The Garfish, Manly

Belated review!
Booking a table was a breeze as it was with Dedes Bar n Grill.
They granted us window seats, and the sun flooded over us for lunch, as we looked out beyond the blue waters of Manly. They also had electronic sunshades which could be adjusted to stem some of the sun if it was getting too hot, perhaps more for the warmer months. My parents had promised me a 30th birthday meal, originally so I could try lobster for the first time lol. I had cheated, and already tasted lobster tails at Dedes, but with plan B for Bugs, I was able to taste Morteton Bay bugs for the first time...

We were all made comfortable early, by relaxed staff and the appearance of our most loved beverage, Pellegrino mineral water lol. I am ADDICTED to the stuff, lol. I go through a litre of it per day on average.

Not being very knowledgeable of wine, the waitress was more informative than the waiter at Dedes lol. Suggesting a light non overpowering white wine to go well with the bugs, and the prawns which the table had ordered, and we tried: 42 degrees south pinot grigio, Tasmania.
It really went down well, I was shocked that my parents took to it, because generally they stick to rather sweet white wines, lol.

We ordered some wood fired focaccia with garlic, and that was very very blande, so much so i could barely taste the garlic lol. Im sure many people may prefer a remnant of garlic, but I am extremely fond of it. It had a light mellow sweetness.

with the 400g portion of bugs, I received six half tails. They were served with a rather bland aioli, lol. It was creamy but lacked flavour lol. But the bugs were cooked perfectly, with my limited experience, but they were so light, fluffy and tender. Slid straight out of the shells, and tasted great. I would say sweeter than the lobster tail i tried weeks before.

My mother tried the zucchini flowers filled with a crab mousse. I tried one of them, but I wasnt too keen on the mousse texture, and I didnt appreciate the deep fried batter around them.
My mother thought she was going to get real zucchini flesh in a flowered array lol. I thought that was so cute! lol. If I had known she didnt know I would have told her beforehand. The king prawns were almost as sweet as the bugs.

Whilst i really enjoyed the bugs, the main meal of Hiramasa Kingfish was standout for me. It was served with a lovely salad, with zucchini, snow peas, peccorino, and walnut dressing. Very nice combination, fish was cooked to perfection, skin crispy.

The desserts promised so much but delivered little.
Their gimmick was a Belgian waffle dessert selection, but the waffles themselves seemed a fraction stale perhaps, or just not hot n fresh. A bit hard perhaps...I really dont know the difference between Belgian and ordinary waffles lol But these felt more like a filler.

See the menu here...

Dad tried the chocolate whisky pudding, but it wasnt appealing to me. It lacked richness and flavour. I ordered the special, with was a pineapple waffle with cinnamon icecream. The icecream was devine, but the pineapple seemed over sweetened artificially, being out of season, and quite sickly, despite the fact i ADORE pineapple generally. My mother ordered the waffle tasting plate, so we could all taste a bit of each...They were all just average.

I wish we had of tried the banana and butterscotch brulee lol

The waffles were not appetising enough to ever order again.
The desserts at Dedes still the best by far.

The friendly service and ambience for lunch at The Garfish made it an enjoyable experience.
The main courses were much more comprehensive. The selection of wood fired crustaceans very very appealing. In terms of food, this restaurant superseeded Dedes on a grand scale.
The Late' I ordered was perfect.

While its difficult to compare the experience of a lunch to a dinner, I felt the main courses and entrees were far more complete at The Garfish. Dedes felt more like a borderline fine dining experience, and The Garfish was much more relaxed and laid back.

The food and overall menu at The Garfish was really a standout, beside the desserts.
You just dont dine at restaurants for the dessers though, and Dedes need to improve their main courses and entrees. Esp the way they complement their dishes. They didnt look that appetising either.

I left The Garfish, wanting to try other dishes next time...
In terms of Crustaceans they really do cook them great on their woodfire menu.
I prolly wouldnt stay for dessert, and get dessert elsewhere.

It would make a great day travelling by Manly ferry. Prolly best during the day, in the sunshine in these colder months. soak up the sun, then catch the ferry back and get dessert in darling harbour, or if ya really keen and Dedes allow it lol catch the rivercat to abbotsford just for dessert LOL the dessert is worth it!!!

Perhaps I should arrange a score system for the restaurants.
However I believe the mains should be weighted HIGHER.

