Tetsuya's, Kent Street

You know what people say: Having great expectations can be both a good and bad thing. When something lives up to great expectations, the experience is complete, right down to the beginning: the point of anticipation. But, on the flip side, great expectations can lead to great disappointment. Tetsuya’s is a case in point.

Tetsuysa’s is rated as one of the top restaurants in Australia, and some say the world. After all it was once listed no. 5 in the renowned S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant list, that’s before it has tumbled down to no. 17 this year. Indeed, it has fallen from grace!

With a pedigree like Tetsuya’s under the helm of a chef with his own line of vinaigrettes and wares, Tetsuya Wakuda, it would be an insult if you didn’t have high expectations.

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The reason why I put off writing this blog entry is that I didn’t know how to put to words my disappointment. On certain points during the four hour degustation meal, I even wondered if it was just me and my tastebuds playing tricks on me. How could everyone be raving about Tetsuya’s but me?

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Tetsuya is located along Kent Street in the City. My three dining companions and I were greeted by well-trained wait staff. Service was immaculate.

Walking through the doors into the dining area of Tetsuya’s was actually pretty surreal. “I am finally here,” I thought to myself.

The vastness of the restaurant actually surprised me. Inclusive of its private dining rooms, it actually could seat a good hundred people. Even with a large restaurant, you still had to make reservations a few months in advanced to snag that coveted spot.

The dinner was off to a good start. Warm bread was served after we settled down in our seats. Given a choice between sourdough and white rolls, all of us promptly opted for the sourdough.

As I always say, the bread that the restaurant serves tells a lot about the restaurant and its food. Tetsuya’s has certainly passed the bread test. First, the bread was freshly baked and warm and secondly, it was served with black truffle and parmesan salsa butter which was “ooh, so divine”! It left me desiring more but I stopped myself to save my stomach for the 13 courses that followed.

Amuse bouche was a chestnut mushroom soup with shaved white mushrooms.

Amuse bouche

We also ordered an extra course which was coffin bay oysters with grapeseed oil, rice vinegar and ginger. A simple dish that brought out the freshness of the oysters and it was really refreshing in taste. The only complaint, if any, was that it left an oily sheen on my lips, much more than desired.

Coffin bay oysters

We moved on to smoked ocean trout with avruga caviar with a round reconstructed egg yolk in the center. We were advised to eat all three components together. I love caviar and I love smoked ocean trout. Poke into the egg yolk and it burst, the three weaved together beautifully with a good texture and flavour play.

smoked ocean trout with avruga caviar

Next came the spanner crab custard. Smooth, light custard with really fresh crab in it.

spanner crab custard

Dinner was building up pretty nicely. Well paced, good selection of dishes, freshest ingredients. But the dinner just went downhill from this point.

Ironically, that point coincided with Tetsuya’s signature dish: Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Daikon and fennel green apple salad.

My first question is why they are serving us Ocean Trout twice in the same dinner in quite a similar way. The konbu crust unfortunately taste like MSG. The Ocean trout was soft as it was slowly-cooked under tender oven heat after being marinated in grapeseed oil and salt. Good but if this is his signature dish, then I was really very let down. The sides of daikon, fennel and julienned green apple was a nice complement but it isn’t an out of the world combination.

Confit of Tasmanian ocean trout with crusted daikon

I kind of lost track of the dishes in between. But the twice cooked de-boned spatchcock stuffed with foie gras with an olive tapenade with shaved truffles was another disappointing dish, just when you think things will get better. First of all, I don’t understand the use of summer truffles (Those truffles are from Perth apparently). But to me, it lacks the distinctive flavour that truffles ought to have. Summer truffles are a restaurant’s attempt to give a dish a boost of glamour. Other than that, I can’t imagine why they are included really. Oh, another thing was that I didn’t really enjoy the foie gras stuffing. To me, it just didn’t work. Call me a purist but I prefer my foie gras pan-seared where the crusty top gives way to a melt-in-the-mouth sensation.

