Citrus and Candy

Things I've learnt from Taste of Sydney 2010

2010-03-15T04:41:00.000+11:00

The last four days were all about the food festivals. Melbourne is celebrating their Food and Wine, yesterday saw Hyde Park peppered with NSW wine stalls at Cellar Door Festival and Centennial Park, once again, played host to the city's favourite DIY degustation - Taste of Sydney.

Organic tomato samples

Last year it was a dual attack with The Captain and I on a hot Sunday arvo, where I had plenty of time to meander and eat as I pleased (actually a majority of the time was spent chatting and drinking with Windowrie Wines heh). This time however, I had reinforcements - all equally hungry, all equally clueless with public transport (hehe) and some with even more frighteningly large cameras. And then there was one special gal who only had one thing on her mind - getting her hands on an infamous and naughty dessert...

...Jonah's wondrously creamy vanilla panna cotta that was just as wobbly and boobilicious as last year.

Jonah's at Whale Beach: Vanilla panna cotta with lavender honey and fresh pomegranate

Things I've learnt from Taste of Sydney 2010:

• I never thought beef and watermelon would ever go together in one dish but it seems that Danks Street Depot has shown me the light.

Danks Street Depot: Beef ribs smoked in watermelon with a watermelon and avocado salad

• Something as simple as tender beef and potato mash will always remain a favourite of mine. I would marry Guillaume Brahimi if he promised to make this for me every night.

Guillaume at Bennelong: Wagyu beef daube with Paris mash

• Taste of Melbourne has a better venue (the beautiful Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton). Centennial Park is tedious and public transport can be a bitch. Prepare to walk at least a kilometre to the actual festival from the bus!

• Taste of Sydney has an awesome Producer Market (you can get filled up just from eating the samples!). And miracle of miracles, Taste of Sydney has actual non-alcoholic beverages (Preshafruit Juice FTW). Bottom line, if you go to Taste of Melbourne, you better like wine (or at least bring your own non-alcoholic bevy).

• If you haven't tasted a Fuji apple juice from Preshafood, then you haven't lived.

• Taste of Sydney always seemed to do better meat dishes (Guillaume! Guillaume!). However, Taste of Melbourne offers more sublime and beautiful seafood dishes.

• More tables and places to eat and convene with fellow food-lovers makes for happier patrons.

• Big blocks covered in chic faux lawn turf is a killer impromptu food styling background.

• Taste of Sydney 2010 rocked.

Click for more photos.

Danks Street Depot: 'Saucy Tart' with chocolate mousse and liquid raspberry centre

Danks Street Depot: Organic chicken liver parfait with sweet vinegar raisins and dressed baby herbs

Restaurant Balzac: Saddle of suckling pig with garden peas and smoked bacon jus

Assiette: Miso glazed regal salmon with Japanese radish salad

Bécasse: Chocolate Soufflé

Oh baby!

Guillaume at Bennelong: Pistachio Macarons

Pilu at Freshwater: Risotto with Crystal Bay prawns and zucchini

Pilu at Freshwater: 'Zippulas' - Sardinian donuts with citrus sugar

Plan B: Organic grass-fed Wagyu beef burger

Bird Cow Fish: Braised Cape Grim beef cheek and glazed onion pie in a sour cream and puff pastry case and red wine jus

Aria: Cured ocean trout with cucumber and horseradish

El Toro Loco: Paella de Maestra

Berowra Waters Inn: Quail breast with truffled risotto croustillant

Restaurant Balzac: Crispy Wagyu beef with wild mushroom and truffle foam

And just for kicks... a final look at the notorious 'booby panna cotta' for 2010!

Broken vanilla teat = sadness

Citrus and Candy attended Taste of Sydney 2010 thanks to Stellar* Concepts Australia. All food and beverages were paid for by Citrus and Candy.

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Chocolate Marquise

2010-03-09T03:51:00.002+11:00

Sigh... it's been a weird start to 2010. The creative juices have slowed to a trickle and it's getting harder and harder to juggle the main part of my life with the blogging side of me. Don't get me wrong, I still love everything to do with it. I just wish that I could give 110% of myself to the blog 100% of the time. Anyway I'm just mumbling to myself so lets forget the whinging and...

I'll just do what I do best...

...stuff my face (and my troubles) with chocolate desserts!

Then I'll blog about it as if I'm on heat while I espouse erotic superlatives about how lustfully sweet and orgasmically wonderful chocolate is. Apparently (and seriously, I've been told this!), I tend to favour the term 'climax', or words to that effect, quite a lot in my blog and on Twitter whenever I'm raving about something delicious.

Oh my... is that true?!

Seriously rich and seriously good!

Easter is less than a month away and religious or not, this holiday is all about the almighty chocolate. Yes, it tastes better when it's in egg form but with the Autumn weather settling in, I want my chocolate cooked, baked or whipped. Or in this case, melted to a thick 'mousse' and encased in cake!

So here I give you a Chocolate Marquise - a recipe I've always wanted to try from Gourmet Traveller. Essentially, it's a chocolate mousse but forget light, airy and fluffy, this marquise is hard-hitting, dense and rich, almost like a thick chocolatey buttercream. Let's all take a moment to lament my burgeoning hips.

Chocolate Marquise... mid-demolition!

Forgive the lacklustre photos but this dessert was happily offloaded to a group of food bloggers so by the next day, all I had left of the 'chocolate meatloaf' (as lovingly penned by one lol) was the end nub.

Not that I'm complaining of course, because I'm supposed to be on a more healthier diet so any opportunity to give away lustrous desserts is a good thing believe it or not! And naturally, maintaining a baking blog isn't really conducive to my plans to reunite with my skinny jeans, especially when my love lies with the naughtiest of desserts. I'm running out of people to offload all these baked goods on so if you're in my hood and you're hungry, apply within and BYO takeaway containers! xx

Chocolate Marquise

(serves 8)

Sponge

3 eggs
140g caster sugar
75g plain flour
2 Tbl Dutch cocoa powder
30g butter, melted and slightly cooled

Marquise

300g of good quality dark chocolate (at least 60% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
175g unsalted butter
5 eggs, separated
100g caster sugar

For the chocolate sponge

Preheat oven to 220°C. Grease a 30 x 42cm baking tray and line the bottom with baking paper (I used two 30 x 20cm trays).

Whisk eggs and caster sugar with an electric mixer for about 8-10 minutes or until the mixture is pale and tripled in volume.

Sift over flour and cocoa powder and fold through gently. Fold through the melted butter until all combined.

Pour into prepared tray and level the top of the mixture. It will end up being a very thin layer in the tray but don't worry, it'll rise a little. Here, you want a sheet of sponge just under 1cm thick.

Bake for 4-5 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Marquise

Melt butter and chocolate over very low heat in a heavy based saucepan or double boiler. Mix to combine and set aside.

Whisk egg yolks and sugar for 4-5 minutes with an electric mixer until pale and frothy. Stir through melted chocolate and butter until combined and set aside.

Whisk egg whites and a pinch of salt until firm peaks. Gently fold through the chocolate mixture.

To assemble

Line a straight-sided loaf tin (about 8 x 22cm) with clingwrap. Cut chocolate sponge to the fit the base and sides. Fill with the chocolate mixture.

Cut remaining sponge to cover the top. Cover with clingwrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Carefully remove cake from mould and slice thickly with a hot knife.

