Do you remember how many hours they told you?

Been there (photo), done that? If you didn’t go for lunch, you probably waited outside 7-Eleven for 20 minutes before being told to come back in 2-3 hours (ie. go watch a movie, or visit a few bars before thinking about getting a call).

The Epicure had an article on how popular Melbourne restaurants are getting harder to get in. What do you think? This was my comment:

TV shows, internet and newspapers are all making celebrity chefs and now celebrity restaurants. I acknowledge that one cannot know how good a restaurant is until someone else has been (review, friends, word of mouth) but there is a disproportionate hype in the restaurants featured on, eg, Masterchef and Epicure. Fixable? not really. The hype is just a side effect of our desire and ability to eat better. Chose wisely. Use multiple review sites and opinions. Sure rock up to a bar or no bookings restaurant if you are two. But for a group of friends, book a restaurant.

Out of the no-reservations restaurants in Melbourne Mamasita is perhaps the most difficult to get dinner currently. It’s popularity and infamous queues have been the topic of discussion and some angry posts. I went a month ago not knowing what to expect. Was it worth the wait? No, but I had good company for the drinks and conversation that spanned 3 hours. Good food? Pretty good. Since Mexican food is not common in Melbourne, the restaurant has hit a niche market by combining the unique food with a bar/casual dining area that Melbourne boasts about. My favorite was the  choice of 4 tostada plate. It’s a small sized corn chip base with various toppings. The best one came with a slowly cooked sweetcorn and black beans.

Tostada plate of 4

The surprise of the night was the corn simple grilled, topped with a queso (or cheese), chipotle (smoke dried jalapeño) and a squirt of lime. Simple but really spoiled by the fact that you cannot get this as ’street food’ in Melbourne.

This 'street style' corn is delicious but ruined by the fact that you need to wait for hours

So overall the food is enjoyable and not often found in Melbourne. But they really should turn the music down to sub-night-club level. How long should you bother waiting for? 25 min max. Maybe the time worth waiting for should be the new rating system for restaurants.

Kiritappu Wetlands, Hokkaido, Japan

Yep, these are wild irises and Hemerocallis middendorffi (yellow). To give you an idea how dense the irises were in some places here is another photo taken a few hundred meters away. It is difficult to make the irises show well in this photo since the green and purple are both quite dark. It’s either close up and beautiful flowers or wide angle but not much contrast.

Irises

7 am, Utorohigashi, Hokkaido, Japan. Salmon roe on rice

7:30 am, Daisetsu-zan YHA, Hokkaido, Japan. Salted fish, scrambled eggs, rice.

Maybe that’s going a little over the top. But the salted fish breakfast came from a YHA (a super clean and nice YHA). in japan I have not come across a accommodation serving breakfast that did not include some sort of fish. It is usually lightly salted salmon or a small fish that is related to the mackerel (does anyone know the name?). Pickles that taste fresh and only lightly acidic or salted are a fantastic way to eat vegetables.

Maybe I should just sleep earlier.

The Japanese really pride themselves on what they do. Each bowl is served with great attention to detail. The movie The Ramen Girl sums it up (despite the crap and annoying acting). The master-apprentice relationship and the kind of soul that people speak of when referring to the broth. The chef Maezumi might be a tyrant but each bowl is ‘a gift to the customer’ and ‘if you look at the ramen you feel it’.

The original shop of Santouka

My favorite on this trip is Santouka (fire, head, mountain) in Asahikawa. I later find out that shop is the original shop, now having a chain of restaurants in the US, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong. The shop was busy, fluorescent lit with basic chairs and table on the side while a stool lined bar was adjacent to the kitchen. I ordered their signature dish – the shio (salt) ramen. The stock is essentially a pork bone based (tonkotsu) that is salted, like all ramen soup base is. What this shop did well was not over salt their soup. My friends often complain that ramen soup is mostly too salty. I have to agree. But this bowl hit the salt level perfectly for me. Enough to really bring the broth to life but also to be able to finish all the soup without feeling that your blood pressure is shooting above 180 systolic. David Chang describes in his Momofuku cookbook that salt need to be almost ‘too salty’  for the soup to be ready.

Expect awsome ramen

The shio ramen - a bowl of awesomeness

Just look at how creamy the soup is! For a similar reaction to what I had…try this clip on a ramen shop  in Tokyo. The soup in the clip is a triple stock, using 60 hours to make!

Simply amazing. Has anyone visited Santouka or one of their offsprings?

I am in my 3rd week of holidays (2 left) and have returned from Hokkaido. Right now it’s Kaoshiung, Taiwan, with all the tropical heat one can imagine. Thunderstorms have been forming every afternoon  in Kaoshiung this week. On the news there was a video of a small tornado. Yesterday I was at a sushi train restaurant (everything equivalent to 60 cents, including Sapporo draught) and the rain fell so hard water flooded the floors. I suspect little sailboats were needed to replace the train.

Rain fell on most days in Japan to my camera’s annoyance. Seafood and ramen was clearly not affected.

Rain fell hard on my drive to Coonawarra last year. Rain fell still on my drive to Yarra Valley this year.

When it rains, you need what I am holding below. The back of the shop opens to the a fish market in Otaru. There IS a huge difference between very fresh and ‘ok’ seafood. More posts to follow!

