RECIPE: Fresh Pappardelle with Broadbeans in a Chorizo, Porcini and Burnt Butter Sauce

This dish has a very similar (nearly identical) core to yesterday’s dish, but comes across totally different.


Start by making some pasta dough (no, dried pasta will not work in this dish—fresh egg pasta is essential) with 1 heaped cup of 00 flour. Pretty simple. Just make a well in the centre of the flour and add around 4 egg yolks. Slowly incorporate the flour into the egg until you have a pasta dough. If the dough is wet then add some more flour. I always guess at the quantity needed because I’m a lazy idiot and find that it’s easiest to make it wetter and dry it with flour than make it dry and try to add more egg to a brick of dough.

After covering it in cling film and resting it in the fridge for 30 mins or so, roll it out over a lightly floured surface then cut into sections for the pasta machine. Start on the widest setting then roll the dough through each setting once until you’re done on the finest setting. If you don’t have a pasta machine, roll it as thin as you can get it with a rolling pin or a bottle covered in glad wrap. Once done, gently and loosely roll the dough up and slice it around 1cm thick so you have pappardelle.


You’ll need to work smart when you’re cooking the dish.

Take one pot—slightly bigger than you think you’ll need for the pasta--and get it onto a rolling boil.

Get your ingredients together. 50g of butter, 5 torn sage leaves, a little bit of thyme, the beans from 5 broadbeans and 3 tablespoons of chorizo and porcini jus.

In a pan on a medium-high heat, add the butter, sage and thyme. Heavily salt the boiling pot of water and add the pasta. Add the broadbeans and some cracked black pepper.

Once the butter is looking slightly brown the pasta should be cooked. But check the pasta as you go. It won’t take long to cook. Once the pasta is done, add it to the pan using tongs. A bit of the pasta water will help the sauce stick to the pasta. Immediately add the chorizo and porcini jus and toss.

Put all into a bowl and grate a whole heap of parmesan of the top.

It should make 2 serves.

RECIPE: Pan-Fried Latchet with Broad Beans, Jamon, Sage and Chorizo and Porcini Jus

This works fine with any white fish that is a bit stronger in flavour. Flathead would be an excellent substitute.

Dust the fish fillet with flour mixed with a little salt and pepper.

Put a pan on a medium-high heat and add a good knob of butter. Once it starts melting, add the fish, skin side down.

Add 3 torn sage leaves and 1 torn slice of jamon Serrano (prosciutto would be fine as a substitute).

Once the fish is looking golden brown and crispy, turn it over and add the beans from 3 broadbeans (I like to break then in half before adding). It should only need 1-2 mins on this side, depending on the thickness of the fillet.

Once the fish is done, put it on a plate with the jamon and broadbeans. In the pan, add roughly 3 tablespoons of chorizo and porcini jus (unreduced. Add only 2 teaspoons if jus is reduced), stir and ladle a couple of spoonfuls of this sauce on and around the fish.

Finish the dish with a small squeeze of fresh lemon juice and some thyme leaves.

RECIPE: Chorizo and Porcini Jus

Chop up 3 chorizo and put them in a medium pot with half a handful of dried porcini and 1 sheet of dried nori (torn up). If you have a brulee torch, give some of the chorizo a bit of colour. If not, put the pot over a hot stove and stir for 30 seconds.

Add enough water to just cover the contents and put in a low oven (around 100c) for 3 or so hours.

Strain into a smaller pot. You can either further reduce the contents (by around ¾) for an intense sauce, or keep as is, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and blend and add to other sauces/dishes for a rich (but less intense) boost at the end.

If you let it cool or use it later, make sure you include some of the fat that congeals. The majority of flavour is in that fat.

You can still keep the chorizo that were strained off and cook with them too. They won’t be as strong or oily, but can still be used in heaps of different ways.


Over the next 2 days I'll show you 2 things you can cook with the jus.

BEER: Beers of the Week

Been a few months since I did this, so let's get into it without any delay.


3rd Place - Theakston "Old Peculier"

I haven’t seen this one around before, which is odd considering it’s over 100 years old.

No mistaking that it’s an English old ale. Rich, roasty malt flavours with a background of spice and fruit. It holds a good middle ground of flavour for an old ale, not being overpowering in any particular characteristic and, as a result, drinks really well.

86%


2nd Place - Sierra Nevada 011 Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale

A fresh hop ale made each autumn when hops are at their ripest, once for the northern hemisphere and once for the southern hemisphere. This is the latter, brewing up a shipment of hops from New Zealand sent to California craft beer meganaut, Sierra Nevada.

Not surprisingly, it’s packed with floral, oily hops with a good structure of fruit and bitterness. It drinks super well and has an excellent depth of flavour.

89%


1st Place - Eric Bordelet Poire Granit

This week’s beer of the week isn’t actually a beer. Eric Bordelet is one of the finest producers of cider in the world and they don’t come any better than his incredible pear cider. Unlike nearly every other pear cider on the market, this actually tastes like pears. Pears with the skin on and smelling of the tree. Sweet, crisp, earthy and well-rounded; a cider of supreme flavour and balance.

