Now in saying that, every now and then there is a reason to come out of financial hibernation. This evening I am at the new-ishly opened Tokonoma Shochu bar and lounge with Shez and Fiona and Sian from Mark Comms . It’s right next door to the old Toko, which still rakes in a healthy crowd. It’s a Thursday night and Tokonoma is buzzing, the after work office crowd is slowly trickling in and I spot a cougar with a mid 20′s bloke looking very nervous while drinking his Yebisu beer.

I’ve been here a few times with my friends. It’s a great restaurant to chill out while sharing plates of food over a few drinks. This is one place which does wallets justice not just with the food, but with their extensive drinks menu. They have some of the most interesting combos of cocktails I’ve seen in a while. Oh, and the booths are handy. We often find ourselves in the booths, you get that extra bit of privacy so other people don’t hear you yapping away about the latest episode of Glee.

Now if you are hungry, the tasting menu is a good option. It’s a Chef’s selection of ‘signature’ dishes ideal for sharing, were they any good though ?

gyu niku no tataki seared beef, pickled onions, mizuna, garlic chips

This is what ‘seared’ is supposed to look like. The amount of times I’ve had ‘seared’ turn into ‘overcooked’ in my kitchen has been way too often. Slightly cooked on the outside and rare on the inside, melt in your beef. The pickled onions and garlic chips help cut through the meat too. Four pieces ? I could do with eight myself.

watari-gani kara-age crispy soft-shell crab, wasabi mayonnaise

Soft shell crab, the token item which is on nearly every Japanese fusion menu. It’s one of those things which have a ‘must order’ tag on it, even though I know how easy it is to make at home. Tokonoma’s version ? Lots of crab meat, light on the coating and the wasabi mayonnaise is a killer combination with anything that is fried, let alone the crab.

maguro no miso taru taru : tuna tartar, baby shiso leaves, barley miso dressing

Tartar, great in moderation but not so great when you have to eat it all by yourself. I recently had that problem with a beef tartar because Linda doesn’t eat meat anymore. At Tokonoma, they shake things up a bit with the barley miso dressing. It’s interesting and unique and is a welcome change from tuna and avocado combinations I’ve had at a lot of other restaurants.

omakase zushi assorted selection of toko rolls and nigiri

Ever since having sushi and nigiri in Japan, I refer to it time and time again as a benchmark. They keep things so simple with the freshest and best cuts of fish with sushi rice so good that the individual grains can be tasted. The assorted selection here has clean and sharp flavours, thankfully with no overpowering mayonaise to mask the freshness of the ingredients. I like my sushi and nigiri simple and for a restaurant who’s menu features kingfish paired with truffle oil and pork crackling, I find it welcoming that they don’t tamper too much with it.

omakase zushi assorted selection of toko rolls and nigiri

piri kara dofu to abogado : spicy fried tofu, avocado salsa, barley miso

A lot of people I know feel intimated when cooking tofu, it’s deemed ‘boring’ and ‘tasteless’ which I can understand to a certain degree. How to overcome this ? fry those mofos into submission. The tofu was piping hot and crispy on the outside but soft and moist once you bite into it. Brave combo of flavours and textures too, the avocado salsa and barley miso is a great combination.

hotate no jalapeno amazu zoe robata : grilled scallop, sweet pickled apple, jalapeno garlic

This was probably my favourite dish, you can smell it from the kitchen almost. Perfectly grilled scallops with an intense and flavoursome jalapeno and garlic sauce. To balance it all, sweet pickled apple sits on top. We all one-shot these into our mouths and there was a collective response of ” damn this is good ” .

ami yaki ro-su niku to : wafu sauce scotch fillet steak, wafu sauce, garlic crisps

They say that an unexpected gift at an unexpected time is the key to a woman’s heart, I firmly believe a good steak is the key to a man’s heart. As long as it’s cooked medium rare, or medium at most you can’t go wrong. Tokonoma makes this interesting with the wafu sauce and crispy garlic chips. Sadly, I can never make scotch fillet taste this good at home.

zucchini no wafu yaki : zucchini, wafu sauce, sesame

A day is not complete without at least one serving of vegetables. I can’t say zucchini makes it way into my fridge that often, but if it’s grilled in wafu sauce and sesame I ain’t complaining. Simple once again, yet enhances the sweetness of zucchini.

dessert plate : chef’s selection of desserts

First of all, I suggest you share this with at least one other person. The variety is amazing and I had no clear cut favourite, but I was slightly leaning towards the chocolate fondant and the yogurt pannacotta. From memory (after a schochu or two) the plate had : yoghurt pannacotta, green apple, rockmelon sorbet, pistachio brittle, warm dark chocolate fondant served with vanilla-miso ice cream, ice cream and sorbet and a trio of creme brulee.

