Posts tagged Reviews

Queen Make-At-Home Gelato Kits, Part 2

Recipe November 28, 2012 3 Comments

From top: Vanilla and Vegemite, Strawberry and Balsamic Glaze swirl

I was recently sent 4 flavours of Make at Home Gelato Kits from the lovely people from Beyond the Square Communications and Queen Fine Foods. But rather than have the usual – straight vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and lemon – I wanted to do something special, something interesting.

To get inspiration for what I wanted to do with the strawberry gelato, I got a punnet of ruby red strawberries – I’m so happy that they’re in season now – and thought about what I’d usually eat with them. Then it clicked. Balsamic Glaze. I absolutely adore strawberries macerated in balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of sugar, and a glaze would swirl gorgeously into the strawberry gelato.

The balsamic glaze is dead simple to make. Simply heat up a cup or so of balsamic vinegar – this is going to reduce by about half, so just double the quantity of however much glaze you’d like to make – until it’s reduced almost to half, then add about a third of a cup of densely packed brown sugar. Continue heating – making sure that the mixture does not burn – until you reach a thick, syrupy consistency.

And there you go, a dead simple balsamic glaze to add to your strawberry gelato.

Making the gelato was also really easy:

I loved the little pictures that came on the back of the box, and it simply involved whisking in your liquid of choice – in this case it could be milk for a gelato or water for a sorbet – and churning it in your ice cream machine of choice.

It’s a really good idea to make space in your freezer to chill the mixture slightly before churning, just because the little churners with the insulated bowls aren’t always the best at bringing your ice cream all the way. After about 35 min of churning (the machine manufacturers recommend 40 min max) I ended up with this:

It was slightly thicker than when I first started, but not by much. It provided me just enough thickness to swirl the glaze through, but if I wanted to put anything thicker through, it simply would not have held. As mentioned in the previous post, DO NOT place the ice cream mixture in the churning bowl and leave it to chill in the freezer. The mixture will start freezing solid and you’ll have a real issue getting the paddle of the churner to turn properly. Place the mixture in a bowl and into the freezer for about 20 minutes. Then churn it according to the machine’s instructions.

When you’re done, simply pour it into your freezing container of choice – mine was a one litre capacity plastic container – and swirl the glaze through.

Then simply cover the ice cream in cling wrap, ensuring that the cling wrap touches all the surface of the ice cream and that there aren’t any air bubbles, put on the lid, and then into the freezer to freeze the rest of the way. The reason that the cling is so important is that the freezer actually dehydrates your food by having the water in your food freeze into ice crystals on the surface, ruining the texture, and causing you to have ‘crunchy’ ice cream.

It also makes your ice cream look like a funky marble watercolour. =)

After leaving it sets in the freezer, simply serve on pancakes with some fresh strawberries, or dig into it with your favourite ice cream topping.

Only the Vanilla was left, and in my search for interesting sweet/savoury combos I decided to make a leap and try Vanilla and Vegemite. It’s dead simple – after churning the vanilla ice cream, simply swirl in the vegemite. I used vegemite from a squeeze bottle just to make things simpler.

I think it’s one of my favourites – the salty, umami flavour of the vegemite complemented the creamy sweetness of the vanilla bean gelato perfectly. Very addictive.

This is absolutely a great easy way to make your own flavour combinations without having to worry about making the ice cream custard etc. Yes, it’s not as flexible as infusing the custard with really cool flavours (I’d love to make a savoury ice cream next with garlic infused cream) but it’s also something easy and creative that you can make on a week night to treat yourself on the weekend.

I’m still treating myself to that rich chocolate gelato. I love salted butterscotch. That is all. Yum.

Note: Tammi Kwok of Insatiable Munchies was given Queen Make At Home gelato kits by the nice people at Queen Fine Foods and Beyond the Square Communications.

Queen Make-At-Home Gelato Kits, Part 1

Recipe November 20, 2012 2 Comments

From left: Lemon and Chilli Sorbet, Chocolate Gelato with salted butterscotch sauce

I absolutely LOVE receiving things in the mail, and this time it’s Queen Make-At-Home gelato kits!!

