Chouquette, New Farm

Coffee Eclair, Paris Brest, Cherry Macaroon (yum!) and Chocolate Macaroon

Hidden away from the heavy traffic of Brunswick Street, somewhere in the heart of New Farm, lies this little gem of a patisserie. Chouquette (pronounced shoo-ket) is named after a darling little French pastry made simply with choux pastry (the good stuff used in eclairs) and coarse sugar crystals. Don't get me wrong when I say this, the chouquettes there are lovely ($2 for a bag of 10 bite sized morsels), but what I'm here to rave about are actually the macaroons! The finest yet that we've come across, especially the cherry one, which boasts generous chuncks of fruit laced through the ganache filling.


Chouquettes

Among the other goodies that we sampled were a coffee eclair, a Paris Brest (a donut shaped ring of choux pastry split open and filled with cream, then topped with toasted almonds and icing sugar), and a chocolate macaroon. Just a little trivia about the Paris Brest, and how its name came about: a French pastry chef I once studied under explained to me that the these pastries were first created by a patissier whose patisserie lay along the route of the famous bike race from Paris to Brest, back in the day. In honour of the atheletes, he made these pastries in the shape of a bike wheel. People loved them and they've been around ever since!

Chouquette also specialises in breads and speciality cakes, and the next time we go back, I know I'm definitely gonna get my hands on one of those great looking, rustic baguettes.

Chouquette
19 Barker Street
New Farm, Brisbane, QLD
07 3358 6336
Closed on Mondays

The Inside of a Meat Pie from Absynthe Bakery

Hi folks, just to further expound on one of my previous posts regarding meat pies, I made a special journey down to Circle on Cavill, Surfers Paradise just to test out the acclaimed meat pies at Absynthe Bakery. There were only 2 types of pies left by the time I arrived, a beef and red wine pie, and a lamb and mushroom version. I got to sample both, and they were fantastic. Just to prove my point, I took a picture of the inside of the lamb pie, showing the sheer amount of filling that they pack into their pie pastries. I know it's a bit of a nasty shot, the pie being chewed up and all, but just look at the quantity of meat in that baby! For pies of that size and meat density, they certaintly make for a full meal all on their own. And boy, was I stuffed!

As Nice as Pie

In this month's issue of the Australian Gourmet Traveller, the Gourmet News section on page 16 is devoted to featuring the editor's picks for some of the best pies around the country. Of these, proud Queensland establishments Bespoke, Yatala Pies, Joycelyn's Provisions and Absynthe Bakery can celebrate the great honour of making the list.

In addition to that, and just to delve further into the topic of good pies, I would like to make an honourable mention of Songbirds in the Forest, which serves a killer rabbit, mushroom and herb pie. Their's is essentially a revamped version of everyones classic favourite, served atop a mound of smoothly pureed mushy peas, and drizzled with a rich madeira jus. Yes, I know this is a little of a longshot from the usual comforts of a messy, saucy meat pie with tomato sauce, but it sure makes up for every bit of that in the taste catagory alone.


Rabbit, mushroom and herb pie from Songbirds, Mt Tamborine

Meat pies have been feeding the hungry man for ages, but sadly, aside from being an expert in devouring them, I know little else about their place in our society. Thus, I took it upon myself to research further into the literature of the humble (meat) pie.

Surprisingly, my research revealed a few neat facts:

- meat pies were described by former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr as Australia's "national dish"

- Australians consume an average of 12 meat pies each per year

- Four'N Twenty Pies produce 50,000 pies per hour

- by Aussie regulations, meat pies may legitamately contain snouts, ears, tongue roots, tendons and blood vessels (urgh!)

Personal research even led me to try Domino's meat pie pizza which, while Bev enjoyed, I was rather disappointed with (it's a pretty cool idea, but having shortcrust pastry on pizza dough is just a little too heavy on the starch for me).

On a lighter note, I discovered this awesome sounding thing called the pie floater, which is a meat pie topped with tomato sauce, and floating in a puddle of green pea soup (oooh!). Apparently it was popular all over the country at one point in time (how long ago was that?), but it's popularity gradually weaned and now its availability is limited to mostly only South Australia, where it was officially recognised as a South Australian Heritage Icon by the National Trust of Australia back in 2003!

