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.

Photos of Hu Tong Dumpling House

A few weeks ago a few of us went to Sydney’s Ding Tai Fong for xiao long bao. After reading Matt Preston’s positive review of Hu Tong Dumpling House in Market Lane, Melbourne I was determined to try it out and come up with a winner for people mad about dumplings.

I quite like the upstairs seating in Hu Tong. The colourful squares of window has a ‘Melbourne warehouse’ feel.

Straight to the dumplings. Ding Tai Fong’s creations was superb. A good balance of meat and soup. The pastry was thin. The sauce supplied was plentiful along with a head of young ginger. Hu Tong Dumpling House’s parcels had a pastry that was parhaps slightly thinner. But the pork filling was lost in the soup. I think the ratio of soup to pork was too much and the dumplings didn’t have substance in the mouth. The pork also had a slight boody taste to it. And sadly they probably ran out of ginger and sauce that night because we had 2-3 slivers of ginger plus people had to share bottles of sauce that evening.

Other dishes included chilli pork green beans which were excellent in both places. Matt commented that Hu Tong had more choices in terms of non-dumpling dishes. While this is true, Ding Tai Fong offeres more than enough dishes plus they have many more types of dumplings, including a crab roe + pork combinaiton that is just devine.

Service wise, there is no compairson. Ding Tai Fong makes you actually feel welcome. While the staff at Hu Tong look rather ticked off at their on busy schedual. Either way, both retaurants have a long waiting line. So book ahead or arrive early. Someone told be that Hu tong dosent take bookings between 6-8pm but customers did arrive with bookings at that time when I visited.

So there it is. Ding Tai Fong wins. Dumplings.

I was made note by one of the doctors that I have crossed the latte line while driving to Hamilton (not Island) – the place I will work for the next 9 weeks. On my few days break, I have returned to Melbourne to pick up my coffee machine. The first stop was Seven Seeds before I even got home. It wasn’t the caffeine I swear. It’s the smell and vibe and tingling when I see smooth and silky milk mixed with crema.

Today I went to Proud Mary, owned (as far as I know) by Nolan who used to be the ex-owner of Liar Liar. The most impressive thing is the metallic grey-blue, custom built, 6 group Synesso based on the Hydra model. This is a conjoined twin that no doctor should try and separate. Together with the deep baby blue cups, it’s a sight worth a detour. The blue beast even has foot pedal switch for steam. Around the bar, th whole set up included a syphon area and a Clover machine. It wasn’t so busy this afternoon and the coffee was great. I wonder when the place becomes packed will Nolan and his team be able serve all the different methods of brewing consistently. Lucky for them that there are not so many seats. Grab them while you can.

Open 7-4 weekdays and 8-4 weekends. 172 Oxford st, Collingwood

The moment I stepped into the unassuming doors of Time and Tide, Port Fairy, and and saw the deep blue, sunny ocean throgh the large windows, green grass swaying in the gentle wind and the white room with plain wooden tables I knew I was a bit closer to have my own cafe.

Seem so dream-like when less than 1 hour ago we were doing chest compressions on a man lying in a pool of vomit.

The cosy, home-like atmosphere is so understated. Then it made me think what made many other beach side restaurant/cafes just not the same: they are too commercialized. too much space between tables and walls. Time and Tide’s cute and bright room looked like a natural extension of a well-designed home and no the show-off, gradeur type. The owners who also operated Mrs Marple’s Tea Rooms in the Dandenongs have got this gem and I am jealous.

Food was neat and good. But views and ambience makes the food shine even more. Coffee unfortinately was not so good and from looking at our neighbours cups, the standard for that moring was a bit dissapointing compared to other parts of the cafe.

I will be back for some cakes and lunch and I can not wait!

