Rise - Darlinghurst, Sydney

Japanese fusion restaurant with very fancy-pants Japanese maitre d'. LOL just kidding, he was wonderful. There aren't many Japanese maitre d' in Sydney that acts like what a proper maitre d' should act like - most of them are very relaxed and casual, but this maitre d' at Rise is 'serious business'. Very posh and proper. He's a good sommelier, too.

Oh - as you'll notice, I'm putting a Japanese translation of the menu even though Rise doesn't actually write their menu in Japanese. Why did I do that, you ask? Good question. Hm. Now why did I do that...hmmm...let me think, let me think. Probably because names of dishes, when written / said in French, Japanese, or Italian, sounds much better than in English?

Okay, that's a stupid reason. Actually, the REAL reason is - I love to translate stuff. LOL
Anyway, I might do this for every one of my Japanese food-related posts in the future, so hope you don't mind!!

Note: I actually did put up some Japanese contents in my previous posts, but there are lots of computer-illiterate people who complained that the Japanese characters didn't display correctly in their browser. Rather than telling each one of them to change their encoding, I'm embedding the Japanese characters on the image this time...hope it's okay...

Tuna tartare, guacamole & witlof salad
(Maguro no tarutaru, wakamore to vittroofu no sarada)

-> Hm, interesting. So this is basically a tuna roll sushi without the rice, dressed in a strange dressing. (LOL what's wrong with me today??) Okay. The guacamole doesn't taste like guacamole - perhaps it's too light, it just tastes like mashed avocado. The tuna is wonderful, though.

Rating: 6/10

Potato cream soup with prawn tempura & tofu
(kuriimu potaajyu ebi tenpura to toufu shitate)

-> Ahh...the potaajyu (potage). One of Japan's favorite fancy-pants French soup (another one is the vichyssoise). Nearly every European-style restaurant in Tokyo has this on the menu. Anyway, this soup is delightful. I wouldn't imagine that potage (or potato creem zouup for you, Anglais peeple *in French accent*) would go so well with tofu. The tofu is kind of like agedashi tofu (with the sticky gelatinous skin) and the tempura is dressed with a sweet sauce. Very nice.

Rating: 8/10

Ocean trout, sea bass, and Sydney Rock Oyster sashimi
(Nijimasu, suzuki, shidonii no iwagaki no sashimi moriawase)

-> Excellent - and nice presentation as well. Love the chilled shot glasses. The Ocean Trout comes with a sweet-ish soy sauce and wasabi, and the sea bass comes with a...I actually have no idea what sauce it is - it's kind of sour and lemon-y and a tad milky.

Rating: 8/10

2007 Nepenthe, Adelaide Hills
Pinot Gris (South Australia)

-> As far as I know, Pinot Gris tend to go well with Asian meals, and that's the reason why I asked for this wine. To think of it, I've been drinking lots of Pinot Gris / Pinot Grigio lately...don't know why...maybe I like the crisp and acidic taste to it.

Rating: 7/10
Compatibility with food: 7.5/10

Rise is located at a very, very obscure street just off William street in Darlinghurst - It's seriously obscure, if you aren't looking for it, you'll never know that it even existed there. Even the entrance is obscure - double non see-through solid red doors that are always closed, so the restaurant looks like it's closed all the time. Decor is quite chic, I guess (kind of like New York-style) - the place is surprisingly small (although they did close a section of the restaurant). The service is very, very good - one of the friendliest services I've ever experienced in Sydney (or maybe I just happened to be served by a good waitress).

The Chef is Okazaki Hide - and I heard he worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Italy before establishing this restaurant. Apparently, Rise is nicknamed "Baby Tetsuya's" (nah, they don't deserve that nickname just yet, IMHO)

Duck and bamboo shoot with hoisin sauce in wonton cup, grilled eel rice paper rolls, and steamed baby octopus with "ume" plum vinaigrette
Age wantan ni ireru ahiru niku to menma hoishin soozu fuumi, unagi no kabayaki raisupeepaa makimono, mushi tako ume no vineguretto soozu fuumi

-> The duck is nice - kind of like Peking Duck served in crispy wonton cup (duhH, both dishes use the same sauce, hello!). The eel is kind of a hit-and-miss, I think they shouldn't have used rice paper because it conceals the flavor of the eel. The baby octopus is just weird.

Rating: the duck 7.5/10 the eel 6/10 the octopus 5/10

Steamed scallop, mung bean noodle & ginger shallot sauce
mushi hotate to ryokutoumen, shouga to negi soozu fuumi

-> I assume that all of this is steamed in one go. As a result, the noodle is a bit mushy, and the sauce is not strong enough (a little bit too tart, too) even though the scallop is perfectly done.

