Monthly Archives: May 2012

May’12 in a nutshell

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Wow, 5 months have gone past just like that. There wasn’t anything remarkable for me at the start this month except for the fact that I have finished my 1st round of 5 exams.

But before the month ends I have managed to squeeze in some memorable experiences:

Yes, S Club 3. There’s just 3 of them now and it doesn’t have the same ring as S Club 7 so we’ll just leave it at S CLUB. Period. I can’t say that it was a terrific performance. The other act, Big Brovaz, was way better but S Club was a band that I grew up with. And mind you before Big Brovaz and S Club came out the club was playing hits from the 90s from the Backstreet Boys to Spice Girls to Aqua…took me right back to my tween years and I felt no shame belting out to Barbie Girl.

Two days later I went to catch the AFL (Australian Football League) live. It was my first time watching the game live and it sure was an awesome experience. I’m from the West Coast and both teams were West Coast teams playing against each other so that made the match extra special. Needless to say my team won! Hurrah!

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Donna Hay almond macaron with chocolate filling

Posted in Food, French, Recipes by

I am happy to report that my exams are over and done with (1 down, 4 to go). Whether I pass or not is another story. What better way to celebrate than with some macarons! Let’s be honest. I was supposed to go back to the office after the exams but who in their right minds would do that? So I called in and informed them I won’t be going in. I went home instead to make some macarons from almost scratch using Donna Hay’s premix. This is the last of the Donna Hay premixes I bought.

I love macarons. I’ve heard here and there that it is time consuming to make so I haven’t bothered myself to attempt making them since time isn’t really a luxury for me. Now that I had the whole afternoon off it was time to open the box. I guess using the premix did save me some time. The whole process took me 1.5 hours. With enough time left to make a batch of cupcakes as well and watch Dark Shadows.

The premix box, again, provides you with everything you need. You just need to add some water and 2 tablespoons of cream for the chocolate filling.

Instructions are fairly simple.

First, add warm water to the egg white mix and beat until it is glossy and forms soft peaks, about 5 minutes says the box.

Then add the almond meal provided and fold it into the egg white mixture. After that you are ready to spoon the mixture onto baking trays. The box says to use a dessert spoon and form the mixture into circles by doing a circular motion. In not entirely sure that would give you round macarons. So I used a piping bag instead. More washing to be done but more evenly shaped macaron shells. After piping, air the mixture for about 10 minutes.

While the mixture is airing to dry make the chocolate filling by using a double boiler. The chocolate chunks are provided in the box as well and all you need to add are 2 tablespoons of single cream. I had no single cream on hand so I used a few tablespoons of butter instead just to make it rich. Once melted remove the chocolate from the heat and let it cool until ready to be used.

Now it’s time to pop the shells in the oven preheated to 160 degrees Celsius and bake for 10 minutes.

Cool the shells on the tray before removing them. Once cooled spoon about 2 teaspoons of the chocolate filling on one macaron shell and top it with a similar sized shell.

The box says it yields about 24 macaron shells or 12 sandwiched macarons. I ended up with about 20 sandwiched macarons! And because of that I ran out of the chocolate filling and had to melt more chocolate using what I had stocked up in the pantry.

I found the egg white mixture a bit too runny for the macarons. It spread really fast on the tray and resulted in flatter macaron shells. A bit too flat for what I liked. The shells were also too chewy. Taste-wise, though, this premix is pretty good. It had strong almond meal taste and the chocolate filling complements it well.

Not a bad premix for a first time macaron maker.

Choux Cafe @ Swanbourne

Posted in Coffee & Desserts, Food, French by

That little French cafe and boulangerie along Shenton Road is pretty well-known amongst macaron and French pastry lovers and it is not popular for no reason. The cakes and macarons on display in the fridge are colourful enough to entice you.

On a fine and chilly Sunday morning, L and I went Choux Cafe for a breakfast. Not your typical Perth breakfast scene as this is obviously a French kind of cafe. No eggs on toast, no big breakfasts, no pancakes nor muesli. What you have on hand to choose from are French goodies like baguettes and brioche from their boulangerie and croissants and pain au chocolat from their viennoiserie. If you want you can also have lunch items for breakfast like quiches, pies, and sandwiches.

It wasn’t a hard choice for me. Of course I’d eat the croissant. The hard part was choosing if I wanted plain, savoury, or sweet. In the end I settled for a croissant with smoked salmon, capers and avocado.

