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.

Let me know if you have a favorite restaurant that you love to go to for special ocassions. Be sure to post pictures for me to see either on Instagram or on my Daz In The Kitchen Facebook page.


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Pasta food math ... just for fun

I'm starting off by saying that this post is complete whimsy.

Where I work, we don't have a kitchen, nor do we have a microwave or any way to prepare meals, so I pretty much need to buy my lunch unless I bring in something that does not require heating and doesn't go soggy like sandwiches made in the morning and eaten 4 or 5 hours later often do. I can, I suppose, bring in something cold and stick it in the fridge for a cold lunch, but that doesn't really appeal to me.

A few days ago, I was in the mood for some pasta and went over to the food court and sussed out the pasta offerings. They had a tortellini with creamy sauce, bacon, cheese and mushroom that looked pretty good so I went with that.

They had advertised a regular size and a large size. When I saw the regular size and how much food that was, I thought a small option would have been better because I didn't want to throw food away and waste it. That was a mistake as I saw the difference between the amount of food and cost of food between the regular and the small size.

I went back to the office and posted this on facebook.

To which my chef friend responded and provided his wisdom on the cost of pasta and how much better it is to cook your own and not eat it out. It just isn't worth it.

After that, my brilliant Boy chimed in and said there was a mathematical reasoning to the equation for calculating the cost of food and hence what they sell it at. This led to a lengthy discussion (and mathematical equations!) for the math behind pasta served at food courts.

I don't understand the half of it, but my more brilliant and mathematically minded friends all chimed in and had their 2 cents which resulted in the labour cost of food being approximately $111 an hour.

The moral of this story is - obviously, I'm in the wrong line of work and need to become a pasta cooker for a food court stall ... except that it's pure mathematics (according to one friend) and has no real world application, so the $111 per hour doesn't make sense which of course, dashed my hopes of a high paying, fun job, doing something that I quite enjoy, which is cooking.

Anyway, here's the rest of the conversation and the silly. :-)

Truly, the long and the short of it goes back to what Jay was saying, which is - pasta is cheap to cook. It's not worth paying the mark ups, so cook it at home to eat. If you fancy eating out, go for seafood or a nice juicy wagyu steak!

ps. I, of course, for the sake of this blog, had to go back and get some pasta just so I could include a photo of the pasta in question for this blog. :-) I don't I'll be having it again. It doesn't taste so good the second time round.

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Best Gyoza ever!! ... and this is a test

This is not really a real post. For those of you who use Blogger, you’ll know that Blogger has recently switched to a new user interface.

It reeks!

For some unknown reason, the HTML section for writing a post now will no longer capture line breaks when text is copied into it. It’s rather sad ... for me, that is. My nicely formatted paragraphs of text looks like someone vomited up a whole bunch of words onto the page. I’m sure there’s some uber technical reason why it now no longer supports line breaks when it used to before but I just don’t know what it is.

Sometimes “new” is not “better”, Google!!

Anyhow, I’m testing out to see what would happen to my formatting were I to email myself this post. If it’s awful, I might just delete it, if it’s passable, I’ll leave it up.

So yes, this is a test.

That said, I’ve discovered the best gyoza that I’ve ever eaten. It’s quite possible that there is better gyoza out there, but this gyoza is pretty darn good.

I get the gyoza at a restaurant close to where I work. The place is called Hokkaido and I might have talked about it previously (trying to think when) – possibly when I first discovered it … ah yes, here.

Anyhow, their gyozas are just the right amount of chewy and crunchy, and extremely tasty. Best eaten while still warm.

I definitely recommend trying them out.

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Duck liver pâté ... and a quick update

 

We're up in The House and we've got internet!!!! Howz about that??? So exciting.

Since there's internet, I'm taking the opportunity to do a quick post.

In case you're wondering, there has not been much cooking ... okay *any* cooking at all in our household because of the move. Ever since the move, we've hardly been home to eat and I've been living on bananas and other assorted fruit for dinner.

For the first week, we were just madly trying to juggle work and unpacking and would drop into bed exhausted each night. For the second week, which is this week just past, we've had an assorted number of things going on in the evening which meant that we have not been home. The Boy's been interstate for work too so I've missed him for one night. 

But .... here we are, up at The House with MORE unpacking because we've moved a bunch of stuff from The *new* Apartment to The House since the new place is HALF the size of the previous place. *sigh* ... it's called "downsizing" and it ain't fun!

So ... we had lunch today at our favorite French restaurant today and as usual it was fantastic. It's called Bistro Molines and it's always, always a delightful and decadent experience that leaves us tired and satiated and in need of an afternoon nap. :-)

I had the duck liver pâté for a starter which Robert makes himself. It's very rich and very creamy. As you can see from the scrumptious picture, it comes with an assortment of bits and pieces which accompany it very well. It took me forever to eat it all because I'm slow and I have a tiny tummy. In fact, I found it quite filling, served with the housemade Melba toast slices topped with sea salt. Scrumdily-icious!

Of course, I don't have a recipe for you for this 'cos I've never made pâté before and I didn't ask them for the recipe. 

All I'm saying if, if you're ever in the vicinity, stop in for a meal. The food is worth making the trip for and Sally the owner is just delightful and will take fabulous care of you.

