A French Affairs

It was husband b'day on Wednesday. In the midst of the craziness of moving house, house hunting, church stuff, juggling with workload, dealing with unrealistic clients, tripped over boxes that are still scattered around etc etc, I decided to switch off his mobile, temporary misplaced his ipod touch, hide away his lappy, put on something nice, and treat him to a very relaxing long dinner with his favourite French food at Atelier, a high end, fined french restaurant.
I love to dined out during weeknight, because that will ensure we get a very quiet table for 2 in a usually crowded and busy restaurant. On top of that, you can be sure to receive a lot of personal touch from the chef and waitress. When i call up to make a reservation, i was only too happy to know that they are offering a mid week dinner special, with 3 courses from the ala carte menu, for just a mere $59 !


Atelier was nestled in a federation, historical house like building along the busy Glebe Point Road. With blood red walls, and piano black leather furnishing. Atelier is very chic, very modern, not quite French, but very modern European. it was quiet, as expected, with only about 4 tables of guests, all served by Bernadette, our waitress of the night.

Complimentary Green Olives

We were given a nice cosy table for 2 near the window, and already, there was a bowl full of fat juicy green olives awaits for us! Bernadette give us a brief introduction about the menu and wine list, though we politely turn down the wine and ask for sparkling and still water as the husband was driving.


Sourdough Bread w Tapenade, EVOO & Balsamic $5

I order a sourdough to start, while husband take his time and "study" his menu as they offer a wide range of dishes and he just can't make up his mind as to what to choose. The bread arrived shortly, warm and soft inside, while crusty on the outside. The tapenade is so good and the best part is that husband prefers the extra virgin olive oil with balsamic with his bread which means i can spread the tapenade generously on mine.

Complimentary Hors d'oeuvre

Our eyes lights up when the lovely Bernadette comes up to us with 2 individual plates of Hors d'oeuvre, " compliments from the chef " she said, oh...like music to our ears. Didn't I say i love mid week dined out?! The presentation was amazing i was busy taking photos under this extremely low lighting condition, and forgotten to ask her what it was, it taste like broccoli of some sort with tomatoes relishes. Very good, fresh and refreshing, it really does gives you a hint of how good the dishes were to come!

Husband finally make up his mind and order himself a consomme for the entree , while I choose the cheese souffle. Bernadette was very thoughtful, and give us both a spoon as she expected this lovey dovey couple might want to share their dishes, and of course we do!! The consomme arrived without the consomme, but she quickly explain that she will come with the consomme right away and in a split second, the hot, fresh and flavoursome consomme was poured onto the tortellini and scallop.

We quickly dip our spoon into the consomme and gently sip. It was very tasty indeed, very light, clear veal broth. Husband have a special love for tortellini, he often have them for lunch, but when he dig in to this, he immediately told me that he wish there were 10 more rather than just 2!! Greedy him!! Despite that, he still generously insist that i try the other one and though i wanted to let him have it all since it's his b'day afterall, i can't resist! It was really good, unlike the normal tortellini, this one have got chunky beef in them! The scallops were seared to perfection too.

E: Veal & Madeira Consomme w Seared Scallops, Beef Tortellini & Bone Marrow $24

E: Twice-Cooked Parmesan Souffle w Jamon Iberico, Bloody Mary Compression $22

My souffle was equally good though husband still prefer his consumme. It's gloriously good looking, rising tall and high, with jamon iberico wrap around it's tall waist. The cheese souffle was light and airy as it can be, and matching perfectly with the stronger flavour / sweetness of bloody mary compression.

M:Honey-Roasted Breast of Grimauld Duckling, Crisp Confit, Brocolli Puree, Green Grapes, Xeres Jus $32

I will almost always order duck if duck is on the menu, mainly because i love duck, and i have never cook duck before! I dunno why, but i just find it quite difficult to buy duck and prepare them, they are just not as readily available as chicken!! So, I choose the honey-roasted duck breast and crisp confit as my mains of the night. I was a little disappointed when it arrived!! In my mind, i am thinking of a whole duck maryland type of thing, but instead, there were only 3 piece of duck breast and 2 de-boned duck confit scatter loosely with dollops of broccoli puree and salad of green grapes!! Though the duck were tender and the confit crisp, they dun give me the satisfaction that i long for!

