• Barley Background
  • Farewell UK
  • Melbourne Magic
  • Restaurant Reviews
  • Guestbook

Huxtable

10/3/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Our second Melbourne Food and Wine Festival event was at Huxtable which we know and love. It was an event described as:

Owner and chef Makoto Tokuyama of Cocoro in Auckland teams up with the Daniel Wilson and the Huxtable crew to prepare a stunning seven course Japanese degustation.

Chef Makoto Tokuyama will bring his mix of contemporary and traditional Japanese cuisine from his multi award winning Auckland restaurant Cocoro to Melbourne’s Huxtable.

We arrived as everyone else did so it was busy and every space was taken. We had two seats up at the bar with a great view of all that was going on in the kitchen. There were a few tense moments like when the number of plates were miscounted and they had to plate up one more dish but most of the time, the work was churned out methodically and consistently under the expert guidance of chef Makoto and Daniel.

We started off with:
Filo wrapped Australian Tiger Prawn tempura and olive tempura, sea urchin and miso foam, dried nori seaweed, Tobiko caviar

Crunchy on the outside and meaty and dense on the inside, it was a moreish canape to start proceedings. Salty with the sea urchin sauce but sweet with prawn flavours. Thumbs up.

Next we watched the team plate up Tsukiri and Nigiri consisting of 5 elements:

  • Scampi with yuzu zest, salt cured Kobu seaweed
  • Australian Long Foot Octopus marinated with Sanbaizu vinegar, wakame, Myoga ginger
  • Mackerel with cucumber, lotus root chip and Morami miso
  • Oyster served with ponzu vinegar, Junsai water shield, Momiki-orashi and yuzu foam
  • Tuna "Zuke" nigiri sushi

Surprisingly the octopus was the one that most exceeded expectations. Steve usually has an aversion to octopus and squid because of the texture but this was hood. The only slight negative to this plate of stonkingly good seafood was the scampi was a little mushy in texture for my palette. I loved all the little morsels, some pickled, some sweet, some salty, all fresh.
I love chawan mushi so was looking forwad to "Chawanmushi" Spanner Crab and scallop with savory egg custard, Ikura caviar, poached Shiitake, yuzu zest, Ichiban dashi. And it did not disappoint. Hot, smooth and creamy with pops of caviar which added saltiness it was deliciously soul warming.

The cinammon-miso marinated Ora King Salmon confit and Sakura cured sashimi, dashi compressed courgette greens, poached quail egg, sweetcorn, snow pea and tendril nasturtium flower and leaf, cinammon miso sauce was also amazing, The miso sauce was reminiscent of the sweet miso used in Nobu's black cod miso but I loved this one kissed with a hint of cinammon. Loved the chargrilled sweetcorn, layering the sweetness and the teeny poached quails egge adding a yolky richniess. A beautiful dish both in appearance and flavour.
Wa fu dashi stock flavoured spaghetti alle vongole, Tassie clam and Diamond Shell, Asian mushrooms, Sansai vegetable, nori seaweed, shiso kept up the amazing standards. The plump clams were meaty and salty flavouring the pasta. I just wanted a bigger portion!

Main courses ended with the grilled Antarctic Tooth Fish "Saikyo yaki", Yakinasu grilled Asian aubergine puree, Kiname sprinkled bamboo shoots, spinach ohitashi, Gari ginger tempura ball, pickled Kabu turnip, wasabi edamame, black yuzu saikyo miso sauce, yuzu foam. Fresh and light, this fish dish was clean way to end all the main dishes.
Picture
Dessert of soy sauce ice cream and panna cotta, Valrhona Majari, raspberry, local grown fresh strawberry, green tea tempura ball, sesame tuile and praline was just amazing.

Beautifully wobbly in texture and balanced in sweetness and fruit this was gone very quickly!

Overall this was an incredible menu and no one course stood out but all were at an impeccable standard. As a menu it was perfect as the courses flowed and balanced each other. Like a well trained choir, no one voice overtook another causing dischord. Rather they all worked together to form a masterpiece. So enjoyable and so privileged to have enjoyed such harmony and delight.

Huxtable on Urbanspoon
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Fine Print

    For those that know us, this section will probably come with no surprise! Steve and I love eating out so this is our record of our time in Australia.

    This is a blog that is 100% written and edited by Steve and I. All opinions expressed are our own and are not influenced by any third party.

    Any sponsored posts are easily identified as such.

    Thanks for reading barleyblog.

    Follow @mindabarley
    View my food journey on Zomato!

    Archives

    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010

    Categories

    All
    Albert Park
    American
    Argentinian
    Armadale
    Armenian
    Beaconsfield
    Beechworth
    Birragurra
    Box Hill
    Breakfast
    Bright
    Brighton
    British
    Brunswick
    Buffet
    Burgers And Pub Grub
    Burmese
    Busselton
    Camberwell
    Canberra
    Carlton
    Cbd
    Chinese
    Collingwood
    Daylesford
    Dessert
    Docklands
    Doncaster
    Elsternwick
    Eltham
    Elwood
    Ethiopian
    European
    Filipino
    Fitzroy
    Flemington
    Flinders
    Footscray
    Fremantle
    French
    Fusion
    Geelong
    German
    Glen Waverley
    Greek
    Hawthorn
    Hobart
    Indian
    Indonesian
    Italian
    Japanese
    Kew
    Korean
    Kyneton
    Launceston
    Malaysian
    Margaret River
    Mexican
    Middle Eastern
    Mildura
    Modern Australian
    Mornington Peninsula
    Northcote
    North Melbourne
    Port Fairy
    Port Melbourne
    Prahran
    Richmond
    Ripponlea
    Rutherglen
    Southbank
    South Melbourne
    South Yarra
    Spanish
    Steakhouse
    St Kilda
    Sydney
    Thai
    Thornbury
    Toorak
    Torquay
    Vietnamese
    Werribee
    Williamstown
    Windsor
    Yarra Valley
    Yum Cha

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.