My Wedding Reception

I don't think any bride is allowed to blog on their wedding day. Well, for me at least that's the case. I wasn't allowed to touch my camera for the whole day haha.. Too busy to anyway. So no, this is not the actual day, but these were the dishes that we picked for the dinner of our reception. These photos were taken when we went for taste testing before the wedding. Didn't publish them before the wedding for obvious reason (i.e. don't want those who were attending to know what they were going to have at the dinner). 
So because this was the taste test, there were more dishes than the actual night. 

Baby beetroot salad, goats cheese, caramelized walnuts, baby spinach and red wine vinaigrette.I'm not a big fan of beetroot, but this was actually quite nice. Goats cheese was strong, but the beetroot and the dressing help dial it down a bit so it's not too overpowering. Walnuts add the crunchy bites to the otherwise pretty 'soft' dish. So I really like this, but we didn't pick this because visually it's not as inviting as the others. 

Goats cheese & caramelized onion tart, balsamic reduction & baby herb salad. This is 1 of the entree that we picked. It looks pretty and it tastes good :) Initially we were a bit doubtful of the kitchen on the boat. We thought they probably had to prepare most stuff earlier and there's limited space and resources to cook anything properly. So I thought the pastry is going to be soggy. After we tried it, we knew straight away this is 1 of the entree that we will get. The pastry was crispy, the goats cheese not as strong as the salad, and the whole thing just goes really well with the balsamic reduction and the salad! 

Pumpkin & pistachio ravioli with burnt butter sage and shaved parmesan. This is also very nice plus not so 'adventurous'. The ravioli was like palm size with plenty of stuffing inside. It was so nice that we got greedy at the taste test and had extra servings of this (which we regretted afterwards because it was very rich and we got very full). 
There were more entrees for us to choose, but didn't get good photos for the rest, so I'm not showing all of them here. 

Now, to the choices for main. Aged porter house steak with rosemary potatoes and espagnole. This is 1 of our choices for main. Something that will suit most people and surprisingly the steak was cooked perfectly. Juicy inside, very tender, it's actually better than some restaurants I've been that's got proper kitchen. 

For those guests of ours who don't eat beef for religious reason or preference, this is what we picked for our other main - Crisp skinned chicken with mushroom & zucchini potato bake and green peppercorn veloute. Again, the chef has surprised us with the crispy skin on the chicken and more importantly the moist chicken breast meat. When we saw the menu, we weren't going for chicken because they tend to become too dry very easily. However, this is not the case at all. So with our only concern with having chicken on the menu dissolve, this is the best option for our second main. 

Other option that we had for main - Tender veal scaloppini on fried polenta with gorgonzola and topped with field mushrooms. This dish is also quite nice. We were contemplating between this and the steak. However, the only let down is the fried polenta. We find that the polenta is a bit bland. 

Another option for main - Twice cooked lamb shank on creamed potato and jus gremolato.  We eliminated this as our main for 2 reasons. There were quite a few guests who probably won't like having lamb and also, it might get a bit messy with the big bone. 

Option for main - Pan seared blue eye cod with chinese greens and ponzu. Initially when we thought if we weren't going for chicken we would go for fish, but this fish is a disappointment. The fillet is way overcooked. It was also smelling 'fishy'. So we were guessing the fillet probably wasn't the freshest. 

When we went taste testing, instead of getting a full serve of each dish, we were presented with trays of these little pieces :) So instead of totally stuffed ourselves with 5 full servings of entrees, 5 full servings of mains and 4 servings of dessert, we just take a bite size/mini version of each dish. So we actually get to try everything and decide what we want. And of course they put the full size version on the table to show how the actual dish would look like (which I took photos of). These are the trays of steak and the lamb shank. 

For dessert we had 4 things to choose from - clockwise from top 1. Honey panacotta 2. Creme brulee 3. Tiramisu 4. Pavlova. We picked the honey panacotta and the pavlova. I have never had a honey flavoured panacotta, so straight away I picked that. Then creme brulee and tiramisu were too 'ordinary' we thought. So only 1 other choice left, which is the pavlova. I quite like the pavlova too. Crumbly outside, soft and fluffy inside. 