Entrees and starters /10
Main course /20
Dessert /10
Ambience /5
Service /5

The Garfish:

Entrees: 7/10
Mains: 16/20
Dessert: 4/10
Ambience: 4/5
Service: 4/5

Total: 35/50

If you could choose your last meal on earth...what would it be? lol

Interesting question huh? lol

Matt Preston answered:

"Sashimi from Tokyo’s fish market. Pan seared fresh foie gras with quince and a bottle of Chateau d’Yquem. Aussie Lamb chops with a bottle of 1929 Chateau Margaux. French fries and mayonnaise. Salad of raw porcini, fresh white truffles, parmesan and lemon. Coco Pops with whipped cream. A cheese trolley. A bowl of fresh figs and lychees. And finally a Snickers bar or two"

Geroge said:

"My mom’s egg and lemon soup; full of the most important food ingredient, SOUL."

Gary said: lol

"Impossible thing to answer because as I think of one dish such as the creamiest, softest mash potato with a rich braised oxtail with a marmalade of red onions…Oohh, talking about onions – a steak, onion and stout pie with a flaky pastry and mushy peas. Talking about peas, a little soft mousse of peas, a spearmint oil, crispy shards of pancetta and seared diver scallops – ahh! scallops – and on and on it goes – as I say, impossible!"

Gosh 3 diff responses lol

Now if only i could answer that too lol...

Ill get back to you LOL

It would have Lamb for sure...

Dedes Bar and Grill - Abbotsford

If you have a relatively generous pocket this is a nice place to eat.
I say this because in general the MAINS are a fraction overpriced and lack a bit of finesse.

If you dine in JULY you will get 20 dollar main courses except for the whole lobster tail and lobster surf n turf.

The entrees didnt seem all that appealing either. So much so we opted for a half lobster tail main, which we got for 15 dollars off because of the specials. It was lovely and so were the accompanying scallops but, VISUALLY they didnt offer much. Very plain looking. Flavours very simple not very profound lol I like to throw that word in just for Nerida's benefit LOL

Since we had the lobster for entree I opted for the 400g steak, which was served with 3 hand cut chips lol yes only THREE! lol and 2 micro cherry tomatoes. They were sweet lol but, if u want a good hearty meal then this is not ur place to eat. We required a couple of sides.

On ther flipside, You may just want to dine just for the beautiful dessert and the lovely windowed views on the water.

I have to say that the desserts were almost to DIE for...
I am fussy when it comes to desserts, and dont like anything too sickly sweet, but every dessert on our tasting plate for 2, were absolutely sensational.

We discussed going back just for the dessert lol.

The service was excellent, the table the best in the restaurant right at the window overlooking the water. The only issue of the service was clearing our mains, that took a little while. Then when we informed them that we had a ferry to catch in 10 mins, and that was the last 1 of the evening, there was no apparent urgency. It wasnt very busy and our waiter acted like he didnt given a tinkers cuss lol. We had to stand and flag down another waitress and get our coats and the bill all in 1 motion and then we fled lol...

I will also make good mention of the appetiser which was on the house, i think so anyway, we were in such a hurry to catch the ferry, maybe they did have the HIDE to charge us lol
But we were told it was compliments from the chef, and it was a beautiful asparagus soup served in a shot glass lol.

The only other tarnish on the service was the waiter's lack of knowledge of the wine. They couldnt even recommend any wine for our courses. With myself not being well informed about wine and food matches, I had to poke and hope i picked the right wine lol.
I kinda thought that choosing a bold Cab Sav with the lobster tail was not prolly the best thing, however it went well with the big juicy steak I ordered, and since i prefer the Cab Sav in general I went with, Chateau Tanunda, The Three Graces, and it was absolutely beautiful. It had incredible LENGTH... At 13 dollars a glass it wanted to lol. I was tempted to go for the bottle but it was 55 per bottle. It does retail at 28-30 dollars, and is quite difficult to find, and i think its a limited batch from SA. A Bordeaux grape I would love to taste it again just to make sure I wasnt just very THIRSTY on the night lol.

The waiter couldnt tell me what wine to match my food, and I was so surprised lol. It was a mere fluke that I picked one I liked lol.

At approximately 70 dollars per head, with only 1 glass of wine, and main courses at 20 dollars each lol You can see that it was a little hefty on the wallet. It was a borderline fine dining experience. I had a fantastic night, i enjoyed the food, the steak just wasnt up to speed and they charged me for the bloody sauce for it.

If they spruced up their mains a bit, and had a better entree menu, it would be a real good place to go back to...I could go back to have the half price lobster tail and dessert tasting plate lol.

Heres the link to their website where you can view the menu, particularly the dessert menu lol

Stay tuned for my 30th Birthday, "The Garfish" experience lol and a few recipes I cooked recently...

Its hard to score the entrees for Dedes because nothing really stood out, and we didnt try any because they lacked appeal.

