Casa Marcelo, Santiago de Compostela

November 21, 2016

I have died and gone to heaven. I'm not usually prone to spiritual exultation but that was my first thought after my first bite of food at this restaurant. Maybe I'm connecting to all the spirits of pilgrims past who journeyed here for the Camino de Santiago, seeking complete absolution so they could ascend to heaven with an untainted soul. Maybe it's because our accommodation used to be a Catholic convent. Maybe it's because none of us imagined we'd have our best meal of this trip to date in this religious city of Galicia.

Casa Marcelo offers Japanese tapas of the best kind, taking advantage of Galicia's renown for amazing seafood. It's located on Rua das Hortas, a mere stone's throw away from Praza do Orbradoiro. Casa Marcelo is surprisingly cosmopolitan in this quaint UNESCO World Heritage town of cobblestoned streets.

Tomato salad with garlic sauce and rocoto (a kind of Spanish pepper) sorbet

We were so affected by this gastronomic event that even my teetotaler mum had a divine intervention and ordered a glass of wine claiming she just had to drink something that matched the bounty on her plate. If this is the Way of St James, then I may turn into a pilgrim yet.

Casa Marcelo has a funky and modern look with a long communal table as well as a chef's table fronting the open kitchen.

Fritura de cabracho (fried scorpion fish) with garlic aioli

It is owned by Marcelo Tejedor who is a chef himself. The staff were friendly, relaxed and attentive. I tried to get a photo of head chef Martin Vazquez but he refused to have a photo by himself insisting he will only have photos taken with the entire team. He gets 5 stars from me just for that!

Head chef Martin Vazquez (4th from left) and his team

Speaking of stars, this is one of the best-value Michelin starred restaurant I've been to. The 3 of us had 8 courses, 6 glasses of wine plus water and bread and the bill was only 136 euros.

Plantain in pastry with vanilla ice cream and orange sauce (divine!)

So if you happen to be in Santiago de Compostela, make this restaurant part of your pilgrimage and have a buen Camino.

El Barril de Las Letras, Madrid

November 17, 2016

I don't know about you but I always get a little nervous about taking on restaurant recommendations when it's from someone I've just met. People have different tastes. When I'm in a foreign country, my bad-meal anxiety kicks in even more because I wonder if I'm being sent off to slaughter at a tourist trap. I have serious trust issues.

We just met Moises this morning, our local guide, and as lovely, informative and helpful as he is, I was on tenterhooks until the first plate of food arrived.

Moises recommended this place for seafood and paella so those were exactly what we ordered. They started us with a plate of olives and based on its taste and presentation, I began to exhale slowly.

We were each presented with complimentary hot bean casserole in a mini tureen which I forgot to take a photo of. It was warm, satisfying and told me everything was going to be alright.

The restaurant is an easy walking distance from the Prado Museum and far enough from tourist crowds. e arrived just after 2 pm and my Sydney brain initially registered the few occupied tables as people just finishing off their lunches. In actual fact, we were one of the early guests and by 3 pm this large restaurant was packed with smartly dressed locals eating their biggest meal of the day.

The fried calamari was perfectly cooked and seasoned, served with a mix of pickled peppers. Even the green salad was a standout with the tomatoes having just the right balance of sweetness and acidity. The berberechos or clams were divine and had bread-dunking-worthy sauce made of olive oil, garlic, white wine, parsley (but ground to a paste rather than just chopped and I think this method gave it a much deeper flavour) and chilli.

We were so full and couldn't imagine ordering dessert. This didn't stop us from scoffing down these complimentary morsels of butter cake.

So thanks to Moises Perez Zapata, the friendly staff and talented Filipino (yes!) chef at El Barril de Las Letras, this little piggy was happy and cried hee hee hee all the way home!

cooking with Chef Dan Hong

July 7, 2016

Last Saturday, I went to my first cooking class at the Sydney Seafood School. I know they've been around for ages and come to think of it, it's strange that it has taken me this long to get to one of their classes. Strange because I've been consuming a lot of cooking classes during my overseas holidays recently and yet it has been more than 10 years since I've done one in Sydney.

