Sydney - August 2006

Restaurant Magazine’s top five places to eat in the world for 2006 are: El-Bulli in Spain, The Fat Duck in dear old England, Pierre Gagnaiare in Paris, The French Laundry in California and Testsuya’s in Sydney.

Of these restaurants, only Pierre Gagnaire and Tetsuyas are located in large cities. El-Bulli is in the middle of no where on the Spanish Costa Brava, The Fat Duck is in Bray on Thames (where? you say, exactly! I answer). The French Laundry is in the Napa Valley.

If you want to eat at any of these places, I figure you need commitment, and a willingness to travel for your tummy. This therefore was my sad justification for wanting to go to Sydney in August, for my Birthday, to eat at Tetsuya’s.

So, back in May I booked a table at Tetsuya’s for the Saturday night after my birthday. Apparently this is the length of time you need for a Saturday night booking. Table secured, we organized flights and accommodation.

Our flight was on a Thursday evening, arriving at dawn on Friday. Our return was scheduled for Monday at lunchtime.

Lest you think we are excessive, we did cash in our free annual tickets that seem to be the only advantage for Em working where she does.

Neither of us have been to Sydney before, but Em, bless her, allowed me the window seat for the flight down.

Happiness is a window seat on a dawn arrival in Sydney, (and a wife who will give you the window seat in the first place).

The thing about Sydney is its natural harbor, with an entrance of only 1 km wide; it backs into a huge area of 100’s of square kilometers of deep sheltered water. All buildings seem to be oriented either into the harbor, or straight at the sea.

As you fly over Sydney at dawn it stretches out before you nestled amongst its bays, harbors and coves. Every where you look ordered rows of houses run down to the deep blue pacific, or into sheltered coves or inlets. It is even possible to glimpse the solid mass of the harbor bridge and the scallop shells of the opera house.

We fly over the whole of Sydney proper, and over the airport, and watch the planes stacked up to land on Botany Bay, the site of Cooks first landing in Australia.

We breezed through customs, grabbed our ride and checked in for a nap.

Our accommodation was in an area called the Rocks, right on the Harbor. This is the oldest part of town, some 230 years ago this is where they established the first penal colony. We were backed by the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and had views of the opera house.

After a quick nap, we headed out to lunch. Footsteps from our hotel was Doyles, a Sydney institution for its fish and chips, a fact sadly only learnt after lunch. We had superb oysters, chilly fresh and sweet.

We had a little cruise round the harbor, and a trot to the shops for winter wear. Though the weather was sunny the whole time, at times when the wind whipped up it was a little chilly.

Dinner on the first night at a place called the Boathouse on Blackwhattle Bay. It was a bit difficult to find and unprepossessing at first, being located in the upper floor of the Sydney University Woman’s Rowing Club Boathouse.

We had oysters to start; they had a selection of different types from various little farms. They were excellent, small and sweet with uncomplicated flavors that did not linger at all. They went down very nicely with a malty dark local beer. Looking back these were the best oysters we sampled down under.

Em had wagyu bresola to start and the red snapper pie; I had whiting and bay bugs and a nice piece of Trevalla.

The red snapper pie was almost worth the trip, it is finished with truffles, which do much to infuse the white flesh of the fish with a magical aroma. A very pleasant bottle of Tasmanian Brut accompanied.

An early start the next morning for the bridge walk up and down the girders of the Harbor Bridge. It was a great deal of fun and much recommended.

We went down to china town for dimsum (yum cha) at this place called East Ocean. The thing about Sydney is its access to wonderful fresh seafood. So scallop and seafood dumplings are filled with the zestiest crunchiest stuff ever to grace a dumpling. Also, they kept the pastry nice and light. We had big ass Tasmanian king crab, steamed oysters and scallops, chicken feet and barbequed duck all off the trolley. All good stuff, Sydney was living up to its good reputation for food.

We had a bit of a stroll about town, to walk off lunch and prepare for Tetsuya’s.

I have always been told that if you go out to dinner, you dress. It is a sign of respect to the host. So we did.

I have a nice pair of tailored grey worsted wool trousers that fall just right half way over the loafer. A white shirt with faint pink and aqua checks followed this. A tie from Gucci purchased in the Tom Ford days. I topped it with a black blazer, with velvet texture. A hand-down from me pater, much as I would have loved to keep the nautical theme, I had to change the brass buttons for plain black, lest I be mistaken for admiral.

Em wore a lovely burgundy Thai silk shift dress and her white jade earrings and a ring that jingles about like an ice waterfall. She covered up with a peacock wrap, both in the motif and in the blue.

I thought we cut an elegant if somewhat eccentric dash.

Unfortunately, even at Tetsu’s the Aussies cannot bring themselves to dress. Oh how we mourn the advent of casual wear.