M:Roasted Boned & Rolled White Rabbit, Calamari a la Plancha, White Onion Soubise, Black Bean & Piquillo Pepper Sauce $31

In contrast, husband's rabbit was really good, so good that i forgive and forget about my duck!

It was 3 good sized roasted, boned and roiled rabbits, all of which top with very tender and thick cut calamari with very delicious and savoury black bean pepper sauce. Both of us gives our thumbs up for this dish as all the flavours compliments each other perfectly.

Amuse Bouche: Grilled Pineapple Jelly with Coconut foam

Our eyes lit up once again when Bernadette brings us the amuse bouche as a courtesy of the chef yet again before our dessert. This time, it was a stick of grilled pineapple jelly with very refreshing coconut foam. It's lovely and sweet and really cleanse our palate to prepare us for the dessert.

D:Tahitian Vanilla & Chocolate Fudge Souffle w Malt Chocolate Ice Cream & a Malt-Infused Milkshake $15

We order their house specialty, souffle and creme brulee for dessert. What could be more french to end this dinner ?!

Bernadette surprise husband by lighting a small candle on the side of the souffle and no, there are no goose bump and embarrassing type of b'day cheers and singing, she politely gives him a warm and sincere greetings and left the table for us to enjoy the special moment.

D:Tonka Bean Creme Brulee w Balsamic-Poached Strawberries, Vanilla Ice Cream $15

I really loves the souffle and to fully enjoy it, you have to dig a hole on top of the souffle, and pour the cold,malted milkshake into the warm souffle, and then coat the spoon with bits of ice-cream, scope bits of souffle and put the whole thing in your mouth. Em..the chilled from the milkshake, the warmth from the souffle, and the sweetness from the ice-cream... Should i say more??

The creme brulee was superb as well, with the crisp toffee to top, and smooth silky custard underneath. It was not too sweet as sometime creame brulee can be toothachingly sweet, this was just nice. I particularly love the strawberry with balsamic reduction! Yam!

Victoria Flat White $5

The birthday boy finish his meal with a cup of Victoria flat white, and we're not surprise at all that they serve cubed sugar as the French will only take sugar, in the cubed form!! Interesting isn't it?!

Cubed Brown and white sugar from Atelier

It was a lovely end to the dinner, we bid Bernadette good bye, with our bloated stomach, slowly stroll out like an old couple.

See, growing old is not that scary after all wasn't it?!

Restaurant Atelier

22 Glebe Point Road Glebe NSW Australia 2037
p: +61 2 9566 2112
e: eat@restaurantatelier.com.au
Dinner: Tuesday - Saturday from 6pm

Good News Week

If you have been following my blog, you'll know that in the begining of the year, we have indulge with unlimited lobster at the Shangri-La seafood buffet for the price of one. Well, now you can too but for a limited time only, there are also a lot of other restaurant and activities all for the price of 1.
The link is HERE.

Enjoy!

Bay Tinh

Although I am a Malaysian, and that I believe Malaysia is a food heaven and all, but I actually prefer to give the food heaven title to my adopted homeland Sydney. You see, there are so many different type of authentic cuisine here in Sydney, from western world to the eastern world. Me and my extended family likes to try new dishes and restaurants of all sorts during special events like birthdays, anniversaries, mother's day, father's day...and this year's mother's day, we decided to have a proper, authentic Vietnamese cuisine. Proper because it will not be street food such as pho which we have on casual basis, but more like a sitting banquet in Saigon!
The parentals always prefer not to travel too much for their dinner. Any places that doesn't involve hitting the M5 would be their preferred destination. Normally, we have to persuade them to come out of their comfort zone to enjoy a good kick ass meal but not this time, as many of the good, authentic Vietnamese restaurant are actually tuck and hide away in those suburbs around us.

I was torn between My Canh in Bankstown and Bay Tinh in Marrickville. Husband and I have been to My Canh for many times but we've never tried Bay Tinth, as I much prefer to introduce the family to restaurant that I'm sure would kick ass rather than to take the risk and be adventures. This time however, I was forced to take the risk as My Canh was fully booked out when I called!! In a panic attack, i rang Bay Tinh, and reserve a table of 7 for the mother's day dinner.

