A Few of My Favourite Things !

This place deserves a post of its own. Serving the kind of food that we travel for, Ibu Oka in Ubud is patronized by locals as well as tourists. They do one dish and they do it incredibly well - Babi Guling. You point to what everyone else on the communal table is having and it’s plated and served in about two minutes flat. Help yourself to the prawn crackers in the basket and everything just gets tallied up at the end of your meal.

Too good and had us licking our lips for the rest of the trip. It’s a pity we didn’t get to go back for seconds =(

Breeze: Just stopped for drinks here one evening to see the sunset but too cloudy…

Cafe Warisan: Reputedly the best French and most romantic restaurant in Bali if you believe the Luxe Guide. Go during the day if you want to see the rice paddies although I’m sure the food is great either day or night! Be warned however that the whole crew is moving to Mentis in September 200. Warisan will continue trading under a different owner with different cuisine.

Scallops with seared foie, shimeji, puy lentils and sherry jus - just awesome! Easily the dish of the night.

Crab millefeille, crab emulsion, leek, soft shell crab tempura - pretty good too

Sole Meunière, creamed spinach, potato - hhhmmmmm, I really expected more from this dish.

La Moelluex- okay, I recently made one that beat the pants off this!

Nammos Beach Club at Karma Kandara: Wow, a private beach where you have to pay for entry - that’s something that Aussies are just NOT used to. However, I have to say that the view of the Indian Ocean was stupendous and I would definitely do it again!

Something special…sigh!

Isn’t this photo convincing enough? The ride there is a little bumpy but I’m still wondering how much it costs per night to wake up to this:

Bumbu Bali: The kind of place where they all greet you when you arrive (kinda like the “Irrashaimase” of Japanese restaurants) and place a frangipani behind your ear. Go only if you want to feel like a tourist because the food ain’t worth it.

ONe more post to go after this…

So it’s been a few weeks since our return from a one-week break in Seminyak, Bali but I haven’t posted about any of the food we ate, although there a pictures aplenty. Of course, I know this means I will probably have forgotten the names of most of the dishes, my mind being the sieve that it is. However, I shall do my best to recall them. We based our choice of restaurants/cafes on friends’ recommendations, reviews and the Luxe Guide and there were hits and there were misses and there were dishes in-between. I think I shall just make it a chronological review so here goes:

Made’s Warung: Apparently a visit to one of the two Warung Made (Kuta or Seminyak) is compulsory for all visitors. They serve a mix of international and Indonesian foods. It was more than passable but we tried to pick places that concentrated more specifically on Indonesian food after this.

Nasi Campur

Rujak

Lumpiah

Venue @ the Moon: About three shops up from our hotel, The Kayana, so it was easy to grab takeaway. Their food was some of the best we had in Bali!

Kuta Mall: We just had to take a peek, and really that’s all it was. We dropped by at the mall in Kuta and did a little bit of shopping. Enjoyed the humidity while watching the waves rolling in and enjoying a plate of garlicky prawns.

Grocer & Grind: No food photos but a really cool place to hangout if you’re missing home.

More to come in the next installation…

Okay, maybe I’ve been looking at too many A-frames of late but this one really puzzled me. I initially thought that they had misspelled prosciutto but it seemed TOO wrong to be wrong, if you know what I mean. A quick query to the waitress and we were told “It’s like ham but halal”. I tried googling but to no avail so if anyone can enlighten me as to what ‘pusitto’ is, I’d be much obliged.

I made a batch of pasta sauce for my boys on the weekend and was putting labels on freezer containers when I suddenly stopped writing and wondered, is bolognese spelt ‘bolognese’ or ‘bolognaise’? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen both version and agonized several minutes over which was correct. Now that I’m typing it in, my spell check is indicating that the latter is incorrect.

That reminds me of the many cafe and restaurant chalkboards that misspell menu items. Here’s one from Equinox Cafe/Bar that made me stop short yesterday as I first spotted their version of this tuna salad.

We were standing at the counter of Almost French, ordering hot cross buns and almond croissants when our reveries of afternoon tea were interrupted by the entrance of the unmissable Alannah Hill. After ordering half a dozen hot cross buns, she turned her attention to another version of hot buns - you know the ones that come in a pair of cool blue jeans…

She very casually introduced herself as ‘Alannah…Alannah Hill. I’m a designer’. Then quickly moved into ‘You’re very good-looking. I think I’m going to pick you up’.

