Holy Basil Shark Hotel (23/12/2011)

Originally, we wanted to go to the Holy Basil in Canley Vale but I tend to associate that area with drive-by shootings and Vietnamese gang-wars, both of which I'm not too fond of. If you don't believe me, check out the Holy Basil menu, see if you spot a certain intimidating word that consistently pops up a lot in the dish names.

Anyways, luckily for us, a new Holy Basil opened up in Shark Hotel right opposite our home!

May I just begin by saying the location was a fantastic idea on behalf of the Holy Basil management team because the bistro area of Shark Hotel was complete and utter shit. They used to advertise a $9.95 'buffet'. (The fake kind where you get to do 1 round of plate stacking, sit down and then forever be banned from going for seconds) To give you an idea of how the food was, my friend quoted "The best thing there was the toast..."

So we ventured up the long flight of stairs and arrived at the famed Holy Basil!

My first impression was a very classic Asian style restaurant but once you enter inside, the interior design is very modern and stylish. The main feature is a glass slide with a waterfall inside, the general ambience reminded me of a Star City Casino restaurant.

The first time we visited, this waterfeature had a crack in the glass and was leaking onto the seats in front of it, so compared to that time I'd say this visit was much of an improvement!

Just a quick note, Holy Basil is famed for having very spicy Laos dishes (well at least the one in Canley Vale is). On the menu, every dish is customisable to your own chilli levels. The first time we visited, we opted with the heaviest level of Chilli but were quite disappointed with the results. However I will delve more into this later.

Anyways on to the dishes!

NOK TOD (Marinated Quails) 6 pieces - $10.90

Deep Fried crispy marinated Quails.

We went with 6 people so this entree was perfect and great value too! The quail is seasoned perfectly and the sauce that came with it is quite spicy for chilli lovers. I generally rate chilli levels by imagining splashing it into my eyes and the degree of burning pain I would feel would decide the level of spicyness and I can honestly say this dipping sauce is one thing I would NOT like splashed into my eyes. The skin is light and crispy but not too oily and when you bite into the quail, the meat is tender and juicy. Would highly recommend as a starter because for $10.90, that works out to be $1.80 each!

YUM NUA (Thai Beef Salad) - $14.90

Marinated beef strips wok-tossed in a salad of Spanish onions, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber; mixed with herbs of coriander, shallots, chilli powder, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and mint leaves.

I really enjoyed this dish as the beef was chewy, but not the overcooked annoying kind, it gave the meat substance in your mouth so it's a different experience to tender raw beef. The salad was zesty, tangy and overall quite refreshing. This salad would hold it's own if ordered by itself as theres quite a big portion of veggies and meat. The first time we went to Holy Basil we opted for the heaviest level of chilli but were quite disappointed with the curries, but this time I asked the waitress what was the most spiciest thing on the menu and she said the salads (at the heavilest level of chilli) would cause the most burning pain when rubbed directly on the pupil (something along those lines). She was correct. We ordered this salad at the weakest level and it was already pretty hot, I can only imagine what the spiciest level would be like. Definitely recommend this dish for lovers of chilli. I've also been told by the waitress that the Papaya Salad Laos Style is the spiciest thing on the menu, so I'll definitely try that next time!

Watermelon Blend - $5.50

I'm a huge fan of watermelon so this drink was pure heaven. The flavour was very natural and you can tell they only used the sweetest parts of the watermelon in season for this blend. Placebo mint leaf placed on top for that placebo refreshing thirst quenching summer feel. I noticed they had a durian drink on the menu too which I'm curious to try next time. Although one of the girls wanted to order the durian drink that night but was worried her breath would stink. I tried to reassure her by saying it's probably not that bad and to emphasise my point, I said to the waitress "Come on, help me out here, is the Durian REALLY that smelly?" to which the waitress replied simply "Yes it is! ^_______^"

PAD SEE EW (Beef) - $12.90
Stir fried flat rice noodles with sweet soy sauce, egg and Chinese broccoli.

