Bloodwood, Newtown

Five of us were given a table outside. Given the autumn weather was fantastically warm, this should have been fine. But, alas. With only one candle for light, we could barely see the menu. Another candle on request barely helped. Luckily we had looked at the menu inside while waiting for our table and many decisions had already been made. It did not however stop wine spillage or my suit sleeve having silken eggplant on it! Lol.

1. Vedai – A take on the Indian Wada. Fresh ingredients and well cooked, but relatively tasteless. Tamarind might be wrong sauce with it. 3/10. 

2. Chickpea pancake with zucchini, pumpkin & persian fetta – Very tasty, but as I first thought when ordering the dish, it lacked enough acid ingredients to drive the dish. It became one dimensional after a few bites. Adding lemon helped, but only a little. 4/10. 

3. Fried Salted Cod with oxheart tomato salad – Delicious dish where the tomatoes provided good acid to cut through the fish along with some cremier flavours. Lacked texture. 6/10

4. Mushrooms – Delicious 6.5/10. 

5. Lamb kibbeh with silken eggplant, kale and bullhorn capsicum sauce – The dish we had been waiting for. Very good freshly made Kibbeh, the eggplant nicely complimenting the compressed meat inside and crunchy fried outside of the Kibbeh. The Yogurt provided freshness. But, the pinenuts were outside the Kibbeh, and with the amount of light we had, it let the dish down. Still, 6.5-7/10.

Overall a decent restaurant with a very reasonable bill of $300 for 5 including a couple of ~$70 bottles of wine. Definitely one of the few quality restaurants in Newtown. 

Quick reviews: Glebe pt diner, Boathouse on Blackwattle, Danks St Depot

Glebe point Diner

Rabbit & Pork Terrine with pickled hairloom carrots served with Pistachio bread. Just delicious. Sweetness & pickled elements of carrots nicely articulated to sweet/savoury of terrine. Carrots, Pistachio add good texture. 7.5-8/10

Boathouse on Blackwattle

Ocean Trout /w Pine Mushrooms, Borlottli Beans & Horseradish. Lackluster dish. Fresh fish, not un-flavoursome, but didn't do much for me. 5/10.

Danks street depot

1. Fig blue cheese, walnuts and red wine reduction. Nice sweet/salty/savoury flavours albeit needed some more acid to cut through all the sweetness 6.5/10.
2. Pickled Beetroot salad with roasted Walnuts, Valencia Orange, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Baby Herbs and Cows Milk Feta. Great as usual. Great sweet/sour combinations, good textures. 7.5/10.

Rockpool

I have been to Rockpool once before. Sort of. I had been in the brief time when Neil Perry seemed to suffer a mid-life crisis due to not getting 3 hats. He decided to throw his restaurant and hats to the fishes and so briefly arose from the murky waters- Rockpool Fish. This was an excellent experience and I remember having a fish poached in Garam Masala. One of the tastiest fish meals I have ever had. Might even be right up there in the top 20-30 dishes ever.

But, the long fixed course menu with it's non 3 hatted status had held us (Hayden and I) back. No more I said, particularly as ratings systems seemed to be persistently wrong and favoured non-innovativeness in our opinion, we had to try. Someone had to do  it. Neil Perry has a ponytail -he looked creative and well...so did the menu!  So, we marched to the Rocks, but so no pool. (Yes, yes, the bad jokes will continue). By complete chance we had come in a week which was celebrating Rockpool's 21st birthday and were offered a free Sparkling wine. A nice surprise.

Besides the slightly austere service, the food was simply brilliant. I have to rate Rockpool above many better rated Sydney restaurants. I could almost dare to say that the food was as good as Quay (variable experience once amazing- better than Rockpool by a mile- and once probably not as good. New review soon). and probably marginally better than Est. (very consistent). The use of Asian flavours in subtle ways dominated the menu.

Some of the dishes included:

1. Fragrant crab broth with hand picked queensland mud crab, dashi custard, tapioca and wild bamboo pith. Subtle, well executed dish with excellent textures and a little bit of zing. Decent opener. 7/10
2. Western australian marron with three bean salad and almond cream. Subtle but amazing dish in which the beans were the star as much as the marron. Sweetness of the beans matched well with the juicy marron. Playing with various combinations was fun and added interesting textural elements. 8/10
3. Green lip abalone, red braised thirlmere goose, chicken crisps and fine noodles with xo dressing. Chef managed to balance off the subtleness of the abalone slices with the xo oil. Really liked what the crunchiness of the crisps at the top added texturally to the softness of the goose and abalone. 7.5-8/10
4. Macleay valley rabbit and sweetbread pie with frisée salad, cinnamon and “laphroaig” whisky sauce. Wow! If dish sounded amazing, it was! Slightly gamey & sweet meat of the rabbit articulated well to the sweetbread which articulated well to the sweetness in the whiskey while adding some smokiness (which went with the rabbit too) and acid to pull the dish through. More texture could have been good 8-8.5/10
5. Stir fried southern calamari, smoked “schulz” bacon, chilli, coriander and squid ink noodles. Didn't know what to expect. But with squid ink noodles, could you go wrong?! Flavours & textures just popping out at you. No more to say. 8.5-9/10
6. Chinese roast pigeon with prawn stuffed eggplant and black vinegar sauce.  Succulent pigeon with the sweetness beautifully lifted by the prawn & eggplant combo (which in itself added good texture). The zing of the vinegar brought the dish out of it's sweet but delicious death back to life. 8.5/10
7. Date tart (original since 1984). Gorgerous! 7.5-8/10

