Café Sopra Waterloo, 20 Nov 2009

On a particularly hot Friday that Monsieur Poisson had off work, we ventured to Waterloo in search of some lunch. This has become an increasingly favoured area of mine in recent years to dine at or just to browse through places like Fratelli Fresh and Macro Wholefoods. On the upper level of Fratelli Fresh, past all the varieties of dried pasta, tins of tomatoes and bottles of balsamic vinegar, Café Sopra can found more often than not teeming with people waiting for a table. To the right, hidden in a corner, is what looks like a private dining table in front of a massive board with a recipe for minestrone written in Italian. The table is not part of the café itself and I would love to find out what its reserved purpose is.

We arrive mid-lunch rush and add our names to the waiting list. In the meantime I go for a bit of wander around the produce aisles and admire all the things on offer. I’m really tempted to take home a pack of Vittoria gianduja chocolates but the day really is too scorching for me to guarantee their safe journey to my pantry. Not long after, we are offered a couple of seats at the bar which suits us just fine. Much to my delight, our seats offer a direct view into the kitchen which is down only a few stairs behind the bar area.

The menu is scrawled on a huge blackboard propped up against the window side of the café and items are erased as they sell out. We start with a couple of ‘Zucchini flowers stuffed with five Italian cheeses’ which are encased in a light batter to conceal very cheesy tasting contents. The sweet crunch of the young flowers and stems are perfect with the soft, pungent filling and are served with more shredded parmesan sprinkled over the top.

As it’s hot, we’ve gone for the light pasta option of ‘Linguine with lemon, chilli, parsley and pangrattato’. I am most taken by this conical mound of perfectly al dente pasta with its balanced and refreshing flavours of lemon, chilli and parsley against the crunch of garlicky breadcrumbs. It’s quite a generous serve too.

Next up we’ve ordered the ‘Shaved Brussels sprouts with poached egg, cavolo nero and pancetta’. Its composition is a brunch-style salad dressed with a sweetened balsamic. I must admit I’ve never had shaved Brussels sprouts before and the overall taste is more lettuce-y rather than baby cabbages with the usual after-tinge of bitterness. The oozy poached egg melds with the dressing, and coats the pancetta pieces in a sweet, creamy kind of way.

On the side we have a salad of ‘Baby cos and cherry tomatoes with salad cream’ which I mainly order due to the mention of retro salad cream. I struggle to remember when it went out of fashion but it adds a lovely milky creaminess to the lettuce leaves with a hit of ground black pepper, without clagging it like some Caesar dressings do.

To round off our very satisfying meal, I order an affogato which comes with a silken and dreamy vanilla bean gelato. This was also around the time that I was told by a staff member that cameras are not permitted at Café Sopra, and I have since read that this is a widely-known fact. As usual I neglected to ask the reason for such a ban but we did manage to sneak in a photo of Monsieur Poisson’s caffe latte with its beautiful latte art.

It was a great cup of coffee to boot and to not photograph it would have been a major injustice to the very talented barista!

Café Sopra

Upstairs level of Fratelli Fresh, 7 Danks St, Waterloo NSW

Tel: (02) 9699 3174

Opening Hours:  Mon-Fri  10am-3pm

                        Sat  8am-3pm

                        Sun  10am-3pm

happy eating!

The Great Bagel & Coffee Company, 12 Nov 2009

As previously stated, I very much like bagels and was disappointed to have to farewell The Great Bagel & Coffee Company when I stopped working at Bondi Junction. It was a most convenient location to get what I felt were fairly authentic bagels in a range of styles with a variety of cream cheeses and toppings on offer as well. They also did good coffee which was an added bonus, but I believe this particular outlet has since closed down.

So when the opportunity came up to lunch with Monsieur Poisson and Kiki at Macquarie Centre, The Great Bagel & Coffee Company’s outlet there immediately sprang to mind. Although the filled bagels aren’t cheap – neither are fresh sandwiches these days, for that matter – I hadn’t had one in absolutely ages and there was just an empty spot that I had to fill.

Kiki has the ‘Thai Beef Bagel’ which turns out to be the tastiest out of the lot. The beef is well-flavoured, tender and juicy. The warm beef works well with the grilled capsicum and peppery rocket on the toasted plain bagel.

