Friday, December 23, 2011

Adriano Zumbo Dessert Train

Adriano Zumbo Dessert Train
The Star 


When I went to the Adriano Zumbo cooking class, he mentioned that he was opening a dessert bar with a shop next door in the renovated Star City.  The only description he gave as that there was an open kitchen, with a cafe on one side, then a store on the other side  So, when it finally opened, I was so excited to visit it. And trust me, I am an ultimate fan of Adriano!!! <3


In one sitting at the dessert bar, we managed to eat enough for me to get a sugar coma. 


Forgot all the names by now, as I was there more than a month ago. 
Here's a photo journey instead then 


















Sunday, December 11, 2011

Mix of 2011

Hong Kong


Riquiqui
- Dessert Degustation










Petite Amanda


Vero Chocolates













Sabatini 


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Happy Birthday Me! =)

A organised a surprised get away to Port Stephens for the weekend. 
And hidden away in an esky was my birthday cake. 


Presenting... the Adriano Zumbo V8 Diesel Cake 












The textures: 
Flourless chocolate, Chocolate crunch, burnt chocolate brulee, chocolate macaron, chocolate jelly, chocolate creamaux, chocolate chantilly.

My Rating: 10/10
OMG .. I cannot use words to describe the beauty of this cake.  It was SO good that A and I are 7 out of the 9 slices of the cake. The cake was surprisingly not as rich as I had imagined, but I can usually handle sweeter things than most.  But, given that we ate so many, it doesn't show (a little) that it wasn't too sweet, and a perfect balance of all things chocolate! Definitely would want to order this cake again! 



Happy Birthday June Babies

Gastro Park
5-9 Roslyn St, 
Kings Cross


B and I have our birthdays in June, so in the weekend in between our birthdays, we decided to give Gastro Park.  From what I've read, its a new restaurant opened by the ex-chef of Pier, but with a modern twist.  Must be quite a twist given its very "creative" name.
And with that, not sure what is happening with Pier Restaurant in Rose Bay.  Since, I just bought a voucher recently for $50 off. A once 3-hatted restaurant surely doesn't need advertising from Cudo or JumpOnIt for help.  


But back to Gastro Park. The food was amazing, the entrees, mains and desserts were all good.  My only complaints, you should see the size of the "salad".  3 leaves of greens does not constitute to be a salad and for it to cost $15! 
And, the service. It was not a particularly busy night, it was a Saturday, but still. The service was Ohhhhh SOOOOOOO slow.  We were getting tired and frustrated from the wait. We actually wanted to cancel the desserts, but were told that the dishes were "coming soon".  Where after the 2nd complaint, the dishes did come straight away.  But, if that improved, then it would have been an otherwise fault-less meal! 


I'm a little disappointed the menu isn't online.  Because of that, I'm going to have to try and recall what all the dishes were.  Bad memory.. sorry, I'll try my best! 


Sonoma Bread rolls 

Crab Consomme
The consomme smelt so rich and flavoursome.

Seared Scallops

Scallops were seared perfectly.  Nice, juicy and plump 

Parmesan "salad"

I saw another table order this, was intrigued so tried it out.  Essentially its just parmesan cheese melted in a funny shape, with a few random "salad" like flavours. 

Dish of the night: Crispy scaled snapper with smoked potato puree, calamari crackling and ink sauce. 

The snapper was beautiful. Light and soft meat. I've never eaten scales before, but it was definitely a nice touch to add them back onto the fish. 


Confit of Blue Eye Cod. 

According to B, the cod was nice, but nothing spectacular.  (she should have chosen the snapper)


Yes.. they bought their carebear into GastroPark.  I feel embarrassed for myself looking at this photo.

Dessert of the day: Chocolate honeycomb sphere. 

