Bird Cow Fish

This is a funky East Sydney restaurant located not far from Billy Kwongs in Crown Street. Kim chose this restaurant because it had been written up in the Sydney Morning Herald and got a rave review about it's cheese platter.

Joining me on this culinary escapade were the, now, regulars. Brenda, Kim, Paul, Elaine and her sister with apologies from Gavin. Despite the fact that this was the latest restaurant that we have been too I had the most difficulty remembering what we all had because I had the best culinary experience with just one dish and it has completely overshadowed everything else.

I do know that I had the perch with lentils as my main and I have to say I was disappointed with it. I don't know if it was because the entree was just so phenomenal I couldn't taste it or if it was because it was, actually, a bit tasteless. I felt that it was lacking an acidic quality. It needed something to lift it from the lentils. It was cooked perfectly and the textures were a great combination but as I said it was lacking. It tasted bland to me. Others at my table had the fish stew and raved about that. There was a nice combination of seafood from squid and mussels and fresh fish and was in a nice tangy tomato stew. Others had the chicken and said that was great but as I said earlier I can't remember what it is that they actually had. I became self absorbed in my entree.

Which brings me to my entree! There is a god and he is in the hands of the chef who designed it! It was a duck and pork terrine. It came in a little white bowl and at first it looked empty because the layer of fat on the top was so perfectly white and liquid. It was accompanied by a shredded salad of cabbages with nuts and other ingredients I couldn't identify but every now and then you would stumble across a little gem of a current which would explode against the other ingredients. It was served with the cow bird fish fresh baked rye bread. When you combined all three, the terrine, the salad and the bread every bite was magnificent. In all my culinary experiences I have never been so rapturous about anything I have eaten.

Added to this I had a white wine off the menu that had a name something like wandering goose. That was also spectacular. It had a slight hint of passionfruit and complimented the entree magnificently.

I can't tell you what it was about this entree that was perfect. The duck and pork, I was told, was pickled before being shredded and then potted in the terrine. Nothing unusual in that but, dear lord, I loved it! We didn't get to the cheese platter. We were all too full for anything other than coffee.

About the restaurant itself. As I said it was funky and east Sydney. Lots of blonde wood, ambient candles and bright lights and white tables. The service was great and our waitress was witty. I dont remember what it cost but again I know it wasn't over $70 a head.

I have every intention of going back to the restaurant and trying other things on the menu. Well on the main menu, there can be nothing else on the entrees other than that terrine for me ever again and if they attempt to take it off the menu I may have to take drastic action.

I can only tell all people who love food to go to this restaurant, have the terrine and if they have the white wine, then choose that as well. You will not be disappointed.

La Grande Bouffe

This time we were in the heart of winter so, I thought, the perfect choice would be a french restaurant. Word had spread of our restaurant club and this time my fellow diners were again, Brenda and Kim as well as Paul, Elaine and her boyfriend and Gavin. After finding out that my restaurant of choice had closed down after being there for over 20 years we settled on La Grande Bouffe located on Darling Street at Rozelle but almost close enough to be in Balmain.

The restaurant was very quaint and came complete with sidewalk chairs and tables located under heaters with very cute (and much needed at that time of the year) colourful blankets draped over the back of the cane chairs. We opted to dine indoors!

The menu wasn't vast with just 6 entrees and 6 mains and between the 7 of us we only ate 3 of each. I am not criticising the size of the menu because it was perfect for the size of the restaurant. It would only seat about 40 people indoors and about 16 outside. I was hoping for a provincial french restaurant with deep rich interiors and open fire places but this was modern and minimalist. At first I was disappointed that there were no snails on the menu but then we were each served a warm snail in a delicious garlic oil. Enough to get us a taste and more than enough for some of my fellow diners. I personally like snails.... I think they are just a delivery mechanism for the garlic and oil. The oil was then well used to soak into the crusty fresh baked bread that was also brought out.

