Gratuitous photo post and Crave Sydney Food Festival

It's been a fairly quiet food festival for me this year, in contrast to last year's frenetic dining. I was hoping we'd have a repeat of 2010's awesome Single Origin breakfasts but it wasn't to be, and a lot of the best Sugar Hits seem to have dropped off the list as well. Still - there's been some memorable meals.


Highlight: high tea at the Victoria Room in Darlinghurst, with the usual assortment of dainty nibbles, warm scones, freshly brewed tea and sammiches with the crusts cut off. Schmancy. Also, a good excuse to pull out pretty dresses and shoes.


Oddlight: Magnus Nilsson dinner at Marque. Nilsson, aged only 27, is making big news for his Swedish restaurant Faviken, so his dinners at Marque were well hyped. While there were certainly some good dishes (WA Marron with Oatmeal, Sprouting Barley, Fermented Vegetables and Almost Burnt Cream) and some challengingly tasty dishes (Crust of dried pigs blood and sea urchin; or the Dice of raw beef heart with marrow, spring flowers, toast and herb salt), there were also some truly wtf ones - like the Leeks, Cream Whisked with Beer, Vinegar and Dried Mullet Roe. The photo shows what I thought about that. Still, the company was excellent and was was the wine.


Best value: Azuma Kushiyaki, as always. For $38 at lunch time, you can get an entree with three items, plus this wagyu beef bento box, and a glass of wine or a beer. Taaaasty.


Least value: Night Noodle Markets. Again, not a surprise. Go for the company and the atmosphere. Or if you're a misanthrope like me, stick around for one entree, tasty betel leaves from Nu in this case, and then...


... escape to Spice I Am in Surry Hills for a meal that costs about the same, but tastier and with actual table service.


One photo for the road - cute Halloween cookies at Sweet Infinity, Strand Arcade. BOO.

Siff Week #4, and quinoa with apricots and butternut pumpkin

I really lost SIFF steam towards the end of October, with only a couple of events in the last two weeks. I have no idea how those food blog kids keep up the pace.

So for our SIFF finale we returned to Single Origin for the fourth and last in their series of Origin Breakfasts. This time it was the Dominican Republic's turn for a two-course breakfast served with coffee prepared three ways: siphon, cold drip and espresso.


For savouries, we had mangu (plantain) with tomato and egg. Plantain was a new and pleasant surprise to us all - very tasty and filling.


Followed up by a delicious honey flan with coffee granita and blood orange. (Y'know, I always thought flans came inside pastries. Wrong!)

The Dominican coffee blend was heavier and more bitter than the Yemenese and Nicaraguan blends we'd tried before, but I will never turn my nose up at a good coffee well made. In other words, :9

I really enjoyed all three of the Origin breakfasts, despite having to rise at an ungodly hour. By the end of the month, we pretty much felt like Single Origin regulars (though the staff failed to recognise us every single time, ha!).


And then it was national pony-racing day - I mean, Melbourne Cup. As usual everyone in our office had to bring in a plate of food or similar contribution. Just as usual, I chose food. In the end we assembled a massive spread, with lots of tasty dips, antipasto, roast chicken, several salads, and a ridiculously awesome berry-topped pavlova. And did I mention the champagne? Really, I enjoy the food and drink of Melbourne Cup day more than the race itself...

This vegetarian and gluten-free recipe is adapted from the Ottolenghi cookbook. The original uses couscous, for which I've subbed in quinoa, which is gluten-free. The quantities shown below are meant to serve 4; I doubled all of the ingredients and wound up with almost a kilo of food! Most of it was eaten, thank goodness, but there is still a bit of leftover quinoa in my fridge.


Quinoa with dried apricots and butternut pumpkin

1 large onion, thinly sliced
6 tbsp olive oil
50g dried apricots
450g butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-2cm dice
250g quinoa (or couscous, if you prefer)
400ml gluten-free vegetable stock (or chicken)
pinch of saffron strands
3 tbsp roughly chopped tarragon
3 tbsp roughly chopped mint (or more, to taste)
3 tbsp roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
grated zest of 1 lemon
sea salt and black pepper

Prep first: chop the pumpkin and onion. Preheat oven to 180C.

Place the onion in a frying pan with 2 tbsp oil and some salt. Saute over high heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden brown. Set aside.

Pour hot water from the tap over the apricots, just enough to cover them. Soak for 5 minutes then drain and cut into 5mm dice.

Mixed the diced pumpkin with 1 tbsp oil and some salt and pepper. Spread on a baking tray and place in oven. Bake for about 25 minutes, until quite soft.

While pumpkin is baking, cook the quinoa. Bring the stock to the boil with saffron. Place the quinoa in a large pot and pour the boiling stock over it. Cover the pot and leave for 10 minutes.

Hopefully, the quinoa will have absorbed all the moisture and gone slightly translucent, so you can see the germ in each grain. If not, then put the pot on a low heat and steam off the excess moisture, stirring regularly so it doesn't stick to the bottom.

