A special night at Subo

Can you believe it, twenty five years ago I left a Halloween party with an attractive fellow in order to eat chocolate cake in the early hours of the morning and watch the sun rise from Fairy Bower.  Last night we celebrated that anniversary with dinner at Subo.

Subo (two hats from the SMH Good Food Guide and walking distance from our house) offers a five course tasting menu for $88 per person in an intimate space.  A little too intimate when you're seated near someone who doesn't have an "inside voice".  Service is warm and friendly yet still professional. Same number of hats as Mr Wong but an entirely different experience.

To start our meal, warm sourdough (from the nearby Baked Uprising) was served with house churned butter with rosemary salt.  Matt enjoyed a martini (with two olives, made with Hendricks) while I had a glass of sparkling rose as the first course was presented.  Fraser Island spanner crab on two layers of puree - a pea and a macadamia - was topped with a wasabi pea crunch although I didn't get a lot of wasabi flavour.  A wafer completed the dish.  The delicate flavours made a lovely start to the meal, the macadamia being somehow reminiscent of tahini.  Well, they're both nuts I suppose.  Sorry no picture, it was even worse than my usual efforts, something to do with big white plate and flash photography.

The second course was my favourite of the evening.  Boneless spatchcock was cooked over charcoal  and served with a leek puree and shredded leek as well as angel hair chilli.  Flavours were smokey and intense - chicken and charcoal are a natural pairing!  The meat was moist and tasty.  We had this with a bottle of Anisfield rose from Central Otago ($50) made with pinot noir grapes it had plenty of fruit flavour but finished on a very dry note.

Spiffing spatchcock.  Shame about the photo.

Our main course was lamb served two ways, a glazed belly and a cutlet with fermented chilli and saltbush.  I gave Matt my chilli as it tasted all too much like capsicum for me.  He's never going to complain about extra chilli.  The lamb cutlet was served rare and we both gnawed it down to the bone! The belly, while delicious, I was unable to finish as it was very, very rich (I cut the fat off my bacon so you can imagine a slice of very fat lamb was a little too much).  Accompanying was a dish of the crunchiest, tastiest greens (radish, snow peas and sugar snap peas) which had been finished with grapeseed oil, a little sugar and soy and was served cold.  A glass of pinot noir was matched with the lamb (Carlei Green, Yarra Valley, $11).

The lamb two ways and the crunchy vegies. 

Two desserts completed the meal,  Matt found the first, a strawberry concoction with kaffir lime and lemon granita very much to his taste while I preferred the honey and aniseed parfait served with lemon balm, pineapple ice, pineapple curd and chips of honeycomb more to my taste.  It was like a large, frozen, licorice all-sort, not overly sweet and full of interesting textures.

Strawberry something, we're just not quite sure what (it was very tasty and the granita had bite).

Subo is well worth a visit for a special occasion (let's just say the bill was A Lot, do check it) and I would recommend selecting a booking later in the evening so you can linger over your meal.  

The parfait.  Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this photography in the dark thing, out of focus again.

After my terrible photos in the dark at Mr Wong I took my actual camera and discovered it actually has a 'food/still life' selection, however, I wasn't happy with the flash (or the picture quality) as it can be intrusive and disturbing for other diners.  Maybe on our next adventure I'll take my tablet which I can select a faster shutter speed on and see how that works.

Mr Wong, Sydney lunch.

It seems a pity to have a blog and not use it so I thought I'd try and remember to add to it more frequently.  Like when we have an amazing meal.

Yesterday we decided to have lunch at Mr Wong, modern Cantonese food in a moody fit out in what was once the Tank nightclub (http://merivale.com.au/mrwong).  Moody is of course code for dark.

I didn't realise until I was googling for the URL that the restaurant (part of the Merivale group) has two hats.  This means the SMH reviewers rate it as 16 or 17/20, (16 being "Great; worth seeking out" with 17 "Excellent; one of the best").  Either way, it was very good but we did have a few criticisms.

Moody and dark, the BBQ Pork Chueng Fun

The food of course is the most important aspect of any restaurant review! The lunch menu includes a page of dim sum and our first choices were beer for Matt and sparkling wine for me along with Lobster and scallop dumpling ($15 for three pieces, although every time the plate was three our waitress offered to make it one of four so it was easier to share) and BBQ pork rice roll ($13).  I think the steamed dishes were the highlight.  The skin was incredibly thin and  yet still strong enough to easily pick up with your chopsticks and not fall apart en route to your mouth!  The flavours and textures of these two dishes were just sensational!

