Restaurant Amuse

Helloooo all :)

The TBS members had been dying to try Amuse for months but had never been able to get a table on the weekends. So we were really surprised (in a good way obviously) when miss FDQ informed us that she managed to get a table for 4 for Wednesday, May 4th. *wooohhhoooo* (I think there is too many four and for in that sentence). Anyway, off we went to Amuse (except Stewie, cos she just came back from a 3 week Sydney & Melbourne trip and spent loads of money there, so instead of Stewie we asked miss F to come and join us).

I have to admit that when I saw the street where Amuse was on, I was quite suprised. My surprise even increased when I saw the building. Amuse is located on 64 Bronte Street, East Perth. It was a modest red bricks building on a dark quiet street. However, we were greeted warmly when we entered the restaurant, and they took our coats to be put away. The place wasn't as I imagine it would be. Looking back, I didn't exactly know what I was expecting actually, but the inside of the restaurant was actually quite simple and rather bland with a lot of neutral colour like black, white, and grey. The dining area was spacious and comfortable, but I thought it was lack of privacy as our table was right in the middle of the area so people around us could easily eavesdrop (not that there's anything really worth eavesdropping, but still??)

It was a 10 course degustation, but we opted not to know what the dish was until it was actually served onto the table, sort of like a surprise (don't we all love surprises ;p ). So lemme start from the first to the very last dish.

1. Snacks or fingerfood. Honestly can't remember their names one by one. But obviously there was some onion ring there :)

1.1 White soft bread with vintage olive oil. The bread was counted as snack as well.

2. Crab, fingerlime, and sea lettuce

3. Beetroot, coffee, and cocoa. I'm not a fan of beetroot, so I didn't find this dish particularly appealing. It's very earthy i.e. it tasted like soil and roots, if you know what I mean?


4. Fish, scallop, & samphire with cauliflower puree. Again, I'm not a fan of cauliflower, so didn't get the *blow my mind* effect from this dish. But scallop was really good.

5. Pork, squid, and cucumber. I loved it!! Pork was tender, squid was yummy. The whole thing was just lovely.

6. Mushrooms, hollandaise, and egg yolk. This was miss FDQ's favourite dish of the day. She really loved the tasty hollandaise.

7. Lamb, shallots, & eggplant. I thought the lamb was ok, even though it had this *lamby* smell, but I love lamb, so wasn't at all disturbed by the smell. Miss F, on the other hand wasn't really keen on this dish. She just doesn't really like meat in general ;0

8. Roselle, lemonade, and bitters. We finished with the savoury dishes and now were about to start on the dessert. This was sort of like our palate cleansing. Really refreshing.

9. Mandarin, Guava, and passionfruit covered in cotton candy. It was yummy. I'm more of a dessert person, so I really enjoyed the dish. It was like a mixture of sweet, sour, and fruit taste all in once. Loved it.

10. Pistachio, chocolate, and raspberry. U know what, I adored this dish. I finally found my *mind blowing* dish of the day. The chocolate was really chocolatey and smooth, and eaten together with the raspberry, it was heaven!! YUMMY. And the pistachio added a unique flavour to the dish. yummmmmmmmyyyyyyyyy *licking my spoon*

The whole degustation took about 3 hours to complete and by the end of the meal we were all grinning from the satisfaction and uniqueness of our degustation experience. *HoooRayyy*

Han Palace

Helloooo readers :)

a few Saturdays ago, the TBS members accompanied by miss VT paid a visit to Han Palace. A nice chinese restaurant in Bennett St, East Perth. As we were walking into the restaurant there was a bride and a groom standing in front of the entrance, with their best man & maid of honours behind them. Apparently there was a wedding reception happening in the restaurant. For a split second there, we wasn't sure if we made the right reservation, because unlike the Red Herring, the entrance to the reception and the normal restaurant was the same. Therefore as we were entering the restaurant, we were blinded by the flashing lights of the cameras. Honestly speaking, it wasn't the kind of reception that we Indonesians are used to, but it was nice nevertheless. Congratulations to the bride and groom, whoever you are!

Anyway, let's get on the menu. We chose to have the banquet menu, which was a choice of 5 dishes plus steam rice or fried rice. Here's what we had: pan fried tooth fish, tai chin chicken, chilli pepper squid, Shanghai style pork ribs, mixed vegetables, and red bean pancake with vanilla ice cream for dessert. They were all really good, I particularly loved the pan fried tooth fish. But miss FDQ reckoned the chilli pepper squid was pretty standard, wasn't as wow as we expected it would be. But it was good to have chinese for a change, considering we've been eating western foods weeks now. TTFN :) Ta Ta For Now

Hi all!!