OMG, this was absolutely amazing.  When you break of then the sphere, honeycomb is running out, and taste absolutely divine. A and I gobbled this up in 2 minutes.  Was very disappointed when there was none left, especially we waited an unbelievable long time for this dessert to arrive,   



 
Nitro Pavlova

Yes, its nitro. But, nope, didn't do it for me.  It wasn't that great. Maybe it was because I went through a meringue/pavlova phase, where I made a different version every weekend for a month.  But, it was a good meringue, that was very cold.  


Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take a picture of the octopus "salad", aka, 2 octopus legs with 3 green leaves.  
Even with the slow service, I would come back again to try the other dishes.  They were worth the wait.  


My Rating: 7.5/10
The entrees, mains and desserts all had their stand out dishes, so  definitely worth a trip back. 


xoxo.. Mich

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Spicey I Am

Spice I Am
296-300 Victoria St
Darlinghurst


I have been craving for Thai food for the past few weeks, so finally got my fix.  A lot of Thai places in the city are packed, and since I have very little patience, I don't like places where you can't reserve a table. 
So, since this is one of the few reservation friendly Thai places, and I guess relatively close to the city, we headed out to Spice I Am. 


I've tried the Surry Hill's Spice I Am before, and definitely liked the atmosphere there a lot more.  This Darlinghurst place is nice, renovated, and you know the extra you are paying is to pay off their renovation and rent. 

However, either way, judging on the food itself, it definitely is good Thai food.  But, given the number of Thai places now open in Chinatown area, I don't think there are any different or anything out of the ordinary. 

We were lucky enough to be able to use the Entertainment Book voucher, other than that, it definitely isn't worth the value for money. 


Our dinner for 2, before discount was $110.  


Here are some pics of our food.. 
Deep fried sun dried pork strips with chilli dipping sauce

Crispy pork belly with Spice I Am chilli jam

Warm black sticky rice with coconut custard and pandan ice cream

My Rating: 7/10 
Good Thai food, overly expensive, but good service and atmosphere. 


xoxo.. Mich

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Random eats

Here are some eats from various places, where, on my bad behalf, I didn't take enough photos for each to deserve their own post.  So, here's a collation of all of them. 


1. Macarons from La Belle Miette
La Belle Miette
30 Hardware Lane, 
Melbourne




From this box of 13 macaroons, I shared this with Viv, who happened to be in Melbourne for work.  Ohhh.. I can't thank her enough. I must say, I have never eaten this many macarons in my lifetime.  They were made perfectly.  And given that they were one day old, you couldn't taste any "oldness" in them.  


The best, Ohh, the BEST out of this box happened to be the last one we ate.  We were lucky enough to have one each.  It was hazelnut.  Not only was this made with intense hazelnut flavour, but it also had a little crunch of wafer within the filling.  Tasted exactly like a Ferrero Rocher.


Next time in Melbourne, need to remind myself to head here! 


2. Stitch Bar
61 York Street, 
Sydney


The  basement of an office building has been converted to a cute little underground bar.  It seems very secretive and mysterious.  Didn't take too many photos as it was just too dark.  But, as recommended by Time Out, we came here for the hot dog selection.  They try and succeed (to some extent)to be creative with their new and revitalised hot dog menu.  


My cocktail: nice and yum
But as you can see, extremely dark at the bar, and had the most uncomfortable seating. They use chests of drawers as tables, so your legs can't fit under, like normal table.  So you're legs are squished to the side, and with the cramped space, you're not exactly comfy. 

Mack ducky dog with curly fries $19
Duck, orange and pistachio sausage with foie gras de canard and truffle sauce

I'm usually not a fan of foie gras, but given that it was the most distinct and creative hot dog on the menu, I thought I would give it a try.  
It was .. ok.  Nothing special, slightly weird.  It was not exactly appealing, and I don't think it can be blamed on the fact that I rarely eat these ingredients, but yeh. 
I did think the curly fries would win the meal.  Except, they came out barely luke warm.  Definitely not fresh and definitely disappointing.  

