Photos from the blogs we never got to do in 2010 (and stories we became involved in)

We have only 10 minutes left for this wrap-up before this becomes the first post of 2011...:)

March 2010 - FH got a decent grinder, we got coffee beans and we all did a pseudo-cupping session at her place.  We say pseudo as, let's face it, we were not conducting a real cupping session.  Nevertheless, we got to taste the differences among different grinds.  It was a fun group session, and we tried very hard not to drink so much as to end up bouncing off the walls from the caffeine we ingested.  This heralded a time of us buying more-than-amateur domestic coffee grinders, whole single-origin coffee beans and fine tuning home brewing methods.

We had a lot of weekend brunches, and we really should have given Three Bags Full a lot more writen attention than we did in the end.  Their ricotta pancakes are great, and so are their coffees.  Get there early on Saturdays, or just go there on weekdays.  FH rates this place as one of her Top 10 in Melbourne, which is saying a lot given her extensive and particular taste buds.  LS, on the other hand, sat so long at Dead Man Espresso enjoying her brunch that she budged only when somebody reminded her to turn up for a late afternoon picnic in the park...

Seven Seeds still does a mean latte, especially when Taylor is behind the machine.  Lucky are we who visit when that happens.

Of course, we had a LOT of coffee which consequentially meant that baristas around towns (yes, the plural tense, because of SL being in Sydney) had to pay just a bit more attention to petite Asian girls coming into their cafes who would glance at their coffee machines, ask about the tasting characteristics of their house blend(s) versus single origin of the day, and request for short blacks or macchiatos.  All we want is a little bit of respect.  For our coffees. 

Bar 9, South Australia - still the only place LS had three coffees in her first sitting.  The baristas there still do not know her face, which means that (a) they have bad memories; (b) she does not visit the place enough; or (c) there are so many serious coffee drinkers who visit this place that they have no chance to remember faces.

 

We also had a fair amount of cocktails and continued to visit new places in town.  Of course, we could not help visiting our favourite old haunts, especially when quality in drinks, menus and service continued to improve.  While 1806 (pictured) became the most convenient to do group sipping sessions, Der Raum and Golden Mountain earned "Must Visit Again" titles in our books.  We promise mixologists that we will try not to have to drag poor dear PN out of the place every single time...

 

We support farmers'markets but we do not neglect the other fresh produce markets.  Farmers' markets can realistically sustain us, but only so far - one can only take so much barramundi and eel...not to mention artichokes!  We cannot get sick of the glossy purple sheen of those eggplants, of course.  Bill's Farm expanded its space in QV Market, to the glee of its fans including FH.  LS realised the Bald Oyster Shucker man at her favourite seafood stall (pictured) in South Melbourne Market could recognise her (she says thanks to ML for making that happen).  SL found heritage tomatoes and consequentially Tomato Lady in Sydney.
 

We checked out little places we happen to walk by which intrigued us, like Bosisto's Wine Bar that we would not have walked in but for the nearby ramen bar being closed for the day.  We also looked upstairs, downstairs and around the neighbourhood for places like Metropolitan Eating House, which does a traditional French Sunday lunch but a modern French degustation menu at all other times.  The little chocolate cafe opposite the restaurant that was one week old helped to wash down the orange and Grand Marnier crepes...

There were the blogs we would have liked to do but did not get the opportunity to do because we got there too late (like Broodbox) or did not have the credentials to enrol (like the masterclass Gwlym Davis did when he came to town in May).

 Thus we could only drown the sorrows of our missed opportunities in desserts and wines...

Philippa's bread and butter pudding at il Fornaio, one not to be repeated now that she has parted ways with the establishment...

The Maze dessert we waited 30 minutes for.  Worth the wait, it was but we still have not been back to Maze...

What do you do when it rains in the Yarra Valley?  You go to a small winery and make small talk with the fun staff while sipping on every wine produced.  Yum.

Then there are the blogs that just came too late for 2010 and will seem a bit bizarre to do in 2011 until after the next visit.  Case in point: Josie Bones, which opened just two weeks before Christmas...

Oysters with dark beer jelly and guancale - both owner-chefs were in even though it was already 230pm...

Rolled pig's cheek with crackling and a egg+caper salad.  They do beer matching so prepare a good gut before entering...

Happy New Year gourmets and gourmands!  Watch those waistlines and blood pressure points, eat with a joyful heart and drink with good company ;) 

My top 4 clover/pour over coffee bars in Sydney

I come to appreciate filtered coffee since coffee can pronounce its character than in espresso form.  So, I did a wild hunt for clover/pour over coffee in Sydney CBD area for the past few months for fabulous filtered coffee.  And, here're places I 'll bring my foodie teams for coffee if they come up to Sydney:

1. Coffee Alchemy

I postponed my trip to this place since it's far from my place but I had to come here before I head back home.  I was so overwhelm when I first steped into Coffee Alchemy.  There are 6 single origins (s/o) coffee on offer and tempting.  Some s/o 're very sort after like Nekisse from Ethiopia and Panama La Esmeralda.  The other s/o're something different in term of estates.  Flavor's clearly stated in pour over form.  And, Hazel and her baristas're happy to talk coffee.

2. Mecca

The King Street branch's the branch that offers clover coffee.  They have 3 s/o to go with the clover.  I love their La Esmeralda.  Its flavor just screamed back to me with jasmine on the nose, bergamot, and nectarine, plus coffee profile kept changing when the temperature dropped.  I love the roaster when they do a great job ^^
The catch for this place is try to go there during off-peak hour.  Afternoon and Saturday're my favorite time to go there.  Not only that I'll garantee to get a seat, baristas're also happy to talk coffee if they aren't super busy.

3. Le Monde (83 Foveaux St, Surry Hills)

They aren't a roaster but they provide great coffee.  Apart from espresso, they have 5 s/o, supplied from 5 senses, on a clover machine.  Rumor said they have 4 clover machines in total.  Sigh... can I get one?
 

