Birthdays Part 1: Baffi & Mo and Patisse

My birthday fell on a Friday this year which made for a rather convenient reason to take the day off and have a long weekend. Birthdays are also a good excuse to do nothing but eat, if that’s your sort of thing. Which for me of course, it is.

After a short sleep-in, Monsieur Poisson and I find ourselves sitting at one of the long bench tables at Baffi & Mo. Whilst I admire the Florence Broadhurst-esque wallpaper, a couple has their backs turned to us and are quietly studying the menu. They are alerted to our presence when we place our order with one of the staff and, somewhat conspicuously, they shuffle a little further away from us on the communal table. Hmmm, perhaps my new haircut is scaring people off? That may not altogether be a bad thing!

Our coffees arrive first up before being soon followed by our ‘Pea and corn fritters’ which are served with baby spinach leaves, squeaky salty haloumi and a tomato relish. Whilst at first the fritters appear to be underseasoned, if you take a bit of haloumi with each mouthful then you’ll be guaranteed bucket-loads of flavour! Plus, you will not miss the presence of meat at all.

Although similar in presentation, the ‘Potato hash stack’ served with avocado, lemon-dressed rocket, asparagus, cherry tomatoes and a poached egg is more about contrasting textures. We’ve opted to have ours with smoked salmon (the other option being ham) and our only complaint is that we would have liked the yolk to be runnier to better offer a creamy coating to both the rocket and the potato hash. Ahhh, and what a magnificent hash it is with its matchstick-thin slivers of golden potato and nary an uncooked one in the centre.

Fast-forward a few hours after some uneventful homewares shopping and we stop in at Patisse for a recharge. The afternoon sun is streaming in Patisse’s converted warehouse windows, giving the multicoloured macaron creations an ethereal quality. I choose a colour palette of mixed berry, salted caramel and pistachio, and find that the filling is creamier than others I’ve tried yet manages to be delicately light. Monsieur Poisson cannot go past the gâteau opera which, with its thicker-than-usual layers, makes for one of the tallest we’ve ever had. However the impressive part is that the layers are evenly proportioned so that there is a balance of flavours and textures, plus there are no pockets of dryness to be found about the jaconde.

We head home for a short break to digest, and then it’s off to more eating for dinner!

Baffi & Mo

94 Redfern St (near cnr Chalmers St), Redfern NSW

Tel: (02) 8065 3294

Patisse

Shop G01, PYD Building, 197 Young St (cnr Phillip St), Waterloo NSW

Tel: (02) 9690 0665

Opening Hours:  Mon-Sat  8:30am-4pm

                        Sun  CLOSED

happy eating!

Jang-Gun, 4 April 2010

It’s cold and windy and you feel the chill from the surrounding air as well as seemingly from within your bones. No matter how much you bundle yourself in layers of clothes, you still can’t seem to keep warm enough. In times like this, what you need is something hot, something comforting, and something that warms your soul from within.

In our continuing bid to eat closer to home, and actually try places instead of constantly walking past them, Monsieur Poisson and I decide to try a local Korean restaurant which has been around for a while but unfortunately has been long-neglected by us. It is a cold evening and our minds immediately turn to spicy foods and Korean hotpot.

The restaurant, on the first level of Victoria Plaza overlooking Victoria Avenue, is quite busy when we wander in and it seems that everyone has the same notion of warming food to beat the cold. The tables are a little sticky and most are fitted with barbeque hotplates, although not all. The décor is simple with the walls decorated by framed pictures of dishes, some of which don’t even appear in the dine-in menu itself!

As usual with dining in a Korean restaurant, we are treated to an array of complimentary side dishes – spring onion fritters, konbu seaweed, green salad, bean sprouts, agar-agar jelly with chilli soy and, of course, kimchi. (True story: Nella’s holiday snaps from South Korea last year included that of a meal with two ordered main dishes, and upwards of ten complimentary sides dishes – all for only two people!) We also order a serve of deep-fried dumplings to start with.