Monsieur Poisson orders the ‘Bacon and Avocado Bagel’ which has lots of chunky bits of iceberg lettuce. Although it is nice, there’s nothing terribly special about the combination held together by the wholegrain bagel.

As for me, my choice is a bit of a no-brainer: ‘Smoked Salmon Bagel’ on a poppyseed bagel. Smoky, salty salmon sitting on cool, smooth cream cheese with thin rings of red onion and sprigs of crunchy snow pea sprouts – a combination that I simply will not tire of.

To share between us, we order a serve of their ‘Curly Fries with Morrocan Seasoning’. The curly fries are something that I’ve always wanted to try but never had a chance as I’m normally full after a filled bagel anyway. Some of the slinky-like rings aren’t fully separated after cooking so they’re not as crisp as the ones that are, however the Moroccan seasoning is very addictive and keeps you returning your fingers to the bowl for more.

The Great Bagel & Coffee Company

Macquarie Centre, Shop 444, Cnr Herring Rd & Waterloo Rd, North Ryde NSW

Tel: (02) 9888 1900

Opening Hours:  Mon-Wed  9am-5:30pm

                        Thurs  9am-9pm

                        Fri & Sat  9am-5pm

                        Sun  10am-4pm

happy eating!

Epicure Recipe Card #20: Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

On the night that I had friends over and made the Sardine & Tomato Tart, I also made this spaghetti alla puttanesca. As both recipes involve using tinned tomatoes and a minimum of ingredients, it was easy to make both on the same evening. Whether the easiness or speediness of this dish has anything to do with its mythical origins of being related to prostitutes is now not possible to prove, but what can be attested to is the simplicity in preparation yielding a complexity of flavours.

I made this using angel hair pasta instead of spaghetti or spaghettini, which made for a less robust texture but tasted great all the same. The amount of anchovies used results in a surprisingly subtle flavour, but if these pungent fishies aren’t your cup of tea then omit and add a few extra olives instead.

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

(adapted from The Age – Epicure 50 Best Recipe Cards, recipe by Jill Dupleix)

Ingredients:

·         350g spaghetti or spaghettini

·         4 tbs olive oil

·         1 garlic clove, finely sliced

·         6 anchovy fillets

·         400g can crushed tomatoes

·         2 tbs small black olives, sliced

·         1 small red chilli, deseeded and chopped

·         1 tbs small salted capers, rinsed

·         1 tbs mixed dried herbs

Method:

1. Cook pasta in a pot of well-salted water until al dente.
2. In the meantime heat the oil in a saucepan or frypan over medium heat and gently cook the garlic for a minute or so. Add anchovies and mash them into the oil.
3. Add tomatoes, olives, chilli and capers and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add herbs and season to taste. Add drained pasta and toss through sauce evenly to serve.

happy cooking!

Eastwood Garden Peking (伊士活), 10 Nov 2009

As a child, the city was known to me as Peking until it became Beijing (北京) after China made a move to standardise all its geographical names in Mandarin. I am told by elder Chinese that Beijing was popularly known as Peking to the rest of the world due to foreigners being introduced to it pronounced under different Chinese dialects. To this day the widely loved Beijing-style roast duck (北京烤鴨), commonly served with pancakes/crêpes, hoisin sauce (海鮮醬), cucumber sticks and spring onion segments, is still known as Peking duck. Regardless of its name, it is a beautiful dish of duck with thin and crispy skin and is not to be confused with Cantonese roast duck found on display in barbeque shops.

When Monsieur Poisson’s friend, Mr Tokyo, was in back in town for a visit, a dinner was quickly arranged with a couple of other friends and venturing somewhere for Peking duck immediately sprang to mind. Monsieur Poisson tells me that Mr Tokyo is known to have eaten a whole Peking duck by himself during their high school days, so that was reason enough to visit somewhere for this dish!

And although not run by Beijingnese people, nor exclusively featuring only Beijingnese dishes on their menu, Eastwood Garden Peking is of consistent quality and in a convenient location for us. The constant hum of patrons and queue of people in the doorway even on ‘quiet’ weeknights are among the reasons that keep us coming back.

