Say the name Neil Perry, and the ears of anybody who knows anything about food prick up. Over the years this chef has firmly cemented himself into a position of one of Australia’s most influential chefs. He is responsible for a spattering of award winning restaurants around Sydney including Rockpool, Rockpool Bar & Grill and Spice Temple, as well as Rockpool Bar & Grill in Melbourne.

Last month, celebrating a special occasion, I was surprised with a dinner at the original Rockpool which was first opened in the Rocks in 1989. The entrance to the restaurant is understated to say the least. Keep looking straight ahead and because there’s no overhanging sign to signify its presence, you’re likely to walk past it as you’re distracted by everything the Rocks precinct has to offer – of course, how could you not be distracted when the Museum of Contemporary Art is located right opposite.

Walking in, you’re greeted with a smile and the restaurant’s warm and simplistic style. The interior is a lot bigger than I thought it would be and we were led past the open front-of-house kitchen to our table located in a back alcove which at this point is bathed in glorious sunset light. Unable to resist a degustation, we chose to have the 8 Course Grand Tasting Menu.

Rockpool

Lobster & Caviar Summer Roll*

This little starter was a perfect beginning to the meal. The saltiness of the caviar served nicely to prime the taste buds for the rest of the meal and also brought out the sweetness of the fresh lobster meat. The bread on the bottom was soft and fluffy with a daintily crispy crust.

Fragrant Crab Broth with Hand Picked Queensland Mud Crab, Dashi Custard, Tapioca & Wild Bamboo Pith

The broth was unmistakably a crab broth with the crab meat, dashi custard, tapioca balls and bamboo pith all creating multiple textural layers. The broth was seasoned with an extra generous pinch of pepper which was welcomed as without it, the broth would probably have been overwhelmingly fishy. One disappointing point though was that we found a small piece of crab shell in one of our servings – expected maybe in a spaghetti marinara from a street corner cafe, but certainly not at an established eatery like Rockpool.

Green Lip Abalone, Red Braised Thirlmere Goose, Chicken Crisps & Fine Noodles with XO Dressing

The rich goose meat along with the slightly chewy abalone against the cold noodles were a nice contrast in textures. Tying the dish together, XO dressing was tangy and sweet and nothing like what I was expecting. XO sauce generally meant I would be reaching for glasses of water afterwards, so maybe I misintepreted the description as a variant of a spicy seafood sauce common to Chinese cooking, but there certainly wasn’t any chili aspect in the sauce. Neither was there any relation to XO Cognac which was the only other interpretation that I could make.

That said, once I got over my confusion, I enjoyed the dish thoroughly. The highlight was definitely the chicken crisps which as the name describes gave the most satisfying crunch and added a salty component to the dish.

John Dory Poached in Tomato Water*

Next up, the john dory dish was completely unexpected. The tomato taste was subtle but present throughout the flaky piece of the fish while the freshness was added to the dish by the herbs and simple spring vegetables. The berries were tart and gave the dish that extra bit of zing that was a standout.

Redgate Farm Partridge Pie with Sauteed mushrooms & Partridge Jus

Considering the lightness of the previous courses, the partridge pie was significantly more substantial and was the perfect precursor to the next course. The mushrooms and the partridge jus had a very earth flavour and were a perfect accompaniment to the partridge pie. The pie itself had a flaky pastry and the filling was also very rich so the flavours were very nicely broken up by the onion puree underneath.

David Blackmore’s Full Blood Wagyu (Score 9+) Sirloin, Hot & Numbing Brisket, Tendon with Soy & Rock Sugar Sauce

I’m a great fan of steak, so when the piece of meat we were to receive for this dish was proudly advertised as coming from Blackmore* and had a marble score of 9 or more, I had big expectations. Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed.