It’s not cheap (around $40-50 for a 750ml bottle), but trust me when I say that it’s worth it. It’s a classy as hell drop with outstanding balance. It’s great on it’s own or with food. It shines with the obvious pairings like apple-based desserts and cheese, but is also great with pork, some fish dishes, salty or fried food and appetisers. Not that it’s much of a secret; I’ve had it paired with dishes in some excellent restaurants like Melbourne’s Attica (where I first had it) and Cumulus, and Barcelona’s Comcerc24.

He also makes a pretty mean calvados that is worth checking out.

97%

RESTAURANT: Bilson's

Something happened last time I went to Bilson's. I don't think there's any other way to describe it.

I went there once and it was a superb meal; instantly one of my favourites. Then they got a new head chef and announced that they were going to serve a 15 course meal that would take around 4 hours and would cost $280--just for food.

So far so good, I suppose.

I went there expecting something similar to the first experience, but a little different and much longer. I knew there was a new head chef and saw that as a plus. And even though the new chef was only a month or so in, people were already saying that he was doing a great job.

But, man, was that shit underwhelming. Broths were added to dishes and made them a headache to eat, elements on the plate destroyed other elements, modern techniques felt added-on rather than vital to the dish, service was a little unpolished and the wine pairings didn't always match the food. One of my favourite restaurants in Sydney had become something confusing and better-off avoided.

While I kept wondering what happened, excellent reviews kept on pouring in, climaxing with the apparent return to 3 hats from the Good Food Guide. Basically, I started to doubt myself.

There was only one solution: a ~$450 roll of the die.

It started the same way it did last time, with the fish chips: dry, crisp chips made from fish and potato, served with a tartare that is fairly inconsequential, with the chips being tasty and salty enough on their own without a punch of vinegar to go with it. This time, however, the chips seem thinner and crispier; less like the legs of soft shell crabs like last time.

An amuse bouche arrives and it catches me off guard. I'm probably getting this wrong, but I think it was a sweet potato mousse with ginger, miso, croutons, black sesame cake and a couple of other things. It was fucking brilliant. Flavourwise it was perfect. But, more relevantly, the dish worked in the bowl. It was texturally brilliant. Every element played it's role to perfection. This was nothing like last time. And it was only the amuse bouche. So much better than the coconut and garlic amuse served last time. A good sign.

The next three dishes that follow were fairly similar to dishes served last time.

The starter of oyster, king crab, apple cous cous and yogurt works a lot better on the second take. The compressed apple, celery and (I think) finger lime were balanced perfectly, whereas last time they ruined the texture of the dish by being in large chunks. There's a buzz of chilli which is almost profound. The flavour and heat of red chilli is, strangely, well matched to the mineral flavours of the oyster. A staggering amount of work has gone into making the many elements work together and it really pays off.

The dish that pissed me off the most last time is back and it's barely changed. The raw and barely cooked prawn parts are great. And the fried (I think) quinoa adds a nice texture. But I find that the consomme that gets added at the table to be really confusing and just ruin the way the dish eats. It makes the quinoa soggy--but not soggy enough to make it texturally interesting--and on a relatively flat plate with a relatively flat spoon, it eats poorly. It's not a bad dish, but it's not a great dish.

The slight reworking of the carrot, calamari, shaved macadamia and cocoa is, however, a great dish. Somewhat forgettable and confusing last time, it's reworked the balance of the elements and become outstanding. Everything on it makes sense and the combination of the shaved macadamia with the sweetness of the carrot and calamari is bang on. The matching wine is a cracker--an aromatic, almondy pigato--and takes the dish to the next level, giving the dish a buttery but clean finish.

Enter The Marron. I don't recall the next dish--marron with a rectangle of butternut pumpkin, milk foam and mandarin puree--from last time. If it had have been served I'm certain I would have, because it's awesome. Great textures, super marron, a foam that makes sense and that mandarin puree in combination with the flax seeds atop the marron holds all of the flavours together.

Egg yolk with truffled chicken soup and cauliflower is nice but is difficult to eat in the same way that the prawn dish is due to the barely cooked yolk that oozes all over the plate once punctured. Ever tried to eat some egg yolk off a plate with a fork? Fairly frustrating. It's like that. The truffles barely come across and aren't really necessary. The dish is better than what I remember of last time--and certainly isn't "bad"--but it still isn't one of the better dishes, despite promising a luxurious experience on paper. The saving grace is the brilliant matching wine that cuts through the cloyingness of the yolk but still allows the dish the richness it requires.

Smoked mackeral with salsify, jerusalem artichoke, rosemary and citrus banishes any bad thoughts. It's perfectly balanced, well-textured and beautifully flavoured. Oddly, the star of the dish is the powdered citrus, which holds all of the flavours together. It's a contender for dish of the night.

