a table, you can always get very similar food, a 5 minute drive away.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3 stars out of 5 stars. I am not convinced just yet with the quality of dumplings that night but from the crowd day in and out, I am pretty sure there's a couple of gems in the menu, waiting for me to unearth.

Elixir Coffee HQ @ Stafford, Brisbane

2011-09-06T09:35:00.000+08:00

It is wonderful how a casual chat with a local about coffee lead me to this place. With the owners' mother being the first person in Brisbane to open a coffee roasting house yonks ago, it smelled of serious business. Being so excited, we decided to venture to the Northern suburbs one Saturday morning.

Speaking of the North, we realised that we have never ventured North before, with most of our meals / hang out spots pretty much in Central Brisbane and our Asian cravings down South. Just last week, we visited another promising breakfast spot in the area too, so look out North, I can't wait to see what you got to offer.

Elixir is unlike the pretentious, quirky or soothing cafes we have been visiting so far, situated in a warehouse in an industrial area. With lots of industrial equipment, probably part and parcel of the roasting business, we stepped into the casual cafe, bustling with people.

The first place that we been to that offered tasting cards was Dandelion & Driftwood, Elixir is the second. At the counter, you should also see a vast display of different coffee beans on offer to buy back too.

The verdict? One of the best coffees we had this year. Worth the journey up, just for this or maybe the Zambian beans was right up our taste buds.

Foodwise, the menu is rather simple and basic with Italian elements.

Technically under the Lunch Menu, we ordered the Arancini which was pre-made and heated in the Micro-oven on order. Disappointing because you lose all the hot, crispy batter you expect but dig deep into the filling and it is quite satisfying.

We have been very "healthy" in the sense that we stay away from white bread. Although, it does say sour dough on the menu, it tasted pretty much like white bread and we loved it, especially with that vanilla bean ricotta spread and that home made raspberry jam.

Elixir is a serious place for coffee but similar to Dandelion and Driftwood, the food menu is not their forte. However, if you think about the location being in an industrial area, the food menu is satisfying but should be less refined and lack finesse (no offence to the industrial workers), it all pans out. In any case, it shouldn't distract one to visit for the ultimate purposes; the coffee.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. At this rate I am sniffing out the good coffee places, I can actually console myself that I can get as good of a coffee than Melbourne, even though if it means I have to drive a distance for some of them.

Guzman Y Gomez @ Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

2011-09-02T12:05:00.001+08:00

Over the last months, we have been reading of a wave of Mexican cuisine that has settled into Brisbane but never really got around to trying it out. Mexican is something new particularly to Malaysia with the only options being nachos, fajitas and etc that you get from Chilli's and probably a handful of other restaurants.

In Brisbane, one of the names floating around is Guzman Y Gomez. While it sounds all fancy, it is essentially a fast food outlet that serves Mexican staples; nachos, burrito and tacos and most importantly to others, alcohol. Prices are slightly above your main stream outlets like McDonalds and KFC.

What I like about this outlet at the Emporium is parking, although it is a bit of a hit and miss, since it is quite limited.

I think they have gotten their logo right, nice and bright.

Once you get the expectation that this is a fast food place, the sparse fixtures seems alright.

The nachos was pretty good; fresh guacamole, beans and beef topped generously on crunchy nachos.

Truth to be told, this was the first time i ever had a burrito. What's inside? A choice of chicken, beef or fish, rice and beans, a lovely sauce that ties everything together. While I know of some who are not huge fans of the rice or the beans, I eat anything so this was a good all in one meal. Unless of course, if you need more, you can order some tacos too.

A choice of hard or soft tacos, the hard one probably tasting like the nachos, the soft tortilla with similar burrito fillings minus the rice I believe.

Overall, a good introduction to Mexican food even though I do not have a clue as to how authentic this would be. I don't see why I wouldn't come back but that being said, with so many mexican places to try, it might be a while before I pop by for a revisit.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Cheap mexican food with the option of beer to go with it, whats there not to like?

Tukka @ West End, Brisbane

2011-08-29T07:47:00.000+08:00

Whilst Modern Australian cuisine is making a scene throughout Australia, it hasn't reached the status of representing Australian cuisine. Ask anyone what kind of food they think of in the same sentence as Australia, I am pretty sure the answer would not be fine dining, just yet.

So it was a great task when my brother in law asked what is something representative of Australia (that you can find in Brisbane) that he could not eat back in Malaysia. That was when Tukka came to mind.

