(Scrambled eggs with extra mushrooms – $7.5+ $2.5)

This was the morning after Cafe Vue Cocktail Night - believe it or not, no hang over. Jacqui (the champ who consumed 10 about cocktails, was not the least bit drunk, and to prove it drove home got breathalysed and passed) had theorised that that is the difference good quality vodka and the nasty cheap crap that gives you hang over.

Because KJ only had two more days in Melbourne, we decided to take her to a cafe for brunch, very relaxing Saturday brunch, Melbourne style. Because it was on the way to the Queen Vic Market (let’s face it, all tourist road leads the Queen Vic), Maya had chosen this place.

(Chicken and avocado salad – $?)

It’s a typical nice, warm coloured and relaxing Melbourne cafe really. The Saturday breakfast menu consisted of the usual breakfast menu typical of the better Melbourne cafes. KJ, being a fussy girl that she is, had asked if they could do a salad (who the hell eats salad for breakfast anyway?) They said yes with a choice of tuna or chicken. She opted for chicken. Maya had opted for scrambled eggs and ’shrooms on the side.

(pancake with bacon, banana and maple syrup – $14?)

The food took quite a while though – almost 30 minutes before we were served despite being one of the few tables. So bring your patience with you and it shall be rewarded. Josh opted for the pancake option and boy did it blow me away! The dish was made up of two pancakes – one topped with lots of bacon and another with grilled banana. Both doused with maple syrup. Absolutely delicious. I would totally order that.

(the big veggie breakfast – $14? well, free actually)

Me? Starving and couldn’t decide. I opted for the big veggie breakfast. And it did not disappoint. It was the biggest veggie breakfast I had ever seen (hallelujah!). It consisted of two perfectly poached eggs (my choice), fried mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, spinach, home made baked mixed beans and tomato relish. There was supposed to be a hash brown but they had run out so I asked for extra mushrooms instead. All perfectly made and all perfectly yummy. Even the bread (Turkish) passed. And I’m fussy about bread.

But wait. There is a catch. Let’s see that one again. What do you see? You saw something sticking out under a piece of tomato you say? Bad luck for me, unfortunately, because I didn’t. I had to find out the hard way and something sharp poked the side of my mouth. What it turned out to be was a used match. Complete with one burnt end and everything. So I complained. Of course, I complained. In a nice way obviously. The waitress was most apologetic. She immediately took away my plate and offered to make me another breakfast. She rattled off  a few things and I settled for a toasted chicken, cheese and avocado sandwich. Luckily by now I had eaten most of the breakfast.

(toasted chicken, cheese and avocado sandwich – free)

A few minutes later, the chef herself turned up to apologised. And a few minutes later, my toasted sandwich arrived. And it was good (and fast! Next table had been there a while and still no food, seems like the 30 minute wait for breakfast was universal). The Turkish bread was perfectly toasted and the chicken unassumingly good with gooey avocado. Josh ate half of it because well, I had eaten most of the breakfast before that.

All in all, it was good. The food was really good as far as cafe breakfast goes. Quite outstanding in fact. I would wait half an hour for that sort of feed any day. As for the used match, I’m sure it’s a genuine mistake, which they promptly corrected in the most apologetic manner. My breakfast and the extra toasted sandwich were taken off the bill. I was happy with the service and the way they handled the situation.

So yes, I would go back.

Milano on Queen, 215 Queen St., Melbourne VIC 3000

I’m beginning to think these random posts are a really good way to use up all these photos I would never otherwise make a blog post about. Let me know if you think they’re insubstantial. Not that I would stop. I love to show off what I ate. Hehe.

This was a random beetroot and fetta salad at some launch/opening party I crashed. No I wasn’t invited. I was just there for the food. This beetroot thing wasn’t bad. Or was it the beers I had before it?

Tuna sashimi, cucumber and black caviar. Didn’t taste like much to be perfectly honest. Yes, the same picture as the one on my Twitter page.

Crispy banh xeo (Vietnamese-style crepe with prawns, beansprouts and all the yummy things) from Tien Dat. So good. Does anyone have a recommendation for banh xeo? I love the dish and would like to try other restaurants.

A close up of the above banh xeo. The batter was so crunchy and coconut-milky. So much goodness. I proudly eated it.