Skewers of chicken may be just skewers, but one that has a sweet, savory and salty flavour balanced so well with the juicy meat, gently charred over a Japanese grill, the bite is heavenly. A cold malty beer or sake and a few good company then the evening is very complete

Wikipedia gives some info on the fuel for a Japanese grill:

Binch?-tan or white charcoal is a traditional charcoal of Japan. It dates to the Edo period, when during the era, a craftsman named Bitch?-ya Ch?zaemon began to produce it in Tanabe, Wakayama. The raw material is oak, specifically ubame oak, now the official tree of Wakayama Prefecture. Wakayama continues to be a major producer of high-quality charcoal, with the town of Minabe, Wakayama producing more binch?-tan than any other town in Japan. The fineness and high quality of binch?-tan are attributed to steaming at high temperatures. Although it is often thought that binch?-tan burns hot, it actually burns at a lower temperature than ordinary charcoal but for a longer period of time. It does not release smoke or other unpleasant flavors.

My current marinade consist of (in ratio)
- good, non bitter soy (10)
- mirin (5)
- minced garlic (5)
- small amount of black asian vinegar (3)
- shao-xing liquor (made from barley) or can use sake (3)
- sesame oil (2)
- black pepper (1)
- blow torch (30 seconds at the end of cooking). This last bit is the WOW bit

The photo has some finely sliced kaffir lime leaves for a bit of experimenting

If at home and just pan frying marianted chicken the most important touch is get a blow torch and just add a bit more colour on the chicken. It adds that smokey flavour I crave so much from the Japanese grill.
 
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Days off right before a string of night shift calls for some slow cooked food. The Japanese Cha Shao pork that is served with ramen adds so much flavour to the dish.  There are hundreds of ways to make this dish. I just fiddled with the sauce to make it taste the way I liked. I also added a modern touch of solidifying the sauce with abit of agar agar which seems all the craze with the western chef with the wave of molecular gastronomy.

• Pork – Leg (is what I used, but any cut with skin/fat/tendons will do)
• Soy
• Dashi powder
• Mirin
• Sugar
• Garlic
• Spring onion
• Shao hsing wine – 1/2 cup

Pan fry the pork first to add a little colour. make up the sauce and top it up with water (about 1 part sauce to 5 parts water). make sure it taste right and not too salty. it should be a little salty, a little sweet and full of flavour. Play with it. Cook it in the sauce for about 1.5hrs. Turn off the heat and just leave it in there until it reaches room temperature. Put it in the fridge. Slice thinly (best straight out of fridge) to serve.

The jelly is made with the sauce as above, boiled with agar agar (1 part agar agar to 100 parts sauce) until it completely dissolves. Pour it into a plate and chill it in the fridge until it turns solid. slice to shape.

Most of us have had it before. A warm parcel of porky and soupy goodness in a membrane of dough translucent thin. Soupy because stock/soup was actually mixed into the mince mixture. Ding Tai Fong fom Taiwan has now over 50 branches around the world. Notably 7 in Singapore – more than in Taipei, the origin of the restaurant. I still remeber going to the original shop years ago. The taste was so visceral that it was difficult to wait for the dumplings to cool before eating it. I knew it was going to burn my mouth. I like to put my dumpling on a spoon, dipped in the vinegar, soy and ginger sauce and bust the goodness in my mouth.

On my recent trip to Sydney, I was very happy and almost a bit taken back by the sudden wave of Taiwanese dishes and flavours. The drunken chicken, long beans, hot and sour soup and taro desserts were all bringing back memories. Matt Preston delared a month ago in The Epicure that Hu Tong Dumplings was better than Ding Tai Fong. I have to try. I have doubts. I will tell Matt to go to Taipei and put some dumplings in his mouth.

On a side note, Bo Innovations in Hong Kong has a good use of the spherication technique developed by Ferran Adria. Chef Leung, serves up a dumpling without the pastry, enclosed by it’s own juices. Think about it.

Incredulous or not. I have never tried cooking these before. Broad beans have a rubbery layer surrounding each seed. Am I supposed to remove them? Certainly tasted more tender and looked more pleasing-green than not removed. The white base was a puree of parsnip and potato. A helping of good olive oil, lemon juice and some chive flowers from my home herb pots. Tasted alright, light. maybe as a starter. I know most of my friends would want some chilli sauce on this one.

My friend visited today for a coffee. We tried the Dead Man Espresso blend from 7 seeds. It’s full of fruity body. Flavours that bounce out through the milk. She’s got a Pansonic point and shoot – a very good one but. I was really amazed at what small cameras can do. Later tonight, confirmed by my brother who always have wanted a similar one for ‘backup’.

