All About Food

Category: Uncategorized

We normally do not review restaurants in this Uncategorized category. Things like wedding, gathering or cooking class will be included in this category.

  • Good Food Guide 2013 Winners

    Good Food Guide 2013 Winners

    A list of Good Food Guide 2013 winners was announced two days ago in SMH.

    Good Food Guide 2013 winners

    Quay restaurant is the Good Food Guide 2013 Winners hathathat

    All About Food would like to congratulate Quay for reclaiming the top spot. It marked the fifth time in the last ten years that Quay has won the awards. They won it in the year 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010, and 2013.

    Our date with the restaurant was written in the Quay restaurant review in November 2010. We were drawn to it by the appearance of Snow Egg in Masterchef.

    Quay Restaurant

    Other Good Food Guide 2013 winners as seen in All About Food Blog

    We have also visited the diner’s choice award recipient, Tetsuya’s hathat, more recently.

    Later on this month – to be published next month – we will bring you another restaurant from the list, Tomislav hat.

    For a full list of winners in 2013, please visit SMH’s Good Food Guide.

  • World’s Restaurant of the Year 2012

    Congratulations to Noma from Denmark for the hat-trick at the top of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants!

    Asia’s best restaurant is now at the hand of Iggy’s at number 26! In addition to Iggy’s, Singapore also had 3 other restaurants in the top 100.

    Australia is still represented by four restaurants this year, but we have a shift in ranking.

    Quay is still at the top of the list at 29, although overall they were down 3 spots in this year’s Restaurant of the Year 2012 list.

    Marque is the new number two and sitting at 61. They went up by 3 this year.

    Attica also went down by 10 to number 63.

    The worst performer, but still managed to hang on to the top 100 spot is Tetsuya’s. They are now at 76, down 18 spots.

  • Restaurant of The Year 2012 Australia

    As seen on Sydney Morning Herald on the 2012 Good Food Guide Awards, We would like to congratulate Sepia as the new top restaurant for the year 2012. Hopefully, we can secure a seat to give you an in-depth look for the new champions 🙂 Stay tune…

  • Tea Room

    Tea Room

    Experience:

    It’s a night to remember for our newly wedded couples, Jun Guo and Endre Kollo. They found this amazing site for their wedding, at the far end of Mosman, called Gunners’ Barracks. Stonewall building right by the sea, overlooking the panoramic Sydney, it was truly a sight to treasure.

    There were three pre-dinner canapés and regretfully I missed taking picture of the first dish, which was the Aburi Salmon Tempura-coated Sushi. The second one was Grilled Scallops in Cheese. The last one was a Risotto mushroom.

    There were two alternating sets of dishes presented and like any other French menu, this one was really a pain to explain. For the entrée, I got Berbere spiced Poussin, basmati rice, confit leg tortellini. Poussin is a very tender 28-days-old chicken simmered in Ethiopian’s Berbere sauce on top of basmati rice with side of duck confit. The other dish was Prawn Cannelloni, spiced Calamari, sauce Vierge. The prawn and calamari were very smooth and the sauce vierge – aka Virgin Sauce (consists of olive oil, lemon, tomato, and basil) really complemented the seafood and created the refreshing taste.

    The main course was equally mouth watering. My share was Pan fried barramundi, potato gnocchi, tomato, feta and basil. Perfectly juicy barramundi on top of ultra soft gnocchi was a new combination for me and it was great. The other main was Saffron and cumin marinated rack of lamb, capsicum, roast eggplant. It was a quite colourful plate with generous servings of lamb.

    After some speeches from both sides, came the desserts. Caramelised apply tarte tatin, hazelnut ice cream, calvador sauce was really an eye candy. It was an upside down caramelised apple with pastry base topped with hazelnut ice cream. I was also fortunate enough to taste the Passionfruit brulee, sable biscuit.

    Their Tea Room signature came in when the coffee and tea were served. It was a flowery mug with silver milk jug.

    Did you know?

    There are two The Tea Room venues in Sydney, but the gunners’ barracks is by far the prettiest. On any other day, The Tea Room serves high tea and other dining menu.

    Location:

    The Tea Room, Gunners’ Barracks

    End of Suakin Drive, Georges Heights, NSW 2088

    Website:

    Home

  • Potluck

    Potluck

    This week will be our Special Potluck Event. We invited 12 friends to share dishes. We had three appetisers, three main courses, two desserts, and a drink menu. I am going to list the dishes based on its order of serving. Since there will be 9 items here, I will only describe what it looks like.

    The Experience

    Appetiser #1 – Pacific Oysters with Tetsuya’s Vinaigrette

    Coincidentally, my dish was presented first. It was a kind of too-simplistic version of Tetsuya’s infamous Vinaigrette Oysters. It was simply a mixture of ingredients stirred together to form the vinegar and, then, poured on a freshly shucked Pacific oyster.

    Appetiser #2 – Hokkien Prawn Mee

    Our second dish for the day was made by Pin Fong. Two perfectly cooked prawns and fish cake were laid on a bed of Hokkien mee and glass noodle with a handful of bean sprouts, sliced egg, and excellent prawn-based soup. This was Pin Fong’s traditional dish when he lived in Kuching, Malaysia.

