For once, I decided not to get the David Blackmore full blood wagyu burger, and instead wanted something from their restaurant menu. The result? Some tasty food, though I believe the burger is the best thing they do.
Blog
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The Perth adventure begins
And it begins with me chasing birds. Well okay, so I did do my food and coffee rounds first. Again, I struggled with my super short lens (can’t wait until I get a new one so I can take pictures of things from far away!)
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New lens, bird shooting
I love getting a new lens to test with. This is the first lens I’ve bought for my camera. At 19mm f2.8, it’s great for my food shots, however, not so great for animal pictures. While the pelicans were relatively harmless, I did manage to hover around a family of swans and got chased off by the mother!
So here’s the bird shooting version of picture spam!
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Behind the Machine
I visit Exchange so frequently that I think I can get away with a few things, though I do always ask nicely to make sure. Most of the time. I’ve always been envious of people who can take really cool shots at cafes, so I decided this was my best chance to do so too. I had the perfect excuse of testing out a new lens!
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Pretending to be a chef: More random market hauls
So I’ve got a tiny bit of downtime. Finally! That’s what happens when I decide I should take up an active hobby while still cooking, writing, drawing (ok the second two not so much), eating, coffeeing.
It seems there’s a whole range of interesting things lately, some of which I’ve not seen before or just didn’t have the marginal propensity to spend on. Plus it’s not good when I think that Tasmanian winter truffles are so affordable that I’ve ended up buying more truffle this year than any other time.
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Restaurant Revolution ADL – where I get to be a snobby snob snob
It’s a little different from Masterchef. It’s a little different from My Kitchen Rules. It’s a real pop up restaurant that you get to eat at!
When I first saw the shed present on my way to the markets, I thought, that looks interesting. Then ignored it for a good while.
After a while, I decided it was worth checking out what this commotion was all about. It’s yet another reality TV cooking show, but appears to focus on the setting up of a restaurant and running its everyday matters, rather than a pure amateur cooking competition. I believe the contestants could be people who already worked in a restaurant, but couldn’t be high profile or head chefs. Having had my fair share of dining experiences (mostly high end), I decided I’d give it a go and taste the food there. I agonised for a while how I’d judge the place (for my own purposes, not anything to do with the actual show rules) – would I compare it to an average restaurant? Would I compare it to a fine dining establishment? Was it going to be a disaster where I was left for hours without food?
There was only one way to find out!
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Pretending to be a chef: Truffle steak tartare
I promised myself last year that I wouldn’t buy truffles again – they are so fragrant, but so expensive! And I can’t afford to be poor right now. But trufflemania is on, and having watched Chef’s Table, I couldn’t resist buying some again. I had my eye on some Tasmanian winter truffles, but when I went and asked, they were all sold out! So I asked about the WA truffles they had and how they were different. The shop owner mentioned that this was the first time they stocked WA truffles because they were of a good quality for their price this year. He explained that previously, he didn’t buy them because the supplier mixed all different regions into their stock, so it was impossible to tell where the truffles were from, and therefore the quality.
He also mentioned that I had to use more than I would for a Tasmanian truffle, but it was also $1000/kg cheaper than a Tasmanian truffle. I love how truffles are described in thousands of dollars per kilo, it’s hilarious! So, I was satisfied and more educated as a result of his explanation, and could comfortably buy these knowing they weren’t as good as other truffles I bought, but that they were good for their value. And he got me (almost) whole ones from a jar full of truffles, and I could smell the aroma from the other side of the counter! It was so lovely!
Very happy with my truffles and planning to add them to pasta, I figured it was also time to once again test my knife skills and make some steak tartare.
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Pretending to be a chef: Reserve banquet
The markets yielded a very rare opportunity: Port Lincoln sashimi grade blue fin tuna. It was placed right next to the standard tuna I buy – a yellowfin tuna, and the blue fin was paler, indicating it was fattier. I decided I’d fork out the $80/kg and give it a go, since I had a knife that was keen to cut. There happened to be Port Lincoln sashimi grade kingfish too, so I had an idea forming. There wasn’t any black caviar, so instead of choosing red, I went for the Huon Reserve hand milked salmon caviar, just because I could. It resulted in a four course meal!
Curvature: blue fin tuna, kingfish, salmon caviar (more…)
