I Can't Believe They're Brussels Sprouts

The best Brussels sprouts are about the size of walnuts. They come into season in midwinter and make an easy, quick and convenient side dish, as there is very little waste. Like cabbages, to which family they belong, they contain protein, iron and vitamin A, but they are easier to digest as they are not so rich in calcium and vitamin C. They are good sauteed in the juices of a pork roast, as a side dish with stuffed pig's trotter or simply fried in butter. Allow about 6 per person.
From The Silver Spoon

I can handle game, offal, sweetbreads, crocodile, turtle, jellyfish, chicken feet. Even Chris's Beeramisu and roasted pig head feature on Masterchef tonight had me drooling. But Brussels sprouts? Put them on a menu and watch me avoid them like a sober driver in a Ferrari avoiding a tree. Had them three times, and I hate them. Hate them hate them hate them hate them. I like cabbage, but I hate Brussels sprouts.

Imagine, therefore, the look on my face when I was served the last rabbit saddleback special at Movida with Brussels sprouts.

16 of the dastardly things I counted on the plate. In my head, I wondered what I had done to deserve Brussels sprouts. After all, I had waited more than 30 minutes for this plate to come out after a false start (pork belly with white beans instead of the Tommy Cooper smoked mackerel with pine nuts and lemon sauce). I had been patient. I had tolerated the amused looks from fellow diners who had witnessed my returning of the pork belly. I had tried not to look too hungry in between courses while everyone else was chowing down on clams and goat.

Yes they were little things, just a little bigger than the size of my thumb, fried with ham in a butter sauce. Yes the dish was an appropriate arrangement of seasonal ingredients, and the whole thing looked very comforting. Yes I was so lucky to get the last serve of rabbit before the afternoon break, and the now envious faces around me said it all.

Still, I murmured to myself, if the waiter had mentioned "Brussel sprouts" when he was spouting the specials of the day, I would have avoided the dish like a sober driver in a Ferrari avoids a tree.

Deep breath, plunge fork into rabbit, then a sprout. Make sure you get plenty of sauce.

Mmmm...MmMmMmMmMmMm is this truly a Brussels sprout?

Another round of rabbit, then sprout, then sauce. Mmmm. Tender rabbit, beautiful sauce, and dare I say delicious Brussels sprout?!

I remembered then why I come back to Movida. Amidst all the wonderful meals I have in Melbourne, I always think of Movida for solitary indulgence in comforting, delectable little dishes and seasonal surprises (like a few others I spotted that day). The service for me may not be as great as once upon a time (since the maitre'd went to be front of house at Coda), the serving sequence may not be as logical, but they still serve fantastic food. Wonderful surprises.

I still cannot believe they are Brussels sprouts. I still cannot believe I cleaned the plate...

LS on Movida: Food 4.5 stars out of 5 - let's face it, the menu is a bit dull after a while. After all, now I can order without so much as a glance at the menu. The desserts on the blackboard are mostly the same after all these years. Yet they know what they do well, and by gawds they deliver! Service 3.5 stars out of 5 - at least, I can still get a seat pretty much 9 out of 10 times there without a booking.

Cooks Online Oh Let Us Unite

Thanks to Masterchef and the recession (the one that has given Australia a little shake and smack on the bum while making most other economies in the world bedridden), cooking at home and writing about food, cooks etc seems to have become the new national past time. One that has captured not just the regulars i.e. Gourmet and Delicious magazine subscribers and Beanscene readers, but the professional chefs (cheves?) and OK magazine readers have all gotten on board (hi there Fi)

As a result, I have found that articles discussing food and food shows outside the usual media have increased. For example, now we are concerned about the origins of the Australian Masterchef show which is quite different from its UK parent. Then we are concerned about what Masterchef has turned us into. Now we even think that particular foods can prevent us from catching Disease-Of-The-Day like the Swine Flu (oh ye much maligned porky, how I pity your name being dragged in mud):

Swine flu? Try kimchi
THE Korea Tourism Organisation has found the silver lining in the swine flu cloud, using it as an excuse to spruik the benefits of kimchi, the incendiary national dish of fermented cabbage. The "kimchi cure" was first noticed during the avian flu outbreak, when Koreans suffered low infection rates compared with neighbouring countries; subsequent tests by Korean scientists established that kimchi fed to chickens has an inhibitive effect on the virus, probably due to the ingredients of ginger, green onions and garlic. The scientists also found that the more fermented (and sour) the kimchi, the more effective it was. It's certainly tastier than Tamiflu, anyway.

