Malamay Barton, Wednesday 20 June 2012

Tofu Ricotta balls

Prawns and noodles

Smoked Chicken

70/70 egg with blossom prawn confit

slow cooked eggplant

Beef

Waygu beef and risotto

Scallop and enoki mushrooms

Black sesame icecream and ginger cake

WINE

Courabyra (2001) '805' Sparkling Tumbarumba NSW
Penfolds Bin 389 1993 Cabernet Shiraz

FOOD:

We decided to go back to Malamay because we liked it so much the first time, and Karen hadn't been there and it was her birthday after all.  All six of us were able to come, no excuses were made.

Malamay is one of those restaurants which offer only degustation, either full menu (7 courses? we lost count) for $88 or $66.50 for five courses.

We started with the "Scallops with Mussels flavoured Bean Paste and Enoki Mushrooms" one lonely scallop on a bed of deep fried mushrooms with a tiny dollop of bean paste on top.  Absolutely lovely, light and plain, delicate a good starter.  I thought that there needed to be more of the bean paste but Jim and John thought there was enough.

Tofu ricotta with Chillied Mushroom Relish.  My absolute favourite, I adore anything with tofu.  This came as a crunchy ball on a bed of the mushrooms, a bit bland, it needed the strong chilli to lift it.  It was a superb combination, the lightness of the tofu and the strong flavour of the relish, they had done the balance really well. 

3 Chilli relish and bonito marinated prawns on hand made noodles.  Ron said that the explosions of flavour from the relish got richer and deeper, with a very strong aftertaste.  A more conventional dish though, we felt that they weren't really experimenting with this one.

Double smoked Spring Chicken with Fennel Salad. The chicken was a bit plain, with the smoked flavour coming right through, but it needed something else other that a fennel salad to go with it, perhaps paw paw or green mango?  The texture of the chicken was good, not tough at all.

Pan fried Beef cake: This was minced beef in a pastry case with a bit of kimchi on the top and a mustard sauce underneath.  Ultimately it was just a beef patty, very different in style to the other dishes.  With its heavy pastry it turned out to be a very filling, heavier course.

Slow cooked eggplant:  Basically a big lump of eggplant baked with a topping of sesame seeds and a paste made from black beans, sesame paste and a dried seaweed miso.  I usually like eggplant (love eggplant) but found that the big lump was quite unappealing.  The topping was nice though.  I gave most of it to Ron (who spent most of the night texting...).

Sous vide Wagyu Beef flank with king mushrooms.  I thought it was lovely and tender, great flavour, particularly of the white pepper (we think).  But Karen said her piece was a bit chewy (it was), not as nice as the equivalent dish in the Lantern Room.  Andrew thought it was very nice but the pepper was a bit much for Ron

Dessert: black sesame icecream, coated in sesame seeds with a ginger sort of cake thing on the side.  Brilliant!!! Absolutely yum, great finish to a meal, I had been full but managed to fit all of it in.

Great meal all in all, not all the dishes were perfect but heck you can't expect perfection all the time.  The no choices degustation is a great idea, saves arguments, decision making and lets them concentrate on doing a few dishes really well.  The menu had changed since we visited in March, there were only  a few dishes which were the same, (the prawns, the meat) so it interesting to taste the new ones, see what directions they were heading in.  They seemed to be moving away from the szechwan to include Korean and Japanese ingredients.  It would be interesting to go back in a few months and track further changes.

Soju Girl Wednesday 6th June 2012

Smoked Trout betel leaf

Kingfish

Stuffed eggplant

Soft shell crab

Prawns

pork

Fish

Duck curry

peanut butter icecream caramel sauce

sticky black rice

WINE

La Zona, Chrismont of King Valley Pino Grigio 2012
Wynn's Coonawarra Estate Connawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1992 (surely Jim must have exhausted his cellar by now!)

FOOD

We were trying to figure out why we had not been to Soju Girl before and couldn't quite remember why, and this has been our loss because Soju Girl serves just the kind of Asian food we like.