Salmon roe, raw scallops and sea urchin on rice - less than $10 AUD

I’ll leave a nice arrangement of fireworks here.

Lake Toya

The earliest account of the flat, disc shaped cheese we now know as Brie was written by Emperor Charlemagne’s private secretary in the seventh century. On a visit to a priory near the town of Meaux, the King was offered the cheese from the monk’s cellars. On tasting it, he is said to have declared, ‘Je viens de trouver un des mets les plus delicieux’ (I have just discovered one of the most delicious of all dishes’). He placed an annual order of Brie from Meaux to be delivered to his places at Aix.

Brie continues to be a favorite at the French cort but, by a strange twist of fate, the royal fondness for Brie eventually had fatal consequences for the monarchy. When Louis XVI fled the revolutionary turmoil of Paris in 1791, he stopped for a meal near Varennes, where lingered to finish a delicious Brie de Meaux. The delay gave his pursuers time to catch up, arrest him, and return him to Paris for trial and execution.

A slice of Brie de Meaux. Very creamy. Taste like sniffing a bag of fresh button mushrooms.

soufflé with raspberry foam

So begins again with the joke “saw-fall”

An ever so light combination of egg whites and the setting agent of yolk and small amount of flour. Add some flavour like chocolate or pistachio or passion fruit or cheese or anything you want. But it’s difficult to make an airy-wonder, rise up clear of the ramekin and hold itself up modestly from the torture of gravity after it’s cooled. The air in the meringue expands with heat, pushing the mixture up. The heat also sets the protein of the egg yolk and stiffens the flour – producing a scaffold that holds the expanded air mass. By this analogy, soufflé are bound to collapse as it cools. The trapped air bubbles will decreased in volume as it cools, shrinking the souffé. But just how much can the cooked egg and flour mixture compensate and keep some of the volume? Who has a good explanation of what a soufflé does when it sits in the oven? And what settings on the oven should I have? Pure air convection or some above and below heating as well?

this one had a bit more lift!

Here is a second attempt at a pistachio soufflé. Still in trial and error phase. This time I grounded up the pistachio with the Barmix spice grinder. The pistachio meal was then added to the milk-sugar-vanilla mixture to infuse. After 8-10 min of gentle warming, the mixture was passed through a fine sieve to remove the gritty texture of the ground pistachio. A slightly thick, green milk speckled with vanilla remained in the pot.

milk, pistachio, sugar and vanilla

I made some raspberry foam to go with the soufflé – though a thick, cold coulis might have been better.

Boeuf Bourguignon with fettucini

What’s the best cut of meat to use?

Chunks of beef slowly cooked in red wine and lardons until it’s soft and the liquid is thick and dark – that’s the simple aim. But there are so many versions of this peasant-turned-classy dish that many of the finer points are just garnishes to the main meal. Here are a few variations.

A Table for Two: Recipe derived from Trish Deseine. Chuck/rump steak, marinated in wine. Bacon and mushrooms added. Anthony Bourdain on Techniques: Suggested the best cut is neck, next is shoulder (which is where chuck is derived from). Don’t worry about the marinating just get on with it! Julia Child’s version also forgoes the marinating. Guillaume Brahimi (check his Frenchy-ness at 1.48 min) has a version with a cut of Wagu beef. He doesn’t marinate the meat ( I hope the white streaks is connective tissue and not fat). To thicken the sauce, Guillaume added carrot purée.

When you think about it, boeuf Bourguignon is really the same as coq au vin – rooster cooked in wine and lardons.

After browsing through the web and attempting my own, here are some important points.

1. The cut of beef is important. Chuck and oyster blade  is good and easy to get (cooking time 3-4hrs). Ox cheek has much more connective tissue and gives a very tender texture in the end. Some butchers sell them, though they can take a bit more effort to cut up. The cooking time also increased to 4-5 hours for ox cheek.
2. Marinating probably doesn’t matter much since the beef is cooked for 3-4 hours in the same liquid. When kept overnight and re-heated, there is ample time for all the flavours to develop
3. If you marinate, patting the beef dry is paramount to the next point
4. Brown your meat! Brown your meat!
5. Coating the beef in a light coating of flour might help with browning/flavour, but it helps to thicken the sauce. I avoided this by point 7
6. Depending on how you want your carrots and small, whole onions/shallots in the end, add them 1-2 hours before you finish. Onions will start to break apart after 1 hr. Carrots just get softer.
7. Apart from the wine, most recipes call for beef/veal stock. supermarket stock is ok but never as good and homemade. I improvised with added 5-6 pieces of ox tail as it has ample gelatin in the connective tissue. The gelatin thickens up the sauce and give it a slick mouth feel (jus is really a concentrated version of stock containing gelatin from the meat). Ox tail also has some very tender meet on it. Just remove meet from the bone near the end of cooking time and return the meat back in the pot.
8. I like adding soy sauce instead of salt. More umami flavour. People wont recognize and ‘Asian’ flavours in the final product

brown the meat for the 4th time!

The version I made this time does not contain lardons (or bacon). I wanted something that tasted of pure beef and wine.

