Pepper. Salt. Sugar. Spice.

On writing...

2011-08-28T16:38:00.002+10:00

I once read somewhere that the key to blogging is perseverance. I have failed dismally at that - letting myself return to this page only at whim, when the words fall into place, and when I am in the right mood. I have contemplated stopping many a time, but every now and then, I get a lovely surprise - a message from a reader telling me how much they love the blog, or stumbling across it on the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival's website. When I started this, I never thought it would get very far, and for me, it's still a humble pastime that I dabble with every now and then, but I must admit that it's these kind words and little nudges that give me a twinge of happiness, and spur me to come back time after time.

At the start of this year, I did question my return to blogging (or writing as I prefer to call it). It's not the cheapest hobby (though entirely pleasurable), and I must admit that I relished going out to dine without whipping out an SLR and trying to capture it all on film. There's a certain level of intrusiveness with it, and I tired of living the beauty of the dish from behind the lens of the camera, and of losing the wonderment and joy of immersing myself in the sensory experience of dining. I think there's a certain mystique of not knowing what the dish will look like, or what will be in it, and sometimes blogging takes away all of that, creating preset notions and ideas of what it should be.

Since my last post, I've gone back to Rockpool and had a wonderfully romantic meal with H (the food there is still top-notch even though it's been two years since our last visit), visited a delightful Japanese restaurant called Komeyui in Port Melbourne, which serves sublime Japanese dishes (the quail is a must, as is the wagyu steak), and had a gorgeous birthday lunch with my sister at Donovans, which still serves up excellent seafood and a bloody good spicy clam juice Bloody Mary.

I've sat in a car watching the sun set on the stunning D'Entrecasteaux river, eating large, plump and juicy Bruny Island oysters out of a box, shucked and ripe from the sea, and wandered through the small but excellent Sunday farmers market in Hobart, where we tasted the freshest sea urchin sushi from Masako's in Geeveston, and had more oysters, this time done Kilpatrick.We met Matthew Evans, flogging his Rare Food range incognito in a beanie, and left with the best free range ham and bacon we've ever had, along with too much Bruny Island Cheese. I guess these memories are more vivid since we actually lived them, and that's what I love about it.

And so, from here, I'm not quite sure how things will be. I've reviewed the existing posts on this blog and edited the list - and may eventually decide to go the Australian Gourmet Traveller path of only writing about the places that really strike me. Potentially, this will be more recipe focused - given H's passion for cooking and recipe-tweaking. We'd also love to cook more after a particularly busy time in our lives - him, the fine stuff, and me, down another one of my new ~~constantly rehashed~~ fads of healthy eating (I chose Gwyneth Paltrow's Notes from my Kitchen Table over Nigella's Kitchen today because the other downside of reviewing is the expanding waistline and extravagant amount of butter, salt and cream!)

I think that in this busy, hectic whirlwind of a world, it is good to have a passion, a focus, a hobby. And food will always remain a central part of our lives, because it is what we love, what we crave, and what we seek. And so, in some way or form, we will continue down this path - however infrequent our posts may be. I hope you stay tuned for the next phase in our journey.

Sandwich Season

2011-05-28T22:34:00.003+10:00

H recently bought Saveur's sandwich issue - a gorgeously produced tome celebrating the humble sandwich and the simple (think grilled cheese) and extraordinary status it has been elevated to. One of the recipes I love is the Fried Calamari Sandwich, a wonderful mix of crisp calamari rings and slightly spicy chilli mayo. H dusted the calamari with semolina instead of cornmeal, added carrot batons and gave the cilantro, carrots and cucumber a banh mi style treatment, creating a lovely east-meets-west sandwich with a whole lot of punch. Perfect for a simple weeknight meal when it's cold.

I love that Saveur has been generous enough to share their recipes online, so if you're craving a sandwich that's perhaps a bit more gutsy or exotic than this one, then head to their website here. If you want the full, glossy, gorgeously styled magazine experience though, get a subscription for Saveur through Zinio. It's cheaper then buying the magazine here, and because it's digital-only, you don't have to worry about all those trees cut down for magazine paper.

International Incident Party - Gumbo

2011-05-15T10:56:00.006+10:00

I love seafood. I've had them battered with butter and Nestum and deep fried till crisp and crunchy, or in the form of drunken lobsters, brewed in a deliciously briny mix of chicken stock, plenty of Chinese rice wine and goji berries. Seafood stews are hard to find in Asia, and it wasn't till I came here that I had my first taste of crustacean soups - saffron-y bouillabaisse with a dash of orzo and smoky seafood (Neil Perry's), hearty paellas with generous chunks of seafood (Movida) and dressed up pasta marinara coated in a lovely rich crustacean dressing (Gill's Diner).

For this International Incident Party, H created a gorgeous syrupy seafood bisque packed with plenty of crustacean flavour. He poured this over a white bean puree, black pudding disc, ribbons of calamari and juicy prawns, and topped it off with some fillets of red mullet and crisp baguette slices - a perfect winter dish! Here is the recipe:

Seafood Creole Gumbo
400g red mullet, cleaned
1kg prawn shells
25ml vegetable oil
75g butter
1 carrot, half an onion and 1 celery stick, chopped
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon tomato paste
50ml white wine
25ml Bourbon
2 sprigs thyme
1.5 litres water
40ml cream
2 tsp smoked paprika
pinch saffron
salt and pepper
an additional 15ml vegetable oil
an additional 25g butter
a few drops of fresh lemon juice
Brown Roux:
30g flour
30g butter
White Bean Puree:
400g can white beans
100g desiree potato
100g butter
Seasoning
To Serve:
1 squid, cleaned, cut into strips
200g black pudding
200g prawn meat
Crusty bread
Olive oil

Serves 4

Fillet red mullet keeping skeletons aside for soup. There should be 3 fillets per person.

Heat the vegetable oil in a pressure cooker, add the prawn shells and red mullet skeletons and saute until lightly caramelised. Add 25g of the butter, the chopped vegetables, paprika and garlic and saute for another 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste, stir well and cook for 2 minutes. Then, pour in the white wine, stirring well, before adding the Bourbon (reserve a splash to finish the bisque) and the thyme.

Add the water, bring up to pressure and cook for 40 minutes, then strain the soup through a sieve, pushing the ingredients forcefully with a wooden spoon to extract as much of the juice and pulp as possible. Pass the soup through a finer sieve, add saffron and then set aside.

Meanwhile, boil a potato until soft and mash finely with the drained can of white beans. Put mixture into a saucepan and heat then season and slowly add butter, mixing thoroughly with each addition. Set aside and keep warm.

In a clean saucepan big enough to hold the soup, melt butter over high heat. Add the flour and cook stirring constantly until flour is brown. Immediately add a little of the soup and stir until thickened. Continue adding soup in this fashion until all the soup has been added and set aside.

Heat oil in a saucepan to a high heat then add black pudding and red mullet fillets. When cooked, remove and keep warm. Add butter to the saucepan and cook prawns until done and set aside. Add squid and quickly saute until curled.

Pipe puree into the bowls (forming the base), then place a piece of black pudding on top. Arrange the mullet on top of the black pudding and surround with the prawns and squid. Pour the bisque into the bowls and serve with crusty bread drizzled with olive oil.

This month's International Incident Party was organised by the lovely Penny from Jeroxie.

The Waiting Room

2011-04-22T18:43:00.002+10:00

I love royal weddings. And I know I'm not the only person swept up in the upcoming nuptials of HRH Prince William and Ms Catherine Middleton. From London to Australia, luxury hotels are flaunting their royal wedding afternoon teas, the little German bakery that creates the torte cakes for the royal family have had to call in more bakers to keep up with the demand, and people are throwing Royal Wedding parties as part of the celebrations.

While the menu here isn't exactly British or royal themed, The Waiting Room is still a great place for wedding talk and some girly catch-up. It's posh, cosy and intimate with silvery mirrored walls, plush leather seats, a perpetual purple hue, and a golden glow from the dim lights. The candles are encased in silver and glass holders, the menus are wrapped in red leather and there's an excerpt from 'The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book - 1935' about Gentlemen and more refined times.

I don't profess to be a cocktail expert, but the ones here are pretty damn good. For starters, I had the Floradora #2, a delightfully blush-hued concoction of house-made raspberry syrup and a pretty strong house Ginger Beer, Cuban-style white rum and the juice of some freshly squeezed lime. I loved it.

Tempted into sin, I ordered another - the buttered toast & honey margarita with a burnt toast Reposado Tequila, lime, honey & agave. This was gorgeous with a more complex taste than the fruitier, flirtatious Floradora #2. There was the sweetness from the honey & agave (which I can't help but associate with Gwyneth Paltrow), and the slightest hint of notes of burnt toast. I could easily have continued down the cocktail list (they are all $19 each) if I wasn't starting to feel just the slightest bit woozy.

Cocktails aren't complete without some nibbles and our eyes were drawn to the mixed plate of four Montaditos (Little Open Sandwiches) for $12. The chef's choice of the day - Avruga caviar with boiled egg, braised tuna & mayonnaise, chorizo and serrano ham. These were bite-sized baguettes of pleasure. The ingredients were top-notch, and the flavours clean, simple and thoroughly enjoyable.

The mixed board of Pinchos (Four skewers) are also a must-try ($10.50) and give a taste of the different pincho options. Cubes of tuna & white anchovy, tuna & prawn and a marinated red pepper & pickled chilli are topped with pickled olives, while sheets of Serrano ham sit on top of a generous hunk of cheese and a clove of pickled garlic. These were also beautifully executed, the exceptional quality of the ingredients and uncomplicated flavour combinations shining through, though they do have a tendency to drip with oil (grab that napkin)!

The Waiting Room's a great place to drop by if you're in the area and aching for a good drink. I'd love to try the Empanadas next, and perhaps a croquette or two. If it's dinner I'm after though, then I'd probably head to Rockpool Grill, and Spice Temple does some fabulous desserts, not to mention cocktails which you can match to your Chinese astrological sign. With Neil Perry's empire firmly situated in this wing of Crown, it's all up to what tickles your fancy.

The Waiting Room
Crown Complex, 8 Whiteman Street, Southbank VIC
03 8679 1800

A Japanese Tea Ceremony

2011-04-10T17:39:00.010+10:00

H & I were supposed to be heading to Japan this month. It is a place that has always held a certain fascination for me. I remember watching Memoirs of a Geisha and imagining Kyoto to be just like that. Narrow lane ways, exquisite traditional Japanese architecture - a place preserved and untouched by time and the ravages of modern society. I was therefore disappointed to find, while watching the making of the movie, that save for some little pockets, Kyoto wasn't the vision of my dreams. Still, it held a glimpse into a rich and elegant culture and history, and we made plans to spend a night at a traditional ryokan and experience the region's famed kaiseki.

It was a shattering moment when the earthquake and tsunami struck and the country was subsequently grappled by the still unfolding nuclear catastrophe. I watched the live coverage of the disaster anxiously, and when the Australian media networks started easing off on news, turned to the international news networks to keep abreast of events in the country. I held the hope that the Japanese people would be alright, that the next day would bring some good news, and that I would somehow be able to visit. I did in fact receive the most lovely and gracious emails from the ryokan we'd hoped to stay with imploring us to visit. However, given the country's lack of crucial resources, imposing anything further seemed selfish. I still hope for the best for the country.

There is a slice of Japan to be found in Melbourne though, at Kimono House in the Nicholas Building. I visit every now and then (they have a divine collection of beautiful Japanese fabrics, yukata, kimono and obis), and spotted a flyer on an Autumn Japanese Tea Ceremony. H's uncle studied the art for several years, and kindly gave us a beautiful Japanese tea ceremony set as a present recently. Both of us are deeply fascinated with the art and rituals surrounding it, and booked in a yukata dressing and tea ceremony session.

Held on the sixth floor of the Nicholas Building, the Japanese Tea Ceremony is quite a magical experience. According to Ueda Soko Ryu's sensei Adam Wojcinski (above), the tea ceremony is akin to a form of meditation, a quiet time for the samurai warlords of the past. It is a feeling that permeates you when you take that first step down the darkened corridor towards the room where the ceremony will be held. The faint scent of charred incense fills the air, and there is a hushed silence as we approach. We are greeted at the entrance by the Ueda Soko Ryu crest, and a Japanese calligraphic scroll, as well as a host of tea ceremony staff dressed in exquisite yukatas and kimonos.

With its bamboo blinds filtering in a lovely morning light, it was easy to imagine we were somewhere else. If anything, we wished that they had laid out the tatami mats for a true Japanese experience, but as Adam aptly noted, Westerners aren't used to kneeling on the floor! As with everything Japanese, attention was devoted to the details - a piece of calligraphy depicting the moon and reeds in fitting with autumn, when the moon is at its fullest, and a low table hosting a simple bamboo vase adorned with a single vivid yellow flower.

While the sweet is usually served with the tea, in this instance we were served before the ceremony began, so as not to distract from the ritual. I've never seen or tasted a Japanese sweet that hasn't come out of a packet before, so it was refreshing to be served something so beautiful and exquisite. Azuki (red bean) paste was enclosed in a soft, mochi esque, green tea shell adorned with a simple autumn leaf. This was extraordinarily fresh - nothing like the Japanese desserts I've tasted here.

We weren't allowed to take photos during the ceremony (and sometimes taking photos does detract from the beauty of the experience), so we only have an opening shot just before its commencement. It is a long, formal ritual, where each movement is precise and deliberate. There is the inspection of the whisk, the wiping of the bowl, the folding of the fabrics used to clean the equipment - all executed in a specific and exacting manner. I've been to a Chinese tea ceremony before and it certainly is a far departure from the elegant and formal beauty surrounding the Japanese one.

At the end of the ceremony, we were each served a bowl of tea in earthenware bowls of different makes and sizes. I love Japanese pottery - the little bumps and speckles and imperfections in them, and it was deeply therapeutic inhaling the sensual grassy fragrance of the vivid green tea, and savouring its delicate bitterness. The tea was also unlike anything I'd tasted before. Imported from Japan, it is the preferred variety of the 16th Grandmaster of the Ueda Soko tradition imported from Hiroshima.

After the class, we were given the opportunity to inspect the utencils used. I was particularly fascinated with these Japanese water vessels - the one on the left chosen for its wide mouth (reflecting the fuller moon in autumn) and delicate reed pattern (echoing the reeds in the calligraphy). The gorgeous metal hot water vessel on the right rests on a bed of fine white powder - ground oyster shells from Hiroshima - with a nest in the middle for the fragrant Japanese charcoal.

Tea ceremony details can be found on the Kimono House website and through Ueda Soko Ryu's Facebook page.

Sweet Potato Doughnuts - Kueh Keria

2011-04-07T21:12:00.003+10:00

I have a love affair with sweet potatoes. I adore them as thin ribbons, fried and dusted with salt as crisps at Hooked, and as sweet little cubes in the Malaysian dessert bubur cha cha. We had some boiled sweet potato left over after making this recipe, and H added a disc of butter and a smattering of pepper, transforming the simple tuber into a delicious side dish. It's sweet potato bliss.

Kueh Keria or the Malaysian version of a doughnut, is one of my favourite childhood treats. My mum used to whip this up for tea, hot from the wok, a lovely golden orange-brown and gorgeously soft and springy. I love it's chewy texture and syrupy glaze, and while I'm partial to the sugar-dusted custard or chocolate-filled beignets at Laurent, I find myself craving this one.

Note: While it isn't traditional, H suggested spicing up the sugar syrup with some ginger slices. You can omit this if you don't like ginger.

Kueh Keria - fried sweet potato doughnuts
Makes six petite doughnuts

200g sweet potatoes
30g glutinous rice flour
extra glutinous rice flour for dusting the doughnuts
oil for deep frying

Sugar syrup
70g sugar
25ml water
several slices of ginger

Peel and boil sweet potatoes until soft, then mash till it becomes a paste. Mix the paste with the sifted glutinous rice flour to form a dough. Dust hands with a little glutinous rice flour, then take a small fistful of dough and shape it into a doughnut. Dust the doughnut with a little glutinous rice flour and set aside. Repeat until the dough is finished.

Heat the oil and deep fry the doughnuts till they turn a lovely golden-brown. While frying, mix the sugar, water and ginger in a small saucepan until it forms a clear syrup. Turn off the heat before the syrup caramelizes. Drain the doughnuts on some kitchen paper, then serve hot with the sugar syrup drizzled over.

Atlantic

2011-04-03T11:03:00.000+10:00

I've been in hibernation mode recently. There's nothing more alluring then curling up on the couch after a hot bath and long day at work, wrapped in my throw with the latest issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller or madison and a steaming cup of chai tea. I've had little inclination to write or cook, but I simply couldn't refuse after H took me on a surprise date to Atlantic.

Atlantic is dark, brooding and expansive. Think dark wooden slats, lights draped in black cord, deep timbers and slate grays. We were seated in the section at the very end, which didn't have a view of the open kitchen, but which I liked because it afforded some privacy.

To start, we had a dozen oysters from Coffin Bay, Tea Tree Bay, Cloudy Bay and Wallis Lake ($4.50 each). These arrived freshly shucked, and simply adorned with plump lemon wedges and a dish of shallot vinaigrette. The oysters were sublime - refreshingly briny and wonderfully fresh. They were some of the best we've had, though Cumulus Inc and Rockpool may just have that slight edge in the oyster stakes.

One of the entrees that caught my eye was the Basque style razor clams with bell peppers, capers, chorizo and Fino sherry ($28). I love razor clams - the last time I had them was in Asia where they were served hot from the wok, steamy, salty and liberally drizzled with finely chopped garlic. They are hard to come by, so it was a treat to eat them here. This dish was very well executed, the finely sliced bell peppers imbued with the lovely, foamy sauce and accented with the slight tartness of the capers. It arrived lukewarm, but we still mopped every last bit up unashamedly.

The Atlantic Seafood Cocktail with crayfish, scallop, crab, prawn, mussel, iceberg, rock melon, green apple, basil and soft boiled quail eggs ($32) sounded like a real treat, and so we ordered it. It's a very novel interpretation of a classic dish, with generous portions of the seafood placed atop a rock melon jelly. Unfortunately, it wasn't love at first bite with this. The seafood was bland, without that lovely salty taste of the sea, and seemed an odd match to the slightly sweet rock melon jelly. It was disappointing.

I went with the Black Bream "En Papillote" ($48) for the main, which arrived in a neatly tucked baking paper bag, cut open at the table to unleash its fragrant aromas. Perhaps I've been reading too much French Women Don't Get Fat - I expected this dish to be bland, being a healthy option, but it was surprisingly delicious. The fish was sweet and juicy with a lovely savoury broth, and the batons of leek and fennel, oyster mushrooms and (liberal shavings of) Tasmanian truffle were a sublime touch.

H had a perch on the bone, wood fired and served with a lemon wedge and beurre blanc sauce ($43). This was beautifully done, the flesh falling off the bone, and full of that wonderful, smoky taste that comes with all things wood fired. The sauce was a winner too. We used this as a dip for our side - the thrice cooked potatoes.

The thrice cooked Russet potatoes with rosemary, garlic and sea salt ($12) were wonderfully hot and crisp, but we still think the counterpart at Donovan's is a tough one to beat. We also had the sauteed baby spinach with garlic and chilli ($14), a slightly underwhelming dish. Given the generously sized mains, we struggled with the sides - they probably aren't necessary if you are planning on having dessert!

I always love it when desserts leave me on a deliriously happy note and the pastry chef at Atlantic left me in that blissful sugar state. The raspberry tart with sugared almonds and a raspberry sorbet ($19) was simply divine, the sorbet lusciously smooth and a beautiful shade of blush, and the cream filling light and pillowy soft. The pastry was the perfect accompaniment to the berry and cream creation, the fine shell cracking open with a firm tap, and who can resist the crunch and taste of slivers of sugared almonds?

The rum sandwich with a Valrhona chocolate sorbet ($20) was just as sublime. Laced with plenty of plump, rum-infused raisins and a healthy dose of rum, this felt like an adults-only dessert, though the sandwich concept was plenty of fun. The Valrhona chocolate was delightfully rich as well; we were glad to have the raspberry tart to cut through the rich chocolatey-ness.

Our thoughts on Atlantic? Given the plethora of great casual dining restaurants around Melbourne (Cumulus, Coda) I found the price point of the dishes steep, though H reckons they're on par with other fine dining places. The ingredients here are truly fresh, and treated with great integrity and respect, and we loved the variety of fish and shellfish offered, but we feel that they might still have a little space to grow. Dononvans still wears the crown for some of the best seafood in Melbourne, though Atlantic is worth a visit for the experience.

Atlantic
Crown Entertainment Complex
8 Whiteman Street, Southbank VIC 3006

Loam

2011-02-27T20:09:00.007+11:00

Tucked away down a nondescript dirt lane in Drysdale, Loam doesn't look like much at first sight. But inside, it's a whole different story. Loam is airy and fresh, all blond chairs and tables, white walls, rustic touches and breeziness. And that view of the olive groves and beyond? It's simply stunning.

