Sharing Plates
January 18, 2010 | 
Author Punch Lane
43 Little Bourke St, Melbourne
03 9639 4944
Punch Lane is a little gem that has been recommended by the Good Food Guide, just a stones’ throw away from my place. One day, I finally dragged hubby out of the house to this cosy little place for a relaxing dinner.
Apparently, this place is pretty much booked out on a Thursday night so we were seated in a dark cosy shared table in the corner. Thankfully, the restuarant wasn’t as full as they initially predicted so we pretty much had a table to ourselves.
3 cheeses kataifi balls w/ mint yoghurt & pomergrante molasses ($14.50) is fantastic. A dish of little crispy balls with a gooey centre, it is a delightful surprise with a tangy sour flavour from the pomergrante and a slight minty flavour from the yoghurt. Highly recommended 
this dish with the contrasts in textures and flavours.
Normally I am a bit wary of chorizo- it’s normally too rich and salty for me. Fortunately, Punch Lane’s Chorizo ($15.50) is cooked with onions and capsicum. The natural sweetness of the cooked onions complements greatly with the chorizo making it a fantastic comfort food.
Hubby chose the Grilled Rib eye w/ oxtail sauce $39 and I was not happy- I made rib eye for him the night before! Why was he eating rib eye AGAIN? A bite of his rib eye soon proved why-very tender, this rib eye had a wonderful char grilled flavour with a beautiful thick sauce- yum.
I ordered a seared scallop w/ confit cherry tomato, crispy pancetta and pea puree $36.5. It was a delight to the eye as well as the tastebuds, with beautifully presented gems of fresh scallops, dotted with pearls of nice, firm peas. The two thin, crispy pancetta adds a tinge of saltiness to the scallop without overpowering the flavours. Perfect.
Feeling decidedly adventurous as the night goes by, I decided to share a Pashka ($13.50) with hubby. Pashka is a Russian dessert of sweeten ricotta, almond, chocolate and candied lemon with poached pear in a cherry sauce. Whilst these ingredients seemed to be common when used seperately, it proved to be a bit out of comfort zone for hubby. It is certainly a bit of an aquired taste as the two blobs tasted more like cream than ricotta and the cherry sauce is a bit weird with the poached pear. I found that it actually comes together beautifully, if you just combine all the individual flavours in one mouthful. The chocolate/ almound flavours satisfy the sweet tooth in me, while the cherry, pear and lemon made this otherwise heavy dessert refreshing.
If you like good quality, simple food with great flavours, this is the place for you. 8/10
The Crosstown Eating House
Cuisine: Sharing plates, Australian
23 Logan Road
Woolloongabba, Brisbane
Ph: (07) 3162 3839
The Crosstown Eating House opened up less than a month ago on a little stretch of Logan Road in Woolloongabba I am now considering calling the greatest place on earth. Well maybe if Chouquette and Salon move there too.
One one side of the dusty, roadworks laden street is Pearl with the great cakes and breakfast and directly opposite is the Crosstown.
Several weeks ago staff at Pearl told some my friends that a friend of theirs was setting up shop across the road. This sort of thing excites me and fuels my curiosity. Hubby, my sister and I were early and were still waiting for four more of our party. We went in to wait and were led to the courtyard. A cosy little “outside” area turned into an inside space. You’re on the verandah and through the window is the bar where a friendly face is offering you drinks and nibblies. I immediately fell in love with Crosstown. It feels like your neighbour or a good friend has invited you over for a drink and a nice meal and now you want to move in with them.
They don’t take bookings, but invite you to just rock up. It’s that whole friendly neighbour thing again really. And bring friends of course, that’s highly recommended.
After we were all seated our table were made ourselves busy trying to decide what to eat. After trying to stop ourselves from ordering one of everything per person, it was explained to us that the idea behind the menu was to share. I noticed that they had to explain this to other diners as well after they experienced similar dilemas to us. It might save them some hassle in the future if they print the explanation of sharing plates on the menu or tell guests when they are seated. After all that though I think we did almost order everything on the menu. Only a few of us wanted lamb cutlets or oysters but everything else we shared in our feast. We had managed to order just the right amount of food with room for dessert.
