It Just Has To Be Delicious

Felix & Co, Nedlands

24 05 20

Felix is a small coffee bar in Hampden Road, Nedlands, with some tall stools and tables inside plus one outdoor table. However, what it lacks in size, it makes up for in quality.
They serve a few toasties, pastries and cakes, but it’s all about the coffee here – coffee is clearly their passion.

felix 1

There were 2 special single origins on offer when we visited, and we chose to try the Guatemalan ‘Huehuetenango’ with tasting notes of milk chocolate, red berries and almond.
The other single origins available was a Rwandan ‘Kabuye’ – earl grey, baked orange and honey. A loaded seasonal blend with tatsing notes of super juicy, vanilla, apple, berry, caramel and chocolate was also available. This was just the list for espresso roast.
Other options included the batch brew Mantis blend and the cold brew Honduran ‘Juan Contreras’, and no less than 5 filter coffee single origin options from Costa Rica, Honduras and Rwanda.
We both chose the Huehuetenango – I chose an iced soy version and my partner chose a flat white.

Luscious, rich, smooth, and displaying a complex palate of flavours, this coffee certainly brought a smile to our faces. The staff are knowledgeable and friendly, and they all share the love for the humble coffee bean. The cafe also sells beans to use at home as well as other coffee related paraphernalia. We’ll definitely be back to explore the menu further.

Visit Date – December 2017

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felix 4

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Coffee shop review

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Homemade baked beans

24 05 20

Canned baked beans….meh. They’re great for a quick and convenient snack, but beware – the average can of beans has 21g of sugar. It is simple to make your own, you then know exactly what goes into them, and you can also mix up your beans if you like. You don’t have to use haricot, you can use cannelini, pinto, navy, any type you like or a mixture.

Beans

My recipe uses chorizo, you can also use bacon if you don’t like the strong flavour of chorizo, or if you are vegetarian, you can leave out the meat (or include vegan sausages) and up the flavour stakes with additional herbs and spices. This recipe makes enough for 4 serves for dinner or approx 6 batches of smaller lunch-time serves. Quite an easily portable snack too. You can also serve more people at dinner by adding other ingredients to the plate such as toast, cheese, eggs, sausages, chips, hash browns and sauteed mushrooms.

Ingredients:
2 x 400g cans of beans of your choice (you can also use dried beans if you soak them overnight)
1 x 400g can of diced tomatoes (or about 6 large Roma or Truss tomatoes skinned and chopped)
1 average sized onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, very thinly sliced or chopped
Optional extra veg: a small chopped carrot, a small chopped capsicum
1 chorizo chopped into small dice, or two to three rashers of smoked bacon diced or vegan sausages chopped
1 teaspoon of Worcester sauce (If vegan, use a spoon of liquid smoke instead)
1 teaspoon of dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
Half a teaspoon of cumin powder
1 teaspoon of mixed herbs, dried, fresh or freeze dried
1 teaspoon of vegetable stock powder
salt/pepper/sugar to taste

Method:
Prepare the chopped ingredients:

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If using canned beans drain them:

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Fry the chorizo, or vegan sausages, (or bacon) in a few tablespoons of olive oil until it is slightly crispy and the fat has rendered.

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Add the onions and garlic (and the carrot and capsicum if including them):

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Once the onion begins to soften add the flavourings – mustard, cumin, paprika, herbs, Worcester sauce, stock powder.

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Stir everything to combine well and then add the tomatoes.

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Half fill the tomato can with water, swirl it to rinse the last bits of tomato and add it to the pan. Alternatively just add a little extra water if using fresh tomatoes.

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Add the beans, but try not to stir them too much (this tends to mush them up. Shake them around the pan.

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Leave to cook for 20 – 30 minutes until the beans are soft enough to eat. Add salt and pepper to taste. You shouldn’t need to add sugar, but if you do, consider adding some honey or agave syrup instead of granulated sugar.
Serve in a bowl with fresh crusty bread and some grated cheese. So simple and tasty that you’ll probably never buy cans of baked beans again.

Vegan version with vegan sausages and carrot:

beans v

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Recipe, Vegan/Vegetarian

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My favourite cheesecake

23 05 20

chck 2

For me, the best cheesecakes are baked. I think the texture is much better than the whipped and refrigerated versions.