Scallop and Lobster parcels of yum

Tastebuds tempted we ordered a few more dishes (and a glass of rose wine each).  Staying with the yum cha, it seemed time to order some fried  dishes.  Wagyu and truffle puff (three for $15) and Aromatic duck spring roll (three for $12) were nice but we both thought they were under-seasoned, the duck especially so.  I couldn't get over the delicate pastry on the puffs, so fine and thin and flaky, pity the poor apprentice who had to roll it out!

Underseasoned duck spring rolls and Wagyu and truffle puffs

With the fried food I had to go back to a dish I missed on the  steamed course, my very favourite yum cha dish, har gow gee ($11 for three).  Only what we actually got was Chive and roast duck dumpling (also $11 etc).  We eventually flagged a staff member down and questioned what we'd received (it not looking like a prawn dish) and the maitre de (in dinner jacket and bow tie) came to speak to us about the mix up.  The duck was removed and the prawns soon appeared.  Needless to say we ate the duck dumpling which was in Matt's bowl. :-)  What can I say, the steamed dishes were SO much better than the fried ones.

The wrong duck.  I'd order this next time though!

Not quite replete we were advised that the kitchen would soon be closing so ordered one final dish, the one Matt orders every time he sees it, tartare.  This one was Spicy angus beef tartare, radish, Sichuan chilli oil, and black sesame cracker ($21).  To be honest, I usually find tartare just a bit too much raw meat but this I loved.  Quite spicy and really tasty.  Matt didn't love it and he's the tartare fan - so maybe it's not one for the purist.

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I wish they offered the crackers to take away but I also loved the tartare.

 On the negative side we didn't like the credit card surcharge automatically being on our bill with no "cash or card" being asked.  There were loads of staff on the floor but we got asked the same questions over and over.  The wrong dish is easy to write down I'm sure, but in a restaurant of this caliber somewhat surprising.  And clearly I need to take my actual camera with its flash in future rather than relying on my rather ordinary phone camera - if this is the lighting at lunchtime you might need to bring a torch at night!

My favourite dumpling everywhere. Har gau gee.

	All up a crazy lunch - six dishes, one beer, one sparkly and two glasses of wine each - was around $160 and we were there about two hours.  Food was superb, service swung between attentive and ignored (one wrong dish and Matt had to ask for his chopped chilli when our first dishes came out).  The ambience was great although a little too dark.

Post Paris post

Yes I confess this update is coming to you from our lounge room and yes, there is a fire crackling in the grate.

Paris was faulous of course!  Our hotel (Senlis) in the latin quarter was a fabulous old building that often features in films. Matt even saw it in a film he watched on the plane home.

We managed to avoid all riots but did observe a demonstration from a side street.  Met some nice cats and ate delicios duck. Even went to a caberet but no photos permitted- our favouite act was yhe trick unicyclist!

The Cluny was my favourite museum and d'Orsay my favouite gallery but we visited many others with great interest.  I look forward to visiting again.

Zeppelin is kapput.

Well we've had a interesting time in Friedrichshaffen but unfortunately it isn't mission accomplished.  Our Zeppelin flight was cancelled twice and we can't hang around any longer in the hope of better weather (that and our train tickets to Paris were cheap conditional on being on a certain train).

While we've been here we have visited three aviation museums  (Zeppelin, Dornier and a private Zeppelin one) had a ferry ride (very civilised, the bar has table service)  on Bodensee to Meersberg and visited the castle, the oldest inhabited castle in Germany. And we failed to do much Sunday/Monday because everything was closed.  Even the museum I wanted to visit today (the school museum which was advertised as open) was closed! I did suggested mayne Matt could claim the cost of the trip on tax as work related study purposes...

Off on the last leg tomorrow.

Scene of disappointment at Zeppelin. Dornier Museum. Schloss Meersberg and secco on the ferrio.

A surprise side trip

From Jenbach we bough tickets to Matt's mecca, Friedrichshafen. By chance we discovered we could break our journey at each train change so jumped off at Feldkirch where there is a lovely C12 castle. The exhibits were a bit of a mish mash of religious art, clothing and household furnishings.  The town was also interesting with quite different architecture to Southern Austria but still lots of frescos.