Overall, we were very very happy with the food served on the Pontoon. It was much better than expected. Nice food and great view for our guests. It's probably more expensive than some other venue, but it was exactly what I really wanted :) 

Location: The Pontoon, King Street Wharf. 

Price: Free of charge for taste testing if wedding is booked. 

Telephone: +61 2 9719 1338

Quay Birthday

Hello hello everyone! I'm back! I was meant to write something before I disappeared for a month (or more), but just got really busy all of a sudden and then no chance to say something here. Last month has been really hectic. Wedding preparation, wedding day itself, bring visitors around Sydney after wedding then honeymoon which included another wedding reception and travelling among 3 islands, then finally back in Sydney Friday last week and back at work this week. I can really feel how much 'emptier' my diary is after wedding compare to before wedding :) 


Now I'm back in the foodie business!!!


It was my now hubby's birthday. Took him to a surprise dinner at Quay. Best meal I've had! Not a single thing I can pick on. From the service, the food or even the sugar for our coffee, everything was sooooo good! Oh, I know. The only thing I didn't like was the bill haha :p It's the highest price I've paid per head for a single meal. 


When we got there, straight away there's someone to bring us to our table. He was soooo polite. Greeted us, making small talk on the way to our table, and never fail to warn us about the steps in front of us. The waiters/waitresses were so attentive. They are probably trained to be REALLY observant! Cup is empty? You don't even need to ask for it to be filled. If you need anything, all you have to do is look up, make eye contact with any one of them, and they will be over straight away. Absolutely don't have to wave your hand like a mad person like in some other restaurants when you drop your fork and need it to be replaced. I suspect they even have sensors at the back of their head to sense that you're looking and turn around. I was amazed. 

We started off with amuse-bouche of tuna tartare, tapioca, radish fresh creme and red garnet. The whole thing look so pretty and doesn't look like anything edible but it is. Tuna has the smokey flavour and the tapioca adds the chewy bite feel to it. 

Colourful entree#1 Poached Western Australian marron, seaweed jelly, cucumber, fennel, green almonds, lime crème fraiche. Didn't know what a marron was then, but now we know it's like a lobster. The meat is a bit firmer than prawns and sweeter. 

Amazing looking entree#2. Sea Pearls. Clockwise from top left abalone, sea scallop, tuna sashimi with caviar, Octopus and mud crab with silver leaf. I can now say that I've eaten silver :p By the way, those pretty looking purple flowers are edible too.

Main#1. Gently poached quail breasts, pink turnips and onions, white lentils, morels, truffle custard, bitter chocolate black pudding, jamon de bellota, milk skin. There are many 'components' to this dish. I get very curious with something like this. 'What if I eat the pudding with the milk skin?' 'what if I take the next bite of quail with the custard?' So many flavours can come out from different combinations. The silky smooth milk skin definitely made an impression to a milk lover like me. 

Main#2. Crisp confit of pig belly, braise of abalone and cuttlefish, handmade silken tofu, Japanese mushrooms, chive flowers. When I eat this, first thing that came into my mind was I'm eating Chinese haha. It definitely has a chinese feel to it especially with the crispy skin pork (like a chinese roast pork). Can't get enough of the handmade tofu. 

Main#3. Crisp pressed duck confit, kabu turnips, winter melon, hasuimo, garlic chive buds, sea scallops, duck juices.  Can you see how crispy the duck is from the photo? You know how sometimes with photos, the picture looks better than the taste? Now is the other way round. I can only wish the photos can at least indicate half of how good the actual taste of the dish is. 

Main#4. Roasted fillet of New Zealand pink snapper, tomato and mussel confit, octopus, chilli threads, rocket and fennel flowers. The fish can only be fresh and perfectly done here, as you would expect from the restaurant of the year :) Really love those beautiful looking little fresh produce from the farm. The baby turnip, the fennel flowers, the purple edible flowers on the other dish, the onion bulb, all of these are little surprises in each dish. Before putting them in my mouth, I wouldn't have a clue how much flavour they can carry. 