The wagyu sirloin was a perfect medium rare and the high fat content of the sirloin meant a steak knife was perfunctory as the meat was cut with very little effort. The tendon was cooked until it was extremely soft while the slightly spicy (not quite as ‘hot and numbing’ as I expected) and more sinewy brisket nicely complemented the tenderness of the piece of sirloin. Another level of texture was added by the fresh piece of lettuce and the sweet soy based sauce brought all the components together nicely.

Vanilla Panna Cotta with Queensland Strawberries & Rose Granita

With the entrees and mains over and done with, it was on to dessert. First up was the panna cotta which in itself was soft and bouncy and had a distinct and smooth vanilla flavour throughout. Complementing the fresh strawberries, there was also a concentrated strawberry jelly and the addition of chopped pistachios to the mix was a pleasant surprise. The rose granita that topped it all was palate-cleansing and absolutely divine.

Turnover of Caramelised Apples & Calvados Mousse with ‘Granny Smith’ Sorbet

Personally, the caramelised apples were a bit overpoweringly sweet for me especially after the subtle flavours that were present in the previous dessert. While the acidity of the granny smith sorbet cut through the sweetness nicely, there wasn’t nearly enough of it to balance out the apples completely. Other than that, the pastry was flaky and crisp while the Calvados mousse gave the dish a smooth component.

Petit Fours – Salted Butter Caramel, Passionfruit Marshmallows, Milk Chocolate Bar with Candied Orange, Nuts & Preseved Cherries, & Madelienes

Definitely the most generous offering of petit fours that I’ve ever come across. The marshmallows were completely different to any store bought marshmallows I’d ever had before. These were extremely fluffy and literally melted in your mouth coating the tastebuds with a distinct but subtle passionfruit flavour. Sucking the salted butter caramels was delectable with the saltiness bringout the butter taste in the caramel and made you want to keep savouring the salty flavour.

In contrast, the madelienes were simple and delicate which is as they should be. Finally, no girl can resist the charm of a bit of chocolate to finish a meal off. This was a fruit and nut bar with a twist in the candied orange and preserved cherries bringing a sour note against the sweet milk chocolate.

Rockpool

107 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney, Australia

P: 612 9252 1888

www.rockpool.com.au/sydney/rockpool

* Note: Somewhere in my post-food haze, I forgot to take along the copy of the tasting menu we were given. The names I’ve given to these dishes are my closest recollection of the correct names as these dishes are no longer available on the degustation menu.

Since I’ve lived in Sydney there’s always been two elusive Malaysian dishes that I’ve never been able to find in a restaurant that have been able to reproduce authentically. So, when a friend and her Malaysian boyfriend started raving about a place that served the “best satay and cendol” in Sydney, my search was reignited and I took the first opportunity to check it out.

The menu largely consists of hawker stall favourites with some typical dishes you would find in other Malaysian restaurants. With a quite a large variety to choose from, I decided that the true test of authenticity would be to go with the dishes that never fail to go on my ‘must have’ list whenever I head back overseas. Definitely no prizes for presentation, but to my tastebuds it was a little trip back to hawker stall heaven.

Abang Sam’s Famous Satay

As close to the real deal that I’ve found so far in my years in Sydney. The satay sticks were marinated until the meat was stained a bright yellow and the chef wasn’t shy with barbecuing the skewers so that you were left with slightly crunchy and charred bits of chicken. The sauce, which was the definitely the highlight, had just the right amount of oil with crunchy chunks of peanuts. This tasted nothing like the peanut butter-like excuses for satay sauce that I’ve experienced elsewhere. The satay was served with pieces of spanish onion, cucumber and nasi ketupat (a typical Malay compressed rice accompaniment to satay), all of which served its purpose in mopping up as much sauce as possible.

Char Kway Teow

In hindsight, I probably should have ordered this with seafood as a test of authenticity. In hawker stalls, this noodle dish is usually fried with a mixture of seafood and fish cakes, but having chose the beef option instead of seafood, my plate I was given was tasty, but not much dissimilar to the fried beef noodles that can be ordered at most Chinese and Vietnamese eateries. Also missing were crunchy pieces of fried pork fat, but given the fact that it’s a halal compliant restaurant, it’s understandable.

