Tapas @ Culina @ Dempsey

Well I knew Culina had Tete De Moine so I requested that we pop by for a spot of tapas & wine.
We sat at the bar counter & we seemed to be the only people who went to the deli counter to pick a platter, instead of ordering from the menu for dinner.

Jian did mention that the Tete De Moine was about half the price at Huber's but the pitiful thing is that they close early... like at around 7pm or so.

Our platter of lamb proscuito, comte & Tete De Moine.

We were allowed to pick stuff off the shelf & they would open it for us & everything. This came is a medium tin cause of the sauce. Roasted peppers stuffed with squid, immersed in squid ink. NICE! Rich smokey flavour the sauce gave out & the peppers were tender & tasty. $8 for the tin of 2 small peppers, but so good! We mopped up ALL the sauce with ciabatta bread!

A peep at the minced squid.

Just wanted you to have a look at the pepper without the squid ink all over the shop.

Washed down with this Soto De Torres Ibericos Crianza 2008 Tempranillo rioja. MMmMMMmmm...

They charge$15 corkage per bottle of wine you open. They also have housepour wines by the glass if your date does not drink (boring).

Also, you add $5 for making a platter.

The total bill came up to mid $80s.

We trotted over to Jones the Grocer afters, just for a walk before heading back, & found the selection of antipasto to be more extensive & there were more cheeses too (but no Tete De Moine). It's a bit pricier there, though, for the cheese & wines. Jian said that he'd go back to Epicurious anyday, rather than come back to Culina again, for the prices. I would just probably pester him to get be some Tete De Moine from Huber's before they close for the day. :P

Epicurious

Friday night out & Robertson Quay was BUSTLING (I mean... what's new, right?). We managed to get a table for without reservations at Wine Connection, tried to request for a table of 4, but failed, so we walked around & managed to sit our behinds at Epicurious, a much quieter spot, just a short walk away.

The menu looks good & the tapas was a reasonably good range, such that one didn't (really feel) like there was a disappointingly small selection. Okay, to be honest, I DID feel that it was a little small, but there were really no complaints, as a lot of my favourite bites were included in the tapas menu. 8 types of cheese, various cold cuts & some antipasto. There were also small bites. There is a mains menu as well, which Jian said looked quite good. They have a wine list too, but we ordered the house wine. I saw something on the menu which said '$15 corkage charge, ours, or yours). $15 even if I order wine from you?!?!??! Well we ordered the house, like I mentioned, but I saw no indication of $15 on the bill. They stopped accepting customers at around 10pm, according to sharp-eyed Jian.

This is the first platter we ordered. I cant remember exactly how they charge, but the more you order, the cheaper it gets. The prices start from $6 per pick of cheese (add $2 for one of themore special cheeses, I can't remember which), $6.50 (or is it $7.50) per pick of a cold cut, $4 (I think) per pick of antipasto. If you order from the cheese or cold cuts section, each antipasto is only $2.50. it's quite confusing, but you have to look at the menu to fully comprehend what I mean.

So our selection was: comte cheese, chorizo (from Singapore), chargrilled peppers & chargrilled eggplant.


Cheese & Tomato Quesadillas. They were not bad, really, a little too much raw onions & a little too few tomatoes for my liking, but they pass. The skins were nice & semi-crisp.

Meatballs. Tasty. The sauce reminds me of nicer tomato pasta sauce, but really, you can't stray far from that thought when a warm tomato-based sauce is around. It is pretty good with the meatballs.

Our second platter consisting of salami, artichoke hearts & hummus. They served the platter with butter, instead of vinegar & olive oil this time. Pity. The olive oil was EXCELLENT. The hummus was nice & smooth & citrusy. Jian admits that it's better than the hummus he makes, as it is lighter in texture & slides down your throat oh so easily!

MY PLATE! The thing I love about this place is the mis-matched, but strangely matching plates They have a few different floral (I want to name an era, but I cannot put my finger on it) plates & they do not purposely give the whoel table the same plates. They use different bottles for your water. (They leave the bottles of water on your table for you to help yourself. I like.) I spied an Absolut Vodka bottle at a neighbouring table.

Together with a bottle of house sparkling & house red, our total bill came up to $132 for 4 people.