At the end of our dinner we were luckily enough to have a brief chat with the head chef Regan Porteous. He’s a well built bloke, fairly young and you can sense a great appreciation and respect for Japanese food and culture when he speaks. He regularly travels to Japan for ideas and inspiration and even has his pottery custom made somewhere in Japan. We both agree that while Sydney is great for food, it is missing the hole in the wall ramen joints where you can just rock up and eat bowls of ramen elbow to elbow with other diners.

Right, so where do I start. I guess, Tokonoma for me is a breath of fresh air for decent modern/fusion Japanese or whatever you wan’t to call it. They nail it spot on in terms of service, ambience, design, food and drinks. It blends in perfectly with it’s sister store Toko on Crown st and is a great place to catch up with friends if you start a tab and not have to worry about the bill until the end. Keep an eye on the tab though, the shochu and cocktails start to add up after a few. Also if you want a booth, I suggest booking ahead.

es&t dined as guests of Mark Communications.

Tokonoma shochu bar & lounge

490 Crown St
Surry Hills, 2010

Ph : 02 9357 6100

Web : http://www.toko.com.au

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Post tags: cocktails, fusion, modern

So the first restaurant he’s lined up is Foveaux and we found ourselves getting there quite early. We were asked and ushered downstairs to a cozily decorated bar room with big comfortable, plush couches and gauzy curtains hanging from the ceiling. It was also quite dim with most of the lights coming from low-wattage bedside lamps, you know, the ones with actual lamp shades!

After kicking our heels at the bar for 15 minutes, we decided to venture upstairs to start on our dinner (I was hungry and too excited to wait any longer). Completely trusting his choice on going for the tasting menu, which was $75 for 6 courses, I barely glanced at the menu as we ordered.

Oysters with Chardonnay Vinegar Pearls and Salmon Roe ($4 each)

© squishies for eatshowandtell, 2010. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: beef, Dessert, pork, poultry, Seafood

Dat and Ier were running a bit late, and as I was getting a bit worried that we might not get a seat, I enquired if it’s possible to grab a table since most of our party were already here. The waitress was apologetic and said that we could wait at the bar instead if we’d like until everyone to arrived (we were kicking our heels at the kerb at this stage).

Once they arrived, the waitress immediate went to seat us though we were plagued with indecisions: inside or outside? Okay, so outside (because we were already outside). The far or near table? Okay, so near then (because we were right next to it). Terrible. I got a bit worried with how we were going to fair with the menu.

Thankfully, we weren’t as indecisive with our choices on the menu as to where to sit and we were all down to the serious business of picking our dishes, making sure that our choices weren’t overlapping (naturally).

Required Bread Shot

We were served a generous helping of bread with some olive oil. We thought that the olive oil was flavoured with something, but after talking to the waiter, it turned out that it was just made with young olives. Interesting that they would taste different to mature ones, even in oil form.

Fried Spiced Calamari with Alioli ($18)

The calamari were wonderfully soft, yet firm and the spices weren’t overpowering but was deliciously complimentary to the zesty aioli. I loved how they were so generous with the dollop of aioli – then I don’t have to be stingy with how much I put on my calamari (and I really love to slather it on). It was a definite hit at our table.

Argentinean Style Beef Empanadas with Salsa Criolla (4 for $13.50)

Spiced Pumpkin and Feta Empanadas with Yoghurt Sauce (4 for $13.50)

“Empanada? What’s empanada?” We looked over at another table and whispered to each other, “Is that it?” When our waiter confirmed our guess, we couldn’t decide which one to get as we couldn’t get both (considering the amount of food we were already getting). Our ever-helpful waiter suggested that they could do 2 of each for us and we quickly agreed.