• Chuck steak, 0.8-1kg, cubed  into equal sizes, around 3cm size
• 6 pieces of ox tail. Small ones with less meat is fine. The connective tissue is the important component
• 1 large onion diced
• 1 bottle of red wine
• 1 celery stick or a few parsley stalks
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 3 carrots, cut into equal 3cm sized cubes/lengths
• soy sauce, 30 ml
• 1 stable spoon of tomato paste
• 12-15 shallots or small white onions
• 10-12 white mushrooms, sliced thick (3-4 slices per mushroom)
• Flat-leaf parsley

chuck steak, whole slice

1. Put a thick based pot on medium-high heat, add some olive oil/grape seed oil. Brown the ox tail and beef cubes in small batches to ensure the pan is always hot. Remove the meat and set aside
2. Sweat onions in the same pot, then return the meat into the pot
3. Add all the wine. If the meat is still not covered, add some water
4. Add a stick of celery, pepper, tomato paste, bay leaf, carrot and soy sauce
5. Place lid on and cook on low heat for 2 hour
6. Remove celery and bay leaf
7. Brown mushrooms in some butter or olive oil. Add some water to start with helps.
8. Add mushrooms, shallot/white onions into the pot
9. Cook lid off to reduce the liquid until the sauce can coat the back of a spoon or you feel like it will sit well on pasta. About 1 hour.
10. De-bone the ox tail, return the meat back in the pot
11. Cool the pot down, then in the fridge overnight
12. Skim the fat off the top
13. Re-heat, garnish with parsley and it’s ready!

developing a deep colour

Just added carrots and shallots, time to reduce with lid open

If you want to add lardons, have 150 gm slices into strips 1-2cm wide. Render the fat and lightly brown the smoky pork goodness just after browning the meat. Add the onions after the lardons are just lightly coloured.

Serve boeuf Bourguignon with fettucini or pappardelle or mashed potatoes. On a cold night like this, returning home to the smell of this concoction bubbling away is comforting. Note, best results if  you walk into a house with someone making the dish. You can bring the wine.

This is by far my favourite snack after a busy day before rest of the dinner is cooked. Japanese scallops keep well in the freezer and is always ready. I sometimes make it into nigiri or served whole. brushed with some Japanese soy/dashi reduction or just a bit of lemon and salt. Blow torched to add charred flavour. Ready for the next course.

Spring in Oslo

I want to go next week with a guided tour

For some, it happens every year – like how AFL happens every year in Melbourne without question or raising an eye brow. During my half year in Norway, my friends talk about how every autumn people in many parts of Europe would go walking into the forest looking for berries and mushrooms. Unfortunately I only saw winter, spring and summer (or fortunately as I might have overdosed on both food types).

Then this month I read an article from The Age about mushroom foraging around Mornington Peninsular.

And today I read this passage from Omnivore’s Dilemma:

When Ben spotted me hunting in a prone position, he approved. “We say ’stop, drop and roll,’ because you can see things at ground level you’ll never see from above.” Ben and Anthony had a slew of these mushroom-hunting adages and I collected them over the course of the day. “Seeing is boleting” means you never see any mushrooms until somone else has demonstrated their presence by finding one. “Mushroom frustration” is what you feel when everyone around you is seeing them and you’re still blind-until, that is, you find your first, thereby breaking your “mushroom virginity.” Then there’s the “cluster fuck,” when your eyes are on and other hunters crowd you, hoping your good fortune will rub off. Cluster fucking, I was given to understand, was bad manners. And then there was the “screen saver” – the fact that after several hours of interogating the ground for little brown dunce caps, their images will be burned on your retinas. “You’ll see. When you get into bed tonight,” Ben said, “you’ll shut your eyes and there they’ll be again – wall-to-wall morel.”

Who wants to go!?

Right now the house house smells like boeuf bourguignon

Veggie dish of carrot, capsicum pureé

Butter, smoked olive oil emulsion

That smoked oil emulsion is so good on bread – one of the more unusual bread spreads. But nothing comes close to Tetsuya’s truffle, Parmigiano-Reggiano, butter combination.

mushroom and abalone soup

Snow crab

potato cooked in it's own earth, salt bush

My favorite dish. Potato was cooked sous-vide and had an incredible soft yet a good bite. The salt bush was a good garnish

bass grouper, garlic, rosmary

tomatoes and asparagus

One of the sweetest tomatoes I have tasted. In Japan I heard that you can find super sweet tomatoes (measured on the Brix scale)

beef, sea grass, white cabbage

apple, olive and warm shredded wheat

More like a apple crumble but done really well. Tasted great, but looks bland and boring though

Looks tender. I mean, fatty

Then I added it to a hot pan with garlic, soy, mirin, rice wine, pepper. The blow torch came not far behind.

Now all I need is a bib

But actually the beef came from here.

I only noticed this cut in the supermarket last month

Actually, I should say, the beef came from a cow.

I just smashed it open and dug it out with my fingers

The small black dots on the rocks in the water were all sea urchins

Sea urchins were plenty in the Lofoten Islands in Norway. Those little black dots in the sea. I found one within reach and opened it up. I texted my brother about it and he said some types might be poisonous. Too late What most people don’t realize is that the ’sea urchin’ we eat is actually the ovaries

A couple of days ago, I saw the contestants on Masterchef opening them up and I wanted some. The 3 judges ate almost $1000 worth of sea food!? What a difficult job they have!