This is my favourite cheesecake recipe – every time I make it, it turns out well. It is based on Nigella Lawson’s London cheesecake recipe, but with a few minor variations, which I will explain as I go along. It is baked in the oven in a ‘bain marie’ which is effectively a water bath. You make the bain marie by filling a roasting tin with hot water and placing the tin of mixture into it. It is really important to line the tin with strong foil to avoid water seeping into the mixture. Make sure that you buy the extra long heavy duty foil – I use 3 layers to protect the tin and scrunch it all up around the top of the tin. Don’t buy the shorter length foil because you will have to overlap it, and the water will find a way of getting through. I also use a springform tin – you don’t have to, but if you want to present your cheesecake on a nice plate, you will need to turn it out and a springform tin is the best option. Make sure that the base of your tin is firmly in place before you fill the tin with mixture. If you push the bottom of the tin from underneath, it should not dislodge – if it does move then your base is not properly seated – push it hard until it ‘pops’ into place. Failure to do this will mean that you lose some of your mixture through seepage.

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Recipe
150g plain digestive biscuits (as my friend Sue said, “use the proper ‘pommie’ ones” e.g. McVities)
75g unsalted butter melted or very very soft
500g cream cheese (Nigella says to use 600g, but in Australia it comes in 250g tubs, so I use 500g with an 18cm tin instead of 600g with a 20cm tin. I also use one tub of ‘value’ cream cheese which is harder, and one tub of better quality or light cream cheese which is softer – if you use two tubs of good quality the texture will be too soft.)
100g caster sugar (Nigella uses 150g, but I think this is sweet enough)
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of lemon juice (Nigella uses slightly less)
18cm Springform tin
Heavy duty long tin foil
For the topping
200ml tub sour cream (Nigella uses less, but I like a nice layer on top)
1 tablespoon caster sugar
Half a teaspoon of vanilla extract

1. Process the biscuits until they are like crumbs in a food processor (or put them in a bag
and bash them with a rolling pin). Mix in the butter and use them to line the bottom of the springform tin, pressing them down so they are smooth and level. If you want to make it easier to remove the cheesecake from the base of the tin, you can line it with a layer of baking parchment before adding the biscuits, but this step is not compulsory. Put the tin in the fridge to cool and set the biscuit layer. Heat the oven to 180 deg C.
2. Beat the cream cheese until it is soft (you may prefer to use a food mixer for this, but you can also use a wooden spoon and some elbow grease). When it is smooth add the sugar. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks, then the vanilla and lemon juice. Boil the kettle.
3. Line the outside of the chilled tin with strong foil so that it covers the bottom and sides in one large piece. Repeat with another layer (I actually use 3 layers for extra safety, but you don’t have to). This will protect the filling of the tin as it cooks in the water bath.
4. Pour the cream cheese filling onto the biscuit base and place the springform tin inside a roasting tin. Fill the roasting tin with hot water from the kettle until it comes halfway up the sides of the springform tin. Carefully place the whole thing in the oven and cook for 50 minutes.
5. Just before the 50 minutes is up, whisk the topping ingredients together in a bowl – sour cream, sugar and vanilla.
6. Check the the cheesecake is almost set – it should be set enough to hold the sour cream
layer, but not rigidly so. Pour the sour cream topping over the cheesecake and cook for a
further 10 minutes.
7. Carefully remove the tray from the oven and take the springform tin out to cool. When it has cooled to room temperature place it in the fridge to chill it before unmoulding. It
should shrink away from the sides of the tin slightly – if not, run a sharp knife around the
edge before releasing the spring.

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So that’s it – my favourite cheesecake. My friend Kara would like to try a choc mint
cheesecake, so one day I am planning to try this recipe but with an Oreo base, mint
flavoured filling (maybe with chocolate chips in it), and either a chocolate drizzle topping or chocolate shavings on top – or maybe even both.

Update – this is the choc mint version just before cooking:

chck 4

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Crustless Mini Quiches

23 05 20

cmq

These mini quiches are lower in carbohydrate content and dairy casein than regular quiches. They use ricotta which has hardly any casein protein in it and little mature cheddar for some extra cheesy flavour. I baked mine in a larger size muffin tray, but you can make them mini muffin size or regular muffin size and reduce the cooking time slightly. Cooking times vary from oven to oven, but you know they are perfect when they are just very slightly wobbly in the centre.
They are ideal for a quick brekkie, and if you don’t have muffin cases, you can use squares of baking parchment and scrunch them into the muffin tray indents.
Other than the cheese, you can put whatever you like in them. I dry fried some bacon, mushrooms and onion and added it before baking them, but you can use anything. Here are some suggestions:

broccoli
peas
sun dried tomatoes
cauliflower florets
spinach
prosciutto
small pieces of sausage
capsicum
pieces of butternut pumpkin

Just make sure that all of the extra filling ingredients are cooked or partcooked beforehand so that you don’t get any raw veg or meats in your quiche!