Specialising in game meats, this was the place to take someone to eat meats that were rather uniquely Australian; kangaroo, crocodile, emu and so on. I must say that suggestion definitely got myself a pat on the back because the boys were kind of intrigued while the girls were squirming at the thought of eating game meats.

Anyways, back to Tukka.

An amuse bouche of barramundi cerviche was light and bright, with a hint of sweetness. A good start.

When I first googled up on Tukka, it seems like everyone had ordered the tasting platter. In a way its a good choice because there is a lot of native meats, fruits and berries that is definitely not on your everyday dinner plate. The meats ranged from kangaroo prosciutto to cured emu, while an assortment of berries and fruits made their way in the form of candied and dried and some damper and salad to finish it all off. The damper was a very dense bread roll but what made it so delicious was the macadamia oil and dukkah you eat it with.

Next up was the crocodile tenderloin cured in Daintree vanilla bean, served with fennel remoulade and lemon aspen puree. Its been yonks since I had crocodile meat, going back to the days of studying so it was a refresher to me. Looks like chicken but tasted more like turkey, you wouldn't have thought of anything more until you been told this was crocodile meat.

Kangaroo can be a very tough meat to eat and needs to be cooked perfectly well. Anything past medium rare and it is usually quite hard to chew and swallow. Served alongside rhubarb and watercress puree, honey glazed parsnips and a lavender jus, this was a very simple dish that focuses on the main meat.

Slow roasted whole goat with a lemon aspen glaze, roasted almonds, seasonal greens and cauliflower puree was rather gamey, eventhough it was cooked to melt in your mouth texture. I guess despite the care they took in presenting their vegetables, I wonder if presenting the meat that way was a bad idea, making it look like it came out from a tin.

Overall, it was an interesting dinner at Tukka, the dishes looked simple with the focus on the protein and I guess there is always that novelty, especially useful if you bring overseas guest with an adventurous tummy. However, not exactly my cup of tea and definitely wasn't the Wife's too so returning here is rather remote at this stage.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3 stars out of 5 stars. I must admit the idea is rather interesting and definitely appeals if you got to find a place to entertain some overseas guests but apart from that, I can't see myself eating crocodile or kangaroo month in and out.

Fifth Battery Coffee Roasters @ Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

2011-08-26T12:23:00.000+08:00

Just a quick one to round up the week; looking for a place where they treat coffee seriously? It looks like I have found another gem, this time rather nearby my place. Barely a couple of minutes drive away, I initially hesitated to give this a go, since the address was in the Valley, because the Valley has always been known to be dodgy and the lack of parking.

Thankfully the half dome that houses this aromatic place is on Warry Street, the quieter side of the Valley during the day, with a number of side parking.

You know when the place is serious about their coffee if you see that:

1. They roast their own beans
2. If they serve their coffee done as a double ristretto (as standard)

Fifth Battery Coffee Roasters does both.

It was a rather quiet place for a Saturday morning, with the more famous breakfast places probably packed to the brim. A reason could be down to their rather simple breakfast menu and it being a place for some serious coffee. Fine by me, I never did like crowds, where possible and I really care more about coffee since my palate is still jaded from the same old poached eggs, bacon, hash and etc.

Their coffee is up there with some of the nicer coffees I had in Brisbane, the double shot has a decent oomph and matter of fact, the Wife found it too strong for her.

Our light breakfast options included an almond croissant which was half decent, not as good as let's say Le Bon Choix or Choquette but good enough for AUD3.50.

Their famous Brekky Buger which appears to be synonymous with the place is a simple bacon, egg, cheese and a bit of aioli. Definitely more posh than the breakfast muffin you get at the fast food joints.

If you are looking for some serious coffee and don't really care for an elaborate breakfast, this is the place to go; added bonus since this is so near my place.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. I will be back again.

Fish Lovers @ Rosalie, Brisbane

2011-08-24T07:25:00.001+08:00

While sipping coffee and flipping through the newspapers one Saturday morning, we came across the article "Brisbane best Fish n Chips". What can I say, the words "Fish" and "Chips" must have hit the belly button and I knew exactly what we were going to have for lunch. Alas, without remembering the name of the shop and roughly remembering the address as a number on Baroona Road, I drove right to the main row of shop lots and saw "Fish Lovers". Well, Baroona Road and Fish n Chips, this must be it, I proclaimed.