The next dish--inspired by chef Munoz's time at El Bulli--is just insane. It's a rich, parmesan-laden polenta, spherified, along with fried zucchini flower petals, hazelnuts and some pieces of baby zucchini. Fucking incredible. A rich polenta is great on it's own, but to have it contained in a gnochi-like morsel that explodes in your mouth is something special. Along with some texture from the crisp zucchini flower petals and hazelnuts and the flavour of the hazelnut and baby zucchini rounds out everything perfectly. Thanks for ruining polenta for me forever. It WAS my one of my favourite things before this dish set the bar WAY too high for me.

The mushroom and quail dishes that follow are also excellent, rounding out a spectacular middle of the menu. If every dish was like the middle section of dishes you'd have a contender for best restaurant in the country, if not the goddamn hemisphere.

A plate with pears arrives and a hare jus is poured. Like the prawn and egg yolk dishes, it eats poorly. Eating a jus/broth/consomme with their thin spoon is fairly unrewarding. Balance wise, I felt the chunks of pear were a bit strong for the hare jus. Although the small brushing of oloroso sherry add a nice depth to the flavour. Another saving grace was, again, the wine pairing. The DJP mencia was best mates with the hare jus, taking both to new heights.

The final savoury course is the wagyu shank--cooked for something like 30 hours--with kipfler potatoes and a watercress puree. It's almost like mashed potatoes and corned beef, but significantly better. A really nice dish that looks tremendous on the plate. Last time I really hated the wine match which was some sort of red and got totally blown away by the rich potato mash. I'm still not blown away by the red that is matched this time.

The cheese course takes the form of mascarpone with beetroot, orange and white sesame. A brilliant and refreshing dish after the rich beef dish. The mascarpone is perfectly flavoured and the other elements add good flavour and texture to the dish.

"Citrus" is the first dish and replaces the rose, raspberry and white chocolate dish from last time that I felt ate poorly. It's brilliant and, yes, citrussy. Citrus in all it's guises, put into plenty of different forms. Great flavour, great texture and eats so much better than last time. And very, very citrussy.

"Equatorial" finishes things off. A gooey chocolate fondant covered in coffee mousse, chocolate sauce and chocolate snow. Chocolate and coffee on an extreme, rich scale. Good flavours but I don't like the way it eats. A fondant covered in sauce doesn't really work. And the chocolate snow on the side of the bowl feels added on. There's no denying that there were some great elements on the plate (or bowl, as it were) but for me I think it needs a bit of a rework if it wants to be on the same tremendous level as some of those savoury courses.

It all concludes with the chocolate box--a box filled with chocolates and an edible base, which you can't really eat because it doesn't taste great--which I refuse to accept as a course because it's basically just petit fours, which isn't normally (ever) considered a course.

I leave around three and a half hours after I began, shaking my head. The turnaround from my last meal is incredible. The food is, generally, exceptional. The wine pairings are often inspiring. The staff now appear to be brimming with pride in their food and are well represented by sommelier Richard Hargreaves who is as passionate about the restaurant as he is likeable as he is great at matching wines.

I now rate Bilson's up with Marque and Quay as Sydney's best fine-dining restaurants. Better than Sepia, better than .est, better than Bentley. More importantly, Bilson's is better than I've ever seen Bilson's before. They're on a great path here.


RATING: Will return to [?] (promotion from 'Okay, may go back')

RECIPE: Taramosalata and Buffalo Mozzarella Pizza

It’s late. You’ve been drinking. You’ve got that unshakeable hunger for something hot and oily and juicy. You could swing past that kebab joint near the station on your way home and suit the craving that way. But... there’s a problem.

You’re drunk at home tonight because your friends don’t want you hanging around after what happened last weekend at Darren’s place in the laundry with his purebred Suffolk lamb. Why does he have a pet Suffolk lamb in his laundry? It doesn’t matter, they tell you. And if it did matter, what you did wasn’t going to shed any light on the question.

So you’re at home, drunk, questioning your sexuality and you’re craving something to eat. It has to be quick. It has to be easy. It can’t be lamb. At least... not until you reconcile these feelings you’re having...

How about a super easy pizza? A unique one. Because you’re a unique sort of guy.



Put your oven on it’s highest setting and chuck a thin oven tray in there.

Take a wrap. I use a souvlaki wrap because it has a nice thickness but you could use a Lebanese one or something like that.

Spread it very thinly with taramosalata (should be around a heaped tablespoon).

Get some buffalo mozzarella. Around 50 grams should do it (which is roughly half a medium sized ball). Tear it into a few chunks and put it around the pizza. Don’t put it in the centre as it could make it soggy. I know it’s hard to concentrate now because the white cheese is reminding you of a Suffolk lamb, but I need you to stay with me for a bit longer.

Give the whole thing a little drizzle with olive oil.

Hopefully your oven is screaming hot now. Put the pizza on the tray and let it cook. Cook it until the edges are well browned but not burnt. It should take around 10 mins.