And we are still at Tien Dat in Box Hill. These are the nem nuong (Vietnamese pork meatballs on skewers). They were served with rice paper, rice vermicelli, salad, fresh herbs and awesome peanut sauce. The idea is a DIY rice paper roll that you put together yourself.

Fried dumplings from Shanghai Noodle House in Tattersalls Lane in Chinatown. Not as good as David & Camy’s in Box Hill. But still pretty damn good.

Spicy beef on rice from the same place. I mean, let’s face it, you look at the menu, do you expect this? No! I saw a couple guys at the next table eating this dish and I had to ask what it was. My curiosity got the better and I ordered it. Good choice (if I may toot my own horn). The beef was so crisp and delicious. The ’spicy’ part was not chilli at all. The beef was tossed with dried spices such as coriander. Marvellous dish I almost missed out on.

These are spicy noodles with pork and bamboo shoots (again) from Shanghai Noodle House. They don’t look like much but they are amazingly good.

Yes. I eated them all. Proud?

Book: Food Safari by Maeve O’Meara (recipe by Kumar Mahadevan) Theme: Indian Recipe: Rogan Josh

This week flew, didn’t it? The Cookbook Challenge Week 2 theme is Indian. I have been itching to buy myself an Indian cookbook as I love making Indian food but never really got around to it. The Food Safari book is the companion to the Food Safari series (which I love and have on DVDs despite not having a functional TV at home). It has amazing recipes – which better still can be watched individually on the SBS Food website.

This recipe is such a winner. It’s spicy, and oniony and meaty. The lamb was just so soft and rich. We have a bit of love for this Kashmiri specialty in our house because Josh orders a rogan josh when he is out of ideas at Indian restaurants simply because of its name. We amazingly enough never made it at home. I told Josh the night before about the idea of making rogan josh for the Cookbook Challenge and came home to find that he had defrosted the lamb chops, bought some tomatoes and fennel seeds and already made a start on chopping up the onions so I ended up backseat-cooking and helping him chopping things instead. He did most of the cooking.

We tweaked the recipe a little bit due to availability of ingredients – substituting here and there. But the full recipe, including a video, is available on the SBS Food site.

Rogan Josh (serves 4)

1. 1/2 kg lamb loin chops (about 4-5), bone removed, excess fat trimmed (keep some) and cut into cubes
2. 1/2 kg red onions (about 3 large ones), sliced
3. 1 tsp of salt
4. 2 bay leaves (we used fresh but I’m sure dried is the norm)
5. 1 tsp of cloves
6. 1/2 tbsp of green cardamon pods
7. 1 piece of cinnamon quill
8. 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
9. 1 fresh bird’s eye chilli, halved lengthwise (keep the stem)
10. 2 tbsp of jarred ginger and garlic paste *
11. 1 fresh large ripe tomato, chopped
12. 2 tsbp of tomato paste
13. 1/2 tsp tumeric powder
14. 1/2 tsp chilli powder
15. 1 1/2 tsp of ground coriander
16. 2 tsbp of fresh coriander leaves, chopped

Heat a bit of oil in a frying pan and add dried whole spices: bay leaves, cloves, cardamon pods, fennel seeds and cinnamon quill. Add the sliced onions and cook on medium heat until they are nice and browned. Add the ginger and garlic paste and the powdered spices. Add a bit of salt and toss around. Add the chopped tomato, tomato paste and the rest of the salt.  Turn the heat up and add the meat and toss around until they are sealed. Add a bit of water, stir and leave to simmer for half an hour. Turn off the heat and add chopped coriander and toss through.

Saffron Rice (serves 4)

I found a few of the saffron rice recipe online so I just kinda made things up here. The rice turned out beautifully but alas it wasn’t at all yellow despite the saffron being quite strong. I suppose ’saffron’ rice at Indian restaurant just has the colouring in it because they never really tasted like real saffron to me.

1. 2 cups of basmati rice, washed
2. 1 red onion, finely chopped
3. 1 large pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 3 tbsp of hot water for 10 minutes
4. 1/2 tsp of cardamon pods
5. a few pinches of salt

Add a bit of oil in the rice cooker (you have to keep holding down the cook button) until it’s hot. Add the onion and cardamon and fry for a few minutes. Add rice and toss around gently until the rice becomes too hot to touch. Add about 3 1/2 cups of boiling water (this water depends on your rice cooker and your rice) and throw in the saffron and its water. Stir. Leave to cook in the cooker.

