Sunday, June 20, 2010

Orange Part 4 - Racines

As a parting act, lunch at Racine's which was happily situated on a vineyard, and on their wine list, they served mostly local wines and some of their own production. As a change from my usual order of a bold red wine and a strong flavoured meat, I went for a glass of bubblies to start my meal, to match the beautiful crisp (though freezing) weather, and the lovely cool apple green interior.

We started with an amuse-bouche - an appetite opener that starts you salivating, and mentally anticipating a great meal to come - a creamy corn veloute that was so lush, I wanted a whole pot!

Martin had the deboned duck on a bed of lentils and beetroot sauce - beautiful, indulges the sight the touch the smell and the taste. If only it sings!!

The first non-red meat I ordered at a restaurant for a long time - Slow cooked pork belly and pork cheek with apple puree, the pork cheek had amazing texture, which to me is much more exciting than the soft melt in your mouth pork belly, but that's just me! Apple sauce cut the grease of the fat but delicious belly!

Cheese plate - blue, cheddar, soft brie; with pear slices, muscatel and selection of breads and crackers. Really lovely cheddar, dared not to handle the blue, and brie was not as nice as King Island :p


Ah my meal highlight - dessert - peanut butter ice cream and three little doughnuts on beetroot compotes. Tangy beetroot, sweet warm doughnut, wonderfully velvety peanut butter ice cream - heaven!


So that concluded my wonderful culinary trip to Orange and surrounds. Until next time - keep warm and eat up!!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Orange Part 3 - Hatted Tonic

Restaurants with "hats" signify a certain level of exquisite quality, similar to the Michelin stars in Europe, 3 hats are the top tier of Australian restaurants, but 1 hat usually brings joy to those who consider themselves refined diners. Tonic at Millthorpe was a long time favourite by KT who persuaded me to join her when she goes to work in Orange. So we braved the cold at night for some good stuff...

Started with a cream of corn soup to open our palate ... what a shame it was lukewarm.Entree of duck terrine with a balsamic reduction on the side. Absolutely delicious, though the duck pate at l'etoile Paddington was much more enjoyable.Roast whole deboned quail stuffed with rillet on a bed of polenta cake and boiled cabbage. Quail absolute gorgeous, rillett filling very salty which didn't agree with my palate.

Overall the experience was great, food was refined and cooked with much care and love. It was a shame I couldn't fit anymore in after quail so no dessert! Oh dear. The petite four with coffee was very lovely - good way to finish my meal and made me feel better about missing out on their famous dessert menu.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Orange Part I - Ceelo

Freezing Orange called for hearty meal in a cozy house-come-restaurant that was previously Selkirk. now Ceello. Loved the decor - not that I was biased by a room with red walls, not at all ...

Cassulet - Duck confit with white beans, lamb sausage and slow cooked pork belly in a tomato sauce - hearty! Lovely!
Steamed golden syrup pudding - another fantastically warming dessert for this cold winter's night
Panna cotta with tea-poached dried fruit - YUM! It's not quite winter dessert but it was wonderful to end my mealCoffee and petit four. Good coffee!

Will I come back? Yes .. in spring or autumn, but not in the winter freeze!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Orange Part II - Legall Breakfast


Last time I came to Bathurst, I arrived on a Saturday afternoon, when unfortunately Legall was closed, and more unfortunate that it isn't open on Sunday. So I completely missed out on having luscious French pastries for breakfast. I've been shown the goodness of their pastry and the wonderfully tangy tarte aux citron so when an opportunity came to visit Legall, I seized it.

Oh it was decadent. Mini tarts on the counter meant I get to sample as much as my stomach can hold. Lemon tart, date and brulee tart, chocolate macaron (I MUST compare macarons wherever I go) were my breakfast while Martin sampled a deliciously flaky almond croissant.

Lemon tart and date brulee tarts were divine, and prompted me to buy some for later. Macaron was a little disappointing - wasn't very chocolatey, wasn't melt in your mouth, a tad firm in the center, and had a big air pocket under the shell. What a shame.

