A French weekend in London

Another free weekend in Europe makes for another mini-escapade across the continent. Our trip to London felt more “legitimate” than our weekend to Paris – we had to pass through customs, show our passports and leave the EU – however it had less of a tourist focus as it was also planned as an opportunity to catch up with Monsieur Poisson’s cousin whom we’d not seen in almost two years. It would also be the first time in two weeks where we’d once again be located in an English-speaking city.

From Munich to Paris

As with all Australians who travel to Europe, due to the long travel time to get here, we are making the most of our trip by hopping across to see other European cities. When flying from Munich to Paris takes about the same time as it does from Sydney to Melbourne, and with travel within the European Union so relaxed that no one even asks to see your passport, you literally can hop across. We had checked in online and were travelling with hand luggage only, which meant all we had to do was to rock up at the airport and make it through the x-ray machines by boarding time. The convenience of it all is still doing my head in.

So, why Paris? Well, not for the usual reason of it being “the most romantic city in the world” etc etc. Apart from it being a cultural, historical and fashion hub of Europe, France in general has held a special place in my heart for twenty-odd years. Having grown up in Sydney and receiving no formal Chinese education, I attended a Canadian-run English-speaking school when living in Hong Kong from the age of 10 to 14. French is a second language in Canada and taught in all of its schools, including the one I was at albeit offshore. Thus my affair with the French language began, which was continued through high school upon returning to Sydney. My French is far from fluent, but there is enough of it for basic survival.

An experimental sous-vide dinner

A happy New Year to you all! *cue: party poppers, streamers, confetti, etc*

To be honest the Christmas and the New Year period felt like eons ago, especially after having spent it overseas and with mad last minute dashing about just before leaving. Flights were booked well in advance but packing coincided with the usual end of year rush and trying to catch up with various people before they disappeared on respective holidays themselves. An experimental sous-vide-cum-Christmas dinner was organised with the usual suspects Chez Délicieuse et Poisson – something I’ve been wanting to do since slow cooking eggs in our thermos kettle.

Port Macquarie Getaway: Zebu

When the months were warmer – and I mean properly warm, not this half-arsed attempt at summer for a few days every few weeks – Monsieur Poisson and I ventured northwards to the seaside area of Port Macquarie for some sun and relaxation.

Dinner on the first evening was at the newly-opened Zebu, situated along the waterfront of Rydges Hotel. Far from your snooty or daggy hotel restaurant, Zebu’s trendy bar area is heaving with young crowds enjoying $10 pizzas and ‘Hump Day’ discounted drinks when we arrive. Actually, Zebu appears to have some sort of special promotion running almost every day of the week.

Birthdays Part 2: Olio

In recent years I’ve eschewed the big birthday gatherings of yore for more low-key affairs. Perhaps it’s part of getting a little older, or perhaps it’s age combined with laziness. Last year Monsieur Poisson planned ahead in advance and indulged me with a meal at Tetsuya’s, while I returned the favour through what was a bit more last minute planning.

This year we both decided to dine locally for our birthdays, and mine was spent at Olio where we’d previously only popped in to sample their kopi luwak or for a light meal. (No longer on the menu, I don’t think, but Olio had a really mushroomy risotto and a value-for-money antipasti plate.)

Drinks are in order for the occasion and I order the ‘Polish Spring Punch’ due to its inclusion of all things berry – raspberry vodka, berry compote and Chambord. The drink is both larger and stronger than it seems as well as being a beautiful shade of blushing pink.

‘Salt & pepper squid’ is ordered due to having tried it on an earlier visit. And although there is much less rocket this time around, the small tendrils of squid are light, low on oiliness and well-seasoned as we remember. There is a lot more aioli on the side than is needed, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to finish it.

To share, we have a ‘Prawn, prosciutto, tomato & rocket pizza’ plus a ‘Grilled black Angus scotch fillet’ between us. The pizza base is thin but a bit soft on the underside, unlike the crisp wood-fired ones to which we are accustomed. The steak is much more pleasing, however, being tender and juicy, served with meaty roasted portabella mushrooms, eshallots and a rich jus. The menu mentioned it being served with Café de Paris butter, but there was no sign of this when presented to us.

It would have been nice to have had some potato mash to have with the steak and jus but we were mindful of over-ordering. I was too full for dessert as it was, especially after birthday eats from earlier that day, but Monsieur Poisson just couldn’t go past the ‘Apple & raspberry crumble’. It was tart and sweet all at once, but what I loved was the nubbly topping as opposed to the floury, powdery topping of some.

