Category Archives: Travel

Oishi

 

Origami

Hi Tony,

Sitting in hotel room looking over a building site to Ginza. Before I even talk about food, there is the Japanese way of doing things. It is a fascinating thing watching the site. Everything is immaculate, right down to the guys hosing the tyres of the trucks as they leave, in case they were to drop dirt on the road. I’m now wondering if the building will be finished at a certain time on a certain date. Reckon I could set my watch to it.

If only I could bring these guys over to build our place?! Maybe even entice them to a tropical island to build something for you?

I had most of a day to fill in before Julia arrives, so I headed up to Kappabashi on the advice of a well researched, passionate knife collector colleague of mine, Justin. He armed me with just enough information to ensure I bought something pretty good, but avoid the exquisite ¥50,000+ works of art. So, I’ve ended up with a 210mm wa gyuto aogami with a kasumi finish. In short, I bought a very nice kitchen knife. Pic to follow (the thing is wrapped so carefully, I can’t open it until I get home).

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We’re delighting in the Japanese food, as per usual. Alright, breakfast isn’t on our list of special cuisine, but the rest is just sublime.

Old dear friends of mine, Atsushi, and his wife Yumiko took us out to Soregashi in Gotanda. A favourite of theirs. While chicken is the theme and highlighted in many ways, it wasn’t all we ate. There was a healthy chunk of delightfully seared fois gras on a carefully constructed chicken rissole, for example.

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Atsushi explained Soregashi over a few glasses of sake, which I will get to shortly. Soregashi is an old samurai word meaning ‘me’, or ‘I’. It is not a word used in today’s language and was really only ever used by a Samurai when speaking with a Lord or Shogun.

Soregashi

Every time we catch up with Atsushi and Yumiko we are treated to superb out of the way places. The sort of place that unless you knew about it…you get my drift. But not only is it a case of finding these gems (I’d never be able to locate it again without help), it’s the food and drink ordering that takes a seasoned expert. I can’t even tell you what we ate, but the chicken sushi, yes raw chicken, was delectable as was the celery sorbet to help close the night off.

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What continues to surprise and impress me is the complexity and versatility of sake. Even here Atsushi sought advice of the “sommelier”. We drank a variety of sake, some of which could easily have been mistaken for some slightly obscure white wines.

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The final sake was rich, sweet, but with a clean acidic finish. The sort of thing I would expect and get from a Auslese Riesling from the Rhine or a late harvest Semillon from the Hunter Valley. Which would I chose to finish a night off? Damned if I wouldn’t chose the slightly nutty hint in the sake. The name of it? Just grab it off the handmade paper label below…

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After piling into a cab at 1am, not a bad effort given that Julia flew in from New York at 5:30pm and I had been on the go for about 40 hours, we remembered our deep fondness for this city.

We have pretty much opted for ‘fast food’ for lunches, which usually consists of ramen, katsu or ramen. Even better, wander off one of the main streets for 50m and you’ll find somewhere with a menu with pictures and a startlingly good feed for $6-8. Who knows what’s in it, but there is a reason there are a bunch of locals there.

We’ve got another day off tomorrow before we have 3 days of trade show goodness to get stuck into. Not sure what our diet will look like during those days…

Better kick this off to you.

Cheers,

Daniel

I’ve Got Crabs!

 

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Hey Dan,

It was so nice to see you in Koh Samui, aka ‘The Big Smoke.’ Okay, the Big Smoke bit a relative thing, but when you can only get to the shops once a week, as is the case for those of us staying on remote islands, that weekly shop becomes important.

As the boy who usually goes grocery shopping twice a day (the first time to get the ingredients for a meal, and the second time to get the ingredients that I forgot, usually the main ones: the steak; the pasta; the eggs; anything that cannot be substituted with something from the cupboard) I can only try to describe a day’s shopping in Samui.

Transport is the first challenge – we need to organise a boat for the two-way trip, and a rental car.

Then there’s the list of destinations we need to hit. This week it was (in roughly this order): the nursery; the hardware store; the petrol station; the roadside seafood vendors; the French butchery; the wine shop; lunch with you and your good lady wife; the supermarket that does dry goods and half-way decent bread; the supermarket that does seafood, meat and fresh fruit and veg; the French bakery; the roadside fruit and vegetable vendors. Then all the goodies get piled onto the boat and away we go. Easy, right?

