The wine list cover – very cool! The owner Alex, explained that they had to buy thousands of different wine labels off eBay to create these covers because you could only purchase them in bulk. Cool theme, it also appears on their website.

Tastevin cutlery
In case you were wondering about that teensy weensy spoon and fork at the end, we ordered oysters which I forgot to take pictures of!

Tastevin’s gnocchi a la parisienne
Mmm, soft fluffy gnocchi and cheesy, cheesy sauce.

cassoulet of confit duck, pork sausage and grilled speck
It just fell right off the bone! Delicious, this is the dish I would come back for!

char grilled beef eye fillet with pommes frites & peppercorn sauce
Perfect French fries – so crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside

.. But not before one missed stop, a mishap with an express train and 3 L train rides…  The L train rides wouldn’t have been so bad if we didn’t have to get off at 14th St Union Square every  friggen time – the place seriously WREAKED of piss! We wanted to die between connecting trains!

But the reward was well worth it…

Porchetta Sandwich – generously flavoured roast pork – none of that dry, bland shit!

porchétta [por'ketta] n. roasted pork with crispy skin, highly seasoned with aromatic herbs and spices, garlic, sage, rosemary and wild fennel pollen. Typical plate of the Roman cuisine. Slow cooked Italian fast food.

Home fries with burnt ends. Mmm! Potatoes in one of its most tasty forms.

And then down the road for dessert at the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop (complete with rainbows and unicorns) where(_I_)head got a Big Gay Ice Cream and I, a Tang Shake.

http://www.porchettanyc.com/

http://biggayicecream.com/

We had plans to do the whole Momofuku thing but it didn’t open until noon which meant we would be cutting it a bit close to catch the Lion King at 1pm.

This joint was suggested to us by JuBert and we happily took it up. Four stars and 3000+ reviews on Yelp – couldn’t be bad, right? Turns out, it was the best ramen I’ve ever had! DEEEELICIOUS. It was the perfect meal to alleviate the mildly ill effects of the night before.

We were a bit worried to find the huge line out front when we got there at 11am on the dot but it was all good because they had just opened. It took us 20 minutes to be seated but only because they didn’t have enough menus to go around… A bit silly but hey, at least it’s an easy fix if they want to do something about it.

The cool bowl display at the bar/entrance

Hamachi Carpaccio    $13
Thinly sliced yellowtail sashimi with Japanese carpaccio sauce

Hirata Buns (2 pieces)    $9
Steamed buns filled with your choice of pork or chicken, served with Ippudo original spicy buns sauce

Haven’t had the Momofuku ones but peeps on Foursquare have said they are comparable! Momofuku or not, they were fucking good! I could eat these all day.

We were seated at the counter where we could watch the chefs prepare our meals in their cute shirts! This guy had cherry blossoms on his – my favourite!

And the ramen! (_I_)head went for the classic:

Shiromaru Hakata Classic     $14  + Onsen Tamago (Poached Egg)
The original “Tonkotsu” noodle soup topped with pork loin chashu, kikurage, menma, red pickeled ginger, sesame, and scallions

And I had the one that everyone loves:

Akamaru Modern    $14 + Onsen Tamago (Poached Egg)
The original “Tonkotsu” noodle soup topped with Ippudo’s secret “Umami Dama” miso paste, pork chashu, cabbage, kikurage, scallions, and fragrant garlic oil

A definite must-go for anyone visiting NYC. Oh, how I miss the Big Apple.

Om nom nom nom. That is all.

We arrived a bit early for our 7pm booking and settle for a pre-dinner drink at the Flinders where I overheard the bar staff talk about their special guests upstairs. Interesting! Anyway, enough celebrity excitement, here are the pictures!

Leather Jacket Cheek, Oyster, Cucumber
Hunk of leather jacket fish in an oyster shell, under a layer of cucumber jelly

King George Whiting Fish Finger
That sauce was deeeeelicious!! Shame they were a bit tight with it! C’mon man, dollops! Big fat, dollops!

Nasturtium, Goats Cheese
I can safely say that I am not a fan of goat’s cheese… Will obligingly finished this off for me but not before I fucked him up by eating all the biscotti thing and leaving him with nothing but the cheese and other stuff, lol

Prawn, Pasta
Delicious, fat king prawn! Perfectly cooked, soft and succulent. The pasta was good too, this dish reminded me of an asian egg noodle dish

Boar Neck, Garlic Shoots

Pig Tail Tile, Bone Marrow

White Miso Caramel Eclair
A bit weird, but it worked. I’m a huge fan of salty and sweet, just ask the (_I_)head who is disgusted when I indulge in Canadian pancakes. Mmm, bacon and maple syrup!!