    Appetiser #3 – Chicken and Mushroom Pie

    A classic Australian meat pie, made by Shienny was next on the menu. Chunks of chicken breast, mushrooms, and onions were baked and covered by layers of crunchy pastry. It was so delicious that we could not believe it was her first attempt!

    After the appetisers, we had a one-hour break to lessen our tummy’s tension before getting into the main course. Some of us played the Board Games ‘Acquire’ and some just watched some cuddly animals on TV.

    Main Course #1 – Indonesian-style ‘Empal’ Beef

    Maria and Sud presented a finely decorated plate of ‘Empal’ beef. It is an Indonesian-style dish that was made using the pressure cooker method and then sweetened and fried. It was accompanied by Indonesian Rice Crackers.

    Main Course #2 – Roast Lamb

    This one is Wil’s all-time favourite, Roast Lamb. It was an oven-roasted lamb with Wil’s special mustard marinade. He cooked it in a way that the lamb was still tender and juicy. It was another simple dish with a big taste!

    Main Course #3 – Singaporean Chili Mud Crab

    Another first-attempt dish of the day, Singaporean Chili Mud Crab by Inggita. A mixture of blue swimmer crabs and mud crab twice cooked in Singaporean-style chilli sauce. It goes well with Basmati Rice.

    This time we also took an hour-or-so break to prepare for the always-so-devilishly-delicious desserts.

    Dessert #1 – Blueberry and Chocolate Mousse

    Jason brought in a beautiful looking cake which was layers of dark chocolate mousse, chocolate hazelnut biscuit, blueberry compote with a mirror of blueberry glaze.

    Dessert #2 – Homemade Tiramisu

    This one is Rahmat’s fully-perfected homemade Tiramisu. The tiramisu needs to be chilled for a day before serving. It was also non-alcoholic due to dietary requirements of some of the drivers.

    Home-made Tiramisu, Potluck

    Drink – Fruit Punch

    Apart from regular soft drinks, we were also treated by Arein’s special Fruit Punch. A mixture of sliced fruits are combined with heaps of fruit juice that created a very refreshing drink.

    Did you know?

    According to Wikipedia, apparently Potluck was originated from England in Middle Ages.

    Location:

    Our Apartment, Maroubra Junction NSW 2035

    Website:

    http://ardipradana.com/

  • Laura y Oriol Grande Fiesta


    It is another appreciation week on my blog, Laura y Oriol Grande Fiesta. I present you 2 Spanish chefs (I don’t believe you guys are actually doctors) who cooked fabulous food for us.

    Terms:

    If you know all about Spanish food, you can skip this part.

    Gazpacho: Blended tomato, red pepper, onion, garlic, and cucumber soup with a hint of olive oil and vinegar.

    Tortilla de patatas: Potato Omelette.

    Escalivada: Oven-baked eggplants and red peppers in Olive Oil

    Nachos con Guacamole: Avocado sauce with tomato, coriander, and cream cheese, served with nachos.

    Salmon with balsamic and pesto sauce: Signature dish of the day. Lightly grilled salmon with caramelised balsamic vinegar and pesto (olive oil, pine nut, basil, and parmesan) sauce.

    Arroz con leche: Rice with milk cooked with lemon peel, sugar and cinnamon stick.

    Experience:

    It all started in Setiabudhi where we gathered all the ingredients for the night’s fiesta (no, I don’t get paid for advertising the store :P). After much debate on what ingredients to buy and with double and triple checking of the stuffs needed, we still missed the main ingredient: parmesan (mainly due to my mistake on thinking cheddar = parmesan).

    Without further ado, we begin the night with two starters. We have Gazpacho soup and Tortilla de patatas. Gazpacho on its own presented us with taste-building appetite perfect to open the night. The soup was both savoury and fresh. For an extra fill, we can dip toasted bread into it. Our second starter for the night was a massive potato omelette. I don’t want to think how much carb it had, but it was very tasty and filling, especially if you put extra pesto sauce on it.

    The next three dishes could actually be enjoyed together, but the salmon is written last to put an emphasis on. Nachos con Guacamole is originated from Mexico. It provides the crisp taste for the meal. Escalivada was my favourite vegetable dish. They were simply baked and peeled off with a generous pour of salt and olive oil.

    What makes the Salmon with balsamic and pesto sauce special? It was the couple’s signature dish, perfected after years of evolution. Described as a Spanish cuisine with Mediterranean influence, the salmon was mixed with balsamic vinegar and generously poured pesto sauce. The combination gave us a rich and unique flavour of juicy pink salmon, sweet and strong balsamic vinegar, and tasty pesto sauce.

    By the time we finish the dishes, we hardly have any space left on our tummy. Luckily, the dessert, Arroz con leche, was actually better when refrigerated first. Oriol illustrated this dessert as an alternative way to enjoy rice; and he was right. With the added sprinkle of cinnamon powder, Arroz con leche was refreshingly sweet.

    Did you know?

    Laura and Oriol are both from Barcelona, Catalonia (not España!). Although similar to Spanish language, Catalans have their own dialect,culture and/or food. Additionally, their city is home of the world’s best restaurant, El Bulli.

    Location:

    Inggita’s home, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia