Jamie's Italian

I love Jamie Oliver. There is just something so inspiring about him and his cookbooks. Granted half the ingredients are somewhat hard to find here, but watching him make his dishes on his shows is like watching a magician. Amazing. The food always look so hearty, warm, rustic and just full of goodness. So naturally, I'm unable to replicate his 30 minutes meals within 30 minutes (it's the prep time that kills you - the prep time is obviously not catered in that 30 minutes!) and me being a fan, I was super excited to hear Jamie Oliver was opening his chain of hearty, quick, rustic Italian dishes in Perth last year.

Jamie's Italian is located at the 140 William street/shopping complex in the heart of the city.

It is on the corner of Murray street Mall and William street.

Finally it opened on the long weekend that was Easter (this year) and lucky for me I found a friend who was willing to line up with me on Easter Monday (we got there 10 minutes after we arrived and still managed to wait 45 minutes - 15 minutes in line outside and 30 minutes inside) - not bad, better than the 2 hour waiting times expected for dinner. Since then I have been twice (three times in total.. still not as many as a friend of mine). One was for dinner - a group of 6 - expertly booked by me, myself and I online, after a good 30 minutes of trying out all different times and date combo to land myself a booking (landed on a Tuesday night at 8pm) and one at afternoon tea time (wait was 30 minutes at 3pm on a Saturday)!

So most of Perth has already been there, but for those that don't know Jamie's Italian is predominantly a walk in restaurant, there are LIMITED places for bookings. Saturday and Friday nights are all booked out until January 2014 (this was last confirmed two weeks ago by my mother, who tried to book last minute). You can try your luck at booking on this site right here. So take your chance and walk there - you will always be welcomed, don't book, it's really not worth the effort (or maybe it is?) and then just expect to wait... at least 2 hours for dinner... still.. or so I've been told.

Lining up isn't so bad when you have planks of goodies like polenta chips and olives and slices of meat served to you. 

The restaurant is big, but it doesn't have as much seats as I thought it was going to have. But I love all the exposed ceiling, the massive crystal chandelier in the middle and I love how the restaurant is divided into different sections - pasta making corner, bar, hot food kitchen (that you can see and also see how the orders are progressing!), the salad/cold food/planks/dessert corner - it adds to that atmosphere of "busy bee" to an already very busy place! And I just love seeing meals prepared!

Pasta station

Jamie's Bar

Hot food kitchen - where all the action's at!

Cold/salad/planks/desserts corner

The massive beautiful chandelier takes stage in the middle of all the action and gives the rather industrious looking restaurant a bit of bling.

So what have I gotten so far on my adventures at Jamie's Italian? Well.. let me tell you! I've tried almost all the pastas minus the ones with squid/octopus/cuttlefish due to my allergy - major bummer because one of the ones I want to try sounds delicious but has squid in it. 

There are TWO advice that I will give you..

1) GET THE SEAFOOD PLANK!

2) SHARE. The entree sized pastas are generous - you can turn that easily into a main course if you get the seafood plank beforehand. It also means that you can share with people - get a few different entree sized plates between 2-3 people and you get to taste test more than just one dish. 

Oh .. ok wait there is really 4 advice notes.. 

3) Don't forget to look at the special boards - one is located near the hot food kitchen and the other is near the cold food kitchen. They have the specials for the day/week. And if you get a bad waiter they tend to forget to tell you about those.

4) Get a cocktail/wine it's nice and the cocktails are made well. For those who are designated drivers the mocktails are pretty good too. I've tried all three choices of beverages (oh sparkling water too! - but I always prefer tap water..)

A bottle of beautiful Italian red wine from where Well's family are from

Can you guess what this is? Yum.

So for entree or as an antipasto dish, there are plenty of choices. 

There is your usual suspects of aracini balls (vegetarian style). Its not cheesy enough for my liking and for a change there was not enough salt! (which is saying a lot coming from me!!) and I wouldn't recommend it, as there are a lot better choices on that list.