Next, we had the terrine of Spanner crab with avocado soup. Why Spanner crab again? And I really didn’t think this dish work for me in terms of flavour and texture. It left me with a fishy after taste.

Spanner crab with avocado soup

The next course was grilled wagyu beef served with lime and wasabi and a jelly sheet made of dashi stock. Truth be told, it was good but not great.

Grilled waygu

But one can always look forward to great desserts to round up the meal nicely.

In this case, desserts really revealed the weakness of Tetsuya’s. In the presence of pastry students, the desserts were dissected apart.

To be honest, I cannot remember much of them. They were all too forgettable. Tetsuya lent his name to a dessert called Tetsuya’s strawberry shortcake. It was served in a fancy martini glass but fancy was the only way to describe it. It was simply strawberry puree with cream..the shortcake element was kind of missing.

Tetsuya's strawberry shortcake

Next was a chocolate mousse with a crème anglaise. Nothing exciting.

chocolate mousse and creme anglaise

My point exactly. The entire dinner was good but not great and I was certainly let down by a restaurant of such great pedigree. It did nothing to blow me away in any of the dishes at all. And I found out that Tetsuya’s menu don’t really change that much; it evolves but no radical changes. I feel that that isn’t quite becoming of one of the world’s best restaurant.

I like to be surprised when I dine out; to be surprised at the unexpected combinations of the textures, flavours that come to play so harmoniously.

I can think of many places that I have dined better than Tetsuya’s. this may be a harsh review but only because I was expecting a whole lot more.

See what they say: the more you expect, the greater the impact of the fall.

Home-cooked Korean Feast!: Post-assessment pig out session

The lovely, lovely spread

I love being with friends who can cook and who love to cook. One of our Korean course-mate invited the group of us to her house for a meal post-assessment. She would be cooking up a Korean spread for us. We were more than thrilled, of course. Well, even for a non-korean food lover like me.

The moment we stepped into her house, we were greeted by her chirpy housemate and a whole spread of Korean dishes on the table. “Oh my God, she must have spent the entire day in the kitchen,” I thought to myself.

The feast started without much further ado. We had beef bulgogi, daeji bulgogi (stir-fried pork in a spicy marinade), mandu (deep-fried dumplings), kimchi dumplings, Korean-style potato salad (with ham included), chap chaue (Korean stir-fried noodles), normal garden salad and some other food that I don’t know the names of. Forgive me, but I’m unacquainted to Korean cuisine.

I was surprised that I really enjoyed the meal not only for the company but for the great food! My favourites were the beef bulgogi and the chap chaue, which is basically stir fried potato noodles with mushroom, vegetables and beef and this battered and deep fried roll made with seaweed with sweet potato noodles in the centre.

She also made this Korean sweet rice drink called sikhye. It is basically made from rice and malt barley and it goes through several hours of fermentation. It taste sweet, somewhat a cross between barley and chenddol. Initially when she mentioned rice drink, I thought of the brown-rice tea that Japan serves. The sikhye is more like a dessert because of its sweetness.

Home cooked Korean food has changed my mind about Korean food. Perhaps I wouldn’t call myself a convert as yet but I’m definitely more open in trying and learning more about the Korean cuisine.

I have to thank my very kind Korean host for all the time and effort that she put into the meal. When we left her place, her kitchen looked like it has been through a snowstorm of sorts. I couldn’t imagine cleaning up but being a typical Asian host, she didn’t want us to lift a finger even though we attempted to clean up.

A day of eating: Part III (Vini, Surry hills)

Vini, a gem on Holt St, Surry Hills

As you can probably tell, we not only ate a lot, but all our meals were at Surry hills. Yes. Surry Hills is foodies heaven. The quiet residential area gets transformed at night where troves of people gather at this little area for food and drinks.

This was our second time at Vini and we were looking forward to a night of good food. Tuesdays are special at Vini because the chef would focus on a particular Italian region’s food. On our Tuesday, we had Sardinian food.