Olio isn’t open on weekends, but it makes for a great relaxing dinner on a Friday night... or on a lazy night during the week.

Olio

Shop 1, The Forum, St Leonards train station, 201-205 Pacific Hwy, St Leonards NSW

Tel: (02) 9439 8988

Opening Hours:  Mon  7am-4pm

                        Tues-Fri  7am-9pm

                        Sat & Sun  CLOSED

happy eating!

Gastro parK

Monsieur Poisson had, until recently, worked in a building which has a coffee kiosk in the foyer. He would usually stop in for coffee and sometimes raisin toast partway through the morning and would regularly chat to the owner/operator. One day, he and Coffee Guy were discussing where they liked to dine out when Coffee Guy handed him a business card saying it was for a new place where he knew quite a number of the staff. He urged Monsieur Poisson to try it and we made dinner arrangements there during a particularly busy period at work for me a couple of months ago. I had read very little about the place and was confused when online maps pointed to it being located at the site I associated with Blanco.

This newish baby of Grant King, ex-head chef of Pier, is intimate, cosy and tucked away from the, erm, bright lights of Darlinghurst Road. The service is friendly and I find it quite endearing that our waitress appears a tad nervous when serving us the complimentary bread when it doesn’t seem to want to leave the grasp of her cutlery-cum-tongs. I treat myself to a glass of Longbend sauvignon blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand which has tropical fruity notes, while admiring the squishy cutlery rests filled with pebbles suspended in a clear gel. (And, yes, I liked the wine so much that I bothered to have the name scribbled down for me so that I could remember it for future purposes.)

Gastro parK’s menu is brief but full of whimsy and playfulness. From the snacks section of the menu, we start with the ‘Putanesca wafer” and “Onion & mushroom macchiato, caramelised sweetbread”. The wafer is constructed from a framework of lacy grated parmesan which shatters easily and is a bit messy to eat, but a visual delight to admire being wedged into the crevice of a stone.

Monsieur Poisson is blown away by the flavour packed into the small glass of mushroom soup topped with sweet onion purée. The sweetbread has a sticky honey flavour to the outside and is presented skewered on a twig of rosemary.

We share an entrée of “Seared scallops, carrot tofu, Serrano ham, endive reduction, hazelnut” mainly due to Monsieur Poisson’s weakness for anything which makes mention of scallops. There are three scallops on the plate, of which one is encrusted in...I have no idea what, but its appearance resembles the coating on Cheezels! The carrot tofu looks like an orange-coloured panna cotta but tastes like carrot and nothing like tofu. I think at this point in time I started to lose my mind due to my eyes telling my brain to expect certain flavours and then they were anything but!

For mains, I’ve chosen the ‘Rangers valley beef fillet, sauté kale, onion soubise, caramelised veal sweetbreads’. The soft and juicy beef fillet features a thin, even crust and is flanked by onion purée akin to that in the macchiato as well as more sweetbreads. The kale is surprisingly crunchy with a texture like lettuce but served warm.

Monsieur Poisson has what has become Gastro parK’s signature dish – ‘Crispy scaled snapper, smoked potato purée, calamari crackling, ink sauce’. For starters there are the ink black components contrasted with the white plate, then there is the centrepiece of moist fish with an almost-bubbly layer of crispiness. Yes, those are real fish scales and not something else masquerading as. The calamari crackling is crisp like a light prawn cracker but a little oily on the fingers, and we still don’t know what those black little cylinders were!. This is the most fun dish of the evening and reminds us of dining at Restaurant Arras, especially when we are left guessing about the components.

Dessert is the shared ‘Pear & praline soufflé, Chantilly cream’. Soufflés are my default option to round off a meal as they’re light and also pretty to look at. If only we had the room to fit in a dessert each then we would have ordered the ‘Nitro pavlova’ as well!

I can quite confidently say this has been the most exciting meal of the year thus far. It was fun, relaxed and entertaining. Hey, even a certain Mr Durack gave them a 16/20 in his review.

