297 replies to this topic

[BarbaraY]

I'm truly enjoying your blog. I do envy you all those wonderful markets and stores. The nearest Asian and Indian markets are 50 miles away and the nearest Japanese store is almost 80.
It would be so much fun to see them in real life.

[FrogPrincesse]

And a girly cup of my favourite Mariage Freres tea:

I love Marco Polo from Mariage Freres, which was my favorite tea house when I lived in Paris, but never had a chance to try it in the "green tea" version, only black. I bet it's wonderful too.

[Dakki]

I don't know about anyone else, but I generally wake up hungry enough to eat the bum out of a low-flying duck. Which is colourful Aussie expression for being a bit on the fang. Which is to say, hungry. There are also lots of charming expressions for being thirsty, but none of them G-rated enough for a foodblog!

Will never look at a low-flying duck the same way again. Would like to hear the R-rated ones.

[Dejah]

I have "total envy" of everything RRO!
Have been following all your wonderful postings in Dinner thread. Great to have this "comprehensive coverage" of your life.
Thank you for blogging!

[rarerollingobject]

I'm truly enjoying your blog. I do envy you all those wonderful markets and stores. The nearest Asian and Indian markets are 50 miles away and the nearest Japanese store is almost 80.
It would be so much fun to see them in real life.

Yikes! If you're that far from an Asian market..you must live in some very beautiful countryside! But yes, I think we're incredibly lucky here..great seafood, meat and produce abounds, and the diversity and ease of access to virtually every cuisine (other than Mexican, it seems) makes Sydney my favourite food place in the world..for cooking. For pure eating..Tokyo.

And a girly cup of my favourite Mariage Freres tea:

I love Marco Polo from Mariage Freres, which was my favorite tea house when I lived in Paris, but never had a chance to try it in the "green tea" version, only black. I bet it's wonderful too.

Speaking of Tokyo, that's where I got the MF, in their shop in Ginza. Possibly explains the green tea variety, they have lots of blends there that seem to have been designed especially for the Japanese market.

Will never look at a low-flying duck the same way again. Would like to hear the R-rated ones.

PM'd and apologies to your delicate sensibilities in advance!

I have "total envy" of everything RRO!
Have been following all your wonderful postings in Dinner thread. Great to have this "comprehensive coverage" of your life.
Thank you for blogging!

Thanks, Dejah..that is really a compliment, I've been a fan of your food for ages..

[rarerollingobject]

Lunch today was another of the many delights of Chinatown: Uighur food. We don't have that many 'Chinese' restaurants here, to my eye anyway..they tend to be pretty solidly regional: Cantonese, Sichuanese, Hunanese, Shanghainese, or in this case, the food of Xinjiang, in the north, bordering Mongolia and Russia.

The food is very strongly focused on wheat, lamb, cumin, chilli and handmade noodles. I've been there, and one of my main memories is of the delicious skewers of charcoal grilled lamb, intense with cumin and chilli and salt.

There are a couple around Chinatown now. They all have plastic grapes hanging from the ceiling (must be a thing) but this one has colourful murals of Gobi desert scenes. You can just see the proprietor through the kitchen window.



The menu:


Braised chilli eggplant (and hand of colleague):


Leek and egg stuffed pancake:


Handmade lamb noodles in 'homely' sauce (menu description, not sure what that means):


And my favourites, the salty spicy lamb skewers on sharpened metal rods of death:


A very satisfying lunch for a chilly winter's day. Hiccup.

[haresfur]

Finally caught up on your fantastic blog. Wow. All I can say is I feel like such a bogan.

[weinoo]

Handmade lamb noodles in 'homely' sauce (menu description, not sure what that means)

We get the "homely" sauce on some of the menus around Chinatown here as well. I'm pretty sure it means "homey" or home-style.

The food looks good, though the eggplant dish looks like it has been cornstarched to death - the bane of so many stir-fries in restaurants.

[rarerollingobject]

Finally caught up on your fantastic blog. Wow. All I can say is I feel like such a bogan.

Bogan? You really are an Aussie!!

Handmade lamb noodles in 'homely' sauce (menu description, not sure what that means)

We get the "homely" sauce on some of the menus around Chinatown here as well. I'm pretty sure it means "homey" or home-style. The food looks good, though the eggplant dish looks like it has been cornstarched to death - the bane of so many stir-fries in restaurants.

Eggplant wasn't too bad, actually, gloop-wise. Just enough to cling to the rice, which was bone-stickingly good on a day as cold as today (17C - that's cold for us!!).

[rarerollingobject]

Who else cooks to relieve stress? A few of us, I imagine. Although, while some people bake, I've noticed that I tend to cook more vegetarian or vegetable-based dishes when I've had a horrible day..I think the nourishing, cleansing, freshness appeals to me, though it's not a conscious choice really..