As I write this, the day-trippers have left. I’m breathing fresh air. I can just hear a boat in the distance over the lapping waves. And the colours are so vibrant I have to tear myself away to turn back to the screen. It is definitely worth the effort.

Crabs (1)

But from a grocery perspective, there are highs and lows…

The highs have to be the seafood. I love the guys on the beachfront strip in Nathon with their fresh crabs. We were about to choose a couple of blue swimmers from the table on ice, when the nice vendor pointed out she had some live ones. Excellent. I suspect she saves the rest for the rude Russians (I’ve watched it happen). A kilo of live crabs for 420 baht – very likely that’s the farang price, but I really don’t care.

We cooked the crabs (about 8 mins each in a big pot of water on a rolling boil), and scoffed down a couple with a crisp chardonnay that night.

Crabs

The third crab we saved for a spaghetti marinara that went something like this:

Ingredients:

8 Tiger prawns, peeled, headed and deveined (reserve shells and heads)

2 medium squid, cleaned and cut into rings

1 cooked crab, smash claws and pick meat (reserve shells)

1 can tomato pulp

1 large pinch of saffron

1 splash white wine

1 splash olive oil

1 brown onion, diced

1 clove garlic

parsley

basil

250g squid-ink pasta, cooked per instructions

Stock:

-heat olive oil in a pan, add prawn and crab shells and cook over a high heat until fragrant. Add 2 cups of water and simmer for 15 mins. Strain out shells, and reserve liquid, adding the saffron

Sauce:

-Cook the onions over medium heat until clear, add garlic and cook a minute longer

-Splash in half a glass of white wine.

-Add stock (above) and tomato pulp and reduce.

-When it reaches a saucy consistency, add squid and cook for five minutes.

-Add prawns and cook a further five minutes.

-Add crab and chopped parsley and warm through.

-Stir in the cooked pasta.

It’s rich, seafood-ey, tomato-ey and bloody nice. This much is probably nearly enough to feed four!

 

 

 

Kop gai lai lai

LuangPrabang

G’day Tony,

Well, it is week 2 of the honeymoon and I am still married, though I am not sure if I should worry about the suggestion that I take a Thai boxing class?!

I must admit I was a little sceptical of Gaggan after our experience at Nahm. Ok, I’ll give it to Nahm that the food was great, but just too many good things on the table at one time kind of made it less special. I’m pretty sure you said you liked Gaggan. Well, I sure did too! Wow. What a shake up of Indian cuisine.

To set ourselves up, and to continue exploring some of the rooftop bars of Bangkok, we took your advice and found our way to Speakeasy at the Muse Hotel. There was a private party happening on the top floor, but the easily found bar was still pretty nice. A cheeky cocktail served by staff taking the flapper theme just a little bit far, but it was still pretty fun.

Speakeasy

We lashed out with the full degustation at Gaggan, because I don’t get the opportunity to go that often, unlike you can. I’ll run through some of the highlights below, but I doff my hat to their sommelier for the wine list. There was a healthy selection of approachable aromatic whites and some to challenge. I ended up opting for a Sancerre from Loire. Sauvignon Blanc as only the French seem able to do. I detected a subtle “something” on the nose and the sommelier was gracious in attending and confirmed no cork taint, rather a touch of bretamyacies as the wine maker intended.

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Gaggan, as you know has the ability to surprise. What may look like a conventional dish, ends up being nothing like what you were expecting. Nothing like it. From the “poached egg”, which was instead spiced yoghurt, but with almost precisely the same texture as a poached egg to the sous vide lamb chops which were the standout for me. Oh, not sure if the mini-chocolate degustation for dessert should be counted, as it was mind blowingly good.

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In the same “challenge the expected” theme, the venue is quite the surprise. Finding the place required asking directions of the front of house staff at Muse, then a security guard located near the entrance to the Soi. There is little chance I would explore such a Soi without knowing what lay near the end.

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Would I recommend Gaggan to someone visiting Bangkok? In a heart beat.

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We jetted off to Luang Prabang, Laos the next afternoon. I’ve been before, but it was a good 6-8 years ago. I kind of worded Julia up to what we were going to find, but I think it still surprised her somewhat. We stayed at Satri House, which was delightful, but a touch too far out of the middle of the action. The old president’s residence, apparently?! Truly stunning architecture and artwork and a very comfortable room.