4. The Sources, Mosman

It's my Sunday filtered coffee place since all other 3 above're closed.  Not that it's not as great as the other three but it's so far!  It takes me about 40-60 minutes to go there depending on the buses.  They have around 3 s/o on clover.

Which one is my most favorite?  No, I can't answer this question.  Their coffee all met my standard.  So, it depends on what beans they offer at that moment.  At one point in time, all four places have Nekisses... sigh...   

Warning: This Is Non Halal, Not Kosher and Definitely Not Vegetarian

As the remaining daylight fades away, I gaze at the rain falling, listen to the wind blowing.  I try to remember when the last time I took a day off was but cannot.  I check my payslip and realise I am the only person left in my office who has a perfect zero sick day record for the calender year. 

I feel exhausted and cannot confirm whether I have a fever.  My brain is struggling to even entertain the idea of paying someone else to cook for me.  I badly need comfort food.

I open the freezer.  Chicken drumsticks, duck marylands, a jumbo quail, sardine fillets, lamb shoulder.  Then I turn to the pork section.  Pig liver, bacon, rack of pork, spare ribs, speck.  I opt for the little bag of female pork belly I had cut up into slices and marinated before freezing.  Nothing like the classic marinade recipe of sesame oil, pepper and soy sauce (plus a touch of cornstarch for those who like their meat a bit more tender) to turn mere pork slices into stir-fry gold.

Right.  Defrost meat.  Soak and slice dried shiitake mushrooms, peel and julienne a carrot, julienne three Chinese cabbage leaves.  I am tempted to finely chop a knob of ginger, garlic and onion but instead choose to finely slice the white part of a scallion stalk.  Do I need peanuts?  Meh.

Boil water in a pot.  Heat up some oil in the wok.  Brown meat in oil, set aside.  Throw white scallion bits into resulting hot pork lard and oil, then carrots.  Stir around a bit.  Water boiling, time to cook discs of dried alkaline noodles from home, my favourite pasta.  Time to add the Chinese cabbage leaves and mushrooms into wok, using the mushroom soaking liquid to make sure the vegetables will not burn.  Wait a few minutes while dreaming about Grand-dad's pig stomach & white peppercorn soup, stewed pork belly in Chinese buns, Grandmother's braised pig trotters and Chris Badenoch's crispy roast pig's head (will that man open the restaurant already?!).  Check, looks good, time to add the noodles and pork back in, toss to mix, add soy sauce and the chopped up green part of that scallion stalk, toss some more.

Serve in big white bowl with crispy fried shallots and settle into bean bag & Top Gear while the pig liver, ginger & Chinese wine soup is heating up in the microwave for afterwards.

Mmm pork...##

Baguette Musings

"Merci"

"Merci, Salute"

As the owner continued barking orders to the help in French, I glanced at the queue for waffles.  I would love a fresh waffle with honey but not while both my hands were clutching tightly onto something else.

As I walked into the underground tunnel, I sank my teeth into the roast beef, lettuce and tomato baguette with dill pickles and Dijonnaise.  The golden-brown bread was crunchy, the roast beef a touch dry, the dill pickles sour-sweet enough to temper the mustard-spice coming from the Dijonnaise.  I was reminded of the chewy pale Dench bread that Earl's Canteen offers, and that incredibly crispy roast pork rind that came with its now-famous juicy pork belly baguette with apple and fennel coleslaw.  Should the filling of a baguette be better than the bread itself?  I did wonder.

I was dropping crumbs and the odd bit of tomato everywhere as I looked into the shop windows in the underground.  Not that I was worried about losing my way around in this now-familiar underground shopping haven.  If only I can actually afford one of those fantastic pieces...

I paused to grab an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe espresso at Cup of Truth.  It seemed rather fitting, carrying a red messenger bag, holding onto a paper bag with a half-eaten French baguette in one hand while sniffing and then quickly drinking a good short black in the other.  A smile and wave to the barista, and off I went into the sunlight.  Back to the baguette. 

By the river, the crumbs had stopped falling off but there went a good slice of tomato for the birds.  As  I passed by the spot underneath the pedestrian bridge where the Ghostrider first uses his Penance Stare in the 2006 film, I thought about the few baguettes I had during my limited time in Paris.  They were basic, nothing flashy, and certainly I had to remind the staff more than one time to remember the dill pickles.  I was always bemused by their stunned looks then.  They must really think that people who do not speak French therefore do not eat dill pickles.  I wonder what they would have thought of the queue on Centre Place for the four-dollar petit baguettes filled with smoked salmon salmon red onions and capers, roast chicken lettuce and mayonnaise, ham cheese and tomato etcetera.  Of course, not for me the petit baguette. I much rather pay for a proper full baguette, the kind that tells you how freshly baked baguette is meant to taste and smell like every time you grab a bite.

Scrunching up the now-empty bag, I see the office worker crowd packing up its BBQ mess by the giant pigeon house and the waiter idling by the new crepe place on the riverbank.  I am rather full, really, so no French crepes for me either today.   Besides, work awaits.  The kind where an understanding of France, the French language or the French cuisine is not required. :) ##

Diary on "Try A New Thing Week"

17/9 1130pm - Watch "Julie & Julia" on DVD.  The scene where Julie tries poaching an egg for the first time in her life sticks in my head.  The last thing in my head before I fall asleep is that I should try at least one new thing each day for a week, just to see what discoveries I make.

18/9 - Attend Regional Producers' Market at Queen Victoria Market.  Try liquor-filled chocolates from Rutherglen Chocolates (tick!), and I am stunned at how good tokay goes with milk chocolate. For dinner I take out a Korean recipe book I bought in Singapore and make chicken kimchi dumplings (tick!) using shop-bought dumpling skins.  The recipe takes me approximately one hour to complete while watching TV and yields me enough to cook 1/4 for dinner (pan fried they are excellent), cook 1/4 for work lunch and freeze 1/2 for future consumption.  Must try the same recipe on beef mince the next round.  Tag for future use.

