Le Pub, Sydney

Descend a flight of stairs at the corner of King and Kent Streets and enter Le Pub - a busy French bistro-style pub – perfect for a work lunch.

Head underground to Le Pub for respite from the rat race

Despite the bistro-style furnishings it is still very much a pub. There’s a pokie room and huge plasma screens blasting sports right through lunch. But there’s also little nooks in which to hide and make share office gossip, should the mood take you that direction. 

Le Pub's nooks are cones of silence for debriefs on the week's office gossip

A velvet, burgundy-and-brown-striped banquette snakes around the room. Generously-sized wooden chairs and stools upholstered in turquoise velvet were a pleasure to look at after a morning staring at computer screens. The interior designer seems to love tiles. I’m not sure if these were a relic from Le Pub’s previous incarnation as Irish pub PJ O'Gallaghers, but they were everywhere from the black and white mosaic floor, to the scrabble-style white alphabet tiles above diners’ heads to the completely black-tiled bathroom (studded with replica gas lights). I would have liked some french tunes, but they may have been there under the Friday lunch-crowd din. The soft furnishings helped to absorb the noise and we had no trouble catching up on the week's events and weekend plans over our lunch.  

No shortage of seats at Le Pub for corporate derrieres

This underground pub won 3 schooners in the 2013 Good Pub Food Guide. The menu, created by Executive Chef Ronny Ghantous (ex-Union Hotel, North Sydney) features French favourites like escargot ($15), french onion soup ($14) and duck confit ($26). 

Brass corners to protect from nasty table-corner injuries

I was drawn to the Beef Bourginon Pie ($24), served with a side of Paris Mash, but as I was at the end of a week-long detox I wanted something a bit lighter.

Twice-cooked soufflé with gruyere, chevre and walnut crostini ($22)

The twice cooked soufflé with gruyere, chevre and walnut crostini ($22) was less fluffy than I had imagined. To be fair, the last soufflé I had was at the Boathouse in Blackwattle Bay, so my expectations may have been misplaced. The baked top had just the right consistency and has helped me delay a trip to Pasticceria Papa for baked ricotta cheesecake by a few weeks. The microherbs seemed to miss out on a light vinaigrette dressing, the sort that has me scouring friend’s plates for any tender greens left behind. The crostini complimented the soufflé, but I would have liked one more. 

Onion Rings ($9)

Instead I got stuck into the detox-be-damned-onion rings ($9), which were more batter than onion but the sort of fried tasty treat that you somehow justify in Friday lunches. Lucky for me, my only meeting later that day was with my team. As we all had onion rings together I wasn’t worried about single-handedly fumigating any meeting rooms with onion breath back in the office.

Steak Frites ($23)

Two colleagues ordered the steak frites ($23) with their choice of sauce (Peppercorn, Bearnaise, Café de Paris or Mushroom). By all accounts the steak was cooked perfectly to order. The chips had the right amount of crunch, without being too oily.

Warm chicken salad with avocado, almonds, feta, compressed watermelon, eschallot and strodolo leaves ($24)

I had meal envy over my colleague’s warm chicken salad with avocado, almonds, feta, compressed watermelon, eschallot and strodolo leaves ($24). We were both curious about the compressed watermelon. It glistened like a slab of fatty tuna and tasted like . . . compressed watermelon. It balanced nicely with the feta. If I could choose again I think I would have liked that.

The Friday lunch crowd kept staff busy yesterday – but the service was fast and friendly. We weren’t kept waiting for long at any stage.

Bathroom 'graffiti' - could be the meaning of life, but knowing the French is more likely to be something witty, sarcastic or both.

I’d take a French friend there to get them to translate the bathroom ‘graffiti’, which may actually be very profound. But I’d be curious to see whether the food makes them homesick. I’ll add it into the rotation of places to go for a work lunch, but with so many CBD lunch venues to choose from it may be a while before I return. 

Momofuku Seiobo, Sydney

I popped onto the Momofuku website on a whim at 5pm on Thursday and saw they had availability on Saturday. I whipped out my phone with one hand to call Karen and my credit card in the other – 10 mins later we had our Saturday plans sorted.

It can be difficult to get a booking at Momofuku Seiobo. The restaurant team only post availability 10 days in advance and only allow bookings online.

Seems the stars were aligned for us that afternoon.

Once admitted to the inner-Momofuku-sanctum, all difficulty melts away. The booking is confirmed by email (with a firm warning that a no-show will result in a $100 charge on the credit card). A follow-up phone call comes through to confirm the booking again and to check dietary requirements.

On arrival at the door, I’m welcomed by name. We’re seated in the a la carte area but it’s no trouble to have us moved up to the bench surrounding the kitchen –easily the most popular seats available.

I start off with a St Germain (elderflower liquor) and Soda drink. Then the gastronomic games begin – 10 mini courses of degustationary delight.

Course 1/10

First up is a smoked potato puree with apple crisp and apple jelly – crisp and smoky, it turns out to be one of my favourites.

Course 2/10

Steamed bun pork belly. This is the signature dish and the dough is light and fluffy, the pork belly caramelized and juicy. I think my cloud 9 would be made out of that dough. It took me to a happy place.

Course 3/10

Pink snapper, celery and mustard oil. I love ceviche, so this was also a favourite dish

Course 4/10

Potato, trout roe, parsons nose. This was an interesting combination of flavours and textures. I’ve never eaten parsons nose before (it’s the cartlidge from the base of a chicken’s tail) but I barely felt the texture and was just left with a strong chicken taste. The saltiness of the roe worked well with the fried parsons nose.

