Healthy Food: Truffle

Showing posts with label Truffle. Show all posts

Thursday, December 23, 2010

David Jones Food Hall: Fresh French Truffles $4900/kg, Sydney (24 Dec 2010)

Food Hall, Lower Ground, 65-77 Market Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Rich pickings for Christmas

A recent tweet by Darlinghurst Darling to Simon Thomsen alerted me to Fresh French Truffles available at David Jones Food Hall http://plixi.com/p/64955796 fetching $4900/kg so I was curious to check them out. When you work out the price per gram of $4.90/gram it's about the same price I paid at Sigornelli Gastronomia for shaved Australian truffle. I haven't tried French truffle so if anyone wants to send me a belated Christmas present you know what to get me. It took me a while to work out where they were and then I noticed the cryogenic looking fridge brightly lit up in the middle of the greengrocer service counter. It was a bit hard to read the information flyer on top of the fridge so I'm not exactly sure who the supplier is. They also looked white but I'm suspecting they're perhaps wrapped in something? While scouting around the fruit section I noticed 2 kg boxes of cherries from Koala Country Orchards. They looked very similar to the quality ones I received from Top Juice so I'm pretty sure this is the same supplier. I reckon they'd have to be the best cherries I've seen of the season although they do come with a premium price tag. If you buy them directly online for $55 per 2 kg box they'll be about half price of what you'll get charged at the greengrocer.

Fresh French truffles ($4900/kg)

Box of cherries from Koala Country

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

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Saturday, September 18, 2010

Signorelli Gastronomia: Eat-Drink-Shop-Cook Italian, Pyrmont (13 Aug 2010)

Darling Island Wharf (Opposite Star City)
Ground Floor / Accenture Building / Trouton Place
48 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont NSW 2009
http://www.signorelli.com.au

Food heaven starts here

I first heard about Sigornelli Gastronomia when visiting the Primo Italiano Festival where I picked up one of their flyers. Thankfully after a few months some of my friends organised a dinner catchup there so I was looking forward to checking it out. At night it's a little hard to find for the first time but once you enter it's like an Italian lovers heaven. Large displays of delicious looking products line the shelves and fridges including a 5 kg jar of Nutella as big as my head. Sitting down to dinner we notice the cheese and wine rooms lit up like shrines of devoted love — this place is definitely serious about their food and wine. After ordering our meals we're treated to a delicious appetiser of chaux pastry with fetta and pesto — more please! For entree the Whitebait fritters, salsa di l'ovo, chilli oil ($16.50) is a nice starter I'd happily have again and the Signorelli Gastronomia Antipasto ($22) comes with a selection of 4 different salumi which are all tasty and good quality matched with olives and some cheese. Tonight's special of freshly shaven truffle is available at $4.10 per gram. We try it on the Risotto di fungi, fontina, nettles, Ferron risotto ($16 entree size) which adds $16.40 for 4 grams. The waitress shaves the truffle quite quickly so be ready to say 'when' to stop them. The risotto has a nice mushroom taste but for me the truffle is too subtle and I'd probably have without — I've still yet to appreciate what all the fuss is about with fresh truffle.

My Osso Bucco Milanese ($30) had fall-of-the-bone meat as hoped and nice rich flavours although a good dollop of refreshing gremolata would have been much appreciated. The Roasted Cootamundra lamb rump, stufato di fagioli, gnocchetti ($28) was perfectly cooked and gave me dish envy with its great flavours. Port Lincoln mulloway saltimbocca, cavolo nero, beurre noisette ($34) was served with a decent crisp skin although perhaps could have done with some sauce. Gnocchi, quattro formaggi, sage ($25 main size) was full of rich flavour as expected and a crowd pleaser. The freshly cooked pizza called Umberto's masterpiece ($22) came with pancetta, potato, mozzarella and truffle oil — wonderful flavours that worked so well together. You could easily share this between 2 or as a starter for 4 because it was quite rich. Signorelli Gastronomia Tiramisu ($9.50) was nicely presented with balanced flavours although a bolder use of coffee and liquor would have made it even better for me. Service was helpful and friendly and really made us feel quite welcomed — like an Italian family sitting down at a communal table.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Friendly and professional service, Nice decor and atmosphere, Quality dishes of substantial size, Reasonably priced

CONS: A bit out of the way to get to from the city, Not the easiest place to find free street parking, Wish it was closer to the city or my home

MUST TRY: Everything on the menu especially the Antipasto, Tiramisu and Pizza

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Appetiser chaux pastry with fetta and pesto

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Bread and olive oil

Whitebait fritters, salsa di l'ovo, chilli oil ($16.50)

Signorelli Gastronomia Antipasto - Selection of salumi, olives, parmigana, parmesan ($22)

