Eat Out: CNY @ Tao's Restaurant

Happy Chinese New Year! This year is the year of the:

DRAGON

祝你龙马精神 ~!

On Chinese New Year eve, my family and I decided to spoilt ourselves. Since all our relatives are overseas for CNY, there's not much point cooking a CNY dinner for only three people, is there? We went to Tao's Restaurant, where one can experience a fusion of Asian and Western flavours as well as modern and traditional twists in their food.

Their menu is a multi-course selective set menu, so we get to choose our entrée, soup, main and dessert. It was also a special menu just for CNY. We went there for lunch, so our choices were much more limited compared to the dinner service. But we still had trouble deciding what we wanted to eat. All the choices were so tempting!

First Course: Starters

A plate of miniature dishes made from the Chef's hand-picked seasonal ingredients.

The waiter told us to start from the left dish first, and finish to the right. Interesting, I've never been told how to eat my meals before, haha.

Tomato in red wine vinaigrette. It had a sweet-savoury taste.

Next was the pickled calamari. The calamari was so fresh, it was almost crunchy. Even my brother, who usually hates raw food, finished his happily.

The potato salad was creamy and well seasoned. The person dicing these potatoes into tiny uniform cubes must be some pro knife skills.

Second course: Entrée

Each of us ordered a different one, so we get to see what each dish looked like. =D

Raw beef tataki with Wa-fu dressing. Wow, don't you just love the chinese character on the side? Summer (夏) for the season in Melbourne right now.

Kaiseki style sashimi. I had my first taste of caviar and sea urchin! But the winner in this dish was definitely the scallops. Absolutely melted in my mouth.

Marinated chicken with ginger onion.

Third course: Soups

Steamed assorted meats in Chinese casserole. Also known as 'Buddha Jumps Over Wall' (佛跳墙)

Korean style seafood consommé. Flavoursome and spicy, with well done seafood like prawns, scallops and generous meat from a crab claw.

Fourth course: Palate cleanser

A refreshing drink of mango nectar, a cool relief after the steamy soup.

Fifth course: Mains

Hot stone sizzling steak.
Salmon with pumpkin sauce.

Pan fried duck with red wine vinegar sauce.

Korean BBQ pork chop with mustard paste.

Sixth course: Rice of the day

Sakura ebi rice. The rice is tasty enough to eat on its own. The small spoon on the side is just adorable. Although my brother expressed his frustration with eating with such a small spoon, lol.

And finally, seventh course: Desserts

Crème Brulee.

And... hahahaha. Guess what this is? A potted plant for dessert??

Home made mint ice cream with chocolate soil. Such genius and playful presentation, keke. My Mum and brother had a good laugh watching me eat out of a garden pot. But I know their secretly jealous of my dessert, mwahaha. It was deliciously creamy, paired with the coarse texture of the cookie crumbs, so lovely!

The entire meal came to $48 per person, which was actually pretty reasonable given the quality and quantity of our meal. We were very impressed with the elegant presentation, faultless food, romantic ambience and attentive service. The waiter even pulled out my chair for me! * squeal*

So this ends my very first degustation meal, with hopefully more to come! Maybe with every special occasion we shall go to fine dining instead, haha.

Lemon almond honey cake

I baked this cake for my Mum's birthday. It's a gluten-free cake, made with simple healthy ingredients, like honey, almond meal, lemon zest and egg whites. Only four ingredients, wow, so easy!

The almond meal mixed with honey and lemon zest.

I cut out the letters and heart from paper, placed it on the cake and dusted it with icing sugar. Taa-da!

Then I dipped strawberries and almonds in dark chocolate and decorated the circumference of the cake.

The cake was delicious, if I do say so myself, haha. Lovely lemon tang and nutty taste with every bite.

Eat Out: Joomak + Giraffe Cafe + Living Room

Recently we've just celebrated my brother's and mother's birthdays. Usually we would cook up a feast and invite all our relatives over to celebrate, but this year they've all gone overseas for Chinese New Year. So sadly, it was only Mum, bro and me for their birthday celebrations this year. Not that that's bad, because we decided to go out for dinner for both their birthdays. Less stressful, and it's nice when someone else does the cooking anyway. =P

For my brother's birthday we went to Joomak, a Korean restaurant. Firstly, I don't know how anyone could find this restaurant without having someone to guide you directly to its doorstep. It was the most nondescript restaurant I've seen, and that's saying something when you live in Melbourne. Located at the basement of a chiropractor clinic, stepping inside was like being transported to Korea. The ambiance was great, from the dimly lit cottage booths to a drinking corner just for ajjushis and their soju, it really was authentic to the tee.

We had braised chicken, beef bulgolgi, both delicious.

The fish roe stew was not spectacular, but the soup was tasty. I think the let down were the fish eggs being too cooked, becoming sort of rubbery.

The kimchi pancake was really addicting. Crisp, thin and not too oily either.

The portions of the dishes were small, the price a bit expensive, but with the quality as great as it was I can't say I really mind. Plus they don't use msg in their food! For real authentic korean, come to Joomak.

After that, we went to have cake. What's a birthday without cake, right? I finally get to try desserts at Giraffe Cafe. The famed baked berry cheesecake really lives up to its reputation. Smooth, creamy, oh-so-good. My brother was guarding it with his fork, and we let him have the rest of it only because it was his birthday. Hmph.

The sticky date pudding came with honeyed walnuts and butterscotch sauce. The pudding was nice, but I've had better ones. Still moist and warm though.

The finishing drool-worthy shot with butterscotch streaming down the sides of the pudding... Tell me you're not licking the screen right now.

For my Mum's birthday, we went to the Living Room, a modern Australian restaurant. I only took pictures of the entree and desserts though.

Pumpkin souffle with prosciutto on salad. The souffle was yummy, it had the flavour of a rich pumpkin soup. The prosciutto, however, was burnt. It didn't look burnt, but man, it tasted of charcoal.

This was the vanilla panacotta with mango coulis and almond tuile. The panacotta was delicious! Not too sweet, slight tang of citrus paired beautifully with the mango.

The hazelnut chocolate cake with poached pear was awesome as well. Dense and wonderfully moist, it reminded me of eating nutella out of the jar. Yum.