Rating: 6.5/10

Braised pork belly rolled with savoy cabbage,
eggplant ragu & gochujang miso sauce
Buta no kakuni no rooru savoia kyabetsu, nasu no ragu to gochujyan miso soozu

-> This dish is...really 'out there'. For many reasons, really. Firstly, when this dish arrived, I thought, what? Rooru kyabetsu (rolled cabbage)?? What is this, granny's obento? It's kind of...too plain and simple, because for those people familiar with Japanese food (and by Japanese food, I mean food that the Japanese actually eat in Japan - can be anything, doesn't have to be Sushi or Teriyaki), rolled cabbage is kind of like standard katei ryouri (home-cooked meal). And what's with the gochujang miso sauce?? (gochujang: Korean hot paste made of chilli and glutinous rice which are fermented) Is this an attempt to marry Japanese and Korean cuisine (my least favorite kind of fusion food)??

My head was filled with hundreds of complaints and reactions, and suddenly...a waiter approached and handed over...a bowl of RICE.
What the hell?? So they're suggesting us to eat this granny's obento food with RICE and mess up the beautiful arrangement of this dish? This is like, rubbing salt to a wound!
Okay. OKAY. *relax* So there are TWO interpretations of this phenomenon. Firstly, it's quite common for restaurants in Japan to serve rice on the side of everything - even in European restaurants. Because rice is a staple food (as an Asian, I always try to eat rice as often as I can for fear of being too whitewashed LOL!), and the Japanese really stick with this principle on "rice being the staple food" - that it is perfectly understandable for people to eat rice with...everything. I mean, everything. Even steaks, mac-and-cheese, pies, potatoes (double carbohydrate, hello), everything - like, in steakhouses in Japan, they DO serve rice on the side if you ask for it.

This isn't weird if it's in Japan, I guess - but this is Australia - I felt kind of weird eating rice with what looks like a French food. I mean, unless the rice is fully integrated to the dish, it's weird, know what I mean? Heck, even in Indonesia it's weird. People will stare at you if you ask for rice at a steakhouse!!

(maybe I should just shut my yap and don't eat the rice If I don't want it - it's not like they FORCED me to eat the rice)

Anyway, back to the topic - the other reason is (and this is ultimately the more feasible reason), the presence of rice signifies the end of the course meal. This is very Asian - in every Asian banquets / course meals / etc, the very good, very expensive stuff (abalone, shark's fin, bear's paw, Buddha Jump over the Wall Soup, sea cucumbers, whatever) always come out early in the course. Then, this is followed by the less-fancy stuff (beef, chicken, duck, etc), and for the finale, it's always the tummy-fillers like rice or noodles. Kind of makes sense, really - I mean, who wants to fill up on rice and noodles at the beginning of the banquet when all those nice food are waiting for you?

Okay, now let's talk about the dish...
Despite the negative images and comments in my head, the dish turned out to be quite yummy. The pork belly is soooo perfectly cooked, it's tender, juicy, and sweet. The eggplant ragu goes very well with the pork and the sauce is quite delightful - excellent miso-gochujang flavor ratio. In short, it's delicious.

Rating: 8/10

Panna cotta with kumquat, blood orange & pink grapefruit granita
Pinku gureepufuruutsu no guraniita to panna kotta kinkan to buraddo oranji soe

-> This dessert is yarisugi (trying too hard). LOL. There's too many different textures here, they don't exactly get along very well with each other. The panna cotta is sour (made with sour cream instead??) but the grapefruit is even more sour. I find it hard to acknowledge this as a single, integrated dish - it's a messy dessert.

Rating: 4.5/10

Moral of the visit: I haven't changed my mind - fusion food can be very, very tricky. Attempt with care.

La Brasserie - Darlinghurst, Sydney

Gigantic posting: My birthday dinner!
(now with extra descriptions and pretentious French words to bore you all!)

Continuing our French odyssey, what more suitable than to have some French fine dining soiree to celebrate this...this...'joyous' occasion (of me getting older). *sob*

La Brasserie in Darlinghurst is the venue of choice - often cited as one of the best French restaurant in Sydney, it's certainly très charmant. The decor is very Parisien, rather dramatic even - dark red drapes reminiscent of cabarets at the Boulevard de Clichy, menu specials scribed on mirrors, Toulouse-Lautrec posters, very chic - very Moulin Rouge.