- Espresso, Epicure 23 June 2009

Now I have just found out that chefs are going online and becoming Twits (oh jeez - do you call them Twits or a group of cooking Twat, as Good News Weekend guests wondered?) to share their cooking challenges, triumphs, failures, expeditions and techniques of the day. Restaurant critics have too joined the game, along with a growing crowd of eaters talking to Gourmet Traveller via @gourmettweets.

As a blogger not a Twitter (or a Twit, or a Twat) , I find the idea of constantly updating your status in no more than 140 characters challenging. Even a waste of time if not for it being used as a mode of serious communication to the world at the moment (think Hudson River plane landing, Indian hotel attack, Iran protests etc). If, among other things, it helps with people becoming better cooks and appreciating the fact that chefs, even the ones who look good on TV, are just mere mortal beings, then I cannot dispute that it has some merit (darn).

For an example to illustrate the inadequacy of 140 characters, I tried a new recipe from the new little chunky 'Vegie Food' book this week and thought it worked very well:

Heat 1 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp unsalted butter together, then add 2 tsp black/brown mustard seeds, and cook until seeds start to pop. Add 2 thinly sliced leeks and cook gently for 5-8 minutes or until softened. Stir in 500g thinly shredded cabbage (most abundant in winter; I used Savoy as I prefer its flavour to other types of cabbage) and cook over low heat for 4 minutes or until it wilts and softens. Season cabbage well, add 1 tbsp lemon juice (again, abundant in winter; make sure you microwave lemon for 30 seconds and then roll it about a bit with your hands before you cut & squeeze the lemon to get maximum amount of juice) and 5 tbsp creme fraiche , and cook for 1 minute longer. Stir in 2 tbsp chopped parsley (which has loads of iron and necessary taste-wise to complete this dish) and serve immediately. Serves 4 - 6 as a side.

Dinning with Elrond

It was nearly seven on Thursday night and we just been turned out from Movida... it was fully booked, even the bar section also booked out. So, we moved... I just blindly followed LS into Oliver lane.

Are you booked out? Yes, we did... So, what time should we come if we don't book in advance? LS asked meekly with her pitiful eyes. We finally were let into the bar section at last, thanks to the lovely waitress. I think she took pity on us two hungry girls :P

We started with a glass of Pinor Gris and each before we studied menu... heavy Asian influence... eg. beetle leaf, rice paddle leaf, galanga...

I left the ordering to LS 'cos I sure she 'd make a good choice :P So, she grabbed spanner crab, scallop, bone marrow, kingfish, snails, and rabbit saddle.

When the spanner crab came, first I notice about beetle leaf.... I was so excited about it since I haven't had it for age and it made me thinking of home... this tapas 's very refreshing, with pomelo and ginger... but we hope it should be a little bit more spicy... LS said she thinks it should be more spicy, which 's wield coming from her :) while, I can't detect chili in it at all :( Judging from this tapas...we agreed that the foods here 's promising, it has potential.. so we were very excited for the next tapas

The next one 's scallop in white sauce and salmon roes... good, decent, a bit salty.

And, then come the bone marrow and kingfish dish. We started with cured kingfish dish...a salty of the cured fish is well balanced with yuzu dressing, fried sliced spring onion and carrot pickle. We 're happy now... foods 're not just promising to be good...they 're actually good :)

Then, we moved to bone marrow wrapped in Vietnamese rice paper roll with shitake mushrooms with lemon and white pepper dressing. The best way to enjoy it 's break it in half before pouring the dressing into it, no....we didn't discover it by ourselve...but were told to do so :P

When springroll was broken in half, the earthly, smoothly fragrant of mushrooms came up. I 'm happy to eat it plain while LS like hers with the dressing. Nothing wrong with the dressing, though. I just like my springroll plain. In this case, I topped my springroll with the garnish...rice paddle leaf...it added another dimention to springroll...with lighter and fresher taste.

And, then the snails came... baked snails and puff pastry with a twang of lemon white sauce. We techniquely licked this dish, don't waste good sauce :P By this time, we started giggling over foods... so happy to come back here again by this stage.

Cassoulet of rabbit (rabbit saddle, rabbit liver paste, and other part that we still fought over whether it 's a liver or kidney..haha...) and white bean looks typically western style food but after chewing, I feel I need rice. It 's gingering, zingling dish.

