Japan, September 2014
Ah, Japan. The place I've wanted to go to ever since discovering the world of anime. What an amazing place, and I'd actually say I enjoyed it the most on my trip, probably because I had the least expectations for it. I should figure out how to eliminate expectations for everything that I want to do, because it works wonders.I was pretty delirious from having been awake since morning in London, then getting only a few hours sleep on the plane because I was enjoying the in-flight entertainment too much and its manga feature plus some space pirate movie which was pretty awful, and then spending nearly a full day exploring Tokyo again. (Did I mention there was reindeer meat in the form of a sandwich on the Finnish leg of our flight? There wasn't much actual meat I think, so I couldn't taste it at all)
The second day was much better since I'd actually gotten decent sleep, and went to Odaiba, where there was a massive Gundam statue outside that evceryone was taking pictures of. I didn't realise just how big Gundam is until I learned there are Gundam cafes everywhere (and by everywhere I was aware of two).
Godzilla is also a thing, with a statue sitting happily in the middle of a square.
Our first real part of exploration was the Miraikan, or Future Museum. There were some pretty interesting things going on there, such as a mini petting zoo with lizards, lambs, rabbits, monkeys and a toucan. There was also a poop exhibit that was an "only in Japan" moment for me, however it was classed as a premium exhibit which doubled the cost of an entry ticket, so we didn't go. Considering I don't have particular interest in museums, I'm glad I didn't spend as I pretty much ran out of money at the end of the trip.The Miraikan is a very cool museum, featuring a nixie tube, a simplified demonstration of how the internet works, a massive revolving earth which had different display settings, stuff, and tardigrades! I was actually impressed that they'd feature such a nigh indestructible creature that'd I'd recently learned about. I think they are the answer to the time-space-end-of-the-universe conundrum (if there even is such a thing), even though they're not the prettiest things. It was definitely worth a visit.
There was also a mexican festival along one of the main walkways, and I was highly tempted to get shaved ice, but I decided not to. What really surprised me though, was that at the end, I saw what I thought was the statue of liberty! It was an amazing sight and I totally wasn't expecting it.
It was even prettier at night when the lights went up and she was awash in the glory and brightness. Or something like that.
Wandering around the Diver City complex also lead us to an evening show with a monkey. I wasn't particularly surprised, though I questioned the simple leash around its neck. That being said, I couldn't help but think that the monkey was judging us and wondering why we were getting it to do such tedious and simple tasks such as leaping large distances, walking on its hands and jumping around on a pogo stick.
I felt very lucky to have witnessed a traditional Japanese wedding while visiting the Meiji shrine. I don't think I ever knew exactly what one was like, but it was super cool because there was a Western guy. Yes, that makes it cool for me. Also, I loved the umbrella man. I can't believe I've actually now seen an umbrella man in real life. How epic would it be to say that your job is to hold umbrellas for people!
Hello Harajuku! What a crowded busy street, and what a shame I never actually got to eat a crepe from here. I did decide that I would try some clothes on from here - mainly for the loli/goth factor but it turns out that one size does not fit all! So I gave up on my quest to obtain more obscure clothing. Instead, it was time to hunt for coffee.
So I may or may not hold a few baristas in very high regard, so much so I'd call them my idols. After a bit of twitter stalking, managed to get a few cafes on my list. This one is Nozy Coffee, an espresso based cafe that has a really cool setup - grinders and machines on opposite sides of a large oval-ish bench. It was pretty awesome though I'm not particularly sure about their preference for service espresso in all kinds of different glasses, for example, my brother's Colombian was served in a flute. It was pretty tasty and they even had "New York Rings" - cronuts! I still preferred the ones from Shanghai though - they were pretty awesome!
What's Japan without random shriney things from happening!
Of course, we had to visit a cat cafe. There was also an opportunity to visit an owl and parrot cafe, but we decided not to go. So cats it was! They were pretty awesome, and a couple of them kept trying to sniff one of my brother's cameras - possibly because of how many smells had accumulated on it. Cats seem to be rather cautious of me, not sure why though. Still, they were pretty cute, especially when one went to sit in a glass bowl, another went rampaging on a run around the room, and one was terrified of a toy of the sun. It was also pretty much full of tourists when we visited, rather than locals.