Before I show you all the food, just to save me some typing, EVERYTHING was good.
Meat Balls and Sauce ($14) – I suggest you order some bread to dip in the sauce left over at the end.
Prawns and white anchovy mayonnaise ($15) – the prawns had a sweet flesh and the mayonnaise was a great complement with a light anchovy flavour.
Steak and horseradish ($15) – tender steak in a lovely horseradish sauce, another one to save for dipping bread into.
Lamb Cutlets ($4 each) with a lovely tomato relish. There is enough to load heaps of relish onto your cutlet.
House shucked oyster ($3 each), very fresh oysters, why did I only have one?
Lamb Shoulder and Pasta ($25), was what I am certain was handmade pasta as it was so soft and the sauce with tender pieces of lamb shoulder was delicious. This was one of my favourite dishes and one of the more substantial sharing plates.
Spatchcock and outside stuffing ($28), was again one of the more substantial sharing dishes and also one of my favourites. The meat was moist and full of flavour. The “outside stuffing” was pieces of bread with herbs and not all soggy as “inside stuffings” can be sometimes.
Whiting fillets and tomato ($16) nice pieces of seasoned whiting.
Mushrooms and toast ($12), an absolutely wonderful mushroom dish. A nice mix of mushroom types in herbs, garlic and olive oil with crusty slices of toasted bread. Another favourite.. how many can I have?
And then we had room for dessert. My sister and I were a little overzealous when it came to dessert and ordered 3 of the 4 available, but it was totally worth it.
Mini Ice-cream Cones ($8), 3 mini waffle cones with vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice-cream sitting in a pot of granola for dipping. This has to be one of the cutest desserts ever. You would think that because there are three that you should share, but you really don’t have to and you probably won’t.
Jam drop and chocolate chip walnut cookies ($4), 2 very big cookies, perfect for your coffee.
Chocolate Pear Pot ($9) a little chocolate pudding/souffle with pear down the bottom and a side of pouring cream or custard. Very rich and good for chocoholics.
Favourite dessert time and the winner is the Strawberry Sanga (sandwich) ($9). Two slices of sponge cake for bread, with marscapone cream and strawberries, cut and arranged club sandwich style drizzled with strawberry sauce. How can you say no? Don’t say no.
I think I have worked out what I would order if I ate there on my own but I know it’s probably food for two. I had a really wonderful meal here and of course it had a lot to do with the company too. I will definitely be going back to my new home away from home. Maybe I’ll see you there some time.
Posted in Brisbane, Dessert, Italian, Modern Australian, Sharing Plates | 
Tags: Brisbane, Dessert, Modern Australian, Sharing Plates | 
3 Comments »
Salon
Cuisine: European, Tapas
www.salon.net.au
Shop 5A
Cnr Florence, 110 Macquarie St
Teneriffe, Brisbane, 4005
Phone: +61 (0)7 3252 3911
When I was small enough to still get children’s meals, Teneriffe was the home of Paddy’s Market and derelict woolstores and warehouses. Today the woolstores are still there, but inside they have been converted into stylish apartments and the river is lined with more homes (that I cannot afford).
So tucked behind some trees, underneath an old woolshed is Salon. Inside there’s a bar and a warm glow bounces off burgundy and cream curtains. Outside you feel like you are sitting in someone’s garden filled with fairy lights and candles. The benches have comfy cushions and even though you are only a few metres from the street, you feel like you are hidden away.
It was a warm night when we were there and while we were sitting outside, the breeze was coming from the wrong direction. Happily though I realized that this is what the drinks menu is for.
One Strawberry Soda, with Chambord, fresh strawberries, lime & Vodka O, muddled and served tall. Oh and some mint, which made this almost like a strawberry mojito, refreshing and sweet.