Nasi Lemak

My fondest memory of nasi lemak was getting a packet of this wrapped in a banana leaf from an old Malay woman who would make it every Tuesday night and then walk around the neighbourhood on Wednesday mornings selling it for breakfast. Looking at this, all the essential elements of a traditional nasi lemak were there – a serve of coconut rice, a hard boiled egg, fresh cucumber, a generous serving of chicken rendang, a portion of sambal (a Malaysian chilli relish of sorts) even the fried anchovies and peanuts. I didn’t get to try much of this dish, but given the speed that it was eaten up and the empty plate that remained, I’d say it must have been delicious!

Cendol

A typical dessert found in South East Asia, cendol is named after the green pandan flavoured flour based jelly and is usually served with just some coconut milk, shaved ice and a generous drizzle of palm sugar syrup. There are other varieties incorporating a variety of different beans and jellies, but I’ve always like the simplicity of the few ingredients found in a true cendol. When this was served, I was quite happy to discover that they had stuck to tradition. The cendol in this dish was fresh, soft and had a strong pandan flavour which was nicely complemented with the sweet taste of the palm sugar syrup.

Goreng Pisang

Goreng pisang (or pisang goreng if you’re Indonesian) literally means fried banana. I was a bit perplexed with the addition of apple slices and the sauces liberally dribbled over everything, but that aside, the banana was very sweet and the batter crunchy. My only complaint though is that it came out halfway while we were eating our meals which meant by the time we were able to enjoy this, the fritters were drowning in a puddle of melted ice cream. A headsup to the kitchen that we were still eating would have been nice!

Abang Sam Malaysian Family Restaurant

Shop 1, 214 Anzac Parade, Kensington, Sydney, Australia

P: 612 9662 6554

The Sydney International Food Festival may be over for the year, but there’s one place that’s carrying on their Sugar Hit special into November due to the overwhelming response to their offering last month.

Unfortunately every time we attempted to head to Azuma Kushiyaki for their Sugar Hit during October it was a last minute decision we were never able to get a table. When it finally dawned on us mid-month that we needed to get our organisational skills in check, it was already booked out. Disappointed at first, but we were thrilled to find out they made the decision to offer the Sugar Hit in November as well, Mondays to Thursdays only. Needless to say, we booked for early November without any hesitation.

The ‘East Meets West’ dessert tasting plate on offer dwarved the other Sugar Hits which we went to during SIFF and is beautifully presented in a two tier bento box. With six different desserts to slowly relish your way through, the Azuma Kushiyaki Sugar Hit is definitely bang for your buck at $20. Despite this, nothing was given up in term of quality to afford this.

‘East Meets West’ Dessert Tasting Plate

Vanilla Cheesecake

This was my favourite dessert of the bunch. The cheesecake was very mild with a delicate hint of vanilla. The highlight of this dessert was the surprise sour berry sauce that was neatly hidden in the middle which brought the dish up another level altogether.

Belgian Chocolate Mousse

The richest dessert of the bunch. The mousse was light and fluffy was made just that little bit more special with the pieces of chocolate cake interspersed throughout.

Mochi with Kinako served with Vanilla Ice Cream and Japanese Brown Sugar Syrup

The mochi (glutinous rice balls) were soft, bouncy and had just the right amount of chewiness that forces you to simply slow down and savour the flavours in your mouth. Teamed with the refreshing vanilla ice-cream, the slightly nutty kinako (soybean) powder, the fruitiness of the fresh grapes and the richness of the dark brown sugar syrup, the flavours and textures of the dish balanced each other perfectly.