From Sushi FAQ

“Uni has historically been graded based on color, texture, and freshness. The highest grade is a bright yellow/gold (Grade A) with a firm texture and somewhat sweet. Grade B uni is a more muted yellow and has a softer texture and is less sweet, while Grade C uni is referred to as ‘vana’ and is often the parts left over from uni that has broken apart during processing or handling. Obviously, the higher the grade, the higher the price, and fresh uni taken directly from a living sea urchin will command the highest price (and is worth the experience as uni this fresh is noticeably different from uni that was processed 24 plus hours beforehand). Uni is also available fresh (nama uni), frozen (reito uni), baked and frozen (yaki uni), steamed (mushi uni), and salted (shio uni), which is usually reserved for the lower grades of uni. Uni is also available as neri uni (blended urchin paste) and tsubi uni (a lumpy paste). The color and quality of uni is largely dependant on its diet, gender, and time of harvest. Size is also important as some lobes of uni can be too large for a piece of sushi.”

- Sharp pouring lip to minimize dripping (most important)

- Lid that does no fall and is easy to open

- Top that is large enough to allow easy cleaning

- Removable filter/holder for the tea leaves inside

- Handle that allows you to hold the tea pot without touching the hot bit

- Of course she needs to be good looking!

I have noticed these tea pots lurking around at Market Lane Coffee, Prahran . They are hand made from USA I was told. I wonder if a machine could make every part of the Zero tea pot?

I just want to bang the corks down!

It was a moose stew (yum!)

Today was a desk-job for me. Spent much of my time calling doctors and patients to them their urine is not clean enough for their joint replacement surgery. The phone has become a reflex and most of the time I just stare blankly out the large window next to my desk while mumbling something about “please repeat the urine test”. Much day dreaming. A little far I would say considering I thought about the time I was in the icy, misty and dark winter of Norway 2 years ago. The trigger much have been the foggy and a dense yet fine drizzle outside my window today.

The Scandinavians have really pushed their cooking to world attention in the last few years, thanks largely to Noma in Denmark. Noma has been in the top few spots in World best 50 Restaurant awards and this year finally taking the top place. Local produce, traditional recipes are elevated with a touch of new molecular techniques. The dishes that people come back and back again for are the comfort food. Carefully add a twist, yet keeping to the original soul of the dish is a hard thing for chefs to achieve well. In my opinion, the wave of molecular cooking dominating every dish on the menu has passed.  Diners are getting tired of oddly tasting and looking food that just doesn’t have the ‘wow’ factor after it’s in the stomach.  The smart chefs, in my humble opinion, picks 1 or 2 new molecular techniques and combines it with classical cooking. Food really still has to taste good in the end.

In the photo was a gathering of international students at one of the professors apartments. We had a delicious moose stew that tasted like stroganoff, in an apartment to die for.

One charming and cosy apartment

I really miss this place. The colourful houses with the white borders and white window frames stand out nicely in the white-grey winter. There is nothing more memorable than stepping on smooth ice and knowing that no matter how you shift your weight or slowly you move the inevitable is a fall on a out-stretched hand in a glove. I wonder is the city has changed much.

Outside our units in Sogn (photo from Phoebe)

Sardines with tomato purée and finger lime

The bursting power of these finger limes are incredible. A surprising texture and flavour blast. I pan fried some fresh sardines, placed it with a purée of tomato, paprika, balsamic vinegar and muscovado sugar. Topped with the green jewels from the finger lime I brought yesterday. I deliberately made the tomato a little sweeter to balance the citrus.

Cross section

I walked past the potato man shop at the Prahran and saw some finger limes. My friend has been talking about the caviar-like fruit vesicles and so has Cooking Issues in their citrus collection farm tour. The Finger lime is a native Australian plant that grows in the tropical parts of New South Wales and Queensland. It’s a fairly tall tree with many spikes and produces these gerkin-shaped fruits. Inside looks like the cross section of a chili to a certain extent. When squeezed, little round/tear drop vesicles are easily removed. The seeds can be separated easily when you add some water and float them away. Left behind, the size and shape of the vesicles resembles caviar and looks stunning. When they break, they make a popping noise and release a hit of grapefruit and lime flavours. The zest, although very thin smells like kieffer lime leaves.

The two fruits I got: a lime-green coloured one and a ripe Hass avocado coloured one has different coloured fruit vesicles. Have a look at here (The Australian Finger Lime Company) for a range of pretty colours. On my next post I will make something out of them.

The flavours and shape of the vesicles calls for some creativity in cocktails, drinks and garnishes. I don’t think chefs have paid much attention to it (at least in Melbourne and Sydney) until the last few years. I think you will see more of these in restaurant menus to come.

Separate the seeds out by floating them in water and pouring it away

Caviar!

Made in Warrnambool

I am on my feet from for 10 hours straight, holding fat people’s thighs and knees in mid-air steadiness. There is barely any time to eat or drink. The generic-bulk-commercial branded tea bags and biscuits are the most welcoming comfort I can practically imagine. Today we fixed a total failure of the femur with more metal than the Terminator. I breathed in so much bone dust/flour from the saw that I might have pancakes forming in my lungs.

It’s good to be back in Melbourne. The food, coffee, bars and late opening shops and restaurants. I had my first good fix at the Dessert House with the deep fried spicy pork ribs on rice. The same dirty dish I would crave after too long a day in the gen med ward. It was here that I decided the sushi platter and the okonomiyaki should be avoided in the future

For some reason, my latter art is not as good this week. I blame the roast. Here is one from last week.