At first I was a bit sceptical as this was a bit sweeter than most of the Pad See Ew's but you soon get used to it and it goes really well with the overall ingredients of the dish. I couldn't fault the noodles or sauce at all but the beef was a bit of a letdown as this was the annoying kind of chewy which meant it was slightly overcooked and very tough to chew. Maybe next time I'll try the Lamb version.

GANG MASAMAN (Beef Masaman Curry) - $16.90
This moderately hot curry has many characteristics of southern Thai cooking. The flavour from sweet potato and spices of star anise, cinamon and bay leaves are distinguishable, yet balanced by a sour taste from tamarind.

So we've discussed good kind of chewy and annoying kind of chewy beef today and this beef falls out of both of those categories, it is the type that is extremely tender and just melts in your mouth which was surprising because the chunks of beef were quite large. It was a little awkward splitting the beef between 6 people as it was like 3 massive chunks. I'm not a huge fan of Masaman curry so I don't have too many memories of this dish, I personally find Masaman curry to be quite boring and plain. Pretty filling dish as it comes with sweet potatoes. Served with a star anus hidden underneath the curry.

So I was curious what Gang meant in Laos, so I tried to google it and I hope this helps.

Alrighty! Now onto my favourite dish at Holy Basil!

GANG PED YANG (Red Curry Roast Duck) - $17.90

Often served during traditional family feasting, this specialty dish has an abundant of flavours from lychees, pineapple, cherry tomato, sweet basil, fresh chillies, green bananas and kaffir lime leaves cooked with cuts of roast duck.

This is by far my favourite dish at Holy Basil. The duck is boneless, packed with meat, the skin is crispy and full of flavour. There are also pieces of lychee and pineapple which adds a refreshing fruity sweetness to the curry. Normally I loathe fruit with meat dishes (like Hawaiin Pizzas, ham and pineapple is an interracial relationship that I will NEVER accept). But this curry pulls it off so well because the overall dish is quite sweet. One spectacular thing I remember was that the cherry tomatoes were SO GODDAMN ripe and they exploded inside my mouth. No really, you have to experience the explosions of the cherry tomato goodness yourself to believe it. 

Renactment of inside my mouth:

The only downside to this dish is that the rice disappears too quickly once you pour the curry over it.

Holy Basil Fried Ice Cream (Famous and most sought after) - $13.90

Okay, when I said the duck curry was my favourite dish, I meant my favourite MAIN dish, because this dessert is definitely on par with the duck curry. This dessert deserves to hold the signature dish status of Holy Basil. The initial reaction at the table when this dessert first arrived was "Oh shit, we need to order another one..." The pastry outside is very thin and crispy and blends perfectly with the naturally sweet vanilla ice cream filling. There are pieces of sultanas for extra natural sweetness and the lightly sprinkled sugar on top is good enough to snort for a quick high. Also served with a placebo mint and placebo strawberry for decoration but realistically can't be shared amongst 6 people. This dish is a MUST for anyone embarking on the holy journey to this restaurant. Maybe order 2 if you have a group of more than 3 people.

Miscellaneous:

The steamed rice was very hard and dry but I guess it absorbs the curry well? But if I had it with a non-curry dish, I'd be pretty pissed.

The service was quite good as we went at a pretty busy time of the night but it never took long for us to get their attention. The food arrived in a reasonable amount of time and the staff were all friendly and helpful with all our questions.

Overall ambience was very relaxed and the dim lighting sets the mood for a genuine Laos experience.

Well actually...

Okay so at the end of the night, we realised we pretty much went to a Laos restaurant and only ordered traditionally Thai dishes. Next time I promise myself I'll try the Papaya Laos Salad! But for about $20 per head, we had leftovers which meant we were all well fed for quite a reasonable price. In conclusion, a highly satisfying experience was had by all and I would definitely recommend this place!