The rabbit (#4), Calamari (#5) and Pigeon (#6)

The French Laundry

Getting a booking at The French Laundry is an impossible task. You have to book exactly two months to the Calendar date of the date you want. Bookings open at 10:00am Pacific. Technically, the lines open a random time between 9:59 and 10:01. The line is engaged constantly from then, and the place is booked out  for that future date by 10:45. Coordinating that with schedules and flight from Australia - impossible or priceless! With the priceless line in mind, we turned to Visa...and Amex. The concierge services that come with both Hayden and I's various credit cards which book restaurants on your behalf. Normally one thinks "Why would i need that?!", but here we thought it would come into handy. 


Alas, 3 concierge services and 5 nights of them calling resulted in no booking. I had also gotten up and tried a few times. It was now the last date Hayden and I could be in the US. Lauren, who lives in Dallas, thought she could beat the professionals. And, well, she did! She kept dialing constantly until at 10:45, she got through, scoring us a booking for the last possible day we could be there! 


So, Burger, Lauren, Hayden &  I set out, ready to eat at The French Laundry! A legendary and must visit restaurant in Yountville, California - in the Napa Velley. We've travelled far Burger my friend, but this is it!


The experience and the food was truly amazing. 





The restaurant was set in a beautiful house in the town of Yountville. One would not know it was a restaurant if you didn't look carefully enough (in fact our taxi driver from nearby Napa almost couldn't find it for a few minutes!). 10 courses, 4.5 hours later we emerged (although with some breaks in the courtyard) having shifting my Top 10 dishes ever list and feeling happy and fatter! Here is a review of some of the menu:





Amuse Bouche - Cauliflower panna cotta with Cavier
Beautifully smooth richness panna cotta with just a hint of cauliflower. The cavier added to and complemented the velvet texture, adding a small burst to it. It simply burst and melted in with each mouthful which was taken with a mother of pearl spoon. Amazing dish makes it to #3 on the Top dishes ever list for both Hayden in I. 10/10






Moulard Duck "Foie Gras en Terrine"
Golden Corn “Génoise,” Belgian Endive, White Honey, Huckleberries and Nasturtiume and a flight of salt!
Great play of sweet and salty. The flowers and berries added and played with the Foie Gras' inherent sweetness, the salt of course played with it's inherent saltiness. The two combined were amazing. Texture added with the corn base, eatable flowers and jelly on top. Makes it onto #5 on the Top dishes ever list. 10/10



The flight of salt accompanying the above dish. Italian sea salt, Rocksalt from Colorado and 40 million year salt! There is not doubt the last one was the least salty and very complex. 







Tartare Of Cirtus Cured Kona Kanpachi
Hawaiin Hearts of Peach Palm Navel Orange, Hass Avocado Sea Crepes and Cilantro 8/10





“Caesar Salad”
Maine Lobster Tail “Pochée au Beurre Doux” with Caramelized Romaine Lettuce, Garlic Melba and “Bottarga di Muggine”
Perfectly cooked, juicy, tender lobster which could be eaten by itself for a week! With the caramelised lettuce would it could have made an interesting sweet/bitter combo. The garlic added zing. I could see what they were trying to do with the combinations of flavours and textures, but other than the lobster, the dish just didn't made the cut of the ones that it followed or the ones that followed it. 6.5-7/10




 



Hayden and Lauren in deep discussion while I am getting tired already after 5 courses and 5 full glasses of wine. But the food is sooo good! Must march on! We are let out for a wander in the courtyard. 





Four Story Hill Farm "Cuisse de Poularde"
Roasted Savoy Cabbage, Akita Komachi Rice and Kanzuri Puree 
Juicy tender chicken - probably the juiciest i have ever had with amazing savory (slightly spicy, almost Mexican capsicum like puree) and much the sweetness of the other sauce. The slightly hard rice was a great textural combination with the tenderness of the chicken.
9-9.5/10





Hayden and I. Another good birthday for Hayden (we have shifted it by two days). Last year we were at Arzak in San Sebastian with a 3 michellin star chef making up a pastry for him and the patron's of one of the best  restaurant's singing happy birthday to him. This year, booked a restaurant 2 months in advance, we just flew to the US, drove the few hundred km's up to Napa. Next birthday...?!