Tag Archives: duck

Bouchon Bistro @ Wembley

Posted in French by

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

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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

Recipe: Duck a l’orange

Posted in Food, French, Recipes by

Following on from my adventures with the humble duck, after much deliberation, I have decided to turn the duck breast that I butchered from the duck frame into a classic duck a l’orange dish. I was thinking of making something with a mustard based sauce but I had no mustard left in the fridge. What a shocker. I did have oranges though because it’s that time of the year when oranges are insanely sweet so I’ve stocked up on them.

In case you’re wondering about the time lapse of 10 days between this post and the previous post where I attempted to make duck confit with mushrooms and potatoes, it did not take me 10 days to finally cook the duck breast. It would’ve been off by then and I would’ve just threw it out. But no. I do not waste duck meat. Duck is like my holy grail and I would never waste something that special.

Enough of that and onto the recipe – which was quite easy to make actually. The only thing missing from this dish is the duck skin. I had a skinless breast because I used the skin to gather the duck fat for my duck confit. You can easily use any oil to panfry the duck breast but I couldn’t bring myself to throw out the duck fat until I’ve used up all its potential so I used the duck fat for frying too.

Duck a l'orange

Ingredients

1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 orange, juiced
2 teaspoons vinegar (I used apple cider); could be more depending on the sweetness of the orange
1/4 cup duck or chicken stock
1 duck breast
salt and pepper
oil for pan frying

Method

1. Heat oil in a pan. Season the duck breast with salt and pepper. If the breast has the skin on fry it skin side down first to render the fat on medium heat; otherwise, whichever side goes first doesn’t matter. Cook the breast until just cooked inside or with a hint of pink (whichever you desire). About 5 minutes each side for a well done breast. Set it aside and let it rest.

2. In a small sauce pan, prepare the simple syrup but melting the sugar and water and letting it boil until the syrup is amber in colour. Then add in orange juice, vinegar and stock and let the sauce boil until reduced to half the quantity. At this point, taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning. It should be as sweet as it is sour so add more vinegar/sugar if you need to. If you find the sauce a little too thick thin it out with a few tablespoons of water. Switch off the heat.

3. Slice the rested duck breast into 1-cm slices and arrange them on a plate. Spoon the sauce over the breast.

4. Serve and enjoy.

My labour of love for duck

Posted in Food, French by

My love for anything duck is beyond words. It wasn’t until today though that I have actually attempted to cook with it. I had the impression that duck is hard to cook so I leave it to the pros to tingle my senses.

Last week I went to a cooking class at Cook Learn Love led by former Bistro Felix head chef, Helen Pratt. The class was for French bistro and I was excited to learn how to cook duck. We went through the step by step of making duck confit with potato gratin for the mains and that photo on the left is the finished product. I have used that as a basis for my first attempt with duck confit. The potatoes – well I didn’t have enough time to make the gratin so I made something much simpler to go with the duck. So here’s my journey with the duck that took 2 days to make and 5 minutes to consume…

Friday arvo. I frantically left the office to make it in time before the butcher closes. I got there with 15 minutes to spare. I asked if they had duck and all they had was frozen duck so I had to buy it regardless since I don’t know anywhere else that sells non frozen duck. And because I have a big family I also bought 2 extra frozen duck legs. The duck and duck parts sat on my kitchen counter for the rest of the night.

Saturday morning. The duck was already defrosted although some parts still had icicles. We’ve been having hot and humid weather lately so I don’t know why it wasn’t already completely defrosted when I got up early that morning. So before work I carved out the 2 legs of the whole duck plus the breast essentially leaving just the frame of the duck that was going to be the stock base. I have never butchered a duck before but I think I did pretty well. I then cured the duck legs with salt and fresh thyme and stuck them back in the fridge. Then I went to work and did not come back until about 5:30pm.