Sardinia is the second largest island off Italy and it’s considered one of the most distinctive of Italy’s regional cuisine. However, their philosophy in food doesn’t differ much from mainland Italian food; they believe in the freshest ingredients cooked simply so as not to overwhelm the food’s natural flavours.

The two specialities of Sardinia featured on tour degustation menu: Carta de musica (Translates loosely as ‘music paper) which is a thin and crispy flat bread and Pecorino sardo cheese (ewe’s milk cheese).

The dark, minimalist interiors

Asti Moscato

My dining partner-in-crime and I were excited by the prospect of having a try at Sardianian cuisine. We started off with a simple but lovely anti-pasti platter of pecorino cheese, fennel salad, crackled pork belly and carta di musica.

The pecorino cheese was more delightful than what I had the last time. The flavour of the ewe’s milk is rich, texture is hard, much like parmesan. The crackled pork belly was fatty, tender, juicy with good crackling. The fennel salad had a really refreshing vinaigrette.

Antipasti platter

While the antipasto was simple and good, it was the other dishes that were truly mind-blowing. Our next course was freshly made tagliatelli with saffron sauce with Balmain bugs. This is the first time that I have ever tried or heard of Balmain bugs.

We were told that this dish was traditionally cooked with lobster meat but since we are in Sydney Australia, it’s replaced by the Balmain bug, a type of slipper lobster found off the coast of Australia and New Zealand. In fact, its name is derived from Balmain in New South Wales.

The tagliatelli was wicked! Fresh pasta with such delicate flavours of the saffron together with the surprisingly sweet and succulent bugs completes the dish.

Saffron Tagliatelle with bugs

Poppy breadsticks with green and black olives

The next dish took my breath away as well. The flavours of the chargrilled quail with the tang from the lemon infused jus. The fregola, also one of Sardinia’s export, is somewhat similar to the couscous. It is made from semolina and water and the fregola served at Vini perfectly complemented the quail. I love its texture compared to couscous with hints of chewiness

Chargrilled quail with fregola

Dessert really attracted my attention: Sebadas with ricotta, pecorino, mint and honey sauce. Interesting. Sebadas is simply a deep-fried ravioli. I’ve eaten many cheese and honey combination as desserts and I loved them. This one was equally lovely. The deep-fried ravioli was crispy without being oily. The sweetened ricotta gave it a smooth, melt-in-the-mouth center while the pecorino gave it the sharp hints of saltiness. The honey sauce balanced the dessert with that smooth, calming sweetness.

We finished off the meal with an Italian dessert wine, Moscato from Asti. This is my new favourite- a moscato without being overpowering on the syrupy sweetness.

The day of eating has ended but there were more plans being hatched on new areas to discover and explore.

And since good food and wine should always be shared with the people you love, I made reservations for two for a Degustation Tuesday one month from now.

Sebadas with ricotta, pecorino cheese, mint with honey sauce

VINI
3/118 Devonshire Street (On Holt St), Surrey Hills
Tel: 9698 5131

The lure and power of (Italian) ingredients

First pressed olive oil from Pukara Estate, Upper Hunter Valley, NSW

On a recent trip to Haberfield, I bought some gourmet produce. The most alluring of all was the first pressed extra virgin olive oil from Pukara estate, Upper Hunter Valley.

This very bottle of the first pressed olive oil was from the 2009 year’s harvest. Only 1,500 bottles of this first pressed olive oil are made and sold in a year. My bottle (shared amongst 4 friends) is bottle no. 641.

The oil is to be consumed immediately in order to truly appreciate the essence and taste of this oil.

Can I just say that the oil is beautiful..beautiful…beautiful?

My vocabulary seemed to vanish the minute I placed a morsel of my freshly baked wholemeal bread dipped in this olive oil into my mouth. The alluring yellow-green olive oil is so fruity, its taste so rich that I went straight to heaven and back.

I think I would be contented to have just freshly baked artisan bread with a good first pressed olive oil as my last meal.

