About the Food

The Eat Files

In the filing cabinent in my brain, there is a bottom drawer that is overflowing. It is the 'MUST GO HERE' drawer, and every time I read something or see some mention of a place that I'd be interested in, I file it in this folder. However, as the years have progressed, and I read and see things constantly, this drawer can no longer close. In fact, it is half open, with scraps of paper, photos and blog posts spilling out of it onto the floor and frankly, making the whole of my brain look rather messy.

I've often heard that Kingsford and Kensington are the places to go for Indonesian food however I've never explored that area of Sydney. So when a friend and I were meeting for dinner on Thursday, and she gave me the responsibility of choosing somewhere, stipulating only that it be somewhere she'd never been, I collected all those scraps of paper and pictures and decided to move a file from the MUST GO HERE drawer to the BEEN THERE drawer.

I chose Ayam Goreng 99 in Kingsford, a cheap and cheerful Indonesian eatery, with people lined outside the door. We had a fantastic meal, with the highlight being the chargrilled chicken thigh - moist and succulent meat, with a spicy marinade and delicious charred, smokey edges.

While waiting for her to arrive I noticed another restaurant two doors down - Ratu Sari, with an extensive menu and a interior more suited to relaxing over your meal.
You can just see Ayam Goreng 99 two doors down.

So Saturday night, I gave Kingsford another go, this time with Side Dish and going to Ratu Sari for dinner. The restaurant is cheerful with lots of wood panelling and batik wall hangings brightening up the place. It has a large menu, and everything is quite reasonably priced - with entrees hovering around $9, mains $11-$19 and desserts around $8.

The Cherry blossom This drink had no description but I chose it because of the pretty name, and was mightily pleased when it arrived. It reminded me of faluda, a kids (well, mainly kids) drink of rose syrup, milk and jelly-ish basil seeds - however this one also had shaved ice and ice cubes in it. It had pretty layers of pink, white, and dots of black from the basil seeds, and was sweet, rosy and fun.

The Asinan Penganten (cold salad) This is actually on the main course menu, however we asked for it to come first. Our waitress told me about three times that it was very hot. And it was, but it was also very tasty. Fresh, crisp lettuce, cabbage, cucumber and carrot, hard-boiled egg, all smothered in a hot and bright chilli sauce. And served with prawn chips, which I devoured. I love prawn chips.

The Ikan Asin Goreng (crispy, fried salty fish) Our waitress asked if we had tried this before, and when we said no she said that it was very 'salty and fizzy' and that it wasn't to everyone's taste. Not knowing if we would like it, we decided to give it a go anyway. I wasn't expecting it to look like this - thin fish fritters, but I'm glad we tried it. They were like salty, fermented fish chips, which doesn't sound too appetising, but was nice. It was almost like a condiment rather than a dish, I would take a bite of salty fish chip, then a bit of salad and it would be a nice accompaniment. It reminded me of Maldive fish, an ingredient in Sri Lankan cooking.


For mains we went for a chicken dish, Ayam Remaja. I didn't expect this chicken dish to be so similar to the chicken I'd had at Ayam Goreng 99, and honestly I liked the chargrilled Ayam Goreng 99 chicken better. This one was deep-fried and didn't have a lot of flavour, it depended more on the spicy sambal on the side. If I hadn't had the other chicken two days before I'm sure I would have been very satisfied with this.


I have eggplant on the brain, as it's the next ingredient in AmateurChef, our cooking competition at work. So I chose this eggplant in a spicy Indonesian chilli sauce, Terung Sambal Belado. The eggplant was in big chunks, and each had a firm outside that gave way to a soft interior. And the chilli was tangy, but not overbearingly hot.


We finished with desserts, and ordered two to calm our burning tongues enjoy. First the Es Kacang, red beans, topped with shaved ice, palm sugar syrup and coconut milk. I rarely go for red bean desserts, but this was awesome. Although it took a few hits with the spoon to get the shaved ice mountain into edible pieces, the sweet and nutty combination of palm sugar, coconut milk and icy bits was lots of fun, and lots of flavour. Plus the red beans were soft, yet held their shape and once we got past the fact it looked like we were eating kidney beans, they were quite enjoyable.


