eG Foodblog: Shalmanese - An Itinerent Chef

[Shalmanese]

2 scotch fillets

Hey Shal! Great blog! We'll have to plan a homecoming party when you get back to Seattle....

So what are scotch fillets? I've not heard that term before.

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I wasn't quite sure myself and google is being a bit unhelpful. It's a purely Australian term and I thought it was the ribeye cut. Wikipedia confirms it's the ribeye but a local newspaper segment seemed to indicate that it wasn't. Anybody willing to chime in here?

[MarketStEl]

I see that I will be spending the next week in the presence of a master who's only barely legal to drink in the US. You're off to a great start -- and you managed to get both of the obligatories out of the way on Day One, which has to be some kind of record -- so I've got a feeling this blog is going to be one of the great ones.

In Sepetember of last year, I moved to Seattle to start a PhD program in Computer Science at the University of Washington. Even though I was living in a share house in Seattle, the other people in the house never really cooked so Seattle was the first time I really had a kitchen to myself and was free to buy and cook whatever I wanted. Seattle was also the first time I started hanging around other foodies as eGullet people seem thick on the ground there and, all in all, I'm having a blast of a time over there (if only someone could do something about the rain!).

Any particular reason I missed encountering you on my day in Seattle back in April?

I have a conference paper I need to submit by 5pm EST (7am my time) so I'm probably going to be up fairly late, compulsively procrastinating so I should be checking into this thread fairly often.

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So I see we have the same disease!

At my left as I type this are proofs from two newsletters. In another open window on my computer desktop is a bear of a manuscript I'm editing (rewriting might be closer to the truth) for a retired physician-turned-wannabe bestselling author; I promised it to him by month's end, and I'm about 60% finished. In another window is a Phillyblog discussion. Five blocks away is the Wellness Center, where I ought to be working out right now. I need to touch base with a psychology professor about Op-Ed essay ideas. And what am I doing right now instead?

Oh, one more thing: Melbourne and Sydney "towns"?

This is Oporto, a local portugese chicken chain. There are 3 different portugese chicken chains in Sydney, Oporto, Ogalo and Nando. From what I heard, they're all started by the same family who's 3 brothers had a massive falling out. Each place is slightly different and people have debates about which is their favourite but they're all really excellent for chains.

Please tell me a little about Portuguese chicken and what distinguishes it from other varieties.

Unfortunately, at this stage, the manager saw me taking photos and chased me down and asked me to put down the camera. I have no idea why but I thought it was pretty odd. Maybe they thought I was from the health inspectors or something.

More on this below.

Oh yes, I forgot the obligatory fridge shots, well, here's what it looked like on the day I got back:

I think I win some sort of prize for that right?

You most certainly do!

Here's the fridge as it looks this afternoon:

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That's much better!

I noticed that many shops don't allow picture-taking, don't know why (spies? copycats?). I take my clandestine photos with a camera-phone, pretending to think while placing it against my chin (a la Oprah).

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I think that in most cases, it's the former. The stores are afraid that you're coming in to swipe trade secrets or something like that.

However, it's also image management. Reputation is one of the most valuable assets any business has, and owners--well, good owners, anyway--go to great lengths to make sure that reputation is protected from harm. (Bad owners go to great lengths to make sure that reputation is distorted in their favor.) As the owner has no idea what you are planning to do with those pictures you're taking, and it would be awkward indeed for him to ask you while you're engaged in the activity (and risk having you give him a misleading answer to boot), the default position is to forbid your taking them.

Larger chains usually have some sort of procedure whereby you can obtain permission to take photos in their stores ahead of time.

[Pam R]

This is Oporto, a local portugese chicken chain. There are 3 different portugese chicken chains in Sydney, Oporto, Ogalo and Nando. From what I heard, they're all started by the same family who's 3 brothers had a massive falling out. Each place is slightly different and people have debates about which is their favourite but they're all really excellent for chains.

Great to see you blogging, Shalmanese.

