Nilgiri’s did it again!

It’s always a pleasure to dine at Nilgiri’s. I must admit, this time around we have had one of the most interesting menus.  Here’s what we had:

Starters

Aloo Chana Dal Samosa with pomegranate chutney (above)

Thanda Baingan (charred eggplant | dry lentil chutney | seasoned yoghurt & caramelised onions)

Paneer Tikka Chaat (tandoor-cooked ‘paneer’ | mint chatni | spiced chick peas & ‘besan’ vermicelli)

Main Dishes

Bhindi Til Aur Imli (baby okra | ground sesame, tamarind & curry leaf sauce)

Zeera Gobhi Saag (cauliflower flowerettes | roast cumin, coriander & turmeric garlic & fenugreek tempered spinach puree)

Paneer Methi Kofta (house-made fresh ‘paneer’ kofta fresh fenugreek & ginger filling | ‘malai’ sauce)

Lahsooni Dal Makhani (slow-cooked trio of lentils fresh garlic & ‘pepe saya’ ghee ‘tadka’). I must admit, Nilgiri’s dhal is an absolute triumph! It’s so creamy and moorish.

Pilaf (above)

Dessert

Fig Almond & Honey Kulfi (fig & local ‘two creeks’ honey-flavoured Indian ice-cream with almonds)

Gigi Pizzeria in Newtown, revisited

This is our second time at Gigi Pizzeria in Newtown. Last time it was us and Rachel as her husband couldn’t make it because of an emergency operation. This time though, we all made it. Eventually.

Gigi Pizzeria is one hip vegan pizza place in Newtown and their pizza is quite a hit even among the meat eaters. Well, they must be doing something, right?

This was their special for that particular day and I have no idea what the ingredients were but it was quite tasty. That’s all I have to say about that.

I know what this one is because we had the same one last time. It is called Funghi e Radicchio (Swiss brown mushrooms, garlic, dairy free blue cheese, parsley, radicchio, & roasted walnuts, extra virgin olive oil).

As for the dolci (desserts), we had:

Tiramisu di Gigi (above). Coffee soaked homemade Savoiardi biscuits layered with plant based Marsala cream dusted with cacao.

Torta all’arancia (above). Orange almond & polenta sponge served with orange candy & fresh berries.

Pastiera di gigi (above) which is orange blossom whole wheat & candied citrus tart.

The Wine Room with Don and Lorraine

Dona and Lorraine has been raving about The Wine Room (which is a part of Balgowlah RSL Club) for a very long time but we only managed to get ourselves there recently.

A realistic image of a fireplace in the middle of Australian summer? Really? Anyway, we had a glass of bubbly before dinner, sitting down and watching the flames dance while catching up with friends.

They have nice vegetarian options at The Wine Room. Here’s what we had:

Starter no 1: Fried zucchini flowers, goat’s cheese, basil and tomato cardamom  chutney (above).

Starter no 2: Grilled haloumi, preserved lemon and cherry tomatoes (above).

Our main course was roast pumpkin, leek and labne tart, Roma tomato, rocket and dukkah (above).

Lorraine and I didn’t have dessert: we had port instead but this is John’s Creme Brulee.

Sunday Dinner at Qi and Shawn’s

We were invited to Qi and Shawn’s for a Sunday dinner last night. Qi went into a lot trouble cooking vegetarian. We were absolutely spoilt!

Here’s what Qi prepared for us:

Schezwan tofu dish (below)

Preserved duck eggs (below)

Lotus root with schezwan pepper and spring onions (below)

Qi’s corn dish (below)

Fried rice (below)

Mushroom dumplings (below)

Edamame (below)

Max (below)

Another family member (below)

Selfies with Max

Thank you Qi and Shawn! We had a lovely time and the food was fantastic, absolutely to die for.