The place is very trendy, very hip, very dark, lots of young people, lots of noise, loud music.  Parking in Civic was hellishly difficult, but are we just spoilt in Canberra?

There was a long long wait in between entree and main courses, but to make up for that the food was just divine.

We decided that the entrees/small plates looked interesting, so ordered 5 of those between the five of us (Andrew had something else interesting to do that night which had something to do with the Transit of Venus which had happened that morning) and only 2 mains.

The smoked trout, betel leaf, coconut and chilli relish set the tone for the evening, very different, fresh, crunchy refreshing, with a lovely lime flavour coming through and we even ate the betel leaf  (was that supposed to do something for us, I'm not sure?)
 =
The king fish, which was described as "tiradib of kingfish, yuzu, white soy and ginger lime radish" was voted the winner for the night, extra ordinary lime flavour, very delicate with the marinate going right through it.  Ron rated it "wow" 11 out of 10.

The soft shell crab with shredded green paw paw and basil was another winner (3 in a row!), deep fried to perfection, magnificent.

The prawns were a bit fiddly, a bit of a disappointment compared to the other dishes, but the pork stuffed eggplant with candied seeds and spicy miso made up for it.  It was basically boats of eggplant with filling and fried basil on top, in a rich sauce, beautiful flavour.

But the pork was a bit boring, fried pieces of pork, nicely done, but that was about it.

The main dishes, the fish and the duck both had spectacular presentation.  The fish was standing on it's side (very cool way of presenting it) had a fabulous coriander flavour, delicate chilli jam and coconut flavour which complimented the delicate flavour of the fish

The duck when we went to eat it, was nice but not exceptional, not much different from any duck curry in any Thai restaurant.
 Now the desserts, yum, I"m still dreaming about the peanut butter icecream, chocolate fondant and salted caramel sauce.  Peanut butter icecream must be this month's flavour because I had just that dessert at the Ginger Room.  I"m not sure which one was better, this was an absolute treat.

Ron had the Black sticky rice, banana jam and roast banana foam which he promptly photographed and put on his facebook so that all his friends could make comments, but we think that secretly he wished he had ordered the peanut butter icecream.  What's to bet that he will go back there and order it some time in the next week.

 What fabulous food, this will definitely be on our list of repeats

Ginger Room Wednesday 23 May

Appetiser

Dumplings and peanut salad

Blue Cheese mouse and beetroot salad

Pork belly

Salt and Pepper prawns

Lentils and asparagus

Smoked duck

Kangaroo

Peanut butter icecream

ganache tart

We went to the Ginger Room (Old Parliament House) because it was Ron's birthday and he wanted to spoil himself, or whatever.  Karen unfortunately couldn't come, she and Jim had some very complicated child transporting arrangements to deal with.

WINE
Croser Petaluma Non Vintage Chardonnay Pinot, Jim assumed from the Adelaide Hills
Rockford Rifle Range Cabernet Sauvignon Barossa 2008: this wine is apparently hard to find, one needs to be on their "list" to get an allocation, so Jim was impressed with this.

We decided not to have the degustation, it did not appeal to us, so we had the 4 course meal instead, $79.

A little appetizer appeared, a little piece of beef fillet done in an asian marinade on a spoon, just delightful.

First course:
A few of us had the Fried Ginger, minted broad bean peanut salad, smoked tomato and basil dumplings.  The dumplings were really fried won tons with a tomato salsa inside, the nuts and broad beans were an interesting, crunchy combination.
John had the tarago shadows of blue mousse etc which he said had a very subtle flavour.

Second course
Jim had the salt and pepper prawns which surprised him a bit because he was expecting something with an asian flavour but it tasted nice anyway.  I had the five spiced lentils asparagus etc.  I felt that the lentils overwhelmed the rest of the dish, it was not particularly delicate, but nice otherwise, in a wholesome kind of way.
Ron (guts) had the pork belly for seconds.  Magnificent, nice and tender with a lovely blackberry sauces, sharp and full of flavour, really, really good.