It does seem to me that our blog has been abandoned for a while now. The last post published was months ago and if it wasn't because of the lazy day I was having today, I don't think I could be bothered to write anything. I think my brain is having a go at me. Ever since I finished my honours, I seriously can't be bothered to do anything required thinking *bleeeehhhh*. So I thought of writing something today. It's a good practice for my English too, right? right?

Last Sunday, Miss FDQ, Chow-Chow, & I went to Swan Valley for a lovely lunch at Chester. We reached the restaurant at 12ish and were the first customers to be seated. So I had time to take a photo of the deserted restaurant. 30 to 40 mins after we arrived, all the tables were suddenly packed! Hey, maybe we were customers who brought luck to the place?? :)

We had this amazing puff pastry tart as an entree. It was a warm puff pastry tart brushed with sundried tomato pesto, layered with red onion, vine-ripened tomato and oregano, topped with slices of buffalo mozzarella and simply served with rockets and basil. It was nice, sort of like eating a mini pizza.

As for the mains, Chow-Chow had the pork rib eye, which was grilled rib eye of pork served on bubble and squeak, topped with homemade apple and mustard chutney finished with a pork & cider sauce.

I had the Barramundi, which was pan fried fillet of barramundi gratinated with a triple cheese and herb crust. It was served on a bed of vanilla and lime scented mash potatoes and drizzled with semi dried tomato. The mash potatoes tasted different from any I've ever had so far and I thought it really suited the barramundi. Lovely!!! ^-^

Miss FDQ's main was the lamb fillet which was marinated in balsamic vinegar and fresh mint, served with roasted garlic potato mash and buttered broccolini and finished with herbed lamb juice.

As we were quite full, we decided to share the desserts. We ordered the sticky date pudding, which according to Chow-Chow "was the best she has ever eaten thus far & even better than Gucce's". The other dessert was croissant pudding, which was orange and white chocolate croissant pudding served with homemade Cointreau ice cream.

Chow2's "the best eaten sticky date pudding" with a pecan toffee sauce and brown bread ice cream. The brown bread ice cream was really yummy, tasted quite unique but refreshing. YUUMMMYYY

Riverbank Estate - Swan Valley

Helllloooo readers,

Chow-Chow & I visited Swan Valley today as we realized that we hadn't used our ebook for quite a while. We were planning on having lunch at Sandalford, but it turned out that there was an event happening, so we couldn't dine in. Our second choice was Riverbank Estate. We had never been there, and granted the place wasn't as grand as Sandalford, but the dining area was actually quite nice and cozy. We were seated outside, with the view of the vineyard, accompanied by annoying flies and humid Swan Valley weather.

I love the design of the menu, so I took a photo of it. Forgot my camera (again) today, so had to rely on blackberry.

We ordered a glass of classic sweet white and were given complementary bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I ordered 5 spiced duck with something something. I honestly can't remember the full description of the dish as it was a special of the day, so the dish wasn't on the online menu. But it had cherry tomato and yummy creamy mashed potatoes. I just loved the whole thing. The food was amazing.

Chow-Chow ordered a herb crusted best end and confit shoulder of lamb, coicannon mash, garlic crisps, beetroot fondant, and basil juice. I loved her lamb too, with the meat was so tender and the rest of the components gave a perfect balance.

We also ordered a side dish of shoestring fries with sweet chilli sauce and grained mustard mayonnaise.

A meal wasn't perfect without dessert, so we ordered a sticky marmalade pudding with butterscotch sauce and, almond tuille, and cinnamon ice cream. The dessert was ok, but certainly not to die for. The butterscotch sauce was a bit too thick for my taste, although the cinnamon ice cream was nice.

RiverBank Estate is having a special, where you get a bottle of wine free when you purchase 2 bottles. So we bought a bottle each of classic sweet white and red, and get the 2007 celebration white free. It's really worth it. We spent $38 and got 3 bottles of wine. Pretty good, hey?

After that off we went to Margaret Rive Chocolate factory because Chow-Chow is a big fan of the fine champagne chocolate. She just bought a piece tho (a very small piece indeed) because she claims that she's on a diet (as I'm writing now at least). On our way home, we stopped by to buy white and black seedless grapes.