One of the days we were in Tokyo also coincided with a public holiday, so our quest to see some plastic food shops didn't go as planned. However, we did end up visiting a very cool cafe. This one was called Bridge Cafe, designed by Sturdy Style. They made an amazing Yirgacheffe pourover and had a super tasty espresso too. It was an interesting concept and similar yet different from all the garage cafes in Sydney and Melbourne. They had office spaces at the back and upstairs full of architecture stuff, and they had some pretty interesting magazines too. It wasn't on the list I'd compiled, but I'd definitely recommend it.
Asakusa is quite old fashioned, in a good way. Full of stalls and people, with a shrine at the end of the street, it was a fun place to walk past and see all the different stores. It's also a pretty vast place when you're actually traversing all the side streets too. It was here that I got to eat a curry bread, and also sample some taiyaki!
Street theatre with crossover! How awesome! Even though I had no idea what was going on, it was absolutely hilarious and we even saw Frieza evolve!
What's a trip to an Asian country without taking pictures of koi!
This was a pretty interesting skyline, with the Skytree and Asahi building side by side. And that weird gold wiggly thing!!
Ah anmitsu, my favourite Japanese dessert! Managed to have some, but I was weirded out by the salted beans because I've never had them in Sydney before. I also didn't realise how much clear, flavourless jelly there'd be, since I've only previously had ones with small amounts of jelly. Overall I still enjoyed it, and that mochi! One day I may try and make my own!
The famous tuna auctions. I had a bout of insomnia for the first time ever, which was both annoying and fortuitous as I had a 3:30AM start to line up to view the auctions. I didn't realise until after we sat down in a little room, that the viewings didn't start until 5:25! But they only let 120 people view it per day, and at 4AM the second group of 60 people was almost complete. Waiting in line sure was tiresome! Travelling through the busy driveways when it was finally time, was quite an experience of motorised carts whizzing past. We were confined to a small area to watch the auctions, and it was hard to tell what was going on except that several auctioneers would yell at once and they all kind of sang to differentiate themselves.
All the random tuna thawing out ever so slowly and looking sad about it!
After watching the auctions, we lined up at Daiwa Sushi for breakfast. There was already a half hour wait at 6AM in the morning for this place, which is pretty crazy. The food inside was delicious though! Now I know why my brother loves sea urchin, as we had some here and it was so fresh and creamy. The style of food here is "omakase" which is basically the chef's selection. Good thing it's my favourite way of being served food! The toro was also amazing and it's true that Japan is indeed the best place for sushi. Apart from the 7 piece omakase, it was also possible to order a la carte, so my brother had another toro and sea urchin, and I opted for the scallop, of course. It means I can now claim this as the most expensive breakfast I've ever had, at about 4800 yen per person.
After breakfast, it was a stroll through Tsukiji fish markets, where there were several speeding cart-things and a lot of bits of fish. There was plenty of tuna, river eels, cephalopods and molluscs - I've never seen so much shellfish in my life. Lots of sand crabs and sand lobsters too. I was pretty interested in how they killed the fish too - that needle in the head thing - it's awesome and supposed to be painless. I really wished that I lived here so that I could take part in buying, preparing and cooking all this wonderful produce!
Apparently this is a thing called the Shibuya scramble? Basically that famous crossing or something. Watching the people go is pretty awesome, especially in the only Starbucks worth going to in Tokyo. Good thing we did, because Asians are awesome at making tasty pudding drinks - the caramel pudding frappuccino was so good!
As our uncle was free, we got the opportunity to visit Mt. Fuji. It wasn't as far out from the city as I thought, but then again we got lost a few times so I don't know how long it actually took. Getting lost was also serendipitous because we came across a beautiful shrine. The place was so green from both leaves and moss and so beautiful that I really wished I already had a figurine so I could go taking really cute pictures!
We didn't manage to pick a particularly great day to go, as there was a lot of fog and cloud, and visibility got really low at times as we were walking around, which in itself was a surreal experience as it felt like we were in our own little bubble world, all quiet and misty. I also finally got to order oden, and this is where I discovered that when I had egg in my soba, it was raw! Since I wasn't expecting raw egg, I had incorrectly been concluding I had some sort of 62 degree egg and couldn't figure out where all the white was, and assumed that it had mixed in with the noodles and broth. There was also a gift shop that sold Mt. Fuji air in cans, which was hilarious to see.
