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Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Sugar Hits: Sofitel v Swissôtel

Every night during Good Food Month, selected Sydney hotels were offering a dessert plate and glass of Brown Brothers' dessert wine or Dewar's 12-year-old whisky for $15, 9-11pm. Food For Life (FFL) were able to attend two of these prestigious dessert indulgences. We chose Sofitel Wentworth for our first venture (who can go past crème brûlée?) and the Swissôtel as our second (and final) after a glowing recommendation from Timbo Kwok who confidently agreed to refund all our money (all 8 of us!) if we didn't find it up to standard. Suffice to say, expectations were quite high for both dessert plates.

Sofitel Wentworth

As we were shown to our seats (after being 30mins late), we marvelled at the beautiful glittering bar and the intimate ambience created by sparkling warm lights, the tinkling of piano keys and the soft murmur of conversation inside the elegant Sofitel lounge. Our wonderful waiter, Benoir, promptly asked if we were all having the dessert plate, to which we all replied heartily "of course!" This was what was on offer at the Sofitel:

Chocolate assiette - a delicious tasting plate consisting of white chocolate crème brulee, Valrhona bitter chocolate parfait and praline and a berry & milk chocolate terrine. With Brown Brothers Botrytis Reisling

The bitter parfait was a delicious hit with most of us - it was the perfect combination of dark and creamy. The berry and milk terrine was more of a miss than a hit with everyone but I personally, loved it. The berry complemented the milk chocolate giving it this extra kick of berry-sweetness but everyone else preferred less of the berry and more of the chocolate. (I must confess my love for all things berry-licious at this stage). When it came to the white chocolate crème brulee, the decision was unanimous. It was by far, the most sublime dessert on the plate, with some of us proclaiming it as one of the best crème brulee to have ever past our lips. We ate it slowly, savouring every morsel of this heavenly caramel-crusted goodness. The verdict: a huge thumbs up around the table and the night ended on a sugar high!

Swissôtel

After finding out the disappointing news that the Park Hyatt was pretty much booked out for the rest of the month and hearing the rhapsodic praises heaped on the Swissôtel from Timbo, I tentatively made a booking for eight. Tentative because it appeared that few, if any, food blogger had tasted this plate and given their verdict and also, we had no idea what quark mousse was. However, venturing into the unknown and taking calculated risks (ie. Timbo paying us all $15 back if it totally sucked) are mandates in the Food For Life Charter.

First disappointment of the night, we were led to the restaurant partition of the hotel as the Crossroads Bar was packed. Second disappointment- incompetent and slow wait staff. Third disappointment- the dessert plate. This was what was on offer:

Warm Lindt Ecuador Chocolate Torte with Wattle Seed-Quark Mousse and a Strawberry Shot Wine: Orange Muscat Aperitif: Dewar's 12 year old scotch whisky.

Our first visual impression was positive: a great-looking arrangement with perfect quantities. Now on to the quality side of the equation. The mousse (a cross between a cheesecake and a pannacotta) was, for lack of better adjective, tasteless. It was just a boring dessert leaving a blandness in your mouth that not even a yummy blueberry could amend. The strawberry shot wine was surprisingly delightful. Now before you start questioning that my bias for berries makes me inept at making objective observations, rest asured, that the other 7 agreed with me. The torte (aka fondant) was a hit with Patrick and a miss with everyone else. The rest of us complained at its bitterness enhanced by its dry centre, which we expected to look like this :


a yummy gooey Lindt centre that was only apparent in Patrick's and no one else's. It was such a shame, look at that photo, look at the potential that was not realised. And that sums up the Swissôtel Sugar Hit perfectly. Don't let appearances deceive you, the potential was there but they really should have spent more time polishing up the dessert plate. And not to mention, the service. Harsh but fair.

The verdict:

This is a bit of a no-brainer really, Sofitel hands-down. Each dessert complemented one another and the stand out was the divine mouth-watering crème brulee.