Adapted from the ever fabulous Gourmet Traveller

I'm back with a peace offering: Double Choc Chip Cookies

2010-03-04T02:13:00.001+11:00

Oh why hello! Remember me?

My friends, the tumbleweeds have been a-blowin', the cicadas chirping... yep, things have been quiet in the land of Citrus and Candy. This last month of summer has been busier than expected but no complaints here, as it has been a blast. Amongst a million of other things I had going on, February also saw a wedding, The Captain's birthday, Chinese New Year, a lot of social reunions and one unforgettable Monday where I finally saw my all-time favourite rock gods AC/DC live (and it remains the best night I've ever had!).

But that meant the posts have been neglected and more tragically, the oven has been gathering dust. Seriously I haven't cooked or baked anything since Chinese New Year and the guilt was a heavy burden. Sadly, I'm still in no mood to reconnect with my kitchen yet but we all need to start somewhere - if only to make use of my baking supplies, which are in danger of expiring!

My aim is to ease back into the kitchen slowly. With the end-of-summer depression settling in and the onset of autumn weather, I craved for simplicity, comfort and something chocolatey.

Melty chocolate, fudgy cookie and chewy raisins? Oh my!

Cookies remain one of those comforting foods that I always turn to in the hour of need whether as a quick sugar hit or to fuel me up when I'm working...and always with a glass of milk! Plain chocolate cookies are my favourite kind but there certainly isn't anything wrong with adding a handful of melty choc chips and chewy raisins is there? It's not fancy or complicated but my lazy hands and non-baking mood certainly aren't complaining. In any case, take these as my peace offering for my long and unexplained absence from the blogosphere and rest assured that I'll be roaring back soon enough. After all... there are still kilos of chocolate just begging to be baked.

Double Choc-Chip Cookies

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
250g brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
150g plain flour
35g self-raising flour
1 tsp bi-carb soda
35g cocoa powder
135g milk chocolate chips
110g dark chocolate chips
85g sultanas or raisins (purely optional but I love it in these cookies - replace them with more choc chips if you wish)

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C and lightly grease two baking trays (or line with baking paper/silicon mat).

With an electric mixer, beat the softened butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract and egg until combined and smooth. Take care not to overbeat.

Sift in the flours, bi-carb soda and cocoa powder and add the chocolate chips and raisin and mix until evenly combined.

Place level tablespoons of the batter onto baking trays, allowing for 5cm between and bake for 10 minutes (bake for another 2 minutes if you prefer a crunchier cookie). Remove from oven and rest for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 45 cookies.

Manly Wine by Gazebo

2010-02-19T01:06:00.001+11:00

Yes I wish this was my bedroom wall!

It seems that the folks at Gazebo are really starting to spread their wings out with the opening of their latest venture. First we had the original Gazebo Wine Garden and then The Winery, both in the heart of the big smoke. And now there's a beachside instalment to complete the holy trio of chick-friendly wine bars and restaurants. And it was thanks to the coolest of all chicks, Spicy Ice Cream who rounded a small group of groovy ladies to celebrate the opening of Manly Wine.

From the outside, it almost looks like a cluttered antique store but step inside and it's like you've been transported to a new shabby-chic world. Eclectic doesn't quite cover it - 50's beach themes, waitstaff donned in chambray aprons, a wall of wine bottles, random scatterings of flower stems and floral blooms, antique chandeliers and lamps, a centre mantel of lit candles and fairy lights, a giant peacock, vintage sidewalk tables with mismatched chairs and a pink flamingo thrown in for good measure.

The perfect starter - shoestring fries

No doubt, our lovely foursome had the best table in the house - out front by the window and with a view of the sunset beach as our backdrop. The perfect antidote for a day of work and the tedium of driving on Spit Bridge has to be a jug of girly pink Rosé Sangria - a blend of crème de fraise strawberry liqueur, bianco Italian vermouth, lemonade, strawberry and lemon wedges. It's more of a fruity punch than a boozy sangria but that's how I like it.

Rosé Sangria $25

The next four entrées were blooming good. One, because I was starving and two, it was still bright outside so happy happy for my camera! Maybe it was the rolling waves that subconsciously influenced our choices, but seafood was definitely the order of the day. The plate of six Sydney rock oysters were so fresh, it was as if they were pulled straight from the ocean about 10 minutes prior. The accompanying Shiraz Vinaigrette was er, shirazzy but when they're this fresh and briny, there's only one way to eat them; with a squeeze of citrus and a pinch of sea salt.

Six Oysters (Sydney Rock) with a Shiraz Vinaigrette $19

My pleasure escalated with the freshest kingfish ceviche. I loved that the lemon and ginger flavours were light, which allowed me to fully enjoy the natural sweetness of the flesh. In case you didn't know, 'fresh' will be my word of the day! However I wasn't so lucky with the endamame - slippery liitle buggers they are! I'm sure more ended up on the table rather than in my mouth.

Kingfish Ceviche, lemon, ginger spritz and crunchy endamame $17

The crispy squid spoke to my insane love of salt 'n' pepper squid. The coating yielded the most lightest of crunch and I always prefer things on the saltier side, which Manly Wine was more than happy to oblige.

Crispy squid, mint, coriander and chilled cucumber salad $18

Next came a platter that I'd happily consume while watching trashy TV. Allow me to expose the limits of my knowledge of cold-cut meats but I believe we had prosciutto, a cold beef thingy (score 1 for me!) and some varieties of pepperoni and/or salami. Yes, I know bubkiss about meat but they tasted damn good so who's counting? Best of all was the sweet quince jam that tasted heavenly with everything - cold meats, shoestring fries, the washboard abs of a Manly surfer (I would imagine), crispy squid... everything.

Italian cold meats, toast and jams $20

At this stage we were willing the mains to come out fast before we lost our beautiful daylight, to no avail! So advanced apologies for the shocking photos. Low light is good for me and my complexion but a disaster for the camera.

My ocean trout had the dubious honour of having the street light to aid in the photo shoot. But bad shots aside, the trout was crispy and impeccable cooked. it came with the smallest splodge of some unknown sauce and honestly, I think the dish needed more of it. The zucchini and tomatoes were like the fish - fresh - but the flavours were a little too subtle. No doubt, this would make an awesome, light summery dish but on a slightly chilly night, I wanted more of a flavour punch to the face.

Grilled ocean trout, potato galette, blushed tomatoes and zucchini tagliatelle $25

Especially if it was something like buttered fried leek... with pastry and pesto. Oh my word! This tart would've been perfect had it not been for the goats cheese, which I can't and never will stomach.

Soft leek and blistered tomato tart, baby herbs, pesto and goats cheese $22

I couldn't keep my eyes off the gigantuan mound of king prawn and avocado salad that sat on top of Denea's grilled chicken but I think I must've gotten too full on my meal to try any of this as my memory escapes me. Then again I am approaching old age...

Char-grilled chicken, king prawns and avocado salad and lime chilli dressing $23

There's always a 95% chance that something as humble as fish and chips was going to be underwhelming. But Manly Wine proved me wrong. Ok first of all, a fry basket instead of a bowl? Genius! Next, wrap the fish in cute newspaper reprinted from the 60s era so we can coo over the retro fashion ads for Melbourne Cup. Most importantly, use the sweetest and freshest barramundi fillets and coat it in the most delightfully crunchy batter that isn't laden with grease. Add some kick-ass fries, mushy peas and tartare and what do you get? The best goddamn fish and chips I've tasted so far in Sydney. Seriously.

