Jam Packed July
Is what I wanted to call the post, because it has a better ring to it than "Jam Packed June".HOWEVER since I have posted this before July, I should make it clear that I am not a time traveller... yet. So all this did not happen in July!!!As always, food is first. But this wasn't an exercise in cooking or eating, it's part of what I like to call "intense palate training" as for the coffee I drink, I cannot identify flavours within them. So, after having collected a variety of sour citrus, I ended up doing a lemon and lime taste test - to see what I could figure out.
Say hello to meyer lemon, lisbon lemon, tahitian lime, keffir lime, blood lime! I stopped buying normal lemons after tasting a meyer lemon, because I perceived the meyer lemons to be sweeter. And then I saw tasting notes for a coffee that said meyer lemon... so then I wondered if you really could taste the difference between different kinds of lemons.
And the insides! The lisbon lemon is your standard yellow, the meyer lemon is darker below. Ordinary lime above, keffir lime in all its wrinkly glory below, and then the obvious blood limes. That is how you identify their insides!
And lo and behold, the taste test! But there are only four?!?! Left is lisbon lemon, then meyer lemon with a slightly darker colour, then lime green lime, and lastly, blood lime. The blood lime really liked to donate its little pulpy things so they went in too. First of all, I didn't have a fifth mini ramekin thing to put keffir lime juice in, and secondly, the person who sold me the lime said that it was bitter and best in curries. Could I taste a difference? Yes! Could I figure out which was which in a blind tasting? No! The meyer lemon was more.. "full bodied" than the lisbon lemon and I definitely like it better. This lime was not so sweet, and ended up tasting more sour than the lemons and didn't actually have its distinctive lime flavour. Then came the blood lime, which was less sour than a normal lime too. And I did lick the keffir, it's not actually that bitter but lends itself more to its aroma - and I wanted to make a curry after smelling it!And that was the end of me burning my tongue off with natural acid.Onto the tasty stuff! So I cured some ocean trout because the fillets were cheap, plus I've always toyed with the idea of making sake cured salmon, but I don't have the sake. So instead, I call this "viogner ocean trout with chive scrambled eggs." Oh, that's right. I have to post the picture and make it a caption!
Wine cured ocean trout with chive scrambled eggs
Okay, so it would have sounded so silly to be so specific about the wine, considering I couldn't actually taste it and I probably salted it a little too much, but it was perfect with the eggs!
And I'm not all about pretty dainty food. Matt Preston is totally right when he says you can make tasty stuff for cheap. I put some canned tomato soup with parmesan, pork and beef mince, plus kale, caulifower, carrot and capsicum and put the whole thing in a try in the oven. Smells great and will last me a week!
And I do have hobbies outside of cooking and drawing... which means too many hobbies. But here is my adorable little air plant and a bonsai fig that I bought and then placed in a terrarium jar.
PACKED FULL OF JAM
Rosewater panna cotta
So it turns out rice pudding isn't super photogenic, and I can't even get some gorgeous purplish poached pears to make it look good!Either that, or I also fail at plating and presentation. So instead, I get to show off my first attempt at panna cotta!I decided to go with rosewater because it was a flavour that I had in mind. My main concern was getting the wobbliness just right and of course, making sure it set properly. In addition, I had to figure out what the best mould would be for it - so I went with a whisky glass that came with a bottle of Scotch that my flatmates had.Luckily enough, I had some dried flower petals already, but I was unprepared for a sauce. I had an idea to plate with a red sauce, and I've previously done this with rosewater pomegranate in my Virtual Valentine, which I'd then garnish with mint as a hint of green. However, there being no pomegranates available, I do admit to cheating and buying some pomegranate molasses, and quince and rose jelly, melting those together and making a pseudo sauce - which managed to mimic the shiny bejewelled effect of pomegranate arils anyway!Plus I think it worked out better that way as it made it soooo pretty. And it was the right amount of wobbly, but I'd definitely add a little less gelatin just to ensure the texture is smooth and creamy.