Summer has rolled around in a BIG way, and that’s just put me in the mood for ice cream – meaning that these kits have come at the perfect time. I received 3 gelato kits and 1 sorbet, and I wanted very much to do something special with them. I know that being someone who constantly craves variety and surprise, I simply could not just have your run of the mill gelato flavours. But what to make?

Well, the lemon was the easiest to figure out. Something that I absolutely love with my acid, is the burn of chilli. I just love how the citric acid in lemon makes my tastebuds ring like the bells of Notre Dame, and then the capsacin in the chilli just blaze right through, setting them all on fire. Of course, I didn’t want my gelato to make people reach for a glass of water, but I did want it to bite back. And so…

Fire and Ice Sorbet

It was simple, really. Lemon sorbet churned with just a touch of good chilli jam. Is there anything more simple? The sorbet turned out refreshing, and yet tantalising at the same time! We had it topped off on lemon-juice-and-maple-syrup-soaked crepes. Because the chilli jam wasn’t knock-your-socks-off spicy, it provided a slight warmth in my throat following the first tang of refreshing lemon. A match made in heaven.

The chocolate gelato was just slightly harder to pair. I wanted something that wasn’t too traditional, but it was a little harder to match unconventional ingredients to a chocolate gelato – in my opinion – as the rich, luxurious texture and deep flavour of the chocolate will just dominate. Yes, it can definitely be argued that there are many different things that can be done with chocolate, but I think that chocolate gelato is a very different beast. You’re not just dealing with the texture, flavour and mouth feel of pure chocolate, but also of the frozen creaminess of the gelato. (And I already used the chilli idea for the lemon.)

But thinking about the creamy texture and luxurious flavour made me think, “Why not just push luxuriousness and decadence to the next level? Surely more of a good thing can’t be bad?”

The answer? Salted butterscotch sauce.

Butterscotch is a relatively simple thing to make. Supposedly you’re meant to use actual scotch in it, but I don’t happen to have it around the home. The recipe seems to work well enough, and can be used to top off any number of desserts.

Salted Butterscotch Sauce

125g Butter
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup cream
Coarse Salt/Sea Salt Flakes

In a shallow pan, melt the butter and whisk in the brown sugar. Once the mixture has come to a boil, add the cream in slowly and whisk to combine. Continue to cook the sauce over low heat until the sauce thickens slightly. Sauce will continue to thicken upon standing. Once cooled, fold in sea salt flakes, careful not to let them fully dissolve into the sauce. Alternatively, sprinkle the salt on just before serving.

I would strongly recommend a small serving of the ice cream and sauce. I’m a person who loves any amount of decadence and hedonism, but even I felt that this was a truly rich combination. Immensely satisfying in small amounts. And given that it’s so easy to make, you can have frozen desserts to last you through those 40C days to come!

What I really like about these kits are that they are so simple, and allow you to concentrate on adding your spin on it without having to worry about things like infusing a particular flavour into the ice cream custard. These flavours are just so basic that you can add any multitude of things to it, and just create your own!

Of course, with great creativity still comes things to look out for, and these are my top things to look out for when making these gelatos:

Make sure that you add the liquid component slowly and in parts, whisking to combine before adding the rest. If you add all of the liquid at once, it can be hard to ensure that all the powder dissolves into the liquid to make a homogenous mixture, resulting in a wonky textured ice cream.
Anything that you wish to churn into the ice cream should be somewhat fluid but still of a syrupy consistency. When I added the chilli jam to the first batch of ice cream, I added it straight out of the jar and all the jam just sunk to the bottom. Heating it gently and then allowing it to cool to room temperature helped to ensure that it would mix into the lemon sorbet entirely.
If you want to swirl the butterscotch sauce into the gelato, you can, but make sure that the gelato has churned to a thick enough consistency, or the sauce will settle eventually into the bottom of the container.
In the pre-cooling process before churning, DO NOT put the gelato straight into the insulated bowl of the churner and put that in the fridge. You will end up with rapidly frozen edges that will cause the paddle of the machine to not turn and following that, very disturbing noises from your ice cream machine.
That being said, the pre-cooling process of putting the mixture in the freezer for 20 minutes really helps you get the thick ice cream consistency when you put it into the machine to churn. Otherwise, at the end of 40 minutes of churning you get a semi-frozen tasty soup and is wayyy too thin to swirl flavours through.