Beer-battered Bara with mushy peas, fries and tartare sauce $2 (hi Lisa!)

There's a few things that I've come to know in Sydney: driving to Manly is always a bitch but worth it for the thrill of seaside dining and secondly, the Gazebo restaurants never fail to please. And moreover, Manly Wine has their Elizabeth Bay and Surry Hills counterparts beat simply because Ben & Jerry's is just down the road! Lastly, I really need a new thesaurus... 'fresh' is officially overused. :P

Manly Wine by Gazebo

8-13 South Steyne
Manly NSW 2095
(02) 8966 9000

Opening Hours

Mon - Thurs from 3pm
Fri - Sun (including public holidays) from 7am

Beef and Beer Tasting Dinner @ Mumu Grill, Crows Nest

2010-02-15T01:50:00.000+11:00

I'm no die-hard romantic but I get all giddy and happy for great couples... in food (of course!). Chocolate and hazelnuts are an awesome duo but here's another that I love... beef and beer. That is why my favourite meals are usually an old-fashioned Aussie barbie, or a pint and a hearty dish at a British-style pub or German Beer Hall. Meat and ale - it's a comforting combination that gets me every time.

But that wasn't not the only reason why I enjoyed this particular night immensely. The Beef and Beer Tasting Dinner at Mumu Grill had everything - awesome company, good food, good grog and great surroundings. It's the kind of dinner that I prefer - a casual, laidback get-together over a comforting meal talking with like-minded people about my favourite subject.

The new Mumu Grill private dining room

Launching in March, Chef Craig Macindoe will host a monthly Beef and Beer Tasting Dinner in the brand spanking new private dining room at Mumu Grill. Tonight was a test run of sorts amongst friends and an array of social media personalities and of course, a few of your friendly food and wine bloggers.

Put the wine glass down and try out a beer tasting!

The concept is simple. There is more to beer than your average pint on tap at the local pub. And believe it or not, my Aussie friends, there is life outside of VB, Tooheys, Coronas and (gawd help me) Crown Lager! Similarly there are also greener pastures if you are willing to put down your wine glass. Wine is a wondrous thing indeed but as I've just learnt, there is also a lot to appreciate when it comes to boutique beers.

Ox-Heart Tomatoes

Or co-host is Beer Snob Dan Hampton, whose love of all things beer is plain for us to see and his enthusiasm of the magic ale is infectious. We started off with cool glasses of Hefeweizen by Moo Brew in Tasmania and I'd be the first to lovingly proclaim the beautiful crispness and slight effervescence. I like my German wheat beers and this was one of the better ones that I've ever tasted.

18-month Jamon Serrano

But a cheap drunk such as myself needs food with her grog and I just couldn't wait to descend our private dining area. Especially if the starters involve 18-month Jamon Serrano. Oh baby, this stuff is gold! Alongside were plates of garden-grown Ox-Heart tomatoes (they were huge!) and house-made Herb bread. I'm never one to fill up on pre-dinner carbs but I just couldn't resist this soft but slightly dense bread with the salty herb crust.

House-made herb bread

Our education of beer then began with Dan teaching us the ways to tasting and appreciating the ale. The trick is to pour the beer slowly to avoid too much head and then begin the swirl before checking out the colour and clarity of the beer. And then sniff, sniff again, sniff some more then taste. Being a happy wine drinker, I managed through this part of the lesson with no problem!

Checking the colour, clarity and carbonation

Our second beer was a Murray's Pilsner, which I didn't really like. I loved the initial aroma, which I thought was citrus but I found the aftertaste a little too bitter for my liking. I'm not a fan of pilsners or any beer that strongly taste of hops.

Our next offering was a surprise. I'm also not a fan of dark ales but I actually liked Marston's Oyster Stout, which hails from the UK. i couldn't help but think vegemite and soya sauce when I drank it but drank I did... happily. What else to pair with such a worthy beer than fresh Pacific and Sydney Rock oysters au natural? I loved it with a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of rock salt and both Helen and I were secretly glad that a majority of diners at our end of the table weren't oyster-loving people i.e. more for us!

Hello piggy! Our next course had to be my hands down favourite and it epitomised everything I love about comfort food. Our pork shoulder that was cooked for 11 hours in our next beer offering was utterly tender and paired brilliantly with bacon-baked cannelini beans and topped with tempura battered sage leaves, which I couldn't get enough of.

Slow-cooked pork shoulder in Pigs Fly pale ale with tempura-battered sage leaves and bacon-baked cannelini beans

This was paired with the appropriately named Pigs Fly Pale Ale from Bowral NSW. I apologise that I have no recollection of this but I'm a cheap drunk, and soon after a few, the beers started to taste the same!

But the star of our Beef and Beer dinner was the 1.2 kg grass-fed Angus T-bone cooked in a tagliata style with chunks of garlic (oh drool) and rosemary. If you're curious, tagliata is Italian for carved or cut and it's an awesome way of marinating and cooking your beef.

Grass-fed Angus T-bone cooked in a tagliata style

Tonight it was beautifully rare and melt-in-your-mouth tender and was also accompanied by potatoes roasted in duck fat. I said it before and I'll say it again, everything should be roasted in duck fat!

Duck fat potatoes

I think at this stage the beers (and I) were starting to become a blur but I think the beef was accompanied by a bottle of Enterprise Knappstein Brewery Reserve Lager from South Australia.

The one I do remember through my beer haze, was the Red Emperor Amber Ale by Fish Rock Brewery in Mittagong. I remembered it because red emperor is one of my favourite fish (I ate it in abundance when I use to live in Perth) and because I remembered the distinct smell of lychees in this ale.

With this, we feasted on a salad of braised cuttlefish, which was perfectly cooked, chorizo, red cabbage, microgreens and coriander. A strange pairing on paper of Spanish and Asian flavours but one that worked.

Braised Cuttlefish and Chorizo

But the highlight is always dessert and this was one delectable chocolate tart! The pastry was moreish with its crumbly biscuitty crunch and the chocolate filling wasn't too sweet nor too rich. The best part was when you came across juicy pieces of sour cherries or crunchy hazelnuts.

Sour Cherry Chocolate Tart

It was so good that Helen, Billy and I would immediately eye off any leftovers and with permission we gleefully had seconds, even though we were bursting from dinner. I even forgotten that we had hazelnut gelato with it!

Hazelnut gelato

Our final beer was a Moo Brew Dark Ale from Tasmania. I'd never would've considered beer with dessert before but this was one that exuded undertones of coffee and chocolate. Suddenly the idea doesn't seem so far-fetched! Personally I'd still prefer a cold sticky or a fortified but I couldn't stop marvelling at how good this beer was with a chocolate tart.

Moo Brew dark ale from Tasmania

The combination of good conversation, company, food and alcohol is always a winner and when you match it with an educational talk and tastings of alcohol, it's even better. I also loved the intimacy of the new private dining room at Mumu Grill and it felt like I was having a dinner party at a friend's house rather than being at a restaurant. Why oh why couldn't there be educational classes like this in school or uni?!

The Beef and Beer Tasting Dinners are set to commence in March 2010. Check out the Mumu Grill website or the blog for details.