There is a bit of catching up and food to be had this weekend. And cooking too. I missed the kitchen in Melbourne.

The front of house

It’s a joy to drive along the winding road from Deans Marsh to Lorne - a good detour from my drive back to Melbourne.  My friend told me to try the coffee (and burgers) at The Bottle of Milk in Lorne. Mellie went there last year and enjoyed the burgers and chips. The coffee is roasted by 7 Seeds (my favorite roaster/cafe in Melbourne). That’s all the incentive I need. The flat white I had was one of the best coffees I’ve had outside of  Melbourne. Still a little too hot and the milk not as silky as it could be on the Synesso. But better than the coffee I had at Simon’s in Warrnambool. 7 Seeds doesn’t have many accounts and good for them for keeping it ’specialty’. It’s difficult to judge a cafe’s standards with just one visit so I will reserve comments to just the cup I had on that day. What I will say is well done for getting decent coffee on a touristy town.

Burger talk. I had the Fire Engine beef, cheese, coriander, chili sauce. The bun was delicious, dense and toasted well. The beef was juicy and cooked to medium well.

7 Seeds beans but is it up to 7 Seeds standards?

Windows make interesting pictures

The Fire Engine burger

I really like the idea of dessert only. It’s not as involved as a full meal, dose not need much alcohol (which can be a bad thing) and is something people can share and have a decent conversation (or just bitch about things). The timing is great also, often late enough for friends to make it, yet earlier enough so people can function still tomorrow at 6 am.

Interlude (now closed) on Brunswick st used to have a dessert degustation after 8pm. At about $10 per course (minimum 3 I remember), it was fun and decently priced. Currently our favorite include Koko Black, Max Brenner or San Churros are popular choices. Fast, easily available and quite nice. There is a place on Brunswick St, just north of Johnston st on the right hand side that serves up better churros than the large franchise.

Bistro Vue serves pretty beautiful and often old-school French desserts (just touch the tarte tartin with the crème anglaise). Cumulus had a short but very well done and priced sweets to share too. A glass of Pedro Ximénez sherry is so satisfying. Liquid raisins and caramel. Ages ago I went to Pearl for desserts only too. Not bad, about the only place in Australia to get fried taro. Actually, Ding Tai Fung in Sydney serves up a ever better (and larger) taro dessert.

Pretty much most restaurants would be happy for people to come late in the evening (9pm?) for just desserts. I would imagine it fills up the empty tables where the first covers started. Unless the kitchen just can’t be bothered. I came across this article in the New York Times on 2 dessert bars in New York (Village Tart and Sport Dessert Bar). I would love to see someone do something similar in Melbourne. Come to think of it, Taiwan has a pretty strong culture of the younger generation going out at night for coffee and desserts. It’s a bit of a contrast to going to the pub here in Australia.

Arh! The more I think about it, the more I want to do have my own shop! Who wants to go dessert crawl…

Share me! (from Auction Rooms)

I couldn’t be bothered changing my lens that afternoon. The 50 mm 1.8 works wonders but taking ‘domesticated’ sea gulls is still very difficult. I laid prone for a good while.

A short text from Omnivore’s Dilemma – A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

The coevolutionay relationship between cows and grass is one of nature’s underappreciated wonders. For the grasses, which have evolved to withstand the grazing of ruminants, the cow maintains and expands their habitat by preventing trees and shrubs from gaining a foot hold and hogging sunlight; the animal also spreads grass seed, plants it with his hooves, and then fertilizes it with his manure. In exchange for these services the grasses offer ruminants a plentify and exclusive supply of lunch, For cows (like sheep, bison, and other ruminants) have evolved the special ability to convert grass – which single stomached creatures like us can’t digest – into high quality protein. They can do this because they posses what is surely the most highly evolved digestive organ in nature: the rumen. About the size of a medicine ball, the organ is essentially a twenty gallon fermentation tank in which a resident population of bacteria dines on grass. Living their unseen lives at the far end of the food chain that culminates in a hamburger, these bacteria have, like the grasses, coevolved with the cow, whom they feed.

I am a third of the way through the book. Very well written and I am now finding it difficult to find a McChicken Nugget delicious. I used to have it every now and then during my night shifts. But I will never say no to a good steak. We recently went to the Warrnambool pub and had a very well cooked rib-eye on the bone.

Cute outdoor seating

I was more interested in capturing the feel of this cafe. I think I am missing a twilight shot showing the cafe in it’s suburban surroundings. Warm interior, subdivided into rooms just like a home. Milk crates and foldout tables against the weather boards. The corn fritter was very good, especially with the tangy salsa. Bacon was not done well as was the giant tree of coriander on top (chop it please?). I am noticing more and more cafes being know for their on non-egg breakfasts and A Minor Place started relatively early with their Henry’s white beans. Coffee had been better in the cafe’s earlier days. The beans did not taste fresh.

This was probably a house prior renovations

Excellent corn fritters with salsa

The Goondiwindi show is on in 2 weeks time. It’s the Brisbane Ekka equivalent of Goondiwindi. Probably one of the biggest events on the calendar here. From what I can gather, there is produce, livestock, baking, arts, tapestry and photography competition. You can enter upto 8 photos per person. So above are the 8 photos selected. Prints are now being ordered and should be on its way now.