Our other dessert was the Lychee Garden - lychees with lychee ice-cream. I love lychees and Side Dish loves ice-cream, so this was all kinds of great.

While we enjoyed our meal, I'm still eager to try more from the menu - such as the Beef Rendang or the Kangkung Cha Terasi - the hot plate of ong choy. It seems I'm now moving this place from MUST GO HERE to MUST GO BACK.

Fork goodness sake

I’m very particular about my cutlery. It’s hard to transport a great meal to your mouth using uneven tines and a beautiful piece of steak can be ruined if you’re forced to tear it with a shoddy knife.

I don’t often fill out email forwards, but if I did, and if they asked me what my favourite piece of cutlery was, I would answer: The Fork. Whenever I’m eating at someone’s house, I always surreptitiously examine the fork I am given. If the tines are too short, or the handle too long, I’ll try to inch my way over to the cutlery draw to swap it for another. I also don’t like it when it’s too thin, and you feel it bending every time you spear your food. Or when the handle is uncomfortable, so you need to put the fork down constantly to stop your hand cramping up. And I especially dislike forks that are too big, causing the food to sit up the back of the fork, and you have to put the whole thing in your mouth, but it’s too sharp and it hurts and ugh, ugh, ugh, I have to stop.

So when I read this post on Design Sponge (via Serious Eats), I could relate to the passion for forks. Inspired, I’ve started collecting old dessert forks. Above and below are the first in my collection, bought from a secondhand shop in Blackheath on the s’mores weekend away.

I may move on to teaspoons one day, but I’m trying not to get ahead of myself. Once I was in café (unfortunately can’t remember which one, which detracts greatly from this story), and in this nameless café, they used novelty teaspoons – the ones with ‘Ayers Rock’ or ‘Big Banana’ or ‘Rotary Club 1976 reunion’ on a shiny badge on the handle – as the teaspoons that they served with tea, coffee and cake. I love that concept, and in a similar vein, I’m going to make a point of using my dessert forks. They’re not for show, they for chow!

Also, when I was in Tasmania, I bought this book: Forks Knives and Spoons by Peri Wolfman and Charles Gold.

It called to me from a discount table…and even though it’s foolhardy to buy hardcover books when travelling, I couldn’t resist. Here is a beautiful picture from my book.

So, to accompany my new cutlery collection, I can start a cutlery book collection. I’m going to be The MOST Exciting Girl in Town!

An ode to my local café

My local is so close that it hardly takes a minute,
To leave the house, cross the road, then suddenly I'm in it.

The coffee's great, the people sweet, and it's always light and airy,
Stopping there to grab my brew makes mornings not so scary.

Most days I get a take-away, it's always good for sure,
But when I've time, I'll sit right down and get a Croque Monsieur.

With golden crust and gruyere cheese, it's more than a mere sandwich,
There's leg ham, dijon and bechamel – it's creamy, crisp and rich.

A local store is handy, a local pub is fine,
But a great café is better, that's why I'm sharing mine.

Astor Espresso
166 Glebe Point Rd
Glebe NSW 2037
Ph: (02) 8065 4414

How it all vegan

My friend, Cakelady, recently went on a three week vegan challenge. When I found out about her endeavour, we had an email exchange something like this:

Me: Let me know when I can cook you a delicious vegan dinner!
Cakelady: Wow, thanks, that's so lovely.
Me: Yep, let me know when!
Cakelady: Well, I'm free Monday night.
Me: That sounds great! Monday night! Yes!
Cakelady: Thanks so much, that's so nice of you.
Me: Oh, I just want to cook you dinner for my blog! You're just an experiment to me! I mean you're welcome.

So Cakelady and her sister Moo (also on the vegan challenge) came over for dinner on a Monday night.

I had wanted to cook a vegan dinner after seeing a tweet from Ruth Reichl linking to this tofu recipe by Lillian Chou. Ruth Reichl tweeted that she cooked it for a vegan friend, and the recipe looked so interesting I had immediately tried to think of any vegan friends that I could make it for. None came to mind... until Cakelady told me of her vegan challenge. Hence my excitement.