Green Tea Rolled Cake with Chestnuts & Nori Seaweed Langue De Chat Biscuits

The green tea flavour of the cake was very distinct without being overpowering. You can definitely tell that they had used good quality green tea rather than resorting to some run-of-the-mill green tea powder for flavour. The powdery chestnuts in the middle gave another textural level to the cake which contrasted with the soft cake and the smooth cream. The nori seaweed crackers on the other hand, were very crisp and gave a satisfying crunch with each bite.

Azuma Kushiyaki

Ground Floor, Regent Place Shopping Centre, 501 George Street, Sydney, Australia

P: 612 9267 7775 F: 612 9267 7776

www.azuma.com.au/kushiyaki

One last Let’s Do Lunch last week to close off on a month of good eating thanks to the Sydney International Food Festival. This time, we decided to head towards Surry Hills and gave Bentley Restuarant & Bar on Crown Street a try. The restaurant is housed in a refurbished pub which has an unassuming aura about it. In that respect, it’s almost too easy to forget that this restaurant has been awarded two chef’s hats for several years running.

The set menu this time for the Let’s Do Lunch special was a roast spatchcock with sweet corn polenta, pistachio and aspagarus. On the face of it, the dish sounds rather simple. However, I found out after this visit that a variant of this dish was recently featured on this season’s Celebrity Masterchef* and was touted to be “most difficult dish ever attempted in the MasterChef kitchen”. In hindsight, it gave me a lot more appreciation on the skills required to make this.

Roasted Spatchcock with Sweet Corn Polenta, Pistachio and Asparagus

The roasted spatchcock ball was prepared by first skinning the entire spatchcock and deboning it. The meat is then balled up in the skin again and poached. Once this is done, it’s then shallow fried. The result was a most delicious ball of sweet meat that was crisp on the outside while being moist and tender on the inside.

The accompanying sauce was rich while the corn kernals gave the dish a very nice sweet note which was echoed in the rich corn puree.  The only disappointing aspect of the dish is that it wasn’t very filling due to the fact that the dish lacked a substantial carb component which was not fulfiled by the fried polenta baton. No complaints from the girls, but the portion we were given only served to whet the apetite of the boys and had them wanting more.

Bentley Restaurant & Bar

320 Crown Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia

P: 612 9332 2344 F: 612 9332 4421

www.thebentley.com.au

Popped into this little cafe/restaurant for a quick bite before catching a movie at Rhodes the other night. It’s conveniently located across the food court from the cinema entrance in Rhodes Shopping Centre so it was a perfect dinner option since we were in a rush and weren’t content with the food-court food that was available.

Garlic Bread

Can’t have Italian without the garlic bread! This was nicely buttered all the way to edge and had a generous portion of freshly chopped garlic.

Spaghetti Alla Vinci

This was a spaghetti with Italian sausage, kalamata olives,  onion and capsicum tossed in a traditional napolitana sauce hinted with fresh pesto, freshly cut garlic and chili. Definitely a dish that’s more catered towards people with a liking for sour food (like me!) with the combination of the olives, the pesto and the tomatoey napolitana sauce.

Lamb Rack with Navigator Sauce

I’m a big sucker for anything new so when Felix asked for mushroom sauce to accompany his lamb rack, I couldn’t help but jump in and suggest he try the Navigator sauce. As pushy as I might have seemed, the description of the sauce being a creamy red wine mustard gravy infused sauteed onions, freshly crushed garlic, shallots and bayleaves sounded too good to pass up. Also in my opinion, if there’s a special sauce named after the restaurant, then you can’t not try it.

When our meal finally arrived, there were definitely no complaints of my earlier actions. The sauce was very flavoursome and was perfect with the rack of lamb cooked medium rare and a generous spoonful of creamy mash.

Navigator Brasserie

Shop 73, Rhodes Shopping Centre, Rhodes, Sydney, Australia

P: 612 9736 2865 F: 612 9736 2865

www.navigatorrestaurant.com.au/rhodes.php