The Boundary Hotel - Part 2

After the last visit to The Boundary Hotel for lunch, I said I probably wouldn't go back for lunch. Well I found myself back there again, but this time it was for Danny's farewell lunch. Danny was leaving to go off and run his own business, good for him I say. I wait for the day when I have enough courage to quit my job and work on my business full time.

Here's Danny waving to the camera.


And another group shot with Danny standing head and shoulders above everyone.


We were so hungry walking from work to the hotel that Mark was threatening Tin for his bread.


The food finally arrives and everyone is tucking into their meals, except.........


Hien, whose meal always seems to come out last. So here is a mysterious hand feeding her some lamb while she waited.


I chose the Chicken Mignon, which consisted of chicken wrapped in bacon and stuffed with prawns. It sounded really good, but the reality was that the chicken was fairly dry and pretty bland. The sauce helped it a bit, but overall it was ok.


Again, I still think this place is too expensive for lunch. But they must have a market seeing as they can continue to charge the prices.

Overall Rating: 12/20, Food ok but too expensive for lunch.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova

In a case of blogger imitates blogger, I decided to make a Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova after I saw Cin's beautiful photo at A Few Of My Favourite Things!. The recipe is actually from Nigella "Domestic Goddess" Lawson. I got the recipe from her Nigella's website. Here's a gratuitous photo of Nigella, just because I can. :-)


Today as I was about to post the recipe, I was checking my sitemeter when I saw that someone can clicked through to my site from Swee's A Self Proclaimed Foodaholic blog. And guess what recipe that had jumped from, yep, none other than Nigella's chocolate pavlova that Swee had made a while back.

Well here was my attempt at the Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova. It was really really easy to make. I, like Swee, had added 50% to the recipe so made it with nine egg whites. I still need to find a recipe to use all the yolks in the fridge. I made two pavlova's a smaller one that was about 20cm in diamter and a huge one that was like 35cm in diameter.

The pavlova is sweet and chocolatey, with the outer crust being really light and airy and the centre being more chewy. Eaten alone, the pavlova is quite sweet. But when you eat it as a whole, with the double thick cream and the sour raspberries, the flavours combine to give a burst in your mouth. There is the richness of the smooth cream with the sharp tang of the raspberries combined beautifully with the chocolate. And then lastly, you get the chewiness of the base with the final sensation being the crunch of the outer crust. A very good summer dessert I think. It looks very stunning as well, especially the huge one I made.



Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova

for the chocolate meringue base:
6 egg whites
300g caster sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder, sieved
1 teaspoon balsamic
50g dark chocolate, finely chopped


for the topping:
500ml double cream
500g raspberries
2-3 tablespoons coarsely grated dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

Beat the egg whites until satiny peaks form, and then beat in the sugar a spoonful at a time until the meringue is stiff and shiny. Sprinkle over the cocoa and vinegar, and the chopped chocolate. Then gently fold everything until the cocoa is thoroughly mixed in. Mound on to a baking sheet in a fat circle approximately 23cm in diameter, smoothing the sides and top. Place in the oven, then immediately turn the temperature down to 150C and cook for about one to one and a quarter hours. When it's ready it should look crisp around the edges and on the sides and be dry on top, but when you prod the centre you should feel the promise of squidginess beneath your fingers. Turn off the oven and open the door slightly, and let the chocolate meringue disc cool completely.

When you're ready to serve, invert on to a big, flat-bottomed plate. Whisk the cream till thick but still soft and pile it on top of the meringue, then scatter over the raspberries. Coarsely grate the chocolate so that you get curls rather than rubble, as you don't want the raspberries' luscious colour and form to be obscured, and sprinkle haphazardly over the top, letting some fall, as it will, on the plate's rim.

Serves 8-10.

Panama Dining Room

The Panama Dining Room is located on Smith Street Fitzroy. It's actually in an apartment type thing with a small sign on the stairwell that indicated the restaurant was upstairs. Upon walking up two flights of stairs, you get to this rather bland entrance, with no indication that it was the main entrance or the fire escape as indicated on the door. We entered hoping it was the right door.


Once you step inside though, you are greeted by this very sparse high ceilinged space. Mood lighting greets you while you absorb in the rather unexpected interior. To one side of the large room is tables where guests are dining. There is a semi-circular bar on the other side, with lounges and high tables where people are drinking. A pool table sits in the middle. However, how anyone can play is a guess. As Kin noted "the lighting is way too low to even see the cue stick".


We order some Little Creatures Bright Ale and wait for Paul to arrive. The ale was quite light in flavour with a hint of honey and something else. When Paul arrives, we order our meals, with everyone opting for just mains.

Paul gets the Chicken wrapped in Prosciutto. As usual, he says his meal is quite ordinary and ok. He never seems to pick the good dish.


