Buon Ricordo

Buon Ricordo

108 Boundary St, Paddington

Sydney NSW, 2021 

The second fine dining establishment visited on our recent trip to Sydney was a bit of an old favourite. Buon Ricordo is an odd one and easily polarises visitors. If you expect the fancy or the flash, you won't get it, but you will get Chef Armando Percuoco and his fantastic love of Australian produce. Both the food and his passionate conversation with diners on what is fresh and new are insightful, and you don't get that from many places nowadays.

The lighting is low, the staff well practised and mature. Photography though was neither ideal nor something we had put a lot of effort into, so not many shots made it past editing. Here are a few highlights of the evening.

Primi Piatti

Aguglie - Garfish fillets with caponata, pickled onions and pinenuts. $29.50

I love the presentation of this one. The fillets were completely boneless (mad props, garfish are lovely to eat, but bony little things). The caponata had a delightful Moorishness about it (I see what you did there: Ondine), sweet, sour, and textured. The pinenuts cooked this way to tenderness, were reminiscent of chickpeas.

Pasta

Fettuccine - Cream and Parmesan, topped with a fried truffle egg, tossed at the table. $34.50

The Buon Ricordo classic. Theatre in an over the top, rich yet stunningly simple dish. It's really just pasta, cheese, egg and cream.

The only complaint I had was that truffle oil had been used to excess. The first time I had this, I was lucky enough to be visiting during truffle season. So I've been dreaming about this one since for about 6 years. While being enjoyable, the oil was too overpowering, and fresh truffle is definitely the way to go.


Carne e Volatili

Coniglio - Rabbit stuffed with spinach, chicken and rosemary served with chestnut mushrooms. $45.50

A good, attractive and hearty dish, the rabbit was tender and mild in flavour. While I did enjoy it, between the sauce and the seasoning, the rabbit was indistinguishable from the chicken, and at the time I did comment that I may just have had only chicken on my plate.

Ondine and I both had a good evening at Buon Ricordo and I'd love to be able to visit more often. Rated a reliable 39 of 100 in Gourmet Traveller's top restaurants for 2013, I give Buon Ricordo: 75/100 

Guillaume at Bennelong

Guillaume At Bennelong
Sydney Opera House
Sydney NSW, 2000

4 Courses a la carte $150
8 Course degustation $195/$275 (with wine)
Reservations essential.

Guillaume Brahimi's flagship Sydney restaurant has been on my must-visit list now for a number of years, even more so since his run with French Food Safari and MasterChef Australia. A lot of reviewers will ponce on about the location, the view, and throw words around like "Iconic" - I'm not going to do that. 

Yes Ondine and I got there early and possibly got the best view from the house, but to be totally honest, the food was more captivating. We very much ate with our eyes on this trip.

To set the scene, the style is big-flavoured, modern French, and Brahimi doesn't rely on Asian or African influences too often, which was refreshing. The tariff is higher than other Sydney restaurants of similar quality, but having just flown in from Perth, and on meeting their friendly, knowledgeable staff, it didn't feel like poor value for money. 

Amuse

Pumpkin Mousse, with ginger, chives, burnt butter and seared foie, served in a shot glass. Delicate, seasonal, and a great way to start the meal.

First Course

Eel, silverbeet, brussels sprout, oyster and chicken oysters "sot l'y laisse"

Perhaps the chef was being playful here - this dish felt influenced by several Japanese techniques. Smoked eel layered with silverbeet, chicken in a tempura batter, a single shucked oyster, and microgreens of daikon and mizuna.

Yellowfin tuna, basil, soy, mustard seed 

Yellowfin, seared and wrapped in blanched basil leaves, with a soy and mustard seed vinaigrette and chervil, over dressed lettuce. The entire dish was incredibly delicate and fresh, the pristine sweetness of the fish was definitely the star. One of the best looking dishes of the meal.

Ondine noted that the sole pity on this dish lay in the trimming of the yellowtail itself. A few of the edges were thinner than others, leading to their becoming almost tough under the sear, and throwing off the textural balance.

