Category Archives: Spice Temple

Just when you though New Year celebrations were over… On Monday 23rd January we’re heralding in the “Year of the Dragon” at Spice Temple Sydney and Melbourne with special banquet menus. Spice Melbourne is featuring a $79 banquet menu by Head Chef Ben Pollard that is perfect for people wanting to try Spice Temple’s diverse range of regional Chinese dishes and flavours. Spice Sydney is going all out with a $110 deluxe menu by Head Chef Andy Evans, designed to promote health, wealth and fertility during New Year festivities.

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SPICE TEMPLE SYDNEY

CHINESE NEW YEAR BANQUET MENU $110 pp

Fortune Cocktail: Aperol, Cointreau, Peach & Cava

Cabbage and radish 

Sichuan pickled cucumber, shiitake and bamboo shoots (wealth)

White cut chicken with ginger and spring onion oil (happiness)

Shanghai sesame noodles (longevity)

Northern style lamb and fennel dumplings (family unity)

Tea eggs with salted olive and black bean (fertility)

“The most delicious dish under heaven” (money)

Hot, sweet, sour and numbing pork (wishing for a large family)
Chilli, sugar, black vinegar and Sichuan peppercorn 

Crispy lucky duck with steamed bread, shallots and hoisin (fidelity)

Steamed king abalone mushroom,
garlic stems, chives and ginger (prosperity)

‘Beggar’s Purse’

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SPICE TEMPLE MELBOURNE

CHINESE NEW YEAR BANQUET MENU $79 pp

Cucumbers with spicy sauce

Egg and jalapeño salad (fertility)

Chive and scallop dumplings (eternity)

Noodles with black vinegar sauce (long life)

Whole baby chicken baked in lotus leaf with “Chilli Tea” (family reunion)

Whole baby snapper with ginger and shallot (prosperity)

Stir fried lettuce with ham and XO sauce

Jasmine rice custard

So, what better way to fill a Monday evening?!

To book Spice Temple Sydney click here or call (02) 8078 1888

To book Spice Temple Melbourne click here or call (03) 8679 1888

As another year wraps up and we’re all saying ‘I can’t believe this year has gone so quickly’, we thought we would give you a quick recap of the best bits from our blog… 

January 

Rockpool Bar & Grill Perth Opens

The year kicked off with the opening of our newest restaurant, Bar & Grill Perth at Burswood. Who would have known back then that RB&G Perth would be awarded 17.5/20, 2 Chef’s hats, Restaurant of the Year and Winelist of the Year in the WA Good Food Awards 8 months down the track… well, if you ask Neil he will probably tell you that he thought it was a lock.

February

Rockpool Floodlight Dinner

Straight off the bat for February was our Floodlight Dinner to raise money for the devastating Queensland floods. A combined effort between Phil and The Four in Hand’s Colin Fassnidge, it was a truly great evening.

Rose Bay Flood Relief Dinner

Later on in February was the epic Rose Bay Flood Relief Dinner – 5 restaurants set up along the Rose Bay promenade to serve 1000 guests. Over $850,000 was raised for the QLD flood victims – an amazing effort. And really – could you ever ask for a better table than that?

March

The Ultimate Dinner

It doesn’t get much better than this – Neil Perry, Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck), Thomas Keller (The French Laundry), Andoni Aduriz (Mugaritz), Guillaume Brahimi (Bennelong), Phil Wood (Rockpool) and Catherine Adams (Rockpool) cooking you dinner. Well, maybe if they’re raising money for charity as well… This year’s Ultimate Dinner was the best yet, with over $280,000 raised for the Starlight Children’s Foundation.

April

Ultimate Food!

 

Armed with our professional photos, we took an in-depth look at the Ultimate Dinner – the Chefs, the action, and most importantly the food… 

May

Noma, Copenhagen

Whilst we were nose to the grindstone here at Rockpool, Neil was off on his Northern Hemishpere holiday. He kindly sent us photos of all the nice places he was eating at, just to remind us that he was indeed “working” whilst away… Noma, in particular, looked amazing. Probably why they’re rated the best restaurant in the world..

Rockpool 1989 – 2011

We love nostalgia here at Rockpool. That’s quite lucky, because we’ve got plenty of it! When we came across some old photos, we didn’t hesitate at putting together a little photographic journey into the past.. I still can’t believe that this is the upstairs dining room Rockpool!