Add a little oil and use a fork or whisk to fluff up the quinoa. Then add the onion, pumpkin, apricots, herbs, cinnamon and lemon zest. Mix well, season as necessary, and serve warmish or cold.

If you're making it the night before, as I did, leave the herbs for the next day - chop and stir through just before serving.


Adapted from 'Ottolenghi: The Cookbook' by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

Siff Week #3 - Just Desserts, and Gluten-free Choc Chip Cookie Bars

Last Tuesday I went to the Tomislav-Black Star Pastry SIFF 'special dinner' night, titled Just Desserts. Despite the name, I didn't actually believe it was going to be mostly desserts until we arrived and saw the menu. Yeah, I know.

According to staff, the two chefs Tomislav Martinovic and Chris The teamed up on every dish. Each contributed elements to each course - so for instance The (a pastry chef) did the pastry on the meat pie, while Tomislav (leaning more towards the molecular gastronomy angle) did the granita-esque version of tomato sauce on the side. Between them, it was a very pretty meal, and although the dishes were dessert, they never veered towards the overly sweet. Instead a mix of sour, salty, tart, crunchy or hot kept the entire meal in balance.


Amuse bouche consisted of a test tube of Delamotte champagne and another of violet granita. Pour one tube into the other, swirl and drink - mmm, flowery.


First course: Grilled strawberries, mint and white chocolate. With 2008 Bress 'The Kindest Cut' Gewurztraminer, Victoria. This looked stunning, red and green and white against a slab of black tile, but was probably the least substantial of the courses.


Goats curd cheesecake with elderflower and pistachio. With 2008 Alacia Moscato D'Asti, Piedmont Italy. My favourite dish of the night - loved the sourness of the cheesecake with the sweetness of the elderberry.


Caramel icecream and toasted peanuts - served in a cone, the topping snapped and crackled in your mouth like those kid's candies! With 2007 Juniper Cane-cut Riesling, Western Australia.


Warm chocolate mousse, olive oil and sea salt, flavoured with horseradish; opinions differed, but I thought all the flavours worked. With 2008 Alan & Veitch Merlot, South Australia.


Beef mince pie, grilled onions and (frozen, granita-like) tomato sauce. With Karlovacko beer, Croatia.


Rice crackers with sea salt and vinegar - the vinegar came in a little bottle for us to spray it on the chips ourselves. One of Tomislav's signature dishes.


Take-away box from Black Star Pastry - very cute. Though I do think the rose-flavoured macaron was far too sweet, and the canelle a little burnt; my favourite by far was the fig and orange cake (top right corner).


Despite vowing not to bake this month (due to the amount of sweets I've been consuming), I decided to make an end to the last of the gluten-free flour sitting in my cupboard by making the following cookie bars. The result was far from perfect, as I'll explain below, but when I took these to work they were swiftly devoured!


Choc Chip Cookie Bars

Preheat oven to 175C (350 F). Lightly oil or line with parchment a brownie baking pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat together:

3 large free-range organic eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil or saffoil
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Add in and beat:
1 cup firmly packed organic light brown sugar - which I reduced to about 2/3 of a cup

Add in and beat, or mix in a separate bowl and then make a well and beat in the wet ingredients:
2 cups gluten free baking flour - I used White Wings
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Stir in:
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Using a rubber or silicone spatula, spread the dough evenly in the baking pan. The mixture is VERY sticky and heavy, so the spatula works much better than a wooden spoon. If you like, add some extra chips to the top and lightly press into the batter.

Bake on a center rack until the bars are set, about 21 to 25 minutes, depending upon your oven. Despite what the original recipe says, they will NOT turn golden, they'll be a warm yellow at best.

Do not over-bake - you want them a bit chewy - this is where I overshot because I was aiming for colour instead of consistency! Sadly, mine wound up too dry. Sigh.

Allow the bars to cool on a wire rack before cutting.

Makes 15 to 18 squares; I made well over 20.

Adapted from Gluten Free Goddess

Siff Week #2

Picking up from the last post, I returned to Single Origin to sample the next in their Origin Breakfast series. This time we had coffee and food from Nicaragua. The coffee - again, prepared 3 ways by siphon, cold drip and espresso - was more aromatic and flavourful than last week's Yemenese blend, and the different preparations really brought out different flavours. In a word, yum.


Also yum - beans and tamale, the latter wrapped in a banana leaf, with a side of avocado salsa.


To finish we were served little glasses of rice pudding with blood orange and biscotti. This was delicious and gone all too soon - we eyed with envy a neighbouring table which seemed to have much larger servings than we did. Hmmm.


Then on the weekend things got ridiculous - I went to not one but TWO high teas, starting with the Marie Antoinette-themed tea at the Westin Hotel, Martin Place. The lobby cafe at the hotel is so lovely, all light and glass and sandstone, and it feels very much exactly the right place for something as finicky and pretty and indulgent as high tea.