So we start with the signature Peking duck served two ways – our second style of choice is for the remainder of the duck meat to be served as ‘sang-choi bau’ (生菜包). The accompanying pancakes are warm and soft, the hoisin sauce sweet to offset the spices used to marinate the duck, and the cucumber and spring onion segments offer crunch in an otherwise stodgy ‘wrap’. The duck skin is smooth and glistening and its only downfall is that it has been sliced with too much meat attached. This is a personal gripe of mine though as, in days gone by, common practice was to present pretty much only the skin cut into neat squares for wrapping. These days even in Asia, you will find a lot meat attached to the slices of skin when it is served.

The remaining meat from the duck is usually offered either as ‘sang-choi bau’ or stir-fried either with rice or rice vermicelli noodles at most places. We have opted for the messy choice of ‘sang-choi bau’ in this instance (definitely not date food!) with the duck meat tossed with diced onion and other crunchy bits and served on perfectly trimmed rounds of iceberg lettuce.

Mr Tokyo puts in a request for the northern Chinese specialty of hot and sour soup (酸辣湯). It arrives abundant with strips of cloud-ear fungus, firm tofu, bamboo shoots and pork as well as swirls of beaten egg. The heat comes from the very obvious use of ground white pepper, whereas I prefer it when places use chilli oil instead. Nonetheless, the contrasting texture of the smooth tangy broth with the mostly crunchy ingredients is wonderful.

In a bid to have some vegetables in our meal, we order the ‘Chinese cabbage soup with green bean vermicelli, pork and shrimp’ which is more a descriptive naming of this dish. In Chinese it is known literally as ‘sand-clay pot Chinese cabbage’ (砂鍋津白) and is in a pork broth base which gives its distinctive milky colouring. Thin slices of tender pork belly can be found throughout and I especially enjoy this dish with some rice stirred through, pseudo-congee style.

We also order the ‘King prawns in sweet chilli sauce’ which is an attempt at ‘Kung-pao prawns’ (宮保蝦球), itself a variation of ‘Kung-pao chicken’. The batter is too thick and the sauce a far cry from what it is meant to be, so it won’t be something we’ll be trying again.

We finish with a serve of ‘Snow Crab’ (塞旁蟹) which has crab meat stir-fried with eggwhite. It is served topped with a raw egg yolk which is then mixed in along with Chinese black vinegar. (Unfortunately the waitress was too quick for me and I didn’t manage to catch a ‘before’ shot.) On this occasion, the eggwhite is not as smooth as we’ve had on previous visits but I still like the slippery combination which makes for great comfort food when mixed with a bowl of plain rice.

The boys can’t say no to dessert and order a deep-fried ice-cream each. Monsieur Poisson has his au naturel whereas Mr Tokyo has his with chocolate topping. I pass on both these options as they are things I’ve left behind with my childhood, but – who knows? – I could redevelop a liking for them in the future!

Eastwood Garden Peking (伊士活)

167 Rowe St, Eastwood NSW

Tel: (02) 9804 1289

Opening Hours:  7 days  11am-10:30pm

happy eating!

KFC Krushers

Monsieur Poisson and I first encountered KFC Krush Bars when we were in Melbourne mid 2008, but were not curious enough to venture into one to find out what they were about. As we hadn’t seen anything similar in Sydney, or perhaps we just don’t get out much, our interest was definitely piqued.

Commercials started appearing on television soon after and Krush Bars started sprouting up across Sydney. The part that really grabbed my attention was the mention of a ‘Golden Gaytime Krusher’ and the tagline: ‘full of real bitz!’ Golden Gaytime being one of the top three favourite ice-creams from my childhood, with one of the attractions being of course the coating which is studded with biscuit bits. On a day in November Monsieur Poisson and I happened to be near a Krush Bar so I decided to try one of their Krushers. Not all Krush Bars appear to carry the whole array of Krushers but of course mine had to be the Golden Gaytime one!

It tastes exactly like a Golden Gaytime ice-cream in milkshake form and, true to its word, really is full of bits. Some of these sink down to the bottom towards the end of the drink so you need to be careful not to inhale them by accident. It’s quite filling but it’s only downfall, I would say, is its somewhat unfortunate less-than-appealing colour.