Ingredients (makes 4 large muffins):
Mixed pre-cooked filling – see above
3 eggs
salt
pepper
1 teaspoon mixed herbs (dried) e.g. basil, sage, oregano, thyme, mint, coriander
I used a standard dried herb mix, but you can also use fresh or choose the herbs separately
50-70g ricotta cheese (depending on how much you like it and how much filling you have)
approx. a third of a cup of finely grated cheddar

1. Mix together the eggs, salt, pepper, herbs and ricotta – give it a good whisk with and electric whisk to make it as light as possible. The mixture might look a bit strange, but it will turn out fine.
2. Stir in the pre-cooked filling and most of the cheese – save a little cheese for on top.
3. Place mixture in muffin cases and sprinkle extra cheese on top.
4. Bake at 190 deg C for approx. 20 – 25 minutes.

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Moore & Moore, Fremantle

23 05 20

This was my first trip to Fremantle for brekkie, and I was very pleased that we discovered Moore and Moore. It’s a long drive, but I will be happy to go back for a return visit. The cafe is within an art gallery, and it is very interesting, a little kitsch in places, but very warm, cosy and inviting – I really loved the atmosphere.

moore 1

A lot of the dishes on the menu are vegetarian. If you want meat the only options are bacon and meatballs, and if you want fish, there is a smoked salmon dish, however, as a meat eater, I found the vegetarian dishes very appealing and the lack of meat did not worry me.
I chose the burnt butter, sage and roast pumpkin mash. This consisted of roast pumpkin spread on turkish toast with two poached eggs on top, rocket, and tomato relish. I added bacon as an extra. The whole dish was delicious – the bacon good quality and nicely crispy, the pumpkin mash slightly sweet and the eggs cooked perfectly.

moore 4

My friend Karen chose the smashed new potato rosti. This consisted of mustard seed, spinach and romano cheese potato rosti topped with a poached egg, avocado, green olives and caper salsa, rocket and tomato relish. Karen really enjoyed it, she has been a vegetarian for quite a few years and found it tasty and the flavours quite interesting.

moore 3

As well as the food, the coffee and the drinks were really good – fresh orange, home made lemonade – all refreshing and delicious.
I really loved Moore and Moore, the menu is inventive without being ridiculous, the flavours all go well together and it is nice to see a menu with a wide vegetarian choice. The building is lovely – the Moores building – it is a heritage listed building that used to be an old merchant’s warehouse. There are various rooms where you can dine including an alfresco area out the back. When we were there a musical trio were entertaining everybody in the walkway. It was very typically Fremantle – a bit different, a bit quaint and very colourful. I loved it.

Last Visit Date – December 2014

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Coffee shop review, Restaurant review, Vegan/Vegetarian

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Nobu, Perth

23 05 20

nobu 1

Nobu in Perth is one of two branches in Australia (the other one is in Melbourne), a cool sophisticated restaurant located in the Crown Casino complex at Burswood. Sleek and stylish it is similar to other Nobu branches around the world, and this one has the advantage of overlooking the hotel pool, and has an interesting ceiling centrepiece of glass coloured baubles.

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The menu is quite varied with nibbles, oysters, sashimi, salad, tempura, wagyu, lobster, gyoza, sushi, and various signature hot and cold dishes.
We chose mocktails to drink.
A Nobu sunrise – Pineapple, Orange, Passionfruit Juice, Sugar Syrup & Grenadine – with a wonderful dehydrated slice of orange on top – yum.

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A Berry Mule – Fresh Lemon, Raspberries, Grenadine & Ginger Beer – with a mountain peach.

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Our first dish to arrive was a special of the day. Salmon sashimi with nashi pear, truffle oil, yuzu and chives. It was quite nice but the truffle was a little overpowering for the delicate salmon.

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Next came sashimi salad with matsuhisa dressing – a favourite of ours. The dressing is made from finely chopped onion, rice vinegar, mustard powder, sesame oil and soy. The seared tuna went beautifully with the leaves and dressing.