Dessert#1. White peach snow egg. O M G!! It's the bestest dessert EVER!! The most impressive dessert I've put in my mouth. Bottom of the cup was white peach granita, then there's the 'snow egg' which is like a ball of white peach ice-cream wrapped in meringue and then with a crispy shell dusted with icing sugar. Even a chef that I know said it's still a mystery to him how this is done. It's a very simple looking but very complicated dessert. 

Dessert#2. Mangosteen, coconut, lychee, rose, sugar crystals. Missing the fruit that I used to eat a lot when I was in Malaysia, I ordered the mangosteen. Probably not as 'mysterious' as the snow egg, but definitely taste just as good. I would lick the plate if I was alone in the restaurant at that time. Mangosteen was sweet as expected. Lychee granita was very refreshing. Coconut cream is rich and creamy. I would think that those rose petals are just there to add some colour and to look pretty. Wrong! They taste good!!! The taste and smell of rose were intensified. It's like they were made from those rose cordial that I used to drink as a kid. Mangosteen with coconut, coconut with rose, mangosteen with lychee, rose with sugar crystals, I ran out of them before I ran out of combos that I could think of! 

We had 2 sets of petits fours. Here's the complimentary with happy birthday written on the plate. Just as well that we had 2 plates of them, because when the first plate came, we were enjoying our coffee. Left the chocolate cigar on the plate too long and they got soggy. We ate the second plate as soon as it was served. The chocolate cigars were still crispy. I prefer the chocolate cigar to the white chocolate praline. Always find that white chocolate is too sweet for my liking. Of course I still ate my share though! :p We were wondering how did they write so pretty with chocolate. I can't even write as nice with a pen. 
Cute looking sugar that came with our coffee. 

Even though this meal made quite a dent to my wallet, it's worth every single cent. The experience of dining in Australia's top restaurant, the quality of food, the careful presentation, the service and of course the view of our beautiful Sydney Harbour, it's definitely a memorable dinner. 

Price: $155 per person for 4 course dinner + supplements on certain dishes
Location: Overseas Passenger Terminal, The Rocks, Sydney 2000
Phone: (61 2) 9251 5600

Christmas Day Lunch

Is it too late to post another Christmas lunch post? I have a very good reason for posting so late though :p Photos were inside someone else's camera. I went to this Christmas lunch at my auntie's place. Cousin brought his 5DMKII along. Seeing his 5D with L macro lens, I didn't even bother taking my camera out of the bag :p Took some photos with his camera, but too scared to play it for too long because I won't be able to buy 1 for him if anything happens.   Anyway, so here are the photos from his camera. I think I took the asparagus photo, but I think cousin took everything else. 

Here's the antipasto plate that auntie prepared. Asparagus + stuffed peppers + sundried tomato (at the other side of the plate). By the way, this is another 1 of the "east meets west" Christmas lunch again :)  

Here's the "East" side of things. "lou sui' chicken wings and egg. Not sure of the proper name in English, but it's chicken and egg cook in this soy base sauce over mild fire for long time. There's only rough recipe for the sauce because from what I know, this sauce is use repeatedly over the years. Everytime my uncle take the sauce out, he'll add more things to it, cook the meat, then pour the sauce back to the jar and keep it in the fridge for next time. So all the flavouring and goodness are kept and accumulated for future use. 

Colourful looking sushi. When I asked my auntie who made these, she said her "Korean friend". Someone then finished the sentence with "at the Korean shop". So yeah, it's Korean sushi from Korean shop :) Taste different from Japanese sushi for sure. It's got pickle, ham, egg, carrot, cucumber. 

