Tucked away in Surry Hills is a 2 hat diner trying to do some fun stuff with modern kitchen equipment and techniques. Brent Savage is the head chef in charge at Bentley Restaurant & Bar, which does a modern ala carte menu as well as a tapas menu and a degu, which was what I had. They’re also popular for Nick Hildebrandt, the sommelier who helms the alcoholic side of things at this avant garde eatery.
Vignetting courtesy of the lens cover on my LX-3. Completely unintended!
They print their name on the glasses. I used to have this font but I can’t recall the name though.
It was gonna be 8 courses and I opted to get 2 wines, a Sauvignon Blanc and a Pinor Noir to do a simple matching. My eating companions were not too keen on the grog. My brother is underaged afterall and my mom is my mom. So without further adieu.
Smoked Potato Mousse with Mussels & Clams
The first course came soon enough. A smoked potato mousse with some shellfish and what appeared to be an ultra thin potato crisp. Possibly the best potato chip in the world. The briny nature of the shellfish seemed to be echoed in the mousse itself, which was foamed frothy and light, a good starter and a decent example of how a foam isn’t just trendy. It wasn’t all air though, it had enough consistency and body to be called a mousse for sure.
2nd Course. Kingfish Marinated in Squid Ink with Perfumed Fruit and Coconut.
This is taking a typically meaty and dry type of fish that fares well grilled and turning it into a svelte beast with low temperature poaching. The texture was superb. You also got a scallop tossed in as well as a gentle coconut cream that was light enough not to be noticeable. The perfumed fruit lent a sweet touch and overall the dish felt great.
Black Sesame & Pea Fondant with Snow Peas and Goat’s Curd.
Lovely. The fondant looks and feels like a choc truffle with liquid pea puree inside. You squeeze with the tongue and it breaks away to reveal the liquid. Then you slap on the texture with the peas, something that I think was pea shoots/celery and a pea powder below the fondants. This had me wondering how the hell to make it. You don’t really taste the black sesame that much and the skin that it acts as for the fondant is thin and slightly chewy.
Steamed Mahi Mahi and Emulsion with Chives and Jamon.
Lovely. Nice and tender fish. It’s definitely got a meatier hook. The chive emulsion was lovely and you get bits of jamon cubes diced up for that big fish x pork combo. The most conventional dish of the night and one that still tasted great.
Roasted Quail with Silverbeet, Quinoa, Feta & Barberry.
Hands up who knows what Silverbeet is? Or barberry for that matter? I don’t either. Well at least I do now. The former is just another name for chard. The latter is a kind of tangy berry. This dish was nice. At one point, it felt like an oversexed bit of chicken sausage with some cheese and berries. At another, it was a brilliant combination of savory with sharp and sweet.
Roast Duck Breast with Lentil Puree, Pumpkin & Rhubarb.
Brilliant if disappointing. I suppose I’m too spoilt by having roast duck with crisp skin. This one was superb in terms of texture and flavor. The depth of the earthy lentils took that classic combo to a new level here. The pumpkin and rhubarb gives it the elegance and sweetness. Definitely a modern aesthetic at work here. The only problem was the skin, chewy chewy chewy.
Creamed Stilton Blue with Kumquat & Spiced Bread.
Oh yes. This was awesome. Take a strong tender cheese and turn it into a cream and give it some citrus and spice for interest. The combination and texture was awesome. Smooth cheese, bitey kumquat and gritty breadcrumby things. So un-cheeselike. So good.
Bonus Round! A complimentary pre-dessert of Cucumber Sorbet, Tomato and some other stuff I can’t recall.
This was superb! I thought the cheese was my highlight but this broke it. The sorbet tasted like honeydew. Whilst nothing on the plate was fruit, it all tasted like fruit. The clean, bright refresh was lovely. Palate cleansed and totally ready to finish on a sweet note.
Final course. Hazelnut Custard with White Chocolate & Blueberries.
Oh yes. Finally. A dish that was pretty much par for the course up against Pier. Whilst Katrina Kanetani’s desserts are kick ass. This beautiful thing was almost and probably just as good. I loved everything. The serving plate with it’s uber assymmetrical curved central form. The beautiful hazelnut custard covered in nuts. How the hell do you do that? And the blueberry mousse. Plus that amazing white chocolate cylinder with a liquid center. You’ve got to eat it to understand but I am sticking this trio of flavors the next time I make a dessert.