Loam is fun. There's the menu where dishes don't exist. You simply tell the very knowledgeable front of house stuff what you don't like or want, and they remove those from the selection. The wines don't take themselves too seriously. I had Monsters Monsters Attack (wine labels don't get more fun than that) by Some Young Punks, a gorgeous sweet Riesling. And then there's the dishes - all of them a mystery. It's a little surprise everytime they arrive at the table. I love that kind of dining.

The amuse bouche was a French breakfast radish with a cold smoked miso butter. They were superb - zingy, fresh and with that little bite you find with horseradish. More fun is involved here. You get right in and eat them with your hands (spare the leaves, apparently they are bitter), dunking them in that beautiful smooth miso butter.

The house baked bread is served with Tatura butter twice whipped with burnt noisette. It's smooth and very silky, but also a little subtle (I found myself sneakily dipping the bread into the salt on the side). This doesn't have the luxurious flavour of truffle butter or butter infused with kelp, but it was still enjoyable.

First up, sand crab, nori, tapioca, samphire, wild rice. Being made up of my favourite ingredients, I was secretly hoping it would be spectacular but it fell slightly short. It was a very subtle and very sophisticated dish and I was expecting bold, punchy flavours. A strong bisque for example, or lovely salty hunks of sea crab. Apparently Loam use sea vegetables to add flavour and salt, which may attribute to the delicate flavours. Then again, I am somewhat of a salt addict.

Next was Dutch carrot, brazil nut, pine needle yoghurt, herbs, a beautifully executed dish. The moist, slightly smoky carrots were divine with the lightly-scented pine needle yoghurt, and the pickled rose petals and orange zest lent a lovely citrusy lift.

The blue eye cod and it's bones, garlic, celery, turnip was the best dish of the seven we tried at Loam. I had something similar at The Royal Mail (Mugaritz/Royal Mail dinner) and didn't like the pairing then, but here, it was simply delicious. The plate-licking kind of delicious. I wished there was more of everything. More of that slightly smoky, perfectly pan seared hunk of blue eye, the crisp, roasted nuggets of garlic, the wakame brimming with the salty flavours of the sea, and that lovely, hot, rich roast chicken stock that was drizzled over everything. Roast chicken and fish? Yes please.

Confit chicken wing, oyster, cabbage, milk, sea blight was an interesting dish. A deboned, confit chicken wing was placed alongside a fresh Smithson oyster, carefully covered with a milk skin, and then sprinkled with spices and sea cabbage. Again, the flavours here were a little subtle for me, and I felt the chicken could have been more crisp. The oyster was the highlight of the dish for me.

Our final savoury dish was suckling pig, cantaloupe, goat's yoghurt, fennel seed. I thought this was a beautiful combination - the suckling pig was moist and juicy with a lovely crisp skin, the goat's yoghurt was airy and light and went with the pig beautifully, and the fennel seed lent a touch of the exotic. The cantaloupe however, was a little too watery and sweet. The dish could have done without it.

The cheese course was Cabot clothbound cheddar, rhubarb puree, celery, rye - a sublime combination. Who would have thought that cheese served the non-traditional way could taste so good?

And finally, rice milk, kiwi fruit, white tea topped with a generous mound of crushed almond and sugar. This was simply amazing. Refreshing, light, gorgeous and pretty, it was also very soothing - the sharp tanginess of the kiwi fruit tempered by the sweet, creamy white tea. And who doesn't love crushed almonds and sugar? It was the perfect dessert for a country setting, fresh, simple but still a pleasure to eat.

After lunch, we wandered into the Lighthouse Olive Grove shop, just beneath the restaurant. It is a must-visit, filled with Lighthouse Olive Grove's extra virgin olive oils, gourmet jams, spices and honey, organic hand rolled soaps, French-style tea towels, baskets and napkins, and beautiful ceramics from a local ceramist.

We were hoping to try some of the famous Port Arlington mussels while there, but according to the lovely Astrid (Loam's owner) they are based out of Williamstown on Sundays. So we set off for Queenscliff, stopping by McKenzie Ebbels, one of those food stores that makes you want to purchase almost everything within. Geelong's excellent La Madre organic bread can be found here, alongside T2 and artisan teas, gorgeous Zero Japan teapots, Mount Zero pink salt, fresh and dried pastas, handcrafted cheese from the Calendar Cheese company, Riedel glassware, cook books, Kitchen Aids in every shade and plenty of other treats. It's definitely worth a visit.

Loam Restaurant
650 Andersons Road, Drysdale VIC
03 5251 1101

McKenzie Ebbels Foodstore
Shop 4, 44 Hesse Street, Queenscliff VIC
03 5258 4829

Daylesford - Frangos & Frangos and Lark

2011-02-20T18:24:00.004+11:00

One of our favourite stopovers in Daylesford is Frangos & Frangos, situated right at the start of the shopping strip. If you aren't staying at the Lake House and want a place that does excellent coffee and good food, this is the place to visit. The day we visited was the morning of the producer's market, and it was absolutely freezing. Thankfully Frangos & Frangos was open and we quickly popped in for our caffeine fix and one of these sublime Portuguese egg tarts. Being early, they were whisked fresh from the oven, the pastry lovely and flaky, and the egg a molten, custardy mouthful of sweet goodness.

The highlight of our most recent trip however, was lark, the cutest little homewares and all things kitsch store tucked away on Duke street, just off the main strip. There were so many gorgeous things I wanted to pick up here, it was hard to resist, but they have an online store, in case you don't feel like making the trip!

A chalkboard with the brands they stock

Gorgeous cushions and prints from Belle and Boo

Cupcake wrappers, paper lanterns, the most gorgeous paper plates and everything for a tea party

Craft cakes

Knitted cupcakes

The section that caught my eye - cake stands, beautiful printed tea towels, spice jars and biscuit tins

Gorgeous knitted rattles in the shape of doughnuts and vegetables. There are also lovely vintage looking tin toys

I really had my eye set on these gorgeous cake tins but unfortunately they weren't air-tight! The store is worth a visit though, for a step back in time into old-school gorgeousness.

Frangos & Frangos
82 Vincent Street, Daylesford VIC 3460

Lark
4a Duke Street, Daylesford VIC 3460 (closed weekdays)

Daylesford Producers Market

2011-02-13T23:16:00.029+11:00

H & I set off early this morning for the Daylesford Producers Market at the gorgeous Lake House. It isn't every Sunday that I'm prepared to get out of bed (early) and drive an hour and a half to get to a destination but this was absolutely worth it. The producers were knowledgeable, warm and friendly, the produce was amazing and being in picturesque Daylesford with its wonderfully crisp, fresh air didn't hurt either.

Tables and chairs set amongst the Lake House's lush greenery

We arrived early and took some time to wander the grounds while the producers set up. We came across the Lake House's Kitchen Garden along one of the paths - a pretty nook with a bed of gorgeous flowers.

The one stall we had our eyes set on was the Lake House's outdoor kitchen. The salami pizza and pork, honey & mustard gourmet sausage caught our eye so we had one of each.

There's something blissful about sitting in the sun, listening to the soothing tunes of the Daylesford Band and savouring excellent food - still hot from the grill and woodfire oven. The pizza was a wonderful blend of flavours, a delicious base, crisp cheese, generous slices of olives, and a heap of fresh rocket and proscuitto. The barbecued pork sausages were just as brilliant, the sausages lean, the bun soft and warm, and the sauerkraut perfectly pickled. The Lake House's wonderful tomato relish and pickles were self-serve, and we liberally dressed our roll.

Fresh, vibrant produce was everywhere, from organic garlic to baskets of plums, buckets of fruits, gorgeous rustic crates of herbs, zucchini flowers, cheerful sunflowers and fragrant roses. There were live chickens, ducks, peacocks and quails, local ceramics, cider and wine tasting and cooking demonstrations.

We bought some sublime roasted garlic paste and rainbow chard from Angelica Organic Farm, a delicious pork rillette from Piper Street Food Co (they also make good terrines), La Luna and Veloute from Holy Goat, the Lake House's excellent Crabapple Jelly (they were also selling their lovely cameralized popcorn) and some wagyu from Sher Wagyu (above). But our favourite stall had to be the one below. We couldn't resist getting some truffle and truffle brie from the Secret Truffle Society.

Our little slice of truffle heaven! Being the Lake House, every detail was executed to perfection - there was even a box of Petanque!

I'm not sure when the next Producers Day will be held but it's definitely worth a visit. Entry is $5.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-11T23:05:00.002+11:00

Valentine's Day. It's the day that brings a smile to my face. There's something endearing about men nervously waiting with stalks of roses, of lovey-dovey couples going the extra mile. There isn't much romance these days, and I think everyone could do with an old-fashioned dose once in a while!

H & I have taken to staying in of late. We've spent many Valentine's dates dressing up and going out, but sometimes nothing beats the simple pleasures of enjoying a quiet, candlelit dinner at home. One of my most memorable ones was H buying those cooked prawn cocktail and lobster packs from David Jones Food Hall (this was ages ago, we can't seem to find them now). Add a couple of fresh oysters with a squizz of lemon and grill the lobster with some garlic, herbs and butter till it's sizzling hot and there you have it - a simple Valentine's Day dinner that's fun and delicious. The perfect dessert would be one of domestic goddess Nigella Lawson's sinfully indulgent chocolate numbers. They're infallable, easy to whip up, and leave you with that lingering aroma of sweet baked goods. The plus side - there isn't much washing up!

This year, H baked some gorgeous strawberry macarons from Secrets of Macarons by Jose Marechal, dusted with some freeze-dried strawberries from Sunny Ridge in Mornington Peninsula. He tweaked the basic recipe to include the freeze-dried strawberries, and created a luscious strawberry butter cream ganache. I loved the slight tanginess and sweetness of it, and I must say, Jose does know the secret to a great macaron. These were glossy, had lovely feet and a perfect texture.

H's Strawberry Macarons
Adapted from Secrets of Macarons by Jose Marechal

Shell
90g almond meal
10g freeze fried strawberries
100g icing sugar
40ml water
100g caster sugar
2 x 40g egg white

1. Process then sift the ground almonds, freeze dried strawberries and icing sugar (tant pour tant)
2. In a saucepan, bring the water and caster sugar to the boil. Ensure the temperature of the resulting syrup doesn't go above 115 degrees (without stirring)
3. Gently beat one egg white to soft peaks, then increase the speed of the beater when the temperature of the syrup passes 105 degrees. When the syrup hits 115 degrees, remove the saucepan from the heat and pour the syrup in a thin stream into the beaten egg whites. Continue to beat the meringue for about 10 minutes to cool.
4. Combine the tant pour tant and the remaining unbeaten egg white to create a smooth almond paste.
5. Using a flexible spatula, incorporate about a third of the meringue into the almond paste to loosen the mixture, then add the rest of the meringue, working the batter carefully.
6. Line a baking tray with baking paper, then fill a piping bag with the batter and pipe out small rounds. Tap the bottom of the tray and leave at room temperature for 30 minutes to form a crust (the foot).
7. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.
8. Bake in the oven for 14 minutes (or till cooked).

Buttercream
125g softened butter
70g icing sugar
80g almonds

1. Beat the softened butter vigorously using an electric beater till it has a smooth and creamy texture. Add the icing sugar and beat again.
2. Incorporate the ground almonds and whisk for a few minutes till the cream is aerated and light.

Strawberry Marmalade (make the day before)
90g caster sugar
150g fresh strawberries

1. In a saucepan, dissolve the caster sugar with 50ml water, then bring the syrup to the boil (keep a sugar thermometer in the syrup to track the temperature)
2. Once the syrup reaches 110 degrees, add the strawberries. Combine lightly crushing the strawberries.
3. Cook over medium heat. Once the marmalade reaches 104 - 105 degrees remove from heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Combine the above elements and you have a gorgeous, pink-hued strawberry macaron, perfect for Valentine's Day!

Enjoy and Happy Valentine's!

2011

2011-01-21T13:13:00.000+11:00

It's been a while, more than a month in fact. And my perspectives have changed since then. I took myself off Twitter, stopped writing for a while, and cherished the moments spent savouring the flavours and atmospheres of restaurants without trying to find flaws or criticisms. No SLR, no over analysing, no waiting to take a million pictures of the particular dish from a dozen different angles. Just the simple, pure pleasure of admiring it's beauty, tucking in, and grinning at H across the table. The bliss of returning dining to normalcy after having spent so long dissecting it into little pieces.

I relished these moments. It can be so easy to find fault and criticize. To take a swipe at the ever polished and courteous wait staff, or the cast of chefs dealing with the pressure of feeding a hungry restaurant of diners every dawn till dusk in the (often hot) kitchens. The ones who toil while we twirl celebratory glasses, and who have missed out on birthdays, public holidays, anniversaries and dinners while we celebrate Christmases and Valentines.

And so, coming back in 2011 to continue what I've done has been a harder decision. But just the other day, H enthusiastically went about preparing an entry for Jeroxie's International Incident Hot Dog Party, and I knew that I had to return. (Incidentally, I've just realised we've missed this due to a lack of internet connection at the moment!) I don't cherish the power of defining a restaurant by my subjective tastes and palate, but after searching for a review of a particular restaraunt to no avail, I thought that maybe, just maybe, it would help to have someone share their experiences.

So here's to a happy 2011.

Spice Temple

2010-12-02T20:58:00.004+11:00

I love Neil Perry's Melbourne restaurants. There's the sleek, sophisticated and airy Rockpool Bar and Grill - all dark wood, leather, airy high ceilings, copper and impressive full-length 'threads' that form discreet curtains - and The Waiting Room - glitzy mirrored surfaces and violet lights, pared down with lush, candle-lit interiors. All of them ooze quality, sophistication and class. You won't find anything half-baked here. Even the powder rooms have been given the fullest attention, each surface and fixture befitting the restaurants' decadent fit out.

Spice Temple is no exception. It's an entirely different feel - one of mystique with a little exotic-ness thrown in for good measure. It's alluring, sexy, beckoning. Envision plenty of unfinished wooden screens cleverly separating the dining areas, with a little peek-a-boo effect as a teaser. Pair this with a plush scarlet carpet in a Chinoiserie, golden chrysanthemum esque pattern, dark woods, a permanent tinge from the red-tinted windows, and you get the interior. It's hard to imagine that this dark space was once the romantic, cream and white shell of Bistro Guillaume.

In keeping with the Chinese restaurant theme, one can find a selection of five Chinese teas here, served in gorgeous cast iron teapots and tea cups. The waiters were, perhaps, not that well versed in the Chinese system of refilling the teapots with hot water once it had run out. They seemed a little bemused at our constant requests to have them refilled (the teapots weren't very big). If anything, it is also worth mentioning that the still or sparkling water offered attracts a flat charge of $8 per person. It was a somewhat unexpected find when the bill was delivered to our table with a water charge of $32 for four diners!

The menu is extensive; though it would have been nice to have been told upon confirmation of booking that some dishes require 24-hours notice (that or we should have explored the website more)! Above is the Crisp pork belly and smoked tofu with spicy garlic and ginger dressing, a lovely, refreshing salad with subtle Asian flavours and a nice crunch. This was smoked tofu done well, and I loved the herbaceous taste of the coriander and the crisp little pork belly crumbs. It was a great start.

The northern style lamb and fennel dumplings were a disappointment. The skins were nice and thin, and they were well wrapped, but the filling was on the bland side, in need of a splash of flavour. It would have been beautiful with a dash of soy, but there was none on the table, and the chilli / XO sauce served on the side lacked that heat and complexity that you find in good Chinese restaurants.

But hope lay in the tea smoked duck breast with pickled cabbage and Chinese mustard - a heavenly dish of gorgeous, melt-in-the-mouth, finely-sliced duck pieces, infused with the pure flavours of tea and lovingly dressed with a tart, creamy Chinese mustard. This was such a beautiful marriage of flavours, we couldn't have enough.

The stir fried prawns with salted duck egg and four chillies - brined, dried, fermented and pickled - was a novel delight. We had expected Chinese restaurant style fried prawns coated in a lovely, salted egg dust, but Spice Temple's version is very different. The salted egg sauce was simply delicious and a brilliant accompaniment to steamed rice. And don't let the blend of chillis scare you off. It lended the dish a nice heat, without being overwhelmingly spicy.

A miss was the Shanghai style spanner crab and tofu. Chinese restaurants do this so well, it was a disappointment to find a bland, somewhat watery dish. There were generous amounts of spanner crab amongst the broken up tofu, but the lack of flavour didn't do it any justice.

The final two savoury dishes were the hot, sweet, sour and numbing pork with chilli, sugar, black vinegar and Szechuan peppercorns (top) and the hot and numbing crispy duck. These were relatively similar in taste, the meats dressed with a gorgeous, sticky-sweet dressing and sprinkled with finely powdered Szechuan peppercorns. I especially liked the powdered peppercorn touch; I've numbed my entire tongue so many times at Szechuan restaurants after biting into a whole peppercorn it was nice to still be able to enjoy the flavours of the dish without that mouth-numbing feeling! The pork was especially addictive; it was easy to just keep popping it in. That said, we did wish the kitchen had spaced the two dishes out, as after a while, they began to taste and feel the same.

And then, there was dessert. We shared three, a lovely, refreshing and light rockmelon granita with ginger syrup, a caramel chocolate and peanut parfait and a rose granita with fresh lychees and strawberries and almond milk jelly. These were all superb, and a wonderful end to the lunch. The rockmelon granita was refreshing, with the hint of ginger adding a lovely Asian touch. And I loved the East meets West rose granita - you couldn't find a fancier (or prettier) almond milk jelly in a Chinese restaurant. While not entirely Asian inspired, the caramel chocolate and peanut parfait was a delight. It's on the lighter side, with a lovely, crisp, almost rice-cracker-ish feel.

Spice Temple

Crown, Southbank

11" (Eleven Inch Pizzeria)

2010-11-28T17:29:00.004+11:00

Every second week or so, I have a lazy night. One where I just crave the thought of biting into a thin, crisp layer of bread, spread lavishly with a tomato base and handfuls of oozing cheese, and any manner of toppings - fine coins of salami, hot, bursting cherry tomatoes, or grilled prawns showered with a confetti of green herbs. On these lazy nights, an online order is usually placed with Domino's, the television switched on, and an eye kept on Domino's 'clock', tracking the pizza's progress from cooking to the moment it arrived at our door.

Forgive me Domino's, but I've found a new kid on the block. Artisan pizzeria, 11" popped up in Equitable Place about a month ago, a tiny narrow block of a shop, all blonde wood and clean surfaces, adorned with simple blonde pepper mills and chilli flakes in sleek silver pinch pots. It's still a little quiet for dinner, but I love that I don't have to linger outside the door of +39, soaking in the scents of pizzas being cooked in a wood fired oven while hoping that someone will just finish up.

Given the small space, 11" doesn't have a fancy wood fired oven, but the compact little machine it has does the job. The (house-made) crust is nicely chewy but still thin and crisp, and the ingredients are first-class. H reckons he likes +39 just that bit more (especially +39's chilli oil), but 11" isn't far behind either.

We've been there several times and tried a fair bit off their menu, but the specials are always worth going for. This one was a variation of the Patata, potato slices, balsamic shallots, gorgonzola, rosemary and Fior di Latte paired with thin sheets of proscuitto. The result was a winner, and I've been tempted by the Patata ever since. There's just something magical about those warm, firm discs of potato.

The Salsiccia - Italian sausage (the rustic, chunky kind), roasted tomatoes, balsamic shallots, Fior di Latte and Provolone - was excellent as well, though perhaps not as luscious as the Patata. We both felt it was lacking a little something, and liberally scattered chilli flakes over the quarters to give it a spicy touch. Perhaps it's because we are both chilli lovers; +39's chilli oil would have been perfect drizzled over the top.

We also loved the Gambero - Fior di Latte, tiger prawns, garlic, parsley, cracked pepper and fresh chilli, though we don't have a picture as we didn't want to be the ones known for lugging out the camera each time we went to the shop. This was simply delicious. The tiger prawns were succulent - their natural juices blending beautifully with the garlic and parsley dressing - and that fresh chilli? The perfect finishing touch. I've heard that Tazio does a mean prawn pizza as well, so I'll have to try that out and see which one takes my fancy more.

So show 11" inch some love. We could all do with good pizza on those nights where we feel like doing nothing at all.

Eleven Inch Pizzeria
Equitable Place, 353-359 Little Collins Street
Melbourne

Guhng

2010-11-21T22:13:00.003+11:00

When I was at university, I used to frequent an amazing Korean restaurant on Little La Trobe Street called Kimchi House. It was a tiny little place, panelled in wood and perpetually smoky, run by a Korean family that both cooked and served. Kimchi House was a homely, no frills restaurant, the kind I imagined tucked away in some little alleyway in a neighbourhood in Korea. But the food was good and reasonable, and we all loved the charm of sitting cross-legged on cushions on the floor and enjoying a hearty, fun dinner. Then a sign appeared one day informing customers that it was closed for renovations. We went back time and time again but that sign never went down, and Kimchi House never re-opened.

Since then, many Korean restaurants have popped up in the city, one of my favourites being Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ on Little Bourke Street and Hallah on Victoria Street. Then H & C told me about Guhng, which they'd spotted on one of their frequent forays down Melbourne's laneways. Situated in one of the city's gorgeous historic sandstone warehouses, Guhng occupies four stories, beautifully fitted out in a contemporary style with traditional Korean touches. We decided to sit in the cosy basement, which was more private and had a view of the open kitchen.