To serve, sprinkle with crispy fried shallots. I just use the bottled ones.

* Available from Indian grocery store. Fresh ginger and garlic are better of course but because we use so much of it, this is much more convenient. I normally sprinkle some chopped fresh ginger in at the end of curries to give it that fresh ginger taste to compensate for the use of jarred paste.

Update 2/12/2009: see what everyone else made for the Cookbook Challenge Week 2

Dear Spatula, Spoon and Saturday,

You are one of the spices of my life…

My little blog. How you have grown.

Do you remember the time we had together when I worked in Singapore? And I was lonely, away from home and I had you to keep me company? I’m sorry I neglected you then. I’m sorry I never really got a chance to tell you about all the interesting, diverse food culture Singapore had to offer. Did you know that Singapore has the most food bloggers per capita in the world? You should have been one of the shining ones, but work required 60+ hours a week from me. It was hard.

But this year, I made up for it, didn’t I? We made Melbourne our home. Again, for me. You, for the first time.

When we, you and I, moved back to Melbourne, you neglected, me bored and unemployed. I started cooking and I wrote to you about it. Remember the Fig, Mozzarella and Rocket Salad? That post started our big Melbourne journey together. Remember how I got given a whole bunch of fresh figs from Nana’s tree? Throughout May and June (when I wasn’t busy going places), I started telling you about Josh and my honeymoon trip to Japan, even some about Singapore and snippets of my travelling around South East Asia especially Malaysia. I’m sad though, that I never told you much about Thailand, my home. We will need to fix that.

Over the few, but productive months that I also took you to Central Australia. I started working again in July (enough travelling)  and that was when I could afford to take you out to all the fabulous eating places Melbourne had to offer. Remember my silly drunken review of Cafe Vue cocktail night? And the fabulous Maha, Bar Lourinha and SiChuan Dining Room with all its chilli glory. And Coopers Inn – where I had my 21st birthday the rerun. And Tempura Hajime? Who could forget Tempura Hajime? Fresh plump scallops stuffed with uni. Droolworthy. Not to mention the dingy little Thai place, Me Dee Thai,  in Springvale that does proper Thai food and the infamous Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar. I still have lots to tell you. I haven’t even told you about my eternal Melbourne favourites: the Cellar Bar for its charming Italian heart, Mitsuno for its wonderous ‘Japanese-inspired’ cuisine. I haven’t even told you about Bombay By Night properly and how much we love these places. But I will.

I experimented a lot too. I made all sorts of interesting food. What about my seafood craze? The simple steamed blue swimmers? My first perfect spaghetti con vongole? Nicoise salad with seared lemon & thyme tuna? The paella? What about the roasts? Beef with Yorkshire pudd, pork with apple sauce, lamb with rosemary and garlic, chicken with fabulous gravy. Not to mention the greenie spaghetti with asparagus, lemon and shallot that I made up after being inspired by the farmers’ market (we do love our farmers’ market, don’t we?) and Joshua’s best lasagna in the world.

Josh has been making lots of Thai food lately. I’m so proud of him.

Have I ever told you this little fact: people on the internet are by far most interested in how to boil an egg in a microwave. It’s so strange that every months, hundreds of people from all over the world learn how to boil eggs on Spatula, Spoon and Saturday. One of those mysterious things in life, I suppose.

We have many years of posts ahead of us. I have asked the lovely Tara who is a talented graphic designer, and with my old web development skills, we will give you a brand new face. Not that you need it. You are already beautiful  but you do deserve a unique, new face. It will take time. But I will work on it.

Meanwhile, I still have lots to tell you about food. Hear me out. Don’t get bored of me yet.

With all my love,
Kat

This was back during the awful hay fever episode. I remember it distinctly as the night I barely slept and woke up at 6am and couldn’t go back to sleep. Generally, I would pick myself out of bed and go for a morning walk/run but because I barely slept I was just too tired so I figured let’s just hit Degraves St. for breakfast. So I pulled poor Josh out of a bed with a promise of breakfast treat.

(eggs florentine, poached eggs with spinach and hallandaise sauce – $12.00)

It was a lovely warm day and the day was heating up already (loves it) but we went in and sat in the booth at the back anyway. Unfortunately, I was grouchy to the max from lack of sleep and the fact that I had to be at work soonish didn’t help either.