I'd almost make this a book cover called "Reine's Kitchen" if it was that tiny bit even more perfect - there are little bits of slightly broken panna cotta side which I tried to hide, having never demoulded a panna cotta before (especially as I haven't made one previously?). I am one dish closer to claiming I know how to cook!I should attempt some even more challenging dishes, but I do have to look after my budget a bit so there may be a hiatus on my creative cooking. And yes, I know, I don't need to break the bank to do epic dishes like these. This one was cheap as! (except for the bit where I cheated haha)
Greenhouse
Finally. After three years, I found an opportunity to visit. I'm combining this post with my experience from the pop-up restaurant in Sydney as both are amazing. The temporary restaurant was an eye opener and a brand new experience, and seeing the real thing was well worth it.
Greenhouse by Joost, Sydney
Greenhouse, Perth
This restaurant is so unique because of its commitment to the environment and being sustainable, and takes it very seriously - says the tubs of compost that greets you at the entrance of Perth. The exterior wall was lined with tubs of ferns, and I'd overheard a waitress say that they did have the same strawberry plants that appeared in the Sydney pop up, but they were expensive and difficult to maintain. Seeing the permanent structure also made me appreciate just how much effort went into the Sydney popup: no lights so everything was candle powered, all served on wooden plates, wooden cutlery, tables and chairs made from old posters that I remember seeing all over the city. Perth still needed lights to survive and metal cutlery for the food, but they had chairs made of old roadwork signs, all wooden things made from recycled wood, and the door handles made from old gigantic plastic things. I'm also fairly convinced that I saw an old shovel as the handle to the door to the stairs of the rooftop bar.
Natural oysters, Sydney
Natural oysters, Perth
Ice versus salt, but still as delicious as ever! So very tasty; I found that the Perth ones had a better sprinkling of salt than the Sydney ones (can you believe I remember that???) and smelled so nicely of the sea.
Table decor, Sydney
Table decor, Perth
Basil versus some other herb I wasn't paying attention to. I did have the lemonade in Perth but hadn't taken a picture of it. If I recall correctly, the one in Sydney wasn't fizzy, but the one in Perth was, and for once, the fizzy one tasted better, even though I'm not usually a fan of fizzy.
Cured meat platter - Sydney
Lamb and yoghurt - Sydney
Kangaroo, beetroot, native apples, celery - Perth
Chai cured ocean trout, kale chips, beetroot, sour cream, 62 degree egg, potato hash with a side of avocado - Perth
Oh Greenhouse, how I am so in love with you! I do wish I had taken some photos of the interior of Perth, but I felt too self conscious and the place filled up awfully quickly. Some very delicious food - and Perth was considerably cheaper, even though it's a relatively expensive city, being the western hub of Australia and all. I loved the addition of native foods, and whatever that paste was on the kangaroo dish was super tasty and went so well with the meat. Breakfast was actually so tasty and filling that I wasn't hungry all the way till lunch! Which is very unusual for the size of the dish... but any single dish that keeps my appetite in check is a winner for me.
The best bit of it all, I managed to poke around in my fascinated curiosity and found some very, very interesting signatures on one of the mystery doors at the register:
Apparently there was some sort of gathering of famous food people last year, and so here are an amazing number of signatures! Pete Evans, Maggie Beer, Luke Nguyen, Manu, Jill Dupleix, Terry Durack (I wish I recognised more signatures and names!)... and... JOCK. OMG, who could Jock be? Could it really be the Jock? So I asked one of the waitresses, who wasn't sure so she asked someone else, saying "I think she's a friend of his." I did my best not to laugh out loud and explained that I'd come from Adelaide and that I loved Mr. Zonfrillo's food and that he had a great restaurant. The other waiter knew about this and said that they'd all come for a convention of sorts, and that Orana was Matt Stone's favourite restaurant in Australia. Not sure if he was just saying that or whether it's actually true, but definitely a wonderful tidbit of information that I loved!
For me, this was the pinnacle of my experience in Perth - much moreso than even Rockpool Bar & Grill. This is why you come to Perth, to see a wonderfully unique restaurant being so successful in what they do.
Hooray for food and candles! And compost :)
Journey... to the not so West
Hello Perth!So nice to finally meet you, having first wanted to see you in all your glory many many years ago after your most amazing restaurant featured on Masterchef - Greenhouse.I had only known a week earlier that I'd get the opportunity to say hi, and had scrambled to shortlist a cafe and restaurant selection for only two days. The internet recommended Standing Room Only, plus some others, but I knew the key to the crawl lay in the charming baristas.
