Last Friday, we went to a nice fine dining resturant ... Assiette @ Surry Hills. It was our 6 month aniversary... so I decided to surprise Lil and take her out to a nice fine dining restruant. Assiette was recommended by one of my work colleagues (yes I did do some research). Anyway that night it was raining, but thankfully it did substantially lessen when we arrived at the location and we were greeted by this non-discript signage...which hid this very quaint resturant... other than the food, the pricing was pretty reasonable - we chose to go for the 10 course (yes that is ten courses!) for $90 per person (that is absolutely excellent value for Sydney fine dining :). The atmosphere was nice and quiet...exacdtly how it should be for that special dinner. Yes and being Asian, I had to also bring my camera along...here are the pictures the smallish resturant where all the wonderful creations you are about to see are created...small staff...individually created dishes cooked to order :) The menu for the degustation course was
So here is what we had that night... 1. Seasonal Oyster with Vietnamese dressing and baby coriander - quiet an ok starter dish, the vietnamese dressing (whatever that is) put an interesting flavour to the oyster. 2. Smoked salmon terrine with picked cucumber, beetroot sorbet and beetroot caviar - the best part about this dish was the beetroot sorbet... have u ever tasted beetroot ice-cream? sounds gross doesn't it...but actually there is quite a unique and refreshing flavour...certainly bodes well with the saltyness of the salmon 3. Cured venison loin with waldorf salad, walnut puree and fresh summer truffles - very well cured venison (deer meat) could really taste the venison
Lil seemed to enjoy this one :)
4. Seared scallops with cauliflower puree, cauliflower beignets and Pedro Ximinez
5. Pancetta wrapped prawn with crab and lobster risotto - one of my favourites, and the lobster risotto was soaked in lobster flavour...like a bisque but the risotto standard
Myself enjoying every inch of the prawn :)
6. Roasted fillet of barramundi with parsnip, sauce matelote, smoked eel cromeski and horseradish - liked the eel a lot...flavour was very strong...contrast to the soft simple barramundi
7. Mushroom powdered veal fillet with gnocchi, asparagus, veal sweetbreads and crepe foam - at last meat!
8. Selected cheese (blue) with honeyed walnuts
9. Vanilla pannacotta with strawberry jelly and strawberry and mint salad
10. Chocolate tart with truffle and honey ice cream - I loved this dessert, this is where you really needed the ice-cream and its unique honey taste to actually combine with the richness of the chocolate tart. Its like very very strong dark chocolate and only the ice-cream makes it a great combination of sweetness but at differing ends of the scale :P
So that was the end of a good night for us...the meal took about 2-2.5 hours...pretty good considering it was for 10 courses and the resturant was fully packed. It gets my recommendation, next up another challenge!
Another 5 star resturant?? No...it was cooked by ME! for Lil on Wednesday night :) after over 2 hours of cooking...the above is what you get...Lambshanks! (ie. the leg part of the lamb) so delicious and flavoursome with red wine and rosemary jus, baked rosemary potatoe and buttered corn on the cob...stewed for over 2 hrs till the meat literally fell off the bone :P yum yum...(can see the heat of the shanks). Till my next 'project' haha...think I will try a dessert :P
Ok...its another snowboarding trip to the snow (final one) :P only this time its with 10 other people including my dear Lil...and its to Thredbo (another ski field in NSW) rather than Perisher. The people who went this time are: Me, Lil, PT, Jo (a new couple), Mich, Yish, Joey, Iva, Wanyi, Gin, and Lizi...yup you got it right...there are 9 girls going and only 2 guys :P needless to say this was going to be a slow slow trip... The photo on the right shows the traditional photo before the road trip outside a truck stop on the way to Canberra on Friday night (we went to the snow on the weekend of 18 and 19 August). So anyway here is what we did...please refer to slide show below and youtube video in previous post for the details :) So here we are at the snow store where we are renting our snowboards and skis, you can see PT and Joey (background) in the picture. Can you see the massive amount of cool snowboards there...sigh...so many different designs...so tempted to get myself my own snowboard haha... Here is a picture of us with my trusty Sapien snowboard (the same one...the 1 with the Lion design...soooo cool) which is the one I borrowed last time...I instantly saw that when in the shop :) We spent one night in Canberra...to rest from the long long drive up from Sydney. We left Canberra at 5am to head for the snow shop to hire our gear and then headed off to the accomodation place to drop off some luggage. Then it was off to Thredbo! Here is the plan (warning...complicated :P), we were to meet up with Iva and Joey in Canberra and drive down together. We were also to meet Mich, Yish and Lizi at Berridale (as they drove up from Melbourne...a 7-8 hr drive..respect!). Anyway like all plans...they often don't go to plan..haha...due to some adventures by the Melbourne people (let them tell it to you and how they ran out of fuel in Thredbo) we arrived kinda late at the snowfields, but oh well it was still pretty good snowboarding and skiing :P Here is a picture of Gin and Wanyi looking fresh and awake and read to ski the day away. I was also looking forward to the day, not only because I was going to be snowboarding with Lil but also because I was going to catch up with Suey and Tina (yes you guys got a mention on my blog as promised..haha)! These are friends from Perth who are up in NSW for a dental "conference" (tax deductible of course) grrrr.... Me with Suey and Tina (its been ages since I last saw them...and I am going back to Perth for their wedding in Dec!! can't wait!) My Lil coming down Merrits (snow run)...she is pretty good and steady...we pretty much explored all the slopes and she is about the same standard as myself so she was an excellent companion! :) Lil doing an advertisement for 'Burton' snowboards haha...don't know what sort of ad it is tho haha Us at the bottom of Eagles Nest (which you can somewhat see in the background)...one of the highest peaks on the mountain :) us doing the traditional snow pose haha...