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Risotto di fungi, fontina, nettles, Ferron risotto ($16 entree size)

Fresh truffle shaved $4 per gram with Risotto di fungi, fontina, nettles, Ferron risotto ($16 entree size)

Osso Bucco Milanese ($30)

Roasted Cootamundra lamb rump, stufato di fagioli, gnocchetti ($28)

Port Lincoln mulloway saltimbocca, cavolo nero, beurre noisette ($34)

Gnocchi, quattro formaggi, sage ($25 main size)

Umberto's masterpiece - Pancetta, potato, mozzarella, truffle oil ($22)

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Signorelli Gastronomia Tiramisu ($9.50)

2008 Signorelli Rosso Pizzini Shiraz Cabernet Sangiovese King Valley Vic ($26), 2007 Keith Tulloch Merlot Hunter Valley ($45)

Bill $350.40 for 7 people

5 kg nutella jar and Me

Cheese room

Sparkling wine room

Red wine room

Plasma screens above the kitchen show some of the cooking preparation

Inside and outside office foyer seating

Deli and products galore

Industrial sized kitchen

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Friday, July 9, 2010

Tabou: Truffle Degustation Menu, Surry Hills (27 June 2010)

527 Crown Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010

http://tabourestaurant.com.au

Truffled-out

So can you have too much of a good thing — most definitely!

Tabou is one of my favourite French restaurants and I was enticed to try their Truffle Degustation event because I've never had real truffle before and only truffle oil. Seven courses with matching wines ($160) was towards my truffle education. Starting with the Truffle grissini, artichoke veloute was a nice way to start the meal. The grissini had subtle hints of truffle flavour and the artichoke veloute was creamy smooth — I always seem to love veloute as an amuse-bouche. Next came the rather rich Morning truffle with NV Gosset ‘Brut Excellence’ Champagne. I loved the champagne but was in two minds about the morning truffle. The crispy pancetta, buttery brioche and soft egg were good but the hollandaise sauce was way too citrus in taste for me which made it quite unpleasant to finish. If it had been less citrus and more light and creamy I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Slices of truffle were evident with a distinctive truffle taste in the dish. The refreshing Jamon and pea risotto was a light dish with subtle truffle taste. I think I would have preferred the jamon to be pan-fried more to a crisp to help add a smokey bacon flavour — or perhaps I just love fried bacon.

Fillet of dory, saute of vegetables, truffle veloute was presented well and one of my favourite dishes of the night. The 2007 Vincent Girardin ‘Cuvée Saint-Vincent’, Chardonnay was smooth and buttery and went well with the dish. I enjoyed the hearty Roast loin of veal, saute of forestiere, morel pomme puree although the shaved baked truffle on top had no discernible truffle taste at all and was mostly for texture and presentation. I probably would have preferred not seeing them as I felt disappointed they provided no taste to the dish. Though there was a nice truffle taste coming from the pomme puree I believe. A substantial and delicious slice of Truffle brie was next although needed more bread to finish. I prefer the classic white baguette as a side bread for cheese so you can fully appreciate the cheese itself — just the way they do in France.

Quite full and finally reaching dessert of Chocolat du truffle tipped our stomachs over the edge for truffle. The presentation and texture of the dessert was nice which had a sort of honeycomb pop rock thing happening to add excitement in the mouth although the chocolate truffle sitting on top was laden with truffle. Oh dear, this was way too overpowering for our whole dining table. I forced myself to eat it but regretted the strong taste. I think this dish would have been fine on it's own without truffle in it. To end some complimentary Honey Truffled friands were provided although by this time we were sadly truffled out — but this didn't stop me eating one. As an extra treat I wanted to try their Créme Brulée ($13) again which is one of my favourite in Sydney. It wasn't part of the menu tonight but they made one up especially for us. Nice caramelised topping and creamy custardy centre although sadly not as much vanilla bean present in this one as I've had before. Helen the restaurant manager generously provided this dish complimentary.

Other French restaurants visited:

• Tabou - Surry Hills, 27 June 2010

• Sel e Poirve - Darlinghurst, 1 Dec 2009

• Tabou - Surry Hills, 9 Oct 2009

• Onde - Darlinghurst, 25 Sept 2009

• Chez Pascale Cuisine Francaise - Sans Souci, 8 July 2009

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Quality French wines, dishes and cheeses, Nice decor downstairs, professional and efficient staff

CONS: Expensive, Truffle in Chocolate Truffle doesn't work for me

MUST TRY: Créme Brulée, French cheeses

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‘The French Truffle is considered the finest of the edible fungi and has a place in gastronomy alongside saffron, caviar, foir gras and the finest of wines. Widely considered as the jewel of French cooking prized for its unique flavour and intoxicating aroma’

Truffle grissini, artichoke veloute