So we shall see.

So I am in Goondiwindi, Queensland, about 370km from Brisbane. It is a small town of {~10,000), small main street. Several people in the clinic have commented on how good the quality of the meat is, in particular the lamb. This is a piece I bought on the way back to Brisbane. It is a Boggabilla lamb leg roast from Goondiwindi, a family owned business.

There is all this talk about food miles, in order to be minimize the environmental impact, food should should travel the least distance between the production and the consumer. 370km isn’t too bad.

This was a very simple classic combination of rosemary, garlic, shallots, salt and olive oil. roasted at 180 deg to start with just to crisp up the skin then i turned it down to 160deg for ~2hrs then 120 for the last 1.5 hrs. It is then rested for about 20mins. The resting of the meat is absolutely critical as it creates the most tender meat and the juices remain within the meat.

6 people could not finish this.

Starters: smoked ocean trout with horseradish snow and caviar

Merrijig Inn, Port Fairy. Been wanting to go since last year since I was working on the south west part of Victoria. It’s in the old fishing port area where small boats are tied to the white tipped stumps by the river bank. It’s a charming little area, though very quiet and certainly doesn’t have a business/shops/restaurant strip to keep this area buzzing. Locals may prefer it this way, but I can imagine if there were many more people living here, the riverside would be a wonderful place to have lots of shops and accommodation. I am thinking of Dinan in France.

Overall the food was good and actually decent value.  The starter of smoked ocean trout was delicious. My favorite was the crayfish – tasting like the ocean and very fresh. There was some repetitions throughout the menu (sea lettuce used in 3 dishes, samphire in 2, black fermented garlic in 2). Although they were mainly used as garnishes, it’s a bit annoying to see it multiple times, and then realizing that sea lettuce and samphire grew just about everywhere I looked on the coastline. The blue eye fish was devine with the truffle oil and some sort of consumé. The pork was flawless, but I wish more chefs can pair it with something other than apple. Yam, popular in Japan, could go well with pork, along something acidic. The beef was tender and well cooked (sous vide style, or ‘under vacuum’ in French, not ‘under pressure’ as suggested by the waitress). The meat was accompanied by ‘field herbs’ which didn’t work well for me. The steak had a full flavour that drowned the delicate scents the tiny herb springs could provide. Dessert was refreshing and I love the basil granita.

The interior was warm and like a nice home. It’s really something special and worth taking someone special to. Ask for the table near the window and watch the quiet street and skies darken as you eat. If anyone can tell me what the accommodation is like, I would love to know.

Starter: cauliflower soup

Abalone, shellfish consommé, black garlic, radish, samphire

A warm and cosy interior

Eye, calamari, peas, black garlic, sea lettuce

Western Plains suckling pig, apple, fennel, morcilla

Eye Fillet, roast garlic, roasted milk skin, ash, paddock herbs

Peaches 3 ways, sheep’s milk gel, basil granita

Lunch box @ $12

There is a trend to have bok-choy or brown rice to accompany fish? Please no. Don’t say you went to a “fish and chips” shop. When I think fish and chips, I need the real greasy stuff, all the way to my fingers and mouth. Hooked on 172  Chapel st, Windsor has had some pretty good reviews and it’s time to get my fix. I really like the feel of this little restaurant. No wider than a single fronted Victorian house, the 2 well worn wooden benches are as real as the ones found by the beach minus the sea gull poo. The wall was coloured in motifs of boats and the ocean. The 2010 Cheap Eats awarded the Best Communal Table right here.

Best communal table according to 2010 Cheap Eats (not for me)

We ordered the lunch box with the battered fish and hand cut chips. The batter was crisp and not too oily. Fish was standard. Not wow kind of fresh. Chips tasted very good, but the hand cut bit seemed a bit lazy with chips sizes and length varying so much. Sweet potato crisps were added but not needed. To me, good fish and chips is simple. Get the freshest piece of fish, batter it and deep fry it. Freshness is paramount. I am not an expert in batter so I wont comment on it. Chips don’t need to weigh 90% of the entire pack. Chips needs to be crisp and cannot be overly or unevenly salted.

Menu

However good the food is, I wish I could hear the sea gulls sing again and watch them fight over left over bits of chips. The smell of the ocean spray, the waves gliding over a sandy beach. Warm sun, the company. You know, all the nice things you can’t replace in a city.

Window

(My favorite communal table is at Brother Baba Budan. Especially the seat at the corner of the window and the wall.)

Summer by Ragingyogurt

Corn by Souvlaki For the Soul.

Eat.Drink.Blog has a list of blogs and updates

I am very happy to see my photo displayed in the SBS Food Bloggers Photography Exhibition, as part of the 2010 Food Bloggers Conference Eat.Drink.Blog. (SBS, The Age)

Part of the captions submitted: This photo was taken on my recent trip to New Zealand. It was raining the whole day and the clouds were just beginning to break. Warm sunlight filled the pub. I was content with my bowl of chips and crisp green apple cider, and the thought that I still had more than a week of adventures in New Zealand. The quote on the wall, the people and the warm glowing room had it all framed up.