Second Course

Sweetbreads and tongue, currants, hazelnuts, gingerbread

Panfried veal sweetbreads, over sous-vide veal tongue, with chicken jus, plumped currants and toasted hazelnuts. Topped with microgreens and a pain d'epice panade spooned over at the table.

The textural and flavour interactions in this dish were amazing. The springy sweetbreads with the buttery tongue. The richness of the jus and hazelnuts, with the freshness of the greens, the sharp pop of currants, and the perfumed spice of the remarkably unsweet sauce.

Ondine may have muttered something about Moorish influences here, but it could just have been fork clatter.

Pine Mushroom, oeuf mollet, gnocchi, tomato, salsa verde

There was a lot happening in this dish. Sweet and sour bursts from the tomatoes, the slight chewiness of the gnocchi, creamy egg, crisp microgreens and the meaty textures of the mushroom. Definitely my favourite dish of the day, the vegetarian option was both gorgeous to look at and tasted fantastic.

Third Course

Chicken, leek, spring onion, speck, truffle, pine mushroom

Roast Barossa organic chicken, over a fondue of leek, spring onion and speck, with pine mushroom and chicken jus.

This dish was immaculately presented, with a perfectly moist breast of chicken. The leek and spring onion fondue was rich and silky, though the accompanying jus was a trifle sticky and salty, perhaps a touch over-reduced. The pine mushroom, foraged locally in the Blue Mountains, was a revelation.

When the waiter offered a buttery Paris mash, Ondine did not turn it down.

Barramundi, carrot, ginger, coriander

A very nice piece of fish topped with a heaped mound of fried potato noodles and mild coriander butter sauce. Surrounding the fish were three baby carrots, each a different colour and beneath was the ginger carrot purée. An intensely flavoured gel that worked well as a combination, but was implemented in a heavy-handed way. The plate was practically swimming in it. 

I would have been happier with a few more carrots and half as much purée - it really did distract from the pleasant flavour of the fish.

Dessert

Champagne grapefruit granita, crème chantilly

A bite size palate cleanser of bitter and astringent grapefruit and lemon verbena, followed by smooth chantilly creme. I thought this was a little abrupt, but definitely cleansed your palate and woke you up.

Figs, blood orange, balsamic and vanilla bean icecream

A really good, smooth vanilla icecream. The balsamic reduction worked well with it, but sadly the dish was all about the figs, and the figs did not work.

I'm a big fan of the fruit, but these were barely ripe, had been covered in sugar, and charred to try and bring out some flavour in them. So the resulting taste was just ash and burnt sugar. The smear on the plate was supposed to be the blood orange component, but it was quite uncitrus like, and more like glue. End result - a pretty, but dull and lifeless dessert.

I can see what the kitchen was trying for, but the selection of produce was a big let down.

Goats cheese - Holy Goat "La Luna", honey, pear and walnut

Holy Goat's "La Luna", with a honey gastrique, fennel seed crackers, wafers of Bartlett pear, shaved walnuts and microgreens.

This was an example of a cheese plate that was composed with thought. The assertive goatiness of the cheese was balanced by the spicy fennel seeds, the pear and walnuts adding a fresh crunch, with a touch of sweetness from the gastrique.

The only hiccup was the under-ripe pear, which provided welcome texture but very little flavour of its own. It would have been nice if the gastrique had been a little less runny as well, as it was difficult to apply to each mouthful.

"Bennelong" is a restaurant that I'll be talking about for years to come. The location is spectacular, if you can overlook the passing tourists photographing your meal.

Overall, though there are some elements of the experience that disappointed me. While friendly and knowledgeable, the staff at times seemed distracted. The restaurant in daylight is noticeably a little worn, with the austere concrete of the Opera House shell lifeless and the carpet well trodden. The desserts didn't hit the mark for me, and the carroty fish needed refinement.

Rated number 9 out of the best 100 restaurants in Australia, in Gourmet Traveller's 2012 review, it fell to 11th in 2013 and I think that is an accurate assessment. Worth a visit, but for the price concious, there are several others in the area that are just a bit better. I give it 82/100

Things to do with Lemons 2: Home made Limoncello

It's a classic recipe and Limoncello is used for all kinds of baking and cocktails. It will also keep a very long time unopened in the freezer - at least 3 months. This recipe gets rid of two of those pesky lemons.