And photographic evidence courtesy of popsugar!

Grabbed a quick bite at the food court Din Tai Fung before heading over to the Australian Museum for my birthday weekend outing.

We crossed Hyde Park to find Cathedral Square decked out with an ice rink! The Winter Festival was on so we stopped by for a few quick photos before continuing to the museum which was awesome but very tiring for a sickling like myself.

Hello my camouflaging friend!

And what kind of museum would it be without stuffed animals?

I love the museum! Can’t wait to visit the American Museum of Natural History! An NYC local who I met on a ferry last weekend told me that that the Australian Museum is only a postage stamp in size!

]]> http://yuggles.koonkii.com/2011/09/23-07-11-out-about/feed/ 0 http://yuggles.koonkii.com/2011/09/22-07-11-etch-dining/ http://yuggles.koonkii.com/2011/09/22-07-11-etch-dining/#comments Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:19:24 +0000 yuggles http://yuggles.koonkii.com/?p=1563

Cool interior!

Chowing it down!

This year’s birthday dinner from the (_I_)head! Ahhh-mayyyyy-zing! I was kept guessing about the restaurant up until the moment  the car was parked. The drive went a little something like this:

• Into the city, towards Westfields… Becassè? Nope.
• Then up along George St towards The Rocks… Rockpool? Nope.
• Hook a right somewhere and left onto Pitt St and we’re heading north again… Ah! Bilson’s!

 A real surprise for me because David had always made it known how much he hated Bilson’s despite not having been before – a decoy, perhaps? Hmm.

Upon arrival our coats were taken and we were shown to our seats. The waitress explains that there are five menus on offer:

• Le’Omnivore: Petit & Grand
• Le Jardin: Petit & Grand
• And the mother of all degustations, the Epiphany – Presque Quatre

We figured we may as well have gone all the way out (since we were there) and that was the beginning of an epic night of 15 courses and (I kid you not) 6.5 hours of dining. We arrived for a 6pm start and didn’t leave until 12.30am.

Here is a random selection of pictures from the night:

Marron, Butternut Pumpkin, Mandarin, Mizuna
So awesome! Everything in this dish just worked so well together, from the crunchy texture of the pumpkin seeds against the soft, sweet marron which was complemented by the slight tartness of the mandarin purèe that also tasted wonderful with the pumpkin.

Egg Yolk, Cauliflower, Rye, Sprouts, Fresh Herbs, Vegemite

Polenta, Zucchini, Parmesan, Hazelnut (El Bulli 2007)
Tasty parcels of polenta that just oozed in your mouth. I was curious about the caption next to this item on the menu and the waiter explained that this dish was brought to Bilson’s by Diego Muñoz who used to cook at El Bulli. Ah, yes, of course.

 Hare Jus, Honey Pear, Spiced Crème Fraiche, Truffle

Thanks (_I_)head!

Citrus Presentation
Refreshing – a great ‘pre-dessert’ before the heavy stuff! From memory; blood orange jelly, kaffir lime gel, lemon macaron, lemon sorbet, candied kumquat, marshmallow and foam… and some other thing that I can’t remember

Chocolate Box
Macarons, meringue and an assortment of chocolates that they gladly packed into a small gift box for us to take away (because we couldn’t finish them!)

derishus!

Photos of the other dishes can be found here.

Highlights not pictured but definitely worth mentioning:

• Mushrooms, Potato, Yeast – A tangy salad of mushroom with mmm, yeast!
• Baby Carrot, Calamari, Ink, Macadamia, Cocoa – yum, yum, yummmm. Never eaten anything like this before. Great dish! It was like the Marron, everything working so well together.

All in all, it was a fantastic degustation, up there as one of my favourites. Not just because there were so many courses, but because I either liked or love all of them. Tasting menus are a little hit and miss sometimes, because you can’t be sure that you will like all the dishes but my word, it must mean something if the ratio of good dishes is so high, especially for the meal with the most courses. Very indulgent, indeed –  I was very spoilt!

I had to try this place after perusing the menu because there aren’t many places you can go for “Native Australian/Japanese – no sushi!”.  Our experience was indeed, something different but not necessarily because of the menu (but more on that to follow shortly).

