Pork belly with sweet potato puree & apple sauce

The pork belly was slow roasted and was delightfully succulent. The lean & fatty bits of the pork, marry well. The crackling on top of the belly was a revelation, I could eat pork crackling all day, it is “good” for you. This is a sinful comfort dish.

The pork was served with a sweet potato puree & apple sauce, they both traditionally pair well with pork. Also on the plate was some broccoli florets with sesame seeds.

Yep, I know you spotted those two stray pieces of cartilage at the bottom of the belly. I would like to think the butcher left them there for me to enjoy. Seriously, I love cartilage.

Whilst eating the pork, my friend & I got to talking about sous-vide cooking, pork belly would great cooked en sous-vide. I will get around to trying this out sometime. In fact Thomas Keller’s sous-vide book Under Pressure is probably the next cook book I will buy.

Chermoula Tilapia with citrus scented rice & cream sauce

My friend had tilapia, I didn’t get to taste it. I was too busy with my pork. Sorry guys……. It looks good though.

Chocolate fondant with orange, sesame & poppy tuiles

I loved this choc fondant, I wished I could have had more. This had to be most height-challenged(short!) choc fondant I have ever had. The top was already open, revealing the molten chocolate. Into the molten chocolate were two orange, sesame & poppy tuiles.

Chef make it taller & bigger next time……. thanks.

Mutura sausages are hardly pretty. This one was a recent afternoon takeout from Buffet Park located in Hurlingham, Nairobi.

This mutura from Buffet Park, just popped in my mouth exciting all my five senses. It looks pretty ordinary yet it is extraordinary. I don’t know why it is so good, but it is.

The casing had snap, not your usual tough chewy mutura casing. Inside was finely chopped goat meat & tripe(i think?). A good sausage can’t be lean, this one had a healthy dose fatty goat meat. Fat is flavour! Curiously, it is not apparent if any goat blood was included as is the case with other mutura.

Along with the mutura was sliced tomato, sliced onion & chopped chilli, this condiments just brought this dish all together. The flavour combination of sweet sour tomatoes, slightly pungent onions & the heat of the chilli met the flavour of the savoury mutura perfectly.

Is there a better mutura than this one, if you know where I can find some. Please do share.

This is post brings my Mombasa posts full circle. First up was the RVR railways train trip, then followed by dining reviews of The Moorings, Whitesands breakfast, Whitesands Lunch, Whitesands Dinner & Canton Malaysian Chinese.

Pancakes On The Rocks my favourite pancake spot in Sydney, one of the reason for this is that they are open 24 hrs at The Rocks.

The pictures are from my phone’s camera, so the quality is a bit iffy… But you can use your imagination to tweak the images in your mind.

Enjoy the pics & don’t drool too much. I do not need to say much.

Buttermilk pancakes with fresh strawberries, cream, vanilla ice cream and strawberry coulis

Crepes filled with cream cheese and sultanas, served with raspberry coulis and vanilla ice cream

After a saturday morning and early afternoon at the Nairobi national park, it was time to fuel up with some food. Leaving Langata I had two choices, I could head down to Sierra on mombasa road or Mediterraneo at the Junction. I Decided to head to Mediterraneo because I had not been there since early 2006. Plus I was really curious to see how the food there had evolved and also because every time I was at the junction Mediterraneo always seemed packed. So the masses must have been on to a good thing.

I arrived at Mediterraneo and was sitted promptly, received the menus & the waitperson took drink orders. Two food menus were presented, one for the specials and the other being the regular menu. The regular menu was large in fact I think too large, to put it in numbers 4 soups, 7 salads, 15 starters, 20 pastas, 20 mains, 20 pizzas & 14 desserts. The brigade working the kitchen really have their work cut out for them. Some of you may think choice is good, but in my none-expert opinion too much choice chokes me(you). The specials menu at Mediterraneo changes every month, in my none-expert opinion they should ditch the regular menu & stick to the specials menu, if only just to make it easier for me(you) to choose.

