'Bully's

'Bully's restaurant

We waited with anticipation to try out this long established restaurant in the centre of Cardiff City!

A restaurant serving traditional French dishes cooked from Welsh ingredients. A very interesting combination whetting one's appetite.

Entering the restaurant, we were greeted by very friendly members of staff who showed a nice smile and extended a very warm welcome.

As we were seated at our table, I noticed that the restaurant's deco has a very rustic ambiance with beautiful chandelliers hanging on the ceiling, collectibles on the walls - a very personal touch by the owner.

Pre-starter

To start our evening meal, we were treated to a pre-starter of concentrated tomato soup and homemade bun. The homemade soup was really tasty with a very well balanced sweet and sour taste from the tomatoes, so concentrate that it was like drinking the essence of the tomatoes. The homemade bun had a very thin and crispy crust but yet surprisingly soft centred with some linseed. A very appropriate pre-starter to open up one's appetite for the next course.

Home cured citrus salmon, petite salad, flat Italian parsley oil

Thai crab-cakes with homemade chilli sauce

The starters were very beautifully presented. The cured citrus lemon has a smoky taste to it and very well complimented with a citrusy flavour. A very light start leaving one to anticipate the next course.

The Thai crab-cakes have a very Asian feel and taste to it. Well seasoned and well complimented with homemade chilli sauce to bring out the seafood flavours of the crabcakes. A well executed dish!

Woodlands Pork Cutlets

Medallions of Welsh Black Beef Fillet

The Woodlands pork cutlet in white wine sauce was well cooked. The only let down was that after the 2nd or 3rd cutlet, we began to taste the bitterness of the sauce coming from a vegetable lying in the middle of the dish that we could not identify. Nonetheless, another friend thought that it was not that bitter but in fact the vegetable brought a kind of fragrance to the sauce. Therefore, whether this is a great dish or not, is an acquired taste and is subject to one's preference of tastes in food.

Next up is the medallions of Welsh black beef fillet, French beans, dauphoinise potato, carrot tempura, Brazilian pink peppercorn and thyme sauce. This restaurant is also famous for its Welsh black beef fillet dish. I ordered the beef fillet to be medium to well-done, therefore not as juicy as it could have been but still very tasty from the lovely peppercorn and thyme sauce. The carrot tempura was nicely excuted with a very crispy crust, up to the standard of an authentic Japanese tempura. The dauphoinise potato also had a very nice touch of cripsy cheese topping complimenting the cheesy soft layers of potatoes.

Overall, a very nice dining experience with nice food and superb service though a bit pricey.




PS: The entire restaurant had very soft lightings and almost dark, therefore even using a 1600 ISO with very slow shutter speed, I still could not get a sharp photo for each of the dishes. 

Smell-Look-Taste

First comes the smell......
Then you look and see the masterpiece......
Finally you get to savour the dish!

A dish lacking any one of the elements cannot be considered a great dish.

Therefore, we aim to have all three elements in our dishes while cooking our dinners. It is always a blessing to enjoy good food after a hard day's work!

绿花椰烩鸡球 - Braised chicken balls with broccoli

This dish smells absolutely fantastic, so good that it makes you want to go have a peek to see what's cooking.

Then you see a very pretty dish with lots of chicken balls nicely piled up on a bed of broccoli inviting you to have a taste.

The braised chicken balls tastes absolutely amazing and full of flavours.

绿花椰烩鸡球  by AT

Broccoli pieces was boiled and dried then arranged in a circle on a serving plate.

The chicken was cut into pieces then marinated with soya sauce, one beaten egg, cornflour and white pepper. Oil was heated in a wok then the chicken pieces was added and stir-fried for about 10 seconds then removed from wok. Then oyster sauce was heated in the wok until fragrant then garlic, chicken and some water was added and stir-fried till the sauce is dried. The chicken pieces soaked up all the flavours from the garlic and various sauces.

The chicken pieces oozes sweetness from the oyster sauce and soya sauce bringing some saltiness, wrapped in the fragrance of fried garlic - absolutely amazing!

Finally, the chicken pieces were served on top of the broccoli bed.

蒜泥蝦 - Garlic Prawns on glass vermicelli

Another dish that smells good, looks good and tastes good. On first impression, I thought the dish looked like eggs on a bird's nest and it smells wonderful!

蒜泥蝦 by AT

Glass vermicelli was soaked until soft then soya sauce was added and mixed well into the vermicelli on a plate.

The heads of the prawns were removed and then slice along the back of the prawns so that they will open up beautifully once cooked. The prawns were then arranged nicely on top of the vermicelli.

Oyster sauce, sesame oil, chinese wine and sugar were mixed well then poured onto the prawns then steam the dish for 5 minutes until the prawns are cooked.

Finally, heated oil was poured on the prawns to bring out the fragrance and to enhance the taste of the prawns. Then diced spring onion was used to garnish the dish and it's ready to be served!

The fragrance of chinese wine and sesame oil, the sweet and salty taste soya sauce brought a lot of flavours to this dish and enhances the taste of the prawns and glass vermicelli. Yummy!



PS.
2 Dishes done and 48 to go!

I am very blessed to have a housemate who can cook good food and is getting better and better!

Spicy Seabream 紅燒魚

This is no ordinary fried seabream. This is SPICY seabream!

Contrary to popular believe that a Malaysian can take spicy food, I am one Malaysian who cannot take very spicy food!

But I must say this is one spicy dish that I enjoy - Spicy Fried Seabream.

A well executed dish with very well balanced flavours. 

The seabream was fried to perfection, giving a crisp fish skin and fish meat cook just nicely. 

The slices of chillies and ginger creates 2 different sensation of spiciness that hits your mouth briefly but does not linger to give an after-taste (which means I can actually eat this spicy dish!). The slices of spring onions give a sweet onion-like taste and kind of 'softens' the spiciness of the dish. 

A delicious dish that goes really well with rice!

紅燒魚 by AT