Arancini ball

And of course crispy squid. According to bf it was nicely cooked and salted well with garlic goodness.

Crispy squid

There is also the baked mushroom. Beautiful field mushrooms baked with smoked buffalo mozzarella cheese and with crunchy pita-bread like chips. It was delicious, cheesy, crunchy rustic goodness.

Baked mushrooms

There is also the option of  the planks. I've only ever had the meat plank and the fish plank so I can only comment on that, but for those that are vegetarian, there is a vegetable plank. The planks are charged per person and the serving size is according to that. 

The meat plank consisted of cured meats (prosciutto, wagyu bresaola, finocchio and capocollo) beautiful cuts of meat, cheese (buffalo mozzarella, pecorino with chili jam), olives and pickled chili and caper cherries along with a salad of shaved root vegetables (carrot, beetroot and possibly onion). The cured meats were of great quality and delicious, but the meat plank is very "normal". It's just your charcuterie board (but in an awesome plank form with quality produce) and HALF THE PRICE of other places.

Meat Plank

The fish plank on the other hand - AMAZING (**note it may be bias as I love quality seafood to the max!). It has the salad of shaved root vegetables, olives, pickled chili and caper cherries, along with the highlights, beetroot cured salmon on a bed of ice, shellfish - mussels and clams in a white wine and chili broth, mini fritto misto with yuzu mayo and the best thing ever (I could spread it like butter!) smoked mackerel pate! I've tried the fish plank twice and it's just an amazing concept with quality, fresh seafood with this amazing mackerel pate that I really want to buy... I wonder if they sell it.. If so please get me a jar or two or three!

Fish plank

So with the antipasto out of the way it was time to choose the mains. Taking my own advice on board I've had the opportunity to share many a pasta dishes with friends. 

My top three pastas (that I have tried..) will have to be:

** Blue Crab Swimmer Risotto

** Rabbit Tagliolini

** Wild Mushroom ravioli 

I have however been told but numerous people that the Seafood Bucatini is delicious (I can't have it because of the squid so **blows raspberries** at you all!)

The blue crab swimmer risotto is amazing. There is generous amount of crab meat and the broth has so much crab infused in it you can smell and taste it. Sprinkle and mix the crunchy goodness on the spoon and the flavours of the chili, crab and the creamy risotto is just yum. 

Blue swimmer crab risotto

I also had the opportunity to try the wild truffle risotto. WOW was there hits of truffle through that. The earthy truffle taste (black truffle is thinly sliced through it and lots of truffle oil is also used) and smells hits you. It's pretty intense. It's creamy too. It's delicious. But with nothing but the acquerello rice, the dish can be plain (even with all that truffle intense flavours through it..) it needed something else. So I ate it with the baked mushroom that I had for the antipasto with it and it made it so damn good. Chefs at Jamie's Italian would you consider adding mushrooms to this dish??

Wild Truffle Risotto

The Black Ink Spaghetti

The blank ink spaghetti is something I'm not allowed to have due to my strange allergy to squid/cuttlefish/octopus etc. Instead I decided to risk it anyway and pick at the broth and the scallops that's part of the dish. May I add, it has beautiful and very slight chili kick to it. Then after I had this a few hours later I was paying the price for eating squid ink-fied broth. Anyway, one to try.

The prawn linguine was this chili tomatoey generous servings of prawn dish. It's lighter than most prawn linguine dishes which is nice. But, it is exactly that (the fact that you can get prawn linguine dishes elsewhere) what makes me stir away from this one. Granted the pasta is 1000x better at Jamie's Italian than other places that also serves prawn linguine. This is agreed by my very traditional pasta-making Italian friend. (I didn't get a picture for this because for some reason my lens wouldn't focus properly on it..)

Wild Rabbit Tagliolini

The wild rabbit tagliolini is one of the ones I recommend because it came out as something we didn't expect. There was plenty of shredded rabbit mixed through the pasta. The pasta wasn't creamy at all like we thought. In fact it was light, it was slightly tangy and it was just the perfect dish you can have without feeling icky about it. I mean the sauce has mascarpone and it's not this crazy creamy dish! It was just a pleasure to eat. 

