Happy Friday everyone. I hope there will be great adventures and cruising and relaxes with tea and icey bubbly drinks. This weekend I’m off to Kangaroo Valley, where we’ll probably do a bon fire, herd some cows, read books in the sun on the massive lawn. Dare I take my swimmers? I’m taking a pork belly to test a recipe for my Sunday Life column The Perfect…, and will let you know how that goes. I’m thinking crispy, spicy and wholly aromatic. It’s a wintery kind of dish and a brilliant precursor to the supernova of special days on Sunday, mother’s day. But you’ll get the perfected recipe in a few weeks when it’s published. Meanwhile, check out the Mother’s Day page this Sunday. She’ll love it (a surprise), and it’s simple enough to gather the kids and get them to cook it.
This weekend I’ll be taking loads of pictures in the Valley, and will share them all here. I know we’ll be doing a pub lunch tonight, hopefully with roaring fire to beat the Southern chill.
This Sunday as well I’m on 702 ABC Sydney with Simon Marnie. I’ve grabbed not the mother but the grandmother Margaret Fulton, and we’ll be chatting about all things food and good. So flick on your radio at 11ish to hear that, and call up for a chat! Meanwhile, it’s nearly 5 o’clock.
Every now and then, something comes along and just changes everything. It’s a shift so great and so momentous, we just don’t want to go back to how it was. And that’s what’s happened in Sydney, with the opening of The Grounds of Alexandria. This is where I ended up (upon the recommendation of the wonderful Jill Dupleix, and then everyone else) this morning, with the rest of cool hunters and leisurely espresso cravers. I’ll post a proper post this week but I just wanted to do a sneak preview of sorts. The place is darned revolutionary. It’s a warehouse space turned into my future dream home of rustic, polished, spacious, light-drenched, and just awesome.
Drinks in jars may be more overdone than zeit geist, but here it works, and the rippled iced coffees done in a two-hand-to-hold jar is syrupy and not too sweet. There are vanilla and chocolate milkshakes and granola with yoghurt and berries so fragrant you’d think they were fake. And a little carrot cake topped with cream cheese icing had me pause for teariness. It is the best carrot cake I’ve ever had. And I like carrot cake. But actually, speaking of carrots, Peter Rabbit is outside.
There’s a whole garden out there. A whole sprawling brick-paved, pergola-topped garden with raised garden beds and raddichio growing amongst the strawberries (see fragrant strawberries earlier). There are tiny baby eggplant for heaven’s sake. Sitting perched on a rafter-sided garden with my carrot cake in one hand, strong soy flat white in another, and balancing some almond and plum compote-topped porridge there somewhere too, I was as happy as a duck in water. Yes, and there are ducks, and rabbits.
These kids wander around with towel-wrapped ducklings that squeak with concern, but it’s a cute sight. I’d like to see a more watchful eye over the critters, (nobody should be allowed to hang a rabbit in the air for that long), but I have no doubt the uncomfortable animal handling will be ironed out. Or I hope it will. The visiting children are overwrought with excitement, it’s a veritable petting zoo. But with good coffee.
Inside the place is immaculately designed, high ceilings, massive windows, the white railway tiles, copper coffee pots and turquoise cup and saucers just gorgeous. There’s a cafe, coffee roasting and testing facility and bakery, all housed in this massive warehouse. The coffee roasting facilities also incorporate a boutique coffee school, which includes a coffee workshop area to educate caffeine fascinators. But this is a game changer because of the garden, where The Grounds grow their own heirloom vegetables. The vegetable garden patch meets cafe makes us conscious that what grows around comes around. It’s an idea that Sydney will hopefully see a lot more of in the future.
At the helm of The Grounds is creative entrepreneur Ramzey Choker, as well as coffee expert Jack Hanna and interior design and events agency The Artistry.
Little video I made about El Capo, a little place for Latin street food in Surry Hills. Our waiter brings grits with pork and an almond milk that’s supposed to cut through grease, and a kingfish ceviche with tiny white cubes of perfect fish. He talks of Oaxaca in southwestern Mexico, where you can eat anything from bugs to grilled perfect chicken street side.