I love good sides and the ones served here are no exception. We had an interesting pickled onion, chilli cucumbers, a Waldorf-salad style pasta and the quintessential kimchi, which was good, but not quite as fiery as some that I've tasted. We decided to go with the set menu which offers a selection of meats for the barbecue, a kimchi stew, Korean dumplings and dessert.

You can just see the steaks cooking in the corner of this picture. The cuts were excellent and I love that they were cooked over coals - lending the meat that gorgeous, smoky flavour. Juicy and tender, they tasted amazing with this trio of sauces. My favourite was the garlic oil and salt combination in the centre. A little dunk in this and it was pure heaven (though it can get a little salty as the oil has plenty of salt crystals). Cabbage leaves were also served as an accompaniment, to eat with the searing, sizzling hot beef straight from the barbecue (I've never seen this in any other Korean restaurant). If anything, my only gripe would be that there weren't enough greens. We had two token onions, and two token button mushrooms - it would have been nice to have just a couple more.

The Korean dumplings were a winner. Crisp on the outside and hot and juicy on the inside, they were spectacular. We couldn't quite figure out what they were filled with. We believe it may have been finely minced beef, spring onions and a little vermicelli.

The fiery, kimchi-based stew was also a favourite, laden with plenty of ingredients that had absorbed those lovely, spicy flavours. Eaten hot, with sweet, fragrant grains of steaming white rice, this tasted spectacular, and was wonderfully warming in the cold weather.

The seafood jeon (pancake), rounded off the savoury dishes. I still think the now closed Kimchi House does the best jeon, but this wasn't too bad either. Not being Korean, I'm not sure how thick a traditional jeon is, but this one felt just about right - not too thick (which often lends itself to a recipe for a doughy, starchy number) and not too thin. The smatterings of seafood were slightly more generous than the usual Korean restaurants as well, though as always, we did wish there was just that little bit more. Kimchi House always packed theirs with plenty of calamari, prawns and baby mussels.

There aren't many dessert choices so we went for the house specialty, a combination of black sesame and green tea ice cream served with a dollop of adzuki bean paste. These ice creams were good. The green tea flavours were well-developed - creamy and sweet with just the slightest bitterness - and the black sesame had a nice crunch and texture to it. I could not figure out if it was little fragments of black rice or roughly crushed black sesame granules. The adzuki bean paste blended beautifully with the other two flavours. It was not overtly sweet and had a lovely, slightly chunky texture.

Paired with the excellent service, I think Guhng might just be the our favourite new Korean place on the other side of town.

Guhng
19 McKillop Street
Melbourne

MoVida Next Door

2010-11-04T22:06:00.002+11:00

H & I love MoVida. The last time we went was a couple of years ago. Such is its popularity that we haven't had much luck getting in since. So we set off for MoVida Next Door at a quarter to five one Saturday evening, hoping against hope that we would get a seat.

And we struck lucky! We were ushered to a share table near the kitchen where we could watch the action and soak in the tantalizing aromas wafting from it. Rustic paper menus were handed to us, the specials written in chalk on the blackboard patiently explained, and we were left to choose from the temptingly long menu, each little dish enticingly us to try them. It is easy to get carried away here.

We decided to go with the more unique dishes, our first choice being the Anchoa con Mato (Cantabrian anchovy with fresh curd). A large crumbed anchovy was laid on a disc of fresh curd and sprinkled with finely chopped herbs. This was a wonderful starter, the saltiness of the anchovy blending beautifully with the creamy fresh curd. It was a refreshing dish, with the crumbs lending a welcome crunch and texture.

The scallop ceviche [special] was a beautiful little tapa as well. Firm sweet scallops were bathed in a gorgeous vinaigrette and topped with delicate strands of garlic chives. It was light, refreshing and very addictive.

For us, the chorizo [special] took the crown for the night. It arrived at our table, sizzling and steaming as promised, bathing us in its spiraling wafts of mouthwatering scent. The juicy bite-sized nuggets of chorizo had been cooked in cider, and were simply excellent. We popped them into our mouths piping hot, using the lovely puffed squares of potato bread to mop up the delicious juices.

I wasn't as sold on the hapuka, cooked a la plancha with chorizo, piquillo peppers and cauliflower cream [special]. H liked this but the flavours didn't mesh for me. I love grilled fish, and have had it at many restaurants, served with chorizo or other cured meats. I've also had seafood paired with gorgeous, smooth cauliflower puree (Bistro Guillaume does this wonderfully), but the flavours here were a lot more subdued and subtle.

The somewhat naughty-looking bomba, comprising piping hot potato balls (bombs) filled with tasty little nuggets of chorizo and laced with a rich, thick, slightly spicy and beautifully piquant tomato sauce was a real pleasure to eat. We could have ordered so much more of this.

Our last dish was the pulpo [special] - octopus cooked a la plancha with crispy potatoes. This was a gorgeous dish, with large curls of octopus tentacles resting atop beautifully crisped potatoes. The octopus had a lovely smoky flavour to it, and was coated in a paprika spice blend. The potatoes had the same salty, spicy flavour, and were simply delicious.

And finally, dessert. MoVida has always had one of the best desserts in town and being unable to make a decision, we ordered three. The crema catalana, a baked citrus and cinnamon custard was sublime. It was gorgeously creamy and smooth, set just enough to be firm, with the brulee-ed surface adding a lovely bitter taste to the sweet, citrusy custard. This actually comes in quite a generous serve, perfect for two to share.

The dessert on the right is a tarta de queso, a sheep's milk cheesecake with mango sorbet. This wasn't one of the desserts that jumped out at me when I had a look at the menu, but I had no regrets after. The cheesecake wasn't a cheesecake in the traditional sense, more a quinelle of the most gorgeous, light cheese with just the right amount of tangy-ness, served alongside a crumble and another quinelle of mango sorbet. I'd never imagined mango and cheese to go together but this pairing worked exquisitely. It was light, refreshing and perfect for spring/summer.

And those churros? They were just brilliant. Gorgeous, warm and soft sugar and cinnamon-dusted sticks served with a pot of addictively thick Spanish hot chocolate. It was bliss.You cannot visit MoVida without ordering one of these.

MoVida Next Door
1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne

Huxtable

2010-11-01T12:17:00.002+11:00

H & I are city dwellers. Which means that this blog more often then not focuses on the restaurants, cafes and foodie destinations in the city's heart. But Fitzroy has gradually risen to become the jewel amongst the inner-city suburbs. Hip new cafe and coffee connoisseur heaven, De Clieu, recently opened, as did gorgeous ceramic homeware store, Mud, and of course there's the ever-enticing Books for Cooks, a treasure trove for all who love cooking.

It was a somewhat gloomy morning when H & I visited Huxtable, which we've now declared as the best new cafe to have breakfast at in Melbourne. It's relatively nondescript, but absolutely gorgeous once you find it. I loved the pairing of slate gray, worn leather, white tiles and exposed brick. The seats were comfy, it was airy and just beautiful, and it helped that the air was scented with the alluring aroma of crispy bacon as well.

To stay warm (it was chilly outdoors), I ordered a soy chai latte and H an orange juice. The orange juice was freshly squeezed and gorgeously refreshing, but the chai latte was to-die-for. Not the weak, poncy versions but a full-bodied, full-strength chai, gloriously rich and spicy with just the right tinge of honey to make it sweet. It even came with a cinnamon stick stirrer! As I was leaving, I asked what brand the chai tea was, but it wasn't revealed to me. They said it was made in-house. I think they've got a chai tea secret going!

Off to a good start, we were shown the menu which is one of the most intriguing I've seen. The selection isn't large, but I'd rather dine at a cafe that does a few things exceptionally well then one that makes me wish I'd stayed at home and sauteed up my own bacon, eggs and mushrooms. Loving all things Japanese, I decided to go with the dashi poached eggs with lightly smoked confit salmon and sesame spinach, and H the french toast with poached rhubarb, istra bacon and maple syrup.

Admittedly, this isn't the best angle taken of the dish but I was starving and that tantalizing aroma of crisp fried bacon was making me desperately hungry. This dish is actually a beauty. The generous slab of smoked salmon was a gorgeous orange-y pink, the knob of sesame-dressed spinach a vivid green, and the eggs plump and lovely - a stark contrast against the sleek, black plate it was served on. It made quite the striking visual impression.

The dish didn't disappoint on the taste front either. Those eggs were perfectly poached and lightly perfumed with the scent and taste of dashi. I loved the slight umami accent, and the way the dashi-infused yolk burst over the bread, staining it a vivid yellow. The smoked salmon was sublime as well. It had a beautiful smoky flavour, and simply fell apart with a soft prod. The sesame-dressed spinach would challenge many an authentic Japanese restaurant, and was amazing both on its own and with the eggs and salmon. Expect excellent bread here too. Huxtable uses organic sourdough from fatto a mano, and it's thick, generous and gorgeously crusty.

H's dish was just as spectacular. This was french toast done exceptionally well, topped with generous batons of the tenderest, sweetest and slightly tart rhubarb and crisp, lean bacon. I only had a nibble but loved it.

H & I both left with a firm declaration that we would be back, definitely for breakfast, and lunch and dinner when we can.

Huxtable
131 Smith Street, Fitzroy

H's Potato Millefeuille

2010-10-30T15:07:00.001+11:00

We had a few requests for the potato millefeuille H cooked in the International Lavender Incident Party so here it is!

H's Potato Millefeuille

1 cup milk
1 tablespoon fresh lavender (or 1/2 tablespoon dried lavender)
1 kg potatoes
100g butter plus extra for greasing
Extra virgin olive oil
2 sprigs of thyme
2 garlic leaves
Sage leaves for garnishing
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Pour the milk into a saucepan, bring to the boil then immediately take off the heat. Add the lavender. Leave to infuse for 10 minutes or until mixture is at room temperature. Then, strain the liquid and discard the lavender. Season with salt and pepper. The milk should now be perfumed with a slight, pleasant taste of lavender to it.

To cut the potatoes, place the potato parallel to you so that the ends are going from left to right. Cut the base and top off the potato so that it sits flat on the surface. Then, take a 5cm cookie cutter and cut as many cylinders as possible out of the potato (usually two cylinders per potato).

Using a Japanese mandoline, slice the potato cylinders into 1 - 2mm discs, immersing the discs into the milk as you go. Make sure the discs are completely submerged or they will oxidise. (The potato scraps can be thrown in the oven to make some great potato snacks. Otherwise discard them).

Butter (or line with parchment) a 5cm diameter by 10cm height mould, then lay a small piece of parchment (7cm squared) over a larger piece of foil. Wrap the base of the mould with the parchment and foil to stop any liquid from leaking out.

To assemble, lay 3 slices of potato on the base of the mould, dot with butter, and sprinkle a touch of salt and pepper on top. Continue layering, buttering and seasoning every 3 layers until all the slices are used up, the cover tightly with foil and bake for an hour or until the knife easily goes through the stack.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Weigh the potato stack down with anything that will fit into the mould (H used a bottle of vitamins and a small Kahlua bottle), and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours. This step allows the starch in the potatoes to bind, creating a stack that is neater, tighter and easier to cook.

When almost ready to serve, heat oil in an oven-proof saute pan till oil is medium-high, then add the sage leaves. Fry till crispy, then remove from the pan. Add the potato stacks (removed from mould) to the pan with the thyme and garlic. Constantly turn the potato stacks to ensure even browning, then stand the potato stacks up and transfer the saute pan to the oven for 7 to 10 minutes to ensure potatoes are completely warmed through.

Place potato stacks, standing upright, on the serving plate, pour desired sauce over the millefeuille and garnish with the crisp sage leaves.

International Incident Lavender Party - Lavender Salt Crusted Lamb

2010-10-23T23:53:00.005+11:00

A post in pictures...

Fresly picked lavender from H's parents garden

Lavender flowers tossed in salt

Brushing the sealed lamb loin with Dijon mustard and garlic. The lamb is then wrapped in salt and 15 minutes later it is whipped out of the oven to become...

this. Not very attractive I know. Break the crust open, brush off excess salt and you get...

A lovely salt baked lamb

Add a side of potato millefeuille cooked in lavender infused milk

(A close up)

There you have it. Lavender Salt Crusted Lamb with lavender infused potato millefeuille & spring greens

I've never really liked lavender. I love its gorgeous violet hue but the scent and taste are a little too strong for me. I gave it a chance with a lavender scone (paired no less with lavender cream) at the lovely Lavendula Swiss Italian Farm in between Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, but that still didn't particularly endear me to it.

This dish, adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller's Lamb baked in lavender salt with mustard beans, is the way to go if you are a little wary of lavender (like me). I could still get that strong heady smell the flower imparts when H was preparing the dish, but once crushed with salt, it became much more subtle, imbuing the lamb with just the right amount of fragrance and flavour to make it just that bit more interesting. The lamb is beautiful when done - still moist and juicy when it's taken out of it's salt shell - and I actually found myself partial to that slight lavender hint.

H paired it with a potato millefeuille cooked in lavender infused milk, and some lovely baby kale and baby broad beans purchased from the farmers market the morning before and tossed in olive oil, shallots, Dijon mustard and lemon juice (as per the recipe). A lovely lamb and lavender pairing in the tradition of Provence and the perfect way to herald in Spring!

Thank you to Penny from Jeroxie for hosting the October International Incident Lavender Party!

Melbourne Food Bloggers Mad Hatters Picnic - Spiral Curry Puffs

2010-10-17T16:27:00.006+11:00

H & I have a picnic basket, a pretty rattan one with leather straps. We'd envisioned embarking on many bold adventures with it, but with Melbourne's weather, such dreams were short lived. So said picnic basket has lived in our cupboard waiting for that perfect picnic day. And that day chanced with the Melbourne Food Bloggers Mad Hatters Picnic.

It was gorgeous weather when we gathered at Studley Park Boathouse with our dish. I found out several days before that there would be a giveaway and that dishes could be blue or Mad Hatter themed, but having already set my sights on making spiral curry puffs, I decided to stick with my original plan. I didn't take any photos of the day, but the always gorgeous Penny from Jeroxie and the lovely Michele from Iron Chef Shellie have posts covering the day.

Essentially, this curry puff has two different types of dough - a water-based dough and an oil-based dough that when rolled together swiss roll style creates a lovely spiral curry puff shell. As you can see in the picture above, it was all going to plan except when we reached the next step, the two doughs just didn't hold. We ended up having to improvise, kneading the two doughs together to form a single ball. This still captured that lovely flaky taste, but not the spirals.

The recipe below can be adapted. I love beef so I used it in the curry puffs, though lamb or chicken can be used as well. I prefer more curry powder as I love a little spice and heat, but have kept to a mild 2 tablespoons in this version. Being bite-sized, I couldn't quite squeeze a wedge of hard boiled egg in but if you want to, it is a nice touch (just roll them thicker). Back in my home town, there is a famous curry puff stall that adds boiled eggs to their curry puffs. It's always great fun trying to find it buried amongst the other ingredients.

Spiral Curry Puffs adapted from a recipe by Agnes Chang and tweaked by my mum

[Makes twenty]

Filling
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 sprigs fresh curry leaves
2 sprigs coriander leaves, chopped roughly
2 medium sized potatoes, boiled and diced into small cubes
1 tablespoon lemon juice

[A] 1 clove garlic, minced
1 cm piece ginger, minced
2 shallots, finely diced

[B] 300g minced beef, lamb or chicken
2 tablespoons good curry powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala

Mix the minced meat with the curry powder, curry leaves and garam masala and set aside for 20 minutes to season. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic, onion and ginger till fragrant. Add the meat and fry till cooked (break the minced meat up if it clumps together). Then, add the potatoes, lemon juice and salt and stir fry till the mixture is dry. Add more salt if required then the coriander leaves. Stir to mix evenly then set aside to cool.

Skins
[C] 240g plain flour
100g margarine (I used butter)
6 - 7 tablespoons cold water

Mix and knead all ingredients till smooth. Rest for 20 minutes (cover with a moist cloth).

[D] 180g plain flour
100g shortening
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients together to form a dough. The shortening can be a little hard to break up so I suggest leaving it out at room temperature or whizzing the dough together in a food processor.

And to bring it all together...
Roll out dough [C]. Once it is flat, place dough [D] on top of it, and roll dough [D] out. You should now have two layers of dough. Roll the dough up tightly swiss roll style, turn it 90 degrees (with the short end facing you), then roll it out till it is flat again. Once again, roll it up tightly till it resembles a swiss roll and leave it to rest for 20 minutes. Cover with a moist towel.

After 20 minutes, divide the roll into 20 portions, and flatten each portion slightly to form a circle. Place some filling in the centre, then fold in half to form a semi circle. Seal the curry puff by pinching and flattening the edges of the semi circle. Then pleat the edges. (Keep the dough you are not working with under a moist towel at all times).

Deep fry the curry puffs and serve hot. I tried baking mine in the oven for half an hour at 180 degrees Celcius and it turned out well. If you are baking the curry puffs, remember to glaze them with a dash of beaten egg yolk and milk to add some colour.

P.S. If the dough is a little too fiddly, you can just make a short crust pastry. This dough is tough (H has to receive credit for doing most of the grunt work).

After much trepidation the curry puffs turned out lovely. I still wish they had the spiral effect I was going for, but they tasted just the way I remember them to be, which made me happy. Rather unexpectedly, I took away the second prize in the savoury category, winning a lovely Japanese ceramic sharpening stone and sharpening class at Chef's Armoury.

Thank you to Penny (Jeroxie), Thanh (I Eat Therefore I am) and Michele (Iron Chef Shellie) for organizing a wonderful Mad Hatters Picnic!

Commercial Bakery

2010-10-10T17:29:00.004+11:00

For a while now, Hardware Societe has been a firm favourite for our weekend morning breakfasts, and Laurent, the place to read The Age over leisurely morning pastries and a good cup of coffee. Commercial Bakery, with its bread loaves neatly stacked in the sliver of window just visible on Little Collins Street had gone forgotten. I couldn't even remember if it opened on the weekend, till we popped by one Saturday morning.

The Commercial Bakery part of the space still serves up excellent pastries to those seeking something lighter, but the Gill's Diner section has been devoted to hot breakfasts - the menu scribbled in chalk on blackboards in typical Gill's Diner fashion. The selection isn't vast, but it is enticing, and they make some interesting fresh juice combinations (campari for breakfast anyone?)

H had the baked beans with pork and fennel sausage, a hearty meal featuring house made baked beans and two generous pork and fennel sausages. The baked beans were large, firm and flavoursome, and the pork and fennel sausages rustic, meaty and tender. The acidity of the tomato sauce helped cut through the richness of the dish, making it an excellent combination. If anything, it would have been nice to have had a couple of toasted baguette slices as an accompaniment. H asked for some to soak up the gravy.

I had the omelette with mushroom ragu and buffalo ricotta. If I had to sum this dish up in one word, it would be gorgeous. The omelette was refreshingly light and fluffy and a beautiful golden colour, and the mushroom ragu was sublime. The mushrooms had been marinated in a beautiful, earthy, mushroom-y sauce, bursting in the mouth to release little pods of concentrated flavour, and I loved the rustic thick milky shards of buffalo ricotta. Paired with the peppery, bitter rocket, it was a winning marriage of flavours.

The breakfasts aren't cheap (they were about $18 each and our freshly squeezed orange juices $6.80) but the quality of the ingredients and the excellent execution are evident. They are generously proportioned as well; we could easily have shared either of the dishes. So the next time you're in the Little Collins / Elizabeth street part of town and craving a robust start to the morning, you know where to pop into for breakfast.

Commercial Bakery
360 Little Collins Street, Melbourne

Bourke Street Bakery - The Cookbook

2010-10-09T23:21:00.009+11:00

There are some cookbooks that are keepers, some that make for gorgeous coffee table adornments, and some that make you wonder if the chef deliberately left out a few secret ingredients. The Bourke Street Bakery cookbook falls into the former. It's a beautiful, chunky bakery book that's not only a feast for the eyes but for the senses as well.

Take the humble beef pie for example. H spruced it up with a side of brussel sprouts, bacon pieces and lovely buttered peas, but on its own, it would have been a standout. I love splitting the crisp, flaky pastry open, and watching the fragrant, beef-scented spirals of steam waft out.

What follows is a beautiful mingling of tender, braised beef chunks and sweet, crisp pastry, that come together to create a hearty dinner meal. Make a bunch, freeze the rest and warm them up whenever you feel like having a lazy night.

If sausage rolls are your thing, then the Bourke Street Bakery has a few versions that shine just as brightly. Theirs are the posh varieties with gourmand pairings. We tried the pork and fennel at the bakery, but my favourite has to be the lamb, harissa and almond, dotted with lovely sweet currants here and there. Once again, this is encased in a gorgeous flaky pastry, and nicely spicy with hints of sweet. H made a whole batch and I never got tired of eating them.

The Bourke Street Bakery's sweets are just as crave-inducing. We fell in love with their vanilla brulee tarts with strawberry puree on our fleeting visit there, and H recreated them at home to much success. I greedily insisted on tasting one shortly after H had whipped up the brulee filling; my haste resulting in a brulee tart that hadn't quite set. Patience will need to be exercised (imagine knowing that the tarts are in the fridge but that you can't quite have them yet), but the results are worth the wait. A day or two in the fridge does wonders for the custard. I found myself thinking about the dessert on my way home from work everyday. Needless to say, the tarts ran out very quickly.