I don’t particularly like deep-fried dumplings but I was having a dumpling craving so I was looking for a fix. Not overly oily and with a nice plump filling, this felt like a larger serving than its looks would convey. Water is complimentary and comes pre-chilled in reusable plastic bottles.

And then what we came for – hotpot! Monsieur Poisson has chosen the ‘Ham and vegies hotpot’ which has all manner of tinned ham, corned beef and sausage pieces in amongst zucchini, cabbage, enoki, bamboo shoots, tofu and rice cake slices in a mildly spicy soup. We mix some of this soup in with the rice which comes on the side while we wait for the square of instant noodles poised in the middle of the soup to cook, along with the egg which has been cracked over the top.

We return for dinner again soon after, on another cold evening, and are encouragingly met with a slightly differing selection of side dishes. It’s nice to know that there is variety in what the kitchen presents, even in a smaller place as this. I am intrigued by a plate of soy-flavoured legume-looking things which are chewy in texture, have a mild nutty flavour and are somewhat more-ish. An enquiry with the waiter yields no answers though.

We order the ‘Barbeque beef tongue’ as we didn’t get a chance to try any of their stir-fried dishes last time. It is presented sizzling on a hotplate interspersed with onion, spring onion, chilli and sesame seeds. The dish has a beautiful garlicky meaty flavour but unfortunately gets greasier as it cools down.

We order the same hotpot as previous but this time the square of instant noodles has a couple of slices of plastic cheese placed on top, which melts into a gooey layer as the noodles cook. More fascinating however, is the single burner portable stove placed on our table for the purposes of the hotpot – ‘solar power’? Would love to know what it says underneath in Korean!

Jang-Gun

Shop 27, Victoria Plaza, 269 Victoria Ave, Chatswood NSW

Tel: (02) 9412 1816

Opening Hours:  Mon-Sat  11:30am-10pm

Sun  5-10pm (dinner only)

happy eating!

Big Brekky (again!), 19 Dec 2009

I feel like I’ve come full circle as my first ever food post was about Big Brekky. Monsieur Poisson and I were most enamoured with this little café after our visit and he was rather jealous that I was, on this occasion, dining there again with Mistress and not him.

We find ourselves in the area as I have a wedding dress fitting nearby to get to following our brunch/lunch date. Perhaps not the wisest of scheduling moves but the bridal store only had afternoon appointments that day and it was getting awfully close to Christmas. Parking is once again easy to find and we are very fortunate to nab a table for two just as a couple of diners vacate. The café is otherwise full around midday and an orderly queue forms at the door soon after we’re seated.

It is a hot day and Mistress quenches her thirst with a rosy hued watermelon juice, while I find it hard to pass up the opportunity of enjoying a flat white made from Campos coffee.

Mistress orders the eggs ‘Atlantic’ which is the ‘Florentine’ I had on my previous visit but with the addition of smoked salmon. Creamy Hollandaise with poached eggs, lightly wilted spinach, smoked salmon on toasted sweet brioche is such a winning combination of complementary flavours and textures.

I go for the ‘Sweetcorn fritters with bacon, avocado, sour cream and tomato salsa’ which we did not get to try previously. It is a very generous serve and I was eating it forever whilst giving my jaw a good workout chewing all the different components. The sour cream and avocado offer creaminess to the sweet fritters and bacon, of course, the saltiness. The salsa is surprisingly fine and flavoursome, tasting more like a chunky dip to be served with crackers or similar rather than your usual juicy salsa.

Water is provided to the table without us needing to ask and we spend a good deal of time catching up on girly gossip. This café really does breakfast and brunch dishes well and I’m looking forward to eating there again soon.

Big Brekky

316 Stanmore Rd (cnr Albert St), Petersham NSW

Tel: (02) 9569 8588

Opening Hours:  Mon-Sat  7am-3pm

                        Sun & Pub Hols  8am-3pm

happy eating!