Monthly Archives: March 2012

Grill’d @ Claremont

Posted in Food, Modern Australian by

I have been having burger brains these past few days and weeks due to some massive burger cravings. As I have professed before, Grill’d is one of the many burger joints in and around Perth that I love. Hey, if Usher (yes, the music artist Usher) has been to one of the Grill’ds then it must be good enough to try, right? There are 4 Grill’ds in Perth at the time of writing – Claremont, Subiaco, Mount Lawley, and Hillary’s – and heaps more over east. But since I frequent the Claremont joint the most this will just be about Grill’d Claremont.

That’s pretty much what you get when you eat at a burger joint: burger and chips (for extra cost), unless you order salad of course. Some would say simplicity is best. This is also applicable to burgers. I almost always get the Simply Grill’d burger with lean beef patty, lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, tomato relish and herbed mayo on a wholemeal bun.

It’s really the combination of flavours that make this such an enjoyable burger for me. The beef is lean, juicy and not too thick which oftentimes leaves you feeling way too full. It is always well seasoned too so it is very tasty. The tomato relish and Grill’d's famed herbed mayo work really well together to create one of the tastiest burgers out there. Throw in some pineapple rings, or bacon, or beetroot and they bring the burgers to another level.

Nothing too fancy over here at Grill’d. The look and feel of all their joints are pretty much the same: wooden tables and hanging board menus. It looks and feels minimalistic.

If there’s one thing to improve on it’s the consistency.

Here at the Claremont shop I find that consistency is a problem. Sometimes you get really amazing burgers and sometimes you get mediocre ones. It should all be from the same recipe given that it is a burger chain but some days you don’t get enough relish or some days the buns are not their 100% best.

Consistency is also something to be improved on service-wise. On some days the wait is just unreasonable. Or sometimes you see your burger sitting on the counter waiting to be delivered but out of the 6 or more staff they have no one really cares to deliver it to your table fresh. I’ve been lucky to get some friendly and fast service these past few visits.

My rating: 7/10
Grill'd Claremont Quarter on Urbanspoon

www.grilld.com.au

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Jade Court @ Cottesloe

Posted in Chinese/Asian, Food by

The family and I ventured a little far from home for Chinese food. When it comes to Chinese food, we usually stick to the ones we know we’re going to love like some of those restaurants in Northbridge or a few of those close to home. Someone was feeling adventurous this day and I was tasked, yet again, to look for a restaurant we’ve never been before for a change.

This was on a public holiday and I was planning to head down to the beach so I thought why not try that oriental-looking restaurant along Stirling Hwy that I drive past frequently? I made the reservations and had everything planned out for the day. Except I overslept during my “nap” and never made it down to the beach! I was already cranky at this point because I was suddenly jolted up from my slumber. It was already dinner time apparently.

So it’s a good thing then that Jade Court knew how to please customers. Otherwise I would’ve been cranky and pissed the whole night. According to one of my cousins, the restaurant looked like those you’d find in Asia. Decor is very imperial and the waitresses were wearing traditional qi paos. We sat down and ordered our food. Being all too familiar with Hong Kong cuisine, both Auntie J and Auntie C said the taste was spot on. And I do agree with them. The food was tasty and Jade Court offered a change of taste to our palettes. Even though some of the dishes we ordered are also offered by other restaurants, the taste of Jade Court’s dishes was different. It was like eating the same food but not with the old familiar taste.

These are what we had:

* Spinach with chinese mushrooms (top left) – recommended by one of the head waitresses and it was a good recommendation. Fresh veggies with humongous mushrooms in a light and tasty sauce.

* Pork chops with peking sauce (top right) – this was the only underwhelming dish of the night. I thought peking sauce was supposed to be sweet but I really couldn’t quite make out what this sauce was.

* Yam duck (upper middle left) – finally a yam duck with just the right amount of yam! The yam had just the right amount of seasoning was fried to perfection. And so was the duck; crisp and meaty.

* Gwai mah chicken (upper middle right) - fried chicken pieces with seasoned with 5 spice and other spices that also had thinly sliced yao za gwai pieces (the fried dough that you dip in porridge).

* Salt and pepper salmon fillets (lower middle left) – who knew that salmon cooked this way could be so darn good. Bite-size salmon fillets are fried until just cooked so it’s still oozing with juices when you bite into it.

* Combination yee-fu noodles Hong Kong style (lower middle right) – a noodle dish as requested by my little cousin and he has made the right choice. This is a dry-style noodle dish but still had just the right amount of sauce to make it dry-style but not completely dry. It was loaded with toppings too and we were all fighting to have the last few servings.

* Sizzling Japanese tofu (lower left) – this is one of those Chinese restaurant staple that we always have. Except this one here has bigger slices of tofu and a taste that is distinctively Jade Court. It’s not the usual salty fish-style sauce.

Last but not least we ordered an entree of shanghai dumplings (lower right) and were told that they would take a while to make and cook so it will be served together with the mains. We waited. And waited. And waited some more but the dumplings never came. When we asked the waitress to check on them she said they were coming out soon so we waited some more. So, finally, for dessert we had the dumplings.

