matteos

Was hanging out with B one day and talking about visiting the Met store on Collins to see if anything new has been released,

when I was hit with sudden random inspiration.

(that can sometimes happen when studies drive me crazier than a dingbat.)

We decided to have a dinner to celebrate Faberge's genius!

Wooo!

The idea became known as having an 'egg dinner'

and in my excitement, i retrieved all the Faberge jewellery i own

and made a booking for Matteos.

B looks exceptionally gleeful here, must be the bread and butter arriving! i, on the other hand, was grumpy as i had seriously overestimated the time taken to travel to Matteo's and had been waiting for a full half hour. No traffic to Brunswick, who would have thought?!

B's Faberge jewellery.

My Jap seafood plate, with 1.Semi-cured Hiramasa kingfish, prawn remoulade, shiso Japanese basil sauce, 2.Teriyaki glazed smoked eel on rice crusted tofu, pickled plum & bonito mayonnaise

3. Petuna ocean trout tataki, oroshi grated daikon radish, Yarra Valley salmon roe.

the kingfish was my favourite, usually have it raw but curing it imparted the most extraordinary texture! To be honest this dish was packed chockful of ingredients, some palatable some not so much, it became sensory overload by the end! Was delicious though, and i enjoyed every bite.

My main was the wagyu beef. Slightly disappointing as it was served cold. Have had much better wagyu steaks and the pairing with the butternut pumpkin puree and 'red curry' seemed a tad disjointed. Silverbeet was good, but doesnt say much about the dish that the silverbeet was its saving grace! Also ordered the miso eggplant as a side, which i liked. Chef was heavy handed with the garlic and miso paste, but that made the dish very flavourful. Think i might have been the only eggplant fan on the table though!

Matteo's Cspot- dark chocolate ganache tartlet, which was great. Was so full by the end of dinner that this was all the dessert i managed to squeeze in, though i tried some of the other desserts. B's cherry & honeyed apple, custard crumble, and coconut gelato was really good! Coconut gelato in particular was so impactful it tasted like frozen coconut milk. Genius pairing with the tart crumble!

Had one of my favourite dessert wines that night, 2006 Partricia, almost finished 3 glasses by myself but boy, was it good.

Henny with her Golden Gaytime dessert.

Yay for Faberge! it rhymes! haha.

My DSLR has died, the SD card slot is broken.

Thankfully its 3 days before the warranty expires,

so will send it off to be repaired soon.

Finally retrieved the SD card and was looking through the photos and found a couple from Kat's birthday celebration last month

our valiant attempts at cake decorating

it only looks passable because i zoomed it all the way in!

hahah but its the thought that counts yes Kat? ;)

p.s you totally dont look impressed, i dont blame you!

spice temple

Had dinner at David's and Spice Temple a few days ago

A welcome relief after exams (though they re technically not over yet, i m kind of celebrating prematurely!)

Brought Mum to David's in Prahran to celebrate her birthday

not much to say about David's, yummy as usual!

Didnt have to foresight to remember my camera, and food reviews without photos are no fun,

so might skip talking about David's.

Went to Spice Temple the following night to celebrate the last of my written exams

I was completely taken aback from how different ST looked to Bistro Guillaume

where BG was cream walls and chandeliers and the like, ST was all dimly lit and oriental incense.

Was a tad early so had a drink in the bar while waiting

Ordered a Dragon from the zodiac themed cocktail list

(lemongrass and rose petal soda with gin)

Delicious, would have ordered another if i could stomach that much alcohol!

But i knew we were having wine so through heroic efforts, abstained.

The other (with the mint sprig) is a Monkey, which tasted of ginger so strongly i was sure all motion sickness would be kicked out of me forever.

Yeeuch. Not a ginger fan for sure.

The cocktail list can be viewed here

Definitely want to try the Rat next!

We then moved upstairs to start dinner.

Ordered quite a few dishes, but hey, i was hungry!

Can see the menu here

Started with tingling prawns and lamb and fennel dumplings

We are huge spicy buffs, i thought that the prawns, being bolded in red on the menu, would be spicier than it actually was, though the green chillies gave it an adequate kick.

The dumplings were good, nice skin! Couldnt really taste the fennel though. Was paired with a nice chilli sambal style sauce. Sommelier recommended a riesling (sat back and left wine decisions to him so not sure what we had), though i have to say, they went very nicely together!

my favourite dish of the night! Hot and numbing duck. Despite the name, this dish was not spicy, but the duck was succulent and tender, the skin ,fried to mouth watering perfection and the sauce, tangy with just the right amount of sweetness. This dish was good! Also had chinese broccoli and rice, but no photos, as really, you all know what that looks like!

This was a Guangxi style pork dish, and i was disappointed. Entirely too much coriander, and the pork was overly chewy. Crackling was alright but would have been better if the dish was sweeter to balance the bitterness of the coriander and spanish onion!

Funny story, while waiting for dessert, i looked up and because of how the restaurant was lit, i hallucinated that everyone was glowing, like angels! Was totally trippy, laid off the wine after that haha.
Had a orange cupcake with a jelly centre. Topped with persian fairy floss! More of a novelty dessert rather than anything else, but was pleasant none the less. Sponge was light and fluffy, and the texture of the jelly provided a nice contrast!

Chocolate and peanut parfait. With salted caramel! Is it sacrilege if i say that this is better than Il Fornanio's Snickers? Was looking forward to this all night, and was very happy with it, not too sweet, surface broke with a satisfying crunch, creamy, cold and altogether perfect! If i had to be picky about anything, it would probably be the presentation (as you can see above), but really, i could have finished this all by myself.

Spice Temple was lovely, looking at neighbouring tables (they were closely placed)

i saw a positive plethora of dishes to try next time. except for the guangxi pork dish, the food were good, service was attentive and solictious, and i loved the concept of free flow of sparkling water. Think it was about $8 or $9 each for the endless San Pelligrino, very handy if the dishes are a tad spicy for your taste!

Going to vent a little now before going back to the books

oral medicine, sigh.

been on the hunt for tea lately

for Serendipitea's Passion and Envy

searched everywhere for it since their Prahran store has shut down

and neither Caffee Moravia nor Cafe Dior had them

Caffee Moravia was absolutely appalling

never returning if i can help it

ordered a foccacia and tea

both times, they brought out the wrong thing

and far from being apologetic,

the server was almost inclined to blame us for their error.

Terrible. never going back if i can help it.

Lettuce was wilted and brown (BROWN!)

And do be careful if you order tea

they might be careless and offer you a Twinings teabag in hotwater instead of the Serendipitea

which is really rather unacceptable considering the price.

Cafe Dior, on the other hand, was lovely

and are even ordering in the tea for us.

Really now, just thinking about Caffee Moravia is getting under my skin!