But the best part is that these mixtures are so forgiving. You don’t have to worry about overcooking or curdling a custard. Even when I wasn’t able to make a completely homogenised gelato/sorbet mix – I was too eager and put all the liquid component in at once – the gelato still froze to a creamy consistency and was delicious nonetheless.

What are your favourite delicious gelato combinations?

Note: Tammi Kwok of Insatiable Munchies was given Queen Make At Home gelato kits by the nice people at Queen Fine Foods and Beyond the Square Communications.

Spain, Japan and..Toothpaste?

podcast November 16, 2012

Picture from rachfrog

This week we take a culinary tour moving from Spain, to Japan and end up in the lab, talking about all things geeky. We chat about a tapas inspired dinner, the new Japanese self-serve joint Hana Hana, and air fryers. We also ask the question: Why does orange juice taste so crap after you brush your teeth?

Download the audio file here (9.9MB, 20:02), or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

here!

From the Frypan – Hola! (1:33)

From the Frypan is where we talk about what we’ve got up to in the kitchen. This week it’s a fiery discussion about a tapas inspired dinner.

Waka Waka – A name so nice you gotta say it twice! (9:46)

This one’s for all the gluttons! This week we review Japanese noodle bar Hana Hana, which translates to “Flower Flower”.

From the Ice Box – Look Jack, I’m flying! (12:59)

We like the geeky and the crazy, especially when we talk about food. This week we talk about the air frying. If you combine the two words, does that make it flying? We also discuss why liquid nitrogen ice cream is amazing!

And don’t forget the Trivia of the Week. Why does orange juice taste bad after you brush your teeth?

Happy Birthday Giles!

podcast November 9, 2012 3 Comments

Picture from Shardayyy

This week on the podcast…It’s Giles’ birthday!!!! We get a little bit boozy, get specific about how we like our meat and get ice cream in the mail! We talk about our favourite cocktails, bacon vodka, eat at Little Vienna and discuss crazy gelato flavours!

Download the audio file here (4.6MB, 9:12), or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

here!

From the Frypan – Gobble Gobble! (6:00)

This week in our kitchen, it’s LEGENDARY!!!!! The turkey is finally roasted, and we talk about the aftermath.

Waka Waka – The Earl of Sandwich (09:26)

In Waka Waka we continue the hunt for amazing sandwiches, and we eat at Little Vienna. We also talk about the bread-to-filling ratio – it’s a thing!

From the Ice Box – Deep Freeze (12:34)

We’re gearing up for summer with make at home gelato! What’s your favourite flavour?

And don’t forget to listen to the end for the Trivia of the Week!

Trick or Treat!

podcast November 2, 2012 2 Comments

Picture from Peter Moxom

This week on the podcast we get passionate about curd, we go slightly cuckoo, and get all nice and toasty! We talk about the simplest recipe for passionfruit curd, Coco Cubano at Rouse Hill, novelty toasters, and the mythical Turducken.

Speaking of Turkey, do you have a favourite Turkey recipe? If you do, I’d love to give it a try! Just drop me an email or leave a comment below!

Download the audio file here (4.6MB, 9:12), or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

here!

From the Frypan – Fruits of the Heart (1:21)

What did we get up to the kitchen this week? We share a simple delicious recipe for passionfruit curd, or in fact any sort of fruit curd you’d like to make!

Waka Waka – Cuckoo for Cocoa! (3:04)

This week’s gluttonous adventure comes from the depths of the amazon jungle…or so we like to think. We talk about the new Coco Cubano in Rouse Hill, and ask the question: where can you find the best hot chocolate?

