Lunch at Quay

Over the last few years I have become pretty serious about my cooking, and in the last few months I have decided to push myself even further and harder- I have just bought a water circulator and am also delving into the great, mysterious depths of dessert like never before. The reason, then, that I am going to these restaurants is to try and learn things from those who are the best in the business- each restaurant experience is an investment in my future.. or that's how I justify it at least.

So, I booked myself in at Quay, touted as Australia's best restaurant. That's a serious accolade, and as I would come to discover soon enough, a pretty hefty burden to carry.

Initial impressions were great- complimentary parking right at the door, a friendly greeting and then being led through the beautiful dining room to a table with this view:

With the opera house in full view if I turn my head to the right, Quay surely has best view of any restaurant in Sydney. When I ate at Quay last year to celebrate my mum's birthday, it was a dinner in the midst of a thunderstorm, and it was spectacular to the point of distracting me from the food.

Kingfish sashimi, tapioca pearls, smoked horseradish cream

The meal started with some nice sourdough and this, the amuse bouche of little cubes of kingfish, partnered with smoked horseradish cream. This combination worked well, and significantly better than the lime creme fraiche that was paired with the sashimi in the last amuse bouche I had at Quay, which I felt overwhelmed and clashed with the fish a little.

Confit of pork belly with abalone

On my last visit, I ordered partridge breast with bitter chocolate black pudding for an entree, and while it was nice, I was forced to look on enviously while my mum enjoyed this dish. Peter Gilmore has taken the classic combiation of pork and scallops and given it a twist with shaved abalone and cuttlefish, chive flowers, japanese mushrooms and handmade silken tofu. The pork belly were perfect little cubes of soft meat with paper-thin crackling and is exactly the way I aspire to cook it in the future.

The dish as a whole was very nice, but not the best pork belly dish I've tried. Reading the dish description on the menu, I wasn't convinced that tofu would be a natural partner to pork belly, but I imagined that this dish would disabuse me of that opinion. It didn't.

Confit lamb, spring vegetables

The waiter ran through the specials and some of the menu items for me, including a dish of snapper, or as he pronounced it, 'schnapper'. I was tempted for a moment to order the schnapper and, to accompany it, a glass of schnapps, until I realised that would make me an arsehole of epic proportions.

Anyway, I basically had to order this dish- I know the guy who provides the lamb to Quay and I was keen to check out his produce. I'm glad to report that it was a pretty serious piece of meat. Depite the menu claiming the lamb was cooked 'confit', i'm pretty sure it was sous vide, though it could have benefitted from a bit more browning in the pan, or carbonisation, if you will, to finish. The lamb was accompanied by some nice veggies, a cheese infused milk curd and a pleasant nutty blend of roasted quinoa, sunflower seeds and the tiniest pine nuts you will ever see. Peter Gilmore definitely seems to have something for miniature vegetables and flowers on his plates.

8 texture chocolate cake

What gives, Gilmore, only 8 textures? This beautiful dessert has its final texture added at the table- a hot chocolate sauce poured directly onto the immaculate chocolate disc, which then melts into it. I'm not sure if i could discern 8 textures, but then, I wasn't really counting either. Any way you look at it, it's a spectacular dish, particularly if you like chocolate. Featuring Amedei chocolate, it also delivered the kind of overwhelming abundance of flavour that had been lacking in the meal so far- I have come to the conclusion that a big part of the Quay philosophy is concerned with that which is elegant, understated, subtle. Myself, I am more of the school of the big, bold, punch-you-in-the-nuts kind of flavours.

That's not to say that I had a bad meal at Quay. In fact, I think it would be next to impossible to have a 'bad' experience there, it's simply that, as I wrote earlier, the title of 'Australia's best restaurant' carries with it a serious weight of expectation, and for me, i'm not sure it lived up to that.

Becasse

Lunch at Becasse

I'm not sure if i've mentioned this before, but my sense of direction is shocking. I have difficulty navigating supermarket aisles, much less the Sydney CBD. One effect of this is that I'm usually less inclined to go to restaurants in the CBD than elsewhere because of the trouble finding parking, not to mention the restaurant itself. Through some serendipity though, I happened to know exactly where Becasse was situated, and so when it came time to decide which restaurant to go to to kick of 2010, Becasse seemed an easy choice.

I also own Justin North's book 'French Lessons' and am aware of Becasse's status among the best of Sydney's restaurants, so my decision wasn't entirely motivated by ineptitude, just mostly.

Anyway, having the day off, I convinced my housemate to take a long lunchbreak from work- which didn't really take much convincing at all- so that we could take our time and enjoy the lunch degustation.