We then decided to order one more dish, steak tartare with quail egg and mustard leave. It came with melba cracker... NO...it 's not a cracker but I forgot that word...still thinking... :( Anyway, it 's suprisingly goooooooooood. Saltiness of anchovy and melba beautifully completes this dish. Can I say it 's better than Guillaume at Bennelong's one? I know it 's not fair, it just like compare Ping Lady with Gala apple... it actually depends on what is our liking. But... I compared it in the sense that I can keep eatting steak tartare here and not bored with it, really... I 'll come back for this dish. It is so great that we had to sparingly shared the last melba :P

Steak tartare 's perfectly married with Cotes du Rhone '04, Grenache. The Somelier offered Grenache because of rabbit and snails dishes, which we happily accepted. My first monthful feeling 's I 'm happily drink it as a dessert... it 's not sweet, just my though...

To wrap up our dinner, we chose the dessert taste plate; lemon tart with yuzu mashmellow and chocolate pod with pumkin fome....so cute, isn't it?

Lemon tart is a little bit too sharp but the chocolate pot is extremely good. So good that we have to rearrange our dessert preferences :) The coffee 's not bad neither. They use Gravity coffee which made LS reluctantly order her latte and mine is Mocha. The coffee 're doing o.k. it 's much better than Sevenseeds house coffee, no kidding.

After we went through all dishes, we also spied other tables nearby to see what they had :P We notice that our somelier 's good. While I wandered away, LS notice that he busied over one bottle of Red... starting from warming the bottle up, opened and smell...then started pouring wine into the decanter...in order to let wine breathe. After these process, it confirmed itself that this wine is the expensive one, so we 'd like to know which table this wine 'll go ...nosey, aren't we?

It turned out to be a good nosey though. That red went to the table next to ours, Hugo Weaving's table...we sat next to him for nearly 3 hours and didn't know...hahaha... we too obsess in foods there, I think :P

In case you don't know who he is, I confess I don't which made me gain a disapproved look from LS... he 's an actor who played a role of King of Fairy in Lords of the Rings, Matrix, etc.

Coda Bar+Restaurant: Basement 141 Flinders Lane (Cor Oliver Lane) Tel: 9650 3155

Chef: Adam D'Sylva

Scent of Chives, Chocolate and Tea

For all the fancy restaurants and celebrity chefs in the world, nothing creates a natural high more easily than a homemade group meal.

Thus it was on a cold Sunday night that while we were still talking about the Vogue Produce Awards dinner at Circa, The Prince (where we sat with rich gourmets and felt seriously inadequate on the monetary front), notable more for the copious amount of wine and discovering just how 'out there' our table companions were than for the offerings of Paul Wilson (he of Botanical fame, now looking at opening his own establishment) & Matt Wilkinson, we were also checking whether the eggs and sugar had been creamed to "pale and thick" as dictated by the Donna Hay recipe for moist chocolate cake. I also taught JJ and Nut a short cut to the "chopped chocolate" requirement:

• Grab your bars of chocolate in its packaging. Ensure you have the correct amount as required by the recipe.
  
• Pulverise your chocolate. Vent all your stress on it. Slam and hit the chocolate against every conceivable hard surface you can find. Chairs, tables, brick walls, karate style palm slams. No accompanying shrieking or screaming needed unless you want to re-enact a B-grade kung fu film.
  
• When you are done, open the packaging to turn the chocolate out on the chopping board. Chop chocolates to required size if not already done by the pulverising process.

This process should not only help to lower your blood pressure and give you an arm work-out, but also reduce your chopping effort.

In the kitchen, JJ and Shi were rolling out fresh dough to turn into dumpling skins and filling them with the traditional mixture of marinated pork mince, chives and spring onions. The scent of sesame oil and chives, so familiar and so endearing to all in the room. When Nut, YW and I attempted to help out with rolling the dumpling skins, we had a taste of the gap between us "amateur cooks" and the "experts" i.e. JJ and SL who had watched the women of their families do this sort of cooking their whole lives. Our pace alone made us stand out like burnt toast in a stainless steel kitchen. Finally, we sensibly decided to avoid causing wrath akin to Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen (which we had a taste of for about three minutes) and went back to watching Masterchef.

We forgot to keep track of the dumplings we devoured. We all agreed that the homemade dumpling skins were much better than store bought ones. We agreed that the dumplings were absolutely the right thing to have on a cold winter night.

