est. – what i’m eating at the time 18.11.13

est.
Peter Doyle

Last week, I had an indulgent weekend. Yup, pretty indulgent. I’m pretty sure the culinary part of my tummy got sick of the amount of butter, wine, foam, deconstructed powder, smears and  reductions one can have in three days, needless to say I needed to cap it off with some pizza from the hut itself just to balance it out. I was lucky enough to score tables at Sepia, Quay and, as you may have guessed, est.

Now if you haven’t been to est., let me tell you that compared to the caliber of restaurants I just laid out, this was certainly the best of the bunch. Yup, we talking top shelf here, far far better than pizza hut and just as satisfying (i’m sure a little special wine may be making me biased but we shall get to that in a second). Est. restaurant is found on level 1 in the Establishment Hotel and headed by Peter Doyle who specialises in modern Australian cuisine currently holding 3 hats and 3 GT stars, sweet looking wine selection and a beautiful room to boot. Wait staff was very patient  and courteous and we were lucky enough to get an extra little bit of desert! Apologies for the lack of note taking today, I’ve been a bit lax in that department so please enjoy the lovey photos of the 4 course lunch with possibly the most kick ass wine matched dessert I have had the pleasure to experience. Please enjoy.

the menu
salad of spanner crab, green mango, cucumber, heart of palm, lime and lemongrass
sashimi of tuna, tapioca, ocean trout roe, puffed quinoa, white soy, lime
spinach ricotta tortellini, snap peas, shimeji mushrooms, green shallots
moreton bay bug, prawn, clams, squid, fregola, jamon, broad beans, chives
john dory, grilled scallop, spinach, sauternes- carrot juice emulsion
murray cod, abalone, snow peas, black fungi, ginger – green shallot vinaigrette
passionfruit souffle, passionfruit sorbet

Jacques Reymond Night!

Bonjour Bonjour, how you all doing? It’s been way too long between posts so i’m playing a little bit of catch up here. Today I’m going to share with you all a few pics of our “Jacques Reymond Night”.

A few weeks back (“few” is being used loosely here) my friends and I decided to have a go at our own Jacques Reymond night where we picked out a few dishes from “Cuisine du Temps” and make merry.

Jacques Reymond Night

Jacques Reymond – What i’m eating at the time 26.04.13

Dinner 26 April 2013
Executive Chef Jacques Reymond

Jacques Reymond, a name synonymous with the best of Melbourne’s culinary delights displaying innovation, modernisation, consistency and artistry on the plate. Located on the outskirts of the CBD, Jacques Reymond occupies an old and lovely Victorian mansion complete with flourishing gardens, fireplaces and has been used as a restaurant reception centre for over 50 years. The house has undergone extensive renovations since the Reymond family purchased it in 1992 resulting in a fusion between traditional and contemporary décor reflective of Jacques cooking style. If you walk past the kitchen, you may get a glimpse of Jacque in the kitchen commanding the troops with his daughter Nathalie in front of house as the sommelier. This highly regarded restaurant is affiliated with the Relais Chateaux association, awarded three chef hats for many consecutive years and currently holds two and three gourmet traveler stars for food and wine respectively.

I have been blessed with the opportunity to have dined at Jacques Reymond on three previous occasions. My first two visits played a big part in my fascination of food and wine so there is a special place in my heart here. I can still remember the sweet lobster bisque with crab dumplings and the flavors of the foam on a perfectly cooked king fish…just magic. The third time I visited Jacques was early 2011 where I felt a slump in consistency and quality in the dishes, a shame really. Nevertheless, when my 30th birthday came around this year, there was no other place I wanted to be than Jacques. It was like a pilgrimage, one all Melbournians should take so thank you to all the guests of the night making it a memorable one.

Friday came around quickly and we soon found ourselves outside the mofo of a mansion scanning the soon to be nommed 9 course degustation menu. Three taps on the old door later, we were greeted by some fabulous wait staff, patient, accommodating and friendly; easily some of the best.

We filtered in two at a time around a circular table within one of the three rooms flanked by fireplaces and carts of Dom Perignon. The menus came around along with one of the many reasons to dine at Jacques; the cheese balls.

ARIA – what i’m eating at the time 01.04.2013

ARIA
Autumn Tasting Menu

Hello gang and welcome to Sydney, today we are experiencing ARIA. The missus and I took a little trip to Sydney over the Easter break for my Auntie’s 70th birthday. Since we had some “spare time”, we decided to also dine out and catch up with our good friend Eugene who recently moved to Sydney. Originally I was going to revisit Quay and introduce the wife to le snow egg but everything was closed! Luckily, for a slightly dearer price, ARIA was open to cater for our fine dining needs.