So what got me there? Mr Wong, I mean, Hong did. Chef Dan Hong, that is. I'm a big fan of the food at Ms G's and Mr Wong. Squid ink nasi goreng, crispy pork hock with apple kimchi, and pan fried prawn toast with foie gras and almonds to name a few. "Classic with a twist," was how Chef Hong described his food. These restaurants use premium quality produce and dish out ridiculously tasty Asian food handled with finesse (no gluggy sauces, overly thick batters, or dodgy mixed seafood meats here). As soon as you have one dish, you'd think, oh my god, I've got to come back here, and then order more. The menu does keep changing at Ms G's so you don't get to have the dishes you like often enough. On the upside, it's great to look forward to what they'd come up with next and go, oh my god, I've got to come back here, all over again.

I've been thrilled since Sydney chefs seriously began embracing Asian food and doing their different takes on it. Fifteen years ago, I could only remember Tetsuya Wakuda and Neil Perry excelling in Sydney and I suppose they were the pioneers. I mean, which top local chef hasn't worked with Tetsuya?

Top to bottom: tempura of bugs with sriracha mayonnaise, new-style sashimi of cobia with yuzu, ginger & leeks and steamed hapuku with egg fried rice and shiro dashi sauce. We did make a fourth dish, the diamond shell clams with corn, butter, cho… — Top to bottom: tempura of bugs with sriracha mayonnaise, new-style sashimi of cobia with yuzu, ginger & leeks and steamed hapuku with egg fried rice and shiro dashi sauce. We did make a fourth dish, the diamond shell clams with corn, butter, chorizo and basil but there was a hairy arm that managed to sneak into the photo so I haven't included it here.

The class was advertised to run from 11 am - 3 pm but most of us were done cooking and eating by just after 2 pm. The first one and a half hours had Chef Hong cooking 4 dishes in an auditorium, complete with 4 TV screens capturing what he was doing on the kitchen bench. Chef Hong was relaxed and casual in his manner but would become animated when he tasted his finished product and delightedly say, "siiiiick!" and shake his head with disbelief. At one point, Chef Hong was heroically sawing into the hard top shell of a Balmain Bug with a - yikes, bread knife, and was pointedly told by one his assistants what the knife's purpose is usually for. Well, what's the point of being a top chef if not to have mignons do the all the prepping for you?

Chef Hong in action and reading off the recipe sheet. And here I thought top chefs only cooked from their gut instincts and highly developed taste buds. How reassuring for the rest of us!

After the lecture, we were swiftly herded into a huge room where all the work stations were. Each work station had a stove, sink, bench top, fridge and probably an oven (? I can't remember because we didn't use it). There were 5-6 people at each work station and each station got to make all 4 dishes. A huge tick, in my books, because it really allowed me to have a go at making the different dishes instead of just watching someone else do it. Chef Hong and his assistants were regularly coming to each station to guide and make sure we were on track.

BSK trying to copy Hong's deft deep frying technique of swirling the tempura bug in the oil to make sure the batter sets before completely dropping it in.

Before I knew it, an hour had gone by and people from each work station started clearing and taking their food to another room, the dining room, where we got to enjoy the fruits of our labour with a nicely chilled glass of Taylor's riesling. My partner only came along to support me and his gripe was we could've done with more than 1 bottle of riesling for each table of 6 people. Too true, as our group started to pour the wine we realised we wouldn't have enough to fill 6 happy glasses and began tipping the wine in each other's less happy glasses to even things out.

I can honestly say all the dishes that we made were delicious. When I was watching Chef Hong prepare them, I did wonder how tasty they would be because they all seemed quite simple to make. I guess that's what you get when you have really good recipes like his. And, that did lead me to purchase his cookbook on the day (dedicated and signed, no less, which reminds me of how my partner got me a signed copy of Tetsuya's cookbook but that's another story). I've flicked through Chef Hong's cookbook before and the food looked amazing. I think I just assumed that because they looked amazing then they must be really hard to make. Wrong!