From the Ice Box – Mythical Creatures from the Deep (5:00)

How do you like your toast? In this week’s From the Ice Box we talk about novelty toasters and the mythical Turducken. Can it be done? What other cool things can you do with a Turkey?

And don’t forget to listen to the end for the Trivia of the Week!

Now in Surround Sound!

podcast October 28, 2012 3 Comments

Photo by grfx_guru

I’m so excited to announce this new project that we’ve been working on in the Insatiable Munchies kitchen!!!! I present to you the Insatiable Munchies podcast, where every week we – Giles and I – talk about our food adventures and musings.

It will be available to subscribe to on iTunes soon, but in the meantime, feel free to click on the link below to have a listen! If you’d like to jump to parts, I’ve also got handy links that will allow you to listen to select sections within the podcast.

This week we search for liquid gold, eat with our hands and are all tied up! We talk about the perfect soft boiled eggs, the best ribs in town, and the japanese art of furoshiki.

I’d love to hear from you, so feel free to drop me an email/comment with any feedback you might have! =)

Download the audio file here (6.6MB, 13:15).

From the Frypan – Liquid Gold (1:12)

From the Frypan is where we talk about what we’ve got up to in the kitchen. This week it’s all about that eggy perfection – how do you like your eggs?

Waka Waka – From Adam to Eve (6:28)

If you are a purely eating foodie, then Waka Waka is the section for you. Inspired by that ever so cute noise that Pac-man makes, this section is all about the sheer ecstasy of gluttony. This week we talk all about ribs and that on the bone experience.

From the Ice Box – All Tied Up! (9:09)

We like all things nerdy and cool here at Insatiable Munchies, and From the Ice Box is where we discuss our cute gadgets, funky fresh events and just generally all things fun! This week we’re all tied up with the Japanese art of Furoshiki. Our packed lunches never looked so good.

Red Lantern, Surry Hills, Sydney

Review September 24, 2012 4 Comments

Don’t you love it when food adventures bring you to unexpected places? The night started out with a plan. The plan was called Porteño.

I had watched the most recent episode of No Reservations where Anthony Bourdain had sampled the delights of Porteño. A sudden, irresistible need to gorge on whole animals that have been through the rites of fire and salt engulfed me. I needed meat and I needed it NOW. And so off we went.

Danny, Cara, Sam and myself headed off down the dark streets of Surry Hills, keeping a nose out for the distinctive aromas of sizzling unadulterated meat. We turned down Cleveland St — we were so close! But why couldn’t we smell the meat?— and were met by the disappointing sight of closed doors and sealed windows.

WHYYYYY????????!!!!!!!!!!

Wasn’t it only closed on Mondays? But it was a Sunday! All sorts of indignant desperate thoughts flew through my stream of consciousness as sweet dreams of pig’s heads were dashed and shattered before my very eyes.

So, disillusioned and hungry, we set off in the direction of Crown St, hoping to find some other food to serve as our rebound. Surely a rebound love could not ever meet our impossible expectations? But oh was I wrong.

Deep red walls and an exotic exterior caught our eye. We had somehow arrived at Luke Ngyuen’s Red Lantern. Hope bloomed in our hearts like plant in spring. A new exciting experience awaited!

Between the four of us, we decided to share two entrées and two mains for maximum food variety.

From left: Goi Vit Ung Khoi Tra ($26), Goi Kho Bo ($22)

The Goi Vit Ung Khoi Tra proved to be an absolute favourite. Tea smoke duck breast sat atop a medley of pickled vegetables. Every bite was an explosion of tangy crunchiness followed by the soft embrace of juicy duck. If I remember correctly, the duck is marinaded, seared then smoked with green tea — thank you SBS food! — and the whole process brings a myriad of salty, meaty flavours that bring me so much joy.

In comparison, the Goi Kho Bo ended up being only okay. Don’t get me wrong, the marinaded and dried Black Angus beef was just the right amount of chewy and tasty, but because it followed that spectacular duck, it didn’t stand a chance. It’s something that I would order again, but just not as a first choice. Even while I was enjoying it, my greedy hungry eyes kept going back to the duck and the equally exciting juices that sat at the bottom of the plate.