Citrus and Candy attended the Beef and Beer Tasting Dinner as a guest. Many thanks to Mumu Grill and Craig Macindoe for the invite.

Mumu Grill

70 Alexander St
Crows Nest NSW 2065
(02) 9460 6877

Open 7 days for dinner 5.30-10.30pm
Open for lunch Wed-Sun 12-3pm

Chinese New Year: Malaysian Pineapple Tarts (Tat Nenas)

2010-02-12T02:45:00.002+11:00

Why hello, you pretty little things!

I really have to be thankful to The Mother who has made my first foray into Chinese New Year baking a heck easier. When I planned to make kuih bangkit, I had no idea that she had stashed away, a set of beautiful traditional molds to make it more authentic. And then, just when I was planning to make open pineapples tarts with mere cookie cutters and a deft hand, lo and behold, she comes brandishing the proper pineapple tart molds! What else has she been keeping from me?

I also have to thank a couple of awesome food blogger friends and fellow Malaysians, A Table For Two and Almost Bourdain for being my virtual baking buddies for CNY. Our constant chats, taste tests (thanks Billy!) and tweets about our Malaysian baking exploits has made my Chinese New Year cooking for 2010 a ball of fun. Oh yes, I foresee a mass CNY bake-off in the near future. Be sure to check out their tasty versions of pineapple tarts and peanut cookies and give it a try for yourself.

Ok enough end-of-year sentiments and let's talk food! These pineapple tarts completes the holy trinity of Malaysian cookies for Chinese New Year. We started off with the coconutty Kuih Bangkit, then the peanutty, er, peanut cookies and now these tarts, which is the 'cookie' to rule all cookies. The combination of the buttery, melty and crumbly pastry with the chewy, sweet pineapple is the ultimate pleasure incarnate and my love for it has not waned one bit.

The recipe comes from my favourite Malaysian cookbook that was published back in 1976. The pastry is dead easy but spot on in terms of buttery-ness and crumbly-ness (my English good yes?). The glucose syrup and flour wasn't part of the original recipe and are purely optional but they were great tips I picked up from A Table for Two. The glucose makes the jam more sticky and gummy, which makes it easier to mold and also makes it more bitey and chewy. The flour was used for drying out the jam further, as excessive liquid can be a problem with tinned pineapples if you don't drain them thoroughly. But it isn't the end of the world if you choose to skip these.

I prefer these in an open tart style and as you can see, I love the pineapple jam so much that I'm not afraid to pile on huge mounds of it! When it comes to the pastry and jam ratio, I definitely prefer more jam so that's why I also skipped layering on pastry lattices over the top of the cookie. Whatever shape or form, I have to admit that these pineapple tarts would have to be my favourite Malaysian biscuit of all time and I'm elated that I finally took the plunge in making them.

Sadly for me, I've devoured all my cookies and it's not even the big day yet! I couldn't even stop eating them while I was taking photos, greedy greedy girl! But I can take the hint, especially when The Captain comes homes with two huge 825g tins of pineapple and a sly grin. Guess I know what I'll be doing on February 14th and it ain't going to involve roses and a candlelit dinner.

Finally Gong Xi Fat Choi to you all and may the new year be prosperous, happy, healthy etc etc. Ah heck, may your new year be filled with food. And lots of it!

Pineapple Jam

533g of grated or crushed pineapple flesh (from 3 x 440g tins of Golden Circle crushed pineapple in juice)
250g of caster sugar (adjust to your taste but reduce the sugar if you're using tinned pineapples in syrup)
4 cloves
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
juice of half a lime
2 tsp of glucose syrup (optional)
1 - 1.5 tsp of plain flour (optional)

In a heavy based saucepan, bring all the ingredients to a boil, stirring frequently to combine and dissolve sugar.

Reduce heat to low and stir regularly for about 30 minutes until pineapple jam is dry. At this stage you can add the glucose syrup and mix to combine. If you're using flour, sprinkle it in now and continue to cook.

Make sure you stir it frequently as the bottom will burn easily. Once it's thick and jammy, take it off the heat, remove the cinnamon, cloves and star anise and allow to cool completely.

Pastry

8 oz plain flour (about 226g)
5 oz unsalted butter, chopped (about 145g)
1 egg
1 Tbl cold water
pinch of salt (skip it if you're using salted butter)

In a food processor, blitz together the flour and butter until it resembles bread crumbs.

Add the egg and cold water and blitz until it comes together (if it's dry add a little more cold water until it just binds).

Bring it together and shape into a disc (do not knead too much). Wrap it in clingwrap and refrigerate for an hour.

To Assemble Tarts

Preheat oven to 180°C. Using your hands roll out teaspoons of pineapple jams into balls and place aside.

Roll out the pastry dough to a 0.5cm thickness between two sheets of non stick paper. Remove the top sheet of paper and use your pineapple tart mold to cut out shapes or alternatively use a small round or fluted cutter to cut out your biscuits and use your thumb to make a dent in the middle. Remove excess dough and slide the baking paper with the pastry onto your baking sheet.

Place the molded balls of pineapple jam into the dent in each biscuit and bake for 15-20 mins until the pastry is slightly golden. Transfer to wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Note: If you would like a more golden hue to the pastry, brush tarts with a little beaten egg before baking. Alternatively you could always cut out think strips of pastry to decorate your tarts in a lattice style (I prefer more jam to pastry and less work so I always skip this step... lazy me!).

Store tarts in airtight containers. I'm not sure how long it'll keep because they never last long in my house but sources have told me that maybe a few days to a week will be best.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Fondants

2010-02-10T03:00:00.001+11:00

Ooh baby!

I like to take a short intermission from the fuss of Chinese New Year to remember another 'holiday' that falls on the same day but has sadly taken to hiding in the shadows... Valentines Day. Not that it's a huge concern for me, as I'm not exactly the most romantic girl in the world.

This year the two holidays share equal billing on February 14th. For my fellow Asian brothers and sisters, this can be a conundrum. It seems that this day of corny displays of love has almost been forgotten since spending CNY with the family will always take bigger precedence over a date with the loved one. But V-day is also my excuse to consume a (big) buttload of chocolate desserts yet this year, this has taken a backseat to Chinese New Year baking. But no matter what, one should always make time for chocolate!

Come to me, come to me!

And so let's draw our attention back to the important subject at hand. Chocolate. And peanut butter. Together for a lustful tryst in a warm gooey fondant. Let's all take a moment to savour the delicious thought...

I remember having the most killer of chocolate cravings so I did the not-very-smart thing by surfing the web for food photos and recipes and came across this. I swear my tongue seized up and I wanted to faint... it didn't take me long before I was scouring for a jar of peanut butter, chocolate and a spoon!

Why hello lover!

In the end I tried out the salted caramel ice cream (adapted into a semifreddo here) but I couldn't stop thinking about that fondant, which has always been one of my favourite desserts. How can you not?! Is there anything more lustful than breaking through a freshly baked chocolate crust to reveal a molten pool of chocolate lava? *cue Homer-esque drooling*

Ooh mama!

This Gourmet Traveller recipe is easy enough although the amount of egg whites were excessive in my opinion. By the time I folded the whole thing through, the batter was incredibly light and when baked immediately, yielded a fondant that wasn't rich, chocolate-y or peanutty enough. Weirdly enough after leaving a few unbaked fondants in ramekin in the fridge for a week, the batter started to darken and it tasted better! Even after 3 weeks, a couple of forgotten fondants were found, dark and seductive looking and amazingly, it baked to a beautifully chocolatey fondant.

