Matsuri Japanese - Perth CBD

Craving a good Japanese feed, I assumed Matsuri Japanese in Perth CBD was a decent choice, being that I had heard of this restaurant before and I thought – “why not try somewhere different.”

As I used all of my self-control to not go back to Hanami in Mt Lawley (after two consecutive amazing experiences!) and then we found the Bonsai Restaurant Café & Lounge (Japanese restaurant) in Northbridge was fully booked! So we resorted to giving Matsuri a go.

FIRST MISTAKE.

Urbanspoon rated Matsuri 75%... this should be minus 75%.

Luckily I had the company of wonderful friends to make up for the terrible food and awful service at Matsuri because this experience was not a very good one!

SERVICE:
After booking a table for 6.30pm, when we arrive at 6.45pm (late 15 minutes – bad bad people we are!), the waitress that served us told me to “wait until everyone has arrived” before we were allowed to go in and sit down at our table. So for a table of 10, you can understand if everyone arrives at slightly different tables. I felt like I had misbehaved at school when she angrily and very rudely pointed us to our table and left us. I felt like I had to put out my hand to get whipped on the hand by her cane!

We searched the room for ages to catch the eye contact of any waiter to bring us some tap water to the table, let alone take our drinks order. After the wrong amount of glasses was taken to the table, we were again abandoned for half an hour until we had to wave someone over to take our food order.

I felt like they just didn’t want to speak to us all night and that we were bothering them to ask to get our glasses refilled.

FOOD:

I ordered an 8 piece spicy salmon sushi roll for entree and a mixed sashimi platter and teriyaki fish set meal with rice, salad and miso soup for mains (I was hungry).

The food came out extremely staggered and most had finished their entrée’s as others were still waiting for their entrée’s to come! They forgot an entrée as some of us were given mains and they asked if, “the entree could come with mains”…well duh! It’s going to have to considering we have all finished our entrees!

My sushi was average, nothing sensational. The “spicy” component was simply a drizzle of chilli sauce over the sushi. Little did I know it was all downhill from here…

My sashimi was rubbery and also very average. I think I only kept eating because I was so hungry, but far out! I didn’t realise raw fish could be so bad. I now realise I have only ever had pretty good experiences with sashimi.

My Teriyaki Fish set meal was the worst! The fish was battered in a gluggy unrecognisable batter and drowned in this thick, gluggy, tasteless sauce that resembled nothing of Japanese teriyaki sauce! It was like the sauce had too much cornflour added as it was thick and very unappetising! This was roughly chucked over some terrible white rice. Awful meal!

After I picked through the fish pieces I stopped eating. I couldn’t bare to eat anymore no matter how hungry I was. I skulled the miso soup (average), ate the salads and reflected on what was the worst Japanese I’ve ever had.

Jack had the Teriyaki Eel set meal. The eel was actually not bad…slimy and slippery like eel normally is but a better flavour than my fish.

Considering I spent a fair amount here (approx $40) as I had three main meals…I was very disappointed.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I will ever return

Rose Turkish Delight Recipe

Turkish Delight  is one of those sweets that you buy to treat yourself.

I’ve always purchased a few delicate cubes from a specialty Chocolate / Confectionary store wrapped in cellophane with white dusting of icing sugar coating the perfectly soft pink jelly cube.  Needless to say, with Turkish Delight being one of Jack’s second-favourite things in life (behind myself as his girlfriend), these sweet little cubes of deliciousness never lasted more than the day I bring them home.

If I make a trip to any local food Markets, or pass a Turkish Kebab Shop (all class) – I have no excuse not to buy some for us him.    

These usually range from $1.00 a cube to about $2.50 per cube. Pretty steep when we go through about ten in one sitting…

After (too) many purchases of Turkish Delight and a diminishing bank account, I decided to try to make this sweet treat to save my pennies and win brownie points from Jack (win-win).

It wasn’t even his birthday… (Best-girlfriend-ever-just-saying)

Believe it or not, making Turkish Delight is more achievable than you think! I was able to make these without any specialised technique at all apart from stocking my pantry with unusual ingredients such as gelatine and rose water.

But once you have these, easy-peasy!

I think these would be just delightful as a little gift idea! You don’t even need the full 24 hour setting time until you can cut up the cubes and eat away. (You can tell someone didn’t have the patience to wait this full time!!).

Enjoy!

