Tora Sushi
Over the past few years, I've really only been visiting the same places over again. Same cafes, on rotation.
I decided it was high time I branch out and try a few new things, and so far, my food and coffee discoveries have been great!
Then I noticed Tora Sushi had opened, a place with signage I had noticed while visiting Abacus coffee, but not open yet, until I read about it again in the news a couple of weeks ago. I am fairly certain that this is the first omakase sushi restaurant in Perth (Nobu notwithstanding?), and it feels very much like the omakase boom vibe that Sydney has right now. Which actually made me a little nervous - is omakase so ubiquitous these days, is it even an "experience" to chase anymore?
The price point was also "low" at $150 per person for food. I think these days the cost of an omakase sits roughly at the $250 mark on the east coast for some really high quality and luxurious ingredients. I don't think $150 is bad, but I was curious about how the menu would be constructed based on the price. It was also supposedly booked out for 2 months straight, but in a moment of serendipity I managed to find an empty spot one day while randomly checking their website, so here we go!
I booked at 6PM timeslot, and still carrying some shame from being (unavoidably) late to my Minamishima booking all those years ago (because of a tram breakdown), I made an effort to be slightly early. If I remember correctly, at Minamishima, they track each diner separately so each person starts as soon as they arrive, but at Waku Ghin it may have been a synchronised start. Alas, one of the guests was running super late! The staff were pretty confident we would still be able to complete the meal even though we would be starting 15-20 minutes late.
Here's the first dish - Coffin Bay oyster with kombu and finger lime. During the introduction, the staff explained that for now, they were showcasing a wide range of dishes, and would fine tune them as the seasons changed. That was good, I like getting an idea of a restaurant's culinary range!
Hokkaido scallops with jerusalem artichoke chips! Ah I don't miss the days of attempting to make my own chips! I love the crispness of the chips against the softness of the scallops!
Yes, it's chawan mushi time! I love any restaurant that features a chawan mushi, and this one tasted great! Great texture too. I think it was a clam broth chawan mushi, but what was interesting about it was that inside was a piece of chicken. I was totally used to and expecting prawn, crab, or other type of seafood, so seeing the chicken was unexpected. It still tasted good, but I was starting to see where the $150 price tag comes from!
Before serving the sashimi course, the chef showed the tray of fresh fish fillets to everyone. I didn't take a photo of it and I wondered almost immediately if the chef was expecting me to take a picture, which may have been why he displayed it? I almost felt bad, but then the people next to me did take pictures. Sorry, it's just that I've taken so many photos of sushi and fish that I guess I wanted to try and not be too intrusive. I've even mostly streamlined my camera plus phone snaps to take as little time as possible.
Anyway, this was really yummy! Tuna, kingfish, and goldband snapper. I love white fish where I can actually feel the sinew (am I weird for that?), so the snapper was actually my favourite bit! I love that chew! I also ate the seaweed garnish because it's so hard to get that kind of seaweed!
Here's something interesting - the wasabi, I discovered, was not hot at all! I could pile it on and not get any kind of burn or nose fuzz. I didn't really think much of it, except that I did want some of that burn that never came.
Here we go with some nigiri! They space out the nigiri throughout the meal, which was quite interesting! The selection was small and simple, and definitely from local fish - again, reflective of the price point. Red emperor, and tuna.
The chef made a special mention that this tuna was aged for two days, which was interesting to note! It was definitely much more tender than the sashimi version.
Here I learned more about why the wasabi didn't pack the punch I expected! The nigiri was made without a dab of wasabi under the fish. Instead, the chef asked if I wanted wasabi on top of the fish. Turns out, he himself doesn't like the spiciness from wasabi so he checks in with everyone and adds accordingly!
Look at this cute little teapot! This was a lovely warming soup, and the format here actually resembles what I had at Komeyui! I really love soup "intermissions" though I guess these are actually so good that I shouldn't really call them intermissions. It was a bit awkward to dig out the food inside the teapot so I asked before I did it, but apparently that's the intention!
Wagyu nigiri time! This time with a yuzu kosho topping.