Now the "west" side of the party - the main focus of the day - our 11kg ham :) The skin was peeled off and made into crackling which I didn't manage to take a photo of. The crackling was soooo good but nobody dare to eat too much of it because we all know it's soooo bad :p 

Let's just say I "dropped their glasses" when I went to the party with this tray of fruit tarts. It was fun when people look at me with their disbelieve face :D Yes, I made them and this is the ONLY thing I can make. They all know that I don't cook and I can't cook. This is the only thing that I've learnt properly on how to make. The only motivation to learn is that I couldn't find the same type of fruit that that my auntie in M'sia used to make for me. So the only way to eat it in Australia is to learn how to make from her and then make them myself when I'm back in Sydney. This time I got carried away with the fruits too :D 

Boxing day was 1 of my auntie's birthday, so we had a tiramisu birthday cake for her :) 


Anyway, so there goes the silly season. I should start thinking what I want to do with Easter :) 

Outback Steakhouse

My work place is very very close to this restaurant. To me it's 1 of those places that I think "I can go anytime I want" because it's nearby, but I never really step in because there's always "we'll go next time since it's so close". So 1 day, we finally decided to step in when we were meeting up with some friends. This is 1 of their favourite restaurant because of the bottomless softdrinks :)

Entrée#1: Cheese Chips $12.95 - Chips topped with Aussie jack, Cheddar cheese, bits of fresh chopped bacon and served with a spicy ranch dressing. I always say when comes to food, the more unhealthy it is, the nicer they taste. This is 1 of those things for sure :D Taste really good, just a bit messy to eat because you either get a big chunk because the melted cheese just stick all the chips together, or you get the chips without the cheese and bacon. 

Entrée#2:Bloomin' Onion $9.95. Handcrafted onion cooked until golden and served with Outback's spicy signature bloom sauce. I like this entrée more for 2 reasons 1. can't get this anywhere else 2. it looks VERY PRETTY :) Of course it taste good too! Onion is sweet and a bit spicy itself, the sauce is creamy and little bit spicy too. Both entrée were really big, I was half way full by the end of it. 

I ordered the 285g Rockhampton Ribeye $27.95. All steaks come with a soup/salad and potato (mashed or baked). Here's my garden salad. It's a big plate of salad. I'm 3/4 full after finish my plate of salad. 

This is our bread and butter to share for the table. This is the 1 thing that I look forward to having everytime I visit this restaurant. I love this bread. It's crispy outside and very very warm and soft inside. They bake their own bread. It's little bit sweet, dark brown in colour, still warm when it got to our table. 

Here's Robin's pumpkin soup. He picked the soup while I picked my salad. The soup was very smooth and creamy, very nice with the croutons from my salad :D 

Can't remember which steak Robin was having, but here's the look of his steak with veggies :) He ordered medium rare and it was cooked just nice. Still pink and juicy inside. 

Here's my steak. Luckily I ordered the small steak. I was already full after 1/4 of the steak. I ordered mine medium, I think mine was cooked a little bit too long. All of us were almost full when our main arrived. We just sat there, chit chat and eventually still managed to finish everything :) 
If I remember correctly, I think our friend who really like the bottomless softdrink had like 5 of them. I really don't know how he could fit all the drinks and food in his stomach. Amazing. 


OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE
Level 1, 3 George Street
North Strathfield
NSW 2137 Australia

Telephone: +61 2 8756 5741 

Last meal of 2009

For the whole day of NYE, I was contemplating whether to go out to see fireworks. People who knows me know that I love my fireworks. I guess I'm getting old though, because I didn't go out to see fireworks this time. The thought of parking the car far away to walk to vantage point and the wait between 9pm and midnight with nothing to do (if I were to watch both sessions), just sounded too much work :p So, I ended up watching fireworks on TV. Not the same. Definitely not the same. Maybe next year. I'll go early, get a good spot and set my tripod up again :) 

Anyway, so that day I had BBQ at Robin's place with his family. Not the usual BBQ though, it's those hot plate BBQ like those they use in Korean restaurants. This is 1 of the more 'unusual' BBQ at home that I've been.  Here's our entree - homemade spring rolls and prawn crackers (with LOTS of REAL prawns made by my mum :p). 

