Chicken ballotine, stuffed with mushrooms, shallots and pancetta. Chicken jus, pea puree and vegetables

Duck à l'orange, chestnut, mushrooms, celeriac, cavlo nero

If anyone has a fail proof method of peeling chestnuts, tell me please.

Apple, vanilla, chestnut, spiced apple sabayon, toasted almonds and pistachios.

Onglet / Hanger steak - common find in local markets in Paris

Steak in Paris is lean, well cooked and flavourful. Breads of cattle are often displayed and cuts like skirt and hanger are very common. The culture is to have the steak cooked ‘saignant’ which means ‘bloody’. Contrary to what others might tell you, à point is not exactly what medium-rare is to Australia – à point is slightly less cooked than medium-rare in real life results. Oddly enough, the first 10 pages on Google search for the internal meat temperature for saignant (pretty much meaning rare) in french  is 60-63 C!! This is completely and utterly wrong. Let me set this straight in terms of what the words and temperatures should be below.  The numbers are the final internal temperature of the meat. Unless you are cooking sous vide, you need to remove the meat and let it rest for 5-10 minutes in a warm place before you serve. A rough guide is to remove the meat 5 C before the desired final temperature if you want to put it in a warm oven at about 60 degrees. If you place it near your stove, it is usually cooler there compared to an oven so taking it off 3 degrees below and let it rest.

Bleu = less cooked than rare: <50 C (A quick sear on both sides and serve. Usually best on a thinner cut of steak. Inside is essentially warm and raw. I don’t think measuring temperature here is useful)

Saignant = rare: 52-54 C

À point = medium rare: 56-58 C (Rose – a term often reserved for veal, duck and game at this temperature)

Demi anglais ( a term not usually used) = medium: 60-62 C

Cuit  =  medium well: 64-66 C

Bien cuit = well done: >68-70 C – essentially no pink colour remaining.

French people in Paris seem to be overly proud that they don’t like meat cooked past medium. It is not the first (or the second) time that I have heard something to this effect – “we (French) think eating bien cuit is no no no”. But really, there many people outside France who would agree and and think that to cook a steak beyond medium is a sin. I have to say though, ordering steak saignant or à point in France gets pretty consistent results. In Australia, the number one fear of ordering steak at a not so expensive restaurant is getting overcooked steak. No, it’s not ok.

Overall, I do enjoy leaner steak but I have grown more accustomed to a bit more marbling. Not overly marbled like 11+ wagyu, but something like a score of 3-4 which gives it a juicier taste than lean steak. Too fatty and the steak looses the meaty bite.

Steak from Le Severo with a sear on the outside that is full flavour and almost crisp. The blood pudding here was out of the world. Don't get the steak tartare - it is about 400 g of raw beef.

Le Relais de Venise - L'Entrecôte - a chain serving up perfectly cooked steak with a special green sauce. It comes with fries and a walnut salad. Nothing else savory on the menu (what menu?). The steak is served to you twice to ensure the meat is warm - a pleasant surprise when you wish you had one more bite. We think the sauce contains some anchovies, green peppercorns and liver.

Steak tartare - found in nearly every bistro or brasserie. This one chopped coarsely with sun-dried tomatoes

Line outside Le Relais de Venise - L'Entrecôte

Intensive Intermediate Cuisine was 5 weeks of cooking regional French food. We stuffed an animal into another animal, wrapped up deliciousness with fat and more fat, blended vegetables to make flans and custard-textured material out of fish. Sauces and jus were perfected for taste, seasoning and consistency. Carving birds and filleting fish were rehearsed. The learning curve was rather flat compared to Basic Cuisine. It was more about minimizing errors than learning new techniques.

I am cooking real food here. That was my reply back across the room when someone alerted the class that they smelled something burnt. 6 days a week, 6-12 hours of classes per day. There were long days when sitting through another demonstration seemed too much. There were hungry days from, ironically, not enough time to eat. I made sure I tasted, and re-tasted my food on those days. Some people were pushed and it was really during times of tiredness and stress that tempers flared. I heard there was a little pushing to the sink, equipment missing and nearly always found at the end of practical, assistants not quite willing to do their job to grab stuff from the basement, cuts and burns were not infrequent. The coolest and the calmest? A gentleman with many years of working as a chef. Never a flinch, a step too quick or a voice too loud. We were a competitive class and I am no exception. But hey, what better way to improve when feeling pushed?

Group A (AKA A-Team), Intermediate Cuisine, Nov-Dec 2011. Chef Guillaume.

Le Cordon Bleu was for fun or hobby to some. For others it was their entry into the career of being a chef, or to up-skill in their established career as a chef. A few wanted to get into a food-related industry. For me coming to Paris was for hobby. I have had so much fun. Friends at school rock. The pubs next to school are our second homes. However the class went, we would so often unwind and relax with a drink. I could count the number of alcohol-free days in the last 5 weeks in one hand. The time of my life wound be the best description. The school kitchen is hot, intense and I enjoy every moment of it. The “go-go-go” energy and being alert with all senses is euphoric. Couple of classes we worked in groups and they were the finest hours of school.  Here are some sounds bites.

• “Sorry, it’s my shoes, I walk too fast” said the chef when something smelled burnt (again)
• As chef emptied a bottle of white wine in the stock pot he said “we are making big mama fumet (fish stock) here!”
• A student tried to answer a question in demonstration. The chef paused and and looked at him on a slanted angle. “I think I will reserve a place for Intermediate for you…”
• Translator saw a bug on the floor and went about to chase it. The chef exclaimed “Ratatouille!?”
• We are meant to caress the fish like we do with women
• Is there a better pronunciation for “bien” than “beeennnner”?
• “Are there any other question apart from the obvious, where is the bacon?”
• A little self-congratulations: I plated my coq au vin (pre-marinated) dish in 60 minutes during practical. Even the chef was wondering what happened when she looked at the clock. And yes, it tasted good.
• Olive oil was apparently expensive according to one chef. Another chef then proceeded to cover up his olive oil bottle and call it the mysterious oil during demonstrations.
• “Make your dream come true” was the favorite line from the chef in charge of Intermediate.

My last practical class

Exam day:

School ended all too quickly for me. We had our practical exam yesterday and it was a spectacular one from my point of view. We either had to cook veal with risotto and asparagus or monk fish with chicken jus, artichoke and a type of fluffy savory pancake. I had the fish and I was  pushed for time. In the prior practicals, I finished the veal in 2 hours and the monk fish very close to 2.5 hours. We had 2.5 hours for the exam and we also had to make bearnaise sauce during this time. Every minute late was -2% and if you were late by 7-8 minutes then good luck to passing. Seemed ridiculous when the stations were not set up properly, especially for the students who entered earlier. Never mind the clocks ticking. Move!

12:32 – Doors open for me and another student. We were the 4th pair. 2 students entered every 10 minutes in a staggered format so that the food can be served to the external judges immediately when finished. There was 3 fish and 1 veal left to pick from. Lucky her, she got the veal. I noted to my self, we were allowed in 2 minutes late. Not good enough.

12:40 – I am set up, stoves and oven on, knives out. Calm and collected. Monk fish skin was easily torn off and then filleted. They have the most simple central bones. I spent another 5-7 minutes cleaning the membrane off the flesh. The fillets were then opposed head-to-tail, seasoned, wrapped with bacon and chopped parsley. Tighten the plastic film until it looks like a giant sausage. Chill to hold shape.

