eatshowandtell » Dessert

Restaurant Balzac, Randwick

squishies — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:00:20 +0000

“Can you close your eyes?” F implored as he started to drive off to the mystery restaurant he booked for our anniversary. Last time I closed my eyes while on our way to a mystery restaurant, I got car sick. I sighed and told him I was going to go to sleep then if that’s how things were going to be.

In continuing the surprise, I kept my eyes on the pavement and didn’t look up even as we entered the restaurant. F told me later that he was silently urging me to look up when we were greeted, as the maitre d’ anxiously flicked his eyes between us, his face betraying the thought that we were fighting and I was in trouble. Hah. Telepathy fail.

When we were seated, F asked if I knew where I was and triumphantly I said, “Of course! We’re at Balzac!” I was rather pleased and smug with my powers of deduction, only to be slightly deflated when he scoffed, “It took you long enough to work it out.” Bah.

Wagyu Bresaola

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Bilson’s Restaurant, Sydney

squishies — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:11:34 +0000

As you may recall in my previous post, F was super bored and picked out 3 restaurants to visit so as to make full use of my Entertainment Card. This was the second restaurant on his list.

We were given what seemed to be A3-sized menus (they were huge!) and spent some time trying to decide which set to order. There was the Fine Gueule 3-course set for $120 where you get to select each course from quite a few dishes, or there was the Fin Bec 7-course degustation set for $135… or the Fine Bouche 10-course degustation set for $165. We thought the Fin Bec degustation would be enough to showcase what Bilson’s have to offer (and would be more financially sensible), but we couldn’t resist the extra dishes in the Fine Bouche degustation. Well, to be honest, I think the fact scallops featured in the set kind of cinched it for us. We’re so terrible.

Amuse Bouche - Blue Swimmer Crab, Grape, Verjus Jelly, Almond Cream

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Post tags: beef, Dessert, poultry, Seafood

Foveaux Restaurant and Bar, Surry Hills

squishies — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:00:55 +0000

My Entertainment Book has been sitting on my desk, untouched save for a couple of raids for coupons in the fast food section, every since I bought it in August last year. F, bored while I was processing photos, started thumbing through the book. He suddenly asked to borrow my netbook and quietly relegated himself on my futon, occasionally emitting lip-smacking noises. Forty-five minutes later, he’s got three restaurants lined up and has already calculated how much to spend to get full maximum value from the Entertainment Card for the first restaurant. I didn’t realise he was that bored!

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)

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Post tags: beef, Dessert, pork, poultry, Seafood

New Zealand Golden Manuka Honey

minh — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:25:27 +0000

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

If there’s something I can’t resist its ice cream. No matter what the weather is like ice cream is inevitably on my mind. This appears to be so ingrained in my personality that on a recent est get-together not a single one of the team members blinked when I admitted I’d gone to eat ice-cream before meeting up for dinner.

When we received an invitation from Fiona of Mark Communications to sample the new New Zealand Natural Ice Cream flavour I immediately jumped at the chance. Despite a spate of miserable weather in the previous days the sun shone through that day to make a perfect ice cream eating day.

Helen, Suze and Simon were my co-conspirators on this day and Fiona was generous enough to offer a run at the bar on the house. I adore ice cream but the Chillos are my absolute favourite, an icy smooth mix of crushed ice and ice cream flavour of your choice (my personal weakness is mint-chocolate). Helen seems to share my weakness, going for a Mocha Chillo.

Golden Manuka Honey

The showcased flavour today is based on two of New Zealand’s iconic flavours, Kiwi Fruit and Manuka Honey. Of the two the Manuka Honey is probably the most famous, touted as the ultimate in natural medicines and is said to heal a number of ailments ranging from ulcers to infections.

Despite my reservations the Honey flavour is surprisingly mild which retaining a creamy smoothness. I’d been a little worried that the honey would overpower the flavour of the ice cream but the Honey & Kiwi combination worked nicely together. My suggestion would be to pair the Honey scoop with a slightly blander flavour to avoid it being overly sweet.

Oh hi Suze

In the email invitation Fiona had mentioned that we could also have sample to take home, 9 Litres to be precise. I’ll be honest and thought it was a typo in the email and had anticipated carrying only a 1L tub back to the office, so I was a little gobsmacked at the huge boxes presented to us. My co-workers on the other hand adored me for the next two weeks (my shoulders not so much after the 20 minute lug back to the office).

Of course flavour is totally subjective to the person, so here’s a sample of reactions I got from people in the office:

Would make a lovely taste experience between courses
one of the best ice-cream’s I have ever had. Go New Zealand. (Somewhat biased as the co-worker in question is from NZ lol)
Smooth, creammy and even for delicious with some fresh blue berries
Though it’s really nice, the kiwi fruits were a bit sour to me, so would suggest to go with topping.
I’m not usually a fan of ice-cream, but I actually really like this! It’s got a delicious fruity flavour, almost like frozen yoghurt??? 8/10
That ice cream was DIIIIVINE! Smooth, creamy and bursting with a really clean, fresh flavour. Yummo!
It was a perfect summer day flavour – not to strong or filling but hit the spot perfectly
Smooth, creamy and deliciously sweet – that was a taste sensation. Yum!
I LOVE the Manuka Honey ice cream! I wouldn’t normally go for this flavor but it’s DELICIOUS. Creamy and sweet – but not too sweet. Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust right.

All opinions are unedited to the point that I didn’t even fix their spelling errors.

As part of the introduction promotions, New Zealand Icecream is offering a FREE scoop Manuka Honey Flavour Icecream with any purchase. The offer is valid until the end of February, 2010.

Eat show &tell was a guest of New Zealand Natural Ice Cream, thanks to Fiona for organising and the invitation!

Georges Mediterranean Bar and Grill, Sydney

squishies — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:00:58 +0000

Being able to peruse a restaurant’s menu before you even get there is, I think, both pretty awesome and terrible. Awesome because you get all hyped up with what you’re going to eat and terrible because a) you can’t wait to try that enticing dish or b) you can’t decide between 2 mains and hope that your eating partner will choose one of them.

Georges is one of those restaurants who’s menu online has what their physical menu actually offer. So I was pleased that what I had planned could be carried out. I was thinking of sharing 2-3 mezedes plates (kind of like small plates), then a main and naturally a dessert, but somehow after discussing with Gary what he was going to order, we ended up ordering 7 mezedes… and no main for either of us. After all that planning! I can’t say that I regretted the decision though.

Seared Scallops with Fennel & Confit Tomato Salsa ($17.50)

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