Third course
We lost the plot a bit after this, most of us had the duck, lightly done with the smokey flavour coming through.  I think Andrew had the kangaroo.

Dessert
We revived a bit when dessert appeared, the peanut butter icecream was absolutely to die for, just worth going to Ginger Room for that alone.

So what did we think of the meal?  I"d been there a few months before and been disappointed with the small sizes of the entree and fish courses.  This time I was a little overwhelmed by the size of the portions, maybe someone had complained.

The Ginger Room is reliable, food good, not quite outstanding like say Sage is.  Maybe the boys won't agree with me, maybe I have been there too many times.  On the Wednesday night there weren't many other tables filled, so maybe it is going off a bit and people are finding out.

The ambience is lovely, refined dining room, beautiful panelling on the walls and ceiling, well placed tables, white table cloths, not too noisy.  I'd go back there.

Menu 

2 courses $59 3 courses $69 4 courses $79 5 courses $89

Vegetables

• fried ginger, minted broad bean peanut salad, smoked tomato and basil dumplings \
• san choy bow, chilli salted bean curd, tea quail egg
• tarago shadows of blue mousse, brioche wafer, quince tarragon beetroot salad
• five spiced lentils, asparagus, goats cheese, candied pecans

fish

• pambula rock oysters,
• mojito sorbet scallop, confit fennel, orange, pistachio,
•  rocket sesame crusted tuna, sake sticky rice, wasabi soy jelly, pickled ginger
• salt and pepper prawns, heirloom tomato, coriander, red nam jim

 meat

•  szechuan pork belly, bok choy, rice noodle, blackberry sauce
•   native pepper kangaroo, fried enoki mushroom, shimeji, macadamia
• cinnamon smoked duck breast, roast pear, watercress, radish, almonds chef's whim



• dessert
•  
• ginger poached pear, nashi, amaretto grapes, grape granita
•  wattle seed dark chocolate ganache tart, blue cheese ice cream, hazelnut toffee
• peanut butter mousse, nougat ice cream, chocolate praline wafer, caramel sauce vanilla marshmallow, lavender crumble, rosewater, black cumin ice cream

Hoang Hau 9 May

lonely crab rice paper rolls

Duck sang chow bow, delish

eggplant tofu, nice

Absolutely yummy duck

Fish with basil chilli sauce

home style pork spare ribs

Duck and paw paw salad

Dessert menu

WINE:
Jamieson Estate, 2010 Chardonay
Bridges Westend 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon

The last time we went to the Hoang Hau was nearly two years ago, the night of the coup against Kevin Rudd.  At the table next to us, lots of Labor politicians (Bill Shorten et al) working the phones, jumping up and down, displaying what we thought was normal wanker politician behaviour.  Little did we know (until we got to our respective homes that night) that something big was happening, and we missed it all.
So we thought we would return, not just to see if another coup was going to happen, but also because we liked the food.

We started with the Deep Fried Rice paper rolls with crabmeat, which sounded really nice, but really disappointing.  They came looking very small and lonely on a bed of lettuce with some Vietnamese mint.  They really needed the mint, as by themselves they were quite bland and didn't taste like crab.  Ron would have liked them 4 times the size.

We had ordered the 3 course Duck, which they had advertised on their board outside.  The first of this was the duck sang chow bow.  The general view was that this was "very nice", Andrew said it was "saucy".  The duck was stir fried with pine nuts, spring onions, waterchestnuts, and the stock that Andrew thought was saucy.  Karen said it was a waste of duck but I didn't think so.

Baby barramundi crispy served with basil chilli sauce.  It was a bit dry and rubbery, Karen (recently returned  from Kangaroo Island) thought the fish could have been fresher.  Not really memorable.

Chilli Eggplant and beancurd hotpot was voted as a bit ordinary, but we basically got what we ordered.  I liked it

Authentic Vietnamese home style pork spare ribs.  Beautifully slow cooked, "just melt in mouth" with a lovely sauce.  It got Jim's vote.

