Shoya

Happy New Year people!! And today being the first day of Chinese New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai!! Here's the long overdue post about a very nice meal in Melbourne. Been meaning to write about this place for ages but kept on getting distracted. Been away for 3 weeks, before that was Christmas, and before that I was too busy playing zombie vs plant :p 


Anyway, back to this meal. Had this when I went to Melbourne few months back. I knew there was this nice restaurant there but I didn't want to go alone. So I asked Vivienne who had recently moved to Melbourne to join me. We ordered quite a few dishes, chatted non-stop through dinner, totally didn't feel we've just met for the first time :) I guess that's the good thing about meeting up with food bloggers. There will never be the awkward silence because there's a topic that we can never finish talking about - FOOD! 

Started with Sashimi Moriawase - Sashimi lover's feast – carefully selected and arranged by our chef to delight your eyes and mouth $42.80. I was a bit disappointed with the presentation of this sashimi. I wanted to show Vivienne the cool ice-bowl the sashimi that I had in my previous visit. I found out after that they only put the entree size sashimi in that beautiful ice-bowl, but not the main size sashimi. Even though the presentation was not as impressive as I thought it would be, the sashimi was very fresh and each and every piece was thick and sweet. 

Salmon Toro Aburi - Rare cooked salmon belly - $7.00 As mentioned a few times in my blog, salmon aburi has to be my favourite sushi. I just really really like the smell of the lightly torched salmon. So when I saw salmon TORO aburi, I just had to order it. It was definitely as good as expected to be. The fragrant, the juice, the sweetness, it'll stay as my favourite sushi for long long time to come. 

Served together with the salmon toro aburi was the Toro aburi - Lightly broiled tuna belly - $8.50. Almost as good as the salmon, but I'm biased towards salmon anyway :p 

Crab Tempura - Whole ‘Taraba’ crab leg deep-fried in tempura style. This is not a very good photo because it doesn't show how long that crab leg was! It was probably the length of my forearm if not longer. The crab meat was so fresh, the batter was very crispy and there was just so much meat in that leg. Shell was cracked so all we needed to do was just to pick it up, dip it in the salt (green tea salt??) and bite. Even though it was deep fried, the meat was still juicy and sweet inside. 

Nama Shii Hotate - SHOYA's signature and must try fired dish. Mashed scallops softy surround the quail egg topped with a whole shiitake mushroom to make it perfect $16.50. This was definitely something I thought very creative and different. Didn't care to eat that chilli that came with the quail eggs though. If nobody told me quail eggs have much higher cholesterol than chicken eggs, I could be popping these little yummy packages 1 after another into my mouth all night long. 

Now this is the MUST ORDER dish. Beef Spinach Soufflé - Ox tongue simmered over two days with wine and sake then delicately rolled with spinach soufflé $32.00. By the way, the menu did not have photos of the dishes. So until we ordered and saw it on the table, we didn't know what to expect. At first I wasn't very sure about this. Beef Spinach Soufflé. Usually the soufflés that I know are desserts. Soft fluffy desserts that would rise very tall and then sink very fast too. Couldn't imagine a beef and spinach flavoured soufflé like that. As it turned out, it wasn't as I thought (phew!). It was actually REALLY REALLY GOOD!! The spinach around the ox tongue was so soft. I thought it would be like a lot of fibre and hard to chew, but no, it's like it was cooked till all fibre had dissolved and it would just melt in the mouth. The ox tongue was as written on menu, simmered over 2 days, it would literally just melt away together with the spinach. It was definitely 1 of those dishes that you take a bite and you would automatically close your eyes and go "MMMmmmmm............" and then you would wish that the plate would magically refill itself. 

For dessert, Vivienne picked the Chocolate cake with plum wine. I tried a piece, like commented by Viv, couldn't really taste the plum wine. It was a nice rich creamy chocolate cake nonetheless. Just that we were expecting something a bit more than just a chocolate cake when we saw the term "plum wine" on the menu. 