The pictures above shows the breathtaking speed my Lil is travelling haha! :) For those who have gone snowboarding or skied before...they would know that after the event you are just so so hungry. Like the first hardcore snowtrip, I booked a table at the pub type resturant next door. The picture on the left shows the entire group + Anthony and some of his work colleagues (who joined us for dinner since they were also in the same accomodation place and had gone to Perisher for the weekend). We were all soooo hungry and just ravenous for hot food :) Anyway it was a pretty decent feed...and here are some pictures
The pictures above show what we had for dinner...a gourmet beef pie and some lamb shanks yumm! (doesn't beat the Tyranosaurus Rex Ribs I had last time...because the previous owners went out of business :P haha) Good tucker! After a very filling dinner we all went back to our rooms.... to play drinking games! haha...good times good times and quite fun times with all the various games (poor Mich! haha). It was good to be surrounded by the familiar sounds of Singlish, Mandarin and just general Singaporean accents (for once its Lil that is outnumbered haha). Tired, full, we headed back to our own rooms...for a good nights sleep The next morning (the final day :( ) we headed off again for the snowfields (now its relatively quite 'late' in the season...so as you can see from the above picture, there was actually grass and sun shining....compare it with my previous post and the amount of powder present as compared to this one haha... We met up with Suey and Tina again for lunch at the highest cafe in the Southern Hemisphere...Eagles Nest! A picture of us at the cafe having a coffee (we are at the snow! we should be snowboarding...haha) As you can see from the apparantly warm weather...winter is nearly over :P no more snowfalls fo now... Here is a picture of Mich (on her bum...) haha... she was very brave ...always keep getting up and going down the slope no matter how many times she fell...respect Mich...and well done for completing that final run and managing to stop without falling down! its quite an achievement for a first timer! haha Another pic A picture of the 3 new PwC secondees (guess who they are out of the 4 on the chairlift behind us) haha... My Lil ready to go!
Now unfortunately, all good things must come to an end...and it did for this season's snow trip ... we all left the fields early to beat the traffic and head off in out seperate directions :) Overall a very fun trip and looking forward to it next winter haha...
Watch this space for my update on the latest trip to Thredbo...with my Lil, PT, Jo and the gals from PwC Singapore (ie. secondees) including those from Melbourne (ah Mich and Yish!). Here is a video of Lil going down the "Walkabout" run in Thredbo (she is in the middle of the picture) going nice and slow...and didn't fall...so proud :)
Sorry for the lack of regular updates, but I have been busy with...work work work (and oh yeah also got to co-ordinate another large ski trip to Thredbo this weekend :P...11 people coming from Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra!!!). So let me begin by describing my weekend (not the most exciting of weekends :P). My weekend actually started on Friday night when I met up with the gang for farewell drinks at James Squire, this was for JY who was leaving to work in the UK (very exciting). Unfortunately, I don't have pictures, but they will be up soon, once I get them off my friends. The next morning...Lil and myself met up with Mich and the rest of the PwC gang (including the 3 new secondees from Singapore) for brunch at the Sydney Fish Markets. Now no matter how many times I have eaten here...it doesn't get boring, in fact my selections is always the same :P haha...still fresh and delicious. Mich, is visiting from Melbourne (actually she is on an audit job here in Sydney)
Are you looking at those oysters, prawns and sushimi Yish??? haha...that is just some of the things we ate at the Fish market
Fish market sign
Finally saw Maxy, Eugene, Aiwei, HY and Haz (have not seen them for a long long time) good to catch up :)
After the fish markets, we seperated (Lil and myself) from the main group whilst the rest went to play some golf. We went shopping in the city, its been a long time since we went shopping together, and Lil did pick up some pretty good bargains ;) as I noticed all girls tend to do...haha. Anyway we were on our way back to the car when we stumbled upon a lovely little shop selling....cupcakes! all different sorts, honeycomb, lemon meriange, strawberry, etc (its a little expensive tho @ $3.50 per cupcake) but the they just look so good and fresh that Lil and myself just couldn't resist getting a couple to share for afternoon tea! :) the variety was just awesome and I don't know if its the cupcakes or the lighting in the place, but they all just looked so decadent and smelt terrific...yum yum...quite a gem of a find :)
A small sample of what is available...