So there I was, after landing at about 9AM on a Friday. After a quick check in, I started my quest. The key is being super polite and inquisitve, but the biggest winner? "Hi, I'm new here. Oh, and I'm on a timed quest to find all the coffees of Perth." I ordered a filter - Kenya Thunguri pourover. I love super juicy coffees, however I went with a friend who is super normal and pointed out that she was ordering a NORMAL latte with two sugars. I personally like Patricia Coffee Brewers better - being located in an arcade doesn't do them justice! That being said, it's super cool to step through the non-existent glass wall to pick up your coffee. It also wasn't long before they gave ne a hanwritten list of cafes to go to! Wow! It definitely helped with my CBD crawl - so much so that by the end of it all, well... I'll mention it then!
Anyway, in my classically random way of getting around in an unfamiliar city, I walked around in circles until I found my next stop - Ristretto Coffee Roasters. Another little takeaway hole in the wall, I decided to try and order their namesake, but lucky for me they recommended espresso! I was very pleased. For those playing at home, that was coffee number two.My friend and I needed breakfast, so we decided to visit Small Print next - a place I had either not found or dismissed, but one which they had claimed was very good. They weren't wrong! It felt like a canteen but I eyed the bakery equipment and some guy sitting in a glass room, working away at his laptop, surrounded by coffee equipment and possibly a large piece of baking machinery.
AND THERE WERE COWS JUST CHILLING THERE. By cows I mean toy cows on top of the display cabinet. They had a nice selection of coffees - I was impressed by their range, and it turns out Perth has a decent offering for filter coffees. A Columbian geisha later, I was in warm peach iced tea heaven. They seem to really like using the Bodum french press beakers in Perth. I wanted to sample an espresso fron here too, but I had so much more to try. So off we went to Lowdown, a little coffee place in another arcade type place. This one wasn't so great, a little too dark for my liking.Next stop, Chik & Kent. Another espresso here, but this one for me wasn't as tasty as the baristas said it would be - out of all their recommendations, Small Print is the one I'd recommend to others. Somehow during this exploration process, we managed to find a cafe that I'd dismissed - Tiger Tiger. According to online reviews, it isn't as great as it used to be. It is however, located in a cute little alleyway and had tiger orange espresso cups, and also tiger toys on the windows. My eyeballs were starting to fuzz at this point, and my friend had experienced the "too much latte" effect of milky coffees.We were now approaching lunchtime, and I was eagerly anticipating the awesomeness that is Greenhouse, which, for the sake of keeping this post relatively short short, as well as ensuring I have an opportunity to shine that fantastic restaurant in all its glory, I will place it in its own post.There's a lot of nice artwork everywhere nowadays, but the first to really catch my eye here was the sea dragon with human hands:
After Greenhouse I had time to circle back to SRO to thank them... and have another coffee. Apparently, wondering if I've had enough coffee and continuing to comtemplate another coffee means I haven't had enough coffee! So espresso it was, and I got to hear some conversation with other people about coffee in London. It was then that I realised they serve double espressos where every other place had served singles. I counted that as two, for the purpose of sounding insane. I was then also lucky enough to sample another filter they have!So by the end of this, I had a total of just over 8 coffees between the hours of 9AM - 2:30PM So good, and a new record! I was all caffeined out and seriously felt like I needed a lie down. That's what too much coffee does to me past the eyeball fuzzing phase.The night was spent at a work party, so I didn't get a chance to go to anything fancy. However, I was up and ready to complete my adventure the next morning! I was awake way too early, so had to kill time out and about. I attempted to go to Greenhouse for breakfast, and along the way, the weirdest thing happened. As Iwas GPSing along, this guy walking next to me came up and said, "if you follow the guy ahead, you'll get to the right place." This confused me to no end! How does a stranger approach someone and say follow the person in front????? So I then said that I was actually looking for breakfast and wanted to go to Greenhouse. His then again puzzling reply was, "oh, you're here for the convention?" Woooah life is definitely stranger than fiction! There was some "Imagination" breakfast function going on at Greenhouse that morning, and I had to explain that I was a tourist who had heard about the restaurant's reputation and wanted to visit - and that it's impossible to miss the building. Then lo and behold, we were magically there, at which point I took the liberty to say that I, as a stranger to the city, had lead someone to a landmark! Or something like that.So now that I knew there was a function, I had to somehow kill more time before officially starting my morning-after crawl. I did manage to walk all the way to Ristretto Wall Coffee, but they hadn't opened yet, plus I wasn't particularly in the mood for coffee, so I took a look and must have looked so suspicious, before finally making it to Greenhouse for breakfast. On the way though, I concluded that Perth was a thoroughly weird place as it had cats on giant TVs.