The cafe was warmly decorated with interesting black and white photographs and while it was quite warm at the back, I didn’t mind. I am a tropical girl, after all. The breakfast options weren’t large with a few daily specials.

Due to grouchiness, I decided to be boring (I’m sorry, I try to not order the same thing over and over again) and ordered eggs florentine. The eggs were perfectly cooked this time (as opposed to my last eggs florentine) and I enjoyed it. Although still the hollandaise was a bit lacking. I’m yet to find perfect hollandaise sauce.

(Mediterranean omelet – $14.50?)

Josh ordered what was called Mediterranean omelet. I thought it was going to be normal runny omelet with ‘Mediterranean’ ingredients in them (like fetta, olives, etc.)  but surprisingly it was the Spanish style omelet (tortilla) which was served in a hot iron pan. The eggs were fluffly and cooked through – Spanish style with chorizo, onion and a few other things (can’t remember, too grouchy, no potato though).

Josh enjoyed it because he liked his eggs cooked through. I don’t but it wasn’t because it wasn’t done right. It was a fair portion of food. I ended up helping him with some. He’s not a big eater – especially for breakfast. It’s fantastic I married him. I get all his leftovers.

It was a good breakfast – typical of Degraves St. cafe standard. It did make me less grouchy before heading off for work. I’m so glad I work nearby.

The Quarter, 27 – 31 Degraves Street, Melbourne VIC

Nicole and I landed on Gertrude St. one night for a Book for Cooks event. Luke Nguyen was in town and he was promoting his new book (the Songs of Sapa) and Little Lantern Foundation. We originally thought we should probably hit a pho joint or something Vietnamese but Nicole didn’t want to be too far from the book shop and rush there last minute (so we went outlet shopping on Brunswick St. first, figures).

We went past Anada and I remember about this place being recommended highly by @redvespa so we decided we would go in. It was literally 5.55 and we were waiting for it to open at 6pm (we had to be at Books for Cooks before 7). They did, right on time and graciously let us in without a reservation. Despite it being Tuesday, the place filled up around 7. So make sure you get a reservation in.

As hungry as we were, we wanted to have a light meal and tapas seem perfect. We both ordered a few different dishes to try. I ordered a glass of sherry (you gotta have sherry, surely) and Nicole ended up with a glass of rose.

We were served some bread to start with some nice olive oil and funky black salt. It tasted like normal salt. Yes I did nibble at the salt crystals. I do that.

The bread was fabulously chewy and flavourful. I would love to be able to buy this sort of bread at home. The first serve was free and subsequent serves were a couple of dollars (I think) but as much as we enjoyed it, we didn’t order extras.

(Fried zucchini flower with Le Celestina cheese & Iberico jamon – $5.50 each)

The special of the day was zucchini flower stuffed with goat’s cheese and sprinkled with crunch jamon bits. Nicole and I had one each (as opposed to sharing one of each tapa) and they were definitely winner.  It was warm and crunchy and cheesy and generally very more-ish dish. Yum.

(Crumbed lambs brain with pork belly & red lentils – $4)

I had decided that today would be a good day to try a lamb’s brain. So I ordered it. The sauce was sort mushy bits of pork and lentils and it was good. The brain itself was crumbed and well-fried. I didn’t attempt to take a picture after it had been halved but it was kind of cool. It didn’t taste like what I expect it to taste (i.e. more offal-ish) it was sort of soft, creamy texture but didn’t taste much of anything. So now I can say I have had brains. Ta da.

(Rabbit empanadilla – $4.50)

Nicole ordered the rabbit empanadilla. It didn’t stand out as something worth remembering in either good or bad way so I regret to say that I just can’t remember what it tasted like.

(Salt cod & garlic shoot croqueta – $3.50)

I ordered the salt cod croqueta as I figured croqueta is just one of those tapa things that you have to have and I never tried it before. It was soft and creamy and flavourful – just like a croqueta should. I thought anyway – I have had other croqueta since and I can concur that this was a good one.