Ingredients:

2 Lemons (I prefer Meyers)
200ml good quality vodka (If you cant drink it neat, don't use it.) Higher alcohol is better, as this will be diluted.)
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar

Peel the lemons using a vegetable peeler. Then very carefully using a sharp paring knife remove as much pith as possible.

Place the peel and the vodka in a suitable air tight (preferably glass) container of at least 500ml capacity. Lemon peel is slightly acidic, full of oils, and you are putting this in alcohol. At best the cheap plastics will react with it. At worst, the curry you last kept in that plastic container will be back to haunt your next cocktail party.

Store the container of infusing peel for 3-8 days in a cool, dark place. The refrigerator is fine.

When the vodka is suitably infused, make up a simple syrup (1:1 with the sugar and water). To do this, dissolve the sugar in the water over heat, but do not boil - heat just long enough to dissolve. If the sugar starts to caramelise start again. Limoncello is yellow, not brown.

Allow the syrup to cool and then add to the vodka/peel infusion. If you want a sweeter liqueur, add all of it. I normally make the total volume up to about 400ml - Meyer Lemons are more perfumed than regular varieties and too much sugar can overpower them.

Gently mix and put it back in the refrigerator overnight.

Prepare (sterilise if you prefer) sealable glass bottles. Filter off the peel from the infusion and bottle. If the mix is slightly cloudy you may want to try filtering through a coffee filter, but any residue will settle out. It's mostly harmless.

Enjoy.

Eve's Cidery "Essence"

12% alcohol
375ml bottle
New York State, USA
US$22  http://www.evescidery.com/

A gift from Ondine after her trip to New York last year.

This is an apple ice wine, and it displays all the character of the fruit, with none of the harsh flavours found in cider.

Intensely sweet, syrupy, warming, and delicious. 15% residual sugar, it's begging to be served with (or on) ice cream or fruit tarts.

Recommended.

More Cider

Here's another batch of vaguely southern hemisphere apple derived drinks. Well one is, the other is very much a sign of the cider times.

Natural Selection Apple Cider
7.5% Alcohol
South Australia
750ml bottle, swing top.
$19 Mane Liquor, Ascot

A boutique organic apple cider, made with an extended rest on the lees, and by using cider - not cooking apples. This one comes to you lightly carbonated, very pale and if poured carefully, just a little cloudy.

Dry, pleasantly sharp, with hints of pear juice and lemons. It surprised me with it's level of refinement, and I'd happily recommend it as a wine alternative for seafood.

It's only problem being that it is rather pricey. For $19 there are an awful lot of good white wines with more character and staying power.

Somersby Apple Cider
4.5% Alcohol
Bottled in Victoria*, made in Denmark?
330ml screw top crown closure.
About $3.50 - Dan Murphy's Midland


I've included this one here because it claims it was bottled in Victoria, but it's described as bottled under supervision of Carlsberg of Denmark.  In fact a little bit of research suggests it is indeed a product of Denmark, and can only loosely be described as a cider.

I draw your attention to Dan Murphy's own product description: "Somersby Apple Cider is an invigorating and refreshing cider made from quality fermented apple juice and natural apple flavouring." I'm sure you all had a WTF moment when you read that. 

This is a drink very reminiscent of Kopparberg, or Rekorderlig in that it's a sweet, pear-drop flavoured drink with no palate, structure, colour or redeeming features to speak of. So if you like fizzy sweet water, dosed up with "Natural Flavourings", this is the one for you. Or you could just buy apple juice and add Vodka.



Ondine says: Smells like artificial apple flavouring, appears like the output of a well-hydrated child. Thin, sweet-sour, reminiscent of a simple malate solution. It has no complexity whatsoever. Would not recommend, except as insect bait.

The next crop... West Australian Cider

A good Western Australian made cider has been rather absent from the market for years. In part it's because we don't have cider apples produced in any real quantities here, but I reckon the problem is that the kinds of people that get into cider making are the pubs or big commercial brewers. This means most of the ciders here are really just carbonated, flavourless, low alcohol apple wine alternatives to beer, rather than boutique products with individual styles.