And yes, you say, I could have just made it for myself or anyone who wasn't vegan. And I agree with you, I could have... but I liked the idea of following in Ruth Reichl's tweets.

When Cakelady and Moo arrived for dinner, I was just starting to cook. It being a school night, I had a pretty simple menu planned - the tofu, some eggplant, choy sum and rice.

I followed the tofu recipe pretty close to the original, however I did tweak it a bit (see recipe, below). Rather than using Korean red pepper flakes, I used a Korean chilli paste that has been rolling around the back of the fridge for a while. I had bought this paste because a friend at work had raved about it so much... however I had never gotten around to using it.

The chilli paste. 

The back of the label.

For the eggplant, I chopped it, then fried it in some olive oil. I added green capsicum, garlic, ginger and sambal oelek. The choy sum I just stir-fried with some garlic and fresh chilli. The meal was a bit of a chilli adventure, with everything except the rice containing a different form of chilli.

While I cooked, we discussed Cakelady and Moo's vegan challenge. It seemed to be going well, however Cakelady had been experiencing cheese dreams, which sounded traumatic. If I ever went vegan, I would miss cheese the most.

Although it was all in pieces, it was beautiful.

The tofu was amazing. Slippery and soft, the tofu was gentle and mild, while the sauce was full of flavour. The sauce was such a surprise, just a few simple ingredients combined to create a deep and rich sauce, with spicy, nutty, salty and slightly sour flavours. With the spicy eggplant, refreshing greens and rice, the meal had a lot of flavour and texture. Cakelady and Moo liked it all, with Moo claiming, "This is restaurant qual". Thanks Moo.

The vegan spread

For dessert, Cakelady bought (wait for it...) a cake. A vegan cake. She apologised as she opened the container "I only had green colouring, so the icing is green". I found it amusing that she had to colour the icing something...even if it had to be green.

Cakelady said that the Nuttelex and icing sugar took a while to become friends. 

The cake was delicious, coconutty, moist, and sweet. Cakelady said (and we always listen to Cakelady when discussing cakes) that vegan cakes are usually moist as they have lots of oil in them.

Great icing to cake ratio here. Almost half each.

The dinner was a success! Not only was it delicious, that tofu dish was so scrumptious I would make it again and again. And so cheap! Tofu was around $2.50, I already had the other ingredients. While I'm not planning on turning vegan full-time, a dish like this is enough to get me eating vegan more often.

Soft tofu with sesame chilli garlic sauce

Adapted from here.

300g block soft tofu (not silken)
3 teaspoons sesame seeds
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 green onions, finely chopped
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon Korean chilli paste
1/2 teaspoon sugar
squeeze fresh lemon juice

Carefully rinse tofu. Carefully, because it can break and end up looking like a mess. I found it best to keep in the container and gently let cold water run over it. Transfer tofu to a medium sauce and cover with cold water. Again, carefully cover with cold water – if you let the water run straight onto the tofu it will break.

Place over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stand, covered, until required. If it's ages, reheat the tofu again before serving.

Meanwhile, toast sesame seeds in a dry saucepan. Transfer seeds to a chopping board and crush with the side of a knife, or use a mortar and pestle. Place crushed sesame and garlic in a bowl. Using a fork, mash into a soft paste. Add green onions, soy sauce, sesame oil, chilli paste and sugar. Stir to combine, adding a dash more soy if necessary to make saucier. Taste and add a squeeze of fresh lemon (or lime could be nice) if it's too salty.

When you're ready to serve, gently transfer tofu block to a plate lined with paper towel and pat dry. Carefully transfer tofu to a bowl or plate (I used a bowl, because I didn't follow all the carefullys in the recipe, so my tofu was a bit broken. I've added extra carefullys to this recipe so you don't make the same mistake). Spoon some of the sauce over tofu. Serve with remaining sauce on the side. Carefully.

No apologies

I don't want to shower you with apologies about why I haven't posted in so long. That's boring. So no apologies.