Rose Turkish Delight

Prep time:

15 min, plus 24 hrs setting time

Cook time:

25 min

Serves:

Makes about 40 pieces

Ingredients

·         sunflower oil, or other neutral-tasting oil, for greasing

·         25 g powdered gelatine

·         255 ml water

·         4 tsp rose water

·         450 g caster sugar

·         3-4 drops red food colouring

·         3 tbsp icing sugar

·         1 tsp cornflour

Method

1. Lightly oil a 20x25cm baking tin.

2. Mix the gelatine, water and rose water in a large heavy-based pan and add the sugar.

3. Heat gently until the sugar and gelatine have dissolved, stirring continuously.

4. Bring to the boil without stirring.

5. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes.

6. Remove from the heat, stir in the food colouring and leave to cool for 2-3 minutes.

7. Pour the mixture into the oiled tin and leave to set for 24 hours.

8. Cut into squares.

9. Mix the cornflour and icing sugar together and toss the Turkish Delight in the mixture.

10. Store in an airtight container, between layers of greaseproof paper.

Lemon Drizzle Tea Cake Recipe

Want a sweet treat that everyone drools over?

Using lemon in desserts is an inevitably popular decision, and this recipe gives you a gorgeously light and fluffy lemon drizzle tea cake. The cake melts in your mouth with its light spongey texture and leaves a sweet lemon taste begging you to come back for just another tiny slice!

Whip this up at your next morning tea and I guarantee you will make at LEAST three more friends…maybe even four.

It is absolutely divine and goes beautifully for a morning tea!

Plus, any cake you get to poke holes in and drizzle syrup over is a favourite of mine!

Lemon Drizzle Tea Cake Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 medium eggs
• 225g caster sugar
• 225g margarine or soft butter
• finely grated rind of 1 lemon
• 225g self raising flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking power
• 150ml (1/2 cup) milk
• Pinch of sea salt
• extra powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Syrup:

• 100g icing sugar or white sugar
• juice of 2 lemons

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Grease 18cm sqaure cake tin, grease or spray with oil.
3. Place the eggs, sugar and butter in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth and fluffy. Stir in lemon rind, then fold the flour and baking power in lightly. Add the salt and pour in milk slowly.

4. Spoon into the baking pan and spread evenly. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.

5. While waiting for the bars to cool, make the syrup. Place the powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small pan and heat gently, stirring until the sugar dissolves. DO NOT BOIL.

6. Poke the bars with a fork all over and spoon the hot syrup evenly on top and let it be absorbed.

7. Let it cool completely in the pan before cutting. Dust with powdered sugar if you like. 

8. Serve chilled or warm with cream/vanilla ice cream or simply by itself!

Lanna Thai Subiaco

Do you remember the first time you had “Fairy Bread” as an adult?

Do you recall thinking in confusion why it didn’t taste amazing like you had always remembered as a child?

You had prepared it the exact same way, white bought bread with 100’s and 1000’s sprinkled over the sliced with thick butter…but to no avail, it simply resembled plain bread with sugar.

The reason I bring this up, is because I recently went back to a favourite restaurant and the experience wasn’t as good as I have always experienced.

Lanna Thai is located off Hay Street in Subiaco and has for years been my staple “to-go-to” restaurant when in need of a delicious Thai fix. I have been to Lanna Thai more times then I can count on both hands.

I have taken family, multiple friend groups of girlfriends, my boyfriend, my boyfriend’s friends, my boyfriend’s family and what ever combination of people I knew! The menu is HUGE, the choices can suit everyone and I love the huge range of vegetarian options available.

The food in my opinion has always been consistently amazing.

Through many dining experiences I have always walked away completely satisfied. My ultimate favourite dish would have to be the Panang Curry with prawns – smooth, creamy, peanutty goodness with crunchy fresh prawns. Ive tried the yellow, red and green curry, the satay, noodle dishes, soups and salads.

I’ve tried so many dishes it is really hard to name them all.

This occasion I visited Lanna Thai with a few girlfriends and of course ordered the Panang Curry with prawns. I asked for “extra veggies” as I really enjoy having some veggies with my meal apart from meat and rice.

Panang Curry

Others on the table ordered the Green Curry Chicken and Pad Thai.

My bowl came out topped with crunchy fresh prawns and I could see the sweet yellowy-red coloured Panang curry it was sitting in. My “extra veggies” consisted of a few slices of carrot, one stalk of broccoli and one cauliflower stalk. Cheers.