(Western Plains pork belly with fennelseed & smoky aubergine – $17.50)

Our star of the night was the pork belly. Like any diva, she appeared much later than every dish (each dish was served as it was ready) but she was definitely worth it. The pork was beautifully, meltingly tender with crispy skin (I love pork belly, I can eat it day and night). The smokey eggplant dip type thing that it was served with complimented it perfectly.

(churros with chocolate – $10.00)

By now it was 6.35. And Nicole demanded that we have desserts. I personally was getting nervous because I really didn’t want to keep Luke Nguyen waiting! Let’s face it, he’s such an awesomely nice guy. But we crossed our fingers and ordered the churros anyway. They turned up only 5 minutes later (thank you!) and we were treated to warm, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside churros and rich chocolate sauce. I’m glad we ordered it. So well done, Nicole. We were both stoked with the food and service at Anada and are making plans to return. Eventually. We have wide bases to cover, you know!

We then headed off to Books for Cooks and met Luke Nguyen. He talked about his trips to Vietnam, his passion for cooking and of course his new book, the Songs of Sapa. It was an awesome night. He was lovely and down to earth and a great conversationlist. And he concurred that pho with dried rice sticks is just not that great (told you!) I loved him.

Rilsta of My Food Trail was also at the event – she covered the event in her blog post. Swing over there to read about it. She also took a fabulous photo of me and Luke (I didn’t have my camera), which I’m so stoked about as it’s my proper ‘celebrity & me’ photo ever (yes, the one with Brad Pitt was fake. I can’t believe people actually believed it).

Anada Bar & Restaurant, 197 Gertrude St., Fitzroy

As I may have mentioned it once or twice, I eat far more than I take photos. And I take far more photos than I actually blog about them. So rather than letting them go to waste, I might as well put them up here.

Wow, I lied already. This was Pim’s strawberry tart from Brunetti in Carlton. I didn’t eat it.

Also lied. Didn’t eat this one either. Hong’s tiramisu from Brunetti. I’m not too sure why they felt the need to write it on edible white chocolate label. We know it’s a tiramisu.

Lunch at work one day – spiralli with Bolognese sauce and salad. People seem impressed when you eat salad at the office.

These are the muffins we always get at our department monthly meeting. I love savoury muffins – the two one the right are savoury (basil, tomato and cheese, and bacon and spinach). I eated a bit of each – our team shared them. The ones that look like banana and passion fruit are not. Strangely enough.

Tarts from Gill’s Diner (chocolate, pecan, lemon and lime) Nicole bought for her dad’s birthday. No, I didn’t eated them.

Garlic prawns from Degraves Espresso Bar. This is the place for cheap tapas fix after work.

That’s all for now.

Book: Jamie’s Italy by Jamie Oliver Theme: citrus Recipe: Insalata di Strada

This post kicks off my participation in the week 1 of the Cookbook Challenge in this hot (and eventually rainy) week. First of all, allow me to ramble before I get to the crux of this recipe. I found it really hard to be doing citrus (such a winter theme) in one of the hottest Spring week in Melbourne history. And guess what? I have no one to blame but myself because it was I, who pulled the theme out of the envelope. D’oh.

So here I was, totally stuck with this theme. I’m definitely not giving in and bake orange and poppy seed cake (although I have wanted to do that, the sticking point would be I have no cookbook that has orange and poppy seed cake – actually maybe Stephanie’s Cook Companion, but I digress) because that would be too easy.

This recipe in itself was no picnic. It is, in essence, a winter salad. Its main ingredients proved difficult: Cedro lemon? Non-existent here. Fennel? Winter vegetable. Blood orange? Well, I’d be lucky to find them. But guess what? The market provided! I went through all the stalls in the market to find decent fennel (believe me when I keep saying it’s not fennel season), some new potatoes, a head of radicchio and some blood oranges.

So you may ask what the hell is a Cedro lemon? In this recipe, Jamie writes about this salad as being a common street food in Palermo in the south of Italy where they have this special lemon which is mainly pith that gets sliced thinly and tossed into the local mixed salad. Jamie cautioned against using normal lemon. So I figured as the dressing for this salad contained blood orange anyway, why not just use the blood orange pith in its place? Personally, I had never eaten a blood orange pith before so I sliced one open and nibbled at it. Guess what? It was perfect! Score one for adaptation!

So here’s how I did up this beautiful little salad. I have to say aside from substituting Cedro lemon with blood orange, I pretty much stuck to what Jamie said. But I am cowboy when it comes to following any instructions or measuring ingredients, so here was how I did my salad.

