Eat Drink Perth
I think my blogging will slow down over the next few months, we'll see! I have become somewhat permanently poor so I haven't been going to as many cafes lately.Still, Eat Drink Perth happened as part of Good Food Month, which happens here in April instead of October (my Sydneysiderer strikes again!). I found out because one of the cafes I follow (rocks 2 Slayers but only open Monday - Friday) was running some coffee events during this time - how could I not say no!Fancy a Filter?
The cafe is called Willie Wagtail, just a tad bigger than a hole in the wall, with two Slayers and coffee roasted by Pound (a local roaster). I was so happy that I had the opportunity to learn more without committing lots of money and time - I considered this more of a hobby/enthusiast class than anything that I would become barista-worthy from.
The first of their "masterclasses" was all about filter coffee and various brew methods - Moccamaster, aeropress, syphon, pourover (look at that shiny copper Hario!). It was awkward to explain that I wasn't really a home brewer but that I own an aeropress and v60....The class was an hour long and felt very introductory to me, and reminded me a little of a coffee class I didn't attend in Adelaide, and my barista said afterwards that I would have already known most of the stuff. However, the next course was more exciting....Pour Like a Pro
And it's espresso time! Another one hour session, this time it covered espresso and steaming milk. This one was still pretty basic. I liked it because I got to play with a Slayer and make my own espresso, but I would have preferred for a longer session (or having the focus on just espresso or milk, rather than both).There was an explanation as to what an espresso recipe was, and how adjusting different things would affect the flavour. Stuff I already knew, and I was eager to put it into practise. Also, tamping is such an interesting thing because of the mechanics that goes into it. Plus the whole time I was just thinking "keep it flat like a golf lawn, keep it flat!!!"
This wasn't my extraction, but I took a shot of it anyway!
And then the second half of the lesson - steaming milk and latte art! These were the owner's pours - so pretty!Even though I've steamed milk before, it had been many, many, many years ago. So this time, I totally freaked out every time I turned on the steam, and ended up making milkshake... oops! Not sure how I didn't all those years back. And then I completely failed at pouring my milk, too. No blobs, no squiggles... just... nothing. The blandest, most homogeneous brown coffee you can imagine!So, I guess my journey to being a barista will be very long....How to pull the perfect shot
And then, serendipitously, came along the golden class - a 2 hour espresso lesson. No milk here! It was almost too expensive for me, but not much gets in the way of me and my coffee. So $75 it was, and it was well worth the money! We started off with three different coffees - house, El Limoncello Nicaragua, and some Kenyan that I don't remember. With several tasting wheels for our reference, we first cupped these coffees (no real cupping spoons, but who needs them!) before proceeding to work behind the machine.I couldn't help but identify that the Nicaraguan coffee was natural processed - it's just so obvious! Though I didn't know that they produced natural coffees, so I was second guessing myself a little bit.
Next, a lesson in extraction. I remember the first time I was shown this demonstration and got to taste it, it was amazing! So this is actually one of my favourite parts of espresso learning. A shot of coffee is run indefinitely, collecting about 10 sec worth of coffee in each glass, so 40 sec in total here (anything past 50 sec is just disgusting water). All the oils and flavour are in the first, all the bitter compounds are in the last.