Don't you just want to dive in that?!

Of course, you could avoid this by cutting down the amount of egg whites and upping the peanut butter content, which is what I did, but I'll leave you with the original recipe. Either way, it's chocolate, it's sexy, it's easy and perfect for even the most unromantic of Valentines revellers.

Chocolate is sexy. Fact.

Ingredients

250g good quality dark chocolate (at least 60%), coarsely chopped - I used 300g
130g crunchy peanut butter - I used 160g of smooth peanut butter
20g butter, chopped
6 eggs, at room temperature, separated - I reduced this by two egg whites (so 4 eggs separated plus two extra egg yolks)
200g caster sugar
100g plain flour, sifted

Method

Preheat oven to 170°C (150°C fan-forced). Melt chocolate, peanut butter and butter in a heatproof bowl over simmering water then stir until smooth. Remove from heat, cool slightly, stir in the egg yolks and set aside.

Whisk eggwhites until soft peaks form then while still whisking, gradually add sugar and whisk until stiff and glossy.

Fold into chocolate mixture in batches, then fold in the flour and divide between ten 250ml-capacity buttered and sugar-dusted ramekins.

Refrigerate to rest for an hour or so, then bake until edges are just set and centres are just firm but still soft. As it cools, the middle will sink a little but that just means that there's gooey pleasure to be had underneath!

Chinese New Year: Peanut Cookies (Fah Sang Peng)

2010-02-09T02:43:00.000+11:00

The Chinese New Year gravy train is steamrolling at full speed now with only five days left until we usher in the Year of the Tiger! And honestly, I don't care if we have KFC for Chinese New Year as long as I have my batch of Malaysian cookies to gorge over, especially these nutty balls of peanut buttery goodness.

One thing I know about peanuts is that The Father loves them especially in Malaysian treats. So these peanut cookies were perfect for him and in fact these were a hit with the whole family. Even Critique Numero Uno - The Mother - was absolutely impressed with them and took great joy in telling me that her work colleagues were in raptures at a mere taste. For me, these cookies are so easy to make that I'm confused as to why I've never tackled them earlier!

Simply put, these are even better than any of the packet or processed peanut cookies that you buy but I certainly can't take credit for these gems. The recipe comes from one of my favourite bloggers A Table For Two, who loves to churn these cookies out every year. He in turn adapted it from here.

Ad-break for some Chinese New Year trivia! Did you know that peanuts are popular to eat during this time as it symbolises longevity and also fertility? Personally the fertility boost I can do without but yay for living longer! In any case who's to stop you from enjoying these at any time of the year? The crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth texture and the unmistakable peanut buttery taste with the touch of saltiness are just too hard to resist on the other 364 days of the year.

Ingredients

300g shelled and unsalted peanuts
200g caster sugar
250g plain flour
180-200ml peanut oil (or any flavourless oil like canola) - you'll only need enough to bind the mixture
1 tsp salt
1 egg beaten or 1 egg white, lightly beaten until slightly frothy

Method

1. Preheat the oven at 200°C and line some baking trays with baking paper or silicone mats.

2. In a frying pan over medium heat, roast the peanuts until fragrant (be careful not to burn!). Grind them in a food processor until finely grounded.

3. Tip the grounded mixture into a large bowl and break any lumps with a wooden spoon. Sift in the flour, sugar and salt into the peanuts and mix to combine.

4. Pour in about 100ml of the oil into the bowl and use your hands or wooden spoon to knead the mixture together.

5. Pour in the remainder of the oil little by little, while still kneading the mixture until the sugar has melted and has just come together as a dough without it sticking to the bowl or your hands. Dough is ready when it doesn't break or crumble when you roll a bit of the mixture into a ball in your palms.

6. Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place them on the baking sheets (I made them slightly bigger and got exactly 40 cookies out of this recipe).

7. You can either:

Stud each cookie with half a peanut to decorate
Or use a round piping tip to score decorative circles on top of each cookie (the original recipe used empty pen cases for this!). For me, I used a star piping tip for a slightly prettier indentation.

8. Brush each cookie with the beaten egg/egg white and bake in the oven for 15-17 mins or until golden brown.

9. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and store in airtight containers. Will last for about a week before it starts to go a bit stale.

Taco Tuesdays at Flying Fajita Sistas

2010-02-08T00:47:00.002+11:00

The sacred act of catching up with friends over a meal out of home is a expensive hobby so my eating crew and I are always on a lookout for cheap and cheerful eats. It's comforting to know that there are still places out in Sydney for this cheap drunk to go get two tacos and pissed on a shot of tequila for only $9!

On this night it was Taco Tuesday in Glebe at The Flying Fajita Sistas and us hungry ladies were excited. Luckily we had a booking because even at 8:30, lines were queuing out the door.

For large dining groups, you can get a taco banquet of sorts for only $12 per person which will get you 4 tacos of different fillings plus side dips in case you feel inclined to lace your taco with salsa, sour cream and the like.

Rather than go for $3 shots of tequila - a surefire way to put me on a path of insobriety - us ladies got summery and ordered two jugs of Strawberry and White Wine Sangria - a delicious concoction of white wine, brandy-soaked strawberries, dry ginger ale and pineapple juice. I definitely prefer this sweeter, lighter Sangria to the normal dry red wine version.

1L Strawberry and white wine sangria (19.50) - Brandy soaked strawberries, white wine, pineapple juice and dry ginger ale

Our starters were crunchy homemade blue, white and yellow corn tortilla chips or totopas with a trio of dips. The Pepian is like a Mexican pesto made from pumpkins and fresh green chile, which had a slightly bland but nutty flavour. I loved the dip of Frijoles made from pinto beans and spices but my surprise favourite was the Queso Fundido, potful of melty cheese, ancho chile salas and roasted tomatoes. I was scared that it was going to be too cheesy for a cheesephobic such as myself but fortunately it was just fragrant and smoky. Chocolatesuze takes much delight in dipping the thick cut chips into the oozy cheese over and over again.

Trio of pepian, queso fundido and frijoles dips with blue, white and yellow corn totopas ($14.90)

Our four platters of tacos arrive but they were the soft flour tortilla variety even though they had the option of corn tortillas. Next time I'm asking for corn, which is my favourite, and doesn't get as soft and soggy as flour tortillas. Nevertheless, I immediately head for the Achiote pulled pork tacos with its tender strands of meaty goodness. The firm favourite of the night by all.

Achiote Pulled Pork Tacos

The Ropa vieja tacos with its strips of tender beef were equally tasty but I was still wishing I had the pork instead.

Ropa Vieja Tacos

While the Frijoles were a winner as a dip, it doesn't quite induce the same spark in taco form. Combined with the soft tortilla, it quickly turned into a gooey mess while the Frijoles filling were a bit grainy and mealy for my liking.

Frijole Tacos

Lastly the sweet chipotle chicken tacos were tender enough but I was a little unexcited by the flavour. Nothing that a lashing of the three accompaniments - guacamole, sour cream and salsa - can't fix! At this stage, I was also over the cheese factor.