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Luang Prabang has changed lots. The demographic of tourists more than anything. The nightmarkets are full of Chinese made stuff, with only a smattering of Lao made wares. The backpackers are still there en-masse, eating buffet street dinners for 10,000 kip (~$A1.30) and sleeping in guest houses for not much more. Then there are those who are “well to do”, e.g. us.

We ate at Apsara on your recommendation. Turns out it is owned by the husband of the owner of Satri House. Food was nice. I really like my slow cooked buffalo cheeks in Lao spices. Didn’t really sing to me otherwise. A spot of rain chased us from alfresco on the banks of the Nam Kahm river to   shelter under the beautiful French colonial veranda.

Our days were filled with strolling the streets, choosing random places to enjoy a Beer Lao, mostly on the Mekong side. A short, early trip was also had to the Kuang Si waterfalls. I’ve seen pics, but its pretty cool! There was nobody else there, which made it special. Then the car from Aman arrived and we left.

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We also spent a day doing a Lao cooking course with Tamnak Lao. There were only 3 of us in the class, which started with a trip to the Phousi markets. We cooked, and ate lots. The food is so very different to Thai food, almost no chilli?! Far easier for we softies to deal with! If you get the chance, do the course.

Tamnak Cooking

A visit to LP wouldn’t be complete without a visit to L’Elephant. The food was nice, French, predictable, but the wine list gets me. Classic grand cru French wines for crazy prices. I forked out for a bottle of 2009 Mouton Cadet (white) which, while not overly expensive in Australia, is just unexpected there. Dinner with wine cost a whopping 817,000 kip (~$A120.00) for both of us. Compared with street food, ridiculously expensive.

Only 3 nights in LP, then to our fav, Koh Samui. Hope we get a chance to catch up with you while we are there?!

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Better fly. My bride is wondering why I’m on my computer…woops!

Cheers,

Daniel

The morning after the morning after the night before

Metropolitan Hotel

Hi Tony.

It’s great being in your home city. We always enjoy our visits to Bangkok. A big thanks for treating us to dinner at your “local”. I love that even with 3 large beer Chang and enough food to sustain at least a few extra people, it still only came to ~600B (~A$16) for the four of us.

I still find it hard to believe that people come to Bangkok and hate it?! Friendly people, great food, shopping, cultural highlights that are remarkable and a vibe, just a vibe.

Despite the myriad of new boutique and big name hotels, we really like the Metropolitan. We’ve always been well looked after here and generally have the run of the place. In fact, am looking out on the pool now and there is nobody in it. Might put this on hold and go take a dip.

Given it’s our honeymoon, we’ve stepped things up a little in terms of drinks and meals. I suspect we may actually overdo things some!

We shopped like bandits all day, as we usually do here, then had a much enjoyed foot massage at MBK before braving the rain and heading back to the hotel. Given it is our honeymoon, The Metropolitan was nice enough to spot us a bottle of bubbles and some truffle chocolates. We didn’t need much encouragement to crack into it.

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Just to add an extra dimension to the night, we wandered next door to have a drink at Vertigo/Moon Bar (Banyan Tree). A cocktail on the roof at the 60-something floor is pretty special. We like this place as it doesn’t attract the bogan crowd that Sirocco does, curtesy of The Hangover movie.

Moon Bar

As you know, and we have discussed numerous times, it’s hard to resist trying the “extra-special” restaurants in town. So last night we ate at Nahm. As you know, it’s in the hotel, so pretty convenient.

Julia at Nahm

Ok, so how did I enjoy it? Once the parents and the 3 young children left (at 9:30pm), things quietened down. A complimentary glass of bubbles helped (for honeymoon, not the children running around the restaurant screaming). Who allows kids to run around a restaurant like that? Even more so a restaurant ranked # 13 in the world (and best in Asia)?

Nahm Canapes

Alright, that wasn’t Nahm’s fault…the food? The amuse and the canapes were fabulous. I could have easily just kept eating them. What were they you ask? Check out the menu. The mains…this is where we were challenged, and I’m not sure in a good way. Sure the food was nice, but the flavours were all insanely over the top and the heat (chilli) in some of the dishes was simply too much for we mortals. We had: salad of fresh river prawns with pork and Asian pennywort (brilliant dish), kafir lime and smoked fish relish with sweet pork, salted fish dumplings and coconut poached bamboo and vegetables (equally brilliant), grilled duck curry with Bangkok plum leaves (we were told this was very spicy…it wasn’t, it was nicely spiced) and soft shell crab stir fried with chillies, holy basil and green peppercorns (this had the kick to it!). Julia had coconut and chicken soup with deep fried garlic, green mango and chilli and I had squid, pork and prawn soup. I couldn’t taste mine…the chilli had done its best on me by then!