They also do have some adorable giant dinosaurs and whimsical paintings.
It was then time - to head to the Crown in preparation for Rockpool Bar & Grill Perth. Having been to Sydney and Melbourne to compare the two, it was finally time to complete the trio. The Crown is located on the other side of the river in Perth, and I didn't get to catch the ferry. Instead we caught the train, and it reminded that train lines in Sydney are so complex. I love this side, the expensive, picturesque side of the city. Very nice statues and scenery. Some parts of the edge of the river looked like beach, so I got some very nice skylines of the Perth cityscape (does that sentence even make sense???).
It turns out Perth is also home to killer ducks. I was randomly taking pictures of ducks when one of them started swimming towards me! I thought that was a little odd... maybe it was protecting its territory, but I wasn't sure. It then got out of the water and continued to walk towards me at a very slow pace!! This was too much, so I turned and ran for my life.In all this rush, panic and confusion, I managed to eat at Bistro Guillaume. I've always wanted to go but never wanted it enough that I actually went, till now. I knew that there'd be a selection of nice restaurants at the Crown, and was hoping to eat at Nobu, but Guillaume captures my heart more - the beef tartare always wins out. I wanted a light lunch, so we only ordered a few dishes - a chacuterie plate, beef tartare, chips, and I couldn't resist sampling half a dozen oysters.
I didn't expect the tartare to be pre-mixed; and while it was tasty, I couldn't help but think that the entire thing was mixed in with some sort of tomato chutney. I personally prefer Felix's tartare - that was absolutely gorgeously delicious. So much so that I think I need to write down what serves the best things.The terrine on the chacuterie plate was WOW. WOWOWOWOW. So good! The cornichons on the other hand, were a little too vinegary, so that I couldn't breathe while eating them cause I started coughing when I accidentally did so. Sadly, not my favourite french eatery. Felix wins, and Vue de Monde still wins for best souffle- the disappearing raspberry ice cream act in this one was still no match!
I have posted some of this out of order, as I did most of the exploring around Crown after lunch, however I'm allowed to have a messed up sense of time, so it's straight to Rockpool Bar & Grill Perth! It has the most grand entrance of the three, with a candled hallway before you get to the reception. Both Melbourne and Perth seem to be more casual and don't have the bar sectioned off from the restaurant. In addition, they both offered full menus whereas Sydney keeps them exclusive. So, I did have access to the caviar and steak, but I had only one goal here: to compare the David Blackmore Full Blood Wagyu burger with my other experiences. I had a great Victorian pinot noir while I was at it. Oh Rockpool, you certainly have the best wines. I now fully understand and appreciate that each Rockpool Bar & Grill is its own identity. It means that they remain unique!My verdict? Sydney has the best burger. So tasty and just right. For some reason the other sites just don't have that magically perfect combination of flavours. That being said, Perth is notably different as they use a spicier sauce - that I had to eat it slowly. And I think the older I get, the less food gorging I can handle. That being said, while the burger didn't top Sydney's, the dessert was OMG THE BEST ROCKPOOL BAR AND GRILL DESSERT I'VE EVER HAD. Almond milk ice cream, strawberries, rose jelly, almond praline. Oooooh you beautiful, gentle dessert. The ice cream was soooo good and there was this amazing sprinkle of praline crunch on some super sweet strawberries that made them mindblowingly sweet, and the rose jelly was so subtle and not at all overpowering that added that extra bit of texture to the dish. So. Amazing. Gorgeous. Wonderful. Why can't all Rockpool Bar and Grills have this.There is only one thing I wish I'd managed to do, and that's go to Helvetica, which is a whisky den. I'd missed out on Whisky and Alement in Melbourne, so I had to go to Helvetica. But it was in a dark alleyway (which didn't really bother me), but it was still crowded and busy at 11:30PM so I didn't end up going. Turns out, it's not such a big deal because I can turn it into a thing - never managing to visit a whisky bar in my travels.All in all, the western hub of Australia was worth a visit. A very different city from Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide. Friendlier and more built up than Adelaide. Not as Melbourne as Adelaide is, and has to define dress code in a lot of city restaurants where Melbourne and Sydney tend to have unspoken rules - either that or I've never actually paid attention. And not like Sydney at all. I miss Sydney. I can't wait to go back.Rockpool, here I come!!!
