Archive for category Restaurant
Hooked
Posted by tzuyen in Restaurant on April 2, 2010
I had plenty of fish and chips this year. Sitting in the afternoon sun watching kids and parents casting their rods. Sea gulls flying and stalking my food with caution. I cannot say no to fresh fish, battered and deep fried, served with crispy thick chips and a squeeze of lemon. Any other way I wont have it.
Lunch box @ $12
There is a trend to have bok-choy or brown rice to accompany fish? Please no. Don’t say you went to a “fish and chips” shop. When I think fish and chips, I need the real greasy stuff, all the way to my fingers and mouth. Hooked on 172 Chapel st, Windsor has had some pretty good reviews and it’s time to get my fix. I really like the feel of this little restaurant. No wider than a single fronted Victorian house, the 2 well worn wooden benches are as real as the ones found by the beach minus the sea gull poo. The wall was coloured in motifs of boats and the ocean. The 2010 Cheap Eats awarded the Best Communal Table right here.
Best communal table according to 2010 Cheap Eats (not for me)
We ordered the lunch box with the battered fish and hand cut chips. The batter was crisp and not too oily. Fish was standard. Not wow kind of fresh. Chips tasted very good, but the hand cut bit seemed a bit lazy with chips sizes and length varying so much. Sweet potato crisps were added but not needed. To me, good fish and chips is simple. Get the freshest piece of fish, batter it and deep fry it. Freshness is paramount. I am not an expert in batter so I wont comment on it. Chips don’t need to weigh 90% of the entire pack. Chips needs to be crisp and cannot be overly or unevenly salted.
Menu
However good the food is, I wish I could hear the sea gulls sing again and watch them fight over left over bits of chips. The smell of the ocean spray, the waves gliding over a sandy beach. Warm sun, the company. You know, all the nice things you can’t replace in a city.
Window
(My favorite communal table is at Brother Baba Budan. Especially the seat at the corner of the window and the wall.)
Photos de Shiranui – the soy nazi
Posted by tzuyen in Restaurant on March 4, 2010
I challenge people to find better nigiri sushi and sashimi in Melbourne than ones from Shiranui. I could eat this when I am full, when I am hungry, when I am cold or when the weather is searing 35 degrees (even better). The dedication to freshness and quality is when you bite into each hand-crafted morsels. The rice is perfectly shaped, packed so they wont fall apart but loose enough to feel soft in the mouth. I heard from various food shows that it takes about 10 years for a sushi chef to master the art of shaping the rice. The fish is very fresh, the cuts are clean with no blood or visible connective tissue.
Interestingly, fish that is too fresh doesn’t taste as good as after they have ‘rested’ for a short period of time. It had something to do with rigor mortis making the flesh a bit touch and crunchy. The resting time varies between species and season. A bit like resting steak after it’s cooked or how espresso coffee taste better a week after roasting (rather than on the day of the roasting).
For my lunch at Shiranui on the weekend, we had the set lunches of sushi and sashimi. I forgot they don’t do omakase at lunch (unless booked), where you just leave the chef to decide what to serve you. Omakase means “it’s up to you” in Japanese I believe. When we were just watching the chef at work after eating out meals, he was putting some sea urchin roe into boxes, presumably for dinner service. I could not resist asking whether we could have some now. The chef agreed. The moment of surprise came when he some how spotted my soy sauce dish was already taken by the waitress and needed replacing. We were sitting at the sushi counter but my soy dish was placed in a blind spot close to the fridge. There was no way he could have known where my soy dish was (plus, my friend’s dish was visible and present). He must have noticed the waitress taking it away 5 minutes ago! Now that is attention to detail.
Note, when going for the omakase at night, listen to the chef when he explains whether the nigiri needs soy or not. Some come pre-seasoned with salt or soy already and a wrong move will cause his head to rapidly turn from his chopping and slicing towards the offending chopsitck holder. Shiranui: 247 Springvale Road Glen Waverley VIC 3150 Phone (03) 9886 7755
Cumulus – top eating experience in Melbourne
Posted by tzuyen in Restaurant on February 9, 2010
New Zealand is beautiful. I keep thinking that when the world gets more and more crowded, the South Island will become a very sought after place. Buy a property there now! There is plenty of water, scenery, and green pastures for food. I have just returned from a holiday in New Zealand including the Milford trek. So happy, along with bunjy jumping.
Just before I left for my trip, 4 of us went to Cumulus Inc. for dinner. When people come to visit Melbourne, and there was one place you could take them to eat, I think this is it. Fine food in casual, shared setting. No table cloths, no lengthy speech about how to eat your food. The dishes ranges from delicate fine dining style to home/rustic (last year’s truffle gnocchi!) but all designed to share. After dinner, you could take them for a walk along Little Flinder’s Lane, past Kenzan, Coda, Yu-yu, Movida and see some graffiti in narrow laneways.
We ended up having 12 dishes all up, and if not including wine or oysters, the bill came would be $40 per person. Two dishes were the favorites of the day. The crispy school prawns with chili, garlic and spring onions was sweet, juicy and the shells all edible. Surely inspired from travels in Asia. Second was the mussels, jamon, parsley and saffron sauce. Perfectly balanced flavours that we have never seen with mussels. We certainly did not forget to ask for more of the white sourdough/wet-dough bread to mop up the sauce. That bread is always so nice, I could order just the prawns and mussels and my evening would be complete.