Celebrated our birthdays at The Gantry and what a disaster it was

We decided to try a new place to celebrate our birthdays this year. A new place to have a vegetarian degustation menu with wine pairing experience, to be precise. John found this place called The Gantry. It’s located at the end of The Rocks (Walsh Bay), right underneath the Harbour Bridge with a spectacular view (video attached). However, the experience did not match the location.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPQ9Skf4JBM

The moment our first entrée was served, a waitress who was passing by and carrying wine spilt the wine over John’s side of the table, soaking his arm, his cardigan as well as his shirt (they both need to be washed now). Our starters and John’s bread were drenched, too. Accidents happen, we get that but she didn’t even do a good job of cleaning up. John wiped the table with his napkin because it was still wet after her attempt. They took away our starters and John’s bread. Five minutes later, we were served again but nobody noticed that John’s bread was never replaced.

So, that’s how our birthday dinner started…

We decided to go for 7 courses vegetarian tasting menu as some of the dishes were more interesting and we didn’t want to miss out. It’s $119 per person and you add $85 on top of that for wine pairing. Here’s the menu:

THE GANTRY
7 courses vegetarian tasting menu

Curd – slow cooked grains – mushroom – smoked prune
Chestnut – brassica – white raisin – potato
Panisse – sour peppers – green garlic – almond
Sunchokes – endive – pine mushroom – mustard
Sheep cheese – kohlrabi – onions – salted egg
Blackberry – yoghurt – shiso – grape
Fig – brown butter – oats – honey – milk

Curd – slow cooked grains – mushroom – smoked prune
This is the first starter of the night. It was a well-balanced dish however the curd disappeared into mushroom broth, the smoked prune was very light on smoke so it was very much like biting into a dessert rather than a savoury starter. The ancient slow cooked grains were farro, quinoa and barley and they were quite filling. The wine which was paired for this first course was Wickery’s Riesling. It is a typical Australian Reisling. Quite acidic that the sourness of it catches you at the back of your palate. I guess it was okay but nothing special.

Chestnut – brassica – white raisin – potato
Caramelised purple cauliflower with white raisin, chestnut foam and white Riesling sauce. I couldn’t taste the earthiness of chestnut in this dish at all but the potatoes were nicely done. The dish was paired with an Australian Gruner Vetliner with an incredibly elusive nose, almost like white spirit. In the taste department, it wasn’t saying much. On top of that, the wine did not go well with the dish at all.

Panisse – sour peppers – green garlic – almond
The sour peppers in this dish were so sour that they put Turkish turşu to shame. Panisse was done very well. As for the wine, it was paired with a 2016 Yarra Valley chardonnay and thank God it was wooded. I really don’t like unwooded chardonnay. It doesn’t matter how popular or trendy unwooded chardonnay becomes, to me it’s like flat coke.

Sunchokes – endive – pine mushroom – mustard
Sunchokes (also known as Jerusalem artichokes) were beautifully done, the onions were caramelised well in this dish. The whole thing was topped with very thin potato skins. This dish was paired with Cooter & Cooter 2015 Shiraz from Australia and it was such a disappointment. It was raw, rough with very coarse tannins. No softness or finesse whatsoever. It’s the kind of wine you get from a cheap pub. Another disappointment!

Sheep cheese – kohlrabi – onions – salted egg
I must admit, this was the most disappointing dish of the night. What you have here is caramelised onions (again), farro porridge, kohlrabi and very rancid cheese. I couldn’t finish mine and it gave John a funny tummy. To make things worse, it was paired with an Italian Nebbiolo which was very basic. No nose to speak of, either.

Blackberry – yoghurt – shiso – grape
This was presented as a palate cleanser but it was the first dessert. Palate cleansers are served earlier on to transition you from mixed flavours and prepare your palate for the next dish. It was basically blackberry sorbet with bitter shiso. It was paired with a dessert wine which was nice.

Fig – brown butter – oats – honey – milk
And the second dessert. They talk about seasonality however the fig was under ripe, big time. It was paired with a 2016 Frogmore Creek dessert wine from Tasmania. It was a nice dessert wine but it’s so hard to get dessert wines wrong.

The Verdict
The Gantry was by far the most disappointing vegetarian degustation experience we have ever had. The food sounded interesting on paper but the flavours didn’t match that well. Contrasting flavours don’t create well-balanced harmony on a plate every time. As for the service, there wasn’t much floor management happening either. It’s a shame because we were so looking forward to trying a new place. Well, we are definitely going back to Bentley’s for the next celebration (our wedding anniversary, that is) or Yellow.