Burger Wars!

Organised by Time Out Sydney Magazine, Burger Wars pitted 6 of Sydney’s best burgers against one another… Pickle, or no pickle? Sesame seed bun, or no sesame seed bun? Whose burger would reign supreme, and which Chef would be crowned the burger master???

Saturday Afternoon at the Borough Markets

 
 

On what appeared to be the best summer’s day in London history (what? Blue sky?), Neil spent the afternoon casually wandering the amazing borough markets.. By all accounts, this is one of the best markets in the world. And after seeing this, we believe it.

The River Cafe, London

Neil’s gastronomic tour of London continued with a trip to the iconic River Cafe. This food made us all drool over our keyboards..

June

The Best Feedback Letter… Ever!

Yeah, so no photo for this one, but I guarantee that you will not read a better feedback letter in your lifetime! If only they were all like this…

Making Butter by Hand - Rockpool Sydney

Butter. It comes from the dairy section at your supermarket, right? Ever wondered how hard it would be  to make it yourself? Read on….

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

 

 

Neil popped in to Heston’s newest restaurant in London, where he’s been turning long-forgotten recipes into modern day classics. Love the Meat Fruit c.1500.

Buvette, West Village, New York

Across the Atlantic and on to NY, Buvette is one of the cutest restaurants we’ve seen – and the food looks pretty damn good as well! Neil was given the tip by US Chef magastar Mario Batali, who joined he and Sam for lunch.

Making Bread by Hand – Rockpool Sydney

When the kids down at Rockpool decided that they would start making their own sourdough in-house, we had to get down there and blog it. Making bread is a true labour of love… If you’ve ever wanted to know the effort that goes into making your own sourdough, take a look right here.

July

Eataly, New York

After returning from his holiday research trip, Neil handed over the rest of his snaps which included his trip to Eataly – 20,000 square feet of Italian gastronomic goodness in the heart of NY. The photos don’t do it justice – the place is huuuge.

The Sorrentine Peninsula, Italy

As if we weren’t feeling a bit left out of the whole “eating our way around the globe” thing yet, B&G Head Chef and Pastry Chef Khan and Catherine sent us snaps of their Italian holiday. The first edition sees them travelling through the Sorrentine Peninsula, a place of incredible beauty and delicious food… 

Naples, Italy

 

Part 2 of Khan and Catherine’s journey was up the coast to Naples, and then on to the outskirts of Rome to the Osteria di San Cesario, and the kitchen of the legendary Anna Dente.

Rome, Italy

 

The final installment of Khan and Catherine’s journey, where it’s all about pizza and gelato. If that’s not heaven then I don’t want to go!

August

Rockpool Menu Circa 1996

 

Remember I told you we love nostalgia? When we found an old menu in the attic at Rockpool it brought a tear to our eyes, and not just from all the dust we also uncovered in the process. Stacked with Rockpool classics, the prices are practically bargain basement for a 3 hat restaurant nowadays..

Rockpool’s City 2 Surf Wrap Up

Ah, yes, Team Rockpool’s finest hour – well, actually only a couple of us managed to crack the hour mark, but we all tried our hardest and in the process raised a whopping $206,262.00 for the Starlight Children’s Foundation. Apart from raising money for our favourite cause, it was a pretty fun day after we got to the finish line. Bring on 2012!

Rockpool Truffle Dinner Teaser

 

 

So when Neil and Phil decided to go all out and serve more truffles that we’ve ever seen to just 15 lucky diners, we pulled out our iPhones and got snapping. With the pro photos ‘being developed’, we gave you a little tease… who was that masked chef?

September

Rockpool Sydney Winter Truffle Dinner

  

With pro photos in hand, we could really delve into what was without a doubt the most extravagant dinner we’ve ever seen. 1.5kg of Tasmanian truffles for just 15 lucky diners… the smell in the kitchen was intoxicating!

Truffle Hunting in the Southern Highlands

You’re probably think that chef’s are obsessed with truffles, right? Correct! Whilst some of us were punishing ourselves by running to Bondi (all in the name of charity), some lucky staff from B&G Sydney took a trip to the Southern Highlands for a spot of truffle hunting..

Spice Temple Melbourne Hunan Dinner

The first of the Spice Temple Melbourne Regional dinners was the Hunan dinner – and it was a great success. Rather than the usual spectrum of cuisines at ST, Neil focused in on the Hunan Provence – think spicy hot, home-style cuisine without the Sichuan numbing.