Now that we have gotten a taste of something that really excited us, we were afraid. What if nothing else matched up to the gorgeous duck? Our mains then descended upon the table.

From top:Thit Cuu Nuong Xa ($32), Thit Heo Nau Mam ($34)

The Thit Cuu Nuing Xa was a chargrilled, marinaded lamb that was gracefully escorted by fresh, crunchy greens. We were surprised and delighted by the addition of strips of tart green apple, and in my opinion, it lightened the dish and provided balance.

Next to the rich colours of the lamb, the Thit Heo Nau Mam — which was a braised pork shoulder in lemongrass, shrimp paste and coconut juice — looked a little…ordinary. But having had pork braised in coconut juice previously at Luke Ngyuen’s Fat ~~Duck, whoops Freudian slip~~ Noodle, my heart still held plenty of hope.

And it did not disappoint. Rich flavours softly cajoled and serenaded my taste buds, while the pork shoulder melted seductively into my mouth. While. It did not bring the same kind Ida excitement that the duck did, it definitely made me want to sink slowly into my chair and expire in exquisiteness.

The problem with such good food is that you often feel like there wasn’t enough, and that was the feeling I had the whole time through. Yes, we were four people sharing four dishes, but for the price that we paid I did still get the feeling that it was not somewhere that I could keep going back to often. It was definitely the kind of dinner out that was more of a treat than a constant comfort.

Mmmmm duck.

We ate at:
Red Lantern on Crown
545 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW
(02) 9698 4355

Mary had a little lamb…

Review May 27, 2012 5 Comments

…and I’m sure she wished that she ordered more.

I think we have established that I love being fed. No matter how foul a mood I’m in, I generally get happy when I get fed. So when I received this invite from Subway in my inbox – especially during a difficult week (I got hit by a car, amongst other things) – I was extremely excited to attend.

The dinner was held in Moroccan Feast, a restaurant in Randwick with a great atmosphere and very friendly chef (more about him later). I arrived to long tables laid out with candles and salt and pepper bowls shaped like little tagines (how cute!) and was immediately offered refreshing cocktails to start the evening with. Soon, the all seats were filled, and hungry hungry people eagerly awaited the first round of deliciousness.

A selection of dips were first laid out in front of us – Matbouha, which I understand is a capsicum relish, eggplant and aioli, and marinated green olives. And while the dips were extremely tasty, the standout part of all of it was the bread.

Soft white bread surrounded by a crispy crust with a glass-like crunch was the perfect accompaniment to the dips. Many of us actually had to consciously stop ourselves and remember that this was just the starter, to leave room in out bellies for the rest of the food.

As this dinner was to introduce Subway’s new Moroccan Lamb Sub, there was sure to be lamb in the menu.

And the first manifestation of the lamb theme was in the form of spiced lamb cigars. These were served on a platter with vegetarian pastiles and mint yoghurt. The vegetarian pastiles were okay, but the lamb cigars were curiously addictive. I didn’t detect much spices in the cigars, but I really like the luxuriousness the mint yoghurt added to the dish. Yes, the yoghurt wasn’t particularly minty either, but it’s just really tasty! Besides, I’m not much of a mint person (I really don’t like mint chocolates that are all about the mint and kills most of the chocolate taste), so this combination suited me just fine.

Just as the conversation was buzzing and the food was flowing, lilting music came on and we heard the sound of bells. Just as the thought of reindeer landing on roofs crossed my mind, this lady, resplendent in a blue jeweled and tasseled outfit, came dancing out.

On top of being extremely skilled at what she does – how did she manage all those belly rolls???? – she was extremely HILARIOUS and entertaining. She even got many of us up and dancing with her. Makes me want to take belly dancing lessons – I’ve already got the first bit, right? =)

All this excitement, and that was even before the main.