Take the pizza out. Another drizzle with olive oil. A few drops of lemon juice if you have a lemon around. A little cracked black pepper. Slice into pieces.

Eat.

Wash up.

Cry yourself to sleep.

Yes, again.

RECIPE: Prawn Ceviche

Ceviche is a noble dish. THERE I SAID IT.

It could just be one of those awesome dishes from a part of the world that has been around for centuries and was created purely out of what was available to the people making it. But it's more than that; it's a dish that doesn't let you lie.

There's nowhere to hide in a ceviche (especially if you make a small quantity lolololol). If you don't use the freshest of ingredients then your dish is going to totally blow. Hell, you even risk poisoning whoever eats your dish if you use dodgy seafood. You don't get that shit with a lasagne.



This recipe is good for any shellfish or boneless white fish. I'd originally intended to do this with scallops, but the prawns at the fish store looked a bit fresher. You could use a combination of seafood if you wanted, but just make sure whatever you use is extremely fresh. If you can't find fresh seafood don't make a ceviche. If you even attempt it you will spontaneously combust and fish parasites will feast on your charred remains.


Ingredients

- 250g of prawns (peeled, deveined weight), roughly chopped
- 1.5 lemons
- 1 lime
- 2 chillis, deseeded and finely chopped (to taste)
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 shallot
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 big handful of corriander leaves, finely chopped
- 4-6 mint leaves, finely chopped
- Olive oil to finish


Method

1. In a shallow bowl, add the juice of 1 lemon, 1 lime and the zest of 1/2 a lemon and 1/2 a lime.
2. Finely grate the garlic and shallot into the bowl.
3. Add the chillis and a generous pinch of salt and pepper.
4. Add around 4/5 of the corriander and mint. Reserve the rest for finishing.
5. Add your prawns, mix and refrigerate for 25 mins, mixing after 15 mins.
6. To finish, transport the mixture to a serving bowl, discarding the liquid. Finish with the reserved herbs, a squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve immediately with crusty bread, toasted wraps or prawn crackers.

THE LINKDOWN: Five Food Links

Monteiths: A single source of bastardry
Interesting beer story from New Zealand that has been getting a lot of press in the beer circle. Essentially, Monteith's have trademarked the name of a well-known style of beer and have gone to some lengths to stop other people from using the name. I'm not sure what leaves a worse taste in the mouth: this story or the actual taste of radler beers.

The Serious Eats Guide to Taco Styles
Food site Serious Eats takes a look at tacos. A very, very detailed look at tacos. Styles, types, flavours, whatever. This article is foodgasm stuff.

The Beer Diet!
A man lives on a diet of nothing but beer for 46 days. Interviewlarity ensues.

Marco Pierre White to Heston Blumenthal: The ten greatest chefs by Raymond Blanc
Legendary chef Raymond Blanc rattles off a list of who he thinks the 10 best ever chefs are.

The Congo Cookbook
African food is severely unexplored in this country, which is a shame because there are some absolutely killer dishes that originate from the continent. This site is an excellent resource for recipes from all over Africa.

RESTAURANT: Sepia

It's become something of a tradition that I take my mother out for dinner for her birthday. I think it started a few years back when I didn't have any ideas for presents and thought that a meal out with the world's greatest son in the world would compare favourably with Ferrero Rochers and nighties with pictures of dogs on them.

I can safely say it has become a tradition because as early as a month out from her birthday, my mother was already asking leading questions about where I'd take her this year. My father also looked on eagerly, again hoping to tag along and score a free meal. I struggled this year because it's not an easy question to answer.

My friends and I have grown up in the cultural melting pot that Sydney has become in the last couple of decades, so there are nearly no cuisines or dishes that are off limits. But my parents are of another generation. Entire countries are ruled out for how unusual their trademark flavours are for people not accustomed to them. A hint of pink in a steak can cause a fear in my father so palpable that I can momentarily hesitate from sipping red wine, for fear that it's only red because it's full of botchelism.

So when I decided to take them to Sepia for my mum's birthday, I was stepping out on a bit of a limb. Any red meat would be... well... red, ingredients that weren't present in suburban Sydney in the 60s would be on the plate (probably emulsified with rare meat) and there was the off chance that communists would be somewhere in the restaurant. And if my memory from history class is correct, everyone that grew up in the 60 just plain DISLIKED communists.

I'd been to Sepia twice before, but both times for the business lunch. So even though I kind of knew what I was in for. I also kind of didn't.

Would I be kicked out of the family because of an offensive gel?

What I was pretty confident of was that the service would be excellent: both of my previous visits had been punctuated by warm, friendly service. This time, no difference. The staff are all so calm and friendly that you feel comfortable from the minute you walk in.

There had been a small change in the kitchen, with former head chef (and ex-Fat Duck chef) Graeme McLaughlin having headed to Melbourne to head up Guillaume Brahimi's Bistro Guillaume at Crown. But with Martin Benn and Daniel Puskas in the kitchen, the food is still going to be spectacular.