Amazing amazing croissant. Flaky and buttery. It has that perfectly baked croissant crust when you bite into it (or, in my case, when I slice it). The smoked salmon works perfectly with the croissant too. I was hesistant at first but the whole meal was nothing short of delicious – perfect croissant, just enough salmon, capers not overpowering, and avocados to complement everything.

L was debating with the various quiches available but, in the end, had the classic quiche lorraine.

The pastry was good, the egg mixture was divine, but a little too much bacon for me. Since this was L’s food, allow me to quote what she said: “I LOOVVEEED the bacon”!

And as if the savouries were not enough, we had to have dessert for breakfast too. We shared a piece of reine margot and 2 macarons.

Reine margot is a pistachio layered cake with mango and pineapple cream. It is refereshing, to say the least. Cake was spongy and the cream filling is very tropical.

The macarons. Well these babies by Emmanuel Mollois are famous for all the right reasons. I thought I have tried the best macaron there is in Perth until I had the ones from Choux Cafe. The shells are light, chewy, and taste fresh. Now the fun part comes from choosing which flavour to have. L wanted the blackcurrant with cream cheese filling and I wanted the strawberry jelly and basil one. Blackcurrant and cream cheese was heaven for L but it was so-so for me. I’m not enitrely sure that cream cheese was the best filling for this. Nonetheless you would still have that sweet and tangy sensation in your mouth. I, on the other hand, loved that basil macaron. It looked like Christmas in a macaron. The basil taste was very prominent and I loved it! It was mellowed out by the strawberry jelly and I think that both flavours worked very well together.

While there I couldn’t resist their bread so I brought home a la complet – a wholemeal baguette. Crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. It is nothing like the “baguettes” you get from Bakers Delight. So I have been toasting the baguette and spreading liberal amounts of butter for breakfast. Fresh bread really can’t be kept for long so I used the remaining half (I could only eat so much bread by myself!) to make bread and butter pudding. You know what? That baguette worked just perfectly with the crust and all.

Don’t forget to try the beef bourguignon pie too when you go there for lunch. Flaky pastry with a very rich and flavourful beef filling.

There is nothing very spectacular with the venue itself, space in theindoor dining area is quite tight actually. They also have an alfresco dining area at the back past the kitchen. What I do like about the venue is that it is quietly nestled in the middle of a suburban area. It is very easy to look out the window and drift into a daydream, specially on a rainy day, while sipping a cup of mocha made with rich chocolate and munching on a macaron. My only problem, really, is the older lady who just happens to serve me every time I’m there. She’s not the warm and friendly kind and does not have the French charm, in my opinion. Could do much better with a smile.

My rating: 8/10
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www.chouxcafe.com.au

Matsuri @ CBD

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I went to Matsuri with a group of friends to celebrate someone’s birthday. I have heard many praises for this Japanese restaurant and I’ve been given the weird look whenever I tell people that I have never been to Matsuri. What?! You’ve never been to Matsuri?! is the kind of response I’d always get. So I was actually very pumped to finally taste what the fuss was about.

I braved the chilly autumn night, walked in very high heels, and got to the restaurant where we were promptly seated by the friendly waitress serving us. The venue was very nice – modern oriental yet homey and it has glass walls so you can look out into the city. When we were given the menu my intial reaction was disappointment. For a restaurant that’s given a lot of high praises and that has a chic ambiance to it, the menu was rather disappointing. I was expecting something a bit more to the usual teriyakis and sushis and udons. Perhaps I was expecting too much. In any case, no matter how common and ordinary the menu items were, I still hoped that they would take the taste to the next level.

To start, we shared an entree of soft shell crab sushi. It came in 8 rolls.

The crab was perfectly crisp and flavourful. But the thing was this sushi is not properly made; as soon as you pick it up with your chopsticks it falls apart. Before you even get it to your plate you have already made a mess of a trail of sushi rice on the table. How can a Japanese restaurant charging top prices serve sushi that falls apart?

Anyhow, time for mains.

I opted for a beef teriyaki made with sirloin steak cubes in original teriyaki sauce.

This tasted more like garlic beef than teriyaki to me. Taste was garlicy and buttery and it was good but not the kind of teriyaki I am accustomed to or was expecting, at least. Beef was not tender enough either. I lost all poise just trying to chew that meat so I could swallow.

