Spring.Picnic.Sandwich
August 21st, 2006
What do you get when you have spring like weather, a picnic rug, good company and treats? Why, a spring sandwich picnic or a spring picnic sandwich of course! Which ever order, a variation of a spring picnic involving sandwiches was on the agenda when emails were floating around earlier this week. Bowb and child, Helen and family and I were the recruits for the sunny day and it was all very good.
There are just a few things you need to do when its sunny; put out the laundry to dry, go out or sit in a park. I made sure to do all three yesterday after I prepped my sandwich contributions; a variation of bavarese blue or goats cheese with onion jam and/or almonds on spelt loaf. I have been making the red onion jam all week, and nearly every day I have given someone a bottle, so it was nice to make just a small batch in the morning; enough for sandwiches in the sun.
When the sandwich booty was unloaded onto the picnic rugs we had much choice. First the savoury goods; pastrima on turkish, goats cheese and basil on turkish. chicken and turkey combos, a box of salad vegetables, sweets. All of this, spoiling us for choice. Luckily the ratio of people : sandwiches had the peeps ahead to have a second serve.
And then there was dessert. Or more specifically scrummy dessert sandwiches courtesy of Bowb. There were petite almond cookies sandwiched together with chocolate ganache. There was chocolate bread sandwiched with sweet ricotta and tart raspberries. I don’t know which I liked better because they were equally tasty and equally cute with their homemade wrappers. Helen shared her bounty from her chocolate excursion and then her sister revealed a ricotta cake midway. Again… choice. Sometimes its just easier to have a little bit of each no?
All these wonderful things, and to think there we were also treating ourselves to bowls of coffee and Australian blend tea and baby cino for the child just moments before.
How to make grey clouds disappear
July 20th, 2006
Or four steps to recover from a week of wet weather lunches inside.
See, those grey rain clouds reflected on the cupcake container? They have been taunting us Sydney siders all week. Sometimes their threats are real because you leave your house or place of work thinking they are just hanging there looking full and jolly. You think you are safe for the 5 minutes it takes to run up to the bus stop or across to the library, but then they burst with their erratic drops, sometimes small and other times making crater sized marks on the foot path.
So even though the clouds were thick and full at lunch time on Thursday I still ventured out of the office; sick of a week of wet weather lunches inside.
1. The first thing to make this girl feel better on a cold lunch hour is to catch a fast bus up to George street and getting off at the Queen Victoria Building for a spot of retail therapy at L’occitane. The store is warm and smells sweet with fruit confit from the pomander. The magnolia flower range beckons once again, and so it should because in Sydney the magnolia tree’s have fallen prey to possums!
2. Venture back out to George street across to Galeries Victoria for Malaysian. [The clouds are in action, so along with other city workers I wait under the QVB awning for the light to turn green. A guy standing next to me asks if I could hold his tray of take away coffees, so he can run out to press the walk light button. I do and I read from the scribble on the coffee cups that the order ranges from serious (strong tall black) to why bother drinking coffee (decafe soy)]
3. At Jimmy’s Recipes you can get a steaming bowl of laksa which many think is the best laksa in the city. On Thursday I opt for a single serve murtabak. It is best to ask for it to be packed in a take-away box because the square of egg, mutton and onions wrapped in a Malay style roti is pretty rich when served a few spoons of curry gravy. Eaten with a fork and knife, a half of murtabak is filling; even on a cold rainy day. It’s best to double bag it too because experience tells me the remaining curry gravy is bound to seep from an invisible hole and ruin the lining of your bag.
4. Once the left-over murtabak is packed tightly, take the Pitt street exit and walk toward Park Street. Cross Park and continue along Pitt until you see a front window of cupcakes at Cupcakes on Pitt. There may be a group of girls with colourful umbrella’s deciding between the dark chocolate and tiramisu, but if you go straight in and order the lemon meringue you can make it back up George via Bathurst to catch the fast bus back to work before it starts to thunder down.
Turkish Delights: Shopping & Eating in Auburn
June 28th, 2006
[If you like stories about such things as nut honey and pomegranate molasses read on. If not scroll down for a short slide show, and click on the image to reveal a short description]
Is it possible to spend a morning shopping with a handful of foodies and return home with two bags filled with many many good things, only to write a list of items you didn’t buy, but hope to on your next return?
After a mini gastronomic tour of Auburn, Sydney’s little Turkey I returned home thinking about the many items I left behind. You see, I have one simple rule for these foodie excursions; bring as many shopping bags that you are willing to carry. I knew I’d be faced with big decisions on Saturday; there would be boxes of turkish delight, bottles of jams and nut honey, fresh turkish bread, dondurma, nuts, legumes, sweets to consider. Those jars multiply quickly when you are faced with such options as quince or red currant. And if you are swayed with neat bags of legumes and grains then it is easy to see that a few bags could easily weigh a girl down. So I folded up two black canvas bags with every intention of filling it up with some goodies. An easy amount to carry when I also knew that the day was going to end with dondurma.
I met up with Bowb, Helen, Sarah and Sue at a sweet shop. We walked along Auburn Road; stopping intermittently for za’attar on fresh bread, bánh mì, and a look-see here and there. But we had plans for turkish delight and I had told the girls about Arzum Market which I had been to only a couple of times.
