I thought about what we ate and when, how we ate it, and then thought about the house named roll and how it essentially sums up the Coda palate:
'Coda roll, crisp parcel of bone marrow, ginger, shiitake mushroom and rice paddy herb'
Essentially a spring roll with pieces of bone marrow, shiitake and ginger inside, served with a lemon based dressing and stalks of lemony rice paddy herb. The bone marrow was rich and palate coating yet the dressing and herb add a refreshing acid lift.
I loved this. I love the seamless fusion of the ideas.
All the other dishes we ate were not neat fusions of Eur-Asian ideas such as the Coda Roll. The menu seemed to be split into South East Asian dishes focusing on Vietnam and Thailand or pure French benchmarks such as parfait, tartare and terrine. Yet as you would expect from a modern Australian menu there was Asian produce mixed through the European stalwarts; so oysters served with mirin and pomelo, or ginger in our coleslaw makes perfect sense, to us.
What didn't make perfect sense to me was the powerful flavours of Asia served at the same time as delicate French classics; my MacLeay Valley rabbit cassoulet was absolutely swamped on the taste front, by the in-your-face aromats of mussels stir fried with rice wine, chinese sausage and chilli. Likewise our steak tartare seemed under seasoned (perhaps it was) in comparison to the 'Quail Delight' flavour bombs or the spanner crab, galangal, chilli and lime betel leaves.
Perhaps these are just opening wobbles, we did dine just 8 days into what I no doubt predict will be a very successful business, but next time I will definitely be more careful about asking when my dishes will be served.
A high point of our evening was the amazing service. Mykal -who's face I know from MoVida and his partner Kate were absolutely glowing with pride in their first venue. Our waiter was friendly and had that perfect knack of being there just at the right time (though she had no idea of what the cheese selection was that night - perhaps that's a good indicator of the overriding importance put on the Asian dishes, especially since another person explained the use of the paddy herb with the precision of a biologist).
No doubt with chef partner Adam D'Sylva in the kitchen Asian dishes will be a focus, I just hope to see some balance across the broad range of flavours, tweaks are inevitable in a new restaurant and I am excited about my next visit, some of my most memorable European food experiences have happened in Asia, from artistic artichokes in Dalat to exquisitely matured Epoisses in Hong Kong and my favourite fusion on all, the banh mi. I hope to continue this traditional now at home, in Melbourne.
Welcome Coda.
Labels: Coda Bar + Restaurant, Dining, Melbourne, Review
I'm still cautious though whenever I buy one of these vanillian scented beauties.
Tonight I headed out for dinner with a girlfriend, we had no real plans but a short list of possibilities. It was too early for our first choice, Coda (due to open properly next week; soft opening from tomorrow) so The Deanery, Robin Wickens new-ish haunt, it was.
So yes, I wasn't in the head space for it but its certainly didn't win me over; food, service, wine, ambiance or value.
I've drank at The Deanery many times and even had a few bar snacks over the years but have never felt inclined to eat there. It feels like a bar and to be honest I guess they know that, that's why when we arrived and asked about having dinner we were advised that we would be "more comfortable" upstairs.
The night rolls on from here. The food is fine; fancy but fine. The menu is impossible to decipher (and that's rich coming from me) and the dishes we receive though interesting are far from what we could possibly image - maybe that's the point? (My thoughts and pictures are on twitter, here, here, here and here)
Well I guess the ex-Interlude customers (read: older, richer, stuffier, conservative) would like this but from a glance around the empty dining room I guess that's all it will impress, and hey didn't Interlude go out of business? Either we don't get him or he doesn't get us but Robin Wickens food seems more than a little out of touch with the current hospitality climate.
Without nagging on any further, I feel I must mention the service... just strange...
Stiff, a bit pompous ("so, no entree for you?", "just a glass?") and plain unthoughtful. A silly mess with our credit card payments with three enquiries from different waiters and a forgotten scarf left in the center of our table as we sipped digestives in the bar (we were informed of the scarf, by a fellow diner and strangly not the waiter that must have moved it there). I'm not sure what it was all about but I am uncertain who was in charge of the dining room that night and I guess that's my answer.
So The Deanery, what can I say.
Pop in for a drink by all means, the wines are reasonably priced but don't be lead up the stairs to the dining room, I don't think you will be "more comfortable" up there.
Oh and even the MasterChef caption writer can spell Caesar (as in the salad) why can't The Deanery? At a diningroom like this, it's all about trust, trust that everyone is as keen and passionate about the product as the diner; this just screams to me that they can't be bothered.