I ordered the Tofu Chocolate Mousse - Smooth light chocolate mousse smothered with tofu - $9.00. All I have to say is that it didn't feel like tofu :p It was a yummy creamy chocolate mousse as far as I know haha. The only thing kinda stood out was that red 'seeds' on the mousse. There were some gold flakes, a blueberry and the 2 red seeds. Not sure what they were, but they tasted like pepper seeds or something. Something herb-ish than fruity. 


It was a very enjoyable evening. The restaurant managed to maintain the quality of the food they served since 2 years ago when I last went there. Very very satisfied with the meal. It was also very nice to meet up with Viv!! I thought it would be a little awkward to meet someone the first time, but nope, it was like meeting an old friend :D 


Shoya
25 Market Lane, Melbourne, Victoria
Tel: (03) 9650 0848


Honestly, I can't remember how was the lighting condition already. So I thought if I don't remember it being particularly bad, that means it should be quite o.k :p Shouldn't be too difficult to take photos. Space wise was good. We were able to move the dish around and take photos from all sorts of different angles. 

Glass Brasserie

Welcome to the last post of Brunch, Lunch & Munch.... for 2010 :p No, I'm not planning to close my blog down just yet, even though at times I seemed to have abandoned it. It certainly doesn't feel like I've been writing this blog for more than 1 year already. 

Being 1 of the lucky people that was approached by the organiser of Sydney Festival, I jumped at the opportunity to sample the Fast Festival Feast special offer at Glass Brasserie, Hilton. It's $30 for a main course with a glass of wine. (For list of other participating restaurants, visit the Fast Festival Feasts website) 

This was the wine that I had. Stoneleigh Pinot Gris. I quite like this actually because it's got a bit of sweetness in it. Not so much like moscato which I really like, but this was also quite easy to drink. 

Started off with some freshly baked bread with olive oil. If you're thinking the presentation of the bread looked odd, there's a very simple answer - I forgot to take photo before I went for the bread. Was too busy chatting with Cindy from Marketing Department in Hilton who was having this lunch with me. I guess if I gave an impression it'd be "the blogger who forgot to take photo" :p 

Here's the main - Confit chicken leg, rocket salad with pickled orange zest, cauliflower puree and dates. I was surprised how well the sweet dates went with the tender chicken which was cooked for 2 hours in its own juice and goose fat. Rocket salad with the pickled orange was nice and refreshing too. 

We actually had six Petit four :) From right to left, started with chocolate orange logs and mango passionfruit jelly

Then there was nougat, the very pretty orange marshmallow and chocolate friand. The nougat was really good! Chewy and sticky with strong honey taste. The orange marshmallow was good too! Looked so pretty. 

  The last was a new French dessert that I learnt from this meal. It's a canelé. Made with rum and vanilla. By looking at it I thought it was similar to a custard tart or with some filling inside. There's actually no filling. The outside was caramelized giving it a crust, while the inside was soft. The texture was a bit like a cake, but not soft and fluffy it's little bit more doughy and a bit more chewy. Quite interesting. 

Lastly, a hot chocolate with a cookie to finish off the satisfying meal :) 

Even though it was just a main and a glass of wine, but having the bread before main, then half a dozen of petit four AND a cup of hot chocolate, I was really full. 

glass brasserie

Level 2, Hilton Sydney

488 George St, Sydney

Tel: 02 9265 6068

My table was very close to the big window looking straight at QVB. It would've been a really good view if QVB wasn't under renovation. I really should start taking photos at lunch time rather than dinner. It was so much easier :) 


*YW dined as guest of Sydney Festival at glass brasserie

The Brasserie

Went Melbourne for work a while ago. It was quite a good trip! Work wise, learnt a lot, came back feeling much better about my new role than before. Food wise, my boss actually said "go and have some good food, don't just get red rooster and stay in hotel" :D Then, I actually got to meet up with a blogger friend and had a great dinner (talk more about that next post). Anyway, so 1 evening me and my colleague finished work, so we just walked around Southbank looking for dinner. We actually walked into Nobu thinking should have a table at 830pm, but NOPE. So we had to pick another restaurant. Ended up at the Brasserie. 

Since our boss actually said 'go and have some nice dinner, get a glass a wine or something', so being a good employee of course I follow my 'orders' :p Ordered a The Nesspresso Martini - A smooth blend of Grey Goose Vodka, Kahlua, Frangelico and a shot of Nesspresso. Coffee kept me awake, alcohol made me sleepy, so they should cancel each other out when combined :p It was actually quite nice. 

