Food For Me

"FOOD FOR ME AND EVERYONE"

Cafes are popping up everywhere in Perth and I'm always on the look out for new ones. FOOD FOR ME is currently one of my favourite spots atm. For one, I LOVE THE NAME it's so obvious that you'll be fed here; secondly, I love how you can make reservations, the older I get, I realise life's too short to be waiting in line to be fed; thirdly, Food is delicious! good quality and they have an extensive menu from sweet to savoury, deliciously unhealthy or refreshingly healthy; Four, lovely atmosphere and plenty of seating and booths; fifth, friendly service; sixth, nice toilets :)

C, M and I went for brunch at FOOD FOR ME on a beautiful saturday morning for which C had kindly made a reservation. Nestled in the heart of Victoria Park, this corner cafe isn't hard to find, but I surprisingly have never noticed the cafe until I started hearing about it. After pondering over the menu making that all time hard decision in choosing between savoury or sweet for brunch, I had settled to go for Sweet and Savoury. The French toast with berries and bacon with maple syrup, but the zuchinni corn fritter also sounded delicious! I lined up to order and when I reached the counter I've chosen the Zuchinni and corn fritter *sigh* forever a savoury girl. I also ordered a chai latte for the gazillionth time *I swear I live my life like a broken record player* C opted for a zuchinni tart displayed in the glass cabinets and M had the usual big breakfast which she is yet to finish one.

Chai Latte

I loved my Chai Latte, they were spot on with it, so creamy and frothy. I have concluded that many cafes can do a good chai latte. My work is done *not that I played any influence in this revolution whatsoever*

Zucchini and Corn Fritters with avocado, mixed greens and a poached free-range egg. Served with a preserved lemon, dill and chilli dressing (GF) 15.0

I loved my dish! the fritters had a generous dose of corn kernels with a hint of middle eastern spices, there was a generous serving of half an avocado, yay! I love avocado and considering how much avocados cost these days I think I'm getting a discount with my dish. The poached eggs was perfectly poached, silky egg white resembling cute boccocini looking balls with perfect wet yolk when cut, all this was rounded off with a slightly tangy, sweet sauce that went perfectly with everything. It was a well thought out dish.

Full belly breakfast - 19.0

M enjoyed her breaky and did pretty well with it, the only thing she would fault was there wasn't enough butter to slather on the GIGANTIC toasts, apparently the bread is sourced from Barrett's bakery in Nedlands. Nedlands do have some good bakeries and yay for local.

Frittata and salad

C's meal looked all so healthy and very appetising, the frittata looked beautiful with the stripey effects from the zuchinnis.

Overall, a jolly good catch up and I will definetly come back to try the other items on the menu. At last Perthians can round up a big group of friends and dine in a popular brunch cafe without the long wait.

Fuku - Omakase and Teppanyaki

"Quality produce, Quality service"

http://thefuku.com

I was blessed to be invited by Milan Rai to dine in Fuku as a guest blogger.  Like the many blog posts that have flooded into Urbanspoon by bloggers, there is a common positive consensus. I will now put in my two cents, this will be a honest post, my opinions will not be influenced regardless of the invite in order to keep to my values and the integrity of my blog.

Few days before I recieved the invite, I was coincidently reading into Fuku in search for a place to take the bf on his bday. He loves japanese so I was contemplating on teppanyaki since we both have never experienced it before. When I think tepanyaki, I think a food show with a big price tag, hence it has always been on the "to do" list and under the authority of my wallet :(

On arrival we were well prepared for the intercom entrance, had I not gotten the information from reading blogposts before, I would've tried yanking the door open. After the intercom was pushed, the door slid open and we were greeted with a warm and welcoming dining area, numerous sake displayed on the wall, lovely soft instrumental music in the background, inviting waiters and a good looking chef HAHA! A+ for environment. We were seated and had a look at the menu which consisted of good, better and BEST which consists of luxurious ingredients like lobster, foie gras and truffles . We were informed that we will be having the better menu. *excited*

Calamari with Herring Roe and Antartic Ice Crab

 

First of 8 courses, simple, fresh and I loved the seaweed crackle giving a good contrast of textures to the dish. They were very  generous with the roe.