Sorry guys, no wonder the traditional media haven't published anything, maybe I should have followed suit in the "if you can't say something nice..." bandwagon but its just not in my nature.
Labels: Dining, Melbourne, Review, The Deanery
Being strictly of the seasonal food camp, it has greatly amused me that my tiny courtyard garden has proven to be so unseasonal this year. 
As you can see from the first picture, the vine is totally dead apart from the one stem holding on to my tomato, just grown in a pot in my sunny courtyard in St Kilda.
Weird unseasonal stuff huh!
This will be the last of my catch-up posts but I think the best.
Hutong was on our must dine list whilst in Hong Kong in July last year; Sichuan food as good as it gets apparently. Didn't need to know anymore apart from the instruction to have a pre-dinner cocktail at Aqua on the floor above.
Ornate flatware that has me flipping it to take down the details.
" Green asparagus coated in white sesame"; crunchy fat asparagus with sweet sesame crunch.
" Chilli spiced bamboo clams (razor clams) steeped in Chinese rose wine and chilli sauce"; stunning, powerful flavours. Absolutely the dish of the night, and beautifully presented.
"Drunken crispy pigeon, half a crispy roasted pigeon and half a pigeon poached in Chinese wine"; the most tender of meats, intriguing presentation and pigeon brains to nibble.
"Golden fried pork tendon with scallions and dried prawn roe"; texturally perfect, crunchy, chewy, gelatinous and incredibly rich. Needed half this quantity.
Even with removing the crabs from the pit of dried chillis, this dish was so hot we laughed and cried at the same time. Perfectly crispy and seasoned well, just not as interesting to the palate as to the eye.
Dessert because we felt obligated but wish we didn't bother. "Coconut three ways(I think)"; bland dull, no passion.
Hutong offered some amazing food, presented in a beautiful manner in stunning surrounds. The service, as with all of our experiences in HK (except the 'western style' service at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon), was shaky at best. Too many waiters, too many strange repetitive conversations, too often.
The experience at Hutong, sets a new benchmark in my mind of how stunning Chinese food can be, elapsing every experience I have of this style of food, Flowerdrum included.
Go for the food and views, and the stunning food porn images you can take with the spot-lighted tables!
Labels: Dining, Hong Kong, Hutong-Hong Kong, Review
I’m not very good, at not being very good at something.
So much so, that as I lay in the recovery position (okay catching up on sleep) in my bed after the craziests of weeks, I could not help but think (okay dream) about how poorly I did at my one chance… it wasn’t that hard. Use these ingredients with this equipment and make something delicious.
My self imposed restrictions were to also make something different to the rest of the crowd and make sure I represent myself well by making my food look ‘hot’… well that’s were I stuffed up, you no doubt would say it was fine, if it makes it to tv but it definitely was not inspired.
So with a couple of hours of self prescribed therapy, I reproduced the challenge (nearly) and put myself back to the test.
Could I do it again but better, in a better time, with a better result and a better looking finished dish?
Following the same thought processes of the day I recreated the same dish but here dear readers you get to see how it should have looked, should I not have plated it in 10 seconds (oh god I know; a food stylist plating their food in 10 seconds, what was I thinking??... “Must cut all the pith from my lemon zest”… oh, so we learn!)
So here are the ingredients and equipment (please note, I used a normal stove not a camp stove and am not sponsored by scanpan or global so my Circulon and Mundials will have to do!)
The six ingredients (unnecessary ones not used...), the basic equipment and my 30 minute count down timer
Whipping a mayonnaise (egg yolk, salt, lemon juice, olive oil) with a fork. In the challenge I also boiled an egg as a backup dressing in case the mayo split
Marinating the pork chop
Prepared salad components; cabbage, apple, lemon zest, parsley to be mixed with the mayo, just before serving
Cooking the chop
Resting the cooked chop
The finished dish.
Lemon zest pork loin (well rested and cooked properly this time), apple and cabbage 'remoulade' (well that was a mistake... I'll explain if its aired...), pretty dressed apple bits and a lemon cheek (lets not bring that up either...)
The finished dish with 5 minutes still on the clock. And yes I took all my own photos at the same time!
I think I then ate it in the remaining count down...
Three minutes to go...
One minute to go... 
Finished and the chewed bone, that I had cut the loin off.
Wonder what would have happened if I served this? Perhaps I would have actually made it onto the tv.
On reflection I should have eaten it, as we were not served lunch until nearly dinner time.
Labels: chef, February, food nerd, food styling, meat, Sydney, tv
