It's a lazy Sunday afternoon and I AM feeling lazy. But, hang on, I have a date with food destiny. This time, it's with Pearl Bar and Restaurant. I've been overly curious about this one since I've visited their website. It looks like an actual local news website, filled with updates, new food, masterclasses and announcements. I really wanted to join their masterclass on Duck and Pinot but they only have it on Wednesdays at 6:30PM! Too bad...
So what's cool about this place? Let me describe this in the best way I can. First off, their doors open automatically. I mean, literally, open. Not like the sliding door things that they have at Japanese or Chinese restaurants. Their heavily frosted glass door with a long cylindrical metal handle opens up to greet you. Inside, all I can see is crisp stark white. It's like entering into food heaven, if there is such a place, this could be it.
Sitting down, I noticed double lined white table cloths and VERY comfortable leather chairs that fits my bum perfectly. After choosing the Sommelier's Choice which is a white Entre-deux-mers, very summery and clean with no lingering after taste, I moved on to their menu.
Food. I know that I've been presented with quite a challenge here. This, I think, will be the most difficult taste experience/review to record, because each dish is just sheer perfection from start to finish.
To start, bread and olive oil. Ah, but it's no ordinary bread. This mound of freshly baked goodness is warm and almost gooey inside with taut but still springy in texture on the lovely baked beige color while outside, ultra-crisp crunch that begs you to dip it onto the lemon-infused olive oil and eat it. Honestly, just the bread is that good. I've been to a few good restaurants and I never usually notice the bread. But the Pearl pays attention to every detail, this among many others.
I have difficulty choosing what to order. Everything looked well thought out and exciting, every item on the menu is just screaming, please choose me! Sorry, guys, I'm going to have the sashimi platter. Ooh, where to begin? In the middle, ocean trout ceviche with two chillies and baby cucumber. Clockwise from the topleft is mahi-mahi sashimi with shredded apples, baby octopus with kalamata olives, pomelo and avocado slice and finally, fresh tuna on a betel leaf with fresh wasabi and sashimi dipping sauce. I've had fresh tuna before as sashimi and tartare but this is utterly bizarre. Fresh tuna on a betel leaf? Right. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? Well, Geoff Linsday did. The betel leaf adds a bit of bitter and earthy taste to the tuna and with the spicy wasabi and dipped into the brewed sauce, it's surprisingly good. I was expecting to not eat this but I psyched my mind to think that this is just sashimi. Good thing, I listened.
Ocean trout ceviche with two chillies and baby cucumber. At first, this tasted fishy but don't forget to eat it with the baby cucumber! It makes a whole lot of difference in terms of taking away that strong briny taste. So I discovered that something fresh and something fishy actually works.
Mahi-mahi sashimi with shredded apples. Fish with fruit should be nasty, but again, I was wrong. The sweet and slightly sour taste of the shredded green apples worked well with the mildly pepper spiked mahi-mahi slices. Very delicate in flavor. Another thing to note here are the orange flowers, I forgot what type they are but just a small amount of those added another dimension of taste. It's a bit grassy, but in a good way.
Baby octopus with kalamata olives, pomelo and avocado slice. This one here is my favorite. I never, ever liked octopus, especially when served sashimi style. This one almost converted me to a baby octopus fan. There was a play of sour/salty (from that thin sliver of olive), tang/sweet (from that small piece of pomelo) and muted creaminess (from the avocado underneath the octopus) makes this dish a tease on your palate. All things considered, the ingredients are simple and average but the combination worked very well.
That aside, what I'm really excited about is my main course. White Rabbit. Sorry, Alice but I've got to have rabbit while I'm in a foreign country that breeds them for food.
Macleay valley white rabbit stuffed with red grapes, wrapped in prosciutto, verjus sauce with chestnut risotto, grilled rabbit liver, caramelised shallots and braised beetroot stems. A mouthful, really but most definitely one of the most memorable and great dishes I've had from my stay here in Melbourne. First, visually stunning, I couldn't bear to cut my knife onto it, but once I did, I couldn't be stopped. I think it will be best to describe this dish as inventive. Where else can you see cylindrical shaped white rabbit terrine stuffed with fresh pale violet colored grapes wrapped in prosciutto? It is as delicious as it sounds. Fruit with any white fleshed meat isn't really on my limited foodie vocabulary and imagination but again, it works. The rabbit wasn't as game-y as I expected, it tasted like a cross between chicken and pork. The grapes with the white meat is like a muted sugar-y taste. If eaten with the prosciutto, it will become good and with the sweet chestnut risotto, it will become very good. Then finally, with the verjus sauce, it will become exceptionally good. There is a very serious play here of layer upon layer of goodness when you took a piece of each and combine them in your mouth. The grilled liver and the veggies were also tasty but the main player here was the rabbit and chestnut combination.
For dessert, I had green tea with rose petal ice cream, candied ginger, Turkish delight and Persian fairy floss. I think this is the most ultimate of all iced creams I've had. Creamy and smooth, with real rose petals in the iced cream. I'm not sure if they used rose essence or anything of the sort, but there was a real taste and aroma of rose. The candied ginger and Turkish delight were also combined in the iced cream so that the actual cream wasn't sweet but the candies contributed to the sticky lovely sweetness. As for the Persian fairy floss, it is I think a glorified version of cotton candy. It is not sweet at all but there is a hint of nutty flavor that comes out when you feel the floss melt in your mouth. Another thing to note though, is that when combined with the iced cream, the floss creates that crunchy texture for it.