The Malaya with Berfu

We had so little time left with Berfu. So, we took her to one of our favourite places for dinner: The Malaya. Here’s what we had:

Vegetable San Choy Bow (above) before all wrapped up. Water chestnut, onion, mushroom, carrot and shallot stir-fried. Served in a lettuce leaf.

Salt and Pepper Cauliflower (above).
Cauliflower florettes lightly battered, deep-fried and tossed in fresh chilli, salt, cracked black pepper and shallots.

Szechuan Eggplant (above). This is pretty much everyone’s favourite. Marinated eggplant stir-fried dry style with shallot, cashew nuts and dry chillies. Served on a bed of Chinese water spinach.

Sayor Masak Lemak (above)
Malay style vegetable curry cooked with fresh chilli, lemongrass and coconut milk.

Sago Pudding (above). Sago and coconut pudding flavoured with palm sugar and topped with coconut sorbet.

Chatkazz with Berfu

We promised Berfu that we would introduce her to Indian street food one weekend. So, we visited Chatkazz in Harris Park.

Our mocktails: Mojito and watermelon juice for John.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSns14A809k&feature=youtu.be

Chatkazz is always busy as you can hear at the background.

We had Pani Puri as well but I didn’t take a photo of it as it’s not the most photogenic dish. This one is Dahi Puri.

Chinese Bhel was spectacular, again.

Khaman Dhokla (above)

Chhole Bhatura (above)

Chatkazz Indian Sweet Shop
On our way back, we popped in to Chatkazz’s Indian sweet shop and waited to be served for quite some time. Every other person was served but I guess you need to be Indian to be treated fairly in that shop. Anyway, in the end we had a box of sweets to take home like jalebi, ladoo, pista barfi, kaju and mango cakes.

I love the box!

Restaurant Review: Bliss & Chips, Newtown

We have been wanting to try Bliss & Chips since they opened in 2015. On one of those days, we just happen to be in Newtown and were ready to have a late lunch. There it was: Bliss & Chips.

For those of you who don’t know what kind of a place Bliss and Chips is… It’s a vegan fish and chips place. I remember talking to a girl at Cruelty Free Festival one year. She told me that she had plans of opening a vegan fish and chips place but I doubt that this is her place. She was Eastern bloc whereas this place has an Asian feel to it.

They do battered faux-fish and seafood, deep-fried pizza, breakfast, burgers and desserts. There is a list of the sauces up on the menu because you order them separately. They have their menu on three boards on the wall as well as on the tables. The boards are in such chaos, it took us ages to decide what to order.

We had the ‘seafood’ basket (2 fish cocktails, 1 crabstick, 2 prawns, 2 calamari). I must admit, they were heavy, bland and all four-variety tasted pretty much the same to me.

We also had some extra ‘fish’ as seen in the photo below. They were no different to the other stuff in the ‘seafood basket’ at all.

You need to order your chips separately, like we did. And it costs $5 for regular size and $9 for large.

Our adopted daughter at the time had some quinoa tabbouleh and sweet potato wedges. She said the sweet potato wedges weren’t cooked properly. They had larger chunks in the mix and of course they were still hard inside after being cooked.

I must admit, everything has this tacky and cheap feel to it at Bliss & Chips like the menu (photo below) and the board. This is what I do not like about some of the vegan eateries. Because we’re vegan or vegetarian doesn’t mean that we have lower standards. On top of that, everything—pretty much everything—is deep-fried; you never feel good afterwards.

While everything being cheap looking, the food isn’t. You pay for your sauces, chips and pretty much everything that is supposed to go together.

I wouldn’t go back to Bliss & Chips in a hurry but if you must go, Bliss & Chips can be found in this address:
215 King St, Newtown
NSW 2042
No website

The Rocks with Berfu

On our way to Newtown, we decided to drop in and show Berfu the weekend market at the Rocks. There was a chocolate festival on and it was packed. But we still had a look around.

Harbour Bridge view from The Rocks or Bridgie, shall I say?

The Oaks with Berfu

At The Oaks with Berfu having pizza and lots of chips.