My rating: 5/10


3. Omerta
235 Victoria St, 
Darlinghurst

I came here because of a voucher offering $59 for 5 course degustation. Given that it was a one-hatted restaurant, I thought it would be a good buy.  

You would always hope, that if someone offers a voucher to their restaurant, it is a marketing tool, to then promote their restaurant for you to return to pay full price.  It was a good degustation, but once again, nothing to tell home about. 

Starting bread: Nice, soft and warm, great!

Cured scallops with peas and celery: Picture isn't the best quality, but the scallops weren't that great.  It was mediocre.

Gnocchi with beef ragu: This was good, cleared the plate absolutely clean. 

Braised beef with polenta: This dish tasted remarkably similar to the dish above.  This is what I meant by the fact that a restaurant would showcase their finest dishes for their vouchers. I know they offer the vouchers at a discount, hence, would offer cheaper dishes to reflect the cheaper prices.  But, you would think, it is used as advertising, hence dishes to want to entice you to come back again.  This was cooked well, the meat was soft, and the polenta was cooked in a way that I have never tasted before.  But, the only downfall was just because it tasted so similar to the dish before, therefore didn't do justice in their "advertising".

Pre dessert: Lemon / Lime sorbet: Just way to cold in Sydney to eat

Chocolate fondant with a toasted marshmallow on top: This could have been so much better than it was, if only it was served warm. The toasted marshmallow was previously heated, but by the time it was served, it was cold.  The googey-ness of the marshmallow just tasted a little sickening and definitely not as nice as you imagine when you eat them in front of a fireplace.  The chocolate fondant was made well, except, it was not warm. 

The googey insides

My rating: 6.5/10
The dishes were cooked well, however, not fantastic.  This could be because we used a voucher, hence, cheaper prices offers cheaper dishes.  But, it was not good enough to entice me to come back for more, at full price. 
This is a one-hatted restaurant, could say that other places were a lot better than this. 

xoxo.. Mich


Friday, December 23, 2011

Adriano Zumbo Dessert Train

Adriano Zumbo Dessert Train
The Star 


When I went to the Adriano Zumbo cooking class, he mentioned that he was opening a dessert bar with a shop next door in the renovated Star City.  The only description he gave as that there was an open kitchen, with a cafe on one side, then a store on the other side  So, when it finally opened, I was so excited to visit it. And trust me, I am an ultimate fan of Adriano!!! <3


In one sitting at the dessert bar, we managed to eat enough for me to get a sugar coma. 


Forgot all the names by now, as I was there more than a month ago. 
Here's a photo journey instead then 


















Sunday, December 11, 2011

Mix of 2011

Hong Kong


Riquiqui
- Dessert Degustation










Petite Amanda


Vero Chocolates













Sabatini 


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Happy Birthday Me! =)

A organised a surprised get away to Port Stephens for the weekend. 
And hidden away in an esky was my birthday cake. 


Presenting... the Adriano Zumbo V8 Diesel Cake 












The textures: 
Flourless chocolate, Chocolate crunch, burnt chocolate brulee, chocolate macaron, chocolate jelly, chocolate creamaux, chocolate chantilly.

My Rating: 10/10
OMG .. I cannot use words to describe the beauty of this cake.  It was SO good that A and I are 7 out of the 9 slices of the cake. The cake was surprisingly not as rich as I had imagined, but I can usually handle sweeter things than most.  But, given that we ate so many, it doesn't show (a little) that it wasn't too sweet, and a perfect balance of all things chocolate! Definitely would want to order this cake again! 



Happy Birthday June Babies

Gastro Park
5-9 Roslyn St, 
Kings Cross


B and I have our birthdays in June, so in the weekend in between our birthdays, we decided to give Gastro Park.  From what I've read, its a new restaurant opened by the ex-chef of Pier, but with a modern twist.  Must be quite a twist given its very "creative" name.
And with that, not sure what is happening with Pier Restaurant in Rose Bay.  Since, I just bought a voucher recently for $50 off. A once 3-hatted restaurant surely doesn't need advertising from Cudo or JumpOnIt for help.  