Having finished the meal. I am contented. At just about AUD$130 plus per person, this was superb value. Overall the meal was never as good as a 3 hat experience but it was really really good, even going hella close at the end. Heck, I’d say that hazelnut custard was just as good. Service was brisk and polite. We never had to wait, always got smiles and never felt awkward. The decor and sitting feels a touch weird I suppose. It’s not quite the fine dining setting but it’s not something that bothers me the slightest. The only thing that maybe let it down, if you could call it that were that some of the earlier dishes felt a touch too playful. Too much about modern technique and not about eating something that is great. The other thing is that they do awesome on light, bright and clean but I haven’t had anything deep and heavy and rich in the entire menu. It’s not a criticism in so much as an observation. As in I think I would have liked to see how they would tackle something like a red meat dish and make it heavy but light.
If you want hip Sydney dining, there’s no where else. Bentley’s the spot.
Here in Sydney, I like to go down to a friend’s place to cook for them. I try to do this periodically. It’s a chance for me to fool around and make shit. Which is me getting away from the boring ass grind of money making. When I cook, it’s typically a Western style thingamajig. Like the first meal I ever made them when I came over and stayed at their place was a Jamie Oliver recipe for a red wine beef stew.
Looking back, I really see the progression I’ve made. After I did that, I cooked stuff from my exam at Le Cordon Bleu, which was old school French stuff. It was a 3 course menu. The entree was a rolled rainbow trout served with a beurre blanc, followed by a duxelle stuffed duck breast with veg and jus for the main and a creme caramel for dessert. Classic as.
Then the next time I cooked, it was a new-ish 3 course. My own “menu”. A starter of grilled prawns with cucumber and grapefruit salad. Then a fillet of pan seared snapper over a soubise, potatoes and snap peas followed by a mango panna cotta.
Then just a couple hours ago, I did a 5 course degu-ish thing for them, taking cues from all over. The first course was a chilled tomato and watermelon soup, seeing as these two ingredients are pretty much at their prime right now and the weather was supposed to be like really hot. (It wasn’t hahaha!) So I wanted to do a nice, refreshing opener. I served that with some toasted Sonoma White Country Sourdough and a drizzle of olive oil. The green leaves are oregano from my friend’s garden.
I actually blended this with some ice. I basically wanted a tomato and watermelon slurpee. I also forgot to shave the melon garnish/textural element because the timing of the dinner got screwy and I rushed through. Which also led to my disastrous 2nd course. To be honest, I didn’t test any single recipe beforehand properly. My friends are just always guinea pigs! So I made a chawanmushi which had all of the taste and texture and everything but it flopped! Just like my creme caramel of yore. I suppose ultimately, chawanmushi does need to be served in a cup or it won’t have that beyond tofu softness. Or I could throw some gelatin in next time lol. I suck at the wobblies and it’s obvious why.
A disaster in presentation (I had to reheat in the oven again, so the sauce curdled slightly.) but a triumph in flavor. Not the most summery of dishes but I don’t really care. This was a crab chawanmushi with a cauliflower puree, oyster mushroom and hazelnuts. I wanted a tone on tone type of look sorta. So I chose not to put something bright green and fresh looking. The recipe I adapted from David Chang of Momofuku. My thought process was this: crab, cauliflower, buerre noisette, hazelnut. It worked brilliantly. Would cook again.
Good thing I don’t quite suck as much cooking pink stuff though. This was a lamb cutlet dish, simply roasted and served with a miso eggplant puree, roast tomato and potatoes. Oregano reappears to the delight of my host, who’s beaming that her own herbs are being used. I need to work at using my LX-3 and abating the hunger as well as my presentation. Still, this was superb if I say so myself. I kept on that Japanese tangent and if you look back at my previous posts, this was clearly a subconscious inspiration via my first ever fine dining experience at Assiette where I got a perfect lamb cutlet with ratatouille, braised and crumbed lamb neck, basil and eggplant puree. Flavors in mine were more playful I suppose. Eggplant and lamb is classic and lamb is a Spring Summer thing but I wanted something deeper and richer than the previous. This was my high point. So I roasted halved eggplants and basted them with a miso paste mix before broiling till caramelization and pureeing it all. I was using the sieve like a demon today. A touch of cream got me to smoothness levels on par with whatever I’ve had before. Without those experiences at Assiette and Pier, I would never have known how to do anything like this.