L had an una don, fresh eel in original teriyaki sauce over rice. This was more Japanese tasting than my beef above for sure. Amount of eel was generous but the amount of rice below was sickening. Too much rice for 1 person but enough if shared.

 

D ordered a fish teriyaki. The menu doesn’t say what fish they used but from sampling it, it wasn’t anything special. Nor does it look appetising.

 

A very nice restaurant with friendly and decent staff but food could be much better. I personally think it doesn’t live up to all the hype I’ve been hearing.

My rating: 5/10
Matsuri Japanese on Urbanspoon

www.matsuri.com.au

Bouchon Bistro @ Wembley

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I am a big fan of French cuisine. Duck, pastries, frog legs…everything. I will eat anything cooked the French way. So when I saw a voucher for Bouchon Bistro offering $40 for $100 worth of food I jumped at the chance of securing myself a voucher.

Last weekend, L and I finally made it to Wembley along the always busy Cambridge Street in search for this bistro. They open at 6:30pm so when we arrived at 6:28pm the “closed” sign was still displayed on the window. The door was unlocked so we went in anyway and the waitress gladly showed us to our table.

It wasn’t really hard to choose what to order. I confirmed with the waitress that we could have anything on the menu so long as they all come up to $100 worth and we would just pay for the extras.

To start, we were given bread and butter. I cannot even begin to sing my praises for a properly made baguette. The bread was crusty on the outside and soft on the inside and the combination of the crunchiness and the softness was perfect, it was tasty, it was warm, and altogether a great bread experience spread with the butter. If I had that kind of bread for breakfast everyday I think every day would be a great day.

Then we were given a free appetiser of oxtail with garlic parmesan and onion cheese. Don’t fret, it wasn’t the tail in a whole piece. It was chopped up, made into a patty and served nicely. The oxtail had a nice crunch to it from what I’m assuming are the cartilages from the tail. A bit strange to the bite but the taste was not too bad.

After the appetiser we had another round of bread and butter because the waitress asked if we wanted more. As it turns out there’s an extra $4.50 charge for another 4 slices of bread.
L and I shared an entree of braised beef ribs in spices and coconut, pine nut, pear and radishes. Very very tasty beef ribs. Like the oxtail the ribs were removed from the bone and shaped so it was easier and less messy to eat. The pear and radishes provided a contrasting palette to the spices used in the beef.
Mains came not too long after we chatted with the waitress. I was aware of some reviews saying that service here is terrible, that customers are not treated with priority and other things like that but I guess we were lucky to have made a reservation for 6:30pm because the restaurant was not full and so they weren’t stressing out just yet. We talked about France with the waitress and she gave us a few tips here and there while I practiced my French with her.
I had panfried duck breast, confit leg and chestnut, coffee crumble and amaranth. The duck breast could have been less rubbery. I asked for a well done breast but it was not as well done as I had hoped for. The confit leg was not the usual confit you’d find in other places; rather this was, again, without the bone and shaped into a cube and not quite as fatty as confits usually are since they are cooked in duck fat. Taste-wise it was so-so. I was a little hesitant with the coffee crumble and amaranth on the side. I tasted it by itself and thought it was weird to have coffee with duck. But spoon a little crumble on top of the duck breast and actually tastes quite nice. The crumble complements the sauce well.
L had the assiette of pork, which was basically pork cooked in different ways. There was the braised pork belly, pork knuckle and pork with quince (to the best of my memory). They were all very tasty with enough spices and sweetness that goes well with pork. I’ve got to say that the pork belly was the best out of plate. Well give L anything pork and she won’t complain.
We were surprisingly quite full even though the servings were small. It was probably from all the bread we ate. But we decided to have dessert anyway. We shared a chocolate mousse with crumble meringue and berries and yoghurt foam with strawberry jelly. It was interesting to say the least. I would rather have the mousse dark and a little less sweet. The yoghurt foam was surprisingly good with the mousse. Sweet plus sour. L ended up having to eat most of it because it was too sweet for my liking.
Overall a good dining experience. I agree with those who say that this place is overpriced. Average entree price is $20 and mains are $40. Desserts are around the $15-$20 mark. It is overpriced because, although food was not too bad, there was nothing really very spectacular about it. I’d probably come back again if they offer deals. An elderly couple beside our table seemed to be regulars here though. They rate the dishes 10 out of 10.
My rating: 6/10

Bouchon Bistro on Urbanspoon

www.bouchonbistro.com.au