In Asia, there is a simple but tasty dish of tomato and scrambled eggs. It goes well with rice and takes only a few minutes to cook. But often the eggs are over cooked or the tomatoes are too chunky and not soft enough. I like my eggs creamy!

Reduced form tomato pieces in a bot with olive oil, stirring and pushing the juice out until it becomes a thick paste and not watery. This really concentrates the sweetnes and flavour of the tomatoes. Remove the tomato paste from the pan and in a hot, clean pot cook the scambled eggs rapidly over high heat. While the eggs are still setting, add the tomatoe paste and stirr slowly and carefully to get a ribbon effect. Next time it might be wise to remove the seeds from the tomatoes through a sieve. But the pieces of skin actually added a nice texture to the creamy eggs.

The final product called for around 2 tomatoes with 3 eggs per person.

Bon appétit! as Julia wound say

A little more fruit makes the tart look more ‘tart’ like. I am loving my little black pan more and more though I am going to branch out into desserts a bit more. And I finally used my iSi Cream Whipper for what it’s most commonly used for – cream!

Lunch today at Bistro Thierry was very old-school French. Snails in galic parsley butter, onion soup, rockling pan friend in butter and spinach, and a steak patty that was very well seasoned and cooked. Finished with tarte tatin and calvados ice cream. The waiters, the chefs were all speaking French. But as we finished our last bite, a chef bearing a heavy Aussie accent emerged.

I liked it. The deep purple walls and dark wooden furniture worked well with the decorations on the wall. There is a table on the left of the entrance squished between the bar and the window. That will be mu next seat

The OSCE of latte art: 8 minutes to make 6 drinks. I spent a few mornings and one night  in The maling Room Cafe to make coffee. Then got accustomed to the Nouva Simonelli at Toby’s Estate cafe for a couple of hours. The blend I was playing with had Bolivian Montana and Costa Rica rosted by Andrew. By the 7th day, the crema had settled and was much more pliable with milk.

I was first up on saturday in the Victorian Latte Art Champioships and felt pretty good. Auto-pilot. I didn’t get a place. But really, I thought the judges were a little harsh initially. I didn’t think someone pulling a 12-13 second shot or someone who’s hand was shaking so much was going to get the same score as me. On that note, I thought about judging the visual part of the comeptition with photos taken of each drink and then scoring it at the end.

It was fun. I was very happy with what I did. And I will be back.

Looks like mushrooms everywhere in Europe. Golden Chantrelle are in every supermarket. I have tried fresh Morel mushrooms before but the flavors were somewhat lighter than I expected. This time i purchased some dried Morel.

Browned some Chantrelle and Morel mushroom in butter, pan fried chicken breasts, and deglazed with some white wine. Much more pronounced flavour than fresh Morels.

Much better value dinner after realizing takeaway Chinese stir-fry was equiv to $35 AUD, two spring rolls for $12 AUD.

Tucked away in the corner of Brussels, Belgium. Delirium bar (named after a local beer Delirium Tremens) is highly recommended by various locals, suppose to serve upto 2000 types of beer. I can’t see 2000 barrels but I certainly can see this bar has the largest collection of beers on tap that i have seen. This is obviously the place to be to try some Trappist beer and to forget about the day’s stress.

When the three of us from the hostel rocked up after dinner, we were presented with a menu with Trappist beers and its tasting notes. Trappist beer are made by monks. There are 7 active Trappist beer breweries remaining. 6 in Belgium, 1 in Netherlands. Most were destroyed during the French revolution and some during world war.

Enough of the history. The beer itself was different to most other beers i have tasted. It was more fruity, more hops flavor and certainly lives up to its reputation of being “trappist” beer.

I was flipping though a few cook books at Borders after work today and I thought about how in Masterchef Australia they commented that the brown cooking that Chris produces wont look good in print. But a chunk of meat with charred surfaces smell and taste so good!

Takumi in Melbourne looks good – serving wagu cooked just like the way I had it in Takayama, Japan. The meat and the sauce better be just as good!