4th course was another failure in the flops. Or a flop of the flops. I can’t seem to get stuff to stay firm. This blood orange terrine was ripped from Becasse line for line but I definitely need to work on it. Tastewise, it’s brilliant thankfully and feels like such a grown up jelly. I stuck a quenelle of choc ice cream for that classic combo twist thing.
Last course and the 2nd dessert (I had 5 guests of the female persuasion) was my piece de resistance. I ripped the recipe from here. It’s really created by Albert Adria at El Bulli, a fast cooking aerated sponge that uses 2 pieces of tech to work. The first is a cream whipper that aerates the cake mix with nitrous oxide, reducing the dependence on flour, heightening flavor and introducing a lighter texture. I actually went out and splashed like over a $100 on this baby below just because. I don’t regret a single cent. It’s just too cool.
The second piece of tech is the microwave. Because it has such fast heating properties, it’s what enables the mix to cook fast enough that it doesn’t lose all the aeration before it’s done. If you stuck the mix in a trad oven, you’d just get a flat souffle. I tried this several times but got it spot on right during service time. The texture is light as air and I had the same thing before at Pier. Only I made mine outta chocolate because it was a requested ingredient at the dinner and because I think lightening a heavy flavored ingredient always works for a long, heavy-ish meal.
So light and simple yet so delightful. This dish has seen me cook from a simple throw shit in a pot stew to an even simpler mix a batter and let modern tech do the job for you. I know which way I’d rather do it!
Bill Granger’s breakfast is an iconic Sydney experience. The popular TV chef has got like 3000 stores all over Darlinghurst, Surry Hills and Woollahra as well as a new joint in Japan. Famous for his scrambled eggs, sweet corn fritters and ricotta hotcakes, it seemed to be providence that decided I would be in a party of 3, able to savour each individual delight.
Is the hype worth it? Well, Bill ain’t Ferran. He’s not doing anything drastically different. He is making great scrambled eggs, sweet corn fritters and ricotta hotcakes though. The restaurant itself and the whole lifestyle around it is what makes it great. We arrived at 10 or so, a popular time for peeps sleeping in on Sundays so we had to wait like 20 minutes but there were others in the same situation who seemed more than happy to do so. It’s lazy Sunday breakfast concept, only way steezier with the polished wood floors and well selected furniture and a nice big mirror. Walk in and you also get this large communal table where you can eat with strangers. There’s plenty chatter and a near tranquility to things.
Check out the nondescript little logo on the bottom of the window. That’s Bills and that’s it. It’s easy to dismiss it as a well dressed cafe but a sense of style and the ease of which things are carried out can turn an ordinary breakfast into an amazing one. Whilst I don’t think what I ate was supreme, it was really good. Really good. I had a chocolate that came with Callebaut buttons on the bottom and foamed milk on top that I stirred together. My brother had a sunrise drink with a berry twist to an OJ.
The scrambled eggs is famous. It’s got great texture, light, fluffy and breaks apart easily in the mouth. It’s a really good version of a dish that I always have trouble associating because a good scramble is so hard to define. I still don’t know what it really is but this has to be bloody close. If you have one dish here, get the scrambled eggs. It’s subtle, simple and very elegant in taste and texture. However, I think it’s really not that far away from most other cafes. They’re just a good notch or 3 above the competition. Definitely the best scrambled eggs I’ve had thus far.
Sweet Corn Fritters were great too. They came with some bacon and tomatoes and stuff. The fritter was fried nicely and tasted great, with lots of interesting bits and bobs inside. The dish itself is kinda unique, I suppose, for breakfast.
I actually had the hotcakes all to myself, whilst the other dishes I stole bits off my mom and bro’s plates. The ricotta hotcakes were light and fluffy, although it still retains this poofy pancake aspect that I tend to dislike, the fact that it alls gets too much halfway through. I believe the proper term is jelat. There was also a nice honeycomb butter although I don’t get the name. I mean, it ain’t a honeycomb if it ain’t got no honeycombs is it? It’s a caramelly syrup is what it is.
