Dessert Degustation @ Interlude

It's Interlude's last night and we're back with Al and Elle. We'd had plans to come here for the dessert degustation for ages and as it turned out, we've managed to accomplish that just in the nick of time.

I'm not going to say anything about these dishes - I don't really need to. There's one thing you know for certain when Pierre is preparing dessert you will never be bored and there's always something new and usual and intriguing that makes his dishes more than something you eat, but something that leaves you thinking.


Rye, Apricot, Caraway



Cardamon, Quinoa, Coconut, Pedro Ximenez



Milk, Chocolate, Nuts



Blueberries, Semolina, Cashew



Chocolate, Beetroot, Coffee, Passionfruit



Cherries, Milk, Olive Oil



Raspberry, Sour Cream, Mint, Eucalyptus



the end of the last dish

One final surprise was left in the evening - we were presented with signed menus from all the crew at Interlude



It's something that we will all treasure and just a beautiful way to say not a goodbye but a Ciao, we'll meet again.

Dinner @ Interlude

What can you say...we had hoped that the whispers weren't going to come to pass but alas they did. Interlude is closing its doors - last service on Saturday night.

While we never got to knowingly have a farewell dinner at Fenix we certainly are going to say au revoir to Interlude in style.


It begins, as always, with the beer flavoured nuts, lattice cut chips with salt and vinegar foam.


Alphabet Soup
2007 Chateau Bierre Bise Cabernet

The letters are a basil gel and they sit on almost clear parmesan gel - the warm tomato broth is poured at the table which works to melt the parmesan gel but set the basil gel.

Rabbit, Lentils, Liquorice Beignets
2005 Gerge Breuer Spätburgunder

Underneath and set at a angle in the bowl, is a gel of lentils which is designed to dissolve in the heat of your mouth.  3 slices of poached rabbit loin are arranged between delicately scented liquorice beignets.


Cauliflower, Herring Roe, Apple, Chervil

The dish that causes grown men to giggle.

Marron, Egg Yolk Puree, Carrot, Shellfish Consomme
2005 Mount Gisborne Chardonnay

Veal Sweetbreads, Rosemary Cookie, Eucalyptus
2005 Les Bérangères Trousseau Jacques Puffeney

One of my favourite dishes as the final product is just so different. The combination of rosemary cookies, sweetbreads and eucalyptus is almost impossible to describe - it defies classification as sweet or savoury.


Roast Chicken, Roast Egg, Leek
2005 Mount Gisborne Chardonnay

There's a bonus of sliced truffle over the faux egg - cut the egg and chicken juices escape. Chicken breast is shaped to form a ball and it's served along side shredded leek and a delicious black pudding puree.


Mulloway, Violet, Scallops, Chicory Sponge, Malt
2005 Marcel Deiss Bergheim Pinot Blanc

Pan seared mulloway sits askew a slice of chickory sponge cake. A seared scallop and treviso complete the plate - violet powder brings and intriguing perfume to the dish.



Wagyu Sirloin, Horseradish, Roasted Onion Puree, Potato Croquette
2005 Gaja Ca'Marcanda Promis

9+ Wagyu sirloin is served with roasted puree and horseradish foam - to one side a potato cylinder stuffed with braised oxtail.


Rye, Apricot, Caraway
2002 Suicciardini Strozzi Vin Santo

Caraway flavoured milk is poured at the table into a bowl containing apricot sorbet, apricot foam, toasted rye flour and rye friand


Milk, Chocolate, Nuts
NV Stanton and Killeen Tokay

Think nutella like flavours - chocolate, hazelnuts, cashews, milk sorbet, puffed rice and coffee


Cherries, Milk, Olive Oil
NV Renardat-Fache Bugey Cerdon

The cherries are poached in olive oil and served with milk jelly cubes, olive oil tuiles and cherry sorbet


Petit Fours - a final treat with our coffee.

With that, our final dinner at Interlude draws to a close - sad to see it passing but hoping for good things to rise in the future.

Dinner @ Interlude

While flicking through this site I suddenly realised, much to my shock, that we hadn't been to Interlude since July! It was a situation that needed to be immediately redressed and after a quick call dinner had been booked.



