Chateau Shu Xmas Dinner

This is the happiest time of the year - Christmas, when family and friends gather and share some laughs. The joy of having a small family (of only my parents and I) celebrating Christmas is that I can go to town and cook up a storm without breaking a sweat! Last year we had a 8-course meal (!!!), mostly made from scratch, this year we opted for something simpler - a 7 course meal with half of the courses already prepared.....

Starting with CHICKEN LIVER PATE (with juniper berry) on crusty ciabatta bread, followed by CREAMY GREEN PEA SOUP. Having had a bowl of hearty soup we were ready for the traditional Christmas PRAWNS AND HAM - with the biggest asparagus I've ever seen (about 2cm diameter!!! I kid you not!). Dad just gotta have his Christmas ham.... And then the main course - the focus of my Christmas dinner planning - drumrolls - we each had a whole roasted QUAIL (they only weigh 150g each so don't call me a glutton). It was juicy and dripping with fat (these little critters are in need of exercise) but I enjoyed it. The texture was much like duck but more tender. On the side we had salad of rocket and parmasen cheese - yum. We finished with KING ISLAND CAMEMBERT and PARMESAN cheese platter with grapes, cherries and strawberries, Muscat, Haigh's dark chocolates, and home made Christmas cake, which we set alight with some cointreau. It was fun to prepare but now I have another question - what to have for my next Christmas dinner................

The Ark Lounge, Dee Why

The Ark Lounge is located on the Strand at Dee Why Beach. I went along to what Wendy called a "girls gathering followed by a walk along the coast", only to find out it was actually her pre-30th birthday celebration!!

I started the warm summer day with a spider - I'm getting addicted to vanilla ice cream in lemonade - so refreshing! And upon examination of the short but sweet menu I was originally tempted by their entree of Pumpkin Arancini, but decided against it because it's a small serving (for a hungry Cindy). I ended up going for the linguine with prawns, garlic and pine nuts - was quite average actually, and VERY oily. But according to the people on my table the Arancini was DELICIOUS... damn.... I could have boasted on my ability to pick great food! Wendy went for their King Prawn with Mango and Lychee salad - a popular

dish for our table, and apparently the mango lychee salad was great. The entree tasting plate consisted of one prawn on mango lychee salad, a fig and prochiuto with goat curd, one arancini, deep fried calamari, and oyster. She gave it two thumbs up, but said if she comes next time she will order just the arancini. So I guess the highlight of the lunches were the prawns, the entree tasting plate, and the arancini.

The honey and coconut panna cotta with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream was so delicious, I was so pleased for the choice! I initially had my reservations with anything containing coconut, but thankfully there was only a small amount of descicated coconut on top it didn't bother me much. The honey was very aromatic. This was definitely 100 times better than the panna cotta at the Orso Restaurant at The Spit (don't ever go there! Overpriced ordinary food). The other popular dessert choice was the Lindt Chocolate Cake with cream and mixed berry compote made of fresh berry which was apparently very tangy. The cake was very chocolaty and smooth, and after my heavy oily pasta I was not ready to have another heavy dessert. But it was still a top notch choice - highly recommended. My long black was ordinary though - it didn't have a bad flavour, but just a bit thin and lacked body... and didn't have much crema... disappointed but it went well with my panna cotta anyway.

I liked the food and service - would go again if it weren't for my curiousity to check out other restaurants!

The Gelato Bar, Bondi Beach

This is an old favourite with beautiful cakes on display, and is one of the busiest cafe on Campbell Pde. The Dobos is made of layers of chocolate ganache and a soft fluffy cake, topped with caramelised sugar. The fluffy cake had such a light texture it must be made of some sort of starch flour (or even potato flour)! Cherry strudle was refreshing, lightly sweet and tangy, and had almond meal inside. The filo pastry wrapping the cherry was light and crispy - yum.

Sailors Thai

After a sleepless night (thanks to an unforgettable catch up with Jean and Kyna) and struggle to stay awake on Friday morning, I got my second wind after my third coffee and the anticipation of another great catch up!

The October Good Food Month is coming to an end, and I have not

yet had my chance to appreciate Sugar Hit. To maintain my "gourmet" reputation I managed toorganise a last minute scramble, got Anne on board for the special event.

We dined at Sailors Thai restaurant at The Rocks. This restaurant is

famous for its authentic and creative cuisine, and unlike the usual Thai

restaurants, you won't find the usual items like pad thai or green curry

chicken or mesamum beef, and the menu list is nowhere near as long as that of any usual Thai restaurant, but the amount of thoughts put into the menu made sure that each dish was tantalising enough!

Anne went for the fragrant salmon salad with green mango. I don't

normally go for dishes filled with mint and coriander leaves, but this this dish was fragrant but subtle, and very refreshing thanks to the tangy and slightly crispy green mango. The salmonroe in the salad was so fresh it

burst with flavour! Nothing like the

salmon roe on sushi - you had to really bite it to burst it! I went for the silken tofu stuffed with crab meat and pork mince. The tofu was so tender and silky and went so well with the lightly crispy fried tofu. The mince was savoury with subtle coriander fragrance. I really loved this dish because it's has such delicate and sophisticated taste, yet the idea is so simple! Wine - we had sauvignon blanc with our food. Light and crisp and easy to drink.