Nandos brings back great memories. It really is great fast food - especially when you've been in the car all day and you come across a gas station with a mini-Nando's in it. (You can get an occasional Nando's fix even in NA - head to Vancouver.) (Do I remember chicken ribs?)

I'm looking forward to your week.

[lexy]

Hmm, I wonder if the Australian Nando's is any relation to the UK restaurant chain Nando's? (also portugeuse chicken)

[miladyinsanity]

Hmm, I wonder if the Australian Nando's is any relation to the UK restaurant chain Nando's? (also portugeuse chicken)

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Just the question I was about to ask. A girlfriend of mine loooooves Nando's, and can't wait until we get to the UK for it--we are headed to the same university over there later in the year.

[little ms foodie]

Hi Shal (waves!) nice to see you blogging...I had a hunch it was you! you are crazy leaving seattle in the summer! it's 80F today and Alaskan Kodiak River Salmon are in!

I'm very interested to see your dinner at Tetsuya's - is that the place where the chef kind of does similar dishes that Achetez (sp) does at Alinea??

[mizducky]

I have nothing of substance to add right now, but just wanted to say that I am enjoying this blog immensely already.

[Shalmanese]

Heading off to the farmers market now and then Tetsuya's in the evening, soooo excited.

[Shalmanese]

I went to my local farmers market today with my brother. Here are some pictures from the market:

Here is the entire farmers market, 3 lanes with stalls on both sides of each lane. Seeing as I am talking to mainly americans, I would estimate it's about the size of a football field .

This is my favourite baker who does excellent sourdoughs. I wanted to snag that sesame loaf but I turn around and someone else took the last one so I have a loaf of spelt bread.

This guy was cooking shrimp on a grill (no, it was NOT a barbie). He was also selling chorizo rolls.

These guys were selling some kind of turkish flatbread stuffed with mince and spinach. We bought one and it was pretty good.

An ethiopian stall, I've had some stuff from there before.

Lunch having been solved, we went shopping:

These guys have an impressive range of gourmet goods. It's hellaciously overpriced but I'm impressed by the product. Foie Gras, Goose Fat, Confit...

Going to have to continue this later, friends are here, heading off to Tetsuyas...

[Julian Teoh]

Shalmanese, good to have you back in Sydney.

Thanks for your account of the Kingsford Chinese restaurant. Brings back many memories of when I was a poor starving college resident. Although I should probably add that I ate there a lot more after I moved out of College!

The next time you're there, try the fried hor fun with tripe, liver and spicy sauce. There was also a sinfully luscious egg dish which name I cannot recall right now but it was an "off-menu" order.

[amapola]

I have nothing of substance to add right now, but just wanted to say that I am enjoying this blog immensely already.

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^^ what she said

[Domestic Goddess]

I have nothing of substance to add right now, but just wanted to say that I am enjoying this blog immensely already.

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^^ what she said

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What they said. Blog on and keep it comin'!

[Abra]

Remember how before you came to Seattle you were afraid that it would be a food wasteland? I'd be very interested to hear now that you've spent a semester here, and are back in your old stomping grounds, how you'd compare the food scenes. Restaurants, farmer's markets, grocery stores, what's striking you about the differences.

[Shalmanese]

14 course food coma... will update tomorrow.

[hathor]

Ciao! I had no idea you were a ragazzo...you seem very experienced! and I'll leave it at that.

I know nothing about Australian food, so what are classic Australian dishes? What's the equivalent of an American hot dog or hamburger? Classic Australian ingredients, other than marmite, which is just plain 'blecky'.

Thanks for blogging!

