Late Lunch @ Culina Enoteca, Dempsey Hill
I started with a Carpaccio of 120 day old grain fed Australian beef that was drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with Truffle Salt and garnished with Parmesan Cheese shavings. The Truffle Salt added a light hint of Truffle flavour which went well with the moist and thin slices of beef and shavings of Parmesan Cheese. I love Rocket so I was very pleased with the accompanying salad. I loved this dish though I think that an additional pinch of Truffle Salt is needed to lift the flavours a little more.
That was followed by a blackboard special of Ceps & Parma Ham Quiche. I love Ceps (aka Porcini mushrooms), Parma Ham and Quiches, thus a combo of Ceps with Parma Ham in a quiche sounded like a fabulous marriage of some of my favourite ingredients.
The first thing that struck my mind was how thin the quiche was relative to the ones served at other establishments. Biting into the toasty warm quiche, I couldn't help but think that size doesn't matter as long as the flavours are rich. The thin and crisp crust was topped with a flavoursome creamy custard that was chockful of ingredients. The Ceps and Parma Ham made up 80% of the custard. Every bite was filled with the distinctive tastiness of Ceps Mushrooms that was enhanced by the saltiness of the Parma Ham. The taste was heavenly. I told ST to try some and even though she generally hates quiches, she was so impressed by it that she ordered another portion. This is definitely a MUST-TRY!
We finished off with a serving of Caramelized Figs Tart and a Cheese platter of Fourme d'Ambert (blue cheese) and Comte (hard cheese from the Jura region in France). Unfortunately I forgot to snap a picture of the cheese platter as I was busy moving the Comte cheese to another plate for ST as she hates blue cheese. The cheese is sold by weight with an additional $5 preparation fee if you are dining in.
The Caramelized Figs Tart was not as smoky as I would have liked but thankfully, it was not cloyingly sweet either. The figs had a slightly bitter aftertaste which was masked in small part by the sweet vanilla ice cream. I didn't really enjoy this dessert but its worth a try if you love figs.