Drinks were served along with a selection of bread, that came with extra virgin olive oil & balsamic vinegar. The bread selection was great, the basket had white bread, whole meal bread, focaccia & bread sticks. The focaccia was amazing, the baker must love his olive oil, the focaccia was really rich & tender. I learnt from the waitperson, the focaccia is baked at the restaurant while the rest of the bread was from Nakumatt next door.

First up was a starter from the specials menu. Nuggets of Brie & Camembert with Cranberry Sauce. The sesame crusted nuggets were filled lovely molten cheese. The cranberry sauce paired well with the cheese. A great way to start the meal.

Next up from the specials menu too. Roast Duck Breast, Braised Red Cabbage and Mango Cinnamon & Grappa Sauce. This was a really easy choice for me, I had not had duck in 4 months plus the combination of duck, red cabbage & a fruity wine sauce seemed like a winner. It was not, this dish was not executed well. It was rushed, the bay leaf left on the plate was a clue to this.

From the regular menu. Veal escalopes with mushroom & mint. This was alright. The veal & the mushrooms worked well together, the little pastry cup with the veggies was cute.

The chef here loves to use fresh herbs as garnish, I was really tempted to grab a napkin to wrap and take home the fresh herbs. Why waste good rosemary, lemon thyme & tarragon. I should have asked the waitperson where they source their lemon thyme, my local veggie shop & supermarket only have the regular one.

Despite the duck I still think I’ll head back to Mediterraneo to try their porcini/cepe risotto & for more of the amazing focaccia. Also have to say the service at Mediterraneo was great & quite attentive. The waitperson at my table was a great bloke.

Are you in the Sydney CBD with only $10 in your pocket and you are after a memorable treat. You have to try Plan B’s Wagyu Burger, which I consider to be the best burger I have had to date, and it is also probably Sydney’s most blogged about burger. Justin North has a winner with this burger that sells for only $10. Plan B is located in a little nook at the entrance to Becasse.

Let’s break down the burger. The burger looks deceptively small, you will only need to eat one to be full. It starts with a toasted brioche bun, this brioche is not as sweet or rich as your standard brioche, which is a good thing as it will not detract from the flavour of the burger. The patty is made from grain fed wagyu beef, I read somewhere Becasse buys whole carcasses, they then do their own butchering, I assume the non-premium cuts of beef that do not make it to the Becasse menu are ground for use in this burger. The patty is well seasoned & tastes great. On top of the patty is pickled beetroot(hidden from view) & aged cheddar cheese. Cheddar & beef is one of my favourite flavour combinations. Just below the patty is a salad of rocket(aragula) & baby spinach. The burger fits well in the hand & easy to bite.

If you want to try your hand at making this burger, Gourmet Traveller magazine featured the recipe of the burger here

BTW: I took the photo above with my crappy motorola phone camera on a cloudy sydney day, so the quality is not really optimal. I enhanced a bit so that you can see the burger better.

The Moorings is a seafood restaurant in Mtwapa, which is north of Mombasa. The restaurant floats on mtwapa creek, a friend of mine recommended the place. I was here for lunch, the restaurant at that time was not very busy, I’m told the evenings are very busy here. Moorings has an extensive menu, but I did not bother reviewing it. I had already decided I was there for the seafood. I ordered the seafood platter, the food took ages to be prepared, 50 minutes & two beers later the food arrived.

The seafood platter as seen above, had lobsters, crab meat, deep fried squid, prawns. The lobsters & prawns were great, all grilled with butter. The squid/calamari was a bit chewy. The crab was good, just wish they brought the whole crab, I can take it apart myself. The sauces served were thousand island & a mystery sauce(didn’t use it, didn’t ask).

The side dish had some steamed rice, butter sauteed vegetables & chips.

After this massive spread, I was really stuffed. I didn’t have dinner later that night. The moorings would be a great place for sundowner drinks too, I’m definitely heading back there when I am next in Mombasa.

I love eating here. Renalo is all about good honest Kenyan food. The speciality here is lake region food. Renalo has been around for a while; my first visit was in 1998 at their former location at cameo cinema. They have since moved to kimathi street next to the nation centre. The owner of Renalo is a bloke named K’Osewe. The restaurant has brought him fame & probably fortune in Nairobi. Saw him on TV recently being interviewed on Churchill Live.

