Pendolino Restaurant

OMG my blog posts are sooooooo out of order! I really need to be more organised with my photos. It wasn't until recently when I saw a few blogs post about Pendolino that I realised I had lost my photos from when I went! It took me about 20mins trawling through all my folders before I found it.

I can't even remember when I went, I think it was some time end of last year? Its been awhile but I can still taste the food in my memory!

Complimentary baby olives with olive oil for bread dipping

Olive bread and sour dough bread

Pappardelle con Ragu di Vitella e Maggiorana

Organic Hand Cut Pappardelle with Braised White Rocks Veal Sauce, Veal Marrow and Marjoram

Oh god....is this how proper hand made pasta is supposed to taste like? Where have I been and what have I been eating?!? I've tried dried home made pasta and supposedly fresh handmade pasta, but nothing comes remotely close to this. This was soft and silky, yet still had a bit of a bite to it. And the deep fried bone marrow was utterly moreish. I could do with a whole bowl of fried marrow.

Spaghetti Chitarra con Pesce D'Acquadolce

Freshly-made Chitarra Spaghetti with Barramundi, Wild Prawns, Chilli, Capers, Garlic and Pinot Grigio White Wine.

This was my favourite of the day. Although the pasta was rougher than the parpadelle, the flavour was amazing. I wish I had more crusty bread to mop up all the leftover juices in the plate.

Near the end of the meal, suddenly my friend goes "OMG! IAN THORPE IS BEHIND YOU!". And lo and behold, he's sitting on the table right behind me! I tried to convince my friend to take a photo of me that conveniently would have Ian Thorpe in the background, but she was too shy to do and I didn't want to interrupt his meal. But atleast now I can say I had lunch with Ian Thorpe! hehe

Pendolino
Shop 100, Level 2, The Strand Arcade
412-414 George Street
Sydney 2000
(Ph) 02 9231 6117
http://www.pendolino.com.au/

Hotel Food

One of the great things about a business trip is that its all expenses paid! Woohoo!! And I did something I've never done before. Order room service! hehehe Well, I have ordered room service before, but never on my own bill! This was a great opportunity to lie in bed eating on the spare time I had off. Plus, anything I order earns me extra bonus points with Hilton! (I just got my statement and I am now a Gold VIP Member!).

Spicy shrimp and angel hair pasta

For some reason, they gave me 4 breadrolls to go with my pasta. FOUR! *SiGH* I gotta keep remembering Texas Size!

Wagyu beef burger

Innards!

Surprisingly, this was one of the better burgers I had in Houston. Really juicy and flavoursome beef patty with minimal toppings to distract you from that flavour! MmMMmm

Tricolour tortellini with shrimp and andouille

Bagel and Lox for breakkie

I'm not a huge fan of Lox. I much prefer the taste and texture of smoked salmon instead. (For those who don't know the different, Lox is cured, usually with salt. This is different to smoked salmon).

Buffalo wings

Pulled pork sandwich

This pulled pork sandwich I had was terrible! Incredibly salty from the excess BBQ sauce they used. I woke up at 3am in the morning gasping for water as I was sooooo dehydrated!

BLT with sweet potato "fries"

They were really generous with the bacon. This was a nice change from the usual BLT you get in Australia. The American style bacon was super crunchy and made a really nice snack when bits of them broke off! hehe Bacon chips! So good but sooo evil!

The Apprentice (of the Non-TV kind)

Ever since I found out about the existence of The Apprentice, I've been meaning to make a booking. Its taken me almost a year and a half to make a booking, but hey, I got there...right? The Apprentice is basically a training ground for thei culinary and hospitality students as a way to gain experience by running their own high end dining restaurant...at a fraction of the price.

A sent a few emails to my friends, and next thing you know, a date was set and we had a booking. After gorging on all sorts of sweets for morning tea, I arrived at The Apprentice expecting a 4 course meal. Can I indulge or what?


There were no choices from the menu and all food was to be served banquet style with alternating dishes on the table.

Bread roll - made by the students

I know bread rolls are nothing special in general, but these ones are made by the students. And there were real mixed reviews on these. Some of my friends had lovely crusty bread rolls, some had soft fluffy ones, whilst I drew the short straw and had a ROCK HARD roll. I was able to play out a tune by bashing my knife against the bread, and accidently caused the bread to go flying across the table when I tried to cut it. Others enjoyed their bread with alot less playing than me ;) They were also very generous with the bread, bringing the bread basket around a few times.

Appetisers: (L) Prawn, avocado and grapefruit salad
(R) Carrot and red pepper soup

This was the first service ever for the students working tonight. So there was quite a bit of confusion as to what was going on, meaning I ended up being given 2 appetisers instead of 1. The prawn, avocado and grapefruit salad was basically a done up version of a prawn cocktail. The addition of the grapefruit did give it a lovely tang though. My favourite would have to be the carrot and red pepper soup though. It was thick and hearty. I would love a big bowl of the soup and bread on a cold winters day.