Peking duck pancakes and the most incredible, sweet, soft coconut flesh laden drinks, and Vietnamese rice paper rolls stuffed with silken prawns. Yes, this was lunch, found at a Miss Chu stall at the MasterChef Live event in Sydney.
A production line worked away scattering Vietnamese mint, coriander, and pretty bunches of marinated tofu, prawns or a satay minced chicken inside the rice paper rolls. Queues of people waited patiently to grab the event’s heathiest lunch. Larger bamboo steamers filled with dumplings sat over boiling water, stacked and billowing the scent of Asian ingredients. The prawn rolls contained almost sashimi prawn, cooked perhaps in a squeeze of acidic lime juice and wrapped with crunchy bean shoots and green paw paw. A peanut dipping sauce, spiked with chilli, is the dish’s crowning glory.
The Masterchef Live event, which is on for three days and finishes Sunday, was absolutely packed on Friday, more than 20,000 people shoulder rubbing to get a view of their favourite chef, learn new knife techniques, how to cook perfect calamari, and the secret to cooking perfect fish (don’t overdo it!). I was delighted to see Miss Chu’s healthy Vietnamese rolls inspire a longer queue than one doing unhealthy pies and fried things.
Prawn toast, that greasy Chinese staple served in yum cha outlets across Australia, was taken to a new level at a cooking session held by Sydney chef Dan Hong, who reinvented the dish for the foodie crowd. Hong, of Lotus, Ms Gs and El Loco, demonstrated how to make the chopped-prawn and sesame on toast appetiser in one of a few hundred events taking place over the weekend.
Hong cooked a prawn and sesame toast with yuzu mayonnaise, a favourite on his Ms G’s menu in Potts Point. The dish involves finely chopping raw fresh, adding a drizzle of sesame oil and coriander, and then spreading that thickly over thinly-sliced toast. The open-sandwich is then sprinkled with sesame seeds and deep fried for several minutes, cut into fingers, and drizzled with yuzu mayonnaise.
“You want a thin crispy base, and heaps of prawns,” Hong told the crowd. “Prawns give it flavour, and who doesn’t love mayo?” Ms G’s does a combination of Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese cuisines, said Hong. There’s a mixture of herbs like mint and coriander, “there are no rules, it’s all about lots of flavour”.
Also appearing over the weekend are chefs such as Tony Bilson, Greg Doyle, Peter Doyle, Peter Gilmore, Matt Kemp, Kylie Kwong, Spanish-born Miguel Maestre, Jaques Raymond the French chef based in Melbourne, and Junior Masterchef’s Anna Gare.
Dan Hong and his prawn and sesame toast. All pics by Kate Gibbs.
If Sydney’s Japanese restaurants’ menus could be lined up in a row, we might be excused for thinking it is a case of the usual suspects. Salmon avocado rolls, crispy fried soft-shell crab rolls, beef teriyaki.. sigh. But a New York style Japanese fusion restaurant, Monkey Magic, is setting a new agenda. Suzuki jewfish with dashi and lemongrass consomme (below), a salted caramel semifreddo with pineapple chip … New head chef Shea Crawford (above, right) has joined the restaurant having worked at New York’s acclaimed Nice Matin and Oceana Restaurant, where he worked under the tutelage of Andy D’Amico.
Now as head chef at Monkey Magic, Shea has collaborated with Tsuboi and head sushi chef Michiaki Miyazaki to create a new menu flush with European influenced Japanese fusion fare. The so-named Crab Leaves is crab meat bedded on a betel leaf with a touch of ginger, chilli and lime, not a bad thing to go with a tall lemongrass julep (above), a gin and lemongrass cocktail. The slow cooked pork belly is braised and served withapple and ginger puree, salad of fennel, chinese cabbage, orange and chives ($27).
The usual suspects are still here, but the soft shell crab roll ($15) comes with flyingfish roe, tomato, mizuna, fried leek and spicy mayonnaise. And then it can be followed by the wonderfully unusual silken tofu cake (above), with white lemon sorbet and tuille ($13) or the sugar cinnamon beignet, which comes with a chai latte and sweet cream ($13).