I liked Tetsuya’s very much. There is no ordering, every one eats the same 10-course meal, with a variations to account for particular diet. So once you step into the foyer, you pretty much give up all decision-making and have to simply give in to the tender mercies and whims of Tetsuya and his staff.

They bring you a pre-prandial at the table, and then explain the menu, 4 starters 2 main courses and 3 desserts. We also had them choose the wine pairings so had 6 different glasses to match the food.

The first lady to attend to us explained the menu. She had the attitude and demeanor of Professor McGonagall. Almost, “this is what you will eat and you will like it, you are eating at Tetsuya and you better feel privileged.” I know, I’ve read Kitchen Confidential, Saturday night is people from the boondocks night. Well damn right we are from the boonies, but we were happy to be there.

Aside from this initial starchiness, they did loosen up over the course of the evening. Towards the end even, Em was taking pictures of the food, and the waiter asked if it was for her blog. She said yes of course, and he said yes, every one does it nowadays.

The service was pretty seamless and most professional. Different waiters dance in and out of the room bearing plates of perfection. There is no fuss and different people appear at different parts of the meal. Each time explaining the food and suggesting the best way to eat it. At one point Em was in the loo and they brought the next course. When they found her not seated, they sent the food back to the kitchen and probably redid the whole thing for when Em eventually got back.

A little amuse bouche of warm sweet potato soup with feta and rocket. We were told to down in one.

We opted for the extra starter of Tasmanian pacific oysters. This came with a creamy vinaigrette. The oysters were large and plump, but lingered a little too long on the palate.

The next course was tartare of tuna on sushi rice with avocado soup. This was one of my favorites. You are instructed to smush all the ingredients onto each forkful. Deconstructed sushi roll, very good.

Then came three little sushi sized appetizers, tuna marinated in soy and mirin; soft smoked ocean trout with asparagus; marinated scampi. This was accompanied by a grilled scallop, covered in its own broth. We were very fond of the scallop.

The next starter was one of the signature dishes, confit of petuna Tasmanian ocean trout with konbu, daikon and fennel. This looks like a kind of sushi dish. The ocean trout is raw, and encrusted with finely chopped konbu, which is dried brown Japanese seaweed. Konbu actually contains large amounts of naturally occurring monosodium glutamate, so the dish gave our tongues a little numbness and a blank feeling in the back of the throat. We were a little worried that we would suffer elevated heartbeat and anxiety attacks. I think this is supposed to be a bit of an amusement on the part of the chef, getting all these people travel all this way to get a helping of Aji No Moto in the fish course. I thought it was quite good, Em was disconcerted.

Then came ravioli of Queensland spanner crab with tomato and basil vinaigrette. Not bad this one.

The first main course was deboned twice-cooked spatchcock in bread sauce. Chicken goodness.

The other main course was seared wagyu beef. They get paper-thin slices of really nice cow, roll them up into a tight tube, and cook them on a very hot plate for the shortest time. The meat in the middle has only the slightest brush of heat, and is silky smooth and musky. Another favorite.

We had three desserts, beetroot and blood orange sorbet with strawberry shortcake; vanilla bean ice cream with white beans and dates; floating island with praline and vanilla bean anglaise. I liked the first and the last best. The desserts were all in a way very Japanese, like the ice cream with beans and the floating island.

On the whole, we liked it a great deal. The whole experience from the minute you come in is aimed to sweep you off your feet, whirl you away on this wonderful sensory experience, then by the time you get to coffee, gently lay you down and with a gentle nudge, push you off into the night.

Well worth the hike.

Tetsu's is located in the middle of town, so after dinner, we had a wander about. Down the street the Lonely Planet describes a victorian marble bar fully restored and residing in the basement of the Hilton on main street.

It is as the LP says, a lovely restoration work. The people inside could only be described as saturday night in the big city lout. Jokers from weddings, corporate functions and arabs on the prowl. Em got hit on by some woman. Unfortunately more Missy Elliot than Beyonce Knowles. We were out of there.

A little further down the street was the Observatory Bar. This was nicer, less drunken and a little better looking. We stayed till late and meandered home.

Breakfast the next morning at the Harbour Kitchen and Bar. Pretty good, We had oysters, smoked salmon bagels and fish and chips. Very nice views of circular quay.

Rode out to Bondi Beach. Had a trawl round the Sunday market, purchased a hat then walked along the beach a couple of miles to a place called Bronte. It was a very pleasant Sunday stroll, watching the surfers out on the waves, appreciating the views out to sea and the fellow wallkers.

At the end of the day, a little bit sunburnt and happy to have walked off some of the oysters we headed back to the Rocks for a bit of dinner and our last night in Sydney.

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