A while back, a blogger asked what Kenyan cuisine really is, I am still not sure yet because we seemed to have “borrowed” from lots of foreign cuisines due to our history. What do you think is authentic Kenyan cuisine?

Anyway, back to Renalo’s food…..

“Chicken special” is a bit of everything; tomato salad, chicken wings, beef liver, matumbo(tripe) & osuga. My only peeve is that the beef liver is cooked “well done” in the normal Kenyan fashion.

Deep-fried tilapia. It does not look too pretty but it tasted really great

Millet ugali. This is my favourite ugali. I would not want to eat it everyday, just to keep it special.

Fried beef. I didn’t really get this dish. Nothing spectacular.

Osuga. Can someone help me out with the english name for this vegetable, I totally love it. This is the good stuff your mum told you to eat. It is bitter but not too bitter.

Athol. This is charcoal roasted beef with gravy. The gravy has a real smoky note from the charcoal roasted beef. The beef was quite lean, which is a good thing for some people but this would have rocked with less leaner cut of beef.

Caveau is Wollongong’s only hatted restaurant. Peter Sheppard the chef/owner cooks & serves modern french cuisine, he trained under Liam Tomlin at Banc. Banc produced a great pedigree of chefs, a great writeup on banc alumni is here. The restaurant is located on Wollongong’s main restaurant strip. Asian & a few Italian restaurants dominate Wollongong’s food scene, this has let Caveau carve its own niche in Wollongong with its french food. The decor is very tasteful & restrained, it is a very comfortable & welcoming fine dining establishment. It is a great place for intimate dinner with friends.

On thursday & friday, Caveau is open for lunch. Along with its a’la carte menu, a two course $45 lunch menu is available. I went over to Caveau for lunch, since it was my first time there I decided to try out the $45 two course lunch menu. My routine with restaurants is to take smallest option available during my first visit, If I like the place i’ll return for a splurge.

The first course was a prawn bisque with sauteed prawns and croutons. The bisque was presented beautifully, the contrast of the saffron orange colour of the bisque against the brilliant green dots of herb oil, green broad beans & watercress sprigs.   

To say the bisque was amazing is an understatement, the prawn flavour was intense. If you are a prawn lover, you probably eat the prawn meat then suck the amazing juices off the prawn head. This bisque was like concentrating the flavour of 1000 prawn heads into this small bowl. The sauteed prawns and croutons add flavour & textural contrast to the overall dish.

Second course was a chicken ballotine with potato puree, mushrooms, buttered spinach and cepe sauce. The chicken was roasted to perfection and the spinach was buttery beautiful. The potato puree which was not enriched with cream or butter was great. The sauteed prawns & cepe sauce completed this great dish.

At the end of lunch, coffee & biscotti was served. The service at Caveau was very attentive, it is a great place to eat.

Canton Malaysia chinese restaurant is in downtown Mombasa, on a side street off Moi avenue between Castle Royal hotel & K.R.A Mombasa offices. A good friend of mine recommended this place for lunch, it is owned by a Malaysian chef & his Kenyan wife. They also personally supervise service which means the service is always top notch.

Being in Mombasa, right next to the ocean. The obvious choice for lunch was seafood & boy was it great…. No regrets at all.

First up was lobster with ginger & green onions(scallions/shallots). The lobster meat was sweet & cooked perfectly, the ginger scallion sauce is a classic chinese combination. I first ate the tail meat before foraging within the shell for more meat. The lobster was extremely fresh and after I made the order for the lobster, the waiter brought the uncooked lobster for inspection & our approval. The waiter also informs you about the weight & cost, this lobster was about 900 grams, restaurant charges ksh 200 per 100grams. You can figure out how much it cost.

Next up was Mapo Tofu, this was different to other mapo tofu’s I have had. The chef used fried tofu because it is difficult to source fresh silken tofu in Mombasa. Different from your everyday mapo tofu, for some reason the sauce reminded me of thai jungle curry. Could not pin down exactly what it was, I’m thinking maybe galangal was added to it.