The second course of the 3 course duck was a chilli duck, double cooked like Shantung Chicken.  It was shredded, fried crispy on a bed of cabbage.  Questions were asked as to what it was exactly (it was not on the written menu) and the best answer we got was that it was "duck with star anise".  This was the dish we all fought over.

The last dish was the duck salad with paw paw.  We were a bit over it all then, so that was consumed without much comment.

BUT, the desserts pretty amazing (see menu).  Ron's favourite pancakes were delish, the rice balls in sesame and peanuts likewise.

Portia's Place, Kingston Wednesday 4 April 2012

Debal chicken and singapore prawns

eggplant stuffed with prawns

Ron's banana spring rolls

deep fried icecream

Wine:

Taplow Maze Central Ranges SSB
Henschke Kyneton Euphonium 2008 Barossa


Portia's has always been one of our favourites for a long time, good place to go pollie watching on a Wednesday night if parliament is sitting.  We were aware that Portia had sold it a little while ago and wanted to see if much had changed.
Andrew is still away on holidays from whatever and Jim couldn't come because Daniel had something on at school.  In Jim's absence, we had to settle for a red that was not from the 1990's.

Portia's Place?  Hasn't changed much from its previous incarnation, menu pretty much the same, service brilliant, quick, main difference is that Portia is no longer there.

We had our usual entree, Crispy fried duck with pancakes and as usual very nice, tasty, reliable, enjoyed by all.

We wanted to try the Rock Salted soft shell crab because we were disappointed with this dish at the Four Rivers and Ron wanted us to see what it was really like. Well, it was definitely better, but not as nice as Ron's favourite.  It was not as oily as 4 Rivers, and John found it too spicy hot, a bit overwhelming.

We decided on three mains since there was only 4 of us.  Singapore Chilli King Prawns was nice, Karen really liked it, the coating stopped it from being ordinary.

The stuffed eggplant with prawns was just beautiful, stirfried with other vegetables, very satisfying.

But the Debal Chicken was not impressive.  It is normally spicy, rich a cacophany of spices, but this was bland. It was supposed to have lime and shallots, but none of this came through until right at the bottom of the dish.

John enjoyed the meal, but  a bit too spicy for him, Ron also thought there was too much chilli (how can you have too much chilli?).  His banana spring rolls were fabulous though.  My deep fried icecream was yum too, but like all deep fried icecream out of some packet somewhere.

Malamay Wednesday 21st March, Barton

Smoked Trout

Prawns and noodles

Ox tongue

Smoked Chicken

Spare ribs

Dark tomato

Wagyu Beef

gelato

Wine

Mc Guigan Black Label Chardonay 2010

Ninth Island 2006 Pinot Noir

(We did try the R L Buller and Son Limited release 1991 Mondeuse Shiraz but it was off)

We love trying new Asian restaurants, especially ones that are a bit different.  Malamay is part of the Chairman and Yip chain of restaurants, which has offer fabulous fusion food, this one being modern szechuan flavours.  It's in the new Barton area, located within the Burbury Hotel, which itself is a bit hard to find.  Malamay is down the side road and even harder to track down, it took a few phone calls to locate it.

There was only four of us that night, Karen had to stay behind to mind the kids and Andrew was doing something else important, we think.

Inside, it's reminiscent of the Lantern Room, quite dark, subdued, tables well placed with semi partitions throughout.  The menu is strictly degustation, choice of three.  We didn't mind because we always go for the degustation.  It seems to be demanded of all modern upmarket restaurants, that the menu is very wordy with elaborate descriptions, often shedding no light on what we actually get served.  As was the case here.