Saturday night. My oven’s busted so I had to go to my friend’s house to borrow her oven for roasting my duck frame. I left the skin and all on the frame because I needed the duck fat for the confit and I was reluctant to buy the fat separately. About 20 minutes later I showed up at my friend’s doorstep with a headless duck sitting in a pan. We had a great dinner while the bones were roasting and the fat was dripping. The roasting went well…until I almost  set her house on fire. The neck was sticking out a bit and the oven was small so it was burning quite quickly. Thick smoke came out of the oven when I opened it to check on the duck but luckily the fire alarm didn’t go off. I saw that enough fat was rendered so I tipped it out onto a bowl and continued roasting the bones until they were golden. That took a good 2.5 hours and then I wrapped the poor duck and took it home.

Sunday morning. I woke up early to start making the stock that was to be reduced to become the sauce. One stalk of celery, half an onion, 1 carrot and the roasted duck frame into a pot of cold water. I let it boil and then switched the fire to low for a bare simmer. Two hours into the simmering, the stock started reducing and the house was filled with duck aroma. I left for church and enlisted Auntie C to keep an eye on it.

Sunday arvo. After church and lunch and other what nots I came back home to find my stock half reduced. It was looking good. I started preparing the duck confit by setting up the slow cooker, dumping in the duck fat and putting in the cured duck legs that have been washed off of the salt and patted dry. While that was cooking I went about doing some housework.

Just a little after 5pm I started reducing the stock to make it super concentrated. Then I prepared the other ingredients that I had in mind to go with the dish. In some ways I have combined what I learned in the class and what I have eaten at Cafe de la Presse in San Francisco into my version of duck confit.

Starting with the potatoes:

2 potatoes, sliced very thinly in round shapes
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 /2 teaspoon fresh thyme
enough duck fat to sauté the potatoes

I scooped out some of the duck fat that was in the slow cooker with the duck legs and heated it in a pan. Sauté the potatoes. Add in the garlic salt and thyme. Set aside.

Then with the mushrooms:

1 cup sliced brown mushrooms
pinch of salt
oil or more duck fat if you so desire

Heat oil in a pan and sauté the mushrooms with salt for about 1 minute. Just do not overcook them so they retain their shape. Set aside.

By the time I have finished preparing the potatoes and the mushrooms, the stock has reached a very concentrated level so I switched off the fire and started preparing the ingredients for the sauce:

2 cloves garlic
1/2 onion sliced
1/2 thumb ginger, sliced
1 orange, juiced
1 tablespoon vinegar (I used apple cider because that was what I had at home)
1 teaspoon sugar
the reduced stock
oil

Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a saucepan. Add in garlic, onions and ginger until the onions are caramelised. Then add in the orange juice, vinegar and sugar. One thing I learned at the cooking class was that the sauce needs to be as sour as it is sweet. So I tasted the sauce at this point and was happy with the sweet and sourness. Let it boil for about 1 minute and pour in the reduced stock. Continue boiling until the sauce has reduced further and looks thicker than it was before. The reduced stock was already very salty so I did not need to add any seasoning. Set aside.

At this point, the duck legs were already at their stage of readiness. That means the meat was already falling off the bone with the slightest touch. I took them out of the slow cooker and onto a plate ready for some frying goodness. I took about 2 ladlefull of duck fat from the slow cooker and heated it in a frying pan. Once the fat is hot fry the duck legs skin side down until they are golden and crisp. Do not fry the meat. One the the legs just fell apart so some of the meat was fried and it was not good. It turned dry and hard. So with 3 good legs and 1 “photoshopped” leg ready I started plating up.

Potatoes on the bottom.

Mushrooms in the middle.

Duck legs on top.

Drizzle with the sauce.

Some fancy artwork with the sauce.

A sprig of thyme here and there.

Et voila! Heaven on a plate.

Ha-Lu @ Mt Hawthorn

Posted in Food, Japanese by

Finally, a Japanese restaurant in Perth that I actually enjoyed and liked because it is different. Ha-Lu is a tapas-style Japanese restaurant tucked away along Oxford Street in Mt Hawthorn which looks small on the outside but is actually more spacious inside than it seems.