Honey-comb and Lemon meriange cupcakes
Lil is just waiting...to eat :P haha...
That night, on my recommendation....we all met at Ryo's Noodles for those delicious ramen (as mentioned in my previous blog). Here are some pictures of us all enjoying that ramen with the thick stock (yum...just writing about this..makes me feel hungry for ramen now haha)
After Ryo's we went to a nearby cafe for coffee (the weather was not too cold and it was good atmosphere). Both Maxy, Eugene and Mich were very funny and enjoyed talking rubbish (Lil couldn't stop laughing) haha... We went back home to sleep pretty early because the following morning I had...
The Sun Herald City-to-Surf! Yes this is an annual event and this year it was completely packed...so packed that organisers had to reject late applicants. In total there was over 60,000 participants all running/walking the 14 km from Sydney CBD to Bondi Beach...I ran the entire way (proud to say...hey I have not been doing any running for ages so to get up and just start runnign 14km is an effort :P)...my time is about 85-90mins...which was pretty much my goal :P now you can just imagine what would happen if I trained a little hehe... Felt such a sense of accomplishment after the run and you get that good feeling after a long and tiring workout. Little did I know that the pain and cramps would come later (usually a result of using muscles that has not been used for sooooo long :P) haha...
Later in the afternoon, we went to have coffee with Maz and JY, this was to give him the going away presents we had gotten for him (he is going to UK to work and leaving Maz in Aust...at least until March 08)...
JY and Maz reading our "husband" card that we got for him ;)
One of the 'presents' (humourous) we got for him...notice the resemblence ;) haha
the 'real' present that we got for JY (see that smile?) so that he remembers his aussie roots and knows which team to support in the world cup (rugby) haha...
After a tearful (by the gals) goodbye and hug to JY (only played tennis and basketball with him once in the time I have known him) we bid our goodbyes (for the time being)...then as part of our socialising weekend, we went to meet Leo (who is also here as a visitor from Melbourne) for dinner...at Roso Pomodello somewhere near Balmain :P delicious gourmet pizzas (see doublecooked website in link on right for pictures and description ;)
Chewy and Leo
Thumbs up ....
Lil enjoying the Nutella pizza...at least a bottle of nutella went into that pizza....so deliciously sweet and sinful...just look at that hazelnut jam
Nutella pizza ... unforgetable
3 deserts - gelato, tiramisu, boulee?
The group of us...
So after all that, tired and very full (and very sore still from the C2S) the weekend was finally over :( sadly...now onto the next adventure!
Last Friday, we went to a nice fine dining resturant ... Assiette @ Surry Hills. It was our 6 month aniversary... so I decided to surprise Lil and take her out to a nice fine dining restruant. Assiette was recommended by one of my work colleagues (yes I did do some research). Anyway that night it was raining, but thankfully it did substantially lessen when we arrived at the location and we were greeted by this non-discript signage...which hid this very quaint resturant... other than the food, the pricing was pretty reasonable - we chose to go for the 10 course (yes that is ten courses!) for $90 per person (that is absolutely excellent value for Sydney fine dining :). The atmosphere was nice and quiet...exacdtly how it should be for that special dinner. Yes and being Asian, I had to also bring my camera along...here are the pictures
the smallish resturant where all the wonderful creations you are about to see are created...small staff...individually created dishes cooked to order :) The menu for the degustation course was
1. Seasonal Oyster with Vietnamese dressing and baby coriander - quiet an ok starter dish, the vietnamese dressing (whatever that is) put an interesting flavour to the oyster.
2. Smoked salmon terrine with picked cucumber, beetroot sorbet and beetroot caviar - the best part about this dish was the beetroot sorbet... have u ever tasted beetroot ice-cream? sounds gross doesn't it...but actually there is quite a unique and refreshing flavour...certainly bodes well with the saltyness of the salmon
3. Cured venison loin with waldorf salad, walnut puree and fresh summer truffles - very well cured venison (deer meat) could really taste the venison
Lil seemed to enjoy this one :)
4. Seared scallops with cauliflower puree, cauliflower beignets and Pedro Ximinez
5. Pancetta wrapped prawn with crab and lobster risotto - one of my favourites, and the lobster risotto was soaked in lobster flavour...like a bisque but the risotto standard
Myself enjoying every inch of the prawn :)
6. Roasted fillet of barramundi with parsnip, sauce matelote, smoked eel cromeski and horseradish - liked the eel a lot...flavour was very strong...contrast to the soft simple barramundi
7. Mushroom powdered veal fillet with gnocchi, asparagus, veal sweetbreads and crepe foam - at last meat!
8. Selected cheese (blue) with honeyed walnuts
9. Vanilla pannacotta with strawberry jelly and strawberry and mint salad
10. Chocolate tart with truffle and honey ice cream - I loved this dessert, this is where you really needed the ice-cream and its unique honey taste to actually combine with the richness of the chocolate tart. Its like very very strong dark chocolate and only the ice-cream makes it a great combination of sweetness but at differing ends of the scale :P
