Christmas Every Day
Why, you may ask, is a café called Noel? The question was in the back of my mind as I entered this light, airy café .The sweet, shy chef is Noella and her birthday is on December 24th and her husband's, birthday is December 25th. Thus he suggests - you can have Christmas every day at his café!
I would certainly agree. Apart from being treated like royalty, my whole experience at Café Noel was angelic! I especially loved the handmade coffee bean mosaic of the Mona Lisa.
Once seated, we were served tall glasses of delicious mocktails containing fresh juices. The 'Spirulina', a lovely dark green beverage, combined with honeydew melon had a clean, sweet taste. The 'Kiwi Juice' was a lighter, pretty green served with a bright red strawberry. It had a creamy texture with the crunch of seeds.
Our entree was a generous serve of 'Katsu Prawns', huge tiger prawns in a crunchy, but not oily, coconut batter. The flesh was fresh and firm and the Katsu sauce was creamy with red onion, which my friend said 'snapped' in his mouth.
We shared three mains, the first being 'Noel Beef'. I could smell the pungent sauce and was delighted by the rice served in the shape of a Sakura flower (the Japanese cherry blossom). The beef was thinly sliced and tender and the sauce was sweet with a hint of chilli. The mushrooms, sliced garlic and snow peas were bursting with flavour. There was a separate salad - very fresh and crunchy. The gorgeous green balsamic chutney was tangy and cut through the creamy, smooth whole egg mayonnaise, which was exactly like I remember having in Japan.
The 'Spicy Prawns' were visually stunning, a beautiful golden colour, piled high with pineapple, green and red chillies and carrot, and topped with a shiny orange sauce. The tasty Karage-style prawns had a thin batter and were complimented by the hot, sweet sauce - a fusion of Japanese and Korean. Delightful.
The 'Noel Chicken' was served in large cuts across the flesh, Korean style. The pieces were beautifully browned, shiny and moist, served with delectable mushrooms, garlic and snow peas. The Noel sauce is a specialty, cooked for eight hours with many select herbs and spices. One of the ingredients of this secret family recipe is seaweed. It had a smoky taste, yet rich and rounded. Altogether a superb dish, served with the sakura rice and salad.
We ended our meal with a 'Green Tea Cappuccino' which is a macha green tea shot combined with an espresso shot and 'silky stretched milk'. It had a unique taste which is hard to describe - green tea flavour with a hint of coffee. I enjoyed it.
Café Noel serves 'Luwak Coffee' which was described in a previous Menu article. It is made from the droppings of the luwak which is a native animal of South East Asia. A much-coveted blend of coffee – certainly nowhere near as bad as you imagine!
Korean/Japanese fusion is the style of this remarkable café. The owners and their daughter believe that Korean food is under-appreciated in Australia, one reason being that the ingredients are not the same here. They emphasise that theirs is not the typical Korean barbecue restaurant that is common here. I would definitely agree.
The flavours are wonderful and the food so healthy. Café Noel is suitable for everyone, whether for a business lunch, romantic dinner, family meal or take-away. There are freshly rolled sushi daily and the mocktails can be taken away as is everything on the menu.
Café Noel is open daily from 10am until late and is situated in Applecross. Their Shelley Café will be opening soon.
By Frances Myshell
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