They were lucky because the dumplings were divine. Otherwise, the oldies would have gone ballistic waiting that long (30 minutes after we finished the mains) for something that was not good.The skin was thin and not overly chewy and the filling was very tasty. Served with a ginger and black vinegar sauce.

Apart from that dumpling fiasco, it was an overall great Chinese restaurant dining experience. The service was very good and attentive which is rare for Chinese restaurants. I must commend the waitress too. She was very friendly and apologetic about the dumplings and explained to us what had happened that took them so long to come out.

Jade Court is definitely more towards fine dining; the prices alone are double that of normal Chinese restaurants elsewhere and serving size is on the smaller scale. You do get a goodservice though, I must reiterate. The bottles of water were even topped up frequently without us once having to ask them. It’s a restaurant I’d definitely consider for the more special occassions.

My rating: 8/10
Jade Court on Urbanspoon

Burgermeister @ Nedlands

Posted in Food, Modern Australian by

Burgers seem to the in thing nowadays in Perth with new burger joints popping up here and there every few months. I was on my way to the library and I thought why not check out the new burger joint, Burgermeister, near the library? To German natives this name really has nothing to do with burgers. But for us, non German natives, I must admit, it’s one funky name. True enough, the joint is actually funky inside. Colourful pot lids adorned one side of the wall and various posters are plastered all over the other walls.

Sadly though the decor was really the only thing I liked about Burgermeister. Having been spoiled by Grill’d (another burger joint which I love), I was hoping that Burgermeister would deliver the same quality, or even better, burgers. I was already salivating while driving to Hampden Road thinking about biting into a juicy burger.

I ordered a Classic Beef burger with 100% certified organic grass-fed Devon cattle patty, tomato, red onion, rocket, house-made relish & Japanese mayo and chips on the side with aoili sauce. Though it was beautifully presented I was not impressed with the food itself.

The burger was thick and very lean. In fact, it was so lean that it has become tough and dry. No juice whatsoever coming out from the patty and that was really disappointing. The meat was also bland.  It was as if no seasoning was ever put on it. But okay, the tomato relish on the side can make up for that. I’m not too sure how the rockets worked in this case. I thought simple old lettuce would’ve been nicer. And don’t even get me started on the burger bun. It was quite stale and did not look appetising.

Now if I want to eat something unhealthy like chips I might as well go all the way, if you know what I mean. The chips were terrible. It was soggy; seemed to have been re-fried to be reheated. And it was seasoned WAY TOO MUCH. It was so salty my tongue was crying out for water. There was really no point in getting that aoili now, was there? Even then the aoili tasted nothing like aoili.

And so I have concluded that my $15 was wasted on this burger and chips meal. It’s a fairly new burger joint and perhaps they need more time to find their feet but I sure won’t be heading back here anytime soon. I mean, there’s a Grill’d not too far away.

My rating: 4.5/10
Burgermeister on Urbanspoon

French toast with mangoes, maple syrup and creme fraiche

Posted in Breakfast/Brunch, Food, Recipes by

This is a variation of the French toast I had this week. One of our family friends gave us homegrown mangoes so I used those instead of bananas. I also had extra creme fraiche sitting in the fridge so I had the inkling to use that as well. And, of course, another round of maple syrup. Wow. This was even better than the french toast with banana version. I have had French toasts 3 days in a row now. One can never get enough of them!

French toast with mangoes, maple syrup and creme fraiche

Ingredients

1 piece egg
2 tablespoons cream
3 tablespoons milk
2 pieces of bread (brioche preferred but any bread would do), sliced diagonally
1 piece small mango, peeled and cut into small pieces
maple syrup
2-3 tablespoons creme fraiche
oil or butter for pan frying

Method

1. In a shallow dish, beat the egg with the cream and milk. Add in the slices of bread and let it soak the egg batter for a few seconds on each side.

2. Heat oil or butter in a pan. Pan fry the slices of bread until golden brown on each side.

3. Plate up the french toasts. Arrange the slices of bread on a plate. Then top with mangoes and drizzle with maple syrup. Finish off with a dollop of creme fraiche on top.

4. Serve and enjoy.

French toast with bananas and maple syrup

Posted in Breakfast/Brunch, Food, Recipes by

French toast is one of my most favourite food for breakfast (or snacks). It gives me a great sense of comfort every time I eat it probably because my granny used to make this for me when I was little. Of course back then granny’s french toasts were merely topped with caster sugar. We didn’t have the luxury of syrup when I was a kid. I have made my own upgrades since then.

This one is really simple easy to make and hits all the right spots. This is one of those occassions where I would use the maple syrup I bought from Montreal sparingly.

French toast with bananas and maple syrup

Ingredients

1 piece egg
2 tablespoons cream
3 tablespoons milk
2 pieces of bread (brioche preferred but any bread would do), crusts cut off then sliced diagonally
1 piece small banana, sliced into small pieces
maple syrup
oil or butter for pan frying
icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Method

1. In a shallow dish, beat the egg with the cream and milk. Add in the slices of bread and let it soak the egg batter for a few seconds on each side.

2. Heat oil or butter in a pan. Pan fry the slices of bread until golden brown on each side.

3. Plate up the french toasts. Arrange the slices of bread on a plate. Then top with bananas and drizzle with maple syrup. Sprinkle with a little bit of icing sugar if desired.

4. Serve and enjoy.