What a cute little fortune telling dancing dragon thing! The way it moved actually reminded me of the robot from the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, which I had always wanted to challenge to a dancing competition but never managed to because someone else was always playing with it.
Finally the fog cleared, and we could see the top by the time we'd driven back down. It was also weird since it was summer and therefore not snowcapped, but still distinctive and pretty!
Second last day, and it was time for one last overseas coffee crawl. First stop, Switch Coffee, which was a tiny little shop tucked away in a little residential street, so much so that I was convinced I had the wrong place and that Google was wrong, until I stood in front of the cute little light blue wall. Costa Rica Los Lajas was my filter of choice, while my brother ordered an espresso tonic which was an amazing and delicious concept.My brother did ask if I knew if any of the cafes on my list served food, and my default response was always to assume there was only coffee sold - and I was correct. So breakfast ended up being at a ramen place, which claimed to be famous for its backfat. What does that mean? You get to choose the level of fat in your broth! This was an amazing idea so I ordered mine with extra fat, and that was delicious.
Next stop, Onibus. Another tiny cute little place with a bright red roaster at the door! Plus you can see the London coffee guide sitting next to one of their grinders, and a coffee poster in the background! This was a really cool place and we were lucky that the barista in the picture here spoke English, so we had a little conversation going and again, what a small world - first the waiter in City Social who used to work at Rockpool, and now a roaster who spent a couple of months in Newtown at a cafe called Papercup! I absolutely love travelling and talking to people for this reason. He let us know that the owner of Onibus had opened up two other places that we could visit - but alas we were out of time! Yet another reason to go back to Japan after this.I personally loved watching this guy roasting away, and I finally saw the entire process from start to finish. It was fascinating seeing the beans go from green to brown, and that cracking process sounded a lot like popcorn. It's something I would love to learn more about, but first, I have to start being a barista and learning about coffee.
And here is the other awesome barista who was there making our pourovers.
Oh you delicious and gorgeous looking sauri pike. Oooh yes! Our last day, we may have possibly made a bad decision to attempt to visit Sushi Dai at 8AM in the morning, because we ended up queueing for four hours! The queue was long enough that my brother was able to buy a suitcase, pack the final bits of stuff for our departure, and check out of the hotel. I can't believe that people would line up for a single sushi store like this, but once you get in, it's amazing and you forget how long you've spent in line. The chefs are super cheery, friendly and polite. We also got there just when a new giant scallop was being opened which was quite the sight! Again, what a delicious set of sushi, some similar, and some different from Daiwa sushi. I loved the sanma and chose scallop as my sushi of choice, and here I also got asked what level of wasabi I preferred, which saved me from wasabi shock. I was very impressed.If going here, I'd definitely recommend queueing as early as possible; it's totally worth a two hour wait, but four hours is definitely a stretch!
The last few hours were spent in Akihabara while I agonised over the figurine(s) I should get before I left. I can't believe that we came here three times in a single trip and there was still more to see! I had to restrain myself and not get everything in sight that was pretty. There was a lot of Fate Zero merchandise that I wanted - and while I really love the show, I didn't feel I had to buy everything from it. Except that Saber on a Bike figurine. Oh wow that was amazing and I really really really wanted it, but it wouldn't have fit in my luggage and would have taken the last of my money. Instead, I was super happy in finally getting my hands on a Gilgamesh nendoroid who I can now take along with me for photography cuteness! Yes, I'm going to become one of them.Other fun things involved sampling "every flavour ice cream," including basil, sea urchin, eel, crab, roasted tea, miso ramen, and yuzu at Namjatown, and trying out canned ramen from a vending machine. Wow, that was weird! I think they used potato starch noodles to stop it from going mushy and it comes out kind of lukewarm. Probably not going to try that one again!I definitely have to revisit Japan for the cafes, Yoyogi park (which was closed to due a mosquito related disease outbreak), Skytree (it was so unfortunate that I hadn't had the time to visit!), the Ghibli museum and a Pokemon centre. And possibly a lot more that I don't remember. I'd also love to learn some Japanese so I knew what I was doing half the time, but that was actually the charm of this visit. The first day or so was daunting, but after that, I loved being able to do anything and taking a chance at pointing and choosing random things on menus without knowing what it was. The people could also speak enough english that exploration wasn't prohibitive at all - in fact I saw the appeal in buying things from convenience stores too, because they are so convenient! Plus there are vending machines on every street with all sorts of drinks so it was easy to stay hydrated!I can't wait to come back!