Nahm mains

I think the thing for us was that while every dish was great in its own right, the table full of them was simply overpowering. They each got lost in the power of the others.

Pandanus Noodles Nahm

Dessert was the standout. I tried to distract Julia so I could taste hers, but she has wisened up to me in only 3 days of wedded bliss! Julia had pandanus noodles with black sticky rice, water chestnuts, tapioca and coconut cream. Meanwhile, I was content with custard apple in coconut cream with sesame biscuits.

Custard Apple Nahm

The wine list was a bit of a challenge. I simply wasn’t sure I was happy to fork out 4000B for a bottle of Thai wine? Granted, I know nothing about Thai wine. The balance of the selections was reasonable, but not inspiring. I was hoping a healthy selection of aromatic whites would greet me, a bunch of Gewürztraminers, Pinot Gris, Chenin Blancs and the like, but the choices were few and dare I say it, wanting.

Much more to do over the next little while. We’re off to Gaggan tonight, which I am thoroughly excited about, even if it is only ranked # 17 in the world!

Will let you know my thoughts on that before heading off to Luang Prabang on Friday.

Better head off for some more shopping.

Sawadee kap,

Daniel

Pre-wedding diet

BullerSunrise

G’day Tony,

Ok, so I had to dust off the cob-webs (pardon the pun) and put some electrons on virtual paper. Humblest apologies for being off-line for so long, that’s if you missed me. If you didn’t miss me, sorry I am back.

Winter left in a hurry, replaced by all that is good about spring…except the snow melting, strong northerly winds, hayfever, the smell of dynamic lifter on the garden, changing clocks forward (daylight savings time) and school holiday madness in the city. Other than that, I love spring and all that it brings!

Our final weekend at Mt Buller brought together a great group of friends for a little bit of skiing and a lot of eating and drinking. A boisterous group at the lodge on the Saturday night partook in an array of goodies lovingly BBQ’d by Jim…chicken pieces marinaded in rosemary, garlic, chilli, olive oil and lots of fresh lemon zest and juice, slow braised pork belly (bbq’d to give a really nice caramelisation) courtesy of Alex and lamb rissoles with cumin, turmeric, smoky paprika, sumac, parsley and feta cheese…yep, fetta crumbled through the mix. Much, much goodness!

Some salads and freshly baked bread to round out the meat feast. Oh, and wine. Lots of wine!

Dessert was a surprise. I whipped up a chocolate self saucing pudding, while someone mixed together the fixings for a sticky date pudding. Confusion, wine, not sure which, but flour was inadvertently left out of the sticky date. Unsurprisingly the mix didn’t set. It was only then that the error was picked up. So, I did what any hungry (I was stuffed the gunnels, but still wanted sticky date pudding) I added a half amount of self raising flour, mixed and popped back in the oven. The comments when served surprised me…best sticky date pudding ever! Score!

The last few weeks have been a blur of pre-wedding diet food. Some stand out meals. Nah, who am I kidding. The stuff is okay, but is never going to substitute for real home cooked food!

Julia and I have an agreement. We must visit one nice restaurant a month. Not a big ask in a city like Melbourne. But being away every weekend and both of us super busy during the week, it simply hasn’t happened for a while. About to make up for it, though.

Was taken to Zia Rina’s Cucina by Phil from Armadale Cellars the other day for lunch. Phil’s been around the block a few times and he rates chef/owner Rina as good as any Michelin stared chef he’s seen on the continent. Must admit, the food is blindingly good. So much so, heading back there this week with a good friend who will be in town from Dubai. If any place can float Nick’s boat, this should do it. Oh, it’s BYO too, so I am going to hit Nick up to dust something off from his Arabian cellar…no doubt I will be doing the same from my cellar.

Honey-moon is fast approaching (next week). A few nights in Bangkok, to get into the groove. So, I booked us into Nahm and Gaggan. Both are listed in the top 50 restaurants in the world, but are they that good?