Apart from the lovely olive oil, I also bought fresh homemade percorino cheese from the Italian gourmet store. I must say that even for a cheese lover like me, I’m not a fan of this cheese. The texture is squeaky at best; its taste mild.

The Parmigiano reggiano is so much better. A single ingredient has become the versatile topping of many of my lunches and dinners throughout the week. And hey, I could probably do with some freshly made pesto. (Not using my special olive oil though. That would be a waste.)

Last of all, but equally lovely is the Jamon Serrano that Sarah and I bought. Nice texture, without being too dry, salty yet with hints of sweetness. That brought me back to my trip to Spain- also the land of Jamon. Sarah and I used the jamon Serrano in our appetiser- wrapping it with blanched asparagus and grilled eggplant.

Lovely, lovely, lovely.

Ah…I seem to be a loss for words when it comes to beautiful ingredients..and Italian ingredients for that matter. They can easily transform any and every meal into such pleasure.

Men buy, women shop

My beautiful tools: check out the colourful set of Tovolo Standz accessories

You know how males and females are wired differently?
Shopping (it ought to be a female term really) alone proves that point.

You see, men buy, women shop.

Men stay focus and buy what they intend to.
Women like to browse..get distracted and end up with a truckload of unintended items in her shopping bag.

I just proved that point today.

After church service, I wanted to shop for some winter essentials like a scarf and windbreaker. Instead of going into female fashion stores, I wounded up at a kitchenware shop. I just couldn’t resist it after spotting the ‘sale’ banner at the shop window.

So instead of getting my much-needed winter clothing, I ended up with the six items from the kitchenwear(ware) shop. I guess damage could have been worse.

I put back many items such as the beautiful Le Creuset cast iron pans, those Riedel wine glasses, and that Bodum ice tea flask- just because I’m not settling down in Sydney.

I ended up with a Tovolo Standz silicon pastry brush (definitely a need: I need that for class), a set of Cuisinart round cookie cutters (also a need: for class), a Tovolo Standz vegetable peeler (A need: the one I have at home isn’t sharp at all to cut anything. Seriously.), a Tovolo standz grater ( A need..or maybe a want: useful for cooking at home and hey, it’s cool to get a pretty set of matching cooking tools), a cheese knife (ok..i can’t justify this one.)

What’s a girl to do when shopping is in her genes.
All females say ‘aye’ to that.

(P.S Did I mention how females can always find justifications for all their purchases? )

My little secret

Just to let you on to a little secret...

I've made reservations at Tetsuya today for the 17 Dec to celebrate my completion of the course (hopefully).

P.S the restaurant is fully booked (yes..even on weekdays) from now to Oct.
I just HAVE to go there while I'm still in Sydney. Nothing will stop me.

My first weekend

Since sis was here, she ate up all the madeleines, some of the scones, and a part of the genoise sponge which she pronounced it good. Since I had a few days before school starts again, I wanted her to explore as many parts of this city, as much as possible anyway.

The list went like that…

Opera House- checked
The Rocks- checked
Harbour bridge- checked
Watsons bay and fish and chips- checked
Shopping in the city- checked

What’s left?

We shopped on Sunday, checking out the aussie labels, walked through the famous David Jones food hall.

We walked (a hell lot) on Monday, taking in the natural beauty of the coastal walk from Bondi beach to Coogee beach, and listening to the peaceful sounds of the waves.

We ate, and ate on Tuesday, chewing on the fresh seafood from lobster to sashimi at the Sydney Fish market, and then munching on the loveliest traditional Italian biscuits at Haberfield.

We chilled on Wednesday, strolling without any purpose at Manly from the Corso to Manly beach and then to the look out point. We tasted bad food one after another, from the garlic prawns to the dissatisfying pancakes.

