Chocci's - Cooking & Dining

Ladro, Melbourne, Australia

So after 24 hours of being back in Melbourne, while taking a tram down to the “city” to run some errands, I dialled one of the few Australian mobile numbers I can remember off by heart. Actually I can’t even remember my family’s mobile numbers but I put that down to the constant change in numbers over the years. 

“I'm back, I'm back! So when are we going to catch up?” I asked D, friend from university days, now adopted as my “Dai lo”.  We met at a Hongkie club meeting a few weeks into our freshman years at Uni.  Since then, D and I have spent many of days and nights swotting in Ballieu Library on the 3rd floor, fewer (thank goodness) all nighters trying to finish off our computing science projects, karaoking at Club Hollywood, and now that we can afford it, eating our way through Hong Kong and Melbourne.  The only blib in our shared experience was probably our Andalucia trip ... where to my horror D opted for Maccas when we were standing right next to a jambon deli.  We can laugh now, yes.  In any case, things have picked up since then (food wise) and during D’s last visit to Hong Kong, we did a Central eating tour, working our way down the hill to a few places including Tsim Zai Gei wonton mee and jok, egg tarts up Lynhurst Terrace and then into LGB at IFC for lemon tarts and more macaroons (it was a macaroony kinda day). 

“Hey I’m good any day this week!”

“How about lunch?  I can pop down to the city … ”

“Actually, dinner’s better …”

“Ok let’s make it Wednesday” (mentally calculating that I’ve got a couple of nights of catching up to do with my sisters).

We chatted quickly about the next month or so’s schedule.  We both agreed that there was a lot of exploring and dining to be had in Melbourne before I head back to HK and D leaves Melbourne for his overseas stint.

Efficient as always, the next day, D sends me an email with a few recommendations for our upcoming food extravaganza in HK.

“As for Wednesday – wanna do this place? http://www.yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/ladro/”. 

I quickly flicked to my Luxe guide, which gave Ladro the thumbs up under the Relaxed section, quipping “The best pizza, daily roast and pastas.  Laid-back, urban, communal tables and heinously popular”. 

Yes, let’s do Ladro.

So tonight, we drove down Gertrude Street into Fitzroy.  It was dark by around 7 pm, so we squinted at the shop numbers as we went past the hairdressers, Dean’s Art, funky boutiques, and a costume shop.  When we saw an unassuming glass fronted restaurant, crammed with people at shared benches, we knew that we’d arrived.

Even on a weeknight, the restaurant was packed wall to wall, so we were lucky to score a couple of seats at the bar.  The service is friendly and efficient, and our waitress proved spot on in her recommendations.  As promised, there is a long list of about 20 pizza options, followed by appetizers (primi), and mains (secondi) … rounded off with the dolce options.  Any other night we would have taken a closer look at the secondi which I recall included scotch fillet, but tonight our focus was on pizza.  Some of the menu is in Italian so we needed a little help.  I have to say, after my experiences in Hong Kong, it is such a pleasure when the staff know everything about the menu.

“What’s melanzane”? 

“It’s eggplant.  And this particular dish is eggplant battered and deep fried … it’s really quite delicious”.  That proved to be the start of the waitress’ good recommendations for the evening.  The entrée plate of melanzane was simply four round decent sized flattened balls of breadcrumbed eggplants (mashed), served simply on a plain plate.  The salty, tender and moist eggplant filling complemented the hot and crusty breadcrumbed coating really well. 

Next were the skewers of fresh grilled prawns, lightly flavoured with garlic and drizzle of lemon, sitting on a bed of rocket leaves.  It went down really well with the house bread - ciabatta and extra virgin oil.

For our gourmet pizza (is t here still such a thing in Melbourne or is the gourmet pizza the norm now?), we narrowed it down two choices: the seafood pizza which sounded delectable with mussels, fish, prawns or the truffle pizza with truffata, potato and truffle oil.  We opted for the latter and we were rewarded with a massive thin crust pizza, irregularly shaped (which D loved), topped with truffata (a paste made up of porcini/cep mushrooms combined with white truffles), kipfler potatoes and yes, we could smell it, truffle oil.  Very good stuff.

We ended the evening with a lovely cassata.  The waitress helpfully explained that unlike the Lygon street varieties, this cassata is not the ice-cream type … this cassata was more of a trifle (tiramisu) type, with a trifle soaked in brandy, topped with ricotto cheese mixed with candied fruits.  The dessert didn't turn out to be quite what I expected, and I was convinced that I would read 0.05 on a breatheliser when I took a driving lesson on D’s car after dinner (though that is another story).