The Salon menu is made up of mostly sharing plates for tapas style dining. They recommended 2 sharing plates per person, but it was difficult to pick only 4. Instead we opted for their FEAST! For $50 per person (or $95 with wines, $80 with beers) it seemed reasonable and we would then get to try almost everything on the menu.
Our first course was a scrumptious “make your own” bruschetta. Fresh sourdough bread (soft on the inside with a crispy crust) with vine ripened tomato slices, basil and Persian fetta.
Three more dishes were then brought out as our second course.
House cured Atlantic salmon, mayonnaise and baby herbs. I don’t eat a lot of salmon… but I loved this melts-in-your-mouth salmon.
To your left, baked ricotta tartlets with caramelized onion, cherry tomato and shaved prouscuitto. While these were tiny, they were packed with mmm’s. Another tick for Salon.
To your right, wild mushroom risotto cubes with aioli. The outside was crisp, the risotto inside was perfectly cooked and oh I want more! But no, if you have committed to the feast, you need to leave lots of room for the other dishes.
Maybe the chef absent mindedly cooked too many items, or perhaps we made so much mmm’ing and ooo’ing over the other dishes, but when our very friendly waiter presented us with our second course we were given a nice surprise. “The chef has decided to give you extra.” It took a lot of self-control not to simply scream out “Woohoo!” but we said thank you gracefully and turned to the food to work out what to eat first.
Roast pumpkin and goats cheese ravioli with spinach, almonds and beurre noisette (which I now know means a brown butter sauce). The pumpkin, cheese filling was sweet and the pasta was soft and of course delicious!
Italian meatballs with tomato coulis, full of flavour and meat of course.
Spanakopita – filo pastry layered with spinach and Greek feta served with minted yoghurt. Oh I was so happy that the chef was kind enough to give us extra of these. This was my favourite of this set of three.
Course three, and first there was the seared king prawns in chilli garlic and butter sauce with herb salad.
Next up, Portuguese spiced chicken cutlets with lemon and herb dressing. Yummy chicken, just remember to dip it into the bed of dressing.
And our favourite of this three, the sautéed Swiss brown mushrooms with roasted shallots and a truffle rocket salad. Very tasty mushrooms and the shallots were soaked in the flavour from them.
The final course before dessert was the rosemary lamb souvlaki, baby Greek salad, Tzatziki and grilled flat bread. By this point we were struggling a bit, while we love the chef for giving us extra bits along the way, it means you need more stamina for the end. We managed to get through most of this, to leave just enough room for…
Churros with chocolate sauce!! Soft and cinnamon-y, and we tasted a hint of citrus. Was it in the sauce we wondered as we each took a spoonful, no.. oh, its in the churros!
Finished off with a tea or coffee of your choice (mocha for me thank you), it was a lovely way to end our three hour culinary journey at Salon. Yes, we were there for three hours, though we barely realized it until the final hour and by then we were just appreciating the little rest we were given before the final courses.
It was such a beautiful evening and to be honest I’ve decided to bring a couple friends to lunch there on Saturday. I will let you know how it goes, or you could try it yourself if you like.
Posted in Brisbane, European, Sharing Plates | Tags: Brisbane, European, Tapas, Teneriffe | 3 Comments »
Simpatico bar bistro espresso
Cuisine: Modern Australian – with Asian and Mediterranean influences
“Mains”: Each dish we ordered was between $12 an $16.
Sides: The side we ordered was $6
Desserts: I think they were mostly about $10
(I’ve listed a breakdown of what we paid below)
Cnr Given & Latrobe Tce (Go down the street off this corner, next two Cocoon – across the road from Harem)
Paddington Qld 4064
Ph: 07 3367 1117
sim·pa·ti·co (s?m-pä’t?-k?’, -p?t’?-)
adj.
- Of like mind or temperament; compatible.
- Having attractive qualities; pleasing.
Scallops with wakame seaweed and sesame oil: $12
Maybe next month.. 
Posted in Brisbane, Modern Australian, Sharing Plates | Tags: Brisbane, Mod Oz, Paddington, Tapas | No Comments »