The Point – What i’m eating at the time 10.03.2013

The Point

Welcome to the nom noms peoples, today we are going to get straight to the “point”. Yes that was a terrible joke…I’m here every Thursday.

Attica – what i’m eating at the time 29.05.12

Attica

Friends of food, welcome to Attica. Last Tuesday, Nat and I dined at Attica to celebrate my in law’s 24^th birthday. There were six of us in total; the birthday boy Steve, his brother Cam and his cousin Scott along with their bosses Sop, Sarah and Nina. Big thanks to Sop for organising and thanks to the peeps for a great night!

Team Attica

Attica has been on a tear shotting out of nowhere to become a global hit, ranking 63rd in the top 100 on the San Pellegreno list; the highest ranked restaurant in Melbourne. With 3 hats, Ben Shewry and his team at Attica has been voted 2012’s restaurant of the year.

Quay vs Tetsuya’s Part 2 – what i’m eating at the time 13.04.12

Tetsuya’s

Everybody know what time it is? TETS TIME!

That’s right, cast for minds back to last week (or two…) where we drooled over the delights at Quay. Now we are going to delve into dinner at Tetsuya’s.

Tetsuya Wakuda, the dude makes his own knives…need I say more? Tetsuya has been at the peak of gastronomy in the restaurant world ranking within the top 50 restaurants in the world since 2002 to 2010 and in the top 100 in 2011. Tetsuya’s bring unique dishes based on the Japanese philosophy of using natural seasonal flavours, enhanced by classic French techniques, all from his heritage-listed site. I bumped into the manager who has been at the restaurant since 1996 and asked about Tetsuya’s new restaurant in Singapore. Apparently it is very quirky and is a small Japanese bar/grill where you have to move to different eating stations during the meal. Very different to this place!

Quay Vs Tetsuya’s Part 1 – what i’m eating at the time 13.04.12

Quay

Hello again everyone! This is going to be the first of a two part blog post; Quay vs Tetsuya’s. As you can guess, this one is dedicated to Quay. Hope you enjoy it!

Last weekend my cousin was getting hitched so it gave my family and I an excuse to run over to Sydney to catch up with uncles and aunties, cousins and little rug rats I haven’t seen in a while. It also gave us an excuse to eat like kings! Big thanks to my parents for booking and shouting for these two extravagant meals. Love you! 🙂

We arrived on the Friday and visited Quay for lunch which is the perfect stomach lining for dinner at Tetsuya’s. Quay is situated in the dress circle of Circular Quay *shock horror!* where head chef Peter Gilmore created the now famous “Grava snow egg”. If you are two ninths of a foodie, you should know what that is.

Quay has been one of Australia’s most awarded restaurants holding 3 hats and currently sits ranks 26th in the S.Pellegrino worlds best restaurant list; the highest is Australia. Quay creates dishes inspired by nature and let the natural flavours and textures speak for themselves. This year, Peter Gilmore was awarded Chef of the Year in the Sydney Good Food Guide.

The view at Quay 

Vue de Monde – what i’m eating at the time 16.03.2012

Vue De Monde

It’s Friday! Yay! Was so so tired last week and was tempted not to write this but thought of my 10 followers (hehe actually, its 11 now! thank you email follower! please comment to let me know who you are!) and said “what the hell”. I have some time after work so I went and looked for a little meeting room and try to take a nap. I ended up chatting the hour away before having to run off to Vue. A bunch of friends booked the mega chef’s table at the new Vue de Monde. We almost had the full 18 but after a miss count, only 17 bums were on the seats. I was really looking forward to this night since I have been to the original Vue on little Collins St before the move and some of those dishes….just wow. A few of the people who shared that night with us were coming again for a repeat experience so expectations were high. We still talk about some of those dishes today! If you have been, you will definitely remember the burnt butter marron, chocolate/coffee smoked kangaroo, cranberry marrow waygu and “the egg”. Magic.

The Fat Duck

 

The Fat Duck

The name says it all. Heston Blumethal, 3 Michelin Stars, rated as one of best restaurants in the world. Originally inspired by the three star Michelin restaurant L’Oustau de Baumaniere when he was sixteen, Heston taught himself how to cook and in 1995, bought a quaint little pub called “The Bell” which has been transformed into what we all know today as Fat Duck. He led the way of culinary gastronomy and earned his third star in under a decade. Heston loves to question everything and push the boundaries of food and cooking bringing all the senses into the eating experience. Like a kid in the candy shop.