Japanese weekend

Aargh, I can’t believe the weekend is over! Then again, it’s one more weekend to go before we’re jetting off to Hongkong! I can’t wait… egg tarts.. milk teas…

Tuesday $15 steak nights at Bentley hotel. This time we went with Karen and Bryan, lovely people with lots of good HK tips. We will be visiting Gerry in his hometown too, so exciting haha.

Simple lunchbox of stir fried satay chicken with snow pea sprouts and button mushrooms.

Sunday night dinner was Western style Japanese themed, teriyaki hambagu with spaghetti bolognese. Jo wasn’t feeling fantastic though and only managed one hambagu (*gasp*). She did bring some home though so hopefully it will still be yummy for her dinner tomorrow.

Chirashi sushi at daitaoha’s. The best part about making your own chirashi sushi bowl? You can be very very generous with your ingredients and salmon sashimi slices are thickly cut haha.

Bonus collage of baby Tristan! Getting naughty he is, but still very cute, aaaah, so lucky to have cute nephew and niece Y (*___*)Y

Jo and HC’s birthday weekend @ Freo

Every year I’m never quite sure what to get HC for his birthday. Usually it always ends up being something fishing related like a boring BCF (that’s boats, camping and fishing haha) gift voucher. But this year I  bought him a fishing weekend by putting him up in the Esplanade hotel in Fremantle for a Saturday night.

Tristan likes hotel beds a lot haha. He was so tiny and lost in the big bed.

This is his sweet ‘yes yee yee?’ look. Sigh, melts my heart. I will be giving this kid everything he wants when he grows up. ‘KFC yee yee?’ ‘Yes Tristan.’ ‘More sweets yee yee?’ ‘Yes Tristan’. Kaka’s sunny smile has the same effect on me, sigh.

After checking in, we went to Cicerello’s for fish and chips.

Seafood basket to share.

Seafood chowder which wasn’t fantastic but it was a slightly chilly day so we felt like something warm and creamy.

After that HC went off for an afternoon of fishing while Jo, Tristan and I shopped and trekked around Freo. It was a fun and relaxing afternoon. I love these coffee topper biscuits which I discovered in London, the London ones are soo much better, just the right thickness half melted by the hot coffee with caramel oozing from the middle. Ah well, beggars can’t be choosers.

Mummy and Tristan all dressed up and ready to go for dinner at Char Char Bull.

With so many good restaurants located in Freo, we were really spoilt for choice as to where to go for Jo and HC’s birthday dinner. In the end we settled with Char Char Bull which has a famous reputation for excellent steaks. Sigh, unfortunately, it was a poor choice as the steaks were no where magnificent let alone passable as normal pub food. This was our sirloin steak that came with cognac and mushroom sauce and mash. There wasn’t enough sauce which wasn’t good because the mash itself was already rather dry. The steak was overcooked (we asked for medium rare) and tough, I also disliked the charred bitter bits on the steak, there’s a difference between the smokiness of a chargrilled steak and burnt steak, I think mine was more on the burnt side.

Jo’s scotch fillet with Sarawak peppercorn sauce and mash. Yes, Sarawak pepper sauce! We were thrilled to see that on the menu, but the pepper didn’t come out overly strong which is a pity. Jo’s steak was the opposite of ours, she had asked for it medium rare too but it came out rare. For around $40 for a steak, we were sorely disappointed. We noticed that the elderly couple next to us weren’t enjoying their steaks too and had a tough time chewing through their steak, he had to order a glass of wine to wash it down even though he already had a beer. Yikes.

On the bright side, the service was very good and staff were very obliging and friendly. Too bad they were let down by the kitchen staff. Sigh, why does it always have to be one or the other in Perth restaurants?

Char Char Bull
44b Mews Road
Fremantle WA
Ph: (08) 9335 7666

But… despite the not so nice good, we still managed to have a good time!

Walking along the Fremantle jetty at night.

We didn’t dare to try the desserts at Char Char Bull and dropped by one of the cafes instead. The cakes looked nice but they weren’t good. It was a poor foodie night :(.

