Nich

Thanks, I totally forgot to check McGee, it answered a few of those questions.

How and why does a creme brulee work? I had always been taught that custards are done when they're about 80c (176f) - much over 83 (181f) and they risk splitting. I understand that ingredients other than egg will change this a bit, but I have trouble trying to quantify it so I'm not reliant on any specific recipe. There's a nice table in modernist cuisine (Book 4, somewhere around pagge 84 I believe) that, under creme brulee (as in, achieving that texture), it suggests that 30% egg be used at 83c (181f), 50% egg at 80c (176f), and 90% egg at 75c (167f). Which is great, except it seems othe

I have a favourite recipe that uses creme fraiche, but it's a relatively tiny amount and would not figure into a substitution with water.

I am incredibly jealous right now. The only thing I've tried making from the Milk Bar book was the crack pie. I deviated a little on the size of the pies being made tho' so I had to leave them in the oven for a lot longer. With the tempura setup, what was the trisol that you used in the batter?

I'm a lot happier with a pizza being a tart than a pie.Unless we're going to start referring to sandwiches as pies, and then all bets are off.

Would putting a pan of water in the bottom of the oven not combat some of the moisture loss anyway?

Sorry for the delay, I didn't forget it's just been a busy few months. I can't help you out with photos - I'll see how I go the next time I order some - but apparently the sauce we've been using at work is a mix of jus and plum sauce. Either native plums, or just plain old regular plum sauce. I don't think I added any additional fat when I did the sausage rolls. Which is probably blasphemy. If I made them again anytime soon, I'd probably forgo fat again, so as to not colour the flavour of the kangaroo meat.

I find rabbit is sort of like that for anyone who grew up having to eat it. It's difficult to explain that it's a nice and tasty animal that is up there on the great things about being a carnivore. I expect that this is kind of the same reaction that people get when trying to explain why horse is an animal that should be eaten more often. I'm okay with that, tho', because it means more for me! I've never really noticed that too much, I guess. When I did sausage rolls specifically, I don't think I used much more bread crumbs than when using processed pork sausage meat, but I have a much les

To be fair, this is approximately how I say these - I can't vouch for my terrible accent being particularly representative of anyone else from Melbourne (Mel-b'n . mocha = MOCK-uh (I hear mo-KAH too) gyros = Yi-ross (I try to roll the r a little; pretty common to get YEEE-ross) pecan = PEE-kan croissant = kru-SONT (unless I'm talking to someone who speaks native francais!) dolmades = dol-MA-diz (I mostly hear DOLL-mades, and wonder what the doll made) basil = BAZ-ull (as in pull) oregano = orry-GAH-no I might just not be frequenting the right places, but it's rare to actually see/hear shawarma

A 'rainforest plum' sauce goes excellently with kangaroo. The majority of the red meat I buy to cook at home is kangaroo. With some whole seed mustard and cayenne, minced kangaroo also makes a mean sausage roll.

As a non-American, I'm curious how 'croissant', 'habanero', 'chipotle', 'jalapeño', and 'mocha' are all pronounced up there. Is there any consensus on 'pecan', too? As far as 'gyro/gyros' goes, is it at all common to see it written as 'yeeros', in the US/UK?

The Bordelet is the only Calvados I've had that was nice enough to remember the name and chase it down. Even if it is prohibitively expensive - I think it retails for AUD$200+ :\

Some notes from what I remember, as I go through and archive a bunch of this stuff. A few clarifications, too, because I'm finally sitting down to look at the menus of the places we visited; I deliberately wanted to go in with no expectations whatsoever, which worked against me for a few things. Now that I understand what Ormeggio were doing with their chocolate dessert, I am happy with how strong the coffee taste was - after all, it's meant to be a mix of equal parts coffee, cream, and chocolate. I still think it dominated the tokay, but that's my preference for very sweet with a little bit

I was planning to go back to Bentley tonight for desserts with a couple of friends who hadn't been before, but apparently Sunday evenings are not busy enough to be open for. I'm thinking of maybe heading to Bilson's with some friends this week, if I can get a dinner booking at such short notice. The next time I'm up - I try to visit Sydney at least once every 4-5 months - I'd want to revisit Etch and Bentley, and probably Marque and Quay. There are a few places up in the Blue Moutains that I'd try to make room for, and a few other places - Rockpool, Tets, Billy Kwong, and a few others I wou

Will post a few more thoughts in a few days when I get some time to myself and amn't rushing between lunch and dinner reservations. Really impressed to see a bar with a geuze on tap. Especially impressed to see some Cantillon bottles available. Even if they were in the $40 per 750ml ballpark.