October

Spice Temple Melbourne Imperial Dinner

 

Spicy T’s second regional dinner was the Imperial Dinner – dishes from between 221 BC and 1911 AD. With colourful names such as ‘Playful Dragon and Phoenix’, ‘The Most Delicious Dish under Heaven’  and ‘First Ranking Official Pork’, the question we had was would these dishes stand the test of time?

November

Victor Churchill, Woollahra

  

  

We took a look at one of our favourite shops of all time – Victor Churchill, where meat is taken to a whole new level. Vegetarians be warned – clicking through may turn you back into an omnivore..

per se, New York

Another stop on Neil’s culinary tour was at per se, one of the worlds greatest restaurants. These guys are at the pointy end of fine dining, and the food looks incredible.

Next, Chicago

 

 

The final post about Neil’s 2011 trip was from Next, the new restaurant by Grant Achatz of Alinea fame. What these guys to is pretty unique – they choose a theme (at the time Neil visited it was ‘Paris 1906′, an homage to Auguste Escoffier), cook the same menu for 3 months (they refer to it as a ‘season’), and then go back to the drawing board and come up with a brand new theme. We loved their Next Opening video… oh, and you buy a ticket as if you were going to the theatre – so if you don’t turn up, you miss out and pay in full…

December

Rockpool Pop-Up Lunch – “Cafe 1989″

 

Rockpool swung its doors open for lunch for the first time in almost 3 years with a $75 3-course menu inspired by the food of Chez Panisse. Prawns, suckling pig, cherries.. can’t go wrong!

Eating out in Hong Kong pt1 

Part 1 of Neil’s Hong Kong blog was all about yum cha and Chinese barbecue – two of our favourite subjects. Throw in a five star hotel and we’re hooked!

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All this plus recipes galore, Qantas stories, awards, Neil barbecuing a Kiwi in the name of national pride, photo shoots, more travel stories, random videos, a new book, a few give-aways, a master class or two… it’s been a big year for the Rockpool blog! Looking forward to 2012, bigger and better, and we’ve got some veeery big news to break just around the corner.. Stay tuned!!

Chefs. We’re a strange bunch.

We enjoy working long hours in hot, stressful conditions. We can talk at length our preferred cooking medium – copper, cast iron… We can look a fish in the eye and tell you if it’s fresh or not. We love to debate wood fire vs charcoal vs gas vs induction. We get annoyed when there’s too much starch in our teatowels… And we also get excited by plates. Yes, plates.

But not your everyday dinner plates, mind you. We now have, in our opinion, the most awesome plates we have seen (and trust me, we’ve seen a few plates in our collective time here at Rockpool). These new ones come via Chinchin Trader - they’re hand made in China and are all one off designs especially for Spice Temple.  But, they do make a range for home so you can get in on the Chinchin action… As far as plates go, they don’t get much better.

 

 

This is a dish we’ve had on the menu at Spice Temple Sydney since its inception. Rather than stir frying the pippies in the sauce, we make a dressing out of Chinese salted olives and black beans and dress the cooked pippies which have been steamed open. Salted olives can be found at most Asian grocers – they lend a lovely savouriness to the dish – but if you can’t find them you could just use the salted black beans on their own. Add some greens, rice and an ice cold beer and you’ve got a great meal.

Pippies with Black Olive and Black Bean Dressing

Serves 4 as part of a shared banquet

1kg pippies
100ml chicken stock or water
½ bunch shallots, cut into julienne

Black Olive and Black Bean Dressing
50g salted black beans
50g salted olives, finely chopped
50g salted radish, finely chopped
20g ginger, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 long red chilli, cut into rounds
250 ml peanut oil
80 ml light soy
50 ml white vinegar
90g white sugar

To make the Black Olive and Black Bean Dressing, pound the black beans to a paste in a mortar with a pestle. Transfer to a bowl and add the chopped olives, radish, ginger, garlic and chilli. Combine the oil, soy, vinegar and sugar in a separate bowl and whisk together until the sugar is dissolved. Pour into the bowl with the other ingredients, whisk well to combine.

Heat the chicken stock or water in a wok over high heat until boiling. Add the pippies to the wok, cover with a lid and cook for 2-3 minutes, shaking the wok occasionally, until the shells just begin to open. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pippies to a bowl. Discard the chicken stock.