Going again tonight =)
The Spanish wave in The Royal Mail
Posted by tzuyen in Restaurant on December 7, 2009
This blog – Cooking Issues – by chefs of the French Culinary Institute of America is 100% food for thought. I am very taken back by the onslaught of the quest for perfection and knowledge in cooking now. I recently got the new edition of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee and I am finding myself unable to stop flipping though this collection of all the whys of cooking and food.
I think this exciting wave of energy was started by the chefs in Basque and Catalonia (of course, I have to say Ferran Adria is a key in this). Even if the techniques discussed are traditional, the science and testing is new. Where else can one find a topic on fish killing by spinal cord destruction and fish anesthesia? And a detailed description on the Japanese art of killing fish.
Last week we went to The Royal Mail. Dan Hunter, head chef, worked in Mugaritz for 2 years before starting at Royal Mail. There is definitely some of the wildness in creativity but it is used spariingly. His food now is based showing the best and freshness of ingredients. The food is at times simple and allows customers to experience what a pea really should taste like. Some Japanese influences in flavours too. Many of the vegetables are grown on site or picked from the wild.
Check out more photos from my facebook
Ding Tai Fong V Hu Tong Dumplings
Posted by tzuyen in Restaurant on November 22, 2009
Photos of Hu Tong Dumpling House
A few weeks ago a few of us went to Sydney’s Ding Tai Fong for xiao long bao. After reading Matt Preston’s positive review of Hu Tong Dumpling House in Market Lane, Melbourne I was determined to try it out and come up with a winner for people mad about dumplings.
I quite like the upstairs seating in Hu Tong. The colourful squares of window has a ‘Melbourne warehouse’ feel.
Straight to the dumplings. Ding Tai Fong’s creations was superb. A good balance of meat and soup. The pastry was thin. The sauce supplied was plentiful along with a head of young ginger. Hu Tong Dumpling House’s parcels had a pastry that was parhaps slightly thinner. But the pork filling was lost in the soup. I think the ratio of soup to pork was too much and the dumplings didn’t have substance in the mouth. The pork also had a slight boody taste to it. And sadly they probably ran out of ginger and sauce that night because we had 2-3 slivers of ginger plus people had to share bottles of sauce that evening.
Other dishes included chilli pork green beans which were excellent in both places. Matt commented that Hu Tong had more choices in terms of non-dumpling dishes. While this is true, Ding Tai Fong offeres more than enough dishes plus they have many more types of dumplings, including a crab roe + pork combinaiton that is just devine.
Service wise, there is no compairson. Ding Tai Fong makes you actually feel welcome. While the staff at Hu Tong look rather ticked off at their on busy schedual. Either way, both retaurants have a long waiting line. So book ahead or arrive early. Someone told be that Hu tong dosent take bookings between 6-8pm but customers did arrive with bookings at that time when I visited.
So there it is. Ding Tai Fong wins. Dumplings.
Xiao long bao all over
Posted by tzuyen in Restaurant on November 5, 2009
Most of us have had it before. A warm parcel of porky and soupy goodness in a membrane of dough translucent thin. Soupy because stock/soup was actually mixed into the mince mixture. Ding Tai Fong fom Taiwan has now over 50 branches around the world. Notably 7 in Singapore – more than in Taipei, the origin of the restaurant. I still remeber going to the original shop years ago. The taste was so visceral that it was difficult to wait for the dumplings to cool before eating it. I knew it was going to burn my mouth. I like to put my dumpling on a spoon, dipped in the vinegar, soy and ginger sauce and bust the goodness in my mouth.
On my recent trip to Sydney, I was very happy and almost a bit taken back by the sudden wave of Taiwanese dishes and flavours. The drunken chicken, long beans, hot and sour soup and taro desserts were all bringing back memories. Matt Preston delared a month ago in The Epicure that Hu Tong Dumplings was better than Ding Tai Fong. I have to try. I have doubts. I will tell Matt to go to Taipei and put some dumplings in his mouth.
On a side note, Bo Innovations in Hong Kong has a good use of the spherication technique developed by Ferran Adria. Chef Leung, serves up a dumpling without the pastry, enclosed by it’s own juices. Think about it.
Lake House with natural sunlight from the left!
Posted by tzuyen in Restaurant on July 28, 2009
Look at the photo! That is natural sunlight from the left!
Can I say how nice is it to have sunlight warm my face while sitting indoors for a delicious lunch? And, knowing that I didn’t have to work the next day. And, that we were going to watch Harry Potter after lunch?
Food was very good with the best dish of smoked eel wrapped in pancetta. Alla Wolf-Taska’s Russian background was subtle but in her cookbook there was mention of her eating smoked eel as a child. An Russian style crepe with chestnuts also came from that part of the world.
I still don’t get the game parfait cigar. As clever as the presentation was, I don’t think the grey creamy filling was good.