[SheenaGreena]

tell me about those northern chinese pickles that you hate so much?

maybe that's where the koreans got their pickling from.

are they spicy? I have only tried one kind of chinese pickles and they come in a small tuna can shaped red can. They are little cucumbers pickled in sugar and soy sauce and they really really well hot rice. I think those are from taiwan though

[Shalmanese]

Back to the farmers market pics:

This is my second favourite cheesemonger at the market. My favourite one usually has a lot of good stuff but nothing there was really hitting me that time. I bought a cheese which tastes sort of like the Roy des Valles which I love but was slightly milder and a bit cheaper. Cheese in Australia seems to be really expensive to me, probably because importing it from europe costs so much. There are some domestic cheeses which are pretty good but I generally buy without looking at country of origin.

Wild mushrooms are something which I think Australia tends to do poorly although it's gotten a LOT better in the year that I was gone. It used to be you could find white and brown ones fairly easily and a few Asian ones like shittake, enoki and oyster but anything more exotic than that was very scarce on the ground. This stall was one of the few places I had ever seen wild mushrooms last year but I see them popping up at markets and gourmet stores now.

I bought the last of the pine mushrooms from these guys. I've never tasted them before and, on googling it, it looks like I have the saffron milk cap mushrooms. Any tips for cooking them? Right now, I'm thinking of just simply frying them in butter and topping some scrambled eggs with them as an amuse bouche.

This fishmonger is new at the markets. On the top left, you can see some Vongole, these are the only types of clams that grow native in Australian waters IIRC. I had a hell of a time trying to find clams for clam chowder last year before realising Australia doesn't really have clams. On the top right are the infamous Morton Bay Bugs, probably one of the more unfortunately named foods. I have to admit I've never had them before but by reputation, they're delicious.

I couldn't believe the size of these prawns. They were as big as my fist. If he sold them raw, I would have bought some but I don't have any interest in buying cooked seafood.

This lady's biscotti were really, really good.

This place was selling all lamb. It does my heart good to see lamb being given an equal billing with beef in butchers and supermarkets. I already have my lamb so I didn't buy any here.

Whole bunch of flavoured olive oils.

This guy is selling a whole bunch of Thai produce. I remember when I saw him on his first week there, he had a LOT of incredibly exotic produce. Probably half of it I had never even heard before and another quarter I had only seen in pictures, never in real life. Unfortunately, it looks like the really exotic stuff had problems moving so he's had to cut back and go more mainstream. Even so, he has thai eggplant, banana leaves, all sorts of weird fruit and chillis. I would love to start experimenting with some of the stuff there if I had more time in Sydney.

I just got back from shopping so I'm going to go take a nap and then try and get the Tetsuyas pics up before the dinner party tonight.

Heres what the menu looks like at the moment:

Amuse Bouche

Sauteed Pine Mushroom with Scrambled Egg

Appetizer

Warm Lamb Salad with Borlotti Beans & Corn

Soup

French Onion Soup

Pasta

Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Cherry Tomato Pasta

Main

Shepards Pie

Cheese

Roy Des Valles with Grapes and Sourdough

Pre-Dessert

Lychees in Lemongrass Syrup

Dessert

Rhubarb Cake

[C. sapidus]

. . . it looks like I have the saffron milk cap mushrooms. Any tips for cooking them?

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Shalmanese: Fuchsia Dunlop has a recipe for red-braised saffron milk cap mushrooms in Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook.

Great blog so far, and I’m looking forward to your dinner party.

[Abra]

On the Aussie cheese front, I've got to say that the Roaring 40s Blue is one of the best blue cheeses I've ever tasted. I'm quite addicted to it.

[MarketStEl]

Maybe you glossed over it in my prior post, but could you tell me about Portuguese chicken and what distinguishes it from other varieties?

[Shalmanese]

I met up with a friend who was going to Tetsuyas with me as well as a few of his friends who weren't. Started the night off with a Beez Neez beer:

If I recall correctly, it's a honey wheat beer or something, made in South Australia and one of my favourite Aussie microbrews.

Then we headed up to the Belgian Beer Cafe where some of our group was having dinner.

It was 1/2 price off mussels for guys and free cherry beers for girls who wear red so we were drafted as mussel mules:

Cherry Beer

Frites

Mussels Poulet, Mussels and Chicken Oysters on the half shell.