Mix the dressing well, then pour over the cooked pippies. Toss well, transfer to a bowl and garnish with the shallot julienne. Serve with steamed rice.

A little while back we told you about the Rockpool Group In-House Cocktail Competition – where we pit the creativity of our company’s bartenders against each other for the thirst-quenching benefit of our worthy customers.

The competition is the brainchild of Will Oxenham, TWR Bar Managerm, mixologist and overall creative-type himself. Will devised this month’s theme: “A Spring Punch, featuring Appleton V/X Rum”, and laid down the following ground rules for our participants:

For Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and The Waiting Room:

A classically-styled, cleansing Rum Punch, inspired by Spring in Australia, designed for post wood fire grill indulgence, post Spring Race Meet refreshment, or just about any typical sunny pre-Summer afternoon in any corner of Australia.

And for Spice Temple Sydney and Melbourne:

A versatile, cleansing Rum Punch, inspired by Spice Temple’s cuisine, designed for Spring refreshment, and to cool the palate, either pre or post dinner, or even between dishes.

Well, after many hours behind the bar, our talented mixologists have come up with the following cocktails – all of which are available in their respective bars RIGHT NOW!

Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney

 Created by Josh Cochran – the “El Alacran”: Appleton VX, Marie Brizzard Apry, Orgeat, lemon and orange juice, and pineapple soda with cubed ice in a highball.

Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne

 

Created by Ben Hines - the “Blood Orange Zombie”  – Following that age old recipe ”one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong and four of weak”: Appleton VX, Flor de Cana, Ron Zacapa, lemon, lime, and blood orange… shaken over ice, topped with a scoop of blood orange sorbet.

Rockpool Bar & Grill Perth

 

Created by David Nguyen-Luu – the “Rockpool Society Punch” - Based on the “Charleton St. Society Punch” from Charles H. Baker: Appleton VX, Hennessy VSOP cognac, Silver Needle white tea, fresh watermelon, pineapple juice and topped up with sparkling wine…

The Waiting Room

Created by Mitchel Bidner: Appleton VX, St Germaine, lemon, orange, grapefruit, sparkling wine and mint to garnish.

Spice Temple Sydney

Created by Ruaridh MacDonald and Adam Fitzgerald – the “South Eastern Seas” - a Rum Punch-style drink, dry and fruity with the seasonal blood orange: Appleton VX, Grand Manier, Pedro Ximenez Sherry, blood orange juice and bitters, Thai basil and cava, served with ice in a Riedel ‘O’ Series Riesling glass.

Spice Temple Melbourne

Created by Kim Scott and Imogen Clements – the “Scorpio”: Appleton VX, Luxardo Maraschino, Kaffir lime, vanilla, lime juice and watermelon soda, strained over ice into a Riedel ‘O’ Series Cab Merlot glass.

Neil is currently traversing the country sampling the competition entries (as I said before, it’s a hard job but I guess someone has to do it). So what are you waiting for? Get in there, sample their cocktails and tell us what you think!

A big congratulations to our Sydney restaraunts following the SMH Good Food Awards last night at the Entertainment Quarter in Sydney. The who’s who of the restaurant industry turned out for probably the most highly anticipated night of the year, with the much prized toques up for grabs.

   

Rockpool Sydney upheld its two hat status with a 17/20, along with Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney maintaining its two hats with 16/20. The big achiever was Spice Temple Sydney being awarded its second hat and a score of 16/20.

Rockpool Sydney

“The city doesn’t have many genuine dining institutions, but after 22 years at the forefront of Sydney gastronomy, Rockpool is certainly up there…”

Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney

“Neil Perry is the consummate meat master, from his crowd-pleasing wagyu burger in the bar to the mighty 31-day, dry-aged, full-blood wagyu fillet in the restaurant proper. But there’s more to RB&G than beef.”

Spice Temple Sydney

“Underneath his wagyu-laden Rockpool Bar & Grill, Neil Perry has created a modern sultry space where the heady flavours of China’s western and northern provinces are combined with the very finest produce. There’s craft, variety and refinement even.”

Congratulations also go to all the restaurants who walked away with a chef’s hat (or two, or three) and of course all of the individual award winners, especially Peter Gilmore from Quay, a well deserved winner of the Chef of The Year.

We’re looking forward to the Perth awards in a few weeks time!