Kin goes for the Lamb with Beans, which he gobbles down very quickly. Hence I can only assume that it's good.


I have the Rabbit with Asparagus. It's very good. The rabbit leg had a flavour and texture was more like a slightly gamey chicken rather than the usual stronger rabbit flavour. I loved how they paired the rabbit with fried cheese and asparagus. The flavours all went together in a very interesting good way. There was also something slightly sweet in the sauce, which tasted really good.


For dessert, Kin and I both got the Creme Brulee Stack. This consisted of a couple layers of thin puff pastry, a layer of strawberries, a thin burnt sugar shell, creme brulee and a strawberry sauce. It was delicious, the creme brulee being soft and went really well with the strawberries.


Ambience here was quite good. It was a little bit dark whilst the sun was setting. But once it got later and they turned on some lights, it was much better. The noise level isn't too great, with the tables spread quite far apart. The view outside the windows of the city skyline was really good. The whole building felt a little odd, with things so open and the bar area on the other side. There wasn't as much buzz from the bar, or maybe it was just so far away that all the noise was loss when it got to us.

Service was a bit hit and miss, more miss in my opinion. They wait staff took a very casual approach, which can be great, but the service has to match. Firstly, it was really hard to tell who the wait staff were. They wore clothes that could be easily confused with patrons. The next issue was that everything was really slow. It took a good twenty minutes from getting our drinks menu to placing an order, and that was only because we waved someone down. Then we had to ask for meals menu. All this despite the fact that we had to be out of there by 9pm since the table was rebooked. I knew this when I booked so that wasn't an issue. It was just that we had only just ordered 8pm, despite being there by 7:15pm. Once the actual orders were made, it didn't take too long for the food to arrive. It all arrived at the same time too.

I liked the food and the prices are fairly cheap, all in the $21-$27 range. The serving are a bit small, but you do get full after you eat dessert. As usual, drinks really add cost to the meal and a couple of beers really brings the total up. So it didn't turn out as cheap as we thought, but still acceptable.

Overall Rating: 13/20, Food is good but service a bit too casual and slow.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Work BBQ

We had a BBQ at work to raise money for a table tennis table for the dining area. It was held at the park area near our work place.


Here's some work mates walking purposefully towards the destination. It reminded me of the movie Armaggedon where the brave astronauts are walking to the spacecraft. Or possibly Miss Congeniality when Sandra Bullocks strides purposefully out of the shed after her make over, and there's a whole gang of people behind her, all walking in slow motion.


Chef John was happily cooking away in his apron....NOT.


Jennifer was the other chef slaving away in front of the flaming bbq.


There was various sausages and hamburgers and vegie burgers.


Wei and Tafazal were there to serve the food and collect the money. Tafazal was auctioning off the sausages to the highest bidders.


I got there early to beat the queue and was tucking away at my sausage and supposed beef burger (tasted nothing like beef so I suspect I got a vegie burger, uggghhhh). Emmanuel already scoffed down his sausage.


Mark and Jessie eating away, also early arrivers so therefore beating the queue.


There was Tin in the centre of the photo doing his best "stare down the camera" look.


The queue of people starting to build up.


Once we were done eating, we stood around looking beautiful. Keiran here is doing his best "Top Gun" look, with his Top Gun sunnies despite the day being totally overcast. Hahaha.

Ten Easy Steps To A Perfect Espresso

Step 1
Definitely the most important step. Find a friend with a good espresso machine and get invited over.


Step 2
Get same friend to teach you how to use the expensive espresso machine.

Step 3
Turn on espresso machine and rinse out with water.

Step 4
Pack freshly ground coffee tightly into coffee holder.


Step 5
Insert coffee holder thing into machine at an angle of 45 degree to the machine and snap it into place.


Step 6
Press button to start the espresso making and smell the wonderful aromas of fresh coffee.


Step 7
Froth milk in metal jug until the base of jug becomes too hot to handle.

Step 8
Add frothed milk to espresso and required amount of sugar for a perfect cup of coffee.


Step 9
Enjoy coffee on balcony in the company of good friends and chat about anything.


Step 10
Keep enjoying coffee whilst day dreaming away looking at the street below and the city skyscrapers in the far distance.


And there you have 10 easy steps for a perfect espresso, with steps 1, 9 and 10 being the most important. The in between steps are still required, but if you mess up a bit, it's still ok. As long as you get steps 9 and 10 right, the coffee is saved. Enjoy!

Ishiya Stonegrill

So after some confusion over plans on where to eat on Saturday night, we finally sorted ourselves out and all met at Patrick's house. We decided to go to the city to eat at this new Korean place that Dennis had tried. Unfortunately, it was fully booked that night. The state of Melbourne dining is just phenomenal at the moment. You seriously can't just rock up to a restaurant anymore without getting the fully booked response. Even when you do try to book, it's still full unless you give two weeks notice.