Most of the staff are French, and that means service is impeccable. Prompt, friendly, attentive, without being too pretentious. Most of the crowd that night were French, too - and they are quite the delightful bunch - albeit the occasional raucous laughter. In short, atmosphere-wise, it's like I was transported to a brasserie on rue de la blablabla in the city of light itself.

The Bread Roll

-> France has a plethora of exquisite wines and cheeses, but that's not all. If you think that the only bread the French eat is the baguette, think again. They've got tons of different types of breads. That's what fascinates me about French cuisine - the variety of their foodstuffs is literally endless. I honestly don't know what this bread is, but if my guess is correct, it's a Pain brié, which is a traditional bread from Normandy.

2005 Château Laroche, Graves
Sémillon (Bordeaux, France)

-> The wine list is quite excellent here in La Brasserie - with an adequate selection of French wines. As usual, I decided to go for white because I feel that white wine is more 'universal' considering that we ordered different types of food. This Sémillon comes from Graves, which is a commune in Bordeaux, France. It is delightfully crisp and earthy. It even goes well with our desserts, too.

...at least that's what I think, LOL. I still maintain that I'm not very knowledgeable about wines. I always try not to ask the sommelier when choosing wines because I want to learn more about wines myself...

Rating: 7.5/10

Civet de Calamar
braised squid with saffron pain perdu, sauce nero

-> Ho ho ho, for those not in the know, 'pain perdu' may sound fancy-schmancy, but it's none other than good ol' French Toast. The saffron, however, pimps this thing up to the level of gourmet food. LOL! It's a delightful interplay of flavor and texture - the pain perdu serves as the perfect base for the rather strong sauce nero (squid ink sauce).

Rating: 8/10

Soufflé au Fromage
twice-baked Gruyère soufflé with cauliflower and salsify

-> My, how posh. I don't think I've eaten salsify before (it's a root-like vegetable) - at least not that I'm aware of. Anyway, this souffle is simply stunning. Rich, tasty, amazing texture due to the fact that it's twice-baked. I love Gruyère cheese, it's one of the Swiss cheeses I'm actually quite familiar with - Ever since I'm little, I remember whenever I'm in Amsterdam and went to one of the cheese markets, my dad always insisted on buying at least two types of cheese - the very aged Dutch Gouda and the Gruyère. We don't go to Amsterdam that often (yeah, 'cause we live in Indonesia!!), but somehow, my mom always manage to have a steady supply of Gouda and Gruyère (either she buys them abroad herself or at local gourmet supermarkets, or by asking someone to buy it for her from abroad). Her famous (and world's BEST) macaroni and cheese is baked to perfection using Gruyère. Mmmm...

Rating: 9.5/10

Escargots à la Bourguignonne
snails baked in their shells with garlic parsley butter and sliced baguette

-> Très délicieux! What can I say!
Instead of sprinkling the butter with some chopped parsley, they actually puree the butter and parsley to create this amazing sauce. The snails are delightful - tender and tasty. Here's a little-known fact: Snails in France (for consumption) are imported mainly from Indonesia.

I must say, it was escargots that made me fell in love with French cuisine. I remember when I was 9, my aunt (a.k.a. my food guru) took me to this Italian restaurant called Maxis Cucina Italiana at Plaza Indonesia. They served mainly Italian food, with a small selection of French food as well. In fact, at that time, there are not many French restaurants in Jakarta - and Maxis is perhaps the only place you can get escargots at that time. I fell in love with escargots the minute I sank my teeth on them. And it's not easy for a nine-year-old to be convinced to eat snails, mind you - especially when my idea of snails were those slimy, crawly things that used to give me nightmares when they infested my garden every rainy season!

Rating: 9/10

Terrine de Campagne
country-style pork and rabbit terrine with onion confiture and sauce gribiche

-> A cold hors d'oeuvre. I really wanted to have some terrine in Sydney - this one is okay, but I was hoping of having a more complicated, elaborate terrine (like those uber-expensive and impossibly decorative terrine served on French restaurants in Japan). However, it is understandable - since La Brasserie is, after all, and old-school French restaurant, and Terrine de Campagne (literally means country-style terrine) is the quintessential terrine. The green stuff is the sauce gribiche, which is a sauce made from oil, capers, and pickles among others. Very nice.