By now, H was on a Bourke Street Bakery baking spree. Next on the list was the ginger brulee (above), a gorgeous, subtly spiced brulee inspired by the flavours of masala chai. I adore chai tea - proper chai, not the weak ones - and this dessert did it proud. I loved the addition of pistachios on top. It lent the dessert a nice textual difference, alongside the glass like shards of the burnt sugar surface.

I can see the Bourke Street Bakery book becoming a staple in our collection. One of those trusted, treasured copies that gets covered with flour, butter stains, sugar and perhaps a fleck or two of flaky pastry. The recipes aren't simple, but it is a great guide for those who have a passion for baking and some time. The results are worth every bite.

Gill's Diner

2010-10-02T20:27:00.003+10:00

If you're into upmarket retro school chic then Gill's Diner is the place to go. There's something very Melbourne about this space - from it's location (tucked away behind unassuming wooden doors at the end of the lane), to its bare basics interior resplendent with large, Gothic style candles dripping hot beads of molten wax onto their base. It's very casual here; the day's dishes scribbled in chalk on various blackboards propped on the sideboard or on the wall (you will have to walk to the board to find out what the menu is for the day). But like the very best of Melbourne's hard-to-find restaurants, Gill's Diner has good food, and excellent service from the very cool bevvy of front-of-house staff.

For a restaurant that has an association with a bakery (Commercial Bakery takes the front of the restaurant space), the bread was a little disappointing, and the butter dull, but that wasn't what we were here for.

H had 'The Fifth Quarter' - a generous portion of duck liver terrine, pork brawn & kalafi wrapped with lambs brain. The terrine was lovely, chunky and rustic, and the pork brawn - served here with a smear of smoked apple - excellent. The lambs brain came as a generous serve as well, cocooned in a delicately spun web of kalafi that sat atop a dollop of gribiche. H didn't like this as much, but he doesn't like brain.

I went for the Bouillabaisse with crab medallion, a rich, gorgeous mixture topped with fresh mint, basil and other herbs. I once had a seafood marinara at Gill's which came with a lovely crustacean jus and this reminded me of it. I felt that there simply wasn't enough of the stew in the dish! The crab medallion took a little getting used to. It reminded me of Japanese tofu in its texture. It wasn't a mousse, nor was it overtly firm, and while I didn't quite like it at first, it grew on me.

The mains were also generously proportioned. H had the roast pork belly, pressed pot shoulder, Zatar crusted black pudding and pumpkin. I had a little nibble and it tasted divine.

I had the spaghetti marinara with fresh seafood, olive oil, parsley and chilli. A smattering of seafood make up this dish, from butter-soft salmon hunks that simply melted in the mouth to sweet, large prawns, bite-sized clams and tiny mussels. Everything was bathed in a beautiful, light, white-wine sauce rich with the juices of the sea, and accentuated with a slight spice derived from garlic and chilli. This is the best seafood marinara I've ever tasted. Gorgeous, light and just a delight to eat.

Encouraged by the good food, we decided to have dessert. The housemade churros with chocolate sauce were sadly a bit of a disappointment. The churros were chewy and over fried, something the dusting of cinnamon and sugar could not disguise. The chocolate sauce was thick, rich and lovely but it's hard to beat Movida. They have absolutely nailed it.

Though not flash, the honey bavois, apple granita, poached quince and meringue redeemed the dessert situation slightly. It was a lovely, light and refreshing combination, though the cram-into-a-glass-Eton-mess-style method meant that the entire dessert became soggy quite quickly.

That said, Gill's Diner is definitely worth a visit!

Gills Diner
360 Little Collins Street
Melbourne VIC

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2010-09-19T14:08:00.000+10:00

My favourite cupcakes at Little Cupcakes on Degraves Street used to be the Belgian Chocolate. Then the Cream Cheese Chocolate. Then the Teddy Bear. Needless to say, I am a chocolate girl. I actually resisted trying the Red Velvet for a while, simply because it wasn't chocolate-y enough.

But then I tried it and I was sold. H found this Red Velvet cupcake recipe through Saveur and has since made it twice. It's lovely, moist and very soft, and that cream cheese and cocoa butter combination is just divine!

P.S. Don't they look pretty sitting in their Donna Hay cupcake wrappers on our gorgeous Wedgewood Harlequin plates? We'd been eying them for a very long time and finally took the plunge!

Pierre Herme's Caramelized Cinnamon Tart (with a twist)!

2010-09-18T15:32:00.004+10:00

With the jar of apple butter from the Daring Cook's challenge, H decided to make this cinnamon apple tart inspired by Pierre Herme's Caramelized Cinnamon Tart recipe in Desserts by Pierre Herme.

It's a very sleek and elegant dessert with lovely bite-sized apple chunks topped with a layer of light, fluffy caramel and cinnamon foam, and finished with a creme brulee-esque lacquered surface. We finished this very quickly.

H's Cinnamon Apple Tart
inspired by Pierre Herme's Caramelized Cinnamon Tart

Cream topping
3/4 cup whole milk
2 cinnamon sticks, each broken into three
7 tablespoons sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons gelatin
1 1/2 tablespoons cold water
4 large egg whites

Bring the milk to the boil over the stove and set aside.

Place the cinnamon sticks in a medium skillet (non stick) on medium-high heat. Measure out two tablespoons of the sugar and set the remainder aside. Sprinkle 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar over a small portion of the centre of the pan, and as soon as it starts to melt and change colour, stir it with a wooden spoon til it caramelizes. Stir the cinnamon with the sugar so that the caramelizing sugar is infused with the flavour from the cinnamon. Continue cooking till it turns a medium brown shade.

Add the warm milk slowly and steadily while continuing to stir, then raise the heat to high and bring the mixture to the boil. Remove the pan from the heat and strain the caramel sauce into a mixing bowl.

Whisk the egg yolks, cornstarch and two tablespoons of the remaining sugar in a heavy saucepan until the mixture is thick and pale. Still whisking, add a third of the hot caramel sauce, a little at a time, being careful not to cook the eggs. Place the saucepan over medium heat and continue to whisk vigorously without stopping. Cook until the mixture thickens, lightens in colour and comes to the boil.

Keep the mixture boiling, whisking quickly, for a minute, then remove the pan from the heat. Strain the cream into a bowl large enough for an immersion blender (bar mix) or transfer into a blender or food processer.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and allow to soften. Dissolve the gelatin by placing it in the microwave for 15 seconds or heating it gently over the stove. If you're working with an immersion blender, turn it on and add the gelatin to the pastry cream. If you're using a blender or food processor, add the gelatin while the machine is whirring. Process until the mixture is fully blended.

In a clean, dry mixing bowl whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Still beating, gradually whip in the remaining three tablespoons of sugar and beat until the whites form a meringue with stiff, glossy peaks. With a whisk, stir one third of the meringue into the hot pastry cream, and then, with a whisk or rubber spatula, gently fold the pastry cream into the remaining meringue to make a chibouste. The cream should be used immediately.

Tarte Tatin Apples
4 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8ths
200g sugar
200g unsalted butter, chopped

Place sugar in a medium saucepan and cook until medium brown. Add butter to prevent the sugar from browning further then add the apples. Cook until apples are soft then set aside and cool.

Brandied Raisins
2 tbsp raisins
2 tbsp brandy

Warm brandy in a saucepan then pour over raisins. Cover and set aside for approximately 2 hours.

To Assemble
1 25cm fully baked short crust tart shell
1 quantity cream topping
1 quantity tarte tatin apples
1 quantity brandied raisins
2 tbsp apple butter
3 tbsp sugar

Spread apple butter over the inside of the tart shell then cover the bottom of the tart with the tarte tatin apples.

Evenly distribute raisins over apples then cover completely with cream topping. Smooth cream topping with a palette knife and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour or freezer for 40 minutes to set.

Once set, cover with sugar and place in the oven with the griller on, or use a blow torch to caramelize the top.

And there you have it, a lovely Cinnamon Apple Tart!

David Chang's Kalbi-Jim

2010-09-15T22:11:00.005+10:00

So what did H do with the Daring Kitchen's Apple Butter? He surprised me one evening with a variation of David Chang's Kalbi-Jim, or Braised short rib with soy apple marinade, apples and pears. This dish had such a lovely aroma I couldn't wait to try it, and it tasted divine - a beautiful, caramelized taste sensation that simply melts in the mouth. It's very rich so a small portion is enough.

Kalbi-Jim inspired by David Chang's Braised short rib with soy apple marinade, apples and pears

2 2/3 cups water
3/4 cup of Kikkoman light soy sauce
3 tablespoons of pear juice
3 tablespoons of apple juice
2 tablespoons of apple butter
2 1/2 tablespoons mirin
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 1/4 cups sugar
10 grinds black pepper
1/2 small onion
1 small carrot
3 spring onions, white sections only
2 garlic cloves
4 pieces of bone-in beef short ribs, trimmed of excessive fat and silverskin. Cut into individual ribs
2 apples, cored and quartered
2 pears, cored and quartered

Method

Pre-heat oven to 140 degrees C.

Make the marinade for the short ribs by combining the water, soy, pear and apple juices, apple butter, mirin, sesame oil, sugar, pepper, onion, carrot, spring onions and garlic in a large pot.

Bring to a boil over high heat. Once the liquid boils, reduce the flame so the liquid is simmering gently. Cook for ten minutes then strain the solids out of the marinade and allow to cool.

Place beef in a saucepan with apples and pears and cover with marinade (add water if marinade does not cover beef). Cover with a cartouche, reheat till just simmering over the stove, and then place in oven for eight hours.

After eight hours, remove beef from braising liquid and carefully remove bones. Press beef between two plates to compress the fibres. This makes the beef easier to cut and work with. Refrigerate until required. Strain marinade and refrigerate until the fat separates from the liquid.

To serve, pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C. Remove fat layer from the marinade and reduce to a glaze over the stove. Pre-heat an iron skillet until very hot, grease pan then sear beef, taking care not to break the beef up. When well coloured, transfer beef to an oven-proof plate and coat with reduced marinade. Place beef in the oven for 3 minutes then coat with marinade. Repeat twice (to give the beef a lacquered effect. H's beef was in for 8 minutes and coated thrice).

Remove beef from oven and allow to rest for ten minutes in a warm place. Serve with your choice of sides. H chose to serve his with braised shallots and a spring onion cooked in the same pan as the beef.

H says that although the recipe seems very complex, it is actually very easy to make!

Weekend Baking - Fudgy Macarons

2010-09-12T10:13:00.000+10:00

Don't you love the name? H made these miniature macarons one weekend and we ate them all in two sittings. They are pop-in-the-mouth goodness, with a fudgy texture. H used David Lebowitz's Pierre Herme's Ketchup Macarons recipe without the red colouring, and substituted two tablespoons of the almond meal with good-quality cocoa powder. Instead of a ketchup filling, he made a chocolate ganache to sandwich the two macaron shells together. Heaven in a bite!

Dead Man Espresso

2010-09-12T10:01:00.003+10:00

Tucked away in a somewhat nondescript street in South Melbourne is Dead Man Espresso, a beautiful dark wood and glass space filled with that wonderful aroma of crisp bacon and sausages, and the warm, moorish scent of good quality coffee brewing (Market Lane).

The gorgeous interior and little touches - Mount Zero table salt and lovely silver sugar spoons

H had the BLT, a take on Thomas Keller's version, with thick slices of pork belly, rocket puree and a tomato soup. H thought it good, though he felt that the layer of fat in the pork belly could have been more crisp and caramelized than chewy.

I had the Bangers and Mushies - a poached egg perched on top of two artisan sausages, a heap of lovely torn croutons, well seasoned mushrooms, sprigs of delicate herbs and a side of crispy bacon. I really liked this. The sausages were excellent quality, and were nice, plump and meaty with just the right amount of spice. The croutons were generous and grilled just right (crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside), and the mushrooms juicy with just a touch of crispiness. Dead Man Espresso is definitely a new favourite!

Dead Man Espresso

35 Market Street, South Melbourne

Gumshara Ramen - Sydney

2010-09-04T19:03:00.001+10:00

Just before we headed back, we decided to squeeze in one more meal. We didn't want anything heavy, so we thought we'd explore the Haymarket area and Gumshara Ramen, which I'd heard about through Jennifer (Jenius). We walked around the food court twice before we actually found the store. The only thing identifying it is this colourful little sign propped up on the counter.

It was evening by the time we arrived so we weren't able to taste their 'thick soup' ramen (they'd run out). I didn't want to miss out however, and decided to go with the Garlic Tonkatsu Noodle. H went for the BBQ Pork Rice and we decided to share the Chilli Pickled Cabbage.

Gumshara's card states that their soup is made using the traditional Japanese method, which uses the natural ingredients of fresh pork bones and water. The richness of the soup comes from the marrow of the pork bones, and is said to contain a lot of collagen, essential for maintaining smooth skin.

The ramen arrived at the table, silky, opaque and with a sheen. I'd never seen ramen stock like that before, and when I tasted it, I realized that it was very thick. H saw the chef straining the rich stock, full of pork bones into the bowl just before the ramen was served, and knew this was the real thing. As for me, I didn't know what the thick stock would be like if the thin version was already this concentrated!

I don't really like the taste of pork, and while I've eaten it on rare occasions recently, I'm still not the biggest fan. So even though I'd taken the plunge and decided to go ahead and try this, I was slightly hesitant, wondering if I would struggle to eat it. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the stock wasn't as strong as I imagined. Add a dash of chilli and the pork could never have been there. Their thin tonkatsu slices were simply delicious as well (H reckoned they were home-made) and the addition of Japanese pickles, nori and burdock root helped cut through the richness.

H's BBQ Pork Rice was a constant surprise. On the top were thin slices of barbecued pork drizzled with Japanese mayonnaise and finely sliced spring onions and Japanese pickles. And beneath that there was rice, then dark barbecued meat, then hard boiled eggs, then more rice. I had a bite and it was delicious. I can imagine this being served in homes in Japan.

To share, we had the chilli pickled cabbage, which you can see peeking out of the corner of the photo above. This was amazing. I thought it would be crisp, but it's exactly like pickled cabbage with a nice, strong chilli hit. We devoured this. It went really well with the ramen and made for a great side dish.

Gumshara Ramen
Shop 209, Dixon Street
Haymarket NSW

Azuma & Azuma Patisserie - Sydney

2010-09-04T17:44:00.007+10:00

As mentioned in my Tetsuya post, H could not join me, and dined instead at Azuma Kushiyaki on George Street. H had the Azuma Kushiyaki degustation, which started with a very generous serve of edamame, followed by a refreshing and light chilled tofu salad with ponzu dressing (sadly not the famous seared tuna on the menu). It was a lovely, light start to the meal for H though, and he didn't mind it.

This was followed by the seared salmon, kingfish & soft shell crab sushi. H found the sushi to be fresh, but felt that it lacked the wasabi hit you get from the wasabi used to bind the rice to the fish. There is better sushi to be found in Melbourne, so while good, this was a little disappointing.

Next was the Deep-fried Kaarage - two plump chicken thighs, deep fried and served on top of a mesculin salad with a blob of Japanese mayonnaise and a wedge of lemon. The chicken was crisp on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside, but H felt that it lacked that lovely flavour that you get from Kaarage. The oil from the chicken made the salad leaves a little limp as well.

It was then on to the kushiyaki - the piece de resistance for the restaurant. Here the kushiyaki is selected by the chef, and H ended up with chicken breast with pickled plum mayo, chicken thigh fillet with kushiyaki sauce, wagyu beef tenderloin with soy and butter, wild scallop with soy & homemade garlic oil, paradise prawn with salt, and zucchini seasoned with dry shiso leaf flakes. The kushiyaki were all expertly cooked, but H felt that the flavours were too subtle, and that Azuma was not pushing the envelope enough (in the sense that the restaurant kept with the safe cuts of the meat). The seafood flavours were a highlight here; the poultry and meat were a tad bland.

Finally, H had dessert - a chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream. H wasn't impressed by this either. He felt it tasted like chocolate powder instead of dense, rich chocolate.

So while the quality of the ingredients were good at Azuma Kushiyaki, and the cooking methods excellent, H found the menu a little too safe and perhaps a little too tuned to the Western palate. We've just popped online and discovered there is an Azuma Chiefley, and that's the one we would head to on our next visit to Sydney, especially since it offers omakase and more traditional Japanese dishes.

Next to Azuma Kushiyaki was Azuma Patisserie. H had spotted it the night before and took me there the next day to try their famous chiffon cake. We decided to have the green tea version (they have a few other varieties including black sesame) along with a soy green tea latte. I didn't like the latte at first but it grew on me. The green tea chiffon cake was sublime though. Feathery-light, nicely sweet without being too overpowering, and soft and spongy - everything a chiffon cake should be with a lovely green tea hit. I have to find a recipe for this.

Azuma Kushiyaki & Patisserie
Ground Floor Regent Place, 501 George Street
Sydney NSW

*Image of kushiyaki taken from the Azuma website as I'd nicked the camera for the night

Quay - Sydney

2010-09-04T16:58:00.002+10:00

Quay. I swear we did not come here to try their 'legendary' Snow Egg, though H did end up having it for his dessert. We came here because of Quay's reputation as one of the best restaurants in the world, and we weren't disappointed.

H & I decided to eschew the rather dear $210 tasting menu in favour of the three course lunch for $95. The first course was a delightful little amuse bouche of dashi jelly, tuna tartare, sheep's milk yogurt, heirloom tomatoes and a lemon dressing. Very refreshing and very pretty. I loved the perfect squares of tuna tartare and dashi jelly combined with the smooth yogurt, slightly acidic but still sweet tomatoes and the citrusy tang of the lemon. This was a perfect little package.

For my entree, I had the Sea Pearls - elegant spheres of sashimi tuna, sea scallop, crab, octopus and smoked eel, adorned with luxurious silver leaf, exquisite miniature violet flowers, and micro herbs. It was almost too pretty to eat! I liked the octopus with finely shredded crab and sea scallop pearls the most. The texture of the octopus lent itself well to this (firm but not chewy), and the tender sea scallop was truly melt-in-the-mouth. The sashimi tuna was rolled around little squares of yuzu jelly, and the smoked eel with tiny sago pearls, but I found them to be lacking in flavour and not as enjoyable.

H had the Butter poached partridge breast with chestnuts, truffle, bitter chocolate black pudding, milk skin and walnuts. He didn't like this very much. The poached partridge was perhaps a little too much on the silky side, and the other ingredients a little too finely diced. There wasn't the texture we expected from the chestnuts, walnuts and black pudding chunks, and while the flavours were lovely, they weren't spectacular. Quay is very generous with their truffle though, as we soon found out.

I am the strange type of eater who likes to separate my dish into parts. I'll start with the bits I like the least and save my favourite elements till the very last. As I discovered with my Nameko, shiitake, enoki, king mushrooms, truffle custard and mushroom consomme dish however, Peter Gilmore's food is meant to be savoured all at once. I started off drinking a little bit of the consomme and nibbling on a few mushrooms and not liking it very much, but by the time I'd hit the truffle custard, I wished I'd mixed it with the consomme. It was pure, silky, mushroom-y heaven - a beautiful dish that had been executed very well (when eaten right).

H had the Crisp pressed duck confit, winter melon, hasuimo, garlic chive buds, sea scallops and duck juices. I really liked this - lovely shredded pieces of confit duck pressed into a firm rectangle and then beautifully crisped. The sea scallops, garlic chives and winter melon were a nice combination, and the duck juices, light but flavourful.

To finish, I had the Preserved wild cherry compote with coconut cream, chuao chocolate crumble, milk meringue crystals, cherry juice and chocolate sorbet. I loved this. I think Peter Gilmore really shines at desserts and this was the perfect way to end the meal. Here, the beautiful flavours of the wild cherry enveloped the rich but still very refreshing chocolate sorbet, finished with the wonderful crunch and sparkle provided by the milk meringue crystals. Simply sublime.

As you all know, H had the snow egg, which was Jackfruit flavoured this time. It arrived looking very pretty - dusted with powdered 'snow' and buried amongst snow 'crystals' (granita).

A little tap of the spoon and voila the oozy 'yolk' spills out. I didn't really try much of this but H sounded very content polishing the snow egg off. He later said that it was the highlight of the meal given the many contrasting textures and flavours of the jackfruit. For H, it definitely lived up to the hype!

By this time, I was too full to continue with petits fours and tea, but H decided to have some chamomile (tea) and they brought out petits fours for me. We vaguely recall the bobbly looking truffle to include muscatels. Both of these were delicious, but at this point, I could not appreciate the fine nuances.

A must-visit? Definitely.

Quay
Upper Level, Overseas Passenger Terminal
The Rocks, Sydney

Baroque - Sydney

2010-09-04T15:24:00.003+10:00

We stumbled across Baroque while wandering around The Rocks. It was on my to-visit list, especially after seeing it on Not Quite Nigella. And so, stuffed as we were, we went in, to have tea and another round of macarons.