The empanadas were crisp, crunchy and slightly thick – it also wasn’t oily as I thought it might have been. In other words: they were perfect shells for the two fillings. The Argentinean style beef filling had bits of olives and boiled egg white mixed in and was scrumptiously well-seasoned. The salsa added a welcoming tangy component to the dish. The pumpkin filling was I think spiced with cummin and a couple of slices of chilli, which was nicely tempered by the yoghurt sauce.

Needless to say, another hit at our table – so much so, Ier decided to make her own empanadas at home recently!

The “fish fingers” were light and refreshing, made more substantial by the crunchy garlic toast. The sashimi and ceviche were incredibly fresh with the thinly sliced onion adding some acidity, though we thought there was a bit too much onion.

This dish was our clear favourite of the night and on talking to some of the people in the line for the bathroom, it was also enthusiastically theirs – no wonder why our waiter unhesitatingly recommended it.

Beetroot, Witlof, Labna and Orange Salad ($16)

I adored this salad. It was deliciously refreshing with the scrumptiously juicy beetroot and blood orange segments, accompanied by the thick, soft labna. The witlof added a nice crunch to the salad though there weren’t much in the dish.

Fried Cauliflower, Chickpeas and Silverbeet ($16)

The cauliflower was nice and crunchy and went well with the silverbeets and chickpeas. It was well-seasoned and we found that we had a lot of chickpeas left over long after the silverbeets and cauliflowers were eaten.

Warm Salad of Octopus, Spanish Chorizo and Kipfler Potatoes ($20)

It sounded so promising, but I think this dish was a bit of a disappointment to my friends. While the octopus was soft and firm, but not chewy, well-seasoned with perfectly cooked potatoes, they felt the chorizo lacked something – some oomph that may have made the dish great. They were topped with sliced celery, which was received with mixed reactions. Tien loved its slight bitter crunchiness, while Dat preferred his celery to be cooked, not raw and in the form of a salad.

Seared Scallops with Morcilla, Braised Cabbage and Pickled Cauliflower ($24)

There was a collective “oooh” as this dish was presented at our table. Breaking the crisp took some work, especially when not trying to spill what’s on top, but it added a much needed crunch to the dish. The morcilla was surprisingly tasty and complemented well with the decently seared scallops. The sauce on top of the crisp did a great job helping to meld the two components together. Though I would have to say, I couldn’t really taste the pickled cauliflower amongst everything else, but on its own, there was a nice acidity to it.

Steamed Pork Belly with Warm Salad of Onion and Shiitake Mushroom ($24)

There was another collective sigh of appreciation when our eyes feasted on the pork belly. Ier said something that I thought was pretty much spot: “On its own, the pork belly isn’t anything fantastic, but with the mushrooms and the caramelised onions… mmm it’s great!” The pork belly was sinfully soft and had a good amount of fat – not too much and not too little. I only wished there was more mushrooms!

Slow Cooked Lamb Loin with Roast Garlic Miso and Eggplant ($32)

Our final main dish drew another appreciative noise from our table. The lamb, our waiter informed us, was cooked sous-vide and was lightly seared before serving. It was scrumptious – moist and tender as it looked. The eggplant though being super mushy had some fibrous strands that made it a bit hard to cut. It went really well with the lamb though, especially in the presence of the miso sauce. I didn’t count on the sauce to be so… spicy. I found myself coughing a little and having to reach for my glass of water. Terrible, I know. Sigh. It was worth the fire in my mouth though. I thought the roasted pine nuts was a nice touch.

During the course of our meal, we saw quite a few affogatos being served with Dat and Ier eyeing them covetously. As soon as we received the dessert menu, they looked for it but it wasn’t on the menu. According to our waiter, it’s something that’s a little hush-hush. Interesting…

The affogato’s served with vanilla ice cream, as well as an 8-year old sherry or brandy (sorry, I can’t remember which), and I presumed it went down well as the next thing I know, they were all gone.