Then, onto Tetsuyas:

The House Bread with Tetsuya's Truffle Butter. The bread was an organic sourdough and it was sour and well textured. (the other choice was an italian white which was also excellent). The truffle butter was pretty damn addictive.

Pea Soup with Bitter Chocolate Sorbet: I was intrigued by this flavour combination but it didn't work in my opinion. Not a fan.

Smoked Ocean Trout and Avruga Caviar with a quails egg wrapped in... crab? on top. This was a solid, if unexciting, dish, the trout tasted great. I was never that much of a fan of caviar and I didn't think it added especially much to this dish. You were meant to crack open the quails egg and use it as a sauce over the top and I would have liked an eggier egg I guess. The yolk was quite pale, perhaps because it's winter?

Leek & Crab Custard: This was one person's favourite dish but again, I thought it was well executed but ultimately, fairly boring dish. The flavours were good but nothing really stood out about it. I felt like I had tasted it 100 times before. The crab tasted like nothing.

Scallop Carpaccio with Red Wine Vinagrette: Unfortunately, there was just too much vinagrette on this and it drowned out all the flavours. On top of the scallops, there was some fried cuttlefish, a microgreen salad and individual flesh sacs of key lime. I loved the surprise of finding the unannounced elements in the dish and it might of been great if not for the vinagrette.

This is Tetsuya's signature dish, Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Daikon, Fennel and a Seasonal Green Salad (next picture). Given how much this had been hyped up, I was expecting a lot more. If this was just another dish in the series, I would have quite liked it but I expect a lot more from a signature dish. The texture of the trout was firm, almost raw, but not melt-in-your-mouth tender like I expected confit to be. The Konbu and the trout worked well, but not amazingly. The bits on the bottom all added a new dimension.

A bunch of microgreens and a Balsamic vinagrette. Something I could have made at home and utterly forgettable.

Ravioli of Queensland Spanner Crab with Tomato & Basil Vinagrette. I don't know what a spanner crab is but I plan to eat as many as possible before we fish them to extinction. This was the first dish I really enjoyed unreservedly that night. The spanner crab is actually a disc down the bottom, wrapped in Konbu. Inside the ravioli was some lobster and the broth was scented with basil, lemongrass and a very aromatic shellfish stock. I made the comment to one of my friends that if I could go into a chinese noodle shop and order a bowl of wonton soup filled with this, I would be very, very happy.

Grilled Fillet of Barramundi with Braised Nameko, Enoki & Woodear Mushrooms: Again, solid but not great. The barramundi tasted of barramundi, the mushrooms tasted of mushrooms. The combination is what you would expect.

Twice cooked de-boned Spatchcock with Olive and Caper Jus: Apologises for the blurry picture. We had a bit of debate at the table about whether spatchcock was the bird name or the deboning method and I don't think we ever got an answer. I was never a huge fan of olives or capers and I felt, in this dish, they added too much salt and the dish was overseasoned. I assume it was skin wrapping the outside of the spatchcock except it was soft and flabby, an inexcusable way to treat poultry skin in my book. It seemed like it was meant to be served that way but I would have liked the texture contrast of the crispy skin.

Grilled Wagyu with Lime & Wasabi: Theres a matsutake mushroom on the bottom and a ponzu gel on top. This was the second unreservedly stellar dish I had that night. Wagyu is just... Wagyu, it's unmistakably good. I've come to realise I have little patience for DIY dinner construction on a plate, it took me a while to get the right wasabi/lime balance and by the time I did, half the wagyu was gone. I guess that's just a stylistic thing, hopefully the assemble-your-own fad will start ending soon.

Comte with Lentils: Another dish I was quite happy with. The lentils were slightly sweet and the cheese was nutty and pungent. I never thought of serving cheese with lentils before but I'll have to steal that one from him.

