Vanilla bean Panacotta with Cumquat 3-ways & Matcha Soil

Happy New Year!!

Hope you all had a fantastic festive season and I trust you all ate well - As you can see we sure did from Gummi Baby's latest posts.

A new year arises, we slowly get back into the routine of eat-sleep-work, but the streets are quiet and you're still working only half pace. This void in time within the blogasphere only means one thing to us bloggers....we open the flood gates of backlogged blogs.

Let the Fireworks Begin!

New Year's Eve Lunch at Ad Lib Bistro - Pymble

If you've been following our food adventures, you could be forgiven for thinking that we'd eaten quite enough by the time 2010 came to an end. But given an opportunity to eat out again, how could we resist?

Not only were we celebrating the belated Christmas Day birthday of our dear friend Lol, I'd promised her Mum a fancy meal out as she'd been very kind when I was ensconced in a hospital earlier this year where she works part time.

Ad Lib was nearby and had received rave reviews.
The innovative menus at this French influenced restaurant, (for the stationery hounds amongst you, narrower than A3 but longer and wider than Foolscap), were printed on brown paper stock and folded into a neat packet which sat on our bread plates. Head Chef, Dietmar Sawyere, declares on their website that this is a restaurant which is "looking less to surprise with unexpected flavours but rather to satisfy with delicious ones, sensual pleasure rather than intellectual pleasure ..."  (Poking a tongue out at molecular gastronomy perhaps?!) We firmly believe they delivered on that promise.

There were so many great sounding dishes that it was difficult to choose but there were four of us and we all chose something different so that we could try as many dishes as possible.

Les Hors D'Oeuvres Classiques - ranging from $10 for the Soup of the Day to $85 for the Oscietra Caviar,
Lol had:

"So this is Christmas..."

... as the great John Lennon sang, "And what have we done?" Our answer is eaten ourselves to a stupor! As 2010 draws to a close, we reflect on the special meals we shared with family and friends and thank each and every one of you for being a part of our lives for another year. A word of caution, I hope you've got yourself a cup of tea and a few biscuits and you're sitting comfy on a lounge because this is going to be quite a long read...

Part 1: Dinner at Etch.

Circumstances having kept us from organising our annual (birthday) degustation dinner earlier in the year, we settled on this well frequented venue. Entering via a recessed doorway in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel, we meet up with friends in a small waiting area populated with low lounges. The dining room looks busy and well patronised.

The food is certainly well presented, each dish was a work of art and we almost felt guilty hoeing in.


This night, the menu consisted of:

Beetroot cured Petuna ocean trout, horseradish cream, baby beetroot.

Easily my favourite of the evening, the trout was reminiscent of Tetsuya's signature dish but with a smaller portion, less overwhelming and not fatty in the least.

Duck Terrine, pickled cherries, coffee reduction.

Merry Christmas from the Yummers @ Yayas

Wow!! How fast has this year gone. There's usually a 3 week period before Christmas where everything starts to wind down. This year Christmas has just walked up to me and double-slapped me in the face.

Mulled wine granita

One thing I'll miss from living in Europe, is the northern hemisphere Christmas. Wrapped up in your many layers, at Christmas markets outside, holding a steaming, cup of mulled wine .. Awesome! An experience I recommend to everyone!

Still, hardly an experience I can replicate here - Christmas here in Sydney is glorious and hot. We're outside, but holding onto an icy cold drink.

So how to somehow combine the two? Mulled wine granita!!