It was a full class of 60 people and I was really impressed with how everything went so smoothly. The entire event was very organised and the facilities were clean. Staff were helpful and worked efficiently. Overall, the cooking class was run very professionally and probably worth the cost of $165 pp, although I'm sure they could've easily squeezed in another glass of riesling. Perhaps the most surprising thing was the parking. It was free, yes, free! I mean, when do you ever get free parking in Sydney?! Maybe, the parking fee was included in the cost anyway but even if it was, what clever marketing to say it's free. It certainly worked on me!

fermentAsian, Barossa Valley

April 4, 2016

I'm only going to say a few things about this restaurant. I booked it for my family's Easter lunch because I was intrigued by Chef Tuoi Do. She won SA's chef of the year award in 2011- less than 2 years after she opened and without having any prior professional cooking experience. Her restaurant has also been garnering several wine list of the year awards ever since. I'm happy to report none of these accolades have been exaggerated.

fermentAsian is easily the best Vietnamese food I've had in Australia and what a lovely surprise to find it in the heart of the Barossa. The 7-course Chef's Tasting Menu is a steal at $65 per person. Every single dish was well balanced and cooked to perfection. The restaurant is set in a beautiful old stone house with a tasteful modern interior. I was also impressed by how the staff remained relaxed and friendly and the food came out at a good pace despite being a busy Easter lunch service. My only complaint is it's not located in Sydney!

Fresh betel leaves with sticky caramelised Hampshire pork

A new favourite wine (crisp, delicate with light spices) thanks to this fantastic example of garganega wine — A new favourite wine (crisp, delicate with light spices) thanks to this fantastic example of garganega wine

SA squid stir-fried with Chinese celery and spices - my favourite!

Woops. Too yummy I forgot to take a photo first. Melt-in-your-mouth yellow curry of SA snapper. — Woops. Too yummy I forgot to take a photo first. Melt-in-your-mouth yellow curry of SA snapper.

Hanoi Spring Rolls with fresh herbs and classic Vietnamese dipping sauce

Salad of grilled wagyu beef with chilli jam

Barossa Hampshire pork belly with ginger and orange sauce and stir-fried seasonal vegetables with garlic & fish sauce

There are no photos of dessert because we were too stuffed to have any. It's not a big dessert menu but i've already tagged the tapioca with orange and Szechuan pepper ice cream for next time.

Paul Bocuse, Collognes-au-Mont-d'Or

March 30, 2016

Lobster salad a la Francaise. This lobster was completely de-shelled.

Did you know that French gastronomy is on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list? If you want to sample some quintessentially French food, then you must head to Lyon, the gastronomic capital of France. It has one of the highest number of restaurants per capita in France. Lyon has rustic French food and bouchons, a type of restaurant only found in Lyon that is usually family owned and serves traditional rich Lyonnaise food that developed from feeding the silk workers of Croix-Rousse coming back hungry from their night shifts. Lyon is also famous for the pope of French cuisine, Paul Bocuse, who broke the rules of the Lyonnaise bouchons and came up with a lighter, fresher and more artful presentation of food called nouvelle cuisine.

I decided to start with Paul Bocuse for my first travel post because France is one of my favourite places to visit. It was also during this trip that I began taking food photos.

Pigeon in puff pastry with young cabbage

Paul Bocuse's restaurant l'Auberge du Pont de Collognes is the oldest 3 Michelin-starred restaurant in the world. Bocuse has received many awards including the medal of Commandeur de la Legion d'honneur, the highest decoration in France. This restaurant serves classical French food and has been doing so for decades. Some people accuse this restaurant of being dated and merely relying on Bocuse's fame. I beg to differ. No, I insist on differing.

Scallop of foie gras, pan cooked, passion fruit sauce

We visited this establishment back in 2012. I admit, I was kind of taken aback by the somewhat gaudy exterior of the building and rather tired opulence of the rooms inside. But the food, the food was beautifully presented and every single dish delighted the taste buds. Rich, yes, but not bouchon-rich. It was rich in a satisfying sit-back-and-sigh-with-glazed-eyes kind of way. Granted, it was like stepping into a time warp. But, I've always fancied travelling back in time and stepping into this bubble of classical French cooking was certainly one of the best time travel I've ever done.