eG Foodblog: rarerollingobject (2011) - Mealtimes at the University of

[annachan]

That salmon is just ridiculous! So beautiful and I bet it tastes incredible.

Smoked pineapple vinegar? Now that I like to try.

I need to find and try that brand of crab paste above. I got one (Thai, I think) that was just really garlicky, without much crab taste. I only know to use it to make bun rieu. I may have to try it on noodles next time.

So jealous of that Asian store. Even though we now have a Chinese store, a Korean store, 2 Indian store and one more Asian store coming soon, all 5 minutes away, I just don't think they can beat the selection in that one store. BTW, know of a good website to order Japanese stuff from? Having a really hard time finding bonito flakes over here.

[rarerollingobject]

That salmon is just ridiculous! So beautiful and I bet it tastes incredible.

Smoked pineapple vinegar? Now that I like to try.

I need to find and try that brand of crab paste above. I got one (Thai, I think) that was just really garlicky, without much crab taste. I only know to use it to make bun rieu. I may have to try it on noodles next time.

So jealous of that Asian store. Even though we now have a Chinese store, a Korean store, 2 Indian store and one more Asian store coming soon, all 5 minutes away, I just don't think they can beat the selection in that one store. BTW, know of a good website to order Japanese stuff from? Having a really hard time finding bonito flakes over here.

Funny, I was actually going to post that it's unlike the Thai crab paste, which is pulverised and grainy, and unlike the Vietnamese stuff for bun rieu..I literally typed that and deleted it, thinking "OK, shutup about the crab paste"..

Ordering Japanese online..check out http://www.chefsarmoury.com/ It's a Sydney shop with not only Japanese food and kitchenware, but they also have a lot of the sciencey stuff you'd want to really get into Modernist Cuisine.

Edited July 25, 2011 by rarerollingobject (log)

[rarerollingobject]

Oy. What's he shilling there - pots and pans or some edible food product?

Erm...d'you know, I'm not sure. Shows how effective the advertising was! Maybe recipe cards??

[rarerollingobject]

And last thing for the night:

[ChrisTaylor]

Talisker 10. Neat. Respect.

[SylviaLovegren]

Wow, your kitchen may be small but it looks cozy and well thought out and well loved. I want to hang out there! The seafood looks amazing.

I want that whale butter dish.

[patti]

That salmon is just ridiculous! So beautiful and I bet it tastes incredible.

Smoked pineapple vinegar? Now that I like to try.

I need to find and try that brand of crab paste above. I got one (Thai, I think) that was just really garlicky, without much crab taste. I only know to use it to make bun rieu. I may have to try it on noodles next time.

So jealous of that Asian store. Even though we now have a Chinese store, a Korean store, 2 Indian store and one more Asian store coming soon, all 5 minutes away, I just don't think they can beat the selection in that one store. BTW, know of a good website to order Japanese stuff from? Having a really hard time finding bonito flakes over here.

Funny, I was actually going to post that it's unlike the Thai crab paste, which is pulverised and grainy, and unlike the Vietnamese stuff for bun rieu..I literally typed that and deleted it, thinking "OK, shutup about the crab paste"..

Ordering Japanese online..check out http://www.chefsarmoury.com/ It's a Sydney shop with not only Japanese food and kitchenware, but they also have a lot of the sciencey stuff you'd want to really get into Modernist Cuisine.

I have enormous ingredient envy! I wonder how crab fat/paste would do in an etouffee? That would be a nice cultural mash-up. If only they sold crawfish fat like that!

PS - I am a huge fan of your meals/photos in the dinner thread. Your meals are an education.

[Shelby]

I'm pea green with envy over your sushi....if I had that next door to me, I'd be in heaven!

[rarerollingobject]

Talisker 10. Neat. Respect.

Heh. Thanks. I'm on a bit of a Scotch odyssey. I can't really say I collect them, since I'll buy a bottle of something I haven't tried before, drink it to the end while pondering it deeply all the way through, and then move on to the next Scotch. Lagavulin next. But I must say, I'm really enjoying the Talisker.