Mushroom Ravioli

The mushroom ravioli - what can I say.. each packet of ravioli was filled with wild mushrooms, ricotta and garlic and was served in this rich mushroom tomato sauce. It was just mushroom heaven. Warm, rustic, a true reflection of what Jamie Oliver would have cooked on one of his shows. 

Apart from the pastas I tried a pork belly special. It was slow cooked pork belly with sweet balsamic vinegar with roasted potatoes and pumpkin. The pork was rather fatty one that was served on our plate. The sweet balsamic vinegar, made the succulent pork sweet and caramelised the top. It was enjoyable to eat. A winter's dish heaven. Warm, rustic, Jamie O all the way. Teamed with a side of pumpkin and pine nuts it was just what was needed on a cold day/night.

Slow cooked pork belly with roasted pumpkin and potatoes

Side dish of roasted pumpkin and pine nuts 

Well's bf had the fish in a bag with fish of the day, clams, mussels, fennel, chilli and anchovies. It looked amazing. He said it was beautifully cooked fish (I've forgotten which fish) and was very filling. He regretted ordering his side of polenta chips. Ps. I love the way it was presented. 

Fish in a bag

A meal is hardly complete without dessert. 

There was the ice cream topped with the sauce of your choice and toppings of your choice. Bf thought it was going to be vanilla ice cream (no idea what the ice cream were going to be because no waitstaff told us and nor was it written anywhere on the menu) and got honeycomb with butterscotch sauce on top. When it arrived he saw one ice cream possibly having nuts so question it and of course it had (again no idea what it was because again we weren't told properly what it was). He got replacement ice cream (minus the nutty one) but the toppings they decided to change from what he wanted, even though he told them the toppings are to be the same. Epic fail. Needlesstosay bf didn't enjoy his dessert much.

Bf's original ice cream dessert looking amazing lucky he noticed the green nutty flavoured ice cream.

We weren't even told what ice creams were available. 

Nor was there a disclaimer about nuts. 

He got replacement ice cream, but with major attitude from the waitstaff. Plus it didn't look as appetizing as this.

Wells and I on the other hand shared the tutti frutti meringue pie and coffee-flavoured trifle tiramisu. I rather enjoyed both of them. The tiramisu didn't have much coffee-flavour through it but the orange was certainly there and it was a rather pleasant and homely dessert. The meringue pie wasn't too sweet and had the nice kick of tang and was so soft and lovely.

Coffee-flavoured trifle tiramisu 

Tutti frutti meringue pie

looking at the desserts makes me hungry!

Oh You can also request for bread. They give a selection of different breads with quality olive oil and slightly sweet balsamic vinegar to dip. Or you can use to bread to spread the pate that you will get when you get the fish plank.

Jamie's Italian is a pleasure to dine it, simply because it uses quality produce to make quality dishes (and it comes out fast!) and amazingly cheap and affordable prices. Showing to the people of Perth that you don't need to pay too much to get good food.

The downside is that the waitstaff that serve you is a hit or miss. There was a waitstaff that ACCUSED my bf for choosing a dessert with nuts in it when NO ONE told him that there were nuts in any of the ice cream, in fact he was not told what kind of ice cream he was going to get, he was lucky he noticed. Rude and downright dangerous. Granted he should have checked, BUT when he forgot and was told there was nuts he didn't need to be accused of choosing a nut dessert (oh like he did it on purpose!). But I have had nice ones that served us as well. But they tend to be forgotten by the rude ones (and I've had my fair share of that at Jamie's). I guess you can't bring good service to Perth. Pity.

The other downside is the wait time. But there are rumours floating about that there may be a second Perth restaurant. Here's to hoping? OH they also have extremely cute toilets. 

Sneak Peek

My life has been a whirlwind of chaos at the moment.

