Firepop

Firepop is very new; my friend mentioned it to me amongst other hip and cool restaurants in the Newtown/Enmore area, and this one appealed to me quite a bit - I love places that cook with fire, and the description of the place sounded right up my alley - chicken hearts! Chicken tails! Padron peppers!

Look at the fish bones drying for stock!

My friend and I went for the a la carte menu since I wanted the chicken bits that weren't included in the set menu, and it turns out that it's possible to try all the things on the menu (not the mains or salads unless you have a super big appetite). We went through the priority items first and then later went back to get the things we missed!

This was the lamb marrow and it was my first time eating lamb marrow, it was good!

They didn't have oysters that day, but instead had some really nice hapuka with really tasty watermelon radish!

This is a terrible picture of a really nice wagyu cube. It's not as dark as it looks, and the flavour was good and it was nice and tender! I actually think this would go really nicely with some wasabi rather than the garlic chips, but I'm not complaining!

Wagyu slices, which did come with wasabi! It was also soy marinated so it had a great flavour.

And here are the chicken tails! I love that fatty goodness, it's so bad but so good!

The chicken hearts were really delicious too, maybe one day I should think about possibly cooking with chicken hearts?

They actually had a grilled tofu option which was really interesting, had a slightly spicy sauce if I remember and was quite enjoyable. I had been complaining lately how a lot of cheaper, almost fast food places (and even not cheap fast food places!) often don't do tofu well - I have no idea how. It's so simple to make it tasty, and Firepop demonstrates this well!

Ahahaha the padron peppers, with a side of shishito peppers. I love chilli roulette, and there was a frozen long grape on the side if we got the spicy one. Because I have no spice tolerance though, it's hard to tell if I actually got a super spicy one. I think I can gauge whether or not something is spicier than normal for me; the final padron pepper was noticeably hotter than the previous one I ate, and the heat continued to build up well after I stopped eating more, so I imagine I might have hit the jackpot, and so I asked for an extra frozen grape. I should really freeze some grapes as edible sweet ice!

And here's where we went back to the top of the menu and ordered the things we skipped. Corn ribs with a mountain of cheese, one of their popular dishes, and with good reason! Very tasty corn!

The lamb was also very impressive, I actually don't eat enough lamb but whenever I order it, it's so good. I really think I should look into learning to cook more cuts of lamb too; I didn't cook lamb forequarter chops very well once (I had no idea how long to cook them for) and usually end up specialising in backstrap and cutlets, both of which are some of the most expensive cuts ever. Lamb ribs and lamb leg seem to be grisly? I have no idea why it'd be grisly? So shoulder is the only cut that I really enjoy slow cooking - it's so good! Maybe one day I need to find a cut that I can short cook well.

And the pork belly, a classic, tasty stick!

Okay, this panna cotta was actually amazing. The chef mentioned that they make everything from scratch, even the buttermilk, which is really cool! There was rhubarb and strawberry that cut through the panna cotta nicely, and also the drops of olive oil in there were really nice too! The panna cotta had a texture similar to the type of custard that Teeter Bakery in Perth makes, it's smooth, rich, very, very nice!

What a cute little restaurant that makes tasty food! It's so simple and we could try everything without feeling overly full (I managed to save enough stomach space to go a few doors down and try out some vegan salmon sushi lol - which was fun to eat!). Hopefully they'll do well!

Fico

I visited a bunch of restaurants and wine bars during my hobart visit, including a fantastic dinner at Sonny where I had a lovely conversation with two other solo diners, but Fico was the only one I had booked in advance since it seemed interesting. It was fantastic!

The best thing about going to a restaurant and seeing an oyster fork, but no oysters on the menu? It means oysters are on the menu! Most of the oysters in restaurants these days are from Boomer Bay, whereas last time it was all from Flirty Bay, how interesting! Tassie oysters are so delicious!

Carrot gazpacho - it was so creamy but apparently doesn't have any cream in it! Was it really all made from carrots? Because that's incredible!

This funny looking plate was a super tasty fig leaf oil, balsamic vinegar and sea salt dip for some tasty bread! How is it that this tasted so good? That balsamic vinegar was fantastic!

My favourite dish of the night flavour and texture wise, tuna and heirloom tomatoes with horseradish cream and dashi. That tuna was amazing, and apparently there was a tomatillo in the tomato mix too! The horseradish cream was quite potent, not too bad though! Some nose fuzziness but not enough to disrupt my enjoyment of the dish.

Fico has European influences and a baby sister pasta bar, so it's no surprise there's pasta on the menu - tagliolini with calamari. I think my opinion that Lulu La Delizia makes the best pasta hasn't changed, but this was quite nice!