Sure, you can live it up in Thailand without spending a bomb, but I fail to understand how Nahm (rated #12 in the world) can cost BHT2,000/person (~AUD75.00) for degustation dinner, while the highest rated Australian restaurant, at #32, is giving you their experience at AUD190/person. I know, I know, this opens a Pandora’s box of arguments.

Pretty soon, we in Melbourne will play host to The Fat Duck. Yep, that Brayside stalwart which boasts a number of Michelin stars. For 6 months and 45 seats, that means 16,000 people will be served while they are in Melbourne. Getting a table…forget it. Ballot it will be, but at north of $525/person (ex-booze), it is almost cheaper to fly to England and experience it in its home location!

How much are you willing to spend (not including tip) and a meal to remember? Does it need to be a restaurant that is rated by Michelin, or S. Pellegrino or whichever is your go to restaurant reviewers?

For me, that memorable meal may be as simple as some hawker food on the foreshore of somewhere tropical, but it’s not going to stop me visiting Nahm and Gaggan. In the meantime, it is back to the microwave to “cook” dinner for tonight *sigh*

Catch you soon!

 

Daniel

NZ eh!

Hey Dan,

Nearly a week on the ground in New Zealand, and I barely touched a sauvignon blanc or any lamb. But there was good reason: there must be about a million boutique breweries in NZ, and they’re doing some pretty amazing stuff – so no need to indulge in any cloying sav blancs. Plus, there were so many steaks on the hoof, that it would have been rude not to have partaken.

My ski season lasted all of one day. But it was a good one. And it’s nice to slide around the place with the benefit of heated seats – thank you very much BMW New Zealand and BMW Asia for the opportunity.

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skiing with heated seats: hmmmm

What I cannot stress enough is just how beautiful the Southern Alps are – if I believed in a god (or even a God), I’d believe this was the place where s/he thought “yup, I got that bit right.” Absolutely stunning.

And there were some good meals too, thanks again to a range of quality local produce.

Saffron restaurant was a great introduction to the dining scene, as was an Emerson’s Pilsner at the related The Blue Door bar next door. A little local chardonnay with my crispy whitebait (it was whitebait season) followed by a baked puff pastry stuffed with confit of local rabbit, sultana and pine nut black pudding, double smoked bacon, and served with braised lettuce and what they called a cranberry jus. It’s a common mistake – the word is coulis – but I’m willing to forgive the faux pas, because it was bloody good. A nice Central Otago pinot noir hit the spot too.

Oddly enough, Arrowtown (it’s about 15km from Queenstown, and apparently where all the locals moved when property there got too expensive – it’s a pretty little gold-rush town, but at the end of a valley, so apparently is as cold as a witch’s something-or-other much of the time) is also home to a tapas joint, officially a wine bar, called La Rumbla, which was also pretty good.

Sharing plates. Some a bit hit-or-miss, but with sharing plates it matters less. And I did get some lamb here too, along with a couple of really nice hoppy ales. The boys went for girly tamarind cocktails, but seemed to enjoy them enough. It is another place to which I’d return.

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And now on to more important matters: burgers. Queenstown, by which I mean the actual town (pictured above – is that not the prettiest city in the world?), is home to the Fergburger. Now you need to be careful about your pronunciation – a furburger is apparently something completely different (don’t Google that if you’re under 18, thanks). But log on to the official website – it captures the spirit of the place beautifully.

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In Ferg we trust

Any burger joint that was set up to cater to drunk people – it’s open 21 hours – has to be good. And it is. My ‘Mr Big Stuff’ only just squeezed under the ‘if it’s bigger than your head, you shouldn’t eat it’ rule, but was pretty amazing.

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Yeah, I’m eating it anyway

Sitting by Lake Wakatipu, taking in the scenery, and eating a Fergburger was pretty damned nice, despite the single-digit temperatures. I even saw people boarding the flight to Auckland with Fergburger bags. Probably the online ordering won’t work from Bangkok – I expect soggy rolls by the time the order arrives here – but it has set me on a mission to find the best burger in town. That’s for another post.

