eatshowandtell

Tomislav, Darlinghurst

minh — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:10:44 +0000

It’s a week of farewells as we’re waving off our Teresa before she heads off to the Big Apple, in true es&t style we take it in our stride and use it as an excuse to eat, drink and of course be merry! The first stop on our itinerary is Tomislav, a relatively new Bistro which has opened across from the main King’s Cross strip, we’re drawn here by the reputation of Tomislav Martinovic and by rumour of his Heston Blumenthal inspired cookery.

The Tomislav signage is so subtle that we don’t realise we’ve been staring at the restaurant for at least 2 minutes while waiting for the lights to change. Stepping inside I take a moment to appreciate the decor of the natural red and orange painting adorning the wall which offsets the almost industrial like look of the rest of the restaurant. There’s a surprisingly great fantastic of the iconic Coke sign as well as the Harbour Bridge and I’m briefly envious of the diners seated on the balcony tables, however a quick gust of wind quickly resolves me of this envy.

There are 4 of us at the table tonight and ordering dinner is simple affair with 4-5 dishes offered for each of the 3 suggested courses, between us I’m relatively certain that we’re managed to order about 80% of the menu! Our waiter is a champion and takes it all in stride handling the order like a pro.

Tomislav Martinovic

The restaurant is actually much smaller than I had thought it would be, a full side of the interior is taken up by the bar and open kitchen and our seats give us a fantastic view of the chefs as they put on the final touches to each of the dishes. I love having the opportunity to see Tomislav Martinovic work, he has a swift hand when cooking and it’s almost gruffly that he calls out, ‘Service!’ upon completing each dish.

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Daring Cooks, Risotto

minh — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:00:53 +0000

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

I’ll be honest I don’t really get the appeal of Risotto, it’s one of the items on a menu that I never order (squishies on the other hand zeroes in on Risotto like there’s no tomorrow). So upon hearing that Risotto was this month’s challenge I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about it all and spent a good few days racking my brain to try find a way to challenge myself. Linda and Howie’s latest posts about Japan have gotten me back into a Japanese mood and I decided to incorporate this into this month’s challenge.

I present, Dashi Risotto with Assorted Asian Mushrooms topped with Seared Scallop and Inoki.

The Risotto itself

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Restaurant Balzac, Randwick

squishies — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:00:20 +0000

“Can you close your eyes?” F implored as he started to drive off to the mystery restaurant he booked for our anniversary. Last time I closed my eyes while on our way to a mystery restaurant, I got car sick. I sighed and told him I was going to go to sleep then if that’s how things were going to be.

In continuing the surprise, I kept my eyes on the pavement and didn’t look up even as we entered the restaurant. F told me later that he was silently urging me to look up when we were greeted, as the maitre d’ anxiously flicked his eyes between us, his face betraying the thought that we were fighting and I was in trouble. Hah. Telepathy fail.

When we were seated, F asked if I knew where I was and triumphantly I said, “Of course! We’re at Balzac!” I was rather pleased and smug with my powers of deduction, only to be slightly deflated when he scoffed, “It took you long enough to work it out.” Bah.

Wagyu Bresaola

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Megalong Tea Rooms, Blue Mountains

Howard — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:19:00 +0000

It’s good to get out of the house now and then. My day job requires me to sit in front of a monitor for 8 to 10 hours a day, sometimes even more. When I get home, I’ll have dinner, usually in front of the tv and then I’ll ‘relax’ in front of my laptop reading blogs and catching up on the latest news. For me, gone are the days of actually watching the news on TV, or reading a magazine to find out what the latest gadgets are because by the time it hits the magazines it is yesterdays news.

I needed a weekend out of the house, and not just on the soccer field. After a few days of emails, we decided to go for a bushwalk in the Blue Mountains. It was 29 degrees and hot in Sydney, but 20 degrees and raining in the Blue Mountains. Factor in humidity, wet surfaces and leeches, some of us wished we had stayed back at home.

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Fat Noodle Launch, Star City, Pyrmont

minh — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:15:15 +0000

There’s something which is so decadently appealing about casinos, it’s been a while since I’ve set foot in Star City Casino (appropriately not since my 7 Sins lunch at Sean’s Kitchen). Stepping inside the main doors we’re greeted by beautiful women in Chinese dresses, all set to the accompanying jangle of the slot machines. I think we’re in the right place for the launch of Fat Noodle.

Luke Nguyen is the consulting chef behind Fat Noodle, he is of course the chef behind the ever popular Red Lantern restaurant in Surry Hills as well as the series, Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam which recently aired on SBS. I’ll admit that I’ve kept an eye on this chef, a first generation Vietnamese Australian I’m proud to see a follow Vietnamese person go well and bought the Red Lantern cookbook last year wanting to get a little more in touch with the type of food I ate growing up.

Chefs confirming orders at the Open Kitchen

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