297 replies to this topic

[rarerollingobject]

And brunch. Polenta sourdough, thickly buttered, duck rillettes and a glass of Australian Sauternes-style botrytis. I don't know or care if it's 'right' to drink botrytis with rillettes, but I love Sauternes with foie gras and this isn't that far from that.

And because I'm militant about getting vegetables into every meal where I can, no matter how incongruous the combination: a purple kale, hazelnut oil and lemon juice salad.

Some mandarins to finish. Sweetest mandarins I've ever tasted, these. They're from those smiling people at the market. Whatever those people are on, I want some.

Edited by rarerollingobject, 29 July 2011 - 08:37 PM.

[annachan]

Do you get your sourdough from Sonoma Baking Company? There is a local cafe that carries their bread here and we get a loaf every week.

I miss padron peppers! Haven't seen them around here....Having total veggie envy as picking was skim at the farmers market this morning. Not sure why but several veggie vendors weren't there.

LOVE that butcher shop. I would be quite poor if I live by there....

[Blether]

You shoot a good picture

As for rice cups - aren't they all the standard 1-go ('ichi-gou') size, i.e. 180ml ? A pain to measure against a scale each time, but it shouldn't be all that hard to find a suitable tea or coffee cup, or make / cut something.

[Shalmanese]

Aww... crap. I used to *work* out of the Everleigh train yards around 2006 or so. The food options around that area were dismal and now you're telling me there's a freaking farmer's market there? .

Also, you went to Woollahra to gawk at the rich people and didn't stop at Simon Johnson's? That was always my favorite spot to gawk at what you could convince people to spend money on. I remember a set of copper pans they sold where I calculated it would have been cheaper to fly to the US, buy the pans and fly back than to buy them at Simon Johnson's.

Also Formaggi Ocello is excellent, they always had a booth at the Fox Studio's Farmers Market and I would always go home with a little treat. So many great memories from this blog :).

[Franci]

Dear Kate, I'm coming to check your blog every morning with my cup of coffee. I'm really enjoying it! Many sighs from looking at the beautiful pictures of markets and the butcher!!! OMG. Love it!
Living in the south of France, I get crappy fish(!), believe it. I have a superexpensive butcher where employees are funny like a kick in the teeth (pardon the italian expression), in my local supermarket I pay 4-5 euros for a disgusting mango and 1.5 euros for 3 green onions. I can send you tons of zucchini flowers and lemons from Menton, though.

Love also your breakfasts. I'm Italian, so I grew up with very little and sweet breakfast, and marrying a Chinese I was taken aback at my mother-in-law breakfasts (like fried dumplings first thing in the morning) but 10 years later I'm converted! Should try the savory oatmeal when temperature drops.

[rarerollingobject]

Do you get your sourdough from Sonoma Baking Company? There is a local cafe that carries their bread here and we get a loaf every week.

I miss padron peppers! Haven't seen them around here....Having total veggie envy as picking was skim at the farmers market this morning. Not sure why but several veggie vendors weren't there.

LOVE that butcher shop. I would be quite poor if I live by there....

Sonoma, yes. We don't eat much bread (more of late) so I'm no expert but it seems quite good and is widely available here (including from that grocery store I showed early in the week).

Padron peppers are addictive! Planning to use them in dinner tonight. It was a bounty of great veg at the markets this morning, but again, better in summer.

As for the butcher shop..I forgot to take a picture of the door handle you push open to enter..a long string of copper sausages!

[rarerollingobject]

You shoot a good picture

As for rice cups - aren't they all the standard 1-go ('ichi-gou') size, i.e. 180ml ? A pain to measure against a scale each time, but it shouldn't be all that hard to find a suitable tea or coffee cup, or make / cut something.

Now listen you, with your helpful information and useful suggestions..that is all very well, but one of our airlines is having a sale to Japan with $209 airfares, and stocking up on rice cooker cups is just about as good an excuse as I've got to justify a quick weekend jaunt, so..you hush now.

[rarerollingobject]

Aww... crap. I used to *work* out of the Everleigh train yards around 2006 or so. The food options around that area were dismal and now you're telling me there's a freaking farmer's market there? .