Scallop with pea puree sauce, spicy tomato and roasted capsicum coulis

I'm pretty sure the scallops on this dish should be warm, but they were stone cold as if they were taken out of the fridge to come to room temperature. I actually didn't mind the fact that they were cold, but I wished the scallops were slightly bigger. Each scallop was about the size of a 10c piece. With those complaints aside, the pea puree was heavenly. Fresh and creamy with a slight nutty taste. I tried to scrape as much of the pea puree off the plate without looking like I was trying to lick it.

Lamb filo triangles with tzatziki dip

These tasted similar to the Turkish Icili Koftes and was filled with lovely spicy lamb mince, plump sultanas and pinenuts. This would be my favourite out of the two entrees.

Rabbit Fricasse with fettucine

I'm a huge fan of Gordon Ramsay's "The F Word". I was watching it with my friend once, when Gordon Ramsay made a Rabbit Fricasse with Tagliatelle. My friend immediately went "OMG!! YUM!!! MAKE THIS FOR ME!!". So when I saw the same dish on the menu, I just HAD to get my hands on it. So when all the mains came out, there was a lot of swapping around, and somehow I managed to get the rabbit.

Now, although I've never eaten Ramsay's version of the meal, I know it did not taste like this. For one, the rabbit was severly overcooked, to the stage that a few of us could not cut into the meat. I was expecting the rabbit to be lightly pan fried,to keep it moist, or stewed until it falls apart. This was neither, and the same goes with the pasta. Parts of them were al dente, clumps of them were undercooked and stuck together. However, the sauce for this was delicious. I would've been happy with the pasta and just the sauce.

Twice baked Yarra River Salmon on truffled mash and beurre blanc

I didn't try the fish, but it looked too overcooked and dry for my liking. I like my salmon really pink in the middle. This was completely cooked through.

Roast Sirloin of Beef, dijion jus, black pepper crust and roasted root vegetables

Despite the beef looking fairly pink, I was told the beef was extremely tough. Some people got well cooked pieces (see below) and some medium rare, but all commented on how tough the beef was. It looks like they had cut the beef on the wrong grain making it impossible to cut through with the dinner knives they gave us.

I think all the mains were quite disappointing for our table. Luckily, dessert made up for some of that disappointment.

Chocolate Orange Meringue Gateau with chocolate sauce and orange cream anglaise

I'm definitely not a chocolate orange fan, but I didn't mind this. The gateau was more of a choc orange brownie with meringue ontop, but it was still a nice dessert.

Tuiles basket with berry sorbet and berry coulis

The sorbet was more like ice cream, but it was still lovely and fresh anyway. The tuiles were light and crispy and went really well with the ice cream.

Despite my criticisms above, I actually really enjoyed myself. Its probably a good idea to keep in mind that they're students in training, and don't expect a 5 star cuisine and service. SOME people were quite inconsiderate of how nervous some of the students were. Mainly, a waitress was clearing our table of the mains, and this inconsiderate guy, PUSHED past her, knocking her plates over and onto our stuff. Now, he could easily have waited the 10secs, or walk around the table, but he had to push past her.

For $27, you get a 4 course meal, and they even served tea and coffee afterwards. What a bargain! We're planning on going back in a few weeks after the students have had more experience and were less nervous.

I am the pasta masta! (Not)

I got a pasta machine at the end of financial year sale in 2007. Its been sitting there ever since waiting to be used. I decided to bite the bullet and finally try to make my own pasta. (OK, I've made it once before without a machine, and that's a WHOLE different other story...)

I managed to turn this:

Into this:


Into this:

Let me say that to even get pasta into a thin sheet like that took me AGEEEEEEES!!! Jamie Oliver! You lie! It's so NOT a 5min job! Mind you, it was probably my fault more than anything. I didn't have a table I could clamp the pasta machine down onto, so I had to get my mum to hold onto the machine for dear life whilst I cranked the pasta through again and again. I literally broke into a sweat from doing this.

Once we got the thin pasta sheets, I decided to turn it into tagliatelle by hand cutting it. Except the pasta got stuck together because I was too lazy in properly flouring the layers. So it was another 5 mins to get everything unstuck. It wasn't until the 4th batch that I remembered the machine came with a pasta cutter!!! Still, my hand cut ones didn't turn out too bad:

Whilst I was making the pasta, I had the sauce simmering on the stove.