Sweet Chipotle Chicken Tacos

Don't forget to order an extra batch of Totopas to polish off any remaining dips and sauces. I was obsessed with these chips and they were the perfect thickness for the dips. Nothing worse than having a chip break and snap midway through dippage!

Trio of taco accompaniments - guacamole, salsa, sour cream

On a final note, if you're really brave, there is the beautiful sounding Wall of Pain downstairs for those who likes their Mexican food with a side of crazy. For the truly sadistic, there is the top shelf stuff but heed the warning of seeking staff advice first, lest you spend the next two days burning on the loo! Speaking of the rear end, do you dare try the Rectum Ripper or Baboon's Ass on your next taco?

Wall of Pain

Was there any question of dessert? "One of each!", we gleefully ordered and it wasn't long before they arrived. The Orange, coffee and caramel brulee sounded like an odd combination but it was surprisingly good. Although the orange flavour wasn't all that strong and it was more coffee than anything. And cheers to the girls for allowing me the pleasure of the first crack into the requisite toffee shell.

Orange, Coffee and Caramel Brulée (12.90)

The Chocolate Mousse Cake was, as expected, rich and sweet with a chocolate genoise sponge brushed with Kahlua that was topped with Mexican mousse, espresso anglaise and cream. I could only manage a few bites before pushing it away defeated.

Chocolate Mousse Cake (12.90)

A crowd favourite was the Banana and Chocolate Chimichanga - a flour tortilla wrapped around banana and chocolate then lightly fried and served with cinnamon anglaise, caramel sauce and a coconut creme. The combination of chocolate and banana is always a winner!

Banana and Chocolate Chimichanga (13.90)

Not so much the Platano frito - fried banana finished with fresh coconut creme, toasted coconut and white chocolate. Now I love banana fritters and the like but this... was something else. It was hard and crunchy with a really starchy texture and virtually no taste. It was like eating chalk. Note to self: an unripe plantain banana is really not pleasant to eat. The only thing that this dessert brought on was a fit of immature giggles and phallic jokes (well we were a table of 8 girls!).

Platano Frito (11.90)

I was hoping for big things for the Mexican bread pudding - brioche, spiced pecans and chunks of Mexican chocolate baked in a rich custard and finished with a cinnamon anglaise. But again it was... something else. There was barely a detection of oozy melted chocolate and it was more like a really dense, starchy cake. For me when I think bread pudding I think of this, and this was far from it.

Mexican Bread Pudding (13.90)

You gotta love a meal that's easy on the wallet. Especially when a mere $30 grabs you plenty of taco love, a feast of desserts and two jugs of alcohol. But be sure to book in advance because chances are, you won't be the only ones in Sydney lured by cheap tacos and tequila!

Flying Fajita Sistas

65 Glebe Point Road
Glebe NSW 2037
(02) 9552 6522

Open 7 days 6pm until late

El Jannah Restaurant, Granville

2010-02-05T01:31:00.001+11:00

Poultry Porn

I seem to be on a bit of a Lebanese bender lately. From virtually being a cuisine that I never considered to one that I actually ache for! Naturally, I have my blogger friends to thank for the good influence. The love affair started with Rowda Ya Habibi and was fueled by Frank's (oh Frank *fans herself*) and now I've sought my own gratification in The Captain's old hood of Granville. I definitely earned my frequent flyer miles trekking back and forth between his suburb and mine during the first 6 months of our relationship! So I ask myself... how in the blazes did I not know about El Jannah? An unforgiveable oversight!

Felafels, baba gannouj, garlic sauce, tabouli

Anyway, forget the nostalgia. Today it's all about the garlic sauce! And the chicken! And oh, the baba gannouj! Situated down the end of South Street alongside the train station, El Jannah is a local favourite and hugely popular. I was lucky to escape the dinner rush by getting there early but after we left, the lines started to queue. The restaurant itself is light, modern and clean but I highly recommend takeaway rather than eat in simply because the prices are nearly 50 to 60% cheaper.

If you only imagine the smell of their charcoal chicken and how crazy it drove us in the car. You know that feeling when you and your beloved are driving home, feeling randy, and you both can't wait to get home and tear into each other? Well we felt like that, only that it was the poultry we wanted to ravage, not each other.

We had one and a half charcoal chickens to feed four people but it's definitely enough to feed six (remember from my twitter bio, I can hoove down whole roast chickens without pausing for breath). But the meal is never complete without the usual tasty accompaniments.

Inside of the felafel

The felafels are only 50c each for takeaway and they were jaw-droppingly good. Not as crunchy as Frank's but the flavour was heavenly. Fresh tabouli is also a wondrous thing indeed, especially for somebody who doesn't do salads. El Jannah's was a little more generous with the lemon than most places, but its tangy kick did a good job in cutting through the richness of the rest of the meal.

Thick cut chips (takeaway large $4)

But let's talk about the aforementioned seductive poultry. OH MA GAWD! Give me smoky, give me charcoal, give me a flavour and I'm all yours. Give me juicy, give me tender and I'll soon be emitting the most animalistic groans. In Granville, you can literally smell the charcoal in the air, so much so, that on warm nights, I can just close my eyes and imagine I'm back on the hot streets of KL. There may be no satay men here but damn the Lebanese chicken is fine!

Bestill my beating heart!

You simply cannot have chicken without the garlic sauce. Period. And I've never tasted one as good as El Jannah's. It's incredibly garlicky but without the raw spiciness that most others have. Not that I mind the spicy kick but this was something else. I'm a firm believer that garlic is an underrated aphrodisiac. Or is that just me? And if you add the luscious smoky baba gannouj to the mix... well, how many times can a girl climax in one meal?

I can't imagine how I did without El Jannah after all these years. So much darkness! So many pleasurable nights missed! But I guess the most important thing is I have seen the light. And that light comes charcoaled with lashings of garlic.

El Jannah

4-6 South Street
Granville, NSW 2142
(02) 9635 0977

Open daily 10am - 11pm

NEW STORE
Shop 2
209 Punchbowl Road
Punchbowl, NSW 2196

Chinese New Year: Kuih Bangkit (Malaysian Coconut Biscuits)

2010-02-03T02:23:00.003+11:00

I love Chinese New Year! Being a lover and student of ancient history and religious studies, it remains one of my favourite holidays along with Christmas and Easter. Year after year, I revel in the ritual, the colour and the red packets of money (heh). The heart of CNY isn't just the strange superstitions (no housework and no washing hair - woohoo!) but it's in the food... of course!

Traditional kuih bangkit molds

I admit that my family isn't as intensely celebratory or ritualistic in their Chinese New Year fare. We are actually rather casual about it all with a simple dinner here and there. Heck, I'm still a little clueless about Chinese New Year dishes but I do remember the biscuits!

Cooking the tapioca flour with pandan

I'm not sure whether it's just a Malaysian/Singaporean thing, but we really love eating sweet biscuits at this time of year. And living in Australia is a huge barrier for those who are homesick for the exquisiteness of pineapple tarts, peanut cookies and one of my favourites, coconut tapioca biscuits or kuih bangkit (aka kueh bangkit).

They don't look great but they sure tasted good

I've never made any of these before but I promised myself I'll learn this year so I give you my inaugural Chinese New Year effort! Kuih Bangkit are heavenly little morsels of coconut cookies that have the most unusual texture. The perfect kuih bangkit has to be dry and crispy but light as a feather and almost 'hollow' sounding when you tap it. And with every bite, the kuih bangkit cookie has to crumble and melt on your tongue into a delectable pile of squeaky coconuttiness. Bliss! But this perfection doesn't come without trials. Though they're easy to make, they are a bitch to perfect.