Baroque is gorgeous - a beautiful, light-filled airy space with a true open kitchen and plenty of copper accents. It has an amazing view of Sydney's blue seas as well, and on a sunny day, is truly stunning.

There were plenty of enticing cakes on display, but we simply couldn't have any more and settled for their macarons.

And I loved them. To be honest, I loved them more than Zumbo's but I'm a traditionalist and prefer the clean, classic flavours. Here, we had blackcurrant, passionfruit and jasmine, each with rich, punchy fillings - the former two tasting like a true blackcurrant paste and passionfruit reduction. The jasmine here was lovely as well. It was very subtle and lightly perfumed.

If I'm ever back in Sydney, I would drop by again, this time for one of their gorgeous cakes and to take in the view.

Baroque
88 George Street
Sydney NSW

Adriano Zumbo - Sydney

2010-09-04T14:53:00.005+10:00

I have to admit. I am a MasterChef addict. When it was on, I had to be home at 7:30pm every night to make sure I didn't miss anything. I had not heard of Adriano Zumbo before MasterChef, but like most, I was wowed by his delicate and very pretty croquembouche tower and those vivid coloured macarons in the strangest flavours. So when I found out I was heading to Sydney, Adriano Zumbo was a definite stop.

I didn't expect the store to be that tiny. I imagined a vast, spacious cafe, a bit of a patisserie wonderland, but it was just big enough to accommodate a row of sleek refrigerated glass shelves and a narrow passageway - no tables, no seats, no cafe. There were no distractions from the row after row of vividly coloured, magical cakes. They shone like precious little jewels in their glass case, alluring, enticing, decadent.

And we were pleasantly delighted to find that these gorgeous little pieces of art were just about $7 & $8 each! We are used to paying more at the patisseries and cafes in Melbourne, so we went a little crazy and bought four cakes to share between the two of us and one of each of his macarons.

Clockwise from top left...

What A Great Pear Of - Almond creme, pear vanilla cream creme patisserie, pate & choux sable, pear gel, almond crunch & almond struesel

Charlie's Homemade Ginger Fear - Ginger beer gel, ginger pudding soaked in coconut syrup, chocolate ginger foam eggs, ginger crunch, ginger chantilly & passionfruit bavarois

I'll Get Back to you Barry - Chocolate yogo cream brulee, soft chocolate gel, chocolate cereal crunchy, chocolate sable breton, chocolate caramel mousse, chocolate plaquette

4 Times the Vitamin C - Blackcurrant jelly, blackcurrant marshmallow, vanilla violet mousse, pistachio feuilletine, pistachio dacquoise & blackcurrent glacage

Zumbo's cakes are complex. Each one concealed layer after layer of surprises, and we were like kids in a candy store as we bit into each one, trying to figure out what it held.

We liked "What A Great Pear Of" - if there is a cake that encapsulates a pear in all its forms, this was it, from the cute little croquembouche top to the gorgeous, refreshing, oh-so-light pear gel. Our favourite though, had to be "4 Times the Vitamin C". This was sheer berry goodness, from the shiny, glossy blackcurrant jelly, to the fun little blackcurrant marshmallows, attached like hedgehog spikes to the cake. I loved every single bite of this. It was truly sublime.

We didn't like "Charlie's Homemade Ginger Fear" or "I'll Get Back to you Barry" as much. Both cakes came across as very dense and heavy. I felt Barry could have done with some tangy element to cut through the cloyingness of it all. Neither H nor I could distinguish the layers in this one. We could see it, but besides the chocolate cereal crunchy, it came across as the same - chocolate mousse-ness. "Charlie's Homemade Ginger Fear" shared the same fate. It was very gingery and heavy, and while the passionfruit bavarois was a nice touch, it didn't seem to blend well with the ginger flavour.

Ahh, the pink and black box. I used to see it in the photos of friends who'd been to Sydney and Zumbo. It was a box that incited envy amongst us Melburnians who couldn't get to Zumbo's macarons. And now, I had one.

We only managed space for Zumbo's macarons a day later, so that may have affected their taste. H loved the oatmeal and ylang ylang one the most, and the black vanilla the least. I liked the texture of the black rice in the filling of the mango and black rice macaron, but didn't quite like the rest.

Zumbo was plenty of fun, but I think there could just be better ones out there.

Adriano Zumbo Patisserie

296 Darling Street

Balmain NSW

Tetsuya - Sydney

2010-08-29T19:26:00.009+10:00

A few months ago, I entered a competition I stumbled upon on ChocolateSuze. It was a chance to win a MasterClass with Tetsuya and a ten course degustation dinner prepared at his eponymous restaurant, Tetsuya's, in Sydney. The competition was the stuff made of food-lovers dreams - a chance to go behind-the-scenes and watch Tets in his element, and so I crossed my fingers, visited the Electrolux site, placed my entry and waited.

And I struck lucky! The day arrived and we boarded the plane to Sydney Airport. H could not join me for the dinner, so he dined at Azuma on George Street - Tet's favourite Japanese restaurant and a haunt of Neil Perry's. I was the next street away, standing in awe outside the gates of Tetsuya's (there is no sign) and taking in the impressive and somewhat mysterious mood-lit restaurant, waiting to be ushered through its doors.

Tetsuya's is exquisite. It reminds me of one of those large, sprawling Japanese mansions, with lots of beautiful dark wood tones and lattice wooden screens. Every single piece of art and furnishing has been carefully considered, and in its entirety, it is a work of beauty. I wish I had the chance to explore more of the restaurant, but we were led to the bar after we arrived, offered some wonderful champagne, and left to take in the stunning views of Tetsuya's beautiful and very serene Japanese garden through the floor-to-ceiling glass. I felt as if I was in Japan, save for the lovely tones of our hostess, Fleur.

From here, we were led upstairs to Tetsuya's new Electrolux Masterkitchen, a sleek, shiny white marble and black surfaced space, all angular lines and flat surfaces. I'd seen induction cooktops before, but the Electrolux ones were very attractive. There were no knobs or protrusions, just clean, straight lines (it would make cleaning a breeze), with the tap coming in the form of a hole in the wall of the sink. Hover your hands beneath it and water sprouts out like a fountain, just at the right angle that it isn't creating puddles everywhere (though that wouldn't have been a problem given how deep the sink is). The range hood was a black-tinted metallic mirror that reflected the work going on on the kitchen bench and stove. With its down-lights and sharp modern edges, it looks more like an interior decorator's choice than a functional thing. It's quiet too, which makes it easy to forget that it's actually doing something. But that's what the kitchen is - modern technology mixed with sheer beauty.

The star of the show though, was undeniably Tetsuya, who was calmly and quietly adding the last touches before the class started. He's very soft-spoken, and despite his successes, very humble and down to earth, and it was an honour to be there and watch him as he swiftly prepared his dishes.

The first dish in the MasterClass was Tetsuya's signature sashimi of tuna with blackbean & orange. Tets removed a beautiful rosy-pink slab of tuna from the fridge, cut a perfect rectangular block from it, and proceeded to slice this skillfully into fine slices of sashimi. According to Tets, it is best to leave the fish aside for about three days for the flavour to develop, as freshly caught fish don't actually have the flavour we get when we have sashimi in Japanese restaurants. That and it's important to wrap it in a paper towel followed by cling wrap when storing the left-over cuts.

I wish I'd remembered to pack my notebook so that I could write the ingredients down, as there are many layers to the dish other then a simple fish dressed with blackbean & orange.Tets warmed up the dressing (grapeseed oil, soy sauce and mirin) in a pot till it smoked, before pouring it over the fish. It was then dressed with micro herbs, wakame, coriander, lime juice, orange zest, black beans and finely julienned dehydrated red chilli (the ingredient that looks like saffron threads on the top), and seasoned with some pepper and salt. The vibrant colours made the dish very pretty. (A close up below)

I really really liked this. It would be the best sashimi I've had, with the one at Nobu coming in a close second. The hot oil had seared the tuna, sealing the fresh juices inside, leaving a melt in the mouth texture that went incredibly well with the salty, citrusy dressing. Instead of wasabi, Tets added some finely grated ginger to the dish, which lent a nice spice and 'hotness' without that tear inducing effect that wasabi can sometimes have. It was a subtle, more elegant version, with a depth and complexity I've never experienced. Add the dehydrated chilli and you get a touch of heat and spice. Simply sublime!

Next was an Italian inspired dish made with Fregola, a type of pasta that looks like little corn pieces in its dehydrated form. You can find this in David Jones Food Hall, though you need to be able to understand Italian to decipher how it is cooked! Tets said that his other favourite cuisine (besides Japanese) is Italian, hence this delicious creation. Here Tets sauteed some onion and garlic in oil (I can't remember if it was grapeseed or extra virgin), added a chopped tomato base that had been cooked with chicken stock, then chopped chilli and some mud crab from Noosa, before adding in the cooked Fregola (which looks like and reminds me of pearl cous cous).

The final dish was a seared scampi creation with roasted red peppers and more of that beautiful dehydrated chilli threads. Unfortunately we ran out of time to continue the cooking class so we never got to try this dish.

A quick photo session with Tets later, we were led to the table and offered warm bread rolls and truffle butter - rich, decadent butter with the most generous truffle chunks I've seen in one of the sort. Carbs were scarfed as we eagerly lapped the butter up with the bread. Our side of the table demolished so much truffle butter they had to give us another pot. It was that good.

The first course was a delicate little teacup of warm chestnut soup with smoked cream, paired with Tamanohikari Sake, Junmai-Ginjo, Kyoto Japan. The soup was smooth and delicious, with the smoked cream adding a lovely touch. The sake was excellent, but, as with all sakes, fiery and strong. I really couldn't down much!

Next was the sashimi of kingfish with blackbean and orange, served on a beautiful textual Japanese earthenware plate. I was happy having this again. In fact, I would happily have it everyday if I could.

This was followed by New Zealand scampi tails with curd and scampi jus. I struggled to eat this, and I wasn't the only one at the table. I love scampis - but I only love them cooked. The other elements of the dish, including the sweet bean curd and scampi jus were delicious, but paired with wakame and the mushy, gelatinous nature of the scampi it came across as soft and hard to swallow.

Next, the most anticipated dish of the night, Confit Petunia ocean trout with konbu, celery and apple. This was everything I hoped for. Lovely, melt in the mouth ocean trout dusted with a fine layer of konbu flakes and accompanied by the wonderful burst of small spheres of salty roe. It matched beautifully with the slightly chunky strips of fresh green apple. A dish worthy of all the attention it has received over the years.

We were then served a fillet of Barramundi with grilled artichoke & garlic puree. I would never have paired fish with garlic but it's a sublime combination, especially when the garlic is in the form of a cream packed with rich, garlick-y goodness! The cream is made by blanching garlic twice and cooking it with milk, before pureeing it to form the lovely, thick white mixture you see peeking out just beneath the artichoke.

Then came the braised ox tail with sea cucumber & yuzu, another gorgeous melt-in-the-mouth creation.

Then a beautiful duck breast served with spring onions and topped with a delicate little flower and a rich duck jus.

And our final savoury course, a braised lamb with purple and white heirloom carrots and an orange heirloom carrot puree. I really loved the last three dishes. All of them were so beautiful and pure, yet bursting with such rich flavours and essences. It's easy to see why Tetsuya is amongst the top restaurants in the world.

The dessert started with a pear sorbet and bread & butter pudding. The pear sorbet was a gorgeous icy dish that made for a wonderful palate cleanser, and the bread & butter pudding was to die for. No soggy bread here, just gorgeous creamy moorish goodness.

This was followed by Nyoho strawberries with candied pistachio & enriched cream. This was another gorgeous dessert. Apparently the strawberries are a special variety (Nyoho) from Japan and they have a lovely, sweet, subtle strawberry taste. They paired beautifully with the balsamic reduction, cream, candied pistachio and light dusting of icing sugar. A wonderfully, refreshing dish perfect for summer! (though I was perfectly happy having it in winter)

And the finale, a Chocolate Pave with cream cheese ice cream & cinnamon twigs. This was another shiny chocolate dome filled with rich chocolate-y goodness, with some green tea salt scattered carefully on top to really bring out the chocolate flavour. I loved the cinnamon twigs, though I felt the cream cheese ice cream could have been either lighter (to cut through the rich chocolate) or have a stronger cream cheese flavour. It felt a little tame, and I wasn't particularly fond of the chocolate crumbs either.

Dinner finished with a lovely pot of hojicha (toasted green tea) served in one of those beautiful cast iron teapots placed on a sheet of cedar wood (I love the scent it gives off). Accompanying it were these sweet little macarons. I love Tetsuya's and would not hesitate to come back but his macarons were a bit of a disappointment. I would have loved to have tried some other petit four - something Japanese inspired perhaps - instead of these.

We stood to leave but the surprises were not over. We were each given a lovely gift bag as a parting gift, with some macarons to take away, a pot of Tetsuya's truffle salt and Tetsuya's cookbook, autographed on the inside cover. I thoroughly enjoyed my dining experience here, and would love to return on my next trip to Sydney, this time with H, for a long, leisurely dinner.

R flew to Sydney and dined at Tetsuya's as part of the Tetsuya Electrolux Masterclass competition.

Tetsuya's
529 Kent Street, Sydney NSW

Bourke Street Bakery - Sydney

2010-08-29T15:47:00.004+10:00

Can I just say that Bourke Street in Surry Hills is such a gorgeous strip? And the Bourke Street Bakery is no exception either, looking like one of those quaint French patisseries from an old movie. I loved the Moulin Rouge-esque boulangerie sign above the entrance and the gold letters etched onto the glass, and of course, when we arrived, there had to be a little white dog tied outside to complete the picture.

I didn't imagine the bakery to be that tiny - especially for a place with a cookbook to its name. Freshly baked bread and pretty looking tarts were neatly stacked and displayed in one of its windows, with the other containing a few tables, worn leather chairs and window seats. There was a tiny counter housing more alluring sweet treats, and a small drinks fridge holding several house-bottled drinks. There was a lovely old-world charm about it all, though the service wasn't as charming.

H had the strawberry vanilla brulee and I the chocolate mousse tart with rhubarb - both seriously good stuff. Sweet, thin slices of strawberry had been placed on the base of the pastry shell, which was then filled with a custard-y, silky-smooth vanilla brulee, torched to give it a slight bitterness. It was, as H said, creme brulee in a tart, and a really good one at that. My chocolate mousse tart with rhubarb was made the same way, with thin strips of rhubarb placed on the base of the pastry, topped with a lovely chocolately (but still light and fluffy) mousse and dusted with cocoa powder. It was divine, and a shame that we only had space for two of the bakery's options. It was so good that H wants their cookbook very much now, even though we only glanced at it previously, not knowing if the recipes would be good.

Just across the road was The Book Kitchen, another place we'd read good things about on Not Quite Nigella. We were thinking of having a coffee there before dinner but it was closed. Perhaps on another trip to Surry Hills!

Bourke Street Bakery
633 Bourke Street, Surry Hills NSW

Becasse - Sydney

2010-08-28T23:22:00.001+10:00

There was a glass door, then a grand black curtain, partly pulled back to reveal just the slightest glimpse of the restaurant. It lent Becasse an air of mystery and a hint of theatre, a little peek before being ushered into the midst of the action. Then, there's the white marble staircase, and when you reach the top, a sweeping view of the multi-tiered restaurant, the open kitchen tucked away on the lower level, rows of formal tables dressed with starched white table clothes and polished wine glasses on the mid-tier, and a beautifully wallpapered upper level - all dark tones with gold accents. Another peek and there's the wine cellar, tucked away behind glass just above the bar. And then, there's the sculptures and crystal lights, shimmering, beautiful and very elegant.

Lunch is served in the form of an a la carte menu or a degustation, and it's easy to be swayed towards the latter when it offers so much of the former. First up, the bread course. I am perfectly content with freshly baked bread and some great butter or olive oil, but it's always exciting when restaurants add a little twist and give the bread (or butter) some spice and sizzle.

Justin North's 'House Baked Bread' is a trio of freshly baked, warm, doughy delights, served with an olive oil emulsion with volcano ash, and butter with pork fat and apple salt. The olive oil emulsion was lovely, with the volcanic ash adding a nice salty touch. The butter on the other hand had a very strong pork flavour that turned us off.

After demolishing the 'House baked bread', we moved on to the canape - Housemade ricotta with heirloom tomatoes and black olive. This bite-sized delight was lovely and refreshing - the ricotta smooth and creamy, the black olive lending a slightly salty accent, and the heirloom tomatoes something sweet. The heirloom tomatoes weren't as gorgeous or pure as the ones we had at the Royal Mail Hotel, but this is Sydney, and there aren't carefully tended tomatoes growing a few hundred metres away in a beautiful kitchen garden at the foot of the hills.

The amuse bouche was a quinelle of chilled Mediterranean consomme with roasted red peppers and jamon crumbs. I'm not sure if I quite liked this. I love consommes and gazpachos but didn't like the flavours in this one. The jellied consomme didn't particularly match with the roasted peppers and jamon crumbs, and H & I felt it was a little bland. We were hoping that it was not a tiding of things to come.

The 'Salad of marinated heirloom vegetables - sugar snap mousseline, black olive and lemon balm' won us over. It is a gorgeous dish - the golden beetroots, fine radish slices, micro herbs and flowers, black olive tapenade and striking deep red beetroot puree and pale green sugar snap mousse presented like a beautiful piece of artwork. It tasted amazing as well. The lightly marinated vegetables were sublime, with the beetroot puree, sugar snap mousse, slightly salty black olive tapenade and lemon balm adding some lovely flavour punches.

The Confit miso blue-eye and smoked scallop with sauteed cuttlefish, cauliflower and buckwheat was another winner. The blue-eye was imbued with the lovely, sweet-salty flavours of miso, which worked wonderfully with the smoky taste of the scallop. I found the textures and colours of the blue-eye, scallop and cuttlefish really similar, yet there were subtle flavour differences that kept me guessing which seafood I was tasting at that moment. I loved the chunks of marinated cucumber, and the cauliflower puree and crunchy buckwheat provided a nice textual variation.

H had high expectations of this dish - 'Forgotten vegetables slow cooked in smoking dedar with aged pork jowl, scratchings and jus gras'. He had his eye set on it for the entree if he had gone with the a la carte option, so he was a little disappointed to find that the so-called exotic 'forgotten vegetables' were nothing more than potatoes, beetroots, carrots and turnips. I actually liked this one. The jus gras was sublime and had been absorbed by the juicy, moist root vegetables, and the pork scratchings added a nice texture and crunch. The best touch? It comes served on a thin sheet of cedar wood, which is ignited just before it reaches the table, giving off a lovely aroma.

Next was Roast Palmers Island mulloway with king prawns, soubise puree and smoked crustacea emulsion. The mulloway was beautiful - all firm white flesh and nice crisp skin - and that smoked crustacea emulsion was sheer shellfish heaven. It was rich, indulgent, brimming with flavour and salty, and it went superbly with the firm king prawns and spring onions. I loved this.

Our last entree was the Caramelised suckling pig and braised pork tail - roast parsnip and compressed apple. This was another dish H had very high hopes for, and they were quickly shattered. All the pork dishes that we tried during the course of our degustation seemed to be dealt with a little too heavy-handedly - the pork coming across as too strong and too overpowering and burying the other flavours and elements of the dish.

This one was rich and cloying. The beetroot puree on the left helped cut through it, but the crisp pork (sweetbread perhaps?) on top seemed to sing only one tune - porky. The filling of the braised pork tail was lovely, but the gelatinous texture of the tail itself made it hard to eat for me (a somewhat squeamish eater) and H, who is much more adventurous but felt it would have been better crisp. The caramelised pork belly was a little too fatty for my liking, and again, overwhelmingly porky. We both struggled with this.

The mains were another of our favourites. H had the Daube of Blackmore's full-blood wagyu shin, potato baked in ash, Jerusalem artichoke and jus Bordelaise - a lovely, rich dish that tasted amazing (though slightly on the fatty side with the meat). I had the Ballotine of Glenloth Game pheasant, chestnuts, bacon, brussel sprouts and jus gras with a potato sarladaise. The ballotine was sublime; it was the perfect marriage of ingredients - crunchy chestnuts, firm, gamey pheasant, juicy mushrooms and pistachio pieces - moist and beautifully cooked and wonderfully rich. I love brussel sprouts and crisp bacon and paired with that decadent rich jus and crisp potatoes, it was heaven on a plate. If I had the entire ballotine, I would probably stash it in my freezer and savour it very very slowly.

The first of our desserts was the Orange and cardamom pannacotta with blood orange, beetroot and vanilla. This was a gorgeous, refreshing dish. The blood orange granita was lovely, citrusy and sweet, and the pannacotta light and creamy. The only thing we felt the dish could have done without was the beetroot sponge, which seemed a little too dense and heavy.

Finally, dessert! I had the Zokoko 70% Bolivia chocolate and caramel 'cadeau', organic vanilla and milk sorbet, and H had the Banana creme brulee, salted peanut brittle and milk coffee sorbet. Both of these were superb. That rich, beautiful, shiny dark chocolate dome with the exquisite base held a very decadent centre of caramel, with the organic and milk sorbet providing the perfect light cut-through. The crisp pieces of caramel coated flakes on the bottom added a lovely crunch as well. It was very rich but worth every spoonful.