However a couple of days later, I guessed I read wrong, it was The Fishery that the newspaper was referring to.

Despite not trying the "best", Fish Lovers is not as bad as it looked.

The place was clean and a variety of fish were on display, for sale as is or cooked to order. Cod and chips bought me back to the days of London and I ordered some, hoping to find a taste of the holiday, four years ago.

It came out looking the part. The fish looked golden brown, perfectly battered and fried. The chips were all thick and chunky, again fried without any signs of sloppiness. Alas, it was lacking in the flavour department. Some bits of the fish was overcooked and it all tasted rather bland, despite all the specks of salt you see on the plate. A rare occasion that I actually didn't finish up all the chips. However being a fan of calamari, I can assure you those rings were gone in no time.

Despite the battered fish not being as good as expected and I was no where near experiencing flash backs of London, I saw effort taken to present this; no burnt bits, neatly presented, so hopefully the next time I visit, a simple grilled fish with a salad might fare better.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3 stars out of 5 stars. A decent place for some fish but unfortunately not what I was looking for. Another weekend of fish and chips, maybe?

Azuma Kushiyaki @ Sydney

2011-08-22T12:05:00.000+08:00

Two weeks ago, work took me to Sydney for a day. Having stayed in Brisbane for almost a year by now, I guess it was a bit of a shock to be suddenly in a CBD that must be at least 2-3 times bigger than Brisbane.

To put things into perspective; to walk from 225 George Street to 501 George Street in Brisbane, it is a 450 metre 5-6 minute walk compared to a 1.3km walk in Sydney on the same street. Without forgetting the size, there were probably twice or three times the amount of people and pollution on the same street.

I find it funny that being a city boy after living in one for majority of my life, I found myself rather lost in Sydney.

However, with so much food in every nook and corner, I guess that's a big plus point if work was to ever take me up there.

So back to food, with enough time to slot dinner in with two old friends which dates back to my university days, I fumbled around reviews to find a place that was close enough and chanced upon Azuma Kushiyaki, a place that apparently Tetsuya the man himself, enjoys dining in.

With a friend that was on "diet", we ordered some healthier dishes accompanied with a rather good white wine.

We started off with an assortment of sashimi but truth to be told apart, from the freshness, I was looking for slightly more variety apart from the staple salmon, tuna and hamachi.

The famous seared Tuna salad fared much better, seared tuna with a dressing that was so yummy that I would have mopped it up with bread if I was in an Italian restaurant. Alot of "umami" as some would describe.

In keeping with the healthy direction of my friend's diet, we ordered an assorted platter of sushi that had the prerequisites. Hand made with small little balls of rice versus large blocks in machine made ones, this was quite standard fare but tasted good.

I love a good miso eggplant or Nasu Dengaku, having failed miserably in numerous attempts to make this, I have resorted to ordering this whenever I can. Despite the miso topping tasting absolutely fabulous, the eggplant was soaked in oil, evident from a nudge of the chopsticks.

Unagi Yanagawa would have been perfect with some rice but by now, the wine had kicked in and we were laughing over stuff we did yonks ago and had it as is. Perfect for the cool weather though especially that night when i was down.

With Kushiyaki part of the restaurant's name, I would be foolish not to sneak in these grilled sticks into our meal. Part of the assorted selection we got was a wagyu steak, wagyu tongue, chicken teriyaki, duck, okra, prawn and scallop. I wasn't incredibly impressed with the over seasoning which made bits and pieces rather salty, the overcooked scallops and a rather unpleasant duck.

Despite the ups and downs, this is a nice laid back restaurant that serves some good old classic dishes and is right smack in the CBD (a rather big CBD though) and I guess for Sydney standards, paying AUD 60 including wine is expected.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Not exactly very impressed but still very decent for a meal of Japanese.

Norman Hotel @ Woollongabba, Brisbane

2011-08-18T07:00:00.001+08:00

It's been a tiring few days recently with the in laws (dad, mom and brother) in town. Despite how big I think my one bedroom apartment is to the Wife and I, accommodating another three persons can be quite a task. However all that being said, I had fun knowing them better and funny to say this, the place now seems too quiet for comfort.

Moons ago, we put our brains on overdrive to create a relaxing, entertaining and educating itinerary to cover Brisbane and the coasts. However, being a foodie and the Wife, a converted foodie; our trip was all based around on food; namely breakfast, lunch and dinner.