Then there's the homemade variation of Hokkien Fried Rice. I've only learnt that fried rice with lots of gravy and seafood on top are called Hokkien Fried Rice after I came to Sydney. I've never seen this dish in Malaysia before, even though I am a Hokkien myself. 

Some stir fried greens with fermented tofu (腐乳) for the table. Don't think a lot of people can accept the taste of fermented tofu. It is an acquired taste I reckon. I really like them though. It's really good to go with stir fried vegs (lettuce is my favourite) or just that with plain white porridge (congee). 

Another homemade dish that usually served at Chinese restaurant - Shan-Dong chicken (山東雞). The whole chicken was roasted at home on that day. It was then left to cool before being cut up into pieces. Then the spring onion and tangy sauce were added to complete the dish. 
Now, so far still look pretty 'normal' for a Chinese dinner at home right? Here comes the more 'unusual' stuff! 

Here comes the gigantic prawns that were butterflied! They were MASSIVE. Every single one of them are longer than my palm. Thick white meat, bright orange sweet roe. They curled up slightly after being on the fire for a while. 

Now the even more 'unusual' stuff to be served at home - FRESH eel! How fresh you may ask? Swimming fresh! It was still swimming at the sink when I got there. No marinate, no sauce nothing. Sliced the meat up and straight to the BBQ. The freshness of the fish (I checked wiki, eels are an order of fish :p) is what you are eating. 
Here they are, ready to be served. 

Anyway, so here's my last meal of 2009. I'm sure there will be A LOT more good food to come in 2010 :)  

Christmas Lunch

Holiday season is officially finish for me now. Until 2 weeks later then another long long break coming up :D Major backlog with posts though. Let's just do those more 'time critical' stuff first shall we? I don't think it's good to do Christmas lunch post during Easter break :p 
Had a lunch party on Boxing Day. It's not 1 of those traditional Christmas lunch though, as in no turkey or leg of ham or something like that. It's more an Asian style feast :D 

Here's a close up of a yummy snack you would normally find on the street in Hong Kong - Curry fishball. It's not just fishballs though, we had sotong (squid) ball, pig's skin, beef balls and the square tofu fish. 

Here's 1 of my favourite Chinese dessert - 豆腐花 ("tau fu fah" in Cantonese, "tou huay" in Hokkian, dou4 hua1 in Mandarin - no idea what's the name in English though, other than literrally it means tofu flower). This is homemade fresh though. Still warm when it got there. Normally I prefer it cold though. In Malaysia I used to buy them in tubs with gula Melaka (dark coconut sugar) in pasar malam (night markets). 

Here's some onigiri (Japanese rice ball) served with seaweed. There are 2 types, 1 with bonito in the centre, another with the purple flakey stuff - I think those are the sour plum flakes thingy, but not 100% sure. Need to check with the chef who made those again :) I'm very sure these are as authentic as they can be being made by a Japanese chef. 

As I was busy "taste testing" the curry fishballs and snapping away, someone has nicely stacked those prawns in a bowl. If it was me, I would just pour them out from the bag and straight to a plate. Some creative person actually managed to create a pyramid of prawns :) New things learnt - stack prawns in a bowl to make them more presentable and more inviting. 

This is what you get when you have a chef making gyoza (Japanese dumplings) at home. Even the way the gyoza being served is so artistic. New things learnt - arrange gyoza in a flower pattern while frying and flip them straight onto plate. Isn't it cool to have lunch with a family with 3 chefs? :D 

Yummy chrunchy salad - salad leaves with cashew nuts and Asian crunchy noodles and some balsemic dressing and sesame oil. Very refreshing and it's the only greens on the table to complement all the heavier stuff like rice and meat. 

Here's our table. We also had a whole roast duck and some Hainanese chicken and chicken rice. 

Here's our very nice looking Christmas Tree with lots of presents :)  Very satisfying lunch and we had lots of fun opening presents.