Yakimono time! This was actually unexpected for me - grilled rankin cod with maple miso. When I first saw it, I thought, it must be some kind of miso toothfish dish, cause that's what everyone does. The rankin cod comes in significantly cheaper, but I reckon it was a very good choice, I really enjoyed the texture of the cod, and the sweetness from the maple made it quite unique too! Now I want to try making my own maple miso foods!
Ah yes the big wagyu beef dish! I'm sorry - when I was eating this I was reminiscing about the steak I had at Chaco Bar instead of this. Komeyui's beef dish was also a standout that stopped me from fully appreciating this dish. Nothing on Tora, it's just, I've been extremely spoilt with beef. I was even giggling on the inside at myself because I was the only person who ate the beef first and then moved onto the lotus chips and salad - everyone else left the beef for last. Pyschologically, they valued the beef more so saved it, where as I ate it first? My own mind is fascinating.
The end of a meal usually ends with a tamogoyaki or a temaki, here it's temaki! A great combo of tuna, uni, and ikura!
And of course, dessert. This two toned matcha panna cotta was really cute! And I'm so glad they added mochi balls because I love mochi!
Overall this place satisfies my omakase cravings, so any time I want to eat Japanese art, I have a place now instead of always pining for my next Sydney trip and how to get into Sokyo. It's close, and it's relatively affordable. I am definitely keen to go back and see how the menu changes over the seasons!
Dier Makr
Dier Makr. What a funny name. I didn't even know of its existence even though it's a one hatted restaurant in Hobart. I had my eye on so many other restaurants and had already got my reservations and lists together, when one of my baristas told me I had to go here.I usually don't actually do something unless more than one person says the same thing except on rare occasion, and this time I thought, why not. These guys have good taste so I'll try it out! And that resulted in me reshuffling Franklin from dinner to lunch to accommodate for this place.
I only did a very small amount of research for this, just enough to check if it was a nice restaurant or not (I still didn't realise it was hatted), and what intrigued me the most was the menu. I like succint menus and prefer ones with the main ingredients and processes described, so this very "simple" sounding menu wasn't enough to trigger my imagination since I wasn't used to the style. But the reviews were all good, so I left it at that. Let's give it a go!
This place is fairly small (20 seats?) and has really cute decor. Two things I noticed were one: those wine glasses had really nice stems. Super thin, I don't think as thin as Zaltos, but they got close. I really liked the stems! How do I know this? Because this is a hipster restaurant, so I went and ordered an orange wine. But because wine glasses are tall, and because I still don't know how to take photos, I didn't get a good shot.And two, if you choose the tap water, it comes in a fish shaped jug. But not just that, it's a glurgle jug! Basically, it gluggs a little bit before the pour, then it goes, glug glug glug if there's enough water to go back down after the pour! The way I described it probably makes no sense; it's basically a jug that makes noises as water is poured. Maybe google it.
Beet that root
First up, the beetroot dish. What cute little morsels! This was eaten with hands, and it was a slice of what appeared to be raw pickled beetroot and curd on the inside. A failsafe tasty thing!
Lettuce, oyster
Oh, this was cool. I've never seen this before. Half a lettuce with oyster and oyster cream, and crunchy bits. See, I thought maybe we would get just raw oysters and something interesting with the lettuce, but it was actually the other way around! Having the oysters lightly grilled was really nice, and they were really good oysters! My friend doesn't eat oysters so I had more piled on top of my plate, so I was happy.I actually really liked that the descriptions of each dish were listed as they are, because now I realised that I had no idea what to expect! This is a new adventure!
Beef
On the menu, it did describe the beef as raw I guess. I would have thought they'd just put beef. Maybe because raw beef freaks some people out if they don't know beforehand? It didn't matter to me, and this was really, really good. Again, really flavoursome beef. It must be the Cape Grim stuff because the cows from there are just so tasty! It was lined with sour cream and topped with sansho leaf, I think. Really good stuff!
Uh, apple
Isn't this so cute! These were tiny and adorable. Apple roses that were bound in "apple leather" (like rollups?), and apple puree inside. This didn't just taste like apple though. There were varying textures and acidity levels within these bite sized treats, so it felt like I was tasting all parts of the apple, but separately! A simple looking, but complex palate cleanser.