Gallery opposite to St Ali on Yarra Place, South Melbourne

Moving on…

Watching sheets of perfectly flat dough sliced into identically thin strands of soba noodles is enough to make me crave all things Japanese. The long rectangular knife is moved and guided by a piece of wood. The fresh noodles are served wonderfully tender, cold and dipped into a mixture of soy and wasabi and spring onions.

Buckwheat, a key ingredient of soba is not a wheat at all. It’s a annual herbaceous plant (dicotyledon) unlike wheat which is a type of grass (monocotyledon). It’s in the same family as rhubarb. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the name came by as buckwheat seeds are triangular and resembled the nuts of beech trees (definitely not the one i found today).

In France, in particularly in Brittany, flat pancakes resembling crepes made with buckwheat are called galletes. In Russian, thicker versions are called blinis. I really miss stepping off the boat from Guernsey to St Malo in Brittany and ordering a gallete in my very very broken French. From memory, I had one with blueberry jam in it. That was more than 2 years ago.

From http://www.impgc.com/plantinfo_A.php?id=133&bc=

Every now and then, you come across recipes that involves something not seen before.  This was from an article I came across earlier days on NY Times. It describes resting the dough for >24hrs rationale being allowing for the butter and flour to combine better. After several experimentations, it seems leaving the dough for 48hrs gives beautifully deep flavors that are just not seen on commercial cookies you can buy at shops.

I have made a few modifications to the original recipe. I use a combination of Muscovado and light brown sugar. The chocolate is 66% Callebaut. Yes. That is pink Murry River salt flakes on top.

The original recipe(modified by me) below – in case NY Times decides to take it off.

Adapted from Jacques Torres

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

Broad beans

The Vic Mac’s Brewbar Nelson NZ

Tutto Bene Gelati Melbourne

GM tomato graffiti Melbourne

Takayama beef Japan

I challenge people to find better nigiri sushi and sashimi in Melbourne than ones from Shiranui. I could eat this when I am full, when I am hungry, when I am cold or when the weather is searing 35 degrees (even better). The dedication to freshness and quality is when you bite into each hand-crafted morsels. The rice is perfectly shaped, packed so they wont fall apart but loose enough to feel soft in the mouth. I heard from various food shows that it takes about 10 years for a sushi chef to master the art of shaping the rice. The fish is very fresh, the cuts are clean with no blood or visible connective tissue.

Interestingly, fish that is too fresh doesn’t taste as good as after they have ‘rested’ for a short period of time. It had something to do with rigor mortis making the flesh a bit touch and crunchy. The resting time varies between species and season. A bit like resting steak after it’s cooked or how espresso coffee taste better a week after roasting (rather than on the day of the roasting).

For my lunch at Shiranui on the weekend, we had the set lunches of sushi and sashimi. I forgot they don’t do omakase at lunch (unless booked), where you just leave the chef to decide what to serve you. Omakase means “it’s up to you” in Japanese I believe. When we were just watching the chef at work after eating out meals, he was putting some sea urchin roe into boxes, presumably for dinner service. I could not resist asking whether we could have some now. The chef agreed. The moment of surprise came when he some how spotted my soy sauce dish was already taken by the waitress and needed replacing. We were sitting at the sushi counter but my soy dish was placed in a blind spot close to the fridge. There was no way he could have known where my soy dish was (plus, my friend’s dish was visible and present). He must have noticed the waitress taking it away 5 minutes ago! Now that is attention to detail.

Note, when going for the omakase at night, listen to the chef when he explains whether the nigiri needs soy or not. Some come pre-seasoned with salt or soy already and a wrong move will cause his head to rapidly turn from his chopping and slicing towards the offending chopsitck holder. Shiranui: 247 Springvale Road Glen Waverley VIC 3150 Phone (03) 9886 7755

There are some highly motivated foodie bloggers, starting up the Australian and New Zealand Food Bloggers Conference 2010. As part of the event, there is a photo competition sponsored by SBS, held at The Essential Ingredient. For some reason, I am thinking about Julie and Julia. I wonder how far can food blogs reach.

We drove through a rainy front and crossed from the east to west coast of New Zealand South Island. Heavy rain turned into a a steady drizzle. As we walked out of our hostel, the rain stopped and 20 minutes later, blue skies and warm sunlight hit the wet roads of Nelson. It was a very pretty town. The main Trafalgar st had flowers blooming on every lamp post. Hungry, this warm bar really made my afternoon. Has hot crispy chips and ice cold green apple cider ever been this good? Bright glow of the sun on wooden floors and table. I could have sat there for a long time.

New Zealand is beautiful. I keep thinking that when the world gets more and more crowded, the South Island will become a very sought after place. Buy a property there now! There is plenty of water, scenery, and green pastures for food. I have just returned from a holiday in New Zealand including the Milford trek. So happy, along with bunjy jumping.

Just before I left for my trip, 4 of us went to Cumulus Inc. for dinner. When people come to visit Melbourne, and there was one place you could take them to eat, I think this is it. Fine food in casual, shared setting. No table cloths, no lengthy speech about how to eat your food. The dishes ranges from delicate fine dining style to home/rustic (last year’s truffle gnocchi!) but all designed to share. After dinner, you could take them for a walk along Little Flinder’s Lane, past Kenzan, Coda, Yu-yu, Movida and see some graffiti in narrow laneways.

