Verve Bar & Kitchen Visit 2

On a Tuesday we had some very good news that called for celebration so we thought we'd head down somewhere near with nice beer and good pub grub. We thought of Verve Bar & Kitchen at Westfield Marion Shopping Centre. It was near enough and we had a good meal the last time. I remembered it being 2 for 1 schnitzel night with karaoke starting at 9pm but we went  for neither.

We got down there, got our Kilkenny and Guiness on tap with raspberry cordial (for the lack of blackcurrant cordial! Just buy Ribena!) and got down to business with the menu. We went for the Verve burger - toasted bun with melted tasty cheese, spiced chilli jam, beef patty, beetroot, fried egg and lettuce with chips. The burger wasn't a bad feed but the I suspect the patty is bought in frozen instead of made fresh on site.  

Verve burger $16.00

I went for one of the specials on the board. Pork rib eye with gravy, chips and salad. It was a decent sized pork rib eye fillet, cooked well, tender and juicy with lovely gravy. 

Pork rib eye - $20.00

On this occasion most of the table went for burgers, their chicken burger. I didn't get to taste it but I was told it was dry and tasted "frozen". Shame. The chicken burger is made with chicken schnitzel.

See my previous review on Verve Bar & Kitchen here.

Verve Bar & Kitchen

Westfield Marion Shop 2052C

297 Diagonal Road

Oaklands Park 5046 SA

08 8296 4517

Crust Pizza Bar Norwood

One fine night after the movies at Hoyts we were walking down The Parade and came across this attractive pizza bar. I had heard of these guys before, heard great things. In we walked into Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar. What I loved about this place was the gourmet, fresh ingredients of   better quality. The menu was miles apart from your average takeaway pizza joint boasting the likes of wagyu beef and prosciutto. They had a wide range of meat, seafood and chicken pizzas with more gourmet combinations. Salad and vegetarian pizzas are also available and if you're on a diet, don't fret because they have healthy options with half the calories and still as yummy. A couple of examples are Chicken and Avocado and Bruschetta Pizza.

I decided to order the Philly Steak - Wagyu beef, roasted and fresh capsicum, caramelised onions and mushrooms on a tomato base garnished with Dijon mustard and wild rocket.

Tell me now, if that isn't gourmet, what is. The beef was beautiful and tender with wonderful flavour to it and though the other ingredients sound quite prominent in itself they were in the right amounts just perfect enough to build onto the hero being the beef. It was a wonderful pizza, lovely crust, lovely balance of flavours and generous toppings.

Philly Steak $21.00 for large

What also caught our eye was their dessert calzones. It sounded absolutely delicious and tempting, a girl never says no to dessert so of course we ordered it.

Rocky Road - Calzone filled with mud cake, dark and white chocolate, marshmallows and cherries. This is hands down the best dessert calzone I have ever tasted so far. It was bursting with gooey, chocolatey, sugary goodness. Dessert pizzas usually taste odd to me but this one was pretty divine. It's pretty filling so one Calzone can easily feed two. I was so far up in heaven I forgot to take a picture of the inside. I've attached a photo from their website so you can dream.

Rocky Road Calzone $9.50

Image source: www.crust.com.au 

It was a lovely experience and I'm glad we walked that far down The Parade. While they are pricier than your average pizza bar, the ingredients are certainly restaurant style so it's worth it for that nice treat once in a while or if you want to throw a lavish party. They have several branches across Adelaide. See website for full menu and store locations.

Crust Pizza Bar

Brighton, Norwood, Torrensville, Unley

Bah Kut Teh

I've had a craving for Bak kut teh for some time now and finally decided to make it. Bak kut teh directly translates to "Meat bone tea". It is a Chinese soup originating from Hokkien and Teochew communities consisting of pork cooked in a delicious and fragrant soup of various herbs and spices. Over time, many different versions developed but the soup base remains essentially the same. There's also a chicken version often nicknamed "Chik Kut Teh". This herbal soup is thought to provide a nutritious meal and boost their health. There are many Chinese of Hokkien decent in Malaysia and thus this dish was introduced to the country. The Hokkien version is darker due to the use of dark soy sauce.

Ingredients:

1.5kg of pork ribs or pork forequarter cut into smaller pieces

2 whole garlic heads (peeled) - smoked garlic is even better if obtainable

Tean's Bak Kut Teh Sachet (from Asian groceries)

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1.5L chicken stock

400g Enoki and fresh Chinese Mushrooms

10 tofu puffs

dash of white pepper

salt to taste

Method:

1. Remove the 2 herbal sachets from the pack and add chicken stock. Bring to boil and add garlic heads, sugar, dark soy sauce and light soy sauce.
2. Add pork then cover and bring to boil. Turn the heat down and leave to simmer for 1-2 hours to ensure meat is tender and flavoursome.
3. Then add the Chinese mushrooms and cook for a further 20 minutes. 
4. Before serving, throw in Enoki mushroom and tofu puffs and bring to boil for 5 minutes. Add a dash of pepper and salt to taste. Mix through and your dish is ready to serve.

Bak kut teh in Malaysia is often served with rice and chopped bird's eye chili (cili padi), minced garlic and a mixture of equal parts soy sauce and dark soy sauce or kecap manis as condiments.

I have found the Tean's brand to be one of the better ones so if you can get this brand it's preferable. With the choice of pork, choose a bone part of the pork as the meat will be more tender. If using pork forequarter, I recommend trimming the fat first, however some do like to eat the fat, should that be the case, it is entirely up to you to leave it in. If you have dried Chinese mushrooms make sure you soak them in water for an adequate amount of time until they soften. Feel free to use the soaking water in the soup as well to add flavour.

Enjoy! It's very appetizing especially when eaten with the chilli and soy mix.

Diamond Jubilee High Tea

In conjunction with Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee celebration, I had the pleasure and honour of being invited for a High Tea put on by Mr. Foodie's family (they're English if you're wondering). They decided to call this the Downton High Tea following the craze of the popular TV series and its seemingly fitting name for a royal themed high tea. The Diamond Jubilee marks the 60th anniversary of accession of Queen Elizabeth II. Since it was named Downton High Tea, Mr. Foodie and I decided to dress up a little posh and classic shall I say. Everyone had a good laugh when we turned up at the door in suit, coat and pearls. I even got my gloves on!  

Had to do a serious face old style portrait

They had put on a really good food spread and made a good effort of pulling out everything with a Union Jack on it to put on display. This high tea is certainly not petite, it was more like a buffet!  There were all sorts of sandwiches, crisps, pickles, pork pies, shrimp, rock cakes, tarts, jam roll-up cakes and more. The HP Sauce and Picalilli  were brought out and they had port decanted ready for an after meal sweet finish.

This half - Jam tarts, sponge roll-ups, cocktail sausage and cheese, egg mayo sandwiches, crisps, pork pies, trifle, rock cakes, shrimp and fruit cups

Under the aluminium foil, I revealed four more different sandwiches! 
- Roast beef and mustard
- Wensleydale cheese and picalilli
- Shrimp and mayo
- Pastrami and cheese 

What I was most interested in was Coronation Chicken. I had heard much about this dish but never tried it. Coronation Chicken was a dish created at the time of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. It is a combination of chicken meat, herbs, spices, curry powder and a creamy mayonnaise based sauce. This dish was certainly yummy, tasted much like an English curry bar the sweetness. It was delicious. I can see why the Queen liked it. 

It wouldn't be english without the scones

It was a lovely afternoon of good food, drinks and company. We were even lucky enough to have the wet "English" weather outside to really remind them of home. 

Winston the bulldog