I’ve been going on and on about how much I loved Sake Bar Hagi in New York and, if you ask me, I think Ha-Lu is as close to Hagi as we can get in Perth. Ha-Lu has a sister restaurant called Satsuki in Subiaco. The menus are a bit different so come and try Ha-Lu. If you have been and enjoyed Satsuki I think you would enjoy Ha-Lu even more.

But let’s talk about the food. The menu is different from the standard Japanese restaurant menu that we have all around Perth like bento boxes, teriyaki stuff, california rolls, yaki soba, etc. Their’s consists of  what I think is contemporary food with a Japanese twist (or Japanese food with a contemporary twist). Indeed the serving size is smaller so for a group of 4 we ordered 8 dishes altogether plus steamed rice and also miso soup for the 2 of us. According to the website, their dining style encourages “social interaction around the table”. They’re not wrong about that. As soon as you’re seated social interaction about food begins. Everyone was tasked to choose 2 dishes each to be shared amongst the group and we could’ve ordered the entire menu. Almost everything looks so interesting that I really wanted to try them all!

It was mostly L and I who chose what to order and convinced the 2 others, D and A, to agree with us. Just for the record, everything we had was exceptionally good except for the teriyaki chicken because it was a normal dish but someone just had to insist that we order it and the deep fried soft shell crab because there was not enough taste to the dish.

Here’s what we ate that night -

Homemade tofu & Mizuna salad with wonton crisps. L insisted that we have this because she’s had it before and loved it so much. She’s not kidding hey. The tofu was soft as (but not as smooth as I expected) and the salad dressing – soy mustard - was very good too. A refreshing dish that is made better by the wonton crisps.

Sashimi boat. 4 people and only 3 pieces each of the salmon, tuna and kingfish sashimi. Good thing D is not a big fan of raw fish so L, A and I had a piece each. Nothing special here but the sashimis were fresh on this occasion.

Soft shell crab tempura. I’m not entirely sure why this dish came with 2 pieces of deep fried soft shell crab and 2 pieces of fish. It wasn’t mentioned on the menu that it would have fish. So as a result we had to halve everything; except for one of the fish that D mistakenly thought was crab.

Duck and aubergine Madeira sauce. Is there really anything more succulent than duck? The duck in this dish was very flavourful and cooked until just pink inside and the duck slices sit atop a cube of marinated aubergine.

Grilled miso Patagonian toothfish. A rather different way of preparing toothfish because I usually eat this fish in Chinese restaurants where they serve it panfried with soy sauce. This one here is lighter in seasoning so you can taste the fish itself.

Wagyu beef “Ishi Yaki” grill with fried onion. Rarebeef slices in a very hot stone bowl. The waitress advised us that if we to have a well cooked beef instead we should place the slices on the edges of the bowl to cook them. Works perfectly and the beef was tender.

Unknown dish. Here’s a dish which I cant remember what it is. I’m not even entirely sure what it was when it was served. All I know is that it was something soft like egg whites with some seafood in it..perhaps scallops?

Two girls and two guys – the dishes seemed little at first but we left feeling really full and everyone had a great night.

My rating: 8/10
Ha-Lu on Urbanspoon
www.halu.net.au

My San Francisco & Napa Valley eats

Posted in Chinese/Asian, Coffee & Desserts, Food, French, Japanese, Thai by

*Dojima Ann | Dojima on Urbanspoon
Downtown

A nice and cozy Japanese restaurant just a little off Powell Street. K and I came here on our first night in SFO just to get something quick and hot since it was surprisingly cold. Dojima Ann was located near our hotel so we dropped by early enough to be seated before the rush started. I had an udon with chicken, egg and tempura (the name which I have already forgot) and it was delicious! The soup is miso based which was quite unusual because most of the Japanese restaurants I’ve had in Perth serve noodles in a dashi stock. So this one here was not as sweet which is just the way I like it. I would have preferred them to serve the tempura in a separate plate though – it was way too soggy when it was served. Service was quick and friendly though.

