RESTAURANT REVIEW: MR WONG BY MERIVALE (DAN HONG, JOWLETTE WU AND ERIC KOH CHEFS)

Last night, I celebrated my friend's birthday at Mr Wong.  This is a newly opened restaurant by Merivale on Bridge Street.  I have seen Facebook advertise Mr Wong and have read mixed reviews of this place.  My take on it was that the food was pretty good.  It kind of looks like a warehouse with wooden chairs and tables surrounded by old looking lampshades and fake peony flowers.  Even the toilets were traditional old style.  The restaurant is big - it stretches from one side to another on two levels.  Still because I decided to go there for my friend's birthday the day before I couldn't get a booking so we go there around 6.15pm to place our name down for a 7.45pm seating.  We finally got our tables around 8.00pm.  We were starving however food came out relatively quickly and the waiters were always polite unlike other chinese restaurants.

Mr Wong restaurant

The atmosphere was amazing and they had a bar for those who come early and are waiting for their tables.  Establishment was just around the corner too so can always go there for a drink too.  My friend and I ended up waiting for hours and we didn't even end up at a table but a sit down bar table with high chairs.  We were disappointed because spacing is difficult but we managed.  Due to the long wait the food had to be great otherwise we would never come here again.  Thankfully the food was good.  It was slightly salty but still flavoursome and we can tell the quality of the ingredients were fresh and good.  I've tasted chinese restaurant food before and it just doesn't taste great and leaves this MSG aftertaste.  We ordered four dishes on the night - a five spice tofu dish, kung pao chicken with crunchy shallots, peanuts and sichuan chillis, five kinds of mushrooms stir fried and steamed fish with ginger and shallots.

The tofu can be ordered as small or large.  You can smell and taste the five spice and the tofu was soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.  Thought, there wasn't much of a crunch but still crispy.

Five spiced tofu with chillis and coriander

The kungpao chicken was spicy because of the sichuan chicken and added peanuts gave it an extra edge to the dish.  Though spicy it wasn't too hot and the shallots were nice too.

Kung Pao Chicken with shallots, peanuts and sichuan chicken

I loved the five mushroom dish.  The mushrooms were so soft and it was tasty too.  It seems like a simple dish but definitely exceeded expectations.

Five mushroom stir fried

The steamed fish did not disappoint either. Normally you have the whole fish at chinese restaurants but here, we had soft fillet fish cooked to perfection.  Very light in taste so need to immerse in the soy sauce and shallots.

Steamed fillet fish with coriander and soy and vinegar sauce

I think Spice Temple was too spicy for my liking and Billy Kwong was too salty so I prefer Mr Wong over these two restaurants.  My old time favourite is Jimmy Liks so I am yet to return and Mahjong Room is also lovely too.  Overall I would rate Mr Wong as 8/10 (Same as what SMH had scored but the Urbanspooners and other readers don't seen to be that impressed).  For SMH's review of Mr Wong, you can read the article here by Terry Durrack: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurant-review-mr-wong-20120827-24vga.html.  Apparently the crab dish look really good, pekking duck and live lobster are also a must.  The dumplings are colourful be a bit on the expensive side.  Last time I had green and orange dumplings were from London and what do you know, the dumpling chef is from London!

Mr Wong
Address: 3 Bridge Lane, Sydney, NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9240 3000
Opening hours: Lunch and Dinner - Thurs to Sat until 2 am
Website: Mr Wong website

WEDDING LOCATION REVIEW: THE DECKHOUSE, WOOLWICH

On Sunday 23th of September 2012 I had the privilege of attending a wedding at the Woolwich Deckhouse.  Beforehand, I've never heard of this place and am glad that I had the opportunity to experience the food and ambience of the Deckhouse.  As the name suggest, there is a deck that overlooks the harbour and you can even see the harbour bridge and skyline.  There's a cafe there that you can enjoy food on a casual weekend or during weekdays.

I must say the food here was fantastic.  My only criticism was that food was spaced over a long period of time.  Entrees were served then you would have to wait for another hour before mains were served followed by another hour or hour and a half until dessert was served.  If you are starving and you don't want your guest to starve I suggest either having a word or choosing another reception location.

Entree served were prawns and scallops.  I adore scallops and am allergic to prawns.  The scallops were cooked perfectly and had a nice sauce and aroma.

