Orana

I've hyped up this restaurant amongst my friends, mostly because I have an incredibly well connected barista. On top of that, I managed to stalk Heston Blumenthal as I'd been given a heads up that he was visiting, as well as having read an article by Terry Durack from his visit. All the big names! How could I not go? So I went!

I did some research before going, and discovered that the staff had previously worked at Magill Estate (which I was totally unaware of, having been an ignorant Sydney-sider who only pined for Quay and Rockpool), which apparently is an amazing restaurant. Much like Attica, the head chef forages, and the cuisine is indigenous Australian - and not witchetty grubs, mind you - but rather encompassing all of Australia's history including the present, so there was some tasty beef and my favourite succulents.

Being only 3 weeks old and a tiny place to start off with (25 seats), it was interesting to talk to the staff, and that they were learning  as well, especially since they created a per-dish juice pairing (unlike Momofuku, which paired every second dish or thereabouts). So I would say this was even a new juice pairing concept!

Now that's enough rambling and onto pretty pictures.

They have amazing, super expensive decor. Those decanters! Riedel black ties, I would love some! And they have them in all different colours and designs. Now I feel the need to get gorgeous glassware.

House cured prosciutto, wild garlic

Half-cooked Spencer Gulf prawns, dill oil

Fried saltbush

Puffed beef tendons

Pearl meat

Slow roasted beetroot, goat curd

Urchin roe, mustard snow

Taro grilled with beef fat

Beef short rib, grass puree

... And they were ALL just the pre-dinner snacks. Wow. The prosciutto and garlic was really nice and the garlic wasn't overpowering. The prawns were great with the dill oil. Puffed beef tendons??? They were on the menu of Street_ADL but I had never had the chance to try them, plus I had no concept of what they might be like. They were amazing! Salty crunchy puffed tasty things! Much like prawn crackers, they were perfectly forever-snackable snacks. I would choose these over the pork crackling any day! The pearl meat was described as having a texture in between that of a scallop and an abalone, which was accurate. With enough resistance that it was fun to eat, but not tough at all. The beetroot was roasted in an underground oven for 36 hours if I recall correctly, and had an amazing look, almost like tree bark. It was so sweet and tender, and beetroot is always a winner with goat curd. The urchin roe was also nice, and the mustard had just that hint of heat to go with it. Thin sheets of taro tasted like beef which was kind of cool. And the beef short rib, super tender, fall apart meat with a grass puree. It was all delicious! Like all the recent degustations I've had, all of the above was served without cutlery for a hands on experience.

Also, for bread, we received sourdough with goat butter. The first unconventional butter I've had, it was superb, and I may have said, very lamely, "I can't believe it's not butter!" Well, it IS butter, just not the cow's milk kind. And it was sooooo good!

Celebration of peas

This was so pretty, my camera didn't do any justice. The flowers were a rich, deep purplish-pink, and there were many types of peas in the mix. It was paired with a green apple, celery, lemon and pea tendril juice which went quite well with it. I love peas, and I love pretty, so this was win-win.

Scallops and succulents

Scallops. Need I say more? Okay, succulents. Their proper name has "ice" in it, but my memory is obscured by the fact that I call these "starburst succulents" because they burst with tart, salty goodness! I absolutely love these plants. The scallops were perfect, and made even more so by the fact the sauce was made from smoked scallop skirt - which smelled and tasted like bacon! The juice pairing here was pear and lemon.

Coorong mulloway, wild cherries, parsley oil

What a pretty dish! Visually this reminds me a lot of Quay's marron and grapefruit dish, but vastly different flavour-wise. We were advised that the wild cherries taste nothing like cherries, which was true! Perhaps it's just my weird tastebuds, but I thought the whole thing together tasted like lychee - however all the flavours were very mild in this dish, and the juice pairing of cranberry, riberry and raspberry were required to give the dish the acidity I usually associate with raw fish.