Holy Basil Shark Hotel

Address: Shark Hotel 127 Liverpool St, Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: 9283 8284
Lunch 12pm - 3pm
Dinner 5pm - 12 Midnight
Website: http://www.holybasil.com.au/

Dolcissimo & Pasticceria Papa (03/12/2011)

I'd be meaning to go to Pasticceria Papa (which henceforth I shall refer to as Papa P's) for about a year now after hearing everyone rave on about it, so upon recently purchasing our new Olympus E-PL3 micro four-thirds camera (that's a mouthful [that's what she said]), it was the perfect excuse to go and cross this place off our list.

A short bus ride from the city to Ashfield and a 5 minute walk filled with some uber-pro "street photography" (HAHAHA) from Angie: 

We finally arrived at our destination, upon which Angie asked "So is this Michel's Patisserie?'

The corner of Dalhousie & Ramsay street. I presume all these people walking out are satisfied customers of Papa P's. (Am I making Papa P sound like a notorious brothel owner?)

Anyways, before we indulged ourselves in the delicious treasures that lay waiting behind Papa P's inviting doors, we decided to have a quick bite to eat across the road at Dolcissimo: 

Indeed, as this menu promises, their gelato must be pretty damn good as the picture suggests that the girl on the left would clearly rather give herself away to the boy than share some of Dolcissimo's fine selection of gelato.


I had vaguely remembered also hearing great things about this place about a year ago, so I hyped it up to Angie and told her how great it was.... and then proceeded to nearly shit myself when I read some recent reviews about how this place has really gone downhill with bad service, average food and overly expensive dishes over the recent months. Luckily our experience was not that bad, especially compared to some of the harsh reviews, but that might be because we went during a quiet Saturday afternoon so the customer service was great and we got our food in under 10 minutes. We opted to sit outside because it was a sunny day and we had no problems getting the staff's attention.


So here goes! 

Croccantini - Meringue with roasted almonds & cinammon.
This doesn't taste very meringue-like, more of a dry biscuit with strong cinammon flavouring. This wasn't to my taste as it was a bit too dry like a stale biscuit with too many sharp rocky bits that cut into the insides of my mouth. Would recommend for people who enjoy cinammon flavoured knives.  

 Kind of reminded me of Graveler from Pokemon (If it had no arms)

Tartufi - A hazelnut in the centre of chocolate and hazelnut fudge & rolled in chopped almonds.

This actually tasted very good, the rich chocolate fudge melts in your mouth and the chocolate and hazelnuts blend quite well together. I wonder why this combination works so well...OH WAIT I KNOW, IT'S A FERRERO ROCHER.

I just paid $3 for someone to take the wrapper off a Ferrero Rocher and serve it to me on a plate. Overall still undeniably delicious and a nice little treat for $3.

Sfogliatelle - Shell shaped crispy pastry filled with a mix of ricotta, semolina and citrus

No idea how you pronounce this, but this was probably the most disappointing dish of the day. Soggy uncrispy pastry outside filled with a confusing mix of filling, supposedly made of ricotta, semolina and citrus but I swear all I could taste was cinammon....In fact the cinammon taste overpowered the entire dish and I'm sure it wasn't from the Graveler dish earlier because there was quite some time between the 3 dishes with plenty of water drinking. Too much powder on top which blew all over my face when I took a small careful bite. Made me look like a coke addict. The inside was frozen so even when I jabbed my fork in, it was like stabbing a very strong man's pectoral muscle with a plastic knife.

We ended up taking 1 bite of this dessert and leaving it. I made a deal with Angie that if this cost more than $5 then I would be Asian and finish it but it ended up being $3.60 so we left the whole thing behind.

Thinking we were about to walk away with a very disappointing experience..Then came the main pasta dish! 