To get from Auburn Road we crossed a few streets and went over a bridge to Station Street for sweet things. RT Delight used to have one store front with a neon light which beamed the words Authentic Turkish Delight at all hours of the day. The neon sign is still there, but the business which started in 1974 has expanded considerably. It now includes a swish front shop with glass cabinets filled with truffles, creme chocolates and many forms of turkish delight. I came away with two chocolate truffles and a box of hazelnut and coconut turkish delight which is being savoured very slowly with black tea as I write this. The truffles were good and the turkish delight which comes wrapped in plastic and boxed was just alright. If you do want fabulous turkish delight and happen to be in the area; may I suggest Byblos Pastry in Lidcombe. Their turkish delight comes in big cubes (you may be tempted to use it as a small paper weight) and studded with pistachio pieces.
Next we ventured down Rawson Road where two girls dressed in faux fur hooded coats were eating ice cream from the new parlour on the corner. One was balancing a full shopping trolley and eating her ice cream at the same time. I admired her tenacity and dedication to her cone and shopping. I looked at my folded black canvas bags with mild shame secretly wishing I lived in a city where shopping carts are the norm and not just for nana’s.
Arzum Market is amazing and by far one of my new favourite places to shop. You may feel slightly overwhelmed when you enter as there are many many good things on show. As I walked in with Bowb I was swayed this way and that with a spread of noveltly treats. Such things called puffs, browni, kolumbo, bananko. See it is easy to be swayed just by the names! I eventually left all these behind, determined not to give into sugar just yet. I ventured to the far end of the shop where bags of legumes and spices can be found. I was tempted to buy so many jams, but I have flashes of the overpopulated shelves at home so I only picked one jam and one honey. Eventually I came away with the following:
Sydney Food & Wine Fair
October 29th, 2005
Summer has unofficially arrived a month in advance, dear readers. Well, in Sydney at least. Today it was blue skies, sticky and hot - the kind of weather which creates the need for a chilled tipple of white wine by midday.
And as luck would have it, I was scurrying my way down Park Street at a quarter to twelve, to meet AG at the Sydney Food & Wine Fair; the last major event of Good Food Month and also a major fundraiser for the Aids Trust of Australia. Already at Hyde Park; the throng of Sydney siders and visitors were meandering the paths which housed the usual scene at foodie events these days; meringue peak tents accomodating various fine dining establishments, restaurants, and bars.
In one direction seafood galore with Flying Fish serving up a Sri Lankan snapper curry with basmati rice, and Industrie - South of France serving a risotto de la mer (only in Sydney will you buy risotto in a fancy styrofoam cup), and other delicious creations covering many continents and cuisines. With our coupons to barter with, a thorough analysis of the tasty fare was conducted from north to south ends of Hyde Park. We headed back to Flying Fish for AG to order the Sri Lankan curry, only to find all 500 servings dished out to hungry folk by 1:30pm. The chef, who may have been Flying Fish’s Executive Chef; Peter Kuruvita ever so kindly gave AG and I a taste test of the curry straight from the pot via a ladle. He said “try it chef style”, and we did. Tasty and mild was the gravy but interesting enough that I wish to try the food at Flying Fish for real, some time soon.
So back on the trail, shoulder to shoulder with other hungry bods, who were either nursing bottles of beer, flutes of champagne or summery cocktails. We eventually made up our minds up; Me: Grilled King Prawns on an avocado stack from Hugo’s and AG; Veal and Tuna type of bruchetta from Claude’s.
Tasty morsels indeed with the avocado stack doing twists and turns with my taste buds. It is amazing how the right amount of corriander and kecap manis takes the buttery fruit and makes it into a delicious partner to the fresh king prawns. Claude’s also did well with their fare; with praised Head Chef Chui Lee Luk present at their stand. The veal and tuna was tender and creamy, and the salsa, with ingredients unidentifiable by the time we started eating was crisp and tangy.
In usual Sydney style, there were queue’s galore, some pushing and shoving and competition to get the last shucked oyster and yummiest dessert before the other person. We had no choice (the other choice was no tart for dessert) but join the line and enjoy our ‘tasting menu’ while we waited to get our hands on the scrummy dessert from The Bather Pavillion.
And scrummy it was. Served by the acclaimed Head Chef; Serge Dansereau the almond tart with mascerated berries and a healthy dollop of fresh cream had many people clambering towards The Bather’s Pavillion stall. The dessert was perfect; a balance of sweetness coming from the combination of strawberries, blueberries and mulberries. The almond tart playing the role of sweet juice absorber was suprisingly light and also crumbly. And what can we say for the cloud like dollop of cream; but Thank you.
A nice way to spend Saturday afternoon, sampling food from restuarants yet to visit and also support a good cause with all proceeds going back to the Aids Trust of Australia.
There are a few more scheduled events remaining for Good Food Month such as the ‘Shoot the Chef’ exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, Sugar High and lunches on Monday the 31st of October.
A Spring Picnic
October 16th, 2005
Was it only last Sunday, when Sydney was experiencing the bluest of skies and the warmth of the sun? It’s hard to believe with gloomy clouds and rain for the most part of the weekend. This is why a Spring Picnic is a good idea. Even better is when all you need to bring is a rug, and an appetite for a Spring Picnic during Good Food Month means there are stalls and stalls of food and drink waiting to be chosen and made part of a 6 course picnic feast. 
But all was not lost because AG and I had a feast before us. There was a piadina which had spring scribbled all over it with the peppery rocket, the creamy ricotta and crunchy walnuts. Doughy it may have been, but who can argue when it is freshly made dough by Italians who sound Italian and amuse a girl when she asks, “Would it possible to get a few extra walnuts please?” 