Then some bread was served with olive oil and some salt with cracked pepper and something else (can't remember what those were). 

After a while, entrees were served. I had The brasserie chicken liver and foie grae terrine with toasted onion jam tartine, mesclun salad - $22.50. I really liked the onion jam. Terrine was really nice, but the only problem I had was I didn't have enough toast and onion jam to go with it. 

I tried a bit of my colleague's Steak Tartare - hand-diced raw wagyu beef with condiments - $22.50. It was really good!! I liked his entree better than my own actually :p I should've got that too. I would've been very happy with my terrine if I didn't try this :p 

Colleague ordered the Dorper lamb rack - herb crusted with eggplant caviar - $38.50. Didn't try this, but it looked really good. He was very happy with it. 

I was thinking of ordering something different, something that I normally wouldn't order. So I got the Cep mushroom gnocchi - with truffle oil and new season asparagus - $35. Saw a lot of gnocchi making on masterchef, but I actually can't remember when was the last time I ate them. I was surprised how fluffy and airy each 1 of them were. Basically a plate of yummy mini soft edible pillows. Loved those crispy cheese that were on top too! 


We were very full after entree and main. Colleague asked if I wanted dessert. I decided not to have dessert here because while walking from hotel to restaurant, I saw a gelato stall. So I decided to go back to that stall for gelato instead. 

Guess what flavour was this? Licorice!! When I first looked at it I thought "hmm.. licorice ice-cream..I'm not a licorice person.. maybe I'll get the hazelnut" but I was very curious because it was my first time seeing that flavour. So I asked if I could try a bit of it. It was definitely love at first bite!! It was so sooo good! My favourite flavour now. Unfortunately I still don't know where I can get licorice ice-cream in Sydney. I got 1 scoop and this was how my 1 scoop looks like. More ice-cream outside of the cup than inside (by the way, colleague was the hand model here). He ordered a scoop too, but he only got his cup filled and only a little bump in the middle that's taller than the cup's rim haha.. Not sure why that guy gave me so much more, but I'm definitely not complaining :D 


The Brasserie

Crown Entertainment Complex
8 Whiteman St 
Southbank VIC 3006
Tel: (03) 9292 7808 



Lighting wasn't too bad at our table. Little bit dark, but still not too bad. I just felt a bit awkward taking photo of food with colleague because he was quite new and I didn't know him well. Not many people at work knows about my blog. He was cool with me taking photos of his food though. Ended up telling him about my blog and got him 'cooperated'. He would turn his plate for me and even volunteered to be my hand model haha.. Needless to say, we got along quite well :) 

Jump Q Post!!! #1

I've decided to make a new type of posts in my blog. It's the "Jump Q Post" series!! Everyone knows that I'm a very lazy blogger. I have HEAPS of backlog :p When I do get to write, I normally write in chronological order (basically go through my back log and start with the oldest). With "Jump Q" post, it's something that I thought I should write straight away and skip all my backlog because I'm THAT excited to tell everyone about it hahaha :) Now, let me tell you why this post deserved to be written first. What makes it more special than any other stuff in my backlog??? 1 word - TETSUYA! Yup!! I went to Tetsuya!! :D Tell me if you still don't think it deserves to be written first. 


Now, this was easily the longest single meal I've had. The most courses in 1 meal too! Total of 14 courses including coffee and a little something that you'll see at the end of this post. We arrived at 7pm, didn't leave until 1215am or so. Yup! FIVE HOURS for 1 meal. We were the 3rd in the room when we got there, and we were the last to leave together with another table. Anyway , like my chemistry teacher in school used to say 'a picture is worth a thousand words', let's just look at the pictures now :) 

As soon as we sat down, the waiter told us we were getting a glass of complementary champagne. He then took it out and showed us the champagne, couldn't remember what it was :p I don't really know my champagne. Not sure if it's a special day or everyone that visits would get 1. 