Beetroot & Blood Orange Sorbet, Strawberry Shortcake: The Beetroot sorbet was probably the most inventive dish of the night. Unfortunately, it fell short on flavour and was just plain weird. It wasn't awful but it wasn't the best flavour pairing in the world either. The strawberry shortcake on the other hand... OMG, soooooo good. It was a perfect encapsulation of a strawberry shortcake in a shotglass. We had the desserts paired with a Nivole Moscato d'asti and the wine worked so well with the shortcake.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with White Beans and Dates: This was another simply fabulous dish. There was some espresso powder in the ice cream and everything just meshed together really well. I didn't expect white beans to work well in a dessert but the texture really complimented the rest of the dessert.

Chocolate Terrine with Mascarpone & Cognac Anglaise: Hrmm... I'm actually a bit surprised at this one because one of the diners is still on his restricted license and New South Wales has a 0 tolerance for alcohol thing. This leads to stupid things like people getting fined for having a slice of rum cake but that's the law. We specifically asked the waiter to tell us if anything on the menu had wine or liquor in it and this was never brought up. I've never been a giant chocolate fan and, IMO, nearly every chocolate dessert is over chocolated at the expense of other flavors. However, I recognise that's a personal prejudice so I won't even attempt to judge this dish objectively.

I had the Japanese Green Tea with Corn and Rice in it, 2 diners had Macchiatos and one had an Espresso.

Petit Fours, one with sweet potato, one with dates: The sweet potato one was interesting. It looks like a chocolate truffle on the outside but it's a sweet potato on the inside. I think this one actually worked. The date one was fabulous, I loved the flavours.

So what did I think of it overall? In my opinion, it started off weak and got stronger as it went along. The Spanner crab and wagyu were the clear standouts from the savoury side and the desserts were all strong. I think any one of the dishes, if it were 4 times the size and served as an entree, I would be happy paying $25 - $30 for. However, I was paying over $160 USD per person for the food and that puts this restaurant at a different level. I can't fault the kitchen for it's technical skills but I just really didn't much of anything tonight that really dazzled me or impressed me with it's novelty. The two other restaurants of this calibre I've eaten at were Clio in Boston and Alinea in New York and, both times, I came away with a much greater sense that I had eaten some amazing food. However, at the same time, the duds at both these restaurants fell far below the worst of Tetsuya's dishes.

I had heard so much hype about Tetsuyas so maybe that had something to do with it or perhaps my background leads me to be much more critical of restaurant food. If you want a solid meal full of lots of good food, Tetsuyas is a pretty good place to go. If you want a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I didn't feel like I got it there.

[Shalmanese]

Shalmanese, good to have you back in Sydney.

Thanks for your account of the Kingsford Chinese restaurant.  Brings back many memories of when I was a poor starving college resident.  Although I should probably add that I ate there a lot more after I moved out of College!

The next time you're there, try the fried hor fun with tripe, liver and spicy sauce.  There was also a sinfully luscious egg dish which name I cannot recall right now but it was an "off-menu" order.

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Thanks, I'll just ask for "the really eggy dish you don't have on your menu" next time I'm there shall I? . If you're ever in the area, try the Dumpling and Noodle place. It only opened up a few years ago and it's one of the only places I've found in Australia that does proper northern chinese dumplings.

Remember how before you came to Seattle you were afraid that it would be a food wasteland?  I'd be very interested to hear now that you've spent a semester here, and are back in your old stomping grounds, how you'd compare the food scenes.  Restaurants, farmer's markets, grocery stores, what's striking you about the differences.

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I think I lucked out by living right next to seemingly one of the very few greengrocers in Seattle as well as being 2 blocks down from Whole Foods and a bus ride from the U-District farmers market. Anything I want, I can pretty much get near by me. Farmers markets in both places have this uneasy tension between selling cheap produce for frugal hippies and overpriced boutique goods for yuppies. The second category is far more profitable and it's sad but inevitable to see farmers markets shift in that direction. One thing I've repeated many times already is that I vastly prefer the Australian style shopping of butchers and fishmongers and greengrocers and supermarkets rather than just buying everything at your local megamarket. Restaurants, I would have to give the win to Melbourne for this. Seattle is a great food town and Sydney is a great food town but I've never been anywhere where the calibre of restaurants is so high and people seem to care so much about what they're eating.

