I know I been slacking off with blogging. I shifted jobs and the hours are a bit longer with later hours so I am still trying to adjust to that. A few weeks ago I was very much stumped with picking a restaurant for my birthday. My picks ended up being little hunter and Coda. Sadly Little Hunter couldn’t fit us in for a booking so Coda it is. Only problem with getting a booking on the day is you are left with the awkward corner table. Coda is a restaurant by Adam D’Sylva (The Age Good Food Guide’s young chef of the in 2008). The best way to describe the food is Asian fusion Tapas with a French twist. Walk-ins are also available at the bar if you are lucky. On a Friday night the restaurant is noisy and buzzing. There is one thing about the restaurant I really like, the vibe and the atmosphere.

For dinner there are ”smaller” items which some of the smaller items are priced per item and others are entrée sizes. The bigger plates are shared plates. A little birdy tells me you can give a “half” of the share of the bigger plates but this time we didn’t get to try to order a half of the bigger plate. There are also sides and sweets on the menu. I honestly wanted all the seafood items off the menu. Oh boy I love seafood and to think that a time in my life I hated it! Now when I meet someone new who hates seafood I think it’s a blessing, more for me then .

Awkward corner table.

I usually ended up ordering a cocktail. The glass was very small felt like only a few tablespoons.

For the smaller plates we picked Hervey Bay scallop, pearl tapioca and Yarra Valley salmon caviar $7.8 each. The Scallops are cooked perfectly, I really wanted to order more but at almost $8 each it was quite steep.

Yellow fin tuna, daikon, green apple salad with pinenuts, ponzu and fresh wasabi $24. On paper this sounded amazing but it was the biggest let down of the night. The first taste was okay but the more you eat it, the flavours were too overwhelming. The Mr mentioned it was a reminiscent of Yee Sang.

Aperol cured ocean trout, roasted pickled beetroot, crème fraîche sorbet and avocado mousse $18. Perfect flavours working well and I almost got to the point of plate licking once again.

Cape Grim scotch fillet with café de paris (allow 30 minutes) $38. This didn’t wow me too much, it had great flavours but nothing that stood out.

The poached pear dessert. I much preferred the dessert below while Mr prefers this dessert.

Toasted meringue, vanilla chiffon cake, passionfruit curd, coconut and mango sorbet $16. I knew I had to ordered this after Mel blogged about this. One of the best desserts I ever had not sweet at all and great textures and flavours in the dessert. Both desserts we had at Coda was fantastic!

In the end the bill came up to nearly $150, it’s not too bad but I do think the prices are quite steep but the overall menu was enjoyable except for the tuna. We were bit still a bit hungry afterwards but we find this usual since we both hungry monsters. Would I return? Definitely but sadly not anytime soon it’s quite pricey for our pockets

Basement 141 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
http://www.codarestaurant.com.au/

May 17, 2013 Julie Asian Fusion, Melbourne 9 comments

There was word on the street about a new ramen Joint that had opened in Melbourne. The word “new” and the word “ramen” makes me excited because I’m one ramen loving gal. We arrived about 6:30pm on a Friday night and there was a short line already. After about 10 minutes of waiting we were soon seated. The restaurant is tiny and could fit probably about 25-30 people. I saw a few tables where 5 people was squeezing into a 4 person table and 3 person into a 2 person table, anything for ramen

For drinks we ordered pot of green tea to share. I am not fussed about my tea but they do use teabags in the teapot.

I was eyeing the gyoza but poor hubby had bit of a sort throat so we skipped it this time but we will make sure to order it on the next visit. Instead we ordered a fried rice as a starter/side.

The Wok Fried Rice with egg, bbq pork and spring onions $5.5. We don’t normally order fried rice outside of home since it can be easily made at home but this was good, lots of pepper and the right amount of “wok hei”, if only it was bigger

I picked the Classic tonkotsu Ramen with Miso $9.9 with added gooey egg $1.5.  The broth has been cooked for over 10 hours and  is topped with seaweed, bamboo shoots, spring onion and bbq pork. With the classic tonkotsu ramen you can picked either Miso (soybean), shoyu (special soy base) or Shio (light salt base).

Hubby picks the Chashu Tamago – Classic tonkotsu ramen with gooey egg and extra slices of pork $12.90 (can’t remember the price so correct me if I’m wrong)

We enjoyed both ramen and it ticked single box. It wasn’t too light in flavour but not too heavy. The thickness of the broth was soupy rather then thick (compared to dontoo, gumshara thick broth, kokoro ramen), I find with thick soups that it gets heavy and harder to slurp down as you go on. It also didn’t leave the dreaded thirsty aftertaste. Oh and the egg was cooked perfectly, I am very fussy with my gooey eggs and I am glad it was perfect!

Could this be Melbourne’s best ramen? I think so! Although the hubbie debates he prefers dontoo but I think it comes down to personal preference.

There is also an option to “upsize your  ramen” for $3. Restaurant is a bit of a tight squeeze and its get a bit stuffy but it’s one good ramen and I am looking forward to going back. Service is quick and prompt as well.

346 Little Bourke St (two shops down from Shanghai Street)
Melbourne, VIC 3000

April 5, 2013 Julie Asian, japanese, Melbourne, Ramen 8 comments

I am a very nitpicky eater with duck, it needs to be cooked a certain way or a certain type for me to eat it. In general it has to be a nice shade of pink or if fully cooked it has to be Peking Duck! I am a big fan of Peking duck. My favourite is the large amount of skin to meat ratio. The skin is the best part.

I was so glad Daisy suggest Simon’s Peking Duck for a girls night out. I have driven passed many times and still haven’t been. It has been on my wishlist for a while.

There is only two duck sittings for duck one at 6pm and 8pm. Sadly it was a bit tough working out a time for dinner on a work night, 6pm was too early and 8pm was too late. It was tough to have it at 6pm since a lot of us finished work at 5:30pm, we were a bit worried since Simon is dabbed the Duck Nazi! So 8pm was locked in which is a bit late but perhaps probably worked out better

We opted for the first option a duck & pancakes, bean sprouts and duck soup x 2 between 6 girls and shared 2 fried ice cream. Ended up being about $22 per head which is darn good!

Despite the Duck Nazi status Simon ended up being so hilarious! His duck naziness did come out he wasn’t impressed there was a tiny tea leaf of my plate opps!

The star dish arrived, the lovely Peking duck. o=Oh boy the skin shines so bright oh duck skin.. Sadly there was some bits of duck that had a bigger ratio of meat but that’s okay. Overall it was undeniable one of the best ducks I had. Well truth is I haven’t had much Peking ducks to compare it to.

Simon is very peculiar on how to wrap the duck. First you put the duck, spring onion, Cucumber and sauce to the right side

Take the bottom and fold up. Simon dabbed this the “six o’clock”.

Fold top part down. “12 o’clock”

Fold across from the left to the right. “9 o’clock”

The bean sprouts dish arrived soon after we polished our duck. Nothing out of the ordinary but did its trick in filling us up.

The duck soup was pretty mediocre, it was a bit bland but it was a good cleansing plate after the duck

After endless chatting we ordered two fried ice cream. I didn’t realise how big they were! We did ordered another dessert called silky apple but the waiter must of missed it and we didn’t get it.

After we finished dessert we were quickly slapped with the bill. Well given it was 10pm I understand!

So tell me readers, where was the best Peking duck you ever had?

197b Middleborough Rd
Box Hill South, VIC 3128

March 16, 2013 Julie Box Hill, chinese, Melbourne 17 comments