But, IF I were to apologise, I would be doing it very sincerely, as I feel really bad.

On with the food!

Gimme s'more

Raised on a diet of Babysitters Club, Trixie Belden and anything by Judy Blume, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about s’mores. Except I’d never tried them.

Side Dish and I decided to spend the last weekend of winter in the Blue Mountains. We rented a cottage, packed the car with food and drove up Friday night. As our cottage had a combustion fireplace, this was the ideal time to try this long-awaited treat.

This American campfire delicacy consists of melted chocolate and a toasted marshmallow sandwiched between two graham cookies. We don’t have graham cookies here, but they are a thin, sweet, plain biscuit, ideal for cheesecake bases and, well, s’mores.

I could have use a Marie, Butternut or Arrowroot biscuit, but I decided they were too thick. So I opted for a slightly savoury biscuit, figuring the sweet and salty combination would work in this instance. I chose an Italian cracker, similar to a Salada, but with no salt grains on top. I also used a combination of Lindt 70% and Extra Creamy. And I used raspberry and vanilla marshmallows. 

I found I liked the taste of the toasted vanilla ones best. This was after numerous tastings of toasted marshmallows just to make sure.

We laid a piece of foil on top of the fireplace. We then placed the crackers, topped with chocolate on the foil, so they could start melting while we toasted.

Once the marshmallow was toasted, we had to push it on top of the chocolate. A fork was the best tool for this.

Then we sandwiched with another cracker and waited for some meltiness.

The finished product. Apparently, s’mores got their name from the shortening of ‘some more’. Which is what you say after tasting one of these. It’s crunchy, slightly salty, very sweet, warm, messy and amazing. S’more please!

Night two

During the day we went to the town to buy cheese and olives. I wandered into the grocery store and found myself in the biscuit section. I was still thinking about s’mores and wondering what else could work. I saw these brandy snaps – they were thin, close in colour to graham crackers, and I liked their perfect roundness. I bought them, to try again. For research purposes.

These were thinner, allowing the chocolate to melt faster. They also looked prettier, with their round shapes, and looked like a hot ice-cream sandwich.

And…for the ultimate dessert, we served these ones with ice-cream.

Best combo was brandy snaps + milk chocolate + 2 toasted white marshmallows. But it was all very, very good.

Hot enough

Think of some atmospheric places to eat a meal. On a vineyard as the sun sets. Outside on a bustling Parisian street. In a candelit room, with velvet curtains and soft music.

I’m betting that what didn’t pop into your mind was sitting in front of a volcano spurting burning lava everywhere in sight. Or maybe it did. Maybe you’re familiar with Sichuan hot pot.

Last week, Side Dish and I tried the new Sichuan hot pot restaurant on Glebe Point Road. When we were seated, I couldn’t help but notice there was a giant hole in the middle of the table, from which I was sure, any second now, flame would spurt. 

I couldn't take my eyes off the fire pit.

Side Dish and I looked at the menu. We were at a loss, so when the waitress came to ask if we were ready, I explained our predicament.

“Hi, sorry, but we’ve never had hot pot before.”

She happily explained. Simply choose your broth (half spicy/half chicken or spicy or chicken), and then choose the ingredients that you want to cook in your broth.

She recommended going for the half spicy/half chicken broth, so we could control the heat. I said “Oh, we like spicy food”, and she smiled and said, “Really?” Now, remember this exchange, because it will be relevant soon. And boy will you laugh.

The menu.

She also recommended getting one meat and one seafood, plus two or three vegetable ingredients. And she recommended a dipping sauce, of which there are about nine to choose from. She then left to let us decide.

We decided to listen to her judgement and get the half/half broth. We also decided on the beef and prawns (“Good choices”, she smiled), plus choy sum, oyster mushrooms, handmade noodles and two dipping sauces. And spicy dumplings to start. Because we like spicy food.

Dumplings swimming in a chilli bath.

The dumplings were filled with a plain pork mince, however their oily, herby, chilli sauce held all the flavour. I found the best tactic was to break open the dumpling in the bowl, let a bit of the sauce mixture seep into the inside, and then eat it. Delicious.

