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Petit Fours: a Sydney food blog

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Petit Fours: a Sydney food blog

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Petit Fours: a Sydney food blog

Wednesday 29 January 2014

Garagistes, Hobart, Tasmania


Whilst Tasmania is undoubtedly the jewel of Australia's produce driven identity, it doesn't have much going for it in terms of 'avant garde' haute cuisine. Having opened up for quite a while, Garagistes has welcomed a large amount of accolades. The exigency of its closure in July this year really made it a must visit in Tasmania. 


Wholemeal Sourdough and Smoked Butter
And on we start. Smoked butter here is ridiculously addictive. I could easily pass on the bread and just go with the butter. All. To. Myself.



A little nibble of a carrot stick presents an interesting contrast between the rawness of carrot with the toasty nuttiness of the seeds.


violet artichokes, beetroot, broadbeans, anise hyssop, fennel pollen, cream
Our first course was brilliant. A mish-mash of tender artichoke, sweet golden beetroots and creamy broad beans are gelled together with a buttery cream finished with a sprinkle of liquorishy hyssop. It seemed to just 'work'.

southern calamari, espelette pepper, anigelica seeds + lemon basil
Second course is a choice between two dishes so I figured we might get one each. Noodles of calamari were really soft and giving but espelette peppers along with tart lemon basil make it akin to a sort of sour 'laksa' which probably is a little too prosaic for what you want at a cutting edge diner. 


venerupis clams, kipflwer potatoes, fresh peas, fermented lettuce + lovage
Clam and shellfish juices fit well with a lovage 'soup' but it just didn't excite. You also can't help but be a little disappointed with the size and lack of clams particularly when you're trying to showcase the produce.  


smoked eel, white peach, samphire + brown butter
Ridiculously soft and marbelled eel? Yum yum yum. Garagistes triumphs sophisticatedly pairing it with sweet and soft peaches, twisting it up with a sea-salty hit of crunchy samphire.


raw dry-aged cow, morello cherry, shaved laver + salt bush
The beef was tender, matched well with super sour cherries to offset it but that's where it ends. Quite ambitious doing a cold main but it hasn't really paid off. It didn't feel gutsy enough and have that 'heaviness' you would expect. 


flinders island lamb sweetbreads, green almonds, celtuce + salad cream
Sweetbreads where the same, lacking that usual creamy unctuous mouth-feel you'd expect and it seemed like the execution lacked excitement.


roasted cherry plums + kernel custard, raspberries, buttermilk + frozen shortbread
Dinner finishes on a high note with two spectacular desserts. Mine was pretty much a deconstructed summer pie of sorts; sweet and astringent hits of roasted cherry are balanced well with a foamed up buttermilk cream and crumbly short bread and it's just utterly delectable. 


fig leaf cream, suncrest peach juice, caramelised rye bread, dried blackberry
The sweet and sour theme continues with a brilliant creation of a hardened white chocolate dome encasing a lightly perfumed fig cream which then receives a dusting of dried blackberry. It's light as a feather, considerate of textures but most importantly delicious.



Garagistes is viewed by many to be the star of the Tasmanian culinary scene. Its cooking is eclectic to say the least but sadly the restaurant lacks spirit and generosity. Dishes didn't feel substantial enough and where there were great dishes were soon followed by not so good ones. We left the restaurant having had a very through provoking dinner but sadly our appetite craved more.


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Garagistes on Urbanspoon

Thursday 23 January 2014

A Guide to Tasmania


Location location. Picture empty beautiful crystal clear beaches, oysters plucked right from the ocean and served immediately, berry and dairy farms, viscious Tasmanian devils and endless forests and wilderness. And the occasional wallaby roadkill. That's Tasmania in a nutshell. And boy is it magical. 

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Pinbone, Woollahra


Pinbone has opened up with much attention thanks to their considerable list of pop-up dinners. They've finally got a permanent spot up and if you've haven't heard of them before, you might want to pop by their instagram to prepare your tastebuds. 

Friday 3 January 2014

Wafflelicious and Sauce Cafe, Auburn



See I literally have no clue about what to eat when it comes to local stuff. Well besides the usual Thai and Vietnamese suspects. Ask me city-bound fine diners to cheap hole-in-the-walls and I'm your man. I've got a gagillion Italian eateries, to Mexican to patisseries in my arsenal but still... absolute zilch for local stuff. So I was recommended Wafflelicious and Sauce cafe, a one-two hit of waffles and Mediterranean pub grub all in the same place run by the same people. Of course we were mainly here for the former but you've got to get your greens and protein in right?


No, we aren't the most amazing gastronomes or chefs. Heck, half our team doesn't even know how to cook... well. However, what we really love is eating. And lots of it. We enjoy that occasional freebie, filling up that craving for a midnight snack and finding a 20 in our pockets that we thought we never had, and using that as an excuse to go out eating. As we battle the ongoing war on uni student poverty, we'll bring you the most swoon worthy recounts of our latest foodie adventures.