On my previous visit I'd tried the Spanner crab and buckwheat risotto. It's still spectacular. Rich and full of shellfish flavour, but light enough so that you feel like you could happily eat it for the rest of your life and not get tired.

A take on scallop sushi is art on the plate, with droplets of avocado cream and pickled ginger sauce the only distraction from a few plump scallops, cooked perfectly and totally black from what appears to be a dusting of nori.

Jerusalem artichokes are a fantastic combination with egg and mushroom, so it's no surprise that the dish is delicious. While the slow-cooked egg is perfect and incredibly tempting, it doesn't wow me like the other two entrees.


To avoid any red meat awkwardness I'd sold my parents on Sepia having spectacular seafood, being backed by George de Costi and all that. They take the bait (ed: terrible pun) and it's seafood all round.

The scampi tail and murray cod with a shellfish jus is spectacular. Perfectly balanced between the sweetness of seafood and the richness of the jus. It just "works" on the plate and it's probably my pick for dish of the night.

Slow cooked ocean trout is perfectly executed and the combination of flavours excellent. It's an exciting dish, proving that it's possible to do a dish of confit of ocean trout in Sydney that's actually exciting.

My choice of main was probably the worst dish of the night. King George whiting with broad beans (I think) and tapioca pearls sounded like the sort of thing I love, but was the lacking flavour that every other dish had. It was made interesting texturally because of the tapioca pearls and the fish was perfectly cooked, but that was about it. It made me think back to the mulloway I had at Bentley a couple of days earlier and how much I preferred that, which probably isn't a good thing.

A side of roasted kipfler potatoes was delicious, with a hum of vinegar giving it that extra kick.


Sepia's chocolate forest dessert is fairly well known, so that was a no-brainer. It's a deconstructed black forest cake that looks like a delicious forest. And it tastes like a delicious dish, with so many textures that every bite is an experience. It doesn't quite reach the heights of the terroir dessert at Attica in Melbourne, which set the benchmark for edible forests for me, but that's nitpicking.

The "weiss" bar combines different textures of white chocolate and raspberry, and totally wins because of the awesome dehydrated chocolate mousse on top.

I'm a huge fan of savoury/sweet dishes, so the candied beetroots on the dessert menu call my name. It combines beetroot in different forms (cake, sorbet, whole baby beetroot, sauce) and it's an excellent combination of textures, flavours and inventiveness. The savoury "root" flavour of the beetroot still comes through which I thought could put some people off, but my parents both enjoy it, which speaks volumes.


We head out and I appear to have solidified my position in the family, which is great news. I've also gotten a fantastic meal in the process.

While I wouldn't rate Sepia as highly as the likes of Quay and Marque (my clear top 2), it sits with the best of the rest. I can see myself coming back soon to finally have the degustation. And for the business lunch. And for the wine bar. And maybe again for the a la carte.


RATING: Will return to [?] (unchanged)

RESTAURANT: Bentley Bar and Restaurant

This is my second return to Bentley. Check out the review from the first visit.

We decided to play things a little differently on this visit. The first time we went all out with the degustation with matching wines, cocktails to start and after dessert drinks and coffees. This time we decided to go a la carte. A somewhat scary decision, since whenever I hit up restaurants like this the kneejerk reaction is to go the deg with wines.

Would the a la carte be enough food? How would we go with the limited choice? When will that rash clear up? So.many.questions.

The answers would be yes, very well and it depends on whether this new cream will work or not.

Instead of getting an entree each we get 4 of the dishes from the appetiser section and split those. They're refined tapas and they're pretty bloody good. The kingfish ceviche is light, tangy and herbal, which is a pretty ace way to start. Beef tartare with spherified wasabi is delicious, beautiful to look at and moreish as hell (which is moreish, from all reports). Smoked eel parfait succeeds because of it's clarity of flavour and mix of smooth and crunchy texture. Foie gras parfait with puffed rice and pickled raisin is a total stunner: smooth, crunchy, sweet, savoury, fatty, acidic. Probably the dish of the night.

The wine list has the whole range of champagnes from Jacques Selosse, one of the best, most unique small houses on the market, so we opt for one of those. And it's spectacular.

For mains we go for the capsicum and pepper flavoured lamb with chick peas. Like a homely stew in terms of components, but with an excellent clarity of flavours that gives the dish real excitement. The other option is the mulloway with a whole bunch of things I forget. It's perfectly cooked, light, excellently balanced and delicious.

To finish, the date custard with musk meringue and rockmelon sorbet has a great balance of flavours and textures, but my vote goes to the liquid mandarin which combines mandarin done in various ways with chocolate. A perfect expression of winter.

We finish and realise that even though we went a la carte we tried 8 different dishes and spent more all up. A curious result that will require more testing in future.