City Social
It was a Benedict Cumberbatch tumblr that prompted me to consider booking a place here. Plus, it was new, and also, it boasted a great view. One thing lead to another, and I've decided that I will now attempt to visit at least one Jason Atherton restaurant when I visit a city where one exists. Whether or not this will actually work, who knows!I actually am starting to enjoy visiting restaurants where I have no expectations, because when it delivers, it's amazing. The small details, such as their mentioning of the fact they spotted my brother's camera to give us a window right next to the Gherkin, makes all the difference! I am very happy that they've received a Michelin Star now too!
Guinea fowl and truffle terrine, parfait, crispy skin, sourdough
We didn't take long to order our food, and when it came it, it was certainly Atherton style presentation - it looked similar to that of Commune Social, which is a good thing, because it means I should be able to spot out a chef's preferred plating technique! I believe this is the first time I've sampled guinea fowl too. What a tasty terrine!
Heirloom tomatoes, burrata, olive
I am such a sucker for burrata, especially when it's used in an interpretation (well not so much in this case) of a caprese salad. I also chose this because there was a similar item at Commune Social - which tasted great but did look a bit different.
Beetroot cured mackerel, betroot, goat cheese sorbet
This was quite an interesting dish as I'd not had beetroot cured anything before, and I've also never had fish and beetroot together. It was definitely a very interesting combination, though I will never, ever get my head around goat dairy. I will always choose it but I will never entirely like it - but I will always appreciate it!
Grouse with roast parsnip
As soon as I heard that they had a grouse as their special, I ordered it straight away. I love eating things that are different, and lucky for me, it was game season. I had no idea what to expect, and it was certainly something I wasn't prepared for. Having never had something this... wild before, I was surprised at just how gamey it was. I guess gamey is a flavour? It was super tender though and cooked perfectly, so I understood the dish to be delicious even though my brain couldn't process the taste! I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves to try new things!
The waiter also let me know that there may have been a bullet in the meat and to be careful - but alas, no special souvenir! Though in retrospect it was probably for the better since it may have been flagged at airport security had I found and chosen to keep it.
Whole lobster, duck fat chips and choron sauce
When there's a whole lobster on the menu, my brother says yes! When there's also a nutcracker involved, hilarity ensues. Super tasty but cumbersome, as we found out when another table ended up with shell flying everywhere, then my brother managed to knock a piece further along the floor, leading to a puzzled waiter wondering where all the shell bits came from as he picked them up from the floor. Or something like that. This story has definitely been modified with faulty memory!
White peach parfait with raspberries, and raspberry basil sorbet
Mr Atherton also seems to like basil in his desserts - and I love this too! So much so that I'm considering making orange basil sorbet. This was beautiful and tasty, and had several elements to it - including fresh and freeze dried raspberries, raspberry meringue and raspberry sauce. I need to be this inventive when making desserts!
Black forest cherries, Valrhona chocolate sponge, cherry sorbet
Rich, delicious chocolate in a blackforest setting. I'm glad my brother chose this because I liked my dessert better, but when Valrhona is being used, it's a must have.
City Social also has some pretty awesome bathrooms, and at night, the view from the stalls with windows is pretty cool. We were allowed to wander around at the end of our meal and take pictures, and this was actually not from the ladies bathroom, but instead, just the other side of the restaurant. Hello Shard!
Other highlights in this dinner included a moment when a table near us got a little rowdy, and immediately there were two to three staff attending the table to make sure things were okay and settled. It turns out a lady was just a little drunk and in a conversation about the Gherkin, if I recall correctly. I was glad it was mostly harmless. There was also a moment when we were paying our bill, that one of the waiters asked about PIN versus signature, then for some reason I decided to reference Rockpool, and lo and behold, it turns out he had actually worked there not too long ago, but left before it moved to Bridge Street. What a small world!
It was a great nice and a great experience, and I would love to come back here. I think each city should have a few must-revisit places, and this would be one of them for me. Their dessert menu is just amazing! Plus, it's a great place to take people who've never seen London from above.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Lo and behold, San Pellegrino Top 50's Number 5 in 2014 - Dinner.I was recommended Dinner over Fat Duck, and I have plans to try and attend Fat Duck when it opens in Melbourne - so to Knightsbridge I went! This actually will be a text heavy post, as opposed to most of my restaurant posts that are spammed with food.
