Good times collective #9

Age must be getting to me because I'm finding this winter really, unbearably cold. But it's a good excuse to indulge in those rich, wintry comfort dishes, not that I need a reason. Let the good times roll, and when that's done, bring on spring, please.

Goat curry from Tan Viet Noodle House, Rowe Street, Eastwood

While I go to Tan Viet Noodle House for the crispy skinned chicken, I enjoy dining with people who can order something different, like the goat curry stew.

It's quite a spicy curry with lots of small pieces of mostly tender, skin-on, bone-in goat. The spice cancels out any potential gaminess although there's quite a bit of fat to contend with. Fresh Vietnamese herbs and egg noodles at the bottom of the bowl complete the huge bowl of a main meal.

Mixed olives from The Lobby Bar, Castlereagh Street, Sydney

I've never encountered a more ludicrously generous serving of olives than at The Lobby Bar, hidden in a ground floor Castlereagh Street building lobby, near the new ANZ building that borders city south.

A mix of Sicilian and Ligurian in sizes ranging from large and meaty to tiny and mostly a pip, it was a struggle to finish the dish between three. I suppose we ended up staying for more than our intended single drink, so perhaps there's method in the madness.

Morrocan lamb burger with fries from Kingston & Co, Westfield Eastgardens, Pagewood

I used to be very well acquainted with Westfield Eastgardens but now, there are new shops and entire sections every time I go. The new-ish food concept on the outer Banks Street end of the shopping centre is in line with Westfield's 'new' approach to food courts, and includes Kingston & Co - an interesting café/restaurant chain proposition.

I skipped over the various steaks on offer for the Morrocan lamb burger: a huge construction of a white sesame seed bun with a well flavoured lamb mince pattie, grilled eggplant, lettuce, tomato and a cumin-spiked yoghurt sauce. Fall-apart messy, it made for a spot-hitting dinner with excellent fries on the side.

Khao mok gai from Samosorn Thai Food Hall, Sydney Central Plaza, Sydney

I find it hard to not order the khao mok gai turmeric chicken and rice when I'm at Samosorn. With both chicken thigh and rice cooked in turmeric and five spice, the flavour matches the vivid yellow hue of the tender, juicy chicken, which is pretty amazing with the not-too-hot green chilli and garlic sauce on the side.

Charcuterie board from The Duck Inn Pub, Rose Street, Chippendale

The Duck Inn Pub in Chippendale has to be one of the cosiest pubs around. Just perfect for winter warmers and drinks with mates, it's also ideal for a late night drop in for food.

The generous antipasti board has grilled vegetables and salami covered, as well as house-cured specialties, rillettes and even a Scotch egg. Served with toasted sourdough, it's a generous share board best had with mates and a glass or two of wine.

Chocolate crepes from Passionflower, Anzac Parade, Kingsford

Passionflower (in Haymarket) was one of the venues of my youth. Ice cream and its location were the drawcards, but now the decadence continues in Kingsford, catering to the local university student population.

Their sundaes and waffles are legendary, and so too the rich chocolate on chocolate on chocolate crepes, with chocolate ice cream and molten liquid chocolate on a chocolate crepe with chopped strawberries for freshness.

At least it's never too cold for ice cream.

All-you-can-eat Pizza Autentico feast

Posted by Hendy

An existing concept applied to a different cuisine sees Italian restaurant Pizza Autentico recently open in the quiet laneway space in Surry Hills that used to be the funky Japanese Uchi Lounge.

Marrying the philosophy of Italian cuisine as simple, quality and fresh food with the (rather foreign in Sydney) concept that food should be priced reasonably, owner Hamilton Kings established Pizza Autentico as an almost churrasco-style Italian restaurant.

The communal dining table at Pizza Autentico, Brisbane Street, Surry Hills

Pizza Autentico's core offering is unlimited, all-you-can-eat pizza and pasta for lunch ($15) and dinner ($20), served in what we know in Sydney as churrascaria style, with food doing the rounds of the room and diners electing of servings of their desired dishes. Additional starters are an extra $9 while a dessert taster is another $4.50.

But hold off before thinking this is another average, all-you-can-eat venue. Diners at the communal table can choose from a rotating variety of 12 traditional pizza and five pasta options that are brought around the table over a 1.5 hour sitting (vegetarian or vegan options separate).

The focus is on traditional toppings and varieties using simple, fresh ingredients - some sourced from  from Salt Meats Cheese in Alexandria. Don't come expecting any lamb, chicken or pineapple on your pizzas.

House made bread

The restaurant space is welcoming with simple, honest decor in quite a minimalist feel starring a long, communal dining table that extends the length of the dining room - perhaps the very same table of its former Japanese tenant. The framed black and white photos on the side wall are worthy of exhibiting.

A basket of house made bread is served upon your arrival, as if you needed more carbs to start an all-you-can-eat carb fest. The bread is at least crusty and makes for good dipping in the olive oil that is part of the olive trio board.