Betty and I shared the Moroccan Lamb Meatballs and Aubergine Tagine, and the Moroccan-style Barramundi with chickpeas. The lamb meatballs were sandwiched between 2 thick sliced of spiced aubergine. The bed of cous cous that it was served on was lovingly drenched in thick tomato-ey sauce and in turn, mint yoghurt was poured with a generous hand over rich meaty lamb. The barramundi – bottom photo – was nice and flaky, but the best part about it was the generously flavourful chilli and spices reduction. I could have just eaten a bucketful of the the reduction ladled over a bed of cous cous.

The salad was another highlight of my evening. Sometimes, lamb can get a little bit…rich, and the two salads really lifted the tone and colour of the meal. While the rocket with citrus vinaigrette was nice, I absolutely adored the red cabbage with haloumi and pomegranate! Crispy red cabbage was dotted with little jewels that explode with a tart sweetness and was the perfect accompaniment to the hearty lamb.

At this point, I’m sure you – as I was – are wondering what this meal has to do with Subway. Almost the entire evening has passed and there hasn’t been a sandwich in sight. Well, remember how I mentioned the extremely friendly chef? Well, Subway – in the spirit of “doing it your own way” – had asked him to take the new Moroccan Lamb Sub and to make it into a sit down meal. What we had eaten so far contained elements of the lamb sub!

Remember the gorgeous white bread that came with the dip? Well apparently that was Subway‘s white bread that had been toasted and sprinkled with rock salt. The lamb was pretty obvious, and the mint yoghurt is the sauce that would be poured over the meat in the sub! I’m quite excited that the salad will be in the sub as well – I think I’ve found a new love in pomegranate.

But there’s one thing that Subway is famous for that hasn’t made an appearance yet. Something that many people go to Subway for:

The Subway Cookie.

Besides the selection of fresh fruits that arrives – ripe figs with honey anyone? – tall martini glasses with a luscious scoop of pistachio ice cream, raw tahini and subway cookie crumbs come marching out. There’s not much to say about a Subway cookie though, besides OM NOM NOM.

I must say that the nice people of Subway and Hills+Knowlton Strategies really know how to throw a party. By the end of the night I was filled with delicious food, happily nursing a food baby, and my taste buds were tingling. It would be interesting to see how the Sub form of the food will taste, but with so many great elements, surely you can’t go wrong. Added to that the rousing company in the form of Betty, Karen and Shan, good times were had all around.

Tambourine of insatiablemunchies attended The Tastes of Morocco courtesy of Subway and Hills+Knowlton Strategies.

La Premiere, Hoyts Moore Park

Review May 13, 2012 4 Comments

It’s been a great time of eating lately, and it is topped off by – much like the gorgeous chocolate sundae pictured above, but more about that later – a cordial invite by the nice people at Hoyts to try their La Premiere menu!

La Premiere was described to me as their ‘business class’ offering – a more relaxed feel than ‘first class’, but more sophisticated and swanky than just a movie. Good food at the movies provide a multitude of possibilities: Let’s say you’re on a first date and you’re nervous. Well, no awkward pre-movie dinner conversation! Just order the food at the movies, and then you have something to talk about afterwards to break the ice! Or let’s say you want to meet up with a couple of girlfriends after work to catch some food and a movie. Sometimes dinner can run long, causing you to be late for the movie. Well, this solves that problem too.

The problem used to be, though, that the food at the cinema was crap. I’m sorry, I know that there’s a place for cheesy nachos and popcorn, but it does not make for a great food experience if you want a ‘nice night out’. When I think ‘nice night out’ I tend to think about decent food that’s relatively light, that I can pick at with my friends. Nothing too heavy, but a nice variety.

And the heaviness was something that Hoyts wanted to address. Before this change, the menu was dominated by deep-fried food that wasn’t particularly inspiring. So they partnered with Lotus & Ming and 2 newly-hired chefs to come up with something better for movie-goers to enjoy.

I like to identify myself as a rabid fan of movies – at one point I was going once a week, scary I know – so I’m very lucky to have been invited by the lovely people at Hoyts to try out this new menu!

