Eat, Pray, Love

The former Westpac building at 2 King William Street has been refurbished since last year to elevate its heritage feature to a brand new level. It is the building which houses the popular Jamie's Italian.

Situated on the top floor of this building is 2KW which takes pride in having the highest rooftop bar in Adelaide. This is an absolute advantage for the patrons to have bird's eye view over North Terrace and areas slightly beyond including Elder Park and St Peter's Cathedral. The sunset and night views are undeniably amazing, making 2KW one of the hottest rooftop bar in Adelaide.

To celebrate the completion of Term 1, my friends and I decided to check out this restaurant and bar. In order to reach the restaurant, we had to take 2 lifts including the latter lift which caters exclusively to 2KW customers.

2KW is divided into different settings, such as the bar, the terrace, the cabanas, the garden and the restaurant. The bar/terrace area offers open seating and of course the gorgeous view of northern Adelaide.

Sunset taken from the bar

We grabbed some drinks before digging in into the food. We ordered the Paloma Cocktail Jug for sharing. It was a citrusy Mexican classic and pretty similar to Margarita. The alcohol content was not too overpowering and it was a refreshing drink. A pretty good start to our meal!

Paloma Cocktail

The restaurant menu was divided into small, medium, large and steak sections.

For small, we ordered the Spinach, Kefalotyri Sheep Cheese Croquettes with beetroot and turnip pickle. The croqueettes were crispy and brought out the earthy flavour of the spinach. Hence, the sweetness of beetroots came in handy to balance out the earthiness.

Spinach, Kefalotyri Sheep Cheese Croquettes

For medium, we ordered the Slow Cooked Grilled Octopus with confit kipfler, chorizo and ramesco sauce. The octopus was on the tougher side which might be related to its cooking technique. The ramesco sauce is a nut and red-pepper based sauce. It was smooth and made a great accompaniment with the other ingredients on the plate.

Slow cooked grilled octopus

We also got the Falafel Salad for our vegetarian friends. It contained chickpeas, quinoa, pearl barley, radish, preserved lemon and chilli, being tied together with the green tahini sauce. The salad was well seasoned and I enjoyed the slight crunch from the peas.

Falafel salad

Our vegetarian friends also ordered the Smoked Eggplant. The baba ghanoush was served with sumac, labneh, cranberry and dressed with leaves. It was well received by my friends.

Smoked eggplant

The last medium dish we ordered for the day was the Tongue 'N' Cheek. The dish was made up of ox tongue rillette, confit pork cheek, with fennel and apple salad. The pork cheek had a caramelised skin but it was not crunchy. Similar to human cheek composition, the pork cheek was mainly fats. Besides that, the rillette was well seasoned and I also enjoyed the salad. Fennel and apple always made a good combination.

Tongue 'N' Cheek

Moving on the large dish, we ordered the Chermoula Crusted Lamb, Eye of Shoulder. The lamb was cooked perfectly with its salivating pink appearance. It was tender and melts in our mouth. The barberry rice with pistachio, apricot and sweet carrot had unbeatable flavour despite my preference to have the rice cooked just slightly longer. The saltiness and sourness (from lemon) were not so prominent in the yoghurt even though it was still nice to eat with the lamb.

Chermoula crusted lamb, eye of shoulder

It was a great night out with good company, ambience and the dress up. Thank you 2KW for providing us top notch dining experience.

Do take note also that 2KW has strict dress code for their patrons. So be dressed up!

Address: Level 8, 2 King William Street, Adelaide
Website: http://www.2kwbar.com.au/
Trading hour: 10am-12am (Mon-Thurs), 10am-1.30am (Fri), 12pm-1.30am (Sat), 11am-12am (Sun)

Love, Victoria

I was privileged to be invited to the grand opening of PappaRich Adelaide with complimentary food and drinks alongside with other food bloggers and Chef Poh.

Coming from Malaysian background, Malaysian food is always dear to my heart and soul. Transcending cultures and races, Malaysian food is prepared using myriad combination of spices and cooking methods. If you were to ask the thing that a Malaysian overseas student misses the most, 'Malaysian food' would be undeniably the MOST popular answer.

With the addition of popular Malaysian restaurant chain, Papparich in Adelaide, it certainly adds colour (and competition) to the Malaysian dining experience here.

Today's treats were chosen by Poh Ling Yeow who is the ambassador of PappaRich. Besides that, she is also an artist, TV host, ex-Masterchef contestant and proud owner of Jam Face. Having Poh amongst us was a privilege because she has the knowledge of Malaysian food due to her background. Mhmmmm, can't wait to EAT!

So, we started off with some drinks. These ice blended smoothies were really refreshing, giving us the summery feel. The Mango Mania had well balanced sweetness and sourness, as well as with different textures from the blended ice, cubed fruits and longan.