And for a limited time when parking at Chatswood Chase, the parking card has a buy-one-get-one-free offer for KFC Krushers. Perfect for this sweltering summer heat!

KFC (with Krush Bar)

Located just about everywhere!

happy eating!

Epicure Recipe Card #22: Sardine & Tomato Tart

So after my somewhat haphazard start to this Recipe Card Challenge, the subsequent recipe attempts have been better thought out. When an evening presented itself where we would be having a couple of friends over for dinner, I thought it would make the perfect opportunity for some culinary guinea-pigging! And as I had a day of shopping planned with Mistress, I knew it would have to be something quick so I chose this tart as a starter. (The rest of the meal will come in a separate post.)

I used ready-rolled pastry and had mistakenly bought sardines in tomato sauce, instead of in oil, but it turned out well anyway. Easy, quick and full of flavour.

Sardine & Tomato Tart

(adapted from The Age – Epicure 50 Best Recipe Cards, recipe by Jill Dupleix)

Ingredients:

·         1 sheet of ready-rolled shortcrust pastry, thawed

·         300g tinned crushed tomatoes

·         1 tbs olive oil

·         2 garlic cloves, crushed

·         pinch each of salt and sugar

·         ½ tsp dried mixed herbs

·         handful of pitted black olives

·         1 tbs salted capers, rinsed

Method:

1. Prick pastry all over with a fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes to prevent shrinkage when baking.
2. In the meantime combine tomatoes, oil, garlic, salt, sugar and herbs in a medium saucepan over medium heat and simmer for 20 minutes until thickened. Allow to cool slightly and preheat oven to 200°C.
3. Spread thickened tomato over the pastry base and arrange sardines on top in a criss-cross pattern.
4. Stud each diamond section with an olive, scatter with capers and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. 

happy cooking!

Yuzu, 7 Nov 2009

On an evening when a group of us were seeing Mamma Mia!, we needed to grab a quick meal near Star City Casino prior to the show’s scheduled start of 8pm. Eschewing the food on offer at the casino itself we found ourselves (and parking) at nearby Yuzu in Pyrmont, which is located at the ground level of a unit block that did not yet look occupied.

Being already a month into daylight saving the sun was still shining at dinner time and, with there being more tables situated outside anyway, we enjoyed our dinner al fresco under the slanted rays of the sun.

Most of us order the yuzu tea as we’ve read about it in various sources, and we agree that it has a flavour reminiscent of kumquats sweetened with honey – the stuff that Chinese mothers brew up when you have a cough or sore throat. At the bottom of the cup can be found slivers of yuzu peel.

To start with, we share a serve of fresh and plump takoyaki as well as a plate of gyoza which only comes with four dumplings to share between the five of us.

Between Monsieur Poisson and myself we order a mixed sashimi don, which comes with a few salad leaves hidden underneath and a bowl of miso soup on the side, as well as a karaage chicken udon.

Both are fairly standard in size but the rice becomes a little hard to eat with chopsticks alone towards the bottom of the sashimi don. The scallop is lightly seared and the salmon is positively orange in colour.

Whilst we all have our individual meals, we also have a salmon salad plus a mains-sized sushi plate plonked in the middle of our table for picking at. Although all the seafood tastes fresh, this is when we notice that the salmon is radioactively orange and Dr King adamantly refuses to polish off the last two pieces.

The poor sushi pieces – I don’t think I’ve been anywhere where we’ve rejected sushi!

Yuzu

Shop 7, 1 Scott St, Pyrmont NSW

Tel: (02) 9692 9898

Opening Hours:  7 days, I think?

happy eating!

Spluurge, 7 Nov 2009

On a day not long after Chatswood Chase’s new Dining Court had opened, Monsieur Poisson and I went there in search of lunch. Only about half the stores were open at the time and, as we didn’t want to join the ever-lengthening queue at the new New Shanghai, we decide to try a burger/sandwich/salad joint with reasonable prices instead.