I prepared 4 artichokes for dinner. Stir-fried it with some Chinese flavored bacon and shitaki mushrooms.

“What are you making?”
“Taarht tartun”
“!?”
“Itzer upsidedownnn taarht”
“Mmm”

I really didn’t know that butter, sugar and pastry would taste so good. To this day, I havent ventured far into making desserts. Maybe it was the French accent.

For the past year I have heard from my foodie friends and also reviews rave about the pear tarte tatin at Bistro Vue. Actually, I had it a few years ago at Bistro Vue. I remeber it was delicous, filling but the caramelized pastry was a little stiff. This year I’ve been there twice. Devine moment when you chew into the pastry. Koko Black’s version is just not good enough.

Once you had THE version, it’s so hard to be pleased. So sad. Today me and my friend went to Maedaya – a yakitori and sake bar on Bridge Rd. It was good charred flavour but something was missing. Maybe that crispness. Maybe it was too sweet. The chicken skin was not crip enough. Maybe it was the thought that I had work soon. Maybe I was just not in Japan with the auditory sensoy input.

Can anyone tell me what do the Japanese restaurant staff scream when customers walk in?

I came home tonight, this cold, moist, damp night and attempted my first tarte tatin. I brought a iron skillet yesterday. A cheap but commercial one that is not cast iron but just as unbreakable. I seasoned it with oil and a lot of heat. Now its all black!

On a 21 cm pan:
- Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C
- Cut a circular piece of puff pastry by drawing the knife around the the upside down edge (largest circle). Place pastry in fridge to keep stiff.
- Peel and quater 2 Pink Lady apples.
- Melt 50 g of butter and 50 g of brown sugar in the pan under medium low heat and place apple pieces in.
- Shake and turn apples to coat with caramel. The liquid should be foaming gently.
- Take off heat, let it cool slightly. Arrange the applies pices neatly in a circular pattern or however rustic you want to look
- Place pastry on top and tuck edged around the inside of the pan
- Bake for 10 min, the reduce heat to 120 deg for another 5 min, or until pastry golden and cripy
- Shake pan to lossen the edges then flip it on the pan upside down!

I had some unsweetened vanilla cream to serve. I think a dark/red tea goes so well with dessert like this.

A journalist in this month’s Gourmet Traveller already called spherication dead. But there is a little trend to smoke unfamiliar ingredients these days. Betroot, for example, appeard in Masterchef Australia and I swear I have seen it somewhere else before. Smoked butter, smoked duck and what else?

This is an easy way to impart an extra layer of flavour to food. Place the food you want to smoke on a large plate. Heat up a small stainles steel pot to very hot. Warm a small ramikin with hot water and wipe it dry. Place the ingredients you want to turn into smoke in the ramikin and place it all on the same plate our food it sitting. Pour 50ml of grape seed or peanut oil in the hot pan – it should smoke immediately. Pour the oil into the ramikin and then cover the whole plate with a large glass bowl turned up-side-down. Let it sit for a few minutes.

I tried using some chinese tea the other day. I think traditionally you can use fine wood chips made for smoking. Asian flavours also call in a mix of rice and tea leaf. You can play around with pepper, coriander seeds and pretty much everything else that can burn.

Is it the recent trend of casual/shared dining like Cumulus, Gigi Baba, Svago and ? Koda making Melbourne’s fine dining not as popular anymore? Sydney has topped Melbourne in terms of 3 star restaurant according to the Gourmet Traveller’s 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide.

9 to 1!

I am a bit over fine dining. Takes too much effort and concentration. But if you want to take me…please DO!

Actually, the restaurant near this graffiti is overrated. A teaspoon of salt used erratically.

Takayama Japan

I received a CD in the mail from Tzu-yen today. The gallery has been updated with photos including his trip to Spain. Other galleries : United Kingdom, France, Japan, Melbourne were all updated with new photos.

http://6lumens.com/gallery

Enjoy

While the French have figured how to make souffles, the Chinese have been scrambling eggs the way I like. This is a major generalization without much basis. I am referring to cooking eggs in a bain marie. Beaten eggs are stirred and slowly cooked to make a very creamy scrambled egg. I like a little smoke in my oil and the eggs cooked so fast that nothing sticks in a stainless steel pan when finished. If you are quick enough the final product should still be soft, a little creamy and have no caramalized taste. This discussion really dosen’t have much to do with how the French and Chinese cook does it?