On the day of their arrival, we decided for dinner, it would have to be a good pub meal; namely steak and chips. Without wanting to break the bank account, we ditched the Moo Moos and the Char Chars, we surveyed around and decided that we had to go for the most extreme, the worst vegetarian restaurant in Brisbane; Norman Hotel.

With a display of their freshest produce and cuts, you pick the cut, the size, the sauce and off you wait. A pity that the chips had to be a side order because their steak comes standard with a salad and a baked potato.

To kick things off, we shared some pork ribs and oysters kilpatrick. The ribs were nothing too flashy, a tangy sauce and tender meat. The in laws preferred the oysters uncooked but loved the simple idea of putting some worcestershire sauce and bacon as a topping.

We had an early start that day that involved being at the Coolangatta airport at 7.30am and it had to be tiredness because I ditched the ribeye on the bone and that crazy chunk of striploin for a humble rib eye (although it was still a large portion that I wanted). On any normal day, I would have definitely gone for the bigger cuts. Prices were around AUD30+ for a steak main.

Cooked according to how we want, I love the charring on the meat, the good size portions and the salad but wasn't too crazy over the sauce. However since it was an open kitchen, I did see that the chef who was cooking the steaks did take quite a few stabs at the steaks to see if it was done correctly. Thankfully, ours must have escaped his knife since it still came out quite juicy.

Service is non existent as you pay at the counter and take your own food at the counter. For the price that the in laws paid (they won the battle of who foots the bill), we thought the Caxton Hotel might have that been little better since they had a waitress serving us and the ventilation was way better.

Else it was quite entertaining reading how the Norman Hotel took on the tag line of being the worst vegetarian restaurant as evident by all the cow they serve.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. If you want steak, you get steak and this is one place that you can't get escape without ordering some cow.

Corner Store Cafe @ Toowong, Brisbane

2011-08-15T07:30:00.000+08:00

As the search for the best breakfast place continues, the journey that weekend took us to Corner Store Cafe. Being in Toowong raised some eyebrows as the area is usually filled with students and flats.

With no competition in tow, it should be no surprise that we were greeted with plenty of parked cars surrounding what was otherwise a quiet residential area. Walk towards the cafe and you will be greeted with a huge crowd of guests waiting in line. Bookings are a must if you want to get a sniff of the breakfast served.

A large open area greeted us, plenty of sunlight and with the winter wind, it was comfortable enough to eat outside with a warm coffee. Not my kind of place though if it is hot and humid.

The breakfast menu is largely standard and that day the Wife was exceptionally uninspired and ordered toast, poached eggs and chorizo.

Exactly what she got. The poached eggs were done pretty well but apart from that, it is as standard as breakfast meals can get.

This couldn't have been a better time to jot down what I thought of the Croque Madame, having had one at PourBoy this morning. Comparing to the latter, this was very satisfying, lots of cheese, bechamel sauce, generous slices of ham and the fried egg takes the spot. If yo want something much lighter and healthier, PourBoy has a version with a poached egg and djion mayonnaise.

The table was booked for 10am but just in case the crowd doesn't make you feel bad for staying too long, the next booking is clearly displayed on the table to let you know when you need to leave.

Overall another breakfast spot, a huge crowd, standard breakfast fare but on a nice cooling day, sitting outside is a nice change. As expected, a huge crowd also means a long waiting time.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. It be the perfect place if it wasn't too crowded and service was that little bit faster.

Glamorous Wok @ Sunnybank, Brisbane

2011-08-12T07:28:00.001+08:00

Eating in a big group is especially fun when you are trying out a new place; technically the best time that I can sample as many dishes without coming back the second or third time. However, have you ever faced a dilemma as to who should do the ordering or what should be ordered?

Usually, I do the ordering after asking what are the must haves and the don't wants around the table. That night, I decided I become diplomatic and got everyone to choose a dish. Whether that was such a good idea, lets take a look at what we were up to at Glamorous Wok, a new Taiwanese restaurant in town, a place you can't get a table at without a booking.

Similar to the concept we get in the shopping centres of Kuala Lumpur, the place feels fresh, new and modern with a colour printed menu (with a number of spelling errors). Compared to the dated places that has already been around for donkey years, it appeals in that sense.

One of the must have dishes when it is available is the simple poached chicken. This was done quite well but with such a long period between eating it and writing about it, the taste of it has become quite a blur. However, I do know that this was one of the better dishes that night.