Really wide beans
When the waiter gave us this dish, she said that the chef described this as "peas and friends" - how cute! I seem to really love vegetable dishes now. I can't remember exactly when it all changed, but the headlines that Yellow made was probably a good starting point. Anyway, broad beans! Yay! And peas! The creaminess of that burrata too. I think it was burrata. It was super creamy, and tasted like the inside of a burrata. Oh yeah. Also, my friend was convinced that the crunchy bits were fried chicken skin, but I thought that this might be a vegetarian dish. Turns out she was right, the waiter confirmed that it was indeed chicken!
Fushies
I'll admit, I have no idea because I didn't ask what "blue eye' was. I assumed it was cod, but what if there's a different fish that also has blue eye in its name??? So I will always have to describe this as just "blue eye" as a result. Sigh. I really should do better next time. Self chiding aside, this fish was really tasty! And what made it tastier was the pil pil sauce! That stuff was really addictive! The fried celeriac on the side was nice too, but I don't really like celeriac much so I was kind of wishing it wasn't there, even though it's the tastiest celeriac I've tried.
I scream
And dessert is served. Fig leaf ice cream with peach and macadamia. That's a cool biscuity thing on top, though it hid the rest of the dish. There was a lovely fig gel surprise underneath the ice cream that I totally loved! Again, because it was described as fig leaf, I didn't expect it to be the ice cream component of the dish. I love it when I guess wrongly!It was a very quick, short and light dinner. I love that there were some really unexpected combinations (that lettuce and oyster dish was brain-bending!!!) along with classics (beetroot, beef). It was a really reasonably priced restaurant, but I felt like there maybe wasn't enough food. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't hungry after it, but I did think that I could eat a lot more, and the Vue de Monde joke of walking out and eating a burger seriously crossed my mind (but a small tasty burger, I couldn't have eaten a large tasty burger). I couldn't be exactly sure if I was hungry or not simply because the last three days in Melbourne, I'd been absolutely stuffing myself to the brim so I was worried about my metabolism being in overdrive too. Luckily, I didn't actually get hungry and I didn't wake up particularly hungrier than usual the next day, so the serving size here was fine. It was just me being panicky, especially in contrast to Tipo 00's $69 chef's menu where I actually didn't finish one of the dishes.Overall it's a great place and super causal, but, a little too hipster for me, if such a thing is possible. I'd need to come here with someone classier and more hipster than me to be able to feel at home here. The food and the people were great though, so nothing to fault there. The waiter was super friendly and when I told her why I'd chosen this restaurant, she guessed correctly which barista recommended the place! So yeah, very nice, surprising dishes, but I felt a little out of place.Also, you definitely have to look at the receipt here. Why? Because the chefs receive the order names slightly differently than what's on the board, and it's a fun read :)
Wildflower Perth
I was very excited when I heard that Wildflower was opening because it seemed like my kind of restaurant. However, I ended up putting off visiting, mainly because I am constantly trying to save money these days, plus my recent Sydney adventure took priority.Of course, me being me, decided to spontaneously book a table one day.
It's quite a nice place with that lovely gum tree wallpaper/painting, and looks out towards Swan River (though the lightining meant that I couldn't get a shot that didn't look horrid) with the Bell Tower in view.
They didn't have a large non alcoholic selection, and they offered a sweet or sour mocktail. Most places seem to offer the sweet/sour flavours, though I was told I could order any flavour I wanted. I was so tempted to be silly and ask for an umami cocktail, but thought that'd be just a tad too silly. Instead I went sour, and got this lovely drink.I chose their five course degustation, which started with a selection of snacks.
Beetroot marshmallow wrapped in beetroot. Quite delicious and light!
Prawn cracker with ceviche, finger lime and other condiments. This was so tasty, but that's also because you can never go wrong with prawn crackers.The macaron thing at the back was a chicken liver macaron with cherry, however that wasn't particularly standout for me.
Bread was served pretty early on, with hand churned butter with shaved macadamia. That butter was so good!