Let’s get down and yummy shall we? 😉

First up was the Peking Duck Pancakes ($17 for 4).

As someone who’s grown up with these pancakes, I always get really wary of the ones offered in Australia. Sometimes it’s overtly sweet, sometimes there’s a bad balance of fresh veg (cucumber and spring onion) to duck, and sometimes there’s so much sauce that it just gets soggy and hard to eat.

But these were genuinely a joy. You could definitely tell that the focus was on food that you could handle easily in the cinema. The duck was shredded, meaning that you didn’t need to be chewing through skin – come on, we’ve all had those moments where we’re trying to bite through duck and we’ve just pulled whole pieces out, leaving the rest of the roll empty. These spring rolls are definitely the type that you can pick up and eat in the dark safely, without worrying about having filling all over your clothes. The plum dipping sauce was also a nice addition, as it meant that the rolls weren’t overly soggy with sauce and you had the option if you wanted more.

In following with the roll theme, the Farm Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls ($12 for 3) were up next. Filled with a variety of ingredients like shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, these spring rolls were tasty and comforting. It was served with a soy infusion sauce – I have no idea what the term means, but to me it tasted more like a dressing with a touch of tanginess than the salty hit of just soy sauce. Simple and comforting, these rolls are easy to share with friends on a girls’ night out.

The Yum Cha Combo ($17 for 6) caught me a little bit off guard. As a general rule, I don’t eat dumplings unless I am going to yum cha or at a reputable chinese restaurant. There was a mixture of shrimp dumplings and chicken ones, they were decent, but not quite my thing. Especially after the first two dishes which were pleasantly surprising, these fell just a bit short for me. The bite size pieces were still great to eat in the dark, but after growing up with home-made dumplings, my personal bias just got the best of me in this one.

If you’re a fan of the crunchy fried option, then you’ll like this one. The Salt and Pepper Seafood Medley ($22) consisted of crumbed prawn, calamari and whiting served on a bed of fries. The seafood was good and I love how the crumbing was not saturated and dripping with oil, but I think the unsung heroes of this dish were the chips. Paired with the garlic and chive aioli, those chips were amazingly moorish, leading us to keep picking at them throughout. The amazing part? Even after almost an hour of being on the table, the chips kept their crisp!!! There was a satisfying crunch even when many other chips would have been stale, and even when they were at room temperature, they still hit the spot texturally. LOVE THOSE CHIPS.

When I think of chips, I somehow think of burgers, so how appropriate was it that the next thing that we got to try was the La Premiere Burger Trio ($17)?

Three mini burgers were served with a palette cleansing cranberry and raspberry juice shot. The Wagyu Beef Slider (top photo, left) consisted of a patty made with grass fed beef, cheddar cheese and tomato relish. The Grilled Chicken slider (top photo, right) consisted of marinated grilled chicken, cheese and creamy creamy avocado. And finally, the Gourmet Turkey Slider (bottom photo, top) had turkey with melted cheese and a lovely dollop of cranberry sauce.

These mini burgers were the size of a Mini-Disc (anyone remember those) and were trés cute! The beef was my absolute favourite, with heaps of gorgeous umami flavours bursting forth with every bite. It was the heaviest of the three, but the small size prevented it from being too much and weighing you down. The chicken was my next favourite, with the creamy avocado adding a touch of luxury to an otherwise light and healthy-tasting burger. I felt that the turkey was festive, and a great idea, but the turkey piece itself just was a touch dry for me. Speaking with Chris – the man who is leading the charge in the full revamp of the menu – he mentioned that the turkey burger was the trickiest because of the nature of turkey meat being quite lean. Full disclosure, though, I’m really picky about such things. Sam, whom I went with, didn’t feel that it was dry at all, and loved it.

Something else that Sam and I both love is cheese – both the dairy and Disney sort – and the Cheese Board ($24) did not disappoint.