[rarerollingobject]

Wow, your kitchen may be small but it looks cozy and well thought out and well loved. I want to hang out there! The seafood looks amazing.

I want that whale butter dish.

That's it - my kitchen may not be grand, but everything in it has been specifically thought about - not that I like the word "curated" for these things but I don't have the space to do anything else.

That whale dish (and the vomiting vase, upthread, and a large ceramic giraffe!) were finds I dragged back in my suitcase from NYC one year, wrapped in layers of clothes and layers of hope against hope that they wouldn't be smithereens by the time they crossed the Pacific.

[rarerollingobject]

I have enormous ingredient envy! I wonder how crab fat/paste would do in an etouffee? That would be a nice cultural mash-up. If only they sold crawfish fat like that!

PS - I am a huge fan of your meals/photos in the dinner thread. Your meals are an education.

Had to google etouffee, and you know, that's not that far from one of the Filipinos' most popular preps for the paste..in a paella-style dish, with shellfish! It would be perfect.

And thanks for your kind words about my meals..I don't really know much about food, formally, but I AM very greedy, so that helps!

[rarerollingobject]

I'm pea green with envy over your sushi....if I had that next door to me, I'd be in heaven!

Yes, we eat there A LOT..I know how much, since the sushi restaurant has an agreement with Qantas to credit frequent flyer points, and I looked at my points balance the other day to realise, in horror, that I've nearly got enough for an interstate flight, just from sushi points alone!!

[heidih]

As always, the dishes are right up my alley.

So are you one of those people who then saves the crab and prawn shells until you have enough to make stock?

The crab paste is on my search list. We have a Filipino community nearby so I am hopeful.

Can you clarify on the E-Fu noodles - they look similar to ones I see at the Chinese market. Are they precooked in some fashion and only need soaking in warmish water before being tossed into the dish? They look like they would have a nice chew to them.

[rarerollingobject]

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!

Breakfast this morning was a bit of a mixed bag..first, the neon green kiwi/pear/mint/spinach smoothies I've trained my boyfriend to make (he eats SO much fruit of his own volition, so I'm always looking for ways to up his vegetable intake). I also put in some soy/linseed/almond and some coconut oil, for 'mouthfeel' (how I hate that word).

I think the colour is actually quite pretty.

Then, oatmeal for me. I like Scotch-cut oats better, but no time, no time, so rolled it is. I also LOVE ginger, so this was a three ginger oatmeal: crystallised ginger, stem ginger and powdered ginger. And some rose petals I'm using up.

The result. I couldn't help gussying it up with pink peppercorns for extra zing:

And a girly cup of my favourite Mariage Freres tea:

Suitably victualled, I'm off to work. Give me strength!

[rarerollingobject]

As always, the dishes are right up my alley.

So are you one of those people who then saves the crab and prawn shells until you have enough to make stock?

The crab paste is on my search list. We have a Filipino community nearby so I am hopeful.

Can you clarify on the E-Fu noodles - they look similar to ones I see at the Chinese market. Are they precooked in some fashion and only need soaking in warmish water before being tossed into the dish? They look like they would have a nice chew to them.

Stock, yes indeed. It's funny, I was thinking just yesterday that I always make my prawn stock with Asian flavourings (ginger, white pepper, green onions, sugar, fish sauce) but my chicken stock with the classic celery/carrot/onion combo. It's one of the reasons I didn't take a picture of my freezer earlier in the week: it's a veritable graveyard of shells, bones, fats, carcasses and other delights I'm saving for the zombie apocalypse.

The crab paste is also referred to as aligue. Look for the stuff with as few additional ingredients as possible.

And the e-fu noodles are indeed pre-cooked..deep-fried, I believe. You only need a brief dunk in hot water to soften, and then they're best further softened in the braising liquid so they take on the flavours. They are nice and chewy, yes..good pickup, that's exactly what I was after, as I wasn't in the mood for the softness of fresh pasta, or the toothsomeness of dried linguine etc..

[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: