Mia's Review: J's Restaurant

Just recently, during yet another team's dinner with D, YN and A, we very last minute headed down to J's Restaurant (discussion was all on Straits Cafe vs Badoque) for a pre-planned 'impromptu' dinner. 

 I wanted to take a picture of the restaurant, but it was full house! Didn't want to snap pictures of innocent diners, so that's all I have of the restaurant interior. The restaurant is not exactly very small, yet not exactly very spacious so reservation in advance is really recommended. 

With a strong Latin-American influence, there's also an addition of a more refined modern European cuisine. J's menu not only caters for Vegetarians and also removed pork/lard and alcohol for Muslims. A great choice for gatherings with individuals of different dietary requirement! 

And now, let's get on with the food, shall we?

Poppers - $17

Breaded jalapeno peppers stuffed with mozzarella, fried till golden brown. Served with salsa sauce and guacamole sauce.
I was hoping that I can get some spicy kick from this appetizer, but it was more of a sour shock instead. A little way too vinegary sour for my liking, though generously stuffed with cheese that was melted till molten in the process of frying till crispy golden brown.
I didn't eat with much sauce, because out of the two I'll prefer the salsa sauce and I really need no more sourish tangy taste added to this poppers.
Caution: The molten cheese are scalding hot. Bite into these poppers with care!

Chipotle Meatballs - $17

Brasied beef meatballs in spicy chipotle and tomato sauce, served with crispy corn tortilla chips.
I can't comment on this, for I do not take beef. It did look delicious, though.

Paella - $39 (for 2 servings)

A traditional Saffron rice dish, with marinated chicken, salmon and tilapia.

One of my favourite food, 'Spanish fried rice'. The rice was cooked till pretty hard, yet drenched in flavourful  savoury moistness, and topped up with generous amount of chicken, salmon and tilapia. At just $39 for 2 pax, as compared to $28 for 1 pax, this is a definite steal!

Fatijas (Chicken) - $29

Grilled chicken breast with sauteed onions, capsicums, cabbage and mushroom, served with warm tortillas and an array of sauces.

Of course, you don't expect grilled chicken breast to be juicy and tender. But they're still nothing short of being flavourful and tasty. Mushrooms seemed a little sparse as I hardly ate any, but they're obviously (as you can see from the picture) very generous with not just the chicken but also the onions and capsicums. I guess the correct way is to wrap the dish in the tortilla and eat it as a self made wrap with your preferred sauce(s), and so I did. I find that the meat itself is flavourful enough and there's really no need to add on any sauces to further complicate the taste.
However, D was literally piling her serving plate with both the salsa and guacamole sauces. So I guess, to each it's own? :)

Churros with Bananas & Mangoes - $12

Churros, served with salted caramel bananas, fresh mangoes and coconut infused mascarpone sabayon.

The churros are pretty well done, served piping hot right out of the fryer. The outside, dusted in icing sugar and drizzled with yummy chocolate, was crispy and the insides were soft, fluffy and slightly moist.
However, I'm not feeling much for the jar of bananas, mangoes, coconut mascarpone cream though. It was way too creamy and heavy on the tastebuds, and I got pretty sick of it even before I could dig out the salted caramel bananas. Gave up on it after mouthful and mouthful of coconut mascarpone cream with bits of mangoes inside. :(
Other than D, who tends to like richer, creamy and more flavourful food, none of us really like the jar of mascarpone sabayon.
Would have enjoyed this dessert a lot more if it's served with a pot of rich chocolate dip instead!

J's Restaurant is located at 7 Purvis Street.
For more information, visit their website HERE

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia's Weekend Getaway: Australia - Queen Victoria Market & Immigration Museum

 And so it was decided that today (my last full day in Melbourne) shall be Museum day! If you don't know me, I actually love 'spamming' museums while on oversea trips. Don't ask me why, I just do. And it has been decided since the day I touched down that we shall kick-start the day with some Spanish cuisine. Paella and Churros. :)

And so we popped by L'Olivo, the restaurant near YS's apt for brunch.

 Pretty obvious that we were their first customer of the day. 

 And there, our paella (which obviously serves 2 even though it wasn't specifically stated on the menu) - roughly about $26 AUD. 

I was pretty disappointed the moment it was served. You probably can't see the reason from the picture, though. It looks more like a risotto, being very moist, creamy and cheesy. The rice was also overcooked for a paella, missing the good bite of a medium cooked rice (though will be fine for a risotto), and the traditional layer of 'burnt rice' (MY FAVOURITE PART OF A PAELLA!) was also missing. 

If I'm not wrong, saffron should also be used in paella, which gives it the distinctive taste and yellow colour. (Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken.) But with all the overdose of creamy cheese, I can't tell whether saffron was used at all. 

It was tasty though, extremely tasty. The seafood were all well done. Nothing was overcooked, not even the squid! The rice was (as I've said) thick and creamy, flavourful and savoury. However, the distinctive saffron & spice taste of a paella was missing, probably due to all the creamy cheese. And so were my favourite rice crust supposedly to be found in abundance at the bottom of the plate. 

