Truffle Takeover at Chiara Restaurant - Truffle Melbourne Festival

The husband and I found out about the Melbourne Truffle Festival quite by accident; we were sitting at Market Lane Coffee one morning and came across the flyer. After a schedule check and quick phone call, we were happily booked in for a truffle degustation dinner with wine pairing at one of the new restaurants in the Docklands. The part that got us really excited was having Guy Grossi prepare some of the courses at the dinner. 

It was at a restaurant we'd never even heard of, but appeared decent according to Urbanspoon ratings. Chiara had opened only the month before and was helmed by someone who formerly worked at the Fat Duck. 

The registration process was pretty easy - we gave them our names and were ushered to the bar for canapes and prosecco to start the evening. I couldn't get a clear shot of this initially - it was a cone of bottarga cream with truffle shavings and chives. 

The other canape was pork cracking with spiced pear, an egg yolk and truffle shavings. 

We felt, like, too cool hanging out by the bar sipping our flutes of bubbly. Definitely not something we're used to, but we tried our best to look the part. 

Pretty tasty prosecco.

Finally a better shot of the cones

They were pretty generous with the food, and the bubbly

The menu, which we had seen online. But seeing it in the flesh got us really excited 

And the best surprise ever - when we got to our tables, we found out that each diner got to go one with ONE TRUFFLE EACH. It was like, walking into a candy store and realising the back door opened directly to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. The truffle farm dude told us the best way to use them would be for scrambled eggs. I tried it, and it was amazing - that's a story for another post. 

The first main course was a slow cooked egg with mushrooms and a duck liver parfait. With lots of truffle shavings! This was paired with a crisp Clare Valley Arneis which we had never heard of before, but which matched the dish perfectly. 

It was a nice way to start the meal, although I found the liver taste slightly overwhelming. 

The next dish, by Guy Grossi, was the standout dish for me. Comprising of veal sweetbread, marron, smoky potato and sugo grasso, it was an incredibly enjoyable dish with so many different textures and flavours coming together in one dish. I loved how the smoky mash worked with the sweetbread. And the marron was super fresh. Interestingly, it was paired with a Yarra Valley Rose. 

A closer look. I couldn't get enough of this dish. 

The next dish was a ravioli with veal, sage and butter. I thought this was slightly too dryl and could have worked with a traditional sage and butter sauce, although the intention could have been not to have a sauce at all. The standout part of this dish, however, was the wine. 

Possibly the singular most important wine discovery of our year in Australia, just slightly ahead of the Gerwurtztraminer and the Blaufrankisch. It was a simply incredible and versatile wine. 

So good that we begged for more. 

Then came the main course of a 72 hour rib, with bone marrow pudding and poached quince, matched with a nero d'avola. 

The aromas from the bone marrow pudding were incredible 

The short rib was melt-in-the-mouth tender. 

Grossi came out to say a few words midway

Then there was a palate cleanser of sweetened truffle cheese with iced mandarin soda. 

It was so odd to have a mixture of savoury and sweet citrus flavour, with truffle in between. Surprisingly, it worked. 

The dessert was banana caramel with chocolate honeycomb and truffle ice cream. 

Serious truffle overload by now. 

Ending off with petit fours, which were chocolate truffles. 

At $190 for everything, including matched wines and a take home truffle, I dare say we thought we got a pretty good deal. 

Bouillabaisse - Home Made

According to Wiki, Bouillabaisse is a traditional Provençal fish stew originating from the port city of Marseille. After having paid through my nose to eat it at restaurants, I decided it was high time to try making it myself. 

Being the mistrustful person that I am, I compiled around 4 or 5 credible looking recipes and put them together to my own preference. All of them stated the need for fresh fish bones for stock, so I asked the fishmonger to give me any carcasses he had on hand. He only had this ugly bream, and since it was free, I went for it. Ugh. 

I bought heaps of other seafood though, so I think the free fish carcass was well deserved.

I first boiled all the shellfish in white wine, separately so they wouldn't overcook. 

And I marinated some t-bone steaks on the side as well, with fish sauce and pepper (there's a science to the fish sauce!) 

I was starting to get a bit worried after the wine+seafood juices turned cloudy. 

In the meantime, this was what happened to the fish carcass after being boiled. I know the head is the most important part when it comes to stock, but I really couldn't bear looking at the fish head, and I wasn't confident that it wouldn't be too fishy. So I chopped the head off. 

In the meantime, I set all the boiled seafood aside. 

Throwing in bay leaves, an onion, peppercorns and celery into the fish stock 

I chopped up one fennel and put it aside

All the recipes state the need for a roux, made by mixing roasted red peppers with breadcrumbs. So these went into the oven to roast. 

