Celebrity Masterchef

So looking forward to the start of Celebrity Masterchef. A good cross section of celebrities. I think I will watch this first challenge before I make my first winner prediction. Stay tuned for more comments...

Monday Night Roast

For dinner tonight, I served up a slow roasted rib eye of beef, which is my favourite cut of beef for roasting. It does tend to be quite pricey, but I find the rich flavour and beautiful texture worth the extra dollars. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of dinner but I have included a picture I found which looks almost identical to what I served tonight.

I don't really do anything fancy to the beef, I simply rub the roast in Rice Bran Oil and season before browning on all sides. I then transfer the roast into a 150 degree celsius oven. For a 1.5kg roast, I cooked it for approximately 90 minutes, before resting.

For the perfect roast potatoes that are golden and crisp on the outside yet soft and fluffy on the inside, I parboil peeled and quartered Russett Burbank potatoes in boiling salted water, which are then drained and left to air dry. (Russett Burbanks are a white floury potato which are ideal for roasting and making the best chips). I toss the parboiled potatoes in Rice Bran Oil which I use in most of my cooking for its neutral flavour, high smoking point and "good" cholesterol. Traditionally potatoes are roasted in goose or duck fat, but I can feel my arteries hardening even as I type this sentence. In my oven, I usually roast my potatoes for about 45 minutes on 175 degrees celsius.

Baby Leonie's Full Moon

Roast Suckling Pig with the thinnest, crispiest crackle

On another cold Melbourne day we were invited to my cousin's place to celebrate his daughter's full moon, a very important milestone in Chinese Culture. Beautiful baby Leonie is now one month old and this gave our family the opportunity to catch up and feast on a range of Chinese and Vietnamese Dishes - a Whole roasted suckling pig, a Vietnamese Mi Bo Kho served with bread ( a delicious slow braised beef brisket stew with carrots, tomato, star anise and cassia bark), spring rolls, fried noodles, fresh garden salad and wide range of condiments including hoisin sauce, chilli, nuoc cham, vietnamese mint and an array of Malaysian Cakes including the obligatory Ang Koo which is always served in honour of the baby.

Mi Bo Kho

We all sat in my cousin's garage grazing on the spread before us. Was it glamourous? No. Was it absolutely freezing? Yes. Was the food great? You Bet. The drinks were thrown into the wheelbarrow with the ice bags and were further cooled by the falling rain. It was chaotic, and the venue could not have been anymore rustic and yet the sense of family and occasion made the rain and wind tolerable. It really was a lovely way to celebrate baby Leonie's "debut"into the world.

AFL Grand Final Day Pigfest

I am so ashamed of what we will be consuming for lunch today. Weiners, mini party pies, chicken breast strips, chips, dip etc all drowned in Dead Horse! I know I will definitely be paying for it later. Hopefully it won't repeat too much!

AFL Grand Final Day

So today is Grand Final Day which will be fairly relaxing for us and a feast of JUNK! Cocktail frankfurts, party pies and other forms of manufactured meat, and equally nutritionally challenged snacks! As far as our household is concerned it is a special treat as I am loathe to fill my freezer with foods that come in a box and simply require reheating - but on Grand Final Day we eat now and suffer tomorrow! Grand Final Menu to follow...

Matteo's, Fitzroy North

Before you ask, I am not reviewing restaurants in suburb order. The restaurants I choose to discuss are simply random as they come to mind. After discussing the inconsistency of service at Aux Battifolles, just around the corner on Brunswick Street is Matteos, a study in flawless consistent service. "T"s are crossed and the "I"s are dotted. I am not interested in comparing the two restaurants, the mention of service is merely a segue....

The food is elegant and dramatic but this is no case of style over substance - the food simply delicious. As you follow my blog you will notice I that will probably keep talking about raw fish - I just ADORE it! So much so, that I have ordered the same entree on my last two visits to Matteos and I will probably order it again if it still features when next I visit. Okay, the Japanese Seafood Plate consists of three tastes - carpaccio of hiramasa kingfish on a prawn remoulade, petuna ocean trout tataki with salmon roe and a stuffed baby squid resting on a perfect square of rice crusted tofu. I must admit that I have come close to shedding tears each time I finished the last mouthfuls!
On my last visit, I ordered the slow braised beef cheek, which came deftly perched on a cloud of horseradish mash, and crowned with baby carrots sauteed in Yuzu butter and draped in black bean sauce. The beef was tender, gelatinous, gooey and gorgeous with the accentuating flavours cutting through the richness of the meat.

For dessert I chose the delicate creme caramel with honey roasted quince which was as decadent as expected but unexpectedly light. Unfortunately for me I am allergic to wine, so I tend to sniff my husband's wine glass for my Clayton's fix. Maybe that explains my penchant for Ribena.

Any way, I digress (it's late and I have been to the Royal Melbourne Show today). For cuisine that features Asian ingredients treated with classic French cooking techniques Matteos' cuisine successfully combines flavours, textures and techniques and pared with their razor sharp service it makes for a delightful dining experience. http://www.matteos.com.au

Aux Battifolles, Fitzroy North

Welcome to Where to Eat Out! For me, dining out is one of my great passions in life. Depending on the company you choose to dine with, it can be convivial and indulgent, or sensual and intimate. It can be the platform on which deals are brokered or simply an opportunity where one can nourish the body and/or soul.

To kick things off, I would like share with you my thoughts on a little French Bistro in Fitzroy North called

Aux Battifolles - 400 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy North 9481 5015


This little restaurant holds a sentimental place in my heart as it is the venue where I celebrated my engagement with my nearest and dearest albeit under its former identity of Francos (but under the management of the current Chef Patron Stephane Pettier) Aux Battifolles is all about comfort food and classic Bistro dishes; think moules frites, escargots de bourgogne a l'ail, steak tartare and tarte tartin, you with me so far?

To complement its no nonsense approach to French Bistro Food, the dining room is a cosy space of exposed brick walls, timber floors, soft lighting and crisp white linen and butcher's paper. The menu is reasonably priced with entrees ranging around $12.00-20.00, main courses $22.00-$32.00 and desserts $9.00-$12.00

The only downside to this place is the service, which is inconsistent. At times the service is wonderful and at other times less so. We dined there last week and it was the little niggling things which irked me - why our table of three received less bread than the table of two next to us, why we weren't given the appropriate sized fork with which to eat our escargot - have you ever tried pulling out an snail from it's cosy little dish with a dinner fork? Does it really take 15 minutes to clear to the entree plates when there are only two other tables of diners? The waiter suggested a Kir Royale as an apertif but when the drink arrived there was no cassis. Surely that's just called champagne??? Our waitress for the evening was extremely friendly but her lack of knowledge in regards to the menu was frustrating - she described one of the specials as pan fried veal on a bed of pumpkin mash, when it actual fact the special was a Blanquette de Veau - a veal casserole with mushrooms and carrots with a side of truffled rice pilaf. It was a completely different dish and one that I would have ordered had I been given the correct description in the first place.

Yes, the service was not great last Saturday but Aux Battifolles is a lovely restaurant and one worth trying - I really just needed to vent my frustration! A little attention to detail is all that is needed...