Clipper Cafe, Glebe, Sydney
Posted by | Categories: Breakfast/Brunch, Featured, Restaurants, Sydney
I had made big plans for myself to get up super-duper early each day when I was in Sydney so that I could stroll over to my new favourite restaurant Bills for breakfast before heading to the Uni for my conference. Those big plans were all fine and dandy until I had a succession of late nights. I think the Boy’s keen passion for a good night’s sleep and his persistent cry of complaint to turn the lights out each night actually has a great influence on me. Just don’t tell him I admitted that. If you take his sleeping demands away and leave me to my own devices I seemingly want to have the best of both worlds. I want to be a night owl AND a morning person. This is a hard act to follow and before long something had to give.
I fell asleep to dreams of Bills’ eggs only to feel like I woke up five minutes later. That night I had finally decided to pull the curtains closed for the first time in three nights and the hotel room was cloaked in pitch black. I guessed it to be around 3 to 4 o’clock in the morning and gazed lazily over at the clock. To my horror it wasn’t 3am or even 5am. It was 7.15am and I was supposed to leave at 7.00. I needed a good 45 minutes to shower and get dressed so a deviation via Surry Hills was not an option.
Begrudgingly I dragged myself out of bed, into the shower and out the door as quickly as I could and Urbanspooned while I walked. I found a suggestion called Clipper Café that had great ratings and was very conveniently located directly on my route from the hotel to the Uni. I was greeted by an effervescent American waitress who proudly told me I could have nearly anything off the menu gluten-free. I ordered my usual short Mac while I perused the small menu which contained traditional staples with a few slight twists. The coffee is Clipper’s own blend roasted at Coffee Alchemy in Marrickville. I really enjoyed this cup; it was much sweeter than my coffee at Bills with a lovely creamy aftertaste.
I ordered poached eggs on gluten-free bread with prosciutto, tomato and Pecorino. My order came out in great time as I was definitely on a tight schedule due to my little lie-in. The salty crisp grilled Pecorino totally overpowered the prosciutto flavour and I was left wishing that I had read the menu more carefully before ordering. To make matter more disappointing my poached eggs were slightly overdone leaving only a small amount of gooey egg yolk to goomp everything together. The gluten-free bread tasted like standard shop bought bread and was nothing special.
Overall I enjoyed my breakfast but it simply did not compare to my repeat experiences at Bills. The coffee however was very good. Oh, and by the way just a little heads up if you go there – they are cash only so bring your wallet.
Check out my other Sydney posts here
Clipper Café 16 Glebe Point Road, Glebe 2037 | 0411 800 063 Price: $ ($7-12 Breakfast) Food: 2.5/5 (slightly overcooked eggs, crumbly GF bread) Service: 4/5 (quirky, fun and quick) Ambience: 3.5/5 (country café feel) Drinks: 4.5.5 (scrumptious coffee) Total: 14.5/20 
Ku De Ta, Seminyak, Bali
Posted by | Categories: Bali, European, Featured, Restaurants, Travel
It was our first night in Bali and our refreshing welcome drink served at our villa was a much needed treat. It had taken us no less than an hour and a half to travel a mere twelve kilometres through bumper to bumper traffic from the airport to Seminyak. Once we had checked into our villa and discovered the free minibar wasn’t very well stocked, we decided to head out into the town in search of something to eat and drink. I had been given a long list of eating venues from friends back home so I started at the top of the list and chose Ku De Ta.
I tried to not to compare my first impressions of Bali with our recent times in Thailand but this was a difficult task to do. Having been to a few locations on a couple of trips to Thailand, there is definitely something about the people and their country that makes me smile. I guess that is why they call it the “Land of Smiles”! Bali just didn’t give me that same overwhelming feeling of happiness but at this early stage of the trip I hadn’t recognised this fully nor even now do I completely understand why.