The first course - raw Shark Bay saucer scallops with native basil and dashi cream, fennel fronds, apple and horseradish granita. I love scallops. These ones were incredibly sweet and had a lovely texture! I found that the granita was a tad too cold, but hey, it is granita. I tried to be smart here when I noticed that there were little light balls above the apple jelly layer, and so I asked one of the chefs if it was puffed amaranth. He replied saying it wasn't - instead it was some Japanese seaweed and rice sprinkle. I felt that it was a little bit of cheating to achieve umami addictiveness, but it was so tasty that I didn't really mind. Yet.
This one was an extra course that wasn't listed on the menu. It was a beetroot and goat cheese dish, a classic. It reminded me a little of the textures of beetroot dish from my second visit to Celcius in Adelaide (which I never posted). Basically, it was a whole lot of beetroot and goat cheese. It's great, but a really boring combination for me. There was salt baked beetroot which was delicious, pickled beetroot and fresh beetroot accompanied with raspberries and goat cheese foam.
Marron! Yay marron. But it looks a little odd, right? As soon as this dish was presented to me, I noticed something lacking... the weird sticky out bits towards the head, like the one from Orana. However, I was pleased when I saw where the rest of the marron was - the sticky out bits were actually under the saltbush pile! There was also some lemon myrtle jam which was absolutely delicious. The marron by itself was very plain, but went well with the brown butter. Far from my favourite marron dish though (Noma wins this right now).
Up next was kangaroo with blueberries. Smoked kangaroo, blueberry, bitter chocolate, onion, seaweed. That smoked kangaroo was amazing, but it was wrapped in a seaweed crust that tasted a bit too similar to the one used in the scallop dish. It's weird, usually I happily accept seaweed since I love it so much, but here it felt a little bit like cheating since it automatically makes the food taste so much better? At least Automata made a very different seaweed dish from what I was used to. The blueberry sauce was great, but the blueberry sago-like stuff seemed unnecessary? There was too much chocolate and forcing myself to accompany it with the kangaroo only got me halfway through the quenelle.
Arkady lamb - with warrigal greens, black sesame, sheep's yoghurt, dried olive. Now this one was tasty! That lamb was full of flavour, and the greens here tasted great too. I always love dried olive as the flavour of it is just amazing. So much more cohesive than the kangaroo dish!
Bahen & Co chocolate mousse, baked banana sorbet, milk chocolate tuile, wattleseed. A really nice mousse log, though I was getting full at this stage. I believe the mousse was either super dark or had some alcohol in it, because it wasn't a chocolatey chocolate mousse. That banana ice cream was delicious with such a real banana flavour. Wattleseed made an appearance here with its crunchy coffeeness.
And some petit fours. Look at that mini canele! Plus a cakey thing and a chocolate. Quite a nice end to the meal.I feel like I've been spoilt with the amount of amazing food I've had recently, and so this was an average restaurant for me. Perhaps it was just my timing, however the waitstaff were explaining to some customers that people tend to be hesitant in consuming kangaroo. There was also a couple that got full and couldn't finish their food (though I don't think they opted for the degustation), and the waitstaff were commenting on how they were impressed that I could finish all that food. Actually, now that I think about it, there have been a few restaurants (such as Hartsyard) where my fellow diners and I have been "complimented" on our ability to eat a lot of food.... Anyway, it just seemed like they don't get a lot of foodies and were catering more for wealthy people who wanted a meal (considering how classy Como the Treasury is).I should stop fine dining for a while, my budget requires recovery time. Plus I have more Sydney adventures planned already!
Vue de Monde
I didn't know too much about Melbourne (and still don't know as much as I'd like) so trying to figure out which restaurant to book was a little tricky. The only place I had really wanted to go to was Cumulus Inc/Cumulus Up, so after thinking and taking a stab in the dark, I chose Vue de Monde.It sits in the Rialto tower and gets a view of the city, though not really a pretty view or anything. What was exciting though, was this was probably the most fun and interactive degustations I've had, especially considering I had Momofuku not even two weeks prior.
These were pre-meal snacks on our "Stonehenge" table - smoked eel with white chocolate candy and caviar, salt and vinegar chips with macadamia butter, truffle marshmallows, and oysters. The table decorations were amazing as the rocks formed part of the service, and cutlery was placed on pretty pieces of wood. Apparently there is a tea pairing at this place, however we didn't realise until after we had finished. That means a re-visit is necessary!