Meanwhile. What I’ve learned is that: You need to go to NZ; driving BMWs on ice is wickedly entertaining; you need to go to NZ; setting up a good burger shop catering to drunk people makes a lot of sense – at least if there aren’t any souvlaki joints in the neighbourhood; you need to go to NZ; and, you really should go to NZ. Seriously, it is the most amazingly beautiful natural scenery you will ever see. And they do good produce; they make great craft beers and wine other than sav blanc; they seem to enjoy life a lot; they don’t turn away boat people (unless they’re Americans with nuclear weapons); and they whip everybody in the world at rugby. What’s not to like?

 

 

Dough boy

Little Buller Spur

Hi Tony,

I’ve heard you are having some (tasty) wildlife issues on the island? Be interested to hear what recipes you come up with for them. Perhaps a nice game terrine?

As mentioned, we have been up at Mt Buller every weekend this season. It has been quite the season! Not only lots of snow, but snow of the kind you normally expect to find in North America or Europe. On Friday night, it was snowing at the entrance gate. First time I have seen that in about 25 years.

Mt Buller

One of things I find thoroughly entertaining, given we are staying in a lodge, is the amount of food people bring up. Sure, you’re out in the cold for a goodly portion of the day and maybe, just maybe, skiing pretty hard too (have no fear, that doesn’t include me).

I walked into the lodge on Friday night to see mountains of food stacked in the pantries. Thinking an infantry battalion was staying for 6 months in the modest 18 bed lodge gave way to the realisation that those up for the weekend had simply over-catered.

I haven’t had to cook in 3 weekends, with dinners with friends every night so far. Each is well versed in quantity planning, so I have been able to maintain my weight. My turn to cook this weekend, me thinks. The challenge is finding space in a crowded shared kitchen, so 1 pot dishes are preferred. I am erring on pulling some duck ragu from the freezer and serve it with some rissoni. Perhaps with a few slices of my hand-made bread? And a green salad. Can’t bring myself to make a 2kg lasagne for the 2 us.

If you’re interested in making some pretty easy bread, which is crusty and much goodness, I make a pasta dura. Try this, if you dare! Oh, word of advice, use scales and a good thermometer. Using those measuring cups/etc. simply won’t work.

250gm each of good baker’s flour and semolina

10g salt

5g dry yeast (much better than fresh yeast)

10ml light oil or fat

300ml water

Mix the dry ingredients together (you can add mixed seeds if you like, but add a little extra water if you do). Measure the temp of the dry mix (this is critical). Add the oil/butter/fat. Subtract the temperature of the dry mix from 50 and that is the temp the water you add needs to be (e.g. if the dry mix is 22C, the water must be 28C). Add the water and mix by hand until smooth. This will probably take about 10 mins. Cover in the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set aside in warm place with no draft for 1-2 hours. Mould into a loaf by pressing out into rectangle, fold corners in like you would for a paper plane and roll tightly (seam down). Return to bowl, cover and set aside until doubled in size.

Pre-heat oven to 220C. Spray loaf lightly with water and put in oven for 20 mins, spraying with water 2-3 times in that time. Reduce heat to 180C and cook another 40 mins. Remove and allow to cool a little.

I cook mine on a pizza dish with holes in it. Gives the loaf a great crust, but soft and good inside. Spread with lashings of butter and good honey or jam.

Pasta Dura

Not sure how I will go with a strange oven, but it is so worth the 3-4 hours to make. Perhaps you may have some time on the island to give it a go?

Better go and get some dinner sorted for my bride.

Cheers,

Daniel

It’s Thailand FFS – try some local food

Library

Cold weather? It’s all yours, though a flying trip to Queenstown in August is bound to be somewhat chillier than I’ve got now. I’m hoping there will be lamb ragù on the menu. Will keep you posted.

We were passing by and stopped at The Library on Chaweng Saturday for a meal by the beach. It’s not the view we have, or want really, but interesting to see every now and then. When the megayachts come in (it’s the one in the background, below, you may just be able to see it behind the longtail boat) you know it’s the end of the neighbourhood.

Megayacht

There are so many beautiful places to anchor around Samui. I wonder why you’d choose Chaweng? Unless you’re desperate to be seen. Sadly, it’s this sort of tourist the place attracts these days.

There’s a story being told in that picture that is playing out around the island too. No sooner do I mention Khun Play’s seafood fried rice  on the beach than the pace gets taken over by a bunch of Italians who have set up a pizza oven.

Now I like pizza, don’t get me wrong, but in my local Thai village it’s starting to get hard to find Thai food. There’s something deeply, horribly wrong with that. It hasn’t quite happened on our island yet, the one loser French restaurateur notwithstanding. I hope we can resist any further incursions.