I roasted some tomatoes (they look beautiful). Made an onion, tomato and chilli relish for my heat loving friends. A smoked salmon wrapping with wilted spinach on the side for a manic addition.

I swear there is a 7th flavour. Ok, maybe our tongue can’t pick it up. But you know that gentle burnt flavour when you grill meat? Well try burning protein with a little soy, vinegar, rice wine, pepper and it takes on another level. It can’t be that good for me if it taste so good.

I was walking out of the meat section with my $10/kg porterhouse from the Vic Market when that shop keeper called out to 3 girls behind me.

“Girls, you have come at the right time. $10/kg steaks.”
“We’re vegetarian”
“God help you”

There are some serious discounts on weekend afternoons.

I pan fried some flat-heads with a light dusting of flour before cooking. That is a watercress sauce thickend with a roux. A little sprinking of walnut and garlic.

Photo by Matthew Bates

This place is a meeting of minds. Whenever I don’t organize to meet people there, often coffee geeks, food loving or photo mad friends just sprout from no where. This was cupping at 7 seeds on Saturday. Again, a wonderful place to learn about your palate as you taste coffee side by side. Unfortunately on halt for a few weeks as Mark is off to a trip to US.

Every week the Prince Wine Store offeres free tastings on a large range of Australian and international wines. They also often have some very high-end wines that require a small fee. Last Saturday was the book launch for James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion 2010 accompanied by free tastings of the ‘best by variety’.

I am certainly no expert in wine but back to back tastings with informative notes is by far the best way to learn about wine flavours. On offer that day included:

Peter Lehmann Wigan Eden Vally Riesling 2003
Curly Flat Macedon Ranges Chardonnay 2007
Balnaves The Tally Reserve cabernet 2007
Brown Brothers Patricia Noble Riesling 2005

And… if you brought any of the books you got to taste the Penfolds Grange 2004. I cannot resist having a sip of this wine-that-dosen’t-need-introduction. I can tell you, it was excellent. Maybe not $700 excellent because I can find much better things to do with that money now. What did it taste like? Very refined flavours (?plums, berries – like a good cab sav) and well balanced tannins. Most stunning was this powerful perfume of oak/cedar. It didn’t just taste like oak but more like the smell when you walk in to an old and quiet Chinese temple. A touch of incense.

Wow

Anthony Bordain + Matt Preston = food metaphor super sized. In his earlier (without Matt) show he went to Vue de Monde and Pacific BBC House. He ate too much foie gras from fine dining restaurants and had the best dinner at the Hong Kong style eatery in Richmond. I wonder if his magazine clippings are still on the wall of Pacific BBC House.

This time, he had a blast at Dan Hunter’s Royal Mail (my turn very soon) and lesser known places like Half Moon and Rumi with Matt Preston. He also went to Dainty Schezuan and made me salivate looking at the wok and chilli in action. I don’t take hot food very well and I can feel a little sweat on my forehead already.

Lovely to see all the trams whizz past.

I want a new camera now.

There is a difference between cooking beef on a very hot pan and cooking strips of beef on a very hot metal wire/grill. The extra surface area for the fat and protein to sizzle produced so much more flavour. Forget a thick cut. Strips around 3-4 cm long and 1×1cm thick allows good burning flavour to mix with a little medium rare and juicy texture.

A little lighy soy gives the superb savory touch to the smokey and chared meat. Add a little yuzu to conter the fat. One go at the beef in Takayama and it’s all wired in my brain.

This 2 kg piece of beef brought by my brother was sensational in every sensory way. From a Korean market in Brisbane. A little more expensive than the fillet cut from supermarkets. But wow… I am already feeling hungry now. And it’s bed time!

Look at the photo! That is natural sunlight from the left!

Can I say how nice is it to have sunlight warm my face while sitting indoors for a delicious lunch? And, knowing that I didn’t have to work the next day. And, that we were going to watch Harry Potter after lunch?