So, the three entrees that were chosen were the onion soup, the seared scallops with a trio of sauces, and the confit of aubergine and tomato, goat cheese honey and sherry viniagrette. I had the onion soup and it was hot, beefy, thick and served with the perfect large crouton covered in gruyere cheese. It wasn't spectacular but it was wholesome and comforting. The scallops were an absolute visual treat. the three sauces (from memory a red capsicum, a white flavoured cream and a black squids ink) were poured over each other and spider webbed out from the centre of the plate and the scallops located perfectly at the points. The scallops were plump, fesh and juicy. The confit was a spectacle of culinary engineering. It was all piled spectacularly high. The dressing, I am told, was divine. The sherry, despite being sweet itself, cut the sweetness of the honey and played a nice contrast to the acidity of the vegetables and cheese.

The mains ordered were Seared Wild Barramundi Fillet, Carrot and Ginger Sauce, Poached Plums, Green Onion Petals, Roast Lamb Rack, Rustic Sweet Potato Puree, Port and Anis Jus and Duo of Beef, Seared Tenderloin and Braised Cheek, Cannelini Bean Puree, Brunoise de Legume, Sauce Bordelaise. Those who had the Barramundi were disappointed as they said it was overcooked and (as I have noted in other blogs) was a tad floury. They also said the sauce was too busy. The lamb, my order, was nice. The lamb was pink and tender and the combination of the aniseed and port sauce with the sweet potato almost tasted oriental. It was very interesting. Those who had the beef said the beef was cooked perfectly and that the cannelini bean puree was a great contrast to the beef. However, they too said it was nice but not spectacular. We also ordered sides of pomme frits (chips) and legume de jour which were fresh crunchy beans in butter.

For desserts the orders were crepe suzette, creme brulee and the cheese platter. The crepe suzettes, my order, sadly were not made at the table with flaming pans but came ready served on the plate. They were lovely though and the bitterness of the alcohol cut the sweetness of the orange very nicely. The vanilla icecream was rich and smooth. The cheese platter, I think, was the pick of the desserts. There were 4 cheeses - a blue cheese, a soft cheese and 2 hard cheeses served with small poppy seed crackers. The cheeses were very well selected and accompanied each other well. The creme brulee was traditional and crunchy on top.

So that was dinner. The food was nice. It wasn't amazing but some of it was visually delightful. That said, it was a great evening. The restaurant is very conducive to a social gathering. The wait staff weren't obtrusive and the conversation flowed really well! The service was uneventful. There was certainly nothing to complain about which was perfect for the evening because we were just there to enjoy each others company and try new food. In that regard the restaurant excelled. We all had a fantastic evening and the group is going to get bigger as word spreads of what a good time we have.

The restaurant was not expensive. I'm sorry but I can't tell you what the bill came too but I'm pretty sure it didn't get over $80 a head and we had some very nice wines with dinner. The restaurant would make a good local restaurant. It's also a restaurant that you would go to where the food was not the primary objective. The food was good. It was great value but it was not the restaurant that you would go to for that special night out.

Guillaume At Bennelong

To accompany me on my next expedition were Brenda and Kim. Guillaume at Bennelong is located in the uniquely fabulous Sydney Opera House. It serves a "Pre-theatre" dinner but we opted for the A La Carte. If you are more than 4 people you have to take a booth or a table away from the window. The window tables seat a maximum of 4. Our table was situated looking over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Circular Quay and the International Passenger Terminal. The lighting in the restaurant is very muted in order to not interfere with the fantastic view.

We dined at the end of May so the weather was getting cool but not icy. Everyone would find something on the menu that appealed to them. It is largely french influenced so perfect for winter as they were rich and hearty.

While we perused the menu and drank the rather light but piquant bottle of champage we orderd we were served sliced freshly baked rye bread and real butter. The one thing I missed when I returned from Europe is that I was, and still am, unable to find any baker that makes bread like they make in Europe. The kind with absolutely no preservatives that doesn't last longer than about 12 hours but that you also can buy fresh at any hour of the day. Well I found it in this restaurant. Lovely. So we then ordered and asked the sommelier for his recommendation of a wine that would accompany the very different dishes we all ordered. He recommended a south Australian Pinot Noir which we went with. I do like the current fashion of keeping the wine away from the table I have to say. That way the champagne was always perfectly chilled and the bottle didn't clutter up the table or drip water over your food.