Trio of olives - olive oil, olive tapenade and marinated olives

The board presents a small offering of extra virgin olive oil, olive tapenade - made with olives and nothing but olives - and another small bowl of black olives, kickstarting the palate for a Italian feast.

Tenuta Valpolicella wine

To match its pizza and pasta offerings, Pizza Autentico has a selection of only Italian wines as well as Italian-influenced cocktails. The Tenuta Valpolicella from the norther Veneto region in Italy was a light and slightly fruity red wine.

Margherita pizza

Medium-sized, thin-based pizzas sliced into six slices would make their way around the tables, starting with a margherita pizza that was light with subtle hints of oregano through the thin layer of cheese and tomato.

The light flavours made the margherita pleasantly easy to have in the first instance.

Valtellinese pizza: shaved beef, rocket and shaved parmesan

The Valtellinese pizza featured shaved bresaola cured beef on each slice dusted with shaved parmesan. Being simple and humble in flavours, it allowed the shaved beef topping to really shine.

Orecchiette norma: pasta with eggplant and ricotta

The first pasta that I tried was the orecchiette norma featuring firm eggplant pieces and a light napoli tomato sauce mixed through the al dente pasta. Ricotta cheese added some creaminess to the Italian staple pasta.

Spaghetti bolognese with shaved parmesan and chili flakes

Interestingly, given the all-you-can eat option, you only get one plate for the night. You end up with a bowl that combines the sauce from the previous pasta with the new pasta; at least giving the next pasta quite a unique flavour.

The classic spaghetti bolognese was what you would expect from a traditional bolognese: loads of hearty tomato sauce studded with beef, all soaked up by thin spaghetti pasta.

Classic spaghetti bolognese

As expected, I had a rather messy bowl especially after twirling the spaghetti. Dried chilli flakes offered on the side gave the bolognese extra punch.

Trofie pesto: trofie coated in basil pesto sauce

The last pasta I had before carbing-out was the trofie pesto. Pesto has always been a favourite pasta sauce of mine.

In this case, the pesto mixed with the napoli sauce from the previous orecchiette and spaghetti servings, with the wait staff candidly explaining how there is an Italian sauce combining the best of pesto and napoli sauce.

My first time seeing and having trofie, it had a soft, buttery and doughy texture, contrasting with the coarsely chopped pine nuts pieces of the pesto. This was my favourite of the three pastas I sampled, and completely deserving of another serve.

A wall installation depicting Italy

Pizza Autentico is an interesting new concept focused on simple and traditional Italian dishes at a price point that's considered cheap in Surry Hills. And if that's not enough to feast on, the churrasco all-you-can-eat style should sort you out.

Food, Booze & Shoes dined at Pizza Autentico as a guest, with thanks to Evans Media.

Tetsuya's: A degustation to remember

The name Tetsuya's is still spoken with reverence in Sydney and probably always will be. There's not really any other restaurant experience like world-renowned chef Tetsuya Wakuda's Japanese-meets-French degustation-only lunches and dinners.

My first ever visit to the Sydney institution earlier this year for a surprise birthday celebration was everything I expected and more.

From the moment you enter the tranquil restaurant, modelled like a traditional Japanese home off a driveway on Kent Street south of the city, Tetsuya's whisks diners off on an hours-long gastronomic journey filled with sensual delights.

Bread and truffle and ricotta butter at Tetsuya's, Kent Street, Sydney

We put in an order for cocktails while alternating looks through the drinks menu and the Japanese zen garden outside, debating the merits of matching wines. Without food menus provided in the first instance, booze selection is more a case of budget and taste preferences, rather than your own food matching. We ended up with the matching wines.

We started with a bread and a pot of Tetsuya's trademark truffle butter, whipped with ricotta cheese to a light and creamy consistency. It's about the most luxurious thing you could spread on bread, with the earthy flavour of the black truffle coming through strongly beneath the rich and creamy dairy components.

Cocktails

The cocktails took a while to arrive and so basically collided with the first of the matching wines - not the first time I've had this happen in hatted restaurants.

In any case I barely remember the sweet apple cocktail or the blood orange one. It also makes me wonder why fine dining restaurants don't just keep to classic cocktails.

Pacific oysters with rice wine vinegar and ginger

We opted in to the extra course of Pacific oysters to start. Served as two per diner, the plump oysters dressed generously with rice wine vinaigrette, ginger and chives were a divine precursor to the luxurious meal.

Excitement got the better of me when the amuse bouche of arrived: a tea cup's worth of chawanmushi-style savoury custard flavoured with soy cream and mirin, topped with avruga caviar. I got to the bottom of it, savouring every small spoonful, before I realised that I'd forgotten to take a photo.

With beautifully rounded and umami-rich flavours and the most delicate texture of the steamed custard against the pops of salty caviar, it truly was a blissful and memorable start to the degustation. A thoroughly Japanese one too, matched with the seriously drinkable Tamano Hikari Tokusen junmai ginjo sake from Kyoto.