Gastro parK

5-9 Roslyn St (corner Kellett Way), Potts Point NSW

Tel: 8068 1017

Opening Hours:  Sun & Mon  CLOSED

Tues-Thurs  6pm-10pm (dinner only)

Fri & Sat  12pm-2:30pm (lunch)

               6pm-10pm (dinner)

Le Chasseur giveaway winners

Thank you to those who took the time to enter this competition courtesy of Kitchenware Direct. Monsieur Poisson had the pleasure of reading all of your creative responses and has chosen the following one as the lucky winner:

Anonymous said...

Le Chasseur Nordic Square Grill Pan 25cm

This would be fantastic to own, grill steaks with the char lines, garlic bread with olive oil, vegetables etc. would be a great addition to the kitchen's cooking cupboard, the mrs will be happy :) cross fingers

10 July 2011 7:00 PM

Anonymous, I have sent you an email notifying you as the winner and someone from Kitchenware Direct will be contacting you soon regarding how to claim your chosen prize and to arrange for delivery. Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy creating some delicious meals!

Thank you once again Kitchenware Direct for their generous giveaway offer.

happy eating!

Hunter Escape: Firestick Café

When Monsieur Poisson and I have holidayed at the Hunter Valley, we don’t go out at night. Partly because we tend to visit early- to mid-week when there’s nothing open at night time, and partly because it’s incredibly dark at night and driving on both sealed and unsealed roads can be rather hazardous. Hence us never having visited Rock Restaurant, the region’s only hatted restaurant and a 2-hat status for three years running at that.

So discovering that Rock Restaurant morphed into the more relaxed Firestick Café during the day meant that we were still able to sample the kitchen’s food. Unfortunately both Rock and Firestick have since closed at the end of May 2011, although the Pooles Rock winery continues to operate, so we will not be able to drop in again on subsequent visits. The quality of the food was great and, seriously, how many cafés serve you an amuse bouche?

The little appetite-teaser of ‘Beetroot Lyonnaise with labne on sourdough’ was definitely an unexpected touch. As we were saving room for scones later in the afternoon, Monsieur Poisson and I ordered a small (most dishes were offered in two sizes) portion of ‘Grilled sirloin with wilted spinach, red wine jus, café de Paris butter and hand cut chips’ to share along with a ‘Pizza of confit pork belly, braised red cabbage and pear relish’.

The steak was cooked well and the red wine jus glossy and rich which we mopped up with the chips. The pizza had a light, crisp base with thin pork belly slices whose fat was perfectly cut by the red cabbage. Monsieur Poisson couldn’t resist ordering the ‘Apple and blueberry crumble’ when he spotted it on the menu (big apple crumble fan here), whilst I defaulted to my usual coffee/dessert combination of an affogato.

Firestick Café had decent prices although I’ve heard Rock was much more upmarket. Regardless of the reasons for which they closed, it will be interesting to see if there is a new venture down the line.

Firestick Café – CLOSED

Pooles Rock Winery, 576 Debeyers Rd (near corner McDonalds Rd), Pokolbin NSW

happy eating!

Kingsleys Steak & Crabhouse, 9 Nov 2010

Another work year has started and I am grateful that, amongst the tasks which will be thrown my way, organising a year-end Christmas party will not be one of them. For many workplaces, preparations for the following year’s Christmas party start almost before the last reveller from the current year’s event has even left the venue. Mistress has been lumped with this task for her workplace and I am most definitely not envious.

As my shiny red heels click-clack along the boards of Woolloomooloo’s finger wharf, there are large groups of men in business suits and ladies in cocktail dresses enjoying pre-dinner drinks in the evening sun outside several of the restaurants located along there. They appear to be the beginnings of year-end work celebrations and the lovely Sarah Ashmore, Functions & Marketing Coordinator of the Pacific Restaurant Group, confirms that Kingsleys is a popular choice for these shindigs and reservations are taken well in advance. All of which is understandable given the location and its view of the city skyline and relaxing surrounds.

But the view and location are all for naught if the food doesn’t stand up to the test of customers and, on this fine evening, twelve eager and camera-wielding food bloggers with appetites at the ready. Cocktails “with a modern twist” are offered all round but I’m afraid I’m not particular au fait in this area and can only remember two things about mine: 1) it was blueberry flavoured and possibly made with sparkling wine, and 2) it was girly and easy to drink.

The sourdough I do remember, with its distinct chewy crust and dense but soft interior enjoyed with real butter. However the show is stolen by the clean flavours of the ‘Burrata mozzarella salad with heirloom tomato and basil’, as well as the ceremony by which the hand-tied ball of cream-filled cheese is hoisted precariously via tweezers from a glass and rested on a bed of awaiting colourful tomato segments and where the remaining balsamic vinegar contents are drizzled over the salad itself.