Ribena Melon Coconut paradise Mango Mania

I got both the Matcha Rocks and Teh C Special. It is advisable to stir the Matcha Rocks (especially with the matcha ice cream) before sipping in. It was smooth and perfect for those who love milky smoothies with a subtle tinge of matcha and mashed red bean.

Just as how Australians always have coffee/tea for every meal, we Malaysians will always have a Kopi O or Teh Peng. The Teh C Special did bring back my memories in Malaysia. It is a 3-layer-tea with milk and palm sugar. The taste of tea was strong and it was not too sweet.

Mango Mania Teh C Peng

For entree, we had prawn dumplings and vegetarian fu chook.

Prawn dumplings are part of Malaysian Chinese food culture and are usually ordered when we go yumcha/dimsum in Malaysia. The prawns were wrapped in glossy dumpling skin and they were well seasoned and well cooked. Coupling with the chilli sauce, it made a good breakfast or snack.

Prawn dumplings

For this vegetarian dish, several vegetables such as carrots and cabbage were wrapped with bean curd skin and steamed. The sweet chilli sauce on the side was the must-have with this vegetarian fu chook roll. I would have preferred it to be filled with meat and deep fried (Well, that would have become another Malaysian snack, Lobak.)

Vegetarian Fu Chook Rolls

The next dish was Chicken and Beef Satay with red onions, cucumber and satay (peanut) sauce. This is a popular Malay dish. The skewed meat were well cooked and the satay sauce was divine! Besides bathing the meat with the sauce, I also love to skewer and dip some diced cucumbers and red onions in the satay sauce.

Beef and Chicken Satay

Roti Canai is a Malay-Indian flatbread which is usually served with dahl or sometimes sugar. It is my favourite breakfast! There are more than 10 types of roti in Malaysia, ranging from Roti Tisu to Roti Telur whereby different ingredients such as cheese and eggs can be added into the roti. It is indeed a creative dish.

It is always a pleasure to be able to watch the dough-flinging process prior to cooking. The dough is transformed thinly that you feel that it is going to break soon but yet it stays!

Dough flinging process and happy cooks

PappaRich offers Roti Telur Bawang with Curry Chicken. The flatbread had outer crisp and inner softness. Sooo good! The ingredients used in the roti were onions and eggs. It came with dahl (lentil sauce), curry chicken and sambal. Fortunately for those who cannot stand extreme spiciness, the curry chicken and sambal were mild. Definitely something I will order again next time!

Roti telur bawang with curry chicken

Noodle dishes were up next! We had fried rice noodle, Char Koay Teow, Wat Tan Hor, Prawn Mee and Ipoh Koay Teow Soup.

The Pappa Fried Rice Noodles was my favourite dish. The rice noodles were stir fried with prawns, eggs and bean sprouts, alongside with the seasoning (lots of oyster sauce and soy sauce), producing the perfect 'brown-and-nearly-charred-but-that-is-the-best-part' appearance. The colour was appetising and the flavour was good. Oh YUMM!

Pappa Fried Rice Noodles

The Char Koay Teow was prepared similar way as the fried rice noodles but with different kind of noodles. In comparison with the rice noodles, I prefer the rice noodles MORE!

Char Koay Teow

The Wat Tan Hor was made up of deep fried noodles with gravy, 'poached' eggs, seafood and vegetables. The gravy should be the highlight of the dish because it ties all the components together. PappaRich executed that pretty well.

Wat Tan Hor

The Prawn Mee came with a small plate of chilli paste. The soup itself was not spicy so if you are a spicy lover, do put in the chilli paste generously. Apart from that, the broth did exude prawn flavour. Ohhh, and PappaRich did include that important fried onions!

Prawn Mee

The last noodle dish was the Ipoh Koay Teow Soup with steamed chicken. It used the same noodle as Char Koay Teow but this time off, it was served in a light chicken-prawn broth. The steamed chicken was tender and well seasoned.

Ipoh Koay Teow Soup with Steamed Chicken

Rice is always the essential staple of Asians, Malaysians included. We had Biryani Rice and Nasi Lemak for the feast.

Biryani Rice is Indian-inspired spiced rice which is eaten best with curries or sambal. PappaRich serves it with red chicken and sambal eggplant. I always love the red chicken because it has the stickiness and sweetness. And most importantly, it is fried! The sambal eggplant was soft and mild. The sweetness of raisins in the rice cut through the spice component and gave you a popping texture. It was a nice dish.

Biryani Rice with Red Chicken and Sambal Eggplant

One of the featured Malaysian dish is the Nasi Lemak! It is made up of coconut rice, which normally comes with anchovies and peanuts in sambal, curry chicken or prawn and boiled egg. Talking about flavours, there were different textures in the dish, not to mention the different layers of taste you will get. The anchovies were crunchy and the sambal prawn gave a mild kick in the taste buds. The coconut rice was fragrant with every grain being visible.

Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken

What's better to end the meal with desserts? We ordered the egg sago pudding, sago pudding, banana fritters and banana split. The banana fritters had crunchy outer layer, but I would have preferred to have smaller banana fritters (which in that case, I can have more crunch!).

I just realised that they do offer Tau Fu Fah (soft silky custard) which I will order next time!!

Egg sago pudding, Sago pudding, Banana fritters with vanilla ice cream, Banana split with ice cream

It was a good meal! Thank you PappaRich for the finger-licking and mouth-watering Malaysian feast. The Malaysian spirit was clearly portrayed with the amount of food we have. It was also a privilege to have Poh as the host!

Poh and I

Home is where the heart is <3>

It's home indeed. :)

Address: 116 Gouger Street, Adelaide

Website: papparich.net.au

Trading hours: 11am-9.30pm (Mon-Sun)

Love, Victoria

Adelaide dining scene has become more and more interesting with the lineup of famous chefs opening restaurants in Adelaide. One of them is Chef Sean Connolly. He was the host of TV food program 'My Family Feast', writer of his cookbook, producer of his home cooking merchandises and winner of Chef of the Year. His most recent venture was the opening of Sean's Kitchen in Adelaide. This multi million dollar restaurant is located next to the historic Adelaide Casino.

Upon entering the restaurant, the dining space looks grand and spacious due to its interior design. It has high ceilings and open kitchen concept. This notches up the ambience of the restaurant. Besides that, there are also a few private dining rooms on the first floor.

Dining area viewed from ham museum

During my visit there, we ordered 2 entrees, 1 side and 4 mains. Our first entree was the ceviche kingfish. Ceviche is a seafood dish typically made from raw fish cured in citrus juices and spiced. Our ceviche was served with chilli, lime, salmon caviar and coriander. In my opinion, the most important element in any ceviche is undoubtedly the freshness of seafood. The kingfish was fresh and beautifully cured, not to mention that I loved the popping salmon caviar bursting more flavours into the dish.

Ceviche kingfish

Another entree of ours was the Crab N Cheese melt. The king crab was cooked with bechamel sauce, served with rye bread with melted cheddar on top. The amount of crab was substantial and the sweetness was prominent. The cheddar also complemented the crab well with the subtle saltiness. It was a bit filling to start off our meal.

Crab N Cheese Melt

Lo and behold, we also ordered the famous duck fat chips as sides. The chips were deep fried/baked in duck fat, rendering the crunchiness. However, the chips did not meet our high expectation as we agreed unanimously that there was no difference between the normal chips and this one. Even though the chips smelled different, but the texture was similar to the normal chips. I prefer the Grill'd chips more to be honest. But well, it was an experience for me.

Duck fat chips

Moving on to the mains, yours truly ordered the Orgy of Mushrooms. It was ricotta gnocchi served with different kinds of mushrooms and burnt butter sauce. My love for gnocchi developed ever since I ordered one at La Trattoria 2 years ago. Sean's gnocchi was fluffy and accompanied by my favourite mushrooms. The burnt butter sauce wasn't too overpowering as well. It was a fabulous dish.

Orgy of Mushroom

Next up, my friend ordered the Steamed Cone Bay Barramundi with Tokyo turnips, lettuce hearts and organic soy broth. This was an Australian dish cooked in Asian way. Barramundi is a beautiful fish that can be found in Australia and this steaming technique had certainly retained its moisture and freshness. This dish was simple and straight to the point.

Steamed Cone Bay Barramundi

In addition, we also ordered the Free Range Chicken Kiev with potato and dill salad. The chicken was well cooked and seasoned. Again, this was simple cooking which matched with Sean's food philosophy.

Free range chicken kiev

We also ordered the Grasslands, Limestone Coast Scotch Fillet with anchovy butter. Sean sourced most of the ingredients from South Australia and this was not an exception.

Scotch fillet with anchovy butter

There was a surprise sent to us when we asked for the bill. The bill was enclosed with a pack of tomato seed in a pretty enveloped, whereby Sean's Kitchen was clearly embossed in gold. Now we can plant our own tomatoes at our backyard, knowing the correct season and time needed to grow!

Tomato seeds

Last but not least, this restaurant has its own highlight, which is the ham museum. Hams from different country were displayed in the museum on the first floor. It's truly amusing to visit the museum. On top of that, Sean's products were being sold in the restaurant too. From duck fat to pasta sauce, you can purchase and recreate one of Sean's dining experiences back home.

