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To celebrate life before kids (LBK), my husband, who going forth I am going to refer to as schmoopie, treated me to a long lunch at Flying Fish. Having heard a few good reviews of this place and seeing Peter Kuruvita on Masterchef recently, we woke up on Sunday morning and decided we should try it out.

On Saturday afternoon I met heaps of other food obsessed crazy people, aka food bloggers, so I was inspired to take some photos and blog about the experience.

We decided on the tasting menu ($110) plus matching wines ($50) so by the end of the afternoon I was feeling pretty good. Luckily they let me keep the menu, otherwise I doubt I would have remembered every course and matching wine. Since a wine tasting thing I went to at the Taste of Sydney festival a few months ago I have developed a new interest in trying different wines so this made the afternoon even more fun.

The canapé was a pacific oyster with vinaigrette that I’ve forgotten the name of. I’m not too keen on oysters but schmoopie said they were nice. We didn’t take a photo of the oysters. I was served an amuse bouche that was very nice. This course wasn’t meant to a have a matching wine but we graciously accepted the glass of bubbly that was offered. What a great way to kick start our appetite.

The next course was seared yellow fin tuna with ruby red grapefruit and sweet pork crackling. This was so fresh and tasted amazing. I think it is their signature dish. It was served with a palm sugar and pepper caramel sauce and underneath the tuna was a thin slice of pork. I don’t normally eat pork but I was feeling adventurous and it reminded me of eating Chinese on Mother’s Day when I was a kid. The combination of flavours was delicate and nice. The tuna was matched with a 2008 Eastern Peake Pinot Tache from Ballarat which was a Rose.

This was followed by Smoked rainbow trout served on Himalayan salt, fennel cream, celery heart salad. The presentation of this course was unlike anything I have seen before. Apparently they got these blocks of salt from the Himalaya’s and bacteria can’t grow on them so they are reused. The trout was not seasoned so we rolled each piece out onto the salt block to absorb salt. This was fun and interesting. It didn’t make it overly salty which is good coz I don’t normally add much salt when I’m cooking. The fennel cream was light and airy and not overly licoricy. Is that a word? Well it didn’t taste like licorice which was also good. I’m not sure what a celery heart is but I think it was the baby celery leaves.

The trout was matched with a glass of 2008 Salomon Undhof “Wein & Berg” Gruner Veltliner from Kremstal, Austria which was served in the MASSIVEST glass I’ve ever drunk out of. 3 Cheers for LBK!

The white scallops with boudin noir, carrot puree, grape and pine nut dressing was next. I soon discovered that boudin noir is black pudding. The scallops are sitting on a tiny piece of it. Now I’ve heard of this before and I know it’s from Scotland and is something like sheep’s stomach or something equally as gross but I tried not to think about it and focused on just being on a little adventure. Sometime’s ignorance is bliss. These scallops were amazing. Perfectly cooked and each element of this dish was a taste sensation. It was matched with another glass of red. This time in a slightly smaller glass. It as a 2008 Tarras Vineyards Pinot Noir from Central Otago, New Zealand.

Pan roasted blue eye with scallop mousse, white beans, pumpkin puree and braised chicken.

Mushroom-infused White Pyrenees lamb loin with fondant potato, braised shoulder and black garlic

We were offered a choice of either Blue Eye or Lamb for our main. I chose the Blue Eye and schmoopie had the lamb. They were served with hand cut chips which were nice and fat and a simple salad. My matching wine was the 2007 Pratello Marzemino from Lombardy, Italy. Schmoopie’s lamb was matched with the 2001 Tour du Haut Moullin Cru Bourgeois Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot from Haut-Medoc, France. Boy that was a mouthful!

And the best part of any meal….dessert. I was sooooo excited that it wasn’t just one dessert but a dessert platter. AWESOME!!! From left to right was a Chestnut soufflé with orange, honeycomb and gingerbread ice cream (in the spoon at the back), Lemon curd with vanilla mousse, blackberry, almond and elderflower sorbet and Italian Amedei chocolate delice with pecans, champagne and raspberry sorbet. This was all matched with a 2007 Stellenrust ‘Chenin d’Musact’ Chenin Blanc, Muscat from Stellenbosch, South Africa. OMG This was the best way to finish the meal. I savoured every single bite which meant the sorbet’s all melted. I don’t think my descriptions of the food is anything like how the Masterchef contestants describe food but this was all bloody fantastic. The soufflé was fluffy, the lemon curd was just like an amazing lemon meringue pie and the chocolate delice satisfied my chocolate needs totally.

But wait there’s more…..

A hot chocolate and petit fours, which I’d already taken a bite of the 3 from the right, were nice too. I can’t remember exactly what each one was but I think the white dessert, 2nd from the left was a marshmallow and the red dessert 2nd from the right was a jelly and the one on the far right was a cake.

Wow! Thanks schmoopie for a wonderful afternoon. I am loving LBK!

The tasting menu was absolutely fantastic and such a great way to try so many different dishes. I definitely want to go back to Flying Fish again. Next time I will pre-order the mud crab and try some prawns and soft shell crab and the kingfish curry. Oh boy so many choices. I think I will have to go back a few times.

Flying Fish

Jones Bay Wharf,Lower Deck,

19-21 Pirrama Road

Pyrmont NSW 2009

(02) 9518 6677

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