Frenchie times

I can't believe it'd be the end of October tomorrow! Time flies way too fast!

I'm rather excited as November is my birthday month and finding time to celebrate my birthday with my family and friends is proven to be a monumentous task! So I be having several different dinners at places I've been wanting to try but haven't got the opportunity. It also means I'll be very poor..!!

So to start off I am going to my favorite French bistro - P'tite Ardoise in highgate with my closest of friends I've known for over 10 years. The staff at P'tite Ardoise have been so wonderful so far as to accommodate a large group at their small dining room and offering me set menus (which is adaptable).

Then bf is spoiling me with a lovely dinner at the Loose Box. I hope it'd be fantastic because I wasn't impressed with Les Bistro Des Artistes (a post that should be written up very soon).

Then a lovely intimate family dinner with bf and my parents, brothers and their gfs at Bistro Gulliaume. Should be pretty good! A

Noticing a pattern there? All French restaurants!

There goes my savings! Anyone willing to sponsor my meal?? Hahaa kidding...

Then I also have a couple of Hens Party and a wedding!!

Oh did I mention tomorrow I get to dine at the Print Hall dining with a couple of beautiful ladies C & E! So excited.. We'll catch up and it'd be like a bday celebration for all three of us!

So much for losing weight. I've been fairly good most of the time - going to the gym 3x a week but diet wise... If there wasn't so many places I want to try/if the foodie in me would stop and control herself I would be fine... just have to make sure I control myself when I go out and eat... I have a Herve Leger I need to make sure I still fit freaking nicely in! So far I'm just a little blotted.. But there is a quick and effective cure for that... The Dukan Diet. So good!!

Which I will restart again now!

Theobroma

Happy Monday! And you can't go wrong with the beautiful mocha with dark chocolate melted through it from Theobroma.

It's the perfect cup of coffee perfectly balanced with beautiful dark coco! If you happen to be in the city head down to St George tce to the Brookfield Place and have a cuppa.

And hey why not get their brownies.. Another lovely thing topped with ice cream of course! So chocolatey, so moist and fluffy and slightly melted chocolate on the inside. Decandent in a form of a square!

If only I worked anywhere near that.. But then again maybe it's a good thing I don't.. My waistline, I'm sure, thanks me for it.

Raah

I've been trying a fair bit of middle eastern cuisine recently. I guess it's because there are so many "modern Australian" restaurant and going to an Italian or Chinese is such a norm that it's rather pleasant to try something with spices and herbs, and although Indian foods tends to have that too, I just find it rather creamy and rich sometimes and a lot of my friends are not really Indian cuisine fans. 

One of the recent middle eastern places we tried at was Raah, located on the Beautfort street strip, closer towards Highgate end then Mount Lawley end. They specialise in contemporary middle eastern cuisine, which was rather exciting. 

There are black drapes at the front making it all mysterious and exclusive. Because there was a big group of us we were lucky to score a private area, closed of from the rest of the restaurant, which was packed on a Friday night. The private area had a MASSIVE grand solid wood table, which made the person on the opposite side of the table seem so very far away. It also had a beautiful chandelier/lantern like lighting and fireplace. Gorgeous. Private and cosy.

 We ordered a bottle of Spanish Tempranillo wine  Rioja Calo, highly recommended by our waiter, who was so friendly warm, knowledgeable and funny. He made the night so enjoyable.

We decided to start the night off a mezze plate as a few of us were running late and we were getting hungry. 

 

Silky hummus with minted lamb and toasted almonds with Turkish bread

 

The silky hummus with minted lamb and toasted almonds with Turkish bread lightly drizzled with oil. This was so beautiful and the edible petals added a beautiful aroma to the dish when eaten with hummus. You can opt to not eat the petals. The hummus really was silky and having the minted lamb through it added a nice satisfying "meaty" feel to it. The Turkish bread was slightly overcooked but crunchy nonetheless. Because there was six of us we ordered an extra plate of Turkish bread, which also allowed us to finish the hummus nicely.

We opted for 4 "more substantial" meals to share followed by dessert each. There was so many wonderful sounding dishes on the menu that it made rather hard to chose. After much pondering and several visits by our waiter and possibly pouring of more wine we decided on the following four.

Yoghurt Marinated Goat, spicy aubergine relish, moghrabieh salad

The goat was so tender and the dish was rather spicy for some, but I loved it. It just melted in your mouth and the flavours of the dish was amazing. If eaten with the freshing salad and relish side dish it eases the heat that you might have from the goat dish. Perfect balance if you ask me.

