Whilst I do like a buffet, they are fraught with key decisions. There are some that look at it like a war (which it can be with your stomach) where you need to make clear decisions devoid of emotion, your brain needs to separate itself from your tastebuds and stomach if you are to get your money’s worth. And who doesn’t in some way want to get their money’s worth when they’re at a seafood buffet. And after a hard day’s Christmas sale shopping, food is inevitably on the mind.
Every year around Christmas my girlfriends Gina, Teena and I get together for a dinner and present exchange. It’s usually around mid December for Teena’s birthday but this year it’s a little closer to Christmas. So the slobbery drunken Santa count and sexy, trampy Mrs Claus outfit count tonight in Potts Point is high and somewhat relentless as people in red and white felt outfits parade past us in very, very jolly moods as they celebrate finishing work for the year.
We enter Busshari in Potts Point near the famous fountain and the first thing I’m struck with is how very, very dark things are here. “Eeek!” I say to Gina “This is not going to make for good photos” and she agrees. Teena arrives a little later and we make our selections. There are curiously two menus, one a double sided sheet in a plastic sleeve and the book version which looks prettier but the double sided sheet is easier to read. There is an impressive looking sake list for the sake aficionado. I look around – apparently Nicole Kidman has been spotted eating here but there’s no sign of her tonight.
Fresh Oyster w salmon caviar & dashi vinaigrette jelly $3 each
Or I could subtitle this story as “Mr NQN’s favourite restaurant meal” such was his adoration for the food served to us this day.
” Look, he’s actually cooking here!” I grab Mr NQN’s arm when I see the familiar curly grey flecked hair of New Zealand export to London Peter Gordon. I mean I knew this was one of his lunches but he was well and truly cooking in the kitchen and not just here in name only. I had seen Peter speak at the World Chef Showcase only the day before and he had told us of his upbringing involving plastic corks and a pet lamb which they ate. It was a very much Hunter Gatherer lifestyle typical of NZ at the time. He recalls the first time he had an avocado and the pleasure they had eating it.
Martin Boetz from Longrain
Peter Gordon
I have a quick chat to Peter before he gets started and he talks about the restaurant scene in London. I ask if the GFC has hit his restaurants, The Providores and Tapa Room and he says that it hasn’t much at all, they’re open for breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week and on the ground floor there’s the Tapa Room (named after the large traditional Rarotongan Tapa cloth made from block printed and hand beaten paper mulberry bark on the wall) and on the 1st floor there’s The Providores restaurant. Even since the GFC, in a city as badly hit as London, they’re busier than usual. And this is the man who owned The Sugar Club who Calvin Klein said was his favourite restaurant yet he had never visited and who made headlines when they turned Madonna away.
“Oh they’re just photographing the celebrities over there” the smiling hostess says “So you can go that way” she says pointing in the other direction. I laugh, yes we’re not famous and apparently the left side is for the celebrities and the right is for the non celebrities. At tonight’s Ferrero Rondnoir event is Jade McRae who is tiny and wearing a column dress and tousled curls, Michelle Bridges from The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Masterchef who is thin with an amazing bottom (yes I noticed!), Charlotte Dawson who is friendly with amazing cleavage (yes I noticed!), Australia’s Next Top Model winner Demelza Reveley who is gorgeous and amazingly tall (it’s hard not to notice that), designer Wayne Cooper, Sarah Marsh, newsreader Natarsha Belling, Konstantina Mittas and Adriano Zumbo and of course Tobie Puttock. Did I mention him? No, well Tobie is putting together a degustation for us based on the Ferrero Rondnoir. And read on later for my Q&A with chef Tobie!
“We’re going to dinner with Trissa and Dan” I tell Mr NQN one evening and then mumble “It’s Indian French” and then scamper off quickly before he can ask me to clarify. No such luck “Whaaat? Did you say Indian French?” he asks incredulously. *Gulp* “Yes” I answer. “Well I hope it ends better than the last fusion restaurant we went to” and I can’t help but agree.
Inside it’s vivid oranges as Dan points out as he’s wearing a bright orange shirt too. There are oranges in a bowl, orange lights and there’s also a touch of the Old Raj in one corner with gilt edged tables and chairs. The menu sounds tempting so we ask the waitress what she recommends and she decisively reels off 4 entrees and 4 mains.
Green pea cappucino
Our amuse bouche is a light green pea cappucino which is deliciously earthy with a light touch of Indian spices.
Cumin Infused Trout Confit $16
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As seen in the Foodies Guide 2010
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