• Floss of House smoked trout and Dried Scallop Chilli & quick fry milk. Delicate flavour of the trout a little overpowered by the dried scallop with some traces of chilli. The quick fry milk was quite bland.  A good starter.
• 3 Chillied relish and Bonito marinated prawns on hand made noodles: The chillis were presented 3 different ways, dry, fresh and pickled: the noodles had a beautiful texture,  It was a combination of sweet and sour, fabulous dish with the chilli concentrated on the last few bites.
• Skewered ox tongue with slow cooked peppered Kumato. Cubes of ox-tongue with japanese chilli powder and what seemed like a roasted tomato (probably the kumato) on a skewer. The texture and flavour of the ox tongue was "just something" according to Ron, very tender and meaty, with the sprinkles of chilli just to set it off. Ron said it needed a "big" wine to go with it.
• Warm Smoked Spring Chicken, slow cooked & soaked in peppered wine. A small leg of chicken, tender, crispy skin, delicate flavours, and little bit plain but enhanced by the carrots, which were thinly sliced and honey/sweet. Jim didn't think the meat needed anything.  The carrots we found out, were done with szechuan oil, black vinegar and mustard oil
• Dark tomato with slow cooked King Mushroom.  Again, Japanese chilli powder was used.  This was a cold dish, simple presentation with the tomato and a wedge of mushroom, touch of chilli with the chilli powder tasting almost like wasabi.
• Braised Spare Ribs with Preserved Plums in Caramelized Black Vinegar. The smell was great, presented in small pieces with deep fried sweet potatoes on top.  Surpassed all expectations (according to the blokes) a hint of 5 spice, a sweetness on the outside almost like honey but probably the caramelized black vinegar. To be eaten with the fingers, hence the finger bowl.
• Sous vide Wagyu Beek flank with Flower Peppered Water.  Bit crispy, yum,  The sauce was thin, spicy.  It came with risotto, water cress and spoons to eat it with. Not as spectacular as the pork, but the meat was very nice, spicy and good contrast to the risotto.  Included the use of chilli bean paste (my current favourite).
• Gelato.  What can I say about gelato, it was nice, ordinary, a bit tart.  Maybe all we could eat after gutsing ourselves on the previous seven courses.  But Ron did like the raspberry one, said it was amazing, staggering, pure raspberry flavour.  Oh well.

Not cheap at $88 per person, but there is a 5 course and vegetarian for less.  Did we enjoy, yes yes yes, will we go back, definitely, the next time we want to treat ourselves!!!

Four Rivers, Dickson, Wednesday 7 March 2012

Cumin Lamd

Ma Po bean curd

salt and peper squid

seafood combination

salt and pepper soft shell crab

Sichuan Eggplant

Wine: Tomich 2011 Pinot Gris Adelaide Hills
Jelka of Blewitt Springs
Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon McLarenVale 2006: which was Oh yum, spectacular.

If we decide to travel to the "other side" (ie of the lake to Dickson) we have to be sure that we are going to enjoy the food, and having been to 4 Rivers before, we knew that we would not be disappointed. The food is "our kind of food" a bit different, spicy, a great variety of dishes, lots of flavour and ingredients.
We decided not to have an entree, they were a bit plain and ordinary run of the mill chinese entrees.  Instead we concentrated on the mains.
The Cumin lamb was, as always, divine, great taste of cumin throughout, my favourite.
The Sichuan Eggplant had a rich chili sauce with it, was beautiful, almost perfect.
Ma po bean curd, without the minced pork which some restaurants add,  had a nice kick to it, quite hot and the tofu was properly silken.
We hadn't ordered the squid (it was brought out instead of the crab) but we decided to have it anyway. Deep fried portions with fancy carrot peelings, liked by everyone.
Combination seafood, another mistake, but this time made by us.  It was very plain looking, traditional ordinary sauce, quite bland.  Basically seafood and vegetables in a fairly tasteless sauce.
The beef hotpot, another highlight.  It was really like a soup, very spicy chili hot, the meat was very tender, very tasty and flavoursome, good winter fare.
The soft shell crab was recommended by Ron, he had had it at other restaurants and really liked it.  This one was not so good, maybe because it came out last and we were full, maybe because it was just one fried dish too many. It was basically crab dominated by the batter, a bit too rich and not much other flavour.

All in all, perfect food for our group.