Smoked Wagyu, Oyster Tempura, Burdock and School prawn Kakiage

 

This was one of my favourite dishes. I am not a fan of oysters, I don't like the look of them and sometimes chewy but this oyster was big and juicy and so tender, the fact that it was a tempura made it look more appealing. Waygu with a miso sauce was delicious and the prawn kakiage was surprisingly not that hard to eat,  it's just like soft shell crab.

Sashimi

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the sashimi. Sashimi was very fresh and melted in my mouth. I'm normally not a big fan of sashimi but I gobbled this down easily.

I loved the quality of the service. The chef would prepare and present the dish on the bench top in which the waiters will come in and place the dish in front of us all so delicately.

Partridge

 

Never had partridge before but tasted like chicken *how amatuer of me* it being wrapped in crepe reminded me of peking duck, it didn't blow me away, but I still enjoyed it.

Scallop, prawn and crispy prawn head

 

This dish was another one of my favourites. Scallop was volumtious, juicy and perfectly cooked, prawn was well seasoned and also well grilled. Who knew I'd actually enjoy prawn head, it wasn't hard to eat and the chef said it was good for our skin. In that case, good skin is coming my way baby!

What I learnt so far is that tepanyaki is all about working with great produce and simple cooking to keep the natural flavours, in saying that I haven't seen any theatricals and was getting abit disappointed..UNTIL!

The chef started setting things on fire :O!

.........making a volcano

........ Juggling pepper and salt shakers

............... Doing some crazy chopping

............. Pulling out the flesh of the lobster and putting it back into the shell like nothing happened whatsoever

............ Juggling with knives, throwing eggs and cracking it on the knife, as well as picking up an egg yolk and cracking that onto a knife, though there was a couple of failed attempts and a big mess made, it's just all part of the fun.

Now back to the serious stuff..

At this point another chef came to cook, he was wearing a different hat. I think he was not as experienced as the first chef but he was more willing to try out the harder tricks which was entertaining. The experienced chef was left to serve the customers whom ordered the BEST menu. *rich*

Fish of the day

 

I didn't quite enjoy this dish, I found the fish over cooked and a little tough, I also didn't dare to eat the baby octopus, moved it to J's dish, he enjoyed that part. It also took awhile to prepare with the blow torching of the fish and the leaves, not sure if that added flavour to the dish with the torching of the leaves.

Waygu (full blood) sirloin steak. Mayura Station grade 9+, Fried rice with wagyu flavour

 

The chef went around asking everyone how they liked their steak, many chose medium rare. In the end he recommended waygu to be medium to medium well done so the fat can melt away to achieve the full tender steak. From then everybody changed their preferences on their steak. I enjoyed the waygu with the garlic chips, full of flavour. Unfortunately I found the fried rice lacking flavour and some rice was abit hard.

Yuzu cheesecake, chocolate drink and mountain peach

 

I was very excited for dessert and it didn't disappoint. Yuzu cheesecake was creamy and refreshing went well with the chocolate drink. A great end to a wonderful 8 course.

Overall J and I enjoyed our first tepanyaki experience. We can definetly tell that the produce is A grade and they strive for good quality dishes. I highly recommend this place for private parties, it only seats 16 people, but I think the experience would be more fun sharing it with friends and encouraging the chefs to demonstrate more tricks. I'm sure they'll be happy to give them ago knowing that everyone is willing to have some fun. It would definitely be a more interactive dining experience. I believe they have a new WALK-IN menu which I would like to try one day $75, just walk in and make your own menu.

