Tag Archives: Eggs Benedict

What happened to Pizzazz in Kingston? Discovering Urban Pantry

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I got back to Canberra last night after a few days in Sydney watching Miss15 compete in the Australian Gymnastics Championships. She was pretty happy, she got a bronze medal for the uneven bars and did quite well overall. The drive was tiring because it was raining pretty heavily and the roads at night when they’re wet have the occasional bad driver. It’s a roughly three hour drive and I was going to stop at Goulburn for something to eat but in the end just drove through.

I’d spoken with Bron and we agreed on a breakfast at Pizzazz. We’d been there many times before and enjoyed the breakfast menu. They make fantastic waffles. When we arrived we noticed the doors were closed and the windows were papered up. After circling the block once we drove to Manuka and walked around until we came across Urban Pantry. We looked in the window and noticed the bread. On inquiry the Sonoma organic sourdough bread is delivered from artisan bakers from Sydney. The menu was pretty standard for a fancy Canberra café. We both chose the Eggs Benedict with bacon on sourdough bread. Out of interest, Bron asked what is the minimum requirement to call something Eggs Benedict when it’s not just poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, with ham on a muffin. If anyone has an opinion let me know (I know I could run a WordPress poll but I couldn’t be bothered at the moment). Does anyone know what’s happening with Pizzazz?

The coffee was good. It was rich and aromatic. The meal itself was mostly good. My bacon was crispy with burnt pieces. The burnt pieces left a slightly acrid taste in my mouth. The bread was delicious and the organic free range eggs and hollandaise were really very nice. At about $20 a plate, it was more expensive than many other places but it tasted very good. We sat outside but it was plastic sheeted in and the heaters did a good job. The tables were a good size and the chairs comfortable.

Eggs Benedict from Urban Pantry (iPhone)

Today I spent a good portion of it preparing for a rental inspection. While I was doing that I prepared some meals for lunches at work this week. I prepared some belly pork in a new saucepan I bought from Ikea on Friday and then prepared some vegetables. I loaded up a casserole and cooked the dish in a low oven for three hours.

Pork curry (iPhone)

This afternoon I watched Iron Lady with Bron and ate some of her homemade Cinnabon classic.

Cinnabon (iPhone)

Tonight Bron made a Thai red beef curry. It was really good.

Thai red beef curry (iPhone)

It was a good day :-)

 

 

 

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Cheesecake returns

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Earlier this year Bron made a claim that she would cook a different cheesecake every month. We’ve certainly enjoyed some great cheesecakes however, the one a month concept hasn’t quite come to fruition.

Today we started with breakfast at a sort of new place. The old Hudson’s in the Gardens is now floresco in the Gardens. Bron had Eggs Benedict with bacon and I had Eggs Benedict with Kransky sausage (A cured cooked sausage of dubious contents and indeterminate age). The café was only a week new under the new management. The Eggs Benedict tasted really good with a really smooth and tasty Hollandaise sauce. The Kransky was a little small and not as spicy as I was hoping for. I like a big spicy Kransky sausage. They also didn’t have any cracked pepper on hand which was a slight disappointment.

Eggs Benedict with Kransky (iPhone)

After a bike ride and then a walk I had a late lunch. The other day we did a trip to CostCo and bought a box of pork buns and yesterday Bron bought me a can of pineapple Fanta from a shop (she won’t tell me the name). The pork bun was really good.

Pork bun and pineapple Fanta (iPhone)

Tonight for dinner Bron made a slow roasted chicken with preserved lemons and risotto. The preserved lemons come from a twitter friend who is well known for her lemon curd, lemon jam drops and preserved lemons.

Chicken with preserved lemons and risotto (iPhone)

And for the Pièce de résistance we had vanilla baked cheesecake with salted caramel sauce and vanilla cream. This was so light and yet so rich and so so sweet and unctuous.

Vanilla baked cheesecake with salted caramel sauce and vanilla cream (iPhone)

 

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Seasalt Dining for Sunday breakfast

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This morning we went to Seasalt Dining for breakfast. We’d been here before for dinner and quite enjoyed it.