The ‘Baby octopus with chilli, salt and pepper’ are tender, tasty and not at all greasy. The ‘Steak tartare with truffle aioli and sourdough crostini’ is anointed with a cute little quail egg replete with oozy yolk, and the tartare can be requested unmixed along with an array of condiments for a do-it-yourself experience.

I thought the show had been stolen by the burrata, but that was before the Alaskan king crab legs made their entrance thus completely upstaging everything before it. With pre-cracked shells for eating convenience, the flesh is sweet, springy and briney all in one bite and the triumph is in extricating a piece of meat from a segment of shell intact in its entirety.

Beef Wellingtons, encasing 400 grams of eye fillet to serve two and which require pre-ordering, are cut in half to reveal their blushing pink centres before us and plated by Group Executive Chef, Lars Svensson. Even with the vegetable relief provided by ‘Charred asparagus with parmesan’, ‘Iceberg salad with radish and blue cheese’ (very subtle in blue cheese for those who aren’t fans of it like me!), and ‘Zucchini with peas, mint & Persian fetta’, I fail to finish the meat but make a serious dent into the puff pastry outer and mushroom duxelle. Heh, I am never one to let pastry go to waste.

Dessert time proves that the ‘Chocolate brownie & banana sundae’ is a popular, classic choice, whilst I go for the ‘Toffee cheesecake with praline ice-cream’ in all its silken, toffee-swirled wobbliness. I am also told that the ‘Crème brûlée with sticky blueberry compote’ is crack-a-licious.

Dinner ends with tea, coffee, chocolate-coated coffee beans and happily satisfied bellies while I sit back under the twinkling stars and city lights wondering which lucky people will get to enjoy their Christmas parties there.

Mademoiselle Délicieuse dined as a guest of Kingsleys Steak & Crabhouse, Sydney, and the Pacific Restaurant Group courtesy of Sarah Ashmore.

Kingsleys Steak & Crabhouse, Sydney

Restaurant 10, 6 Cowper Wharf Rd, Woolloomooloo NSW

Tel: 1300 546 745

happy eating!

Birthdays Part 1: Tetsuya’s, 26 August 2010

spoon, fork & chopsticks is one year old! I’m actually a couple of days late (due to such annoying things as allergies and sinusitis) and as there are no special celebrations in store, I’ve decided to share a series of birthday-related meals instead. The husband’s birthday and mine are a mere eight days apart. That combined with multiple friends’ birthdays on the days in between and on either side makes for a lot of gluttony in the name of celebration. I turned much older than the age of this here wee blog a little over two weeks ago and my husband, the ever-thoughtful Monsieur Poisson, had arranged to take me to the world-renowned Sydney institution of culinary experience known as Tetsuya’s. He made the table reservation four months in advance, although we’re not sure that’s actually required given that we were dining on a weeknight. He tells me that he just happened to be thinking of my birthday at the time. Our dinner was not long before the announcement of the loss of a Chef’s Hat but this is likely to have negligible impact for us general eating crowd – the magic of Tetsuya’s will always be Tetsuya’s.

Tetsuya’s has been high on my to-eats list for years. I remember when Ms London left for her overseas sojourn, which has now become a permanent affair, that her first return trip to Sydney involved a meal at Tetsuya’s organised by a lovely friend of hers months prior to the event. I remember seeing photos and being completely mesmerised – she even managed to score a photo with the man himself! Many years have since passed and there have been numerous other photos admired from meals recounted at Tetsuya’s that there is a definite fairy tale aura surrounding this serene, modern restaurant overlooking an internal Japanese garden in the heart of the city.

It is a wild and windy evening in Sydney and we are the first table to arrive in our dining area. We are given a brief introduction to the menu, asked if we have any food allergies or aversions (no, and no), issues with meat cooked medium to medium-rare (no) and asked whether the meal is for a special occasion (my birthday). I enjoy a Perry Street cocktail made of cinnamon vodka, pear and peach juices whilst Monsieur Poisson and I joke about whether we should have mentioned his dislike of cucumber to the waiter. Funnily enough, about half an hour later, when another table arrives and are given the welcoming spiel, we hear the gentleman at the table quite emphatically state that he does not eat cucumber. This caused the husband and I giggles to no end!