Now, the 'grand opening' of our dinner - the Truffle Butter. It was THE BEST butter I've tasted ever! I've had dishes with truffle in them before, but truffle was never the 'main character' in those dishes. This butter however, truffle was definitely what this was all about. The butter was really creamy and airy, almost like a whipped cream. I could smell the truffle even before I put the bread in my mouth. By the way, there were 2 types of bread to choose from. Italian white and sour dough. Both were good!! Loved the butter so much that I kept wanting more bread. Robin had to keep on reminding me not to fill myself up with bread. We had many courses to go. We did end up wiping the butter clean, and guess what the very nice waiter did? He brought us another 1 hahaha :) Couldn't finish the second lot, was so tempted to ask if I could take it home :p 

First course - Chilled Cucumber Soup with Sheep Yoghurt Ice Cream. The soup was very refreshing. Nice first course little course to tease our taste buds and to bring up appetite to want more. As I didn't study the menu before visiting, I had totally no idea what the dishes were throughout the whole night. So I was just waiting to be surprised with every course. 

Second course (optional) - Pacific Oysters from Port Douglas with Rice Vinegar & Ginger. The waiter said "Would you like some oysters? It would go really well with the champagne". We thought, since we're already there, might as well try. Definitely no regret there! The oysters were so fresh, the dressing was so good!! It just complemented the oysters so well. The ginger just took all the fishy smell away from the oysters, what's left was just the plump sweet creamy oysters. It looked like something so simple, but it was so amazing! 

Now, have a look at the photo and try to guess what you think this is. Third course - Carpaccio. So what carpaccio do you think this is? Beef? Tomato? Capcicum? The waiter only said "Carpaccio" when he took this dish to the table. We ate and after eating still had no idea what it was. Didn't taste like beef, the texture didn't feel like capcicum, definitely not tomato. It was something sweet. It was smoked watermelon!! With some garden herbs on top. This was 1 of the vegetarian dishes if anyone goes there for vegetarian degustation. 

Course 4 - Sashimi of Kingfish with crushed black bean and orange zest. This was 1 of our favourite of all dishes that night. It was like a kingfish sashimi with a Chinese steamed fish twist. The dressing with the challot and coriander on the fish tasted almost like the Chinese steamed fish soy sauce. However, there was a tiny hint of orange in there. Very subtle. Robin ate his first while I was busy taking photos from different angle and stuff. His face was so serious and he said "Eat it." I put a small piece in my mouth. It was 1 of those "O-M-G" moment. Such familiar taste yet so different texture wise with raw fish and simply amazing. 


Forgot to mention earlier, I think this is going to be a long post :p Let's continue on.

Now, does this look familiar or does this look familiar. Course 5 - Signature dish - Confit Petuna Ocean Trout with Konbu, Celery & Apple. I've learnt that night that Konbu is a type of seaweed. Robin thought it didn't live up to expectation, but I liked it. The only thing I didn't like was the celery, but that's just a personal preference that I dun like eating celery (luckily there weren't too much of it). The fish was really nice! The konbu on top made a crispy crust, the fish fillet was really fresh and firm. I don't mean it in a bad way, but the konbu crust tasted like potato chips flavouring (well, konbu does have glutamic acid that is used to make MSG :p). I thought that was very different. Definitely not something can be found anywhere else. 

Now, this was definitely 1 of the special courses that weren't really on menu. Course 6 - Grilled Pig's Tail with NZ Scampi & Jamon Iberico. The look of this dish wasn't 1 of the greatest. Didn't look impressive, but the taste, another "O-M-G" dish. The Jamon Iberico was a Spanish ham that's cured for long time. The waiter said it was 1 of the highest grade. Scampi was slightly pan fried, it was so sweet. Pig's tail was grilled till VERY CRUNCHY. Separately, they were really nice on their own. Together, it was like exponentially nicer!! It just tasted so different when you eat them together rather than individually.The pig's tail gave the crunchy texture, scampi provided the sweetness, the ham was added another level of taste. 