Having never been to Bay Tinh, I was really nervous and anxious on the way, especially so when we invited Rev Ling to join us for Mother's day dinner. But when we arrive to the split level nicely decorated restaurant, I was relief. It was pack with dinners, and even with reservation, we're ask to wait for a little while for our table to be ready!

Bonfire Beef – Bo Quanh Lua Hong $16.90
Marinated beef with onion cooked in a pot at the table and served with rice paper, lettuce, herbs, pickles and special anchovy sauce.

I rely heavily on various foodie forum for review and dishes to order. Their bon fire dishes were quite well known so i choose 2 types of bon fire dishes; the chicken and beef. The bon fire arrive in a black little ceramic pot with flaming fire, looking smokin' hot really! It also come with a plate of salad consisting of fresh beansprouts, mints, ice-burgs and some pickles. I think we must be pure careless for not paying attention to the description on the menu, which clearly stated:
Marinated beef with onion cooked in a pot at the table and served with rice paper, lettuce, herbs, pickles and special anchovy sauce, or just very hungry because we started to dig in, before the dried rice paper arrived! Luckily, the waitress noticed our ignorance, and quickly intervene and kindly remind us that Bonfire dishes are suppose to eat with rice paper, where you put little bits of the beef/chicken, together with the salads,rolled up dip in the anchovy sauce and eat like a Vietnamese spring roll!!! So We See!!!

Salad accompanying Bon Fire

I also order a tray of scallops in mussel shells and stuffed mussel. However, our tray of stuffed mussel never arrived. We did not bother to ask because they were clearly very busy on this special day, and we've also order a lot of other dishes already.

Scallop in Mussel Shells - Diep Nhoi So $7.90
Delicious steamed mixture of minced scallops, pork and black
fungus stuffed in mussel shells and served with oyster sauce (4 in one serve).

The scallop in mussel shells are 4 delicious looking steamed mixture of minced scallops, pork and black fungus stuffed in mussel shells ,served with oyster sauce. I did not get to try these but those who did like it so it must be good!

Steam Boat – Lau Thap Cam $31
Fresh king prawns, calamari, chicken, pork, fish cake, and
green vegetable cooked at your table in a delicious broth.

The steamboat was not what I had in mind, ( those raw meat and seafood that we can put in ourselves blah blah blah ... ) It's more like a refreshing hot soup with fresh king prawns, calamari, chicken, pork, fish cake, and green vegetable. But it's very delicious, and the broth is oh so fresh and clean, i felt cleanse and rejuvenate after 2 serving of the soup. and ready for the heavier, richer main course.

The braised duck with peas looks nothing but ordinary, but wait till you dig your chopstick into the thick, succulent ( and generous amount ) duck meat, and I guarantee it'll blow you away! It's husband favourite dish of the night, in fact, he likes it so much if not because of the presence of Rev Ling, he would lick the whole plate clean!!

Braised Duck With Peas – Bach Hac Hau Co $16.50
Specially prepared duck braised with mix vegetable and peas.
Their salt and pepper calamari however it's a bit of a let down. It's quite bland and need the help of chilli and soy sauce to give them a boost of flavour.

Salt & Pepper Calamari – Muc Muoi $15.50
Deep-fried to a taste sensation.

The next to arrive is my favourite of the night. It's a piece of boneless chicken stuffed with pork and egg, deep-fried to a golden brown and served with special sauce.

Stuffed Boneless Chicken – Ga Rut Xuong $17.50
Boneless Chicken stuffed with pork and egg, deep-fried to a
golden brown, served with special sauce.

You can literally see the layer of egg, pork and chicken!! It's so flavoursome and I dun even think i need the special sauce at all!! Yum!

I was quite disappointed when the waitress told me that they have run out of Caramelised Fish, a dish which was highly recommended! So reluctantly, i have to replace it with sate beef. But they are quickly forgiven as the sate beef turn out to be another boring looking but stunning dish! In fact, everyone was asking for more rice to mop out every last drop of the sate sauce.