1: 10 – Pan on the hob to heat up before I hacked into chicken wings to break them up and brown them for the jus. Chopped up mirepoix of onion, shallots, garlic. Multiple mini-deglazes for the chicken wings with water to get maximum colour and flavour. De-greased the pan, dumped my chopped aromatics and let them brown too. Some more deglazing before covering the pan with water to let the juices simmer. Throw in some thyme and bay leaf for good measure.

1:30 – Start my reduction for the bearnaise sauce. Shallots, chervil, tarragon, peppercorn, cider vinegar and white wine.

1:35 – My friend on the far end who entered 30 minutes looked stressed. Shit. he is usually quite fast too. If he is feeling the heat then something is not going right.

1:35 – Start turning the artichoke. Trim until a disk is left, cut it into wedges and remove all the choke to prevent discoloration. All the acid in the world wont help here. A splash of vinegar from in front of me in the water anyway. I stopped half way on the artichokes before thinking I needed to start the batter for the pancake to let it rise.

1:40 – Batter for the pancake. Wheat flour, rye flour, potato starch, yolks, milk and fresh yeast. Milk tepid to kick start the yeast. Stashed it on the shelf above the stove to keep warm. Egg whites in a very clean bowl in the fridge. Back to the artichokes. Chucked the artichokes in a pan with butter to cook. I noticed for the first time I am behind my own mental schedule. Move damn it!

1:55 – Haha what is that small saucepan doing on my stove. It’s black! who would leave it there. Fuck… it’s my reduction for my bearnaise. Yes, blame it on an unfamiliar class room and stove. A few more descriptive words muttered under my breath. It took me just 2 minutes to get a new one going. I was getting frustrated at my end of the kitchen where no taps or sink is free. The dishwasher man is swamped on the only sink on this side. Even grabbing the paper towel from the dispenser was a struggle. Note to self, I can complain all day but the food wont cook.

2:00 – Blanch the cauliflower and broccoli florets, crisp up some diced bacon for the pancake. Someone took the few pieces of bacon in my fridge that I left after wrapping up the fridge. Where is the fucking bacon? It’s 2 pm and my mental time marker should be just finishing the bearnaise right now. Go go go! Check oven to make sure it was on and hot.

2:10 – Start the bearnaise with a sabayon with the acidic reduction, egg yolks and some water. Season early to dissolve the salt well. Whisk hard and fast over a baine marie. I glances around the room. More calm over the veal side. Our line? My friend on the far left is looking rather rattled. He has to finish in 20 minutes. Chef is counting the minutes ever so often. Whisk whisk whisk… Ok, ready for clarified butter. Strain sauce, chop some more fresh chervil and tarragon. Taste, happy with seasoning. Scrap into ramekin for judging. Deliver to the chef.. and where did he go? No time to wait for him.

2:25 – Running out of time fast. My friend on the fish plated his. There were some loud noises and some worried looks from that side of the kitchen but I was too busy to care now. We exchanged glances while crossing paths and I swear there was the devil in both our eyes. I don’t think he has seen me getting stressed.

Steam coming out of my head

2:25 – I grabbed the fish out of the blast chiller to let it warm up a bit. Strained the chicken jus. Looks a bit pale for my liking and I shook my head – shit..sigh. Where is the damn colour!!!  I gave the small saucepan a shake and the browner liquid appeared. Good, it was just a layer of fat above. Magnifique chef! Let it reduce slowly.

2:25 – Whisk egg whites for the pancake. I walked around the room looking for a pan to cook the fish while whisking the shit out of the whites. A pinch of salt for the judge’s palate- 3 retired French real chefs. Mixed the batter, and added some pepper. I needed a second pan for pancakes. “Anyone got another pancake pan!?”

2:30 – Unwrap the fish out of the plastic film and tie portions with kitchen twine so they hold when I cut it into rounds .

2:40 – All set to cook fish and pancakes. 20 minutes left. You are joking. There was calm from the veal side which was even more unsettling. This was time for the second student to plate monk fish – I don’t even know what happened. Too deep in my station. My heart rate was easily at the 120 mark. The third student on the monk fish was plating his. It was probably the first time I have seem him move a little faster than normal.

2:45 – 2 pancakes on, fish getting a blast of heat from the stove to colour. Fish straight into the oven, mental clock -for the fish = 7 minutes and out.

2:50 – First 2 pancakes. Seemed a bit thin. Do I have time for a second or not? Jesus… just start another 2. Worry about it later. The handles were getting hot but by this time it didn’t really matter if my fingers were bien cuit or not.

2:52 – Actually, I wasn’t aware of the time by now. Chef is going down the line announcing minutes left to each student. Some more loud noises – this time from a friend on the veal side. Gosh, what could happen now? They looked quite in control all day. No time. Back to my side.  Fish out, feels good. Definitely cooked. Was it over cooked? I poked my knife in one, looks ok. Some slightly more translucent in the middle. Good sign. But really, what can I do now? Forgot to check seasoning here. Please bacon… make love and saltiness to the fish.

2: 55 – Remove the kitchen twine from the fish, pat dry and place on the tray. Flipped the other 2 pancakes (now the handles were freaking hot) straight onto my hands. Second batch seemed better. By fingers seemed even better cooked. But I had no time to check and gambled the inside of the thicker ones were cooked. Slapped them on the tray. Some garnish and frantic attempts to position the food so that it looked like someone who was half in control made it.

2:58 – Tasted my chicken jus. It was a while since we made jus and every chef reduces it to different consistency. Mine was still fairly runny. 30 seconds on high should be fine. Shit..I hope it doesn’t get too salty. Poured it into the ramekin and put a plastic film over the top so no film can form on top of the jus.

2:59 – “Chef , j’ai fini.” I placed a piece of parsley on the pancakes and some chiffonade parsley on the fish as I announced to the chef I have finished. Old chefs like branches of green. I took a few deep breaths. The last 40 minutes felt like 5 seconds. I put my hands on the bench and just starred into my station, wondering where the hell went wrong with my timing. It was a tough dish, I thought to myself.

3:00 – The assistant came to take my plate down for tasting.  ”You have everything?” she asked. I wasn’t really looking. “Oui” I said. Some more self-reflection at the stove. Fuck. what is in this saucepan? “wait wait!” It was my artichokes. Completely forgot about it after I cooked it soft. I was supposed to finish it with a little chicken jus. The assistant was at the door already with my dish. She apparently didn’t hear me. I chased her out the door with my pan thinking that she has refused to allow me to add the artichokes. I stopped her above the stairs. “My artichokes. I am sorry” breathing heavy. She was happy to wait. Wow. I placed 9 pieces on the plate before she continued to walk to the judging room.

What happened?

I leaned against the door for a few seconds to recover after yet another close call. I went back to the kitchen and ate one of the artichokes. Under seasoned for sure. Greasy. I had not time to check these. Sigh. My mind was all mushed up already thinking what the hell happened today. I never had a chance to taste the pancakes. The fish looked fine but I could have gave it more colour and a dab of salt. The garnish for the pancakes were a bit soggy already. The jus and the pancakes were both elements that were highly subjective as well so no control over that. I really wanted to finish strong but it felt like the opposite. I cleaned up and walked out of the kitchen, taking a 10 second pause to reflect that this will be the last time I walk out of this place for a long time. I probably sat in the Winter Garden ( an communal area at school) drinking a can of Oringina for a good 5 minutes by myself. Some people were happy with their food I heard. Some had a few mistakes like me. I know I passed but I wasn’t really here to make passable food. I have had better days and this was not the day for the exception. Too many variables on this dish. If only I had the veal where I think the cooking end-points were more well-defined. At least you can stick a thermometer in the veal. Tzu, get over it.

Well, it’s beer time and hugs. Even with all the drama, there is nothing quite like an ice-cold beer hitting you after coming hot out of the kitchen. Coldplay concert tonight!