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Next came the best dish of the night. Tempura soft shell crab harumaki – beautifully cooked crab inside a crispy tempura batter served with a reduction and a wasabi mayonnaise. The mayo was just right, just enough wasabi to taste it without dominating the dish. Every mouthful was a delight, and the dish was served with some very addictive pickled vegetables.

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Next came Pepper Crusted Seabass with Balsamic Teriyaki. A beautiful seabass portion sitting on the sauce with lotus root chips, spring onion and pak choy. The crust was nice and crispy, and the fish really fresh and just flaking apart nicely. Another really good dish with the flavour of the crust being a nice contrast to the soft flesh.

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Next was Pork Belly Spicy Miso Caramel. Melt in the mouth pork belly with a delicious sticky sauce – another great choice.

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The last main dish consisted of two maki rolls and some miso soup. If you thought that all miso soups were the same, then I urge you to try Nobu’s miso soup. Such a wonderful umami flavour with beautiful silken tofu and seaweed.

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Maki rolls are fairly standard Japanese fare, and I didn’t really expect them to blow me away, but they really delivered at Nobu. I loved how they were very tightly rolled so that they didn’t fall apart on dipping, and the ingredients were top quality. The salmon skin rolls contained lovely crunchy salmon skin and flesh with some veggies to contrast the seasoning of the salmon. Then the little spicy tuna rolls wrapped in seaweed were explosions of flavour, great quality tuna with a nice chilli hit.

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For dessert we chose Nobu alfajores (South American cornstarch cookies with dulce de leche), and a Nobu cheesecake. The alfajores were a yuzu flavoured shortbread with yuzu curd, chocolate ganache, dulce de leche ice cream and candied puffed buckwheat.
The cheesecake was small but perfectly formed, baked (our preference to whipped) with passionfruit sorbet and raspberry sauce. A really wonderful selection of desserts to complete the meal, with a ‘Happy Anniversary’ thrown in.

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Everything at Nobu is made well with quality ingredients. This comes at a premium price, but it really is the perfect location for a special occasion.

Last Visit Date – November 2018

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New Asian Delights, Mandurah

23 05 20

New Asian Delight Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

In Mandurah there are so many nice looking cafes and it can be difficult to choose. We found ourselves on Dolphin Quay, hungry for some lunch, and looking for a quick nutritious meal.
New Asian Delights seemed a good option with plenty of Asian noodle and rice favourites – a pan-asian mix of Chinese, Malay, Indonesian, and Singaporean.
I was drawn to the Chicken Mee Goreng, which was a delicious spicy mix of egg noodles, vegetables and tender chicken. The whole plate was really delicious.

nad 1

My partner chose the Singaporean chicken curry with rice. Again this was delicious, nicely spicy, and he ate it all with a big smile on his face.

nad 2

If you are in Mandurah and fancy some Asian food, New Asian Delights is well worth seeking out.

Visit Date – January 2019

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Must WineBar, Mount Lawley

23 05 20

Must Winebar Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

It’s been a few years since we visited Must, and last time was a great experience, so we were really looking forward to a classy meal.
The first thing that we noticed was that the layout had changed and the area was divided into a restaurant and a busy noisy winebar. There was a DJ playing and the noise of the music was intermittently loud, then quieter, and impossible to escape, so it was really hard to have a conversation during the meal.
Anyhow, we started with a glass of Margaret River Riesling which was zesty and fruity. We perused the menu which is modern Australian, and felt good about the range of tempting choices.

must 1

I chose scallops for my entree, and they were very tasty with a pork shoulder contrast. I would have liked the corals to be left on though.

must 2

My partner chose the manna crab pasta, which was a larger portion than it looks like in this picture – the bowl is deeper than it looks. This was lovely and he really enjoyed it.

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Shortly after the starters, the lights were turned down, hence the poor quality of the next pictures, and the music continued to be loud along with very noisy chatter from the wine bar next door.
For main I chose salmon with seasonal vegetables, a very nice plate of food.

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My partner chose the confit Wagin Duck Leg, with braised lentils, radicchio, grapes, and pickled raisins. Again, he really enjoyed the nice combination of flavours.

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For a side dish we chose the charred sesame broccoli with shichimi (a chilli dressing) – this was nicely cooked and tasty. One of my pet hates though – there were 3 pieces! Why do chefs give portions of 3 to tables for 2? I like our food to be easy to divide.