For entree I opted for the Smoked Salmon.... I really can't go past that, Kim had the braised oxtail with celeriac puree and truffle and Brenda had the fresh shucked Pacific Oysters. The smoked salmon came nicely rolled around some creme fraishe with perfect little pearls of red caviar on the top with capers and a lightly steamed small leafed vegetable I haven't had before and who's name escapes me at the moment but was a perfect accompaniment to the perfect smoked salmon. (hachet?? ) It, too, came with thin slices of that fantastic rye bread. The salmon was perfectly smoked and not too salty and completely unblemished and Brenda tells me that the oysters were amazingly fresh and succulent. Kim's oxtail was thick and rich and smelt divine.

I then chose an item from the specials and had wagout of beef cheeks, Brenda had the Barramundi with scallops in a ginger sauce and Kim had the Kingfish in an oxtail jus. The wagout of beef cheeks, according to our server, had been cooked for about 57 days! Ok I am exaggerating a bit but it had been cooked about 3 times over the past 24 hours and was amazingly tender and juicy and succulent and just fell away so much that I barely needed my knife. For a winter dish it was sublime. It was in a red wine sauce on a creamy mash of potato. It also had button mushroom, carrot and beans in the sauce. It was a very heavy dish and there was more than enough to satisfy even the hungriest of persons. I didn't manage to get through it all and I tried let me tell you!

I was really interested in Kim's choice of the Kingfish with oxtail jus. I couldn't get my head around having seafood with such a rich choice of sauce but the jus was really light and delicate and after having a taste, it was a really interesting combination of flavours. Kingfish is one of the more hearty fishes so held itself well against the jus. It also came with those perfect little pearls of caviar. I wish I had ordered Brenda's dish though. As lovely as the beef was, it was a heavy dish and Brenda's was fantastic. The ginger was not overpowering at all. The scallops were plump and juicy and the Barramundi was cooked perfectly. There is nothing worse than overcooked barramundi. I hate how it goes floury. This was lovely. Again, the knife seemed obselete.

Despite the fact that we were all full we ordered dessert. We had too! Since we had to wait 15 minutes for 2 of them we figured dinner would have a chance to settle. I had the chocolate fondant with pistachio icecream, kim had the orange souffle and Brenda had the Raspberry Mille Fuille. Oh my! We all sampled each others desserts and they were all perfect. The chocolate fondant came tall and proud in the centre of the plate with a small dollop of pistachio icecream surrounded by warm sugared pistachios. It looked almost too good to eat. From the first spoon into the centre of my chocolate cake I lost the ability to speak. All that I could utter was almost pornographic moans of delight and urge my fellow diners to sample it. Both had the same reaction. Warm, runny, dark, thick, sweet, rich. The combination of the slight crunchy exterior with the warm runny interior and the iciness of the icecream was just a perfect combination of textures and tastes. Sadly though, Kim was disappointed in the souffle. I am not a big souffle fan but Kim's father, also a rather good cook, makes an orange souffle that held up better than the one served to her this evening.

Brenda is still raving about her raspberry mille fuille. Every raspberry was perfect and she says that if she closes her eyes she can still taste them. The pastry was barely there and again the visual delight of the dessert made it even more delightful. There were 3 layers of raspberrys between the layers of pastry that, again, added to the perfect combination of textures to the dessert. The cream was lightly whipped and slightly sweetened. She would go back and just have the dessert.

Kim and I elected not to have coffee, but Brenda (easily the smartest woman I know) ordered coffee. You see we didn't read the menu properly when we were ordering dessert. Coffee came with petit fours! Out came this visually perfect plate covered with 3 of every kind of petit fours. There were the tiniest spanish donuts and in fact all of them were miniature perfection. There were tiny lemon curd tartlets about the size of a 5 cent piece, tiny triangles of turkish delight, little tarts with a smidge of fresh cream and another perfect raspberry on top. As hard as it was we ate them all! I have to agree with Brenda in relation to the raspberries. I have never had raspberries so delicious and I, too, can close my eyes and my mouth will salivate when I think about them. I saved the raspberry tartlet to last. I wanted to save one of the petit fours for my sister, who was picking me up at the end of the evening, but, I'm sorry Claire, I just couldn't!