But really, it’s Thailand FFS – why don’t you try some local food? Why travel all the way from Europe for what is bound to be a second-rate pizza? What’s wrong with people? Ah well, I did once see a bunch of Singaporeans off to a Chinese restaurant in Rome (I went elsewhere for pizza. ‘When in Rome’, goes the saying) so it cuts both ways.

Naturally, the menu at The Library does have some local dishes, though they’re fancy versions thereof. A pad Thai goong and a khao pad talay (that’s a seafood fried rice – just displaying my superior Thai language skills), were actually pretty good, and not watered-down too much on the spice for those sensitive European palates. Shame the beer is served in flat glasses.

Pad thai

I fear this is the future though. Unless I want French or Italian I’m going to have to go to fancy restaurants in Samui to get a local meal. At least they’re available somewhere. I do wonder why people bother travelling at all if all they want to do is replicate home though. If they’re not willing to actually eat the local food as a bare minimum of experiencing the place what are they gaining by travelling at all?  They could do us all a favour, cut their carbon emissions and make Samui more beautiful to boot if they just stayed at home.

Haute (altitude) cuisine

G’day Tony.

Sometimes it is the simple things which bring joy. While I enjoy it when restaurants serve me something extra-ordinarily complicated or hard to come by, I often prefer one that celebrates good produce, done simply, without fuss. My latest favourite is from our local pub, the Carringbush. While the menu is likely to change and it will vanish as fast as it arrived, their steak roll with beautifully cooked sirloin, smoky bacon, gruyere and some “garnish” is tasty simplicity.steaksandwich

Winter has well and truly arrived here in earnest. The snow has come quicker than expected after “snow-mageddon” hit. It’s cold and windy in Melbourne. People are sneezing. Days are short, but getting longer. Oh, and it seems schools are on holidays, again.

My weekends in Melbourne are rapidly coming to an end until late September.

As per usual, I’ll be heading up to the ski fields every weekend again this season. It sounds idyllic, but comes with its own set of problems, mostly of the domestic kind. On balance, our time in the snow is worth it.

The old joke goes a little like: how does a ski instructor become a millionaire? They start with $2 million.

The pity is I don’t have $2 million, but I am a ski instructor of sorts. Ok, technically I am a race coach, but same, same. So living in a place where people joke openly about the price of things, $10 for a can of cola and a chocolate bar? $25 for a basic pizza? It is simply not possible for a mere mortal like me to afford to pay for accommodation, beer, petrol, beer, parking, ski equipment, beer, ski clothing (ok, some of that is well looked after, thanks I/O Merino) and the obligatory post ski beer. Something has got to give. Notice the omissions? Yep, food and wine.

It’s easy to carry a bottle up each weekend, but someone drops by before dinner and *poof* that bottle you brought up to have with the <insert pre-prepared meal> is gone. So, you bring a couple bottles up, just in case. And drink them both even if nobody drops by.

Ok, pre-prepared meal. Living in a lodge with shared cooking facilities, means that intricate menu is just not an option, nor something with a long cooking time. Easy solution? Make something during the week and freeze some to reheat and serve with some pasta, risotto, bread, other. Maybe even some vegetable stuff. No, fries with post ski beer don’t count as vegetables.

I’ve settled back into making ragu. Long, slow cooking of any meat, with suitable additions can result in some cracking results. Ok, I am partial to things like rabbit or duck ragu, but pork or beef is well and truly ok too.

To most people it sounds daunting, but so seriously easy. Eg, bone some duck marylands (get butcher to do it for you if you are that lazy), chop into pieces and fry off until brown. In a heavy baking dish add the likes of garlic, onion, red wine, tinned tomato, herbs like bay leaves and rosemary and cook long and slow. Don’t forget to add seasoning. Hardest part is dealing with the amazing smell throughout the house. Stuff like this is great with pasta, rice or risotto. bonedduck

Crack open a bottle of something with some body, a cabernet, shiraz or the like and all that energy used on the slopes quickly recovered. I found a bottle of 1996 Vasse Felix Cabernet from Margaret River in the cellar, but if you can’t lay your hands on something like that, any cabernet from Margaret River or Great Southern (Western Australia) from 2011 is likely to see you right.

