rarerollingobject

Bruce! So chuffed to see you are reading. The pantry space is OK, but it's SO far away from the kitchen that it's a total PITA to be in the middle of cooking a dish and think "oh! I need x!" and have to go traipsing off to no man's land (down the hallway, I'm being dramatic). I still remember YOUR kitchen from your foodblog..I never forget a good kitchen!

Thank you so much, this just about made my day (and made me blush, which is nigh impossible!)

I don't think I've ever seen them here, except canned/pulp. I believe they are wonderful, the apotheosis of mango! Do you get them in the US? A dhaba place I like has 'Alphonso mango kulfi' that is just delicious, but TBH, without a comparison Alphonso, not sure what the deliciousness premium is over other mango types.

Eveleigh Markets. Not sure if they existed when you were here, they're fairly new but fantastic. In the old carriageworks sheds at Redfern. I like Fox Studio but have come to prefer Eveleigh. Hoping to share a good peek on Saturday.

I'm using Vegeta at the moment, but prefer Lee Kum Kee..alot more MSG, many more preservatives and all the tastier for it! Quinoa is fantastic for so many things..I sometimes make a big batch, freeze it in little containers and just defrost them the night before for breakfast.

Thank you! I was very nervous to be the foodblog following yours, to be honest, it was so enjoyable and well-written and wonderfully forthright.

Is eating while you walk considered uncouth and just not done, as a general rule? MelissaH Nah, not many behavioural taboos here really, noone would really bat an eye to see someone eating on the hoof. I'd been planning to shanghai one back to my desk anyway. Plus, I'm just not dexterous enough to wield chewing a banh mi and make my way through the street crowds..and I like to concentrate on what I'm eating, savour every mouthful!

Ginger ale for a galbi marinade is actually a really good idea! I'm going to try that. Re winter - what, are you suggesting 17C isn't freezing, bone-shattering cold?? We're all walking around in thick coats and scarves and saying, "Ooh, isn't it COLD?". Hehe. But you're right, produce doesn't actually vary that much between seasons here. Not vegetables, anyway, apart from a couple of specific things like fresh broad beans, or new season's garlic. Everything else is pretty much grown here year round. It's always warm somewhere in Australia; North Queensland, for example, stays hovering around 30C in winter. Fruit is where the seasonality really shows..summer in Aus. is all about tropical fruit (mangoes especially), and stone fruit galore, and oh, it's a veritable feast that makes you glad to be alive. Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without trying to cool down from the heat with big platters of mangoes and cold watermelon and fat juicy cherries. You can still get all those things in winter, but in summer it's an embarrassment of riches.

Thank you! I love bibimbap too, especially the part where you bokkum it all up (a great, fun to say Korean word for mixing it all together). One day I want to buy a dolsot, the stone bowls you place directly on a gas hob and put the rice and toppings into, so that the heat crusts the rice at the bottom up into crispy shards..mmmm.

RRO, everything you've posted looks great, but that photo of the cheese just slapped me in the face and took my money. In a good way. Oh, I KNOW..I'm in love with that cheese - I've just finished the entire wedge (by myself! Excuse piglets, as my mother would say) and was nearly in tears while eating it, the taste and texture were THAT pleasurable.. It actually came from the Sydney Fish Markets, which, in addition to having great seafood, has a really incredible deli, with a HUGE range of exquisite cheese..but Australians do like their cheese. For example, this is a photo of just one of the cheese lanes at my local bog-standard major supermarket chain, and even they have all kinds of goats cheese, buffalo cheeses, gorgeous stinky French stuff, and lots more: On the weekend, I'm also hoping to get to my favourite speciality cheese store, so will post lots of photos from there if I do.

I don't think it was marked wagyu, I think it was just very, very good meat..(though if you're still reading by Saturday, I'm thinking I'll cook this wagyu I have in the freezer, which is one of the most beautiful pieces of meat I've ever seen.. ) As for the custard apples; I couldn't tell from that pic either, but went back to the original resolution shot of the pic two about it, got all CSI-ish and blew it up to read the price sign better, and that's definitely $5.49 a kilo, so the other one is likely to be $5 a kilo. At least, $5 each for custard apples seems a little steep, espeically for that market, but we ARE in the dead of coldest winter! Now, bananas...bananas are $15 a kilo right now, due to the catastrophic floods the growing regions have recently been through. Here, in Banana Republic #1! Prices are tipped to drop to $1 a kilo by October though, once the glut of the massive replanting that went on after the floods hits the market.

I was all about to dismiss her as crazy, until I got to the part about her not liking bananas, a stance which I am totally on board with. Bananas! What are they good for! Absolutely nothing! PS. Back on savoury oatmeal, it's the duck fat that does it, I reckon. Gives just the right 'slip' and silkiness to make it all go down like a spoonful of sugar with medicine.

Now, I'm pretty greedy, but a month in jail might just be my Waterloo..yep, that'd do it. The yuzu salt is pretty great. It came in a variety pack of green tea salt, yuzu, sour plum salt and curry salt. Will take a pic of that tomorrow. And highly recommend Korean..I'm pretty obsessed with vegetables, and Korean is one of the most veg-respectful cuisines there is (the preoccupation with MEAT notwithstanding). And thanks for still reading!

And dinner, a bit of a production..galbi and bibimbap (mixed vegetables on rice). I really like Korean food..the strong flavours (chilli, garlic) and the focus on vegetables (I love all the side dishes you get in restaurants). So here we have the makings of three side dishes, with eggplant, spinach and two sad-looking carrots: The flavourings for each are in these bowls. Wakame seaweed and yuzu salt for the carrots, sesame seeds ground with mirin and soy for the spinach, and a heady mix of black pepper, sesame oil, soy, garlic and green onions for the eggplant, which I shredded and fried. Boiled the spinach and squeezed it dry in my sushi mat. Finished vegetable dishes and the galbi, marinated overnight and ready for grilling: With further garnishes of gochujang chilli paste and a good pile of kimchi: Vegetables on a bowl of rice with a raw egg yolk for an instant 'sauce': And the galbi: Food coma. Excuse me.

Lunchingtons and a wander through the Chinatown freshmarkets. Underneath that Chinese supermarket I showed you guys, there's a huge market selling mostly tourist souvenir junk, but also an amazing range of fruit and vegetables, and two days a week, fish. The produce is CHEAP, not sure you can get any cheaper in Sydney, and is where all my Chinese friends shop for their fruit and veg, which is how you know the quality is unimpeachable (bad fruit pun, apologies). It wasn't a fish day today, but I can't ever pass by without taking a gander at what's on offer. Finds today included yellow chives (the grown in darkness ones) and a pomelo I'm hoping to use tomorrow night. Some photos. It's not the fanciest of surrounds but DAMN, so much stuff.. And then it was on to Pasteur, but not in the mood for pho, I went for their grilled pork on steamed vermicelli, and split a plate of gorgeous light crispy spring rolls, made with rice paper wrappers and chock full of prawns. And I was semi-tempted to get a banh mi next door for afternoon snacking on the way back, but sadly, decorum prevailed.

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!

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

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.

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! 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?

Holy cats, that looks amazing! I may have just drooled onto my keyboard a little. You're a workplace health and safety risk, Zeemanb!

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..

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?

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.

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

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'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.