Vons chicken

There is an invasion of Korean restaurants happening in Perth. In the future we will all be dancing and singing to K pop and dressing up like one. Oh wait. that's now. that's me *shame*. The BF have been going to alot of man dates to Vons chicken in which they all talk highly of including my workmate, so I decided to try this place out myself.

Vons chicken is a franchise restaurant in Korea serving mainly chicken from which you can opt for the roasted or deep fried. I stood aside and let the BF take the reigns for this one ordering chicken and rice, he chosed the roasted chicken with mild chilli sauce. You can choose your level of hottness. For me, i'm not that hot :(

We all sat down and got our plastic gloves which I think is pretty awesome! at that moment I was very excited, who wouldn't be excited with plastic gloves!...PLASTIC GLOVES!! *crazily waves them around* Each table is equiped with a chicken scrap bin and baby wipes.

The chicken arrived and as expected it was a bunch of chicken on a plate, glistening with sauce and a lovely brown, make you salivate colour. At that moment I thought, we should've ordered the fried rice or something, so it wouldn' t be so plain and repetitive, but I need to let the control freak that I am go and just eat. 

I slid on my gloves *excited fit* and started digging in, only to realise it wasn't what I imagined it to be, I thought in wearing the gloves I'd be able to devour the saucy chicken with my dignity still intact looking classy and all lady-like, but it proved to still be quite difficult, like I was better off eating it with my bare hands. It was difficult to eat the rice and have gloves too, so I only ended up using one glove. Chicken wise, they were delicious but I think they were too hyped up, I've been told they're better than KFC, KFC is pretty damn good. I think they're both equally good but vons is probably healthier and also pricier . I didn't end up eating my rice, just had the chicken so I guess the rice was really not that necessary nor would fried rice either since I was too busy handling the chicken and was happy with just chicken.

Overall, eventhough it's just roasted saucy chicken, it's still GOOD chicken. The next time I come here, I'd have a take away so I can devour it in my own privacy sauce on my face, clothes, hands and all. I also wouldn't mind a side serving of chips, it would be a great alternative to KFC, without the greasy, unhealthy feeling you get after a KFC meal. 

Jamaica blue

I usually avoid franchised cafes, just coz there's something impersonal about them, they lack character if you know what I mean. I guess you could call me a franchise cafe SNOB. Oneday C and I wanted to catch up but couldn't be bothered travelling out of the suburbs with the worries of finding parking and wasting petrol and dressing up and blah, first world problem. Anyways we chose to try out Jamaica Blue in Riverton Forum, a franchise cafe and lets just say I'm no longer a franchise cafe SNOB, just a SNOB :)

Upon arrival I noticed the beautiful contemporary wall paper which I loved and wanted to take a photo but didn't want to seem like I was taking pictures of all the people sitting in front of it. I know, being a food blogger why would I have any dignity left. WELL I REFUSE TO THINK SO.

I had a browse of the menu and decided to have the smoked salmon potato cakes which came with hollandaise sauce and caramalised onion. All the hot meals were displayed in the cabinet which I dislike, I don't like the thought that the dishes aren't prepared fresh on the spot, anyways I stuck with my order and also had a chai latte *of course*

 

Salmon potato cakes

First bite. DELICIOUS! Saltiness of the salmon, savouriness of the potato, creaminess of the hollandaise sauce and sweetness of the onions make a perfect dish, I don't know why I haven't seen this combo more often. Salad was pretty much salad with what I believe was store bought balsamic dressing. Chai latte was perfect, very creamy just the way I like it :) I will bring my sister here to show her how a Chai latte is done, she's been trying to make a creamy chai latte at home with many failed attempts. My friend wasn't very hungry so she had a cookie hahah! I dont' think that's worth blogging bout. I forgot to ask C how she thought about the coffee, so I can't comment on that aspect.

Overall enjoyed my meal though I have to admit, I was very surprised, perhaps my expectations were lowered since I'm a franchise cafe snob but it's definetly good stuff. Great environment, lovely food and reasonable prices makes a happy snob :)