Haha ok this dish was awesome. It's listed as flathead royale, but they've made it so it looks like a creme caramel! The texture and flavour were so good, this was my other favourite dish! The texture of the flathead mousse was like that of a steamed egg tart or silken tofu - nice, soft and creamy, and the soy based sauce went so well with it!

Of course I said yes to adding 5g of truffle for $20 onto the duck agnolotti! I am so illiterate when it comes to Italian food that I was expecting duck on the outside rather than duck on the inside of a pasta!

Yes, venison time! Venison backstrap, venison mince en croute, and some beetroot and olive garnishes. Venison is a pest here so it's always great to see it on the menu. That pastry was done really well!

This funky looking dessert was mandarin sorbet, milk gelato, and sabayon. They even poured the sabayon tableside so it slowly blobbed downwards. When I tasted it, all elements together tasted better than each individual part, and it looks like I'm on the same page as the staff, because that's what the waiter said too! I love food that tastes different as a whole compared to the individual parts!

Lastly, a cute little choux! Filled with praline and grand marnier, what a great way to finish dinner!

Overall this was a very nice place, I'm so glad I booked it! The service was so professional, I hadn't fine dined in so long that it was super refreshing! Oh yeah, the drinks - I had two drinks, a cold pressed sour cherry juice which was lovely and tart, and then also a very fragrant raspberry kombucha. Oh, the decor is excellent too, including a hacksaw on one of the walls haha!

Since I probably won't be making posts about the other places I ate at, I wanted to mention here that Hobart has some great non alcoholic options, even at the wine bars! It's so great to see, it means I don't feel out of place regardless of what kind of eatery I'm at!

Komeyui Melbourne

I only really wanted to choose one restaurant to book while in Melbourne, and Komeyui has been on my list for several years and seems to regularly pop up as a great restaurant to visit. Some of the research I did shows that this omakase would be interesting, since they also offer kaiseki options, so I wanted to see what dishes they'd have on offer!

Autumn sunset - fresh oyster, scallop, grapefruit, scampi caviar

Hello scampi caviar, I haven't seen you in so long! So many of my favourite things in a combo I haven't had before!

The Jewel of Heard Island - cured toothfish, shaved qukes, yumepirika tart, miso oroshi ginger sauce

Okay this plating is so fun and interesting too! I definitely love the way the dishes are presented here. This is my first time having cured toothfish too, and it was nice! The yumepirika rice tart was very crunchy, which was a great contrast to the fish.

Onsen Tenaga Ebi - steamed scampi, soy curd skin, ginger ankake

This was the cutest dish of the night! Look at it! An adorable little scampi complete with flower decoration! Of course, I took multiple pictures of it as a result. The chef also recommended to scoop the brains out of the prawn to mix into the ginger ankake. How fun and tasty!

Konnichiwa Wagyu-san! - Seared Mayura MB9+ wagyu, truffled creme fraiche, shaved shiitake

Even the menu description is excited! This doesn't look like much but it was my favourite dish of the night! I thought it would be the scampi, but as soon as I bit into the beef, I knew. The truffle oil and the shiitake made it nice and aromatic, but it was the bite of the beef that sold me. It was tender, but there was this lovely hint of resistance, like sinew? But not chewy - I don't know how to describe it exactly but it's my favourite kind of texture where it gives a little, before it gives way. Sooo good!

And then came the 10 piece nigiri selection!

Snapper, alfonsino, tuna, and Salmon with fried radish (I think it was fried radish) were the first in the lineup. The salmon was actually a pleasant surprise because that fried radish?? was very crispy and the texture worked so well! It's something I haven't had before in that combo so I was very happy with it!

Josper Wagyu Bouillon - Josper grilled MB9+ wagyu soup, cherry tomato, shallot, pumpkin.

Soup time! What a cute little soup! It took me a while to remember what a Josper was, but I recalled it being a super fancy oven! This was a light, clear soup that was perfect to have between courses.

The last few nigiri were kingfish, scampi, otoro, wagyu, scallop, and anago. I was curious as to how this wagyu would taste, considering the previous wagyu dish was so good. The seared wagyu and shiitake from earlier was definitely a clear winner!

What's also interesting is that I seem to recognise anago! The size and shape is different from that of unagi! It was good to have this as the final piece!

Born in Kochi-ken - matcha gateau, adzuki red bean paste, yuzu panna cotta.

I was super amused at the olive branch in the middle, only because my pigeons love olive branches haha! The waitstaff recommended alternating between the two desserts, but I had a clear favourite, the yuzu panna cotta.

There was also a most delicious matcha and soybean tea that was served at the end! Funny story, I tried to order this at the beginning, since I saw it on the menu, but I was told that coffee or tea was included at the end, so that I could choose another drink if I wanted. The tea turned out really tasty, and it was so good that I got an extra pour of it!