The problem lies when you let each person dictate what they want to eat is allowing someone to order the above. The pig intestines were cooked in a gingery soup, which doesn't sound the most palatable dish and also tasted in the same manner. Despite the strong ginger, the slightly foul flavour from the intestines was still obvious, rendering this dish only for the serious offal fan.

I like variety, including meats but another problem with letting everyone choose a dish, is a replication of meats. However that may not be a bad thing as the three cup chicken with stick sweet sauce and basil leaves was a good choice too. Probably one of the most authentic versions I had in Brisbane so far.

The bean curd has a silky thick corn starch sauce with a topping of minced fish meat. This was one of the better dishes, calm and mild, and I must say a genius idea to put it on individual spoons.

A very disappointing dish; on paper it sounded brilliant; salted egg yolks and bitter gourd. While we all had in mind something that was stir fried, it came in a pool of sauce that was frankly quite putting off.

With a roller coaster of a food experience, we ended with a high, the beans looked deep fried and tossed with minced meat. Like I have always said before, anything deep fried is always healthy.

Fast forward a month or two, we recently popped back to the restaurant but was faced with a full house, so clearly they are doing something right. It might be worthwhile to pop by again to see if the dishes are more consistent or a case of knowing what to order.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 3 stars out of 5 stars. Not the best meal that night unfortunately, but there is certainly some potential with some dishes and the constant crowd.

My Thai @ Rosalie, Brisbane

2011-08-10T08:00:00.000+08:00

My Thai reminds me of a place that we order takeaway meals from quite a bit when we were studying back in Adelaide. The food is authentic and good enough and is pretty affordable. Powered by an elderly Thai lady that has been doing this for a long time, we heard about this place before the floods came. However after taking them awhile to get back on their feet, the numerous places to try along the way, we finally found our way.

The menu is extensive, with a lot of classic dishes as well as some dishes that the head chef has created along the way. The problem with eating as a couple though is how many dishes can you really order before you surrender to the spiciness and coconut cream.

We started off the tom yum soup; spicy and sour with a couple of prawns to round it up. I don't really go for tom yum so I have to hand it to the Wife. So what did she say? She said alright, so I guess this is might be worthwhile ordering.

If you read my blog enough, you should have half expected to see the picture above. If there was one thing, the Pad Thai was missing one essential ingredient; the grounded peanuts. Apart from that, the noodles were cooked nicely, slightly on the sweet side with quite generous ingredients.

I was quite impressed with the Red Duck Curry because for one, it must have been the first time that I have seen so many duck slices in one portion. Thai food has never been a cuisine that focuses on huge portions and I must applaud that for the AUD25 we paid, we got our worth. Flavourwise, this was slightly too creamy.

Served with rice, I had to call it a day by the time I put the last slice of duck in my mouth. However with the basic curry and noodles passing the test, My Thai will be in the list of restaurants to go to for Thai food in Brisbane. With the take away prices almost 20% cheaper than dine in prices, I see myself taking away more often than dining in though.

Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Satisfying Thai food with a casual ambience, I am quite glad I have discovered My Thai.

Esquire @ Brisbane

2011-08-08T09:52:00.002+08:00

Before the comment of "the new kid on the block" becomes invalid, I thought I introduce you to Esquire, instead of starting with a "After hearing about this restaurant for the umpteenth time, I finally found the time..".

Branded as the second restaurant in Brisbane to serve a degustation menu only, one can see that option in two ways. Cynically; limited wastage, cheapest produce of the day, no fuss in the kitchen and a big fat price tag. Alternatively, it exudes class, a cuisine experience and allow the diners to experience and be surprised with a flight of dishes.

Located along Eagle Street, the restaurant entrance is discreet. A plain wooden door awaited us after being lead into the corridor from the small logo display, without any sign that you have entered the correct place. The worse thing that can happen is walking in, only to realise that you are at the wrong place.

However once you are greeted and lead to your table, the excitement begins (well for me at least). After contemplating for months as to whether I should revert to my once upon a time lifestyle of eating good food outside, we decided that life is too short to keep eating food from Sunnybank. Without any prior booking though, I decided to try my luck with Esquire first and lo and behold a call 3 hours before dinner and we got ourselves a reservation.

With an open kitchen so near our table, I caught some of the calm cooking action and plating as well as a bit too much smell on the clothes for comfort.

Despite a single page menu, a sweet snack of nuts flavoured with thyme is served to get you munching while deciding what to eat and drink. With a decent range of wines, you can also choose to be satisfied with the free quirky tap water that has a block of charcoal in the pitcher.

I understand the menu changes daily, so don't be surprised if you don't see any of the dishes on the menu. Then again, I don't have the budget to verify that obviously. Do you? Another interesting thing is that the menu is bare basic, with a few key words to keep you guessing until you actually see the dish.

After the nuts, came the cracker. A squid ink cracker with small brown drops of jalapeno gel. Crunchy and slightly spicy from the jalapeno, we loved the small bites being presented even before the meal started.

It was here, that I realise some tables had a third snack before the meal, but I was well behaved and decided not to ask for some.

After looking into the menu again, I realised that this was not meant to be the first course of our 8 courses. Presumably complimentary since someone had set off the fire alarm and we were evacuated out of the restaurant for a good 10 minutes. I would have been slightly disappointed if I had to pay for this dish despite the pretty plating. A couple of kettle chips, squirts of slightly acidic avocado cream and a very mild bottargo sprinkle. Not what I envisioned.

Thankfully things picked up from here. Although it looks simple, you can appreciate the effort put into making the cuttlefish noodles, the fresh split peas, the herbs and the sharp lemon tang that you should sparingly stretch through the noodles.

Next was a rainbow trout that was cooked on top of charcoal that rendered it slightly smoky and was offset with some sweet elements in the form of walnuts and honey. The Wife found the honey was slightly too sweet for a savoury piece of fish.

We both loved the potato gnocchi, tender octopus and charred leeks. Tied together in a slightly citrus sauce which I can't put any more words to especially the only memory of the dish was going "ohh arrr yumm hummm" over the octopus. Looking at the menu obviously doesn't help and it isn't really my habit of taking a notebook to eat.

When I saw the word Kobe on the menu and a price of 90 dollars, I thought I was going to reach heaven. However as the saying goes, good things come in small packages and the kobe was indeed "small", sliced thinly enough and sandwiched in a crispy jerky. Served in a paper envelope, I thought this was slightly playful and made the dining experience more relaxing instead of feeling all uptight.

The palate cleanser was a plum and campari granita, sweet and sour. The white rectangle you see there was an edible wrapper of something fizzy. Put together it served its purpose of a palate cleanser without a touch or two of imagination.

With that, we were told that we will be served our last savoury course of the night before we proceeded to desserts. Part of me regretted not to have gone the full blown 12 course but looking back, the extra AUD40 for another two small entrees and another dessert could have been better well spent.

On the menu, it said Callote and truth to be told, I didn't have a clue what it was. Half expecting a flying creature from some nether region, we were served something very familiar, a cut of beef done medium rare. Nothing a Google can't do, this was apparently a cut of the bottom sirloin or also known as a tri-tip. Always a first for everything. Served with artichokes and the horseradish cream, there's no better way to ending a meal with a juicy steak (except that this was more of a slice).

The first of the dessert course was a piece of abstract art. Despite the thick chocolate mousse looking like it slipped from the spoon, it allowed us to take a bite of it then dip it into the coconut ice-cream without the two combining into a mess. The orange dots were packed very acidic, so each spoonful we had were carefully rationed.

A good concept of ending a meal; strawberries, both fresh and dehydrated in form, strawberry syrup or juice and curd. Acting as a palate cleanser, it lives you leaving the restaurant, with a neutral palate. Although halfway into the dessert, the Wife found fennel seeds and stayed away from it like the plague. Back in Malaysia, these are the same seeds that you see sitting in a bowl at the cashier of your typical banana leaf meal. Sickly sweet and a spice that you either love or hate, the Wife clearly didn't like it. Where as I was more than happy to finish her portion.

Not to mention, when we paid the bill we were each given an envelope of chocolate with the logo, again a nice touch.

Overall, for AUD90, I must say it wasn't overly expensive, at an average of AUD10 per plate, you get quality food and plates of art. While servings can be slightly larger for some (i.e me), I guess you can always go to 12 courses to feel really satisfied.

Loved the direction of the food and slightly casual setting, good service (except for the mishap of the fire alarm which couldn't be helped) and I like to see myself eating here again, when I next feel that life is too short.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. This direction of degustation is slightly different from what I am used to; substantial portions. However, if you are a dainty eater, this place is for you, as every dish was balanced in terms of texture and flavour.