We are treated to a suitably wintery amuse bouche of ‘Chestnut soup with roast chestnut cream’. Naturally sweet and nutty, even Monsieur Poisson who’s not a massive fan of chestnuts falls in love with this velvety smooth soup embodied in an espresso cup.

Then it’s a choice of either sourdough or Italian white bread rolls with Tetsuya’s famed truffle butter made with parmiagiano reggiano for added pungency and ricotta for a fluffy lightness. We both choose the sourdough but Monsieur Poisson loves the butter so much that he follows it up with an Italian white roll as well. And what’s not to love about it – the butter is pungent, and earthy, and salty, and smooth, and light and oh-so tasty!

Monsieur Poisson has an added course of oysters for a mere $9 extra only. I give them a miss as, although I do eat oysters, I feel they’re a bit wasted on me at times as I don’t always appreciate their taste and texture. They’re exceptionally good value though, being round and plump and submerged in a delicate broth of ginger and rice vinegar.

The official first course is ‘Hiramasa kingfish with seasoned black bean and orange zest’. Although there’s very little detectable orange zest, with the black bean flavours being also very, very mild, the dominant taste is that of a slightly sweetened soy sauce punctuated by aromas of finely sliced spring onion and micro herbs. We both agree that the soy mixture reminds us of that which accompanies Chinese steamed fish and once we’re done devouring the slices of firm, bouncy kingfish sashimi, we’re left wanting some rice to slurp up the more-ish soy remaining on the plate. And the plates – the subsequent courses are served on white crockery but these first two remind us of the ones used at Koi.

The next course of ‘Scampi tails with jus, curds and goat's cheese’ doesn’t look terribly impressive on the plate. Arranged somewhat like a short terrine, there are sweet scampi tails – scampi being one of Monsieur Poisson’s absolute favourite things – sitting on a bed of the softest, silkiest tofu curds imaginable with the whole lot topped with three small dollops of a very mild goat’s cheese and finished with a jus that tastes like an uncreamy bisque yet still manages to pack a lot of punch. Goat’s cheese is very divisive amongst my friends, I believe mostly due to its pungency. Weirdo loves it because he can ‘taste the farm’ from whence the cheese came, while Ms Sourdough simply claims that it tastes like goat – and not in a flattering way either.

Next we are presented with what is often described as the world’s most photographed dish – ‘Confit petuna ocean trout crusted with konbu and chives, served with apple celery salad and unpasteurised trout roe’. Much in contrast to the previous course, this dish really is something beautiful to look at with the coral hues of the trout and roe contrasting with the crisp green of the apple and celery, and the dark konbu chive ‘crust’ resembling crispy fish skin. Taste and texture-wise there is the salty smokiness of the konbu against the sweetness of the soft trout and the slightly tart crunch of the apple celery salad. Roe always provides fun through salty popping mini-spheres in the mouth. If you’re interested in recreating this masterpiece at home, then you need to take a look at this.

The last of our seafood dishes is the ‘Barramundi with garlic purée and globe artichoke’. The piece of fish is small and delicate and, we deduce, hard to cook well due to its small size. The garlic purée is light and creamy and I greedily want something crispy to dip into it. A side salad of greens was served along with the preceding dish and we are thankful for some refreshing crunch against all the array of flavours provided by these other dishes.

The first of the meat courses, ‘Slow-braised wagyu ox tail with sea cucumber and yuzu’, has Monsieur Poisson a little undecided. He loves slow-cooked beef cheeks and ox tail but has never been a fan of sea cucumber. I, on the other hand, love sea cucumber even when it’s been stewed Chinese-style in oyster sauce so it’s an absolute pleasure to see it at Tetsuya’s as two spongy gelatinous discs perched atop a few chunks of richly-flavoured tender oxtail. The subtle yuzu flavour offers respite from an otherwise rich and sticky dish.

The next meat dish is ‘Slow-roasted duck breast with leeks, onion purée and sansho’. The sansho has been liberally rubbed on the skin and lends a lovely peppery flavour although I do find the flesh a little rarer than what I’m used to with duck. The roasted leek and onion pureée complement each other well.

The final meat course and the last of the dishes before dessert is ‘Grass-fed black angus with swiss brown mushrooms, potato cream and porcini jus’. If only steak and mash with mushroom sauce was always as good as this! Tender beef sitting on a smooth and creamy dollop of potato with mushrooms hidden in between and a mushroomy broth that you just want to mop up with more bread.