As it's a bit of the cool side tonight, we decide to start with a good Sherry to warm us up and get us into the mood for tonights degustation. There's a good mix of old favourites with some new dishes to try.



Alphabet Soup
2005 Bannockburn Saigné Rosé, Geelong

It's always surprising just how much flavour resides in that broth.


Snail Trail, Mushroom, Parsley, Garlic
2007 Müller Thurgau Franz Haas

Perfect mouthfuls of flavour.

Foie Belle Hélène
2005 Marcel Deiss Pinto Blanc "Bergheim"

This is a new dish - a play on "belle hélène". It may look like the criss-cross skin of duck but that is actually all foie gras. A wonderful combination of crisp and soft.


Blue eye cooked in Roast Chicken Jelly with Trimmings
2005 Georg Breuer Spätburgunder

We had something similiar at the Truffle lunch and even without truffles it's still a terrific dish


Duck, Bacon, Foie Scramble, Short Stack
2006 Luis Pato Casta Baga

While the previous dish was mild and gentle, this one comes at you. Upfront and bold, the flavours are distinct yet striking.



Venison, Red Cabbage, Caraway Stuffling, Pear
2005 Gaja Ca 'Marcanda Promis'

The venison deserves a close up!



Rye, Apricot, Caraway
2006 Charles Hourse Juranco

The first of the dessert courses, this is on the sweet side of savoury.



Cherries, Milk, Olive Oil
NV Renardat Fache Bugey Ceredon

Served on the corner of the plate it's an utterly delightful voyage of flavour and texture.

Cardamon, Quinoa, Coconut, Pedro Ximénez
NV Campbells Tokay

Petit Fours
a lovely way to finish

The details:

Interlude
211 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Phone: 9415 7300

Open:
Lunch: Tuesday to Friday 12-3pm
Dinner: Monday to Saturday 6.30pm to late

web:
www.interlude.com.au

Champagne Dinner at Interlude

Tonight Vogue Entertaining and Travel and the Champagne Information Centre is holding a Champagne Dinner at Interlude. Al and Elle have joined us for this event and for their first visit to Interlude.

I'll get the annoying part of the evening out of the way first. When booking we were told "6.30 for 7" and most of the diners tonight can tell the time and arrived when they should except for a self-absorbed 10 who decided it was far more important to be fashionably late and arrived close to 7.20pm. If that wasn't bad enough these people during the course of the night proved to also be loud and obnoxious - I personally don't believe banging your cutlery together is appropriate behaviour for adults - perhaps it is more indicative of their mental age of two.

The restaurant was in a difficult position, they couldn't start as scheduled and the room was left drinking sparkling water. Unfortunately, the delay also affected the scheduling of the courses with a way too long break between the amuse and the first course. Maybe they should apply "theatre rules" in the future - don't show up on time, you get locked out.

With that said, time for the food.

The amuse...



we were told to eat these from left to right and first up are a white chocolate, lycee and caviar bonbon - next was a breaded cube of macaroni and cheese and lastly, a beetroot surprise.

The beetroot surprise was a liquid beetroot filled raviolo topped with braised mince that you must place fully in your mouth before biting - it's quite the surprise as the beetroot shoots out.


Because of the tardy ones there's a long gap between the amuse and the first course.



Olive our Twist
Served with NV Boizel Brut Reserve

The Brut Reserve is a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier (30:55:15) and was served from Magnums. This is very much a perfect aperitif style champagne and easily handles the robust salty flavours of the dish.

Olive our Twist is a dish we've enjoyed before - a twisted strand of olive jelly, studded with olive oil shards, dots of roasted capsicum and olive paste, toasted herbs crumbs, rosemary and anchovies.



Alphabet Soup
Served with NV Drappier Val des Demoiselles Brut Rosé



This is a 100% Pinot Noir Champagne sourced from one plot, the Val des Demoiselles. It is made using the traditional saignée method which we were told is rather unusual these days. Most Rosé is made by adding red wine to the champagne to ensure a constant colour. With the saignée method the colour is obtained by leaving the skins in contact with the juice - unfortunately this makes getting a "brand" colour difficult.

The Alphabet Soup is a signature dish and as it was served on a glass plate we could now work out what was holding the letters in place - they are set on a low-temperature parmesan jelly that dissolves as the rich tomato broth is poured over. Interestingly, the letters harden on contact with the hot broth.


Interlude Sushi
NV Agrapart Terroir de Champagne Blanc de Blancs

A 100% chardonnay champagne that showcases the mineral elements of its regions soil.

This was served with a new dish which is still evolving - Interlude Sushi. The premise is to reinterpret the flavours of sushi. At the base of the bowl was a "creamed rice" fleckled with a scattering of pink pearls of pickled ginger and a dusting of wakami powder. Slices of Marinated Tuna and Seared Kingfish were draped across the top.

An exciting dish and one we look forward to trying again.



Pork, Smoked Potato, Truffle
NV Jacquesson No.732

Two textures of pork - slices of pork loin and a slab of slow cooked pork belly. The pork belly was tender and gelatinous and was everything you expect from a well cooked pork belly. The smoked potatoes added an earthiness to the dish that was well complimented by the truffle and mushrooms.



Lighting isn't easy so please don't complain about the photos - Paalo has cleverly resorted to using the menu to direct light onto our pre-desssert



A lovely mouthful of mint ice-cream on a buttery berry friand

Last course of the night -


Rhubarb Crumble and Custard
NV Duval-Leroy Pink Lady Dry

Duval-Leroy also uses the Saignée method to produce their rosé and it proved to be an excellent match to the rhubarb crumble. Cylinders of rhubarb ice cream lay interspersed between moulds of thick custard and crumble topping.

I have no trouble convincing Elle to come here for the dessert degustation after this dish!

Apart from the issues mentioned earlier, we did enjoy the evening.

The details:

Interlude
211 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Phone: 9415 7300

Open:
Lunch: Tuesday to Friday 12-3pm
Dinner: Monday to Saturday 6.30pm to late

web:
www.interlude.com.au

Lunch @ Interlude

Shh, don't tell anyone but we've ducked out for lunch.

Two options are available - limited choice a la carte (2 courses/$30 3 courses/$40 with a glass of Punt Road Wine) and a five course tasting menu. Just to be different we've opted for the a la carte option.

We both couldn't go past this dish for our starter:


Wagyu Tartare, Smoking Cinnamon

A dish where its presentation equals its taste. The cinnamon smoke doesn't flavour the beef, it rather just perfumes the air. The cubes in the tartare are fried potato and a savoury jelly.

A little treat courtesy of the kitchen comes out next


Pumpkin Risotto with Perigord Truffle - even without the truffle this would be a perfect risotto. Creamy rice and sweet pumpkin this is extremely moorish.

Onto mains:


Paalo has the slow cooked lamb shank, roasted potato, brussels sprout leaves, celeriac puree. The meat just dropped off the bone, lusciously tender and full of flavour that only time can bring out.



I have the Venison loin, red cabbage puree, roasted pear and potato. The red cabbage puree is an eye-opener especially with it's underlying vinegary tang.



The venison certainly deserves a close up - you really couldn't prepare it any better than this.





Another lovely surprise from the kitchen, this time Pierre has a pre-dessert for us to enjoy



Rye bread tuille, pear sorbet and cinnamon meringue - this has all the flavours of a pear crumble and brings all those elements of comfort you would associate with this combination of flavours.



We both ordered the same dessert which was the broken plum friand with pistachio, jelly and creme anglaise. 


Once again, it is another stunning dessert from Pierre. Seriously we must come here for the dessert degustation!

Petit Fours - balsamic meringue, bergamot truffle, caraway marshmallow, chocolate coated griottines

If you're looking to kill a few hours over a superb meal then head over to Interlude, you won't be disappointed. 

The details:

Interlude
211 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Phone: 9415 7300

Open:
Lunch: Tuesday to Friday 12-3pm
Dinner: Monday to Saturday 6.30pm to late

web:
www.interlude.com.au