Ku De Ta is an impressive venue day or night and I regret not going back there during the day to get a better look at their beach club in the sunlight. The venue is spacious with several different areas to either relax for drinks or sit down for something a bit more formal. The bar opens directly out onto the beach with sun beds and parasols all set up for those who want to enjoy a sun downer. The crowd was predominately Australian and had an air of pretention about it, which I think was the first distinct difference to equivalent venues in Thailand. I started to feel like I may as well have come to a beach club in my own country. In contrast to the patrons, the service was very welcoming and they were more than happy to take my eating card back to the kitchen to determine what I could have off their menu. The waiter returned with two entrée options and four main dish options that would be possible.
Eagle Rock and Otter Cove oysters
As you may know, I love my oysters. More specifically, I like trying new types of oysters that we haven’t tried before. Sydney Rock Oysters are a particular favourite of mine – they are smaller and have a more intense and distinct flavour than Pacific Oysters and they take apparently take 2-3 times longer to reach maturity. Ku De Ta offered two types of oyster but unfortunately they were not Sydney Rock. One type was from Eagle Rock and the other was from Otter Cove and both are Pacific oysters grown in Washington’s Puget Sound in the US. We ordered half a dozen of each type. The Eagle Rock were delicately flavoured, sweet and very creamy. The Otter Cove oysters were also quite sweet but were a little brinier than the Eagle Rock. Both were very fresh and left me with that lingering salty aftertaste of the sea.
Tuna and lobster tartare, wasabi, flying fish roe, crème fraiche, sesame seeds
My entrée of tuna and lobster tartare was visually very appealing and almost looked too pretty to eat. It was served on paper thin slices of cucumber placed crisscrossed against each other to make a decorative pattern on my plate. There was just enough wasabi to give the dish a kick making every mouthful a burst of freshness and the dressing had just a hint of sweetness ending the orchestra of flavours perfectly.
The Boy had crispy soft-shelled crab salad which was served with pork belly. He let me have a little taste of the pork belly and it was cooked perfectly with a succulent layer of meat covered with a very crunchy and crispy layer of crackling. The soft-shelled crab was battered so I didn’t get to try any but according to him it was again cooked to perfection although it wasn’t very meaty. He said the salad was an explosion of flavour with the sweet Borneo honey, tangy citrusy pomelo, cucumber and salty cashews.
Sweet Alaskan black “miso” cod, picked daikon, asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, shiso dressing, flying fish roe
My main dish was similarly mind blowing. The cod was the texture of butter and fell apart under my fork purely melting in mouth. It was marinated in a shiso dressing which has a similar taste to basil but much more subtle. The salad contained mushrooms which you may know are pretty much my favourite vegetable of all time and this was also dressed with the syrupy shiso.
Grilled seafood a la plancha, barramundi, scallop, scampi, soffrito, fregola, aioli, almond picada
The Boy ordered the grilled seafood a la plancha. It was served on a bed of fregola (small ball shaped pasta resembling Israeli couscous) and a soffrito sauce (basically tomato, onion and garlic). His fish was not as delicate and buttery as mine as they used barramundi which is a slightly more firm fish. The remainder of his seafood was juicy and tender particularly the scallops.
Pleasantly impressed with the quality of the food and the service, we both were too full for dessert and decided to get the bill before returning to our villa. To our complete surprise the bill came to nearly $300 Australian dollars! In Bali! The Boy was in shock! When you consider the local’s average income this meal was extremely overpriced from what it was. It was however the best one we had in our whole time in Bali and I will return next time I’m in Seminyak.
Travelling to Bali? Be sure to check out the Lonely Planet Bali and Lombok Travel Guide before you go!
Ku De Ta Jalan Laksmana, 9, Seminyak, Bali 80361, Indonesia | +62 361 736969 | www.kudeta.net Price: $$$$ (142K-220K Rp/ $15-23 AUD entrée, 300K-370K Rp / $32-40 AUD mains) Food: 4.5/5 (wonderful layers of flavours) Service: 4.5/5 (accommodating and friendly) Ambience: 3.5/5 (gorgeous setting but lots of pretentious Australian tourists) Drinks: 4.5/5 (cocktails were delicio!) Total: 17/20