Perhaps due to their being newly opened combined with a flurry of business, staff looked flustered from the unfamiliarity of processes. The young fellow serving us is very polite however, and we are more than happy to wait for our orders. The burgers don’t come with any sides and, if memory serves me correctly, the ‘Beef Burger’ we order on pide costs $10. The bread doesn’t come toasted but is very soft and acts as an excellent holder for its contents of cheese, tomato, cucumber, salad greens, beetroot, a fried egg and the beef patty. The patty is fairly juicy and not overly oily, but is a little too smooth in texture for my liking. Overall, there’s plenty of taste and textural contrast contributed by all the varying ‘bits’ and the burger is quite refreshing.

Monsieur Poisson chooses the ‘Bacon Burger’ on a wholemeal bun when he spies the magic ingredient of pineapple as one of this burger’s inclusions. This is more of a breakfast/brunch burger with bacon, cheese and a fried egg, but with the interesting addition of pineapple pieces as well as iceberg lettuce. It makes for a sweet, tropical-tasting burger costing around $8.

The serves are enough to satisfy even though they don’t come with the burger’s usual partner-in-crime of fries. And a place like this definitely offers an alternative to the burgers of the mega fast-food chains.

Spluurge

Dining Court, Lower Ground level of Chatswood Chase, Chatswood NSW

Tel: (02) 9411 2332

Opening Hours:  Mon-Wed  9:30am-5:30pm

Thurs  9:30am-9pm

Fri  9:30am-5:30pm

Sat  9am-5pm

Sun  10am-5pm

happy eating!

Epicure Recipe Card #40: Sizzling Beef with Celery

Welcome to the first account of my Recipe Card Challenge for 2010! I’m a bit behind my planned posting schedule but I have legitimate reasons. Firstly, I started a new job just last week and, secondly, I didn’t start off tackling this challenge in quite the correct manner. Instead of planning ahead, choosing a recipe card for the week and making sure I had all the ingredients required, I kind of winged it and suddenly started panicking when I realised I should have been cooking something already.

So one night, when I had defrosted a piece of scotch fillet steak for dinner without any particular culinary direction for it, I went searching through the recipe cards on the prowl for something involving beef. What resulted was this stir-fry which couldn’t be further from what Jill Dupleix had described! I attribute my tweaking of her recipe due to my stubbornness about Cantonese stir-fries and, as always, not having all the stipulated ingredients on hand in order to follow the recipe word for word.

The stir-fry still tastes juicy and characteristically Cantonese despite my fiddling with it. My personal preference is to use beef skirt steak but, Iike I said, I just happened to have some scotch fillet steak at the ready that particular evening.

Beef Stir-fry with Shiitake & Chinese Cabbage

(adapted from The Age – Epicure 50 Best Recipe Cards, recipe by Jill Dupleix)

Ingredients:

·         250g beef, thinly sliced

·         1 portion of My All-purpose Cantonese Marinade

·         6 dried shiitake, soaked in cold water overnight (I’m lucky to have pre-soaked ones by my mother-in-law sitting in the freezer for when desired!)

·         ½ tsp sugar

·         6 medium Chinese cabbage (‘wom bok’/’wong nga bak’) leaves, shredded

·         1 tbs cooking oil

·         finely shredded ginger (optional)

·         ½ tsp salt

·         1 tbs oyster sauce

Method:

1. Toss beef with the marinade and set aside 20-30 minutes.
2. In the meantime, remove stalks from shiitake and slice the caps to about 3mm thick. Toss sliced caps with the sugar and set aside. (This helps to remove a ‘fishy/bitter’ flavour that the Chinese describe.) 

3. When ready to cook, heat the oil in a wok or saucepan to almost smoking on high heat. Add ginger, if using, for around 10 seconds before adding the beef. Stir-fry until most pieces are cooked to medium-well before removing beef from pan and setting aside.
4. Add shiitake slices to the hot pan and toss until starting to brown before adding cabbage strips and tossing the whole lot until cabbage looks half wilted. Sprinkle in salt and toss evenly.
5. Return beef to pan along with oyster sauce and stir-fry the whole lot until cooked. Serve with steamed rice.

happy cooking!

Ju-Rin, 6 Nov 2009

For people who enjoy their food, travelling out of their way to grace an establishment of good reputation is never an issue. Monsieur Poisson and I definitely fall into this category of diner, but by doing so we seem to have neglected areas of Sydney and subsequently eateries in our immediate vicinity. So in a bid to discover what’s available within a short distance from our home, we decide to start with Crows Nest and we begin our journey at Ju-Rin with the always-welcome company of Mistress.