So to the service. It was interesting I have to say. Never did one server come out of the kitchen on their own. There was always a parade of servers coming out of the restaurant with trays aloft. It added to the drama of the location and was fun to watch. The servers were also "career" hospitality personnel. They aren't there waiting for something else to come along. They were generally older and they obviously love the job and were very good at it. I expect, given the clientele, the tips would be worth it. Despite the muted lighting it is not really a place to have a romantic dinner. We were surrounded with people making business deals and people in suits. It is rather elegant and understated in it's interior that again seems to mean that the restaurant is able to stand more on it's menu than its interior. That said, you certainly can't complain about the view!

The cost was about $160 a head (there was no wine under $80 a bottle which added a chunk to the bill). If I could go to the restaurant and just eat the desserts then I would certainly go back. This is a restaurant that I would recommend you go to once if for no other reason than to experience the view and be entertained by the service. It is also highly recommended to take any of your visitors from overseas to see what professional service is and to experience Sydney Harbour by night.

Billy Kwong

The chef of Billy Kwong is Kylie Kwong one of my favourite television chefs so it seemed appropriate that this was the first restaurant that I elected to dine at. Joining me for dinner were my friends Brenda, Kim, Elaine and my best friend in the world Phil who just chose that night to visit from Melbourne. Most serendipitous.

Firstly you can't book to dine at Billy Kwongs. You just have to front up at the door and hope for the best. I tell a lie, if you have 6 people in your party there is one table that you can book but we were just 5. It is a pocket handkerchief of a restaurant located on Crown Street in East Sydney and there is a stream of clientele coming and going. You can also watch the activity in the kitchen as it is open as is the current trend in modern dining these days.

As a fat forty and fabulous woman the seating left a bit to be desired. We were effectively seated on plastic bathroom stools. Not terribly comfortable but by the end of the night I didn't care! The menu was fantastic and we couldn't make up our minds over anything so we opted for "the banquet". The banquet is not a hard and fast menu. You tell the staff what you dont want to eat and they will cater the banquet to you.

One of the original ideas of "the restaurant club" was that you had to love food, you weren't going to quibble over the price and you would try anything. That being said one of the restaurant gang didn't eat red meat and another didn't really eat molluscs. That was relayed to the wait staff and off they went.

The first item to be brought out was one of my two favourites of the evening. We had scallop dumplings with a garlic chili oil. Oh my! I was disappointed at first because there was only 1 each. They were warm, light, not too spicy and just the perfect. They melted in the mouth and there was a hint of a citrus of some kind. I am guessing lime. As an aside, one of the standouts about the service, which couldn't be faulted, was the fact that for every dish we got a clean bowl so as not to mix the very delicate flavours of all the dishes. The second dish was a cold mushroom, tofu and, I think, fennel salad. Again the dressing was a very delicate blend of an asian vinegar and oil.

The third dish was a chicken with ginger. The chicken was obviously organic and fantastic. Again there was a subtle blending of not too many ingredients where you could taste everything. The 4th dish was my least favourite. Not because I didn't like it but because it felt out of place. It was like a soft boiled egg that had then been fried and then broken served with shallots and capsicum and again another dressing. As a brunch this would be sensational. It was very rich. The richness of the runny egg yolk with the light accompaniments was lovely. It is just that everything else we had to eat was so delicate in it's flavours and unique that this was too bold and heavy for the rest of the menu that was served to us.

The next dish I would go back and just eat on it's own. It was duck in plum sauce and was my other favourite dish of the evening. The duck, again, was obviously organic as it was pink with a perfect layer of fat underneath the perfectly crisp skin. The plum sauce came with whole stewed plums and had a hint of ginger and other spices. The sauce was a beautiful pink colour and was not too sweet or too heavy. The duck was to die for.

We had another 3 dishes that unfortunately I can no longer remember as we dined in April. Ok so I'm not that current but I do remember that to accompany the dinner we were suggested to have an organic New Zealand white wine which was lovely and 4 bottles later was still very drinkable. As the end of the evening they serve a platter of perfect sliced fruit. This was a sensational ending to the evening because anything else would have just overpowered the delicate perfect flavours of the food.

There were unusual combinations of food that are what set a fantastic chef apart from others. Apart from the egg dish there was nothing overpowering and by the end of the dinner we were all completely full.