Geez, now I really gotta sink my chops into one of those pretty soon! Maybe a little pilgrimage to Adelaide on the horizon? We'll see about that..


An old picture of me mucking around, making a beef pie

Thai Wi Rat - Our Favourite Thai Joint

Thai Wi-Rat in the Valley is by many standards our favourite Thai restaurant here in Brisbane. No doubt, it could also easily stand up to any other great Thai restaurant that you'd find in this big country.

The restaurant has been around for a while now, and Bev and I have been there at least 6 times this year alone (talk about a lot, geez). And everytime we go there, the food never fails to impress. We've tried most of the stuff on their menu by now, and feel confident enough to announce to the whole of Brisbane that Thai Wi-Rat absolutely rocks!


Yen Ta Fo noodles- noodles and seafood in a tasty red soup, topped with crispy pork crackling

Unfortunately, and oddly enough, everytime we eat there, we forget to bring our trusty camera along. Perhaps its because we're always too excited about the thought of eating there that we blindly rush out of the house. Well, this last ocassion was different, and we finally arrived at Thai Wi-Rat prepared. Here's some incriminating pictoral evidence of what we pigged out on that day.


Pad Thai with juicy prawns- possibly the most well known Thai noodle dish outside of Thailand

The food boasts regional integrity, something that's increasingly hard to come by these days. The food is of Thai-Laotian influence, and deviates away from most of the run of the mill Thai-restaurant-syndrome dishes (think green, red and yellow curry, fried rice, spring rolls, etc). Although they do offer these dishes still, the focus is on the not-so-stereotypical fare. Our favourite dishes thus far have been the lipsmacking grilled thai pork sausages, stir fried pork leg slices with chilli and green peppercorns, duck larb (mince meat salad), calves liver salad, pork fried with pickled bamboo and pad see ew noodles. They do the usual fare very well too, and we adore the pad thai, som tum (green mango salad) and chicken rice just as much. But ooh, please promise me that you'd order a side serve of deep fried egg and/or fried pork cracklings (just $2 each) to top things off - superduper unhealthy, but just too darn good!


Yum Thai Wi-Rat (Thai Wi-Rat salad)- crispy fish maw, calamari and cashews with herbs and red onion in a sour dressing

To add to the excitement, the restaurant even has a couple of their own no-joke looking metallic "spice kits" which they bring around to every table when it's not too busy. If they don't bring you one of these, you should go hunting around for them; some people like to hog them at their table. Inside them you will find four compartments containing the essentials of Thai eating: chilli powder, fish sauce, sugar, and a sour chilli sauce.

Price-wise, Thai Wi-Rat serves up fantastic food that would'nt break your budget. In fact, it was even featured in the Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine's Cheap Eats column a while back. Apart from the food and the price tags, our other favourite thing about this place is that it opens early and doesn't close till late. That means that you could drop in anytime in the arvo between lunch and dinner and still be served. Now, thats one hell of a joint eh?

Thai Wi-Rat
TC Beirne Building
Shop 48
20 Duncan St
(same stretch as Burlington supermarket)
Fortitude Valley 4006 QLD
Phone: (07) 3257 0884

Technorati tags: food and drink, food, brisbane, food blogs, thai food, spicy, thai restaurant, brisbane restaurant, fortitude valley

Duck Degustation at Isis Brasserie

Isis Brasserie is one of the places in town that I would recommend anyone to go to for some seriously good food. Chef Jason Peppler and his team have, in the past, provided Bev and I with some of our top dining experiences here in Brisbane. For all you food lovers out there, you might like to know that they're running a special degustation menu exclusively for the months of May and June. I have attached the degustation menu here. The menu costs $95 for 9 courses of food, and $155 for food and matching wines.