Ox tongue, beetroot, creme fraiche
This was our first course, with confit ox tongue. It was very tender and had a saltiness that was offset by the beetroot and creme fraiche "snow".
French onion soup
Like Momofuku, the chefs bring out the food for you - but this time there was a syphon! All my coffee related dreams have come true and now I have more reasons to buy a syphon! This was a french onion consomme that was heated to bring the liquid to the top chamber to infuse with the dry/who ingredients, before being poured onto the following:
Which was cheese two ways, picked onion, onion rings, grilled onion, macadamia gel, and croutons. When combined it was super tasty and very strong in flavour - I think I could recall the flavour for many days. I now need to make french onion soup again.
Butter poached marron, sweetbread puree, shredded lamb
It seems eating with hands is the norm now, indicated by warm hand towels presented during service. I also now cannot stop thinking that marron looks like some sort of Zerg creature ready to attack. Or a cybermat.... Marron is indeed the best shellfish ever, and every place cooks it so nicely that it's sweet, juicy and tender - it went well with the sweetbread puree, though why it was sweetbread puree puzzled me.
Eggs on toast
Soft poached duck yolk was hiding underneath the pear circles, sitting on a bed of truffle sauce, and saltbush and thin toast lined the outside. Bread was also provided at this stage, perfect for soaking up extra yolky goodness.
This was a palate cleanser, and came with our own wooden pestles. The waitstaff warned us that there was tough work to be done! So lo and behold, we received a bowl of violets and leaves, then liquid nitrogen was poured over them. I love liquid nitrogen! We then received the privilege of crushing and smashing those plants with our pestle! I was also so eager to take this shot that the wait staff may have recommended that I was supposed to take a picture of the chef and then the food. In any case, this was then topped with a cucumber sorbet.
Barramundi, lemon, potato
This was a very pretty and tasty dish. The barramundi was perfectly cooked and had a slight charcoal flavour because it was cooked in charcoal I think, I can't actually remember. The potato was delicious and in a way, this was fancy fish and chips, just as we previously had fancy eggs on toast.
Pigeon breast with jus, pear, and shaved truffle
Pigeon leg with buerre blanc
This was a two part dish, pigeon breast and pigeon leg. The waitress had asked us at the beginning if we were up for anything, including game, and we both were eager to eat everything! So we got some pigeon, which I was very happy about as I haven't had pigeon in a very long time. Both were great, but I think I enjoyed the leg more simply because it's much more satisfying to pick it up and devour it with hands.
Beef, pear, maraschino cherries
What an awesome looking dish, and what a tasty dish. Diced David Blackmoore's full blood wagyu beef with pear and maraschino cherries - and it works! When the dish first came out I thought there might be a marrow element, but alas there wasn't. That didn't make the dish in any way disappointing though - it was fantastic.
There was then another palate cleanser as we were now moving into dessert. It was a shot of mint, kale and celery juice topped with coconut cream. A punchy shot but so cleansing!
Buttermilk sorbet
Sadly, I''ve forgotten what the different sauces that surrounded the sorbet were. It was a very pretty dish; reminding me of a bird nest.
White chocolate ganache, poached rhubarb, coffee ice cream, chocolate dirt
Obviously, I remembered this dish more! It was a pleasantly light ganache, so that it wasn't heavy or overpowering, with poached rhubarb and chocolate malts. The coffee ice cream was also pretty awesome.
Chocolate souffle
LO AND BEHOLD, MY BELOVED SOUFFLE. I FINALLY GOT ONE. This was the best souffle I've had - fruit flavours just don't do it. This was fluffy chocolatey heaven with a chocolate and anglaise sauce. Oh wow. This was the perfect last dessert! Now I am spoilt for all other souffles.
Petit fours
This was the most Australian set of petit fours I've ever had. Orange jelly two up; white chocolate, olive oil, seaweed seashells; cherries and lamington; and lastly, my favourite, the eucalyptus ice cream. THAT ICE CREAM! It reminded me of my primary school days with the eucalyptus drops as it tasted exactly like them. This was the best finish to a degustation, and alas we had demolished Stonehenge. But wait, there's more! Even after all that food, we were escorted out via their wine cellar thing, which was cold and pretty, then we were presented with a morning after care package containing brioche, tea, honey and cookies. How fantastic!