H's banana creme brulee proved to be layer after layer of surprises. A lovely light coffee-accented sorbet placed on top of a layer of tulle, covering a layer of silky smooth creme brulee which covered slices of banana and salted peanut brittle. It was a great way to end the degustation.

P.S. Special mention must go to the front of house team at Becasse who were very knowledgable and amazing.

Becasse
204 Clarence Street, Sydney 2000

David Lebovitz's Lemon Tart

2010-08-20T23:38:00.005+10:00

Ahh, David Lebovitz. H longs to live his life - staying in Paris, spending the days creating gorgeous new recipes, and exploring wonderful cafes, patisseries and restaurants. One of H's colleagues has a lemon tree, which yielded a fair bit of lemons this winter, and when H was given a bag, he turned to David Lebovitz's blog to find out what to do with them. The result - a Tarte au citron - which I have been steadily demolishing over the past few nights as dessert.

I first tried this an hour or so out of the oven, when it had barely cooled, and found the taste of egg yolks in the lemon curd quite distinct. It does mellow once chilled though, and becomes a lovely, quite rich but still tart curd, The pastry is slightly sweet, but goes wonderfully with the lemon, and it's probably my favourite tart pastry so far. I love the slight crispness it has, and could happily eat it just on its own.

H dusted this with some icing sugar, and we decided to debut it on our new Bison plate, which we absolutely love. Because we cook at night and take our photos then, it doesn't show up very well here, but it's a beautiful dark blue gray and very wide - perfect for cakes and tarts. Here's a picture of the tart when sliced - isn't it gorgeous?

You can find the recipe from David Lebovitz's Tarte au Citron here.

Mid Week Meal: Braised Beef Shortribs, Shallot Tatins & Fennel Salad

2010-08-20T23:07:00.004+10:00

Sunday. The apartment smells of beef. It's in the air, in my hair and in my clothes. We braved the cold briefly to air the house, but still there was that strong beefy smell, permeating everything (including the bedroom). H had spent a whole day patiently tending to something on the stove. I knew it involved beef and red wine (given the liquid's vivid burgundy colour), but I had no idea what it was - just another of H's experiments.

Monday. Another cold day, another late finish. So was a nice surprise to come home to a beautifully-cooked meal. Finally, I realized what that beefy smell was all about. H was trying out Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home recipe for Braised Beef Shortribs, and it is simply delicious. It's one of those dishes that's packed with flavour. The beef is tender, juicy and rich, bursting with the aromas and essences of the braising liquid, and the accompanying red wine reduction is sublime - thick, slightly salty, and with a lovely rich, developed taste that blends well with the beef. Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home never disappoints, and I forgive H for making the apartment beefy.

Accompanying the dish is Marcus Wareing's Shallot Tatins, from his book How to cook the perfect... This is another gem, and a great guide to getting the good basic dishes really right. I like to think of it as Heston Blumenthal's In Search of Perfection but simpler (because I actually contemplate attempting Marcus' dishes). I really love the pastry on this one. It's thin, just the slightest bit crisp (rather than soggy), and reminds me of crackers - all a perfect accompaniment to the sweetness of the caramelized shallots. This actually went really well with the red wine reduction. Marcus suggests topping it with melted goat's cheese which would probably nicely offset the sweetness but we didn't have any in our pantry so we went without.

As for the fennel, that is H's creation - finely sliced fennel tossed with chopped tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar and some salt and pepper. I always love fennel salads, and the acidity of this nicely offset the richness of the other two dishes.

Note: Because of copyright and because I am hesitant to republish recipes from cookbooks without permission, I have chosen to leave out the recipes for this post.

Cumulus Inc

2010-08-15T15:32:00.010+10:00

Cumulus Inc - that little hotspot in town. We've been there most Friday nights, hoping against hope that there will be a table, but this is Melbourne - capital of food-lovers and the fine dining crowd, and more often then not, we've walked away from a 45 minute to hour-and-a-half wait to try our luck at some other place in town. Cumulus is hard to get into, so it was to our surprise yesterday that the gorgeous front-of-house staff told us she had a spot for two at the bar. We were thrilled.

Having not been to Cumulus for a very long time, we decided to go a little crazy with the menu. It's oyster season and we love those salty, slippery little morsels, so we went for half a dozen of the Clare de lune, Moulting Bay and Label Rouge, all brimming with that wonderful essence of the sea and a lovely, creamy aftertaste. Our favourite had to be the Label Rouge - it was a simple, pure pleasure in a shell.

I've had Andrew McConnell's soups before and they are worth every dollar for their sheer deliciousness, but this time I allowed myself to be led away from the very tempting Nettle Soup, Hervey Bay Scallop on the menu for the Kitchen Charcuterie selection. Yesterday, the selection was the 40g Wagyu Bresaola with horseradish "snow", the Proscuitto di Parma, a pheasant terrine with horseradish dressing, herbs and cornichons and handcut Italian salami. We've had the charcuterie selection before (it seemed bigger the last time?) and it is just as good now. There is something satisfying about tucking into a plate of lovely, quality, cold meat - from the salty, thin slivers of Parma and Bresaola, to the chunky, firm terrine and spicy, salty salami.

We then had our side dishes - globe artichokes with white asparagus, soft boiled eggs and aioli, and kipfler potatoes (which as I'm typing this, I realize never came!). Everything was done beautifully - the asparagus was just right, the artichokes tender, the soft boiled eggs perfectly cooked, and the aioli nice and creamy. I loved dipping my toast soldiers into the soft yolk, though we both felt it could have done with a bit more flavour (the pink salt on the table did the trick).

Onto the mains - a plate of Kinkawooka mussels with parsley and saffron bourride. I love mussels and this was beautifully done, with a wonderful creamy saffron sauce that perfectly complimented the mussels and thick-cut grilled and buttered toast. I had to keep myself away from the bread plate to stop dipping it into the sauce!

Next, slow cooked pork strap & roast rack, leeks braised in miso butter and Chang's kimchi. This was one dish we were both truly excited about. We'd wanted to eat at Cumulus when David Chang was around, but had to pick between that and the Mugaritz dinner with Andoni Luis at the Royal Mail instead. This dish lived up to everything we'd expected. Beautiful, tender leeks poached in a sublime butter sauce, accented with the lovely sweet-salty taste of miso, a finely pureed kim chi that is slightly milder then the version you would find in most Korean restaurants, slices of crisp pork rack - firm, unctuous and crisp all at the same time - and a beautifully grilled pork strap.

Finally, because we couldn't choose, we had one more main - a braised beef short rib with a horseradish crumble and a lovely, creamy sauce. This was delicious though we found the beef a bit on the fatty side. It's usually done with an oyster blade but for the night it was short rib instead. It was a winning combination, but I do wish the meat was slightly leaner!

We decided to pass on dessert as nothing really caught my eye but I am sure we will be back when we can. Cumulus Inc is one of those great dining establishments you know you can rely on, and I know that another one of these days, I will be popping in and trying my luck.

Cumulus Inc
45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Guest Post: My mum's food memoirs

2010-08-08T19:49:00.006+10:00

I remember how diaries were all the rage in my primary and high school days. Us girls would pass them around to our classmates, asking them to write anything and everything - from their dream career, favourite celebrities (it was Spice Girls in my time) to favourite food - all kept under wraps with a little flimsy lock (which really, anyone could pick). Of course, all of us have grown up now and our tastes have evolved through the years, but it was still a wonderful way to get to know them then.

I don't think any of us ever asked our parents to write in our diaries (naturally), so while we were all about finding out what our friends favourites were, we never looked at home to find out more. For this reason, I am honoured to bring to you today, a guest post from my mum, uncovering dishes from the past and the foods I never knew she liked before. My grandparents passed away when I was very young, so I never got the chance to taste the dishes that my mum mentions here.

One. Mutton curry. One of my favourite dishes is my mum's mutton curry. She did not believe in purchasing pre-made curry powder, and would always grind her own ingredients to form a curry paste.

Two. Curry Yong Taufu. When I was small, my dad would prepare this at home, scraping the flesh of the fish to form a fish paste and stuffing it into bittergourds, brinjals, ladies fingers (okra) and chillies. My mum would prepare the curry gravy, and bring the ingredients together to form the curry yong taufu.

Three. Mee Siam, Laksa and fried beehoon. My mum was a very good cook, but her specialty was noodle dishes. Her Nyonya mee siam and laksa were two of my favourite dishes, but the one that stays with me most is her fried beehoon (rice vermicelli). It was a very simple dish with very few ingredients, but very delicious. My mum taught me how to cook this dish many times, but I just could not get it right.

Four. Bak chang & Kee Chang. (Nyonya pork & glutinous rice dumplings and alkaline dumplings) This is another dish my parents cooked together. My dad would be busy mincing the pork for the bak chang, while my mum prepared the spices, mushrooms and winter melon strips. She would then cook the filling and rest it overnight, and while I was at school the next day, she would make the chang. The chang would be boiled for a good six hours in a kerosene tin over the charcoal stove, and by that evening, it would be ready for dinner.

Five. Soft tofu with salted fish bones. Another simple but tasty home-cooked dish. Soft tofu would be cooked with salted fish bones in a simple chilli gravy to form a spicy, soupy dish.

Six. Mutton soup. I loved mutton, and when I was young, we would visit this mamak (Indian-Muslin) stall which sold mutton soup. We would walk there with a tiffin carrier to bring the soup home in, keeping it piping hot for the return journey.

Seven. Chinese cakes. I can't remember the name of this now, but whenever my dad went out, he would bring back these heart shaped Chinese cakes, filled with glutinous rice, groundnuts and dried prawns. The cake is first steamed till cooked and then lightly panfried and eaten with homemade chilli sauce. Another version of this has a mengkuang (yam bean), mushroom and dried prawn filling. You can still find these today (in Malaysia), but they never taste the same.

Eight. Satay. When I was young, a Malay man would make the rounds at 6pm, selling his satay from two boxes tied to the end of a pole. In one of the boxes, there would be ketupat (rice cakes wrapped in young coconut leaves and boiled till cooked), cucumber, sliced onions and stacks of uncooked satay. The other box held the gravy and a charcoal grill. The satay would be grilled fresh to order.

Nine. Mee Rebus and fried beancurd with peanut sauce. Back in the day, the mee rebus (yellow noodles with a spicy gravy) vendor would come on a bicycle carrying a huge box with the ingredients for preparing mee rebus, sold alongside fried beancurd with a peanut sauce. The tauhu (beancurd) would be fried on the spot, and while they sizzled in the hot oil, he would prepare the sauce in a big earthenware bowl with a wooden stick , mashing the garlic and chilli, and throwing in the remaining ingredients to create the fried beancurd gravy. This would be poured over the fried beancurd, creating a mouthwatering spicy, salty and peanut-y dish. Mee rebus and fried beancurd like that can't be found anymore.

Ten. Tau Suan. (Skinned green peas cooked in a sweet broth) This is a sweet, syrup-y Chinese dessert, served with fried you tiao (Chinese dough strips). Thickened with sweet potato flour, it is best eaten hot, as it starts turning watery when it cools down.

Image of the 1930s Satay vendor taken from The Inn-Crowd

Guest Post: My sister's Food Memoirs

2010-08-07T16:33:00.006+10:00

My sister and I are a year apart, so we've grown up together and shared the same dishes for most of our life. Our tastes have always been different though, and it's been great fun reading her food memoirs! She's actually one-upped me on this one, and sent me pictures for most of the dishes she's mentioned in her memoirs below. Here are her food memoirs, slightly edited.

My sister asked me to do a guest post about my food memoirs, so here I am listing my take on 'My life in 10 dishes'. I could mention a whole range of new things that I've tried and experienced in Melbourne for the past 7 years, but nostalgia calls, and I have chosen to introduce you to the food I've eaten in the 16 years I spent in my own country. Here goes!

One. Tako. This is actually a sweet Thai dessert, made up of two layers consisting of coconut cream (top layer) with a water chestnut jelly below. I remember making it with my mum, cutting divisions into pandan leaves and stapling them together to form little boxes, pouring the water chestnut jelly in to set and then repeating the process with the coconut cream. It is then popped into the fridge till it sets, and served chilled.

Two. Indonesian Layer Cake (kueh lapis). For me, there's this extreme sense of satisfaction of peeling the cake layer by layer, popping it into my mouth and tasting the eggy goodness of each strip. I've made this a few times at home - my mum normally makes the mixture, and I think she schemingly leaves me to do the tedious job of sitting in front of the hot oven, pouring in ladles of batter, smoothing it out to form an even layer, and taking it in and out of the oven to lay the next layer every 4 minutes or so. It was very therapeutic; I always did it with a book in my hand (Harry Potter) with the timer turned on to keep me on my toes.

Three. Takoyaki (Japanese Octopus Balls). We used to get this at the shopping centre just past the causeway after school. They were always served piping hot with lots of takoyaki sauce and Japanese mayo, and generously piled on top would be bonito flakes that danced and curled! The closest takoyaki I've found here that reminds me of those of my childhood would be the ones from ColoTako - a street stall in Sydney's Chinatown night market. They were absolutely lovely!

Four. Nasi Lemak. Right around the corner from where we lived was this small shop called Kampung Boy (boy from a small village). It was really simple fare - just coconut rice, fried batter, cucumbers, fried ikan bilis (anchovies), peanuts, and fried chicken (nasi lemak cannot do without the fried chicken)! Otak Otak (a coconut and fish paste wrapped in banana leaves and grilled over charcoal) could be ordered on the side. Whenever we didnt cook and didnt want to go far, we would walk out, got some nasi lemak and then waddle home. Kampung Boy couldnt sustain itself in such a small residential area and eventually shut down. Nowadays in places like Kuala Lumpur there's nasi lemak that sells for 10 RM, coming with all the extra add ons, but nothing beats the simple nasi lemak from Kampung Boy.

Five. Chicken Rice. We had our favourite chicken rice stall just a 5 minute drive from our house. I prefer the roasted chicken instead of the Hainanese poached chicken (white chicken), and my mum always got me a chicken wing, with a soy egg on the side. The chicken was the best ever! It was moist and tender, and it literally melted in your mouth. The chicken rice man has since left and we have yet to find anyone who makes chicken rice like that anywhere else.

Six. Radish Cake. Sometimes after school, we would go to this noodle shop in the city, which sold radish cake. It was always fried on the spot, with beansprouts, spring onions, egg and with a dash of chilli and soy sauce. Its one of my favourite foods.

Seven. Kaya Toast. I confess to being a kaya toast fanatic. I adore my kaya toast! Whenever I head home, kaya toast is a must. I especially love the thick variety; there's such a satisfying feeling crunching into a slice of toast that is bigger than my mouth. I like it the Malaysian way, with kaya and a little bit of butter. I'm not a fan of the Hong Kong variety, which comes with condensed milk drizzled on top. Kaya toast is always eaten with either tea with condensed milk (teh), or tea mixed with coffee (cham), and soft-boiled eggs sprinkled with pepper and a splash of soy sauce. I never liked those eggs as a kid, but I've gotten over it. I now have them with soy and a dash of white pepper.

Eight. Butter Prawns. I love butter prawns. Its the whole texture and crunch that I adore, and the combination of the salty egg yolks and fried cereal is magical. Crystal Jade in Melbourne does great salted egg prawns, but one of the most authentic experiences you can get is at the seafood restaurants by the sea in Malaysia. What I remember most about would be my dad driving us on weekends to far away seafood restaurants, and I jokingly commenting 'Dad, by the time we get home, I have forgotten how my food tastes like!'

Nine. Fried Fish balls. I know how random this sounds. But fried fish balls are a big part of my childhood. We used to take art class and eventually became friends with our art teachers. They used to invite us over for Christmas, and always threw nice, Nyonya Christmas lunches or dinners. We started art classes when we were really young and were like extended family to our art teachers. Our art teacher's Nyonya mum always made fried fishballs for me to eat because she knew I loved them. Its something I miss quite dearly here.

Ten. Prawn Mee. R's note: I swear I was the prawn mee addict when we were growing up and I never knew she liked them till she listed them as one of her 10 dishes!

Food Memoirs

2010-08-05T23:33:00.005+10:00

I recently read Jill Dupleix's "My Life in Ten Dishes" and was inspired to write about my food memoirs. I thought it would be a great way to find out more about the dishes that hold significance to my parents as well - dishes that I probably don't know about and which may have faded into history. I've asked my sister because I think it would be interesting to see what are her memories and H who is still thinking about it. I'm holding out that they will agree to be guest bloggers and send me something but in the meantime, here are my simple but nostalgic dishes & memories.

One. Fried Soy Egg. I spent ten years of my life getting up at 4am in the morning to study in Singapore - which was across the border from where I lived. My mum used to get up even earlier, and after a cup of strong hot coffee, cook us breakfast. It wasn't one of those prissy cereal with milk breakfasts either. It was always hot, and one of my favourites was the fried soy egg. It wasn't fancy. Just an egg, fried in a hot wok, and drizzled with soy sauce, but it was one of my favourites, and every now and then, I crack an egg and make it.

Two. Barley. I am absolutely crazy for barley. My mum cooks this for me whenever she's here, and I could go through the whole pot in one sitting. We have a pandan plant back home, and my mum would send me off with a scissors to cut the leaves, knot them up and then put them in the pot along with rock sugar, candied winter melon and barley. I love this in winter. It's so heart-warming, and I make this whenever I have a fever or cough, because it's cooling nature takes away the heat.

Three. Coconut Milk. Ok, this isn't really a dish, but one of the few memories I have of my maternal grandfather is squeezing freshly scraped coconut wrapped in muslin to get the milk. My mum would then make some delicious dish out of it. I don't even know how to crack a coconut, but I'm sure someday I will figure it out.

Four. Roti Jala and Chicken Korma. During my primary school days, my mum used to make me lunch which I would bring to school in a two or three-tiered stainless steel tiffin carrier. One of my favourites was roti jala, a lace-patterned roti made with a special mould. I would dip this into her chicken korma - a delicious, chicken curry type dish. This one was a hit with my classmates. I let one friend try it, then another, and soon my forty classmates were having roti jala with me. My mum cooked more when she found out about this, and I remember feeling really fortunate as most of my friend's parents didn't cook or had maids who made them 2-minute noodles.

Five. My dad's fried chicken (or squid). My dad is a former Boy Scout and proud of it. When we were kids, he used to say he would cook, and I remember one day asking him to cook something. So he did. It was fried chicken or squid, I can't remember. But I know it didn't taste too bad. He never cooked again but that will always be a food memory.

Six. Peanut in a rice flour pastry. I don't know what this kueh, as we call it back home, is called. When I was younger, and going out at night was a safe thing, we used to go to the pasar malams or night markets, which sold all matter of fresh food and cooked snacks. There was tau foo fa (sweet steamed beancurd) and ban chang kueh (chinese pancakes with a crushed peanut, sugar and margarine filling), but my favourite was the Chinese kueh stall, with their rice flour pastry filled with crushed peanuts and sugar and dusted with flour). I loved it.

Seven. Chinese desserts. One of my favourite after school things was going to this dessert stall in Tebrau Market. I'm not sure if the stall still exists but my mum used to bring us there almost everyday, where I could choose from their tantalizing selection of desserts - from starchy sweetcorn and water chestnut to tau suan and other sweet, gooey, soupy things. I suspect that was her bribe for making us wait while she did her market shopping, but it worked. Those desserts were something I looked forward to every week.

Eight. Mee Siam & Kueh Koswee. Another memory from home. Mee Siam is my mum's signature dish, cooked with a prawn and quail egg sambal and gravy. I haven't cooked this for the Peranakan Cooking Challenge I set my self but someday I will. It's the thing my mum whips out when she has a dinner party, and it's always tasty. As for kueh koswee, it's another chewy kueh that I crave (I have a penchant for chewy things). I still remember my mum teaching my aunt this sweet treat. It involves handling hot water and hot dough, and my aunt would wring her hands and exclaim each time she dipped them into the dough. It was hilarious! There was nothing better then waiting for them to come out of the steamer in their little teacups, all brightly coloured and pretty.

Nine. Black Pepper Crabs. My mum's new signature dish. Black pepper, chilli, dried shrimps, fermented shrimp paste and the aroma of fresh curry leaves, wok-tossed with meaty mud crabs. She cooks this everytime she comes over or I go home, and it's bliss.

Ten. Gelati. Finally, something from Australia. There are so many things I love about the diversity of cultures and cuisines one can find in Melbourne, but the one I am perhaps fondest of is gelati. Perhaps it is because it was the first thing I tried when I came here, and it tasted nothing like the ice cream we get in Asia. It's so rich and creamy. I used to live in a hostel just around the corner from Lygon Street, and Il Dolce Freddo was one of my favourite haunts. I used to go there everyday for their Toblerone and Ferrero Roche gelati, which might explain why I put on 10kg in that year alone. The owner, Robert, let me into his kitchen to watch him make gelati once and it was fascinating. I still love gelati, though I now find myself leaning more towards the fruity sorbets with the occasional dabble in the chocolate section.

So what are your food memories?