Ciao! I had no idea you were a ragazzo...you seem very experienced! and I'll leave it at that.

I know nothing about Australian food, so what are classic Australian dishes? What's the equivalent of an American hot dog or hamburger?  Classic Australian ingredients, other than marmite, which is just plain 'blecky'.

Thanks for blogging!

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Uhh... I googled Ragazzo and I got

"Ragazzo is a stallion with an outstanding temperament, great charisma and a most positive approach to everything he is asked to do"

and

"Ragazzo is a graduate of East Carolina University with a B.S. in education. She received her J.D. with honors in 1984 from the University of North Carolina"

neither of which describes me very well.

Australia has even less of a "cuisine" than America does and all of our "Australian dishes" like damper are not something that people eat typically. We do have some idiosyncratic practises (beetroot on burgers) and idiosyncratic ingredients (vegemite) but that does not a cuisine make. Instead, we seem to be a nation of borrowers and will steal shamelessly from other cultures and make it our own. We have whats called "pacific rim cuisine" which is the fusion of asian flavours with classical western techniques and, returning here, I have found there is a much greater comfort with asian flavourings and techniques in Australia then there is in Seattle. We also have a large immigrant culture from the middle east and Kebabs/Gyros and other lebanese/greek foods are very common here. Mexican is something we do poorly here, not having an established immigrant base. Middle to High end Chinese is something that Australia has that the US doesn't. I've read about all the struggles trying to get Americans to accept Chinese as legitimate haute cuisine. There are probably a dozen authentic chinese places in Sydney where you could easily spend $500 a person loading up on lobster, abalone and shark fin.

tell me about those northern chinese pickles that you hate so much?

maybe that's where the koreans got their pickling from.

are they spicy?  I have only tried one kind of chinese pickles and they come in a small tuna can shaped red can.  They are little cucumbers pickled in sugar and soy sauce and they really really well hot rice.  I think those are from taiwan though

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I honestly don't know much about them. I stay away from them and they stay away from me.

On the Aussie cheese front, I've got to say that the Roaring 40s Blue is one of the best blue cheeses I've ever tasted.  I'm quite addicted to it.

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Mmm... Roaring 40s is a great cheese and probably one of the most well known Australian ones.

Maybe you glossed over it in my prior post, but could you tell me about Portuguese chicken and what distinguishes it from other varieties?

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The chicken is marinated in a spicy "piri piri" sauce and then grilled over an open flame.

[prasantrin]

I haven't read anything about your food influences--your parents cooked Northeastern Chinese, but where did you get your "fine dining" (other than the bottled spaghetti sauce, that is ) tastes from?

Who taught you how to cook? Did your parents teach you, or are you largely self-taught?

[Dave Weinstein]

On the Aussie cheese front, I've got to say that the Roaring 40s Blue is one of the best blue cheeses I've ever tasted.  I'm quite addicted to it.

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Get some honeycomb, and have the Roaring 40s with fresh honeycomb, it is an experience.

[Catriona]

Ciao! I had no idea you were a ragazzo...you seem very experienced! and I'll leave it at that.

I know nothing about Australian food, so what are classic Australian dishes? What's the equivalent of an American hot dog or hamburger?  Classic Australian ingredients, other than marmite, which is just plain 'blecky'.

Thanks for blogging!

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Uhh... I googled Ragazzo and I got

"Ragazzo is a stallion with an outstanding temperament, great charisma and a most positive approach to everything he is asked to do"

...

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Hilarious! I love the idea of a stallion having a "positive approach to everything he is asked to do".

Ragazzo = kid/young guy in italian.