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So was Must a hit? The food was nice, but probably not amazing enough to warrant the top notch prices being charged. The ambience was a complete let down though, and I think they really need to decide if they are a wine bar or a classy restaurant – maybe a gastropub would be a better option for this establishment.

Last Visit Date – April 2019

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Photos from a previous visit:

Oysters to start with a lime and cucumber dressing:

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Chicken liver parfait with Riesling jelly:

must 8a

Seared Huon Tasmanian salmon with a fennel and orange salad and
saffron vinaigrette:

must 9a

Arkady slow cooked lamb shoulder with couscous, fennel puree,
tomato confit and olives:

must 10a

Cognac chocolate truffle:

must 11a

Pears with vanilla caramel, spiced gingerbread and cream:

must 12a

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Mustard, Hornchurch, UK

23 05 20

Mustard Kitchen Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

I paid my second visit to Mustard tonight, having first tried this restaurant with friends a few years ago, and remembering that the previous meal was quite nice. The menu has all of the standard UK curry fare along with some very nice sounding chefs specials, however tonight I wanted a standard curry fix, so I chose something that I knew would satisfy.
The restaurant is modern and stylish – no flocked wallpaper or moving light pictures – the lighting is subtle, pictures modern, and general ambience is clean and minimal with wooden floors.
We chose some pappadoms to start a mixture of plain and spicy, and they were
accompanied by mango chutney, yoghurt sauce, onion salad and tomato onion relish. All were really nice.
We didn’t go overboard with mains, I chose a king prawn dopiaza:

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My partner chose a chicken jalferezi:

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We asked for aloo peas as a side dish (not on the menu) and the chef happily provided this.

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Then a pilau rice each – the rice being lovely, fluffy and separate.
The Chicken Jalferezi was made with chicken tikka and a lovely gravy which was spicy but not overly hot. The King Prawn Dopiaza was full of juicy prawn meat, onions and capsicum in a plentiful medium heat gravy. The Aloo Peas was nicely spiced and delicious.
We cleared our plates ! A perfect amount of food to fulfil our curry craving, very nicely presented with good service. Everything was tasty and as expected. Lovely food, and I will return.

Last Visit Date – April 2017

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Mends Street Cafe, South Perth

23 05 20

Mends Street Cafe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

The Mends Street Cafe always seems to be busy when I go next door to La Patisserie. I even saw Manu Feildel in there once when the Good Food show was on at the Convention Centre. Today I went to La Patisserie for a last coffee and almond croissant before the New Year diet starts and was disappointed to find it closed. I decided to go next door to Mends Street cafe for something brekkie-ish.
The area around Mends Street is very nice – it’s a little bit of a cafe strip with a quaint nearby arcade, and the South Perth foreshore at the bottom of the street, and the Transperth ferry jetty close by. It is usually a very good photo opportunity and today was no exception – a lovely sunny New Years Day.

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I chose a soy chai latte and a plate of blueberry pancakes. My companion chose a full brekkie and a flat white.
The waitress brought the wrong drinks to the table, and when we said that we had not ordered cappuccinos, she looked at us as if we must be in the wrong. Eventually the correct drinks were served.
The coffee was a little bitter (which usually means that the beans are not fresh), but I was pleased to see my chai latte served in a glass with a handle. Nothing annoys me more than hot coffee served in a glass with no handle. You then have to wrestle with the glass and a napkin to avoid burned fingers – in my opinion glasses are for cold drinks (unless they have a handle).

mend 2

I did have to send the chai latte back though – it was incredibly weak and tasted like hot milk. I didn’t get any kind of apology – the waitress just said that the chai they use is a very weak one…. hmm…. why not use more of it then ? or use a stronger version?

mend 3

Blueberry pancakes were nice – I could have had cream, but as I am minimising my dairy intake, I chose syrup alone. Nice, but not wow. I know when food is delicious when I already start planning my next trip to the restaurant, whereas today, I was just reinforcing my disappointment that next door’s cafe was closed.
My companion’s full brekkie was underwhelming too – the eggs were nice, but one was a bit hard, the fried potatoes were a nice touch, but the bacon and sausages were average and the whole dish underseasoned.
Will I rush back to Mends Street cafe ? Not really – there are way better cafes in Perth – it’s time that Mends Street picked up their game.

Visit Date – September 2011

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Category:

Coffee shop review, Restaurant review

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