And here is the first espresso that I made! It was kind of sour.... The house blend was made of Colombian, Brazil and Nicaragua (not the same as their single), so I would have liked more chocolateyness out of this one. Next, we had a choice of what coffee we wanted to extract. The Nicaraguan had an interesting recipe which required a full pre-infusion, which was a cool concept that I had explained to me for the first time - letting the basket fill with water, then allowing for full pressure and extraction. Apparently the El Limoncello ran really fast... it was also a massive bean. So that's good to know!I chose the Kenyan though, mainly because I know what Kenyans taste like (generally speaking). For some reason though, the coffee kept coming out way too fast and sour, and for me, severely lacking body. There was another group who also used the Kenyan - same recipe - and theirs came out nicer, so tamping was the only real variable. I guess I don't tamp hard enough? Even increasing the dose didn't help, but I absolutely loved the hands on experience!I love coffee!In Conversation with Gary MehiganWhile there were also some night noodle markets I attended, that wasn't all too eventful. Instead, what was really fun to attend was a talk with Gary Mehigan. It was a reasonably priced session so I decided to go. He's a very nice fellow and super talkative!It was just a general chat, where he talked about his childhood and how he was studying to be an architect/engineer until he found out his grandfather cooked. There was a great recount of how he loved his grandfather's cabbage because it had bacon and garlic in it, and that he hated his mum's boiled cabbage, but that he didn't understand why at the time to be able to articulate this.There was also talk about the hard hours of a chef, which I always love listening to. I love cooking, but I know that a chef's hours are hard and there's a lot of blood sweat and tears involved, so I'll never actually become one.There was also a focus on Masterchef - how he came to become one of the judges by passing auditions with George - they bounced ideas off one another rather than just present their own opinions. He also mentioned that most of the food they were tasting was indeed cold - with so many contestants, cleaning and camera crew during the cooks. The time is real! But he explained that since they were walking around, tasting things during the cook (and not being able to directly provide advice), that they had a rough idea of what the dish would taste like by the time it was served to them. That was pretty cool, and makes a lot of sense.The hour went by so quickly! He's such a chatty fellow. A very enjoyable session!I should probably do and attend more things, but the busier I am, the less I blog! So we'll see!
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!
Sydney photography
Now that I have two lenses, I take them everywhere. So here are some shots where I happened to be carrying my 60mm.
Noma Australia
Wow. Noma. The Noma. The Rene Redzepi. Rene. Where to start....
There's once in a lifetime, then there's once in a lifetime. I thought I'd experienced something extraordinary when I had my first fine dining experience at Tetsuya's. Then it was Quay in its San Pellegrino Top 50 glory, then it all became so casual when I started "frequenting" the Rockpool Group chains, especially Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney bar. It became so normal to continue visiting such amazing restaurants.But this was something else. Having avoided as many spoilers as I could, I went in knowing, but not knowing. And here I had the most fantastic showcase of Australian produce. Real Australian produce. So much magic.Let's begin at the beginning.
The decor was amazing. So simple, but so much detail. The gorgeous Zalto glasses and their unbelievably slender stems, the banksia and eucalyptus, the candles, it was beautiful! Those Zalto stems....
Unripe macadamia and spanner crab
The staff were very welcoming and we were settled in very quickly, so much so that I didn't realise just how soon the first course came! We were advised that any beverage pairing we chose would start on the third course, so we were given time to contemplate our choice, though for us it was quite simple - juice!First course - and I immediately decided to test my own knowledge of food, what'd I'd seen from Rene's and Noma's posts. I guessed either macadamia (but for some reason it didn't look like macadamia to me?) or bunya nut, and it turns out this was unripe macadamia. Go me! It was in a spanner crab broth with rose oil. A surprising combination, but it worked beautifully. The macadamias were crisp and slightly sweet, where the broth was salty and complemented the nuts well. The rose aroma wasn't overpowering at all, and gave it an extra dimension.As a side note, this was the only wooden spoon I received that had the noma brand inscribed at the back; every subsequent wooden utensil didn't have the noma branding. Not sure why but I found that amusing.
Wild seasonal berries flavoured with gubinge
More excitement as this dish came out. I immediately recognised the distinctive colour and shape of riberries (lilly pillies), something I loved seeing during my time in Adelaide. I'm fairly certain the large bulbs were native apple, and there were also muntries, desert limes, and probably other berries that I don't recall. All this was sitting in kelp oil and dusted over with kakadu plum powder (gubinge).
After dining here, I found a few reviews that described this dish as fairly tart, but either my palate has been so far shifted towards acidity that to me these were all rather sweet (except the desert lime which was undeniably sour but not astringent). Perhaps I just had a lucky plateful? The native apples gave off a slightly eucalyptus flavour for me.