Excellent flavours, casual vibe, solid staff, excellent wine list. Bentley is still not up there with Marque and Quay in my opinion, but it's one of the best of the rest.


RATING: Will return to [?] (unchanged)

THE LINKDOWN: Five Food Links

British farmers forced to pay the cost of supermarket price wars
Great piece in The Observer about UK farmers getting screwed by their major supermarkets over there. Awfully familiar...

Junior Masterchef – Would You Sign The Contract?
Some of the details on the contracts that contestants (or, more accurately, their parents) are having to sign for the next season of Junior Masterchef. A lot of it is standard legal speak, but it makes me feel pretty creepy that there's the chance that some of it could actually be enforced.

PRODUCE REPORT – JULY 2011
The July produce report from Market Fresh (a really handy site if you want to cook seasonally). A quick run-through of the key fruit and vege in season with some good trips on how to prepare them.

10 worst food trends
Jonathan Gold, one of the top food writers in the world, compiles the 10 food/restaurant trends of 2011 that annoy him the most. Most seem to relate to chefs acting like divas and ignoring what customers want.

Beer History: The 'Other' Sour Beers
Sour beers are starting to undergo a real resurgence in the craft beer scene. This article has a look at some of the lesser known sour beers.

RESTAURANT: Madang

I had my heart broken a while ago.

It was a busy Thursday night and I was out with a couple of friends looking for a meal. Everywhere was full and we were starving. Waiting was not.an.option.

We went to Shinara, our favourite Korean BBQ joint for their legendary all you can eat BBQ treats. And we found out that it was gone. Some new buffet shit was there and the grills were shit and everything was shit.

During it's heyday, Shinara was fucking insane. You paid $40 or so for all you can eat food and cooked it on your BBQ. Seafood, wagyu, yuukwe, pancakes, gyoza, ALL THE MEAT IN THE WORLD. I nearly died there 3 times. But then it started slipping; the food became more and more frozen. By the end, it was becoming borderline. And when the new management took over and the shitty buffet thingy happened I think I actually cried real meattears.


Only now have I felt ready to get back into Koreanbarbequeing. And what better place than Madang, the alleyway joint that has been named as Sydney's best too many times to mention (in all honesty I can't be bothered researching that).

So we go there and order and it's not all you can eat but it's still okay. I have to get over that. The BBQ is fired and straight away I see it's the perfect temperature: searing hot but with some cooler spots.

We get some meat and some yuukwe and some pork and kimchee and it's so good. And then the meat arrives and we cook that and it's awesome too. Better than any of the other KBBQs I've been to.

They have bukboonja (raspberry wine) and bak se ju which I see as essential KBBQ companions.

And the prices are okay for the quality and the service is good for a KBBQ and you just chill out and smash some meat and enjoy. They could improve on the quantity and quality of the sides that come with the meat (need more kimchee and more lettuce and not shit lettuce), but that's my only criticism. Madang is great.


RATING: Will return to [?]

RESTAURANT: Liana's

Church St, Parramatta. The home of evil food. And here I am at an Italian restaurant with a lunch special that is way too cheap ($9.90 for a main dish WITH a drink).

666

I opt for the ragu with fettucine because it's one of my favourite dishes around. I know I'm setting a high bar.

And it doesn't really make it over the bar. The fettucine (which is apparently homemade) is nice. But the sauce isn't a ragu. It's a tomato sauce with chunks of dull veal in it.

The price is good and the serving is huge. To pay $9.90 and get a meal and a glass of wine is good in anyone's book. But it's not great. The restaurant is so-so. The staff are "okay".

If you want some cheap, decent Italian then it's a good place. Otherwise, I don't see the point.


RATING: Okay, may go back [?]

RESTAURANT: Cumulus Inc [Melbourne]

If I type "cum" into Google, the second match is for Cumulus Inc, a totally kick-arse restaurant that I visited last time I was in Melbourne, run by one of the hottest chefs going around, Andrew McConnell.

Last time I went was for breakfast and I really enjoyed it. They totally smashed it with an egg cooked at 65c for 65 minutes and with a watermelon salad. While I generally don't eat out for breakfast much, this probably remains the best breakfast I've had "out".

After a return to breakfast was thwarted the day before by, well, people, we decided to come back right on opening to ENSURE that our final meal in Melbourne was lunch at Cumulus Inc.

We kick off with some soft shell crab. And it's really nice. Then we have some foie gras parfait and that's really nice too, with some sweet accompaniment to balance it out.

Tuna tartare with a pea salad is simple but probably the highlight of the meal. Chunks of tuna with a perfectly seasoned pea salad.

One of my favourite items of food arrives in the form of boudin noir (black pudding) with a salad of smoked tomato and parsley. It's so rich that the drink we got for our meal (Eric Bordelet's magnificent pear cider, my favourite cider in the world) struggles to cut through it. It's not perfectly in balance but it's bloody good.