Overall, I have no clue why this place doesn't rank higher than it does - what amazing food, with a great level of interaction and hands-on experience. I'm also impressed by the fact that they can do any number of courses between 5-10 to cater for everyone, and far outdoes Momofuku (considering I've just had that too!) in terms of awesomeness, though that being said, nothing beats their wagyu, watermelon, black bean and radish dish paired with red rice sake. Oh, and their marron and their ocean trout roe, potato and parson's nose.
Here, my top three out of EVERYTHING served would actually be the marron, souffle and eucalyptus ice cream.
This place is definitely worth a re-visit (in fact I need to for the tea pairing! They even have a dedicated tea sommelier!) and is my new benchmark for epic degustations. Oh, and did I mention they have the most adorable little pop-up book of cocktails? :D
As a side note, their bathroom is amazing. It was so trippy and fantastic because it was a proximity/weight activateddownward fountain tap thing that dispensed super saline water! I was so confused when I was using them as the solution was so concentrated that it felt soapy, so I had no idea how to "wash" off the soap. There was also additional soap and moisturiser, and in the end I figured that if the water was soapy feeling, it probably evaporated in the Dyson hand drier. Only then did I come across the sign that explained the hand washing system, and my hands did indeed feel normal once I'd dried them. This was an 11/10 restaurant bathroom!
Momofuku Seiōbo
I should try and visit a 3-hatted restaurant every year. It's expensive but so worth it! This time it was a visit to Momofuku and its 13 course degustation. It's the first time I've seen both "reduced" wine and juice pairings, which means I could enjoy some tailored drinks. I found their choice of music to be rather amusing, but hey, it worked if it was meant to be the essence of America... or something. Forgive me for not remembering the names and types of drinks paired with the food; I'm no master of memory... yet!
Smoked eel
Freeze-dried apple
What I also found quirky about this place was that they encouraged the use of hands with some of their dishes. The smoked eel roll was eaten with hands, and it was kind of like eel-mashed potato. I'm sure there's a name for that: the smoked fish in potato combination. It was paired with apple and celery juice, and some kind of fizzy dry alcoholic liquid.
Steamed bun
Pork belly
So this is the magical pork bun that is everywhere, which I didn't realise until afterwards when I saw the same pork bun at Ippudo (and funnily enough, my work's Christmas party). The bun was fresh and light, with just the right amount of sauce. I liked it, but found it odd to make a degustation menu. That being said, it was a pretty perfect pork bun.
Potato
Trout roe, parson's nose
This was one of my favourite dishes (the most favourite being further down) because it had all sorts of fried and tasty goodness. Confit potato, which were nice and creamy, with trout roe - I didn't expect the outside to be so tough but the inside was nice and not fishy, as I've previously found salmon roe to have a fishy taste. So the roe was really nice and the saltiness went well with the potatoes and the parson's nose. And of course who doesn't like fried fatty chicken skin! This was paired with a sweet riesling, and I believe a cucumber juice. The juice had the most amazing colour! I now want to juice cucumbers and soak them in their skin.
Crab
Chickpea, amaranth
This dish is something I compared directly with the mud crab congee from Quay as the two were similar in concept. This was a very zen looking dish, with a healthy amount of mud crab. The chickpea soup-thing was something my brother and I disagreed on; he didn't like it as it tasted like blue cheese, for me, it tasted like crab broth, but was a little too salty. So I guess we disagreed on the flavour, but agreed that it wasn't as great as it could be. The toasted amaranth was really nice as the toastiness worked well. Plus I like amaranth.
Beef
Radish, fermented black bean
I loved this one as not only was it super tasty, it was also the "surprise" dish, reminiscent again, of Quay in its unexpectedness. On the outisde, it looked just like radishes and black powder. We were told to mix this before eating as the whole thing included wagyu beef, watermelon and black bean. Watermelon you say? Yes! Watermelon! Hence it was paired with watermelon juice! It was also paired with an amazing red rice sake that tasted so good and was the absolute most bestestly perfect pairing with this dish, as it felt like I was eating this with red rice. When the beef dish was mixed together it was the most awful looking black mess but tasted so good - the watermelon added texture and was refreshing.