Makes up one really large bowl of salad which two hungry people ate for dinner:

The Dressing

1. 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
2. 1 tbsp of good grassy extra virgin olive oil
3. salt & pepper
4. 2 tbsp of jarred pickled caper, squeeze out of the pickling juice
5. 2 small pinches of dried oregano
6. juice from a blood orange, save the pith for the salad

Mix everything together. Taste and adjust accordingly.

* I have no dried oregano in the house but I do have plenty of fresh ones in the pot. So a few days ago, I just picked a sprig and hung it out to dry. I have to say, drying herbs is much harder than I thought when the weather isn’t with you on it. Notice how not very dried the oregano leaves are in the picture?

The Salad

1. 1 blood orange
2. 3 new potatoes (about the size of mandarin), scrubbed
3. 3 leaves of radicchio
4. 1 handful of rocket leaves
5. 1/2 bulb of baby fennel
6. 7-8 fresh mint leaves

Start by bringing a pot of salted water to boil and add the potatoes. Don’t peel them. Boil for 20 minutes or until tender. Slice the fennel thinly and reserve some of the feathery tops. Tear the radicchio into bite-sized pieces. Slice one blood orange thinly. Once the potato is cooked, cut them into bite-sized cube while they are still hot. Toss through some of the dressing. Tear up and toss in the mint. Add the fennel, radicchio and rocket. Add the rest of the dressing and get your fingers in there and mix them up.

(slightly wilted version, 10 minutes later)

The idea of this salad (I hope anyway) to get everything thoroughly mixed together and the leaves to wilt into the warm(ish) dressing. So let it sit there about 10 minutes for tucking in. I promise you, it’s one of the more interesting salads you can make at home. We had this one its own for dinner. Jamie reckons you can serve it with grilled fish. I wouldn’t bother – it’s so good on its own.

See also: what everyone else made on the Cookbook Challenge Week 1

Oh my god, I am so stoked about this place. I have read John Lethlean’s reviews on Epicure (review 1 & review 2) and in both reviews he stressed about how interesting the menu is so we decided to give it a go one (very) late Saturday lunch.

From the outside, the restaurant looks just like any other suburban Chinese restaurant (which was why we’d never been) but the dining room was large and spacious (I guess it also helped there only three tables were taken up) but the inside was rather nicely decked out. We, of course, have a TV playing Hong Kong movie in the corner (you’d need that).

It was yum cha hour but I decided that we wanted to try their menu. The menu was awesome. It had all the interesting things not available in your typical Chinese restaurant. I was so excited at how interesting the menu is. I have never even heard and or read about many of the items. So, with that in mind, please don’t think too badly of me that I ordered four dishes between the two of us.

(‘Pickled black fungus and chilli salad’ – $8.80)

The first ‘entree’ was pickled wood ear mushrooms and chilli. Personally I object to it being called fungus because that just kills the dish’s appeal. The vinegar smell was very strong but strangely enough it didn’t really taste very vinegary at all. It was rather salty. I can’t say I liked it very much but at least I have tried something new. I still remember my former boss Sila’s reaction a few years back when she came across woodears ‘Ewww!!! It looks like ears! I can’t eat that!’

(‘Sichuan style devilled chicken’ – $18.80)

We had to order the ‘devilled chicken.’ It didn’t really matter that it was probably the only dish in the menu we had heard of. Let’s face it, why wouldn’t you order the dish that had more chilli and Szechuan peppercorn in it than the chicken? It was awesome. The chicken pieces were well flavoured and the Szechuan pepper numbed my tongue. The sensation was just unbelievable. Sure I have had this gong bao dish before but it was never as intense and delicious as this one.

(‘Crispy corn kernels coated in salty duck egg yolk paste’ – $13.80)

John Lethlean mentioned this dish in his review. I love anything coated in the salted egg yolk and deep fried and I have had a few dishes with it before (mainly pork, chicken or prawn) but I have never heard of it being done with corn kernels. A basket of it came (i.e. a lot of food) with a bit of sprinkles on top. I didn’t really quite get the idea of the sprinkles on top but that didn’t bother me.