Without alcohol there is chocolate. Baked for Nut to make a birthday wish on even though she actually has no real interest in cakes, the cake was ready to be served after several reminders of "do not open the oven before it is time". The birthday song was sung in three languages, as you would given the diversity of those present. The wish was made, the first cut carefully made into the cake with a vegetable cleaver. We agreed that the lychee black tea went well with the cake, but the Twining Organic Earl Grey was an even better match. We discussed birthday cakes, and whether a chestnut cake was feasible for JJ & R's birthday dinner. We boiled more water for more tea, and YW held an impromptu cabaret concert (acapella style, no less) as we maniacally printed lyrics off the Net on R's computer. The night ended with us doing tongue twisters before I finally got onto my tram, watching them stroll off arm-in-arm for a post-dinner winter walk.

Shared effort, a lot of humour, a lot of fun. For all the expensive establishments and award-winning chefs in the world, nothing really beats a home-cooked meal with family and/or friends.

Dutch Mess

I actually didn't know what the Dutch Mess is. I only know that I have to go to CH2 for 'ORANGE SORBET' 'cos LS told me about it twice already. I went to CH2 for the first time last Friday but there is no Dutch Mess on the menu. It 's off the menu already.

Luckily, the staff there asked the chef to do it for me :P Dutch Mess was in a bowl with a lid on. The first thing I saw was fragrant, not see by the eyes but by nose instead. This dish 's very refreshing and uplifting a soul... Orange sorbet 's fabulous, accompanied with pure vanilla ice-cream, candied orange zest, meriange, and cointreau brioche... yumm...

I went there again on the following day with LS... since with some reasons that I don't really know, my apartment had no gas. So, I was titled to have something to cheer me up :P

SL rating: Service 4 Dessert 4.5

Food As A Distraction

A train ride on a wintry, wet evening after a ridiculous day at work, silently lamenting how many fools the bureaucracy can produce to disrupt your life. I grab the first magazine I can get from my bag. The latest Big Issue, and it is on produce, cooking & eating habits during times of thrift. Hmm, this may be a keeper. I start reading, and am reminded of dinner for the night - mutton and vegetable curry in my new Emile Henry claypot.

I like times like this, when the cosmos come together to make me feel better. To remind me that work does not consume my life. To remind me that there are other things in the world to care about. Family. Friends. Food. Books. Thinking about how to emulate geniuses who change the world. Like Edward de Bono (his thoughts on creativity and the Six Thinking Hats are brilliant), Heston Blumenthal (I cannot help wondering if he is a savant or normal-smart), Raffaelo Esposito (the baker from Naples widely credited to be the inventor of modern pizza), whoever found out how to turn cocoa beans into luxury chocolates, and whoever created cafes for catching up with friends.

I caught up with a few of my friends at Chimmy's in Richmond after we found out that Momotaro Ramen was closed on Sundays. Secretly I was glad because I had earlier indulged in Portugese croquettes, salt cod fritters and Portugese custard tarts (best I have ever tasted) at A Taste of Portugal festival. I would have found it difficult to resist ramen on a cold day...and caused myself a stomachache from too much food.

Chimmy's is apparently famous for pastries and coffee (Convent Bakery free trade beans). We also had a chance to sample the breakfast & lunch menus. While my friends went for a chicken quiche and the Big Fry Up respectively, I decided I was more into a sweet main - apple bread with honeyed yoghurt and baked fruits.

I am unsure how much enjoyment was had from the Big Fry Up (first time I have seen big raw cherry tomatoes served in a fry-up, though they were apparently very very good) or the chicken quiche, but I was quite happy with my dish and coffee. I found the bread a bit too crumbly for the intention of the dish, but liked the yoghurt and fruit. I cannot say too much about the service - the waiting staff confused the orders when the cafe was full even though we all had table numbers. I was tempted to have a second coffee but decided to go healthy and opt for a smoothie instead. We were allowed to stay and chat for more than two hours, which we thought was nice considering the increasingly cloudy skies outside.

I think I would go back if I had the chance, but maybe for a coffee and tart after a ramen lunch just to make the trip more worthwhile. Then again, making a trip to anywhere for food and drink is worthwhile when in good company to retain a realistic, positive perspective of life.

LS: Food - 3 to 3.5 stars; Coffee - 3.5 to 4 stars; Atmosphere - 3.5 stars; Service - 3 stars.