Cauliflower
Pickled kohl rabi, smoked yolk
What a simple cauliflower dish! Roasted cauliflower... I can do that at home, right? And there was some tasty pickled kohl rabi. I'd say this was the most homely dish (even moreso than the pork bun), except for the fact it had one amazing feature: smoked egg yolk. That's what those shavings are, and really tasty. It reminded me a lot of smoked fish roe, the kind that has the texture of the smoked yolk and is also finely sliced.
Marron
Poor man's orange curd, asparagus
This was the winning dish. HALF A MARRON. NOT ENOUGH. SO TASTY. This was a gorgeous piece of crustacea glazed with buttery goodness. It was so tender and just cooked. Oh marron how I love you! It didn't need the asparagus or the orange curd thing, but those two paired well. Did I mention the marron was amazing? If I remember correctly this was paired with a nice tangy grape juice, and some really dry chardonnay that I didn't like. THE MARRON.
Peas
Oxtail, custard
I love peas. When I saw this dish I immediately liked it for the peas. It came with oxtail and a citrus custard. I didn't particularly like the citrus flavour in this dish, but peas!
Lamb
Lettuce, violet mustard
The juice pairing provided for this dish was beetroot, and finally a red wine came out! The beetroot juice was surprisingly sweet and quite delicious, and the red was a grenache that was really nice. So of course, it was officially red meat dish time. My brother had previously mentioned that this was a very Australian themed degustation, and so when guessing what it would be, we dismissed beef, so I thought it would be venison, or kangaroo. We completely forgot about lamb! This was a delicious lamb and I was surprised that they kept all the fat on the cutlet - however it was actually nice and didn't smell like the awful lamb fat that I didn't like. The sad looking vegetable was a lettuce, and both the lamb and lettuce went very nicely with the violet mustard. I wasn't sure that I'd actually tasted the violets, but it did have a nice colour.
And I thought it looked pretty when we lined up the three red drinks - grenache at the front, grape in the middle, beetroot at the back. All the rich red colours!
Goat curd
Blackcurrant, mint oil, sourdough
It was now time for dessert, and this was the cheese dish - goat curd, blackcurrant sauce, mint oil, and sourdough crumbs. The mint oil was interesting as it didn't have the same "coolness" that fresh mint provides, but mixed in altogether it was nice and by the end of it, I felt like I was eating yoghurt. In any case, the cheese pairing called for... pear! So the juice pairing was pear and fennel, and the wine was perry.
Pear
Jerusalem artichoke, sunflower
What I noticed at this point was that the desserts were all not super sweet, instead they were a tad savoury, like this one. The sunflower seeds formed part of the paste, which I liked. A very simple dish with a chunk of caramel hiding on the inside.
Rum baba
Ron Zacapa, vanilla creme fraiche
This was an epic dessert. We were presented with shiny silver caviar dishes, and then they were opened one by one to reveal a yeast cake soaked in sugar water. Then the waitress placed an entire bottle of rum on our table, with a side of vanilla creme fraiche. AN ENTIRE BOTTLE OF RUM! There was a story to the extravagance of this dish; that it was once served to the king of Portugal (if I remember correctly) as just the sugared yeast cake and the creme fraiche - and he hated it! So he threw a bottle of rum at it and then said it was the most delicious dessert. And it was pretty tasty!
Sugar glazed pork
So that was actually the end of the degustation, except we got one last little treat - some sugar glazed slow cooked pork - to be eaten with hands. It was a nice finish to the night... and we got some kimchi samples too!
Overall it was a great experience, which differed from Tetsuya's and Quay by how interactive it was - the chefs here presented each dish in person and explained it, and the fact that three of the dishes were eaten using hands. The theatrics - just short of that of a bombe alaska - of the last dish was also a standout. The pacing of the food was also decent, though by the end of it I still wanted to eat some Messina gelato, whereas in the other two degustations I've had, I've been so full that I absolutely could not eat anymore. So this is 3 hats for both food and fun!
i lucky peach syd