We started off with some beverages – Thien went for the hot chocolate, which he said was delicious and I opted for the Café Ish Masala Chai which was described as “an authentic recipe for Indian spiced tea with a touch of Australiana”. Now, I have a confession to make… I actually prefer the powdered pre-mix that your average cafe tends to serve up over real chai tea lattes that I’ve had in the past (maybe because they’re milkier) but I have to say that I may have found my perfect cuppa here. It was milky, smooth and sweet enough without compromising the complexity of the blend of flavours.

Reuben ish, aniseed myrtle corned free range Wa Gyu, braised cabbage, seed mustard, bush tomato aioli, Kraft cheese

Croc in the rock, crocodile sausage, egg, shallot and organic fetta in toast with tomato relish with a side of potato mochi
Potato mochi = awesome. Fluffy potato encased in a deep fried  glutinous rice skin - I wish it was readily available as a side everywhere I went!

Ai’s freaking awesome fried chicken, vinegar, shallot & garlic sauce
Funny thing happened with this dish… We weren’t sure what to expect but we sure didn’t expect what we got! There was a very strong taste of what we thought was a spice or herb, so strong that it was bitter. We weren’t sure if there was something wrong or if we were just being pussies (it was supposed to be freaking awesome, after all) but we battled on with it because we’d be damned if the chicken was too awesome for us. The table next door also ordered this dish and it turns out that it wasn’t supposed to taste the way it did.  The chef explained that he had mistakenly used bi-carb instead of corn flour which is why it tasted so acrid – and offered to fix us up with another dish. Moral of the story: never question your tastebuds… but I guess it is a bit hard to some times when goat’s cheese is supposed to be appetising…

Thien with Will’s skill tester winnings – Sony catplush toy  & Pedobear earphones

Ahh, Tetsuya’s. We made a reservation when I went on that booking spree around this time last year. If I recall correctly, the next weekend booking wasn’t available until something stupid in advance, so I thought I would just align it to our anniversary which was a good 9 months away. Plenty of time, you would hope, to secure a table.

It was probably the most ‘different’ dining experience we’ve had so far, not in the sense that everything was ground-breakingly out of the ordinary, but different in feel and ambience. You wouldn’t suspect that there was a free standing, two-level restaurant complete with its own Japanese garden in the middle of the CBD. The actual restaurant itself, hidden away behind the Judge’s House on Kent Street gave the whole experience an air of reverence (for lack of a better word). It was very quiet and very peaceful and I couldn’t have felt further away from the hustle and bustle of the city outside. Whoever described it as a ‘high temple of gastronomy’ (as the website reads) captured the feel and atmosphere perfectly.

Bread rolls and Tetsuya’s famous truffle butter

Chilled Cucumber Soup with Sheep Yoghurt Icecream

My favourite course is nearly always the Amuse Bouche. Sadly, this was not to my taste as I’m not a fan of cucumber or sheep’s/goat’s cheese. Can’t win ‘em all, right? It’s a bit tricky with seasonal menus, you can’t always line a booking up with what is currently being offered if you’re doing it in advance. It’s a bit of a gamble.

Pacific Oysters with Rice Wine Vinegar & Ginger
Ah, lucky we had these babies to make up for it. Supplementary oysters.

Bon anniversaire!

Sashimi of Yellow Fin Tuna with Shishito & Garlic Chips

Marinated NZ Scampi with Curd & Junsai

Our view out onto the garden, through the blinds.

Confit Petuna Ocean Trout with Konbu, Celery & Apple
Delicious! Totally lived up to the signature-dish hype. That konbu crust was sensational and the apple totally worked. I’m so glad it wasn’t alfalfa or sprouts or something!

Steamed Mulloway with Blackbean & Ginger

Braised Ox Tail with Sea Cucumber & Lotus Root

Slow-Roasted Breast of Duck with Smoked Eschallots & Foie Gras

Beef Short Rib with Beetroot Jus & Wasabi Mustard
Slow cooked for a very long time (I forget how many hours it was, but it was definitely double digits!). While we looked real forward to this dish, we found it was a bit too meaty tasting for both of us. Don’t get me wrong, I usually eat my steaks medium-rare with but I’ve never had beef that tasted as gamey as this before.

Sorbet of Pione Grapes & Tarte Tatin

Genoa Figs with Leatherwood Honey & Fig Leaf Ice Cream

Genoa Figs with Leatherwood Honey & Fig Leaf Ice Cream

Chocolate Pave with Cream Cheese Ice Cream & Cinnamon Twigs