Mid-Week Meal: H's Meatball Ragu

2010-08-01T16:25:00.002+10:00

This is one of our mid-week winter staples, ever since we discovered how easy it is to make a wonderful pasta sauce out of a tin of "sun-kissed" (as Neil Perry would call it) Italian cherry tomatoes. I confess, I was a pasta-sauce-out-of-a-bottle kind of girl. You would find me pondering over the hundred different varieties in the pasta sauce aisle, usually settling for something with a bit of garlic, bacon and spicy punch. Then one day, I decided to try one of Neil Perry's pasta dishes - something really simple. A bit of garlic and onion, some capers and anchovies, and tinned Italian tomatoes. I think Neil said that once you make a simple and tasty pasta sauce like this, you never go back to the bottled stuff again, and it's true, I haven't! So we stock tins of Italian cherry tomatoes in our house now, and we've found that it always comes in handy when we don't feel like heading out.

What I love about this dish is the little 'pop' you get when you bite into the hot cherry tomatoes, and that lovely, oozy molten cheese in the centre of the meatball. Here's the recipe for H's Meatball Ragu inspired by a recipe from a talented young chef who works at Chadstone's Jones the Grocer. Pictured with a gorgeous Queen B beeswax candle.

Handful of pasta
100g minced pork, seasoned with salt to taste and Luke Mangan's Provencal herbs
Tasty/Mozzarella cheese
1 tin of Italian cherry tomatoes
Dried chilli flakes
Black pepper
1/2 red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
100ml chicken stock
100ml red wine

Making the meatballs:
Make a small ball of Tasty or Mozzarella cheese. Cover this with the seasoned pork mince to form a meatball. Repeat with the rest of the cheese and mince.

For the sauce:
Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a cooking pan and add the meatballs. Brown the meatballs in the oil, then add the garlic and onion and cook till golden brown and soft. Add the chilli flakes (to taste) and grind some black pepper into the sauce. Add the chicken stock and reduce to glaze. Add the red wine and reduce as before.

Finally, add the can of cherry tomatoes and cook till the gravy is thick and glossy. While this is taking place, place the pasta in a pot of salted, boiling water and cook until al dente. Taste the sauce and season accordingly.

Toss the pasta through the sauce and serve with freshly chopped parsley!

Mid-Week Meal: Bill Granger's Sweetcorn Fritters with Avocado Salsa

2010-08-01T16:02:00.001+10:00

More late nights = more gorgeous home cooked meals. This time, H tried Bill Granger's Sweetcorn Fritters with Avocado Salsa, a delightful dish combining warm, savoury and sweet corn fritters with a refreshing, zingy avocado, coriander, tomato, lemon juice and tabasco salsa. I can envision this in summer, as an accompaniment to a seafood barbecue, but it's a lovely winter dish as well, and a nice break from all the rich and heavy dishes.

H added some finely sliced Spanish onion to the salsa, and the next time we make this, we'll be adding some crab meat to the fritters, just to add some texture and make it a little more luxurious!

+39 Pizzeria

2010-08-01T12:15:00.002+10:00

H was craving some warm, wood-fired pizza last Sunday (another cold, wintry day not unlike this one), so we headed to +39 Pizzeria on Little Bourke Street to have some of their toasty artisan pizzas. We arrived at about 11am - a little too early for their lunch service which starts at 12 - and though I was very taken with the tempting Nutella pizza with strawberry slices sitting on the counter top, we decided to wander around the area, and come back a little later.

Come 11:30am and we'd finished browsing the gorgeous Wilkins and Kent store just up the street. I was starving and cold and decided to duck back into +39 for a hot chocolate and that decadent looking dark chocolate, hazelnut and caramel tart I'd spotted in their glass display earlier. H decided he'd have a (and I'm guessing here because I just realized I'd accidentally deleted the notes I made on my iPhone) custard apple tart.

The hot chocolates - I love how they are served on that beautiful red plate! They were just chocolate-y enough, though probably not as rich as I would have liked.

The chocolate, hazelnut and caramel tart. This was a sheer delight. The bittersweet dark chocolate was a perfect match with the beautiful pastry shell, and the addition of crushed hazelnuts lent a lovely nutty flavour and crunch. My favourite had to be the caramel pralines. I love the crunchy, sugar-y touch! I remember thinking that the tart was a little on the small side, but once I finished it, I felt that that amount of gorgeous, chocolate-y, sugar-y goodness was just right.

The custard and apple tart, dusted with icing sugar. This was a pretty little thing, and tasted lovely as well. I must admit that my attention was devoted to the chocolate tart though.

Finally, the waiters start bringing out the fresh chilli oil and laying the well-worn paper menus, indicating lunch service. There's a tantalizing selection of gourmet pizzas - not the usual suspects you find in Italian restaurants, these are a lot more artisan - and we decide to go for the Salamino and Broccolini. It isn't long before the beautiful white-walled wooden space fills with the aroma of freshly baked bread and pizzas.

They arrive, roughly cut, but it doesn't matter as that just adds to the rustic-ness of it all. The pizzas smell amazing, the pastry is beautifully puffed, and the toppings are generous. I liberally drizzle mine with the fresh chilli oil and take a bite. The molten cheese, white sauce, tender, juicy slices of broccoli and salty tang of the anchovies are a great combination.

The salami pizza is just as delicious. I loved the warm, tomato base and the beautiful burst of flavour from the piping hot cherry tomatoes. The lean, circular discs of salami lent the pizza a lovely salty, spicy punch, and the radicchio leaves, a slight bitterness. We sprinkled quite a fair bit of chilli oil on this, as we love the slightly spicy dimension it adds to the pizza.

We'd previously dined at +39 and had somewhat of a 'miss' experience, but it was unfailingly good this time. We'll definitely be back when we have another craving for excellent pizza!

+39
362 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Wednesday: Momofuku pork buns and won ton noodle soup

2010-07-25T20:50:00.006+10:00

A teaser...

Yes, it's the Momofuku pork buns!

Served with a wonton noodle soup from the book, "The food of China"

Ahh, the Momofuku pork buns. David Chang was the one chef's MasterClass H wanted to attend at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival this year, but we weren't sold on the other sessions (it's hard to live up to Thomas Keller and Heston Blumenthal). As we couldn't purchase individual sessions this year, we gave it a miss. I still remember excitedly telling H that Australian Gourmet Traveller had the famed Momofuku Pork Buns recipe, only for us to purchase the copy and find instructions to refer to the Momofuku cookbook for plenty of the individual elements. We were disappointed.

H surprised me with the Momofuku pork buns after a long day at work. We had an inspired version at The Deanery recently, and it was lovely, but not impressive. H decided to make the David Chang version - roasting a beautiful slab of pork belly in our Le Crusset pot for three hours, before slicing it thinly and serving it with the hoisin sauce, spring onion, pickled cucumber and chilli. The buns were soft, like mantou's, and light, fluffy and delicious. The pork was beautifully glazed and reminded me of char siu (barbecued pork). I love how the skin glistens! Overall, these buns are as good as they're hyped up to be - we will have to make a pilgrimage to Momofuku if we ever go to New York.

There has been feedback that the recipes are made for huge batches, but they can be kept and frozen (we have plenty of Momofuku bun skins sitting in our freezer at the moment!) Here is the wonton recipe, taken from 'The Food of China' with H's additions:

Won Ton Noodle Soup
250g shrimp
80g peeled water chestnuts (tin version)
250g lean minced pork
3 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce
3 1/2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons roasted sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons cornflour

5 coriander roots

8 Chinese mushrooms, sliced finely

30 square won ton skins
1.5 litres chicken stock
2 spring onions green part only, finely sliced
1 packet egg noodles
Lettuce to serve

Peel and de-vein the prawns and mince. Roughly chop water chestnuts and mix with prawns, pork, mushroom, coriander root, ginger, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons rice wine, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, black pepper and cornflour in a bowl. Mix well.

Place a teaspoon of the filling in the centre of a won ton skin. Brush the edge of the skin with a little water, and pleat the edges to join (H used the Hong Kong folding style which you can see in pictures here). Place on baking paper.

Place the stock in a saucepan with the remaining soy sauce, rice wine, salt and sesame oil and bring to the boil. Add the won tons and remove when cooked. Blanch the egg noodles. Place a lettuce leaf in the bowl, arrange the egg noodles in it, and place the won tons on top. Pour the stock over and garnish with the chopped spring onion and some coriander leaves. Enjoy the won tons with soy and sliced red chilli!

Tuesday: Luke Mangan's Blue Eye with Miso Crust

2010-07-25T20:13:00.005+10:00

Blue-eye with a miso crust, served with caramelized apples, cucumbers and a fish sauce, taken from Luke Mangan's At Home and in the Mood cookbook. H & I toss up on this - I've had three of the dishes in the book at The Palace and thought they were pretty fantastic, but the recipes in the book can be a little hit and miss,

As for this dish, I liked the combination of miso with the blue eye and the slightly salty fish sauce, but I wasn't sure if the caramelized apples matched with the other elements. I ended up having the apples on their own as dessert.

Monday: Mushroom pasta and Carrots with Dukkah

2010-07-25T20:10:00.004+10:00

I'm having an absolutely crazy time at my day job - finishing really late and feeling utterly exhausted by the time I get home. H has been ever so patient, whipping up sublime dishes that are lovely and warming for my usually famished self. Here are some of his gorgeous creations.

Mushroom pasta with home-made mushroom stock, assorted mushrooms, parsley and Meredith Dairy goats cheese

Baby carrots marinated in Luke Mangan's dukkah spice, Meredith Dairy's goats cheese and mint

Mushroom Pasta

Mushroom Stock (makes 1 litre)

1/2 kg button mushrooms, thinly sliced

175ml Madeira

175ml dry white wine

1 shallot, sliced

3 garlic cloves

3 sprigs of thyme

1 bay leaf

3 peppercorns

1 leek

Chicken stock to cover

Saute leek, shallots and garlic until soft. Add Madeira, reduce to glaze, add remaining ingredients and cook for 1 hour. Strain stock, pour back into pot and reduce to a glaze.

Pasta

Boil water and add pasta. Meanwhile saute one clove of garlic and one shallot in a knob of butter. Once soft, add mushrooms and brown. Add mushroom glaze then enough cream to loosen. Add pasta and serve with fresh parsley and a square of goats cheese on top.

Luke Mangan's Roasted Carrots with Dukkah can be found here. We added some Meredith Dairy goats cheese and mint to serve.

International Incident Party - The Tacos Challenge

2010-07-18T10:38:00.003+10:00

H was all for it when the lovely Penny from Jeroxie announced her International Tacos Incident Party. Being somewhat new to the blogging world, and with both of us still trying to navigate our way through the various cooking challenges, this was our very first. And it was such a thrilling experience!

Instead of a savoury taco, H decided to do a dessert version, plating up the gorgeous Chilled Taco - tulle, chocolate mousse, pistachio sorbet, strawberry & raspberry jelly and strawberry squares that you see above. The taco shell takes the form of a sweet, light and crispy tulle, with the dense, rich, dark chocolate mousse, light pistachio sorbet, and sweet and tangy strawberry and raspberry jelly representing the various taco ingredients. It's taco love!

A trip down memory lane

2010-07-17T21:43:00.007+10:00

My dad sent me these photos on Penang Street Hawkers from the thirties today, and while I'm unsure who to credit them to, I thought I'd share them on the blog.

Aren't they fascinating? These vendors had become a thing of the past by the time I was born, so I never experienced the childhood thrill of running after a vendor to buy a kueh or ice ball (the predecessor of the ice kacang), as my parents did.

It was Heston Blumenthal who inspired me to look to my history and culture. I remember watching his Fantastical Feasts and being absolutely absorbed by his passion and enthusiasm at recreating beautiful dishes from the history pages. And with my mum coming from a fading culture, I thought I should learn as much as I can from her.

My mum is Peranakan (Straits Chinese), a race of people formed during the 15th & 16th century, when Chinese immigrants married the local Southeast Asian women along the Malayan Peninsula (predominantly Penang, Singapore and the Straits of Malacca). This unique race retained the old Chinese traditions and culture, but their intricate clothing and unique cuisine were heavily influenced by the Malay culture.The Peranakans thrived during the British colonization of Singapore and Malaya, but declined during the Second World War (particularly during the Japanese occupation) when many families fell into poverty and had to resort to selling their family heirlooms.

Recently, there has been a resurgence in the culture, but many of the highly-guarded and intricate recipes have been lost from generation to generation. My mum made it a point to get me immersed in Peranakan life from an early age, getting me to pound fragrant spices, pick lime, pandan and serai (lemongrass) leaves from the garden, mince meat, and prepare sauces, but as I grew older, I haven't spent as much time in the kitchen, given the intricate nature of the recipes, and the lack of time on my part.

I hope to spend more time rediscovering the recipes in the years to come!

Hooked

2010-07-11T19:52:00.001+10:00

The search for the perfect fish and chip shop has always been a little elusive. They're aplenty - particularly in those little seaside towns - but most aren't all they're hyped to be. Cue Hooked, a gorgeous little fish & chippery that's nowhere near the sea. It's situated in a swish little maroon shopfront with a decidedly beach-y feel. I loved the beautiful weathered wood table that takes centre-stage, the thick ropes, and the black chalkboard with the menu and day's specials. And to cap it off, one of the white-tiled and white-washed walls bears a striking mural of a giant octopus attacking a ship.

H & I decided to share the Box for Two - a selection of fish, calamari and king prawns, with a choice of salad & corn, sticky rice & bok choy or chips with lemon. We went for a grilled and battered fish, salt & pepper calamari, grilled king prawns, tartare and sweet chilli sauce, and because I was feeling particularly sinful, chips.

H & I found the grilled fish and prawns slightly fishy but I loved everything else. You won't find soggy batter here. Everything's beautifully coated and fried, and the generous wedges of lemon means that you get just the right amount of citrus-y zing! And those hand-cut chips are just lovely. They were beautifully salted and crisp (though the bigger ones were slightly under-fried), and accompanied by slivers of delicious sweet potato crisps. I wish there was such a brilliant fish and chippery where I live!

Hooked Fish & Chips
172 Chapel Street, Windsor (near corner of High Street and Chapel Street)

Ibuki - A hidden treasure

2010-07-11T17:10:00.007+10:00

One good thing I hope to do with this blog is to uncover the hidden places - the restaurants that serve wonderful food but which may be lacking in customers. Ibuki is one such restaurant - a hidden gem that doesn't get much love due to its location. Tucked away in the Grand Mecure Apartments on Flinders Lane, this poor place doesn't even have a signboard, which meant that we were the only customers on the night we went. It was that quiet.

Little flashing lights usually go off in my head when the restaurant is vacant. After all, the best places are always the ones that are the hardest to get into (Cumulus Inc is the perfect example!) But, I'd read that Mr Ibuki was the chef who opened the first official Japanese restaurant in Australia, and we figured that he had to be good to still open his restaurant doors more than 50 years on. So we bravely took our seats (what's life without a little culinary adventure?)

I admit, even as I was seated at the table looking through the menu, I felt a little skeptical. How could Mr Ibuki serve fresh sushi and sashimi if it was this quiet on a weekend? But the set menu appealed (it starts at $40 and is about $80 if you would like a lobster), and as it offered the most variety, we decided to take our chances.

Being winter, we had to have oysters, and these arrived at our table looking incredibly beautiful (how gorgeous is the pop of orange from the roe?) These were done Japanese style, with caviar (roe), pickled ginger and ponzu. I loved them. The oysters were fresh and large, and tasted just like the sea, even with the gorgeous citrus-y tang of the ponzu and pickled ginger and the slightly salty, crunchy caviar. Any concerns we had about freshness simply melted away with this - Mr Ibuki clearly respected quality.

Next was chawan mushi. I adore chawan mushi and this was one of the best I've ever tasted. Again, it was beautifully presented, with that splash of pink from the Japanese fishcake adorning the smooth, silky textured custard. No corners were cut here - Mr Ibuki's chawan mushi comes with all the ingredients, slices of Japanese fishcake, mushrooms, little bite-sized pieces of seafood and chicken, and those lovely ginko nuts which so many Japanese restaurants leave out. The stock it was steamed in was rich and simply delicious. This was sheer pleasure.

Then it was on to the sashimi course, which brought gasps to the table when it was presented. So much thought had gone into this, from the choice of crockery (a gorgeous deep blue Japanese plate with a delicate gold floral pattern), to the exquisite arrangement of the leaves, sashimi and other ingredients. I struggle to eat sashimi but here I enjoyed every slice. Every single ingredient - from the beautiful rosy-hued tuna, to the white fish, gorgeous orange salmon, octopus and lobster - was so fresh and immaculate, and the fish were cut perfectly - none of that horrible sinewy bits you get sometimes. The wasabi used was also fresh, adding a whole new dimension of sweetness and punch to the sashimi. It was a sensory delight - from the beautiful presentation (notice the tiny yellow and pink 'flowers'?) to the sheer freshness of all the elements.

Next was the sushi course, with more slices of beautiful sashimi, and the addition of ebi (prawn) sushi and rolls of sashimi, nori and caviar (roe). Like the sashimi course, everything was fresh and immaculate, and the rice was just perfect - not too vinegar-y, hard or soft.

This was followed by the tempura moriwase course - beautifully battered fish and vegetables, crisp fried but still bursting with their pure, natural sweetness, served with a dipping sauce. This was also top-notch, the tempura perfectly fried to a lovely golden brown without the slightest trace of rancid oil. I was admiring the presentation and how rustic it was (don't you love the wheat and wooden serving box?) until I realized that the wheat wasn't really wheat at all! It's actually a bunch of soba noodles, held together with a slim band of nori and crisp fried. I've always had soba tenzaru style or in a shoyu broth but I love it fried now. There's something satisfying about that crunch and that lovely buckwheat flavour when it's still hard. I ate my way through most of the first bunch!

By this time, we were so full, we weren't sure we could take in any more, but we simply couldn't turn down Mr Ibuki's dessert - seasonal fruits accompanied by a strawberry "cake" of sorts. The "cake" was actually a lovely, egg-y crepe filled with cream and strawberries and covered in a strawberry puree. H didn't like this that much but I did - it was refreshing to have something other than adzuki bean pancakes, matcha or black sesame ice cream as a Japanese dessert!

We will return to Ibuki soon, to try Mr Ibuki's a la carte menu and also to show our support. We hope you do too. It would be such a shame to let such an excellent restaurant close its doors!

NB - Ibuki changed their menu in August 2010, offering a larger a la carte section of traditional Japanese dishes. They also replaced their set menu with an omakase ($50 for six courses). This means that dishes are left to the kitchen, and while the classics remain (chawan mushi, sushi, sashimi and tempura platter) there are also new dishes.

Ibuki Flinders Lane
Grand Mecure Apartments, 321 Flinders Lane, Melbourne (enter the hotel as the restaurant is inside)\

Treehouse Artisan Sweets

2010-07-04T18:56:00.002+10:00

The very talented Christy from 5 types of Sugar and other Treats set up her gorgeous Treehouse Artisan Sweets stall for the very first time at the Melbourne Farmers Market today, and it's perfect! The stall is set up beautifully, and not only do her cakes look gorgeous, but they are also moist and bursting with flavours (Christy only uses the best local and seasonal ingredients carefully sourced from Farmers Markets). H & I bought the chocolate brownie and it's to die for - sheer chocolately goodness with a melt in your mouth texture that made me want even more after I'd finished my square. It isn't overtly heavy, sweet or dense, but has a wonderful, complex cocoa flavour. I truly love it (and dare say it's the best brownie I've ever tasted).

You can see Christy's range on her blog (Fall / Winter products), and try it for yourself every first and third Sunday at Shed 7 in the Melbourne Showgrounds. Come show your support!

Comfort Food: Paella

2010-07-01T22:20:00.003+10:00

Melbourne has been bitterly cold this week, and instead of our usual trudge out to find dinner, H has been cooking more, so we can sit in a little heated room and stay warm. I first fell in love with Paella at Movida, on one of H & my first dates. I haven't had it in years, but since we had a sack of paella rice sitting around the house, we decided to go on a paella mission, driving to the Simon Johnson store in Fitzroy to pick up some paprika and a paella pan.

This paella recipe has lovely, rich seafood flavours and a subtle smokiness. Here is H's (non-traditional) Paella recipe:

H's Paella:

1/4 teaspoon saffron (crushed)
1 chorizo sausage (good kind)
Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 large prawns, de-veined, retaining the heads
200g cuttlefish or small squid cleaned and cut into rings
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 tomatoes,skinned and diced
1 big clove garlic, finely minced
1/2 green capsicum, cored and diced
1 small onion, diced
Handful of frozen peas
3 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/4 cup paella rice (Arroz "Calasparra" from Simon Johnson)

Toast saffron in a pan over low flame, then place in a small bowl with 1/4 cup hot water and let sit for 15 minutes. Season prawns with salt and pepper. Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a paella pan over medium heat. Add the chorizo and prawns and cook until caramelized. Remove prawns with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add the cuttlefish, paprika, tomatoes, garlic, capsicum and onions to the pan, stirring frequently until the onions are soft. Add the saffron mixture and stock, season to taste, and bring to boil over a high flame.

Sprinkle in rice, distribute evenly with a spoon, and cook, without stirring until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid (approximately 10 - 12 minutes). Rotate the pan every two minutes so that the rice cooks evenly and develops the crust that paella is renowned for.