The next morning we had Legall brioche French toast with maple syrup - simple sophistication. Joy.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

L'Etoile

I was stuck in traffic on a friday evening on my way to L'etoile, so I ILLEGALLY called my gourmet friends to ask what the menu was, so I didn't need to waste too much time poring through the menu deciding on what to eat, making my friends wait.

It was a great idea, not only did I then quickly make the order once I arrived, also it served to entertain me while I sat on the congested Sydney Harbour Bridge. Underlined are what were ordered:

Entree menu included petits poireaux a al vinaigrette de truffe (baby leeks with truffle dressing), potage de lentille et bacon, crouton au lard (speck bacon scented lentil soup and toasted sourdough with cured lard), pate de campagne de canard, contiture d'oignon et pain (duck liver pate with onion jam and sourdough toast), choucrout de la mer, beurre blanc au champagne (seared scallop, steamed mussels, clams and kipfler on saurkraut and champagne beurre blanc), cassollette de ris de veau et de champignons sauvages (veal sweetbread and wild mushroom topped with puff pastry), boudin de St Jacques, bisque de crustaces (silky sausage of scallops with crustacean bisque).

Oh the duck liver pate. Oh the bliss of biting into it. This was more a terrine than a pate, but who cares. Onion jam - delicious sweet red wine and caramelised onion a standard complement to a terrine. Topped with a touch of mustard - oh the flavour explosion, but at the same time subtle, filling my senses with nothing but pleasure. (NB this was similar to what Katie made for xmas 2009 - incredible effort and result). I didn't have the other dishes, but the boudin de St Jacques looked amazingly delicate, and was one of the other entrees I considered. But I could never say no to a good canard!

Salads: Salade de foie de volaille et lardons (salad of chicken livers and crispy speck bacon, raspberry vinegrette) and salade de chevre chaud (melted goats cheese on toast with frisee and walnut)

Plats principaux :
Pochouse de St Pierre et calamar, petits legumes (poached John Dory and calamari, chardonnay sauce, abby vegetables), filet de kingfish roti a la Grenobloise (crispy skinned kingfish with lemon, caper and crouton butter sauce), filet mignon de porc farci au pomme et estragon, sauce au cidre (pan roasted fillet of pork stuffed with apples and tarragon, cider sauce); selle d'agneau roti et parfume a la sauge, legumes glaces (slow roasted lamb saddle scented with sage, glazed baby vegetables), Bavette d'aloyau sauce au poivre et cognac (butcher's steak, black peppercorn and congnac sauce, gratin dauphinois); risotto d'orge aux champignons sauvages (pearl barley risotto with wild mushrooms)

Tossing up between butcher's steak and lamb, decided on the lamb (won't tell you the reason, has a bit to do with work). Oh dear this lamb was out of this world - tender, juicy, evenly throughout the whole piece of meat; not one bit was more cooked than the other except the 1mm or so on the surface. Baby vegetables were the cutest things - both as a delicious side and as a garnish. A bit of sage was rolled inside the lamb and you just get this whiff of sage as you put into your mouth - wonderful. The only thing I cringed was the salt - the lamb was very salty, but I was told that French food can be salty ... oh well. The pork was amazing too, NOT SALTY but just juicy sweet and wonderfully tender.

Side dishes: Petit pois a la francaise (fricassee peas, bacon, spring onions, lettuce); Haricots verts au beurre d'ail (baby beans with garlic butter); pommes frites (potato chips) and salade verte (green salad).

Desserts: the highlight of my meal (see divinedessert.spaces.live.com) - creme brulee, la tarte tatin de maman (mum's caramelised apple tart with sour creme), mousse chocolat et son palmier (dark chocolate mousse with caramelised biscuit), poire belle Helene (poached pear, vanilla bean ice cream, toasted almond, chocolate sauce).

Creme brulee was a good brulee but it didn't blow me away. Vanilla seeds had sunken to the bottom - which often happens, but I have had vanilla seeds throughout the creme brulee once so I don't know if they could have done it better. But Bather's Pavillion creme brulee still reigns supreme. Chocolate mousse was RICH - one mouthful was probably enough, very lush, reminds me very much of the filling for fleur de lys cake.