With family dropping by from overseas unexpectedly to grieve and sad news about one of my uncles to celebrations of birthdays, working weekends, not handing in assignment (it was due yesterday! I really need to get it done instead of being on here..) to landing a new job.

Having said all that, I still managed to fit in a visit to The Local Shack along with eating at a restaurant who shares a name with a famous muse; Beethoven and of course my second dining experience at Jamie's Italian, a homemade dinner party/engagement party for friends  and drinks at the Classroom and of course exercising like crazy to not gain wait from all the eating!

So here is a sneak peek into the up and coming exciting posts!

Stay tuned I promise once I finish this bitch (excuse my french) of a unit I will be back with a vengeance.

That is if anyone actually reads this..

smashed through the storm!

YAY! for my self will!

After all the over eating of last week -

1 dinner party with friends at Jamie's Italian (second visit.. and yes I realise I have yet to blog about it. It is currently in DRAFT mode)

2 birthday dinners

So 1 hour of pumping it out at the gym followed by body balance class to stretch everything out and gym time number 2 for this week!

It's so nice to be indoors making your fat cry while outside the clouds are little massive tears out!

ps. did I mention I love storms and rain?
autumn and winter is amazing in every aspect.

Gym in winter..

Finally winter is in Perth! I couldn't be happier!

The storm front is in making me re think driving to the gym this afternoon - major self debating happening.

But then Lorna Jane gave me a little Wednesday work out motivation.

Perhaps doing it at home may be ok for today.. Now to find the motivation to not procrastinate!

Seoul BBQ Cafe

In the last few months my dad discovered Groupon. Since then he has been buying these lunch deals from there and taking us along. He has been very fascinated with the deals and have been calculating and maximising the coupon to make it worth buying the deal in the first place.

One of the latest places that we went to was Seoul BBQ Cafe - it was once upon a time my quick yummy lunch fix when I used to be a student and working to get some experience in the health field at $8/hour (hard slave labour wages! Don't think health professionals earn a lot because it's all a myth! - you could have gotten more working at Myers, David Jones and Maccas!!).

Anyway, for those that don't know, Seoul BBQ cafe is located upstairs, from Woolworths, but at the other end of that concourse area. It's also not really a cafe, because it's more like a canteen opening where you place your order then there are seats in the arcade/veranda area, where pigeons love to hang out.

Anyway, without the coupon the place is dirt cheap as it is, between $7.50-$11.50 and you get decent sized portions of their mains that you order. With the coupon, it was for 4 mains + 2 entrees (entrees being gyoza and chilli chicken wings) + 4 drinks for $29.

So for our "entrees" we got a plate of gyoza and a plate of chilli chicken wings.

The gyoza were dry and seemed like they have been sitting around for a while. The stuffing wasn't great either.

Gyoza on the Right and a Bowl of Miso (that came with the mains) on the right

The chilli chicken wings/there was also a drumstick in there.. on the other hand were delicious! Nice and crunchy with the right amount of spice. I wish we got two serves of it instead.

Chilli Chicken Wings

Then the mains. Each main came with a bowl of rice, a bowl of miso soup, sides of bean sprout salad and a rather depressing looking salad (which really was lettuce and tomato drenched in salad dressing) and dipping sauces. Not bad for usual price of $7.50-$11.50.

So what did we get?

I love their Bibimbap. Apart from the bibimbap sauce (which I know you can get it yourself at the Korean Supermarkets..), the mix of slightly sticky, soft rice with vegetables and meat and topped with egg (runny egg might I add) is just so satisfying. In reality though, it's the sauce that makes it awesome. The sauce mixed with runny egg york - so good. It's like having a homemade meal - making you feel all warm and fuzzy, except not.

Pork Bibimbap - 

before the mix of the sauce and all the ingredients together

Mum got the Dak Gogi (Chicken bbq dish), which was rather very normal, but the flavours of their grill/bbq through the meat and the marinate was what makes a rather boring dish, not so.. well boring. It is healthier option for lunch than a lot of other places and you get a fair bit of diced chicken and paired with the rice, sides and miso soup it is a big enough serving for lunch.