The calm before the chilli storm.

Then came the hot pot, with all the trimmings. Thin pieces of beef, frozen and rolled for quick cooking, the prawns, a basket of greens, mushrooms, noodles and the sauces. The pot was put in the centre of the table, the gas lit (eep!) and we were told to wait til it started bubbling before cooking.

This watched pot did boil, and before long we were adding ingredients. We decided to do prawns in the chicken broth and meat in the spicy broth.

We started with some prawns, and made sure we didn’t overcook them. They were plump and tender, and a great start. Buoyed by our first attempt, I decided to try some spicy broth. I spooned some into my bowl, with beef and choy sum and took a sip.

I looked at Side Dish.

I sneezed. I sneezed!

“Side Dish,” I gasped. “SIDE DISH! This is really hot.”

I need to save my reputation here. I can handle spicy food. I can handle it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and afternoon tea (chilli jam on scones, anyone?). But I had met my match.

Guess which side is which. Go on. guess.

This broth was the Superman of soups, with one half being the mild-mannered, chicken and vegetable, spectacles-wearing Clark Kent, with the other half being the super-spicy, strength of a thousand warriors, able-to-spin-the-
world-on-its-axis, Superman.

And Superman bettered me. The spicy broth seemed to be a mixture of chilli oil, numbing Sichuan chillies, the breath of the Devil, more chillies, magma, peppercorns and concentrated chilli juice.

We continued, bravely, dunking ingredients in the bubbling broth, transferring them to our bowls and letting them cool before eating, but there were some moments –as the bubbling pot crackled and hissed in front of us, I burnt my hand reaching for the noodles, the steam rose and filled our sinuses, and the food in our bowls was too hot to even contemplate eating – that I did wonder what the hot pot fuss was about.

Mesmerising bubbles

When we finally finished, we couldn’t figure out if it was because we were full, or because we were tired of cooking. We staggered out of the restaurant, clutching our stomachs at the immense quantity of chilli we had consumed.

After reflecting in the chilli haze that followed, I decided we’d done a few things wrong. Firstly, we’d eaten too much of the broth. A rookie mistake, I’m sure, as towards the end we looked around and saw people using their chopsticks a lot more than their spoons. Eating less broth probably would have resulted in less of the extreme chilli. Second, I think hot pot is a great meal when you have a group of people and you’re keen for an interactive food. It’s less good if two of you just want  a weeknight dinner. Third, although it is August, it’s not cold in Sydney at the moment. A hot pot rich in chilli would be just the thing for a chilly winter night.

Everything we ate was mighty tasty, especially the beef and the house dipping sauce, however we got a little overwhelmed. I’m keen to experience a hot pot again, but with the above in mind. I’m just waiting for the next time I’m in the mood for lava.

Red Chilli Sichuan Hot Pot Restaurant
15 Glebe Point Road
Glebe
Ph: (02) 9518 5328

Postscript:
About two weeks ago I returned to Red Chilli, armed with another diner (bringing us to a party of three) and a wealth of knowledge about tackling the hot pot. We ordered similar things - the half and half broth, sliced beef, fish, choy sum, mushrooms, noodles, plus the dumplings and the spring onion pancake to start.

When the hot pot arrived, Side Dish and I explained the procedure, "Ok, so cook the beef in the burning boiling liquid, then fish it out with the chopsticks, with as little liquid as possible, then eat it. No, don't drink the liquid you fool! Only an idiot would do that..."

We had a great experience, and left full, happy, and with all our internal organs intact. A successful meal, indeed. 

Something completely different

Hi! I’m going to write about more Tassie stuff soon. But a couple of interesting food things happened recently, so I'll write about those first. Well, interesting to me, you may find them less interesting. One of them involved my head nearly getting blown off!* Now, that sounds interesting.

Also, Merry came over for a Sunday Cookup last weekend. We made a massive pot of bolognaise sauce, then ate some with spaghetti and divided up the rest to eat during the week. We also made muesli cookies and lemon tart. Which uses a lot of eggs. Hence the photo.

*By chilli.

