Lily's Birthday - Cutler & Co

Staying true to our "tradition" (which I happily obliged) that whenever we have a occasion to celebrate, we'll put our budget aside and spend on some good food. Last week being Lily's birthday, I brought her to dine at one of local's well acclaimed restaurant, i.e. Cutler & Co. This is one of the few restaurants to received plenty of reviews, mostly positive.

That was good enough for us to celebrate Lily's birthday! :D

The service throughout was friendly and professional. We were made very welcomed and comfortable from the very moment we stepped into Cutler & Co. A very important point seems to be missing from Tetsuya's. The attentive staffs made sure every bite and sip was made in a relaxed company and pleasurable ambiance.

We didn't take too long to decide what to have as the menu is not extensive. We both ordered a 3 course meal and each one tasted better than the other! We sent each plate back to the kitchen squeaky clean. I wished there was more.   

Lily's 3 course meal

 Entree: Pressed quail terrine, foie gras cigar, orange and pistachio

Main: Pan roast leather jacket, fennel pollen and cuttlefish braise

 

 Dessert: Chocolate ice-cream sandwich, vanilla parfait & salted caramel

Stephen's 3 course meal

 

 Entree: "Salad Lyonnaise" frisee salad with crisp pancetta, garlic sausage, smoked tongue, confit gizzards & poached egg yolk

 

 Main: Suckling pig, sweet and sour onion and prune vinegar

Dessert: Violet ice cream, chocolate ganache & sour cherry

We both like the casual vibe cum reasonably priced fine food. It was a very good evening, great food, attentive & professional staffs, we were relaxed as we were never pressured to leave after our desserts. Surely, one of the best dinners we had.

p/s - Due to my 'superior' photography skills and the lights were rather dimmed, the photos didn't turn out right. Had to search around other blogger for their photos. 

Good flight experience

After years of accumulating enrich points... we finally saved enough to upgrade ourselves to the front. It was a good experience from the start and got our 5 minutes of fame!

When we checked in at KLIA, there were a couple of stares from the economy check-in counter. I didn't mind at all! Check in was a breeze, no long queues we were accustomed to. Heck, there was no queue at all! We then went straight to the lounge for some brekkie. I was quite disappointed with the selection of food though. They were serving nasi lemak with curry chicken, scramble eggs and sausages, fried/soup noodles, fruits and breads. Buffet yes, but there's no variety!

We got to our seats early, settled down and ready to enjoy the pampering. :D Shortly after take off, we were given a welcome pack - hand sanitizer, moisturizer, toiletries, etc. Nice!

Welcome pack

While watching the movies, the air steward came around asking us what we would like to have for our 3 course brunch. I chose sirloin steak and Lily chose cheese omelet with salmon. Before our meal arrive, we were given "starters", very fresh and the bread was still warm! Once finished, came our meal we chose. We were quite surprise how well cooked and tasty it was! Finished our meal with the very tasty chocolate blackberry dessert. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal!

"Starters" - Fruit yogurt, seasonal fruits, bread, etc

Minute tenderloin steak with boursin butter, baked potato with cheese, grilled tomato and sauteed mushrooms

 Cheese omelet with lamb croquette, salmon fillet, cherry tomato, asparagus, sauteed mushrooms & baked potato slices

Chocolate blackberry cake with mango sauce

About 2 hours before we reach Melbourne, we were served with another round of delicious food! This time it started off with chicken and beef satay and then followed by lobster and crab salad. The satay was really good... better than those we had back in KL and the peanut sauce was just out of this world! We had the choice of having more and it was too good to resist for another plate!

Then came the lobster and crab salad, which Lily thought it was a little salty. I loved it!

Our second meal ended with blueberry cheesecake which was comparable to the ones you'll get from a really good restaurant.

 Very tasty - Satay (all lean)

Lobster medallion and crab meat salad

  Blueberry cheesecake with tropical fruit salsa

For the first time, we both felt that our flight ended too soon. Food was really good... service was attentive, the tv screen was bigger and clearer as well...

This is something we both don't mind getting used to.

Tetsuya's

When I called back in Jan 09 to make a booking, there wasn't any dates available. I was told the next available date was in mid July. That's 7 months of waiting?? Even then the weekends were all taken up! I was telling quietly to myself, this business is never going to go out of business, unless they themselves stuff it up.

This is echoed by the long list of awards they have won:-

• 3 chef's hat from Good Food Guide 
• Restaurant of the Year
• Best Fine Dining, and
  
• most important of all, 5th place in the world's top 50 restaurant.

We threw a few preferred dates to the floor manager and we finally got the date that we wanted, i.e. November and we were the 7th to place a booking. GFC?? what GFC?? We were quite ecstatic and at the same time very unsure if we will still be interested in it after 11 months! We sought of forgotten about it after a month and had to call a couple of times every now and then to check on our booking time.

We were getting excited all over again by the end of October and got even more excited when the floor manager gave us a call to re-confirm our booking. We obviously played it cool! We were like young kids given all kinds of lollies!

When the day arrived, we were seated at the far corner next to the window, looking out at the well maintained Japanese garden. It was a nice spot! Gave us the space and privacy, away from all the noises from other tables.

A waitress in charge of our table asked if we would like to try the degustation menu. It didn't take us too long to go for it. It's not a restaurant where you can go every once a month (at least not yet). We weren't sure how many dishes we will get or even the type of food. Some might think otherwise, we prefer that way, keep us guessing and looking forward to the next dish!