So here we are. A winter vegetable tagine over quinoa, and a radish, kale, pistachio orange and cinnamon salad.

Here tis the prep:



The vegetables were carrots, parsnips, butternut pumpkin and shallots, roasted with bay leaves, star anise, ginger, paprika, turmeric, cayenne and cinnamon.

Stirred in chopped apricots and a little water in the last few minutes of roasting to plump them up, and then garnished with chopped preserved lemon, cashews, mint and rose petals. Satisfying and healthy.

The radish salad:


Sliced radishes very thinly on the mandoline I'm terrified of (I have lost a tiny corner of a thumb to it, and that was enough!), sliced blood oranges, dressed with honey, cinnamon, olive oil and pistachios and then tucked some spinach and kale throughout.

The finished dishes:



And late night nerve tonic:

[Broken English]

I love the Asian slant your cooking has. It's definately something I'd like to learn more about.

Sydney has an amazing food culture I think, I don't quite get how Melbourne is called the food capital of Australia, especially when people try and tell me that Sydney doesn't have the level of dining that Melbourne does.

[nikkib]

That looks amazing! I am stealing all these recipes - expect to see them pop up on the dinner thread in some point! I also love the ethnic influences of your cooking - do you just take your influences from your environment living in such a multi cultural city or have you lived in any of these places (you mentioned tokyo neing your favourite city for eating) or is that just from travelling?

[rarerollingobject]

I love the Asian slant your cooking has. It's definately something I'd like to learn more about.

Sydney has an amazing food culture I think, I don't quite get how Melbourne is called the food capital of Australia, especially when people try and tell me that Sydney doesn't have the level of dining that Melbourne does.

I've thought about this too..I think Melbourne has a better range of really great quality but mid-level in terms of price/fanciness restaurants, while Sydney kills it at the very top end, and also at the down home very cheap eats end. And don't even talk to me about Melbourne yum cha!! Pathetic!

That looks amazing! I am stealing all these recipes - expect to see them pop up on the dinner thread in some point! I also love the ethnic influences of your cooking - do you just take your influences from your environment living in such a multi cultural city or have you lived in any of these places (you mentioned tokyo neing your favourite city for eating) or is that just from travelling?

I'm a bit culturally confused myself, or 'culturally cross-trained' is my euphemism of choice. I was born in Hong Kong and grew up between there and Beijing and then a period of moving countries every 18 months with my father's job (he's retired now, but was a foreign correspondent for Reuters). All through this time, we had nannies and cooks (don't judge, it's what expats in Asia do!). They were variously Shanghainese, Cantonese, one who'd been grown up in Manchuria in the 1930s and therefore spoke mainly Japanese, and later, a Filipina nanny. I can thus speak a good deal of Japanese, a fair bit of Mandarin, pretty bad Cantonese and can only swear in Tagalog.

They all left their mark on me, food-wise, though! I'm most comfortable cooking Cantonese food, but have some Filipino dishes I get incredibly nostalgic for.

As soon as I had any money of my own as an adult, I started travelling again, and have been back to HK and China and all over Vietnam and Japan six times and..always thinking about escape. Korea is my next plan.

Edited by rarerollingobject, 26 July 2011 - 06:10 AM.

[Blether]

...

Will never look at a low-flying duck the same way again. Would like to hear the R-rated ones.

PM'd and apologies to your delicate sensibilities in advance!

...

Now you're in trouble, 'cos everyone wants a copy.

Edited by Blether, 26 July 2011 - 06:22 AM.

[Broken English]

I love the Asian slant your cooking has. It's definately something I'd like to learn more about.

Sydney has an amazing food culture I think, I don't quite get how Melbourne is called the food capital of Australia, especially when people try and tell me that Sydney doesn't have the level of dining that Melbourne does.

I've thought about this too..I think Melbourne has a better range of really great quality but mid-level in terms of price/fanciness restaurants, while Sydney kills it at the very top end, and also at the down home very cheap eats end. And don't even talk to me about Melbourne yum cha!! Pathetic!

I love the cafe culture and the street food scene in Melbourne, but I can't think of anything else it comes close to matching Sydney in, especially at the top end of the spectrum.

On an unrelated note, I had dinner at Gastro Park tonight, it was, for my money, better than the last two meals I've had at Quay, and definately in the top five for the city. Have you tried there yet?

[rarerollingobject]

Now you're in trouble, 'cos everyone wants a copy.

I'm not even sure it's possible to offend YOUR sensibilities! So stand by.

[rarerollingobject]

A little midnight meat-handling. Something for tomorrow night's dinner: galbi, or Korean grilled short ribs.

Look at that beautiful marbling! Be still my saturated-fat-saturated heart.