And then it’s dessert time! And multiple courses of it too, starting with ‘Pear sorbet with walnut, and Tetsuya's bread and butter pudding’. The pear sorbet is smooth and refreshing, with half in the shot glass topped with walnuts and another quenelle perched atop. The bread and butter pudding is more like a crème brûlée studded with spiced bread bits and sultanas but is thankfully not overly rich.

The next dessert is unusual yet familiar to Asian cultures through its use of beans. Although we’re used to seeing azuki, mung beans and black beans, the cannellini beans in this ‘Sweetened cannellini beans with soy caramel and mascarpone mousse’ are actually quite similar in texture. Monsieur Poisson isn’t sure about them being in a dessert but I quite like their sweet nuttiness and contrast with the smoothness of the light soy caramel and fluffy mascarpone mousse.

Because we mentioned that the dinner is for my birthday, Monsieur Poisson and I receive different desserts. His is the standard menu item of ‘Chocolate pavé with cream cheese ice-cream, chocolate soil and cinnamon twigs’. Although, of course, standard is not apt in describing any of the food here. The chocolate pave is filled with a milk chocolate mousse-type centre sitting on a thin foundation of sponge and topped with a thin layer of cream before being enrobed in a dark chocolate jelly-like layer. From appearance, what we expect to be a rich chocolate ganache outer, turns out to be more like an Asian agar set dessert layer.

For me and so many others also celebrating their birthdays that evening (and yes, it did feel a little odd knowing other people in the same confines shared their birthday with me!), we received the alternate dessert of ‘Chocolate hazelnut fondant’. Soft and gooey, it was decorated with a few salt flakes on top, a couple of slicks of chocolate sauce around it and some cocoa dusted hazelnuts. Oh, and don’t forget the candle.

As if this wasn’t enough food, we round off our meal with a caffe latte for the husband and a pot of Earl Grey tea for myself. A plate of pretty, pastel-hued macarons arrives on the table and a big smile spreads across my face. We start with the pink rosewater ones, move onto the chewier green pistachio ones and finish with the chocolate ones. They are incredibly light, being sandwiched with a cream centre rather than ganache. Actually, the whole meal has us marvelling at how light everything is. As opposed to other meals with rich sauces that leave you happily clutching your belly afterwards, Tetsuya’s achieves a level of satisfaction that doesn’t leave you groaning from over-indulgence.

Our meal lasted around four hours but the courses were very evenly paced with not much of a wait in between. The intervals between the meat courses were a bit longer, possibly due to an influx of coinciding table bookings, but this was quite welcome and gave us time to appreciate as well as digest the food before more appeared. We had a selection of waitstaff looking after our table that evening but all were very well-versed in what was being served and most polite. They were very obliging when it came to taking photographs for diners and mindful of not blinding others with camera flashes in the process. I also received a copy of the menu as a birthday memento.

Tetsuya’s

529 Kent St, Sydney NSW

Tel: (02) 9267 2900

Opening Hours:  Sun & Mon  CLOSED

                        Tues-Fri  dinner from 6pm (dinner only)

Sat  lunch from 12pm

       dinner from 6pm

happy eating!

Mumu Grill, 27 Dec 2009

With our group of friends mostly being overseas at Christmas we didn’t get a chance to have our usual gathering, so we rounded up the few people who were around for a casual dinner a couple of days after the event. And with Mumu Grill being within our vicinity, I suggested it as a place to try for their grass-fed beef.

A reservation was made through their online bookings system. My only worry was that they may not have been open in this Christmas-to-New-Year period and that some lonely computer had spat out an automated email response to my request. However we arrive to a warming, wood-panelled restaurant that is most definitely open for business.

There is a lot of trouble between Monsieur Poisson and myself in deciding what to eat. For some reason we are both feeling rather unhungry that evening which results in us ordering only one starter and one main meal between the two of us. However friends of ours do not share this issue and start with the ‘Fried baby squid’ which are lightly dusted with spices and, if I don’t remember wrong, a side of aioli.

Monsieur Poisson and I start with the ‘Zucchini flowers stuffed with herbed ricotta’ which are fried to a beautiful golden brown. Though not as large or encased in as light a batter as those at Café Sopra, there is a light and fluffy centre of herbed ricotta to be found within.

The following ‘Slow roast Bangalow pork shoulder’ is ordered by friends opposite us but I can’t remember whether I tasted it or not. However the crackling does look beautiful, no?