*Lori’s Diner | www.lorisdiner.com | Lori's Diner on Urbanspoon
Downtown (and other locations)

A very retro 50′s diner that has an all-American menu. Serving size comes in huge portions enough to be shared. It says in the menu that the French Toast is famous so that is what I ordered with an Oreo milkshake. The french toasts were good in a sense that they were thick and fluffy. Other than that though they were quite tasteless. Adding syrup does not help either because their syrup is also tasteless and not a tad sweet. K had Buttermilk Pancakes. She liked the first few bites but after that they were dry enough to make you want to stop eating. I really wanted to try the breakfasts with eggs like omelette but they make the omelettes with 3 eggs but I don’t think I need that much eggs. The ambiance is good and all that, with 50′s memorabilia and red and white diner tables and seats, and service was very friendly but I once is enough to give me that diner experience. They have a store at the international airport too, just in case you need to get a diner fix before departing the US of A.

*Pier Restaurant | www.piermarket.com | Pier Market Seafood on Urbanspoon
Fisherman’s Wharf

One of the many restaurants in the Pier 39 area offering fresh seafood and the famous clam chowder. K and I decided to dine here because it looked clean enough and it was in the heart of  the Pier 39 shops. Obviously, we had to have the clam chowder sourdough bowl. It was very good – creamy and tasty. The sourdough bowl that it comes in is from Boudin Bakery, a pioneer sourdough maker in the city. We polished off the bread as well. Yum. I wanted to have a bread bowl for myself but we decided that we wanted to try other food too so we shared a bowl and had a seafood grill. The grill had 4 prawn skewers, 1 swordfish and 1 salmon. I only enjoyed the prawn skewers; the rest were just plain grilled seafood. We tasted nothing exceptionally fresh about them.

*Chipotle | www.chipotle.com
Downtown

Quick and fresh burritos and tacos in Downtown and that’s all they serve. I had the beef burrito that looked small until they wrap it up; very very filling specially when you have it at 10pm. I especially loved the cilantro rice!

*Oriental Pearl | www.orientalpearlsf.com | Oriental Pearl on Urbanspoon
Chinatown

How this restaurant made it to the Michelin restaurant guide list and Rachael Ray’s recommendation is beyond me. Walking along Chinatown looking for a place to eat, we dropped by Oriental Pearl based only on those 2 recommendations displayed proudly inside the restaurant. It’s a bit dodgily located on the second floor of some building and first instincts told us to get out this place but, no, we walked in anyway and asked for a table for 2. It was rather empty when we first got there but quickly filled up as dinnertime came around. For starters, we had a dim sum sample consisting of pork, beef and prawn dumplings. Mediocre at best and the prawn dumpling wrappers were disgusting. Tasted like they were made with rancid flour. Then we had tofu soup with minced meat and seaweed. This was the only dish I enjoyed/liked for the night but there was only about 3 blobs of minced meat in the soup. A bit of a rip off. After much debate K and I ended up ordering a veggie yee mien. This was certainly one of the worst noodle dishes I have ever had – in SFO or elsewhere in the world. Noodles were tough and spongy as though they were not cooked through and the sauce was mainly soy sauce. You know what? The noodles I make at home are way better than this. No kidding. If there’s one thing good about Oriental Pearl was that the service was definitely friendly! The waiters can speak and understand English properly so there shouldn’t be any problems.