 

Seafood/Clams/Mussels stew with seeded cous cous

This flavours and aroma of the stew would make any non-fan of seafood a fan. It was filled with spices and heat it was fantastic.

The next delicious plate to share for the evening was a chicken dish, which I can't recall what it is (I really need to start making notes or at least taking a photo of the menu!), but it had pita bread on the side. The chicken wasn't too dry and was sweeter and seemed milder in flavour than the other two previous dishes.

  

Chicken with chickpea and stuffed pita bread

 

 

Wild mushroom, date and chickpea 

This was rather refreshing in comparison but still had that punch of spice through it. 

There was so many yummy options on the dessert menu that there was more sharing to be done. 

 

Turkish Delight sorbet with strawberries

There was the Turkish Delight sorbet with strawberries. The sorbet was this intense flavour of Turkish delight, so refreshing, light and tangy, perfect way to cleanse the palate a good one to start off if you are thinking of sharing the desserts amongst friends. 

Stuffed donuts with melted chilli chocolate

We also had the donuts with melted chilli chocolate. Who doesn't like warm donuts dipped in melted chocolate? The donuts were fluffy and had this lovely Turkish delight stuffing in it.This of course went beautifully with the dark chocolate mousse. Light in texture but rich in dark chocolate flavour. The brittle however wasn't crunchy, but rather chewy, which was a little odd.

Chocolate mousse with brittle

Overall, Raah is a great place if you want to try something a little different in the Perth food scene. It packs a punch with the dishes they serve, the service is so friendly, warm and accommodating there is nothing to fault there. The only thing I would comment is that it was a bit too dim, it was almost hard to read the menu, just a slight turn up on the dim lights would not have ruined the mood and would enable us to see the menu. Also if you don't feel like having to choice out of the mains and mezze plates there is also the set menu that is available. 

If you haven't already, definitely check out Raah. It's worth going.

Xanadu

Xanadu in Margaret River is rather gorgeous, perhaps the frontage is not as grand as, let's say Voyager, nor does it have a massively beautiful garden as Flutes or some form of water feature like Watershed,  or as huge as Leeuwin Estate, but there is something rather charming about Xanadu's simple layout of stone walls, high exposed timber ceiling and the fire place in the dining hall. I guess it's their way of saying you don't have to be flashy but we can compete with the best of them. Personally, I agree, I try never to judge a restaurant's interior design or landscape design and extrapolate it to the quality of their food, but of course having a pretty dining room (Xanadu's so cosy!) or lovely entrance always makes for a rather pleasant start to the dining out experience.

We made a very last minute booking, mainly because O taught it would be find just rocking up to any winery for lunch, which I somewhat disagreed on considering it's, well Margaret River. So after realising that restaurants will be packed (from observing Sarachen winery and restaurant) we made a quick decision to go to Xandau (their wines are good and they are on the entertainment card) we booked at 2pm.  So when we got there, the lunch crowd had gone, however, the restaurant was far from empty, majority of the table were taken up by diners. I wasn't feeling all that flash when we got there so I skipped out on trying the wines at the adjacent cellar door.

 We were promptly seated and orders were taken. We opted for shared entrees and a main each, with ice cream for dessert elsewhere.

 There was the mushroom tart - creamy with perfect tart pastry and the aroma of the mushrooms was beauitful. Bf and I had major food envy when this came out!

 

The mushroom tart

Bf and I shared the crispy soft shell crab with ravioli - the soft shell crab was a little soft and soggy from the sauce but the sauce had this delicious mix of herbs and spices through it. A lovely dish, but a little on the heavy side for an entree.  

 

Soft Shell crab and ravioli pasta

There was a small selection of mains to chose from, which is somewhat nice. It shows they have put a bit of taught into it and isn't trying to be jack of all trades, but are trying to perfect (if not have perfected) what they have on the menu. It also makes it easier for you to chose! 

Between the 3 couples we all ended up choosing the following three - all of which were of carnivorous in nature. 

  There was the pork cracking with croquette on the side on top of a bed of apple salad and mash. The crackling I was told was crispy and crunchy, pork was moist and tender and the apple salad added that sweetness and refreshing taste to the dish. 

 

Pork crackling with apple salad and croquette

 

 Then there was the beef rump, which I had, It wasn't what I imagined to come out looking. However, the meat was juicy and the jus was a beautiful red wine reduction. The only problem I did have (and this is probably my fault, because I ordered a cut of meat like this) was the fat throughout it. The taste of the fat was very evident and I really didn't like that, I probably should have stuck to the fillet steak. 