Chocolate Ice Cream with Coffee Custard, Mango and Passionfruit ($14)

I was surprised to see the chocolate ice cream between two sugared pastry pieces, but they were certainly welcomed – so wonderfully flaky! The caramelised pistachios were a delicious, crunchy addition to the dessert, along with the fresh, juicy and sweet mango slices and the hint of sourness from the passionfruit. The chocolate ice cream was pretty decent while the coffee custard was silky smooth and well liked by Dat and Ier.

Banana Split: Cream Flan, Dulce de Leche Ice Cream, Ginger Biscuit and Banana ($14)

For some reason, Tien and I latched onto this dessert and was adamant that we had to order it. I don’t know why as considering that besides this and the coffee custard dessert, there was nothing else anyway but the cheese plate (which we all didn’t really classify as “dessert”).

When the dish came out, we wondered where the banana was. On some tentative tastings of a couple of the components of the dessert, we realised that the “split” was basically the two forms the banana was in: as a dense foam and as a puree. I was so impressed with the cleverness. The flan was pretty nice as well with its syrupy, sweet caramel sauce and a very crunchy ginger biscuit.

I loved the service here: the wait staff were so friendly, informative and very attentive. I also loved how they were dressed: vintage style, complete with elegantly vintage-styled hair. The food came out quite quick and we didn’t have to wait for long for a dish to arrive once an empty one was taken away. There was almost an issue of not having enough table space with about 3-4 dishes still not quite finished, but was saved when Tien quickly finished off one of the dishes to be replaced with another.

Bodega does not take bookings, so be sure you get there early, as it gets pretty packed by about 7pm. Also ensure your entire party is present, as they will not seat you until everyone is there.

Bodega
216 Commonwealth Street
Surry Hills, NSW, 2010
Ph: (02) 9212 7766
Web: http://www.bodegatapas.com/

© squishies for eatshowandtell, 2009. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dessert, favourites, lamb, Seafood

Yes, I’m the biggest groupie. After seeing the egg net salad on Masterchef, I went through a phase of “ hey it’s on Masterchef, it must be good … let’s go there! “. A week later, I find myself at Longrain and seeing Martin Boetz in the comfort of his own kitchen making copious amounts of the infamous egg net.

Ping Pong: Lemon, Vodka, Lychee Liquer, Lychee, Passionfruit and Lime

I’ve always maintained a love hate relationship with modern interpretations of traditional cuisines. They have not always lived up to expectations as it sometimes seems the chef is trying too hard to be different when it is the simplicity of the original dish which already makes it unique. Naturally I was sceptical of Longrain, after my first visit I should probably never judge a book by its cover.

From the outside, Longrain looks very mundane, nothing special. Once you pass through the front door, it’s a whole different atmosphere. The warehouse type setting is separated into two sections, one side is transformed into a hip bar with trendy crowds sipping on fantastic cocktails chattering away accompanied by music played by the house DJ in the background. Divided by the open kitchen, the opposite side houses two long communal tables packed with patrons gleefully enjoying their meal.

Stickmata: Sole berry vodka, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, Lime

Asia carera: Pear Vodka, sake, pineapple, mint, falermum syrup, cloudy apple juice, fresh lime juice

Rose Porteous: Lemon vodka, watermelon liquer, fresh mint, watermelon, cranberry juice

The next of our cocktails were named after the famed Asia Carera and mega wealthy woman Rose Porteous. The Asia Carera is quite exotic with the inclusion of falernum syrup. Trusty old wikipedia suggests that falernum “contains flavors of almond, ginger and/or cloves, and lime, and sometimes vanilla or all spice”

The richness of the Rose Porteous is how I would actually imagine Rose to enjoy her cocktails, a mix of all the good stuff.

At the bar

We were told that the wait could be at least an hour, disappointed we moved to the waiting side and ordered a couple of cocktails and nibbles while thinking how glad we were to be escaping from the torrential downpour outside. One thing led to another and we ended up with a few entrees.

Freshly shucked oyster with red chilli lime juice & deep fried eschalots $4.00

Fresh briny oysters with a slightly sour chilli sauce accompanied by crunchy eshalots was a great start to our meal. This reminded me of the oysters served at Assiette.

Betel leaf topped with prawn roasted coconut mint & chilli $5.50

Despite the utilisation of the same chilli sauce that had been used on the oysters above, the inclusion of the betel leaves and toasted coconut helped differentiate the flavours between the two dishes, with this one imparting a more fragrant flavour.