The corn kernels were yummy. It was piping hot and crunchy with sandy, salty egg yolk ‘batter’. It was the best thing since sliced bread. I swear if they sell this at the cinema instead of pop corn, I would be in heaven. The corn used, I suspect, was frozen corn kernels. I was actually expecting tinned corn and was pleasantly surprised. Yum.

(Sichuan noodle jelly in clay pot – $13.80)

I was forewarned by the picture menu that the ‘noodle’ in this dish wouldn’t exactly be noodles but I was still mildly surprised when these bubbling claypot of bright green cubes showed up. This dish presented itself a little bit later than the rest and by then I had sufficiently assaulted my poor tongue with the previous dishes (it was numb). I found this dish to be rather hot.

The ‘noodle’, I believe them to be jelly cubes made from mung bean – so for those of you who are familiar with the mung bean product, it wasn’t so different. It was semi crunchy and chewy. The sauce was the typical Sichuan feel, hot and salty. I brought most of it home as it was just too much food. And I feel bad for not doing it justice at the restaurant.

We were also given segments of sweet navel orange at the end. A welcome relief.

The food here carried that very typical Szechuan flavours – the hot, the spicy, the salty and the oily. I loved it. It wasn’t toned down for the Australian palate and there was no chilli rating. You just order it and hope that you are strong enough for it. It was hot and gutsy and I loved it for that. Oh yeah, did I mention I loved it? Josh did too.

(Our funky takeaway bags)

We ended up taking all of the dishes home because we just couldn’t eat everything. The waiters were incredibly nice and professional (a rare find in a suburban restaurant, I tell you). The food was so incredibly interesting and honestly good. Handsome and richly decorated dining room. And cheap. Did you notice how cheap the dishes were?

We are so going back.

SiChuan Dining Room, 723 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn
(03) 98188758

(November 2009 Cocktail Night menu – theme is Belvedere vodka)

Last week my baby girl KJ came to town. So where’s better than taking her to the most fabulous cocktail event in town?* Nowhere! The Cafe Vue** Cocktail Night is hosted weekly on a Friday. For $75 over the space of 3 hours, you get the most fabulous cocktails and matching degustation plates from Vue. Bargain, I say!

(scallop linguine with cucumber)

The night started at about 7.30pm when the first cocktail was served (yes, they ran a bit late) and concluded at around 11pm (we left at 10.30 because we were starving) when people cleared off. So you’ll understand, I’m sure, the degradation of the picture quality due to lack of lighting and sobriety.

(Cytrus Pegu)

Our very first cocktail was called Cytrus Pegu, which was Belvedere vodka with err… lots of citrusy, orangey things done to it. The lovely waitstaff did announce every course and explained the logic of each make up of each cocktail. Suffice to say, they thought about it a lot. And we drank a lot. So I’m really sorry I can’t tell you more. What I remembered though was the lemon curd that lined the glass. It was so yummy I attempted to lick it clean. This lovely this little cocktail was served with a perfect little scallop served with buttery linguine and cucumber. Yum. But then we were starving. A tip: get some food in you first. The 5 courses served there were just not sufficient.

(Apple & Chilli Martini)

Our second cocktail of the night was by far the winning horse – the apple and chilli martini. But it wasn’t a normal apple & chilli martini, no, no. They started with 50% alcohol vodka and steep all the yummy flavouring fruits: apple, pear and chilli. It was intensely apple. It was intensely pear. And it was intensely chilli. No, it wasn’t hot at all. But it did taste every bit chilli. No only that, they attempted to turn it into a frozen cocktail by freezing it with liquid nitrogen rather than blending in ice (cos that would be too easy and ‘we would lose too much alcohol concentration’) so as delicious sounding as that sounds, it was lethal at about 50% alcohol. But oh my god it was yummy. They also topped it with deseeded chilli and a slice of dehydrated apple.

(rainbow trout sashimi, smoked salmon mousse and croutons)

To go with the fabulous cocktail, we were served rainbow trout sashimi, smoked salmon mousse and crouton. It was quite good too but when you were enthralled with such a fabulous cocktail, this took the back seat. The poor thing.

(Balsam Sling)

Our next up was a pretty little thing called ‘Balsam Sling.’ To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t remember anything other than cranberry juice and vodka (naturally). By now, I have realised that three full strength cocktails are wayyyyy too much for little lightweight me. So I began to off load this to Jacqui, who was the champ for the night. KJ who is even more lightweight than me, had begun to palm off most of her cocktails since cocktail number two to Jacqui.