Anyway, back to the meal. So we decided to walk back to Ishiya Stonegrill which we drove past. Kevin had eaten there previously and said that it was good. When we got to Ishiya, we were getting ready with more options in case it was full. Luckily, there was a couple of tables left.


We were seated and given drinks menu immediately. I had a bench seat that had a cushion even, very comfortable indeed. They also had proper napkins, I always like that. The other three got teas, iced and green, which they said was really good. My honeydrew juice was also really good. It tasted fresh rather than powdered.

With the meal menu, the waitress thoroughly explained how it all worked. Her presentation was very impress indeed, she must have repeated those words so many times that she didn't miss a beat. We all wanted to get the stonegrill meats. Then, the special of Wagyu beef caught our attention. When we asked what grade it was, a reply of 7 sealed the deal. So Dennis, Patrick and myself got the Wagyu stonegrill while Kevin got the Porterhouse stonegrill. The meals come with a sushi and sashimi entree already. However, the other special of oysters from four regions around Australia got Dennis and I, so we got that too.

The oysters arrived. This waitress didn't explain which one was which. Not to matter, we dug in anyway. They did all taste slightly different, and I preferred the small one the best. I think that's the Coffin Bay one? I have no idea. Two were from Tasmania and two were from South Australia. Anyone have a clue which oyster regions there are in those places?


The Sushi and Sashimi entrees then arrived. It looked great, but our resident Sashimi expert Patrick immediately said the fish was not good. Patrick has been a Sushi/Sashimi chef for 5 years, so he knows his fish. He said that the cut was all wrong and there was lots of fat still on the salmon. Also, it didn't look too fresh. He ate the first piece and confirmed his initial assessment. I tried my fish and yep, all were not good. Every fish didn't have that nice sweet flavour of fresh fish. The texture was also all wrong, almost crumbly. I walked past the kitchen and saw that all the fish had already been pre-sliced and were sitting in cling wrapped dishes. That would explain the texture. It probably has come in and out of the fridge quite a few times.


Not to worry, we were here for the stonegrill meats. The Wagyu arrived with much fan fare on a trolley. The waiter then slapped the meats onto the stonegrill, which are heated to 400 degrees we were told. It started to sizzle like crazy and there was smoke everywhere. When the grills were place on the table, the oil from the meat was splattering everywhere. We dug in immediately. I wanted to try what fairly raw Wagyu tasted like.

I can say definitely that I love Wagyu. Previously, I had only eaten small amounts of it as a small entree or part of sushi. However, to eat a whole slab is such a joy. The flavours of the meat are fantastic, but I love the texture so much. You pop a piece into your mouth and it seriously is so smooth and not chewy at all. It falls apart around your teeth and the juices ooze out. Delicious, I'm definitely eating more Wagyu in future, even with its high prices. I must try what grade 9 is like one day.


Despite being really full, we still wanted to try dessert. We shared this Truffle Ball with Ice Cream. The truffle ball was huge and quite good. Eaten with the chocolate, it provided a nice mix.


The Belgian Cinnamon Waffle with Green Tea Ice Cream was also quite good. The waffle was a bit dry and the cinnamon was a bit too strong, but eaten with the green tea ice cream and red beans, it tasted better.


The atmosphere inside is good. It's not too big an area and doesn't get too loud, but still has some atmosphere. I like the decor, fairly simple but easy on the eye. The lighting is also soft without being dark. They did have this cool counter thing at the front where the wine was stored.

The service was good on the whole. There were some strange things such as bringing out only 3 drinks and then going back for a fourth. Also, water took two requests to get. Otherwise it was efficient.

Overall Rating: 15/20, The Wagyu tasted fantastic just cooked simply on the stonegrill. I think the price of $65 was good value for the whole meal.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Double Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

Once again, I turned to Ellie of Kitchen Wench for a dessert recipe to cook. This time, I liked the sound of devilishly decandent dark chocolate biscuits. I chose to use hazelnuts in the biscuit.

These biscuits are indeed really rich and chocolaty. Using good chocolate is a must as that's the foundation of the biscuit. I like the texture of this biscuit, not too dry. The nuts really give it that extra oomph I think.


Double Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

Ingredients
200g good quality dark chocolate, chopped
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed
60g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 medium eggs
220g plain (all-purpose) flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
200g good quality chocolate chips

*Optional: 80g chopped nuts, walnuts or hazelnuts would work nicely here

1. Melt the chocolate bain-marie style, stirring occasionaly till melted and smooth. Set aside to slightly cool.

2. Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla till just combined, then beat in the luke-warm chocolate. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Sift the flour and baking powder, then slowly add to the chocolate mixture, mixing well with a wooden spoon after each addition. Add the choc chips (and nuts, if you’re using them) and mix till well combined.