How much what!?

Today we got our certificates. I did better than I thought for the exam. Actually quite well for the exam. I remembered the 3rd monk fish student during the exam. It was very humbling to see him move with precision without being hurried. He was the gentleman who is a chef already. Never a move too fast or a moment too stressed. He didn’t really care about numbers but he did really well on the exam a with at least 4-5% above the rest. It goes to how good he really was.

I had a very good prior average for the practical classes evaluation so I ended up having the highest total term score in the class. I really didn’t think on the back of that exam I was going to finish this well. But the judges thought otherwise. And our group of 8 had (unknowingly) all the top 5 students in the class. The A-team. The numbers don’t mean much in the end. What really counts as our main Intermediate chef said is what is on the plate. I think most people know where they stand themselves and many just don’t care (good for them). Cooking is one of the many things in life that if you try hard enough, you can do well. There is always some agreement to what is good or bad. Bring me to the game and I will push myself in this environment. It’s just unfortunate that the school grades us with numbers everyday. A better system, I propose, would be either a pass/fail or a ABCDE grading. A more personal feedback on what the chefs thought on the exam dish would be much more informative than numbers. Plus, doing well at school hardly reflects on how you will do in a busy kitchen. I am under no delusion of that kind.

I was very happy to hear from a friend who overheard chefs talking about me in the corridor as we were cooking. They noticed that I was fast and did very well in class. Something the chef didn’t really notice in the first term because I had black hair and glasses. Now that I am the only Asian in the group it was obvious to him. That’s all I needed to know – until I come back in a few year to finish the last and final term.

Knives cleaned and packed. See you again Le Cordon Bleu Paris

Gumshara Tonkotsu Ramen (thick soup)

Gumshara Ramen, Sydney

Sydney is filled with eateries especially Chinatown. Urbanspoon seemed to have good reviews so here I am on a freezing cold summer night. The dish to judge ramen joints is the Tonkotsu ramen. The two critical constituents of a good ramen dish being the broth and the noodles. So many places attempt but so few places get it right. Hakataya, Brisbane,  Taro’s Ramen, Brisbane (blog post pending) gets it right. Bringing me back to Kyoto, Japan.

Gumshara is located in a food court within Chinatown. Not much sign or fancy decors except for a wall of photos of each dish. There were a few people waiting in line. As the noodle enters the bowel, somebody stirs it to ensure it is well separated.

The ramen has to contain the thickest soup I have ever tasted in a ramen. It might be a bit too thick. There was plenty of pork bone flavour for sure, but it was missing something. Possibly umami. The noodle was perfectly cooked along with good quality cha shu meat. (The half cooked egg was extra). Is it good? yes. But not for ramen beginners.

Gumshara Ramen,

Eating World Harbour Plaza Shop 209 25-29 Dixon St 
Haymarket, NSW

What I got out of Basic Cuisine:

• Organization and cleanliness at every moment of cooking. Workflow from dirty to clean, raw to cooked, separation of raw and cooked food. The chefs that walk around in class will tell you off for cleanliness even as the sauce is in the process of overflowing. Vegetable peels never touch the cutting board.
• Timing: Multitasking and always planning ahead. Heat up water or pans first before cutting something so you don’t have to wait. You can only peel or chop sometime so fast, so to save time (and not taking short cuts) you need to think ahead. There is much to improve here in a real-world restaurant where multiple dishes are cooking at the same time
• Consistency: cutting vegetables to identical size and shapes is fundamental. Never mind the half of carrot that needs to be trimmed off to obtain brunoise. The trimmings do go to the school kitchen to prepare stocks.
• Learning how to cut and clean vegetables, whole fish and birds
• Making stocks and jus – I still remember the first chicken jus I made was a pale yellow colour. Never made that mistake again.
• Seasoning: salt and often pepper to everything at every stage except sauces and stocks. The level of saltiness asked for is always more than I would do at home. So taste – it is nice – and double the salt and you have achieved restaurant seasoning. For some students it is the opposite.

Practical class

What I thought was good:

• Every minute of school. Heat, sweat and whatever the kitchen can throw at me.
• The sound of sizzling pan with a layer of sucre (caramalized sugars and protein) – deglaze!
• The look and feel of a sauce that is ‘nappe’ as I push the liquid in the small saucepan with a spoon. Usually I am ready to plate at that time and the look of a sauce as it is disturbed with a spoon just does it for me. ‘Nappe’ is the French word to describe a the consistency of a sauce that can coat a spoon and then leave a trail when brushed with a finger.
• Ok, seriously. The chefs have high standards and are attentive to every detail. In demonstration I always see the chefs check their plates to make sure there are no finger prints. They will plate, re-plate and re-shuffle the prawns if they do not sit the way they want. They probably made that dish for the millionth time but will still make it perfect. I reflected on this point and find this an incredible lesson.
• The chefs are all very good and have their own style. All can easily hold, or once held Michelin-starred restaurant or won more prestigious chef awards. To be critiqued by them is the best lessons every learnt in cooking. Even if you don’t agree, remember taste is subjective but a messy station is fact.
• Political correctness is not paramount to chefs. A girl was told by a chef she was not Vietnamese because of the way she cut up a whole chicken. English and Americans have jokes thrown at them.
• Male chefs (most are male) have some preferences for girls – a good thing because I don’t want them to hold my hand as I am whipping a mayonnaise.
• Even if my dish was good, I really appreciate comments on how to improve taste, method or change plating.

Duck à l'orange

What I thought was bad:

• Nothing.  The areas that are negative just don’t even hold weight to the good things about school. Yes, the chicken supreme dish (white sauce on white meat on white rice) doesn’t taste good but you learn how to poach a chicken, make a stock, make bechamel and cook rice on pan (I admit, never better than a rice cooker). If you wanted to play with liquid nitrogen go to another school. Also, this is not a holiday cooking school.

Who goes to Basic Cuisine:

• About half school leavers and half who have previous jobs
• 2/3 who think they want to be a chef, 1/3 who are doing it as a hobby or want something to do with food
• 1/3 Europeans, 1/3 from North and South America, 1/3 Asians. There are very few French nationals

Was it difficult:

• Not for me. And not for most students. Language is probably the biggest problem. If you can’t speak English or French then you are in for a long ride.
• This was a 6 month break from my usual work and the very fact that I was able to learn something I love made everything fun.
• I also took a shorter term for wine basics. If I am sitting an exam and sipping on a glass of white wine (a sancerre that tasted like carbernet sauving0non) at the same time then I wont complain.

Exams:

• Written and recipe memorization is not hard.
• Practical exam can be stressful but you are cooking one of the dishes you have already made in a previous practical class. Stressful because cooking is a performance and there is always a slight chance that if my glasses fell and broke… In all seriousness, you do need to score enough on the practical (45% of the the term total) to pass. It is not hard to pass but just don’t drop the pan with your food inside (even if the handle is out of the oven and searing your skin to a nice caramel colour). There is no re-sitting (which I think is rather unfair in the bigger picture considering that you could be injured by someone else).

Does the school prepare you to be a chef?

• Firstly I don’t think anyone should call themselves a chef unless they are working in the professional kitchen as their main job. I am not.
• Finishing the Cuisine Diploma (3 terms) only gives you the basic skills to work in a kitchen station. In the restaurant setting, the ability to communicate and and work as a team is far more important and the school does not provide this knowledge or experience until the stage/internship. Not to mention there are politics, business and money to handle in a restaurant. Owning a restaurant is a completely different game.
• The school places suitable students to restaurant to do a 2 month stage (internship) after successfully completing the Diploma. This will probably be the first time students get a reality check on the passion to be a chef. I believe many high-end restaurants depend on unpaid or minimal wage pay chefs to be financially sustainable (or in certain cases, greedy). But one has to start somewhere.
• Being passionate about food is something that can’t be taught at school. There are plenty of students who could not care less about the knowledge outside the action of cooking. For example, how things are grown, where do products come from, what varieties of food are available and the economics of food.