19/9 - AUD2.05 for a pair of pig's ears (tick!).  Cleaning the ears is arduous - must buy a disposable razor blade if I want to do this recipe again so I can get rid of the stubborn black pig's hairs.  Even my sharpest knife has trouble.  Scald the ears with boiling water.  Then I braise them for two hours in a self-concocted mix of ground white pepper, whole black peppercorns, Chinese wine, sesame oil, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, chilli powder, five-spice powder and chicken stock.  By the time I turn off the gas, the lid on the pot has decided to fall apart and the flat smells of five-spice powder & soy sauce.  I know they are cooked because my chopstick went straight through when I poked to see if they were tender yet.

20/9 - Fingers get a shock from handling nettle leaves (tick!) even though the leaves are meant to have been tamed.  Hurriedly wash them while wearing gloves before throwing them with hot pasta.  Salt, pepper, grated parmesan, dollops of blue cheese to form the sauce.  Slice up a pig's ear and pan fry to throw on top of the pasta.  End up with a sticky pan and delicious pasta, though just a touch bitter - maybe too much blue cheese?  Nettle reminds me of kale.  Would have preferred the pig's ear to be crispy but cannot complain about the flavour.

21/9 - AS, the seasoned pig's ears gourmet, asks for my braised pig's ears recipe which I take to mean that the taste test over lunch is a success.  I turn up at JJ's place for a Mid-Autumn Festival (aka Mooncake Festival) hotpot dinner.  Try a slice of cold blackforest mooncake (tick!) and think that it tastes more like chocolate ice cream in a little no-melt cake form.  We all start talking about our favourite mooncakes over oolong tea while FH plays with her lantern.  Then she comes in and we all start talking about our childhood lanterns.  Sigh.

22/9 - I remember the AFL Grand Final Morning Tea that I am hosting which asks for staff members to wear their footy colours and bring foods which reflect those footy colours as closely as possible.  I decide that I will produce a French fruit tart in a single rectangular form to meet the requirement on my part (tick on so many levels it is scary).  I line, chill and blind bake half the box of Careme Pastry vanilla shortcrust pastry with guidance from, where else, the inside of the Careme Pastry box (tick 1).  I put the inverted packaging into the Hints and Tips section of my recipe collection book for future use.  In the meantime, Margaret Fulton ('s Encyclopedia of Food and Ingredients) guides me through making a creme patisserie (tick 2) and I realise the wonderful quality of the vanilla pods from Bougainville that I purchased at the Meat Market Christmas fete last year (tick 3 - 1 gone, 29 to go, yeah!).  Margaret also guides me through the making of the glaze (tick 4) and the whole assembly process (tick 5).  I wonder about making my own pastry the next time, but decide that I am not that brave yet, judging by the pile of dishes and pans in the sink I see after I place the tart into the fridge to set.  I wonder how my sister copes with making little individual fruit tarts (including pastry) from scratch while taking care of two children under eight...

23/9 - The raspberry and blueberry French tart is quickly cut up on the morning tea table after the guys realise that it is not a store-bought dessert.  One colleague asks for the recipe, and another wants to take home the leftovers.  A third comments on how well my fashion and food met the morning tea criteria.  I am so pleased that I stop by Oriental Tea House after work for a light yum cha dinner with Happy Tea (tick!).  Happy Tea is not a bad concoction but I decide that I still prefer a traditional tea, like Pu-erh with crysanthemum flowers.   

24/9 - I confirm that Toby's Estate Brunswick has closed its retail operations, becoming a full-time roastery and training school while its retail operations get transferred to weekdays at a little CBD-placed box.  The loss of the best retail coffee in Brunswick depresses me so much I mope around on Sydney Road for half an hour, eat pad thai at Tom Phat before 11am and drink two coffees in one sitting at Seven Seeds.  Fortunately Taylor is at the machine so I perk up after a medium body, not too bright Costa Rica San Jose long black and a still-a-little-too-sour but perfect milk temperature Seven Seeds house blend 3/4 latte.  I go to a forum that is totally unrelated to food and end up meeting new friends.  By the time PN feeds me homemade mother-in-law eggs with sweet chilli jam (tick!), I am chirpy and ready to be an entertaining companion to my fellow diners.  I am surprised that few Thai restaurants in Melbourne serve this delicious dish, and struggle not to grab more than my allocated one egg.  More rice and tom yum soup please, slurp!

25/9 - The week has gone by so quickly and I have actually had a lot of fun exploring new ingredients and dishes.  This day becomes the eighth day of this Try a New Thing week when I go for floating yum cha with friends (tick!), enjoying the warm spring weather on the boat around Williamstown and Port Melbourne.  The food is nothing to shout about, but it is a great opportunity for us to catch up and I get to see the insides of a Yarra River boat especially designed for events and functions. 

Then I remember the kohl rabi sitting in my fridge, and wonder how to treat it...###

The Tyranny of Exclusivity

12 dollars for a glass of Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda La Geisha, done either on the siphon or the clover machine?!  10 dollars for an Ethiopian Nikasse?!  Wow, it should be disturbing that the Hawaii Kona looks cheap at 5 dollars for an espresso, or that Jamaica Blue Mountain just lost its status for most expensive seasonal coffee at 7 bucks a pop.  Yet then again, here I am savouring the fruity, wine-like body and complexity of an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Grade 3 clover at 5 bucks a glass in Proud Mary.  In the meantime, the person next to me is declaring how good he finds his little sample shot of the same coffee but how it pales in comparison to the Panama La Geisha.

Ok ok, so the only batch of the Panama La Geisha that is available in this country come courtesy of Seven Seeds and they did pay a pretty decent auction price.  That probably justifies the cost...right? 

Are Melburnians truly spoilt when it comes to coffee, happy to pay any price to have a taste?  Or is this the new reality of coffee prices for brews by baristas?