4. Cover mixture with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 30 mins - 1 hour, till firm. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

5. Roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls and flatten slightly, and place 5 cm apart on a lined tray. Place bowl of mixture back in the fridge (and whenever not in immediate use) and bake tray for 15-18 minutes or till biscuits are mostly firm to the touch and slightly cracked on top.

6. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, and enjoy with a glass of cold milk. Stores in an airtight container for up to a week

Horoki - Part 3

I asked my friends Emmanuel and John to go for dinner on Saturday. Upon Emmanuel's strict regulation, I had to find a place around $25. So Horoki popped into my head immediately as it always cost about that much when I went previously. The fact that the food is fantastic and I gave it rave reviews helped to make it an easy choice.

Emmanuel drove by in his new snazzy Skyline to give John and I a lift. The night was really warm actually and having the sunroof open is just so cool. I love the feeling of the air blowing my hair around.


As I have written in my previous posts, Horoki is a tiny restaurant in Liverpool Street. This year, they have made it from the Cheap Eats guide last year into the Good Food Guide this year with a score of 13. Well the previous two times, I gave it a score of 16. I'm much more lenient with my scoring. However, I think I will have to change my score this time. More on that later.


When I eat here, there are two must have dishes. The first is the Daikon Sashimi Salad. The second is the Beef Tartar. I didn't bother taking more photos of it since it still looks the same. To read about those dishes, go to the previous post I did. I can happily say that both dishes are still fantastic, with the Daikon Sashimi Salad being my favourite salad of all time so far. The Beef Tartar is also the best I have ever tasted. Maybe when I try some Wagyu Tartar I might change my mind. But for now, both these dishes are brilliant in their simplicity and stunning flavours. Even John and Emmanuel were pleasantly surprised how good the dishes were. They both were a bit icky about eating raw beef, but I kept insisting. In the end, they both liked it.

We then got some "mains" dishes. Horoki doesn't really do mains, just a lot of tiny dishes, but these were closer to mains than entrees. Emmanuel chose the Duck with Eggplant. I wasn't a huge fan of this last time, but it was better this time. The duck tasted better and I knew not to dip too much of the sauce, which was quite sweet.


John chose the Lamb Cutlets, which is new to the menu. The cutlets were excellent, so soft and dripped with a tangy sweet sauce. The mash was really good too, very creamy.


I chose the Horoki Fried Rice as I really like their "Nasi Goreng" style fried rice. This is better than any Nasi Goreng I've tasted though, even the Nasi Goreng I had in Malaysia. I love the spicy flavours and the chunks of meat they put in that add a lot of flavour. Even the prawn cracker adds another dimension to the flavours.


Finally, we all agreed on the Japanese Style Spaghetti. This place is really not a traditional Japanese restaurant. It's all about fusion food here, with everything having a slight touch of Japanese. The spaghetti too was good, nice and firm with lots of meat and vegetables.


Service as usual was good. The authentic Japanese waitresses were polite and efficient. Even when Emmanuel asked one of them if she was related to the other waitress, she just smiled and said that quite a few customers thought that.

So what was wrong this time. The food is still fantastic and there's even more choice now. My problem is that since they have now made the Good Food Guide, they have jacked up all their prices. I didn't pay too much attention to the prices when I was looking at the menu. When we got the bill and it was $40 each, I was a little surprised. As John said, that's still a good price, but compared to previously, it's not as good value. I dug deep into my memory and was sure most things was cheaper. When I got home and looked at photos of the menu I had taken previously, it affirmed that indeed the prices had gone up. And quite dramatically too. With most things going up between $2-$4. That's like 20-40% for some dishes that used to cost $10. Even the sake we had gone up $1 from last time. So this time, I'm going to drop their score by 1 point as it's not as good value for money. For this higher price, they are now competing with other Japanese restaurants for my business. Previously they would have been a no-brainer due to the exceptional value.

Overall Rating: 15/20, Food and service still excellent but not as good value for money anymore.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

After dinner, we dropped by the ever popular Koko Black for some drinks and dessert. We all got the Ice Chocolate, which was delcious but so decadantly rich that by the end of it, we were moaning a bit. We also shared the Belgian Spoil. Despite my insistance that "I'm really full and can't eat anymore", I ended up eating most of the Spoil. It was all really rich and gooooooood.


Just as an aide, here are some other interesting things. I really liked how eerie this church looked at night so I took a photo. I wonder if the Rose Line and Cryptex are inside this church???


Last but not least, here is photographic proof of Stalactites closed. Stalactites being closed is a real rarity. They are open 24 hours a day and never close throughout the year. I think I read an article somewhere that said they have only closed like 4 times in the past 20 years. I've only ever seen them closed once when they were doing renovations. This time, I'm not sure why they are closed, but I snapped a photo anyway. This is the gastronomic equivalent of taking a photo of Loch Ness or Big Foot hahahaha.