As a side note on this particular dish - lately, I've been describing some everyday food as tasting "exactly like the sum of its ingredients". In particular, a pizza that I had. My tone while describing this came across as disappointment. This surprised people, but for me (and especially after reading the description from a recent special edition blend from Mecca coffee roasters called the Black Forest, which cited that the meaning of "gestalt" should not be that the sum is greater than its parts, but rather, that the whole is other than the sum of its parts), something tasting exactly of its ingredients is ordinary. This dish proved my point exactly. After having tasted each of the individual ingredients, I began having mouthfuls of everything. And then this dish became something else. Something more. That kelp oil, those berries, the magic of the gubinge, gave it an extra dimension of sweetness and aroma that none had by themselves. Now that was one amazing gestalt experience! This is why I eat, this is what I chase, this is what gives my life meaning!
Okay, I got gushy. But it was just that good.
Bergamot kombucha/native mint
These are no ordinary juices. They're amazing concoctions of juices, herbs, spices and oils. An amazing blend that gives so much depth of flavour, so much complexity that you can sniff and drink and sniff and drink forever. And look at those gorgeous Zalto stems. Seriously, they're amazing. Everything's amazing.
Porridge of golden & desert oak wattleseed with saltbush
Quite an interesting dish, I got really excited over the green finger lime on top. I felt really happy being able to identify these ingredients! I totally missed the fact that the leaves were saltbush though. Oops! While I've previously had wattleseed in the form of chocolate from Haigh's and as part of a crumb from Restaurant Revolution, this was the first time I've had them whole. To be honest I couldn't tell that there were two types of wattleseed, but still enjoyed this dish.
Rose/spruce wood oil
Wood oils are amazing. You could just smell these juices forever! I found the wood oil the dominant aroma here, with a very pleasant sweetness from the juice itself.
Seafood platter and crocodile fat
Ah, the jewels of the sea. An assortment of Australia's finest shellfish. Pippy, mussel, strawberry clam, blood clam (I think? Can't remember), oyster. The pippie and mussel were my favourites, though it could also be that I recognised the flavours the most compared to the other ones.
And those lovely melt in the mouth shards of fat. Ours was a combination of duck and crocodile fat, which went well with every piece! It just added another level of flavour to an already amazing dish.
It was a little awkward to eat this one though, both my brother and I dropped a shell and a rock. But it was all in good fun!
Yay, Rene himself! My camera's autofocus is not so smart, so this was the best I could get. However what was also really exciting was that I was fairly certain I knew which table he was at, and halfway through I was definitely sure! Now I'm just waiting for their posts and reading what they thought of the experience.
Through their online presence, I learned that Ben Shewry was also present! But alas, I don't know what he looks like, even though I should, so I don't know where he was seated. There was a lovely couple dressed in traditional Japanese clothing in the corner too, which was very nice.
W.A. deep sea snow crab with cured egg yolk
Peeling snow crab must be tough work. I had a few inedibles in mine, but my goodness that flesh was so sweet! And having the cured egg yolk was genius! It carried a lot of the flavour and the word "emulsion" ran through my head. The egg yolk was cured in the liquid of "aged kangaroos," whatever that means. I found it amusing they didn't specify what kind of liquid. I also didn't ask though!
Green tomato/lemon myrtle
This was an amazing green tomato juice. I love green tomatoes, but this was unusually un-sour. It was quite savoury and immensely pleasant, and so I asked further about. It contained native basil and native thyme, which the waiter described as being distinctly different in flavour from the traditional herbs.
It actually kind of reminded me of a chilled tomato soup. Hey, I make chilled tomato soups! Perhaps I should go to the effort of making them again!
Those Zalto stems...
PIE: dried scallops and lantana flowers
By far the prettiest dish. Flowers make everything pretty! The contents of the tart was comprised of dried scallops, while the pastry was made with seaweed. Lantana flowers themselves are edible, however the rest of the plant is poisonous so we were instructed not to eat the stem.
The flower also came whole, and the chef said that we could pick off the flowers and sprinkle them onto the tart. Every picture I've seen so far of this has the flowers sprinkled randomly all over the tart. But me being me and my love for aesthetics and pretty things, went into design mode. I also began carefully pulling the flowers off one at a time, and I think the waiter thought I was either going to take too long or didn't get it! He came to the table and said I could pull the entire bunch off at once - and my brother confirmed this as he mentioned they were easy to pull off.
Oh well, there goes my quest to become meticulous. I remained diligent in my flower arrangement on the pie though! I had to take advantage of the amazing colours on my stem! And so the end result was, in my opinion, a very pretty pie!