The few days were tiring but in a good sense.
Soon, my break and hers were over. She, back to Singapore for her internship and I, back to school where I am greeted by the glow of sunrise and the kiss of sunset.

xoxo

City buzz

The sunlight shines through my window panes as early as 7 am. I get awaken pretty early by the morning traffic. The people here are generally morning people; the shops in the malls are opened at 9am and closed by 5pm (with the exception of late night shopping on Thursdays)

Not wanting to sleep through the buzz of the city, I, too, try to ease into the habit of early mornings and early nights. I’m still trying to rid the eye bags that has formed over the past week.

Breakfast here is a joy. It’s my favourite meal of the day and I’m thankful for the fresh produce and wide variety of dairy products here. Hail to the sweetest strawberries and to greek yoghurt! I’m still trying to finish up my loaf of bread. They largely came in family size and I’m trying not to eat too much of it.

Caught up with some of my senior course mates in Chinatown. Headed to Paddy’s market for a walk which seemed rather touristy and it’s almost like one of the large-scale markets in Bangkok, Vietnam and China.

It was a beautiful day for a walk. We were checking out the chocolatiers in the city. Mainly them cause they were looking around for part-time work. I should get some form of part time work too (once I’ve settled down).

Also, headed to this dessert shop in the city that sells frozen yoghurt (somewhat like Yammi Yoghurt). This has green tea flavour and I had that we hazelnuts. Did I mention that the nuts here are absolutely lovely!! Not like the unfresh prepacked ones you find at the supermarket. I guess this is the kind of thing you do with culinary students.

Eat..and eat some more… look at food..and take photos of food...talk about food

I’m loving every minute of it.

More soon!

xoxo

A fresh start: Sydney

Arrived in Sydney for almost two weeks now. The first week was crazily hectic. Apartment hunting, furniture fixing, and utilities and internet connection took up most of our time. Thankful and blessed to have J by my side to settle things one step at a time.

Things did not get off on a good start. From the airport to my friend’s place at Haberfield cost close to Au$80, about double the price that we were supposed to pay. Talk about getting ripped off! Does not only happen in third world countries.

The next unexpected surprise came when we realised that we HAD to find a new place to stay no matter what. Haberfield, also known as the “little Italy” of Sydney, was no doubt a lovely neighbourhood. If I had continue staying there, I would have been blessed with the Italian delis, paticceria and the kind company of an Italian couple. However, the place was about 2hrs from my school and about 50 min bus ride to the city.

Once we set our minds of seeking an apartment, more obstacles came our way. The leasing system in NSW is very much different from what we were familiar with. There were apartment viewing slots, tedious application process that foreigners had to contend with and competition with several other interested tenants. It was a total landlord’s market.

Through three gruelling days of seeking, searching, applying, we finally found this gem situated just a few minutes from St Leonards Station. It’s a very new and extremely secure building. It also has a indoor swimming pool and a gym. The downside was that we had to get our own furniture (Apart from the considerably high rental).

Happy to proceed with the next steps of apartment furnishing, we headed to garage sales, Ikea and trough the internet pages for secondhand items. By Wednesday this week, we managed to get the whole house running. All necessities are more or less in place.

We were fortunate to have set aside some time to do some touristy stuff like the photo sessions at the Harbour bridge and Sydney opera house, hop on a ferry and saw a beautiful sunset, went to Bondi beach and took the coastal walk to Bronte beach, headed to Watsons bay to see the Gap and indulge in fish and chips, went to the Royal Botanic Gardens and on the most informational guided tours of the Government house and of course, walked around the city area. We did most of what we intended to do except to take a short trip to Hunter Valley region.

In overview, I’m starting to get into the rhythm and pace of the life in Sydney, NSW. I’ve stopped complaining about the transport system that seems to take forever. I’ve stopped feeling too lost and confused (For now at least). I’ve started to take a liking to waking up to the cool air and stepping onto the icy cold marble floor. I’ve started to take a liking to taking in the welcoming sight of the freshest produce. I’ve started to take a liking to the warm and friendly culture here(most of the time, at least).

Though a part (a huge part) of me is missing life in Singapore and the people in Singapore, I hope to make the most and the best of my time here.

I’ll be blogging as much as I could to update all at home.

xoxo