We ended up having 12 dishes all up, and if not including wine or oysters, the bill came would be $40 per person. Two dishes were the favorites of the day. The crispy school prawns with chili, garlic and spring onions was sweet, juicy and the shells all edible. Surely inspired from travels in Asia. Second was the mussels, jamon, parsley and saffron sauce. Perfectly balanced flavours that we have never seen with mussels. We certainly did not forget to ask for more of the white sourdough/wet-dough bread to mop up the sauce. That bread is always so nice, I could order just the prawns and mussels and my evening would be complete.

Going again tonight =)

It was so alive. Vivid colours just like a Taiwanese children’s encyclopaedia – “Little scientist of 100 topics”. Even Netter would be turning in his grave. I was holding onto a segment of small intestine, orangy-pink colour, surrounded by an array of tiny pulsating arterioles arranged neatly like a fan. I was getting hungry and soon the numbing feeling in the arms from retracting parts of abdomin was hypnotic enough to trasmit me to a few blocks away. The thought of crispy fried chicken filled my mind. Mmmm.

Or the other time on a late ward-round at 6pm without lunch yet. I saw a tall glass of chocholate milk shake on a table near a patient. My note writing turned into thoughts of a cold iced milk-tea from a greasy, Asian restaurant. I was so hungry and thirsty. On the occasions after leaving the hospital at 9 pm while being rostered on till 5:30pm, a plate of good salty and oily deep fried pork spare ribs from Dessert House on Swanston st, or a plate of roasted duck egg shiffon from A1 on Russell st, topped with a cold glass of iced milk tea is just amazing. Then I can bitch/gossip about the day.

Location and environment. Hervé This strongly believed that the environment in which you eat the food plays a vital role in how the food is percieved. Heston Blumenthal let you listen to the sound of crashing waves, wind and sea gulls while eating a dish that lookes like a beach, complete with sand and salty foam. Wonderful. I enjoyed a bowl of wedges at Cape Bridgewater (photo) yesterday.

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!

I am planning to take my 3rd year off (2011) from the conveyor belt of medical training. Don’t worry, it will keep running until someone decides to fall or accidentally hit the red button. So what will I do in this year? The main aim is actually to join a cookery school in France. I have been looking at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, a school of classical French cooking for designed for training people to become chefs.  It has branches around the world, including Sydney, but that just misses the point of French cooking. Many types of courses are available, including regular terms on cuisine, patisserie wine, and many short/one day courses on specific topics. The problem is it’s almost 8000 euros per term! I think I will need to locum a bit if I want to make this work. Anyway, when I say year off, it just means off the conveyor belt. I also wanted to try working in a less developed country for a different experience.

For those who want an idea of what it’s like in the school. There is a good and humorous read by Michael Booth – Sacre Cordon Bleu: What the French Know About Cooking. It’s about a journalist who pauses his regular job an joins the cookery school. Let me know if you want to borrow it.

(Picture from Le Cordon Bleu website)

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!

At 3 am on saturday morning, while seeing drunk patients and kids with gastro in a busy night at the ED, I thought how many other jobs require one to be awake at this time? Sleepiness fogging my brain, hearing abuse from people and some vomit every now and then?

Pilots, soldiers and the end of the 000 line.
I suppose IT for a large company get to be on call.
Bakers?

I am reading Food for Thought. The closest comparison on food and art in today’s ‘artistic’ sense. Ferran Adria’s creativity is just mind blowing. The front cover definitely reminds me of the Simpsons. Inside is… I am still reading.

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.

This blog – Cooking Issues – by chefs of the French Culinary Institute of America is 100% food for thought. I am very taken back by the onslaught of the quest for perfection and knowledge in cooking now. I recently got the new edition of  On Food and Cooking:  The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee and I am finding myself unable to stop flipping though this collection of all the whys of cooking and food.

I think this exciting wave of energy was started by the chefs in Basque and Catalonia (of course, I have to say Ferran Adria is a key in this). Even if the techniques discussed are traditional, the science and testing is new. Where else can one find a topic on fish killing by spinal cord destruction and fish anesthesia? And a detailed description on the Japanese art of killing fish.

Last week we went to The Royal Mail. Dan Hunter, head chef, worked in Mugaritz for 2 years before starting at Royal Mail. There is definitely some of the wildness in creativity but it is used spariingly. His food now is based showing the best and freshness of ingredients. The food is at times simple and allows customers to experience what a pea really should taste like. Some Japanese influences in flavours too. Many of the vegetables are grown on site or picked from the wild.

Check out more photos from my facebook

This is a shop in La Boqueria, Barcelona, selling only chicken (? maby duck).

It’s great when writing medical notes I add a question mark in front of a point – it makes it all ok and valid.

I was reading Heston Blummenthal’s book In Search of Perfection on the perfect roast chicken (book, video) I am drooling to make a roast chicken. Secretly I haven’t tried roasting a whole bird. Which chicken should I use? Look at the chioice of birds in that shop!

Heston liked the Bresse chicken from France, though he used one from the UK with good flavour while supporting local farmers. The recipie involved soaking the bird in brine over night, drying it in the fridge, roasting it at a low temperature and then browning the skin to finish it off.

Sadly in Hamilton, there isn’t much to choose from. When I fire that oven, I will post the chicken on my blog. Tomorrow is apple and rhubarb with crumble to top.