The cheeses on the board consisted of a creamy Adelaide hill Brie and Goats Cheese Curd (top left and right, respectively), Blue Cow Country Cheddar (middle, left) and and mild Hysen Blue Cheese (bottom, left), with quince paste and lavosh. A cheese board can be pretty simple, and sometimes leaves people to think that for the price they pay they can just buy the cheeses themselves and create the board. Chris had thought about this and told me that the conscious decision was made to use cheeses from suppliers that are not as commonly found so that there was something different, a point of difference from the rest. Something for people to come back for.

Well, this is something that I would definitely get again and again. I love how the Goat’s Cheese Curd wasn’t quite as strong on the aftertaste like many goat’s cheeses I’ve tried. The brie melted luxuriously in my mouth, and the blue cheese was not as sharp as some of the others, making it a great beginner’s blue for people who are hesitant in ordering and trying blues. I’m not a great cheddar eater, but Sam was, and this reiterated the sharing concept of the menu. There is something for everyone.

But with almost every eating experience, there is the pièce de résistance. Let me present to you the La Premiere Chocolate Fudge Brownie Sundae ($24).

As modeled by Sam, this ginormous sundae is close to the size of her face.A 1.8L glass bowl is filled with generous scoops of vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, fudgy chocolate brownie cubes, whipped cream, wafers and nuts. Holding this bowl made me want to replace (in my dream wedding) a wedding bouquet with a gargantuan ice cream sundae. Whether it’s a breakup, celebration or just because, this sundae is a definite sharing favourite! There is even a strawberry version which has an entire punnet of strawberries emptied into its creamy depths. LOVE IT.

In all, I felt that the amount of effort and thought that went into the revamp – considering how people would eat the food in the dark and how they would feel after eating the food – deserves lots of praise. Considering that there are limited facilities in the kitchen, the team has done a fantastic job in presenting more than decent food with great variety. Sure, I’m not crazy about absolutely everything, but the whole point of the variety is that there is something for everyone to try.

At the moment the La Premiere menu is available in NSW at Moore Park and Chatswood, but they are expanding it in more locations soon.

Note: Tammi and guest of Insatiable Munchies were invited as guests of Hoyts Australia.

Toast Food, Cockatoo Island

Review February 20, 2012 1 Comment

Late last year, Sean and I bought a $99 picnic hamper for two off Cudo. I’ve always said that I was a “simulated outdoors” kind of person – I like the idea of the outdoors, like dining al fresco, but I don’t actually like being outdoors.

So this was perfect for us! With the ability to pick where we choose to picnic – the simulated outdoors of course – and getting “gourmet” choices, it’s a win-win situation!

Sean very nicely organized all the transport for the day. I have an idea of where I’d like the day to go, and Sean gets me there! Great partnership model.

A drive and a ferry ride later, Sean’s very considerately checking out the map so that we hit all the interesting bits and don’t get lost.

Meanwhile, I collect our very cute looking picnic basket from Toast Food!

Although I was chomping at the bit to get at the food, Sean insisted that we take the audio tour (also included with the package) before we settle down for lunch. The outdoor bit of my simulated outdoors I guess!

I’m really glad that we did go, though. As a person who likes crafty things, I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this:

A sort-of mural made out of coloured cups!!! So cute. I feel like it’s a great take on the different kind of murals that you can create.

There was also a lot of history learning that day, but since you’re reading a food blog, I know you’d much prefer to hear about the food!

The picnic basket didn’t have anything particularly unusual, but was definitely an integral part of the whole experience. Somehow, cold sandwiches and bottles of water just doesn’t seem to fit in with the whole landscape and atmosphere. Was it yummy? Definitely. Sean really went at the cheese platter and the prosciutto was greatly (and sincerely) complimented by the soft, fragrant bread.

But the big question is: Was it worth the $99? Well, considering that the whole package included the audio tour and the food, it was a relatively good deal. It isn’t quite like some of the other vouchers in terms of its “SCORE factor” – the feeling of “Score! Win!” – but it was still a great day out.

We ate at:

The Canteen
Cockatoo Island
Port Jackson NSW 2090

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