Farfalle Al Salmone - Short butterfly shaped pasta, fresh salmon,shallots,extra virgin olive oil, with a dash of brandy in a tomato and cream sauce

Luckily this dish saved the day and made it worthwhile visitting Dolcissimo. The pasta was cooked just right, not thick and mushy, but still had substance and great chewy texture. These little gems were all shaped like butterflies which was quite a nice touch. (No homo) The sauce was plentiful but still light and didn't overpower the dish at all. One of my favourite things about this dish was that they gave you a SHITLOAD of salmon. They really didn't hold back. This was a very filling dish and worth the $26 in my opinion.

This dish deserves a special mention

When this dish was served to us, I immediately prompted Angie to take a photo of it and she didn't want to and I was all like "Don't be noob! You have to be unbiased with food blogging and take a photo of all the dishes even if they don't look appealing" Then she replied "This is cheese for the pasta." 

Well f*** me.


Total for all these dishes was $35 so overall, quite a cheap experience (especially as the Main dish was $26 so all the other desserts were about $3 each) Would probably return for the pasta mains but their desserts were a little underwhelming.


Now, onwards onto the second part of the day!

It really feels like Christmas now as soon as you step inside this wonderous labrynth of cakes, pastries, gelato, sweets and candies. The queue goes all the way outside the store and well justified. The staff were all friendly and efficient and the queue moved fast, we only waited about 5 minutes before we were served. We bought some takeaway dessert and also ordered a coffee & cake to eat in. The atmosphere was comfortable and warm inside, the only complaint was we had a crying baby behind us, so I would recommend you request for the non-crying baby section.

Here it is! The legendary ricotta cheesecake from Papa P's! This was by far the highlight of the day, one of the best cheesecake slices I have ever had. The ricotta and cheese was so rich and pleasantly sweet. At the same time the cream was very frothy, light and complimented the cake perfectly. The bread component of the cake was soft and moist. This was pretty much sex in the mouth. OH GOD, SO F***ING MOIST. Anyways, this would probably be a must for anyone visitting Papa P's. For only $5 as well....

Coffee was quite terrible according to my reliable source, Angie who has 10 years+ barista training. But hey, fair enough, you don't go to Papa P's for coffee, that's like going to a hooker and also expecting her to be good at juggling.

Now at this point I'm going to point out that most of the things we bought from this store was for takeaway and when we finished devouring all the delicious things, we stopped, looked at eachother and thought, wait a minute, did we take a photo of all that? F***.

So I'll just 'borrow' some stock photos and we can pretend that we took them from the store.

Angie's favourite was the chocolate & strawberry macarons and I enjoyed the chocolate & passionfruit macarons. The passionfruit macaron had real seeds inside so the flavour wasn't artificial at all like some fruit flavoured macarons. Not too sweet either and you didn't feel sick after eating 5 which was always a bonus! (We bought 1 of each flavour) $2 each, which is quite a reasonable price to pay as they quality was still quite high. (Not as good as Lindt macarons though, but its nearly half the price)

The cannoli is also a must-purchase along with the ricotta cheesecake, there's just something very addictive about the cream they use, and we bought 1 of each flavour (ricotta, chocholate & vanilla). Each one had their own distinct flavour. To give you an idea of how good it was, we left it overnight in the takeaway box, but the cream still tasted as fresh as if it was just made. Obviously the pastry lost some of its crispness but still no complaints from me. I can only hope to go back and try this out freshly made. $1.50 for the mini cannoli's in a cute takeaway box perfect for a christmas gift.


Overall, a fun day of sampling for only $50


Dolcissimo
Location: 96-98 Ramsay St  Haberfield
Website: http://www.dolcissimo.com.au/
Opening Hours:
They don't seem to advertise their opening hours...

Pasticceria Papa
Location: 145 Ramsay St, Haberfield. (Corner of Dalhousie & Ramsay St)
Website: http://www.pasticceriapapa.com.au/main.html
Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday - 8am to 6pm
Saturday - 7:30am to 5pm
Sunday - 7:30am to 1pm