Mustard crumbed pigs tail is next and--you guessed it--it's tasty. Crunchy from the crumb and unctuous from the tail. I would have liked more crunch to balance the gelatinous fat, but I'll still take it.

I could say the same for the slow-cooked beef brisket with mushrooms and (if I remember correctly) some sort of white vege puree: excellent, but on the rich side of balanced. And even though there was some dirt on the mushrooms that I got, it was probably the runner up dish to the tuna tartare.

Service was friendly and efficient (given the number of people waiting, probably not surprising). Prices reasonable for the quality. Hugely solid dishes with only minor quibbles.

I need to get to Cutler & Co next time I'm in Melbourne. A return visit to Cumulus Inc also needs to find a spot on the itinerary.


RATING: Will return to [?]

RECIPE: Chocolate Ganache and Mandarin Ricotta Tart

Base
- In a mixing bowl add 1 cup of plain flour and 100g of soft butter. Work the butter and flour with your fingers until they're like fine breadcrumbs, kind of like you're making a crumble.
- To that, add a inch of salt, 2 tablespoons of caster sugar, 1 egg and 1 egg yolk. A little mid of mandarin zest too if you can be bothered.
- Using a knife, cut the mixture together (you pretty much keep slicing through the mixture until it starts coming together).
- When it starts feeling similar to a dough, ditch the knife and finish it off with your hands. The pastry should be in between a firm dough and a wet dough. Solid enough to roll out, and not wet so that when you poke it you finger comes out clean. Don't overwork it. If it's too wet, add more flour.
- Wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge for 30 mins or so.
- After 30 mins (or so) preheat the oven to 160c and take your pastry out of the fridge. Roll it out so that it's circular (if you're using a circular tin) and around 5mils thick. Tip: if it's too elastic and hard to work then try putting it in the fridge for longer to cool down. And make sure you don't overwork the pastry.
- Put your rolled out pastry into a buttered tin. You want to have sides that are at least 6cm deep.
- Poke some holes in the base with a fork, cover it with baking paper and weigh down the middle if you having some of those ceramic ball things. Cook the dough until the base looks firm. Ideally you don't want any colour, but the base won't cook any further past this point so that's the focus.
- Take it out and let it cool.

Mandarin Ricotta
- Ideally, you should do this while the tart is resting in the fridge or blind baking. But you can do it the day before if you want to.
- In a bowl, mix together around 600g of ricotta, 2 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar, the zest of 1 mandarin, around 1/4 of a cup of mandarin juice and (optional) a shot of brandy/cognac/grappa/etc. Mix until it's smooth. The smoother the better.
- Taste the mixture. You only want it to be ever so slightly sweet and only have a hint of mandarin. If needed, adjust it. If you want to assault people with sweetness or mandarin then add more. Personal taste plays a big factor here.
- Check the texture. You want it smooth and slightly running. Pourable, basically. If you need it runnier, add more mandarin juice.

Baked Mandarin Ricotta Tart
- So your tart base has been blind-baked and has cooled. You've made the mandarin ricotta filling.
- Poor the ricotta filling into the tart base so it leaves a gap of around a centimetre to the top of the sides.
- Put this into the oven and cook until the sides of the tart start to get a bit golden. Probably around 40 mins.
- Once cooked, take out of the oven to cool.


Chocolate Ganache
- Set up a double-boiler (a mixing bowl above a pot filled with simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water level).
- Into the bowl add 200g of cooking milk chocolate. Let that melt down, stirring often. Take this slowly. If it's going too fast, take the bowl off the heat for 20 seconds or so and let it cool.
- When the chocolate has completely melted, slowly add 150ml of room temperature cream. Mix it through. Again, don't rush this step; control the temperature.
- Add 25g of softened butter. Mix through.
- Optional: add a small amount of vanilla beans or vanilla paste. NOT essence or extract.
- Set aside to cool slightly.

Chocolate Ganache and Mandarin Ricotta Tart
- Pour the ganache over the cooled tart so the level of chocolate reaches the top of the sides (but doesn't overflow).
- Put into the fridge to cool completely. At least 2 hours.

There you have it. Looks complicated, but, trust me, it's really easy.

RECIPE: Polenta with Ragu

RECIPE: Beetroot Tortellini, Sauted Mushrooms, Beef and Red Wine Jus

RECIPE: Seared Scallops, Prosciutto Crumbs, Cauliflower and Tellegio Puree

RESTAURANTS: Cafe Excello / HuTong / Crazy Wings [Melbourne]

I was looking forward to breakfast today because we were hoping to go to Cumulus Inc, where I'd had a brilliant breakfast the last time I was in town (oh, 65/65 egg how I adore). Unfortunately, we got there and it was packed. So we went to the European. Unfortunately, that too was packed so we went to the first cafe we saw: Cafe Excello.

It's nothing special and it doesn't try to be (at least, I hope). Decent breakfast, decent coffee. Okay.



Lunch was going to be great. A return to HuTong, where last time I popped in for some quick dumplings.