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Cost: $65 for two for a pizza, 2 entrees and a dessert (and drinks).

224 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Melbourne, Australia
         +613 9415 7575       

Baba House, North Melbourne, Australia

Errol Street is one of those places that I know is going to blossom into a Brunswick street.  For now, it's remains delightfully quiet and mine (ok and those other few thousand ppl living in North Melbourne).  Lately, there have been a few subtle changes though.  There's still the pub blaring out live music, and the Comedy Club ... the local IGA supermarket and Thereshman's style bakery (which serves yummy gourmet pizzas).  But I've noticed a mushroom of Chinese takeaways ... 1, 2, 3 ... 4 in total! 

My sister, L wanted to try out a Malaysian restaurant that she'd noticed previously.  So we hit the Baba House.   

We had the baba chicken which was better than KFC (coming from a KFC lover - this is a big statement), nasi lemak with deep fried hard boiled eggs and sambal, gado gado.  Good, authentic malaysian.  We like.  We really like.  It's now our local favourite Malaysian.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Price: around $50 for two. 

Baba House Malaysian Restaurant & Takeaway
34 Errol Street
North Melbourne
(03) 9329 2882

La Mer Brasserie ... or La Merde?

Let's start with the good parts.  The ambience is lovely.  Comfy dark wooden furnishings and dim lighting. On one end of a restaurant there is a fresh seafood bar with lots of fruits of the sea waiting to be pointed at "I'll have that thanks".  Surprisingly the food is also priced reasonably, with soups around 50-70 HKD, entrees from 100-200 and mains from 150-250.  I was wondering how they would pay for the rent in LKF until the bill came later ...

Food: Ordinary.  The meal began well, we ordered two large buckets of mussels to share between the group ... we were quickly served with lovely fresh fat mussels in big colourful pots (though given its name - surely fresh seafood must be expected) cooked in provincale sauce - tomato based - and the other in a white wine and herbs cream sauce.  Both were delicious.  But the french fries which accompanied it were a little tired looking.  For entrees, my girl friend and I shared the esgargot - tasty, garlickly, sitting on a potato mash which was surprisingly a good match - and the soup du jour - a pumpkin and crabmeat soup which was a little too sweet for my liking.  For the main course I opted for the duck which was served with ... actually the main course wasn't too memorable ... I can't actually remember now what it was served with!  That in itself is perhaps not such a good sign.

For desserts, the restaurant helpfully provides a dessert platter option where you can select 4 out of the 5 dessert which included the chocolate mousse (nothing earth shattering), shortcake creamy concoction with avocado and strawberries (fresh, quite interesting), an apple tart and pinenuts slice.  None of it was anything to write home about!

Service: Any place which plies unsuspecting guests with endless bottles of sparkling and mineral water ... at $40 per 500 ml bottle surely needs a peg or two taken off the service mark. Especially when some guests specifically asked for tap water at the beginning of the evening. Put it this way, our water bill came up to 2/3 the bill of our wine!  More to the point, we could not quite understand how each person had supposedly drunk around 1 litre of water each (roughly 20 bottles x 500 ml), on top of the wine we had consumed.  When we questioned the bill - it wasn't until we threatened to write to the management that they agreed to cut the bill down for us to a more reasonable figure. 

Despite this, most of the night was very enjoyable, great friends catching up over some lovely wine (Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc) is always a good night out!

Rating: 2.5 stars

Verdict: Average food at average prices

Cost: $450 per head (not including wine)

La Mer Brasserie, Lan Kwai Fong Hotel

How to make 24 burger patties in half hour

Burger patties,
originally uploaded by choccis.

Firstly, find two mates (preferably guys) who don't cook all that often.  Get them to bring their diving or snowboarding goggles.  While they're on route to your place, get about 2 kgs of minced beef, half a box of breadcrumbs, 1 whole glove garlic, maybe 2-3 onions, heaps of fresh or dried herbs and lots of salt and pepper. When they arrive, get one friend started on the onion chopping - which needs to be very fine.  Get the peeling the garlic, then either chop or use a barmix to chop it up.  For the fresh herbs - use anything you like - thyme, rosemary all go down well, as does oregano. 

Take a massive bowl, chuck in all the ingredients and get the boys to dig their (clean) hands in mixing it all up until it forms a big doughy mixture.  Make the first burger pattie about the size of a cricket ball, then slightly flatten.

Keep an eye as your mates compete to see who can make more patties more quickly.  Intervention required when competition turns to who can make bigger patties.

Cooking: grill in the oven for 20 mins.  Serve with hot fresh bread with thickly sliced tomatoes, big dollop of ketchup and dijon mustard. 