Panang Curry

To my surprise, the curry sauce was a lot thinner than normal. I don’t know whether this was because they may have used coconut milk instead of cream or whether this batch in particular they had to water down to spread among servings. It was a little underwhelming.

The service was also pretty bad. I had to shout my order to the waitress from across my end of the table because she stood at the end of the table instead of coming around individually to each guest to take their order. This was the same process for handing out the meals where she stood at the end of the table again and passed my meal to those I sat next to pass down, instead of just coming to each person individually and giving them their meal.

The sauce of the chicken green curry was also very thin and not the creaminess that I remembered, the flavour was certainly still there, but again, underwhelming.

The Pad Thai was quite sweet and oily. I was still hungry after my meal, so progressed to finishing off my friends Pad Thai regardless of it being average as she was full.

I felt a little ripped off. I have raved about Lanna Thai to most who ask for a Thai restaurant in Perth to try. I don’t know whether they were having an “off” night, had run out of coconut cream or whether things have changed for good.

I would normally order the sweet sticky rice with mango for dessert as this would have to be my ultimate Thai dessert choice and Lanna have previously done a beautiful sticky rice and mango, but I felt a little saddened by the experience at this point.

My meal was about $25 for the prawn Panang Curry, plus rice which was a couple of dollars. So not out of the ordinary for Perth prices, but I normally pay this and walk away so happy. This time was a little different.

My experience has been tainted a little and I’m not sure when I will return to Lanna to give it another go…especially when I had takeaway from Ploy Thai in Maylands the other day and it was wonderful, or when I’ve heard of S&T Thai in Northbridge and its amazing authentic curries!

It hurts me to give the only review of Lanna as a negative one, especially when our meals after all were still delicious, just not as I had remembered. Plus, if I reviewed the other 15 times I have visited Lanna, it would be very different!

Please give Lanna Thai a try; this was my only negative experience. I still have a lot of love for this beautiful restaurant.

Highs: fresh prawns and a nice tasting Panang Curry

Lows: Not the amazing food and service I remember

Overall: 5/10

Will I return? Probably not any time soon unless I am in the Subiaco area looking for Thai.

CHIN CHIN - Thai heaven in Melbourne!

If you’ve done your research you will know that Chin Chin is currently one of the most popular restaurants in Melbourne at the moment. The following post will not only explain why, but take you on a culinary adventure of those gorgeous Thai flavours you can’t help but love!

 This modern Thai Restaurant on Flinders Lane does not take bookings, so expect to wait up to an hour or more on weekends and close to that during week nights and peak times to be seated at a table. If you’re clever, you will rock up early and have a few drinks in the bar downstairs until a table is free in the upstairs restaurant. If you’re extra clever, you will grab a menu and have your entire meal already decided upon once seated in the restaurant!

We tried the "Far East Side" Cocktail which was ever-so-smooth, with thai basil, palm sugar, rum and lemon!

We came to Chin Chin after 8.00pm on a Sunday night and waited approximately 20 minutes to be seated, which gave us just the perfect amount of time to try a gorgeous lime, palm sugar, rum and Thai basil cocktail that was absolutely smooth, refreshing and prepared our palates for the Thai flavours that were about to come!

Not to spoil the ending, but after such an incredible meal, we cancelled the next night’s Moroccan Restaurant booking and came to Chin Chin yet again – This time, with four others who were keen to try the restaurant we had raved so much about!

This gave us an opportunity to try multiple dishes, however the two dishes photographed were the meals ordered on night one at Chin Chin,

The waiter was very keen to explain to us that at Chin Chin it is all about sharing and enjoying the experience by trying a select few meals from each of the starters/entrees/mains/larger meals and dessert menus.

The beauty of Chin Chin is there is usually something for everyone.

I found many vegetarian/seafood dishes I was keen to try and as our guests were Coeliacs, the staff at Chin Chin were happy to circle nearly every main on the menu as options they could prepare gluten-free! They were very accommodating, and we managed to try our entire seven dishes gluten-free!

On the first night, we ordered the “Pad Ped” which is a dry curry of spice crusted and fried tofu with vegetables (approx $16) and the red curry salmon wrapped in a banana leaf (approx $25).

We had a bowl of rice each to go with our mains.

The dry curry was very spicy with big chunks of crusted tofu, which after breaking through the crusty spiced layer, you taste the smooth soft tofu that melts in your mouth. The veggies add a nice touch to the meal, and rice helps to sooth the heat!

As optional sides, Chin Chin offers a “cooling plate” and a “hot plate” for those who need to tone down the chilli/spiciness and those who love to ramp it up!