Rating: 8/10

Saumon grillé
crisp skin New Zealand king salmon with étuvée of leeks and savoy cabbage, pomme sautée, watercress sauce

-> Okay - for those who aren't quite knowledgeable about the terms, here we go: étuvée is a method of cooking in which a tiny amount of water is added to the ingredients, and then tightly covered and cooked over very low heat. Pomme sautée is a fancy-schmancy name for stir-fried potatoes.
Anyway, this dish is so pretty. The watercress sauce is splendid - a surprise at first (because of its contrast to the flavor of the fish - the fish salty and tasty and the watercress sauce is fresh and slightly bitter) but pleasantly compatible. A memorable dish!

Rating: 8.5/10

Coq au Vin
red wine braised free range corn fed Thirlmere chicken, Brussels sprout, girolles and lardons

-> What a magnificent dish! Thirlmere chicken is a premium free range chicken from Thirlmere, Southern New South Wales - and what a difference does it make. Succulent, tender, perfect - and that's just the chicken. The sauce is amazing (notice the cutely-arranged girolle mushrooms), the combination of the chicken, sauce, and lardons (bacon strips) are to die for. Couldn't imagine a better Coq au Vin.

Rating: 10/10

Poitrine de Porc
crisp pork belly with wild boar chartreuse, duxelle and cabbage

-> Today's special. Strictly speaking, this dish, to us Chinese, is like a glorified siew yoke (Chinese roast pork!!) LOL LOL and the way they charge 40 bucks for siew yoke may bewilder some Chinese patrons. LOL!! Anyway, in all seriousness - it is somewhat different from Chinese roast pork - I'm not saying that it is tastier, but it's just...different.
Ergo, the wild boar chartreuse becomes the highlight of this dish - delicious, slightly spicy, totally cured and marinated shredded wild boar wrapped in cabbage leaves. Duxelle is basically chopped mushrooms cooked with butter and wine.

Rating (not considering the resemblance of this dish to siew yoke): 8/10
Rating (considering the resemblance): 7/10

Confit de Canard
crisp maryland duck confit with carrot cumin puree, orange-glazed endive, and sauce Rouennaise

-> After some research, I found out that Confit is a specialty of Gascony, France - whereby meat such as duck is preserved using salt and slowly cooked in its own juice. Again, another resemblance to a common Chinese dish - this time, it's the Hakka-Chinese delicacy lap ap (preserved duck). Not as salty, but the texture is very similar. Lap ap (in Mandarin: la ya) is a Chinese delicacy mainly produced by the Cantonese and Hakka people in which duck meat is preserved in salt and oil. It is so salty - my family only consume it once a year - during Chinese new year on which we always order some lap ap from China. This dish, Confit de Canard, however, uses considerably less salt. The puree is sweet and delicious - the cumin gives this puree a hint of curry taste.

Okay. Now I'm going to talk about the Sauce Rouennaise. Remember my whole lecture about French sauces and how HELL it is to make them? Refer to this post:

http://eatlikeacow.blogspot.com/2008/07/kttbullar-by-erique-fat-owl.html

You see, this sauce, Rouennaise, is a step BEYOND Bordelaise sauce. This means, in order to make Rouennaise, you need to make Bordelaise, Demi-glace, Espagnole, Glace de Viande, and Brown Sauce. Each sauce requires more than 3 hours to make, so in order to make this Rouennaise sauce, you need...oh, say...3 YEARS?? No wonder French food are expensive.

Rating: 7.5/10

Fondant au Chocolat
soft-center dark chocolate pudding with coffee foam & hazelnut brittle ice cream

-> Apparently, delicious enough to make my lady friends let out orgasmic screams. Gawd, women DO love chocolate. Warm, gooey chocolate pudding encapsulated in coffee foam. It IS incredibly indulgent.

Rating (according to me): 7.5/10
Rating (according to the laydeez, apparently): 10/10 *AAAaaaHHH*

Gaufre
Belgium waffle with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce

-> I love this one. Belgium waffle, as you know, is far heavier than normal waffles, and that's why a tiny piece is enough. The chocolate sauce is to die for - warm, just the right viscosity, melts in your mouth...mmm.

Rating: 8/10

Crêpe Suzette
orange crêpes with rhubarb confiture and yogurt sorbet

-> Now this was rather disappointing. Crêpe Suzette is actually one of my all-time favorite dessert, and I was looking forward to traditional Crêpe Suzette. This one, however, is a slightly modified version. It's still very good, though - but the traditional Crêpe Suzette should be completely soaked in sauce and served immediately before the crispiness has gone. That's why Crêpe Suzette should always be made in FRONT of the guest - every five-star French restaurant should have full Crêpe Suzette service, which consists of a cart, portable stove, and suitable pans and utensils. Making the crêpe, flambé-ing it, and serving it right in front you is part of the excitement of having Crêpe Suzette. It's been a long time since I had real Crêpe Suzette served in such manner...