They had beautiful menus set up, with bits of trivia to read while perusing the menus. We were also lucky enough to be seated right in front of the kitchen, so we had a great view of flames and ovens and a total head count of about 15 chefs in that small space. It's a fairly large restaurant from what I could see, and it blended into a bar in the Mandarin Oriental.
Meat Fruit; mandarin, chicken liver & foie gras parfait, grilled bread
First, the obvious - the must-get meat fruit. Mandarin looking on the outside, delicious smooth pate on the inside. What great flavour! No wonder people love this so much - I could keep eating this forever. Lucky for me my pate craving phase was already over so I didn't have to order three of these.
Roast Marrowbone; snails, parsley, anchovy, mace & pickled vegetables
Snails that actually taste good! I've never objected to eating snails before but I admit they've always been underwhelming, and always the same old flavour of garlic butter. These, however, were very tasty and soft.
Roast Sea Bass; mussel & seaweed ketchup, salmon roe & sea rosemary
And some triple cooked chips in the background. My barista hadn't had the opportunity to order the chips when he visited because the potatoes apparently weren't perfect, so I took the chance to ask for them. Turns out the chips they have as a side dish aren't triple cooked, but they could make these ones for us. So crispy on the outside and soft on the inside! I have a preference for waxy potatoes rather than floury, so these were pretty tasty. Now the sea bass. It was cooked so nicely! So tender and just cooked, and I loved the native greens on there. I noticed samphire in the dish too, and was very happy to eat this wonderful plant.
My brother had the roast Iberico pork chop, which was also super delicious! As the sun set, it was more difficult to take pictures so the only picture left is:
Baked Sussex Pond Pudding; lemon caramel & goats milk ice cream
I chose this for the lemon, and the goat milk ice cream. Plus for some reason I couldn't get the word "Pond" out of my head in reference to Doctor Who. I was tossing up between this and Chocolate Bar, but the waiter recommended this one as he came from Sussex or something and his mum used to make it, so it was a favourite of his. I wasn't disappointed! When it was presented, I was advised to be careful when cracking the pudding because it was a hard pastry with a soft inside. So with some delicate tapping, there was a reward of gooeyness!
My brother chose the tipsy cake, and while he liked the pineapple, it was the brioche that was absolutely superb! Though you have to choose this at the beginning due to the time it takes to make. What's really cool is that you can see the grilled pineapples glistening and dripping goodness from one of the kitchen windows.
I had booked it for our second day in London, in hopes that our appetites were good enough (having recovered from jetlag) to be able to eat a lot, though next time I'd probably book a restaurant of this calibre more into the middle of our trip, as I think we could have chosen even more food. The waiters were all really lovely and even started describing the Jasper oven after I asked about it because it looked like a cool piece of machinery. Turns out it's a temperature controllable oven/grill/smoker thing if I recall, and now I want one too!
This was also the first high-end restaurant I've had in a while that was a la carte rather than degustation, so we ended up with two entrees, two mains, two sides and two desserts between the two of us. I would have liked to omit the side dishes and have one more entree - but that's for the next time!
I've always hoped that I was relatively unbiased with my food preferences, so in terms of whether or not this was the best restaurant I've visited, I still prefer Vue de Monde. I really can't explain why but it was just so much more epic, though I also have a feeling it's because it was a place that I had the least expectations of, so there were more surprises.
Either way, Dinner is certainly worth visiting and has some great food and excellent service! And an amazing view of the kitchen.