Reduce the heat to a low flame and add the prawns and peas. Cook for approximately 5 - 10 minutes or until rice is done. Remove the pan from the heat, cover with an aluminum foil, and rest for 5 minutes. Serve hot with wedges of lemon.

All hail the Queen of Puddings!

2010-07-01T22:01:00.007+10:00

Ah, the Australian Gourmet Traveller. H & I used to collect them - both of us pouring over the latest in the culinary world, the beautifully styled recipes, the glossy travel pages of far-off, very luxurious and very beautiful destinations (that one can only dream of), and that one fashion page which I loved. It's a pretty swish magazine, and really up there in the magazines of the gourmand world (it definitely made Bon Appetit look like it belonged in the B-list). H & I don't collect them anymore, but every now and then, we will spot a keeper, like the June issue.

H wanted to try the Queen of Puddings (that graces the cover) soon after we got the issue, so we set to it, H making the lovely, rich, deep red strawberry and raspberry jam, and I tackling everything else.

The end result, a gorgeously pouffed, delicious pudding with a lemony-custard base, a layer of tart but still sweet jam (which I loved), and a fluffy, highly teased meringue, placed under the grill just long enough for it to brown slightly - just the way I like it. The recipe makes enough jam to last a while as well.

The Queen of Puddings comes with a lovely story, and is apparently based on a 17th century recipe created for Queen Victoria by her chefs at Buckingham Palace. I love the history behind dishes, and even more when it has a touch of royalty!

You can find the recipe at: http://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/queen-of-puddings.htm

A Little Treat: Momo

2010-06-29T22:00:00.006+10:00

H & I went to Momo for a special occasion recently. We'd never been before as we thought it was a bit expensive. But we (or he rather) decided to splurge for the occasion, so off we went. Momo is accessed via a private lift in the swanky new Grand Hyatt hotel, and it opens up into the most beautiful space, with crushed velvet walls in a deep burnished gold, a chain-metal curtain illuminated in places with a beautiful blue light, and lights adorned with cut crystal.

How gorgeous are the plates?

I had the Turkish Delight cocktail, a sweet treat with rose water and a single rose petal. Very feminine, very elegant and very alcoholic! It's a lovely, lovely drink that smells and tastes absolutely divine (just like Turkish Delight), but one is quite enough.

For an appetizer, we were served an Egyptian style bread with slices of fresh baby carrots, zucchini, capsicum and radicchio dusted with Turkish chilli and plated with a dish of pomegranate oil. The bread was delicious - warm, soft and with a nice 'puff'. But it was the vegetables that truly awed me. I have never had served vegetables raw like that (aside from in a salad), but sprinkle them with some of that Egyptian magic dust and they are suddenly sublime. The chilli had a nice savouriness and bite to it, and seemed to really bring out the flavour of the sweet vegetables. The pomegranate oil was lovely as well, but you could really eat those vegetables just like that. They were that good.

We had the Moorish sharing menu, which includes all of the entrees, a main each, all of the sides and dessert. The first two entrees were Calf sweetbreads, bastourma, yellow beets and goats cheese with sherry dressing (left) and Prawns in olive brioche crumbs with Turkish style shredded celeriac salad with feta (right). I'm not a big fan of sweetbreads, but these had been coated in a sesame and crumb mixture and deep fried. burying the sweetbread amongst the flavours of the strong crust.The king prawn was delightful as well, crisp fried beautifully on the outside, but still retaining the sweetness and tenderness of the prawn on the inside. I really enjoyed the inclusion of the salads, which provided a nice acidity that cut through the moorish flavours.

Next we had Ras Kibbeh with young goat, fennel tzatziki and radish-lambs lettuce salad. Here, beautifully seasoned and grilled goat discs were served with thinly sliced baby radishes and a really good fennel tzatziki. We both enjoyed this.

The final entree was a Golden lentil stew with scallops, mussels and Syrian pepper noodles. Like the other dishes, the stew was lightly perfumed and moorish, rich with the tastes of seafood, and adorned with tiny mussels, scallops and lentils. I didn't quite like this at first, but it gradually grew on me, and the addition of the Syrian pepper and egg noodles was a nice touch.

Our first main was a Veiled quail covered in leaves with chorizo-pine nut stuffing and mustard whipped feta (a dish of the year) served with a side of freshly-made leek, currant and aged feta spanakopita with pear-herb dressing. This beautifully seasoned quail was stuffed with a house-made chorizo and pinenuts, then wrapped in vine leaves and cooked. The slightly peppery taste of the chorizo worked beautifully with the sweet nuttiness of the pine nuts, and I loved the taste of the vine leaves imparted on the quail. The spanakopita was also a delight - nothing like the versions you find in some Greek stores. Fresh leeks, current and feta were encased in a crisp filo pastry, topped with a beautiful salad of finely julienne-d pears tossed with herbs.

Accompanying this was a side of button mushrooms with shankliesh, spring onions and house made porcini-flavoured proscuitto.Thus far, the salads had been standouts - fresh, vibrant pairings that truly shone in the dishes. This button mushroom side wasn't as impressive. The mushrooms tasted ordinary, and the proscuitto was soggy and lacking in flavour. I was disappointed as I love mushrooms and felt that crisp sheets of proscuitto infused with the rich earthiness of porcini could really have elevated this dish.

Our next main was Grilled lamb loin marinated in yoghurt, Turkish chilli and mint on sujuk sausage - giant couscous stew. This was another lovely dish. The lamb was cooked perfectly (to my standards anyway. I asked for it to be well done and they managed to do that while keeping the lamb moist and juicy), and I loved the pearl couscous stew which had been tossed with the sujuk sausage. That said, H felt that the lamb, while tasty, was a little too subtly spiced.

Served with the lamb was Malouf's tabbouleh with hazelnuts. I love tabbouleh as it is, but this version was simply sublime.The parsley was incredibly fresh, and I liked the addition of crushed hazelnuts and the sweetness of the hazelnut oil.

The last side was a Baby cos and asparagus salad, soft cooked egg and preserved lime-Caesar dressing, a somewhat un-Turkish addition (we felt) on the Momo menu. Fresh baby cos lettuces and tender soft spears of asparagus were drizzled with a yoghurt-esque dressing, topped with finely sliced radishes, and soft boiled eggs. This was a Caesar salad done well, but by this time, we were almost too full to enjoy it.

Next was dessert in the form of a tasting plate of Momo's three signature desserts. There was a trio of sweet treats - a beautifully textured poppyseed crisp positioned on a vanilla bean-rose mousse and strawberry marshmallow, a halva macaron on a thin square of toffeed sesame seeds with honey perched on top of a citrus and saffron jelly, and a milk-chocolate and orange blossom ice cream with a mandarin granita at the bottom of the beautiful Moroccan glass and a pistachio wafer on top. I always love restaurant-made marshmallows as they are nothing like the sweet, horrible confections you get commercially. This was no exception, and I loved everything from the pure strawberry taste to the texture. I also liked the beautiful, amber citrus-saffron jelly cube (H found this too sour), though I found the halva macaron too sweet. The orange blossom, chocolate ice-cream and tangy mandarin garnita combination was also divine.

This was served with seasonal fruits (oranges, bananas and apples) with the addition of a dehydrated pineapple slice, a refreshing pineapple-anise sorbet and jewel-like, ruby-hued pomegranate seeds. I don't typically like seasonal fruits on their own but I really liked this version. The citrus tang of the pineapple-anise sorbet took the fruits to a new dimension, and I loved the crunch of the pomegranate seeds. This would make a perfect dish in summer.

Finally, tea and petit fours (I say finally because there is a lot of food on the menu)! I had a Turkish Apple tea, gorgeously fragrant and sweet, which came in this beautiful cast iron teapot with matching stand, and Noritakke teacups. I've never tried Turkish Apple tea before, and now I'm tempted to get some from T2.

And here's a close-up of the petit fours. I am sad to say that by this stage, I was so full, I only managed a nibble of the miniature pistachio pastry and the Turkish Delight (which was beautifully soft and sweet).

Momo is definitely an occasion place, with its luxurious furnishings and prices that are set above most of Melbourne's hatted dining establishments. The dishes are beautifully perfumed, tasty and moorish, and I loved the ingredient pairings in the salads. If anything, Momo is one of those places where you can be certain to get your servings of fruits and vegetables. Every dish had a vegetable element, each wonderfully executed, taking usually plain vegetables and fruits and elevating them to a whole new plane of sensory enjoyment.

That said, while the dishes were tasty (in the true sense of the word), H & I both felt that it lacked the punch and deep spice flavours that middle eastern cuisine is renowned for. The dishes seemed relatively tame in comparison to say, Rumi, which does absolutely brilliant Persian cuisine for more affordable prices. We don't regret our Momo experience - there's something magical about eating good food in a beautiful setting - but given the prohibitive costs, it will be a while before we return.

Momo Restaurant
Lower Plaza Level, 123 Collins Street, Melbourne

Melbourne Wine Room

2010-06-27T17:28:00.005+10:00

I've read and seen a lot on Karen Martini, but I must admit I never thought much of her food till I went to the Melbourne Wine Room.It was H's mother who suggested we try it out, so we all went on a wintry Melbourne afternoon to St Kilda. The Melbourne Wine Room was a lot more different to what I'd expected. I'd always imagined it to be along the lines of the European - charming and cosy with lots of mood lighting and dark woods. Instead it was old, very old - even given that it was housed in a historical building. Everything had a well worn look about it, and even if they were going for the shabby-chic feel, we felt it could have done with a little touch-up.

Decor aside, the food is stunning. Absolutely stunning. The flavours in the dishes really sing, and you can taste the freshness and quality of the ingredients. H's parents had the Sunday meal ($45 each for a minimum of two people), which meant a selection of delicious antipastos including a tuna carpaccio, dressed with fresh herbs, capers, and a gorgeous citrus dressing, and crisp fried school prawns with a wedge of lemon and aioli. I loved them both.

Also included in the antipastos were a carrot salad with feta and bread, and a cold meat plate with figs, cheese and honey. Another blend of beautiful flavours here.

The final antipasto was pine mushroom with beetroot, cheese and dill. Such a lovely combination!

H had the Vitello for an entree - beautifully cooked veal slices served with perfectly-cooked eggs, a grissini, fresh herbs and some olive oil.

I had the corn soup (probably the most delicious corn soup I've ever had so far), which came with two generous fried potato balls, a sprinkling of fresh sprouts, and a crisp circle of fried pancetta. It was wonderful having this on a cold, wintry day. The soup was warm, sheer savoury deliciousness, and I savoured every drop of it.

This suckling pig with beans came with the Sunday special. It was apparently very good!

For his main, H had a beautiful, braised Wagyu brisket, which came with carrots, potatoes, barley, and a simply delicious jus. Another perfect winter meal.

I had the special - a squid ink risotto with chilli, garlic, lemon, fresh herbs and slices of fried squid on top. I've had squid ink risottos before and this is one of the few that I have to say comes out on top. I loved the garlic and chilli accent, and the delicious, rich, risotto stock. Another great dish for winter!

For our side, we had the broccolini sprinkled with garlic, chilli and breadcrumbs. So simple yet so tasty. I love vegetables and don't find them bland at all, but this combination really took them to a whole new level. By this time, we were really full (the servings are generous), but we simply couldn't pass on dessert.

H's mum had a goats cheese cake with a poached pear and sultanas. It was nice but I do prefer the smoother texture of a cheesecake. This was a simple, more rustic version.

H had the fried cheese, served with figs and drizzled with honey. I love cheese, and I do love them fried as well, but this was quite a big hunk and it got a little much! That said, it was lovely (though best to share).

I had the chocolate pannacotta with smashed berries, and there was no better way to end the lunch. The chocolate pannacotta was dense, beautifully chocolate-y and smooth, and perfectly off-set by the tangy berries. It wasn't too rich either. I could have plates of these!

All in all, it was a beautiful meal, and I'm sure we will be back if we're ever in the area.

Melbourne Wine Room
The George, 125 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

Malaysian Honeycomb Cake

2010-06-25T19:53:00.003+10:00

One of the things that I don't feel I do enough is cook dishes from my culture. I remember eating this Malaysian Honeycomb Cake growing up, and loving it for its rich, caramel and sweet goodness. It has a very interesting texture, rising to create irregular columns that resemble honeycombs. Here's the recipe:

Malaysian Honeycomb Cake

210g sugar

240g water

80g butter

6 eggs

160g condensed milk

180g plain flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

In a saucepan over low heat caramelize the sugar till it turns a dark golden brown colour. Slowly and carefully pour the water into the caramel (I wore an oven mitt because the caramel is hot and the water boils and steams instantly). Stir until the caramel is dissolved in the water and becomes a thin syrup. Remove from the stove. Add the butter and set the pan aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celcius.

Mix the eggs and condensed milk in a bowl. Sift the flour and baking soda together (in a separate bowl) and add to the egg and milk mixture to form a batter. Pour the caramel butter syrup into the batter and mix well.

Pour the batter into a greased round pan about 20 cm pan. Let it rest for 10 minutes until bubbles start developing. Bake with bottom heat only for a minimum of an hour. After that, test with a skewer to see if the cake is cooked through.

This cake is best eaten cool.

Memoirs from Malaysia

2010-06-20T10:43:00.003+10:00

Remember Scotty, the kueh bangkits I made a while ago? These are the traditional wooden moulds for the biscuit - hand carved out of wood into beautiful patterns including delicate little crabs, flowers, and other animals. My mum passed me a beautiful hardwood mould which belonged to my grandmother when I came back from this trip, and thankfully Australian Immigration let it take me into Melbourne. These traditional wooden moulds are rarely found these days, which is a shame, since they look beautiful on display. I found a wooden mooncake mould in The Junk Company shop in Melbourne recently, but I didn't trust to cook with it, and ended up leaving it in the store. I hoped to find one on my trip back, but they've since been replaced with horrible plastic fluoro versions.

At the end of the day though, the plastic ones are pretty functional. My mum and I tested it out on these traditional Teochew Peach Dumplings - glutinous rice cooked with peanuts, mushrooms, dried shrimps and soy and wrapped in a rice flour skin that turns translucent when steamed (or fried). Aren't they pretty?

P.S. A big thank you to my parents, who lined up an eating itinerary for H & I, and who drove us to so many fantastic local (and not so local) places.

Part 5: Singapore - Mos Burger & Mochi

2010-06-13T22:25:00.003+10:00

One of my must-visit places everytime I'm in Singapore is Mos Burger. I love the store. It's nothing fancy and nothing swish, but it's one of those places that draws me back time and time again. Mos Burger is the Japanese equivalent of McDonalds. It was started by a Mr Sakurada in 1972 and is now one of the largest hamburger chains in Japan.

My favourite is the Ebi Rice Burger, a battered, crispy tempura prawn patty sandwiched between two rice cakes, strips of nori, and a lovely, warm teriyaki sauce. H usually likes the New Teriyaki Chicken Burger, and while the presentation is a little sloppy, it's all about the taste!

We can't remember the name of this stall now, but it sold these delightful Japanese rice ball treats, topped with traditional flavours such as chunky red beans, a smooth red bean paste and black sesame paste, and more unique flavours such as watermelon, mango, and grape. There were other Japanese dessert stalls in the food court as well which we would have loved to try if we weren't so full. That's for the next trip!

Mos Burger
Isetan Scotts (and other places) - 350 Orchard Road, B1 Shaw House

Ion Orchard Food Court
Basement, 2 Orchard Turn, Singapore (on Orchard Road)

Part 4: Iggy's (Singapore)

2010-06-12T23:42:00.002+10:00

H & I first met the very lovely Iggy and his wife, Janice, at Dan Hunter and Andoni Luis' The Royal Mail & Mugaritz degustation dinner during the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in March. Iggy has quite a reputation, even within the Melbourne community, and it was an honour to meet the man himself, who, despite his restaurant's fame, remains very down-to-earth and humble. Iggy's was recently named the 28th best restaurant in the world in the 2010 San Pellegrino Top 50 list, but despite this accolade, Iggy and Janice remain focused on what is most important to them - providing their diners with a wonderful culinary experience in an intimate environment. The service here is warm and attentive, and they even handed me a shawl when I was cold, which was a very nice touch!

We tried the lunch menu which takes on two forms - four courses with two choices of hors d'oeuvres, a main course and dessert, and five courses, with three choices of hors d'oeuvres, a main course and dessert. We went for the five courses so we could try almost everything off the hors d'oeuvres list.

First, we were presented with the amuse bouche (above), a Japanese tomato and a clear tomato consomme. I do not like tomatoes, but this was sublime. The Japanese tomato was sweet and ridiculously delicious and the consomme was sheer heaven. It had an intensity to it and yet a clear, pure flavour, and I loved how it left that umami taste in the mouth. I could have several shot glasses.

The first hors d'oeuvres was Iggy's Salad - mushroom, tomato, mango, avocado, mesclun, red onion, fine herbs, truffle and Hollandaise. It is a pretty little dish, with generous shavings of truffle, and a lovely, well-rounded flavour. The ingredients work so well together (who knew salads could taste so delicious?) and while you can't see it here, it has a beautiful sprinkling of petals and micro flowers.

Next was Little Neck Clams - sauteed clams, tarragon, kaffir lime, burrata, rice and sago pearls - cooked risotto style with Asian ingredients. I loved the incorporation of sago pearls, which have a nice, chewy texture and work so well in absorbing sauces. That said, I'm not sure if the elements of this dish work together. I would have liked something punchy, with the taste of clams and the saltiness of the sea, but the flavours weren't distinct and it was chilled, which made it a little hard to eat.

We then had Blue Fin Tuna - smoked tuna with baby leeks, ginger flower, chives, potato, french beans and mirin dressing. This was another lovely dish. The tuna was beautifully smoked - salty with a lovely smoky, slightly charred flavour, and there was a nice textual contrast with the crispy ginger flower and baby leeks.

This is my favourite dish, simply entitled Egg - slow-cooked egg, bacon, mushrooms, pinot jus. It was presented in a gorgeous cocotte (I have to get one of those) and was wonderfully hot and toasty. The egg was soft, oozing its rich, golden juices into the rich, smoky and savoury pinot jus, adding a wonderful depth of flavour to the dish. The mushrooms had been braised in that delicious jus, and were simply bursting with flavour. I loved the contrast with the crisp, smoky bacon. Again, I could have had quite a few servings of this!

Just as delicious was the Mushroom - mushroom flan and fricasse of mushrooms. This was a dish that celebrated the wonderful, rich earthiness and intensity that mushrooms have. A soft, smooth delicious disc of mushroom flan was set amidst a mushroom froth (cappuccino) and topped with a selection of Asian mushrooms, all bursting with mushroom essences. Another sublime creation.

We then had the Foie Gras - pan-fried foie gras, warm pear soup, mango and brioche crumbs (which attracts a $10 supplement). This dish came beautifully presented, with rich red rose petals set atop the thick, warm pear soup (more of a puree), and a streak of cinnamon running across the plate. H ate most of this and felt that while the combination of sweet (pear soup and mango) with savoury (foie gras) worked, it wasn't outstanding. That and there was a vein in the foie gras which put him of slightly. As for me, I felt that the foie gras was a very generous serving - I struggled to eat my half of it.

We were then sent a surprise from the kitchen - a complimentary hors d'oeuvres. This is Snapper - sashimi style, served with tomato and fennel. I struggle to eat sashimi as it is, so this dish was unfortunately a situation of swallowing more than tasting. H loves sashimi but he found the raw snapper a little hard to digest as well, erring on the side of being a little fishy and chewy. Over all, the tomato, fennel and snapper trio was a little lacking, though we were grateful for the thought and the lovely glasses of champagne that Iggy gave us at the beginning.

On to the mains, H had the Pork, which on the menu is listed as roasted pork belly, black garlic, garlic miso and fig jam. This dish was another masterpiece - how gorgeously presented is it? We're not exactly sure why, but H's Pork came along with the ingredients for the Blackmore Wagyu (attracts a $10 supplement), with brussel sprouts, lady's finger and tapenade. The pork was perfectly roasted, with intense flavours and a lovely caramelization (H said it reminded him of char siu), beautifully complemented with the other elements of the dish. A winner.

I went for the Cappellini - sakura ebi cappellini with konbu and home-made scampi oil. This was another of my favourites - generous amounts of savoury, crispy tiny ebi (prawns) tossed through thin strands of cappellini, and drizzled with a wonderful savoury konbu and scampi oil dressing. Just delicious!

H had Peanut for dessert - peanut butter ice cream, Granny Smith apples and crispy celery. It's not a common combination, but it certainly worked. There were lots of textures here, smooth peanut butter ice cream, a wafer-thin peanut tulle, apple jelly and crisp celery, but they came together beautifully without being overtly sweet.

I had German Chocolate Cake - chocolate pudding, kumquat and earl grey ice-cream. This is a heavenly dessert. Different textures of chocolate, from a lovely light foam to a jelly-like mousse and a rich, dense chocolate cake were plated alongside a thin wafer, lovely smooth earl grey ice-cream and the citrusy tang of kumquat. It was rich and chocolate-y without being overpoweringly so, and the perfect end to the degustation.

NB. When we visited Iggy's in May, it was based in the St Regent's hotel. However, it will be moving to the Hilton later this year.