*Cafe de la Presse | www.cafedelapresse.com | Cafe de la Presse on Urbanspoon
Nob Hill

I’ve had one of the best meals of my life here at Cafe de la Presse in Nob Hill just outside the Chinatown gate. A little exaggeration? Probably so, but enough justification. K and I have been eyeing this restaurant since 2 days before we actually ate here because it looked tres chic. One very late night we managed to finally make it here and left with no regrets. Is it weird that I’ve never ever had french onion soup until I ordered it here? That was my appetiser. It wasn’t as sweet as I imagined it to be so that was a big relief. Well that was why I have never had french onion soup before – I don’t like sweet tasting soup (like dashi based ones). Chunky onions with a slice of baguette topped with cheese made my insides all warm in the cold foggy weather. The size it came in was perfect too. It left room for an entree (or mains as we call it in Perth) without me being too full. I had the confit du ganard maison – duck confit with mushrooms and potatoes. O-M-G. Crispy duck skin with duck meat that falls off the bone sitting on top of mushrooms that were sitting on top of sliced potatoes drenched in duck fat. ‘Nuff said. I polished everything – skin, fat and all – and I am as happy as can be.

K, on the other hand, opted for a lighter and less filling choice. She had tomato soup with basil to start off then followed by a shrimp cocktail. The tomato soup was tangy and tasty, not overpowered by cream so it was not too heavy. The shrimp cocktail, she said, was very refreshing. Fresh and crisp prawns with cherry tomatoes and a few leaves of lettuce – it sounds just as light as she wants her food to be.

*Bangkok Noodles | www.bangkoknoodles.com | Bangkok Noodles on Urbanspoon
Downtown

Bangkok Noodles was a surprisingly good find in Downtown. After a long day of shopping we walked to the restaurant closest to us and found great Thai food. There is a non stop waiting line to this place. K had the pad thai and I had a tom yum soup with noodles. How Thai are we? Both dishes were excellent and great value for money.

*Honey Honey Cafe and Creperie | www.honeyhoneycafeandcreperie.com | Honey Honey Crepe House on Urbanspoon
Nob Hill

K has been bugging me to go to a cafe to have a proper breakfast where she can sip coffee and read the paper. After much research we stumbled upon Honey Honey which had awesome reviews. This place turned out to be just around the corner from our hotel so we went there first thing in the morning. Wow, the line was super long and the place is full. There were literally no empty seats. So while in the line we were starring at the chalkboard that lists all the food they serve – omelettes, crepes, sandwiches, salad, pasta, soup - and it was impossible to choose just one. We finally got to the till and ordered a Miami Heat crepe and eggs florentine. All that hype just led to disappointment. The crepe was not very crepe-like but the filling (chicken, cheese, avocado, scallions, hot sauce) was not too bad. The eggs florentine were horrible which disappointing because it was a breakfast special. Tasteless hollandaise sauce and soggy english muffin underneath. I would say it’s not worth coming back for a second try.

*Bistro Jeanty | www.bistrojeanty.com | Bistro Jeanty on Urbanspoon
Napa Valley

A 2009 Michelin star awardee restaurant in Napa Valley that blew me away with its Sole Meuniere. A sole that melts in your mouth with mashed potatoes, butter, lemon and capers. This was a simple dish with complementary ingredients used at their finest. I’m just not entirely sure what to do with the star shaped lemon pieces that were on top of my fish. Were they to be eaten too? I was such a FOB so I ate one anyway just to try it and it were sour as. Duh! So I resolved to just leave them alone on my plate to make it look pretty. K had the beouf bourguignon that looked small but is actually very filling even just halfway through the dish. I had to help her finish it. It was a traditional French beef stew with the beef very tender but that also holds its shape.

This is a French bistro serving familiar homey French food like the ones we had plus coq au vin, salad nicoise and filet au poivre. Unfortunately the waiters were not French men but they were very friendly. One even had a little chat with us. We told our waitress we were in a hurry (because our tour bus leaves at a certain time) and she made sure that the kitchen prepared our dishes first which, in fact, was what happened because our food was served within 10 minutes.

And oh, eat that complimentary baguette. It is very very good. Ask for more if you need to.

