For those of you who follow my blog will know that I work in Brisbane quite frequently. So a girl has to eat look after her and eat well right? As one of our after work gathering, we ventured to the Valley for some fusion Thai. I read about LONgTIME in a few publications and was curious to see what Brissy had to offer in terms of up market fusion.
Located in Ann Street, the main entrance is off the main street anv via an alleyway lit with garden lights. It's actually a beautiful atmosphere to wait and chill with a drink. Then you enter a garage like space and greeted with loud, upbeat music. Good thing about this place is that take bookings so you don't have to worry about coming all the way to the Valley just to be told there is no table or a 2 hour wait (unlike a lot of restaurants in this category in Melbourne and Sydney these days).
We had a large group so we were seated on half of the communal table in the centre of the restaurant. It was a bit difficult to talk since we were spaced out and the background noise was very loud in the restaurant but if you are happy speaking slightly louder or in a group of 2-4 people, then you would be fine.
Some of my colleagues know I am food blogger so they were quite happy to leave the ordering up to me and I happily took upon that duty.
To start I got us a bunch of their bar snacks to share. First one off the rank was the soft shell crab bao with apple slaw ($4.50). Soft shell crab is one those those things that is usually a crowd pleaser and this time it was no different. Crisp bites of crab went well with the sweet and slightly tangy apple slices.
Second bar snack we got was the Thai chicken hot dog. These were mini bite size hot dog $4 each. Each dog had a perfectly cooked chicken frank with corridandar mayo finish. It's a good way to ease into Asian Fusion for the colleagues who were new to this concept.
Third bar snack was the taco. This has prawn laab in a cripsy taco shell with diced salad inside.
Next we moved on to the salads, since we were at a Thai fusion restaurant, the egg net salad was essential. This was a delicately constructed egg net with pork slices, cuttlefish, slaw and finished with a caramelised sugar sauce. This was a good light salad that had a bite in it. Great for a large or small group and a fresh option to compliment the other heavier dishes to come.
My Swedish Paella boss picked the other salad which was the pomelo salad with prawns, coconut, crispy dried shallots and finished with a chilli jam dressing. This is what I would considered a 'fun' salad. All the fun elements were presemt, a seafood bite from the prawn, texture and coconut fragrant from the bites of dried coconut and the dressing was sweet with that small refined kick where it was needed.
After the salads came the soup. Given we were at a Thai restaurant it felt fitting to order a tom yum. Unlike the typical tom yum, this was served with a few pieces of giant prawn crackers and black mussels (as the hero ingredient), prawns and an assortment of sprouts and herbs. This was a lot spicy than I had anticipated. I'm normally pretty good with my spicy food tolerance, I found myself reaching for a drink a few times. Wouldn't recommend this for someone who can't take spicy. This is definitely more on the hot side. The level of sourness was good but unless you can take the heat, you won't enjoy this one.
For the meats we ordered the smoked chicken, this came with a sweet chilli sauce. This was my favourite dish of the night. The chicken fell off the bone, it juicy and the meat was tender. The basting was smoky and intense enough to pack a hit of flavour.
Out of the curries we got the morton bay bug curry. This was quite interesting, I've never had bay bugs in curry before and I was surprised with how good it tasted. The curry was a delicate and light, finished with the coconut milk, the sauce was just so good, I wanted to get more rice and just eat the curry sauce with lots of rice.
On the side we ordered a few vegetable dishes to help us feel less guilty and trick ourselves to think we were eating our greens. The greens were just an assortment of book choy, string beans, watercress tossed with sweet/spicy stir fry sauce.
For dessert we got 2 to share. First dessert was the sticky rice with fresh mango, coconut ice cram and sesame brittle. I loved the heavy rice texture with the refreshing coconut ice cream and mango. The sesame brittle was that fun 'cherry on top' element.
Other dessert was the green apple and sour mango jelly with watermelon granita, meringue topped with lemongrass foam. This had intriguing flavours but just not enough in terms of quantity on the plate. The granita and pineapple meringue were devine and just not enough of it on the plate.
