so, it appears most people are fond of the fondue, be it cheese or chocolate. hurrah!

the fondue luncheon last week turned out to be quite a bit of fun, even the part where i visited four liquor shops in search for a bottle of kirsch. the owner at the bottle-o on broadway said that he stopped selling kirsch months ago as it was a dust collector. i would have bought a dusty old bottle last sunday, especially after i spent way too much time agonising about which recipe to use and which cheese combination to include. in the end i selected this recipe which called for gruyère and emmental to be grated into mounds of two cups and then melted in simmering dry white wine, a scratch of nutmeg and corn flour and kirsch (or in this instance some sweet sherry) as the thickening and flavouring agent. did you know that when melting cheese for dishes like this, one should stir the cheese in figure 8 shapes to prevent balls congealing? i followed this rule but the lumps still formed so i had to use a balloon whisk to get it back to its lava like consistency. the trick i believe is a low heat after adding the cheese and consistent figure 8’s and not leaving the cheese alone for a few moments while you do this and that as i did.

i would say this was the easiest lunch i’ve hosted because all i had to do was buy the cheese, make some meatballs, and lay the table. having a selection of vegetables and crispy apples is highly recommended to cut through all that cheese. it helps to have wonderful guests like helen, her sister, bowb and my cousin sonali who brought the rest of the tasty dipping morsels and dessert. and what a spread we had. just to brag; we had walnut bread, rosemary & olive bread, blanched vegetables, a roast pumpkin salad with the most crisp sugar snap peas i’ve had in a long time, stretchy walnut and mint turkish delight, almond macaroons and a yummy concoction of strawberries with brown sugar sour cream which reminded me of a sweet creme fraiche dessert i once had. ’twas great to see merry faces as we dipped our two pronged forks into the oozy cheese, each of us taking a turn to drop a piece of potato or cauliflower floret into the cheesey abyss.

see the photograph of the fondue pot on the left? see the dark brown at the bottom? that was the end of the cheese, burned down to a crisp. it is also a part of the swiss fondue tradition to lower the heat of the flame so the cheese burns at the end of the meal. the tradition is to break up the cheese and share it with your guests to enjoy. i don’t think we lowered the heat down in time so it was just cheesey crumbs here and there, all tasting of melted cheese on toast - which isn’t such a bad thing.

and so it appears there are more than five people reading this humble blog. for some reason i thought those readers were made up of a female only demographic, so it’s nice surprise to see a few fellows and new commenters pop in. i was telling helen that there is no sign of me ever stopping the food blog especially with all the plans we make to eat around sydney, but i may take a small break just to do things like read and stuff… hope that’s ok. i’m guessing that as soon as i put that out there, i’ll be updating like a crazy.

next to the trifle bowl, blow torch, waffle iron and cake forks sits a box which holds a cream coloured cast iron fondue pot. the poor bugger has barely seen the light of day, nor a wedge of gruyère or delicate broth. but tomorrow, all of this will change when a few of us converge to bid farewell to winter (you wouldn’t think it with the gutsy wind and heavy rain outside!) and enjoy a cheesey lunch.

can you see the little glass foot in the picture? mr trifle bowl has decided to be a fruit bowl for the event ;)

and just a quick show of hands… who here still reads this blog (i’m thinking of making the food blog redundant for a bit…)? and who here likes fondue?

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 many times will I cross a busy road for a box crispy pork dumplings?

The answer is four times. But this is what a girl does when she spends the morning (sponataneously) cleaning the oven, wishing she had just eaten breakfast instead of doing last night’s dishes and doing a half turn to clean that smidge off the oven door and then opening the door to scrub away at a winter’s worth of roast residue. Oh! me and my rampant cleaning methods!

Next time I’ll just call Mr Oven and take a table at Shanghai Night for a plate of dumplings and a bowl of soupy noodles.

With Shanghai Night positioned in the middle of two long traffic lights many people just risk the Liverpool Road traffic to get to the other side. It’s worth it though, if only for a quick order of the pork dumplings. The chinkiang vinegar is a must, which is why I have a bottle at home for when we get take-away dumplngs. The inside is just as yummy as the crispy dumpling skin, mostly because there is a small amount of hot juice which seeps out with the first bite. It tastes like ginger and coats everything into something closely resembling heaven. At least for non-vegans.

I implore you to get yourself to Shanghai Nights to try these dumplings. Just make sure to look to the right, then left and right again before you dash across the road.