Rating: 7.5/10

Conclusion:
So, another year gone by. I'm getting old, life is so short, blablabla.
French food rocks. Gotta have some more. But for now, as I quote Voltaire from one of my favorite books he wrote, "Candide":

bien amicalement, et mille tendres adieux!
(Best wishes, and a thousand tender good-byes!)

Pony Dining - The Rocks, Sydney

Pony is still very popular these days, they're even full-house for a late dinner on a Monday night. I didn't make any reservations, assuming that they won't be busy on a Monday night - and I ended up waiting 30 minutes for a table. My bad.

The restaurant is quite unique because of their 'communal' dining table. They do have some individual tables for two inside their restaurant, but the main attraction is the alfresco (yet very warm on witter night) long wooden communal table outside, just adjacent to the bar. Supposedly, they design the long communal table to encourage conversations between diners, but being Asian (often deemed to be individualists in Western standards), we pretty much kept the talking among ourselves. LOL

The restaurant is headed by the charming and dashing Damian Heads - one of Australia's foremost celebrity chef. He wasn't there when we dined there, though. The menu is very influenced by Argentinean style cooking - with the use of wood fired Argentinean grill being the restaurant's forte. The wine list is also pretty impressive - good selections of French and Italian wines in addition to Australian wines.

Wine ordered:
2006 Fattori Pinot Grigio (Venezie, Italy)

Reason:
I'm by no means a wine expert, but I heard from someone that Pinot Grigio (it's a variety of Pinot Gris) goes well with anything. Considering the amount of red meat we ordered, it seems peculiar to pair it with white wine, I know, but I think it works just fine.

P.S. Pardon the awful pictures. It's really, really dark, my camera kind of sucks for low light, and didn't want to take too much pictures so as not to offend other diners (remember, it's a communal table!).

Grilled Italian flatbread with smoky eggplant & white bean dip

-> It's pretty good. The dip has really strong Latino / Argentinean kick to it and it's just delightful. The flatbread is crispy and slightly oily - eating it by itself is already a good treat.

Rating: 7/10

Rib eye, crisp layered potato cake, wilted spinach, jus

-> A perfectly-marbled Angus beef with perfect fat ratio. Delightful.

Rating: 8.5/10

Crisp pressed duck, sweet potato mash, bok choy, bitter-sweet orange sauce

-> There's just something with Ducks and Oranges. They go perfectly together, with unquestionable chemistry. Otherwise, why would those grand chefs in France create Canard a l'orange? In fact, I think Ducks should always be eaten with a citrusy-sweet sauce, just like wilted asparagus should always be eaten with hollandaise. Okay, maybe not always, but you know what I mean. Oh, by the way, I just love this dish. It has an obvious Asian influence as well (with the bok choy), and the sweet potato mash is so good I want to eat it everyday. Must-order!

Rating: 9/10

Roasted blue eye, forestiere potatoes, caper, parsley and lemon sauce

-> Just exquisite. Especially the sauce. Must-try.

Rating: 8.5/10

Argentinean style short rib of beef, chimichurri

-> Exquisite. Simple yet amazing dish. It's wood fire grilled, so it has a unique smoky texture. Took quite awhile to cook, but definitely worth the wait. After the rib is sprinkled with lemon juice and dipped in chimichurri (it's an Argentinean dip), it tastes like party in my mouth. Definitely will be coming back for more.

Rating: 8.5/10

Chocolate hazelnut tartlet with vanilla ice cream

-> One good dessert, eaten by many. We're too full for dessert but were boh kam guan (unwilling / un-acquiescent) to leave the restaurant without at least savoring something sweet.

Rating: 7/10

Port Orient - Darling Harbour, Sydney

Peking Duck - First Course (Pancakes)



Peking Duck - Second Course (San choy bow)



Chicken Chow Mein



Seafood Fried Rice



Mandarin-style Fillet Steak



Snowpeas, Beans & Broccoli



Steamed Ocean Perch with Tofu



Spicy Fried Flounder

Dusit Thai, Northbridge, WA

the one everyone cant stop raving about...
they've won gold plate award for xxxxx years and also held weekly cooking classes


Tom Yum
fish only, specially ordered

Roast Duck with Basil Leaves
always order this... always always...

Steamed Fish Fillets with Tamarind and Lemon Sauce

Lamb Cutlets - Chef Recommended

Mixed Greens Stir Fry


endnote: never order anything that comes in coconut or pineapple shell... every thai restaurant no matter how exppensive they are re-use theirs... ew