Tum Yums

Game Of Thrones Feast, Gastro Park

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Cass

Yesterday we went to the lovely Gastro Park, Potts Point for lunch.

Due to amazing timing, Gastro Park are serving an incredible Game Of Thrones inspired degustation (7 March – 7 April). It being one of our favourite series, we thought it the only fitting way to appropriately celebrate Tom’s birthday.

We prepared for our feast with some gorgeous cocktails (Tom had the Bitter Melba and I, the Daisy De Santiago).

Here’s our menu

The Menu!

The Bleeding Stag came first.
Seared venison and a gorgeous salad of roast cherry tomatoes, radish, soft boiled quail egg.

Bleeding Stag

Broth of Raven’s Claw and Rusty Armour
This was my favourite course of the day.
The most amazing quail broth served with pumpkin gnocci (which exploded like bubbles of deliciousness) and charred pepper.

Raven's Claw Soup

Chunk of Wild Pig served on Godswood Log and forest fruits
The crackling was easily the best crackling i’ve ever had!
The roasted fruit was juicy and creamy and complimented the meat perfectly. We smashed this leg in 20 minutes, I’m sure of it!

The most amazing roast pork!

Textural Dessert of the land with Dragon Egg,
The egg was made of white chocolate, fulled with passionfruit sauce. The mountain of white was vanilla cream dipped in liquid nitrogen, i believe. The earth; crumbs of delicious cakes (fruit cake and cookie dough, i think) there was also incredibly rich chocolate mousse.

Whopping tray of dessert for us to share

..Digging in!

Eating!

All in all, a seriously decadent, delicious meal! I’ll definitely return to try the pumpkin gnocci in Gastro Park’s signature dish!

****/***** (4 out of 5 stars)

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

French Supper at La Guillotine (Sydney)

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Cass

Tom and I decided on an impromptu dinner before heading to see The Muppets. We popped in to La Guillotine, just a hop skip and a jump away from the cinemas on George street in Sydney.

Craving dangerous quantities of garlic and butter (as usual), we ordered Escargot to start with some crusty bread.. Man, I love me escargot!

For mains, I had Beef Fillet with green peppercorn sauce and a gratin of potatoes.. Incredibly yummy and juicy!!

Tom had the chargrilled lamb cutlets with herbs. While grain mustard, ratatouille and mash potatoes. Yum yum!

While not as refined as our meals in Japan or experiences at La Brasserie in Darlinghurst, we enjoyed our little meal, it was rustic, flavorsome and convenient!
**.5/*****

Posted in Delicious Diners, Swish Dinners | Leave a comment

Tum Yums Whirlwind Trip to Tokyo!

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Cass

Tom and I popped over to Tokyo for a quickie week long holiday over Christmas and new years!
Unsurprisingly it turned into a shopping and eating fest with a side of sight seeing!

We had Takoyaki a couple of times In Harajuku and Shibuya’s Centre Gai
from a great chain called Tae Gindamo, check them out:

We also enjoyed delicious BBQ Scampi, sashimi and amazing Tempura in a little restaurant in Shinjuku, here are Tom and Hannah with the giant scampi:

Yakitori and tempura yummies

incredible sashimi

We enjoyed an incredible 5 course degustation at Fuga at the Shinjuku Prince Hotel!
We even managed to snap the menu:

First up was Fugu in sour orange juice, deep fried cod and mushroom yumminess

Next up was minced Tuna sushi served with sea urchin

Following the urchin was Grilled Bonito with Sake-kasu Green Pepper, pickled ginger and apricot

This was the first time trying fresh Bonito and it was seriously divine!
Australian beef came next and u have to say, this was the best beef I have ever had!

Sesame tofu rolled with Yuba Japanese stock sauce, crab, wasabi

Rice with young sardines, soup and pickles was next. This also is a traditional Japanese breakfast. Very yummy but I was starting to fill up by this point!

Dessert was an amazing Apple mousse with caramel sauce!

Tom and I also enjoyed some incredible crepes and cakes after our various 10hour + shopping days. Here’s what we had in Shibuya
Mine was a Strawberry cheesecake crepe filled with cream, strawberry coulis, fresh strawberries and cheesecake filling! Mmm

Tom had a millefuille crepe; ten layers of crepe with caramel, cream and banana.. Like a banoffi pie crepe!

On our last day out (New Years Day), we were hideously hungover, cold and craving some hot tea and cake so we stopped in to a chain cafe. I ordered the Strawberry Shortcake;

More yummy cake!

Tom had the Creme Brulee cake.. it was seriously yummy too!

Yum! How amazing is the crockery too?

The week just flew by! I had the most amazing time! I can’t wait to go back and enjoy even more incredible food!

*****/***** (five outta five!)

Posted in Delicious Diners, Desserts, Swish Dinners | Leave a comment

Singapore Chilli Crab Night

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Cass

Last night Tom and I attended a Singapore Chilli Crab cooking class at the Sydney Seafood School!

We had a seriously awesome time, the demonstration in the lecture room was super helpful! We learnt two brilliant crab recipes; Singapore Chilli crab and lemongrass, ginger and pepper crab stir fry! I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it..

Check out our crabby creations!

Posted in Swish Dinners | Leave a comment

Sunday Summer Rolls

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Cass

I threw together a light afternoon snack for Tom and I, the weather was warm and lovely so we figured seafood was the best way to go.
I julienned some spring onions and cucumber
chopped some mint,
threw in some cooked crab and prawn meat,
grated in some fresh ginger
The juice if 1 lime and added a couple of tablespoons of light soy and fish sauce all together.

Soaked the rice paper until soft and filled these babies up and voila!

Next time I will use fresh crabmeat rather than the canned variety, and maybe alittle less juices when filling the rolls but they turned out to be quick, tasty and easy to whip together!

Posted in Home Cookin' | 1 Comment

Late lunch at Rosebud, Rozelle

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Cass

Tom and I ducked over to Rozelle for some shopping and a catch up with my parents. We popped into Rosebud and enjoyed a chilled late lunch, here’s what we had..

I ordered the Beer battered Barramundi with Rosemary Kipfler potatoes

Tom had the Angel Hair pasta with crab and chilli

Mum enjoyed the Lamb Kofta Mezze plate

And Dad had the Wagyu beef burger and with chips

Rosebud was the perfect venue for our catch-up, it rocked a simple but great sounding menu, the service was great and we definitely enjoyed our meals.

!!/!!!!! (2 exclamation marks out of 5)

Posted in Delicious Diners | Leave a comment

Godfather Fest Saturday

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Cass

Last night Tom and I hosted a Godfather-themed evening at home and invited some of our closest friends. Tom perfected his incredible 4-meat Ragu and our friend Lee made and brought the most delicious dessert I’ve had in a very long time!!
Here’s how it went down, (please bear with me with the photos, I was on a roll with the wine by this stage)

With Lee’s help, I threw together a rocket-Caprese salad and rustic tomato salad for the table

Then came Tom’s awesome Ragu

Followed by Lee’s Chocolate Peanut butter swirl ice-cream cake with Butternut base, served with warm chocolate ganache!

Posted in Desserts, Home Cookin', Swish Dinners | 1 Comment

Fryday night at Zushi – Surry Hills

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Cass

Tom and I decided to meet up in the city after work on Friday for a tasty dinner before I continued on to Black Dice @OAF, I didn’t end up going to the gig but our dinner at Zushi was, once again, divine! Not only did they seat us after dropping in at 7pm without a booking, but the service was brilliant and friendly! Thanks for making it so easy for us to have a great evening, Zushi!
We ordered Ginger Ninja and Lychee Spice cocktails

Yummiest Edamame I’ve had all year

It was Oyster Friday at Zushi so we ordered the Kakifry Oysters (drool!)

We continued the deep fried theme with the Crispy Scallops

Then came the Lobster roll, which was light and creamy and super fresh

Followed by deliciously light and tasty Agedashi Tofu!

Another consistently brilliant meal, I recommend you all get over there and give this place a try!
!!!!/!!!!!, 4/5 exclamation marks
(if there had’ve been some sort of Japanese style American ribs offered, Zushi would’ve received 5/5)

Posted in Swish Dinners | Leave a comment

What’s In A Name….When The Name Is “Red Rooster”.

Posted on October 4, 2011 by David

I just got to hit a lot of the world’s major capitals…but, you know, on a budget so as self-appointed “king of middlebrow” (“The Taste That Dare Not Speak Its Name” according to GQ) I’m aiming to highlight kinda cool but also kinda not-too-pricey places.

New York’s awash with great restaurants but the name people are dropping is way up in that most Harlem-y of Harlem areas Lenox St, just above 125th (home to the Apollo) and down from the iconic yet tourist-y Syvlia’s. It’s called (wait for it) Red Rooster and it’s run by Ethiopian-born, Swedish-adopted and raised Marcus Samuelsson, the man behind the success of NYC mod-Swedish stalwart Aquavit.

For most Australians Red Rooster will just be sending the wrong signals – you’re already imagining your chips and drinks menu. Get over it. And despite Samuelsson’s history, this is a 2011 take on soul food with a nod to Africa and the occasional wild leap to Sweden as well.

The signature dish is Fried Yard Bird, which is what I ended up ordering, and it’s essentially classic southern fried chicken…but with a flourish. The menu is also littered with other southern/comfort classics like Catfish and Black-Eyed Peas, dirty rice and the like. And there’s even Helga’s Meatballs, apparently the only pure Swedish inclusion on the menu.

The chicken was USD$21, the crowd was hip and pretty and the place was packed early on a Tuesday night…..if you don’t want to sit next to the band with a trumpet in your ear, remember to book.

Posted in Delicious Diners | Leave a comment

Rosewater and Coconut Macarons

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Cass

It’s been a crazy awesome long weekend! Tom and I ducked up to Newcastle to check out this year’s incredible Sound Summit, I was lucky enough to participate in a workshop and see some brilliant local and international bands. We also joined in the celebrations for my grandma Doreen’s 90th birthday!
Today we’ve spent the day cleaning house and catching up on the thousands of loads of washing..oh and baking!

Inspired by Donna Hay’s 10th Birthday Edition of her mag, I decided to try makingRosewater and coconut maracons for the first time!

Here’s how it went down..

Sifting the almond meal and icing sugar into a mixing bowl