All in all, I felt I was eating risotto when I ordered a paella.

Tasty, yes. But I was hardly satisfied. 

And then, our Churros - roughly $9 AUD. And if you haven't read my review on Kaixo, I've spend $14 SGD on an amount equivalent to just 1 stick of this churros I had at L'Olivo.

Once again, the Churros were disappointing. I would have preferred the ones I had at Southern Cross Station, which I shall touch on in my sweet treats entry. They're really just huge sticks of doughnuts drenched in icing sugar and served with some chocolate sauce. 

Where is the cinnamon?

Where is the distinctive 'star shaped' sticks?

 Once again, I ordered Churros and was served normal doughnut sticks with chocolate dip. 

They were good, but.... bleah, I wanted Churros. Not the doughnuts I can find in my local bakeries. 

After brunch, we travelled to Queen Victoria Market for a quick look. And guess what I saw upon stepping into the market (apart from the store at the corner selling all sorts of tea)? Some huge ass macarons!

 

 And they sell unpretty, distressed macarons at $9 AUD for a box of 5 or 6, can't remember the exact number of macarons in that box. Else, it's $2.80 AUD per piece.

Basically I got pretty bored at the market because it's all food, food, and more food products. The Paella and Churros were still fighting for space in my stomach. So nothing caught my attention, even though I did buy a piece of the oversized salted caramel macaron. I can never walk by a store selling macarons and buy nothing. heehee....

So after introducing the paella and churros to their new friend, salted caramel macaron, we hopped onto the tram again and got off at Flinder's Station.

Reminds me of Harry Potter, somehow. Don't ask me why.

And our 2nd destination for the day is just right down the street. Immigration Museum :)

Adult admission will be $10 AUD but with a student pass, you can get a concession entry, which is FOC.

Other than the permanent exhibitions, which educate us on the history of Australia relating to the migrants' diversified cultural background (hence the name, Immigration Museum, duh!), we were also lucky to see two temporary exhibitions, 'Seeking Refuge in Nhill', which is a photographic exhibition exploring the struggles and achievement of the Karen community in Nhill, and 'Faith Fashion Fusion', an exhibition exploring the fashion, faith and identity of the Muslim community.

My favourite exhibition of the permanent exhibitions has to be 'Journeys of a Lifetime'. 

No matter when they arrived, all immigrants are linked by the common experience of a journey.

Over the past two centuries the immigration journey to Australia has changed from a perilous sea voyage of up to 3 months to a routine flight lasting up to 24 hours. Changing transport has not only shortened the journey, but made it more comfortable and affordable.
The journey remains one of the most memorable aspects of any immigration experience.
The Journeys Gallery, also known as the Long Room of Old Customs House, features a 17-metre replica ship where visitors can experience the changes in sea travel first hand from the 1840s to 1950s.
-Credits to Immigration Museum-

 As you walked through the 'ship' from one end to the other, you can really see the difference on board the ship from the older days of 1840s to the later days of 1950s.

Other than the 'boathouse', I also quite enjoyed the exhibition of 'Getting In'.
Getting In was developed in response to market research conducted at the Immigration Museum that found visitors wanted to know more about the process of getting in to Australia, what people went through, who was accepted and who wasn't, and the effect this had on society.
The exhibition does this by exploring the history of immigration policy and how it has changed dramatically over the past two hundred years. Four timeframes outline the main threads in immigration policy: the gold rush days of the 1840s to 1900, Federation to the end of the Second World War (1901 to 1945), then post-war to the early seventies (1946 to 1972) and finally 1973 to the present day.
-Credits to Immigration Museum-

I enjoyed the interview room the most, as you really get to 'interview' applicants who are applying to get in to Australia, and vet through their applications. It also kind of serves as a rough gauge to how much you of their immigration policies you have understood from the exhibition.

As for the temporary exhibitions, I enjoyed 'Faith Fashion Fusion' more than the other. Even though the Nhill exhibition showcased some really brilliant photographs, the interviews of the ladies of the Australian Muslim community, which touched on their experiences and achievements, exhibited at FFF was really enjoyable and worth watching.

And now some random snippets at the museum. There was this corner whereby the walls were stuck with passports from all over the world. 

But we couldn't find Singapore! :(

And guess what's on the menu for dinner?
KOREAN FOOD! :) We came to this korean restaurant in the vicinity of Flinder's Station. (Sorry, can't remember the name of the restaurant) 

And as usual, I always order my favourite Yuzu tea.....

 

Some pajeon (seafood korean pancakes)....  

 My favourite korean food ever, jjigae! This time I got some soft beancurd seafood stew. 

And YS's chicken bulgogi.

Not going to do much review on this. It's just pretty standard korean food, just with a bigger quantity at (of course) a slightly higher price as compared to Korean food in Singapore. The ingredients (seafood for my stew) were also much fresher in comparison. But taste wise, I can safely say it's the same standards. However, I'll much prefer the pancakes I can find in Singapore. The pajeon we had there was much thicker than I would like them to be, and very "floury".