*Bouchon Bakery | www.bouchonbakery.com | Bouchon Bakery on Urbanspoon
Napa Valley

A block down from Bistro Jeanty is Bouchon Bakery, also a Michelin star awardee apparently. K just had to try the stuff from this bakery so we rushed out of Bistro Jeanty and fast walked down the street. There is a nonstop line that forms outside the bakery – a sign that it is good, which is why people line up for it for up to 40 minutes, but which I find deceiving because the bakery is not spacious enough inside to begin with. You start from left to right gazing upon croissants and tarts and macarons while placing your order and the entrance to the bakery is where you start gazing so, obviously, only 2-4 people can go in and be served at one time. To add to that, people take forever to decide what to get which I understand because there is so much to choose from but is almost annoying when you are time pressured and the sun is burning your skin.

Onto the products…K and I had raspberry, pistachio, espresso and mocha macaroons and a blueberry and lemon tart. Hmmm, were they worth the wait? Honestly speaking I’m undecided on this one. They stuff we got were not bad but they were not the best. We waited in line for so long only to find out that they have a store in New York, too, which we are headed to in a few weeks.

Good Fortune Duck House @ Northbridge

Posted in Chinese/Asian, Perth by

My old boss has this habit of explaining ideas through metaphors. We have endured long talks about 3-dollar Coke cans and that “little shop at the corner of the street” serving ham and tomato sandwiches. Then, one day, the Coke hype suddenly died down and he started talking about ducks. One place he kept referring to was “Good Fortune Roast Duck” (which I later found out was really Good Fortune Duck House). I can only assume that he loves this place since he has mentioned it in our morning “meetings” for a good 1 month – something about roast duck and peking duck and minced duck meat. I spaced out after 2 minutes of him talking about roast duck daydreaming about having roast duck for lunch.

I finally found a good reason to head to Good Fortune Duck House to get some duck action. My family and I were celebrating the fact that I am a finally a resident of Australia. Yay! We use the most random happenings as reasons to eat out a lot. It was a Friday and I called to make reservations for 8 people. The restaurant is not big at all and they only had 2 big tables to accommodate big groups so it was important that everyone in the group arrived on time. Otherwise, they won’t let you take the table. It was a busy night in Northbridge so parking was a nightmare. I walked from the city so I arrived first. The rest of the group took half an hour to find a parking spot and the waitresses were ready to shoo me out of the restaurant. They kept asking me every 2 minutes when the rest of the party will arrive and all I could say was “soon”. Though I do understand why they wanted to kick me out (there were quite a number of people waiting for a table outside), the waitresses could have told me or explained to me nicely that there were other patrons waiting outside instead of giving me that cold look. Well, good and friendly service is not exactly what you’ll find in most Asian restaurants.

By the time my family arrived, food was served because I ordered beforehand. But even on a busy night, food came out in about 10 minutes upon ordering. We had the roast meat combination consisting of bbq pork and roast duck. Honestly, the roast duck was not as good as I expected it to be. Given that they specialise in roast duck it was rather disappointing. The pieces they gave us were not very meaty but at least the duck was not very fatty. Truth be told, I have had better roast duck elsewhere.

Good Fortune Duck House: bbq pork and roast duck

I don’t usually order fried rice when eating out but we had a fussy eater with us so I did end up ordering the special fried rice. The fried rice was so-so, definitely nothing special about it.

Good Fortune Duck House: special fried rice

The rest of the dishes we had were quite tasty. The seafood were cooked just right – not overcooked and not chewy – which was great. We had salt and pepper squid, prawns with snowpeas and toothfish with soy sauce. The squid and the fish were definitely our favourites.

top to bottom: salt and pepper squid, prawns with snow peas, toothfish with soy sauce

 

 

 

Then to complete the meal, we had kangkong with garlic and sizzling Japanese tofu with seafood sauce.