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh....life is good :) bye for now... xoxo

The MIA FDQ is back

Hello hello helloooooooooooo!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011, HUNNY BUNNY SWEETIE PIESSSSS...
After what seems like FOREVER n EVER, FDQ is back in action (well, sort of).
I'm reporting live from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. If you ain't quite sure where this food-wonderland is location, feel free to Google map. It's somewhere at the tail of the dog, if u even understand what this means. (Well, literally the East Malaysia resembles a (cacat) dog with Sabah being the dog head and Sarawak being the body of the dog). Kuching is the capital city of Sarawak which is saturated with delicious local delicacies from kolo mee to laksa, kueh chap, satay, ice kacang, beef noodle to CHICKEN RICE!!! Not the Singapore chicken rice, it's the deep fried chicken type of chicken rice. Nevermind if you don't get what I meant, because I know you know what I meant. XD See, isn't our blog informative? You get FREE GEOGRAPHY LESSON for free! =) Tourism Board of Malaysia should consider me to be their ambassador instead. *blows nails*


Anyhooo..I just got back from Johor Baru (the Malaysian state closest to Singapore). After 6 days of constant feasting, 5 x crabs, 3 x bak kut teh, 3 x fish, 2 x stewed pork, 2 x prawns, 2 x lobsters n 4583845 mouthful of junk foods, I OFFICIALLY DECLARE THAT FDQ NEEDS INTENSE DIET ROUTINE NOW. Pftt... But twas a good trip. Pls dont get me started on the massive shopping Mummy FDQ did in JB. She was <---------------this-----------> close to bringing the whole JB back to Kuching. -_______-"

Before I start to bore anyone, it's time to seal this post with a kiss. Well done if you managed to read my post this far! This means we are such boring ppl, we desperately need more things to do before we got covered by moulds.

Sorry ppl, was trying to upload some photos of the foods I've tried in JB but stupid dumb dumb blogspot doesnt let me to do so. My apologies. Let's just imagine the yummy creamy salted egg mud crab...




Much love,
FDQ
*big barney hug*

Crumpet - Cinnamon Club - C15 Espresso

Happy New Year to our dearest readers :)

Miss FDQ is still on holiday (geez, it's been more than a month, she must have been living life to its fullest atm), so that's left me, Chow-Chow, and Stewie in Perth.

CC & I went to crumpet for lunch and the place was deserted. I LOVE IT. Try to go to Crumpet on Saturday morning, and you'll be lucky to find a table. It's always crowded from 8am onwards up to, idk, 11ish? We went at 12:30 tho, so we literally owned the place. Anw, we realized that they have a new menu, so CC decided to try the corn fritters while I tried the eggs benedict. CC's corn fritters looked sooo yummy when it arrived, and tasted even yummier. My eggs benedict on the other hand tho wasn't disappointing but wasn't wow either.

We didn't have any plan for the evening, but decided to have Indian. Honestly, I'm not a fan of Indian food, but CC & Stewie seemed so keen on having Indian. According to Stewie, she's a sucker for Indian (but then, she's a sucker for everything). Off we went to Cinnamon Club in Applecross. We didn't order much food, just a slice of garlic naan, and a slice of plain naan. We only had 3 mains: Butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, & palak paneer. At the end dinner, we were quite full already, but weren't quite satisfied without desserts. Then we went to C15 espresso cafe across the restaurant, which we had been eyeing for a while but hadn't had a chance to try.

We were quite dissapointed when we saw the cakes selection. It wasn't too many to choose from, and if miss FDQ were here, she would describe the cakes as "too commercial". So we just ordered hot chocolate, and a big slice of bacci cake. The cake wasn't warmed up, thus a bit too hard for our taste. And hot chocolate was just standard. But it was a lovely night nevertheless.

Left: Crumpet's corn fritters. Right: Crumpet's eggs benedict

Cinnamon club's: garlic & plain naan, butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, & palak paneer.

C15's hot chocolate & bacci cake.

Tony Roma's Perth

Dearest readers,

Today Chow-Chow, Mr D (our housemate), and I went to Tony Roma's for dinner. This is what I reckoned from my previous visit, the place was cosy but finding parking is a hassle. I hate having to go round and round to find a free parking spot. Anyway, Mr D was driving his new VW tonight, which was fine by me :)

We kinda already knew what we wanted, so when we were presented with the menu, we just had a quick glance, and ordered straight away. We had a full onion loaf, which is one of the best thing that has ever happened to Tony Roma's. The onion ring is actually giant hand cut onions, breaded, deep fried and served with BBQ mayo dipping sauce.

Each of us ordered a different main. I, for instance always adore the carolina honey, so that was what I ordered. I had french fries and ranch style beans as the side. Chow-Chow was having the original baby back ribs with the same side dishes as mine. Mr D had the rib combo, which was half slab of pork rib with 160g top sirloin and corn & mash potatoes as the side dishes.

We were all super full by the time we finished our mains, but I had this craving for the chocolate avalance. Back home in Jakarta, Tony Roma's serves chocolate brownies in a hot pan with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, and I swear to God, the brownies were HEAVEN. The chocolate avalance was presented in a cocktail glass instead of a hot pan, but the texture, the richness of the chocolate was actually pretty similar. So, two thumbs up for the dessert :)

Chow-Chow's original baby back ribs


The St-Louis style ribs with carolina honey sauce


Mr D's rib combo with top sirloin


Chocolate Avalance