Sate Beef – Bo Sate $14.90
Tenderly braised with sate sauce (optional hot chili).
With Vegetables

Are we full yet? Well, almost, after all we're having a banquet isn't it? and at the end of every banquet, there will always be noodle to make sure no one left the table, still hungry! ( although, we're all full and satisfied enough! ) The combination soft egg noodle sums up a good night out in Bay Tinh. Overall, Bay Tinh serve very authentic Vietnamese dishes with very reasonable price. The service was a tad slow which is understandable given that it was full house on the mother's day.

Soft Egg Noodles Combination – Mi Xao Mem Thap Cam hay Do Bien $19.90
Boiled egg noodles braised with seafood, pork and vegetables,
or seafood only with vegetables.

The restaurant was originally belong to Tinh Tran, who was a penniless boat person when he came to Sydney in the 1970s. He later invest his savings into the opening of Bay Tinh in 1988 and the restaurant gain much popularity for it's originality and simplicity of Vietnamese food. He also often offered the best of Vietnamese and French cuisines to entertain the Ministerial Cabinet, visiting Diplomats and special national guests.. In 2007, he retired and sold Bay Tinh to one of the chef from Bay Tinh, Harry Hoang. Harry have manage to keep the authenticity of Bay Tinh, and I think he did a good job with the re-decoration of the restaurant too!

More history of the restaurant can be found here.

Bay Tinh Restaurant Marrickville

316-318 Victoria Road (cnr Marrickville Road)

Marrickville NSW 2204

T 02 9560 8673

F 02 9818 8545
Open every night 5.30pm to 10pm

except Mondays in Winter

Friday & Saturday 5.30 to 10.30pm
Licensed – BYO wine only

Sushi E

I tend to try my best to catch up on social life during holiday, as weekdays is impossible to be social, and weekends is often too short to even relax myself! When H called up during the Easter holiday, I quickly suggested a date to catch up as we have not seen each other for more than a year. It's quite unbelievable given that she work and live in the CBD, I by pass the city almost everyday, but that's how busy our lives are!!

Knowing that I just started my restaurant blogging recently, she suggested for us to try Sushi E, a fine Japanese restaurant in the Establishment hotel. Sushi E doesn't sound foreign to me at all, as it belong to one of the Merivale groups, which have a variety of famous restaurants under them. As with most fine dining restaurant, sitting is limited, so it's strongly suggested that you pre-booked your dinner, which we did, of course!






















It's located on the 4th floor of Establishment hotel on George St. The actual restaurant is not big at all, in fact, a large part of Level 4 is actually a very swanky bar called Hemmesphere. Because of the lighting condition, I am not able to take good pic of the restaurant and the bar, but you can view it here.






















H booked a 6.30pm dinner, and when I arrived a little late, as usual, she was already there.
It's a good thing to dined early here, and you'll see why. We're the 2nd couple around the table, and there are 3 chef preparing the freshest sushi and sashimi in front of us. The middle one is the head chef of the restaurant, Nobiyuki Ura ( pictured above ). He is such a charming guy with a very cheeky personality. As I mention, because it's early, and there were not a lot of diners, we received very personal service from the chef, and even receive a plate of free sashimi **






















We carefully selected a few dishes to share. This is H's second time but my first, and there are so many dishes that I like to try!!

salmon tartare $23. raw salmon combined with onion, lemon and mayo then finished with generous serves of salmon roe and cucumber. The salmon is then dressed with a wasabi ponzu dressing





















It's quite interesting to see that your food is being prepared right in front of you. Our first dish, the Salmon Tartare, was quickly prepared and appeared in front of our eyes in no time. It's actually raw salmon combined with onion, lemon and mayo,then finished with generous serves of salmon roe and cucumber. The salmon is then dressed with a wasabi ponzu dressing. There are also a few pieces of fried wonton skin or similar kind of pastry strips, as an accompany to this dish. The salmon pieces is very fresh, and I love the popping of saltiness when bite into the really generous serves of salmon roe. I'm actually glad that we share this dish as it can be quite rich to be consumed alone.