So what's cool about this place? Let me describe this in the best way I can. First off, their doors open automatically. I mean, literally, open. Not like the sliding door things that they have at Japanese or Chinese restaurants. Their heavily frosted glass door with a long cylindrical metal handle opens up to greet you. Inside, all I can see is crisp stark white. It's like entering into food heaven, if there is such a place, this could be it.
Sitting down, I noticed double lined white table cloths and VERY comfortable leather chairs that fits my bum perfectly. After choosing the Sommelier's Choice which is a white Entre-deux-mers, very summery and clean with no lingering after taste, I moved on to their menu. Food. I know that I've been presented with quite a challenge here. This, I think, will be the most difficult taste experience/review to record, because each dish is just sheer perfection from start to finish.To start, bread and olive oil. Ah, but it's no ordinary bread. This mound of freshly baked goodness is warm and almost gooey inside with taut but still springy in texture on the lovely baked beige color while outside, ultra-crisp crunch that begs you to dip it onto the lemon-infused olive oil and eat it. Honestly, just the bread is that good. I've been to a few good restaurants and I never usually notice the bread. But the Pearl pays attention to every detail, this among many others.
I have difficulty choosing what to order. Everything looked well thought out and exciting, every item on the menu is just screaming, please choose me! Sorry, guys, I'm going to have the sashimi platter. Ooh, where to begin? In the middle, ocean trout ceviche with two chillies and baby cucumber. Clockwise from the topleft is mahi-mahi sashimi with shredded apples, baby octopus with kalamata olives, pomelo and avocado slice and finally, fresh tuna on a betel leaf with fresh wasabi and sashimi dipping sauce. I've had fresh tuna before as sashimi and tartare but this is utterly bizarre. Fresh tuna on a betel leaf? Right. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? Well, Geoff Linsday did. The betel leaf adds a bit of bitter and earthy taste to the tuna and with the spicy wasabi and dipped into the brewed sauce, it's surprisingly good. I was expecting to not eat this but I psyched my mind to think that this is just sashimi. Good thing, I listened. Ocean trout ceviche with two chillies and baby cucumber. At first, this tasted fishy but don't forget to eat it with the baby cucumber! It makes a whole lot of difference in terms of taking away that strong briny taste. So I discovered that something fresh and something fishy actually works. Mahi-mahi sashimi with shredded apples. Fish with fruit should be nasty, but again, I was wrong. The sweet and slightly sour taste of the shredded green apples worked well with the mildly pepper spiked mahi-mahi slices. Very delicate in flavor. Another thing to note here are the orange flowers, I forgot what type they are but just a small amount of those added another dimension of taste. It's a bit grassy, but in a good way. Baby octopus with kalamata olives, pomelo and avocado slice. This one here is my favorite. I never, ever liked octopus, especially when served sashimi style. This one almost converted me to a baby octopus fan. There was a play of sour/salty (from that thin sliver of olive), tang/sweet (from that small piece of pomelo) and muted creaminess (from the avocado underneath the octopus) makes this dish a tease on your palate. All things considered, the ingredients are simple and average but the combination worked very well. That aside, what I'm really excited about is my main course. White Rabbit. Sorry, Alice but I've got to have rabbit while I'm in a foreign country that breeds them for food.Macleay valley white rabbit stuffed with red grapes, wrapped in prosciutto, verjus sauce with chestnut risotto, grilled rabbit liver, caramelised shallots and braised beetroot stems. A mouthful, really but most definitely one of the most memorable and great dishes I've had from my stay here in Melbourne. First, visually stunning, I couldn't bear to cut my knife onto it, but once I did, I couldn't be stopped. I think it will be best to describe this dish as inventive. Where else can you see cylindrical shaped white rabbit terrine stuffed with fresh pale violet colored grapes wrapped in prosciutto? It is as delicious as it sounds. Fruit with any white fleshed meat isn't really on my limited foodie vocabulary and imagination but again, it works. The rabbit wasn't as game-y as I expected, it tasted like a cross between chicken and pork. The grapes with the white meat is like a muted sugar-y taste. If eaten with the prosciutto, it will become good and with the sweet chestnut risotto, it will become very good. Then finally, with the verjus sauce, it will become exceptionally good. There is a very serious play here of layer upon layer of goodness when you took a piece of each and combine them in your mouth. The grilled liver and the veggies were also tasty but the main player here was the rabbit and chestnut combination.
For dessert, I had green tea with rose petal ice cream, candied ginger, Turkish delight and Persian fairy floss. I think this is the most ultimate of all iced creams I've had. Creamy and smooth, with real rose petals in the iced cream. I'm not sure if they used rose essence or anything of the sort, but there was a real taste and aroma of rose. The candied ginger and Turkish delight were also combined in the iced cream so that the actual cream wasn't sweet but the candies contributed to the sticky lovely sweetness. As for the Persian fairy floss, it is I think a glorified version of cotton candy. It is not sweet at all but there is a hint of nutty flavor that comes out when you feel the floss melt in your mouth. Another thing to note though, is that when combined with the iced cream, the floss creates that crunchy texture for it.
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