French food babies

French food - mmmmmm - probably my favourite food nation of all - all that lush cream, butter, fois gras, all the stuff you shouldn't be eating. I've even very little of it since I arrived in Sydney, and had my truly French meal at Bistro Moncur in the Woollahra Hotel, and realised my body has had a long absence of rich food.

Bistro Moncur is famous for two things: their French onion soup souffle, and their sirloin steak with Cafe de Paris sauce. So naturally I had both.

The French onion soup souffle, first of all, is an interesting idea, but is very very ugly. I did take some pictures of it, but I didn't want to de-beautify my lovely blog. Imagine a spotted dick with custard, but with the same browny-beige tinge throughout the whole dish. Not attractive.

However, once you put it in your mouth, you see what all the fuss is about - it carries all the deep flavours of a French onion soup, the creaminess of the Gruyere, with better mouth-feel because of the light souffle. Extremely extremely rich, I couldn't finish it (shock!)

Then onto the sirloin with Cafe de Paris - prettier this one:

Steak cooked to perfection, great frites on the side. But, oh my god, the sauce is unnecessarily rich. I normally have steak with Bernaise, which is rich enough in itself, but having the vinegar in the Bernaise helps to cut through all the fat on the plate - with a Cafe de Paris sauce, you don't have that balance. So full, and yet I can usually demolish a chateaubriand quite easily :p

The side order of broccoli, incidentally, was also swimming in butter (see the sea of yellow underneath that apparently green broccoli healthiness!):

I'm a girl with a big appetite, but god did I have a serious food baby after this meal. The two glasses of wine at the bar whilst we were waiting (yes, another restaurant that doesn't take reservations) probably didn't help.