Tom Yum, frangipane and seafood chowder

What’s fea­tur­ing in my mem­o­ry this week?

Tom Yum sweet and sour soup from Thai Chef, Can­teen’s shell­fish bouil­l­abaisse and pear and frangi­pane tart, and Rach’s seafood chow­der at the City Mar­ket.

Over a group catchup, we decid­ed the Tom Yum sweet and sour soup at Thai Chef was ide­al for a sore throat (and pret­ty), and the var­i­ous entrees were unique and fun (Pump­kin Patch with plum sauce, Sleepy Pig in Bed and Larb Balls).

A cou­ple of the mains were a touch under­whelm­ing, but there are good rea­sons to still have Thai Chef on your list – the sense of fun (the Alcoholic’s noo­dles any­one?), buzzy envi­ron­ment (they seem pret­ty con­sis­tent­ly busy) and val­ue for mon­ey (esp entrées).

Can­teen I’ve talked about before, but their shell­fish bouil­l­abaisse amuse bouche (uh oh, tongue tor­ment!) was real­ly deli­cious and pleas­ing­ly pre­sent­ed in teacups.  Includ­ing fen­nel, chili, aioli and a few oth­er secret ingre­di­ents (includ­ing a Mack and Mabel sauce I’d guess), if you get the chance to try this I don’t think you’d be dis­ap­point­ed.

And the pear and frangi­pane tart.  OMG.  Died.  Heav­en.  Light, slight­ly crumbly, and beau­ti­ful­ly bal­anced in both tex­ture and flavour. Mac has a bak­ing back­ground, and it shows.  I think this has just gone onto my last-meal-on-earth list (yep, its gonna be one hell of a final eat!).

And last­ly, Rach’s seafood chow­der at the City Mar­ket (Rachel Taulelei of Yel­low Brick Road) just has to be men­tioned.  With a cult fol­low­ing, and the con­ver­sion of a few veg­e­tar­i­ans under its belt, this chow­der is sim­ply one of the best. The recipe is a fam­i­ly one, with Rach includ­ing what­ev­er seafood is fresh­ly caught this week, along with bacon, pota­to and var­i­ous oth­er secret ingre­di­ents.

Although the mar­ket runs until 1230 on Sun­days, I’d sug­gest you get there much ear­li­er to guar­an­tee a sup at the pan of this geor­gous­ness (and yes you can take a jar down week­ly to fill for your week­day plea­sure as well as inhal­ing a cup at the mar­ket).

Ciao.