Assiette, Surry Hills... again!

I confess that I have most definitely overindulged in the delicious food served at Assiette.

Menu for Friday 10th July

A mere 2 weeks after my first visit to Assiette, I went there again for another $30 lunch - this time with family. Since I forgot to take a picture of the freshly baked sourdough last time, I made sure that I photographed it this time =)

Complimentary sourdough

Again Sir D and I did a plate swap for each course except for the dessert because we both could not resist getting the Strawberry Eton Mess! But first onto the entrees - the sweetcorn veloute was deliciously creamy with pieces of crab scattered throughout the soup. Even though Sir D saved me a bit of the soup (he doesn't like risotto so he had most of the veloute to himself), I loved it so much that wish that I could have a neverending pot of the stuff!

Sweetcorn veloute with spanner crab veloute and basil oil

I wanted to try the mushroom risotto mainly because the idea of parmesan ice cream intrigued me. I had heard much about savoury ice creams before, like olive oil and Heston Blumenthal's famous bacon and egg ice cream, but I'd never tried any myself. It tasted very strongly of parmesan but the texture was icy and cold! Quite a strange experience. The risotto again was cooked perfectly and the subtle flavours complimented the bitey parmesan nicely.

Mushroom risotto with parmesan ice cream

Ton Ton Regent, Sydney

On chilly winter days, there's nothing more comforting than a piping hot bowl of noodles in soup. This is how Sir D and I ended up at Ton Ton Regent - a primarily take-away noodle joint which also offers hand roll sushi, rice bowls and other dishes. There is some seating around the counter but when we arrived at 12.30pm on a Friday, almost all of the seats were taken. But we got lucky =)


At the counter they have a glass cabinet with some salads and sushi rolls, and around it are pictures of their menu items with shout outs of "New!", "Popular!" and "Try Me!". You can pick up a laminated menu from the counter or go for the noodle set which is written on the red board. The noodle set allows you to select one noodle bowl from the menu plus either a small curry, gyoza or sushi roll for $12.50. I was feeling quite hungry so I ordered the noodle set with their special Ton Ton Ramen, while Sir D ordered the Sukiyaki Beef Udon.

Ton Ton Ramen: A special 'tonkotsu' soup - mildly spiced thick pork broth topped with BBQ pork - $9.80

Viet Cuisine, Chatswood

Some of the menu items at Viet Cuisine

Living on the North Shore, Chatswood is a regular haunt for me and although there are some great places to eat in Chatswood, one soon gets tired of eating the same food at the same places. So when Captain Awesome told me about a new Vietnamese place on Victoria Avenue, I got really excited at the prospect of eating new food :)

More menu items

Sir D and I rocked up to Viet Cuisine on a Wednesday lunchtime and despite having heard that they were getting quite a lot of business, the place was empty save for one person waiting for take-away. Not a good sign. We went in anyway and were given menus and water by the waitress. They had quite a large selection of dishes (complete with pictures) and also a whiteboard which had some specials on it. Interestingly, pho (vietnamese noodle soup) is not on the regular menu but on the whiteboard specials. There is the option of getting beef, chicken or combination pho. We order the combination pho as well as the combination lunch special (chicken, beef or pork chop with shredded pork, egg, vegetables and rice).

Combination Pho - $8.00

Strawberry Clafoutis

After eating a hearty dinner of roast chicken and vegetables, a warm comforting dessert was in order. We picked up some divine smelling strawberries from the supermarket and decided to use them in our dessert. I had read about a strawberry clafoutis on Citrus and Candy only the night before, and after salivating over pictures of a baked custardy dessert I knew I had to give it a go. It's a great recipe because I don't often have cream in the fridge and whilst most clafoutis recipes require cream, this one uses butter which I pretty much always have on hand.


It turned out to be a great hit - BLT loved the custard mixture so much she practically licked the bowl clean! Make sure you eat it while it's still warm out of the oven as a great remedy for the winter blues.

Roast Chicken #1

The title of this post isn't implying that this roast chicken is the best or "number 1", but that it is my first ever roast chicken. I don't usually cook with meat (that's not to say I'm vegetarian - I'm just more of a dessert-cooking person!). If I do, it's usually something simple with bite-sized pieces of meat or minced meat. Never before have I cooked with a giant leg of lamb or a large piece of beef or even a whole chicken.


After watching so many MasterChef successes in the kitchen on TV, it's definitely inspired me to be more adventurous in the kitchen and explore outside the realm of desserts and other sweet things. So with the help of a few friends, I set out to roast my first ever chicken!

Queen Chu's sweet potato mash

We roasted two small chickens with some root vegetables and Queen Chu also made mashed sweet potato. The aroma of the roasting chicken was amazing, and the flavour of the lemon and herbs shone through. The chicken was quite moist and succulent, with only a few dry bits around the breast and the drumstick. Evidently I still need more practice but for the first time I thought it turned out pretty well!

Babycakes by Renée, Sydney

After stuffing ourselves silly at Kobe Jones, you would think that there would be absolutely no room for more food. However, when it comes to cupcakes, it seems like our stomachs have saved a special compartment to fit in these delicious sweet morsels.


This is how we came to be at Babycakes by Renée, oohing and aahing over all the flavours and the cuteness factor of the "babycakes". These were very tiny indeed, with the top of the cake being not much bigger than a 20c piece. They offer traditional flavours and gourmet flavours which have more extravagant toppings and cost extra.