The cooling plate consisted of cucumber, pickle, lettuce and ginger soy and the chilli plate had condiments of hot chilli’s and everything spicy! I love this idea, as it enables you to tailor the spice to your liking.

The salmon came out wrapped in a banana leaf and unwrapping this “gift” gave us a beautifully cooked piece of fish that flaked away at the touch. The red curry paste was very strong and prominent in the dish. I love red curry and chilli, so this was right down my alley, but my sister mentioned that this could become quite overpowering if you were not a huge red curry/chilli fanatic.

Note taken.

I proceeded to inhale the most amazing tasting salmon I think I’ve ever had!

The following night, we tried the chicken Pad Thai, the cuttlefish stir fry, the pumpkin yellow curry, the green chicken curry, salmon a crispy barramundi and caramelised-pork salad and another red curry and pad ped!

The chicken Pad Thai was by far one of the best Pad Thai’s I’ve had at an Australian restaurant! (I say this because nothing compares to Thailand).

What’s that?? Chicken you point out. I am quite happy to pick around a white meat like chicken in a dish, especially when the fried rice noodles are deliciously sweet and the nutty cashews on the side have a beautiful crunch to team with the tamarind flavour of the bean shoots and fresh coriander.

The pumpkin and eggplant yellow curry was my favourite of the night, the sweet pumpkin in the mildly spicy yellow curry sauce complimented each other incredibly and the sauce was so more-ish, I just wanted to lick my bowl clean!

The crispy barramundi salad were told to “make sure we incorporated the sweet, spicy and sour components of the salad together for the perfect balance of flavours.” And were they right!

The sour lemon juice with the sweet palm sugar and caramelised pork teamed beautifully with the spicy chilli. This salad was a winner.

The green chicken curry was strangely dominated with a strong lemon-flavour throughout the sauce, quite different to the usual thick, creamy green curry sauce I’ve had many times. I found this dish quite disappointing as the curry sauce was not a spicy as a green curry should be, and had more of a juice than a creamy texture I had hoped for.

The cuttlefish stir fry surprised me when the cuttlefish came out chopped very small and tossed with veggies in a beautiful spicy and sweet stir fry sauce. The fresh fish worked great with the spicy flavour and I was eager to use my steamed rice to soak up the remainder of the sauce.

After seven dishes shared, we were very content.

We discussed the beautiful flavours of each of the dishes we tried, and pondered the relevance of the strange gigantic pink florescent bunny ears that lit up the brick walls of the restaurant and featured on each waiters t-shirt.

I enjoyed the entire experience of my meal at Chin Chin.

I love Thai food regardless, but was so inspired by the modern and unusual ways the authentic Thai flavours of sweet/sour/spicy were incorporated into dishes and the perfectly cooked ingredients.

Highs: The spicy red curry salmon and that sweet creamy pumpkin yellow curry!

Lows: Not being able to book a table

Overall: Incredibly tasty, fresh and beautifully presented meals in a packed out restaurant!

Will I return? If coming back the second night in a row doesn’t express my enthusiasm, I don’t know what will!

Jessie's Curry Kitchen and Cafe - Inglewood

So we’ve officially moved to Maylands and if you can imagine the excitement of moving to a new location, you can only imagine the excitement I have to be in short distance from the food-wonderland of Beaufort street in Mt Lawley and all the cafes and restaurants now on offer!

The very first night in our new unit, we decided to try a little place I have heard so much about!

Jessie’s Curry Kitchen and Café is located at 869 Beaufort Street in Inglewood and specialises in Indian and Malaysian cuisine.

If you have read the reviews, or are lucky enough to speak to a customer who has stumbled across this gold-mine, then you will understand why were so excited to try Jessie’s!

You would almost walk past Jessie’s without noticing the cosy café, with just over 20 seats inside. There has been minimal time spent on the décor of the restaurant and the place, if you didn’t know any better, looks a little dodgy from a passing-by point of view.

For those that have discovered Jessie’s, they have most likely become a weekly customer, because the food here is divine!

Not only were we greeted with a warm smile and welcome, we were passed a menu and any questions I had were kindly answered to with the utmost politeness.

The food ranges from entrée’s such as curry puffs to Dosai’s (curry wrapped in roti bread), to noodle and rice dishes and curry set meals.

Nothing over $20, and most meals being around $10.

We ordered the large prawn curry (which we were advised was made fresh on the spot) for $17.50.

plus a takeaway large rice $3.00.