The Marie Antoinette theme is mostly just a gimmick, but to get in the spirit of things the Westin adds a domino to every place setting, and there's a pretty carved fan for each table to play with as well. Though staff encourage you to take the masks home, the fans are (sadly) Westin property.


The savoury plate is included in the menu under the rather grandiose title There is nothing new except what has been forgotten. Okay. The plate included slow cooked roast beef with crème cheese stuffed baby belle peppers; avocado and shrimp tartar inside choux pastry; blt and deviled egg finger sandwiches; and kiwi and orange croissant with mascarpone. We agreed this plate was generally stronger than the sweets, though less delightful to the eye.


The sweets (titled, as you'd expect, Let them eat cake!) included lime curd meringue tart, topped with a portrait of the queen; chocolate cream with exotic fruit caramel and candied walnuts; macaroons with fresh blueberries; and beetroot and cherry cup cakes. The chocolate cream was by far my least favourite dish, and I couldn't taste the beetroot in the cupcakes (though others claimed they could), but the whole thing looked fantastic which almost made up for it. Yes, I'm easily won.


Here's a close-up of the queen. Not pictured, but included of course, were unlimited tea and coffee, and scones with jam and cream, all of which were of a very acceptably delicious standard.


The second high tea, at the Museum of Sydney Cafe, was a much less fanciful affair. Despite the muddles I had with the booking beforehand (our reservation was at various times taken, not taken, re-taken, on the wrong day, etc) once we arrived both the tea and coffee were served briskly, and the food almost at once.


Here's the scones with jam and cream, and two types of mini quiche - mushroom, and lorraine - topped with a pretty flower. (Not pictured are the finger sandwiches, filled with variously cucumber, salmon, chicken, and curried egg.)


Here's the sweets, which were quite nice if not outstanding - though as you can see there was rather a heavy hand with the icing sugar in the kitchen. Topped, again, by a pretty flower, if only you could make it out from underneath all that snow.


The tea arrived in plain white pots but was served in prettily mismatched cups and saucers, like so. The whole thing had a bit of a charmingly home-style feel, though for food alone I would have to rate the Westin higher.


So there's week 2! And now for more salad.

SIFF Week #1

The first week of the Sydney International Food Festival (or Crave, or whatever they're calling it this year) is over and SO MUCH eating has already occurred!

In lieu of any recipes (as if I've had time much less appetite to bake) here's a brief photographic overview:


Cocktails at Monkey Magic, Surry Hills, for Cocktail of the Month. The drink in the photo is actually a Deus Ex Nectar - orange blossom belvedere and Pedro Ximenez sherry - so, not actually the cocktail of the month. I give my promise as an eyewitness that the SIFF deal was excellent value, for whatever that's worth!



Lemon meringue tart at Becasse, to go with the Let's Do Lunch deal of risotto of South Australian prawns and proscuitto, served with Brown Brothers wine. The risotto was very nice, as were the amuse bouche of black olive biscotti and the restaurant's signature fresh bread. The best part of the meal, perhaps, were the envious glances cast towards our table when we received our beautiful little pre-desserts: kiwi fruit granita with tiny meringues, orange jelly and champagne mousse. I drink your envious glances! I drink them all up! :9



Azuma Kushiyaki's double bento box of desserty Sugar Hit goodness. This included a chocolate mousse with berries, pannacotta, matcha green tea tart, wasabi ganache tart, madeleine, orange macaron (with smiley face) and a glass of Brown Brothers' dessert wine - all for $20! There were certain elements that didn't quite work (the berries on the mousse, the pastry on the tarts) and opinions amongst our group were quite divided over the matcha and wasabi tarts but for the most part this is by far the best value and cutest Sugar Hit I've ever seen.


Finally, I got up at an INSANE (for me) hour to make our 7.30 am booking at Single Origin's Origin Breakfast of coffee, served 3 ways, and Yemen-themed food.


First up was siphon coffee. The barista made the coffee for us right at the table - not without some difficulty, as the morning breeze played havoc with the open gas flame - which I thought was extremely impressive! (Though, when I have tried to describe it to other people since then, they don't seem particularly impressed. "So, it was basically like that stovetop camping coffee, but in a fancy glass flask?" "... well. Basically.")



The savoury course consisted of saltah (a spiced egg and rice dish) and flatbread. Very tasty.



Cold-drip coffee, which we were told took all night to prepare with 'one drip every other second'. No heat is applied to the beans at all. The barista compared the end result to cognac!



The third and final coffee was the classic espresso - YUM. Mine was a skim flat white.



And last of all a dessert we were told had been prepared by the chef and his girlfriend - adorable! We weren't actually told what it was, so all I can tell you is that a) the cake was caramelly and layered, and b) those are preserved prunes on the side, and c) it was SO GOOOOD.


So there's week one. Now I need a salad.