Dak Gogi

Dad got the Daeji Gogi (pork grill/bbq dish), again a rather simple dish, but the marinate is the highlight of it all. I found the pork a little tougher than the chicken (but then that is generally the case). Again, more than adequate main for lunching. 

Daeji Gogi

Two meats BBQ

My brother on the other hand got his intake of protein and carbs by ordering the two meat bbq dish. You get a choice of chicken, beef  or pork and he chose the chicken (highest protein out of the three meats) and beef. Again, it is the marinated of the meats and the bbq taste that makes the dish. 

Overall, Seoul BBQ Cafe is your cheap (and possibly cheaper) alternative to your food court menu. The menu isn't exactly big but it has enough variety to keep things interesting. It's simple, but sometimes that is the best. The only down side to this place is the pigeons. And when people leave and plates don't get put away on time, they swoop to eat off the plate. Really unhygienic that way. But generally, the staff are good and the plates get put away fairly quickly. Also note, the place is only open for lunch hours 11am-3pm. They can get busy and seats are limited but they do serve fairly quickly (it took them only about 10 to 15 minutes after ordering for all of our food to come out - not bad at all!).

Ps. My dad told me off for taking photos of food.. but having said that mum was like "hmm.. she has a blog she has to do it.. " Mum so cool like that. ^_^

Wild Duck

Hampden road has numerous cafes, deli, boutiques and quick, yummy, Japanese and Chinese take-aways catering for the university students, office workers and of course the health professionals at the two nearby hospitals. Amongst all the quick food fixes, cafes, healthy options, deli and boutique stores sits a fine dining restaurant relocated all the way from Albany - Wild Duck.

The restaurant opened in south west Albany  and have won many awards including RCAA restaurant of the year, A Star in Gourmet Traveller and was part of the Good Food Guide 2011. The restaurant relocated to Perth, Nedlands in 2012 and was recommended warmly by fellow blogger Sandra of Perth Food Engineers, so I was very much wanting to try it.

I finally found a time early this month, and headed there with a few friends, who were very much foodies. We were given a seat by the window in the corner, which gave us the perfect view of the restaurant. The decor is rather somber  dark, traditional with wooden everywhere and everything. It was spacious and yet had warmth through it.

Interiors of Wild Duck - we were so early for dinner so there was no one else there except us, but not long after the place started to fill.

We were there on a Friday night, which allowed us a choice of A la carte or degustation. I was adamant before we got there that I would don't want the degustation menu, simply because I don't have the funds for it. However, upon seeing the degustation menu and the a la carte menu and the prices of both, I was swayed into having the degustation. Six course meal at $105 (and $155 with matching wines - which we didn't get because we were all driving/had work the next day) was comparable to other places in Perth and was more than reasonable, especially if I were to have a 3 course meal, it would be close to $105 anyway, so might as well go for the taste tester and see why this restaurant has won so many awards in the past.

We started off the evening with amuse bouche of chicken parfait with carmelised onion, came out in friendly bite sized form on Chinese spoon soup. The chicken parfait was silky, smooth and had that slight creamy texture, and for the first time ever, I felt as though it needed a sprinkle of salt for flavour. Although the carmelised onion that give it that sweet kick, there wasn't enough of it to off-set what was a slightly bland chicken parfait.

Amuse Bouche - Chicken Parfait 

The first real course of the evening, was a lovely flavoursome espresso cup full of smoked seafood chowder shot with scallop and king prawn. The scallop and king prawn was perfectly cooked and the flavours of the chowder was delicious, creamy, seafood goodness. I love how it came out in a glass bowl and when opened let out this wonderful smokey seafood smells. Pity I didn't manage the capture it on photo - I was too busy going Ooooo and aaahhh.. It leaves you wanting more.