Course 7 - Braised Ox Tail with Sea Cucumber & Yuzu. As the sky got darker, my photos got blurrier too *sigh*. Sorry that you can't really see much in this photo other than the 2 rings of sea cucumber on top. Just have to believe me that it tasted AWESOME :) (By the way, I accidentally published the incomplete post. Hope nobody actually read it before I finish writing. *sigh* stupid keyboard :p) 

Course 8 - Pancetta Wrapped Quail Breast with Fresh Sprouts & Onion. Well, let's say if you ask me which course I would give up to have another of that pig's tail, this is probable the 1. Not to say it's not nice, but just in comparison to others, this wasn't as impressive to me that's all. Mind you that we are talking about Tetsuya here. So even though I say not impressive enough, it can easily be the best dish in any other restaurant still. The puff rice thingy was interesthing though. Almost like rice bubbles except more of the toasted rice fragrant. 

Course 9 - Slow-Roasted Breast of Duck with Smoked Leeks & Sansho. Duck was really really tender. Leeks was surprisingly good! Usually I don't really like leeks. For some reason I have problem swallowing leeks when I eat them. Didn't have problem with this though. Maybe because it was smoked till it was very very soft. 

Course 10 - Our last savoury dish. Braised Cape Grim Beef Short - Rib with Spring Vegetable. This had to be the best rib I've ever had. The meat was so tender, the beef flavour was so intense! Just had to take each bite really slowly to savour every drop of juice from the meat. 

Course 11 - Our first dessert which was made out of 2 parts. Blood Orange Sorbet and Summer Pudding. Again, sorry for the blurry photo that's out of focus :p This sorbet was actually blood orange and BLACK PEPPER. Who would've thought black pepper can be so nice as a flavour of sorbet with orange. The spicy after taste from the pepper was quite interesting. 

Here's the 2nd part of the dessert - Summer pudding. It was brioche soaked in berry juice with strawberry, raspberry and blueberry. Robin liked this a lot. It's not overly sweet and it's very refreshing. 

Course 12 - Golden Peach with Peach Granita. Don't think there's anything special with that golden peach, tasted like peach from the can :p Granita was nice and refreshing, the special component was actually the ice-cream. It's green. Guess what flavour? I could spend my whole life guessing and wouldn't get it. Peach leaf ice-cream. Cool eh! :) I can't really describe the taste though. Maybe a bit like pistachio, but that's just because it's green too :p 

Course 13 - Last dessert before coffee. Chocolate Pave with Cream Cheese Ice Cream and Cinnamon Twigs. The last dish and I got too excited to see wobbly block of chocolate. I made the mistake of digging in before I took photo. If you can't tell where I've 'ruined' it, then I've successfully hid the spot haha :p I thought cinnamon twigs was just plain cinnamon sticks. Of course I was wrong. It was more like cinnamon flavour chocolate sticks that would snap as I bit. The wobbly chocolate pave was really rich and satisfying. Together with the cream cheese ice-cream, it was the perfect finish for the meal. 

Course 14 - We were offered some tea or coffee after dinner to wash the rich chocolate pave down. Together with the coffe/tea was some mochi! 

These pretty little things had chocolate ganache and chai in them. The mochi 'skin' was very thin but still chewy. The chai chocolate ganache was again something I wouldn't normally find in mochi.  Just to show the proportion of skin to filling. Very thin mochi wrapped with LOTS of spicy chocolate ganache. Waiter recommended the best way to eat this was to pop the whole thing in the mouth, but I thought that would probably be too rich and heavy. So I took small bites and had a few sips of tea in between. 


Conclusion, HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. If you thought of going, but is now hesitating because they lost a hat, you are missing out BIG TIME. Service was great!! Oh, and did I mention my brother in law works there? That's why we had extra courses :D Even had a tour around the kitchen, out to the garden, looked at their tomato plants, the pretty edible flowers and even their own bees! Robin almost didn't want to leave the wine cellar too. 


So, there was my belated birthday present from my lovely husband :) I'm looking forward to next year's present already :D 


Tetsuya's Restaurant 

529 Kent Street
Sydney 2000
Tel: 02 9267 2900


It was still o.k when the sky was still bright because we were sitting by the window. As the sky gets dark, it got harder and harder to take photos. Towards the end it was almost impossible to take a decent photo. Now I'm definitely feeling the limitation of low light capability with my camera. Maybe I should buy a new camera and then go back there again ?? :)