Grilled beef pieces with a peanut dipping sauce

Tender pieces of beef marinade in a chilli peanut sauce then quickly grilled. A great accompaniment to our cocktails. I recall eating a similar dish on my last trip to Singapore and Malaysia, chargrilled pieces of meat dipped in a peanut satay sauce while knocking down a few ice cold beers.

Time for the mains

Coincidentally as we finished our bar dishes and cocktails, our seats were ready. Walking past the fish tank, peering into the kitchen, I spotted Martin calmly cooking away. After a quick 15 minutes, our first dish arrived, it was the eggnet, made famous my Martin’s celebrity chef challenge on Masterchef.

Eggnet with pork prawn peanuts bean sprouts & sweet vinegar $28.50

Laces of fine threads of egg encasing a plethora of pork, prawn and bean sprout pieces, garnished with coriander and basil with a sweet and sour sauce. This colourful and fresh dish was as tasty as it looked. I’m embarrassed to say that I had the dish to myself. A beautiful light salad with fresh crispy vegetables, fish sauce and crunchiness, encompassing everything that is Thai food.

Caramelised pork hock with five spice & chilli vinegar $29.50

Next up was the infamous caramelised pork hock. One of the most addictive things that I have had the pleasure of eating. A crispy slightly exterior pork skin aligning soft tender meat. Dipped in the accompanying sweet vinegar chilli dipping sauce, served with fragrant warm rice, my favourite dish of the night by a country mile.

Slow cooked curry of pork with thai basil & coconut cream $38.00

Despite the pull apart softness of the pork, I found this dish too spicy for my tastebuds, thus requesting the aid of chopped iced cucumbers. The perfect ailment for a burning numbing mouth.

I was about to desert the dessert

By this stage I was stuffed to the rafters but after spying the desserts our neighbours were having, I had to give them a whirl as well. As usual, our ambition combined with 2 bottles of wine and four cocktails between two people made us order the dessert platter.

Centre: Passionfruit pulp and young coconut jelly

The slightly sour passionfruit pulp helped neutralise the rich coconut jelly. I did notice that the juice/flesh of the young coconut was much more fragrant than the more mature ones which are often utilised.

Black sticky rice, custard apple and sweet coconut cream

I can’t recall this dish having a great impact on my tastebuds, however looking back at the picture, I’m pretty sure I would have appreciated it much more had I been sober.

Middle : Vanilla flavoured Tapioca, Top Right: Duck egg custard, Bottom Right: Sorbet

A very common dessert in most South East Asian countries which is simple in aesthetics but delicious. The tapioca balls add texture to the creaminess of the coconut milk.

At this point, I was just too full, and so the thought of sorbet and custard was daunting. I had a small bite of each, I can’t remember what flavour the sorbet was, but it was quite sour compared to the overly sweet custard. In saying that, it’s the perfect contrast of flavours. The duck egg custard was extremely thick and rich, it would have gone down well with a cup of tea.

Toasted coconut with palm sugar ice cream with banana fritters

I’m glad we left this till last. It was one of my favourite dessert of the night, beautiful creamy ice cream atop crispy gooey banana fritters. I loved coating my tongue with the cold ice cream, and then biting into the hot fritter, quite a novelty.

Prior to attending Longrain, I was quite sceptical of the quality and authenticity of the food that I’d be served relative to the price. However, I can safely conclude that the food at Longrain not only retains the authentic flavours that is specific to Thai cuisine, but through the inclusion of Martin’s creativity has actually enhanced it without compromising the basic flavours of Thai cuisine. The queue was long, the price a little steep, but the food and alcohol more than made up for it.

Longrain

85 Commonwealth Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Phone (02) 9280 2888
Fax (02) 9280 2887

© Howard for eatshowandtell, 2009. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Located amongst the design industry district on the lower end of Surry Hills, the interior of Foveaux Restaurant + Bar still upholds the look of the warehouse that was occupied there once back in the days. The walls have been retained to give the restaurant a rustic look. One strange thing I find with the interior is the big red fire hydrant located right above one of the tables at the front of the restaurant. The first time I dined here, we sat at that table. The experience wasn’t the same this time. I felt more relax, less cramped, atmosphere felt more serene, more like my table was meant to be there instead of just placed in an available area.
This time round, our table was situated outside the kitchen so we got to see all the hussle and bussle! Exciting!