Gorgeous intricate carvings on the wooden molds (my favourite is always the flowery designs)

Kuih Bangkit can be shaped from cookie cutters, however I'm lucky enough to be in possession of the traditional wooden molds that house the most beautiful and intricate carvings. Nowadays passing through such wooden items through Australian customs would be next to impossible so I couldn't be more thankful to The Mother, who brought it over from Malaysia back in 1991. But for those without it, you can try and source some plastic versions from Asian grocery stores that also stock mooncake molds (Sydneysiders, your best bet is Cabramatta) or Ebay. If not, cookie cutters will still work.

Molding the kuih bangkit

Since this is my first time making it, I went in blind and plucked a random recipe from the air of the interwebs and in this case, Nasi Lemak Lover. And it wasn't too bad but the texture wasn't quite right as they were a little hard, crunchy, not melty enough and they cracked a little after they were baked. But at least it didn't turn out to be toothbreaking bricks.

Knocking out the kuih bangkit out of the molds

As for the taste...it was rather authentic for pre-packaged coconut milk. Kuih Bangkit will never be as good without the milk from freshly grated coconut flesh but it's my burden to bear living in a country where fresh coconuts and a coconut grater are rare finds indeed.

If you have to use pre-made coconut milk or cream, I highly recommend Kara branded tetrapaks for everything. Other brands just don't stack up for flavour and don't even think about using coconut powder mixed with water! If you have the time, maybe you could source some frozen packs of grated coconut flesh from Asian grocers and and squeeze out some fresh coconut milk for yourself? I guarantee you the kuih bangkit will be taken up a whole new delicious stratosphere!

One of the better brands of coconut milk and cream

In any case, this recipe isn't perfect but it'll soothe the cravings nicely for Chinese New Year and I don't think I did too badly for my first go. I definitely can't complain since I've been deprived of these beautiful things for too long and to eat something that was close to it was pure unadulterated pleasure. My search for the perfect kuih bangkit recipe continues so feel free to leave me your recipes, criticism, tips and recommendations!

Molded and uncooked kuih bangkit

Kuih Bangkit

(adapted from this recipe)

260g tapioca flour
4 screwpine (pandan) leaves, cut into thirds
1 egg yolk
85g icing sugar
70-80ml coconut milk (adjust accordingly)
pinch of salt
Red food colouring and toothpick to decorate

1. Stir fry tapioca flour with pandan leaves in a clean wok or large flat frypan for 75 mins over low flame, until the flour is very light (prepare yourself for a flour-covered kitchen!), slightly yellow tinged and the pandan leaves are crispy. The final weight I had was around 210g. (FYI, you might like to cook a little extra flour on the side and save it for dusting of molds/cookie cutters).

2. Cool flour over a couple of days. I left it to cool to room temperature, then stored it into an airtight jar and cooled it in the fridge.

3. Preheat oven to 160°C. Whisk egg yolk until creamy, add in icing sugar and add about 35-40ml of the coconut milk and whisk to combine.

4. In a mixing bowl, sift in the tapioca flour and add in the egg mixture.

5. Slowly and gradually add in the balance of the coconut milk into the mixture little by little, mixing by hand until mixture clings together to form a stiff dough that's smooth, pliable and neither too wet nor dry.

6. Dust a Bangkit mould lightly with extra cooked flour, take a knub of dough and press into the mold but not too hard or it might stick. With a knife, trim excess dough and level. Angle the mould at 45° to the bench and knock the mold to remove dough. Repeat with remaining dough. Have some toothpicks on hand to scrape out any dough stuck to the crevices of the mold.

Note: I found that my dough wasn't that sticky so I didn't really need to dust the mold after the 1st initial dusting.

7. Bake for for 25 mins or until biscuits are fully cooked through. Cool on wire racks. When cooled, use a toothpick to dot red food colouring onto the centre of the 'flowers' and the eyes of the 'animal' shapes. Store in an airtight container in a cool and dry place.

Notes from me

1. If you don't have the molds, roll or pat out the dough to a 1 to 1.5 cm thickness and cut shapes out of it. Remember the thicker your shapes, the longer it'll take to bake.

2. Set aside extra coconut milk to add in dough when dough turned dry and extra flour for dusting. Alternatively I covered the bowl with a damp (not wet) tea towel to stop the dough from drying out.

3. Do not try to shorten the cooking time of the flour. We want to get rid of the raw flour taste.

4. Different ovens behave differently, which'll affect the baking time of your cookies. So you'll might need to experiment by baking a couple of cookies first. Test a cookie by biting into it. If it's not cooked, then return to the oven and then check again after a short period of time. Rotate the tray each time to ensure even cooking. The insides should be fully cooked without any soft, 'doughy' bits.

Frank's Lebanese Food, Fairfield

2010-02-01T01:30:00.002+11:00

So on any other normal Saturday, I left The Captain at home to go out with a few lovely ladies. The conversation went a little like this...

Boy: "Where are you off to today?"

Me: "Going to Frank's for lunch"

Boy: "Who the hell is Frank?"

I suppose I could've avoided his sudden spout of jealousy by mentioning that I was going to Frank's Lebanese Food, but where's the fun in that?

Lebanese Bread ($3.90)

But whether Frank by name or Frank by restaurant, you should hear people swoon at the mention of it. I'm not an expert on Lebanese cuisine, but ask any of my friends in the know and immediately they start blubbering sweet nothings about Frank's and his amazing chicken.

Since I'm such a newbie to Lebanese food**, I left the hard work of ordering to my lovely dining companions while I sat with my knife and fork at the ready. The basket of Lebanese bread is like candy to me especially when paired with the smoky baba gannouj so I tucked in with gusto.

Falafel ($10.90)

My eyes bulged at the sight of the Falafels, which looked perfect in all their deep fried glory. In the past, I've always dismissed these as nothing but, um, dry balls but obviously that was because I haven't had Frank's. Crunchy on the outside, moist and flavoursome on the inside - I immediately wanted more.

The Fattouch salad looked fresh and I loved the colours, but unfortunately I don't do salads (unless there are anchovies or bacon in it!). Recently I converted myself to tabouli so who knows? I might just get down with the Fattouch in the near future. I did love the crispy Lebanese bread 'croutons' in the salad though.

Fattouch (small $4.50 / large $7.90)

But this was what I was after! Charcoal chicken! If you've seen my Twitter bio , you would've read about a secret vice of devouring whole roast chickens. I just love the stuff and at Frank's, I was utterly besotted by its crispy skin and juicy meat. Even better when it comes adorned with hommos, garlic cream, tabouli and baba gannouj. Bad breath be damned!

Half-chicken served with hommos, garlic cream, tabouli and baba gannouj ($9.90)

Our other dose of meat laid in the Mixed Plate - Shish Kebab (lamb skewer), Kaftah (minced lamb skewer) and Shish Taouk served with tabouli, hommos, baba gannouj, pickles and grilled tomatoes and onion. I fell in love with the Shish Taouk, a grilled chicken skewer that was super tender and fragrant.