Confit kangaroo, wild vegetables

This kangaroo was amazing. Confit and pan seared, it was so tender and delicious, especially when had with the mountain bush pepper sauce. So good! This is the best kangaroo dish I've had. I'm not a kangaroo connoisseur, but I do sometimes cook it at home - and this was so much better than what happens to my kangaroo fillets. I believe the vegetables mostly consisted of weeds - but when I say weeds, I think of Billy Kwong's fried weeds dish, which is a great use of... grass just growing. The only one I remember was thistle, but it was tasty! The juice pairing with this was beetroot, blueberry and native currant - the currant was meant to be high in tannins, however I believe there could have been a bit more as it tasted a little too sweet for the kangaroo - I would have preferred something a little more tart and astringent.

Marron

I'm telling you these little tasty morsels look like attack creatures! Which makes them utterly adorable and even more super tasty than they already are, not that it makes any sense. This was the first marron in a long while that wasn't totally drenched in butter (the butter is good!), but rather very light in flavour with a sprinkle of a native leaf that has the taste of kaffir lime leaf - which was very pleasant, especially as it matched the citrus from the juice pairing - nashi pear, lemon, lime. The pear was a great component and worked well. The sommelier mentioned he'd been trying to come up with a buttery taste in a juice, at which point I thought about banana, avocado, custard apple... but not being an expert I had no idea. So I'll keep thinking about it without success.

South devon beef, mashed potato, karkalla

Hey look, I remembered a succulent name! Only because I see them at Central Markets every time I visit. This is of course, steak and potato and it was so good! That beef was amazing and tender, and that was some seriously buttery mashed potato - the best kind! I've really got a soft spot for succulents now and love the flavours that burst out of it. This was also a far better juice match compared to the kangaroo dish. This was mostly unfermented shiraz juice, and I can't remember the rest. I really do need to improve my memory.

Gin sorbet, riberries, tea

Gin and tonic, and tea. Reminds me of Hendricks gin with the free teacup, actually. The gin sorbet was sweet and had a great gin flavour to it, and worked with the riberries. The tea was a traditional Aboriginal tea that was calming, and I loved how that offset the punchy flavours in the bowl. A really nice, unique dessert - a much better use of gin than in the textures of watermelon at Cecconi's Cantina. Sadly, I don't remember if this had a juice pairing or not because I'm that terrible.

Buttermilk panna cotta, strawberry

This was a really interesting dish as it was "strawberries and panna cotta" - the green oil was actually leaves from a tree that smells and tastes like strawberry!  The oil gave that extra mouthfeel to the dish, and again was paired with mainly shiraz juice.

Now, I'm the most terrible person ever because on the very last dish of Red currants, coconut ice cream, fresh coconut, coconut ash, I had totally forgotten to take a picture! The red currants were presented as puree with a few whole currants, some shredded coconut and a super creamy coconut ice cream. The red currants were soooo astringent it was impossible to have it on its own, but combined with the coconut ice cream it was quite nice. The juice pairing was watermelon and coconut, which was an odd combination, but I think it worked as the watermelon also countered the red currants.

Overall, a very unique take on some dishes (like the scallops) and taking a break from buttered marron made this experience memorable and more importantly, left me with very little comparison points with other degustations I've had - which is a good thing! It means it's a restaurant with no equal! My favourite dishes were the scallops, kangaroo, and gin sorbet. And the marron. The best bit about the visit was the fact that they were new, with enough money and a food buddy (now I need to not go anywhere or buy anything for the rest of my life) I can go back and see what it's like in 6 months, a year's time as part of their journey. I heard as they were talking to other diners that they planned to open up similar bars (referring to Street_ADL) in the other capitals, such as Street_MEL and Street_SYD - if that happens I'd be so happy because their food is seriously good.

Plus, they've apparently got a machine that makes liquids colourless - wouldn't that be amazing! Clear everything! If it works out they'll start experimenting with it in the new year, so that'd definitely be something to see.