Prior to tonight’s dinner, I had a peek at the menu available on their website I was being too keen! But what caught my eye was their tasting menu. @ $75 for 6 courses… not too bad! It was 2 nights before my trip to Japan and what better to splurge my hard saved money on than some non-Japanese food before I embarked on my journey. So tonight, 2 of us order the tasting menu and the other 2 ordered from the menu. There is also an option to have the tasting menu with matching wines (choice of either $30 or $50) but we gave that a pass and ordered a bottle of red for the table.

There were too many selections on the tasting menu, so we ordered one of each dish from each course. And because I don’t eat meat, they kindly allowed for the fish meal to be switched so that I got 2 meals of fish!

So here I begin my gastronomic feast for the night…

Complimentary Bread roll

I love when the bread is served warm and crunchy, and tonight’s roll sure ticked both those boxes.

Ceviche of kingfish, crab ice cream with a baby herb salad

(I apologise for the quality of the photo…)

On a previous visit to Foveaux, my friend had informed me that Foveaux’s speciality was their ceviche of kingfish, crab ice-cream entree. I had this on my last visit and it was DIVINE! Ice-cream + savoury sounds like a strange and weird combination but they went surprisingly well together. So this was an obvious selection.
The raw kingfish is marinated in a light lemony juice which highlighted the fish’s sweetness. The coldness of the icecream gave the fish a nice fresh taste. A great marriage of flavour and feeling.

Shaved fennel a la grecque, green olive jelly, radish sprouts, goats curd, carrot paint with a taro chip

Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of goats cheese (curd as they call it here), however tonight the usual strong flavour of the cheese was toned down a bit. The taro chip was quite interesting too as it stayed crunchy and accompanied the goat’s curd very well. The green olive jelly had a nice savoury taste. I think it was the mixture of everything in this dish that detracted the usual strong flavour of goat’s curd. A very nice dish.

Oysters with chardonnay vinegar pearls and salmon roe - $4 each

On my last visit, I ordered the oyster because of the “salmon roe” and I have never forgotten that oyster. So tonight, my same dining partner ordered the oyster once again to relive the moment we both had one of the best oyster in our lives. We love it not only because of the sweet-ish flavour of the sauce but also for the salmon roe. There was literally a party in my mouth!

Salad of warm smoked duck, cured liver, shiso, pickled rhubarb with liquorice cream

The duck meat was very tender and was perfectly cooked – rare. The sweetness of the rhubarb and liquorice cream accompanying the dish was a nice mix to the smokey flavour.

Roasted tasmanian scallops, venison heart, sesame puree, crushed beetroot and la goya jus

The scallop was perfectly seared, half cooked, half raw. And the top was crunchy. The beetroot flavour was the strongest out of all in the sauce and it was a “sweet” match with the scallop. One of my favourites as everything blended so well together.

Roasted trevalla, kohlrabi gratin, carrot puree, braised sea urchin and leek, red wine reduction with salad burnette

I ♥ crunchy fish skin and this was perfectly crunchy. I liked the strong flavour of the sea urchin in the sauce. It was well marinated into the salad and it gave the fish a nice salty flavour. The red wine reduction gave this dish its sweet flavour… for some reason it was very much like a light, watery BBQ sauce flavour (can’t think of anything else to describe it!)

Braised oxtail with pancetta, celeriac, snails, parsley, bacon rice crackers and yellow capsicum puree

My dearest dining partner remembers this dish as “I remember it was really nice but I don’t remember how to describe the taste of the dish…!“. I believe chef Darrell Felstead enjoys using a vegetable puree to enhance his dishes. A very smart idea as the vegetable flavour is always a nice accompaniment to most meat/fish dishes. Also, it adds a nice colour!

Pumpkin custard with mushroom pearl barley, roasted globe artichoke, chestnut mushrooms, candied garlic and hazelnut puree - $32

Surprisingly, this was quite a heavy and filling dish. Lots of mushrooms and vegetables… a vegetarian’s favourite! It was more flavoursome than it looked!