Good Fortune Duck House: kangkong with garlic

Good Fortune Duck House: sizzling Japanese tofu

When you step inside Good Fortune Duck House, it really does take you back to China, or, at least, those typical Chinese restaurants in Asia where chairs are very oriental (and by that I meant chairs that I saw in China at my grandparents’ old house) and some menu items plastered all over the walls. The place is a bit murky too – dim lighting and it had that “sticky” feel inside where months of grease seemed to have infused the place.

Good Fortune Duck House: interior

But I hope this has changed. I was passing by one day and saw them taking all the furniture out on the street. Perhaps they were doing a general cleaning? One can only hope. Despite the shabby ambiance, there is good reason though why people are willing to line up to sample some of Good Fortune Duck House’s dishes. They are tasty, affordable and generous in portions. You do get that bang for your buck.

My rating: 7/10

Good Fortune Duck House on Urbanspoon

www.goodfortuneduckhouse.com.au/index.html

Golden King BBQ @ Northbridge

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I think I have just found myself a new place to eat whenever I get cravings for roast duck.

Today I’m feeling a little sick with a cold coming up and a throat that’s itching and beginning to sore up. So I figured that a good bowl of noodle soup would help alleviate my blocked nose and decided to head down to Hong Kong BBQ in Northbridge to have my usual “Sliced Duck Noodle Soup with Preserved Vegetable”. As I was walking down the street I took a quick look to see if there is a long queue outside. I only had an hour for lunch and as soon as I see a long line outside I am just going somewhere else. The street seemed strangely quiet on a weekday office lunch time and that’s when it hit me: today was a Wednesday and Hong Kong BBQ is closed on Wednesdays! I almost passed out at this thought. So I aimlessly continued walking down William Street hoping to find a decent place to eat where I can get my much needed soup.

Lo and behold! A few steps down the street was “Golden King BBQ”. I took a quick look at some of the dishes printed on the window and they had something that said “noodles (dry/in soup)”. This was good enough for me. I walked in and it was a full house but not over crowded. The waitress was just cleaning up a table when I walked in so I did not have to wait at all. She then handed me a menu and I went straight to the noodles section. Unfortunately they did not have my favourite sliced duck noodle soup with preserved vegetables so I ordered the next best thing which is simply  “Roast Duck Noodles”, not sliced into strips and no preserved vegetables. Strange how I did not order “Roast Duck Noodles Soup“, huh? Considering it was precisely what I was craving for. Let me tell you why.

Two minutes after I sat down, the waitress, without looking at me, put down a big bowl of soup on my table. I thought it was someone else’s order so I did not touch it obviously until I clarified it with the waitress. Then when she came over to take my order I asked her what is was and she said : “It’s free”. I was already thinking how awesome this is. A big bowl of soup just for me. I think they give out a free bowl of soup per table such that if there are 2 or 4 of you then you would just have to share. Dont worry, they’d give you a serving ladle and small bowls for that. But since I was having lunch alone I have the whole bowl to myself.

This is not just some chicken powder with spring onion soup. This is an actual homemade soup simmered for a least a few hours. How do I know this? Well, we make this kind of soup at home. Stock bones and chicken bones boiled and simmered together with carrots and celery (at home we would add onions and tomatoes too). I quickly took a few sips after ordering to warm up my stomach and it tasted almost exactly like what we regularly make at home. You could still see a few pork and chicken bones in the soup and that tells you it’s the real thing.

Golden King: a hearty asian soup for free

It didn’t take long for my roast duck noodles to be served. I had the dry kind because I already had that big bowl of soup and having another bowl of soup would make me too full and sleepy for work. The had 2 kinds of noodles in the menu: ordinary or special. I noticed that the Chinese equivalent of the special noodles is what they call “la mien” so I ordered that. The ordinary ones are what I assume to be egg noodles.  The dish came with a generous serving of roast duck and a side of steamed bok choy. The noodles were a bit stubborn as I couldn’t easily pick them up with the chopsticks because they were slippery and stucked together. Cutting them was hard too because they were “spongy”.  Anyway that really isn’t a big deal.