Basic Cuisine, Group D, September 2011

Quotes of the term (added)

• As we did puff pastry dough the second time, one of the Chinese students was excited that the butter stayed inside the dough and did not get smeared on the marble. In a thick accent “Look! Today no butter! It’s a party!” he also did a little jiggle
• “Excellent c’est quoi chef?” “Excellent c’est bon!”
• Chef looks at a under-cooked fish and exclaims “no worries, you serve sashimi, excellent!”
• “Chef? what could you use instead of rabbit if you can’t get it?” Chef looks up surprised and shocked “Huh? Pas de lapain!? Il n’y a pas de lapin? Je crois qu’on peut utiliser un chat, c’est pareil. Mais vraiment – s’il n’y a pas de lapin, ne faites pas ce repas!” (Huh? No rabbit!? There is no rabbit? I think one can use a cat, it’s similar. But really, if there is no rabbit then don’t make the recipe!”). Smiles!
• Chef looks into the sink that always gets clogged up and then fills with a grey fluid. “Ah, you guyz like to make zoup huh? zo kind of you.” He the grabs the plunger and smiles.
• There is nothing quite like it when the translator Ben gets off on fats. Licks his lips as he says “Mmm…. that is basically bacon, cooked in fat plus more fat, wrapped in fat” “It is just meant to be!” “It’s all part of the creator’s plan!”
• A chef always self-congratulates as he tastes his own food during demonstration “excellent!” “incroyable!” “impeccable!” “parfait!” Actually, his food tastes the best out of all the demonstrations.
• One of the chefs always like to show how the fish or bird might have swam or walked when it was alive by moving it’s tail or legs (or head). He then proceeds to play with the head after chopping it off.

I am high on life. Living in Paris, about 100 metres from the Eiffel Tower, going to cooking school and meeting people with the same passion. Currently I am attending the Intermediate Cuisine (intensive) course. Unfortunately I don’t have time to do the Superior course. I have no idea how disappointing it will be to leave in January and not be able to start Superior with my friends. I am giving it at least 5-6 years before I could take another break like this. I want to prove myself wrong.

No problem, because their sweets are already seriously delicious and original. There is one small bar to sit and eat the dessert with tea or coffee. You just pick what you want from the display and they serve it up. However, the bar is small and rather uncomfortable. Highlights in my opinion include their “rolls” which consist of layers of poppy seed, fruits and a million other wonderful things that go inside. There is also a layered honey cake and a very complex strudel. Nothing I had was too sweet at all. I wont pretend I know what are inside these gems.

Roll - I wish I could tell you what is exactly inside but I have no idea

Strudel with layers of flavours and textures

Macarons with a difference

A very summery dessert with a surprise inside

Paris store - very different to the Moscow and the New York stores

• Texture of the shell is airy and not dried up
• Flavour is prominent and not artificial
• Macarons are invariably sweet, but there is a balance still. Too sweet then you can’t taste the flavour. Balance please.

Here are a few of the best shops and simple gorgeous. I will add more. Sorry, I can’t take these back to Australia.

Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki - macarons on the wall decoration

Aoki - here you can find Japanese flavours such as various teas, yuzu and sesame

Laduree - very famous and for a good reason. If I was to pick one shop for macarons then this is it.

Their salted caramel macaron (not pictured) is a must try. Though the filling is thicker and denser than their other flavours, it is an explosion of salted caramel

Patisserie Pain de Sucre

Patisserie Pain de Sucre - more on the denser side. They have an espelette/saffron flavour.

Looks good and will not disappoint

Weiss - a chocolate company. Very genuine flavours. I am pretty sure it was the best pistachio I have had so far.

Café Pouchkine - originating from Russia, brings a new range of flavours and textures with very refined techniques. Here are double flavoured macaron shells.

So, French food is good here. Joël Robuchon is “a star” – with 27 Michelin stars – the most in the world to date. He is also a restaurateur as he owns/operates many restaurants around the world. To see him cook when you eat is probably going to be extremely rare. But the point is, you already missed that time. It was more than 30 years ago when he was awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France – a very prestigious recognition that he is the best in the field. His work modernized French cuisine and also brought in influences from Japan, where he also taught.

A month ago, I had the pleasure of eating at the L’Atelier in Paris. A bar-style seating, informal, not stuffy and serving fine-dining – a major shift in French food. One could chose individual dishes or take the degustation menu (menu découverte). Naturally, we took the later since this it would be a long time before I return to Paris again. I thought the food was excellent. The garnish for the pork was a little too salty and the coffee, caramel dessert a little ordinary. The foie gras was seriously beyond awesome – and why not stuff it into the quail! The famous pomme purée was full of buttery smoothness. A small portion is all you need. Service was great and the advantage of bar seating is the ability to dine alone easily or to break up the conversation a little. By the way, I believe after school (if I did finish my 3rd term) I have the opportunity, if I am good enough, to do a 2 month internship here. Quel dommage! I only have time to finish the second term.

Bar-style fine dining

Amuse Bouche - I think it was a cold crab soup

Crayfish

chestnut veloute

Foie gras - seared. Certainly the best foie gras I have had.

Poachd egg, chanterelle mushroom

Fish

Pork

Quail, stuffed with foie gras, potato puree with truffles. This mash potato is a famous signature of Joël Robuchon. Nearly 50:50 butter to potato

A simple, light and delicious raspberry desert.

Coffee, caramel dessert.

Divine chicken with morel sauce

It is the best roast chicken I have had and easily beats what Cafe Vue or PM24 offers. But was is out of this world? It is still a chicken. Don’t get me wrong, it is excellent but I just want to stress, I still ate a chicken. I certainly have had chicken in Taiwan with very good flavour and bite. The local description is “soil chicken” – indicating they are older and, presumably, able to roam freely. Distinctively, I remember they have dark feet too. The Bress chicken is certainly one of the best chickens available for purchase but I want to point out that after all, it is competing with a fairly neutral-tasting field of birds anyway.

On another note, I never grew up with roast chicken. To many, the smell and the taste represents more of an occasion with family on Sundays. The wonderful feeling of sitting around a table discussing the week’s news and events is peppered with requests for which part of the chicken to tear up and what’s for dinner. Licking fingers. Crunchy potatoes. At least, that’s what I think a roast chicken does one’s memory. For our meal at Le Splendid, topped with a glass of wine and dessert, all lit up by the giant windows next to us will last in my memory for a long time. France is beautiful

High ceiling, art-deco lights, tiled floors, open kitchen

Chocolate moelleux with coffee ice cream - a very good chocolate moelleux

On a side note, I have been trying to perfect a roast chicken and have come across a few interesting resources apart from books. Thomas Keller keeps is simple and seasons the bird with salt, pepper and thyme only. No basting. Heston Blumenthal goes a few steps further and brines the chicken to give it extra moisture. He also carefully tasted different breeds of chicken in UK to find the best one.  As he started cooking, the skin of the bird is blanched and chilled multiples times before drying to prepare a crispy skin like Peking duck. The chicken is then cooked at 60 degrees Celsius for 4 and a half hours before finally browning the skin. And if this wasn’t complicated enough, the people on thecookingissues blog (from The French Culinary Institute of America) decides that different parts of the chicken deserve different cooking temperatures with the sous-vide technique. Although they applied the technique to a Turkey, the principles are the same. The bird they served up looked amazing.