(the balsam sling being served)

It was served out of this whipping implement thingie – the kind they use to whip cream? Sorry he did tell told what it was called but remember the previous 50% alcohol cocktail? Me neither.

(Confit pork waffle, tomato fondue and gruyère cheese)

This was, in essence, a toasted sandwich. Cafe Vue is rather well known for their toasted sandwich and waffle – they make it an art form. As far as toasted sandwich goes, this one was rather good. But it was definitely the most welcome dish because it seemed the most filling so far. Maya doesn’t eat pork and they forgot and served us four servings anyway so I scored the spare. Maya got something with tuna instead. I was too drunk and Maya was too hungry for photos to be taken. I asked why it was called ‘waffle’ and the waiter had mentioned ‘artistic license.’ Too drunk to argue.

(Black Raspberry Julep)

This was the black raspberry julep. Vodka, obviously. Raspberry stuff. And mint. Let me describe a little bit of my physical condition to you, I had the most terrible hay fever but this point and together with the cocktails, it rendered my nose entirely useless. I couldn’t smell a thing (or taste a thing) But guess what? I could taste the mint and the raspberry in every sip that I took, which was three. I gave up after three because I know I would totally be sick in the toilet, which would have required me to walk through the lovely Bistro Vue, past all the lovely rich people dining there and through to their lovely toilet. So no. That wouldn’t do! I palmed off the rest to Maya, while KJ palmed hers off after one sip to Jacqui. What a champ.

(Ewe’s milk cheese, almond toast, fennel and cherry salad)

The little platter served with the raspberry julep was comprised of ewe’s milk cheese (French and strong, and at the right temperature), almond biscotti (yes they called it toast) with raspberry jelly, and cherry and fennel salad. They were all really yummy especially the salad. But again, having my nose not working full well, I can’t rave more about it. I would have otherwise, I’m sure. But I have to consider the possibility that we were absolutely starving as well. And yes, I was too drunk to notice the flash wasn’t on. I have a little point and shoot. So yes, flash is sometimes mandatory for me. Stop turning your nose up at me, SLR-ers!

(Textures of pistachio)

Unlike the other courses, our dessert arrived first. It was called textures of pistachio. I only vaguely remember one blob to be cold, sweet thingie with almond in it. The other blob was not as cold but much sweeter. The green crunchy bits were sugary pistachio. Yeah. Did you expect a better description? Bad luck!

(Choc Vanilla Martini)

Our last cocktail felt like a bit of a disappointment as everyone was looking forward to it. Description went something along the line of vodka with steeped vanilla seeds and dark chocolate. It was topped off with a cherry that had been submerged in Kirsch, which tasted seriously strong and it was the only thing on the night that tasted seriously strong. I do have a flashed picture but the fact of the matter is, it wasn’t a pretty looking cocktail (that was probably why it was served at 10.30) it was kinda dark muddy brownish with a bit of red. Not pretty. It tasted too sweet to me. None of us liked it very much – and all everyone could think about was dinner/supper at this point.

So we sauntered off to the only placed that seemed to be open at 11pm. Your Thai. I know. Believe me it went down hill from there as we eventually ended up at Charltons. So you know what I mean when I said down hill.

So I guess the question on everyone’s mind would be: was it worth it? Paying $75 for cocktails you couldn’t drink half of and food that still left you hungry? My answer is a resounding ‘Hells yeah!’ We loved it. I’m going back and I’m taking Jacqui with me. What a champ.

I also ran into Fergei from What I Ate Last Night. We both noticed each other taking photos and she asked a lovely waiter whether I ran a blog and the lovely waiter came up and asked me. So I ran up and drunkenly introduced myself. Seriously, I hope I wasn’t being too embarrassing because I really can’t recall what I said to her.

Cafe Vue, Normanby Chambers, 430 Little Collins Street (between Queen & William Streets)
03 9691 3899, Cocktail Night every Friday, reservations essential.

* Yes, it’s a sweeping statement. No, I haven’t been to any other cocktail event. Yes, I see the flaw in the logic. Yes, I had five cocktails. Yes I am a lightweight. So yes, I stand by my statement.
** See my previous visit at Cafe Vue in October 2009.