Tasmania: Now it really begins.

Tasmania. Sorry about the delays in posting, but it’s been hectic. ‘It’ being life, of course. That’s what was nice about Tasmania, the lack of hectic.

Francesca (FP) and I booked this trip months ago. We had mentioned to each other that we were thinking of taking a trip to Tasmania, then realised the logical approach would be to take the trip together. Logical… and fun, of course.

We met at the airport in Sydney on Sunday morning. Due to the unpleasant hour of our flight I was ecstatic to discover somewhere in the airport that served Allpress coffee. It was in Terminal 2, in the food court after you go through security. No pics… did I mention how early it was? I don’t do mornings well.

When we arrived in Hobart, we headed to the car hire desk, to pretend we were grown-ups and could be entrusted with property. The ruse worked, and we found ourselves the proud foster parents of this little vroom vroom.

We named her Caroline. That’s pronounced Car-oh-line.

After driving into the city and finding our accommodation, we were ready to explore. Dressing for the dismal day, we ventured out on foot. We were staying near Elizabeth Street, in North Hobart, and although we expected it from our research, it was evident that Elizabeth Street is food central, with almost every business being a café or restaurant.

It took a while to decide on our first meal, but we settled on Solicit, a cute café/restaurant that only served one thing for brunch. It was the Big Breakfast, and sitting in the warm and cosy room, getting our bearings, it was pleasant to have the decision-making done for us.

The breakfast was hearty, standard fare, with just enough of everything. My favourites were the honey brown mushrooms – meaty, buttery ones, perfect covered in egg yolk.

We call honey brown mushrooms Swiss brown mushrooms. Those wacky Tasmanians.

The rest of our day was spent wandering, with the weather progressively getting worse. We didn’t mind though, we both were decked out in hoodies, jackets, gloves, thermals and waterproof boots, so although we our first views of the city were through sheets of grey and rain, it was pretty and we were comfortable.

Everyone who had travelled to Hobart had told us about Salamanca Market, the weekly market in Salamanca Place. There is a vibrant scene in Salamanca Place through the week, with plenty of cafés, bars and restaurants, plus the Salamanca Arts Centre. We wandered and came across a store, Norman & Dann, selling sweets and gourmet foodstuffs. The shop was crammed with goods, it was difficult to walk without worrying about sending a bottle of boiled sweets tumbling, and we spent a good while going through the shelves and exclaiming at the variety of local, international and just yummy goodies.

A glimpse of Norman & Dann

They were playing Bat for Lashes, making the experience even better

Just a more few treats

We took some time to relax in a movie, and then found another restaurant on Elizabeth Street to try for dinner – Fish 349, a casual, hip seafood resto/café. It was order and pay at the counter, and the décor was elegant and minimalist, with clean lines, concrete floors and lots of angles around the place. My fish (flathead) was served as three smaller pieces, which I preferred to one massive one, as we got more thin and crispy batter. With wide, plank-like chips and a choice of exciting sauces (we got a chilli lime aioli and fancy dill tartare), it was just perfect for our first dinner.

Whenever I see flathead on a menu, I think of Home & Away in the 90s. Is that just me?

After our big day, we were back in our room and asleep by 9pm. I was full, happy and far from hectic.

Solicit
333 Elizabeth Street
North Hobart
Tasmania
Ph: (03) 6234 8113

Norman & Dann
6/33 Salamanca Place
Battery Point
Tasmania
Ph: (03) 6223 4777

Fish 349
349 Elizabeth Street
North Hobart
Tasmania
Ph: (03) 6234 7788

Tasmania: It begins (sort of)

How was Tasmania?

Refreshing. It was an amazing trip – we covered 1217 kilometres and saw beautiful scenery, had great experiences and, best of all, ate ate and ate.

But of course, I can go into more detail than that. Soon to come… our delicious day at The Agrarian Kitchen, the best meal of a food-centric trip and some scenic highlights of the Natural State.

This is called a teaser, peoples. Stay tuned.

A sheepish resident of Grandvewe Cheeses, Birchs Bay – surely the punnest part of our trip.