The Moseley Kitchen and Bar, Glenelg

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment
steak tartare, parsnip crisps
steak tartare with parsnip crisps

date of visit: Friday 8 Jan 2016

Back in winter I was invited to a menu launch dinner at the Moseley and never blogged about it. I’m guessing it was because I was busy writing because I was pretty impressed with the meal.

Sufficiently impressed, it turns out, that it’s a venue I’ve kept at the back of my mind but not managed to visit on my own dime … until a recent Friday night.

I’d love to tell you it was planned, but sadly … it was a case of me ringing around places at 3pm on Friday afternoon searching for that all elusive table for two.

The Moseley is part of the RD Jones group which owns quite a few venues across Adelaide. In a previous life, it was The Dublin, before being taken over and given a reno and a much needed rejigged reputation. Now there is a slick downstairs dining area and the bar area is upstairs. At the very front there is casual seating, so you don’t feel like you’re eating your dinner with the whole of Moseley Square peering at you!

The very first impression that I had of our evening was my phone call to book. This is something that a lot of venues manage to mess up but whoever took my booking set the standard service-wise for our whole Moseley experience. Service was always attentive and competent – and that lasted the whole way through the meal, including when it came time to pay the bill.

As we were without Master 5 we treated ourselves to a whole TWO courses each AND coffees. This is very very exciting for us – while I have plenty of opportunities for lovely meals out, usually Andy is at home and when we do eat out, it’s as a family so it’s always early and super quick.

spicy squid
Spicy squid

After some bread, Andy started with the spicy squid and I chose the beef tartare. The spicy squid got the thumbs up and the beef tartare was very good. It had BAGS of flavour – packing a serious caper-fuelled punch. It was also a very generously sized portion … although the parsnip crisps with which it was served weren’t quite as generous. With beef tartare you do need plenty of something crispy to break up what can otherwise quite a homogeneous texture experience. The dish is billed as gluten free and I understand wanting to keep it like that but the plate really did need either more crisps or some croutons.

fish, chips, mushy peas
fish, chips & pea puree

For main course, Andy ordered the fish and chips with mushy peas and I went for the ricotta gnocchi with kale (yay!), broccolini and almonds. This was another generously sized dish and had a really lovely touch of chilli heat to it. The gnocchi were also light and tender. Although I didn’t notice it immediately, it was quite salty and this really built up while eating it.

The fish and chips were also a success but it would be fantastic if the Moseley could invest a bit of menu real estate in telling us the provenance of the fish. We did ask and were told it was local but I’m not entirely sure I can figure out what ‘local’ cod is …

After drinks (2 beers, 2 glasses of wine) and coffee the bill came in at around $120 which we didn’t think was too bad at all. While the food was not flawless, it is certainly food I would bother to seek out and eat again. It is absolutely fantastic to see a pub in a popular location actually do some interesting food and not succumb to lazy menu writing.

The Moseley gets a thumbs up: somewhere we’d return and I’d be happy to recommend.

The Moseley Bar & Kitchen
11 Moseley Square
Glenelg SA 5045
phone: 08 8295 3966

The Moseley Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Your Tea – English Breakfast Tea

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

20151208_082112Disclaimer: I was sent the tea to review

Amongst the many things I love drinking, tea has a significant spot in the hierarchy. If I were ever told I had to give up drinking tea, there would, quite possibly, be trouble.

I know that the way I drink it (weak, lots of milk, no sugar) is for many people quite wrong – one of my friends even refers to it as homeopathic strength – but I like to think that my approach strikes a good balance between antioxidants, hydration and caffeine. At least, that’s what I would tell myself if I ever felt that I needed to justify my habits!

So when Your Tea offered to send me one of the new Cafe Teas, I was never going to say no.

There is a huge range of flavours available – everything from English Breakfast (my boring choice!) through to rather novel combinations like chocolate rooibos and strawberry sencha. I’m not big on flavoured teas so I figured I’d stick with something I actually know about.

In addition, I also tried this tea out on a fellow big tea drinking friend (she drinks hers strong, with only a little milk and sugar).

The bags are fine mesh pyramid bags and the tea is strong, developing flavour and colour quickly. Even though I’m a weak tea drinker, I think this is a good thing. The box and bags are also very ‘tea dust’ free – which I believe is the sign of a good quality tea bag. 20151208_082138

Flavour wise the tea is robust. It’s a good, clean tea flavour which both my friend and I enjoyed.

In addition to the cafe range, Your Tea also sells a range of mood teas (yes, they even sell a Hangover Tea!) and body teas, which are based on the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. Travel mugs, a face cream and gift boxes are also available. The cafe teas are all $13.95 for 25 tea bags, with the mood teas and body teas individually priced. The gift boxes are a good way of trying a mix of teas, if you can’t make a decision.

 

Christmas a la Malaysia

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

20151125_115637laksa poached prawns

Disclaimer: I was a guest at the event

A couple of weeks ago I headed to Sprout Cooking School for an event hosted by The Malaysian Trade Corporation.

Callum Hann and his team put together a three-course Christmas dinner but with a Malaysian twist. I arrived not really sure what to expect – we hadn’t been sent a sneak-peek menu and I wasn’t even sure if we’d be cooking ourselves (we weren’t).

What I didn’t realise before the event is that Christmas is a big deal in Malaysia. After all, Malaysia is both hot and steamy and its official religion is Sunni Islam. But talking to the Malaysians at the event, it turns out that the heat doesn’t put anyone off the idea of turning on their oven and roasting a turkey for Christmas Day. I was assured that Malaysian aircon is super-efficient!

The point of this lunch was to showcase Malaysian ingredients and techniques and how they could be incorporated into what many would consider a traditional Australian Christmas lunch. Everything was presented share-style and the table was soon laden with all sorts of goodies. We had Christmas-themed place settings, complete with crackers and before long everyone was reaching across the table to try something.

Seafood featured heavily – particularly for the first course. The laksa poached prawns were delicious and this is definitely not an idea you need to reserve just for Christmas. We also had kingfish sashimi and, of course, oysters.

20151125_123922potato salad

Main course featured a couple of standout dishes for me. The big one being the satay potato, spring onion and peanut salad. Potato salads can be very hit and miss. Invariably, at best they are pretty boring and at worst downright nasty. This was absolutely delicious and something I’ll have to look at replicating. Just for the surprise factor alone, I was happy to rate this my dish of the day.

20151125_123917tomato and snake bean salad

The tomato and snake bean salad with sesame and ginger dressing was also really popular, and the tamarind pork with a nasi lemak cucumber and mint salad also hit the spot. We also had szechuan pepper crusted duck and the showstopper was a glazed ham. But, in keeping with the theme, glazed with chilli, palm sugar and fish sauce.

20151125_124012glazed ham

For pudding, we had a Malaysian riff on a trifle containing mango, coconut, lychee, kaya (a kind of coconut jam) and macadamia nuts. Although it looked scarily sweet and rich it was actually a well balanced and light dessert.

20151125_133346mango and macadamia trifle

If you’re in South Australia and looking to source Malaysian ingredients you won’t be surprised to learn that the Central Market is your go-to destination – especially if you want to pick up anything slightly more obscure than satay sauce! However, it’s more than likely you’ll find a few bits and pieces in your local supermarket.

As our family’s supply of Christmas prawns has arrived, I hope to find the time to experiment with them in a laksa and maybe even perfect the satay sauce potato salad.