How to Become a Human Pack Horse in 3 Hours...or Less

Winter in Melbourne makes you want to sing,

"Tis The Season For A Foodie,
Falalalala, lalalala
Tasting wine and buying goodies,
Falalalala, lalalala
All my friends and I are happy,
Falalalala, lalalala
Tis the Season For a Foodie,
FALALALALA, LALALA"

As you can tell, I went to the Good Food and Wine Show 2009 with Juls for a key reason: TO SHOP. Hyukhyukhyukhyuk.

We got off work early to head to the Masterchef demonstration. As we queued up to go into the show, I noticed a familiar face in the Book Signing section. Could that be...Matt Moran?! From our vantage point in the queue (so no that is definitely not me next to Matt), Juls and I agreed that Matt is a better-looking man in person (and very fit too) than in the various media you see his picture in. He really should smile more - he does look good when he smiles. A pity that I do not have any books for him to sign, but then I was there to shop. The photo is a bit dark I must admit - tried to fix it up but I gave up because it would have made his bald head too shiny. You will just have to take my word for it - he is better looking than most chefs.

Catching a LG Celebrity Theatre show was incidental and perhaps necessary - after all, what is the point of inviting all these celebrity chefs if nobody is going to go watch them cook? I am very supportive of food show organisers in their efforts :) We failed at the Fruit and Vegetable audience game (long beans are a fruit?!) and so did not get a chance to win any of the fabulous gifts on offer.
We were sitting in the third row, which meant we got to smell George's egg and lemon soup (mmmm) and watch the hot doughnuts with lavender sugar teasingly pass us by (nooooo). It also turned out that we were sitting in front of the two biggest food show hecklers I have ever heard...no I do not recall their faces but do I really want to? Hecklers are hecklers - they think they are SO funny when really they are just being annoying. We were all surprised to learn that Masterchef Australia is still filming. The audience wanted Chris the Victorian beer merchant to win, but Juls and I rolled our eyes at that. We would not mind visiting his future beer establishment though :) We also learnt from George that an authentic Greek lamb souvlaki has mustard, not garlic sauce, and chips. Somehow it reminded me of late nights having an AB in North Adelaide - lamb kebab meat (we call them kebabs in SA), chips, garlic sauce and tomato sauce, all wrapped up to eat outside the Blue & White. Ah memories...

Anyway, we almost skipped out of the show the second it ended so we could get started on the shopping. I also took the opportunity to watch out for 'pretty' stalls - I applaud creativity in attracting showgoers.

I found out a few things, e.g. the Boscastle Factory Cafe is actually near my place (Barkly Street, Brunswick) and produces mini pies, and you can freeze fresh smoked salmon. Juls and I agreed that the Selectors showbag by Safeway was a great buy. At the Red Kelly booth I finally got the Tom Yum Spice Grinder I had first seen in Bicherno, Tasmania (a Tom Yum Spice Grinder? You exclaim. What outcome will that hold? You ask. I will let you know when I get to use it.)

Unfortunately the Swiss Diamond exhibit was not available this year, nor any real bargains to be had at the Phillips Crab exhibit. We got Jack Daniels Tennessee Style Barbecue Sauce (Four for 10 bucks!), Tassal salmon showbag (875gm smoked salmon, 2 tins of smoked salmon and a recipe book for 30 bucks!) and Sence Rose Nectar - I also got a bottle of Sence Rose Liquer just for the heck of it. Maybe I can use it in baking...

Soon Juls and I had a swag of goodies - I am pretty sure that Juls bought more things than I did because she had more difficulty negotiating her goodies toward the end of the night (which was before 8pm for us). I do recall stopping at the Dilmah tea booth for a rose tea - boy they make their teas strong there! I also found very tasty Palomba Antipasti Marinated Mushrooms (2 x 330 gm for 10 bucks!)

By the time we were done staring, smelling, tasting and appreciating (with suitable oohs and ahhs), we were exhausted. We looked at each other, and agreed that we were not even going to bother going into the wine section to try anything. Normally this constitutes a cop-out for us, but we had purchased a few bottles of wine from Yarra Valley during Juls' birthday celebrations. Recalling my drinks list on the fridge, I also worked out that I did not need any more alcohol. Besides, we would have been horses in a china shop. :P

It was a pity that the Veneto Region stall, so talked about in the Show advertisements, was much less than what I expected. Those who have been to the region e.g. Padua, Verona or Venice (ah, Venice) would have been severely challenged to argue that the stall represented anything that we knew about the region. As a result, I end this post by leaving you a picture of the Venice in my mind, the kind of stall I think should have turned up at the Show to justify the expense in reserving such a big exhibitor space in the show: