Sydney 2013: Tetsuya’s @ Kent Street, Sydney

Following our meal at the Bourke St. Bakery, we took a trip around the city to see famous landmarks like the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House.  While it took us almost an hour to reach it was worth the trot.  More importantly, I can now say that I have seen these two very popular tourist attraction.  Apparently it is a big sin to go Sydney and not see them =.=!  For me, the highlights were probably the other things I saw along the way such as Hyde Park, the Botanical Garden and St. Mary’s Cathedral.  But still, it was a food trip so buildings and landmarks were secondary compared to my next restaurant which was Tetsuya’s.  Let’s put it simple: Chef Tetsuya Wakuda is the most prominent Japanese Chef in Australia with his restaurant’s consistently ranking among the top 100 in the world.  Also, he has been awarded top scores in Sydney for close to two decades.  But records, wins and awards are no more than figures if it does not live up to its hype, no? 

When we walked into Tetsuya’s on 529 Kent Street, I immediately felt like this was a different place.  The restaurant felt like someone else’s house with a Japanese stone garden.  As we reached the entrance, the waiters kindly offered to keep our bags before escorting us to our table.  In terms of service, I will say that I have not had better service anywhere else in the world but here. The waiters were keen and our cups were never empty despite only ordering water only. It was that good.  So then comes the food.

 

The start of this degustation and one of the key points which I judge restaurants (especially those who claim to associate themselves with anything French), is the bread course

The butter with chopped black truffles and white roll.  Our first bread was cold but the butter was simply stunning.  It had the lovely buttery flavor infused with a prominent black truffle fragrance.  It is one of the few pleasures in life that can be so very simple yet extremely satisfying.  But it was not until when we had the second roll served warm where we truly felt indulgent.  The small amount of steam seeping from whatever heat that was left melted the butter that was spread on it.  Even Andrew who dislike cheese and butter was sold.  Needless to say, we were left impressed and wanting more!

 

Next came the Amuse Bouche

Chestnut Soup with crème fraiche.  The soup by itself was smooth and according to my past conversation with fellow blogger ChompChomp, such soup is common in France especially during winter.  This was a treat but did not feel extremely special.  I would have liked it to be a little more runny.  As it was, the soup felt a little thicker than necessary.

 

The first course; Scallop like Oysters with Roasted Rice Vinaigrette

In this dish, finely diced oysters were wrapped in thinly sliced scallops before being arranged with micro herbs and a drizzle of Vinaigrette.  While I found joy in the mild acidity of the vinaigrette, I found it hard to appreciate the dish.  There was some taste of the scallops but it was mainly the taste of oysters that pervaded my palate.  This dish felt like an impressionist rather than a mouth pleaser.

 

Second course; Salad of the Sea

With such simple flavors, it is almost impossible to hide anything.  In this dish, Tetsuya’s combined the nigiri with salad.  It was simply stunning.  I enjoyed the fresh and clean flavors of the plate.  All of the fish were really awesome with the exception of the white one which I assume is King Fish? haha.  Not too sure.  But the marinated ocean trout belly and salmon were top notch product.  Also present on the plate were so many other element which gave the whole dish a lively texture where you get the crunchiness of the vegetables to compliment the softness of the fish.  Yums!  This was strongly preferred compared to the former course although it did not last for long.

 

Third course; Marinated Scampi with Walnut Oil & Egg

As Jordan and I snapped our cameras busily, Bel took a bite and paused.  She was like OMG. And so I went and had a bite. I too went OMG.  It was not long before both Jordan and Andrew went OMG too.  Enough said, this dish was just superb.  I am not sure how the egg played a great role in this dish but it did along with the walnut oil which coated the scampi giving it a light nuttiness and a smooth texture.  Also, the scampi had unparalleled freshness as it still had a slight bounciness to its flesh! The cream on top was a nice touch.  This dish was by far the best scampi dish I have ever had!

 

Fourth course: Confit of Petuna Ocean Trout with Fennel, Unpasteurized Ocean Trout Caviar

Long hailed as the must try dish at Tetsuya’s one can easily tell why.  Sitting on the plate, it looked sensational.  The presentation was flawless with the seasoned crust made from konbu, sea salt and chives so well thought of.  Even the dots of oil concoction was so neatly done.    For me, I started on the thin end where my knife cut through the flesh like a hot knife melting through butter.  The chemistry between the savory crust and the buttery confit was delicious. Fennel salad was refreshing and it was simply great.  My biggest issue with this though is that this sensation felt diminishing as I continued my feast.  The middle bit felt tougher than the thin bit.  Was it because the thin bit cooked more easily?  I am not sure.   Also, Bel thought that the horseradish cream under the fennel salad was a little powering and tasted licorice like.  Nevertheless, Jordan who loves strong flavors absolutely enjoyed the cream.

 

Fifth course; Snapper with Soy Butter & Nameko Mushrooms

This dish was damn good if you look past the recognition of Tetsuya’s.  Not everyone can pull of something so delicious.  However, if you put in all the awards, talk, hype and what not, this becomes a little underappreciated.  The flesh of the fish was cooked just right with the buttery soy giving it a distinct flavor.  Mushrooms were well cooked and gave it a little earthiness.  But that was about it.  I felt like I expected something more mind blowing as this dish comes from a Tetsuya’s kitchen.  Perhaps a really crispy skin?  That might have made a different albeit little.

 

Sixth course; Poached Spatchcock with Asparagus & Morel

The highlight here for me was the perfectly poached game bird which can be a total flop in a matter of minutes.  High protein foods like birds tend to overcook very easily.  Seeing a shiny glaze was achieved with a tender inside was awesome.  Also, among the morel and other greens hid a speck which was very tasty!  I asked the sommelier and he said it was cured in house.   As a dish it was nice, but not great.

 

Seventh course; Lamb Backstrap with Seasonal Vegetables & Sheep’s Yoghurt.

Last dish before the dessert was a lamb course.  Once again, I cannot help but feel that every course plated so far was so manicured it looked too good to eat.  This was no exception.  To complement it, the lamb was nice and tender though it was not melt in your mouth.  Smoked tomato puree which it sat on, tasted nothing like its description.  The vegetables and yoghurt were OK but when mixed together with the tomato puree created much more of an impact!

 

Palate cleaner; Pear Sorbet

This was probably the best sorbet I have ever tasted.  In our first spoonful, everyone felt over the moon.  It was smooth, super fruity and the sweetness was just right.  To us, it has rightfully claimed its position as Tetsuya’s palate cleanser.  If only we had more than 2 petite scoops.  When asked Andrew what was the best thing at Tetsuya’s he said “sorbet”. I was like =.=

 

Eight Course; Apply Granite, Mine Ice Cream & Basil Jelly

With a thin slice of what I perceive as a dehydrated apple slice,  this dessert that stood in a martini glass fits all the requirement for a fine dessert.  It had texture, complexity and layers of flavors.  For me, I really like the pairing of the sweet apple along with the refreshing mint ice cream and basil jelly.  I think Bel and Andrew found the taste of the mint and basil a little too taxing but was ok.  I have had several variations of dessert which mixed strong flavors like basil and mint, but this was by far the best pairing.  And it suits the color theme  too i.e. green :)!

 

Ninth Course: Chocolate & Hazelnut Marquise with Cognac Ice Cream

Just looking at the level of perfection once again was kick ass! Clearly defined layers!  Not to mention the ice cream which sat on the crumbs which looked like a bird’s egg in a nest!  The chocolate was not lacking in any richness for sure!  Fortunately, it was no more than a thin slice!  Anything more and I would have been done for.  Most people know I am not a big fan of alcohol and I found the cognac ice cream to be not a big hit.  It did complement the chocolate but I would have preferred something else.  Something less sophisticated.  I am still a self-proclaimed kid after all :P!

 

Petite Fours!

Meringue, truffles, meringue nut, and profiteroles.  They were all good but from memories only the profiteroles were memorable.  Yes it is simple, but at least it is different!