But back to Gastro Park. The food was amazing, the entrees, mains and desserts were all good.  My only complaints, you should see the size of the "salad".  3 leaves of greens does not constitute to be a salad and for it to cost $15! 
And, the service. It was not a particularly busy night, it was a Saturday, but still. The service was Ohhhhh SOOOOOOO slow.  We were getting tired and frustrated from the wait. We actually wanted to cancel the desserts, but were told that the dishes were "coming soon".  Where after the 2nd complaint, the dishes did come straight away.  But, if that improved, then it would have been an otherwise fault-less meal! 


I'm a little disappointed the menu isn't online.  Because of that, I'm going to have to try and recall what all the dishes were.  Bad memory.. sorry, I'll try my best! 


Sonoma Bread rolls 

Crab Consomme
The consomme smelt so rich and flavoursome.

Seared Scallops

Scallops were seared perfectly.  Nice, juicy and plump 

Parmesan "salad"

I saw another table order this, was intrigued so tried it out.  Essentially its just parmesan cheese melted in a funny shape, with a few random "salad" like flavours. 

Dish of the night: Crispy scaled snapper with smoked potato puree, calamari crackling and ink sauce. 

The snapper was beautiful. Light and soft meat. I've never eaten scales before, but it was definitely a nice touch to add them back onto the fish. 


Confit of Blue Eye Cod. 

According to B, the cod was nice, but nothing spectacular.  (she should have chosen the snapper)


Yes.. they bought their carebear into GastroPark.  I feel embarrassed for myself looking at this photo.

Dessert of the day: Chocolate honeycomb sphere. 

OMG, this was absolutely amazing.  When you break of then the sphere, honeycomb is running out, and taste absolutely divine. A and I gobbled this up in 2 minutes.  Was very disappointed when there was none left, especially we waited an unbelievable long time for this dessert to arrive,   



 
Nitro Pavlova

Yes, its nitro. But, nope, didn't do it for me.  It wasn't that great. Maybe it was because I went through a meringue/pavlova phase, where I made a different version every weekend for a month.  But, it was a good meringue, that was very cold.  


Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take a picture of the octopus "salad", aka, 2 octopus legs with 3 green leaves.  
Even with the slow service, I would come back again to try the other dishes.  They were worth the wait.  


My Rating: 7.5/10
The entrees, mains and desserts all had their stand out dishes, so  definitely worth a trip back. 


xoxo.. Mich

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Spicey I Am

Spice I Am
296-300 Victoria St
Darlinghurst


I have been craving for Thai food for the past few weeks, so finally got my fix.  A lot of Thai places in the city are packed, and since I have very little patience, I don't like places where you can't reserve a table. 
So, since this is one of the few reservation friendly Thai places, and I guess relatively close to the city, we headed out to Spice I Am. 


I've tried the Surry Hill's Spice I Am before, and definitely liked the atmosphere there a lot more.  This Darlinghurst place is nice, renovated, and you know the extra you are paying is to pay off their renovation and rent. 

However, either way, judging on the food itself, it definitely is good Thai food.  But, given the number of Thai places now open in Chinatown area, I don't think there are any different or anything out of the ordinary. 

We were lucky enough to be able to use the Entertainment Book voucher, other than that, it definitely isn't worth the value for money. 


Our dinner for 2, before discount was $110.  


Here are some pics of our food.. 
Deep fried sun dried pork strips with chilli dipping sauce

Crispy pork belly with Spice I Am chilli jam

Warm black sticky rice with coconut custard and pandan ice cream

My Rating: 7/10 
Good Thai food, overly expensive, but good service and atmosphere. 


xoxo.. Mich

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Random eats

Here are some eats from various places, where, on my bad behalf, I didn't take enough photos for each to deserve their own post.  So, here's a collation of all of them. 