Here's my final product:


Close up:

The pasta turned out quite well. I actually preferred the ones I hand cut, not because they were "rustic", but I didn't roll the pasta out as thin so it had more bite to it. Next time, I am definitely making this outdoors. I ended up COVERED in flour. I had flour in my hair, on my face, all over my clothes and when I sneezed, I swear flour came out. I had to make a quick dash to the backyard to pick some basil and snagged my shirt on the fence. When I managed to untangle myself, I saw a cloud of flour billowing from my top..... Nevertheless, I am going to make pasta again next time!

Australia Day long weekend at Jervis Bay

Day 1

Cookies had organised a weekend away to Jervis Bay. I took the Friday off work, after I dumped the responsibility of breaking the news to our Project Manager that the estimates for a project may be 5 times what he expected. What a great way to start the trip. The plan was for Gus to pick me up and we would drive down to Jervis Bay, around the same time that Cookies and friends would be leaving. Gus rocks up at my place on time, only to be greeted by my dad and my 7 bags. I think he had a semi stroke when he saw that. We shoved everything into the boot and off we went to Dan Murphy's. We had been given the responsibility of stocking up on alcohol for the trip. So here I am, in Dan Murphy's, with a trolley filled to the brim with alcohol. And who should I bump into? My Dad. He's eyes practically popped out when he saw the amount of alcohol I had in the trolley! He kept lingering around the cash register as we were paying, with his jaw practically on the floor. I have a lot of explaining to do.

We made a quick get away and shoved all the alcohol into the car. Gus has a new TomTom which we turned on to give us directions all the way to the front door of our rented house. Whilst we were nearing Kiama, I decided to give Cookies a call to see how far away they were, as there were talks of meeting up for lunch. Apparently they haven't even left the house yet. Good one. We were supposed to get the keys off her, but since we were supposed to leave around the same time, we figured she could keep the key. So what could we do? We stopped in Kiama and took a nice leisurely stroll around the town and I ended up showing Gus where the blow hole was.

The blow hole

We jumped back into the car and drove to Berry, where we had decided to stop for lunch. It also allows me to hit "The Berry Bon Bon" shop where we picked up the most delish triple choc rock candies last time. I clean the shop of their supplies before we went in search for food. Gus picked out this little café/restaurant in the back alley of some shop. Within minutes, we had ordered our lunch and a spider each. Apparenly Gus has never had a spider before, so I decided to devirginise him! LoL

Gus with his first spider

Chicken schnitzel burger with the works

Beef burger with the works

God the food was really good. I was completely stuffed by the time we were finished. We trundled back to the car and off we went to Jervis Bay. 5mins from our destination, Cookiez called to check where we were. Wow, I didn't realise we took that long sightseeing! They actually managed to beat us! It took us awhile to find the place as you need to find this tiny little secluded driveway, but we managed to pull up outside the house. This is when Cookiez comes running to check if we had a sleeping bag. Apparently our 3 bedroom house turned out to be a 2 bedroom house. We originally had 10 people sharing 8 beds. We now had 10 people sharing 6 beds. This will be a cosy holiday ;)

We unload everything into the house when Cookiez and the rest of the gang decided to go grocery shopping. Whilst they were out, I did the next important thing. Jellyshots.

1/2 of the alcohol and snack food supply

I also managed to squeeze a whole heap of alcohol into the fridge to start chilling. Life is all about priorities. When they get back from the shops, everyone relaxes a bit before Richard and Alex begins cooking dinner for the rest of us. Since it'll be a good few hours before dinner is ready, I headed out for a stroll around town when I bumped into Gus (who snuck out earlier). We scoped out the alcohol store before heading back to the house.

Dinner was a lovely spag bols put together by R&A. We completely stuffed ourselves with pasta and some wine before turning on the tv to watch Federer vs Djokovic.

Spag Bols

Half way through the night, Dave, Mey and Christine showed up as they left after work. Next thing you know, the corks are off the bottles and we're having shots. (I needed the alcohol to numb the pain of Federer losing!) We started playing drinking games which involved us drinking over 3/4 of a bottle of cowboy shots.

Since there were only 6 beds, we decided to rotate the sleeping arrangements each night just to be fair. So whilst half of the people decided to watch a DVD, I passed out into bed.

Day 2

10 people. One Bathroom. You gotta be quick otherwise you'll be waiting for ages! After a quick shower, I went downstairs to the aroma of freshly cooked bacon and eggs. After a nice breakfast, everyone got changed and ready for an early morning swim at the beach. I also bought a new brand of spray on sunscreen (Face of Australia) which was fantastic! This sunscreen is completely non greasey and so easy to apply! In fact, everyone started using it because it was so good. There were also a few trigger happy people who just went around spraying people with sunscreen (You know who you are!). We gathered our gear and headed into town so we could quickly pay for a dolphin cruise we were going to do later in the day. I also managed to pick up a really nice straw hat to stop me from turning into a Lobster! We then headed to Collingwood beach, which is about a 5-10min walk from our house and we had a fantastic time!

