Daz in the Kitchen: Happy birthday to me ... at Two Naughty Chooks

Friday, May 16, 2014

Happy birthday to me ... at Two Naughty Chooks

It was recently my birthday ... okay, not so recently, since this post is very belated, but I did have a birthday. :-) As with all birthdays, it is our tradition to go out for a nice meal to a restaurant of my choosing (for my birthday) - The Boy chooses for his birthday!

This year, I picked what is now my current favorite restaurant - Two Naughty Chooks.

We discovered this restaurant last year when we went to a wine tasting dinner, and discovered how amazing the chefs at the restaurant were. This restaurant is owned and run by a husband and wife chef team, Wayne and Brooke Dermody.

Wayne used to work at the Margan Winery restaurant, which is reputed to be a very good restaurant in the region, though now that Wayne is not there, I don't think the food is as good.

As with wine, you follow the winemaker, so too when it comes to chefs and restaurants ... follow the chef!

Two Naughty Chooks offers a wide range of meals on their menu and while it is easy to pick three or four courses from the menu, I prefer to let Wayne surprise me. Of course, everything that comes out, even when I order the "Chef's Choice" is cooked fresh and also from the menu.

This time we went with a four course meal with 2 entrees each, 1 main and 1 dessert.

For entrees, because there were 2 for each of us, it meant that we were able to try out 4 entrees from the menu and we got:

Mushroom dumplings with sesame soy dressing and chilli jam
Seared confit chicken wing with corn veloute and romesco
Beef carpaccio with egg, Parmesan, almonds, pangratatto and truffle balsamic
Pan roasted langoustine, chimichurri and toasted brioche

Needless to say, these were all sensational.

Mains again were a surprise, and we each got a different one. This is great because is means we get to share and taste each others meals too. We got:

Lamb rump with cous cous, pearl onions, spinach and jus
Brisk pastry wrapped ham hock with smoked onion puree and creamed leek

Of course, both extremely tasty.

By the time we got to dessert, we were both pretty full but we found some room for it. For dessert, we ended up with:

Zokoko chocolate parfait with brownie, crunchy almonds, and milk and mint sorbet
Banana creme brulee with choc hazelnut purr pastry

It was incredible meal and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We have a wedding anniversary coming up, I wonder if we'll go there again. I'm sure the menu would have changed as we are getting into the winter season now. :-)

Also, if you've seen my recent blog post about a creamy chicken and truffle pasta, this is where I get my truffle stuff from.