Also, you went to Woollahra to gawk at the rich people and didn't stop at Simon Johnson's? That was always my favorite spot to gawk at what you could convince people to spend money on. I remember a set of copper pans they sold where I calculated it would have been cheaper to fly to the US, buy the pans and fly back than to buy them at Simon Johnson's.

Also Formaggi Ocello is excellent, they always had a booth at the Fox Studio's Farmers Market and I would always go home with a little treat. So many great memories from this blog :).

Wait, where did you work? *I* worked there from 2005 - 2008, or one building away at least, opposite that Buon Gusto Italian restaurant. Do I...*gasp*..KNOW you, perchance??

Re Simon Johnson..I will only set foot in Woollahra to gaze at meat, and while man may indeed be the greatest prey, not enough to brave the trophy wives and thickets of Vuitton bags in Simon Johnson! Heh.

Formaggi Ocello, photo policies aside, IS excellent - my favourite cheese is the testun barolo, a cow/ewe's milk mix matured in nebbiolo wine must..incredible. There's an eG member here called barolo, and every time I see his/her name online around the traps, I get a Pavlovian craving for cheese.

[rarerollingobject]

Dear Kate, I'm coming to check your blog every morning with my cup of coffee. I'm really enjoying it! Many sighs from looking at the beautiful pictures of markets and the butcher!!! OMG. Love it!
Living in the south of France, I get crappy fish(!), believe it. I have a superexpensive butcher where employees are funny like a kick in the teeth (pardon the italian expression), in my local supermarket I pay 4-5 euros for a disgusting mango and 1.5 euros for 3 green onions. I can send you tons of zucchini flowers and lemons from Menton, though.

Love also your breakfasts. I'm Italian, so I grew up with very little and sweet breakfast, and marrying a Chinese I was taken aback at my mother-in-law breakfasts (like fried dumplings first thing in the morning) but 10 years later I'm converted! Should try the savory oatmeal when temperature drops.

Ah, Franci, this was a lovely thing to hear! Shocked though that the South of France has crappy fish..that just isn't right!

Anyway, lovely to make your acquaintance. And for some Italian influence in my normally Asian diet, I'm about to post some gelato - no doubt nowhere near as good as you grew up with, but a lovely little bit of Italy in Sydney for us anyway.

[rarerollingobject]

Thanks Kate for a truly inspirational blog. I'm looking forward to visiting the places you've mentioned, and I can't wait to see where the best gelato in Sydney has been hiding.

Right, ChrisZ - this is for you. Gelato Messina in Darlinghurst. A tiny shop, staffed with many strapping Italian boys (one of whom always calls me 'bella principessa' ), dishing out intense flavoured gelatos in mind-bending flavours (as well as the classics).

They didn't have the pavlova ready yet (described as 'vanilla gelato with house made meringue, strawberry puree and passionfruit syrup') but we made out OK.


I tried to get all the flavours in shot, partly successful at least:












We did two rounds. Now, I try to minimise our disposable waste, we use fabric shopping bags, and I recycle my ziplock bags. But the one thing I will not budge on is having separate cups for the fruit and dairy rounds of my ice cream. I hate the flavours mingling together! I know that's persnickety, but there you have it.

First round. I had kaffir lime and white pepper - loved it, loved it, wanted to marry it. The pepper gave it a very strong kick and the kaffir lime was intensely strong. It was strong suggested to boyfriend that he consider choosing the dulce merengada - described as 'lemon-scented caramel with baked meringue'.




Second round: dulce de leche for me, tacky on the teeth it was so caramelly. Boyfriend was advised to choose 'Porky's Revenge' (for scientific purposes, you see): maple syrup gelato, pancake pieces and maple syrup and bacon pieces streaked through.

Edited by rarerollingobject, 30 July 2011 - 01:34 AM.

[Dakki]

It's 4 AM here and I'm craving ice cream.

Thanks RRO >_<

[Shalmanese]

Wait, where did you work? *I* worked there from 2005 - 2008, or one building away at least, opposite that Buon Gusto Italian restaurant. Do I...*gasp*..KNOW you, perchance??