Ways To Save $ on Coffees (Without Resorting to Instant Coffee) and Still Get Diversity:

• Bring a friend or two, and join Toshi at the daily free 10am cupping session in Market Lane before sharing a pourover Coffee Flight.  At AUD12, you get to taste three types of coffee with the equivalent of two full coffee cups per type.  You can extend the flight further by doing your tasting blind before relying on the provided notes. 
• Try a coffee at the cafe in the style that you would have at home so e.g. a coffee that you enjoy as a siphon, clover or pourover will probably work at home on the French press and pourover.  Then buy a batch of the beans you like for home use.  Bonus: some places like Toby's Estate offer one free coffee with every 250gm of beans bought.
• Frequent drinker cards - use them wherever they are available.
• Consider and implement the most likely way that would make you have coffee at home instead of a cafe.  The French press, filter, Chemex and pourover systems are all effective at home and in the office environment while the stovetop is suitable for the weekend home brunch (and weekday breakfast).
• Invest in a good grinder.  This will allow you to play with blending different coffees as well as enjoy single origins while the coffee is still fresh.  Whole beans keep a lot better than ground coffee.
• Buy beans and split them with friends.  The beans go faster which means you are less likely to compromise on freshness and the cost gets shared around as well.
• Discipline.  Lock in a schedule of days in the week when you SHALL only have coffee personally brewed.  Coffees brewed in the work environment have the benefit of your ability to use a colleague or two as your sharing companions to keep you in check.
• Grow green leaf vegetables.  This one sounds left-of-centre but used coffee grounds are good as compost for these vegetables, which mean that the coffee you drink become beneficial for the environment and your health (when you harvest fresh vegetables to throw into your cooking).

Any more tips?  Send them in!

Another reason to make my own coffee

Despite increasing green beans price which gives coffee bars the reason to increase their retails coffee price, there's now one more reason I prefer to make my own morning coffee.  One of the best coffee bars in Sydney started campaigning on 'Coffee Pooling'.

They 're trying to solve the increasing waiting time for coffee by suggesting customers to team up and order the same coffee or at least same type of milk.  So that it 'll be more effeciency to make coffee.  They further suggest that the most effeciency way is by trying to team up to create even number of shots and a full jug of milk!!!  The other benefits from coffee pooling, from their perspective, is to reduce carbon footprint.

Hmm... I can understand that it'll be more effeciency to make coffee.  But I still think making my own coffee'll be more time efficiency and reducing more carbon footprint.  At least, I don't have to queue up to buy coffee and it takes about 5 minutes to brew my own coffee, from grinding to brewing.  Plus brewing my own coffee creates less carbon footprint; don't have to write down my order in a paper, no napkin, and no paper cup, etc.
 
Will I not drink coffee outside?  Definitely not, I'm still happy to pay for good coffee.  Since good coffee and bad coffee're charged about the same price.  I just try to drink my own coffee if I want one during the rush hour.       

Night Out On (Off?) Chapel Street

Warning: this is a blog with no pictures because the circumstances did not allow for decent photographs.

It always feels strange being in the opposite direction of home on a school night.  Even stranger when your friends, who had just encountered the hazards of peak-hour outbound trains for the first time in their lives, are counting on sharp eyes in the night to look for the dinner spot...

Thanks to a tip-off (aka "a little bird told me" aka "I heard on the grapevine" aka "I read online"), we were heading to Market Lane for Coffeekids Latte Art Throwdown via Windsor station instead of the more-usual Prahran station. The purpose: to find a tapas bar off Chapel Street known as Pandora's Box.

We arrived early enough to avoid being rejected for not having a dinner booking, and soon settled in the dimly lit industrial space.  This being the first time FH was having dinner with AS, everyone was terribly polite around dish selection but we managed to settle on scotch quail egg with salt cod, braised lamb's tongue with white port & golden raisins, duck jamon with quince sauce and aged Angus steak with bone marrow & herb chips (sliced for sharing).  In our usual unintentional manner, we managed to attract the attention of the floor manager when it came to choosing a red to match the dishes.  We were recommended the Pandora's Box pinot noir, made locally and specifically for the restaurant, which did really match the dishes well.

By the time our first dish was served, the restaurant was rapidly filling up.  The scotch egg was rich and creamy, though we did have trouble adjusting to the idea of a thumbful of yolk in the otherwise regular-sized scotch egg.  FH and AS both commented that the lamb's tongue was honey-sweet and charcoal-savoury, which reminded them of char siew pork.  We all agreed it was incredibly tender and certainly not what we thought lamb's tongue would taste like. 

The duck jamon came in a chicken drumstick-like shape and the meat fell apart at the mere twist of a folk.  Its smoked rareness melted in the mouth, cut by the sour-sweet flavours of the quince sauce.  Just when we were about to agree with food critics that this did deserve being the dish of the place, the rare-going-on-medium rare Angus steak came.  Cubes of bone marrow intertwined with zucchini and a red wine jus around the meat.  Oh the tenderness and how it melts in the mouth, mmmmm the richness and the good jus that the herb chips are so happy with as well.  Blissful silent chewing.

Unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to peruse the dessert menu and almost had to run to Market Lane.  We arrived just in time to see the crowd cheer on the first throwdown, and I had to hunt down the beer section to grab the very cheap StoneandWood beers while munching on a hunk of cheddar cheese.  FH resorted to standing on a chair (with us eyeing her stability very carefully) in order to be able to see anything that was happening at the espresso machine.  Dead Man Espresso took responsibility for cheering on its representative via Twitter and its blog, providing one of the three judges and the cinematography of the night, which meant that I was very tempted to stage a hostile takeover so we could have a steady hand over the proceedings. 