And it wasn't just looks. Though the scallop flavour was too subtle for me, the seaweed base was absolutely delicious and kind of nostalgic - it reminded me of seaweed crackers that I ate as a kid, bought from random Asian grocers. The flowers had no taste, but me being me, I discovered that the pollen was sweet after eating a flower by itself.
BBQ'd milk "dumpling," marron and magpie goose
Teehee, I get it. The previous dish was about construction, this one was about deconstruction. This came in a gorgeous hand woven basket, and inside contained a "dumpling" (though I thought it looked more like an omelette) made of milk skin, with a delectable marron snuggled inside.
This was a little fiddlesome but in a fun way, as we were advised to eat this one with our hands, and were provided towels for afterwards. After a single bite my brother and I both immediately agreed that this was infinitely better than the marron we had at Kensington Street Social (sorry Jason!). The magpie goose's presence was super subtle, I was secretly hoping for a substantial chunk (like Orana), but that marron was so good I didn't really mind. The milk skin was nice and sweet, though I found that the extra sprinkle of salt on it was a little overpowering and unneeded.
Smoked pepper/red pepper berry
This was by far the most interesting juice! It was quite a "challenging" flavour as it was very spicy, sweet and savoury at the same time. Also quite chunky! Plus the smoke aroma was quite heavy, but I think it worked given the nature of the juice.
THE ANGLES. THAT STEM.
Sea urchin & tomato dried with pepper berries
Okay, double that challenge. As soon as this dish came out, I immediately knew it was an umami bomb. How could you go wrong with tomato and sea urchin? That urchin was so creamy, it was amazing! The tomatoes were dried for 12 hours, and brushed with elderflower oil every hour, the chef informed us. That elderflower aroma really came through, and while it was great, it was something my brain hadn't encountered before, hence, this was the most challenging dish to my palate.
I would even go so far as to say that it was the most unfamiliar and unexpected flavour combination I've had! Which was weird considering it was 1000% umami.
Abalone schnitzel and bush condiments
Ah yes. This is what dreams are made of. One massive, fat chunk of abalone. From Rene/Noma's posts of dancing abalone, to this perfectly cooked, mindblowingly delicious, tender steak of luxury on this plate, surrounded by a showcase of some of Australia's best native ingredients.
That crumb was perfect and crisp, and that abalone was just soooo tender! It was so good. SO GOOD.
Then came the ring of condiments. A bouquet of roadside greens including fennel, warrigal greens and other plants that I didn't recognise, to ice plant, to Neptune's pearls, to kakadu plum, to a crunchy thing I'd forgotten the name of, to bunya nut, to a weird woody thing I'd forgotten the name of, to seaweed. Then there was a side of fermented celery which tasted a little like tamari, a little like soy sauce, and was thoroughly delicious for dipping the abalone and its accompaniments in.
Some things of note - I totally didn't recognise the ice plant because I'm so used to seeing the mature plant with massive water bulbs! This one was much more subtle and also mild in flavour - I like them salty-sour! I miss Adelaide Central Markets.... The bunya nut was the other standout, having heard about Ben Shewry raving about them, I finally managed to have one and it's delicious! I want more!
Marinated fresh fruit
My dream come true. My reason for coming to Noma. Those ants. Those ants!!! Aren't they adorable??? Zoom. ZOOM. Enhance! My goodness. They are cute. So cute! And they're just sleeping there under the leaf blanket. I played with them a little too much, trying to pick them up and look at them, and rearrange them....
I didn't manage to have ants at Orana, which is why I was so gushy when I saw this dish come out. Sure, watermelon marinated in davidson plum juice was a genius idea that made watermelon so much tastier than if it was just by itself, and sure the super sweet pineapple wrapped in dried hibiscus leaf was delicious, but those ants!
I tasted an ant by itself, and without any idea of what ant does and tastes like (okay so my grammar might be off, but so what), I was pleasantly surprised when it popped in my mouth and filled with a zingy, bitey sensation and then just the most incredible citrussy flavour of lemon/lime! Give me more! I could eat a whole handful! I love ants!
Oh yeah, that mango "ice cream sandwich" - mango sorbet between two slices of fresh mango, was pretty good too. Made awesome by ants!!!