Kobe Jones, King St Wharf, for all you can eat sushi!

Anyone who knows me well enough will know that I am an absolute sushi/sashimi fanatic. In fact, I think that sometimes I eat so much raw seafood that when I die, it will probably be from heavy metal poisoning. When I read about Kobe Jones offering all you can eat sushi for $25 (including their famous volcano roll) on Here Comes The Food, my eyes lit up and my stomach screamed "YES YES YES!!". So a group of friends were rounded up and we went down to King St Wharf on a beautiful Friday afternoon to eat as much sushi as we could.

Menu

Thankfully, Queen Chu has rung ahead to book and let them know that we are ordering the all you can eat sushi. A sushi menu is already on the table ready for us, and the friendly waitstaff let us know that they will be bringing out the first plates soon.

Tasting plate - (clockwise from top) Kobe Jones's finest nigiri, Crunchy roll, Dynamite roll, Avocado roll, Kobe California roll and Volcano roll (centre)

Apple Crumble

I don't remember exactly when I started baking, but it might have all began around the end of primary school with those kids cookbooks. I have failed in my baking many times - the height of my baking fails would probably be failing even when making a packet cake mixture. Hopefully since then I have improved and now whenever I get a hankering for something sweet after dinner and I don't have many ingredients, I whip up an apple crumble which is especially good on cold winter's nights.

This is a crumble recipe with no oats (since Sir D doesn't like oats) and it produces a crumbly and crunchy crumble at the top. I made this the other night for some friends (with the help of Sir D, debdebdeb and Spud) and it was the perfect end to a great bake night!

Sicilian Restaurant, Parramatta for Michael's 21st

Yesterday was my cousin Michael's 21st birthday, so on Saturday night we all got invited to celebrate his birthday at the Sicilian in Parramatta.

Pesto pizza - $12.00

The food kicked off with some pizzas to start. I didn't get a chance to photograph all of the different kinds of pizzas but there were garlic pizzas, herb pizzas, chilli crust pizzas and pesto crust pizzas, all cooked in the Sicilian's woodfired oven. The crusts were thin and crunchy with a generous amount of cheese on the pizza.

Gnocchi alla Romana - $24.00

Japaz, Neutral Bay

Japaz is a restaurant which combines both the Japanese Izakaya style and Spanish tapas style of serving small plates, often accompanied by drinks. The idea of Japanese-Spanish fusion intrigues me, so we make a booking for 8pm and a bunch of us venture out to see what Japaz has to offer.

Sir D and I are fashionably 15 minutes late (since we got caught up in Masterchef!) but the others arrive on time. When we arrive, Queen Chu tells us that the waiter has asked about our order several times already so we quickly make some selections. Midway taking our order, the waiter excuses himself to serve another table which BLT in particular finds very rude. We end up ordering about 12 dishes between 7 of us, since none of us are big eaters, and the waiter insists that this will not be enough and recommends that we order fewer selections but double up on them. However, we decide that we prefer to sample more of the menu so we stick with our order - to which the waiter again insists on ordering more dishes. This overattentiveness continues throughout our meal, and whilst his concern for our appetites was genuine, many of us find it quite unpleasant (as though he was trying to milk more money out of us!). Apart from this, the service is otherwise impeccable with dishes being removed promptly after they are finished and water being topped up regularly.

Fried eggplant with honey and balsamic - $11.00

The first dish to arrive is the fried eggplant, which is crumbed on the outside with soft, juicy eggplant on the inside. The honey balsamic dressing tastes sweet at first, but then the flavour of the balsamic takes over. I'm not usually a big fan of eggplant but I actually quite like this dish.

Crumbed portobello mushroom - $9.00

The portobello mushrooms are also crumbed in the same way as the eggplant with the mushroom juices oozing out with each bite. I enjoy this dish but it could probably do with a bit of sauce to give it a bit more flavour.

Scallops with a sweet soy and onion butter - $5.50 each

Gelato Messina, Darlinghurst

Despite the very cold weather recently, Sir D must have his gelato fix so after dinner at Rise we walk a couple of blocks in search of Gelato Messina on Victoria Street. We are very glad to see the gas heaters outside the shop front and we are surprised to be joining quite a number of others eating and ordering gelato on this chilly night.

The menu ranges from gelato in a cup or cone, take-home tubs of gelato, gelato cakes, tiramisu, coffee and Callebaut hot chocolate! However tonight, we only have eyes for gelato.

Rise, Darlinghurst's 4th Year Anniversary

Although this is my first post about Rise, it is actually my 4th visit which coincides with a special offer they have to celebrate the 4th anniversary of Hideki Okazaki becoming the owner-chef of Rise. For one week, Rise is offering a special 7-course omakase menu for $36pp, and having been completely enamoured by the food during my previous visits, it was simply an offer I couldn't resist.

Rise is tucked away in a relatively residential area of Darlinghurst, away from the numerous restaurants and wine bars on nearby Victoria Street. My first visit to Rise saw me completely at a loss of how to enter the restaurant - I attempted to open the locked door facing the main street, but luckily another of my dining companions found the fire-engine red door marking the entrance to the restaurant. And it was unlocked.

Ocean trout marinated with gochujang miso and porched quail egg