Overall I will rate this 8/10 - really beautifully executed dishes, attentive service, unfortunately the desserts were, well, fine but no fireworks. I may be unfair though, we were stuffed at that stage, so our appetite probably didn't do it service. Noise in the restaurant - not sure how it could be helped, maybe less tables? The outdoor heaters were a bit too high, it was quite close to the patrons so that's another problem, maybe it could be rectified by having less tables, or use a different type of outdoor heater that doesn't have such direct heat? The tables were also quite close to each other so that if the water is in the aisle guests could be trapped in the meantime. Regardless - I would definitely come back!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Have to somehow get in the habit of updating my blog!

Again it was a while since my last update, as routine DDT update became my focus so it took most of the photos of my amazing good adventures...

Alas, I still have frequent and enjoyable food experiences so from now on I shall add Viva la Cornuta back on my "to blog" list!

Let me start by some of the goodies appreciated in 2010:

For the start of 2010, fellow foodies visited Melbourne via country Vic/NSW, the highlight being Brown Brothers at Milawa, Vic, where every dish from entree to dessert came with a matching Brown Brother's wine, and the servings were generous, not to mention delicious!



It's not easy to get to for most people involved; most of the patrons I believe are on holidays, and thank goodness for a half-way point like Brown Brothers for roadtrippers between Sydney and Melbourne.

Back to Sydney - part of the Sydney Festival, many restaurants offer Sydney Festival food and wine deals where you get a main course and a wine (not matching wine, unfortunately... just house red/white) for $35. We chose Summit Restaurant for its revolving 360 view of Sydney, its beautiful cocktail creations (Orbit Bar) and its delectable dessert selections.

The food and wine deal was average - we concur that we have had better. Thankfully the dessert and cocktails redeemed Summit for us! The chocolate and coffee creme brulee (not mocha creme brulee, but a blob of chocolate creme brulee PLUS a blob of coffee creme brulee) was top notch and we all highly recommended it.

Third place I'd like to introduce to people is Phamish, which is somewhere I've wanted to come to but never did for whatever reason... Its a fusion Asian cuisine, with a blend of flavours from various regions of Asia, in fact apart from calling it SE Asian food, I couldn't put my finger on a particular location; the dishes often have Chinese, Thai and Vienamese flavour elements, sometimes one more distinct than the other, sometimes just blended (eg style A + flavour B). It was very delicious, certainly would return for more, but the purist that I am, I still prefer my "single origin" cuisines!! Highly recommend the duck roll (with egg pastry and tasty tender juicy duck pieces), and crab dumplings (luxurious dish).

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Surviving Spice I Am

Sorry - no photos - when the food came, it was YUMYUMYUMYUM followed by HOTHOTHOTHOT...

For KT's birthday a whole bunch of us went to Spice I Am at Surry Hills, which was a challenge as no bookings allowed, which meant we were very much dependent on everyone arriving on time to secure tables. So we had to secure 2 tables at a time... and grab another when a couple more people arrived... and grab another table when the table next to us had finished...

That did not detract us from enjoying the fantastic food and efficient service. Here are the few dishes I remember having despite the pain on the tip of my mouth:

Mieng kuay teaw - a fresh spring roll of pork and sprouts in flat rice noodle, with a green sauce that was spicy from fresh garlic, fantastically light and appetising.

Ho Mok - like an omelet wrapped in banana leaf (mild) - i remember it being delicious, except when I was having it my tongue was suffering from the following dish ...

Soft shell crab salad: soft shell crab was the same as any good soft shell crab, but the salad under it - TOP STUFF - spicy, mouthwatering, tangy, fragrant, appetizing, I would have it again.

Chu chee curry (with beef) - extremely delicious, spicy but not burning hot, very rich and aromatic. Much loved by all.

Duck tom yum curry - mild, trangy fragrant tom yum base, gorgeous. Loved it too.

Deep fried sand whiting with spicy sauce - crispy skin, spicy delicious sauce, very good.

Duck with tamarind sauce: tangy juicy duck

Some spicy prawn salad thing - call 000 and ask for fire services.

There were other dishes - can't remember what they were but they were all well received by those who ordered it.

I'll certainly come back, and will arm myself with a pot of cream or chocolate mousse (like I did this time) to douse the fire.....