Once Toshi took out Will in the second round (a 2-1 decision over the most complicated art of the night; no idea what the technical term is but to us laypeople it looked like they brought in the A-Game of the night with three rosettas), it seemed a foregone conclusion from there onwards that Market Lane was going to be in the Grand Final throwdown.  I managed to get a free cup of coffee, one untouched by the judges who started poking their fingers into the coffees in passing judgement.  Then I remembered that I was not a big fan of the Market Lane seasonal blend.  The milk was perfect though :P

For me the night was fun - it helps when you can almost identify every barista who stepped up to the challenge and your weekday baristas convince you to cheer them on which means you have licence to be as loud as possible.  AS confessed afterwards that dinner had been the highlight of his night while FH was utterly bored an hour into proceedings.  Which just goes to show, we really should explore Chapel Street more :)

Congratulations to Market Lane for the successful event that raised AUD1700 for Coffeekids and provided a fantastic networking event for Market Lane's retail customers, fellow Victorian roasters and coffee fans!

Pandora's Box

Food and Drink - 4 out of 5 stars.  It would have been fun to see how the kitchen handled dessert, especially considering the head chef's previous experience at Movida.


Atmosphere - 3.5 out of 5.  I think I would have liked to have a better visual idea of what colours my food was in, and I can only imagine the noise level around those who were sitting at the bar. Tiles, concrete, wooden tables and vinyl cushions do not absorb sound too well.


Service - 3 out of 5.  The first waitress had to refer to her notes halfway through her narration of the specials, a second waitress came to take our wine order and the floor manager ended up sharing the role of filling our glasses with the second waitress.  There was also the situation of dishes being placed on the table during conversation without so much as an Excuse Me.  Room for improvement I say!


Value For Money - Tough call on this one.  The food price-wise was similar to Movida, but we had a nasty surprise when the bill came as the house wine cost AUD71 a bottle.  I did not have a chance to investigate the wine menu and so am unable to say whether the rest of the wine offerings share such a price markup.

Dealing with coffee dilemma in Sydney

After whining about how hard to find good coffee in Sydney to my fellow caffeine buddy for almost half year, I think it is time to stop complaining and look harder for good coffee.  I can't find my usual coffee place here.

It is not the case that Melbourne has more great coffee bars than Sydney.  I think it's more the case that Sydney's much larger than Melbourne.  That's why great coffee bar in Sydney isn't cluster in some areas like what's happening in Melbourne.

Part of my problem's I almost always after single origin coffee.  There's nothing wrong with the house blend, though.  I just like to play with s/o, it's such a fun.  So, my issue here's I have to find places that have house blend that I like before I try their s/o coffee and they should change s/o daily.  I know... I know... I'm very spoiled when coming to coffee.   

Thanks to Jasper, Dancing Goat, BBB, SevenSeeds, Eclipse, MarketLane, Chris who turned my coffee world upside down, and last but not least my foodies team :D

So, I settled for the second best options.  I won't have my usual place but just go to each cafe once a week since most of the places change s/o once a week, give or take.  Thanks to technology, I'm now following coffee places on twitter to keep track on s/o.

My best love cafe'd be Workshop Espresso, who uses Toby's Estate coffee.  Their extracting's so good that they can convince me that Harar can be up to my liking which no other places can do before.  Plus, they change s/o daily but the downside's their place's so small that I feel guity if I hang out there for long.

Campos'd be a place I go if I crave afforgato.  I like their blend as well 'cos it's chocolaty and nutty.  Plus baristas 're dedicated to coffee.  I witnessed one of them dumped latte down the sink 'cos it wasn't up to his standard.  Luckily, he did that because it supposed to be my latte.  How I knew that?  'Cos I sat next to coffee machine.

Mecca, the city branch, always crowded but s/o always so tempting.

Toby's Estate, City Road, is the closest to my place.  I went there today since I craved afforgato and it was raining.  So, I didn't walk to Campos.  I didn't have afforgato in the end since s/o on filter catched my eye.  It was Panama Kaiser Serracin Gesha.  Bloddy damn good coffee!  Very clean and complex.  If I did the blind tasting, I 'd think it isn't the same coffee.  Coffee profile keeps changing according to temperature change, from floral to citrus (lime, I think) then to dark, smooth, and syrupy.  Who care it's $8 a filter!  Can't drink everyday, though.  Now, I'm afraid to think about a price of La Esmeralda and how good it'd be!  It should be very very very good.  Since other Central America Gesha're fantastic.  LS already fell in love with Costa Rica La Candelilla Gesha this season from Marketlane.

Klink handmade espresso is the newest in my list.  So very cute cafe where I can wait while my mom does some shopping.  Another place with passionate barista.  He refused to sell me coffee since he doesn't know the tasting note of one estate s/o.      

I'll keep searching for more places.  Next in my lists'd be Coffee Trails and Bangbang.  I guess I should give Single Origin Roasters a second go, too.

This Is A Coffee Plug

Last week, the big news among caffeine fiends (and other more sane coffee drinkers) related to the increase in coffee commodity price due to bad weather coupled with increased global demand (seen a Columbian, Panama CoE or Honduras recently?).  This distressed the Foodie Team less than one would imagine, given that now we are all armed with our own conical burr grinders to use at home and so we have the real option of just spending the money on beans to brew at home instead of drinking coffees by trained baristas.  Even if those baristas are now acquaintances and occasional verbal sparring partners, meaning that we would not like to see them without jobs, or worse, discerning consumers who keep them on their toes.

For a few minutes, we did ponder the possibility of becoming CoE subscribers.  However, viability was a real issue. After all, the Team could not claim this subscription as a tax-deductible expense, even though it makes absolute sense to claim that "it is imperative we have decent coffee to stimulate our brain activity to work effectively for the day, and the methodology of brewing the coffee at home has been proven to present a better Value For Money solution than grabbing a take-away cuppa every morning".

In my ear, SL was blustering about the immediate price impact in Sydney cafes ("House blend, I tell you, it was a house blend and the barista actually burnt the coffee and STILL they dared to charge that sort of money!").  FH was talking about how she preferred to drink her stovetop coffees and pour overs at home for most of the week compared to espressos elsewhere.  Even I was beginning to feel the pinch from walking past my regular cafe(s) every weekday morning. 