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

Street_ADL!

So life is a lot like an RPG where talking to townspeoeple/shopkeeper gets you rep and unlocks information to get you to new areas lol!

So I got an early heads up about a restaurant that was opening, and managed to visit on day 2 of their soft launch. Apparently called Street_ADL, it's a wine bar that will have an indigenous Australian degustation restaurant, which I'm really looking forward to as when I hear "indigenous Australian" I think kakadu plum, quandong, saltbush, bush tomato, and Billy Kwong. The chef of the restaurant is also apparently renowned for working in famous restaurants, but I fail and don't actually recall the names.

As only the bar was open and the restaurant still in progress, I decided to check it out. I've been liking grenache recently, but I still fail and only managed to drink half a glass (I had more planned for later!) and decided to check out the bar food. First thing I spotted was pork crackling, oh yes! Perfectly salted with some sort of pate-like dip.

These were port ribs that were braised, fried, then had some spicy sauce. Everything came out in paper boxes, and it was all wooden cutlery. The whole recycling focus reminded me a lot of Greenhouse by Joost when it was a popup restaurant in Sydney. I was surprised there were only 4 ribs, but for $18.90 it was expected from this type of restaurant - I had a preconception that it was going to be like Pancakes at the Rocks where it would be a whole rack, but I should have anticipated super fancy stuff.

HOW DOES ONE EAT A FLOWER COVERED STEAK WITH WOODEN FORK AND KNIFE??? By having genius chefs pre-cut the steak, of course! This was super pretty, though I did have a giggle that there was such a concept as eating steak with wooden utensils. It was tasty though! It was on a bed of salt bush and I'm sure one of the flowers ended up tasting like wasabi.

There was a dessert that was the chocolate fudge sundae, but wasn't super pretty so I didn't take a picture - and it came in a take away coffee cup! The texture of the ice cream was like a soft serve/mousse, but it was super dark chocolate with a nice richness to it, so I was happy. There was also a hint of salted caramel, with chocolate sauce and macadamia. It was a little too much, however, I was feeling brave and clueless when I asked about the whisky. For some reason drinking whisky was a really enticing idea. Due to an in-joke, I have previously chosen Talisker (turns out 25yo is hard to find so I had to settle for 10). This place was still waiting to complete its drinks collection, so I asked about one from Islay (cause it sounded the closest to Isle of Skye), but it was an 8yo and I wanted something awesome, so I chose a Macallan 18yo instead - and it was a great choice! I don't have a refined enough palate to understand what I was drinking, but it was amazing - tasted really good and had a honey quality, which made my sundae taste super nice, as if it was toffee-nougat.

All in all a great preview of what the restaurant has in store.

CAN'T WAIT. WHAT SOUFFLE???

GINger cured salmon???

For a while now, I've wanted to see if I could ever make a vodka ceviche, because it sounds like fun. I may not be able to consume copious amounts of alcohol, but that doesn't stop me from cooking with it! Or in the case of a ceviche, not even cooking it!Me being me, recipes are just guidelines. I take one look, then do whatever I feel like. Which can have disastrous consequences.In any case, I tossed together some really random things and decided to go with gin cured salmon.Salt, sugar, basil, pepper, gin, lemon juice and a tiny dash of ginger (just so I could write GINger).

This was me tossing everything into a container. I took no note of how much salt and sugar was in here, and I assumed I had to have enough liquid to cover my fillet. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to the recipe I consulted...

The lemon juice meant that the outside went all "cooked" and I had also conveniently not researched the maximum recommended cure time. Mine was left there for about 18 hours.

By the end of it, it had the right texture and looked amazing when I cut it. Too bad the outside tastes bitter - or maybe I am simply not well versed in spirits and that it's actually supposedly peppery. I think I broke it during the curing process, and I definitely needed more salt and sugar, so I will do that for next time - orange vodka ocean trout!