I took charge of the ordering and went hard on the xiao long bao (soup dumplings) and other dumpling related things, with some mapo tofu thrown in to fill us up. The mapo tofu order also partly motivated to exercise the demons from the subpar version at Wonton House the night before.

HuTong didn't disappoint, bringing out some excellent dumplings and a very solid mapo tofu (although the rice was delivered something like 15 mins after said mapo tofu, which was stupid). Wontons in spicy sauce were a nice surprise. Instead of your favourite fried dumpling place, the flavours here are clear, sharp and perfectly-balance.




We'd originally hoped to check out Izakaya Den for dinner, but arrived to find it shut. Oh. So across the road and into Crazy Wings where we'd missed out the other night. I couldn't wait to compare it to the Sydney version.

A bit of a different setup. We write down our order on a printout of a menu and they go off to cook it. It's quickly obvious that the service blows. The plates and cups we're given for our water are wet. The water is tepid. We aren't given any napkins or chopsticks until we ask. The wait for our food is extremely long. The bathrooms are the most evil places I have seen on this earth. Other people are getting food but we're not. I know they ordered before us, but surely you can bring us a few skewers during the time you bring them around 8 lots?

I have a very high tolerance for slow and poor service, but this was very nearly my breaking point. So I imagine some people will find it unacceptable.

But when the food finally arrives it's great. Exceptional. The xin jiang spices are back on all of the skewers and it's brilliant. But there are some surprises in store. Chicken skin skewers? OH MY GOD. I would happily eat these until I died. Happily.

The cooking is a little better here than in Sydney. Whenever fat is present it melts in the mouth, and the spices penetrate deeper than in Sydney.

We learn from our mistakes in Sydney and get some carbs in the form of the fried rice, which is surprisingly nice.

The pork skin skewer arrives and it isn't the pork crackling I'd hoped it would be, but can't win em all. Note to self/Crazy Wings: pork crackling skewers.

If you can get over the bad service and dirty restaurant then sink a couple of Tsingtaos and enjoy some good skewer action. The lamb and the chicken skin are essential.

RESTAURANTS: Perk Up / MoVida / Becco / Mrs Parma's [Melbourne]

We woke from the late night before, brushing the sleep from our eyes to reveal a dilemma. We had a lunch booking at 12, which didn't leave enough time for a big breakfast.

We left the hotel and hit up the first place that appeared to contain coffee and light food: Perkup, a pretty no-nonsense cafe/food thing near Southern Cross station.

The food was okay. The coffees okay. The spot was hit.




The lunch booking in question was the ubiquitous tourist journey to Movida. I've heard that if you're a tourist in Melbourne and you have a blog and you don't go to Movida then YOU PROBABLY WILL DEFINITELY DIE.

I went here last time I was here and a return was a no-brainer. This time I enjoyed the hell out of the Pyrenees wet roast (braised?) lamb breast, the duck liver parfait with pedro xim foam, pork neck in prunes, wagyu tartare and the legendary beef cheek in pedro xim with cauliflower puree.

Disappointed that some of my favourites from last time (namely the air dried wagyu with egg and the morcilla) were missing. But onwards and upwards I guess.

Service was friendly, though they did get one of the dishes wrong. I won't think less of you if you write my order down. Seriously.

For mine, I still think that Sydney's Bodega has the edge over it as the best modern tapas I've had, however slight that edge may be.




Our dinner was going to be an interesting one. One of my travel companions work colleagues recommended Becco as the best meal she'd ever had in Melbourne, despite it being something like five years ago. Despite me mentioning that I'd heard nothing but "okay but not great" from people that have been there recently and trying to compromise by suggesting a quick lunch or a plate before moving on to somewhere else so we don't "burn a meal" there, I got overruled and Becco was the destination.

What can I say? It was okay, but definitely not great. It wasn't current. The selection of antipasto as an entree gave me a selection of 3 bites, all more boring than the last. Someone opted for the stuffed olives and for nearly $20 only got a few stuffed olives in a tired cup. They weren't blown away by the flavour. It was a similar reaction from the one that ordered the 2 small pieces of lambs brain.

Mains weren't much better. I enjoyed the abundance of quail in my casarecche with quail ragu but the superfluity of olives put the ragu off balance. Eggplant tortellini looked fresh on the plate and ate okay but didn't blow anyone away. And for over $40 the spaghetti marinara was fairly par for the course. Desserts didn't look like anything special.

Becco looks like a nice and promising restaurant, but the food--while pleasant--is a total snoozefest. We all agreed that the co-worker dropped the ball on this one.


RATING: Will probably not return to [?]




The night finished with a walk around the corner to Mrs Parma's for some drinks.

While it seemed like a fairly unassuming schnitzelhaus, this place single-handed gives the middle finger to Sydney's appreciation for craft brewing. We've got nowhere like this where a normal sort of restaurant is dedicated to having local craft brews on trap, as well as a very solid local craft list in the fridge. Kudos.