Even more so because the guest-of-honor, Swee San was around! One of the more popular Malaysian floggers around, and up-and-coming pastry chef - do check out her blog and vote for her.
I met three other lovely bloggers: Mel, Thanh and Shirley. Mel and Thanh are both popular Melbourne foodies and Shirley has just started her new blog, so it was a great pleasure to share the evening with them. More photos can be found at their blogs :).
We started off with a serving of crusty bread, olive oil and sea salt.
First appetizer of the night - baked swordfish (AUD 7.50). Don't be fooled by the size of the photo. The servings were very, very small - about the size and width of my pinky.
These are stuffed artichoke hearts on a bed of rocket, wrapped in prosciutto ham (AUD 7.00). Again, quite a small portion but not bad-tasting.
Red emperor carpaccio with vegetable pesto (AUD 8.00). It looked like and had the consistency of a soft-boiled egg.
Risotto of pear and gorgonzola piccante (about AUD 24.00). Mel ordered this and we found it very interesting. The cheese was quite strong, but the pear pieces were quite sweet, so it helped balance out the taste.
Thanh ordered a saddle of rabbit with rabbit leg, stuffed with onion and thyme (AUD 32.00). We all thought this was pretty good and was a reasonable portion. The meat was tender as well.
Swee ordered slow-braised lamb with red wine, cloves, juniper berries and Vincotto Originale on farro, chives toasted pine nuts and cheese (AUD 29.00). Thanh says that it tastes like hot cross buns as it was quite sweet. I thought it was very unique and the 'rice' seemed like barley grains. It's something I would share with others but would not be able to finish on my own, due to its sweetness.
This is mine: Saffron risotto with slow-cooked veal shank for about AUD 29.00. It reminded me of mac and cheese, but the veal was succulent and in quite large chunks.
Shirley ordered this risotto with leek puree and blue swimmer crab meat. I can't remember the price, but it would be around AUD 30+. It was pretty average and tasted like Chinese congee, because it wasn't a typical creamy risotto.
Choice of 3 sorbet! Lemon, plum and strawberry, I think, with caramelized orange slices. Very, very nice :)
The tiramisu was pretty big as well, and look at the fork dusting! It was great tasting with the right amount of bitterness for me, because I don't really enjoy tiramisu with too much coffee aftertaste.
Have to love this one: Vanilla zabaglione - more of a creme brulee sort of thing, with caramelized toffee on top :).
All in all, it was a lovely evening spent with lovely people :). Thanks, Swee, Mel, Thanh and Shirley! :)
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