Our 13 courses for the night

 Chilled Corn Soup with Saffron & Vanilla Ice-cream

Smoked Ocean Trout & Avruga Caviar

Marinated Crystal Bay Prawns with Soy Caramel

Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Apple, Daikon & Wasabi

Terrine of Queensland Spanner Crab with Avacado

Grilled Fillet of Barramundi with Braised Baby Fennel

Twice-cooked De-boned Spatchcock with Foie Gras & Red Wine Jus

Beef Fillet with Nameko, Shimeji & Enoki Mushroom

Comte with Lentils

Green Apple Sorbet with Sauternes Jelly

Strawberry Shortcakes

Lemon Scented Floating Island with Vanilla Bean Anglaise

Petit Four

Housewarming

Last Sunday 3.Oct.09, we had our first housewarming party. We decided to do steamboat without much hesitant. We both are not great cooks and we don't have a barbeque. Potluck? We thought that since it's our housewarming, we don't feel right asking our friends to bring food for this occasion.

It turned out to be a good choice, some of them came later than the rest, so we ate and chat while waiting for other rest to arrive, and not cooking too much each time. There were 19 of us that day? We created a lot of "noise" which is really good to warm up our house. haha! We were busy entertaining our friends that we forgot to take photos on our own! Bugger!

We didn't realise that the day we had our housewarming was the day Chinese all over the world celebrated mooncake festival. Double celebration!! Our friends bought mooncakes and lanterns over for everyone to enjoy... It was very good... comparable to those we usually get back in KL.

Wii time after heavy lunch

Mooncake time!

Mooncake imported from Hong Kong (I think)

Group photo

When the sun was down, we lit up the lanterns at our backyard and one of us came up with the idea of walking around the neighbourhood with our lanterns. We thought "why not??!!". This is old school and gold! We did just that but to a nearby park. We would not want to cause any concerns with the locals which are not accustomed with this sort of festival.

It was good fun... raised a few eyebrows from the locals passed by, heads turned, cars stopped wondering what we were up to, we made ourselves noticed! haha!

Oh yeah, I am begining to believe that the number "3" is our lucky number. A lot of occasion/event occurred have some connection with "3":

1. We got our first house in our 3rd year back in Australia
2. I was wearing a shirt bearing the number 3 on my right arm while bidding for our house
3. If we add our house settlement price, it comes back to number 3
4. Our house number is 3
5. Our first house warming was held on 3rd Oct 2009
6. It took us 3 weeks to decide the type of furniture we want to buy and how to place them in our house

Bear in mind, none of these were planned! Maybe I should start buying lottery with the number 3 only. Haha!

Tulip farm, Sky High and Cuckoo Restaurant

It was a full on day yesterday. It started with dragon boating training for the upcoming races in the morning, then in the arvo, we head off to Tesselaar Tulip Festival to meet up with our friends. Late afternoon, all of us went up to Sky High for some spectacular view of Melbourne from Mt Dandenong and finished it off with very good buffet dinner at Cuckoo Restaurant at Olinda.

Tulip Festival
The last time both Lily and myself went to Tesselaar Tulip Festival was when we were back at university. Time time around, it was different, there were more tulips and Irish festival was going on as well to bring more crowd. The whole place was buzzing. The weather was perfect! Sun was out, clear blue skies, 20 degrees temperature, can't ask for a better day.

It has been going on for a month and it was still very well maintained! Even thought the whole place was filled with people at the tulip farm on one side, Irish festival on the other, it was very neat and clean. The people were friendly, attentive and helpful. My hats off to them! Entrance fee well paid!

Sky High Mt Dandenong

We had 2 hours to spare before our dinner booked at 7pm. We headed on to a cafe in the Dandenong mountain for good coffee with spectacular view of Melbourne. It was recommended by our friend. We followed along and when we reached up in the mountain, we could not believe how beautiful the scenery was. As it was a clear day with blue skies, the view was sensational!!!

Enjoying our favourite cuppa with such a superb view and good company, the best tea break we had by far!

We could not take a good photo as the sun was setting and right in front of us. You have to be here to see it for yourself.

If you look at the photo carefully, you'll be able to spot Melbourne city.

The shot we took at Sky High

Took this from Sky High's website - day shot

Took this shot again from Sky High's website - sunset shot

Cuckoo Restaurant

We left Sky High shortly after 7pm. When we reached Cuckoo Restaurant, it was about 7.25pm and the place was almost full. There was a wedding reception and from outside, it appears to be empty but once we went in, it was so alive!

Cuckoo is the smorgasbord restaurant started in 1958. Owned by Willi, a German chef serving swedish food. As you would expect, the restaurant is filled with cuckoo clocks which all are still working. The building is designed in the Bavarian Chalet style boasting staggered gabled roofs with decorative window shutters.

The food spread was really good... lots of fresh seafood, the roasts are really good - tender and moist, plenty of grill meats and sausages, traditional Bavarian dishes, cold meat platters, really delicious made to order pancakes and tasty European delicacies.

The owner was telling us that they managed to get the largest mechanical working cuckoo clock after years of searching for it. They were searching for it all over the world and it happened to be in South Australia. Sometimes you don't have to look far to get the best of things.

There was a show towards the end of the dinner as well... which was really entertaining and funny. This is the sort of dinner that we love to go, end it with some good laugh!

Outside Cuckoo Restaurant

Cuckoo Restaurant

Very talented live band

Inside the restaurant

Inside the restaurant

World largest mechanical cuckoo clock - that is still working