Monkey Magic: 3&4, 410 Crown St. Surry Hills (02) 93584444
We love the packaging, we love the sweet roasted scented muesli with hints of orange, pecans and coconut, we love Farmer Jo, a stall at Eveleigh Markets. These smart little cartons hold five different flavours of cereal, using all natural ingredients. Farmer Jo roast all the nuts and dry the coconut and fruits themselves, and the pecans are truly fresh. We love the pear, pecan and spiced ginger toasted muesli, while the green apple and dried muscatel and grain porridge is full of almonds, vanilla and a hint of orange oil. Check out the other flavours here.
We spent last Saturday morning wandering through the glorious undercover markets, picking up chorizo to barbecue for addition to a tomato salad heavy with basil and cucumber, and flowers to fill the apartment. Kylie Kwong’s egg and shredded vegetable pancakes for breakfast, made by Kylie herself who works in streamlined efficiency at the end of a long queue. Toby’s Estate strong soy flat whites and cappuccinos were ordered and then seconds were reordered, a vanilla and chocolate ice-cream sandwich from Pat & Sticks was had on the way home.
Good morning Sydney! Delays on postings can be explained away with trips to Kangaroo Valley and trips to Melbourne. I reignite the postings with a timelapse clip from Sydney’s Breakfast on the Bridge on the weekend. I missed out on the lottery tickets (again), so got all delight from this little film. Instead, I made herby scrambled eggs for breakfast, had on grainy toast with hot smoked trout and coffee in the comfort of Melross.
Did you breakfast on the bridge? What did you take along?
A Saturday morning at Palm Beach, where we dropped in to the decked and red-and-white stripe decked out The Boat House. Hands down, best fish and chips I’ve had in Sydney, all beer battered and crispy flathead. Sunny wintery Sydney on the Hawkesbury at this little cottage setting was refreshing and so happy making. Two little girls ordered two enormous strawberry milkshakes. After lunch, wandered down to Whale Beach, where the sand is extra grainy and the surf was up!
Don’t be fooled when you hear chef Adam Humphrey’s thick Yorkshire accent. He may sound like he knows only stews and pork pies, but the man is a genius. Humphrey says Yorkshire pudding is too easy, so doesn’t bother putting it on his English-inspired menu at Arras. His creative menu includes fish and chips and [...]
Local Sydney artist Ears, or Daniel O’Toole, has been in the Inner West street scene for a while. He has carved out a style in which beautiful curling eyes have adorned many street walls, and his art has also cropped up in Paddington and the East. But this incredibly talented “graff” artist has now turned to [...]
Traipsing around Sydney visiting local producers for The Foodie’s Guide to Sydney 2011, for which I am writing. And I found the Mecca of good ice-cream. You can buy Glacé ice-creams and sorbets all over the place, but it is in the Leichhardt store that the Fresh Quince Sorbet, Sour Cherry & Passionfruit, and Espresso [...]
Don’t you love it when you drop in to your parents’ house to say hello and Giovanni Pilu (the Italian head-chef of Pilu) is making lunch, just by the by? That is truly hand-on-heart what happened the other day, by some extraordinary coincidence the very day after I went to his incredible Freshwater restaurant Pilu [...]
The Kitchen Inc. blog is written and edited by Kate Gibbs - a journalist, author and cook.
Food, travel, design >> How, when entwined together, these things inspire our daily culinary experience >> The Kitchen Inc. covers food, kitchen-based inspiration, and workable design as it impacts our dining, eating, cooking lives.
Kate Gibbs writes a weekly column for Sunday Life in The Sun Herald called The Perfect... She is a regular contributor to the SMH on food and travel. She writes food features for The Wall Street Journal.
Kate writes for The Foodies Guide to Sydney, The SMH Good Cafe Guide and SMH Everyday Eats. Kate has 11 years' journalism experience and has written for Russh, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Frankie and others. The interest in journalism began at London's The Evening Standard newspaper. Her first cookbook, The Thrifty Kitchen, was published by Penguin in 2009. Kate's grandmother Margaret Fulton is also in the food business.
In The Kitchen Inc, Kate writes restaurant, bar and cafe reviews, and shows the most interesting and inspiring places to eat and gastro-explore. Kate reviews new food-relevant design and books, she writes about new trends in cooking, how different ingredients are being used by our top chefs and cooks, and how to use these ideas at home.