 

At the end of the meal, it was no surprise why Tetsuya Wakuda’s skills were unparalleled when it comes to Japanese cuisine.  With consecutive back to back 3 hatted scores for close to twenty years, he still has heaps left to offer.  However, knowing that he lost his 3rd hat 2 years ago and until today is unable to retain it makes me ponder why.  Was it for the reason that my friends and I felt a slight dissatisfaction at the end of the meal?  Several of the courses today as I have mentioned above were really good.  The salad of the sea, scampi with walnut oil & egg, as well as the confit and dessert were all plausible highlight of the day.  However, a certain something felt lacking at the end of the meal.  It felt like several dishes like the snapper, lamb and Spatchcock  could have been more special.  It needed that one extra element of surprise. 

 

Our lunch was a good meal but perhaps just need to go one notch up considering its heft tag of $210pp. So, does Tetsuya’s Japanese cuisine with classic French techniques have what it takes to knock off Le’ Atelier’s French food?  Not quite but close although the bread and butter here is definitely “one to rule them all”.  Is Tetsuya’s worth a revisit?  I have to say maybe yes.  Especially when the third hat comes back.

 

WenY

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Sydney 2013: Bourke Street @ Surry Hills

Just a few weeks ago, my colleagues and I were planning a little adventure to break through our boring routine.  Being an AMEX cardholder, we each had the privilege to claim a free Virgin flight ticket.  So without any hesitation, tickets were booked and we toured some of Sydney’s best eateries over our 2 days of stay.  They were  a kickass crew that were truly supportive of my food blog and we ate like the #yolo tag which stands for “you only live once”.  So how did we do that?  Well we start by boarding a midnight flight from Perth and reached our Sydney hotel at 7am.  From there we walked from Chinatown to the fancy pants suburb, Surry Hill.  Being touristy, many things caught my eye so I could not help pointing the OMD everywhere.

Cheerful vandalism!

#yolo

 

Bourke St Bakery as its name suggest sits on Bourke Street and is the most commended bakery in town. No. 633

Reaching the store at 7.30am, they were still close but seeing them arrange the bread and tarts really made our mouths water. The cold morning did not help too of course! Jee man. Fortunately though, they were no lazy people as the chairs and tables have already been arranged in anticipation of a large crowd which will mainly stand while demolishing their yummy offerings!

All prepped for business!

 

While the queue builds quickly, the handy crew of Bourke St. Bakery were sure to make sure that it did not last.  Standing behind 7 others took less than 10 minutes to reach our turn and before we knew it, we were up at the counter ogling at some really delicious looking pastries!  But nothing caught our eyes more than the tart shells topped with various ingredients.

Our starters were three tarts!  The chocolate ganache tart was yummy.  The shells were short and though the uneven nature of one tart shell was questionable, it was not reason to feel disappointed.  The ganache was rich and really decadent.  It was slightly sweeter than the one at Harvest Espresso @ Victoria Park but still very nice eat.  Could easily have eaten a few more!  The lemon curd tart was superb too.  Its smooth runny custard has just the right amount of zesty lemon juice which balanced well with the sweetness.  Always a favourite!

With the burnt sugar top that releases a lovely cracking noise when cut through with a spoon, it was clear why the ginger brulee tart is a favourite on the internet.  Its sugary top was just right.  Not too thick that it sticks on your tooth when eaten and neither was it too thin to enjoy.  Its gingery flavors were subtle but still unmistakably gingery or so I thought.  Pistachios were like .. “we are pistachios, hi!” and eaten altogether formed a party! Nom nom!

 

After sharing 2 of each flavors among the four of us,  we were still hungry and without hesitation went in for another round haha.This time around, we got the chocolate and raspberry tart.  OMG!  Sinfully good it was.  Airy chocolate mousse had the same richness like the Chocolate Ganache one minus the sugar.  It was chocolaty and the raspberry jam in there was just perfect.   Something about the acidity of berries make it go so very well with chocolate that it is almost a no brainer combination!  It really was a damn good bite.

Now to tempt even more, I held one half and shot a close up ;)! Hehehehe

 

Our last stomach filler for our breakfast were the chocolate croissants which Bel said were awesome during her last trip!

Tearing through to break the croissants into half, each layer tore one by one. The croissants were fluffy and my god.  I just had my cholesterol reduced by 1 thanks to good effort and doing 20-30kms of running a week.  Now this buttery goodness…. jee man!  Jord made a joke on this and tells me to let the future WenY worry about it.  Scumbag Jordan really scumbag!  Anyways, the chocolate was yums but if the croissants were warm, I drool imagining runny chocolate!  Also, Andrew for sure was enjoying himself.  Along with Bel, both Andrew and her are sweet tooth that consume sugar like it is nothing!

 

This is not really a highlight as Perth has some pretty wicked coffee too! But anyways, to complete the experience here it is:Andrew and Jordan’s mocha.  It looked fine and I am no connoisseur expert to comment on coffee so I shall not :P!

 

To conclude, Bourke St. Bakery really lived up to its hype!  Or at least the sweet ones do!  I am pretty sure that there must be a reason why people buy muffins and other delights by the tray loads.  Not to mention, locals are seen walking out in the jammies to queue up with Lycra-cladded cyclists.  While I can describe the many more types of people who queued for a bite at Bourke St Bakery, it is clear that this humble bakery packs something for everyone.  Kudos!  If you are travelling to Sydney anytime soon, this place should be one of the top places on your list of things to eat!  Price wise, we only paid $60 for 4 drinks, 8 tarts and 2 croissants.  What can I say?  Nom nom nom? haha!  Keep a lookout on this space! More to come from my Sydney trip ;)!

And to finish, a few more shots on the way back to Chinatown!

The Blue Door on 268.

 

Graffiti X Fish = Grafishi

 

WenY

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Bites: Red Opium @ Perth CBD

With catchy names like F-duck, Kiss of Death, and Crying Wagyu populating its menu, Red Opium is without a doubt one of the most interesting entries in Perth this year.  While the menu screams Thai, do not be fooled as Red Opium prefers to be called “Thai inspired”.  So if owner Penny drops by your table, authentic is not a word that will score you points.   This new eatery distinguishes itself from the conventional by offering unique Thai-styled tapas.   Funny thing though is that they do not serve alcohol.  Perhaps it is something they might soon obtain as I know how good Thai cocktails can be with fruits, vodka and a hint or basil/mint.  For me, its even better than a Mexican Sangria.

For Mei and Ness’s birthday dinner tonight, we had the banquet @ $50 per person.

The first appetizer was the yin and yang dip.  Presumably the light creamy dip was the yang.  It was finely diced prawns in a delicious coconut broth.  The crunch from the Papadam was perfect to accompaniment for the yummy prawn dip which benefit from the sweetness of the coconut milk.  The next one was minced meat with pork crackling.  At this point I feel compelled to praise the chef behind this appetizer because it was super simple but it worked.   Just basic crunchy goodness!  With the Indian influence in the papadam and Western influence from the crackling, it was clear that the direction of Red Opium was more Thai-inspired than Thai-authentic. 

 

The next dish was the Petite satay.

While it was decent, it was far from mind blowing.  The chicken bites were tender and the peanut sauce was OK, but in terms of flavors it felt lacking.  Coming from Malaysia I expected the satay to have more flavor.  Something like ginger, turmeric and more spices. 

 

Next came the tom yam soup.

Eating this dish, it was a shame that Red Opium insists that their food is Thai-inspired and not Thai-authentic because it was one heck of a Tom Yam.  The flavors were all spot on.  It had spicy, sour, salty and spicy all in one magic concoction.  Also, it has been awhile since I had prawns which I can really say hit that spot of freshness with a mild sea flavor to it still present.  All seafood here are sourced from Kailis when I spoke to the owner!  To top it off, this for me was definitely a great dish that could have been Thai-authentic. Oh, and if you ask for hot, do prepare to taste some heat.  I bit into a chili and did not feel so manly after.

 

After the three appetizers, we had a great time catching up with Mei on her time onsite and joked about the typical lame rubbish we always do.  Felt good as we do not meet up quite as often as we would like to!  It took nearly 45 minutes for our mains to be served.  But this came with a good explanation as the kitchen was short of 1 chef as he had fallen ill.  In fact, the owner kindly offered us drinks which we all declined to have (except Ness) as we are responsible drivers :P! 

 

First main was the F-duck; Roast duck, red curry, veggies, lychees.

The picture IMHO is a give away.  This was Red Opium’s reinterpretation of the classic Roast Duck red curry.  What flavors does one expect?  Definitely a rich curry with great flavors coming from the fruit, duck and vegetables.  The curry sauce felt nice but in our opinion was way too little to enjoy with the rice.  Then again, it was intentional as the dish wanted to promote the other elements like cherry tomatoes, brussel sprouts and such.  I found that reasoning to be poor in justification as a diner but this is a clear case of design vs practicality.  Like a classic case of engineer vs architects, there is almost no right or wrong but a matter of preference.  Last highlight of this dish was the fact that the roast duck sat nicely there allowing its skin to still be mildly crisp which was quite a treat!

 

Next dish was the Masaman Beef; Slow-cooked beef cheeks, potatoes, masaman curry, peanuts

This for me was a true curry dish.  I have had many variations of the Masaman  as well as the Panang curry and would decline to comment on the flavor as every goddamn version seem to taste different.  But hey, this was tasty and it was everything a curry should be.  For me, the Masaman curry was the highlight with the tender beef and potatoes cooked perfectly.  It was not lacking in sauce or spices and because of this, I had heaps of rice.  A good curry and a generous serve of rice; god this was a meal on its own.  Delicious.

 

As Red Opium revolves about Thai-inspired cuisine, its decoration is not cluttered but felt rather stylish which made its food good to look at and at the same time tasty.  Sure its no dehydrated apple with a golden string through it like Robuchon and neither does it use foam or smoke like Amuse but hey! This was pretty decent!  Taste wise, I did not really put much effort in deciphering the elements but the use of garlic was quite obvious here.

The Kiss of Death; king prawns, garlic, caramelized sauce.

 

The next dish we ordered was the Fisherman’s Catch; deep fried snapper fillets, soya bean oil, peanuts

One the outside, these snapper fillets look exactly like the perfect beer battered fish n’ chips that Heston does.  It was crunchy, crispy and just so beautifully fried.  While not everyone likes batter and some might liken it to the rip-off Chinese sweet and sour pork , I really enjoyed the batter.  The downfall though was the flesh of the fish which was  a little tough a.k.a rubbery with a slight stench too.  My friends and I also found the sweet savory sauce to be insufficient for those generous slices of fish.

 

A dish which came last in the banquet was the Som Tum; paw paw, green beans, dried shrimps, peanuts, soft shell crab.

This again felt good.  It was IMHO Thai-authentic.  Very hard to fault with a minimalistic dish but then again, it is something the chef is expected to do right, and in this instance it was.  My question here really, is it the correct course to arrive before the dessert?  Was this a palate cleanser? It was refreshing but the acidity mixed with the slight sweetness and saltiness make a person feel like eating more.  For me, this should have been served as the first main or even along with the other appetizers.

The dessert that night was ice cream with a choice of jackfruit or mangosteen.

Both came out in little glasses and it was great to see such rare flavors reaching the table despite its out of this world price.  I really liked the flavor and the small bite size mangosteen in the ice cream.  I would question the floss but if it does no harm then I will just let it be.  Around the table most people would have enjoyed the ice cream as no one shows signs of displeasure.

 

Red Opium really felt like a great place for tapas dining. In fact, if an alcohol license is soon obtained,  Red Opium might need a bigger floor space.  However, it play its game risky by calling itself Thai-inspired and not Thai-authentic.  This always brings in the question of whether enough has been done or has it achieved enough to succeed an authentic culture.  Surely Red Opium is no old hag or a lazy slob playing safe as I tasted and saw from my dinner.  Execution was great but to me, it still lacked that final bit of finesse like the lack of sauce, and the freshness of the produce as seen in the case of the fish. However, if one were to find out the background of the owners which hails from the engineering industry, I am pretty chuffed to see how far they have came with their culinary skills.  I work in an engineering firm and I see what people eat everyday….. @@.. I shall cease to comment as it may result in insult.  Anyways, for $50 a head, I would definitely come back!

 

WenY

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