Before we head up, some dining out to be done in Melbourne. Went to a nice place last week, chef’s hat restaurant. Not going to name this one as it was far from worthy. I’m truly hopeful the poor service (read: no service) was because their key staff had called in sick. The suckling lamb was, well, it had plenty of garlic, but very tasty.

milkfedlamb

I suspect when next I write, it will be about apricot moguls, hot chocolates and post ski beers.

Daniel

Singapore in 5 Meals

Wanton mee

Hey. I’m struggling to believe I moved to Singapore 17 years ago, and that realisation sent me on a little meander down a culinary memory lane recently.

When I first rocked up I could not believe the food, mainly because it was so cheap and delicious. There I was eating hawker meals every day, because it was cheaper than attempting to cook the same thing at home myself (there should be a warning sign in that), and after a couple of months I weighed myself and discovered I’d stacked on nearly 10kg! How did that happen?

Well, obviously when you’re cutting costs, as hawkers are forced to do – Singaporeans may pay through the nose for fancy foreign food, but they complain bitterly when their favourite local dish goes up in price – then something’s got to give, and the first thing will be the quality of the ingredients.

You’re eating palm oil, sunshine.

It doesn’t help that I gravitate to the most calorific meals in existence. A rich, coconut-creamy laksa? My mouth is watering just contemplating it, but it’s probably in the region of 800 calories, and with precious little nutritional value either.

Even when I tried to eat healthy, my complete ignorance of how things were cooked led me astray. How could I put on weight eating Hainanese chicken rice? It’s just chicken and rice after all. Except the rice is cooked using the chicken fat. No wonder it’s so delicious.

Anyway, with a plan to go to the gym every day, I figured I could revisit some favourites.

The first was a chicken rice in a downtown shopping mall. The ambiance was crap, but the price was reflective of that. I went the whole hog and spent $6 on a set, which meant I got some vegetable and a soup as well. The soup was basically a shallot and chicken broth, so nothing special. I’ve had a peanut soup before, which sounds odd, but tastes better than you think.

The chicken was chopped with the bones in – not my favourite – but the garlicy chilli sauce was just perfect, and the rice rich and obviously fatty. Not the best chicken rice ever, but for $6 I’m not complaining. It would have cost me $4 all those years ago.

The next day I was in the ‘burbs near Upper Thompson Road (sight of the Singapore Grand Prix back in the day – I wish I was around to see that before it was canned in the 1970s), and stopped for a wanton mee (pictured above). I got upsold and ordered some soup with bigger dumplings in it too. The main dish was a bit light-on for the roasted pork, but the noodles seemed fresh enough. Plus there’s that lovely sambal belachan – chilli cooked with shrimp paste – to add some salty/fishy spice. Hmmmm.

Nasi Padang

Moving yet further into the wilds seldom seen by tourists, the next day I stopped at an eating house in Sembawang for some Malay food. I love this place, actually. It’s run by a bunch of nice older ladies who seem to actually enjoy what they do, and it shows in their food. A plate of rice with sambal chicken, fried bean sprouts, a fried egg and some peanuts with ikan bilis (teensy little dried fish) on the side. Delicious, and again, somewhere around $6.

Another day saw me in an outer suburban shopping mall, braving the early lunch hour (everybody eats at 12:30!). I had a char kway teow, which is a flat rice noodle dish with prawns, fat, cockles, fat, bean sprouts, fat, dark soy sauce, fat, egg, and some other secret ingredients, possibly including fat.

Bizarrely, some locals arrived and ordered the dish at the same time, and had theirs cooked first because – get this – they didn’t want spice! Weird. It was delicious, but I suspect it may have been fattening. I don’t know what makes me say that. And I reckon $4 doesn’t buy you any ingredients with nutritional value, either. Certainly green vegetables were conspicuous in their absence. Good for a hangover though.

Finally I went to Poison Ivy, which is on an organic farm – one of about one in Singapore – and had a curry. Okay, it’s more expensive than hawker food, but I did get vegetables, which is rare, and they were grown locally too, or so they claim. All for $20 with lime juice and coffee.

Now, I didn’t manage to hit some of my other favourites – Indian served on banana leaf at Samy’s for instance, or sambal sting ray, or chilli crab, or laksa, or bak kuh teh, or nasi lemak. But I need to spend at least a year on an exercise bike first.

Maybe that’s the list for 2015. That and a heart transplant.