I worked inside the Australian Technology Park at NICTA. Bay 11 of the railyards IIRC.

[rarerollingobject]

Wait, where did you work? *I* worked there from 2005 - 2008, or one building away at least, opposite that Buon Gusto Italian restaurant. Do I...*gasp*..KNOW you, perchance??

I worked inside the Australian Technology Park at NICTA. Bay 11 of the railyards IIRC.

Interesting. Back then, I worked at Sydney Uni and was often in ATP as we had an optical fibre research unit there. I also was and still am involved in some partnership stuff with NICTA.

There's quite a bit of good food around there now, but like you, I was highly irked that I quit that job and within like a month or so, this great new market opened up literally steps away!

[rarerollingobject]

And last post of the day, dinner. The progression of this meal is a good insight into how tangential my 'cooking mind' is: what was meant to be a vegetarian, Spanish paella turned out to have bacon and seafood, and seasoned with Vietnamese fish sauce.

The prep. Started off well; fennel, onions, garlic, capsicum. Calasparra rice. Homemade stock. Parsley and lemon and padron peppers to garnish.



Chopped vegetables:


Fried the padrons first:


Then the vegetables, added the rice. No white wine to deglaze! Oh well. Added paprika and cayenne. No saffron in the pantry?? Hm. Turmeric for colour. Still OK.



Pour in boiling stock, and let simmer till absorbed. Oh, I have this leftover seafood from that Korean pajeon..I'll put that in. And I need to get rid of this bacon, but it's mouth-puckeringly salty. Idea! I'll crisp it in the oven and glaze it in maple syrup to offset the sweetness.



Needs some green. I have some broad beans in the freezer..I'll throw them in. Seafood just on top, padrons too to reheat, clamp on lid and let steam off the heat for 10 minutes:



I can't believe I made maple bacon to go on a Spanish paella. Oh well, life's too short to care, crumble it on. Lots of parsley, including all the stem for the crunch. Lemon wedges too.



Nice but it needs a tiny bit more salt, after worrying about the salty bacon. I know! Fish sauce. It's basically anchovy essence, right? Perfect umami hit, with the lemon too.



Beer. Enough said.


Must lie down now.

[annachan]

You manage to make me want gelato, despite having had -8 degrees the past 2 mornings....

Sonoma is so far the only place that makes bread like the ones we can get in San Francisco. I just wonder, how much do you pay for them there? I'm paying $7.50 - $8 a loaf here....

[nikkib]

Complete sensory overload from teh pimientos to those amazing courgette flowers at teh amrket - the cheese (oooh the cheese!!!) and the butchers with a piped smell onto the street?!!!! ingenious!!! Like the smell of freshly baked bread in the kitchen of a house you are trying to sell when people come for a viewing is supposed to help it sell...(luckily for me im more in the market for a pie than a house - jeeez that could get expensive!!)and then the gelato - stop it, seriously, this is killing me... Food in the canteen at work today was so dire i have opted for a large espresso and a can of diet coke ;-( will smile sweetly at chef later and see if he will make me pan con tomate and let me have some more of the fresh anchoives he has been experimenting with (DAMN - now im back to craving the pimiemtos....)

[Kim Shook]

Oh, goodness - that butcher shop and the market are truly remarkable. RE: photos - I really don't get the problem. If anything, it provides some free advertising for the vendor. I don't bother asking anymore - I just hang my camera around my neck and unobtrusively snap away.

[percyn]

Now THAT is a butcher shop!

[eldereno]

All I can say is "WOW." Every week I want to go somewhere else to live, depending on where the blog is originating from!!!!

[SylviaLovegren]

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..

OK, you lost me there. Chocolate and salty fish? No, a thousand times no.

I do like oatmeal with crumbled bacon, egg, butter and lotsa salt and pepper, though.

[Dejah]

RRO: First of all, that kaffir lime white pepper gelato would have been my first choice! Great combo. I wonder what it'd be like with fresh green peppercorns? I'm so addicted to those little balls of fire and flavour!