Mixed Plate of Shish Kebab, Kaftah and Shish Taouk served with tabouli, hommos, baba gannouj, pickles, and grilled tomatoes and onion ($11.90)

Lebanese cuisine is still all shiny and new to me but if the food is as good as Frank's, then I'm definitely seeing the light. The service here is warm, friendly and professional and they take great pride in their cuisine, as evident by the fussing of the waiter to make sure we had the best shots of their food!

Oh yes. I am smitten. Something tells me that The Captain is going to want meet Frank soon but I think he's going to like him very much.

Frank's Lebanese Food
16 Smart Street
Fairfield NSW 2165
(02) 9724 3000

**Beginner's guide to Lebanese Food

Baba Gannouj / Baba Ghanoush: smoky eggplant dip with tahini, lemon and garlic.

Falafel / Felafel: balls of chickpeas and spices fried in vegetable oil for a crunchy outer coating.

Fattouch / Fattoush: a salad made from toasted or fried pieces of pita bread combined with mixed greens and vegetables.

Hommos / Hummus: a dip made from chickpeas and tahini puréed with lemon and garlic.

Kaftah: skewers of grilled minced lamb (like sausage on a stick).

Shish Kebab: skewers of lean lamb.

Shish Taouk: grilled chicken breast skewers.

Tabouli / Tabouleh: A refreshing 'salad' of parsley, tomatoes, shallots, mint and crushed wheat mixed with fresh lemon juice and olive oil.

Tahini: a paste made from sesame seeds, used in cooking.

Goosefest 2010 @ Golden Century, Haymarket

2010-01-28T00:02:00.001+11:00

Duck, duck... goose?

The mission: To eat roast goose.

The location: Golden Century, Sydney's much loved institution for late night diners and lovers of Chinese food.

On this poultry night of nights, 35 hungry and excited diners gathered for what was to be a sumptious 10-course Chinese banquet. It started with a conversation between Sydney's Twitterati about goose cravings and the zero possiblity of locating a restaurant in Sydney that served it. Enter the Gooseman, aka Tim Elwin in the real world, who collaborated with Golden Century with the simple premise of "I bring goose, you cook for us". Deal!

And so initial plans for one table of friends to share in this generous bounty soon exploded into the hottest dining event on an otherwise quiet Wednesday. Three tables were quickly filled and would you believe, there was a waiting list! Seats were hotly coveted and the twitter stream was flooded with calls, rsvps and excited mumblings for, what is now been bestowed as Goosefest 2010.

We needed bigger tables!

Our dubious guests-of-honour were sourced from Thirlmere Poultry, which produces hand reared and free range poultry and is also available through Tim at Urban Food Market. Our goose was marinated in a master stock for 24 hours before being roasted rendering a crispy skin.

I was particularly lucky to grab a seat and my excitement was palpable as I've never had the pleasure of extending my love of poultry to the way of the gaggle. I didn't even know that it was hugely popular in Hong Kong and Cantonese cuisine (clearly I need to get in touch with my Southern Chinese roots more often!). Tonight also marked my very first visit to Golden Century despite having lived in Sydney for over 15 years. For shame!

Cold-cut BBQ Meat Platter

But what's a meal without a plethora of other courses? We started off with one of my all-time favourites, a Cold-cut BBQ meats platter filled with the usual suspects of roast duck, char siu, crunchy strips of jellyfish, tender beef and cold pork slices. This is a platter that I'd like to devour by my lonesome in front of the TV with chopsticks in one hand and hoisin sauce in the other.

Glistening duck

But that was just a teaser. After all the anticipation in the lead-up, it would be cruel to make the diners wait for the main event so without further ado, our roast goose arrived quickly after to much applause. I salivated at the first glance of the succulent meat and the glistening of its dark amber roasted skin was truly breathtaking.

Ummm... roast goose skin

At this stage I must commend everybody for their restraint as if there's one thing that's just as important as eating goose, is the photos that we must capture before we touch chopsticks to poultry! SLRs, point-and-shoots, mobiles, iPhones - our goose paparazzi would put the Paris fashion runways to shame.

Cameras down, dig in!

Luckily it lived up to expectations, as the goose was incredibly good. The only way i could describe it without sounding like an idiot, is to say that it tasted like a beefed up, meatier version of duck with a gamier taste. Still delightful in every way but it really shined when it was accompanied with the sweet, hoisin-like sauce. It was totally worth the fuss. In fact I'd like to apply for a lifetime dinner membership to Goosefest if that's alright with you all!

Oh ok, one more perve!

Now that the goose has all been demolished, the rest of the evening just flew by, especially the dishes. The floodgates opened and one by one our little table of ladies were snowed under a barrage of Chinese courses.

The Sautéed Prawns in a Sichuan style had a nice kick to it but being Sichuan, it needed more heat. I'm no chilli fiend but I like my Sichuan food to blow my top off.

Sautéed Prawns in a Sichuan style

These Scallops Sautéed with Honey Beans looked good enough but something must've went wrong between camera-shoot and camera-down because I didn't end up trying it. But heck, it's scallops, of course it was going to be good!

Scallops Sautéed with Honey Beans

The next dish definitely brought out the groan as it's an absolute favourite of mine. Steamed Barramundi with the ubiquitous flavours of ginger, soy and shallots. Big props to our waiter who, with a deft hand, removed the fish carcass in no time at all. The flesh was tender and just melted in your mouth. This is my most beloved way to cooking fish and at this stage, I must've been glowing.

Steamed Barramundi - handled by a pro

Because one serve of goose will never do, we had a Roast Goose Fried Rice to tuck into. The goose pieces were evident but sadly, the rice was disappointingly bland. But nothing that a large spoonful of steamed fish and sauce couldn't fix.

Roast Goose Fried Rice

The next lot of dishes were your typical Chinese varieties but if it was done well, then it goes from being pedestrian to something else. The Beef with Black Pepper is one I always enjoy and at Golden Century, the beef was utterly tender and the sauce, beautifully thick, which gave the cubes of beef a delightful coating. Being a pepper fanatic, I would have loved it if it had a couple more pounds of black pepper in it. But that's just the sadistic side of me talking.

Beef with Black Pepper

Obviously there's no such as thing as too much bird because the Crispy-skinned chicken arrived towards the end with a rather unsexy layer of prawn crackers. But I'd never refuse a good chook and I attempted to steal as much of the crispy skin as I could without being detected.

Crispy-skinned chicken

The obligatory vege course was your run-of-the-mill Gai Lan or Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce. I'm no greenie but I like my gai lan... but not when it's tough and stringy.

Gai Lan or Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce

At this point, the food coma set in but I wouldn't have it any other way. The Roast Goose was worth all the anticipation and it was remarkably satisfying to have my first full Chinese banquet in years after swearing off the cuisine (growing up eating it every day does take its toll).

We did well... didn't we?

A thousand thankyous to 'Aptronym' and Tim from Urban Food Market (now hereby known as Gooseman) for rounding up the geese and the gaggle of hungry Twitterers. T'was a fabulous dinner with fabulous company.

No doubt there will be the inevitable Round 2 so if you want to join in the fun then be sure to join Twitter and follow @urbanfoodmarket and @aptronym and keep your eye out for details (and follow me while you're at it!). Who knows, maybe I'll see you there too.

The inaugural Goosefest 2010 was held on January 20th 2010 at $40 p.p. All meals and drinks were paid for by (the very hungry) Citrus and Candy.

Golden Century

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Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
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