Someone suggested to me that maybe the Foodie Team should use this blog to plug for money so we could "support the fine dining lifestyle, earn a bit of extra cash like every other blogger out there".   A cafe owner described to me  how he was wining and dining some better-known food bloggers to ensure they put in a good word about his cafe to their readers.

I wondered, I considered, I pondered whether it was time to turn this blog into something more than just a casual hobby...

Then I received an email about a charity event happening at Market Lane Coffee this Wednesday night.  I tend not to go out too late on a weeknight, but I cannot resist the words "throwdown", "espresso" and "free" all on the same advertisement...

So there.  We are using this blog to plug for money.  To plug this event, really, for money.  Go have a good time, drink up on those coffees and beers, cheer on your nominated barista contestant, loosen those purse strings and support a good cause.  The benefit of an event like this is that you know the people there will be happy happy happy (beer!  espressos!  competition!) but cannot stay too late because most of them have to be at work before 7am :)

Now, let's say a fond hello again to my Sunbeam Grindmaster...##

Nakashima

7 Cambridge Street, The Rocks
Tel 9241 1364

It was a leisure walk from Circular Quay.  I wandered around the Rocks area today.

Since I read about a hidden gems in The Rocks...

And, here I am... Nakashima!

A petite Japanese restaurant ^^

Not hard to choose... my favorite Jap foods... Tempura...

Ah.... tempura lunch set ($17).  Salmon sashimi's just nice but the kuppa maki's very.. very good.  The rice 's soft and sticky which contrasts and compliment the crunchiness of fresh cucumber. 
Tempura itself 's pretty good.  My favorite 's aubergine.  It 's soft, warm, and just melt in my mouth.  The prawns... they 're crunchy from the outside, prawns inside 're juicy and sweet.  Pumkin 's sweet just liked pumkin ^^ 

Notes from a Grey Afternoon

Weather:
Overcast, cold for fingers but warm for gloves.
At:
St Jude's Cellars, Brunswick St Fitzroy
Having:
A glass of 2003 Willespie Merlot Cabernet (appropriately mouth-covering juicy, touch of wood, smooth) and a serve of quail croissants with red onion jam and pomegranate molasses - quail breast cooked through without being dry, crispy pastry, sumac sprinkled throughout, perfect melding of sweet and sour.
Before:
Ravioli nudi of spinach & ricotta dumplings baked in tomato at Federal Coffee Palace GPO,  followed by a Bolivian Clover coffee (on recommendation by Chris at Toby Estate) with a baked chocolate cheesecake brownie at Proud Mary - think "Pocket Rocket" can recognise me now.  I think I prefer the Columbian clover I had the week before (given the Bolivian was brewed a bit too hot, so it was bland and watery when it was below-burning-your-tonuge temperature, but then became fruity and juicy once it was just warm).

Watching:
People.  Jeans, bags, little dogs, bows, red cardigans, leather leggings, hats, babies, scarves, boots...
Thinking: 

• that the last time I came to St Jude's was with FH and SL for lunch which led to the inception of this blog.  Today one is in Adelaide on temporary work assignment and the other in Sydney for postgraduate studies.  That last lunch feels like such a long time ago...this menu looks a lot more enticing than the one from those days.  
• that I appreciate the space I am given here, despite the noise and diners, considering the number of late nights I have had going to farewell dinners and drinks in the one week.  Not to say that it was not fun being with friends while visiting 
  
• Monsieur Truffe - still a great place for hot chocolate, chocolate desserts and tea :)
• Panama Dining Room - thanks for the free dessert to share as first-time visitors, we were in the right place during that ridiculous thunderstorm!
• the Westin hotel lobby lounge - wine and cheese,  
• Taste of Melbourne - pre-planning our battle strategy proves hugely beneficial once again!
• Q11 - best thing about having brunch here is that afterwards you can just cross the road to have fresh oyster shots at South Melbourne Market,  
• Thanh Tran - that Vietnamese pancake never fails to impress, and
• il Fornaio - Philippa, you are a genius; if only that dessert menu was served the whole day instead of just at night!



(From front) THAT Snickers dish, chocolate fondant with poached pear (which contains a creamy surprise!) and "Snow White and Rose Red" for those who love their meringues.  Bring friends and try the whole dessert menu!

• of everybody pitching in to try making dumpling skins leading to homemade beef, mushroom, spring onion and green chilli dumplings at JJ's place 
• that I should be able to smell the 5 Senses coffee from where I am sitting, but my nose is obviously numb from too much sniffing and smelling and savouring..

Need: 
Basics.  A good pasta or a plain congee.  A French press coffee.  An apple.  A bowl of miso soup.  A piece of plain dark chocolate.  A ray of sunshine.  A drizzle of rain.
After:
Cook something that will make use of the La Latteria fior de latte I purchased just yesterday.   Perhaps a simple basil oil-drizzled pasta with heirloom tomatoes?  St Jude's does have a dark chocolate fondant, coffee, banana, peanut and vanilla mascarpone on the menu though...##

Cocktail Recipe On Request

Over the weekend, I was the judge at a friend's Iron Mixologist birthday party.  Responsible for the secret ingredients which had to be incorporated into every cocktail made for the night that wanted to be in the prize-may-not-be-available competition, I chose blood oranges and hazelnut.

I opted to try drinks only through a straw, much like the way bartenders try cocktails before they serve them to customers.  This turned out to be a sensible move as I tasted cocktails that had (respectively) tabasco sauce, hot chilli pepper sauce, mint, cream, cranberry juice and even creme de cassis with barely a cocktail mixer in sight.  Some followed recipes, others were original on-the-fly creations.

About two hours into the party I decided to get behind the bar myself to experiment with the ingredients.  I have been asked to provide the recipes for the cocktails I concocted on the night but I do note that I have not named these cocktails.  Any ideas out there?  All recipes are for one drinker and approximate measurements.

