Dan Hong’s Dude Food Degustation at Lotus, Potts Point
Edit: CLOSED OH HAI! So like, can you believe it’s the end of October already? That means soon will be the end of all the Crave Sydney events argh! The Dude Food Degustation ($70 + $50 matching drinks) at Lotus (22 Challis Avenue, Potts Point) was booked out within hours of the website going live but luckily the day before the second seating I managed to catch a tweet from Dan Hong about a last minute cancellation and scored the seats. The boy came along thanks to promises of hotdogs and we joined powers tables with the awesome Dumpling Girl and Cheesecake Boy for a fabulously fun lunch.
I’d decided to try my luck with the matching drinks and a spicy Bloody Mary with celery foam is up first with the Cheeseburger spring roll and empanada doner kebab. The spring roll was crazy, I barely glanced at the menu so my brain got confused when it thought I was eating a normal spring roll and all of a sudden woah man it’s cheesey! /smacks lips and is that… pickle with just a hint of tomato sauce? Lols and that empanada took me back to seedy Friday evenings huddled at late night kebab stands with the magical restorative powers of garlic sauce.
Ah but what is better than a bowl of instant noodles on a lazy rainy day? Indomie with fried quail egg, deep fried eshays & pulled buffalo wing sauce arrives with a grin along with a glass of 2009 Salomon Undhof Gruner Veltliner. The sunny quail egg was just too cute and while I would normally stab a runny egg and mix it into the indomie I just couldn’t help but shove the whole egg into my mouth… Guilty pleasures lol I loved the crunchy shallots but oh boy was the sauce spicy! Thanks to my lack of chili tolerance I found myself pausing to chug-a-lug the sweet wine and regretfully had to pass it over to the boy.
Noods. With noodles. Heh.
Just like with the entree, my brain and tastebuds got all kinds of confused with the Pepperoni pizza wontons with napolentana consomme (with 2009 Mornington Peninsula Scorpo Rose). The bowl held deceptively normal looking wontons but the clear broth was so intensely tomato flavoured and the nubbins of pepperoni encased in tender wonton pastry skin just sent everything topsy turvy. I could’ve very easily eaten another 5 bowls.
Tasting of Hotdogs – foie gras and truffle hotdog, Chicago style hotdog, Corndog (with Coopers Pale Ale). Nawww how cute are all the dawgs yo!? We were instructed to eat the foie gras and truffle hotdog first and hot damn it nearly ruined the other hot dogs for me because it was just so freaking tasty and rich! The slab of foie gras and the truffle sauce was pure indulgent bliss and perfect on the soft fluffy buns. The Chicago hot dog was tasty but not as gloriously tasty against the corn dog which was amazeballs. The fried batter was perfect and not at all oily, with the requisite crunch before the sausage innards are met and of course what goes better with hotdogs than a glass of beer? Just like a day out watching a baseball game haha
Donut ice-cream with candied bacon, banana fritter, pretzel praline, peanut butter and raspberry jam (with Jack Daniels & banana old fashioned). I’d been looking forward to dessert and it didn’t fail to impress. From the presentation to the taste, this crazy multi ingredient dish was off the chain insane. Of course the candied bacon was first to be attacked and I looked longingly around the table to steal any bacon remnants but alas there were none. The donut ice cream was incredible- cinnamony and sweet, it was perfect against the salty schmear of peanut butter and the crunch of the pretzel praline. The banana fritter was saved till last, oh how I’ve missed my daily dose of potassium! The matching JD was a little on the strong side esp after all the matched drinks and I couldn’t really taste any banana flavour but nevertheless was finished all the same 😛
Aaaaaand my collection of drinks… Edit: hehe no worries guys I managed to finish most of the driknks. Teehee one more day to the weekend! See ya’ll next week!