Commune Social
The story of how I came across Commune Social isn't super long, but is a story nonetheless - once upon a time, I was stalking a tumblr about Benedict Cumberbatch, when I saw a post that he was at the opening of a fancy new restaurant in London called City Social. I decided to book it as it boasted a view, and I figured my brother might like it since it overlooked the Shard, Gherkin, Walkie Talkie and Cheese Grater. Then, upon further inspection of their website, it turns out their chef, Jason Atherton, had restaurants in China, Hong Kong and Singapore too. And thus, I got the opportunity to visit Commune Social.The setup of the restaurant was quite Western, all courtyardy and open, and in a quick visit before actually going, we were advised that the food portions were very small - but luckily I had known that already, it being fancy and tapas style, so I was prepared. The downside was, I had never ordered tapas style food for more than four people, so it became awkward when we were dividing tiny portions into six! I should have doubled all the orders, and that would have been enough.Not only is this kind of food grossly more expensive in China, but I felt that there was a far lower level of service than in a Western country - perhaps it was just this visit though. I also admit to having no experience or knowledge about how to adequately staff a restaurant, but I've been to a fair few and every now again observe the waitstaff observing customers because it's interesting to watch. I use the "magical refilling water test" as a benchmark of restaurant service, but here it felt like there just wasn't enough attentiveness overall - plus the waiters looked a little stressed out, and I had no way of knowing if they had staff call in sick. That being said, I was excited that I frequently saw the dessert chef popping out to present her dishes.
Beetroot, burrata, gingerbread
I was pleased with the prettiness of the plating, but having had only burrata once before where it came whole, this one was already broken up for sharing and just as tasty. I really liked the gingerbread component here as well.
Black sausage, duck egg, potato
I love black sausage, so when I saw this combined with egg, I had to order it! It's always a winner for me - especially when it comes in a cute little pan.
Cured salmon, lotus root, bok choy
As this was on their board menu, I can't remember what the sauce was. Possibly wasabi, possibly miso? I really liked the salmon here and that vegetable with the pink bulbs on it was something I enjoyed.
Marinated sea bass, pickled kohl rabi, apple
I didn't realise this was a raw dish as I tend to avoid it while in China - otherwise I would have chosen the beef tartare! This was quite nice though and all the vegetables complemented the flavour of the fish.
Char grilled octopus with beetroot
This octopus was quite tasty, though it was probably a little tough for a few others at the table.
And here is some fried chicken! Three tiny morsels per plate, and I had to order a second place as soon as I saw this one come out. Fried chicken never fails and I would have loved to have more.
Iberico pork and foie gras burgers with avocado and pickles
What cute little sliders! I wasn't too sure where the foie gras was, but I assume it was mixed in with the pork to create tender and juicy burgers. Those pickles were perfect too, to the point where I devoured the other two plates of any leftover pickles.
Grilled veal tongue and zucchini
And there's so much more to this plate that I can't remember, but it didn't matter so much because that tongue was so tender and well cooked! Had I known this was going to be so delicious, I would have ordered a second plate of this too.
Caramel popcorn
We saw these go out to every table and wanted some for ourselves, and it turns out it's complimentary! Tasty caramel popcorn served with liquid nitrogen.
Vanilla and chocolate ice cream
I've always been interested to see how restaurants approach the presentation of ice cream because of how simple "just ice cream" is - and this is the first time I've seen two flavours served in separate bowls, on ice, in a bowl, and doused with liquid nitrogen. Overkill much? But it did produce something quite theatrical so why not!
Lemon meringue pie with basil sorbet
This guy has a thing for basil in sorbets - and I love him for it. The deconstructed lemon meringue pie was already a winner, but even though I was sitting across the table, I could smell wafts of the basil sorbet and oh wow, it both smelled and tasted so good - plus I actually love the richness of the green colour as well! Even though this wasn't the dessert I had ordered, I couldn't get over that basil sorbet.
Creme catalan
A neverfail cute cream dessert, with delicious wafers.
Banana, honeycomb, goats cheese
More liquid nitrogen! All the liquid nitrogen! Well it seems like a very popular presentation strategy here - which I'm secretly glad wasn't used in my other Jason Atherton visit - mainly because while the smoke is very pretty, I don't feel it was needed for all the dishes here. It was a very pretty dessert nonetheless, and delicious.
And that concludes my first fine dining experience in China. While I would have liked to sampled a Chinese fine dining experience, this will do for now. Overall the food is as good as anywhere else, however in this particular visit I felt that the service was underwhelming. It's definitely still a place I'd consider frequenting.
Rockpool 1989
Rockpool, a place I've wanted to visit since before Rockpool Bar and Grill, but never found the opportunity to until I decided to squeeze it into a two day Sydney visit. Their new place on Bridge St is super pretty and I love waiters that are suited up and are wearing lapel pins too!It's essentially a degustation plus up to three extra courses (2 savoury and 1 sweet) to finish up. Since everything on the menu looked tasty, I went for three courses. Having had no time (or computer) to blog for a good five or so weeks, there's not too much commentary except that there was a lot of deliciousness!