Course 5/10

Eel dashi with turnip and almond. The prettiest dish by far. The eel flavour came through the dashi but I didn’t really like that flavour in a jelly format. That’s kinda the point of going to a restaurant like Momofuku – expect to have your mind blown, but in exploring new frontiers there are a few you won’t really like.

Course 6/10

Zucchini, onion mustard, yolk. The ‘yolk’ in question was cooked at 66 degrees for 1 hour ‘sous vide’ style. Sous vide refers to the process of sealing food in an airtight bag and putting it in a water bath for longer than normal cooking times. This might become a common trend as the result is very tender food, retaining a lot of flavour and moisture. Although doing it well, as with lots of tricky techniques, isn’t easy. Thankfully the team at Momofuku knew what they were doing with this yolk and it was really creamy.

Course 9/10

Goats curd, blackcurrant, mint. By this stage I had also indulged in a glass of wine and was so engrossed in conversation that I didn’t really give this dish the focus it deserved. 

Course 7/10

Mulloway, cucumber and black garlic.  

Course 8/10

Lamb, eggplant, lettuce. The lamb was tender and juicy. But the lettuce was sensational! Now I’m back at home I’m googling sautéed lettuce recipes. Between this and the lettuce with sesame and tahini that I had a Harts Yard a few weeks ago, I think I’m hooked!

Course 10/10

Pear, honey cream, muntries. The muntries, despite sounding like the name of a folk band, are native Australian berries. This dish also had ‘toasted milk’ in it – another tricky molecular gastronomy-type maneouvre that tasted like milk and felt like unsweetened, shaved white chocolate.

Surprise 11/10 Course!

Burnt caramel doughnut

The verdict

Experiences like eating at Momofuku Seiobo are just that – experiences. The meal cost $125 each including two drinks. You don’t go to Momofuku to eat until you’re full, or to have one dish you pop in for once a week. 

Some people would pay $125 to see a band they like – but at the moment it’s food and chefs that are my pop songs and rock stars. And for the price of admission you enter a world where everything is stylish, classy, beautiful. Everything works, is in the place it should be. It’s an escape into a world different from the one I regularly inhabit. And that, to me, is worth a $125 meal once or twice a year. Provided you choose the right moment to get in, where the stars are aligned and you find yourself nonchalantly popping onto the website to see if there are any bookings available, prompting you to duel fate with a phone in one hand, and a credit card in the other...

What kind of rabbit are you?

There are times when I feel like this fluffy guy from Alice in Wonderland, always running late. At least I manage to wear pants (most days) but I think the White Rabbit and I fret just as much.

So I wanted to remind myself of the best ways to take control of time, rather than running around chasing your own tail (no matter how cute or fluffy it may be): 

The Pomodoro Technique

Introduced to me by a dear writing friend, it’s actually got a cult following around the world. The idea is that you identify what you want to do, then break it down into 25 minute sections. Then you set the timer to 25 minutes and start, not working on anything else at all until the timer goes off. Then you take a break, walk around for a bit (maybe 15 mins) then settle back in and do another ‘pomodoro’. If something crosses your mind while working on the project, you put a mark on your notepad, like a notch. In practice I have found that when I start off doing one pomodoro session, I end up doing another because I really start getting into a project that I had previously been thinking a lot about but not actually doing. It’s important to take breaks, which can be hard if you’re finally slaying that demon of a task. But the first cut is the deepest and that demon will still be there when you get back, just a little weakened after you had your first go at it. It’s called the Pomodoro technique because the original timer used was in the shape of a tomato. The technique has a global following (and range of merchandise).

Eat that Frog

This means ‘choose the biggest, ugliest task you need to tackle and do it before you do any other task’. This is a concept from Brian Tracy who is a best selling author of anti-procrastination books. He says “If the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is eat a live frog, then nothing worse can happen for the rest of the day!" Truly this, for me, should be exercising as it’s the easiest thing that gets shunted along by just about anything else, but it also delivers the most benefit. As the ugliest frogs do . . .

‘You don’t have to go to every fight you’re invited to'

I saw this on Pinterest (do you think I can find the pin??) and it’s something I think about when I’m working to a deadline and someone tries to involve me in something that I really don’t need to be involved in – whether it’s a fight, or even something really nice that I would love to do, but that I would actually prefer to do, other than eating that frog. We all get annoyed by things sometimes, but it can be a real time-saver (and energy-saver) to tell myself that I’m not going to buy into it and to ask whether it really matters in the bigger picture. Doesn’t always work but when it does, it feels really good. 

Remain single-minded

Why is it, when I’m short on time and there is one thing that I really need to do, a little voice inside says ‘Ooh, I wonder what’s happening on Twitter/Facebook/email/Pinterest’ and before you know it I’ve lost an hour, made 3 new pinboards, laughed at people’s posts, retweeted a bunch of stuff and then end up like the white rabbit fretting over the nasty frog dragging on my heels. But when I do stay single-minded, when I shut down the apps, ignore emails, tell people when I’ll get back to them and do not move until I have finished the task (or at least a couple of pomodoros) I feel so much better – like I’ve prized the clammy fingers of the frog and left him back in the middle of the path in a pile of frog slime. Also – the only thing worse than eating a whole frog is eating half a frog. Twice.

Turn back time

Cher wished for it, but one way to actually do it is to set your watch back by 15 mins. I’m working on this one, but I started today and I spent the morning enjoying getting ready for work, having breakfast and walking to the bus stop instead of running around and racing to the bus stop.

I’m no expert – there’s an entire industry of people who present and write techniques for getting better control of time.

But it’s helpful to remind myself of these from time to time, so I’m a little less Wonderland Rabbit, a little more Rabbit in a Hat.