Cocktail No.1: put ice in your cocktail mixer, then a shot of white peach liqueur (in this case we used Pallini Peachello) + a shot of vodka followed by a dash of blood orange juice (in this case the blood orange juice was fresh from the Collingwood Children's Farm market and so fulfilled the bartender's fresh juice requirement).  Wet martini glass rim with a blood orange slice, and cover rim with a mixture of ground hazelnut and sugar.  Shake cocktail mixer, strain and serve in glass for sipping.

Cocktail No.2: muddle together 2 slices of blood orange, 4 torn basil leaves (or mint), a little ground hazelnut and approx. 1 tsp caster sugar (or brown sugar).  Add 1 shot of Pimms No.1 followed by a good dash of lemonade.  Stir well, then serve over ice in a tall ball glass for sipping through a straw.

Have fun making cocktails!

On Eating Mr Ed

The first horse I ever saw was on TV.  Mr Ed was, as most will recall, a talking horse on a black and white comedy series that had more brains and logic than the humans around him.  He wore dark framed glasses and had the kind of cheek that would qualify him for a stand-up comedy competition, grinning most inappropriately with his giant horse teeth whenever he had the upper hand (hoof?) in a situation.

Fast forward years ahead to South Australia, where I would chuckle at reading freeway signs saying "no horses or carriages allowed", the idea that every Australian state has a public holiday for its state horse race, and that everyone bets on the One Big Race every November.  It was a rite of passage, the day you became old enough to understand the different ways of betting on a horse race and dress up duly for the lunches and champagne teas around it.

Now, in Victoria, I hear rumblings around horse eating.

The death threats that poor Embrasse received have resulted in their pulling horse meat off the Taste of Melbourne 2010 menu, even though their three-course horse meat degustation was sold out once The Age Espresso found out about it.  This of course alerted us to the fact that horse meat is actually available for purchase to cook and eat.  Then we all realised that Australia just happens to be an exporter country in horse meat for human consumption. 

Let the Great Debate begin!

Is it, as they say, a matter of cultural background whereby Mr A may be quite happy to eat Mr Ed because Mr Ed has always featured on the Christmas dinner menu but Miss B may be very unhappy to even think of it because she used to ride Mr Ed to school and along the green pastures or beside the freeway? 

Is it perhaps an issue of resource usage, whereby horse eating should be discouraged in the way that cattle eating should be discouraged (i.e. for environmental reasons)?  One can argue that horses can be better used for law enforcement (military calvary, police horses etc), transport in remote countries, psychological therapy (children who have suffered trauma tend to get along very well with horses), and gambling activities (races).

Is it even an image matter?  After all, many countries baulk at the thought of Australians eating kangaroo meat because "how can you eat one of the icons on your own Commonwealth emblem?!" and "they look so cute and cuddly!" but many others see them as a environmental-friendly alternative to cattle as a source of red meat. 

As a child, I refused to eat turtle eggs before turtles were ever listed as an endangered species and would glare at people eating dog and cat meat.  Yet when TW alerted me to Chris Badenoch's experience with horse meat, I had to confess a twang of envy.  I wanted to be on Embrasse's list of people sampling horse meat the way the French do, with the one person I knew personally in Melbourne who had actually eaten horse meat before (raw, in Japan) and thereby piqued my gourmet interest.   I even became tempted to find out if it was possible to import the stuff from Western Australia (where the only licensed butcher for horse meat is) without incurring a confiscation order from state customs or vegans.

Am I evil?  Am I immoral?  Am I being culturally insensitive to most Australians?

All I understand is that I did not grow up riding horses and never had them as pets, that horses used for human consumption are usually specifically farmed for the purpose and therefore farmers are not permitted to affect wild horse populations like brumbies, that horses are not approaching endangerment or extinction anytime soon, and that they have actually been a part of the human diet in many parts of the world for a very long time.

I also know that a culinary delight, Roquefort blue cheese, was banned from Australia for more than a decade because food scientists in this country were concerned about the level of bacteria and the issue of unpasteurisation.  This is a cheese that has a history dating back to AD 79, that is almost revered in France as the first recipient of France's appellation-of-origin protection laws and was actually commonly applied to wounds to avoid gangrene before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.

With that in mind, I can only promise I will not want to eat a horse that children love to ride, wears glasses (or racing colours or military/police garb) or responds to the name "Mr Ed" (or Makybe Diva).##

The places you find as a local...

"What is there in Adelaide?" Sydneysiders and Melburnians always ask me when I talk about going there.

I could tell them about the lovely McLaren Vale winery overlooking a gorge that has one of the biggest vineyard dogs in the country and an excellent owner-barista.  I could remind them about the South  Australians' record on Masterchef Australia (3 out of 4 grand finalists in 2 seasons is definitely a heck of a strike rate), envy those who can get their hands on a slice of Maggie Beer's pheasant pie in the Barossa, enjoy roast hazelnut gelati while sitting in the sun off Rundle Street, gawk at the abundance of marbling on South Australian red meats at Feast Central Market, lick my fingers of dripping sugar syrup from Indian sweets off Gouger Street, and consume fresh oysters & salmon sashimi at a fraction of the price one would pay in Melbourne.

This time though, my trip was quite strictly personal.  One day with friends, one day with family. My friends, wonderful as they are, used their day with me as a day of food.  Food, caffeine, and more food. :)

First, Jam the Bistro on Wright Street, a mere 5 minutes' walk from Adelaide Central Market.  A rather bright, colourful cafe with plenty of weekend newspapers and magazines scattered around the place including the Saturday Age.  I decided to skip the blue swimmer crab omelette on the menu and went for the breakfast special of spanakopita omelette which was accompanied by, of course, a Vittoria cafe latte.  In Adelaide, one mainly drinks Vittoria, Perfect Cup or Rio under various guises.  Service decided to leave us alone after serving our orders so we could keep laughing over old stories and previously untold secrets despite cleaning our plates long time ago and with the continuing stream of customers coming into the place.