Oh, did I mention the price of the raw chicken?

Sold with the distinctive label, head and feet attached - 12-13 Euros per kg in the market

Our plate of roast chicken was 25 Euros, plus optional extra morels for 7 Euros – not bad at all.

This is Paris. People here seem not to care where is the ‘in’ place to eat. I was able to make a reservation for dinner at L’Atelier by Joel Robuchon at Saint-Germain for roughly 2 weeks in advance. The casual, fine dining restaurant has 2 Michelin stars and is again high up on the S.Pellegrino’s list.  A friend of mine managed to reserve a late lunch on a Sunday by calling on the same day. Try that with Movida on a Sunday and have the reception staff think you are either joking or obviously a tourist.

There were about 15 people in the que. The chef came outside at about 9:30 and counted the numbers and told the last few people that they wont be able to get a seat.

Waiter outside having a smoke. How French.

Let’s talk about  Le Chateaubriand. Inaki Aizparte is a self-taught chef who often serves up dishes with few, contrasting and sometimes challenging ingredients. If eating is seen as art, then his food is post-modern art. Art doesn’t have to be aesthetically pleasing or technically flawless to leave an impact. A classical Dutch landscape is soothing but the melting clock in the Persistence of Memory by Dali has more impact. By the same analogy, the S.Pellegrino’s list is not about the best tasting food in the world. Chefs, food writers, critics from around the world vote on what is ‘best’ and not who serves up the most expensive truffle. On that basis, restaurants that push boundaries, leave diners with exciting memories and perhaps challenge our perceptions will get noticed. If there wasn’t progression, we would all be eating potatoes thinly sliced and fried in foaming butter and garlic (our recent demonstration at school) – not that there is anything not tasty about that!

So, forget the reviews that say “food was horrible, cold, tiny and expensive” or “for a restaurant placed 9th, it served up inedible food”. One comes prepared to have their conceptions challenged. Throw away the stuffy, traditional French setting and sit in a relaxing, warm dining hall with a wine bar. This is what we had on the Thursday 22nd of September. Five amuse bouches, 3 mains, a cheese plate or 2 sweet dishes. Judge for yourself.

Amuse bouche - choux pastry with cheese, ceviche shot and fried fish.

Beans and parsley. Clean and not overpowering.

Consomme, radish, foie gras and coffee beans.

Herring (I think), carrots, physalis (a yellow fruit resembling a small tomato but with a very concentrated tomato and mildly tart flavour)

Sea bream, celery, pourpier, manzanilla - a mixed salad of unusual leaves with a slightly grassy taste and succulent texture.

Milk fed lamb, artichokes, anchovies, burnt lemon. Multiple cuts and textures of lamb, including sweetbread and kidney.

Cheese or dessert - Fourme d'Amber (a blue resembling Roquefort), Brillat Saverin (a wonderful soft cheese with a very floral and light bitterness), Ossau Iraty (a firm sheep milk cheese)

Lait Ribot (a white milk based sorbet like fromage blanc), herbs, brown butter.

Chocolate and mushrooms. Very good quality melted chocolate with a fruity and earthy note that is dragged on by the mushrooms. It's a concept dish. Most people who recently wrote about the restaurant was not impressed with this one. I liked it. But then again, I did not think this was a dessert in the traditional sense.

At the end of the meal, the cheerful man from Peru who we met while queuing up summed it up. He looked very happy from the wine he had enjoyed. Gesturing with his finger in rapid movements across his chest:

“It was a such an experience. The food was like pa! pa! pa! pa!”

Slice the eggplant in half and score it. The sauce is made up of miso, bonito soy, sake, mirin and sugar painted on top. Baked in the oven at 160 deg C for 40mins until it is nice and soft. Served with some scallions and a spoon with some rice.

A mini ice cream cart on the right

“Hello, how are you!?” one of the staff said to me as I waited to order. Sounded like someone who knew me. And it was. Antoine, who I met in Melbourne a few years ago, used to have a coffee roasting shop in the suburbs of Melbourne. I remember he said that he wanted to open a cafe in one of the French colonies in the tropics. He would have his own roaster and espresso bar by the beach. I didn’t remember he was going to Paris. But here we are few years down the track under the same roof. I call it coffee foot prints. He introduced me to Tom from Canberra who, together, opened this cafe. They serve single origin, blends, siphon, cold drip and milk based espresso drinks in all its glory. A piccolo latte (my favorite) was easily done. Milk well textured and served without being burnt. For purchase are beans and brewing equipment (pour over, siphon, espresso machines.

Paris as a whole is just beginning to realize coffee is far more than the swill they are used to. A ironic fact is how a city ( or nation) so obsessed with food, drinks and leisure is so late in coffee development. Their deep worship of tradition and the respect of how things are done as they used to be (thinks of chopping vegetables in triangular ‘paysanne’ shape at school) is proving to be a major contributor to their slow embrace of the coffee movement. The competition will heat up though and I really wish Coutume the best in leading this revolution.

Piccolo

“That place is out of control.” That was the reply.

Paris Brest

Rêves has been awarded the best Paris Brest for three consecutive years. This mind blowing dessert was originally created to help fuel cyclists on the 1200 km Paris to Brest race. It is essentially a choux pastry filled with praline cream, shaped into a wheel shape. The idea might have came from modifying an eclair into the shape of a wheel. The version from Rêves is made of 6 connected choux pastry, filled with a hazel nut (?maybe almonds too) praline cream. Under the cream is a think liquid coulant of chocolate and hazel nut that taste quite like Nutella. What makes this one taste so good is no doubt the richness of the cream, filled with unmissable hazel nut power. The cream had a ‘bite’ to it – dense from the nuts blended through it.

I went twice because I ate the first one before I could take a photo. The shop is beautiful too. The selection of pastry is displayed under glass domes. When you have decided, the staff will go behind the counter and retrieve the individual pastry from their optimum storage condition.

Store design reflected in their website

Look only. They will retrieve your purchase from the back where each dessert is stored optimally

If one ever made it back to my apartment, I will cut it up properly

I haven't worked out the names on the chairs yet

The decor is cosy. Nearly all the seating is upstairs and partly loft style. The roof is low and supported by old and large wooden beams. There are 2 windows out the back which over looks some green climber plants. I don’t have a photo that does these windows justice.  The owner pointed out that they had a fake chicken farm upstairs too. Such intimate space also proved popular with a couple kissing away while waiting for their coffees. This rare place is a reminder of just how lucky we are in Australia to have so many places to chose from for a place with decent coffee and breakfast. It is obvious that our habits are different to most Parisians.

I didn’t catch their names. But I figure I will be back soon.

Looks familiar?

Tarragon omelette

"Because if we had a real one, we would be shut down"

Sitting in a small lane way. I came across the place after wondering around without a map in hand. In retrospect, I have read about this place somewhere but I wasn't looking for it today.

Hello par-hee

Here is what I have observed in the last 2 days

• There is a boucherie (butcher) or 2 always close by. In Melbourne, most people would by their meat from the supermarket. Otherwise, butchers are concentrated in the markets and you can’t just walk to one in your neighbourhood.
• The number of pâtissieres is ridiculous. Quality vary, but generally good to very good compared to back home.
• There are very few public toilets to be found – on the streets, and because the lack of shopping malls compared to back home, there just aren’t easy to find. I wonder if I missed something as I can’t figure out where the thousands and thousands of locals and tourists go for a toilet break
• Not as much dog poo as I thought
• When dusk renders the sky a dim and dark blue, the white/cream buildings are really beautiful. Then I realize I am standing in a maze of narrow streets, filled with shops, restaurant and French people chattering away. Sweet. I am in Paris for the rest of this year.