Overall, I thought the breakfast was good. Was it worth it? Maybe. If I was someone who lived around the place and could afford steezy brekkies, then maybe.
Filed under: Food
New guilty pleasure: Ines Rosales Tortas. I got ‘em from my local grocer. Made in Seville, they’re these flat crackers made outta olive oil and flour and stuff. They’re individually baked and handwrapped and there’s like 5 or 6 in a pack. I can’t really remember cos I devoured it all. Mine were flavored with Seville oranges with a very very slight citrus bite and a definite citrus aftertaste on the tip of my tongue. The crispy pastry falls apart easily and crumbles well and feels remarkably light despite its appearance. Granulated sugar sprinkled over the top assures you that it’s going to be a nice ride. There’s also a good hint of anise in there.
This guy handmakes some purdy cool lookin’ tools that double as keychains as well as knives and other shit that make you feel like Predator or sumthin’. I can’t count the number of times I’ve actually needed a bottle opener/spanner thingamajig at work. I love the minimal and futurist styling of the stuff and the fact that it’s made outta quality metal by one person and that it’s not overtly expensive, between US$50 to US$80 after shipping. Moar here.
These babies juz came in right when I popped home. Hehe. All I can say is OMG I can hear bass again. Maybe a good thing my old etys died on me. The much sturdier looking cable will hopefully last longer than the previous too.
Woody Allen doesn’t just make comedies. Interiors is a serious, sombre look at the disintegration of an upper middle class family in New York. It is slow, austere and really goddamn sad. There is never any excess showing of emotion. In fact, all the characters hide everything, behind facades, under their behaviour and beneath their words. Color is so significant in the film. 99% of it is beige and grey or black and bits of white. (So me right now!) There’s only one character that is a counterpoint to everything else in the film, a sore thumb that markedly provides the contrast element as well as some semblance of humanity and sanity. Then there’s the lighting, always in the shadows. Anytime light is allowed, it feels like it’s showing you something you don’t want to see. Otherwise the characters live amongst the cobwebs, afraid of facing real life like vampires brooding at the rising sun. It’s so gloomy and difficult and wordy I had so much trouble at the start. But once it all started falling into place, I was sucked in until the end, a quiet whisper like death coming in the night. I didn’t even know it had ended.
Geraldine Page plays Eve, the character for whom the title is referring. She’s an interior designer who’s gone off the edge after her husband announces a trial separation. She’s got severe OCD, wanting to direct everything in her life, orchestrating, like a puppet master handling her children. She’s also suicidal, thinking that life is no longer worth living because it seems like it’s outta control. It’s devastating her 3 daughters and her poor husband who just want to get on but cannot find the release. The tenuous relationships between these characters seem to be creaking severely and it’s clear that everything’s gonna fall apart. All around each person, things don’t seem to be going right. Every interaction and plot element seems to point at the failure of this family. Why I don’t really know but it just is. It’s pretty bleak but pretty, if you like the cold, barrenness of life as I do. God, I hope I don’t become Eve.
It’s tough to get through the dialogue. I reckon much of it sounds somewhat pretentious but it’s necessary in depicting the characters and their self-absorbed “problems”, most of which are their own doing. Their dysfunction seems to rip everything apart and they almost seem to revel in being tortured and depressed. It’s almost nauseating to watch. Their on screen emotional turmoil is so disturbingly quiet and calm on the surface, but inside, it’s all asunder. Yet, I kept wondering why, why, why. Why put me through this near pointless exercise in a study of human emotions or lack thereof? A vacancy flailing at something but I’m not sure what.
I think the steez is uber though. Check out Eve in an awesome “ice gray” suit thing and then later in repose, prepped for death. If you look closely, there’s black tape sealing the gaps in the windows, all part of her plan to die by gas inhalation. Everything about her suggests she’s some sort of mournful soul that’s waiting for the grim reaper to take her. The excessive neatness of her hair, kept long in a bun and with a side parting made me think of the early Shakers, who happen to relate directly to her occupation. The last pic is the final scene, a closeup with each sister entering from the sides, all facing the right, wondering what to make of themselves now that they’re finally free.
