Author: Alex Prichard

H by Felici

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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date of visit: Sunday 22 September 2013

A rare visit out the other side of town saw us stop off at Burnside Village and, of course, any stop had to include the obligatory babychino.

It was a really lovely day and absolutely perfect for sitting outside on what is apparently known as the ‘restaurant deck’. We sat in some beautiful egg shaped chairs (a lot of excitement for an almost three year old in and of itself) enjoying the dappled light and admiring the selection of outdoor seating. At H by Felici you’ve got a choice of pretty much everything from high, bar style tables through to a huge sofa.

To be honest, the lovely, comfortable setting was about as good as things got. In terms of cake selection, my choice was limited, so I chose a chocolate croissant because paying $4.50 for a macaron feels just wrong.

I ordered our coffees, paid my money and went and sat down. And we waited. And waited. H by Felici wasn’t busy at all, and while I recognise that it styles itself as more restaurant than café, if you’ve made the decision to serve coffee and cakes you should be able to turn out a couple of coffees and a babychino in under the 15 or 20 minutes we waited. Whenever the toddler starts getting fidgety with a lot of “where’s my ‘cino?’ you know you’ve been waiting a while.

Sitting outside, we barely saw any staff so making an enquiry wasn’t going to be possible without heading indoors.

Fortunately, things didn’t come to that and the coffees and cake arrived. While I thought my caffe latte was pretty good, Andy didn’t rate his long black at all. The chocolate croissant had been heated (I hadn’t been asked if I wanted it warm or cold – but I guess this contributed to the delay) but all this had done was dry it out. The only moisture left was the odd bit of melting chocolate. Andy sagely pointed out “it was mostly air”.

We finished up and disappeared off. With very few staff around there was no one to acknowledge either our arrival or our departure.

As a restaurant the H by Felici experience may be either wonderful or terrible, but as a café the metaphorical socks really do need to be pulled up.

H by Felici
The Restaurant Deck
Burnside Village
447 Portrush Road
Glenside
phone: 8338 1427

H By Felici on Urbanspoon

Spicy Fish Stir Fry

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A bit of a wander over the other side of town saw us in a position to visit a different fish monger and perhaps try out something new. In the end, Andy was sent off with purchasing orders and came back with ling. Ling falls into the Sustainable Seafood ‘think’ category because it is often trawl fished which can create stock management problems and significant bycatch. Sadly, there’s no legislation that means this kind of information is displayed at point of purchase so the poor consumer either stands at the counter entranced by his or her phone, or gets home to find that a wiser choice could have been made.

I wasn’t too sure what to do with ling so google came to our aid and we decided we had enough in the cupboard to muddle together something similar to this Korean fish stir fry.

The final dish got top marks for a quick, easy and delicious mid-week dinner. Unfortunately, in this case, it received the thumbs down from the toddler. Despite his initial enthusiasm for ‘spicy fish stir fry’ (which he shouted over and over again) this waned dramatically when faced with the dish. I suspect this was because he was actually full, rather than a reflection of Andy’s cooking!

Don’t skimp on the sesame seeds and don’t wander off while you’re toasting them.  They turn from golden brown to burnt within a heart beat.

We actually served this on top of a mix of brown rice and quinoa which worked very well.  The rice and quinoa was very filling and a great carrier for the flavour of the stir fry.

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Spicy Fish Stir Fry

Ingredients

  • ~ 500g ling fillets (any firm white fish will do)
    • Marinade
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • ½ tsp chilli powder (or to taste)
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tsp lightly toasted sesame seeds
  • 2 tsp sesame oil
    • Stir Fry
  • neutral oil
  • 1 small-medium onion, finely sliced
  • ½ red capsicum
  • lightly steamed broccoli and carrot
  • fresh coriander as garnish

Instructions

  1. Mix together the marinade ingredients. Cut the fish into bite size chunks and cover with the marinade. Leave for about half an hour.
  2. There is not a ton of marinade so don't expect the fish to be swimming in it.
  3. Heat the oil in a wok and stir fry the onion. Add the fish. When the fish is cooked, add the vegetables and cook for a minute or two more to ensure they are warmed through.
  4. Serve on rice or noodles, and garnish with the coriander.
https://eatingadelaide.com/spicy-fish-stir-fry/

Potatoes Dauphinoise

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We have a big bag of potatoes lurking in a cupboard. This always happens. I spot the potatoes at a cheap price, buy them and then we hide them in a cupboard and wonder what to do with them.

As we currently have eight Dutch Cream potato plants turning into triffids in our garden, it’s time to do some long overdue potato experimenting.

Potatoes Dauphinoise (or pommes dauphinoise, or pommes de terre à la dauphinoise or dauphinoise potatoes) is hardly experimental but I suspect that it’s the type of dish that most people eat at a restaurant rather than at home.

It’s NOT health food: this is sometimes food, not every day food. But because it survives reheating excellently, it’s ideal when you’re cooking a roast or short on oven space. You can 95% cook the potatoes in advance and return them to the empty oven to reheat while the meat is resting. This makes timing a roast a LOT easier than if you try to do roast potatoes. Of course, the left overs are also top notch!

While this is a very basic, store cupboard recipe, a word of advice. A mandoline is essential. Unless you have super sharp knives, the patience of a saint and some really mad cutting skills.

This recipe also scales very easily. You just need to adjust the cooking time – the potatoes are done with a knife slides in easily.

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Potatoes Dauphinoise

Ingredients

  • 2 large potatoes, peeled and finely sliced (with a mandoline)
  • softened butter
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • parmesan cheese
  • approximately 150mL pure cream

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan).
  2. Grease a baking dish well and then rub the clove of garlic around the dish.
  3. Layer the potatoes in the dish. This doesn't have to be perfect: rough layers will do fine. In between layers, sprinkle with black pepper and add three or four dobs of garlic.
  4. Finish with a layer of potatoes. Pour over the cream. If it very thick pure cream it might be too thick for pouring, in which case just spread it across the potatoes as evenly as possible.
  5. Grate over a generous amount of parmesan cheese. Cover and bake in the hot oven for around 30 minutes. The potatoes are done when a knife slides in and out easily.
  6. To get some colour on the top, finish or reheat uncovered.
https://eatingadelaide.com/potatoes-dauphinoise/