We had a very tough time deciding on the dessert destination. As we decided to dine at The Rocks, we had two finalists - The Four Seasons Hotel and the Park Hyatt. We made our final decision by means of flipping the coin... which led us to The Bar at Four Season Hotel's. The dessert sampler had three offerings - the spiced chocolate pot de creme, passionfruit pound cake with vanilla mascarpone, and hazelnut praline parfait with sesame snap. The chocolate pot was like chocolate ganache spiced with cinnamon and cloves, and I thought it could also have been szechuan peppers that gave it a tingly aftertaste. The pound cake was like a good butter cake which was delicious but not outstanding. The hazelnut praline parfait was the winner - absolutely gorgeous, it was like a semifreddo, with excellent smooth melt in your mouth flavour. Wine - Browns Brothers orange muscat, reminds me of the miranda golden botrytis, but not as syrupy.

A great night was had by all. Delicious.

Dolcissimo, Haberfield

Kyna is one of my best friends from high school, we've known each other for 16 years now! Her visit this month was very exciting to us, and since she is our guest of honour, we asked what she wanted to eat. PIZZA she said, AT THE PLACE CINDY TOOK US TO LAST YEAR! So its off to

DOLCISSIMO at Haberfield.

We were very pleased when the waiter showed us to the nice side of the restaurant and we happily settled

in by the window, and started our girly chat. For some reason I decided to order a spider (Sprite with vanilla ice cream) - it's very unlike me but I felt like one and thoroughly enjoyed it! Pizzas are great as always, but we were a little disappointed with the

tiramisu (sigh... Napoli in Bocca is closed for renovation) which would have been nicer if there are more sponge biscuits. I do like the pizzas at Dolcissimo, but you need to know that you go there

for the food, NOT the service, which can fluctuate from very

attentive and friendly to ignorant and negligent.

I'll certainly go back

Blue Mountains Treat

I spent an absolutely gorgeous and relaxing weekend in the Blue Mountains, with my very good friend Anne and her wonderfully welcoming family. Anne had invited me to stay with her for the weekend a long time ago, but neither of us had the time or the mind for a very long time. In fact I do believe this was supposed to be a 'birthday celebration' of some sort, and both our birthdays are at the end of the year! Very long delay indeed....

We spent some time at a cafe with a serene surrounding for lunch. SOLITARY Cafe/kiosk between Leura and Katoomba, overlooking Mt Solitary (hence the name), and has a rather impressive reputation for its food. After examining their short but sweet menu we'd opted for the specials of the day. Anne had a lentil and bacon soup, while I was lured by their bruschetta with chicken liver pate with caramelised onion. I didn't try Anne's soup, but it looked and smelled tantalising (not to mention it was one of the dishes I contemplated on ordering). Anne gave it her thumbs up and just scoffed it down with her usual ladylike manner. My bruschetta was simply delightful, the pate tasted of brandy and was light and smooth, but the onions! On visual inspection we thought it was simply caramelised. When I tasted it I thought, hm, acid... probably vinegar... wait, did I get a whiff of red wine? Ah I think it was red wine vinegar! And I think there was also honey!

Next course please - can we have the (lengthy) dessert list now thanks... Madeleines, a rarely seen cake shaped like little shells, was on the menu, so I couldn't resist but order it for a taste. And a slice of hazelnut and raspberry cake please. Oh and also a slice of orange-cardamon cake too.... we were struggling with the decisions but we ended up abandoning the chocolate brandy and walnut cake with mascapone chocolate dressing....... in hind sight maybe I should have swapped the hazelnut cake with the chocolate brandy walnut cake, because the hazelnut cake had a delicate subtle flavour I ended up craving rich chocolate! Anne's orange cardamon cake was surprisingly delicious too - I don't often come across spices in my desserts but it certainly worked well here. And the madeleines? They were little bite-sized freshly baked cakes that was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, served warm.

With the warm winter sun on our back and Mt Solitary view in front of us, we were satisfied with the view, the food, and each other's company. What a gem this little place is... Highly recommended for visitors of the Blue Mountains!

Later that evening Anne's family opened a bottle of 1998 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz Merlot. Apparently 1998 was a good vintage in terms of harvest and the weather in the Coonawarra region, combined with medium/long term cellaring, the wine had developed into a smooth rounded delicious wine! Iknow little about wine, but have always liked the cab-shiraz-merlot blend for its dry, rounded and aromatic flavours, and have a few bottles of it at home, but this one was certainly more enjoyable than most - truly the cellaring had taken away the overpowering tang and really mellowed out the wine... time to stock up!!

A lovely weekend had to come to an end... I lingered as long as I could, then waved my hands and boarded my coach. Back to the city smogs and stamp-print cafe franchises until next time.....