1. Macarons from La Belle Miette
La Belle Miette
30 Hardware Lane, 
Melbourne




From this box of 13 macaroons, I shared this with Viv, who happened to be in Melbourne for work.  Ohhh.. I can't thank her enough. I must say, I have never eaten this many macarons in my lifetime.  They were made perfectly.  And given that they were one day old, you couldn't taste any "oldness" in them.  


The best, Ohh, the BEST out of this box happened to be the last one we ate.  We were lucky enough to have one each.  It was hazelnut.  Not only was this made with intense hazelnut flavour, but it also had a little crunch of wafer within the filling.  Tasted exactly like a Ferrero Rocher.


Next time in Melbourne, need to remind myself to head here! 


2. Stitch Bar
61 York Street, 
Sydney


The  basement of an office building has been converted to a cute little underground bar.  It seems very secretive and mysterious.  Didn't take too many photos as it was just too dark.  But, as recommended by Time Out, we came here for the hot dog selection.  They try and succeed (to some extent)to be creative with their new and revitalised hot dog menu.  


My cocktail: nice and yum
But as you can see, extremely dark at the bar, and had the most uncomfortable seating. They use chests of drawers as tables, so your legs can't fit under, like normal table.  So you're legs are squished to the side, and with the cramped space, you're not exactly comfy. 

Mack ducky dog with curly fries $19
Duck, orange and pistachio sausage with foie gras de canard and truffle sauce

I'm usually not a fan of foie gras, but given that it was the most distinct and creative hot dog on the menu, I thought I would give it a try.  
It was .. ok.  Nothing special, slightly weird.  It was not exactly appealing, and I don't think it can be blamed on the fact that I rarely eat these ingredients, but yeh. 
I did think the curly fries would win the meal.  Except, they came out barely luke warm.  Definitely not fresh and definitely disappointing.  

My rating: 5/10


3. Omerta
235 Victoria St, 
Darlinghurst

I came here because of a voucher offering $59 for 5 course degustation. Given that it was a one-hatted restaurant, I thought it would be a good buy.  

You would always hope, that if someone offers a voucher to their restaurant, it is a marketing tool, to then promote their restaurant for you to return to pay full price.  It was a good degustation, but once again, nothing to tell home about. 

Starting bread: Nice, soft and warm, great!

Cured scallops with peas and celery: Picture isn't the best quality, but the scallops weren't that great.  It was mediocre.

Gnocchi with beef ragu: This was good, cleared the plate absolutely clean. 

Braised beef with polenta: This dish tasted remarkably similar to the dish above.  This is what I meant by the fact that a restaurant would showcase their finest dishes for their vouchers. I know they offer the vouchers at a discount, hence, would offer cheaper dishes to reflect the cheaper prices.  But, you would think, it is used as advertising, hence dishes to want to entice you to come back again.  This was cooked well, the meat was soft, and the polenta was cooked in a way that I have never tasted before.  But, the only downfall was just because it tasted so similar to the dish before, therefore didn't do justice in their "advertising".

Pre dessert: Lemon / Lime sorbet: Just way to cold in Sydney to eat

Chocolate fondant with a toasted marshmallow on top: This could have been so much better than it was, if only it was served warm. The toasted marshmallow was previously heated, but by the time it was served, it was cold.  The googey-ness of the marshmallow just tasted a little sickening and definitely not as nice as you imagine when you eat them in front of a fireplace.  The chocolate fondant was made well, except, it was not warm. 

The googey insides

My rating: 6.5/10
The dishes were cooked well, however, not fantastic.  This could be because we used a voucher, hence, cheaper prices offers cheaper dishes.  But, it was not good enough to entice me to come back for more, at full price. 
This is a one-hatted restaurant, could say that other places were a lot better than this. 

xoxo.. Mich