Entrees: 2/10
Mains: 9/20
Desserts: 9/10
Ambience: 4/5
Service: 3/5

Total: 27/50

I really enjoyed the experience, but it was quite expensive even with the half price mains lol
If we went back again, the specials wouldnt exist, and the mains offer very little.
For that reason id hesitate going back, except if I would just have the desserts.
Despite the desserts being so good, they were expensive for a testing plate and rather small morsels. If i created an extra scoring category such as VALUE, then they would really get a poor mark. You cant expect to pay so much for food which is not complemented NOR presented well.

If i had an endless wallet lol Id return.

Masterchef thread lol

I have followed the Masterchef series too closely than i care to admit lol
I am not so much into the reality part of it, and the theatrics argghh, but I am very interested in the food and the recipes.

In the last 24 hrs since the winner of Masterchef has been announced there was been a huge backlash as to Julie being the winner. The number of complaints of general public thinking Poh should have beaten Julie is surprising.

Heres my response and round up of the final week... see link:

Heres a copy of my response below:

Re: Plating Vs Taste Posted: 20/07/2009 15:49
That is the question...and of course we know that TASTE prevails over plating. The look of a meal is like the introduction of an essay lol But if the Body or main argument isnt solid, then ya cant expect to score highly. Julie's TASTE got her thru it...Her food tasted the best! I expected Justine and Chris to make the play-off, but they were subjected to some harsh eliminations. I think they both were all round complete chefs, and STREETS ahead of the others. I am still very disappointed that Justine lost out to a bloody pompous cake, which NO chef will ever have to make in their career. While Chris may have served up some relatively tasty food, but it didnt fit the criteria of the cookbook concept. It simply didnt look appetising for a cookbook, and that was the main premise of the task... I didnt think that a cookbook task should have been the basis for elimination either. Anyone of the potential masterchef contestants could have easily succeeded with a cookbook deal, and would have had AMPLE time to perfect the LOOK of their dishes, not just bloody 2 hrs or whatever it was. Lots of people are crying over Poh not winning but we should all be more disgusted that Justine and Chris got outed because of such poorly thought out rounds which essentially didnt prove who was the better chef. Once they got down to only FOUR remaining chefs: Justine, Chris, Poh and Julie, thats when the challenges offered in the final night should have been used for ALL four of them... I would have loved to see all four chefs do the blind taste testing. I cannot believe how poorly both Poh and Jules did in the taste test round, only 11 and 12 ingredients. How lame!!! I guarantee Chris and Justine would have got a heck of a lot more...I dont think anyone should be granted the masterchef title if they cant name at least 15 ingredients. I know several who were sitting at home without the privilege of being able to smell and taste the dish and came up with more than what they did. Isnt the palate the most crucial part of being a good chef? Heck we could even see carrots in it LOL I will commend Masterchef for making the final blind taste testing though, because i felt in previous taste test eliminations it wasnt fair. Often the person who started first suffered having to pick that 1 extra ingredient. Can u imagine getting to ingredient # 19/20 and then the last contestant having to name that barley substitute or whatever it was... The blind marking would have worked fantastic for the dessert replication, but of course it couldnt have been used for the chicken challenge. They would know for sure whos was whos lol That would defeat the purpose. Could u imagine having everyone of the last 4 or even last 5 contestants being put under a stringent testing process similar to that of the final, and having each contestant scores accumulated...That would have been more Justice, or should i say JUST-ine. I could not believe after so many taste testing eliminations, that neither Julie or Poh, thought of STOCK.. Thats the foundation of most soups and many dishes...Poh even used stock for her main dish lol. And Carrots and cellery are stable ingredients for those type of caserole like dishes. I would agree that the contestants didnt deserve to be helped out during the cooking process. However you cannot complain about it now, because they were consistently helping right throughout the start of the top 20. In fact Poh was always the more independent cook and didnt want any advice, she would shoe away the chefs and wanted to do it her way, perhaps if she was more welcoming for them to try her dishes maybe she too would have had some support. Poh seemed to give the impression she was in control. It wasnt just the sorbet that let Poh down, there were several components, taste wise that let Poh down, except for her choc slice, which they all said was perfect. The comments of the judges didnt reflect their marks in the end. Curtis said to Poh, if i was blondfolded I would have thought your dish came from Aria. Yet he only gave her 8/10 lol and gave Julie 9/10 Does that mean Julies dish tasted better than Aria's dish? or perhaps better than King Matt Moran's? lol What also frustrated me was that most of the judges didnt want to go out on a limb in the chicken round and say which dish they preferred. Curtis seemed to LOVEEEEEEE Poh's dish but gave both contestants 7/10 Gary and George seemed to frown upon Poh's dish saying it wasnt very complex, and they were totally praising Julies, but they gave both of them 9/10 lol. Matt Preston was the only judge who was able to distinguish between both dishes in both rounds. He marked 1 dish higher than the other according to his preference. I would have liked to have seen a judging panel which was less biased. Especially would have loved to have the founder of the bloody dessert, Matt Moran to judge his own dish for crying out loud lol where was the logic? They have the studio crawling with top aussie chefs and they couldnt put 4 of them on the panel? lol Why not have bloody 10 on the panel lol wouldnt that give a more accurate score? lol count them all up and average it...its not that hard is it? lol This was an important final was it not? If we had the top 4 remaining contestants, with maybe 10 chefs judging them each time, in multiple rounds I think we would have got a much better picture of who the best chef was, and i think Justine or Chris would have prevailed. In terms of the big picture though... I think the top 5 contestants are going to have similar recognition in the culinary world. Sure they may be 100k short now, but i think any one of them were going to get experience in some of the top restaurants and get book deals. I think even if Julie didnt make the final, she would have got her book deal lol In terms of plating and look and overall taste, Justine had the best all round package out of all of them. If chris had of pulled his finger out and plated less of his what he liked and more mainstream dishes he too would have been tuff to beat. Hats off to Chris for sticking to his passioned theme lol pun intended. I would have ranked the contestants this way: 1. Justine 2. Chris 3. Julie 4. Poh 5. Julia While many of responders here were implying Poh was given the disadvantage i still think Julie was a better chef overall. Poh really did put on a great show in the last couple weeks, and poor Julia who lost our way too early, She seemed to lose her confidence, but even Julia I think has a better palate and will become a better chef than Poh will ever be, despite me ranking her below Poh. Just one last comment about poor BRENT. He was eliminated by his peers...he was the earliest threat to everyone, he won the first major round. I would have liked him being given one the second chance draws and invited back instead of Tom. I really do think that the top 20 should have been allowed to visit the masterclasses every week even tho eliminated early, for the second chance draw. Maybe they should have had a cook-off for the 2nd chance draw too lol. Edited by: BudGSmuggler on 20/07/2009 15:53