Here's the latest crop of West Australian ciders hitting the shelves at the locals and some of them I'd buy again. It looks like things are improving for the west.

Vinaceous! Forbidden Fruit Pear Cider

6.5% Alcohol
Perth, Western Australia
500ml bottle, crown cap.
Dan Murpheys Midland

A sweet style pear cider, that can still claim to be a cider and not just lolly water.

It of course has a very cute label, that is on form with the rest of Vinaceous's marketing - you can identify it by the semi naked guy, the chick with the fruit and the wildlife. It's supposed to represent temptation or something, but I'm not sure it does it for me. It is after all a rather plain cider.

I really do prefer a bit more flavour in my beverages, so it's not a bad drink if sweet ciders are your thing. Side note: This could be quite good with the addition of some spices and served hot. 

Bootleg Brewery "Prinsep Cider"
4.5% Alcohol
Margaret River, Western Australia
330ml bottle, crown cap.
$4.50 - Mane Liquor Ascot.

Distinctive apple funk, some colour depth, and good acid bite. I had high hopes for this one when I opened it, but it does fall short overall on flavour.  A good example of a "crisp" draught cider, without a heap of marketing buzz, fancy labelling or premium price tags. It's also one of the better local offerings.

I'd love to see this aged on oak for a while to give it some depth. Recommended.

Matso's Mango Cider (with Desert Lime)

4.0% Alcohol
Broome, Western Australia
500ml, Crown cap.
$8.00 - Mane Liquor Ascot.

I'm a big supporter of local produce, but I'm afraid Matso's are really pricing themselves well above the competition for some pretty ordinary products. I've tried their Mango beer and wasn't impressed. Their ginger beer, on the other hand, was interesting, but ridiculously priced for what amounts to soft drink. Now they have released a range of fruit ciders. 

Well the mango cider is an off-sweet style, with good acid and an obvious tropical fruit perfume. The wild lime was a more distinctive a flavour than any mango though. Passable as a generic fruit cider, but nothing remarkable and I wouldn't recommend this to the traditionalist cider drinker. Over priced? Definitely.

Matso's Lime Cider (with Wild Ginger)
4.0% Alcohol
Broome, Western Australia
500ml, Crown cap.
$8.00 - Mane Liquor Ascot.

The second in Matso's new cider range. Pale, cloudy, and with a distinct ginger nose - this does not taste like cider - it's a ginger ale with lime in it. Very different from any other cider product I've tried so far, and as such, may be a good base for several rum cocktails. 

It has enough acid to be a very refreshing hot weather drink. While I would suggest it as something unusual worth trying this summer, I could not recommend it on price.

A long time between drinks...

I believe the cider surge in Western Australia has pretty much died off now. There hasn't been much of interest or new on the shelves at the locals for over three months now, so I've been struggling to find something new that's worth a try.

A lot of the good imports have long come and gone. We seem to have reached a plateau where Rekorderlig, cheap eastern states brewery ciders, and if you are lucky Weston's are all you can find in the bottlos, and that's kind of sad.

Here's two newish ones - one has a rather nifty marketing campaign, while the other has gone the arty route.

Fog City Cloudy Cider

6.0% alcohol.
Victoria, Australia
500ml bottle, crown cap.
$6.50 - Mane Liquor Ascot.

Cloudy and the colour of lemon juice, it's the arty one. Not much on the nose, with a medium dry palate, some acid bite but not much finish. Mid-high alcohol content, this is a solid, almost wineish cider.

Dr Pilkington's Miracle Cider

5.0% alcohol.
South Australia
500ml bottle, crown cap.
$6.99 - Dan Murphys Midland.

Outwardly, A domestic industrial grade cider, but it does have a taste a little like something made with real fruit and not just apple concentrate. Dry, its got a reasonable balance of acid and sugar, but also a little residual bitterness to keep it interesting.

It's big attraction to me was the catchy labelling. I'm not sure if this cider is just snake oil for the cider drinker, but as a commercial style product, it is drinkable, and worth a try. Also keeps away cats.