 

Beef rump in red wine jus

Then there was the steak fillet. Beautifully cooked, juicy, tender and medium! The beetroot on top of the beef added sweetness to the dish, while the red wine jus (the same one as the beef) perfectly complimented the dish.  It also came with an almost pie like pastry, which really wasn't needed, but just added the little something. 

 

The steak fillet

We also ordered a side of chips. There was huge chunky things (bigger than the size of my fingers!) and came with paprika aioli. It was a little too potatoey/starchy would have been better if it was smaller in size.

Overall, the food and the service at Xanadu is very pleasant and lovely. Despite myself not feeling one hundred percent it was a lovely lunch at a restaurant worth dropping by if you ever in the Margaret River region.

"For someone that eats out so much and loves her food so much you look bloody amazing!"

A friend of mine made a comment the other week about my eating habits. These were her exact words..

"For someone that eats out so much and loves her food so much you look bloody amazing!"

HAHA and although it's almost like an insult I take it as a compliment. Because firstly I don't have a fast metabolism. Far from it. My body loves to keep me insulated! XD~~

And YES I could be TEN TIMES THE SIZE I actually am! And YES my parents have told me to stop going out so much and I truly try to!

For instance, I'm actually very much sick of eating out at the moment, and yet I have a list of restaurants I want to try and dine at. So I'm going to detox for a while (I managed to for about 5 days and then went all down hill with haven't not seen several friends in a long while!) Detoxing doesn't help when eating is socialising.

Anyway, I watch what I eat, and when I'm actually on my diet - strict diet that is - I watch what I eat when I go out. Otherwise anything is fair game. I don't deprieve myself of what I love. But I restrict and choose my meals carefully when I feel like I'm starting to lose shape. It also helps that I'm addicted to sweating off at the gym. I try to go at least three to four times a week. On a bad week it'd be twice a week, in which case I become very lethargic and BLAH and will have to work harder the next week.

So for her words, I'm grateful, because it shows that I haven't gained any weight despite my eating, in fact when I don't dine out I TRY to be a clean eater. And I work bloody hard to burn everything I eat off!
In fact, if anything I'm a lot toner and healthier now than I have been for ages, after all calories in should always be less than calories out! ^_^

Fashion and fundraising

I think this is an amazing way to support breast cancer and pink ribbon day by having local designers showcase their work and give proceeds to charity.

Why not buy a ticket and support it! I be getting a few of my girlfriends together and checking it out. It's only $17 for a ticket and you get a gift bag so why not?

Fuku Omakase and Teppanyaki

I felt so honoured and delighted to have been invited by Brett and his team to one of Fuku's soft opening nights last Tuesday, 9th October at 7:30pm. There I was able to meet a few other bloggers I follow and love. Among them were PFE and Foodie Cravings! In fact, I was prepared with chiro to take the photos, only to discover half way to the restaurant that chiro didn't have her SD card! I was so devastated so you must excuse the quality of the photo as my dear Iphone had to do the work!

Fuku in Japanese means luck, fortunate, and success. Fuku is an Omakase/Teppanyaki restaurant in Mosman Park, owned by the guys that ran Tsunami Restaurant next door. It was very easy to find Fuku with it's simple black and white sign and yet it has a very discrete entrance, you have to ring the door bell to be let into the restaurant. How very private and intimate!

The door opens to a room with lovely printed Japanese images on glass, warm yellow and red lights and a wall filled with sake bottles (over 500 bottles of sake with Fuku exclusive sake bottles, with the most expensive bottle being $300). It's a small restaurant with only about 14 bar only seating, with the chefs cooking the dishes, right in front of you.

The menu bf and I were presented with comprised of 9 courses, a Japanese degustation! I was very excited when I saw it and couldn't wait to get started, along with distilled water and a glass of red wine on offer. Bf also grabbed himself this lovely granita drink ($10 unlimited and really it was unlimited, we barely noticed the waitstaffs topping it up!) which was so refreshing and almost like a mango smoothie.

Because of the nature of the restaurant - teppanyaki, chefs-preparing-your-next-course-while-you-eat-your current-one-concept, all of our food were cooked and prepared on the spot with the chefs showing off their knife skills and fancy hand work. It was a real pleasure to watch them.

Our first course was the Sashimi and sushi - toro, salmon, anago with tuna, salmon and snapper sashimi. The sashimi and sushi were so fresh and delicious and dipped with FRESH wasabi and soy sauce was just lovely. Even bf, who's not usually a fan of sashmi (or seafood in general for that matter) thought it was fantastic. To convert him says a lot!