Berries, greek yoghurt with crunchy granola, Le Goûter Bernardaud

Berries, greek yoghurt with
crunchy granola,
Le Goûter Bernardaud,
originally uploaded by choccis.

Le Goûter Bernardaud is well known for selling exquisite macaroons in rainbow colours. But one sunny mid afternoon while waiting for a friend to arrive at the airport express, we ended up at its cafe at IFC mall which also serves a range of teas, coffees and light snacks. Pictured here a delicious greek yoghurt with lots of fresh raspberries and strawberries and granola. The set is completed by elderberry syrup which we generously poured over the yoghurt.

J's potato, bacon and leek soup

My mate J used to live about a street away from me, about equal distance from the fabulous Victoria Market, choc full of all the fresh fruit, vegs, meat or seafood you could possibly need for a big cooking session.  Together with the rest of the Carlton gang, we used to rotate home cooking sessions - great of us kids living away from home.  I still remember when J taught me and Y how to make a creamy brocolli and potato soup and Chinese steamed fish.  I'd forgotten what a good cook he was until our home cooked meal on New Year's Eve in Les Houches. 

It started off with Y making a lamb stew and me with my coq au vin.  I had started chopping up some shallots and streaky bacon for my coq au vin when we realised that s the whole chicken probably had better days.  What to do with all that bacon and shallots?  As he was cutting a leek for Y, J thought of a cosy potato and leek soup to warm our tootsies.

And that's how it began with J guiding me through this recipe.

We had:

• 2 large rashers of bacon, diced
• 3 large shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 onion, diced
• stalks of 1 large leek, thinly sliced
• 2 potatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup cream
• dried italian herbs, parsley and oregano (whatever herbs you like)
• vegetable stock

Cooking the soup itself is quite simple.  Pan fry the bacon until lightly browned and remove from pan. Remove most oil except a good coating to fry the leek, shallots and onions. Add the potatoes and gently stir fry for a few minutes.  Add about 2 litres of water (refilling every now and then) and let it gently simmer for about an hour.  Add stock and pan fried bacon and simmer for another 10 mins.

Stir in cream and butter (J's special ingredient - you can leave this out if you want this to be a healthy soup) and serve immediately.

L'Atelier Gourmand, Annecy, France

      

In my 2nd last full day in Les Houches, the snow fairy still hadn’t arrived with her dusting of icing so we decided to take a day trip to Annecy.  Y and M had previously passed through Annecy in the summer and found it to be a lovely town though during the drive M wryly noted that “wow, the landscape pretty much looks the same as it did in summer” … hence the reason we were not on the slopes and making this drive!

We started off around 10.30 am and made it to Annecy just in time for lunch. Perfect.  The healthier ones amongst us suggested a walk around the lake before we indulged ourselves, which took us around the northern end of the shimmering Lake Annecy with the stunning French alps as the backdrop and the clearest water I’ve ever seen.  It’s a lovely spot and evidently everyone else did too, judging by the number of local residents out for a trot with their kiddies or rugged up in their Sunday best fur coats.  We crossed the Pont des Amours a Annecy (the Bridge of Love) and sauntered along, past the Merry Go Round back into the old town of Annecy.

They love their mussels in France
Originally uploaded by choccis.

But hungry stomached beckoned and more importantly, we needed to start our hunt for foie gras.  I had spent a week in France and not a slice of my addiction - pan fried foie gras - had crossed my lips.  There were quite a few “traditional” touristy French restaurants in Chamonix, with lots of fondue, onion soup and steak and fries on the menu but no foie gras.  I had my taste buds tantalised a week earlier with foie gras pate.  We’d found a really rich, fine, melt in your mouth version at the local supermarche “Shopi” which went deliciously well with those Melba toasts.  But I needed to indulge myself with my favourite version; pan fried on a hot grill until medium rare and served with a sweet dressing. 

That is when we stumbled L’atelier Gourmand.  A quick glance at the menu, I think I yelped like an excited Amazing Race contestant, “we got a winner”!

Trilogie of foie gras, L'atelier Gourmand originally uploaded by choccis.

We found ourselves seated in modernly furnished dining room decorated with interesting art pieces.  However, it was the menu which drew our attention and we quickly found ourselves in a dilemna.  The trilogy of foiegras or foie gras risotto?  Ravioli with crab meat or seafood linguine?  Foie gras risotta as a main or entree?  Y selected the Loire Sancerre white for us and we sipped that in anticipation.

Foie gras risotto,
originally uploaded by choccis. 

Beef carpaccio,
originally uploaded by choccis.