Overall it was quite enjoyable, and I liked the variety of dishes. It's been so long since I've done any kind of fine dining and this was a great experience!

And we're not quite done yet. On the way to the bathroom, I noticed the photo on the wall. Wow, pigeons!! Haha I can't believe they'd have a photo of pigeons! I found that adorable, but was also puzzled that someone would actually print a photo like this! I mean, I took a similar photo in Sydney lol, maybe I can "publish" a pigeon photo!

Petermen

Haha, I'm so silly for starting a post about a seafood restaurant using a picture of a flat white! But there's a reason for that, I was here for brunch, and, the coffee was surprisingly good! I've never had coffee this pleasant from one before (including Saint Peter's Artificer batch brew; that was nice but not at an Artificer level).

Ok, let's get onto the seafoody goodness. Petermen is a newly opened Josh Niland establishment, and conveniently (for me) located in St Leonards. I'd read that it wasn't quite as experimental or out there as Saint Peter, but I was here specifically for brunch, so that I could get a chance of tasting those wonderful sea urchin crumpets again. But I couldn't just have the crumpets, I had to try some other things too! More oysters, especially as I hadn't had a wapengo oyster in forever, so I had to get one, plus a merimbula rock oyster too.

Here is the delightful little expensive crumpet! Yes, how delicious! I remember really loving the actual crumpet at Saint Peter, and it's just as good here! The best thing about this little morsel is that the crumpet is at the same level as the sea urchin, super crispy crusty on the outside and soft on the inside!

They had larger dishes that I also wanted to try, but since most of these were for two people, I had to think strategically. I couldn't order anymore appetisers or else I'd be too full to finish the main, even though I really wanted to try the scallops. Maybe next time! I decided on the fish sausage with tomato, since I haven't tried a fish sausage yet. I really wanted to know how the taste and texture would be, and it was very good. It absolutely fits right in with beef sausages on a barbeque! Super extremely good! And the best thing about this dish was that the tomato dressing was the perfect accompaniment to the sausage! So much flavour! So much so that I realised I needed bread to mop up all the sauce!

I was so full, but I did have to try out a dessert too. This was the apple tart, and it was a nice simple dish! I was hoping for a shortcrust pastry crust, rather than this flat style, but this wasn't bad! Not quite my style of dessert, but I already knew that too - I deliberately chose something I wouldn't usually go for to expand my palate!

And the best bit of all was that Josh was actually there at the restaurant! So I had to turn on my stalker mode and take a photo!

What I love about this place is that it's so much easier to get to than Paddington, which is automatically a plus for me! It means that I don't miss Saint Peter as much. The seafood here is very good, even though the prices are through the roof. It's worth the experience, even if it's just once!

Gildas

First there was Firedoor, and now there's Gildas, a new Lennox Hastie establishment!

My trip to Sydney was rather impromptu, and I found myself without any plans on a Friday night. So what do I do? I google Gildas to see if they're walk in friendly, and lo and behold, I got myself a spot!

Look at these lovely bite size gildas! I love the naming system too. I was only in here for something small, and this fit the bill perfectly! They had three gildas on offer - gilda, grillda, and matilda. The gilda is a classic - anchovy, olive, and pepper. The grillda was bonito and caper, while the matilda was kangaroo and desert lime. My favourite (if I had to choose one) was the grillda, but to be honest, all three were fantastic!

When I saw the retired dairy cow tartare on the menu, I totally had to get it! I've been wanting to eat more dairy cows, and this one was great! Because of the way it was prepared, I couldn't tell that this was any different from a beef cow. There was a cute cup of kipfler chips to go with it!

I can't get enough of mushrooms, so I had to order the oyster mushroom and smoked yolk dish. Oyster mushrooms are too expensive to buy at home, so it was a great excuse to splurge!

And lastly, the tocino de cielo. I'd never had anything like it so I had to try it, and I'm glad it was small! That's what I get for having a pre-lunch and a late lunch! This had the most interesting texture, it's described as being similar to a creme caramel, but this was soooo much richer. It's like a creme caramel if it was made of 90% egg yolks! It was the perfect size and I love all the tiny glistening grapes on top!

I'm really glad they take walk ins so that I could try out a few of these dishes. It's very much a case of simple things done well, and some food I've never had before! It is a great place to have drinks and some food!

The best bit about the visit was the souvenirs, I have no idea if these are given out to every table, but my bill came with fat matchsticks and a ... coin? thing? I have no idea if it has a name. But it was very fun to get, better than just a business card! I left the matchsticks behind though since I didn't want to take them on the plane. It's so retro, it's great!