Then that paella - you followed the "philosophy" for great paella perfectly! Won't be doing much cooking the rest of the month as we'll be on our annual road trip in the USA, but I promised myself that I will be cooking from your blog come Sept! However, I will be substituting some ingredients as I am not privy to the wonderful shops and markets that are the envy of many here.

Blog on Girl!

[barolo]

Formaggi Ocello, photo policies aside, IS excellent - my favourite cheese is the testun barolo, a cow/ewe's milk mix matured in nebbiolo wine must..incredible. There's an eG member here called barolo, and every time I see his/her name online around the traps, I get a Pavlovian craving for cheese.

OK, that made me delurk. Great blog. I'm going to keep reading, so your cheese consumption may spike this week.

[weinoo]

Kate - can you give us an idea of what the price of the gelato is in the cups? In NYC, our favorite gelato has crept up to $4.25 for a small with 2 flavors, while at our favorite place in DC, a small with 2 flavors has pushed the envelope at $5.50!

The prices at the farmer's market you've photographed above look very similar to prices at the greenmarket here.

[rarerollingobject]

You manage to make me want gelato, despite having had -8 degrees the past 2 mornings....

Sonoma is so far the only place that makes bread like the ones we can get in San Francisco. I just wonder, how much do you pay for them there? I'm paying $7.50 - $8 a loaf here....

Around $7 I think..I dunno, I go to these farmers' markets with a fistful of cash, and a blur of a while later, I'm home..it's like the best kind of mugging!

[rarerollingobject]

Complete sensory overload from teh pimientos to those amazing courgette flowers at teh amrket - the cheese (oooh the cheese!!!) and the butchers with a piped smell onto the street?!!!! ingenious!!! Like the smell of freshly baked bread in the kitchen of a house you are trying to sell when people come for a viewing is supposed to help it sell...(luckily for me im more in the market for a pie than a house - jeeez that could get expensive!!)and then the gelato - stop it, seriously, this is killing me... Food in the canteen at work today was so dire i have opted for a large espresso and a can of diet coke ;-( will smile sweetly at chef later and see if he will make me pan con tomate and let me have some more of the fresh anchoives he has been experimenting with (DAMN - now im back to craving the pimiemtos....)

Heheh. Torture? Craving? Intense hunger? My work here is done.

[rarerollingobject]

Oh, goodness - that butcher shop and the market are truly remarkable. RE: photos - I really don't get the problem. If anything, it provides some free advertising for the vendor. I don't bother asking anymore - I just hang my camera around my neck and unobtrusively snap away.

I'm beginning to think I won't ask any more either..at least if you don't ask, you can't be told 'no'! That's me, innocence lost in a high-end cheese shop.

[rarerollingobject]

Now THAT is a butcher shop!

There was some SERIOUSLY marbled wagyu on the top shelf. Heart palpitations just looking at it. Me want.

[rarerollingobject]

All I can say is "WOW." Every week I want to go somewhere else to live, depending on where the blog is originating from!!!!

Like I said to johnnyd; I'll be waiting at the airport to meet you! You'll recognise me because I'll be holding two different things to eat, one in each hand, while looking desirously at whatever food the person next to me has.

[rarerollingobject]

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..

OK, you lost me there. Chocolate and salty fish? No, a thousand times no.

I do like oatmeal with crumbled bacon, egg, butter and lotsa salt and pepper, though.

THAT sounds good. Would you add the egg raw or slide a fried one in, perhaps?

[rarerollingobject]

RRO: First of all, that kaffir lime white pepper gelato would have been my first choice! Great combo. I wonder what it'd be like with fresh green peppercorns? I'm so addicted to those little balls of fire and flavour!

Then that paella - you followed the "philosophy" for great paella perfectly! Won't be doing much cooking the rest of the month as we'll be on our annual road trip in the USA, but I promised myself that I will be cooking from your blog come Sept! However, I will be substituting some ingredients as I am not privy to the wonderful shops and markets that are the envy of many here.

Blog on Girl!

Green peppercorns sounds good! I often add pepper or chilli to a bowl of ice cream (or pink peppercorns onto my sweet ginger oatmeal last week). Can't wait to see what you make when you're back from your roadtrip!