beef

Dinner at ToTo Vietnamese – Victoria Park

by Sab on November 29, 2011

The restaurant was pleasantly quiet around 6:30pm on a Saturday evening. After we placed our order, the food came astonishingly fast. We ordered sizzling beef and lemon chicken with steamed rice to share between two people. I usually order Pho and/or rice paper rolls at a Vietnamese restaurant, but unfortunately I had already had a brothy soup for lunch that day and couldn’t bear the thought of more soup.

The sizzling beef was tender and served on a hot plate, slathered in tasty sauce and came with water chestnuts, baby corn, onion and celery (forming the vegetable component of the meal). The lemon chicken had a crispy coating with a thin-consistency sweet sauce that was not too overpowering.

I ordered the lychee drink with crushed ice but was not as impressed with it as the syrup was not easy to drink and was likely diluted canned lychee syrup. However, there was a whole host of colourful drinks to choose from on the menu, I would be keen to try something else next time.

Just a short post today, busy with other things unfortunately. I keep finding great resources online but I do not have time to try them :( There’s a cosplay photoshoot in the works…

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Lunch at Cantina 663 – Mt Lawley

by Sab on November 17, 2011

I wasn’t quite ready to post this, but then around midnight last night I was in a tired state and accidentally published my draft version that only had brief notes in it with the photos, so if you see a weird description on the urbanspoon page, that’s why!

I’d been curious about Cantina 663 for ages and finally got to visit on Monday at lunchtime this week. I loved the interiors at Cantina, it felt familiar and comfortable with lots of brown tones and wooden surfaces. I arrived there just after opening at 12pm to find the place slowly filling but still fairly spacious and chose a seat near the window.

To start off with, we both ordered the apple juice which was amazing. It was freshly made, had an interesting cloudiness to it at the bottom and the addition of a crisp piece of apple was fantastic, which I ate at the end of my meal – as dessert.

For lunch, I ordered salad, grilled skirt steak, date, avocado, crispy fried onion and yoghurt which was very generously portioned. The combination of ingredients seemed a little odd to me but I thought I’d give it a chance. The steak was my favourite part of the meal, the texture was deliciously tender.

The fried onion was great at first, very crunchy, however there was a lot of it and it was very strong in comparison with some of the other flavours in the dish. I wasn’t too sure about the dates into the dish, but these comments are just my personal preference, the guy waiting on our table mentioned whilst I was ordering that the grilled skirt steak had been a very popular dish lately.

Aimee ordered the bruschetta, roast cauliflower, almonds and buffalo mozzarella. She said she enjoyed it but had some trouble finishing the cauliflower.

The best thing about my lunch experience was the service; it was unexpectedly fantastic, I don’t think I’ve had service like this at a restaurant ever before. We had a bright, cheerful guy named Danny waiting on our table (I hope I remembered that right). He came by very frequently to check we had enough water, refill our glasses and provide a little friendly chit chat.

After lunch, I was faced with a decision to order dessert. I was sorely tempted to order the “vanilla olive oil parfait; strawberry, pistachio” but unfortunately was too full. I would probably go back and try other things on the menu, the offerings are very unique and I like that they try to use local and organic produce as much as possible. Looking at the breakfast menu, I would be curious to try this place out for breakfast sometime.

Check it out: http://www.cantina663.com/

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Lunch at Wine and Truffle Co – Manjimup

by Sab on October 14, 2011

Tom and I decided to go somewhere fancy for lunch on our last day in Pemberton (back in June, this post is well overdue). The Wine and Truffle Co in Manjimup seemed suitable as I have never had truffle and was extremely curious to go to this place.

For our meal, we started out with the Toasted hazelnut sourdough with truffle butter. I really enjoyed this, I love the flavour of hazlenuts and sourdough so those two things together were wonderful. I think the truffle butter added a kind of inexplicable complexity in flavour that couldn’t really be explained by the other ingredients.

Tom ordered the Beef and Shiraz Pie, described on the menu as “slow cooked beef in a rich Shiraz sauce, baked in crisp pastry served with homemade tomato & apple chutney, seasonal vegetables and truffle mash”. Tom said that it was delicious.

I ordered the handmade truffle pasta which was described on the menu better than I could put it: “handmade truffle pasta with sauteed mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and spinach drizzled with truffle infused oil & parmigiano reggiano”. I had ordered this dish because I was keen to leave the restaurant knowing what truffle tasted like and compared to everything else on the menu, it had truffle written more times in the description than any other dish.

The pasta came with flakes of black truffle ontop that looked delightfully like cross-sections of tiny black brains. The taste was earthy and salty, as expected with mushroom, parmigiano reggiano and truffle. The cherry tomatoes were my favourite part of the dish, providing sweet freshness relief to the oily dish. I was not partial to the pasta – it was thick and gluggy.

I’m experimenting with taking pictures while food is being eaten – this way the person I am dining with doesn’t slowly become hungrier while I figure out which angles work best with their meal and their food gets slowly colder ;)

Some meals don’t photograph well once they’ve been partially eaten!

Do you think this half-eaten piece of pie looks tasty or off-putting? I’m on the fence…

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Lunch at Grill’d – Claremont Quarter

by Sab on June 23, 2011

There are a few options for lunch at Claremont Quarter but so far, I think Grill’d is the best! They have so many delicious “healthy” burgers to choose from and the store itself is relaxing to sit in, with plenty of natural light spilling through the large glass wall and wooden tables.