I eyed J’s entrée enviously which came as a generous hunk of pan fried foie gras nestled comfortably on a creamy, very subtly flavoured risotto.  M's steak carppacio salad also looked (and apparently tasted) delicious.  Y and I succumbed to the temptation of the trilogy of foie gras … which turned out to be almost too much foie gras (is there such a thing)!  The pan fried foie gras was delicious - not the finest texture - but it went down very well with the spiced ginger toasts and onion chutney.  The 2nd and 3rd parts to our trilogie included a very creamy foie gras terrine and a large slice of foie gras marinated in port or was it red wine (something was lost in translation). 

Pan fried fish fillet with sauteed
cabbage and chorizon, L'atelier Gourmand,
originally uploaded by choccis.

My main course consisted of delicious lightly pan fried fillet with a creamy, buttery sauce with lots of rosemary and a hint of lemon, on some sautéed cabbage, topped with slices of chorizo (a nice contrast).  Although I thought my chorizo was on the chewy side, everything complemented each other really well.

Our dessert? The et café au lai … and a walk back through the lovely old town of Annecy with cobblestone walkways.

Overall: 4/5 stars

Interesting reads on foie gras

• http://www.frenchselections.com/deco/foiefaq.hts - Everything there is to know about a foie gras
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras - If you want to know your types of foie gras preparations
• http://www.portlandfoodanddrink.com/?p=835 - Debate in the US re: foie gras which has lead to restaurants taking it off the menu in US

Debate or not - I can't wait to try pan frying the foie gras they are selling at Citysuper. Yum!

Tru, Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong

I've been re-reading an entertaining book by Ruth Reichl, food critic at the New York Times in the 1990s. "Garlic and sapphires" unravels her tale of traversing the New York restaurant scene.  We see her world through her behind the scenes tales of how to prepare yourself for a food review (from choice of compansions to disguises to know what experience a "real" customer gets), food reviews reproduced from NYTimes and even some of her recipes.  Its a delicious read for a foodie but I think the most important tip I picked up is that she never reviews a restaurant she hasn't visited more than 3 times, usually more.  I truly experienced the importance of this repetition last night at Tru.

I had recommended a restaurant to a fellow foodie at work who was meeting up with a friend from out of town. I'd been to Tru twice before and was impressed with the Thai and Vietnamese cuisine served in a modern, funky decor.  The servings were generous, tasty with lots of different herbs and spices and best of all, prices were reasonable (one walked away paying less than $300 for a full meal).  I'd visited the much acclaimed Lotus shortly after and still found Tru trumping. 

On my third visit last night I was disappointed.  We ordered two of my previous favourites, including the duck and lychee salad and deep fried barramundi.  On my first visit, the duck and lychee salad was a small hill with roast duck tossed with sweet lychees, tossed with thin slices of spring onion, garlic and a slight hoisin dressing.  The deep fried barramundi came upright, the skin scored with thick cuts to make removing the flesh easy, then generous serving of sweet tangy chilli gravy.   Tru must have been doing some serious accounting because this time the salad was half the portion and the barramundi looked like a much much younger relative of the last one we had, and felt like it has been in the oil for a tad too long ... we also tried out the coconut crepe with crab meat (lovely crab meat but not sure about the sweet chilli dressing), pad thai (not the most exciting version I've had) and some vegetable curry (delicious but in hindsight perhaps we should have opted for something more exciting like the lamb in taramind sauce). 

When the the waiter came around with the bill later and asked "how was your meal", I couldn't help but tell him my disappointment with this particularly experience ... I appreciated him asking but it seemed that he wasn't quite prepared for my answer because he continued smiling and nodding and didn't really seem to understand that we didn't find the meal that great.

Maybe Tru had an off night.  I might have to traverse back one more time just to find out!  But for now ...

Overall: 2.5 of 5 stars.

2/F, Grand Progress Building, 15-16 Lan Kwai Fong, Central +852 2525 6700

Melbourne Melbourne

Culinary highlights of trip back to Melbourne which somehow began and finished with crab!

Pacific House, Richmond - First stop back landed me in this small linoleum joint which serves just about the freshest Cantonese style seafood.  Mud crabs with scallion and ginger, lots of Chinese wine and finely diced garlic.  Then there's the steamed garoupa with lots of soy sauce and peanut oil and thinly sliced scallion.

Strawberry eclair at Laurents,
originally uploaded by choccis.

Laurents, Collins Street - Strawberry eclair with mildly sweet whipped cream, topped with amazingly light pastry and almond flakes.  Fresh. Sweet.  Feels like eating candy floss ... a few bites and you wonder where its gone.