When life gives you meyer lemons, make awesome lemon meringue tart!
So a couple of weeks ago meyer lemons came into season, so I bought pretty much all their stock. Well, maybe half. But it was almost a kilo worth of lemons! Why do I get so excited about these lemons? Because they are sweeter and richer coloured than normal lemons. And are soooo gorgeous and tasty and make a great kicking honey lemon tea. However, they also make amazing lemon curd!
I've never considered myself capable of anything that requires recipes, which is why I favour savoury dishes. But I just happened to have lemons, lots of eggs... and spent $40 on a granite pastry board (yes, there was marble but I like granite better). Plus my local cafe gets these absolutely amazing lemon meringue tarts from a bakery called Boulangerie 113, and I figured I may as well mimic it. And mimicked I did, quite well in fact, if I do say so myself.I wasn't after super complex recipes, so I just grabbed the simplest ones I could for shortcrust pastry and lemon curd. Just flour, butter, egg yolk, and ice water for the pastry, and lemon, egg + yolk and butter for the curd.When I was making the pastry, the instructions said to stop mixing in more water as soon as the dough came together, so I did. Then I popped them in the fridge, and me being me, had a total freak out when they turned rock hard!!! But since I'm a genius, I just added a bit of water and kneaded it a bit more before being able to roll it out. And it was quite flexible too, as I put them in some ramekins. Since I had already visualised what I wanted these tarts to look like, I knew that the ramekins would be the perfect size.I didn't even look up how to cook the pastry. I figure I'd just blind bake it like I see on TV. So in they went for about 10 minutes, and when I next opened the oven, they were browning on the edges. Perfect! So I took them out to cool.
I made enough pastry for possibly 2 more ramekins, but I hadn't planned ahead to have any leftover, so I put the rest in the oven for either a makeshift base, or for crumbs.Then it was curd time! I was terrified of making curd since I've heard about nightmare egg in curd. I also wanted it to be lemony, so while I halved the measurements of a recipe, I actually kept the full amount of lemon juice recommended. One thing I forgot, was that as it simmered down, the flavour intensified. So at first it wasn't lemony enough, and by the end of it, it was super tasty - I like it tart! Pun intended. I felt like I had reduced it a tad too much, but by the end of it, it was at the right consistency.
The hardest part was the meringue. I didn't have a food processor for the pastry, but that was a minor issue. The meringue, on the other hand, was a feat of endurance that I did not have! Now the meringue that Boulangerie 113 make are super smooth and creamy, whereas I'm used to sugary meringue. So I figured, hey, why not - I'll put some icing sugar in my whites! And some good old caster sugar. And spent a long time whipping. Oh wow, my super weak arms died several times before I got the peaks to stand. But it was well worth it!I also had no blow torch, but who needs one when the secret is that meringue is an excellent insulator so I could put the entire tart under the grill! That way, I got some nice browned top while the rest of the tart stayed cool. And voila, a funny looking lemon meringue tart!
And yes it was super tasty - like omg i can't believe i made this and that the tartness is perfect and the pastry is nice and crumbly and buttery and it didn't actually go hard like i thought it would and the meringue actually browned without me setting the house on fire or using candles in the most unorthodox way and when all combined the sugar was just right to offset the lemon and omg the base it actually didnt destroy itself yay.THE LIME HARVESTER IS HAPPY.