Apothecary 1878
So I've been looking for a replacement for Rockpool Bar and Grill, thinking I'd never find one, but lo and behold, after strolling down a dodgy-looking part of the city on a Sunday afternoon, I ran across a little treasure-looking-like place. That's when I found out that it was a cute little wine bar that has all Victorian decor, and does high tea on Saturdays!So I did a little research on it, and apparently it won best wine list in South Australia (cause Rockpool wins for Australia!). Plus they don't advertise their list online, so I had to visit. My expectations were: giant wine list, and servings by the half glass, and was secretly hoping for varietal specific Riedels.Of course, when I got there, they do indeed have a noteworthy wine list! Plenty of quotes throughout, as well as a Provenance to read through. Except... the list was much much smaller than I expected. Maybe 20 pages? I'm sorry, but I wanted a Rockpool-thick encyclopedia! They did have a great range of 75mL "tasters", served in baby Riedels, which made me happy. Plus they were incredibly cheap at $5 - $5.50 per serving, considering at Rockpool I'm paying $16 for 75mL for their reserve stuff.And while they don't serve burgers, they do have a highly respectable bar menu much like Rockpool Bar and Grill, with excellent presentation and great range.
Goat curd, pink peppercorns and honey toast
The pink peppercorns made these little toasts super tasty, and the honey offset the goat curd nicely. They were a little expensive at $4 each, but it is goat curd, plus pink peppercorns, so yes, I will always order these! And make it myself one day.
Cured salmon with radish and white gazpacho
I can't remember exactly what the gazpacho was made of, but I was anticipating like, cured salmon in soup. But this was more like grilled salmon on sauce. It was so tasty as it was seasoned just right, and those are some amazing radishes! I want ones like that as they are very pretty.
Lamb backstrap with almonds and split pea puree
It is so hard to find lamb backstrap, and when I do, it's expensive. This was tasty and the puree was awesome mixed with the lamb!
They also have amazing prosciutto with this fennel pretzel thing, tasty olives and have a balmain/moreton bug dish - I was just too lazy to take pictures of them.
When it came to dessert, they had a few cheese options. I had a white mould cheese but it was sharper than I liked; I wanted something earthy and mushroomy. Nevertheless, I love cheese and enjoyed it.
Dark chocolate mousse with toasted coconut marshmallows, and cherries
I couldn't resist a second round of dessert and had to get their special. I loved the mousse but had a little giggle when I was taking pictures because of how the quenelles of mousse looked! I also thought that toasted coconut marshmallows would look like standard toasted coconut marshmallows, but no, these were different and snowy! I wanted more of it!
This place makes me miss Rockpool Bar and Grill so much - in fact it's the only reason I want to go back to Sydney. I want my 75mLs in full, varietal specific Riedels, not baby Riedels! While the two have a very similar classy atmospheres, Rockpool Bar and Grill is overall busier and louder, which I like. Both places have exceptional waitstaff, who remember things without writing them down and both magically refill water!
I love being asked if I want another drink; too bad a lot of cafes don't ask me this when I'm by myself. I need a sign above my head saying "ASK ME IF I WANT ANOTHER COFFEE".
So after this and Celcius, I must find more places to blog about!
... And I need to find people to drag here on a regular basis.
Living the radelaide
So work has called me to Adelaide, to like, do things and stuff, including eat, cook and explore. Oh, and actually work.But during non work hours it turns out I really don't have time to work on the story that will never end. Instead I'm constantly debating where and what to eat, which cafes to go to, and whether I can find enough food to cook up something and somehow save money.So my experiment has been living without "sugar" (have honey and agave syrup instead), making wholemeal spelt pancakes and messing with other things, such as undercooking fish :)Here are some of the things I've done. I wish I had a nice picture of some food from a cafe called A Mothers Milk - they make some amazing baked eggs mmmmmmmmm but instead all I've got is a very bad shot from the outside:
And Coffee Branch was a little espresso shop, which features a single and a house. I tried both, their single was a yirgacheffe natural, but that was so Sydney months ago! Not my normal preference, but when I had the two side by side, I preferred the single.
During my first week there Bar 9 also had a "twilight supper" where they were screening Spirited Away - it was in English but it was still awesome because I got loads of coffee and some truffled popcorn! By the time I finished work to get there, they were actually all out of the truffled stuff so they charged me a couple of dollars less, but there were still remnants of truffle oil in it!!!
When my brother came over to visit, there was also lemon curd, orange, vanilla bean mascarpone, macerated strawberries on english muffin to be had!
Also visited the Coffee Barun, who did an awesome "Barun breakfast". They had a huge variety of espresso roast beans for sale, but alas, only yirg natural for their filter so this made me sad.
And what do I order at a place called Argo Espresso? A filter, of course!
Also went to First Pour and Paddy's Lantern, but no pictures of that. First Pour is interesting because they don't really do food; just pastries. Paddy's Lantern is cute (love their logo) and the one thing that I learned was that cold brew is something different from cold drip! I tried some and realised that it was different, so then I asked them how they made it, as when I was drinking it I noticed it had that liqueur tone so it was definitely brewed via a cold water method for a long time, but they just chucked grinds in water and let it sit rather than going through a drip, which explained the colour and sediment. It's a nice easy way to make something like cold drip!
I also managed to stumble upon Nic & Rocco's dessert shop (from My Kitchen Rules) bought some macarons and tiramisu etc. They were cute and nice, but sadly, I think Zumbo and Cre-Asion are both better, and more true to the flavours that the macarons are (e.g. real strawberry instead of tasting strawberry flavoured).
And now to home cooking 101! And how I miserably fail at it. Actually, I'm probably better than I think, but at the same time nowhere near as fantastic or genius as I think. A general rule is that I only do savoury, not sweet, as sweet has too many rules and measurements. However my spelt pancakes are pretty good.
Anyway, so I finally got to try my hand at ceviche! I've always wanted to make it, and turns out the only mistake was that I chickened out and didn't buy any chilli.
My recipe was basically:
- Snapper marinated in lime juice for about 45min (cause I only had a little bit)
- Cucumber
- Heirloom tomatoes
- Coriander
- Red onion
And some salt and pepper. Here are pics! It turned out quite tasty, just needed more heat.
Don't mind the knife, it was there for something else. I used a new knife that cut the fish quite nicely!
With this being the final result:
Then I used the rest of the fillet for a hot cooked dish! I bought some seaweed and had to use it somehow!
The next night I made the leftover vegetables into a quinoa salad.
And here is a picture of Bubbles/Butters/Ruby/Harry the Eclectus Parrot my boyfriend got! She's super young and still being trained :)
MERRY CHRISTMAS