The bf decided to spoil me one day so he made reservations at ezard and boy, was I excited! We opted for the 8-course tasting menu (degustation) and selected a dessert tasting plate to finish off our meal. The 8-course degustation was priced reasonably at $140 per person and some extras cost us a bit more. I'll explain as I go along....btw I'm very impressed with the camera on the Iphone- all pics were taken using that in low-light.
Haha, looking scared cos he has to foot the bill :D
Dips for our bread. L-R: Olive oil infused with parmesan and rosemary (already very yummy and flavourful on its own), seaweed and sea salt (I really have no idea cos I couldn't really catch what our waiter was saying- there were too many ingredients!), brown sugar lumps and chilli (my favourite- this was sweet and spicy) and bonito ... ok I give up. No idea :\
Course #1: Japanese inspired oyster shooter. I loved the oyster, it just tasted AMAZING. The explosion of flavours in my mouth was sooooooooooo yum. The oyster was nicely accompanied by a sweet and sour (maybe vinegar?) juice. I think that's a sushi roll next to the oyster shooter (it sure tasted like one). And I think what's on the spoon could be kingfish sashimi.
Course #2: Sesame encrusted kingfish sashimi with panna cotta and toasted coconut. Again, this was SUPERB. So delicious, but I may be biased because I absolutely love sashimi. Mmm, just talking about it makes me feel like eating it right now.
Course #3: Steamed crab and ginger wonton dumpling with tom kha (that's the sauce you see on the plate) and finger lime. I'm not lying when I say this dish is also....AMAZING. The flavours in the dumpling was sooooooooooo yum. The sauce tasted a little bit like laksa sauce but it was delicious and I mopped everything up because they put little lime sacs in it which provided a nice constrast to the creamy texture and flavour.
Course #4: Coconut roasted ocean trout with asian gazpacho, tempura avocado, creme fraiche and hot and sour salad. I liked the hot chillies they added to this dish. The ocean trout when eaten on its own was very flavourful. However, being served two creamy dishes in a row meant that the palate was not completely satisfied nor introduced to new flavours as the taste of this dish was quite similar to the previous one.
Course #5: Crispy white polenta with sauteed mushrooms, peas, poached egg and soft herbs. If you're a fan of fried polenta (btw The Mess Hall on Bourke Street does AWESOME polenta chips) like me, then you'll love this. Not a big fan of the jus, but having something 'western' was a nice change to the asian flavours we'd been enjoying with the earlier dishes. To my surprise, the peas were not that cooked (on purpose), but I really enjoyed the texture as it went well with the polenta.
Course #6: Five spiced bangalow sweet pork belly with yellow bean and peanut dressing, apple and coriander salad. Don't shoot me but my favourite thing on this dish was the coriander. I found the pork belly too fatty, and again- having been served two dishes with the same sort of jus in a row meant that my taste buds were not tantalised by the flavours on this dish.
Course #7: This required an additional $20 per head if you included this in the menu (the other option was duck and you didn't need to pay extra for it) and we were very eager to try it because it listed wagyu and truffle as some of the ingredients. This was actually seven score wagyu beef with creamed truffle potatoes, foie gras, king brown mushrooms, sticky shallot sauce and mache salad. This tasted pretty ordinary to me although I did enjoy the beef, but I thought the foie gras should star as a main ingredient in a dish on its own. At this point I was getting quite full so I let the bf finish off what I couldn't. The boy thinks I drank too much water throughout the course of the meal :s
Palate cleanser before dessert- yuzu and ginger (?) foam with a piece of rambutan. It would have been nicer if it was spicier or more tart....I could only taste sweetness.
Course #8: The boy is a greedy pig (hehe, only jk) and he opted to go for the dessert tasting plate (an additional $15 per person) and it was so beautifully made! When I saw it being brought out of the kitchen, my face lit up and the waiter laughed at me lol. This was certainly the Pièce de résistance. Sadly, it looked prettier than it tasted.
Clockwise starting from top left: Some apple dessert with a cookie as its base, pistachio cake with fresh figs, some banana dessert which tasted like tutti-fruitti, no idea what this is with fairy floss on top; and honeycomb ice-cream with gingerbread and caramel candy on top (this was my favourite- it is simply delicious). In the middle is a chocolate marquise with hazelnut biscuit and blood orange sorbet- this I liked too, except for the chocolate marquise which tasted like it had a bit of rum and raisin.
Overall it was an amazing dinner which started off very well, but when we were served the pork belly and beef it sort of plateaued. Ezard does asian flavours very well but where they fell apart was with the meat.
Ok, time to head to bed...it's 1am and my eyes are struggling to stay open. Till the next eating adventure, kids!
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