Special Treats from charming chef for us ONLY ** Snapper Sashimi











We were so surprise when the chef treat us with this awesome snapper sashimi, dressed in a light lemon and vinegar sauce. He say it's his personal dish for us to try and hope we like it. Of course we like it, the snapper is fresh and the dressing tangy, we absolutely loved it!















spicy scallop tempura roll * $19.0 scallop tempura pieces, cucumber and tobiko, with togarashi chili on spicy red sauce rolled I/O (L)
spider roll * (soft shell crab) $17.5 dry fried soft shell crab, cucumber and jalapeno mayo, rolled I/O with spicy tobiko and chives (R)
We select 2 types of sushi from the extensive menu. The spicy scallop tempura roll was rolled inside out, with scallop tempura pieces, cucumber and tobiko, and togarashi chili on spicy red sauce. However, it was the spider roll that steal our hearts. It's also rolled inside out, with dry fried soft shell crab, cucumber, jalapeno mayo,spicy tobiko and chives. The crab pieces is huge, and very nicely flavoured.



If we have bigger appetite, we would love to try more exotic sushi, like the hemmesphere roll , which consists of salmon, avocado, baby capers, mixed cress, jalapeno mayo and spanish onion rolled inside out, which the chef
prepared for another dinner. ( pictured )



wagyu beef 5 score $48. 500 day grain fed wagyu from south queensland with a white miso and sesame sauce, grated radish, bok choy, chives and sautéed enoki mushrooms


But I'm glad we didn't, coz when our 5 score wagyu arrived, it was scumptious!! It was 2 large pieces of fatty, juicy wagyu, lightly grilled, serve with a white miso and sesame sauce, grated radish,bok choy, chives and sautéed enoki mushrooms. May I say that it was the most tender beef i have ever eaten?! It's so soft and moist it's almost like eating beef cake! It makes me wonder, how tender can the 9 score wagyu be?
BTW, just some info about the scoring of the wagyu: the higher the score means more marbling effects, which also means, more fat stuff between the meat layer! The quality of wagyu and hence the price of it also depends on the scoring, from 1 to 12. I've read from a food magazines that a 12 score wagyu will look like a piece of meet covered in snow!!!
Alas, every delicious foods tends to clog your heart!!!

agedashi tofu $18.0 silken tofu which is deep fried then served in a hot broth of dashi, mirin and soy


The last dish was the agedashi tofu, which is a good way to end the dinner. After the fatty beef, we really need some cleansing tofu, albeit they were deep fried :)

I have a love and hate relationship with agedashi tofu, if well prepared, it can be the most simple yet delicately flavoursome dish. on the other hand, it can be bland, oily and yucky! Which fortunately, was not the case here, the tofu is so smooth and silky, pairing with the slimy outer skin and light soy = heaven!

Complimentary Free Treats : Berries Custard jelly
Dessert was complimentary, the custard is smooth, sweet and a nice companion to the slightly zingy berries compote on top.

I really enjoyed the dinner, catching up with an old friend, enjoying a fantastic dinner, and best of all, having a great great time in sushi E, I'm not saying this becoz of the free sashimi, though we really appreciate his generosity!! I'm surely going to be back with husband very soon!!


Sushi E
Establishment Hotel Level 4,
252 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9240 3041

New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

As husband, me and Tom discovers the fabulous soup dumpling, aka "siao long bao"in the beginning of the year, we decided to ease our cravings this Easter with the whole family. This time, we headed to somewhere nearer, closer to home to reduce the traffic stress. As you all know, holiday period =higher chance to win a date with traffic police, so, Ashfield is a good distance to travel, and it's a superb place to eat Shanghainese cuisine. There are so many fabulous Shanghai restaurant in Ashfield, I choose the New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant because I've dined there before with husband, and I don't like "suprises" when bringing family or friends.



We arrived at about 7pm, and the restaurant was already full. We were told to wait outside for few minutes as one group of diners were finishing. 5 mins later, we're being told the table was ready, and we were all quite please, although, we were sharing the table with 1 diner, but none of us minded. We were quite amuse with the huge glass windows at the front, showing 3 Chinese ladies making the famous soup dumplings in a very fast and smooth action.