This morning was reasonably cool in Canberra so a warm place and a good breakfast was called for. I was keen on eggs and posted this on instagram as soon as I saw the menu.

Bron and I had Eggs Benedict with bacon and coffee.

Eggs Benedict with bacon (iPhone with filter for instagram)

The eggs were soft and the yolk ran free on cracking the white membrane. The toast was nice and not too stiff.

I’d rate the experience 6.5 out of 10. The service was friendly but a little disorganised. The orders didn’t come out together and there was a sense of confusion to the place. The food was okay but the menu was a very standard breakfast/brunch list. There was nothing special to it. I’d go again with a crowd if better Canberra venues were not available.

As I said to Bron, her Eggs Benedict are close to an order of magnitude better.

 

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My first Wagyu beef cooking experience

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Yesterday we went to Costco and bought some Wagyu beef.

Wagyu steak from Costco

This morning we started with homemade Eggs Benedict to prove a point about the niceness of runny yolks and a smooth Hollandaise sauce. While yesterday’s breakfast was nice, this was better.

Bron's Homemade Eggs Benedict. Runny yolks are good.

A lot of thought and some research went into preparing for this evening’s meal. Wagyu beef is an expensive investment. The returns in terms of delicious flavours need to be maximised through careful cooking. The last thing we wanted was for the meat to be mishandled in any way.

After reading many websites and articles, we agreed on this method http://www.evernote.com/shard/s183/sh/6d02cff7-25f4-4a37-84ad-453bfa366032/72e8c7be756eac09e6fe4edc9b06a67c This is a method advocated by the Internet Chef.

Without an induction stove top we worked out our plan of attack. The meat was chilled and then the board dressed Jamie Oliver style to apply the seasoning. One side was cooked for 90 seconds and the fillet was turned and placed on a low heat hob with the lid on for 45 minutes. After cooking it was rested for 10 minutes. During this time Bron prepared a Jamie Oliver horseradish mash and we also had asparagus and peas.

Just look at how beautiful this piece of meat looks. It's good enough to cut thinly and eat raw.

The rib eye fillet looks gorgeous. Unctuous, gorgeous, beautiful, YUM…

Seasoned after seasoning the board as per Jamie Oliver

Don’t worry, this is not too much salt.

Bron's plate

I dissected the lean fillet from the fatty deckle. Bron prefers the lean fillet and I love the fatty deckle. The lean fillet was delicious and went well with the horseradish mash and peas.

My plate

I love the fatty deckle and all its succulent juiciness. The sauce was simply a white wine reduction with a little Dijon mustard and cream in the beef’s pan juices.

The tastiest meat and fat I've ever had

The deckle meat is on the left. It was separated from the lean fillet by a nice piece of fat. The fat tasted amazing. It was not a ‘fatty’ texture at all. It melted in my mouth and was full of flavour.

Steamed pudding with chocolate cherry sauce

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe.

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Maestral Mediterranean and Seafood restaurant in Weston

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Yesterday was a slow kind of day. We started with brunch at Black Pepper in Belconnen. This is a local café that does a good breakfast and brunch on weekends. It is very popular amongst locals and especially cyclists and walkers who exercise around Lake Ginninderra.

Bron asked for Eggs Benedict on Turkish bread and I asked for the Black Pepper big breakfast with Turkish bead. Black Pepper Menu July 2012

When our meals arrived, the Eggs Benedict were sitting on a muffin. Rather than waste time and send the dish back, I shared my Turkish bread.

Beautiful eggs Benedict

The plates were cold and the bacon was also cold. The eggs were slightly over cooked. The yolks were still soft but they weren’t really runny like we like them. Otherwise, the Eggs Benedict and Black Pepper Breakfast were very nice. As you can see I also asked for a bowl of hollandaise sauce to go with my breakfast. Along with our coffees, it was a good start to the day.