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Dragon udon

Ever since my one lunch disaster of an udon experience, I've been on the lookout for a good udon noodle meal. I've had a hankering and a craving ... it was a big one.

I was not game to go back and try the fast food joint in the building behind where I worked again because well ... the first time was not stellar.

A couple of weeks ago, I had lunch with The Brother and he suggested lunch in a Japanese restaurant in the basement of the building RIGHT NEXT TO where I work. I did not even know it was there. Surprise!!!

Well, it being a genuine Japanese restaurant and all (plus, there were real Japanese people eating there!) I decided to try their udon and it was worth it!!!

Delicious!!!!

This place has become my new favorite lunch place, though it's a little pricier than eating at a food court. I limit it to eating there once or twice a week, usually with a friend, though today, I ate there with The Boy.

I've also set up an account with them as we cater a lot of lunches at the office for large group meetings and The Boss is a fan of sushi. He was most impressed with the sushi and gyoza that I presented him with for lunch just a couple of days ago for the Board meeting. He had said not to order too much because no one really likes sushi other than him. Boy, was he wrong! The food went down very well indeed.

Anyhoooo ... if you're in the neighbourhood, you should give this place a squiz. I definitely recommend it.

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Tempura udon

This looks like a nice dish, doesn't it? Well, it wasn't!

I did not know what to have for lunch today, feeling a bit sick still after a relapse last night of the cold. My nose is still all stuffy and runny.

I ran through in my mind what I wanted to eat and ruled out wonton soup, a sandwich, sushi and saw this Japanese place in the food court by my office. I decided to try the tempura udon which was a big mistake.

The noodles were over-done. The tempura was totally greasy and over-fried and there was too much of it (though I can't complain about that).

I don't think I'm going to eat there again, at least not for their tempura udon. I might try the vegetable or chicken udon again if the fancy takes me another time.

Meanwhile, next to the Japanese place was a Korean place and they had a selection of bimbibab dishes that looked quite nice. I might give that a try tomorrow.

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Wonton soup for lunch

I'm just settling into the new job, so I haven't had much time to post this week, which I'm rather disappointed about. On top of that, on my second day of the new job, I caught a cold, cough and sore throat. Not good!

I haven't settled into a routine where lunch is concerned right now, but on my first day, Katie, the lovely lady who was temporarily in my role and I went out to lunch in the food court across the street.

I had the won ton soup for $9.90 (I'm thinking $10 a day for lunch would be my upper limit on the budget and I'll try my best to stick to that) which was very, very tasty. So tasty, in fact, that I went back on day 2 for another helping.

Since then, I've had lunch here and there but nothing exciting to report.

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What's for lunch?

Okay, so I'm onto my second wind (it's a very short one, so don't get your hopes up!) but I decided on one post that I really, really wanted to write.

I'm starting a new job tomorrow and I've been thinking about what to do about lunch each day.

I'm not the sort to bring in a pack lunch and I've just discovered that my new office does not have a kitchen. It has no microwave and has only a small bar fridge in the same room where the photocopier is. Good thing I'm not one for a packed lunch. :-)

I don't want to spend a lot of money on lunch each day, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep myself fed on a daily basis without breaking the bank.

I've already figured out what I'm going to do about coffee - I'm bringing in my own coffee machine, which will mean coffees cost 75c a cup rather than $4 a cup.

So, back to lunch ... I'm thinking that a few days a week, I could splurge and eat out. There will be at least one day a week, every other week or so where I have lunch with the best bud, so that takes care of that. Other days though ... I could possibly run home to make myself a sandwich, eat it and then run back to work, and that's quite literally since I live about a 15 minute walk from work and I plan on hoofing it daily. I have an hour for lunch, so if I'm quick and don't dawdle, I can make it home, heat up lunch or throw together a quick sandwich, eat, check Facebook, and hustle back to work.

The thought had crossed my mind that I could skip lunch but that is really not a good long term plan. :-) I'll eat, just need to figure out what's the best way to do it that will fit into the budget.

Any suggestions?

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Very long walk and lunch at HUX @ Nortons

Today, we made the ambitious decision to walk to HUX @ Nortons, which is 6.3km (according to Google Maps) from our home. It took us 75 minutes to walk there at a pretty good clip. About 10 minutes away from our destination, I was starting to feel it in my legs (it was mainly uphill).

We were blessed with amazing weather for the walk - a rare full day of lovely summer sunshine.

Lunch was delicious as always since the fabulous Jay Huxley was cooking once again.

I had a fish and chips, without the chips, but opted for the potato salad instead. The Boy had the Wagyu steak, which he tells me was very good. The Boy's words were "Jay really knows how to do 'medium rare' well."

Jay also decided that we didn't have enough carbs with our meals so he brought out the most amazing tasting potato slices. These were thinly sliced potatoes, deep fried and then seasoned with salt and pepper and a little bit of rosemary.

I decided to top off my meal with dessert which was a very yummy double chocolate brownie with berry coulis and vanilla bean ice cream. I ate the brownie but gave The Boy the vanilla bean ice cream.

Have I mentioned that I highly recommend Jay's restaurant? Do go there if you get a chance.

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