The French also have a liking of the lesser-known steaks in Australia. Bavette (flank – lateral abdominal muscles), onglet (hanger – part of diaphragm closer to the spine) and skirt steak (part of diaphragm) are frequently seen. Not exactly cheap either at 15-30 Euros/kg compared to less than 10 AUD/kg for skirt steak in Australia (although skirt steak is the cheapest). These cuts have large and prominent muscles fibers running parallel in a flat, sheet-like muscle. Often cooked rare by searing on both sides and the cut into thin slices against the grain, these steaks are very flavourful. Overcooking will make it very tough and dry. I read that in South America, these steaks are also popular, grilled quickly on open fire.

Bavette

The wooden communal table next to the courtyard is a lovely piece of furniture.

A 'holy f__' moment

One of the communal tables

They do sell out, often.

It’s not tea that he drinks from the cup during service.

One day Hiro will no longer be there. I think he is truly forming each nigiri with passion and love for the art.

Chef Hiro-san

Clockwise from top left: starter usually with pickled vegetables and fish, dory?, pickled mackerel, salmon

An audience, chef Hiro-san and his assistant

Beef, ark shell, tuna, salmon belly

The king fish belly (below, top right) is my favorite. Never walk away from this place without eating this. You may as well not bothered to make a reservation in the first place!

? Chu-toro, king fish belly (F*@$en the best), oysters, sesame crème brûlée

"unknown fire"

This is another transcendent moment in the noodle world. Hong Kong. Wonton noodle soup. This version has a broth of pork and shark bones. Clear, umani savouriness and slightly sweet. The noodles are hand-made by the traditional method of pushing dough with a large bamboo pole. Look at this video (12:20, continues in part 2 for a few more minutes) from Anthony Bourdain’s show. It is beautiful and moving to see such art still taking place in a city that could define capitalism. The noodle has such density that it almost taste crispy as it breaks in your mouth – a texture not found in most other shops. Wontons here were also great – porky parcels made right at the shop window front.

A few left in this world

Shop front

Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry’s pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce (by Howard Moskowitz) – and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.

Piccolo latte - Mecca Espresso Bar

A sigh of relief after handing in my stack of paper work to the French Consulate for visa application. One of the best piccolo lattes I have had recently. Sit and ponder what the rest of the year will bring.

Trimmed Wagyu beef cheeks with intramuscular connective tissue running through it

I tried 2 ways of cooking and both are very delicious. The first one is a red-wine base. Start by browning 4 cheeks in a large, heavy-based pot. Then sweat finely diced onions (2), carrot (2), celery (2 sticks) and shallots (5) in the same pot. Return the cheeks in the pot and add a bottle of a medium/heavy body red like a cab-sav or a shiraz. After this, add small amounts of soy sauce (40ml),  balsamic vinegar (40ml), 3 bay leaves and 3 table spoons of tomato paste. Oh, and 5-10 enthusiastic turns of the pepper grinder.  Put the lid on, turn the heat right down and go read a book. Stir/turn the cheeks every 40 min and after about 3 hours test the cheeks out with a fork. If you want to serve it thickly sliced with some sides you should be able poke fork easily into the cheeks without it falling apart. Cook it more if you want to serve it with pasta and tear it apart with a fork. Remove the cheeks when you think it’s done and reduce the remaining liquid until the thickness of a sauce. You could remove the solid bits before reducing if you want a more consistent sauce but I like the residual vegetable bits in my meal.

Red wine version

Molten goodness

The second method was Asian style. I had some braising liquid in the freezer that I reserved after cooking pork neck. The liquid is made of the same ingredients below and is really a version of the Asian ‘master-stock’ that just gets re-used over and over again. Brown the cheeks like before but this time add reserved braising liquid instead of wine. If you don’t have this, then add some beef stock or water. Top up either liquid with soy sauce (100-150ml), good rice wine (100-150 ml), xiao-shing wine (50 ml) and a little balsamic vinegar or black Asian vinegar (30 ml) for acidity. Then add the aromatics: garlic (6-10), shallots (5), chili (to taste), ginger (thumb size), spring-onions (6-10) a few turns of the pepper grinder and 1-2 star anise if you like. Put the lid on and go read another book.

Importantly, the pot size should be such that minimal braising liquid/wine is required. I changed to a smaller pot to allow be to pack the cheeks together better. Less braising liquid maximized the flavour as the cheeks don’t loose as much flavour to the liquid. Ensure the cheeks are just covered.

Asian style. Frozen braising liquid (top-left)

I served the Asian style with rice. Take a ladle of the remaining liquid in the pot and add some finely chopped spring onion, garlic and ginger. Dip/drizzle on the sliced cheeks and hope someone washes the dishes. Honestly, I think the Asian-style taste better.

Molten meat on rice

Serious things

Macarons are mostly too dense, too sweet, artificial flavoured and just disappointing (regret) to pay $2-3. But this is a good one – from cafe Chez Dre. The head pastry chef is Andrea Reiss.

My friend served it up with a light soy/citrus dressing. Gold.

This will be my downfall. A friend of mine gave me a stick of this from Leo’s Fine Food in Kew a few weeks ago. It’s so delicate, light and the taste more complex and will elevate warm bread into another level. Commercial butter in Australia contains about 16-18% water and the rest mainly fat. Cultured butter contains a variable water content. European butters typically less (14%) which is good for browning butter.

But the main difference is the flavour. Butter is traditionally made from the cream that settles on top of fresh milk. After a few days, naturally occurring bacteria in the milk and air slightly ferment the cream and turns it into crème fraiche. The flavour comes from the fermentation process, just like cheese. The crème fraiche is then churned to separate the butterfat from buttermilk (mainly water). Over-whip cream from the supermarket and the yellow-ish substance is essentially butter.

So really, they are about to start a Butter Club. The proverb on the packaging reads “Eat butter first, and eat it last, and live till a hundred years be past”. Hmmm.

Melbourne’s coffee scene is bubbling mad. Many cafes are trying to ride ‘the third wave coffee’ and producing ‘specialty coffee’ these days that the terms are obsolete. Pointless because everyone who roast or buy roasted beans, as long as the beans come from one region, can sign up to the ‘single origin’ badge. A mention or a sign to indicate how much care and emphasis is made to the coffee, or the offering of a non-espresso based coffee allows one to claim the honour of  ’specialty’. Tear off paint to show distress bricks, have a big wooden bench or communal table and you have ticked off the circles like the Heart Foundation ticks. That’s fine, the just-being-educated-by-The-Epicure mass will bite.

What is really needed at the bottom of the cup is honest passion and the relentless pursuit of the best. The barista should be the ‘pass’ at the cafe where every drink is looked at and the deficient ones are discarded, just like a good restaurant. I have visited Padre Coffee, (Specifically, Brunswick East Project on Lygon St), a few times and their passion is certainly not running low. These guys probably drink a bottle of passion everyday they wake up.  This will be their new cafe – The League of Honest Coffee. Looking forward to it.

Recently another battle broke out with some success with the duration down to 1 hour 30 min for a 1.5 kg Bird. There was an intermission (ie: parts of the bird not quite fully dead). The colour of the enemy was delightful though. I also prepared a liquid weapon of reduced, brown chicken stock loaded into a 20ml syringe and a 19 G needle. However the payload was too thick to pass through the needle and inject it into the enemy.