Marinating overnight in a mix of soy, mirin, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and kiwi and pear to sweeten and tenderise, all blended to a puree in the food processor. Some of my Korean friends use a can of 7 Up in the marinade. *faint*



I also added a little of this incredible Malaysian 'cooking caramel'. It's basically flavourless but imparts the most amazingly deep colour.

[rarerollingobject]

I love the cafe culture and the street food scene in Melbourne, but I can't think of anything else it comes close to matching Sydney in, especially at the top end of the spectrum.

On an unrelated note, I had dinner at Gastro Park tonight, it was, for my money, better than the last two meals I've had at Quay, and definately in the top five for the city. Have you tried there yet?

Patisseries. Melbourne does have good patisseries.

Gastro Park..NO, BUT I REALLY WANT TO! Sorry for shouting, but it's top of my 'to try' list, just never seem to get around to it. It's even close enough to walk sloshedly home! Note to self: stop sounding like an alcoholic. Take pictures of the food, by any chance?

[rarerollingobject]

OK, this might ook people out: savoury oatmeal.

As a kid, I got fed A LOT of congee, and I really do love it, but looking a quicker and slightly healther alternative to the carbiness of rice, I now effectively make congee with oatmeal. I personally don't see WHY it's ooky, but some perfectly sane and well into food people that I know always seem to freak the eff out at the mere mention of savoury oatmeal so...*shrug*.

Here's my prep, mostly mixins: chopped green onion, crispy fried shallots, white pepper, soy, leek flower sauce, Sichuan pepper oil, a spoonful of melting duck fat, and Lao Gan Ma chilli oil (this is the variant with peanuts and chewy turnip cubes in it).



I cook the porridge in the microwave in chicken stock (OK, bouillon powder and water, no time to defrost homemade stock in the morning) and then garnish till the cows come home.



Breakfast of champions, I say! And a lot less hard to explain than the other porridge dish I sometimes get a craving for..Filipino champorado, a sweet chocolate rice or oatmeal porridge garnished and eaten with salty dried fish..

[catdaddy]

OK, this might ook people out: savoury oatmeal.

As a kid, I got fed A LOT of congee, and I really do love it, but looking a quicker and slightly healther alternative to the carbiness of rice, I now effectively make congee with oatmeal. I personally don't see WHY it's ooky, but some perfectly sane and well into food people that I know always seem to freak the eff out at the mere mention of savoury oatmeal so...*shrug*.

Here's my prep, mostly mixins: chopped green onion, crispy fried shallots, white pepper, soy, leek flower sauce, Sichuan pepper oil, a spoonful of melting duck fat, and Lao Gan Ma chilli oil (this is the variant with peanuts and chewy turnip cubes in it).



I cook the porridge in the microwave in chicken stock (OK, bouillon powder and water, no time to defrost homemade stock in the morning) and then garnish till the cows come home.



Breakfast of champions, I say! And a lot less hard to explain than the other porridge dish I sometimes get a craving for..Filipino champorado, a sweet chocolate rice or oatmeal porridge garnished and eaten with salty dried fish..

This is a brilliant use of oatmeal. I'll be trying this soon.

Loving a look into your kitchen.

[Dejah]

I grew up eating savory oatmeal in Hong Kong, but not nearly as eleaborate as your version!

My Mom made it with pork broth, ginger, and slices of pork or minced pork. I remember it being so good in the winter before heading off to school. Once in a while, she'd soak the conpoy overnight and shredd this into the oatmeal. I didn't like green onions in the oatmeal but I love it in rice congee.

I tried to introduce this to my husband - blasphemy!
The kids agreed with him...

Thanks for bringing back a wonderful childhood memory.

[heidih]

Love the savory oatmeal - I have seen that reported more and more on the internet for breakfast along with variations using quinoa and other mixed grains.

So....what is your bouillon powder of choice. I am a Knorr user - I think they have different variants for different countries so the one I get here has the label printed in English and Spanish and I think is geared to Mexico

[helenjp]

I agree with you about oatmeal, it tastes just as good (in some cases better than) rice congee with savoury things.

Your blog is making me terribly homesick. I think it's the fact that the emphasis on seafood and the nearness and accessibility of East Asian food is just part of everyday life.

I'm interested to see that you like a middle eastern twist to your cooking too...it seems to be part of OZ & ENZ food culture, and it works in well with Japanese food too I'm happy to report! Love that tri-color quinoa...I　was just thinking about cold quinoa summer dishes, so I'm going to see how a cold version works, thanks.

I haven't been to Sydney since it was embracing a kind of Emerald City phase, so I'm enjoying your blog very much.

Love

[ScottyBoy]

Some of my Korean friends use a can of 7 Up in the marinade. *faint*

Hey now, don't knock it till you try it

[Broken English]

I love the cafe culture and the street food scene in Melbourne, but I can't think of anything else it comes close to matching Sydney in, especially at the top end of the spectrum.