The day got better with a visit to Costco. I wanted to see the optometrist, although I didn’t realise I needed an appointment. I’ll be returning next Saturday. To compensate my disappointment we went to look at the meat section. There is a whole cold section dedicated to Australian produced Wagyu beef.

Costco's Wagyu cabinet

I will blog soon about cooking Wagyu beef.

The Maestral Mediterranean and Seafood restaurant is on 13 Trenerry Street in Weston. The menu is a combination of Croatian, seafood and beef. The surf and turf/reef and beef options look amazing.

We started with baby fried calamari and then went onto a Maestral seafood platter.

Baby fried calamari

The calamari was perfectly fried. It was juicy and tender.

The Maestral seafood platter. The soft shell crab was the highlight.

The platter had a combination of oysters (natural and oysters Maestral [see menu]), scampi, prawns, fish, soft shell crab and fried potatoes.

Me smiling because I love seafood platters

I would definitely go back and try other dishes on the menu. It’s a very popular restaurant. We saw a number of familiar faces and friends there last night.

After the Maestral we thought we’d enjoy dessert at Max Brenner in Belconnen. I chose the waffle with strawberries and vanilla ice cream.

Max Brenner waffle with strawberries and vanilla ice cream

And so finished a pretty good day.

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Brunch at Poachers Pantry

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After last night’s effort I didn’t feel overly full when I woke up so we decided to go to brunch at Poachers Pantry in Springrange in NSW (just outside of the ACT). This is not a regular brunch place with standard brunch fare like Eggs Benedict and waffles and pancakes and things like that. The menu is a little different. It is well worth visiting if you get a chance.

The menus are at the website. This is the brunch menu http://www.poacherspantry.com.au/menus-brunch

After a much needed coffee I had Welsh Rarebit. This is a childhood favourite. I remember Mum making it for me on weekends for breakfast and sometimes it would be a light dinner. As a kid I’d always call it Welsh Rabbit lol :-)

The coffee wasn’t anything to write home about.

Welsh Rarebit

Closer view of the cheesy goodness

Poachers Pantry also sells a lot of their produce especially their smoked goods and wines. Their website http://www.poacherspantry.com.au/ is a good place for recipes too.

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Poachers Pantry on Urbanspoon

A weekend in food

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I know a lot of fellow bloggers have started 2012 with posts about resolutions and reviews of 2011. I thought my first post for 2012 should be about a weekend of food enjoyment.

On Friday night we caught up with friends and enjoyed steam boat and pavlova at their place. We’ve enjoyed steam boat with them before and it has always been a fantastic meal. Steam boat is also known as hot pot. I remember steam boat as a kid, Mum had an electric boat and we had many happy meals putting meat, vegetables and noodles into the simmering water. On Friday night we enjoyed marinaded pork, beef, chicken and prawns. We had three types of noodles and heaps of Chinese vegetables. At the end, three egg yolks were beaten in and we had the best soup to finish.

Steam boat preparation. Everything ready.

Steam boat preparation. Everything ready.

A bowl of awesome goodness.

For dessert we had a pavlova lovingly made by our friends. This pav was amazing. The cream was whipped coconut cream and pouring cream. It had a lovely coconut flavour and a smooth texture. The fruit included banana, passion fruit, mango, pineapple, Chinese gooseberry (kiwifruit), blueberries and strawberries.

The platter was about 60 cm in diameter. Four adults polished it off in one hit. It was awesome.

A huge pavlova

We accompanied the pavlova with one of the all time best ice creams. Weis‘ mango cream with Queensland nut (Macadamia) chunks.

My favourite ice cream Weis' mango cream and macadamia chunks

My first (of three) helping.

My first of three helpings of awesome pavlova

The empty platter, all gone in one go

We finished the evening with chocolate and port. Well I didn’t have port, but it was a great evening. Lots of laughs. We really treausre these times with our friends. Especially the work and social related conversations. I’m glad I don’t drink otherwise I’d forget how much I laugh when we’re all together.

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