Smoked seafood chowder shot with scallop and king prawn

The next dish was the beautiful mushroom ravioli - wild mushrooms, goats cheese, asparagus foam, truffled mushroom sauce and micro herbs. The ravioli was pasta perfection and the flavours of the goat cheese with the earthy flavours of mushroom works so well. The asparagus form was so light and delicious, I was attempting to scope every last bit off the plate. Lovely pasta dish.

Mushroom ravioli with goat cheese, truffled mushroom sauce, asparagus foam and micro herbs

The next dish of the evening was fish - I'm really not sure what fish - I can't remember (?trout or barrumandi - I don't believe we were told)  with fennel puree, caramalised leek, snow peas and seared scallop. The fennel puree and caramlised leek was delicious and the fish was cooked to perfection, moist and soft still, as was the scallop. However, I wasn't wowed by it.

Fish of the day*(I'm not sure if we were told because I can't remember and it was noted down on my inote!) with fennel puree, leek, snow peas and scallop

Then there was a bit of wait, in fact a long wait before the next course came out. It was some what nice because it gave us a chance to talk and catch up, however, the boys were a little hungry half way through it. We were all waiting for the 16 hour slow cooked pork belly, but I'm pretty sure what came out was the beef cheek. I queried the waitstaff to ask what I was eating and she wasn't sure and asked if I wanted to see the menu. Hmm.. wasn't impressed with that. 

Beef duo - braised cheek and sous vide fillet with persian feta mash, baby veg and red wine jus

The degustation menu we profuse over at the start of the evenings stated we were getting 16 hour slow cooked pork belly, but what came out was the beef duo. The fillet was lovely, the cheek could have been more tender, it just didn't melt in your mouth and there was  lack of red wine jus making the dish slightly flat.

After the beef dish was the palate cleanser - passionfruit sorbet. It was refreshing and tangy, readying us for the dessert. 

Passionfruit Sorbet palate cleanser

Orange and chocolate - the classic combination, so it should be great right? But the white chocolate ice cream came out melting all over my plate (clearly either been out too long or the freezer isn't working well or it just hasn't set properly at all), the chocolate delice was rich dark chocolate which was beautiful and decadent, it went perfectly with the orange jelly and the orange sherbet gave it that nice tangy kick to try to balance out the richness and sweetness. However, it was a little bit of a let down and nothing spectacular at all.

Chocolate and orange - chocolate delice, orange jelly, orange air, white chocolate ice cream and orange sherbet

Looking back at the photos, and reflecting on the restaurant I feel as though we were missing a course. I believe we are missing the duck course and to state on the menu that they were serving us pork belly and clearly we did not get that - with no explanation seems rather unacceptable. At any restaurant, we should be told, especially so at a fine dining one, when certain ingredients on the menu have not available and what is being substituted

What got me even more was that there was absolutely NO explanation of the menu, or of the dishes that were served to us. Nor was the degustation menu (a small version) left on our table - the menus were taken away - which was fair enough - but to have no explanation of what or reminder of what we were eating, and in fact there just a smart arse reply of "Do you want the menu for referral" - I really should have said yes, because then I would have realized that we were not given one of the courses. The service really wasn't warm or welcoming. 

It's such a pity because it has so much potential. Each dish was lovely, traditionally cooked, lots of foam and micro herbs used. As one of the boys said "we were eating air all night.." - so much foam, which I personally have no problems over, but I can see where they are coming from.  "nothing was wow.. it was a little boring" - it really was - nothing wow, nothing spectacular - except perhaps the seafood chowder and the rivaoli - after that it was all a bit of a blur and nothing too much to drool about. I'm sure in the past the food would have been amazing, but currently, with so many restaurant options in Perth and palates appreciating the finer things, Wild Duck needs to do something spectacularly with their traditional methods of cooking (don't get me wrong - traditional methods are sometimes the best!). 

Will I go back? Perhaps, if their service skills improve - they really need to make us feel like we are welcomed and to at least explain to us what we are served if we are to have the degustation. That is part of the whole degustation dining experience, it is in fact part of the fine dining experience.