Roasted lamb loin, white miso puree, crunchy wakame seaweed, asparagus, pea sprouts and jus gras

Watching the boys slice easily through the lamb, the meat looked very tender and soft. It was nice and juicy and the ‘jus’ + miso puree gave this dish its special touch.

Baked rainbow trout with Victorian morel mushrooms, clams, winter purslane, sugar snaps and sweet corn purée

I had this fish dish on my last visit to Foveaux. What I love about it is the sweet corn purée. It’s very sweet and corny (Yes I’m being extremely obvious but this had a nice strong corn flavour). The trout is cooked just right and each slice/portion comes right off perfectly. The sauce mixed with mushrooms and clams have a strong salty flavour which mixes well with the sweetness of the puree and the trout. Perfect union.

Pre-dessert: Braised watermelon with sorbet

Pre-dessert is known as a “palette cleanser”, used to cleanse your taste buds from the savoury flavours of the entrees/mains to ready them for the sweet taste of dessert. There was a thin slice of watermelon which gave it a light flavour, and together with the sorbet the overall experience was very “FRESH”! After indulging this sweet, I was ready for what was to come next…

Cherry beignet, caramel milk sorbet, chicory cream and almond puree

I’m not a huge fan of non-chocolate desserts nor do I like cherry, but I must say this was something else…! Beignet is french for ‘doughnut” (or donut ). The deep-fried donut was not too sweet. With every bite of each part of this dessert, the party in my mouth just continued on and on and on…

Tonka bean rice pudding, blackberry conserve, white chocolate ice cream and walnut dust

I’ve never had rice pudding before, so to me it tasted like sweet rice oats. (Note: I love oats!) The blackberry conserve added a fruity taste to the rice pudding and the white chocolate icecream added to the cool temperature of the dessert.

Estate Grown Organic Teas with petit twos $5

I love how when petit twos are served when tea is ordered. It makes the tea drinking experience just that bit better!
Tonight, the petit twos was an almond chocolate cup and toasted marshmellow. This type of marshmellow is my favourite! Its homemade, fresh and not like your average supermarket marshmellow. This is more stickier and less sweet. Extremely yummy!

The busy busy kitchen

For $75, the tasting menu was well worth it. The flavour of each dish was well matched, the variety was wide, servings plenty (not too full, not too little). The service was attentive, professional, informative, flexible and friendly – perfect 10!

My second experience to Foveaux felt much better than the first, and I can tell you… this won’t be the last!

Foveaux Restaurant and Bar

65-67 Foveaux Street,
Surry Hills, NSW, 2010
Ph: (02) 9211 0664
Fax: (02) 9211 0669
Web: http://www.foveaux.com.au

© teresa for eatshowandtell, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Sydney City

Sam one day sent me a link to the Mahjong Room, asking if I was interested in playing Mahjong whilst having lunch. For most of the time, anything involving food piques my interest, but it was the thought of playing Mahjong while eating (for some reason) that really intrigued me. Despite having a Chinese background, I have never played this age old game before (I don’t really see the tile-pairing matching game on the computer to be ‘true’ Mahjong).

I know, shocking, isn’t it?

It’s been a while since I went and have unfortunately forgotten our host’s name, but he gave us a brief introduction to the history of Mahjong, then proceeded to go over the main objectives and rules. We were to learn the very simplified version of Mahjong, as we only had two and a half short hours to learn and play it (and it’s less confusing what with not having to worry about the points system).

It was a bit hard to fully understand it a first, but both our host and Sam assured us that as once we started playing, we’d get the hang of it.

Oh noes! It/'s crooked!

We first played an open hand to get us used to the rules (and kind of have more of an idea of what the heck we were doing), which Ram won.

Our host would walk around to the tables, helping where confusion reigned and explained a lot of things, but we were rather glad that we had Sam – it was as if we had our own private tutor! Hehe, technically we did.

Absolutely love doing this! So much fun

We were served tea as soon as we were seated, but during the second (but now closed hand) game, we started to wonder when they were going to serve lunch – I, for one, was rather hungry (not having had breakfast and all).

It wasn’t until we were almost finished with our second game that our first dishes were served. We then realised that while the table was perfect for playing Mahjong, it wasn’t near big enough to eat at, at the same time. Our dishes were placed on any free space and, lacking that, on top of the tiles.