The Enemy

Ok, so I have had some trouble roasting a chicken but I never grew up with this stuff. I am looking for nothing less than a perfect bird (the bird itself important), breast is done but must not be dry while the rest of the bird is cooked (aiming for 68-70 degrees). The best roast chicken I have has so far is from PM24 by Philippe Mouchel. Soon I will amass another army and fight again. Curiously, I was reading the oven instructions on the numerous settings and realized that when cooking recipes tell you to pre-heat the oven, no one tells you what kind of heat source. I am assuming it’s either convection or fan-assisted/forces + convection.

Some videos and words of advice:  Thomas Keller of the French Laundry makes roasting chicken look as easy as me pouring cereal into a bowl. Nothing fancy, no butter/garlic/herb rub or stuffing. But I suspect he would have some excellent roasted vegetables and sauce to go with it. Heston Blumenthal takes complexity to a new level if you wanted to know the intricacies of roasting a bird and his opinion on perfecting it. Please, if anyone has tips and tricks, write it below.

Fri 4:  Seven Seeds
Sat 5: Five Senses
Sun 6:  Dead Man Espresso
Mon 7: Market Lane
Tue 8: The Premises
Wed 9: Seven Seeds
Thu 10: Five Senses
Fri 11: Proud Mary
Sat 12: Dead Man Espresso
Sun 13: Proud Mary
Mon 14: Market Lane

24 Crossley Street, Melbourne (between Bourke and Little Bourke, Exhibition and Spring)

On my way out, I organised the rest of my day and spotted this

The room is dark-walled and dominated by a naked/raw rabbit carcass painting. Vegetarians have been warned about no trespassing by the iron hoofs door-handle. Beer selection on tap and bottles is wide – from niche to small batch to fine commercial. More importantly, the staff there know what they are talking about and can really help novice beer drinkers like me. I don’t like Guinness, I like a citrus and I like moderately dry. Served to me was Hargreaves Hill ESB. The food was gamey and meaty as expected, but certainly not as “nose-to-tail” as one might expect. The Lamb sausage was super delicious. For dessert I had the bomb Alaska, which was rich but incredibly well done. The ice cream, the fruit beer sorbet and the dense Italian meringue was (insert favorite mmmm word).

Lamb tartare, lamb sausage and the wall painting

Nadal was on fire in this game against Cilic. The brutal forehand. I took my first generation 18-200 mm VR lens and the photos were not bad considering I was sitting close to the back. It has been some times since I used this lens, opting for the 50 mm F1.8 and the Tokina 12-24 mm these days. Still, the key is versatility.

Oh, please don’t miss the green tea cupcakes with red bean paste. In my opinion, my favorite cupcake by miles. The key is not too sweet and a good balance of moist and doughy.

Google Map

A DIY ice coffee allowing a unsweetened version or sugar to be dissolved in hold milk first

Breakfast for champions part 2

Green tea cupcake with red bean paste worth a trip

21 Railway Terrace, Milton, 4064

One care space

A Bottle of Milk, Lorne.

flower shop with glorious light

Vic Market is known for it’s size, useless junk and touristy crap, cheap produce and if you chose properly, some really good quality produce. In particular, Sardes meat shop just to the right of the entrance on the corner of Elizabeth and Victoria st have some amazing cuts of meat at very reasonable prices. When was the last time you saw 4 different cuts Wagu beef cut to order?

Sardes meat

It’s a big statement from me. But I would like to think I have tried a few bowls of ramen in my life without being completely obsessed (ok, a little) about it. In the 8 years I have been in Melbourne, many soups bases have been devoured. On the Brisbane front, My brother lives there so he would be pretty in touch with which ramen shops are singing out. In Sydney is my friend and along with my pre-visit research, I have tried a couple of places with good words said about them. I am going to first admit my limitations and will be more than excited to hear about other places to see some porky goodness.

Best ramen in Australia?

A better view of heaven

I have made a couple of posts on ramen in Japan, including the best ramen I have tried to date. In Melbourne, Ramen Ya, Momotaro Ramen (great soft-boiled eggs) are my favorites. Sydney has Gumshara Ramen and Ichi ban Boshi posted by Grab Your Fork. One thing I have yet to try is Ichi ban Boshi’s limited-number tonkotsu ramen. I tried waiting for one last year by getting in early, ordering food and then asking the waitress that when the special ramen was ready I am also ready for round 2. Sadly it was too far away and I would be sitting there for another 45 minutes twiddling my fingers. This year I went to Gumshara ramen which is stuck in a crowded food court in Sydney’s Chinatown. Their limited 20 serve pork spare rib with thick soup was hand-down the most pork-rich soup I have ever come across. The first spoon full was so intense that I wasn’t sure it it was soup or something gravy-like. But the flavours were just too much to take in a bowl. Maybe I was already feeling hot and greasy from walking all day. Notably, Gumshara has choice of thin and thick soup base. My friend suggested a thin base might be more balanced.

Hakataya Noodle Shop

But this is where Melbourne and Sydney’s ramen fade in comparison to… Brisbane’s Hakataya Noodle Shop in Sunnybank (first shop in Surface Paradise called Nagahama Ramen Hakataya). The shop is small (good), menu short (good), had a japanese style curtain at the entrance (good) and the tonkotsu ramen is just bloody good. Soup is porky all over, yet clean and slick and PERFECTLY seasoned. I think the hardest thing about tonkotsu soup base is getting the deep, porky taste while maintaining a clean and almost light taste. A bit like how French cooking might add cream/butter to ‘lighten’ the sauce up. The noodle is wonderfully dense and bitey (and free second serve to add to the soup. Shavings of pork (chashu) floating on top. There is a line outside ever day and so there should be. My brother has tried the shop in Surfers Paradise and he thinks the one in Brisbane is better.

——

Update: Taro’s Ramen

3 trips back to Brisbane later and I finally tasted Taro’s Ramen. The first one they were closed for holidays. The second time closed for other reasons. I was getting rather worked up every time the umami and tonkotsu taste buds were rubbing their hands together – only to have to wait some more. When I did get to eat it, it was certainly delicious. Soup was complex and porky. Clean and refined at the same time. It was probably less porky and more complex than Hakataya. Noodles were thin (my favorite type) and had a good bite. Importantly, the half boiled egg sit on top with a rich, amber glow that is only seen the moment before sun sets on a hazy afternoon. Splendid. Taro’s Ramen and Hakataya are easily the best 2 ramen restaurants I have tried in Australia.

Taro's Ramen

Asparagus and Parmesan on rye bread

These purple chive flowers from our courtyard make beautiful and delicate garnishes while giving a light garlicky taste. I remember last year at the Royal Mail, Dunkeld, fresh sugar snap peas were simply piled on the plate along with compressed watermelon “sashimi” by the side. It was a highlight of the night. These fresh peas taste far better than frozen peas – well worth the time to shell them.

Sugar snap peas with chive flowers

It’s in a suburb with quite a few doctors’s homes. You might be able to point around the street and say that’s a radiologist, that’s a ophthalmologist, that’s a anaesthetist and the dermatologist is next door (R-O-A-D to medicine). I was lucky enough that my friend who works in a couple of cafes in Brisbane told me about the opening of Peter Wolff’s new cafe. What a lovely place – bright, cosy and waitering staff in colourful and chirpy ties. I really like the “dandelion” lamp and incidentally on the same day I went to IKEA and saw the same (or very similar) design. The work bench is a bit small for the number of machines and equipment – the wall of grinders is like a fence between the bar and the customers.