Sunday night lamb roast dinner with roasted vegs and yorkshire puddings. My first go at roast lamb and yorkshire puddings. I was inspired by my sister Jan’s cooking, she cooked a beautiful lamb roast, unfortunately, mine wasn’t as good and my lamb was a bit too rare. Better luck next time. I would also like to have a fluffier and crispier yorkshire pudding next time. We had some lovely purple sweet potatoes (with white flesh) which are so so much better than the gold sweet potatoes when roasted.

Pretty white chocolate and orange birthday cake. Surely the best part of birthdays haha.

 

Another birthday dinner, this time on the day of their real birthdays. Jo requested pineapple fried rice, we ordered some yummy takeaway, R made sharksfin soup and I also made some eggplant parmigiana. An unusual mix but delicious nonetheless.

 

Jo and HC’s first birthday celebrated with baby Tristan! I hope it was a doubly special and happy one with baby with many many more happy memories and wonderful adventures  to come. Happy birthday Jo and HC!

2 weeks blitz

It’s been more than a week since my last blog post! It definitely wasn’t due to lack of blogging material (I still have so many food places that I haven’t blogged about not to mention the Japan posts which have been overdue for a year *gulp*), I think I’ve just been feeling a little blue due to work. But at least the Easter holidays are almost here! I can’t wait.

This post merges my past two weekend eating. Last last weekend, we went to the trendy Venn for breakfast. I would probably never have discovered Venn (even though it’s so near work) if it wasn’t for Jaso. I don’t know how he finds out about all these up and coming places but he’s a great source of foodie information.

It’s worth going to Venn just to check out the gorgeous architecture and interior design of the building. The old flour mill factory is split into three stories, the ground level being the art studio, street level being the shop (selling cool and expensive knick knacks) and the bar/cafe, and the second level being an art gallery. I really liked how they made use of the light and the tall ceilings, it was a comfortable and airy space.

Back to the food, the breakfast menu wasn’t extensive so there wasn’t much to choose from. Both Jaso and HC has the poached eggs on toast which came out looking very healthy and green. Nothing spectacular but not bad at all.

Calv and I both had the roast beef bagel. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the mysterious hole in the middle, but I really like bagels. This bagel was one of the best bagels I’ve had in Perth, it was soft without being too soft, chewy and yet had a crispy lightly toasted exterior. Cal and I really enjoyed our bagel.

The coffee was good. Pretty milk patterns are always a plus (^___^). All in all, a good find so thanks for the recommendation Jas.

Venn
16 Queen Street
Perth, WA 6000 Australia

While I usually plan my dinner and lunch venues ahead(this includes checking out the menu and already choosing what I’m going to have), sometimes unplanned foodie adventures can be the best.

The couple Jason and Wendy were the ones that introduced me to Chime. They told us about how they planned to go to Chime restaurant  for lunch, but since it was not open, they ended up heading across the road to Phi Yen for good Vietnamese instead.

It was the exact opposite scenario for us. We headed to Phi Yen for some pho, but the restaurant was busy and the waitresses didn’t bother to serve us. So we headed across the road to Chime for lunch instead! The restaurant itself is located in the newly refurbished Northbridge Hotel, it was a lazy Sunday afternoon and we were the only table besides a couple of ladies enjoying a bottle of wine and a late lunch.

R had the premium sirloin with mash and pepper sauce. The steak was more medium than medium rare in some places, but otherwise the pepper sauce was tasty with the steak.

Even before my caramelised pork belly arrived, the two ladies sitting behind us who both ordered the pork belly were already making ‘mmmm’ sounds with every bite. It was quite funny. The asian style pork belly came with yellow turmeric rice and condiments like fried shallots, chilli vinegar sauce. The rice itself wasn’t heavily spiced and lacked taste, but that was fine because the pork belly was richly flavoured, sweet, beautifully caramelized, sticky and chewy. A heavily spiced turmeric rice would have overpowered the taste of the pork belly.