It was a pitty that we didn’t get much time to explore the town and surroundings after the 3.5 hour lunch. I’ll be back soon.
Tapas or pintxos, the sushi bar of Spain
Posted by tzuyen in Photography, Restaurant, Travel on June 24, 2009
In Catalonia and the rest of the world they are called tapas. In Basque they are called pintxos (say ‘pinchos’). Whatever you call these morsels they can range from the most simple bread with a slice of jamon to a delicate construction of a food pyramid. The style of dinning is somewhat similar to the sushi bar yet less formal. You can eat one or two bites and sip glass of rioja and tapa crawl your way through the cobble stone streets or pick your favorite bar and just order until you are happy. The best tapas bars make food to order (like a good sushi bar) but these are rare. Most have batches made and unless you get them early, they will sit and do nothing.
A typical tapas bar, San Sebastian.
Sagardotegi, the Basque cider. The drink is poured from head height from a bottle with a special spout. Here is a little passage from wiki:
In the most traditional sagardotegi, each guest, after having paid in the region of 25 euros, receives a glass and at various intervals a txotx (pronounced [?o?]) is called. At this, everyone who wishes for cider gets up and heads to the lower section of the sagardotegi where the barrels are located. The large barrels, which are stored horizontally, have a small tap in the lid at about head-height. This is opened by the innkeeper or the first guest to reach the barrel and a thin stream of cider exits, which the guests catch with their glasses as low down as possible to aerate the cider. People then return to their tables to continue with their meal and cider until the next txotx is called. Each guest may drink as much cider as they like.
Jamon with little up-side-down hats to catch any dripping fat.
Food crawl
Posted by tzuyen in Melbourne, Restaurant on May 9, 2009
Morning was A Minor Place. Henry’s beans, poached eggs, bacon on sourdough with a good cup of coffee. Love the atmosphere. Wood everywhere, quiet on a suburban weekday morning (cus everyone is working!) and just so comfortable.
Lunch: My friend recommended St Jude Cellers after finding The Commoner not open for weekday lunch. It is a beautiful, brightly sun-lit space with white walls, floor boards and climber plants growing from pots inside. Wine racks are dividers here, though I hope they get drunk before much sunlight get into them. We had the burger. The menu looks promising and definitely worth a return.
5 Hours later it was dinner time. I didn’t book anything (disaster) for a Friday night. Upon walking into Movida Next Door, we were offered 2 seats at the bar without a minutes wait (how is that possible, but disaster averted). Firstly we ordered stuffed calamari, artichokes, prawns, broad-bean tuna salad and Moritz beer. Then our neighbours and us ordered what looked good on each other’s side. We had their spiced potatos and the finished with churros. I was very happy and work is still 24 hours away.
Mmmm…I will cook tomorrow night 
Off to the clouds
Posted by tzuyen in Melbourne, Restaurant on April 30, 2009
I was so happy with the food that I went 3 times in a month last year. After work today, I didn’t want to cook and I needed something good to cheer me up. Ramen just wasn’t going to cut it tonight. We walked past Movida Next Door and it was a 20 minute wait. So be it. I think Movida is getting too much hype and just to proud to be ‘so melbourne’ these days I was happy to give it’s neighbour a miss too. on our walk to Cumulus, I was thinking about the dinner at Svago a few weeks back. Oh, that really was good.
Off to to a cloud
(Photo from their website)
A Tempranillio (plum, smokey/tobacco, fruity) to start
3 pacific oysters: Kumoto SA (small tangy), Coffin Bay SA (creamy sweet) , Moutling Bay TAS (large, sweet and slightly tangy).
Scallops with speck, rasin dressings (salty, sweety, savory and bacon flavours with a well seared scallop)
Cured venison with horseradish cream and smoked tomato puree (a sashimi of a good cut, nice balance)
We happend to bump into a friend my mine, also a frequent visitor, foodie and well informed with wines. He recommended the soup of salt cod with parsely (creamy salt cod soup with a dense textured but lightly flavoured green foam of parsley – surprising combination)
Shredded confit duck leg, roasted and pickled beetroot, watercress, radish and walnut dressing (a stand-out of the night. I could eat a carton of this stuff. I need to get a packet of walnut and blended it now.)
Cassoulet – white beans, smoked Lyonnaise sausage, roast pork strap (a nice, home and rish dish to finish with. Love slow cooked beans)
The dessert recommended by the waiter was excellent. He took our dilema of the lemon jelly versus chocolate souffle and said that the weather commanded the chocolate and also he think that my friend likes the chocolate. Fine, it was good – twice backed chocolate souffle with penut butter ice cream. This souffle has the stamp of AWSOME-NESS. A little denser than a normal souffle, light in texture but so rich and just ‘Oooh, give me another bite’. I will endever to make this. The ice cream was excellent also. not very sweet and just a good clean peanut flavour.
Sherry: blend of Palomino and Pedro Ximénez. Recommended by the waiter to go with chocolate. Some sherries are too sweet but this had a good acidity/fruity character to really compliment the rasin-like sweetness. Give me more! Spain here I come (minus the pig flu).
I walked home. Happy.
On that note… I am off to sleep.