I fried the fennel with leek and garlic - all chopped, of course

Threw in a few pieces of orange peel, and some saffron threads

And instantly, like instantly, everything turned orange, so I decided to sprinkle some paprika too 

All the stock mixed up, with a bunch of parsely leaves thrown in

I cut up some rockling on the side, and since I had flake, I threw that in too. It was a huge mistake. Flake does not go with this recipe! 

The end result was gorgeous though. 

So were the t-bone steaks, done to medium perfection by the husband. They cost $10 for 2 steaks! Amazing value. Would have loved to grill them over fire instead of pan frying them though.

I was too tired to bother with the roux, so we just ate the peppers as they were

Another peek at the pot - this was really gorgeous and I was impressed with myself (!!) but I don't think I would ever cook it again. It took so much time and effort to clean all the seafood, and the worry of overcooking the seafood also added some stress. I spent around $60 at the market buying all the seafood, so with labour included, I can fully understand how a small bowl can cost $30+ at a restaurant. 

Quay, Sydney

For the husband's birthday this year, I decided to surprise him with a meal at Quay in Sydney, which was 1 of 2 Australian restaurants on the San Pellegrino list. We tried the other restaurant in Melbourne earlier this year, and I had previously expressed my sentiments about the rather disappointing dining experience. 

Having heard how popular Quay was, I made the restaurant bookings prior to booking the flights and hotel. This was the view at the entrance of the restaurant,, and it's hard to beat the Rocks and the Harbour Bridge for an entrance.  

The menu - we were happy with everything except the black pudding, which we swopped for mushrooms.

The view from our table. Again, the Opera House is a pretty tough view to beat.

We started off with cocktails. On hindsight, this was perhaps not the smartest thing to do, given we were planning to order a bottle of wine as well. On the left was the Quay Butterfly ($18)- an absolutely delicious cocktail, and something I would drink again in a heartbeat. Comprising Absolut Vanilla vodka, butterscotch schnapps and limoncello over muddled lemon. So, so, so GOOD. On the right was the 10cane storm, with 10cane rum, raspberries, lime and ginger ale. Nice, but it paled in comparison with the Butterfly on the complexity of flavours and smoothness of the drink. It was also more expensive, at $20+.

The amuse bouche of raw beetroot, goats curd and rose hip something...pretty tasty.

The texture of the goats curd was like it had been freeze dried; it was a great combination of flavours.

This was the saltwater poached quail with salted egg yolks, smoked parsnips and pickles- such a pretty dish, but it felt very Asian. 

Loved the way the dish was assembled.

The quail was very tender, and although it appeared to be a motley crew of different things, they all came together beautifully with the rather neutral quail.

By this time I was feeling rather intoxicated from the cocktails, so we asked for bread.

Next up was the mud crab congee with egg yolk emulsion.

We also ordered a bottle of NZ Gerwurtztraminer, our new favourite white wine. Bad idea since the cocktails were already getting to me. But when one is eating at Quay, there are no chances of slowing down. So I pressed on.

Absolutely gorgeous. The crab was sweet and the broth was rich without being over the top. This was one of my favourite courses.

Next up was a dish called XO Sea, which I took to mean seafood with XO Sauce. It was a very interesting pattern that we observed, that so many Australian chefs are influenced by Asian food so extensively. 

Our view from our seats- the restaurant was packed by then.

In particular, the calamari was very well executed, but one can't just take boiled seafood and serve it with XO sauce. Ok probably a lot more effort went into the dish than was obvious, but to an Asian, it was kind of a cheap kop out.

Next up was mushrooms with brioche cream and walnut floss. I thought the mushrooms were nothing out of the ordinary, so this was my least favourite dish of the day.

The roasted snapper with oyster crackling restored my faith though.

The snapper was cooked to perfection, although it felt like the sauce was like a sambal smeared on top. Again, Asian influence it seemed.

This was a NZ Hawkes Bay Angus with dried Jerusalem artichoke and mushrooms. Amazing.

Cooked to perfection.

By the time we were done with the savouries, it was 3pm. I was highly intoxicated, and everyone had left. But I never lose control, and this super clear photo proves it.

The first dessert that emerged from the kitchen had (and has) to be THE BEST DESSERT IN THE WORLD. Peter Gilmore's super famous snow egg, with a custard apple filling on a granita bed. Nothing can be better, absolutely nothing.

Perfection.

The egg white was whisked super light, and the custard apple filling was the yolk.

The second dessert was a chocolate dessert...not quite as mindblowing but delicious in its own right. By this time it was almost 4pm and the sun was getting low.

A closer look- a combination of chocolate and caramel and goodness knows what else.

Petit fours. By the time we stumbled out of the restaurant, it was almost sunset.

Verdict: in my opinion, better than Attica for more interesting food combinations, and more effort with new techniques and textures. Then again, I'm no professional food reviewer, just a hungry housewife. 

Website: http://www.quay.com.au/