The feature of this degustation is duck. And my oh my, these people really know how to turn the feature ingredient inside out, manipulating the humble canard into shapes and forms that go beyond our immediate expectations. Lo and behold, duck neck skins, duck eggs, duck livers, duck wings, duck blood, and the entire duck works found their way onto our plates in the most refined and elegant manner.

There was an article in The Age about the dawn of the degustation menu age, and how these dining styles ought to be tools for chefs to showcase their talents and the quality of their ingredients. I completely agree that the chefs at Isis have done precisely that. Even my dining companions agree that they could, I quote: "taste the skill that went into the food".

I apologise for the shoddy photos. I normally have trouble taking photographs at Isis because of the combination of the following 3 factors: 1) I'm still an amateur photographer, 2) their lovely mood lighting makes for a photographer's nightmare, and 3) I just want to dig in as soon as possible, the aroma of duck is way too irresistable to hold off for too long.


Canape: Duck and pork rillettes, sour dough crostini and cornichon


Cappuccino of duck with porcini mushroom powder- my favourite course of the night


Duck neck sausage (in the style of a galantine), with a salad of quince, apple and pistachio


Duck egg pasta, seared Queensland scallop and sauce albuferra- I lapped up every last drop of the gorgeous sauce


Duck liver on brioche, crisp proscuitto and sauce soubise


Civet of duck wing, home-made duck black pudding, peas and smooth potato puree


Sorbet: Lemon and star anise- I personally loved this combination of flavours


Seared duck breast, sweet potato fondant and Amarena cherries


Lemon scented souffle (probably made with duck eggs), white chocolate sorbet

We were highly impressed with most of the dishes on the menu. In our opinion, there were 2 dishes that fell a little under the mark though. We all agreed that the duck liver was slightly overcooked, and the dessert way too sweet. But yet again, in their defence, these are all mistakes to do with the food preparation on the day itself, rather than with the core concept of the dishes. Hopefully, these glitches won't occur when its your turn to dine there!

You need to book the duck degustation menu in advance should you wish to treat yourself to this all out duckfest. I suggest you buzz them real quick as this menu only lasts for a few more weeks!

Isis Brasserie
446 Brunswick Street
Fortitude Valley
Tel: (07) 3852 1155

Technorati tags: Food and Drink, Food, brisbane, food blogs, slow food, restaurant reviews, food outings, brisbane dining, duck, degustation, duck egg, pasta, rillettes, porcini, soup, duck liver, black pudding, star anise, lemon, souffle

Pastries from Absynthe Bakery, Surfers Paradise

After being at the helm of the Queensland dining scene with his restaurant Absynthe, 2 Michelin Starred chef Meyjitte Boughenout opened Absynthe Bakery on Bastille Day in 2006. Located in the new complex, Circle on Cavill, Absynthe Bakery aims to "bring quality bakery goods to the heart of Gold Coast".

We decide to drop by Absynthe Bakery while in the Gold Coast to see for ourselves if their pastries were as good as they were claimed to be. We arrived a little late in the day, and so the selection had dwindled to the remaining 7 or so varieties of tarts and cakes left in the display. I was initially very tempted to try the vanilla brioche, but decided against it, seeing that it had been left out at room temperature for what I think would have been a good part of the day. Another time perhaps, if I can get there early enough to sample it while its at its peak.

So we ended up ordering 4 types of tarts between us, and we all eagerly joined in the tasting. This is what we sampled: a passionfruit curd and meringue tart, a caramelised pineapple tartet, an apple jelly tartet with caramelised apples, and a raspberry and pistachio tartlet. It was unanimous, we all voted the sour passionfruit tart with the sweet, silky meringue as our favourite of the 4 pastries. The pate sucre (sweet shortcrust pastry) was a perfect balance of crunchy and crumbly, while the passionfruit curd was just as sour as I think sour curds ought to be.

Now I really have to come back soon to munch on that enticing vanilla brioche. I bet its darn good too..

Absynthe Bakery
Circle on Cavill
Surfers Paradise Boulevard
Gold Coast, Queensland
Tel: 07 5504 7114


Technorati tags: Food and Drink, Food, brisbane, food blogs, slow food, restaurant reviews, food outings, bakery