This restaurant is not the place for a romantic dinner. It is for those who love that brilliant fresh asian fusion taste that is coming more and more prolific in Sydney restaurants. This one does it perfectly. The service was unobtrusive but constant. The staff were knowledgable and well versed in the short but perfectly balanced wine list. This restaurant ranks up there as a "must try" for those in Sydney.

The cost was around $120 a head but that was also due to the addition of the 4 bottles of wine.

Who Am I?

I am a great food lover who is now in a position to eat at all the restaurants I have read and heard about.

I am fat, 40 and fabulous! My lover is food. I have had this love affair all my life. I didn't come from a great gourmet family in fact I came from dirt poor beginnings in a huge family of 7 daughters with one small wage coming in existing in housing commission hell with hand me downs all the way and one pair of shoes. The days before payday dinners were invariably only toast and dripping!! ewww to this day I hate the thought of dripping but then the bread got delivered on account so it was one thing we always had.

I am the youngest in my family so as the siblings started leaving home there was more money in the family and the food gradually got better to the point of fantastic! My mother was a sensational cook and a great experimental one when Dad was out of town.... he was a meat and three veg kind of guy so most nights that's what we got. When he went out of town my mother went to town.

I remember this one particular dinner which would have been 30 years ago and she decided to experiment with asian food. First of all I have to point out that I grew up in the Hunter Valley where asian food meant the local chinky down the road with fried rice and sweet and sour pork... something I still can't eat to this day. Anyway the one thing I remembered she cooked was this prawn dish which today is called salt and pepper prawns. It was completely sensational and the first time I had tried chilli. She travelled all the way to Sydney to get the correct ingredients for this meal. It was another 20 years before I tasted Salt and Pepper prawns in Sydney and they were nowhere near as good as my mothers. She also had fondue parties, German Sausage nights and cocktail parties with fabulous finger food like mini camembert garlic bread rolls. She is the direct cause of my love affair with food.

I came to Sydney the day my HSC finished and started working for the State Government. I'm still there but I have managed to get a law degree and get promoted enough where every once in a while I can find someone and go to a fantastic restaurant. I have always tried to taste the best and it started as early as the age of 19 where the only meal I could afford in the 5 star restaurants in Sydney was breakfast. Every second payday a girlfriend and I would go and sample all the breakfasts at the Sydney hotels. I have to say that the best one I had, remembering this was 21 years ago, was at Cables in the Regent. It was the only one who actually made me eggs benedict to order rather than say that they only provided the buffet. It was the first time I had had it and it was smooth and tangy with a fabulous mix of textures and still my favourite treat breakfast to this day. Particularly when it's served with smoked salmon and dill.... mmmmmm At the end of the breakfast my friend, Danielle, and I would then critique it and compare it against the others. That was great fun.

So, fast forward 20 years and I have eaten at some great and some not so great restaurants in Sydney and would like to offer you my opinion. I would not make a great food critic because I actually love food. Most critiques of restaurants that I have read are generally pompous and unless the main costs over $30 they are quite derogatory. I don't really care about the price of the main. In some of my experiences the best food has been found in the seedy little corner of a busy street. The service might be complete and utter crap and the napkins paper but it's the food I'm interested in. That said, I do like to great service.

I pick my holiday destinations by what food I am interested in at the moment and recently spent 6 months eating all over Europe. I learnt to say "what do you recommend?" in about 10 languages and how to say "I'll have that" in the same amount. Most times I had no idea what I was eating and that was a truy liberating way to dine. I have to say I had some very interesting dining experiences and met some very jovial chatty chefs. Just so you know I am not leaving alcohol out of the equation, I am not a big drinker. But, where the restaurant offers and extensive wine list (as opposed to BYO) I will ask the sommelier for their recommendations and generally go with that. Otherwise I have my personal choices but wine is like art, you know what you like. Growing up in the Hunter Valley I have a, better than most, education in relation to wine but everyones palate is different. I know that everyone's palate is different in relation to food as well but I find it easier to describe food than I do to describe wine.

So, now I have gathered a few friends in the same position as me and we make it a point of finding fabulous restaurants and going to a different one every month. Because the group is new the restaurants I am choosing are sometimes 5 star, sometimes just interesting and sometimes because someone else said the food was to die for.

I hope you enjoy my opinions.
Chin Chin