Prawn tempura with daikon, soy, shiso, prawn cream and dashi jelly
Who doesn't love fried stuff with a creamy sauce! This tasty morsel was a great way to start the night.
Chicken wing with egg batter and konbu butter
The wings were beautifully frenched - in fact, I'd never even thought about frenching chicken wings. I assume that the cooking process also shrinks it to the circle shapes so there's no wastage from the trimming process.
Pork belly with coriander, chilli and rice roll
These burgers were tiny! It was also interesting having a rice bun as it had a different texture from normal buns. Pretty tasty!
Chirashi zushi of tuna, kingfish, bonito and squid
The prettiest dish of Rockpool! I can never resist good raw fish and this was delicious.
Kangaroo Island scallop with drunken condiment and ginger vinaigrette
These scallops are beautiful, and even though I've had plenty in Adelaide, this was one unique in the fact that they left the frills on, since they're actually edible. Plus, I love these scallops because they have such gorgeous purple shells and are huge! This was super tasty and one of my favourites for the night.
King George Whiting with apple, artichoke and red date infusion
I admit that I'm now writing this far too late after my visit, so I don't actually remember too much of the details. It was interesting to have red date with fish but I think it worked. The fish was cooked superbly.
Mapo tofu with avocado, sea urchin and eight precious herbs
This was a bit of a theatric experience as a hot pot was actually brought out during the previous course and soy milk, a setting agent and chilli were combined and left to sit on heat. And voila, mapo tofu was ready when the bowl of herbs and sea urchin came out. It wasn't too chilli and I quite enjoyed it.
Sterling caviar with soft poached egg, crispy potato and allemande sauce
This was one of the options that I chose, mainly because I've always wanted super fancy caviar from one of the Rockpool chains. I wish I had more caviar!
Braised beef sukiyaki with winter melon, lettuce and tendon
This was a dish my brother chose, and we were both super excited when we saw that the tendon was rare - what better way to enjoy such wonderful beef!
Pigeon Zheng Shui Dan with prawn stuffed eggplant and strange flavour dressing
What else would I choose but my beloved all-purpose pigeon as my second main option! This was cooked so well and it was so tasty, albeit a tad too salty for my liking, and it felt like I had just eaten the happiest pigeon in the world it was that pretty, big and tender. I love pigeon!
Partridge with chestnut filled lotus root and bone marrow poached quince
This was my mum's choice, though I think my brother and I did recommend it because of the lotus root. Plus, having partridges and pheasants is a must! I'm all for game birds.
"Buddha jumps over the wall" pork shoulder, clams, guanciale and white cut chicken
My dad ordered this one once we understood the meaning of the title. In Chinese cuisine, this dish is made out of luxurious ingredients that are so delicious, that it essentially makes Buddha jump over a wall and he becomes un-vegetarian.
Moscato custard with rhubarb, apple and streusel
This was the pre-dessert, and I love custard. The ripple effect through the ice cream was also pretty neat, mainly because in a recent episode of Masterchef, one of the contestants had managed to turn their ice cream pink instead of rippley.
Vacherin of pandan custard with coconut parfait, jasmine sorbet and lime granita
This was my dessert choice, and just look at that thin meringue shell! How impressive! I absolutely love pandan, and together with the lime granita, it was an absolute winner for me.
Sweet potato braised in soy caramel with lemon curd, miso ice cream, sesame and candied shiso
This was my brother's dessert option - we were curious about it because it had sweet potato and a curious miso ice cream. The highlight of this memory though, is not the food but rather the extraordinary wait staff (and his cute Rockpool lapel pin), as we had forgotten what the crystallised petal was, and our waiter then brought our minds back to the beginning of the night and mentioned that we had started with this ingredient too - shiso!
Date tart - original since 1984
And last but not least, the petit fours: The Rockpool Date Tart. Impossible to take a non ugly picture of, but tasty!
This was a great experience, and even though I tend to be a little biased against Asian flavours outside of my home (because my parents cook the best chinese, of course), with wonderful waiters and delicious food. I do feel sad that I never got to visit their George Street residence, but their new home on Bridge Street is pretty awesome!