Coda
Basement 141 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC
It has been a while since Coda has made its way to my 'to do' list. Thanks to my dear friend, Miss P, whom planted the little Coda seed into my thought, plus seeing Adam D'Sylva on Masterchef 2011, made me wanting it more and more. Finally, the day had come, Miss P and I made a pack to eat our way through Coda's menu.
Lucky for us that we got our table quite near the window, so there were plenty of lighting and neither Miss P nor myself have to do an embarrassing act in low lighting scenario. The staff were superb - very friendly, approachable and made us feel welcome through out our dining journey. After we chattering around for a bit, it was time to add a tiny bit of drink to kill our thirst. Since we weren't really feel like having wine, we opted to beers choices. The wait staff recommended Quilmes and Moritz. The recommendation was great indeed, both Miss P and I enjoyed our beers at first sip!
After few sips of beers, we then progress onto fulfilling our hungry stomachs. We started off with Spanner crab, and Betel leaves. During my first bite, I had an explosion of aroma inside my mouth, all the ingredients gave out very aromatic smell. Unfortunately that the pomelo was slightly bitter and I found it overpowering the taste of the crab.
Lucky for us that we got our table quite near the window, so there were plenty of lighting and neither Miss P nor myself have to do an embarrassing act in low lighting scenario. The staff were superb - very friendly, approachable and made us feel welcome through out our dining journey. After we chattering around for a bit, it was time to add a tiny bit of drink to kill our thirst. Since we weren't really feel like having wine, we opted to beers choices. The wait staff recommended Quilmes and Moritz. The recommendation was great indeed, both Miss P and I enjoyed our beers at first sip!
After few sips of beers, we then progress onto fulfilling our hungry stomachs. We started off with Spanner crab, and Betel leaves. During my first bite, I had an explosion of aroma inside my mouth, all the ingredients gave out very aromatic smell. Unfortunately that the pomelo was slightly bitter and I found it overpowering the taste of the crab.
Tuna Salad was served a moment after we finished our first dish. This dish was more or less like a Coda adaptation of Japanese sashimi salad with a hint of South-East Asian cuisine. The taste was awfully fantastic! The green apple gave out sweet and tangy tastes while the tuna gave out sweetness from fresh fish, and nutty flavour jumped right in when chewed on the pine nuts and sesame seeds...it was so good and very refreshing!
Moving onto the red meat side, we got Beef Tartare served with quail egg and melba toasts. The beef tartare was pretty tasty and went well with the accompanied melba toasts. Miss P wasn't a big fan of this dish since the tartare seemed to have liver or liver paste mixed into it. So I got to enjoy a whole of it to myself.
The long awaited Blacked Quail slowly made its way out of the kitchen. The skin of the quail was infused with the seasoning and the quail itself was tender, juicy and had mixture of sweet and savoury tastes - went well with the daikon salad on the side.
Along came the funky looking Sugar cane Prawn, at first sight plus my crazy imagination, it looked a bit like cotton candy. The sugar cane prawn was covered with vermicelli then deep fried then came this out of ordinary creation of Coda's sugar cane prawn. My first bite was a mouthful of fried vermicelli..hehehe, then I managed to take a bigger bite and got to eat the prawn. Once again, this was another aromatic dish infused with lemongrass and other Asian herbs. Miss P and I agreed that the herbs were in fact overpowering the taste of the prawn. I also preferred to eat it without sweet chilli sauce as I found I can actually enjoy the real taste of the prawn and its mixture even more.
We then reached the desserts time, Miss P and my selections were Sweet Special and Mango Pannacotta. The sweet special was Lemon Lime Meringue - served inside the tube tuille with meringue on the side. The dessert was layered of lime cake, lemon curd, kaffir lime ice cream and topped with lemon lime granita. Surprisingly, this dish was very well designed and does not overkill the taste buds with the sourness of the lemon and lime. It was very well-balanced and tasted fantastic!
The Mango Pannacotta was also one of Coda's Spring desserts menu. I think they got an inspiration from the mango pudding from yum-cha's dessert as the taste and texture were resembled to certain degree. Miss P love the coconut caramel sauce and the crunchy rice on top. The sauce was astounding and well designed to accompanied this dessert. It was indeed match the Spring season and match with the food here as the concept of Asian cuisine with a twist was passed down to the dessert.
I love their creativity in creating each dish by marrying different cuisines together and obtain each creation. They seem to take a concept of "feed your eyes" and implementing it in each of their dish.
+Disclaimer: The commentary contained in this blog is purely based on my own opinion and experience at the time of visit. Taste is a subjective and yours and mine can be differed.
2 comments:
I've been dying to get here, but there's so many places and I keep getting distracted.. NEED TO GO!
there are lots of temptations out there! i still have lots of places that i still haven't been to...and the list keeps growing!
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