Then a trip to Glen Osmond Road, where we visited the South Australia representative on the Australian's Best 14 Coffee Places 2010; the Coffee Barun (jolly striving micro-roaster cafe on Main North Road, though I do think they have overstretched themselves by offering a full breakfast and pizza menu without a proper kitchen) and Rio Coffee (responsible for supplying Cibo) were both given "highly commended" status.

Bar 9 takes its coffee quite seriously - one blend for milk-based coffees, one blend for black coffees, and one barista's blend that changes every so often.  Supplied by 5 Senses, the two baristas are happy to do siphons and pourovers anytime but will also feature every other type of coffee making style when they get the chance.  On this day, they were concentrating on the three key ways of coffee making as we know them given the bustling trade they were doing.  I would have been keen to see if they could do a good Turkish coffee.

ML tried his first siphon coffee (the Brazilian on the list - walnut!) with a White Blend piccolo as his chaser (again, his first piccolo ever, followed by a second piccolo offered on the house when he spilt half of the first one). I had the barista's blend in a piccolo (ah, body) followed by the Bolivian in a pourover.  The hot chocolates here also got the nod of approval from our non-coffee drinking Mrs ML. 

Definitely.  Must.  Go.  Back.

High from caffeine, we opted to have a quick Malaysian lunch near David Jones before going home to rest.

Night fell, and it was time to go out again, this time for dessert on Goodwood Road.

Eggless is one of those night-time dessert cafes that is almost buried in the suburbs (in this case, the Methodist church next door is responsible for the carparks, and the movie theatre opposite the church had some signs of life, just barely)  It does not rely on conventional publicity, instead relying on steady word-of-mouth marketing to get its clientele.  In other words, the kind of place I used to frequent during my tertiary days.  On this night, the cafe was already almost full even though we arrived just 10 minutes after business commenced for the night, and so ML had to endure the cold air that would blast in whenever the automatic door slided open.  This happened a lot on the night - that sliding door may as well have been a revolving door.

True to its name, nothing on the menu involved eggs.  There were five single origin coffees for the french press (Jaspers Coffee because they "are the only ones who can guarantee fair trade, organic, steady supply for us", the Malaysian half of the partnership explained), eight teas in loose leaf form, and an Asian drinks section.  Most people, including us, opted for the (I presume) famous home-made teh tarik, which was quite tasty though I did think it was a touch over-priced.

Resisting the Asian dessert menu (even if hot homemade black sticky rice with coconut cream did tempt, especially when it was being served to other tables), we pondered over the Western dessert section and the chalked specials on the wall.  To keep things interesting, the dessert platter changes on a monthly basis and subject to availability.

Dessert platter of the month - Turkish delight and pistachio sorbet with Persian fairy floss, black sesame panna cotta with toffee and kiwifruit, pear and honey cheesecake & green tea tiramisu.  I do think the cake was the most successful dessert and the tiramisu a close second.  The pistachio pieces in the sorbet were too rough, undermining the delicate intent of the dessert piece, while the panna cotta was too soft and initially reminded ML of duck pate...

By the time we left, there were three groups of five huddling outside under the solo upright gas heater waiting for a table.  Again, I remembered what it was like in university, the importance of turning up to places like this early in the night to secure a table.

Only in South Australia, will night-time dessert cafes, not bars or fine dining restaurants (yes yes, Kenji is the exception , do not remind me), own the hottest tables in town (it once was the case in Brisbane as well with Freestyles Desserts, but they went franchise-style and lost quality as a result)


Bless those sugar-high, winery surrounded, sober appetites.##

Vue de Monde

It is sometime to complicate to take picture and enjoy foods at the same time.  Moreover, there are places that I don't want to take picture while dining there.  Vue de Monde is one of the places.  Luckily, Beansprout 's so kind to share pictures in this article. 

We started with Amuse Bouche served on a rectangular stone.  They called it 'Muesli bar'.  It 's a mixture of grains and seeds and seasoned with miso.

First course is 'Jardin Delegumes'.  The Heide vegetable garden 's lovely presented with winter vegetables and garnished with snow-like seasoning.   

Second course is 'Saumon Fume'.  It 's a cured, sugared, and smoked salmon.  Its smoke is from coconut ash.  My first impression 's I want chopsticks since the dish looks very Japanese.  There 're 5 salmon pieces.  The cleverness of this dish 's the taste of salmon changes piece by piece.  I think the temperature of salmon somehow dictates its taste.

Third course is truffle dish from WA.  It's a really rich and deep flavour dish with Manjimup truffle, fried duck egg, and onion sauce, which called 'Oeuf de Canard et Truffe'.  Egg white 's so soft and a bit running. 

After the third course, they served Sorbet au concmbre to cleanse palate.  It's a combination of cucumber sorbet, elderflower granite, and frozen lime.  Classic and yummy.

Our fourth dish 's Boeuf de Blackmore et Bettrave.  Blackmore wagyu steak with beetroot, mashed potato and wood sorrel.  It 's more like a confit with the brown crust and pink meat.  What interested us 's the heart shape micro herb, which later on we found out that it 's a wood sorrel.

Another cleaser 's the Entremet sucre, the lolly.  The lolly 's vanilly ice-cream with popping candy.  It was served with lemonade.  To best enjoy this dish 's eat lolly then sip lemonade.  So that popping candy 'll pop in y'r mouth.  We were warned that 'no dipping lolly in the lemonade' :D

The pre-dessert's Oeufs de Poules.  They 're served in eggshells within 6 eggs-carton.  From the left hand side, Pistachio custard, Prune&Armagnac eggnog, and Grand-Marnier mousse.  They 're as good as my last visit there.

The desserts are chocolate souffle, carrot cake (deconstructed), and Rhubard&milk.  Our waiter 's so kind to arrange for different desserts for all three of us.  Since Beausprout told him that she doesn't like the texture of soft merienge or mashmellow.

We were too full for coffee and tea but the petit ful is too good to resist.  Individual chocolate disguised as Lamington cake, Nugat served with chocolate and orange rind, Tulie and lemon curd.