Scallops with potato cream topped with prosciutto

Next up mains were choices of steak and barramundi fish.  The barramundi fish was superb.  It was soft and melted in the mouth and had a subtle citrus flavour.  There was so potato mash at the bottom too which was nice and creamy.  I didn't have the steak and was thankful because it was overcooked and dry.

Barramundi fillet with potato mash and cucumber slices and citric sauce

Steak with asparagus, potato gratin and pie

The last course of the meal - dessert is always my biggest highlight.  There was a choice of chocolate fondant that simply melted as you spoon it and vanilla panna cotta.  I was sick of chocolate after the eight textured cake from Quay restaurant.  The panna cotta was divine.  It was smooth and you can really taste the vanilla from the vanilla beans.

Chocolate fondant with vanilla ice-cream

Vanilla panna cotta with pineapple and cream

Reception decor at the Deckhouse

The Deckhouse
Website: http://www.deckhousewoolwich.com.au
Address:
End of Clarke Road, Woolwich Dock
New South Wales
Cafe no: 9817 4394
Office no: 9817 6401

PATISSE COOKING CLASS: CROQUEMBOUCHE (SEP 20th 2012)

Last Thursday night, I went to Chippendale for the Croquembouche masterclass held by Vincent Gaden from Patisse.  A croquembouche is a French dessert that looks like a tower made from choux pastry filled with creme patisserie.  It looks and tastes amazing!

Both Simon Food Favourites and Not Quite Nigella have already been to the Patisse Croquembouche masterclass a few years back.  Any cooking or baking class is not particularly cheap so probably best to use a voucher from Cudo, Travelzoo, Ouffer, Livingsocial, Ourdeals, Groupon, Spreets etc.  However, you won't find any of the famous ones on offer as yet as they are popular as it is.  I would love to do a macaron class but they are closer to $200 and at $3.00 each on average I can get over 60 macarons and I don't even need to clean up the mess.   Going to the croquembouche class was worth the $185.  Croquembouches can costs up to $150+ for a lovely decorated one and when you find out the amount of effort that is involved in making and assembling this "crunch in a mouth", you will happily pay for the well made cake.  I got a voucher worth $25 to see Masterchef live and they offered us wine and a lovely dinner - a crunchy baked quiche probably worth $20 so class is about $140 but you get to take that cake home with you.  The Masterchef live worth $25 is just a bonus that you wouldn't normally get though.  The best thing about the class is that you won't have to do the cleaning up and they have all the utensils required for the croquembouche.

So would I recommend this class? Definitely!!! Vincent Gaden is seen on Masterchef a few times now and it's nice to be able to learn from a Masterchef.  They have macaron class and souffle classes as well.  I haven't quite mastered souffle but it's really easy so I wouldn't recommend paying $185 just to learn how to make it but a croquembouche is a lot more difficult than souffle.

I love the angel hair part the most when it comes to making this dessert.  It just looks amazing but unfortunately with the humility, the caramel can melt so its usually created two hours before an event and served up.  Also, need to put the croquembouche in the fridge if you make it the day before.  You learn other great tips in class too such as how to pipe the choux pastry and fill it with cream as well as how to assemble the croquembouche using caramel.

I love the end result and my masterpiece creation.  Class was like 4 hours long and assembling takes at least 45 minutes for 50 choux pastry.  I needed 51 as the last one formed top of the tree.  For weddings, it would be beautiful to use flowers for decoration.  Here we were given rose, lavender, chocolate balls, hundreds and thousands sprinkles and icing sugar.  I think too much would be overdone but too little means your croquembouche is too plain and boring.

Croquembouche with red angel hair

Details of how this is made can be found @ Not Quite Nigela's website Step by Step Guide

A video and further details from Simon's Food Favourite's Croquembouche Patisse Masterclass

Patisse is no longer a cafe but a cooking school only and they have high tea pop ups and are at Pyrmont Farmer Grower's Market every first Saturday of the month.

Patisse Cooking School classes are found on their website and they are now at Chippendale, previously at Waterloo.

Patisse Cooking School
Ground Floor
67-69 Regent Street
CHIPPENDALE  NSW 2018
PH: (02) 9690 0665
E: info@patisse.com.au