The following day we stopped and left our luggage at the station while we explored the island of Lindau. We then continued to Uberlingen for a day off/washing day. I managed a swim in Bodensee too.

Today we travelled to Friedrichshaffen and spent the afternoon at the Zeppelin Museum. They had to forcibly remove us at closing time!

Climb every mountain?

No we didn't.  Matt's gammy leg provided a perfect excuse to go by cable car instead. Yes we finally reached Pertisau known as Briesau in the Chalet School books. Achensee is known as a health resort. No doubt that's why wine was served with breakfast.  Speaking of breakfast....fried eggs and normal toast were very much appreciated after a couple of weeks of Italian sweet breakfasts!

Of course I had a number of Chalet school related things to do while is Tiernsee including finding the EBD plaque, locating the original chalet, walking to Dripping Rock and a ride on the little steam train. All boxes were ticked.

The walk to the Dripping Rock was initially very easy indeed and we couldn't figure out how it got its moderately difficult rating. The we got to the bit where you scrambled over the scree and held on tight to the cliff!

We caught the ferry to Seespitz and the the steam train to Jenbach before heading to our next adventure. Wearing our winter clothes as the afternoon storm the previous day had brought bad weather with it.

Venice by Vaporetto

...because why pay E100 for a gondala for half an hour when you can go right round the lagoon and Grand Canal in a ferry for an hour for E14. Ok not as romantic.

Venice was amazing and we felt like extras in the ballroom scene in the great movie Labyrinth.  Like Rome and Florence it was also full of gypsies who cursed you if you ignored them. I know we have beggars at home too but I've never been wished ill luck by one of them!

We could have spent several days exploring the Doges Palace especially the armoury. Another highlight was sitting in a street bar listening to some fantastic buskers. A string quartet playing Vivaldi.

All too soon we were on the train heading to Austria. Next stop the Tiernsee (actually the Achensee).

Viva Viareggio

After the hectic pace of Rome and Florence a few days r&r was in order so we caught the train to Viareggio, the southernmost resort on the Italian Riviera. We explored the town and had a swim in the Med. Neither of us thought much of the surf but Matt did manage to catch a wave. We walked miles to the free beach because the idea of paying to go the beach was so abhorent!  Below are the local bar bouncer and beach.

Flat out in Firenze

Just realised it's been a few days since I updated on our activites.  We caught the fast train to Florence after our Vatican visit and spent our first afternion just walking around. Every time we turned a corner was another beautiful medieval building or shrine.

Saturday morning we visited the Uffizi. No queue, just straight in (unfortunately this made us complacent about the Acadamia...). Spent about four hours there just in awe.  A couple of interesting things we've noticed...the primatives really couldn't draw/paint babies (all those baby Jesus's looking like little old men) and in older crucifiction scenes Jesus's feet are on a kind of platform; not nailed straight to the cross.

Of course we found a craft beer place for Matt eventually.

Today we waited in line for a loooong time for tickets to see the Real David (vis earlier comment about complacency) and both enjoyed the early instruments and illuminated manuscrips exhibits.  We also took in a modern collection of Leonardo's machines made from his drawings.  Finally a walk over Ponte Vecchio and viewed Piazza Pitti.  Now enjoyinga local beer (Matt) a prosecco and some delicious snacks in Piazza S. Spirito.

As you know we were planning on Cinque Terre next but a combination of walks being close (thanks to Dad for the heads up) and Matt having a gammy leg (on the mend; so convenient not needing a script fot antibiotics) means we have decided on a few days in Viareggio and a little rest instead. Our next major stop will be Venice.

Vatican two

We took a tour of the Vatican this morning and after seeing the queue we skipped we were very pleased we did so.  Just seeing all those amazing artworks in real life made me speechless.  And the size of St Peter's Basilica was mind blowing.  Our guide was very informative and we both snickered at the cardinal in the Sistine Chapel being attacked by a giant snake. After my recent studies I really enjoyed the many metafictive references in the artworks.

A quick but delicious zucchini flower and anchovy pizza for lunch and then we caught a train to Firenze.  Distance about Newcastle to Conjola. Time - 1 1/2 hours.  Australia could learn a lot about civilised infrastructure!