Walking to Collingwood beach

The waves were quite gentle and calm, letting people like me who isn't really confident to start swimming at the beach. We also brought along my Volleyball and a football which we tossed around and used as a floatie. We eventually packed everything up to go home for a shower before heading off to our cruise. I bought my DSLR camera along as well.






About 45mins into the cruise, we finally spotted a dolphin in the far farrrrr distance. Everyone swarmed to the front of the boat (Where I had planted myself for the entire ride) trying to spot the dolphin. Next thing you know, Christine (who was standing next to me) screamed "Dolphin!". I looked down and the Dolphin is DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH ME! My DSLR goes off like a fire cracker and I managed to capture the only shots of the dolphin.


After that, he was gone. The boat continued to cruise for awhile after that without a sight of a dolphin. I gave up and retreated to the cool and shadey cabin. About 15mins from when we're about to return back to shore, the boat slows down and an announcement goes over the PA that they've spotted some dolphins. Without thinking, we grabbed our cameras and ran onto the deck.

At first, I couldn't actually see any dolphins. Someone near me screamed and next thing you know, you can see the dolphin weaving in and out from under the boat. The dolphins like to ride the current the boat causes, so as the boat is going, they're catching a free ride, meaning plenty of photos for me!

Its breathing!

And you know the funny thing? We spotted these dolphins just a few hundred meters from where we were swimming today! We get back to shore and immediately find a cafe for lunch. Well, lunch at 4pm.

Another patriotic shot - It is Australia day after all

Mey wanted an artistic shot

My hooooooooge burger and chips!

Gus's $19 frozen snapper and chips

We head back to the house where we get ready and hit the beach again. This time round, the water was much colder and much much windier! Mind you, we had a fantastic time though. We head back to the house again where Mey and Dave were busy cooking dinner for everyone else. Luckily they were making Viet Summer Rolls, which is quite light. Everyone was quite full after that late lunch.

Viet summer rolls - Pork, beef and prawn

The rest of the night was spent infront of the TV watching Bourne Ultimatium.

Day 3

I ended up sleeping on the floor in the lounge room for the night and ended up freezing my arse off. I had to get up in the middle of the night to look for a jumper and tissue since my nose was all blocked up. I ended up getting up really early as well since it was so cold I couldn't sleep and had to have a shower to defrost. When people finally got up, it was basically a breakfast of Miso soup, instant noodles, bacon and eggs plus cereal.

We then packed our stuff for a day at the beach. Armed with my trusty beach umbrella and volleyball, we set up shop at Collingwood beach. As I'm laying there relaxing, Gus decided it was time to give his volleyball net a go.

Gus warming up

Hmm...what does this button do?

Is there candy in this thing?

The boys comparing the length of their rods

Apparently its alot more complicated than extending the pole and tying it down..... *cough*

We gave up on the net and decided to just play volleyball in the water. By "volleyball" we mean a bunch of full grown adults screaming, yelping, screeching and splashing about to keep the ball in the air. We had an absolute blast of a time and there were quite a few people who looked like they wanted to join in on the game. But there were also a few who wanted to drown us.

We called it quits and headed back to the house around lunch time to avoid the sun. This was a chance to grab a quick bite, which meant gorging on chips and dip. But Gus did cook me lunch!


After that, we basically lazed about and watched TV for awhile before we all bundled into the car to Hyams beach. We had originally planned for a Volleyball rematch, but the minute we saw the waves crashing to shore, we knew that it wasn't going to happen. Didn't stop us from trying though. That is, until the ball gets dragged out to sea.

We then spent the next hour getting dumped again and again by the waves. There were a few times where I got completely smashed by the waves and got dragged backwards on my ass back to shore. I almost lost my board shorts a few times and ended up with an ass full of sand. I gave up after a while, but it still took me about 30mins to feel like I was back on land.

Back at the house, whilst everyone was having a shower, it was me and Christine's turn to make dinner. On the menu was a bacon, olive and chillie pasta bake, with home made garlic bread and salad.

The spread

MmMmm cheesy....

My plate round 1

Half way through dinner, the Australian Open Men's finals were on. So we pretty much spent the rest of the night watching Djokovic play Tsonga. I ended up having to drink half a bottle of alcohol because I couldn't stand the suspense! I wanted Tsonga to win so badly!!! The night ended pretty early as we had an early day tomorrow.

Day 4

We had ALOT of leftover pasta from last night. So breakfast was another carb loaded pasta meal. We quickly got changed and headed down to the beach. And although it was grey and cloudy, we committed and all jumped into the water for a last game of volleyball! It was then time to do some final packing a good clean of the house before we headed back to Sydney. All in all, it was a fantastic trip!!!