After having gleefully consumed this, I told the waiter how amazing I thought the ants were, and that I've always wanted to eat ants. He laughed and said that only people who dine at places like that would say such things! I must have been quite entertaining to watch during all that....
Blood plum/lemon grass
Can you see how gorgeous that Zalto stem is? Okay, it's the last of the juice pairing so there's no more of me talking about just how beautiful these wine glasses are. My waiter had to put up with me talking about how Riedels were overpriced and that Zaltos were cheap and so much prettier, and how I owned some and love them. And how delicate those stems are!!!
Okay, let's focus on the juice. Such tartness, sweetness and deliciousness! And what a great aroma. It actually came across as floral to me, rather than of lemongrass. But whatever it was, it was amazing. And totally fitting for our desserts.
Rum lamington
Genius, mind blowing, such an original take on the lamington! It was a rum ice cream... but can you see the texture? It's fluffy! How do you make an ice cream fluffy like that??? And it just... disappeared in the mouth! Like a wispy, ethereal being that packs the full flavoured punch of rum. Wow. And that tamarind sauce. Just... excitement.
Peanut milk and freekah "Baytime"
Noma's take on the Golden Gaytime. The last dessert. Totally not what I expected! It wasn't sweet at all (much, especially with my shifted palate), in fact, the peanut ice cream was very savoury for me. I had failed to take a picture of another bite in, which would have shown an oozing caramel which did provide the ice cream with a much needed sweetness.
I totally loved this version!
I also couldn't resist sampling the coffee both ways. Ethiopia Djimma, a region I'm quite familiar with in terms of coffee. The first was a pourover, the second as espresso. The coffee was great and so much better than what you get in even most fine dining restaurants, but whether it was just the beans, extraction, or the day, it didn't quite meet my expectations of what the coffee could taste like.
I am a coffee snob, after all... except that I have no idea where these fell in relation to Barista Hustle's coffee compasses for filter and espresso. I probably just need more practise!
And we ended on a sweet note, with some apple and desert lime candies. The sourness was actually quite refreshing!
What a fantastic experience. It was most definitely once in a lifetime, and a definite eye opener! I can't imagine a single diner who wouldn't be surprised by the menu.
The service was warm and impeccable, and the food was delicious, genius, and mind blowing. If I had to give a comparison point, I'd say that Orana would be the closest match. It's a permanent restaurant that showcases native Australian fare - and I actually found a lot of common ingredients between here and there. Definitely worth a visit of you enjoyed this version of Noma!
I am so glad, and so proud, that Rene and his team set up the menu that they did, as it's everything that defines Australian cuisine. What an incredible experience, and has made me really want to visit his Copenhagen restaurant! However, that's probably for another lifetime....
Welcome to Australia.
Margaret River
Finally, an eventful Christmas! I got the opportunity to head down to the south of Perth and into the famed Margaret River region. Being about a 3 hour drive, the weather was significantly cooler which is why it's a great fresh produce area.Along the way, there lies the southern hemisphere's longest wooden jetty - Busselton Jetty. It's about 2k long with a train track running all along it. All along the jetty there are heaps of people fishing - we saw whiting and squid being caught. Squid make weird noises when they're dying upon the jetty....The place where I stayed had some lovely sunflowers, as well as a tea house and restaurant/winery attached. So very nice!
And the tea house specialised in lavender products (their lavender ice cream was a let down though), and had this cute little grasshopper dancing away on the window:
The restaurant was pretty good - they were closed on Xmas Day and Boxing Day so lunch/dinner were out of the question, however they served some tasty tea for breakfast!
There were wineries everywhere, I stopped at one called Cape Naturaliste vineyards, and their shiraz was actually quite tasty. I wish I could drink alcohol, though. One winery was enough for me, so that's about it for what people usually come here for.The Margaret River town centre was also a quaint little street. There were a few hipster cafes and restaurants which I enjoyed, but nothing that stood out in particular, except some coffee kombucha from a cafe that used their La Marzocco container as a table - that was cute!Instead, the highlight of the trip was Yallingup beach, which was about 45 minutes north of the Margaret River. Here's some lovely beach spam!
And a hipster cafe :D