I have lost count of how many reviews I have read about Ju-Rin before finally coming here myself. On this particular Friday evening Mistress has kindly organised the table reservation, but was told the restaurant bookings are arranged in two sessions only: 6-8pm or 8pm til close. The later option has been chosen as we’re not terribly adept at dining early, and when we step into the restaurant we understand why there are two rigid booking sessions – the place is smaller than we expect and the tables are limited.

With kanji characters meaning ‘forest’ emblazoned on their sign and front window, at their entrance and on their menus, we spend what seems like ages poring over the menu contents and are marred by indecision as to what to order. Often the problem with dining somewhere for the first time is wanting to eat everything on offer!

To complicate matters further, Monsieur Poisson discovers there is a specials board located adjacent to the sushi bar. Because it is too far for Mistress and myself to read comfortably, he takes our camera and snaps a photo of the specials before returning to our table. (See, cameras are not only for blogging whilst at restaurants!) And from here, we start with Monsieur Poisson’s adored uni sashimi which are accompanied by crisp nori sheets for wrapping.

The grilled guy-tan are huge and round and incredibly soft. We are confused at first as we’re all used to eating chewier pieces that have usually been trimmed into squares or rectangles. The fascinating part is definitely how tender the meat is, as if it has been stewed, as well as the obvious grill marks on the individual pieces. They’re a little under-seasoned but that’s easily fixed.

Next we have the aburi swordfish nigiri which feature thinly sliced pieces of fish with a subtle charred flavour. The flesh is firm and much less grainy than that which we tried at Sono, although we’re not sure if this could be attributed to the fish having been grilled.

Mistress has chosen the ‘Saury (sanma) with sansho pepper’ to try, where we discover the fish segments served are at room temperature. While the pepper is subtle and not very bitey, the texture reminds us of tinned sardines where the bones and fins can all be eaten and the flavours resemble Chinese tinned fried dace in black bean sauce (豆豉鯪魚).

When we spied chawanmushi on the menu, we knew we had to order some – Mistress particularly loves it, and it is a recent discovery of Monsieur Poisson’s and mine. We end up with two serves to share and are somewhat disappointed from the moment the lids are removed – we are not met with lemony yellow smoothness, but rather pock-marked surfaces instead. Nonetheless, the fragrant flavours of stock are evidently present in the steamed egg even if it is a little overcooked.

Our rice dishes, as expected, make their appearance at the end of our meal and consist of a soft-shell crab roll with matchstick-thin slivers of cucumber sprouting out the end pieces as well as a couple of seductively perched crab claws.

This is followed by a chirashi sushi (for two) which is larger than it looks. The bowl is wide with steep sides so we think, ‘Nah, can’t be much under there…’ But there is! I highly recommend this dish as it proves to be great value with a disproportionately high amount of assorted fresh-tasting sashimi pieces compared to the amount of vinegared rice underneath.

And after proclaiming that we are full-full-full, we pull out our reserve stomachs and order dessert. The dessert menu is located on a side wall which Monsieur Poisson again photographs for us. We order just the one thing: a tempura ice-cream with green tea topping and azuki to share.

The vanilla ice-cream comes encased in a light and fluffy batter on a flower-shaped plate. Azuki and a tube biscuit decorate the pre-quartered ice-cream whilst a few thin wedges of red apple sit alongside. Moss green topping which is tastier than its looks completes the dish. The staff acknowledge that we are sharing and thoughtfully bring out small plates and spoons for us to divide the dessert amongst ourselves.

We leave absolutely full to the brim of wonderful food, whilst totally understanding why Ju-Rin has two designated dining sessions as well as its claim to The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010’s Favourite Asian Restaurant award. Our only battle from here is getting back to the car whilst the heavens have decided to open in a most spectacular downpour!

Ju-Rin

316 Pacific Hwy, Crows Nest NSW

Tel: (02) 9966 5811

Opening Hours:  7 days  12pm-2:30pm (lunch)

                                    6pm-11pm (dinner)

happy eating!