Ham display

Ham museum

Sean's pasta sauce

Address: Station Road, Adelaide
Website: http://www.seanskitchen.com.au/

Trading hours: 8am-11pm (Mon-Sun)

Love,

Victoria

September has been good to me, mainly because I am a September baby and it is the first month of my favourite spring season. Since today is the last day of my birthday month, I thought I can share with you my birthday dining experience at Georges on Waymouth. I have always wanted to dine at Georges due to rave reviews from other food bloggers. In addition, Georges has won the Best European Restaurant in Restaurant and Catering SA Awards for Excellence for 4 years in a row since 2010. All the more this restaurant is chosen to host my birthday dinner.

The name of the restaurant derives from its owner, George and Voula Kasimatis. Even though it looks small from the outside, Georges consists of 2 floors, whereby the upper section is opened for function and bigger group of people. The restaurant has a classic European ambience, with minimalist design, wooden floorboards, high ceilings and warm lighting.

Their professional service is truly commendable. Right from the booking until table service, Georges has shown dedication and great hospitality to our group. The staffs adopt the diner-centered approach, attending to our needs and preferences.

It took us a while to order our food because every single item on the menu was so appealing. Our waiting staff came to our help and recommended their popular offerings. Every single element in the menu was explained in details. The dishes on special were written on brown paper hung near to the entrance of the restaurant.

After putting our order, complimentary bread was served. The bread was soft and we dipped with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. I would be even happier if there was dukkah offered. Nevertheless, the bread was a great start to our meal.

Besides that, we were offered sesame bread sticks with green and black olives. The bread sticks were seasoned well with black and white sesame. Georges was considerate enough to offer us an empty plate to discard the pits from the olives.

Bread sticks and olives

The signature dish of Georges is the lamb press. The lamb shank was cooked more than 12 hours till tender. After that, the lamb was shredded and wrapped with pancetta. The lamb press was then pan fried, resulting in a golden and crispy covering of pancetta. The accompaniments were baba ganoush, tahini yoghurt and pomegranate.

The lamb press was the best lamb that I have ever had. The lamb was juicy, tender and literally melted in my mouth. The saltiness from pancetta, smokiness from baba ganoush, slight sourness from pomegranate and palate cleansing tahini yogurt just complemented the lamb so well. It was a marriage between Mediterranean and European food.

Lamb press

My friend also ordered the tortellini of local mushrooms with chestnut puree and native greens. Georges was generous in the contents of tortellini. Even though there was only 3-4 tortellini on the plate, my friend was pretty full at the end of the meal. The mushrooms were fresh and cooked well. The sauces and puree were rich in flavour, yet not subduing the star of the dish, the mushrooms.

Mushroom tortellini

The other offering that caught my eyes was the 24 hour cooked pork neck, served with granny smith apples, mustard, pork lard, morcilla (blood sausage) and potatoes. The pork neck was not fatty and again, it was cooked to perfection. The meat was tender due to the long hours of cooking.

Pork neck

The fish of the day was the grilled snapper with citrus salad. It was a refreshing dish as citrus never go wrong with fish.

Grilled snapper

The pasta chosen by our table was the pappardelle with rabbit ragout, pancetta and shaved pecorino, Compared to other dishes, this did not shine well.

Pappardelle with rabbit ragout

Besides the fish of the day, another seafood dish we ordered was the potato gnocchi with mussels, vongole, capsicum, fennel and saffron. The gnocchi was different from the ones from Italian restaurants as it was served in a long cone instead of cubes. I still prefer my gnocchi to be cut though.

Seafood gnocchi

There is always dessert time and hence one of my friends ordered the affogato as an extra boost of caffeine for him to prepare for his paper tomorrow. It consisted of house made ice cream, espresso and biscotti. The affogato was strong whereas the ice cream was smooth and creamy.

Affogato

I ordered the apple pie panna cotta with salted caramel crumble, pear cubes and vanilla pashmak. Guess what? Georges gave me a little surprise with the written birthday message on my dessert plate. Awwww! The panna cotta was absolutely delicious. Instead of the wobbly panna cotta, this panna cotta had a smooth and milky texture that melted in my mouth. The salted caramel crumble hit the spot with its balanced saltiness and sweetness. It was a dessert that I would go back for.

Apple pie panna cotta

For souvenirs, I baked matcha cupcakes with red bean frosting and Royce green tea chocolate as appreciation gifts for my friends who came for the dinner. The chocolate was amazing with melted green tea jelly in the middle. They can be bought from Royce store at Westfield Marion.

Matcha cupcake with red bean frosting and Royce chocolate

It was a great birthday dinner with nice company and amazing food. Thank you guys for coming and I hope you enjoyed the night just as I did. Thanks again for Ketan who served us well and made sure we had a fabulous dining experience. I definitely recommend Georges on Waymouth if you are thinking for a celebratory and intimate night out.