Overall 15.5/20 I really enjoyed my visit and I think most of my colleagues would agree. The food was fun and good twist on classic Thai dishes. Downside for me was the service was very average and I found the bar snacks to be overpriced for their portion sizes. The food was great but at times it felt like it was $2 per bite and that can feel a bit steep. Price aside, the food is something I would go back for and find enticing.
To celebrate me ageing and getting old D took me to Momofuku while we were in Sydney. It's a place that I have wanted to visit for awhile now. Over my many trips to Sydney each year, I have never been successful in obtaining a table. So when I learned that we got a booking for my birthday I was super excited. I have read a lot of good things about David Chang and the Momofuku in New York so the Sydney branch has been on my 'to try' list for a very long time. We got a seat at the bar, so we got to watch the action in the kitchen.
Momofuku only offers a degustation option for $185; it is a 10 course meal so make sure you come with a lot of stomach space. You can also get a wine pairing with it - either a full pairing ($105) or a reduced pairing ($65) and if you are a responsible designated driver there is also the non alcoholic pairing option ($60).
The non alcoholic pairing was actually very interesting. I got the following drinks during the dinner.
Sweet Tea
Watermelon juice
Rhubarb soda
Cucumber lemon myrtle juice
Roasted green tea (house blend)
Blackcurrant and thyme
Ginger lemonade
Now to the food. For the first course it was a series of canapes. In small cups we got the crab chickpea filling, zucchini black garlic filling and carrot, mullet roe filling. I was quite fascinated with the intricacy in the construction of these. They were just small flavour explosions in your mouth and designed to open up your pallet for the remaining courses.
Next canape was the parson's nose with roe. This was basically fried chicken bum with roe. The chicken was very crispy and topped with the roe, it had a different twist to the typical fried chicken flavour composition It tasted more like crispy fried chicken skin, than fried chicken itself. This was my favorite canape.
Final canape was the cep with hazelnut. Cep is a type of mushroom, it was served on a slice of toast. The mushroom creaminess with the hazelnut unexpectedly worked very well.
Second course was a scallop, kombu in duck broth. This was a big scallop ravioli with noodles and duck broth. The scallop ravioli was interesting but more on the bland side. The dish heavily relied on the strong flavors in the broth. It was nice but nothing breathtaking. Given it's play on the Chinese wonton noodle classic, a bit of green vegetable in there with a slice of shitaki mushroom would have made it more contemporary and added more textures.
Third course was waygu beef with radish and fermented black beans. This dish was very pretty and it's designed to be eaten mixed up so the prettiness is quickly covered in blackbeans. The waygu was cooked perfectly. I don't know what to think of this dish. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. D called it a very pretty black bean beef. It was very salty to eat on it's own, I think if I had a bowl of rice and maybe another dish to balance it out I would enjoy it a lot more. On it's own, it was a bit too much.
Fourth dish was the maron with pea and pistachio. The marron was fresh and light, which made it a nice contrast to the prior course of wagyu. The pea, pistachio was an interesting combination but it wasn't something that made me want more of. The marron on it's own was juicy and succulent - it didn't really need anything else to go with it.
Fifth dish was John Dory with broccoli and lemon. I usually love John Dory and this time it wasn't any different. The lemon sauce helps bring out the natural flavours of the fish. The broccolini was a steep and well balance contrast to the lemon curd especially with the almond flakes.
Sixth dish was the partridge with truffle and endive (looks like a mini baby wom bok but with much stronger flavors). The partridge was cooked perfectly but the hero of this dish was that truffle puree. It was intense, it was smooth it was just beautiful. I wanted to lick the plate. The endive on the side was interesting but I was too focused on the truffle.
Seventh dish was duck with rye and swede. The duck has a crispy skin and cooked with the centre just pink. Swede on the side was interesting, I've never had swede before, when I saw it, I was imagining it to taste like something potato-y. However it was nothing like that. The root was vegetable had more bite than I expected, it was more a turnip with a bite laced with the flavours of rye.