It really was delicious and a sinful indulgence. In hindsight, I think the flavours were a little bit too intense and strong, causing me to feel rather thirsty afterwards, but I could totally understand why the ladies were making ‘mmm’ sounds throughout their meal.

With a buy one main get one main free deal from our entertainment card, it was a great deal and a surprisingly lovely lunch.
Chime Restaurant
210 Lake Street, Northbridge, Western Australia 6003
(cnr Brisbane Street)

Cooking from last weekend. This was Penne Marinara which I tossed with fish fillets, mussels and prawns.

The pork belly from Chimes was so nice that it inspired me to cook pork belly the next day. Mine was nothing like Chimes though and very Malaysian with the usual soy sauce, star anise flavours.

Sometimes simple meals like stir fried broccolli and carrots with grilled chicken wings can be nice for dinner. My chicken wings were marinated with hoisin sauce, honey and five spice powder.

We received a whole bagful of plums during the weekend. Not eating them fast enough, I decided to use them in a dessert tonight, the only problem with Plum Tarte Tatin? They’re not as pretty as Pear tarte tatin or apples.

Two more days to Easter and counting!

Bistro Felix

Bistro Felix, or Atlantic as it was known back then, was one of the first fine dining restaurants that I dined at in Perth. I remember sharing a lovely and generous seafood platter for two and feeling like a duck out of water amongst the men in suits and fine dressed ladies.

Fast forward many years, Bistro Felix has changed ownership, the interior has been repainted and is dark wood elegant. I’m feeling a lot more comfortable in fine dining surroundings but still worry that I may break a wine glass or two. The surroundings are dim, refined and quiet, the tables candlelit and romantic, quiet couples are dotted around and yes, they still dress up here.

We were served complimentary bread rolls with butter at the start, there’s something about butter at fine dining establishments, they always taste exceptionally good and Bistro Felix’s butter and bread wasn’t an exception.

I already knew what Richard was going to order. The young man is passionate about his steaks and we’re now on the hunt to find the best steaks in town. While we haven’t sampled the obvious steak experts such as Char Char Bull, Tony Roma’s, Victoria Station etc., they’re definitely on our very long list of must-eat Perth restaurants. It’s funny how so many Perth restaurants get steak wrong, I don’t really cook steaks myself, but I’m guessing the key is the timing and the right temperature, many times we’ve chewed our way through tough overdone steaks or slimy underdone steaks, I can’t decide which one’s worse. But Bistro Felix’s Harvey beef eye fillet ($42), fondant potatos, confit onions, cavalo nero, with sherry glaze was really very good. Richard’s eyes lit up and we both knew ‘finally… a good steak’.

Despite being very thick, the chef managed to cook the fillet perfectly (we asked for medium rare), the meat was blushing pink tender and succulent and the sherry glaze was the perfect accompaniment and absolutely delish.We savored every bite of this.

My choice was a healthier version of the fish of the day which was the kingfish, ratatouille, asparagus, béarnaise sauce and kipfler potato ($40). My fish was really lovely as well, everything was light, tasty and went well together.

We were both pretty stuffed but decided we couldn’t leave without trying a dessert. Whenever there’s Crème brulee on the menu, it’s a must order for us custard lovers. Our crème brulee came with almond biscotti which we used as spoons to scoop up the delectable wobbly and smooth custard. There was something special about this custard, I can’t remember, hints of peach or some kind of fruit. At one point I left to go to the ladies and I knew I hadn’t been missed while I was gone because Richard was still attacking the crème brulee with a glint of satisfaction in his eyes that he didn’t notice my return. It was actually quite funny to watch.

I should mention that the service was good, our waitress wasn’t overly friendly, but she was polite and attentive. Our entertainment card gave us ‘buy one main get one main free’ but they didn’t scratch off my card allowing us to return again, and return we shall, after we’ve made our way through the other Perth restaurants. Surely, Bistro Felix is amongst one of the best in town.

Daitaoha ratings:

Food: 7.5/10

Service: 7/10

Bistro Felix
118-120 Rokeby Rd
Subiaco 6008 WA
Phone: (08) 9388 3077
http://www.bistrofelix.com.au