Sashimi and Sushi - toro, salmon, anago with tuna, salmon and snapper sashimi

The next dish was the small morsels, we were presented with tsubugai (shellfish), octopus and a lobster meat and avocado salad, and wagyu beef  however, because of my unusual allergy to squid/octopus/anything in that category of seafood ONLY I didn't have Tsubugai and the octopus I gave to bf. The slices of very tender wagyu beef slightly seared and covered with this amazing sesame sauce. The lobster with avocado when eaten with the whole spoon have these wonderful bursts of tangy flavours from the marinate of the lobster, the creamy avocado and succulent lobster meat. This is completely different in taste and texture if you were to eat it as its separate elements. Bf said that the octopus was succulent and yet tender and refreshing.

 

Small Morsels - Wagyu beef, lobster and avocado salad and octopus and Tsubugai and octopus

The third course was the twice cooked quail with pomegranate sauce. Brett explained that the quails are the biggest quails in Australia and weighs 320g and was from a farm in the Hunter Valley ran by a husband and wife team. In fact it really was the largest quail I've seen and the breast meat was rather boneless as well. It was charcoal-ed and had that wonderful pomegranate sauce. It came with the edamame ratatouille side, a tangy/salsa side that went so perfectly with the quail it made us all go "wow".

Twiced cooked quail with pomegranate sauce and edamame ratatouille side

While we ate our quail, another chef was prepping up the teppanyaki plates to cook our jumbo prawn and scallop with uni butter. It was such a delight to watch the chef in action, using his artistic skills to grill our dish into perfection.

 

Japanese Scallop and Jumbo Prawn with Uni butter

 

This would have to be one of my favourite dishes of the night. Succulent, fresh prawns and scallops with this awesome crispy prawn head (almost like prawn crackers!) and the uni butter (sea urchin) was divine I was left licking my lips for any left over flavours.

Our fifth course of the night was the fish of the day - Kajiki (swordfish) with daikon radish. I love daikon radish and the fish was thick and meaty and was perched on top of the radish covered in miso sauce with a taste of tamarind. It was rather tangy and I'm not a huge fan of the tangy but it did complement all the elements on the plate. The long pink thing you see is the ginger, in which the end should be cut and eaten at the end of the dish for a palate cleanser effect.

Fish of the day - Kajiki and Daikon Radish with ginger palate cleanser

While we ate the Kajiki, Brett came around to talk to us and answer any questions about the restaurant. He was such a friendly, approachable and lovely guy. He showed us his awesome apparatus used to ensure that chilled sake is served at all times and explained where the produce that we were eating came from (from Japan and Australia depending on the dish).

 

As he was talking, one of the chefs was displaying his poweress at cooking fried rice. The eggs were tossed and acrobatically cracked and onion rings were lit on fire. It really was a sight!

The fried rice was cooked in butter and wagyu fat with diced wagyu beef tossed through the rice. It was probably the richest fried rice I've had, but I thought it needed a bit more salt and pepper. I did add a bit of extra soy sauce that was available to us on the bar and that made it perfecto, otherwise it was just buttery fried fried rice.

Fried Rice

We then had a palate cleanser, which was this tomato looking thing (OH I'm so so sorry I forgot what the waitress said!). But it was sweet and tangy and just washed away the butterness of the rice to prepare us for the highlight of the night - the Wgyu Sirloin Steak Mayura Station (located in Mount Gambier) Grade 7.

Palate Cleanser

 

 

Chef preparing our wagyu steak - I opted for medium rare while bf had medium.

 

Then the highlight of the night, in which bf squirmed in delight was the wagyu steak! Every bite of that steak was to die for. So tender. So succulent. So fatty without it just being fat (which tends to happen with bad quality wagyu - all fat no meat, good quality wagyu should have the fat laced throughout the meat that you can't taste the fat in it at all!). The sauce accompanying the dish had a little bit of spice and the fried garlic and grilled onions provided this sweetness and crunch to the dish. It was just perfect.

 

Wagyu sirloin steak

Of course the night cannot end without a dessert course.

  

Dessert - Genmaicha Pannacotta, Japaense Gaumkuchen and Mountain Peach with Kinako 

A Genmaicha (rice pudding with white rice tea syrup) pannacotta, Japanese Baumkuchen (layered cake) and mountain peach with kinako (soybean and icing sugar). I recommend you start with the mountain peach like I did. This is because this is the tartest and tangiest thing on the plate. Cover that with the soybean and icing sugar to ease it and it's beautiful. Next it doesn't matter if you try the genmaicha or layered cake. The layers of the Baumkuchen were individually baked and caramelised and was such a beautiful cake bf and I wanted more. The Genamicha pannacotta wasn't too sweet and was rather delicate and gentle in its flavours. It reminded me of cherryblossoms and my trip to Japan. Another highlight of the evening.