Next up will be my final post on my Aussie getaway, a combined entry on all sweet treats I've eaten! It'll be like a macaron galore. So do stick around!

Till then,
Mia

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Mia's Review: Kaixo

Middle of this month, I successfully planned a surprise birthday celebration for J at Kaixo by gathering all the girlies at a rather short notice. And yup, J and I settled for Kaixo because somehow we were having the same craving for Churros and Paella. Plus, Kaixo is just one street away from her workplace. So I guess, why not? :)

 Menu can be found here without pricing. 

In case you're unfamiliar, Kaixo is a Spanish restaurant that offers mainly cuisine influenced by the Basque region (Northern Spain) and their dishes are generally tapas. 

We didn't even wait for J to confirm our order (because if there were only J and me, we only need to order Paella and Churros) and we went ahead to get a black paella for 2 and risotto off the main menu to share. We also ordered a Kurobuta (black pork) Pork Collar with Pisto Bilbaina and Raxor Clams in sauce Vierge off their special menu. Not forgetting two servings of Churros with hot chocolate dip! 

Just showing the interior of the small restaurant and the cute candle table lamp! 

Ginger Ale - $4.50

The difference between Ginger Ale and Ginger Beer is that Ale is more dry as compared to Beer, that's all (as according to the server). And as per their explanation, this glass of ginger ale is a mixture of slight sweetness, tangy-ness of the lemon, a pleasant subtle spiciness of the ginger and the distinctive dryness of the ale. Coming from someone who enjoys a can of Asahi Super Dry from time to time, this $4.50 is a well spent. :)

Razor Clams - $16

I can see that the rest of the girls has the exact same "Huh!" look that was on my face when the dish was served. We've all overestimated the servings of tapas. It seems that there really is just ONE clam's serving in this dish. (Yikes!)

The clams were cooked to an extremely chewy texture, yet not 'rubbery' at all. You can guess from the generous amount of chopped tomatoes that they tasted sour, pleasantly sour, and makes a very good appetizer course. The only thing bad about this for me was, why so little? :(

Kurobuta Pork Collar - $18

Looks like beef, eh? But it's really pork collar! 

The pork is cooked to amazing tenderness, yet still has the chewy texture that gives the meat a very good bite. Every bite is flavourful and savoury with a hint of spices, brilliant. I'm not going to deny that I'm really not a fan of pork, but this is good! 

Risotto (Creamy Bomba Rice with Mushrooms & Peas) - $18

I shan't deny that I got pretty turned off when this was served. Look at the amount of peas! When I dug my spoon in, I was further turned off because it seemed extremely mushy and gooey. Alright, by now you should know I was never a fan of risotto.... But my views changed upon the first bite. Although it seems mushy and gooey, the rice were actually still pretty hard, which added on a very distinctively bite and gave a great contrast to the gooey cream sauce the rice was generously drenched in. Very creamy, with a subtle savoury flavour to it. I've carefully avoided all the peas so please don't ask me how they tasted, yeah? And erm, because a small serving for 1 was actually shared among the 6 of us, I didn't manage to fish out any piece of mushroom. However tasty, I can forsee myself being unable to finish even the small serving due to the creaminess of the dish. I'm not exactly a cream person, that's why.

Black Paella for 2 (My apologies for the blurred picture) - $20 per pax ($40)

First impression, serves 2? Really? The serving of this paella is almost like the risotto for 1! 

However, the rip-off serving aside, first bite of the paella was heavenly. The rice was cooked till the point whereby those rice crusts are forming (think of claypot rice, those last bits of rice at the bottom?), hence it's a brilliant blend of soft mushiness with crusty hardness, all in a mouthful of rice. The pleasant surprise of the texture is further sweetened up with a flavourful savoury taste that was slightly peppery. Just now I liked it! However, the seafood were less promising. They're generally overcooked, with the squid so terribly done I felt I was chewing some rubber tyres. In the end I totally gave up and swallowed it all, almost choking on the huge chunk of unchewable squid.

The strong flavour of the rice also got to me after a while, so much so that I felt they're too salty to stomach with my final bite. I guess this is why they're meant for two. The strong flavour makes it impossible to finish this plate of paella alone. 

Churros - $14

Yes, $14 for 5 sticks of fried dough covered in cinnamon sugar and a watery chocolate dip. MAJOR RIP OFF. 

If you're interested, you can check out my post on churros recipe, which I've done recently. This $14 Churros basically just looks prettier than mine, made thicker than mine, more generously coated with cinnamon sugar than mine, and comes with an additional dish of a very watery chocolate dip.

Major disappointment here. Need I say more?

All in all, the 6 of us spent $160 in total at Kaixo, and left the place still very hungry and heading directly to a dim sum place over at Chinatown for 2nd round. 

The food was tasty, no doubt, but the price was too high for comfort. I guess I'll go back to Medz for paella for now, and will make my own churros. :p

Kaixo is located at 96 Tanjong Pagar Road and is closed on Sundays and Mondays. 

Till then, 

Mia

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