On an unrelated note, I had dinner at Gastro Park tonight, it was, for my money, better than the last two meals I've had at Quay, and definately in the top five for the city. Have you tried there yet?

Patisseries. Melbourne does have good patisseries.

Gastro Park..NO, BUT I REALLY WANT TO! Sorry for shouting, but it's top of my 'to try' list, just never seem to get around to it. It's even close enough to walk sloshedly home! Note to self: stop sounding like an alcoholic. Take pictures of the food, by any chance?

Haha, yeah it was really good. Spherified pumpkin 'gnocchi' in mushroom consomme, sashimi scallop with tuna bone marrow, foie gras with beetroot, plum vinegar and red cabbage granita, and of course the nitro pavlova. Plus, my hat goes off to any fine dining restaurant that doesn't feel the need to have a 3500 page wine list.

I don't actually own a camera, so no. There are some good photos if you do a google search and look at some of the blogs.

Edited by Broken English, 26 July 2011 - 11:13 PM.

[annachan]

I love savoury oatmeal as well! That used to be the only way I would eat my oatmeal. My grandma used to make it with sliced or ground beef that she marinated in a combination of soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch and oil. With a little soy sauce, it was great for cold mornings. It's still comfort food for me.

I eat sweet oatmeal now. One time at work, I decided to pour coffee instead of water into some instant oatmeal. It actually goes quite well with the maple flavor oatmeal....

[rarerollingobject]

I grew up eating savory oatmeal in Hong Kong, but not nearly as eleaborate as your version!

My Mom made it with pork broth, ginger, and slices of pork or minced pork. I remember it being so good in the winter before heading off to school. Once in a while, she'd soak the conpoy overnight and shredd this into the oatmeal. I didn't like green onions in the oatmeal but I love it in rice congee.

I tried to introduce this to my husband - blasphemy!
The kids agreed with him...

Thanks for bringing back a wonderful childhood memory.

Aww, that's lovely..most of my nostalgia also involves Hong Kong. Somehow, HK homestyle food is the most comforting thing in the world to me.

Conpoy! What a good idea..I can't believe I never thought of that, I would have for rice congee..I'm going to try it!

I don't know why people are so virulent about savoury oatmeal!

I love savoury oatmeal as well! That used to be the only way I would eat my oatmeal. My grandma used to make it with sliced or ground beef that she marinated in a combination of soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch and oil. With a little soy sauce, it was great for cold mornings. It's still comfort food for me.

I eat sweet oatmeal now. One time at work, I decided to pour coffee instead of water into some instant oatmeal. It actually goes quite well with the maple flavor oatmeal....

Another one of us!! Awesome. Question for you and Dejah though: using sliced meat or ground meat, how did your mother and grandma respectively cook the meat? Pre cook it in a pan and then load onto the oatmeal, or cook in the oatmeal itself from the heat of the water?

[rarerollingobject]

I agree with you about oatmeal, it tastes just as good (in some cases better than) rice congee with savoury things.

Your blog is making me terribly homesick. I think it's the fact that the emphasis on seafood and the nearness and accessibility of East Asian food is just part of everyday life.

I'm interested to see that you like a middle eastern twist to your cooking too...it seems to be part of OZ & ENZ food culture, and it works in well with Japanese food too I'm happy to report! Love that tri-color quinoa...I　was just thinking about cold quinoa summer dishes, so I'm going to see how a cold version works, thanks.

I haven't been to Sydney since it was embracing a kind of Emerald City phase, so I'm enjoying your blog very much.

Love

Thank you, such a lovely thing to say! I do really enjoy Middle Eastern flavours..I'm fascinated with Persian/Iranian food..I love all the spices and nuts and use of dried fruit and flavours that really evoke a sense of place.

Cold quinoa is great, but one of my very favourite quinoa preps is warm or cold, drizzled with ponzu and sesame oil, with an avocado sliced over and crumbled nori. Sounds plain, tastes incredible.

[rarerollingobject]

Haha, yeah it was really good. Spherified pumpkin 'gnocchi' in mushroom consomme, sashimi scallop with tuna bone marrow, foie gras with beetroot, plum vinegar and red cabbage granita, and of course the nitro pavlova. Plus, my hat goes off to any fine dining restaurant that doesn't feel the need to have a 3500 page wine list.

I don't actually own a camera, so no. There are some good photos if you do a google search and look at some of the blogs.

You had me at 'tuna bone marrow'. Sounds like my kind of place.

[rarerollingobject]

Some of my Korean friends use a can of 7 Up in the marinade. *faint*

Hey now, don't knock it till you try it

Oh, believe me, I'd never throw bbq ribs out of bed in the morning regardless of how they'd been marinated, but 7 Up is just too sickly sweet to me. Standard galbi marinade already contains one or all of kiwi, pear, sugar and honey!