Dinner at Ariane's

I would like thank Ariane and Crash for a memorable dinner.
The company was warm and welcoming and the food exquisite.

In the past I have not been all that experimental in my culinary pursuits, so much so I had been turned off trying a lot of seafood, partly because of the fishy smell of some poor experiences and partly because of the perceived squishy texture of a lot of seafood. I have always been more of a meat man, and still am, but when turning 30 recently I have decided to try a lot of things I otherwise would not have touched with a 10 foot barge pole. Only weeks ago I had not even tried: lobster, crab, moreton bay bugs and now more recenty Calamari.

I have decided to use this new blog page to talk about my cooking and dining experiences, and showcase some of the better food or recipes I have tasted or created. This blog will hopefully reflect my passion for food.

Ariane made a delightful Calamari and pasta salad, and the texture of the calamari was fantastic.
That why I enjoy meat so much because of the texture is so much more appealing, but the calamari Ariane served up had a terrific texture, and it seemed to work well with the flavours in the salad.

For the main a twist on the many splendid duck recipe was served, this time the many splendid spatchcock lol It was sooooo tender and melted in the mouth. She also served one of my fav greens alongside it, "broccolini".

The dessert was superb, the flavours addictive. A roasted or poached pear in marsala had me wanting to lick the bowl clean lol

Not only were the courses so delicious, the wines which complemented each course were fantastic. As I have been told I must have commented on the buttery and vanilla flavours of the Chardonnay to Nerida in the car 20 times on the way home lol. The Pinot was lovely, the bubbly, even the strawberry one was nice and the port was profound lol I couldnt help using "profound" since Nerida hates me using it within a food context lol. I will say though, it was a profound dining experience.

I felt privileged to be invited to such a fantastic dinner experience and the hosts were so generous with their wine. I not only enjoyed the food and the company but also received an education in wine appreciation too :) lol
Crash was so generous in offering me refills all night lol I did well to keep my composure and not reach for the bottle several times lol I would wait PATIENTLY to be offered another refill lol

Perhaps I am a true alcoholic at heart :P but the wine really complemented the experience tremendously well.

Special thanks goes to Nerida for not only being my designated driver to ALLOW me to enjoy such a splendid evening, but for also putting up with repetitive compliments all the way home in the car lol.

Stay tuned for some reviews on some recent recipes which I tested out... lol