Tom ordered the Wild Wild West which was described on the menu as “grilled 100% lean beef, tasty cheese, cripsy trim bacon, free range egg, a couple of slices of beetroot with salad, relish and herbed mayo”. I’ve had this myself before and it is delicious! How can you go wrong with three different types of meat in one burger!? Not sure about how healthy this particular choice is, purely due to the burger contents, but it’s well worth the calories. The burgers are relatively healthy compared to fast food – they are made from good quality, fresh produce and it tastes a lot cleaner and less oily than a burger usually does.

Here are some more shots of the Wild Wild West burger as it is devoured:

I ordered the Caesar’s Palace: “grilled chicken breast, cripsy trim bacon, free range egg, shaved parmesan, baby coss & caesar dressing”. Not healthier at all but I really enjoyed this burger conversion of caesar salad. It had the taste of caesar salad without the salad issue of boring endless mouthfuls of lettuce.

Looking at the layers of my burger:

By the way, the burgers are large but may appear small in my man-hands. The burger size is more than adequate – I could only eat half of it :D

If you want to know how I edited these images see my Grill’d photoshop tutorial with screenshots!

Here’s a shot of the store to finish up; it’s usually packed on Saturdays but we were here mid-Friday afternoon so there were plenty of places to sit as most had finished their lunches.

I really enjoy Claremont Quarter. It feels expensive and luxurious, and it’s fun to wander around and look at things. I enjoy the clean lines of Kikki K, watching the chefs make chocolate treats through the viewing window at Koko Black, the free tea samples in T2 and the luxurious pink carpet and over-the-top girly stylings of Alannah Hill. Sass and Bide is particularly funny – not the clothes, but the store decorations. The last time I visited, they had a creepy looking, ratty-haired barbie dressed in rags complete with a jewel-encrusted face in the jewellery cabinet.

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Viet Nosh – Nedlands

by Sab on April 22, 2011

Suz and I felt like some Asian food for dinner, so I chose Viet Nosh on Hampden Road in Nedlands. I had eaten here a small handful of times for lunch and enjoyed the beef pho and vietnamese spring rolls, so I was eager to go back and try something else on the menu. I also knew that Suz preferred chicken that didn’t have bones in it and had previously noticed several non-bone options on the menu.

I read somewhere that it was important to make a booking for this place and I would agree. When we walked in, the great majority of tables had “reserved” plastic signs on them, even though it was a Wednesday night. Whilst Suz and I sipped our lychee drinks (pictured below) and chatted, the restaurant filled up completely and ontop of that, there was a fairly constant stream of people coming in to pick up takeaway orders.

Lychee Drink - Closer

The lychee drinks were alright, mine contained four canned lychees, the largest of which was perched atop the drink at the rim of the glass. The other three were trapped underneath an avalanche of ice. I had to use my spoon to manoeuvre around the ice and get at these lychees because there was so much ice that did not melt.

By the time we received our mains, I was so hungry that I completely forgot about photographing my meal (not because service was slow, I was hungry due to having exercised earlier in the day). I ordered the stir-fry beef noodles, which were delicious. I enjoyed the salty and fresh Vietnamese flavours, as well as the texture of soft rice noodles against crunchy bean sprouts. There was a generous amount of thinly sliced beef, much to my delight – both as a meat lover and a female with a history of iron deficiency. I was almost finished when I remembered about the plan to take some pictures for my blog, so I just took a picture of what remained.

As you can see, Suz’s meal in the blurred background (prawn curry) is considerably less demolished than mine. This is due to the fact that I was multitasking by munching and listening whilst she recounted stories about things like Dragon Age 2.

As an aside, we noticed that the words “Chicken Maryland” appeared several times on the menu. Neither of us were sure what that meant, however the helpful and accurate pictures that were next to each menu item hinted at the idea that Chicken Maryland was chicken on the bone. Some further investigative work on the internet has confirmed that in Australia, Chicken Maryland refers to the quarter chicken cut that includes the thigh and leg.

Anyway, I really enjoyed my reasonably priced and tasty meal (I think Suz did also?). I was amazed that we sat there for two hours without being rushed out of the restaurant or hinted to leave (y’know, the “do you want any desserts / tea / coffee / your bill?”), which was a pleasant surprise. I would recommend this place for the reasonable price, tasty food, range of options on the menu and non-intrusive service.

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The Beaufort Street Merchant – Mt Lawley

by Sab on September 29, 2010

Tonight I had dinner with Lee at The Beaufort Street Merchant in Mt Lawley. It was fun and delicious.

One of the male staff working at The Beaufort Street Merchant came up to me and loudly proclaimed “No photography!” as I was concentrating on squinting through my SLR’s viewfinder. I visibly jumped and looked up, guilty and about to apologise… then I saw that he was laughing at me! Hehe

I ordered the Coq Au Vin Pie which is described as “hearty peasant pie, filled with provincial slow cooked chicken coq au vin, on mash”. It was so good! The pastry around the soft chicken drumstick was light and crunchy. The sauce was really rich and gave a lovely flavour to the dish. I also ordered “petit greens, vinaigrette” to share which was a bowl of dressed leaves with crunchy bread croutons (in the bowl to the right of the picture below).

Lee ordered the Steak Fries Au Poivre which is “rib eye steak (400g) rubbed in herbs and garlic with our house chips and deluxe pepper sauce”. The chips were divine, I ate some and they tasted exactly like Original Kettle chips. The dish was sooo big, I was super impressed that Lee managed to finish it.

For dessert, we managed to squeeze in the chocolate tart. This was topped with crunchy honeycomb and came with a small saucer of cream.

After we packed in our dessert, we were definitely done for the night. I was so absorbed talking to Lee the whole night I didn’t realise there was a whole store area at the back with racks and racks of wine and a cheese fridge, amongst other things.