 Chef Tetsuya lovely carmelising the top layer of the Baumkuchen

I also have to compliment, the waitstaff for their amazing service. Friendly, obliging and non-intrusive and always with a smile! Everything was so smooth and pleasant and drinks were always topped up.

I have to also mention that typically there would be 3 degustation menus for your choosing (Good - 4 courses at $110, Better - 9 courses $160 or Best - 10 courses $260) each menu comes with unlimited complimentary sparkling or still mineral water, which is great because you don't have to worry about the cost of the bottles of water you are consuming. You can also have it with matching wine or sake if you wish for addition price.

Fuku is also unique in that all bookings are made online and not via phone so BOOK HERE. - It's suppose to be very Momofuku-like (and very Michelin star restaurant like) booking system. It's very intimate, seating only 14-odd seats so booking is highly recommended. However, you can take a risk and head to Fuku and if there is a little lantern hanging there with an amber/blue light on it, it means seats are still available. Otherwise you've missed out, better luck next time - or just book!

FUKU Omakase and Teppanyaki Restaurant was a wonderful experience which both bf and I myself immensely enjoyed. The concept is so unique to Perth and is an excellent addition to the Perth growing food scene. Extreme Japanese dishes lovingly made by Tetsuya and his team. The unique menu concept is only made better by the display of the chefs culinary skills. Bf and I would like to thank Fuku for the invitation, we had an amazing time and it was wonderful to meet many of the bloggers! And both of us highly recommend that you go and try it out!

Chester's Restaurant

Bf and I had a lovely date at the Swan Valley. We spent the morning playing Supa-golf at Oasis Park (such a challenge with hills and golf balls rolling down hills!). It was rather exhausting and the sun warming up didn't help with the heat and exhausation. So after the game of "golf" and trying wines at Lamont winery (the wines there wasn't really great!) we ventured to Chester's Restaurant for lunch.

Chester's Restaurant is located within the Heafod Glen Winery. The restaurant is steeped in history and was originally a fruit drying shed, then stable quarters for local riding academy, (may explain the tin roof and exposed Marri wood pillars). Rather lovely setting really.

 

We made a booking a head of time and when we got there the outdoor area was rather packed and busy (it was after all a lovely spring day), but we were seated inside, which suited us fine, considering we were out in the sun all morning playing "golf". 

After much deliberation, we decided we share an entree, get a main each and perhaps if the desserts look good have it at Chester's, or if not, go and get ice cream at Oggies!

We started of the meal with a lovely Mushroom soup special. It was creamy with the lovely taste and aroma of mushrooms (it really did smell yummy, especially for our rumbling tummies!). Although I wish they provided us with bread on the side and they didn't have such itchy hands, as I felt as though they tipped too much salt into it (bf disagreed and didn't think it was too salty).

 

For the mains, Bf ordered the pork with crackling mashed potatoes and glazed pear (the pear looked rather unappetitizing and didn't tie in with the dish even if they were going for that pork and pear/apple thing). The crackling was pretty good was well salted and crackled throughout, although they removed it from the pork meat and the pork itself had this massive 1cm of fat encased around it, which I was not impressed about (bf didn't mind), but I seriously think if you are going to remove the crackling from the meat, trim the fat!

We also had a side of potatoe gratin to share. It sounded rather pleasing like it was going to be cheesy and creamy. Instead what came out was this perfectly browned top, but like they say don't judge a book by it's cover, because the potatoe gratin was sour and vinegary. It wasn't what we expected at all. In fact, I really couldn't stomach much of it.

I on the other hand, had the duo of beef. There was there steak fillet - perfectly cooked on top of this lovely potato terrine with the jus (which was a little on the sour side, again you can taste the vinegar! obviously didn't cook that off!) and braised beef cheek tenderly slow cooked on a bed of sweet beetroot. I quiet enjoyed this dish really wished there was more of it.

Chester's Restaurant is a nice place to try at in the Swan Valley and I must say I appreciated that it was on the Entertainment Card. 25% off was rather nice. I wasn't blown away by the food, a few hits and misses but enjoyable and pleasant nonetheless. The ambience is rather relaxed, to the point that I could probably laze around at the place. The service was friendly enough and they asked us how our meals were, which was nice, and topping up our glasses.

I might however wait until the next year when I get a new Entertainment Card to come back again.