Melba Cafe@Langham Hotel, City - The chocolate fondue. Ok so its a little cheesy but its amazing how beautiful endlessly flowing chocolate looks.  Its like the real life incarnation of a Charlie and chocolate Factory fantasy!

The Street Cafe, St Kilda - The seafood platter filled with all kinds of goodies.

Duck accompaniments at Old Kingdom,
originally uploaded by choccis.

Old Kingdom - Cheesy interior with red lanterns with matching furniture, its like a local suburban Chinese restaurant but this place also serves the best Peking duck in the world.  I know this is a BIG call, but I've spent a lot of time in Beijing and am yet to find any better.  I'm talking thin stretchy but strong pancake (secret ingredient's egg) which you use to securely wrap large pieces of crispy duck (with no visible fat).  The duck slice has been generously sliced by Simon the owner himself to give you a big hunk of the duck meat, which you place on the pancake with one cucumber and one spring onion ("Remember, only 1 per pancake!!" - Simon says) and the lovely specially mixed hoisin sauce.

The rest of the duck is served as 2nd and 3rd eats: stir fried bean sprouts with duck meat and tasty tofu duck bone soup. 

Canton Lake, Box Hill - Snow crabs fried in goose liver sauce. Decadent, rich but utterly divine. Not for the faint hearted and prepare to leave your health warnings behind.

Snow crabs in goose liver sauce,
originally uploaded by choccis.

Chez Patrick, Soho, Hong Kong

cIt's been a fortnight of non-stop eating.  I don't know whether it's because I've started this Food & Dining Blog that's led to want to try out new places, or the eating that's leading to all these posts on this site. 

Another foodie girlfriend had organised dinner with a few of mates on Tues evening at a fairly new place called "Chez Patrick" in Soho.  I'd never heard of the place but was excited to be continuing my eating frenzy by trying out another restaurant. 

Food:  This little place serves beautiful nouvelle french food in a small cosy white washed restaurant. I was a little surprised by the small size of the menu: one can either opt for 3 or 4 courses choosing from the selection of appetizer, mains, cheese plate and dessert. 

Once I saw the foei gras on the appetizer on the menu, my heart was set.  I know I know, I just don't seem to be able to resist this melt in the mouth decadent dish whenever it appears in the menu.  Its a dish where I actually really appreciate it when the restaurants are not particularly creative with it.  Just serve me the (hopefully A grade) foie gras, pan fried with a bit of salt and pepper with the inside still pink and soft, served with cooked[apple/pear/fig/any other fruit] with a drizzle of sweet and tangy/balasmic sauce.  That's exactly how Chez Patrick served the foie gras (good grade - soft with none of those stringy bits), and I loved it.  My girlfriend opted for frog legs with a garlic and fennel sauce which she thought was not too bad.

The mains came with three choices: duck, fish or veal.  I immediately dismissed the fish, having had it for lunch that day.  I was tempted to opt for the veal which came with the foie gras raviolli but decided it might be overkill to have foie gras for both lunch and dinner.  Instead, I ordered the duck breast with "munster" sauce.  Now I have to admit, I love my brie, cheddar and parmesan and that new olive cheese the deli lady recommended to me a few weeks ago, but my knowledge of cheese ends just about there!  Upon our query, the waitress replied that it's a "strong smelling" cheese ... hence cheese lovers would really enjoy this dish. 

When my main came, I was a little taken a back by the drowning of my duck breast in a pungent cheese sauce.  On the bright side, the dish came with some very cute little "marbles" of squash, zuchinni and other vegs and a delicious potato gratin.  I'm not sure I made opted for the poorer choice after trying my girlfriend's veal, which was a little on the tough side. 

Service: On the whole, I wasn't really impressed by the service.  Chef Patrick did the lovely by coming out to say hello to us personally, but the service from the waiters was not up to par.  I felt a slight sense of nose in the air from the waiters.  But more specific gripes include: Given our obvious lack of familiarity with the munter cheese, I would have expected the waitress to give more warning.  The waiter also did not understand the difference between ice-cream or sorbet.  Perhaps I am being a little harsh but when I'm paying this much for the food, I tend to expect more!  That said, a new place always takes some time to settle down ... I wouldn't write it off complete yet.

Ambience: This restaurant is located in Peel Street Soho, just past Hollywood Road.  Although it's filled with white, white doors, white walls, white dining chairs, the lighting, paintings and furnishings give the restaurant a very cosy feel. 

Price: Pricey, $499 for 3 courses (including a small pre-dinner taster).  The owners of the Malaysian restaurant were much amused when they asked about my views on the

Rating: 3 stars (yes NN, I agree with you!)