This is a beautiful salad that has been on the menu at Spice Temple Sydney since it opened. As always, it relies heavily on the quality of your ingedients so make sure you buy the freshest prawns and vegetables. It makes a great starter to a shared meal…

Tingling Prawns

Serves 2 to 4 as part of a shared banquet

Ingredients
300g cooked king prawns, peeled
3 long green chillies, seeds removed and finely diced
1/4 small knob ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 bunch coriander, leaves picked and stems chopped roughly
Roasted and ground Sichuan pepper
Pinch sea salt
2t caster sugar
20ml rice wine vinegar
90ml spring onion oil (see below)
3 long green shallots, cut into 5cm batons

Spring Onion Oil
200ml vegetable oil
Small handful of long green onion tops, roughly chopped

Method
To make the spring onion oil, combine the vegetable oil and long green shallot tops in a pot and place onto the stove. Heat slowly until the oil reaches 80°C, using a meat thermometer to test. Remove from the heat and blend the oil in a blender until well combined. Strain through muslin or a fine strainer. Shallot oil will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Cut the prawns lengthways in half and set aside in a bowl.

In a mortar, pound the green chilli, ginger, coriander stems, a pinch of Sichuan pepper, sea salt and sugar to a paste with a pestle. Add the vinegar and shallot oil to form a dressing.

Add the coriander leaves and shallot stems to the prawns and pour over the dressing. Mix well, transfer to a plate and sprinkle over another pinch of Sichuan pepper.

Printable Recipe

A week and a half after the City 2 Surf and we’ve recovered enough to be able to write about it! Two Sunday’s ago 32 of us from the Rockpool Group lined up at the corner of William and College Streets, and we’re proud to say that all 32 of us made it to Bondi – alive! Most importantly for all of us, along the way we raised a massive $206,262.00 for the Starlight Children’s Foundation – which will go to help 34 terminally ill children get their wish, and give their families a wonderful memory of their child or sibling that they can hold for the rest of their life, when their loved one is gone. That right there is about as good a cause as we could ever dream of.

So, as we lined up at the start line, the early morning drizzle starting to subside, you could feel a certain sense of competitiveness amongst some of the Rockpool runners. For some of us, there was more to this run than just finishing - there was pride at stake here. (I know what you’re thinking – chefs, competitive? Crazy right?!) And no one in our team has a more competitive streak than our fearless leader, Neil himself. Well, Chef didn’t finish first in our group, but he sure gave it a damn good crack finishing with a respectable 1.32.34 – not bad for someone who’s battled the super flu and spent more time flying across the country in the last 2 months than most of us do in a lifetime. The line honours went to Rockpool Sydney Chef Matt Stevenson, with a lightning quick 55.36, closely followed by fellow Rockpool Sydney Chef James Parry with a 57.28. Obviously these guys aren’t getting worked hard enough…

At the finish line we were all treated to the luxury of the Starlight Marquee – Iggy’s bread rolls, sausages from Vic’s Meats, Coleslaw from Fratelli Fresh, all washed down with some Lord Nelson Brewery Three Sheets Pale Ale, Ross Hill Wines Rose and water and energy drinks supplied by Vittoria. Of course the beer and wine proved a little more popular than the water – a mistake that I personally regretted later on that afternoon. Seems like beer doesn’t replace your electrolytes like Gatorade after all. Must remember that one for next year…

We all swapped our war stories – which muscles hurt the most, who couldn’t feel their legs anymore, how each of us fared on heartbreak hill. Little did we know that the real pain would be felt the next day – you have never heard more people whinging and whining in one place than the Rockpool office last Monday. It just seemed like there were so many more stairs to climb than normal…

What many people probably don’t appreciate is how great the crowds are that line the run. Whether they’re cheering you on as you run into the Kings Cross tunnel, handing out drinks at the many drink stations along the race, offering you home-made biscuits up on Military Rd, or smurfing it up at Rose Bay, they make the run so much more special.

So we have to give big thanks to Vittoria, Vic’s Meats, Iggy’s Bread, Fratelli Fresh, The Lord Nelson Brewery, Ross Hill Wines, New Balance for our shoes and shirts, Edgewear for printing them for us, and Skins for making us look like pros even if we didn’t necessarily run like them. Even bigger thanks to the staff who helped assemble the marquee at 5am Sunday morning and break it down at the end. And a huge thanks to Neil’s PA, Sarah Swan, for the monumental task of organising 32 runners from across the group, getting us registered, suited up, at the start line together and organising every last detail at our marquee… no small feat.