Carpaccio of leatherjacket with nori and citrus soy

The modern artistic presentation of the first course was somewhat surprising, offering uncommonly raw leatherjacket in carpaccio fashion.

The loose rolls of the white fish were fresh and firm, mostly flavoured by a very well-balanced nori seaweed and citrus soy sauce while pickled onion pieces added zing and crunch. The impossibly thinly cut radish was a stunning feat of knifework, adding mainly to the plate's presentation.

The leatherjacket was matched with the 2009 Tunkakililla Vineyard Riesling from Oregon, USA.

Marinated scampi with walnut oil and egg

The raw seafood theme continued with the marinated scampi dish; the tails of many of the delicious crustacean forming a generous tower topped with crème fraîche.

The scampi tails were marinated quite simply in the walnut oil dressing, allowing the scampi's sea-sweet creaminess to shine while a gooey egg yolk at the bottom of a soft seaweed nest added a velvety texture.

This was matched with the buttery 2011 Pierro Chardonnay made especially for Tetsuya's from the Margaret River in Western Australia.

Confit of Petuna ocean trout with a salad of celery, witlof, apple and unpasteurised ocean trout roe

I couldn't contain my excitement when Tetsuya's long-time signature dish landed in front of me: the perfectly presented confit of Petuna ocean trout. The beautiful dish deserves every bit of fawning and glory it receives, and it was easily my favourite course of the degustation.

The soft cooked ocean trout is coated in a salty crust of chives and kombu seaweed, which contrasts exceptionally with the sweet, tart, slightly bitter salad of celery, witlof and Granny Smith apple matchsticks.

The ocean trout roe on the side seemed a purely luxurious addition, making every mouthful - best with a bit of everything - more special and fantastical.

The ocean trout was, interestingly, served with a green leafy salad on the side and was matched with a light 2012 Journey Wines Pinot Noir from the Yarra Valley, Victoria.

Roasted Moreton Bay bug with braised oxtail

We moved on to warm dishes, still with seafood components. Before this meal I hadn't realised that the Tetsuya's degustation would be so seafood-heavy, although I certainly had no issue with that.

One of my favourite shellfish, the roasted Moreton Bay bug, featured in the next course; free from its shell in large pieces that you rarely see. Given the simplicity of the roasted crustacean, the significantly heartier, oily flavours of the stew-like braised oxtail beneath it tended to overpower the delicate bug meat.

Tea smoked quail breast with parsnip and calamari

There was more surf-and-turf action with the tea-smoked quail breast; a delicately flavoured, medium-rare cooked breast alongside raw, shaved squid.

The latter outshone the poultry with its velvety mouthfeel and uniqueness, while the soft parsnip chip added what I call a quirky root vegetable flavour to the dish.

At this point I was having the 2012 Kellybrook Cabernet blend, also from the Yarra Valley.

Grass-fed fillet of beef with soy braised tendon and wasabi leaf

Our final savoury course featured a trio of beef: a round cut fillet, soy braised beef tendon and gorgeous blob of bone marrow.

Thoroughly cooked, the beef fillet had some surprisingly chewy parts but was nonetheless a great base for the rich feature additions of gelatinous tendons and fatty marrow, while the raw wasabi leaves brought much needed freshness and spiciness.

White peaches with almond milk ice cream

There was an appropriate pause before dessert was served, now more than a couple hours into the meal.

The first dessert featured white peach segments poached in champagne and crumbly bits of meringue, topped with a subtle almond milk ice cream. Served with the 2011 Georg Breuer Auslese Riesling, it was mild on the overall sweetness but was a nice, fruity lead into the second dessert, which also doubled as a birthday cake for one.

Tetsuya's chocolate cake

It's surprising that this dessert doesn't have the profile of some other chocolate desserts around town as it was sensational.

While the non-birthday version showed off the mirror chocolate glaze, rather than an over-the-top amount of gold leaf and a candle, it was the rich, multi-layered, all-chocolate affair inside the coating that was mind-blowing. Mousse, cake, crisp and creamy bits - this chocolate cake had it all.

Adding to the sense of indulgence was the final matched wine: an almost syrupy 1983 Toro Albalá Gran Reserva Pedro Ximenez.

Petit fours

We finished with petit fours - a strawberry macaron and dark chocolate truffle - and tea and coffee, and ended up being one of the last tables to finish; not that that seemed to trouble anyone.

Garden views

Service throughout the night was impeccable and at the height of professionalism, as was expected. Rather than having one section waiter look after a number of tables, we were served by a number of waiters during the course of the degustation - all extremely knowledgeable and supplemented by a couple of sommeliers.

The fact that there was a large, rowdy group dining in one corner of the room meant the evening's ambience was, perhaps unusually, convivial; particularly when chef Wakuda himself came out to meet and greet with select tables.

While the meal itself was punctuated with a couple of clear highlights - in particular the amuse, signature confit of ocean trout and Tetsuya's chocolate cake - some of the other dishes faded into the overall experience which was certainly one to remember.