Or el Bulli approach takes it to a new level, with dishes inspired and looking like nature. Edible soil from chocolate or olives, flowers made from fruit and snow made from coconut flavoured ice. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think Ben from Attica has a dish with edible soil too.

All that said, I have my own petty attempt. Just sticking to the mantra to cook each vegetables individually and letting the best of each vegetable shine. There are some baby carrots glazed, blanched sugar snap peas and onions picked in sherry vinegar and sugar. A poached egg and some pancetta for the creamy taste and salt.

For mains, It was osso buco. Brown each piece on a hot heavy pan and then with the juiced/oil from the meat, add 1 onion diced and a few sliced of bacon diced and cook until lightly caramalized. Deglaze with a cup of red wine ( I used a shiraz viognier), add 2 stickes of celery finely diced, a little balsamic vinegar and a table spoon of soy (yes for the umami) and a quater of a star anise. Pour enough water or veal stock to cover the meat completely, put the lid on and simmer slowly for 3 hours. Remove the meat and set aside with some cling wrap ove rit to keep it moist, strain the cooking liquid and discard all solids. Return liquid in pan and reduce until it starts to thicken a little. Taste it and add more vinegar or salt if needed. Add some shallots that hav ebeen halved and continue to reduced until it coats a spoon nicely. Finish the sauce with 1-2 table spoons of butter.

Serve!

This is while I was seasoning it. You can see the handle is still metallic while the other parts have turned black. I posted this just for illustration. But essentially, for cast iron or iron skillet pans, you need to season the pans before you use it for the fist time. Wash the pan with soapy water, dry it and then let it get hot on a gas stove or oven at the max to dry it off completely. then coat the whole pan including handles with vegetable oil rubbed on with paper towel. Put the pan back on the heat source and just let it burn. On the gas stove on a moderate flame, I let it heat up for a good 10 min. the whole pan starts to turn black – first from the center where it’s the hottest before spreading to the sides and handles.  Once it’s dark, you can re-coat it with another layer of oil and the heat it again. The black coating is a result of the fat reacting with the iron and oxygen.

Note, once it has turned black, you can actually over do it until the black bits start peeling off.  So take it once you think most of the pan is black. you can always heat the other parts by moving the pan (esp the handle) over the fire.

When the pan is seasoned, it should behave almost like a non-stick pan. Acidic food will tend to corrode the blakc coating, so will vigorous scrubbing. It is a bit ironic that the most indestructible pans should be taken care of this way. I wish the black coating was permanent. Anyhow, these pans are sure to turn any guests into believing you are chef

Market Lane Coffee

I crossed the latte line again. After a long trip from Hamilton to Port Fairy and back to Melbourne, I was very happy to arrive  before they closed. I ran like a kid seeing and really believing Santa is real. Fleur Studd’s (her dad is an authorative on cheese, appearing on the Epicure regularly, books and TV) opening is amongst the many specialty cafe’s that has appeared in Melbourne this year. I think she might have worked in Mammouth Coffee in London’s Bourough Market (? corrections).

The focus of the cafe is to highlight a few single origins at a time and market green beans at the same time. Many customers ordered the pour-over coffees (filter paper in a cup with a hole at the bottom).  On the day we went they had ran out of some beans for the espresso blend. The flat white was ok only. At least, it was overshadowed by the La Candelilla (what a lovely name!), a Geisha variety from Costa Rica. 

The interior was stunning. Open design, raw, slightly distressed wooden tabled and metallic chairs. The flowers on the table were gorgeous, but the use of the small Italian juice bottles is getting a little common in Melbourne.

I think Prahn is way overdue for decent coffee given their superior fresh market. I said to my friends, the whole concept, the emotions, the feel behind such cafe’s makes me love Melbourne alot!

The Japanese seems to have a more powerful radar at spotting what is good to eat. From being obsessed with French cusine (at the peak of French food dominance) to hearding cows that have meat looking more like fat with finely dispersed muscle fibers. A walk in Tsukiji Fish Market and soon you will discover where al the large and high quality seafood caught around the world gets sold.

Last year me and my brother and his local friends went to the fish market in the morning and lined up for a seat at a sushi bar. There was at least 10-20 different shops in the few lane ways that also sell cooking equipment, herbs and garnishes that go well with seafood. This was about 10 am. We waited for about 30 min and were seated on the counter and squeezed close the next person beside you. There could not have been more than 20 customers at one time in this restaurant.

This was the o-toro (the fattiest cut of the tuna) in the 8-10 pieces sushi degustation that lasted about 30 min. Next customer please. I respect that.

The link’s source of information is from Izakaya: The Japanese Pub Cookbook. It has good descriptions of the yakitori culture and has a good bakground information of a range Izakaya establishments in Japan.