On the espresso front, there are two blends: Dandelion (more females like it) and Driftwood (more males like it). As expected, just like in perfumes, the stereotypical scent/aroma profiles of feminine (more fruity, floral) versus masculine (earthy, bitter) are portrayed. There are other methods of brewing available, including cold drip, siphon and a fairly new machine called the Trifecta. It’s a more manual kind of the Clover in my opinion. The machine allows adjustment to parameters such as time, pre-infusion, pressures, agitation and aeration. The coffee looks and taste a bit like the Clover. Compared to a Siphon brew, it’s a little murky, more on the acidic/fruity side and less earth. I’ll pretty much leave you to decide on what you think about the results.

Speaking generally, there are more and more different methods of brewing coffee and cafes are trying to be a step ahead all the time with new machines and gadgets. Consistency will be a big issue when there are so many different brewing methods which potentially require different roasts.

Cold drip and siphon

It's bright and cosy

The bench table facing outside

tea set

The dandelion

Trifecta brewed coffee

Finally, a good place for coffee near St Vicent’s Hospital! Unfortunately I will be in Kew and Peter MacCallum till the end of the year. Gertrude St has been getting a food-lift in the past few years with a pizzeria , bakery, tapas bar and a fine dining restaurant added to the bookshop with only food related books. It’s about time coffee was added.

Created by the owners of 7 Seeds, good coffee will be expected from De Clieu. Day 2 of opening and people are already populating this place like it’s been there for a while. The food menu is short (good), interesting, and acknowledges individual suppliers for quality products. They are going to very busy on the weekends. I hope they allow people in scrubs to walk in too.

Interestingly, while I was browsing the web, I found out that 7 Seeds is also the title of a manga series about life long after a meteorite destroyed most of life in Earth. A side track anyway. The 7 seeds of cafe name refers to the story that a a pilgrim named Baba Budan smuggled 7 coffee beans from the Middle East to India and subsequently spread it from Africa/Middle East to the rest of the world. Gabriel de Clieu was known to transport 2 coffee plants from Europe to the South American Island of Martinique, from where coffee spread to the Americas (according to Wiki).

With coffee demand growing so rapidly sometimes I do think about the sustainability of coffee as a crop.

Rear 202 Carlisle St, Balaclava VIC 3183 Australia. Enter from the lane on the left of Safeway.

I think this design has been done to death in Melbourne. Distressed brick walls, ex-warehouse, clipboard menus, Synesso and did I mention Synesso? Uniquely they use old sewing machines as coffee tables! I think these guys have done pretty well with their own roasted beans and carefully textured milk. The food is vegetarian only (no eggs) and they serve ‘specialty’ teas – hence the Buddist-ish references in the name. I had a French toast which was made with baguette slices with saffron caramel with a poached pear. Surprisingly very nice (surprisingly, as there are no eggs involved). The caramel was too hard when it cooled though.

But hang on, and 1 or 2 monthly vegan breakfast degustation? Sounds pretty original. One thing I don’t get is why chose such a small location only to want to solve the problem so soon after opening?

Obscure signs

Clipboard, check. ACF-like cups, check. Rosetta, check

This is pretty much the entire cafe, plus 3 tables to the right

Saffron French toast with poached pear

The cutest stack of cupcakes in Melbourne!

Sowing machine tables

Entrance and a make-shift table outside

Morning coffee

I love the way the morning sun hits my coffee cups in the morning. The near horizontal rays hit my sleepy eyes and gives me cataracts. My last week’s coffee is from the Nicaragua Pacamara peaberry. It is a cross between the Maragoype varietal or the “elephant bean” due to the size and the Pacas type. The beans are huge, almost double the size of normal coffee bean. Normally a coffee cherry contains two coffee ‘beans’ in close opposition to form a ovoid shape. A peaberry occurs when one of the halves is not fertilized so only the fertilized half grows and takes up the entire whole ovoid shape.

Sweet, caramel and simply pleasant with a half-volume latte / flat white. Then I hopped on the plane to Sydney for a lovely weekend.

"Thomas Keller's BLT" from Dead Man Espresso

Take note…pork belly is as common as the Synesso in Melbourne now.

After lunch and a great coffee, we headed to Port Melbourne Beach and felt…cold! It reminded me when I was in Norway after a few months of below zero temperature. A sunny day, warm (relative) and the entire student village was outside on the lawn receiving their yearly dose of vitamin D with the famous engangsgrill. We went to a small island off the city center for a BBQ and realized it was really ‘only’ 12 degrees.

Summer at Port Melbourne was a bit early

I still love the cold.

You think the slayer was the new black?

A bit more on the cafe trends of Melbourne with the help of my friends.

The blindingly obvious – free pour latte art is the expected topping now days. I still remember in the good old Maltitude days where latte art was only found in very few cafes. And the dozen or so others trying to learn were serving wilted rosettas on their lattes.

Being a barista no longer means that you are either: still at uni and just wanting to make minimum wage OR you are old, probably from southern Europe and still believe (truthfully) 6 month old beans roated from Italy produce dark, full bodied and bitter stuff. There is more recognition (shit… I can see the word “celebrity baristas”) of the hard work some baristas put in.

It came as single origin coffee with the Synesso, different brewing methods like the Clover, siphon (which by the way, the Japanese and Taiwanese have using already). Roasting lighter and lighter to suite the non-espresso methods. Murmurs about paring food with coffee have remained just that for a long time. I think an all dessert menu would suit better. And moving on from coffee are single origin teas (The Age). And notably, Intelligensia are offering exotic mineral water.

We’ve talked about the $37 Aesop soap, th single origin raw sugar, the communal table with a large flower center piece and the industrial, bare brick look. A couple of cafes have coffee plants in pots too. The Age seems to have caught on the coffee craze a couple of years after it started and apart from being rather under-informed, it has mobilized masses of people on weekends to choke up the ‘best’ cafe’s in Melbourne. how many years ago was it easy to walk into your favorite cafe and not thinking about reserving a table or waiting half an hour while 4 groups get seated?

Where can I add a few cents? I think milk. Already there are a few brands of milk catered for the cafe industry. I can see good potential here as the majority of the coffees ordered are still milk based. When 80% or more of the drink is milk, the quality and taste would have a huge impact on the final drink. On my trip to Japan this year, they have a graph of the seasonal variation in the fat content of the milk. Milk could taste better, sweeter and creamier. Get the cows to eat acorns. Where is single estate milk?

Coffee: nice but luke warm (second time now). (Edit – third time – good!)

Service: great

On a separate note. I walked into the Aesop shop at QV and asked for the hand soap, the one with the Atlas Cedarwood. She told be it was $37. I said i’ll think about that really hard. Hmmm which cafe uses it? 7 seeds, Cumulus, I think Bistro Vue and maybe Cafe Vue. Three bags full had it too.

What’s the next Melbourne cafe trend? It was the Synesso and the industrial look. The single origin beans became the standard and at once there was even single origin hot chocolate. Then different brewing methods came about with the clover, then the siphon followed quickly by the filter drip. Inevitably some cafes have to give a 2 min (pre-recorded) speech about different methods of brewing and how to drink each coffee before letting me order. Beakers became the new vase. A communal table with a large flower center piece was stuck in somewhere too. Fresh blended juices became the new juice. Recently single estate sugar is appearing (which I must admit taste really good so I spoon a heap into my finished coffee cup to eat on its own). To top things off, today someone ordered “chai latte” and was asked by the waiter “if it was with normal milk?”!

I am not keen on the idea that soap was $37 a bottle. Just give me more French butter on my toast.

A photo tour:

A long communal table

Sweets and stuff

I want the cup and saucer lights!

People, chairs, tables and lights

Steak sandwich