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Monday, October 30, 2006

Making Kimbup

A friend was having a Halloween party and we were asked to "bring a plate of something." My first thought was "Oh goodie, I get to cook!" (Yes I do live at home and I don't cook very often :D) The hardest part was choosing what to make - something not too messy and easy to share... I had always wanted to make sushi and have seen them do it on TV but never got around to trying. Jangers volunteered to help me out and since he had watched his mum make kimbup (korean sushi) dozens of times before, he was practically an expert!

To make kimbup, you will need:
Rice - Shortgrain or Koshihikari
Seaweed (aka laver)
Sesame oil
Salt
Sushi mat - Not essential if you are really good

The good thing about kimbup is that you can use almost anything for the filling. We stuck with fairly traditional ingredients:
Egg
Pickled radish
Cucumber
Carrot
Avocado
Varieties: Tuna and corn, fishcake, beef bulgogi

Cook the rice according to instructions on the packet (2 cups of uncooked rice will be enough to make four big rolls). Season with sesame oil and salt.

To prepare the egg, fry a thin layer in a large pan and cut into strips.

Egg pancake

Pickled radish

Cut all other ingredients into long strips.

Kimbup filling consisting of carrots, cucumber, egg strips and pickled radish

Flavour tuna and corn with mayo and fry/grill the beef bulgogi. Pan fry fish cake strips and season with soy sauce and sugar to make a caramelly teriyaki sauce.

Fish cake

All the fillings including tuna and corn, avocado, fish cake, beef bulgogi

Once all the ingredients are prepared, we're ready to roll!


First, place the seaweed shiny side down on a sushi mat and spread about 1 cup of cooked rice over the bottom 3/4 of the sheet.
Place the filling in the middle of the rice...
and use the mat to roll up the seaweed, making sure you squeeze the first roll tightly.
Continue rolling until you reach the end of the seaweed and voila!
Slice it up and you're done!

All I need now is a benriner slicer to make some garnish...:D

Needless to say the kimbup was a big hit at the party and I can't wait to try it again.

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Thursday, October 26, 2006

Ken's Birthday at Bel Parco

These were the suggestions from Ken as to where to go his birthday: 1. Sussex Centre food court - normally yes, but not for a birthday dinner... 2. Hooters - NO! 3. The Gentleman's Club - DOUBLE NO!!!

So Irene made an executive decision and chose Bel Parco, an Italian restaurant in the middle of Bicentennial Park. There was also a small wedding reception being held there that night so we were relegated to the "outside" tables. It was a cold night and we were all starving so we started off with some pizza crust to keep us going while we decided about our mains.

Pizza crust with garlic, rosemary & black olive paste

We all decided to go for mains and dessert with Patrick opting for entree and main.

Patrick closely guarding his freshly shucked Sydney rock oysters with eschalot vinegar and lemon

Between us we tried the lamb...

Wood roasted lamb rump with spinach, mushrooms and celeriac dumplings

the beef...200g aged beef fillet with potato gnocchi, spinach and porcini sauce

the quail...

Skewered quails, prosciutto and croutons with soft polenta and marsala, honey and lemon dressing

the salmon...

Wood roasted Atlantic salmon with cucumber. pink peppercorns, chervil and sabba

and pizza...

Hot salami, proscuitto, garlic, mushroom and onion

Although we were all stuffed by the time we finished the mains, we couldn't say no when the waiter offered us the dessert menu. Lynn and Ken both ummed and ahhed about which dessert to choose and they both ended up getting the (eggy!) berry gratin...

Summer berry gratin with vanilla gelato

Irene and Andy and Rush and I shared the dessert plate...

Bel Parco dessert plate for two with Chocolate & hazelnut torte with macademia and caramel gelato, Vanilla panna cotta with strawberry soup and berries and Traditional tiramisu

Yum!

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006

...And we finally have a blog

After months of saying we should start a blog for FFL, we have finally gotten off our arses and signed up with Blogger. Thanks to smelly nerd, we now have a lovely (*cough* hideous *cough*) pink and green backdrop to write about the thing that brings us together - food, food and more food.

Stay tuned for more foodie posts...

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