Eighth was the start of the desserts, ewe's curd with choux and rose water syrup. The choux was like a profiterole with the ewe's curd filling. Unlike a profiterole, this was heavier and had a denser texture. The curd was nice and fluffy and the rose water syrup provided the sweetness. The rose water syrup was the key element that ties this dish together.
Ninth was the corn, chevril and anise. This was a corn custard with a anise meringue and chevril ice cream. I love cracking the meringue, the sweetness of the meringue together with the sweet corn taste balanced out the chervil (tasted like parsley). I won't say I would normally go for this type of dessert, but it was interesting to try.
As a bonus, because we were there for my birthday we got a chocolate log to share prior to the final dessert. This was a decadent chocolate mousse cake with chocolate chips on the side. It was so rich and intense. I was so full at this point but it tasted so good. Fortunately the host was really nice and gave us a box so we could take it home and enjoy the next day.
Tenth was the artichoke, pear and sunflower. This was a chocolate caramel artichoke underneath those beautifully arranged slices of pear. I found this one very interesting with their choice of ingredients and pairing. It is not something I would think goes well together but it did. Nice surprise.
Final dish was a canele that had a beeswax finish. It was their version of a classic French dessert. Sadly I was so full at this point I couldn't finish it and just had regrets the next morning. It has a caramelised crunchy exterior and a solid custard spongy interior.
As a take home gift we were given sachets of their house tea brew (which was offered as part of the non alcoholic pairing). I found this as a nice touch, that added to the experience.
Overall 17.5/20 I was impressed with the creativity in a lot of the dishes but it didn't completely live up to the hype. Given how difficult it was to secure a booking and the constant raves in the media and food blogs I was slightly disappointed that I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped to. I was really hoping to get the pork bun, as it was something that others had spoken fondly of. It was still a great experience but just fell short of my expectations.
On Christmas Day I decided it was a good idea to wander down to Chinatown, since nothing was really open around where I was staying. On my way to Chinatown I passed Oiden Bowl Bar. Oiden is located on George Street and it's the sister store of Menya Mappan.
It's a affordable self service donburi (rice bowl) restaurant. It's great if you are looking for a fast, cheap feed. They offer a good range of Japanese rice bowls from fish, to chicken, beef and vegetarian. Other than rice bowl, they also have a selection of fried side dishes such as takoyaki, croquettes, fried tofu, spring rolls, seafood sticks and fried chicken.
If you want something less oily, they also offer miso soup, kimchi, edamame, seaweed salad, potato salads and soft boiled eggs.
Since I was on my own, I went with their mini bowl set so I could try more. For $9.90 you get the choice of 3 mini bowls and for an extra $2 you can get a side of potato salad, seaweed salad and miso soup.
The first bowl I got was the chicken karage bowl. Two pieces of chicken topped with mayo on a bed of seasoned rice. Simple and no frills, the chicken was tasty and not dry at all.
Second bowl was ontama tanaka salmon bowl. This was part of their healthy range menu, it had salmon flakes, pickles and a runny egg. Again the rice was well seasoned. It was full of flavour and this was my favourite bowl out of the three, the runny egg made it more 'comfort' food in my eyes and just that little bit more enjoyable.
Final bowl was the plain salmon bowl. This had raw minced salmon with seaweed and egg yolk powder seasoning on the rice. One thing I miss about Japan is all the different type of rice seasoning they had. Egg yolk seasoning was one of my favorite when I was in Japan, this time it was no different. The bowl was just simple and not boring. Only thing is I'm not a big fan of the minced salmon.
I tried the mince beef croquette as well. This was cripsy on the outside and still fluffy on the inside. I was quite surprised I was expecting it to be very dry, given how it looked.
Overall 14/20 If cheap, fast, filling Japanese is what you are after, then Oiden does that well. For less than $20, you can get nice and full from this place. It is great for the student budget or just when you don't want anything fancy, yet tasty.