Food was very good with the best dish of smoked eel wrapped in pancetta. Alla Wolf-Taska’s Russian background was subtle but in her cookbook there was mention of her eating smoked eel as a child. An Russian style crepe with chestnuts also came from that part of the world.

I still don’t get the game parfait cigar. As clever as the presentation was, I don’t think the grey creamy filling was good.

It was a pitty that we didn’t get much time to explore the town and surroundings after the 3.5 hour lunch. I’ll be back soon.

Last week’s prawn soup was actually accompanied by a squid ink pasta (all colour, no taste). We made a potato garlic foam/sauce for the pasta, topped it with a few slices of karasumi (dried mullet roe), lemon juice and olive oil. The potato garlic foam contained a bit of cooked garlic and very lightly cooked garlic to give it a kick.

How coffee should be every morning.

So says my friend from the other side of the world

I went back to Brisbane last weekend and the entree was a prawn soup.

8 large prawns peeled, shells and heads reserved
1 diced onion
2 lemon grass, bruised
5 kaffir lime leaves
1 lemon
200 ml cream

On a heavy based saucepan, cook the shells with 2 table spoons of a neutral oil like grape seed. Stir constantly to avoid burning. Deglaze with water (or vegetable stock) until the shells are covered. Add the lemon grass, onions and lime leaves. Simmer for another 20 minutes, occasionally stiring and bashing the prawn heads. Strain liquid and return to pot.

Heat up another pan and cook the prawns with a little oil and salt.

Gently boil the soup and add the cream then the juice of 1 lemon to taste. You can thicken the soup with a light roux if you want.

Serve in small ramikins with one prawn each. Garnich with a parsley leaf or very finely slices lime leaves.

I signed up and went to Alliance Francaise after work for my first French class. Got home and nailed a steak beautifully with some leek sauteed with Taiwanese BBQ sauce. Half an hour of Masterchef and Justine is out. She is also a good cook.

Last Sunday I went to 7 Seeds in the morning (sticking coins in the parking machine as if it was Saturday. I was at work on satuday). Afternoon was at the Workshop bar.

I realize I am going backwards. I made this coffee on Sunday afternoon.

Ok, off to Brisbane this Friday afternoon

 All this foam stuff. I recently got a cream whipper and a stack of NO2 chargers. I am ready.

The mixture is mashed potatoes with a little cream and milk to help it pass through a sieve. Return the mixture to a small pot and add some more cream. I havent really got a recipie with quantities worked out but the final warm mixture poured like the cream as it came out of the cold bottle.

I added a poached egg, olive oil and chives. A little lemon juice might have helped this dish.

Duck fat is my new butter.

Duck confit:
Duck legs (anything more than 6 is worth the effort)
2 sprigs of thyme, stem removed.
3-6 cloves of garlic, minced.
salt flakes and pepper
A can of duck fat, or more

Combine thyme, garlic, salt and pepper into a mix and rub onto the legs. Roughly 1 teasoon of salt for every 2 legs. The salt acts like a preservative and draws moisture out but you don’t want to eat salty legs after. Place in fridge for at least 12 hours.

Remove excess mix from legs with paper towel and pat dry. Melt the duck fat in a small, heavy based pot and place duck inside. Traditionally an casserole dish is used but as long as the fat covered the duck completely and you cook it at a low temperature(around 100 deg Celcius). It’s basically duck simmered in it’s own fat. Cook for 1-1.5 hours. The meat should be very tender and almost fall off bone. Cook without lid to ensure the moisture evaporates.

Let it cool. Place duck into a dry bowl (glass or cermic or stainless steel pot works best) and pour in the duck fat to cover the meat by at least 1-2 cm. Place in the fridge. I read that the duck can be preserved like this for at least a month. When you want to use it, gently heat the bowl to the fat melts and pull the leg you want. I think if you are making a batch and want to preserve it for a while, then a cooking stainless steel pot is better as you can re-heat easily.

Reserve the fat for the next round. Or I can eat it.
The salad has roasted potatoes, salad leaf mix, baby carrots (sauted in butter), parsley, chives, yogurt and balsamic vinegar.