Billy Kwong

Kylie Kwong, Aussie-Chinese celebrity chef famous for her fusion Western/Asian cuisine, was not exactly what drew us to her restaurant, for we love our authentic Chinese style food (preferably cooked at home, by mum, but once in a while we can survive restaurant stuff). Kylie has an uncanny resemblance to my sister, so we thought maybe, just maybe, if we're lucky, the wait staff will not know the difference and give us free dinner... I mean, it's amusing.

Mum and dad had dined there before and highly recommended their mussels, but neither Lily nor I have any interest in this bivalve mollusc (however well it may be cooked), so I took on the challenge of picking the dishes that everyone will enjoy.

For starters, steamed oysters, lettuce wrap with pork mince and ginger, and seared

chicken liver with sweet sauteed onion. Oysters were plump and juicy but I skipped it (not keen on molluscs). Lettuce wrap (san choy bao) was delicious but, sorry Kylie, greasy, and we could

have used an extra lettuce leaf per person because there was way too much mince (which were also on the salty side). I really really liked the chicken liver, seared on the outside but BARELY cooked

on the inside so it was very tender and moist, though it could be cooked a bit more without compromising flavour and texture.

For main we had stir-fried mushrooms, wagyu beef brisket with szechuan eggplants, and Fukien fried rice. The four varieties of the mushrooms were juicy and plentiful, while the wagyu beef was AMAZING - melt-in-your-mouth with a great flavour that didn't overpower the sweetness of the meat itself (tomato based sauce, mildly spicy), the eggplant pieces so mushy it was blended in with the sauce. The fried rice was

lovely but we then regret the choice because the sauce from either the mushroom or the beef would have been YUMMY over the rice!! Very satisfying.

And no we couldn't fool the wait staffs, as Kylie herself was sitting in the middle of the restaurant, waiting for her friends to arrive. She kindly obliged us with a photo (of her and my sister - thanks Kylie!)!!

A few other specialties we didn't order (but wish we did) were the crispy skin duck and the pork ribs. Saw a few pass by and they looked simply devine. But we're not complaining - there's only so much space in our belly! Thumbs.

Eaglehawk Guesthouse Cafe

Our last afternoon in Tassie was leisurely spent at a cafe at Eaglehawk, between Hobart and Port Arthur, killing time before our 8pm flight. Inside the cafe are photographies and paintings created by local artists, and bunches of fresh flowers (including an amazing dark purple bunch of gladiolus) for sale.

We ordered their two cakes on offer - Sticky date pudding with warm caramel sauce and home-made vanilla ice cream, and chocolate-espresso cake served with fresh organic berries, berry frozen yogurt, and home-made raspberry coulis.

ARGH what a treat!!! The sticky date pudding was satisfying (sweet tooth delight) and the vanilla ice cream was SO creamy it felt more like frozen cream. But what really grabbed us was the presentation of the chocolate cake. What a feast for the eyes! Fresh berries - strawberries, red currents, silvenberries, raspberries - grown at the premise, fragrant, juicy, sweet and slightly tangy. Perfect. These berries alone deserve a 10/10, while the chocolate cake was a bonus. The frozen yogurt had fresh berries mixed into it and was delightful to the tastebuds. And, did I mention the raspberry coulis? I have never tasted/seen raspberry coulis like this, rich, thick, fragrant, fresh and really made with raspberry! Not like the thin-watery-red-food-colouring-artificially-flavoured coulis you see in most cafes. Divine.

Heading down Port Arthur way? Must stop here.

Chinese New Year Celebration in Tassie

To escape the usual "cook up a storm, entertain guests and wash up 200 plates and glasses" Chinese New Year ritual, I coerced my family to skip town for the week. So we went to Tasmania!

We picked a cute place for our family's CNY celebration at a little town called Grindalwald (about 20min drive outside of Launceston). Grindalwald, aka Swiss Village, is a thoughtfully designed town dominated by the resort with an 18-hold putt-putt and a retirement village across the road. Those who have already been to Switzerland (or any part of Europe for that matter) - It's cute but it ain't the real thing.

We spent a couple of hours there checking out the shops, taking heaps of photos (snap happy time) and had our dinner at the resort restaurant/bar. Dishes worth mentioning - eye fillet wrapped with bacon, served with pumpkin mash, rocket lettuce and Swiss brown mushroom, and the Moroccan-spice encrusted lamb cutlets with beetroot salsa. I had the trevalla fillet coated in parmesan crumbs, quite nice but top prize definitely goes to the 2 big slabs of eye fillet (medium rare and melt in your mouth!) for $28... at this price in Sydney you're lucky to get one slab of fillet, not two! Desserts were average and coffee was mediocre.

I must say, Tasmanian cafes have yet to learn the proper way of making espresso. None of the long blacks I ordered had sufficient crema on top, and generally lack aroma and body, even at places that served strong coffee. A good time was had nonetheless, though a great cup of espresso would have topped the night for me!