San Choi Bao (with Vegetables)

Our host had come around and asked us if we had any special dietary needs – Ruby raised her hand and said that she’d prefer not to eat meat, but seafood was okay. I thought it was nice that they remembered she was the aquatarian on our table, so all the special dishes were placed in front of her.

Ruby tells me that the vegetable San Choi Bao was quite delicious and I could quite help but be slightly envious by the generous portion size: she had two bao’s to our one-each.

San Choi Bao (with Chicken)

We were given bowls and chopsticks, but it was a bit awkward with the lack of room to put anything down. I’m quite sure I used the bowl to capture any errant saucy drops from the bao.

I loved how crisp the fried noodles were and how the sauce didn’t overwhelm the flavours of the moist chicken or fresh vegetables, but rather, it enhanced them. It was quite a joy to eat.

Or maybe it was so because we were quite hungry. Either or, we loved the San Choi Bao and ate it with much gusto.

Shallot Pancakes

Being not the biggest fan of shallots, I wasn’t expecting to like this dish – I love being proven wrong when it comes to food. The pancakes were made just right, so that it wasn’t over powered by the shallots, but it wasn’t hiding the flavour either – allowing the shallots to subtly add to the overall taste.

There was a tomato dipping sauce, but I didn’t think it added anything to the pancakes and was just as good eaten plain.

We got two slices each (I think one was eaten prior to the photo being taken *shake fist*).

Boiled Vegetarian Dumplings with Choy Sum, Black Fungus, and Pressed Tofu (I think)

These were lightly flavoured and while it was pretty decent, it wasn’t as memorable as say the San Choi Bao.

We got one each. There seems to be a trend of eating one of everything – in a way, it was such a teaser, kind of like an amuse bouche (hehe I’ve been watching Top Chef lately and just wanted to use it, my bad). If anything, it was making me more hungry rather than filling me up!

Tiger Prawn and Chicken Wontons - Minced Prawn and Chicken wrapped in Crispy Pastry

I personally adored how crunchy the wontons were, and they weren’t overly oily either. The slightly sweet-sour sauce nicely complimented the contents within, which tasted quite fresh and well-cooked (succulent, not rubbery).

Definitely wished I had more of these to eat.

Xiao Loong Bao - Shanghai style steamed Pork Dumplings

I can never get over how cute these always look (yes, even the mangled one on the right).

The broth inside was a little salty, but the meat wasn’t too bad though it wasn’t quite up to the standards of the bao from New Shanghai or Din Tai Fung.

I’m quite sure Ruby got something else since this was pork and she absolutely abhors the taste, but I must not have taken a photo of it… *gasp* Terrible! I’m not certain why I didn’t – I’m sure I had a good reason… I hope. Sorry!

Blue Swimmer Crab Gow Gee - Poached Dumplings served in Light Broth

More dumplings! These were okay, but sadly it was the last dish (I think we were a bit crest-fallen at the fact).

The dishes had consistently come out quickly once we started eating, but so involved in our game were we that we didn’t realise that they had stopped. We kind of looked at each other and wondered if that was it. Sadly it was.

(And sadly, we were still hungry).

We managed to squeeze in two more games (in which Ruby and I won respectively) before the end of the playlunch session.

The Mahjong Playlunch sessions run for 2.5-3 hours and cost $36 per person, which includes the dim sum “nibbles” (which I’m quite sure they’ve amended since last time I checked the website – if I had known, I would have eaten something beforehand!) above. Check the website for the dates of the sessions, as there are only 2 sessions held on every second Saturday of the month this year.

Booking is essential, where you must book in groups of 4, 8, or 12. I initially emailed them for a booking, but was politely requested that I call in, as they grab your credit card details in the event of a cancellation (full cost applies if cancellation is within 3 days of the session, or something like that).

Mahjong Playlunch
312 Crown St
Surry Hills, NSW, 2010
Ph: (02) 9361 3985
Web: http://www.mahjongroom.com.au/

Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday, 6pm to 10.30pm

© squishies for eatshowandtell, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chicken, dumpling, pork, Seafood, Sydney, Sydney, Surry Hills