Some of my friends back in Singapore have come together in the name of design, national pride and awesomeness. Singapore Souvenirs is an exhibition held as part of the Singapore Design Festival 2009. It’s going to be held at the Old City Hall from the 20th to 30th of November, with an opening party on the 21st. The exhibition shows off some designs of products that are envisioned as souvenirs from our tiny island nation. The fact that my mates made/created/invented/dreamed them up makes me mad proud of em. So if you’re free and have something to do, you should drop that and go to the exhibition.
A lot of the stuff shows off their sense of humour and thought as well as a uniquely Singaporean perspective on things. There’s not too much Singaporean designed stuff, and much of it tends to ape whatever we can find in the West or Japan, not that that’s intrinsically bad, but just that it’s a pity our own local culture doesn’t see quite as much light. My mates though, do their darndest to shed a little bit and hopefully it’s a spark that will burn brighter in the future.
Hans’ gold plated fruitbowl, Fruitbowl Lah has been around for a while now and certainly deserves more merit than it gets. It subverts the idea of luxury and style by taking a ubiquitous plastic fruit bowl and coating it in gold, taking a pedestrian Singaporean object and turning it into something important. Which is kind of like the thread of the exhibition, taking something commonplace and everyday but giving it light and giving it life, and as a result of which, asking the question of just what Singapore design or Singapore culture should be.
This theme is replicated with Winston’s Coffeeshop Ashtrays. An avid smoker, he probably came up with the idea over 20 packs of menthol lights. In coffeeshops round Singapore, you always see these decrepit looking empty tins that once contained condensed milk. Their labels have been ripped off and sometimes a lid is a made with raffia string on the top and it’s used as a cheapass ashtray instead, containing the ashes of a million stinko fags and some gross and hell brown water, fermented from the juices of leftover char kway teow. This “local design” came about because of the frugality and cleverness of Singaporean coffeshop owners and it took a mad smoker to see it. So he gets it made outta ceramic, taking it to a whole new level, celebrating the small timey-ness of Singapore, a tiny island nation that prides itself on being resourceful.
There’s also plenty other stuff and peeps that deserve mentions as well, from Jieyu & Winston’s Kueh Tutu eraser to John’s Singlish Notebook to Tze’s expectedly more cerebral treatises on stamps and money, or Joe’s kinda political Kenaban chewing gum magnets, Fuxing’s 3D Postcards and Edwin’s SG Wallpaper and a helluva lot more. It’s a little arty, a little designy, a little rebellious and quite a lot of tongue in cheek. Just wish I coulda been in Singapore to see it all in the flesh.
Good stuffs guys! Keeps it up.
Filed under: Film
My first Jean Pierre Melville film was Le Samourai, which I love intensely. It was this fascination with his crime capers that made me initially shun watching L’armee des ombres, or Army Of Shadows. No, Army is about the French resistance in WWII and whilst the subject matter differs, the style and execution is probably better. It’s Melville crafting an excellent, if severely depressing view on things. Normally you get heroes who die gloriously but here it feels a lot more like average joes slowing going out with the barest whimper. Their fates appear embraced right from the beginning. I enjoyed it as a film but also hated it because it feels too awful.
Scene after scene, you get dreary and bleak juxtaposed against the calm insouciance of the characters, or perhaps it’s some innate understanding that there’s no escaping the clutches of death painted on the faces. Yes, everyone dies. Yet, it’s careful pacing, haunting soundtrack and constant subterfuge overpowers the violence and brutality required for the story. So you’re always focused on how these guys keep going on despite what happens and what they must do.
The film reunites Melville with two of his stars from Le Deuxieme Souffle, Lino Ventura and Paul Meurisse. The former is one of the leaders of the underground French resistance and the film starts with him going into an internment camp, only to make a daring break, narrowly avoiding capture. Which feels like most of the film, complicated, detailed operations with lots of set up and always near misses until we reach the inevitable conclusion, where everything is the darkest, subjectively and literally. Along the way, there’s a little questioning morality in war but also honor and courage as well.
In 2006, the film was re released in the US to critical acclaim, having been ignored for its near complete existence before that. Check the trailer.
Filed under: Print
Oscar Wilde is da bomb. Phrases & Philosophies for the use of the young.