But most of all we reserve our biggest and warmest thank you to everyone who donated to Starlight – you have made the lives of some seriously ill kids and their families a little bit brighter. And for that we’re all winners.

These are some of our favourite shots from the marquee, some of us looking a bit worse for wear than others!! Bring on C2S 2012!

JP and Neil – a well deserved drink for the big guy

Dani and B&G Restaurant Manager Tom Sykes

Rockpool Sydney Head Chef Phil Wood, Neil and the holder of a yet-to-be-named perpetual trophy, Matt Stevenson

Rockpool Accounts/Payroll Manager Sue Cunningham with Neil’s PA Sarah Swan

B&G General Manager Jeremy Courmadias, Spice Temple Head Chef Andy Evans and myself

Some of the young tykes – Karoline Binkhorst and Damian Flanagan, B&G pastry, Mat Shannon, Spice Temple, and Joe Cheika, barman B&G.

Quite possibly the best sourdough bread rolls by Iggy’s Bread of the World in Bronte

Tom manning the Webber Q with B&G Sous Chef Ben Sitton providing what looks like both technical and emotional support

Sharing the war stories.. I’m willing to bet that this conversation involved heartbreak hill…

Ive been playing in the kicthen at Spice Temple Sydney all morning with Andy and Ben. Ben flew up from Melbourne for a few days and the three of us have been eating our way around Sydney’s fantastic Chinese restaurants for inspiration – tough gig!

Stir fried duck livers with assorted mushrooms

Stir fried snake beans with pork and XO

Twice cooked pork with leek and Sichuan black bean

Scrambled eggs with garlic chives

Quail marinated in fermented red bean curd and five spice powder

Tofu, preserved egg and charred jalapeno salad

Potato, coriander and carrot salad

MELBOURNE

  

To celebrate Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rabbit, Spice Temple Melbourne will be presenting a special banquet menu from Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 February.

Head Chef, Ben Pollard has created a special menu of Spice Temple signature dishes, incorporating ingredients that promote health, wealth and fertility during New Year festivities. 

Cabbage and radish pickle

Sichuan pickled cucumber and shiitake mushrooms 

Steamed crab dumplings

Preserved egg with wood fire grilled peppers 

Shredded rabbit and Sichuan black bean salad 

Clams with olive paste

Whole steamed snapper with ginger and shallot 

Pork belly with fresh bamboo shoots and garlic stems 

Wagyu beef steam boat with wild bamboo pith, bamboo shoots, abalone mushroom, noodles and garlic flowers in superior stock 

Mango pudding with condensed milk Chantilly

Cherry jellie and peanut chocolate bar

 The menu is priced at $130 per person and will be available at both lunch and dinner from Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 February.

 For bookings and further information call 03 8679 1888 or visit www.rockpool.com.

 SYDNEY

   

Up the hill in Sydney, we have our own Chinese New Year banquet menu, courtesy of chef Andy Evans. Make your booking quickly as this one is only running until Friday night and includes a very special “Fortune cocktail” ~ aperol, conitreau, peach and cava. 

Pickled cabbage & radish

Sichuan pickled cucumber & shitake mushroom 

White cut chicken with spring onion oil 

Strange flavour sesame noodles 

Lamb & fennel dumplings 

Tea eggs with salted olive and black bean paste 

Hot & fragrant prawns

Stir fried spanner crab with garlic & baby leeks 

Hot & numbing pork 

Beef braised ‘Hakka style ‘with Chinese five spice & fermented red bean curd 

Steamed abalone mushroom with organic bamboo shoots & pith 

Steamed jasmine rice 

Orange chiffon jelly cake each

Almond pudding with rose granita to share

 $110 per person. Bookings on 02 8078 1888 or visit www.rockpool.com 

And if just a quick bite to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit is more your style, then pop in to either of our Spice Temples, pull up a seat at the bar, order a plate of dumplings and celebrate with our signature cocktail menu, which draws on the 12 years of the Chinese zodiac.

 “The Rabbit” is the perfect stand alone drink or aperitif to any meal ~ crisp green apples with jasmine tea soda, cucumber and Hendrick’s gin.

 We look forward to seeing you!