To start with, a selection of breads, of which i ate two platefulls. These were served with a cube of olive oil, which i thought was quite an impressive trick, and some smoked whipped butter.

The amuse bouche was a ceviche of perch (?) and was really quite flawless- there was the perfect level of acidity, and some nice heat from the chilli without overwhelming the delicate fish.

Salad of summer organic vegetables

A nice little plate of perfectly cooked baby vegetables, with a white carrot puree and a pea mousse. Light and delicious. You could probably also convince yourself that it was healthy, if you choose to be ignore the masses of butter and oil that i'm sure contributed to its tastiness.

Sauteed yabby tails and heirloom tomatoes

Ah, summer, the best of seasons. The one i look forward to all year, anticipating languid days by the beach and warm nights with beer in hand. I also always promise myself that this summer I'll be sure to eat my fill of heirloom tomatoes, otherwise known as tomatoes that taste of tomato instead of the ethylene gas-ripened bullshit we endure the rest of the year. However, their scarcity results in them only being found in a select few places, which, combined with my laziness means that i never do eat enough heirloom tomatoes.

I am always glad when they show up in restaurant dishes though, and this showcased their deliciousness perfectly. The yabby tails were soft and sweet, and the accompanying olive oil sorbet was wonderfully fresh, clean and refreshing.

Seared yellowfin tuna

Another very nice dish, still no missteps from the kitchen. This dish consisted of a piece of perfectly cooked tuna, fennel, crushed potato and a zingy herb dressing. In fact, this dish made my housemate a tuna convert, not having particularly cared for the fish previously.

Lyonnaise salad

This has to be the manliest salad ever devised. Confit egg, little crackling bits of caramelised pork jowl, fried duck liver and onions, all smothered with a bacon vinaigrette. I assume this is the sort of 'salad' that Elvis might have enjoyed in between his regular diet of fools gold loafs. Unlike the fools gold loaf though, which i have also tried to eat, this was actually delicious. It was also an enjoyably meaty counterpoint to the dainty dishes which preceded it.

Slow cooked suckling pig

I have become a real fan of pork over the last few years, and this was perhaps the porkiest of all the dishes I have tried in that time. Served with potato puree, peas, pancetta and a sage jus, this was as rich and hearty as a pork dish can be. The pork was perfect, soft and juicy with terrific crackling.

Creme fraiche pannacotta

It's funny, but like the earl grey pannacotta with plum sorbet I had at Balzac last year, this pre-dessert was the highlight of the meal. Not having had creme fraiche pannacotta before, it was a revelation, and with a dice of fizzy green apple and a lovely granita of kiwi, apple and mint, this was a brilliant palate cleanser and great dish in its own right. I'm even going to try and replicate this at home.

Banana creme brulee

So here it is, the final dish. It's hard to make out from the picture, but as opposed to a traditional creme brulee, this was actually served in a conical glass full of banana custard, interspersed with chunks of salted peanut brittle, topped with a piece of toffee and a scoop of milk coffee sorbet. This was a very nice dessert, the only downside being the pieces of banana in the custard, which I didn't really care for. Although that's likely only because I dislike banana. And yet I love banana flavoured things. Go figure.

Anyway, this was a terrific meal, with an extremely high standard of service to match the dishes, all of which were thoughtfully created, artfully designed and technically irreproachable. This was the first great meal I have had this year, and if they are all like this, then 2010 looks like it will be very special indeed.

BEST DISHES OF 09

It's a bit late, but it's that time of year where my bank account has recovered enough for me to be able to start going to nice restaurants. This led me to realise i hadn't been anywhere great yet this year, which in turn got me thinking about the places i went last year, which of course in turn led me to consider the best dishes i had last year.

They were as follows:

Entree

The scallops with sweetbreads at Pier were an absolute knockout. The combination of tofu, scallops and sweetbreads sounds odd, but came together perfectly.

Main

This dish, served at Berowra Waters, simply blew me away. Soft veal shank wrapped in bone marrow amazed me as much with its flawless technique and originality as it did with its taste.

An honourable mention goes to Jimmy Seervai's mud crab curry, which, while not served in a restaurant, was among the best things i tasted all year.

Dessert

The second dish from Pier on this list, and the best dessert of '09 by a considerable margin. Caramel rum braised banana with peanut brittle and coconut sorbet brought together an array of amazing complementary flavours and delivered them onto the plate via some astonishing techniques. Katrina Kanetani has since moved on from Pier and unfortunately, whomever is now in charge of pastry has some big shoes to fill.