And so with Monsieur Poisson and I having smaller appetites than usual, we go with the combination option of ‘Steak and ribs with chips’. The ribs in question are beef ones and the bones are huge! They taste quite tangy and by the end of our meal we still can’t place the mysterious tang-imparting ingredient. The steak is my favourite cut of sirloin and the chips come in a bowl on the side. The chips are lightly salted but, oh, how I wish there was some mayonnaise to go with these.

Unfortunately due to us not being very hungry, we didn’t get to try as many dishes as we would have liked. I was eyeing the list of ‘Small Dishes’ on the menu rather fondly but that will have to wait to another time for us to do them justice.

Mumu Grill

70 Alexander St (cnr Ernest St), Crows Nest NSW

Tel: (02) 9460 6877

Opening Hours:  Mon & Tues  5:30pm-10:30pm

Wed-Sun  12pm-3pm (lunch)

    5:30pm-10:30pm (dinner)

happy eating!

Excelsior (無國界), 28 Oct & 28 Nov 2009

There is a perception that fusion cuisine is something that has been conceived by the minds of chefs in high end restaurants in relatively recent times. But the truth for people like myself who have grown up in or grown up eating food of a colonised land, this is the only food that we know. Over years of rule by governments and people of a different racial background comes a marriage of foods from both cultures – you see it in Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Macau and Hong Kong to name just a few.

The fusion influences are sometimes obvious and, at other times, subtle. Think Vietnamese pork rolls, kaya toast and Portugese egg tarts. An example of this type of food in an eatery is the ‘sai chaan teng’ (西餐廳) or ‘western restaurant’ that serves Cantonese-ified western food. You will often see spaghetti stir-fried with beef in black pepper sauce on the menu as well as mixed seafood in a white sauce baked atop rice gracing the menu.

A place that does this variety of food rather well is Excelsior at Kogarah. It’s been around for around ten years now and is family run, I understand, so it closes for extended periods around public holiday occasions. If parking cannot be found on nearby streets then there is a handy underground carpark around the back of the building, which also happens to be free on weekends.

I’ve eaten here countless times over the years and one of their standout items is the ‘Prawn Bisque’ which is creamy and very prawny and is served with a small crusty bread roll with butter on the side.

If you’re looking for a puff pastry fix then I would recommend the ‘Bouillabaisse with puff pastry’. Although it’s definitely not a French bouillabaisse by any description, it doesn’t skimp on the seafood and is fresh with its tomato-ey flavours.

I quite often have the ‘Baked linguine Bolognaise’ as the herb-less but slightly sweet tomato mince sauce is comforting after being baked on top of pasta and developing a crusty top. The serving is generous and I usually find that I can’t finish it.

On one occasion, Monsieur Poisson has the ‘Curry chicken with rice’ which is a very mild yet fragrant but not overly yellow Cantonese-style curry. The pieces of chicken served are on the bone and are usually a mixture of thigh and drumstick. There’s a piece of potato or two thrown in for good measure and the sauce is lovely mixed through some plain rice.

And on another of our visits, I opt to order items from a set menu while Monsieur Poisson orders just a main dish. His is the ‘Lamb cutlets with chips’ which comes not only with chips but also a side of vegetables and a thin gravy-type sauce.

My spread starts with the ‘Seafood ravioli in prawn sauce’ where the ravioli wrappers are definitely white gow-gee (dumpling) ones instead and the sauce tastes like a thinner version of the prawn bisque described above.

Next is a ‘Spicy vongole soup’ which has a moderate but not overwhelming amount of heat and features plenty of clam meat and no shells. Alongside is the usual bread roll with butter.

For the main meal I’ve chosen the ‘Minute steak with garlic mushroom sauce’ which is intensely garlicky and comes with vegetables as well as a small serve of potato gratin.

The included dessert is never the highlight for me as it’s usually a cold, gelatine-set panna cotta type of thing – not my favourite. On this occasion it is a ‘Papaya pudding with azuki’ which is smooth and served with a drizzle of evaporated milk on top. The best part of course is that the set menu costs only around $19 and includes a hot drink as well!

Excelsior (無國界)

Kogarah Town Square, AR16, 7-9 Belgrave St, Kogarah NSW

Tel: (02) 9553 1866

Opening Hours:  Mon  CLOSED

Tues-Sun  around 11:00am-10pm, I think…

happy eating!