And then it was heaven in my mouth when I took a bite of that roast duck. The duck was juicy and tasty. Crispy skin and virtually fatless. Succulent duck is what I’d call it. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I quickly ate all the noddles first so that I can save the best for last. I’ve had some pretty good roast duck before and this one here from Golden King BBQ will certainly make it to my list of places serving awesome roast duck. On top of that the prices are actually pretty affordable too. My lunch cost me just $10.00. Hong Kong BBQ or Happy Star‘s noodle soup dishes cost more than that.

Golden King: Roast Duck Noodles

The place did not impress me at first glance. It looked like a Chinese canteen. But after my very good first experience here I will certainly come back and try the beef brisket noodles that the person in front of me ordered because it looked divine. Noodles smothered in beef brisket stew. Or perhaps I can just order a small bowl of steamed rice to go with my free soup?

My rating: 8/10

Golden King BBQ on Urbanspoon

Happy Star @ Myaree

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My family’s connection with Happy Star goes a long way back to the Chinese restaurant’s humble beginning in 2007  when it was first known as Myaree Chinese Restaurant. Then the business was sold and the new owners named it to what is now called Happy Star. And then the business was yet again sold but the current owners kept the name, which is a brilliant idea as this little restaurant has a long list of happy clients thanks to the second owners.

This restaurant is the go to place for a quick takeaway, a lazy day when you don’t feel like cooking, a Sunday lunch or a big celebration. Being close to my house, needless to say, we are regulars here. As much as I love this place, I won’t lie – the chefs have their off days too. Taste has considerably changed when the current owners tookover, and not in a way. We missed the tastiness of what was served up by the 2nd owners and there was something clearly lacking in the dishes prepared by the new chefs. That, coupled with the fact that they messed up our orders for Chinese New Year’s dinner, convinced me not to go back unless really necessary. They messed up our family’s favourite “Yam Duck” by giving us tasteless yam with no visible duck meat (only skin and bones). It was a busy night with everyone dining out to celebrate the new year and the kitchen was terribly busy but this was no excuse to produce crappy dishes.

Alas, last night, things changed. I have not stepped into this restaurant since that awful Chinese New Year experience so I was hesitant to go again. But so much has changed. First thing I noticed was the menu. The owners have had new menus printed out in glossy book-type menus instead of the brown file inserts type of menu that they used to have, passed down from the 1st owners. More importantly, the dishes have greatly improved! Everything came out to restaurant standards. We ordered a few new dishes too.

“Yam Duck”, definitely 100% better than the ones we had before. The yam was smooth and tasty and the duck was virtually fat-less with a crispy skin.

Happy Star: Yam Duck

 

“Deep Fried Eggplant with Salted Egg”, the goodness of deep fried veggie with a hint of salted egg coating. Absolutely divine!

Happy Star: Deep Fried Eggplant with Salted Egg

 

“Steamed Chicken with Soy Sauce”, this is more than just an ordinary steamed chicken with soy sauce. This version here is loaded with sesame oil and fried onions so it was much more fragrant than, say, Hainanese chicken dish.

Happy Star: Steamed Chicken with Soy Sauce

 

“Tofu with Minced Meat Sauce”, silky tofu with minced meat in a sweet tangy sauce.

Happy Star: Tofu with Minced Meat Sauce

 

“Peking Pork Spare Ribs”, the sauce was just great! Sweet and vinegar-y that works really well with pork.

Happy Star: Peking Pork Spare Ribs

 

“Lo Han Zai”, a vegetarian dish. There wasnt really nothing special with this dish..tofu, mushrooms, black fungus, brocolli. We just needed a vegetable dish and this was an alternative to the usual spinach with garlic that we usually order.

Happy Star: Lo Han Zai

 

We may have ordered too much food but every dish was polished! I’m just glad that Happy Star is back to serving great and accessible food.

My rating: 8/10

Happy Star Noodle House on Urbanspoon