We also ordered the “fish curry set meal” with a fish curry, two vegetables, dahl, a pappadum and rice for $10!

Yes you have read correctly!

We had a fish curry, two vegetable curries (the vegetable curries of the night were an eggplant curry and potato curry), dahl, rice and a pappadum for only $10!

The prawn curry had 19 freshly cooked prawns (yes I counted), and was in a spicy tomato, onion curry sauce. AMAZING value!

This photo is of the fishy curry over rice with a pappadum:

The fish meal was all put into one takeaway container, which would be my only negative…I guess if you ordered this to eat it, it would come nicely arranged on the plate around the rice…however as we ordered takeaway, this was all mooshed into the one takeaway container.

The flavours were delightful mind you. However, before I could blink, a lot of the sauce was soaked up by the rice and I could no longer dig for that sweet spicy dahl curry or pick out those beautiful eggplant pieces in the vegetable curry.

I think next time I would just order the eggplant curry by itself or the dahl. Such beautiful flavours!

Our order came to just over $30 and we were more than satisfied with the amount and quality of food we received.

I mentioned to the guy who served us that we had just moved in down the road, and before we had even tried the food I told him to remember us as we would become regulars!

This was how confident I was that the food would be amazing!

The restaurant was filled with happy customers who were all tucking into gorgeous smelling meals! I felt this little community inside the tiny café that made me feel like we all had a common understanding that we had discovered a hidden gem of a café!

Jessie’s Curry Kitchen and Cafe is run by Jessie herself, her husband, and who I could only assume was their son, who served us. All so friendly and polite, I would have no doubts in returning here in the future…every week.

As they had run out of takeaway menu’s which I was ever so eager to place on our fridge at home, I grabbed a business card.

Upon returning home with our generous packages of curries, I placed the business card up on our new fridge, with the number to order takeaway clearly in sight.

Jessie’s has become our local.

Highs: The curries, prices and gorgeous service!

Lows: The ambience of the cafe is curry-house chic, If you're happy to rock on in with your BYO and enjoy your night, then what more could you want?

Overall: such friendly service, amazing value and flavours!

Will I return? Ever week if I allow myself.

Raw Food Kitchen - Fremantle Markets

A rainy Sunday brought me to the Fremantle Markets for a sneaky taster of what fresh produce Freo has to offer.

We were meeting friends later in the afternoon for a few drinks on a Sunday Sesh but I wanted to walk through the Freo markets and see what goodies I could find!

Normally I would not go past Michelle’s Crepe’s – where you can order any sweet or savoury crepe your heart desires or chose one from the menu board. I usually get a crepe filled with too many ingredients to list so that the crepe is bursting with filling and fills me right up!

Today I wanted to try something different from the Markets.

I had read a blog post about the Raw Kitchen in Freo not too long ago and wanted to try their “Raw Pizza.” At $8.70 PER SLICE I felt this purchase was not for my stomach but for the greater good of my blog. (I had to try it out of curiosity!!).

This Raw food fad interests me and I understand why people find raw food and vegan food a “healthy” path to take, however I am not sold on the “research” into claiming that eating raw makes you feel more energized…I decided to give this “raw food” a go regardless.

The dehydrated buckwheat base was covered in a thick layer of sundried tomato pesto which was very strong. For a usual tomato paste base that is typically on a pizza, this is okay as it compliments the toppings, but pesto is different. Pesto you only need a thin layer, and I just felt a little sick by the end of the second bite.

The pizza was topped with very few slices of mushroom, tomato, olives and freshly chopped basil. The strange ingredient was a nut cheese which was very creamy and tasted a little like sour cream.

Overall the experience was a little disappointing. Firstly, I was still very hungry after my one slice of $8.70 raw pizza. Secondly, the pesto combined with the “nut cheese” was too strong and overpowering for my liking. It was too rich. Thirdly, it was way overpriced. I get that the pizza was raw…but doesn’t this take less time than putting the pizza in the oven??

The only positive I can’t think of is that I enjoyed the crunchy dehydrated buckwheat base; the texture reminded me of a cracker or biscuit.

 I guess I didn’t try any desserts like their cocoa balls or cheesecakes on offer or their raw smoothies/juices…which could have swayed me otherwise…

Probably wouldn’t go back, and definitely not if there is Michelle’s Crepes on offer.

Have you ever tried the Raw Kitchen in Fremantle?

Tell me your experiences on raw food!