We ordered 3 types of soup dumplings, the original pork meat soup dumpling, the famous crab meat soup dumpling and the fried soup dumpling. We also order a few of their famous dish to try, such as the pumpkin and redbean pancake, Drunken shredded chicken, Deep fried squirrel yellow croaker , Salted egg deep fried crab, salted egg tofu and beef tendon hotpot.

The famous pork meat soup dumplings

The original pork dumpling arrived very quickly, because some of the inlaws have never had soup dumpling before, we promptly explain that the best way to enjoy these babies is to have patience, and wait for it to cool down for a while before pop the whole thing into the mouth. A little patience goes a long way as the bursting of mild gingery flavoured soup in the mouth is such a wonderful sensation. Although I was so busy making conversation, taking photos and at the same time, eating, I did not pay attention of the price, but it is so much cheaper than the one we have in Din Tai Fung, it's less than $10 dollar per 1 bamboo steamer ( 8 soup dumpling ).

Fried Soup Dumpling

Next to arrived was the fried soup dumpling. Although in the pic, they look more like a proper bun, but they're actually exactly the same as the steam soup dumpling, but pan fried at the bottom.

This is my first time encounter with these fried xiao long bao, they are surprisingly "soupy" inside, just like the steam version, but with a crispy bottom. Everyone loves this and wanting for more!!

The Famous Crab Meat Dumpling

The crab meat dumpling looks similar to the pork version, but they taste totally different. It has quite a strong seafood flavour which linger in your mouth. That marked the end of our siao long bao, though everyone wish we had order 1 or 2 more bamboo basket, but I ensure them, (and myself) that there will be more delicious dishes to come.

Pumpkin and redbean Pancakes

K is very satisfied with her pumpkin and redbean pancake. The whole pancake was made of mashed up pumpkin and filled with redbean paste. I really enjoyed this sweet pancake though we think it's better to arrived a bit later as a dessert!!

Drunken Shredded Chicken

After the excellent sampling of xioa long bao and pancake, we have a very good feeling about the main dishes, and they did not disappoint. The drunken shredded chicken was actually roasted chicken, with Chinese rice wine,vinegar and soy sauce pour over before serving. It was so flavoursome, and the chicken was moist and tender. We can't be that hungry after the soup dumplings but the whole chicken was being forked out in less than 5 mins!!

Salted Egg Tofu

Next up was the salted egg tofu. It was original tofu, cubed and crumbled in salted egg before deep fried. I am totally inlove with this dish not only because I have always adored tofu, but the crispy salted crust on the outside and the plain, soft tofu inside is such a wonderful combination in terms of texture and taste. Yum Yum Yum!!

Beef and tendon Hotpot

The beef tendon hotpot was another favourite dish. The beef was soft as soft can be, and the tendon were big chunk and slippery good. It was cooked in a dark sauce, with a faint Herby flavour. It resembled the thicker version of Taiwan beef noodle soup.

Deep Fry Salted Egg Crab

The crab arrived like a queen, sitting on top of fried vermicelli. It's the same batter as the tofu, which main ingredient was the salted egg. Again, it was very crunchy, salty and balance out with the sweet flesh in harmony. Although, I still much prefer the salted egg tofu, as I found the crab a little too greasy for my taste. Nevertheless, it was still enjoyed by the rest of the family, not wasting even the thin, flesh limited legs!!

Deep Fry squirrel yellow croaker

We waited for a long while before our last dish arrived. We nearly lost our patience for waiting, as it's getting a bit warm inside the restaurant. It was nearly 8:30pm, but the restaurant was still packed with diners, with a few more waiting on the line outside.

But our patience is greatly rewarded with the arrival of the elegant looking fish. The whole squirrel yellow croaker was deep fried, with red sweet and sour sauce pour over it. It's a very popular Shanghainese dish and it's not difficult to understand why. The whole fish was boned out, making it very easy to enjoy. The fish was fresh,crunchy and soft, the sauce is sweet and we're all full and satisfied.

It was a great dish to finish the dinner indeed, and for a total bill of $149 ( and a free can of coke and unlimited tea ), we are certain we'll be back very soon!

New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

273 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield NSW 2131

TEL: (02) 9797 7284