Last & not least the Singapore chilli crab, this crab was to die for, super fresh & cooked perfectly. The sauce was amazing, after polishing off the crab, cleaned the sauce off the plate into my bowl of rice….. Describing the sauce requires a stretch of the imagination, but it is tomato sauce, soy, chillis, sugar, salt, crab coral(roe) & thickened with egg(s). Everything works together in this sauce, kudos to the great nation of Singapore for gifting this dish to the world. You could not expect anything less from Singapore, my friends from there are amongst the most food crazy people I have met, they eat very well in Singapore.

Canton Malaysia is great, check it out when you are in Mombasa…

The railways in East Africa have a long history, the railway was built by the Brit’s with the help of Indian labour. The rail line opened up the interior of East Africa for commerce, during construction the famous man eater lions of Tsavo caused a spot of bother, added to that a pesky tribe of spear-chucking Nandi’s held up construction for almost 10years(we rock!). The British had not obtained the requisite building permissions from the Nandi’s, the Brit’s prevailed after killing the Nandi’s leader. After railway was built, train services were run by East African Railways & Harbour, which then became East African railways, which became Kenya Railways, which then became Rift Valley Railways.

End of history lesson, I was heading off to Mombasa for some rest & relaxation. The plan was to train down to Mombasa then fly back to Nairobi. Booked first class cabin, for an addition ksh 1,100 you get dinner & breakfast. The train journey is typically 13-14 hours long, the train engines have a top speed of about 55km/h.

Dinner menu, it reads very well, the execution was way off the mark. Yep, that’s my pilsner on the table too.

Bread service consisted of a single slice of cold white bread, margarine was served along with it. Margarine sucks, where is my butter?

The soup for the night was cream of leek soup, which didn’t taste like leeks. Total mystery.

Cool cutlery, this knife is labelled E.A.R & H, East African Rail & Habours. This is what the rail company was known as during Kenya’s colonial days. Amazing how long the cutlery has survived.

Fish appetiser, this tasted really good, the  sauce worked very well with the fish.

Main course of roast beef with potato puree & veg. Beef was cooked to leathery consistency, I can’t stand overcooked meat. Anyway, about the rest of the plate, you decide.

Other main course was chicken curry with steamed rice, this was way better than the roast beef but nothing special.

On the menu, we were promised chocolate cake instead we got a plain & very dry cake. The custard sauce was made using commercial custard powder. Commercial custard powder normally consists of cornstarch, artificial flavour & colour. This custard tasted nothing like real custard made from milk/cream, vanilla & eggs.

Breakfast plate of eggs, bacon, sausage & tomato. Also served was orange cordial.

Coffee with Kenya railways cutlery.

Anyhow, the train journey to Mombasa was great apart from the food. The cabins were clean, clean beddings & great service from staff. I would take the train again…….

Last part of my Whitesands food review, this is dinner. Dinner at the hotel’s main restaurant is a massive buffet, & every night their is a theme. My first night there was Mediterranean, second night was Kenyan & final night was Italian. The chefs & cooks did a great job of producing great food every night.

This passion fruit mousse pictured above was full intense flavour of passion fruit transported to the palette via airy texture of a mousse. My best taste memory from Whitesands.

This is my antipasti & salad plate, I got a bit of everything from the buffet. My favourites were the seared yellow fin tuna. The fennel, orange & rocket salad was also great. The caprese salad(at the top, tomato basil mozarella) was totally let down by the rubbery processed mozzarella.

This was herb crusted roast beef, don’t know what herbs was on the crust because I could not taste any. Beef was dry & overdone, only had one bite and I was done with it.

Chicken cacciatore with rosemary scented potatoes, rosemary and potatoes always works for me, I loved it. The chicken was moist & tender, I liked it.

My dessert plate, the ricotta & chocolate tart(centre) was amaaaaazing, but I don’t get why chef stuck a spaghetti stick into it. So amazing was the ricotta chocolate tart, I went back for more, more & more. The other items & sauces were mmm ok….

Plans plans plans…… Most great plans seem to come unstuck at the last moment. I think it’s a way the great beings in the heavens mess with our little earthly minds. So on this given day, I woke up at 5:00am all set & ready for a day of snorkeling, beer & seafood at Wasini Island. Looking out my window things looked bad, the wind was howling & the sky was grim looking. I fired up opera mini on my phone to check out the weather. It was looking bad, big winds at 25km/h & big scary clouds coming up the coast.

Still being the optimistic Kenyan, I got prepped & went to the lobby to meet the tour leader. I found the bloke speaking to a bunch of brits also heading to Wasini. Walked up to him, he quickly figured out who I was, it wasn’t too hard it seems I was the only local on his list. Most locals went to mombasa during easter, I went after because it’s cheaper hehe. Breaking into swahili, he gave me the bad news that the trip was off due to the weather & safety concerns. He offered to postpone my trip or give me a refund, I took the refund because I had to be back in Nairobi on the next day.

Anyway, headed back to my room to chill & nap for a while. Was up again at midday & hungry, so I was out of my room quickly to forage for food. Found myself at Whitesand’s Lido seafood grill, which is right next to the beach, the menu here has a big seafood focus, but other tastes are catered for. Also on the menu were some risottos, steaks, duck confit.

First up was the yellow fin tuna carpaccio with tomato tartare, this dish tasted good. The tomato tartare was a mix of fresh tomatoes & sun-dried tomatoes. Also sprinkled on the tuna was lemon(lime?) zest which I could not taste, you could see it but it had no taste. The rosemary garnish was interesting, I always expect garnishes to be edible, but I could not see myself chewing through a sprig of rosemary.

Lobster mille-feuille with mango, red capsicum & tartare sauce. I totally loved this dish, it was well balanced. Sweet mango & lobster, crunch of the deep fried pastry, creamy tartare sauce, and some heat from some chili. This would have been better with some fat lobster medallions though….. After lunch complimented the cook personally for this dish.

Crab Fettucine, loved this too. It was creamy, great tomato flavour , lots of crab meat tossed in & the crab claw sealed the deal……

T-Bone Steak, vegetables & mashed potatoes, last plate. The beef was a bit on the tougher side, it tasted great though(nicely charred). Loved the mashed potatoes.

Lunch was great, made the best of the rest of the day……. Will see Wasini Island another time.

Breakfast at Whitesands is a massive buffet, you could literally stuff yourself silly & not eat for the rest of the day….

First plate, waffles, bacon & maple syrup. Discovered this combo during my uni days in Australia, we used to have pancakes served twice a week at the student residence. This combo makes sense, sweet & salty with a contrast of textures.

The hotel has some great people prepping the food. Still remember on my first night, exec chef Yogen who was behind the grill station hooked me up with some great seared tuna steaks which was served with a brilliant sweet sauce, the steaks on the buffet were massively overcooked. Later learnt from the cooks most guests preffered them overcooked. This is one case where the customer is not right. The cooks here are really friendly & love to talk about their food. On one occasion after complimenting the chef at dessert station about the great passion fruit mousse, we had a great conversation on the preparation of the desserts on offer.

My second plate was oatmeal porridge with cinnamon dusted bananas quite similar to my usual daily breakfast is oatmeal in milk and bananas dusted with cinnamon & cocoa.

Back on the buffet for my third plate which was, scrambled eggs, lyonnaise potatoes, some veggie patty, green mango pickles, kaimati & brioche. The scrambled eggs were really great, the curds were fluffy & soft. The brioche was cute but too understated(healthy lol!), I like my brioche rich, have you seen my brioche experiment here? The kaimati was the star of this plate, it was amazing….. spicy & sweet.

Fourth plate, this almond croissant was sweet, flaky & was great with coffee.

Fifth plate, custard danish pastry & mango muffin. The custard danish was ok, but the mango muffin barely had any mango taste.

All said & eaten, breakfast at Whitesands is great. Coming up soon, I will also review lunch & dinner.

I have been eating that’s why I have not posted in a while…… This nyam chom was great!