Completely distracted by the scene playing out in front of us, I could barely respond to the waitress’ question of ‘Is there anything else?’ until Alannah had left her number with the guy and driven off in her black Merc.

Almost French
138 Swan St, Richmond 3121
Ph: (03) 9429 2080
Open 7am-5pm Mon-Sat

On a (now) rare Friday night off, A & I decided to go bar hopping, kind of. We started off at La Vita Buona Cellar, part of the City Sqaure troika along with Three Below and Caboose Restaurant. We sat down with the noisy, after-work crowd to enjoy a glass of champagne and shiraz accompanied simply by french fries with aioli (just to stave off those hunger pangs). After catching each other up on our day, we took a walk down Flinders Lane towards Spring Street when I had the brilliant idea of checking out the Press Club Bar. And what a good thing too! We ordered some drinks (Shiraz & Sauvignon Blanc) and sharing plates from the bar menu and we were delighted with each offering.

It was a struggle to get photos with my camera given the lighting in the bar but these will have to do. The white taramasalata made with creme fraiche came with fried pita bread - so moreish! The dish behind the dip also appears to be served at George’s new Hellenic Republic restaurant - peppered fig on fried haloumi. I loved the peppered fig but, overall, preferred the other two.

I can’t remember how they termed this dish in the menu but it was basically an octopus & boccarone skewer coated with pistachio praline.

We then adjourned to Longrain for some after dinner cocktails (Soho La & Lychee Martini) and yet more little dishes - the son-in-law eggs and betel leaf topped with smoked trout, garlic, chilli, galangal & trout roe. If I thought the lighting at the Press Club gave me difficulties with photos, they were impossible at Longrain…so no images of the food, just memories of deliciousness.

La Vita Bouna
City Square, Melbourne
96547855

Longrain
44 Lt Bourke St, Melbourne
9671 3151

Looking for a child-friendly place for brunch, a friend recommended the Auction Rooms as a great place that had room for a pram. So, we wandered up to Victoria Market, purchasing some groceries on the way, then made our way to Errol St in North Melbourne. Not quite knowing where Errol Street was, we asked directions from three blokes chatting in from of a pub. Two of them, who appeared to have already well on their way to being sozzled, informed us to keep walking in that direction but that Errol Street was 2km away. Fortunately, their estimations were quite a way out and we were there within 15 min., stumbling upon it right after passing Fandango.

My idea of a perfect breakfast - miso soup with silken tofu, fried tofu, carrots, shimeji mushrooms, wakame, one beautifully-cooked still-runny poached egg and a riceball on the side. Ahhh, bliss on a Saturday morning…

Lau’s Family kitchen is quickly becoming a firm favourite with our family. We were celebrating a belated birthday (dad’s) and my brother meeting his nephew for the first time so we made a lunch reservation so that Baby EJ could come along. The service at Lau’s is highly attentive and although I didn’t have a problem with this last time, it was a little suffocating this time. There were so few tables that our waitress (fairly new I think) only had our table to look after. On the whole though, it’s better to have this problem than not being able to attract any of the waitstaff.

The dishes were served in individual portions, again not my preference as I like being able to choose how much of each dish I have. To me, having a chinese meal is about sharing from the dishes in the middle of the table and being given predetermined portions takes away from the idea of sharing. Also, there is a practical aspect that not everyone eats the same amount of food…which is also why I rarely go for degustation menus. Well, apart from those two issues, Lau’s was well-worth the visit. This is what we had:

Oyster with black bean sauce - very tasty & we saw them shucking the oysters at the start of the lunchtime service

Steamed barramundi - just AMAZING. Completely delicate flavours and the most tender morsels of fish I have ever had. We have not gone wrong with their steamed fish yet.

Cantonese beef - tender, tasty flamed-grilled flavour

Mixed vegetables - not oily and filled with fresh vegies that were still slightly crunchy. My favourite cloud ear fungus

Scallops - my least favourite as I found them to be just a tad overcooked. Very subtle flavour

Go at lunch if you to converse with your friends or go at dinner if you’re with boring company. You can smile and nod politely, pretending you’re able to hear everything being said =)

Lau’s Family Kitchen
4 Acland Street
St Kilda
(03) 8598 9880

Seeing as Neil has so eloquently described the bloggers dinner at Jamon Sushi, I thought that I would simply add some photos of the food we had that night. The only other thing that I will say is that A. loves the passion that Charles demonstrates and that I wish I had been able to stay for the soba course.